Mob could not cry.
Even though she wanted to. Even though she wanted nothing to do but break down and cry. Even though she had no idea why…why she couldn't. This was a sad thing that was happening to her bur she just…she just couldn't cry. She wasn't allowed to. She wasn't allowed to and if she did cry then Sho would cry and then she would have been setting a bad example for him…and dad would have been so disappointed in her…
And also Mukai would start crying.
"See? I found all of your little socks. I'm putting them here, see? I want you to tell your new mom that your socks are here…and also I want you to keep your socks on. Ok? If-if you don't then-then your feet will be cold." Said Mob. She stumbled a bit, just a bit, as she crouched down to put baby Mukai's socks away.
She was sort of dizzy.
"I-I'm going to pacify your clip…sorry….I mean clip your pacifier to you-your shirt. Ok? That way it won't touch the floor when you spit it out. That way your new mom won't have to sterilize it. Te-tell your new mom that if your pacifier touches the floor it-it needs to be sterilized. That means-means boiled." Said Mob. Mukai was looking at her. She was looking up at her and she smiled…she smiled and…and…
Mob walked over to her dresser and took a drink.
This was not good. She was not supposed to be like this. She felt like she was going to throw up. She felt dizzy. On her way back to Mukai she fell and braced herself against her bed. She knew that she should not have overdone it like this but…but she wanted…she wanted…
She wanted to make these feelings go away.
She got down onto the floor and sat next to baby Mukai. She was still smiling now. She was smiling and…and she reached out for Mob. Mob put her finger in the palm of baby Mukai's hand. She wrapped her hand around Mob's finger and brought it over to her mouth. Mob let her even though this was gross. She didn't care if it was gross, if she was getting baby spit all over her finger, because this was the…the last time. All of these things were the last…the last times they would ever happen.
Mukai would never smile at her again.
"M-Mukai, I need you to listen to me. I love you. I love you so much and…and I know that we haven't know each other for very long…well for me. I-I'm sorry about missing your four month birthday and…and I'm sorry that I'll miss every single birthday after that. You…I love you so much. I love you as much as I would if-if you were my for real from my mom and dad sister. Do you understand? I love you." Said Mob. She was speaking Japanese. Mukai was still looking at her. Did she speak Japanese yet? Well she didn't even speak yet to begin with but…but she would speak someday and Mob…Mob would never be able to…to hear what she had to say.
Mob switched to Korean.
"I love you. Remember that I love you. That you had a big sister named Shigeko, or Mob, or Suzuki, or Suzuki Shigeko and she loves you. Ok? You…you're such a good person and…and please grow up and…and remember me. Remember me and Sho and how much we loved you…how much we will always love you." Said Mob. She was just saying words at this point. Her Korean was bad. Her Korean was so bad that Mukai was laughing at her. She would have asked Minegishi to help but they were busy yelling at Shimazaki for some reason. They didn't want to say goodbye. Only Shibata did and he had cried a lot…which was unfair because Mob couldn't cry.
Well she could physically cry but that was not what she was supposed to do.
Fukuda was back and he said that dad would be back soon and dad would have been so mad at her if he came back and found out that she had been crying. That was not allowed. She was supposed to control her emotions and her powers. Also she drank way too much and she knew that this would get her in trouble too and…and everything would get her in trouble. She wasn't supposed to feel anything or lose control or…or anything.
Even when her little sister was being taken away from her.
It was for the best. Fukuda had found a mom for her. A real mom. A mom who was a real adult. A mom who knew how to do baby things and didn't have to Google, probably. A mom who would braid her hair for her when she grew up. A mom who would make sure to give her a full glass of milk every day so she would grow up big and strong. A mom would….who would be able to do a better job than Mob could. Because she was just a kid. She was just a kid and kids…even kidults….they were not supposed to take care of babies.
Mukai would be much happier with her new mom.
"Mukai…you're going to get a new mom. Are you listening-listening to me? This is important. Your new mom is…well I'm not your mom but…but she's going to be like me. I don't know how much you notice but I do a lot of things for you and…and your new mom is going to do the same things for you. She's going to change your diapers and clean up your throw up and change your clothes and make your bottles and put on your movies and play with you and read to you and get up with you in the middle of the night and…and she's going to love you. Moms…that's what they do…they love you…well they're supposed to. My mom…my mom left. She just ran away from me…me and Sho…and dad. She's gone and…and I miss her every single day." Said Mob. She pulled her shirt over her eyes so that Mukai couldn't see her crying. This made her happy. She thought that they were playing peek-a-boo.
Mob pulled her shirt away from her eyes.
She wanted to see Mukai's little smile. She loved seeing Mukai smile. She would never see Mukai smile again. She would never hear Mukai laugh again. Mukai was…she was leaving. She was going away and never coming back. She was…she was going to be nothing but…but pictures and memories. That was all. Just pictures and memories.
That was what happened when you loved someone.
When you loved someone they left. When you loved someone they loved you but also they left. Sometimes they ran away, sometimes their work took them away, and sometimes someone else took them away. Mukai was leaving but…but it was for the best. She never would have been happy here. Not with Dad around. Dad was mean a lot of the time and even when he was nice it wasn't that great because he would just end up being mean again and you never knew when more meanness would come and…and Mukai didn't need that. Mob and Sho had worked hard to make sure that she never knew real unhappiness. Not the little bits of unhappiness that Mukai felt like when she threw up or needed to be changed or lost her pacifier. There were the big unhappiness that she would never feel. The sinking feeling in your stomach when your dad was upset. The lonely feeling you got when you woke up and your mom was gone. The burning, angry, feeling you got in your heart when your little brother was mean to you even though you had never done anything to him but love him.
Mukai would be happy.
Mob didn't know what kind of new mom Mukai would get or if she would have a dad or a little brother or maybe a little sister or a big brother or a big sister or…or anything. She had no idea where in the world Mukai would end up or what kind of people she would end up with but she knew that Mukai would be happy. She wasn't a Suzuki. That meant that she got to be happy.
She was lucky like that.
"Make sure that your new mom knows that you speak Korean mostly, ok? Make sure that she speaks Korean to you…and if she can't speak Korean that she can hire someone to teach her so that way you can understand her. I hope you don't end up with someone who speaks English. It harder to learn even than Korean….but you'll have to learn it once you go to school…and I'm sorry that I'm going to miss your first day of school…and your whole life just…just remember that I love you and that…that you're going to have a very happy life. A good life. A happier life than mine…than what I can give." Said Mob. She could feel the tears coming from the corners of her eyes. Her aura was reaching out everywhere. She was pulling things in close. Her bed and Sho's scraped across the floor. The dresser tipped over. A ball hit her on the head. Her pile of dolls crawled towards her.
Mukai thought that they were playing.
She was laughing and smiling and…and this was good. This was what Mob wanted. She wanted Mukai to be happy and now she was happy. She was so happy to be…to be playing. Would her new mom know how to play with her? The games she liked? Would she be able to…would she be able to make things float? What sort of esper was she? Was she even an esper? Mob was….Mob was letting some stranger take care of her baby sister for the rest of her life…
Mukai was just her pretend sister.
Dad had brought her home because she was an orphan with no place else to go. That was all. Now she had some place else to go and she would be going to that place and now…now everything could get back to normal. Now her life would get back to normal. Now she would go back to playing with Sho and…and she wouldn't have to be dad anymore and…and she would be able to sleep through the night again and….
And this was….this was a thing that was happening and there was nothing that she could do to stop it.
"Mukai…Mi-cha? That was your name, before, Mi-cha. But now you're Mukai and…and I think that it's important that you remember your name. Just…I want you to remember everything. I want you to remember me but I want….I want you to be happy. I'm not making you leave, I have no choice…because my dad found you a new home and…and you're going to be much happier with your new mom than I can ever make you be. Your life with her is going to be….to be so much better than what I can….Mukai, you deserve so much better than what I can give, than what I can be…and there's nothing that I can do…" said Mob. She wiped her tears away before they fell. Mukai's last memories of her would not be of her crying. Mukai would…she would remember…
She would remember them playing.
Mob picked up a doll and put it in Mukai's lap. This wasn't one of her princess dolls. She wasn't going to give one of those away. Mob wasn't trying to be stingy she just knew that those dolls were not special. This one was. This was one of those dolls that dad had made, sometimes, that looked like her. This one even had a custom made Elsa dress on just like hers…and this would make it easier for Mukai to remember her. Mob's other dolls, her princesses and stuff, weren't made special and she had also given a lot of them haircuts. This was better. It was hardly played with.
Almost new.
Mukai deserved an almost new doll. She deserved the best dolls and the best of other toys too. The best cardboard paper towel holders and the best balls of tin foil and the best empty chip bags and all of that other stuff that she liked to play with even though it was junk. She just wanted baby Mukai to be happy…and she would be happy…
"Baby Mukai…please. I just want you to have a good life, ok? I want you to like your life. If you like your life then…then that's all I need." Said Mob. Mob had no idea if she liked her life. She liked…she liked some parts of it but…but there was just this part of her that…that was always hurting a little bit. It was like a splinter. It never really went away but there were times when she could barely feel it. There were also other times when all she could feel inside of her was this…pain. When she would be empty and aching and she didn't even know why. It would happen at the most random times. It would have made sense if that feeling came when she was being hit or punished by dad or if Sho was being mean to her but it just…showed up while she was watching TV or drinking milk or taking a bath….she would just randomly…feel like that….
Mukai would never feel like that. She was going to be happy, to have a good life, because that was what she deserved. She was going to like her life.
"I hate my life! I hate my life so much!" shouted Sho. He was mad. He was more than mad. He had never been this mad in his entire life. He couldn't see or think or breathe he was so mad.
Fukuda was taking little sis away!
"Sho….please. This is for the best." Said Fukuda. There was nothing else that he could say. He was taking away Sho's younger sister, his only real sibling, and that….that was what was happening. He was taking Sho's baby sister away and…and there was nothing that he could do to stop this. He had to think of the welfare of the child.
Of all of the children.
Sho did not need to be taking care of a baby at his age. He was nine years old and the only thing that a nine year old should have had to worry about was growing up. Shigeko…he didn't even know what to make of Shigeko. She had been….muted…..throughout the whole thing. She had immediately gone to pack up the baby's things while her little brother had a mental breakdown. Like it didn't even matter. Like she didn't even care. Like this was just another day for her. She just walked away while her little brother kicked holes in the walls and shattered the windows. She didn't care that he was on his back screaming until his face turned purple. She just…went to pack up the baby's things and that was it.
This was what Suzuki did to kids.
He ruined them. Sho may have had a problem with anger but at least he was feeling SOMETHING. Shigeko was taking the whole thing in stride. She was just…acting like her father. Even her aura…well there was some activity now but…but the colors were muted. Duller. Her aura was moving more slowly too…and he didn't know what to make of it, what to make of her, but it didn't matter because he had Sho to focus on. Sho was the one who needed him most of all.
Poor kid.
"I hate my life! I hate it!" screamed Sho. He kicked and thrashed and thrashed and kicked and he didn't know what he was thrashing or kicking at but he knew that it was there and he knew that he wanted to make it hurt because he hurt and he had never hurt this much in his entire life and he knew that maybe if he made this hurt then the hurt he was feeling would go away already!
"I deserve this. Keep going. Tire yourself out. We both know I can take it and we both know that I deserve this." said Fukuda. He was the one who saw the sad solution and did what had to be done. He was the one who ferried people away from Suzuki. First Sho's mother and now his baby sister…but Sho was too young to know about the former and too upset about the latter to form coherent thoughts.
Fukuda had no idea what to do.
This was what had to be done. He couldn't save Shigeko and he couldn't save Sho but he could save that poor, innocent, little baby. Suzuki would ruin her. The baby did not need to grow up like Suzuki's other children. She needed to be loved and safe and…and as loved and as safe as she could feel being raised in the Seventh Division…being raised in Claw. He wished that he could have gotten her out of Claw…he wished that he could have found a better life for her…
He wished for a lot of things.
"I hate you! I hate me! I hate everybody!" Sho could only make those words. The rest were just screams. The kinds that tore at his throat. He couldn't breathe. As soon as he pulled air into his body it escaped. He was getting dizzy. He was getting nauseous. All he could feel was hurt and all he could see was his aura and even that hurt and…and he was tired of being hurt!
Something was keeping him from moving.
He was being pulled over to someone. A Green aura covered him. His throat stopped hurting. His lungs took in more air. His body stopped hurting. His body felt fine, now, but his feelings still hurt. He had never felt like this before. Never in his whole nine years of life. He hated it. He hated this feeling and he just wanted it to stop. He wanted everything to stop. He wanted to just put a stop to all of his feelings.
He was being healed. Fukuda could only fix bodies, not feelings.
"Shh….Sho. You're going to be ok. Everything is going to be ok. You're going to make it through." Said Fukuda. What else could he say? He knew that Sho was in pain but there were limits to what he could fix. The only thing that he could do for Sho, now, was be there for him. Hold him and rock him and tell him that even though he was in the worst pain of his life he would be ok. Fukuda almost wanted to leave the baby with Sho, to give him his sibling and to make his life a little better, but he was not going to do something so irresponsible. Sho was a child and should not have been in charge of a baby. Sho did not need the competition, too, and Fukuda knew Suzuki. He knew that he would value the baby above Sho if she was a proper prodigy…and if she wasn't he would have unspeakable things done to her until she was. Fukuda could see the scars on Sho's body, he was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, and he knew that…that he could not live with himself, live on this earth, if he let that happen to another child.
This was the best thing for all of them…even if it hurt.
"How?! My…my little sis…she's going away! You're taking her away from me!" shouted Sho. He hit Fukuda. He reached over and slapped in across the face. He did it over and over again. As he slapped him he spat out words like failure and disappointment and useless and pathetic even though he knew how much these words could hurt. He knew how much being slapped could hurt. He knew but he did it anyway.
He hated Fukuda so much in that moment that if he had been bigger he would have killed him.
Why did people have to leave?! Why did the people he loved the most in the whole world have to leave!? Why did bad things have to happen to him!? Sometimes that was what it felt like. It felt like all the bad things in the world happened to him. Like God made a list of every bad thing that could happen to a person and every morning when Sho woke up God picked a new bad thing out of a hat…or one of those lottery machine…or something and then that bad thing happened.
Baby sis was being taken away.
She was leaving. Sho took back every complaint that he ever made. He didn't mind it when she threw up on herself or on him or on his drawings or on his toys. He didn't mind how she was up half the night crying. He didn't mind that she had to be fed constantly and he didn't care at all that taking care of her didn't leave him much time to draw these days. He didn't care that he had to share baths with her so she wouldn't drown. He didn't even care about all of the times that she had peed on him and then laughed even though it was really gross to pee on someone.
He just wanted his little sister to stay.
"Sho….it's going to be ok. The baby is going to a better place now-" said Fukuda
"You're making it sound like she's going to die!" shouted Sho. No! She was…she was not going to…she wasn't dying!
"No. Sho, she's not going to die. She's going to live. She going to live a long life-" said Fukuda
"Of course she is, she's not even one yet! Of course she's going to live for a long time!" said Sho
"And her life is going to be a happy one." said Fukuda
"How do you know?! What makes you the-the-the king of babies!? Why do you get to decide where aby sis goes or if her life is going to be happy or any of that!?" asked Sho
"Sho…I didn't decide this. This just…part of being an adult. When you're an adult you have to think about what's best for everyone. I want to leave the baby with you but I can't." said Fukuda
"What do you mean 'you can't'?! Huh? Explain it to me!" shouted Sho
"Sho, I have my….I mean that I'm going to do what's best for you and her and everyone. I know you love her and she loves you but…but you're just a kid." Said Fukuda
"Me and big sis took good care of her! The best care of her! What does us being kids have to do with anything? We know what's best for her! We looked up everything that there was to know about taking care of a baby and then we did it! All of it! WE DID ALL THE THINGS!" shouted Sho. He shouted until his voice hurt and he was dizzy. After he was done, after his voice was gone and the air in his lungs ran out and he tasted blood, he leaned back against Fukuda's chest. A familiar green aura covered him like a blanket.
"I know. I know that you and Shigeko did your best but you and Shigeko aren't her parents." Said Fukuda. He healed Sho and rocked him back and forth like he had done countless times when Sho had injured himself as a small child. He needed to give more comfort now than Sho had ever been given in years…not since Masami. He, selfishly, wished that she were there. That she were the one easing Sho through this. That she did all the little things she did, the magic lipstick and the cinnamon and all of it, so that Sho could just…stop all of this.
But Masami was gone off to a better place…but not dead…and he had to stop thinking of her as if she were dead.
"You're giving her back to her real mom and dad?" asked Sho with a sniffle. He felt better, now. Fukuda made him feel better with his powers and his words. He wanted that for baby Mukai. He wanted little sis to go back with her real mom and dad. There was nothing worse than when your mom left you. Sho knew that he would have traded everything he had, made some kind of deal with God, to get his mom back.
'No….I found her a new mom. She's going to have a new mom and her new mom is going to…to love her very much." Said Fukuda. He had no way of knowing that beyond blind faith. Tsuchiya from the Seventh Division looked good on paper and hadn't taken much convincing. This was the best that he could do…though even putting her in a basket and sending her down the river would have been preferable to letting Suzuki raise her.
"What's her new mom like?" asked Sho. Did she know how to put cinnamon on things to make them feel better? Did she have a special Aristocats plate that she ate off of but sometimes shared with you? Did she know how to reach even the most boring of stories, like Hello Kitty books, to make them sound interesting? Did she knew how to rinse the soap out of your hair without getting it in your eyes? Did she know…did she know all of the things that a mom was supposed to know?
Did she know that she was never, ever, EVER allowed to leave?
"She's…she's nice. She seems like she would be the violent type but she isn't. She just…she likes fighting. She used to be a mixed martial arts fighter before she joined Claw." Said Fukuda. He wondered how much it would have been alright to tell him…and then decided to tell him everything. He owed Sho at least that much.
"Little sis is going to be a part of Claw?" asked Sho. This changed things. He thought that little sis was going to end up far, far, away but if she was going to be in Claw then…then this wouldn't be forever. They may not have been able to be together for a while but she would grow up in Claw and he was going to run Claw and the world and…and that meant that this wasn't a forever goodbye. This was just…see you later. That was all. This was just…it hurt but…but big sis wouldn't be gone forever.
He felt better.
"I…maybe. She's just a baby, Sho, let her worry about learning how to walk and talk and eat solid foods first." Said Fukuda with a laugh that he did not feel. This baby would grow up to be a part of Claw. The woman raising her would be in Claw and…and she was Suzuki's daughter….and Suzuki would not let her go. He would never acknowledge her as his child but he would never let her go, either.
"Right…when she grows up she can be a part of Claw. Whatever pat her mom is, I guess. What part of Claw is her mom in?" asked Sho. They lived in different bases and Divisions all the time. The odds were good that he would run into little sis again…this wasn't so bad.
The hurt was still there but it wasn't so bad.
"The…the Seventh Division. Her mother is Tsuchiya of the Seventh Division. The qigong user. She's going to be Mukai's mother now and…and maybe one day you'll be able to visit. You know, once she gets settled. A move to another country is a big step for anyone let alone a baby. It could…it could be years until Mukai gets settled." Said Fukuda. Sho would probably never set foot in the Seventh Division again. At least not as his father's side. Suzuki hated Seasoning City and…and that was why this was the best place for the baby. Everything Suzuki touched he ruined and…and at least now, even though she would be raised in Claw, that baby would have a chance.
"Yeah…and also she barely understands Japanese. I should wait for her to learn Japanese…or I should do my Korean homework…" said Sho. He got quiet, then, because he remembered that place. It was a bad place. That was one of the places where they made new Awakened. He rubbed his hands against the spots on his arms where they stuck needles in him. He rubbed his toes against the place on his leg where all the skin had come off. He could even swore he felt his tree rubbing against his shirt…but that wasn't really a raised scar….
If someone tried to do this to baby sis he would kill them. He didn't care if he went to prison or if dad beat him up. He would kill anyone who tried to hurt baby sis…to awaken her….
To make her like him.
"Sho, what are you thinking about? Come on, I know how you get when you're this quiet." Said Fukuda
"I…I'm going to kill anyone who tries to put baby sis in an Awakening room. I'm not just saying that. I don't care where I am in the world or what I'm doing. I'm going to kill them and then I'm going to go to prison." Said Sho
"Sho…no. That is never going to happen to her. I…I promise you that I will never let that happen to her." said Fukuda. He knew that he should not have been going around writing checks that he couldn't cash. Sho needed that reassurance and…and he needed to give it even though he had no way, at all, of making sure that the baby didn't end up in an awakening experiment….but she wouldn't…because Suzuki didn't' give a fuck about her. He had been ready to pawn her off on literally anyone when he heard that she existed. He hadn't even wanted to hold her. The whole time he had been holding her he looked like he wanted to throw up. Suzuki…he had only hurt Sho because he wanted a son that was worthy of him. Sho was his only son but…but he had another daughter. The perfect daughter. The perfect cherry picked orphan that he had molded into everything that he could have ever wanted from a child. Aside from the fact that he couldn't do anything about her lack of Y chromosome…
He wondered how different things would have been if Shigeko had been born a boy.
Maybe a hell of a lot better and maybe a hell of a lot worse. He didn't know. The only thing that he did know was that he was causing Sho pain that he didn't have to feel…and if a little lie could ease that pain then it was ok. Just like Masami was living her life thinking that Fukuda was keeping her children safe and protecting them from their father Sho could spend the rest of his life thinking that Fukuda was out there making sure that his baby sister was safe and sound.
He had become quite the liar over the years.
"Good. I never want anything like that to happen to her. Even if she never gets real powers, even if she can't do much more than move a piece of paper across the table, even if she can't even do that…I hope that she never has to go through that. I don't want her to be the Awakened Child. I want her to be…I want her to be the Prodigy." Said Sho
"Sho…you're a good big brother." Said Fukuda
"Thanks…and you would be a good dad, too, if you were someone's dad. You say nice things and you make me feel better and you never hurt me or anyone else…..I wish you were my dad." Said Sho. He knew that he was not supposed to feel like that let alone say it but he didn't care. He didn't care if dad popped out of the air vents or from between the couch cushions and hit him so bad that he thought he was going to die. That was just how he felt in that moment…and how he had been feeling since he was a little kid…
He wished Fukuda had been his dad.
"Sho…don't-" said Fukuda. Sho should not have said that. That might have been the thing that finally made his father put him in the ground….but his father wasn't there. His father was sulking in Japan over Fukuda didn't even know what. It wasn't like the man gave a damn about anyone or anything other than himself. It wasn't like he cared that he had put a new life in the world. It wasn't like he even cared about the child he had wanted to create.
But he didn't tell Sho any of that.
He didn't get the chance to tell Sho anything. He felt a very familiar aura getting closer and he immediately climbed to his feet. He pulled Sho up, too, because he did not need to explain everything that just happened to Shigeko. She wouldn't have been able to understand it anyway. She, like Suzuki, had the emotional range of a teaspoon.
Even now she looked bored.
She pushed the baby into the room. The baby was sitting in a laundry basket. There, next to it, was the creepiest looking doll that Fukuda had ever seen. Why any child would want to play with a doll that looked like them, so much like them that it landed firmly in the uncanny valley, was beyond him. Shigeko pushed the basket in front of him and laid a suitcase at his feet. He knew that one, it was one of her old ones, from when she had been small. She set a diaper bag on top of it.
"I got Mukai all packed up." Said Mob. She had gotten all of her feelings out already. There. Now she was done. Baby Mukai was not going to see her upset. Sho was not going to see her upset. Fukuda was not going to tell dad that she had been upset. That she had committed the crime of showing her feelings. That was the biggest crime that a Suzuki could make, according to dad, and he was the one who made the rules now.
She was back to being a kid…and the only girl in the family.
"Thank you. Well I'll just be going now. It's a long flight ahead of us." Said Fukuda. He went to take the doll from the basket but he was stopped. Her telekinetic grasp was weak but it was there. Shaky. He could have thrown it off…but he wouldn't. She was showing him her strength in allowing herself to be weak. She was telling him that he wasn't even worth the effort of using her telekinesis properly.
She so took after her father.
"She can have the doll. It's a friend for her in case she gets lonely…and so she can remember me." Said Mob. She knew that she was not supposed to give her toys away but she didn't care. These were her toys and she could do what she wanted with them. She could give baby Mukai all of her dolls and other toys, too, if she wanted to…but there wasn't enough space in the suitcase for all of that…and also maybe instead of getting her new clothes whenever hers got dirty they should have figured out the washing machine sooner.
"Wait! I have something for little sis too!" Shouted Sho. He ran as fast as he could to his drawing pile…well what was left of it…he had made a huge mess….but that was ok because he found the drawing that she had helped him with.
The drawing of their family.
"Here. So she can remember me too." Said Sho. He tucked the drawing into the outer pocket of her baby bag. He wanted to leave it in her hand but he knew that she would have just messed it up. He didn't want her to mess it up. He wanted her to have it so that she could remember them, her family, her pretend family.
Even if she was just his pretend sister…it had felt real to him.
"I'll guard it with my life." Said Fukuda. He meant that. That was a promise that he was capable of keeping. That was the one thing that he could assure Sho of. He couldn't assure this baby's safety or her happiness but…but he could keep this drawing safe for her…and the creepy doll, too, because he did not need Shigeko getting pissed at him. He didn't need….this wasn't about what he did and did not need.
This was about what was best for the child…for the children.
He picked her up, said his goodbyes, and left while he still had the strength to. Out of everything he had done, everything he had been complicit in, this was the hardest thing he'd ever had to do. Breaking up Sho's family. Making him cry. But Fukuda, at least, did not cry. He could not cry in front of the kids. He had to be strong for their sake. For Sho's sake. Everything he did, everything that he was going to do, he was doing for Sho's sake.
For Masami.
"It'll be ok, Sho, she's going to…to a better family than ours." Said Mob as Fukuda picked baby Mukai up out of her laundry basket and carried her out of their lives forever.
Mob couldn't cry. For Sho's sake.