Mob could quit whenever she wanted.

She really could. She just didn't want to. If she quit then she would start to feel bad about stuff. Like how dad pushed her away when she tried to hug him because she smelled like an ashtray. That was what he had said. He just pushed her away with his powers and told her that she smelled like an ashtray…and she had really needed a hug, too, because she had found where Sho hid baby Mukai's sock and she had been selfish enough to think about taking it back.

She felt bad.

And she knew what Minegishi had told her about smoking. How it was bad for her and how once you started it was very hard to stop. Well Mob knew that she could stop at any time. She knew that she could quit at any time and she just chose not to. Besides, she had Fukuda and even though they weren't friends anymore for reasons she didn't fully understand she still knew that he would not let her get sick with any of the diseases that were listed on the box the cigarettes came in.

So she was fine.

She just needed to calm down. Then she would be fine. She would calm down and go back inside the house and it would be fine. She made sure to make a mess when she came out so that way she would have an excuse for being outside and it wouldn't have even been a lie. Dad was in his room and Sho had locked himself in the bathroom with his drawing book and his ipad, they only had the one bathroom but Mob's record for holding it was two days and five hours, so she was fine.

She finally got a moment to herself.

Or at least she'd had a moment to herself. She could feel Minegishi. Their aura traveled through the ground, through the grass, and it was sort of interesting…but also she sort of wanted to be alone. She felt like that sometimes. Empty and aching and stuff. She didn't know why. Dad was mean to her sometimes and Sho was mean to her sometimes and sometimes they were mean to her at the same time and that was life.

Sometimes life was hard but that was ok.

Because there were good parts to it, too. Like how she knew where Mukai's baby sock was now and how she could look at it and hold it and stuff when Sho wasn't with her. Also she had gotten a whole bunch of new manga and she wasn't even part of the way through it yet. Or like how there was a new Frozen movie, well a short movie, and now they had green dresses and that was good because Mob was getting bored of wearing blue all the time, or also like how she had such good friends, now, even though everyone but Minegishi could be kind of annoying….

She had a lot to be happy about so she needed to stop feeling like this already. It made no logical sense at all.

She could at least make herself feel better. That made sense. Since she felt bad, and her powers and aura showed it, she had to make herself feel better. Even if she was not supposed to be smoking since she was only ten. That seemed like a dumb rule. She wasn't a baby like how Mukai was a baby. She could take care of herself and decide things for herself. If she wanted to smoke and could be trusted not to accidentally set the house on fire then why should she stop? Who was she hurting besides herself by smoking every once in a while? Nobody, that was who.

She didn't even care if she did end up getting hurt.

Mob finished her cigarette and crushed the end under her shoe like Shimazaki had showed her. Even though it sort of felt like littering. It wasn't, though, because he had said so and as annoying as he was he wasn't an idiot. He knew about things like this and he told her what she needed to know. Like how it was important to save the ends of the cigarettes that Minegishi made themselves because you could put the ends together to make a whole new cigarette.

You couldn't do that with these or you'd just end up with a bunch of filters.

Mob knew that once she got down to the filter she was done…supposed to be done. Not in the sense that you could smoke the filter, she had tried once and it had been unpleasant, but more in the sense that she was supposed to be done for the night. Otherwise you were chain smoking and chain smoking was extra bad for you. Minegishi had said so and they were smart and Mob should have listened….

She really should have.

But she didn't. She didn't want to stop and…and it wasn't like she couldn't stop. She could stop whenever she felt like it. She just did not feel like stopping. She was sad and stressed and also smoking was better for her than drinking because it didn't make her feel bad in the morning and she never have trouble walking after she smoked.

So she was just going to have one more.

"Mob? Are you chain smoking again?" asked Minegishi. They knew full well that Mob was out there chain smoking. They also knew that Mob was not their kid so this was none of their business. They also knew as the only somewhat functional adult around they had to make it their business. So that was what they were doing.

Because they did not want to be throwing Mob any funerals any time soon.

If the smoking didn't kill her then her father would. Suzuki hated smoking. He hated it like he hated gum chewing and people talking during meetings. He also had never been shy about smacking his kids around. One day he was going to smack one of those kids way too hard and then he was going to end up with either a dead kid or he himself having been killed by his own stupidity.

Also ten year olds were not meant to smoke.

"Does two count as chain smoking?" said Mob even though she was mostly sure that it did.

"What do you think, Mob?" asked Minegishi. They knew that they could let as much of the sheer, grating, annoyance that they felt seep into their voice as they wanted. Mob never noticed. Minegishi wondered if she and Suzuki had some sort of disorder…or maybe he was such a piss poor parent that he never bothered to teach his kids social skills.

Yeah, maybe it was just piss poor parenting. He did have a chain smoking lush for a ten year old after all.

"Yes?" asked Mob. They knew that they were in trouble…well not real trouble because dad was still working in his room and Sho had still locked himself up in the bathroom but kind of in trouble because Minegishi was unhappy with her…and she didn't like that.

She really didn't like that.

"Then why are you chain smoking? Come on, you know that it's bad for you…I am going to end Ryou…." Said Minegishi. Sure they had sent Mob down the river of sin but at least they had given her a map and a paddle. Shimazaki had just pushed her off into the rapids with nothing but an inner tube and a prayer.

"I just…feel…sad. Well not sad. Sort of…it's like being sad but not as…pointy." Said Mob. She was bad at talking. She was bad at talking and she wished that she had a better word for the way she felt. She felt empty and aching but also like there was a warm sadness sloshing around inside of her but also sticking to her insides like warm maple syrup. She didn't like this sadness because it also made her feel tired…but not sleepy tired….more like…stressed tired? It wasn't a good feeling.

And she had to control her feelings.

If she felt something that she didn't want to feel then she could always just exorcise her emotions. Like now. She didn't know what the trouble was. She had been promoted in her family so the same rank as a mom without being a mom, which meant that she counted as an adult, and also she had filled in for dad at work and at home. If she had done all that then why was she suddenly a kid when she wanted a cigarette? Why was this where adults chose to draw the line?

Mob did not understand adults one bit.

"Pointy? Asked Minegishi

"Yes but not…not like when you swallow a fish bone and it pokes your throat. More like…not that…and it doesn't even feel pointy. It feels like there's a whole bunch of maple syrup inside of me and the syrup is made up of sadness and it's warm and sticky and also sloshing around inside of me and I don't like it at all…so I decided to have a cigarette because I feel like this…and I don't know who I'm hurting….so I don't see what's wrong with this." said Mob

"Mob…you're ten. You're going to end up really sick if you keep that up. Ok?" asked Minegishi. They felt for Mob, they really did, but they did not want to be going to any Frozen themed funerals any time soon.

"But we have Fukuda…I mean he doesn't like me but we still have him." said Mob

"Fuck him." said Minegishi

"What? Why would you say something like that? He's really nice. He plays…played…with me and Sho when we were kids and he would help my mom make dinner and let me and Sho help and he was my mom's best friend…but please don't tell anyone I was talking about my mom…and he's nice to Sho and…and it's ok that he doesn't like me. Not everyone in the whole world is going to like me…and that's ok." Said Mob. She didn't know what she had done and she wished that he would just tell her so that she could take it back already. At some point he had just…started being different. At first she had thought that it was because she was getting older and things changed when you got older but Sho kept on getting older, too, and he had never started treating Sho any different. He even called her Miss Suzuki…which was her name, technically, but he still called Sho by his given name. Mob had a given name too, it was Shigeko. She was also called Mob but almost nobody called her that…even though she preferred it.

Mob didn't understand adult sometimes.

"That jackass walks around with his nose turned up so high I'm amazed that the birds haven't started nesting in it." Said Minegishi

"But…he walks around normal…at least I think that he does." Said Mob

"It's…I just mean that he walks around like he's better than the rest of us for reasons that I cannot begin to understand. Maybe because he's known Suzuki for longer than I've been alive. I don't know and I don't feel like knocking on his door and asking him. I have better things to do." Said Minegishi. They wondered what that moron hoped to accomplish by making an enemy out of the second most powerful esper in the world and heiress to the whole world, if Suzuki's crazy plans ever worked out, and if not the heiress to the world's most successful cult. Really, it was just stupid…and Minegishi was also not advocating for going in the other direction and incessantly hitting on a ten year old in the hopes that when she grew up a little more she'd keep you around…fucking Ryou….

Just be a decent human being to the kid. It wasn't hard. If Minegishi could find it in their shriveled raisin of a heart to do so then why couldn't that dumbass?

"I don't think that he thinks that he's better than everyone else…well except for the people he ranks above…I'm not sure what his rank is. Upper echelon at least…lower than me…maybe your rank? I'm not sure and I can't go and check because dad told me to leave him alone until I start smelling less like an ashtray." Said Mob. She pulled her shirt up over her nose. She couldn't smell anything and she had been taking care to only ash on the ground, too, and not on her clothes or shoes.

"Your dad really said that to you? I mean, yeah, you stink like you've been smoking a pack a day-" said Minegishi

"Two packs today." Said Mob

"What the hell? Why?" asked Minegishi. They took a deep breath and put their excess feelings of 'what the fuck is wrong with you?' into growing the grass beneath their feet. There. Now they were calm and ready to listen to whatever insanity Mob came up with next.

"Because…because I wanted to. Ok? I never get to do what I want…and I feel bad…and then when I find something that makes me feel better I just get yelled at…" said Mob

"Another hard day?" asked Minegishi. They had spent their day feeding people to plants, strictly for work reasons, but Mob's had been harder. She had to deal with her father and brother…so maybe she had earned the right to smoke…but also she was ten fucking years old!

Minegishi was never having kids.

They had messed Mob up badly enough and she wasn't even theirs…but then again Suzuki had probably done the majority of the damage. Minegishi wept their eyes across Mob quickly. No fresh bruises. That was good…well it was good in the sense that Minegishi could be reasonably assured that Suzuki hadn't been too pissed off at Mob…

This was what their life had come to.

Minegishi would have killed Suzuki a long time ago if they didn't enjoy not being dead. Nobody could beat Suzuki. Nobody would beat him. He was crazy, everyone could tell that he was not playing with a full deck, but he wasn't' crazy when he said that he was the most powerful man on Earth. Well he was still just as mortal as the rest of the, God willing, and one day he was going to push Mob too far and then she'd make herself into an orphan and then, and only then, would she be ready for the story of how Minegishi had lost their parents.

And then they could show Mob how to turn her father's body into fertilizer and the circle of life would turn once more.

"Yes…no….not really. It wasn't anything big. Sho and I just had a fight and I tried to hug my dad because I was sad, even though I know he doesn't like that, and then he pushed me away with his powers and said that I smell like an ashtray. I don't even know why I'm so upset. I didn't even get pushed that hard. I'm just being dumb." Said Mob. She knew that she was just being too emotional like dad said. He said that he could not deal with her when she got like this. She wished that she could have been more like him…

The not getting sad part. Not the parts where he was mean and hit people. Those were not good parts.

"You're not being dumb, you just come from a family of assholes…and I know what you're going to say and I will use that word." Said Minegishi

"Ok…but I still don't think that my dad and my brother are…that word." Said Mob. She sometimes thought bad words in her head when she was upset with them…and she knew that it was wrong of her…but she would never say them out loud. She loved her family and they loved her…they could just be sort of mean to her sometimes. That was all. Sometimes people were mean and that was just the way it went.

"Let's agree to disagree. Anyway, I got you something." Said Minegishi as they fished the plastic bag out of their messenger bag. They were careful not to disrupt their seed collection. Tools of the trade and all of that.

Well one of their trades.

At some point they had become something of a babysitter to Mob. They had never asked for this but now they were….this. It was fine. This was not how they had seen their life going but it was whatever. They honestly had never expected to live this long in the first place so, really, everything was a gain from there. Even being responsible for the chain smoking ten year old.

Who really did smell like an ashtray.

Suzuki had been an asshole to just say it to her face like that. Hell, he had been more of an asshole but not even making the barest hint of an effort at figuring out why his kid smelled like an ashtray in the first place. Mob, of course, only saw the best in her asshole of a father…and that was what it was. They were not going to get into this with Mob right now. They didn't have the strength. It had been a very long day and all they had wanted to do was rest but they had an errand to run. An important one. Suzuki was right, Mob smelled like an ashtray, which tended to happen when one smoked two packs a day…which Minegishi was amazed was even possible for a ten year old….her poor little lungs….well Minegishi'd had enough of this. They had to do something about this.

Even if, for once, they were not the ones responsible for ruining Mob's life.

"But I didn't get you anything…I didn't even know that we were exchanging gifts today. Is it our friend-anniversary?" asked Mob

"No, that's in winter, and anyway I don't celebrate made up holidays. I just got you this because I am sick and tired of you smoking. You stink, you're jittery, you're going to give yourself cancer, and you're going to get caught one of these days and I do not need to explain to your father that I'm the one who's been ruining your life." Said Minegishi

"You haven't been ruining my life. You're my best friend who isn't Sho. You're one of the nicest people that I've ever met in my whole life." Said Mob. If they had been the kind of friends who hugged then Mob would have reached over and hugged Minegishi….but they weren't. They were the kind of friends who were friends without hugging.

At least that was what Mob had thought.

Minegishi pulled her into a quick side hug. Mob wanted to hold onto them and never let go…but she didn't that because it would have been weird and also she was too old to be doing that. She just let herself be hugged quickly and then let go. After she was let go a plastic bag was put into her hands.

"Here. Take this. It's a nicotine free vape. You're not smoking anymore." Said Minegishi. Was this responsible? They didn't know. On the one hand a ten year old should not have been smoking. She could cut her life short when she was closer to the finish line than the starting gate. On the other hand they were only keeping Mob going down the better living through chemistry road…but Minegishi was not going to be a hypocrite. They were going to keep Mob from making their life ruining mistakes but they were not going to be a hypocrite.

So teaching a ten year to vape won out.

"What's the difference between this and smoking?" asked Mob. Would it make her less stressed? And tired? That was what she needed to know. She went through the bag…oh! They had bubblegum and ice cream and chocolate and pineapple flavors…and she did like things that tasted good. Smoking just mostly tasted like burning.

"This won't kill you by the time you're my age and you won't smell so bad…well you will…but in a different way. You'll smell like bubblegum or whatever. Just give me those cigarettes and don't let Shimazaki get you anymore. Ok?" asked Minegishi. They held their hand out. Mob held her cigarette box closer.

"But…thank you for the gift but I like to smoke." Said Mob. Minegishi shook their head and said a lot of bad words…and words that Mob had never heard before…and words that sounded like they shouldn't have gone together…and words in a language that Mob had never heard before…

"Give me those." Said Minegishi after they had gone through every bit of profanity they knew. That was not good. That was what addiction sounded like…and they didn't have a lot of lines but that was one of them. They were not speaking to Shimazaki for a good long time, long enough for him to forget that he existed, long enough for him to maybe do some introspection and realize that just because he had an idea it didn't mean that he had to go through with it like some kind of impulsive, not thinking, stupid…

Minegishi was too pissed off to be articulate.

"But I don't want to. I can decide for myself-"said Mob before her cigarette box was snatched out of her hand.

"Nope. Not letting you ruin your life. Yeah, ok, you're ten now and you can make some of your own choices…but you're still just a ten year old. I know that you can't see it now but you're ruining your life. Just…your dad is going to get pissed at you if he finds out and…um…he might even demote you." Said Minegishi. Time to be smart. Time to think. Mob knew that it was bad for her but she didn't care. Time to appeal to something she did care about.

Her asshole of a father.

"….you're right. Dad almost caught me the other night…so I shouldn't smoke where he's around but I don't want to quit. I can quit whenever I want to-" said Mob

"That's not how it works. Everyone who's ever started has said that they can quite whenever they wanted to. It never works like that….with this, anyway. It's a lot more insidious than a lot of other things that I do…which I should not have introduced you to, because there's a physical dependence that you get. Same with drinking which is why I stopped sharing with you so often. Just vape if you want to smoke and…if I'm ever smoking I guess you can smoke with me…and I just don't want anything to happen to you, ok? You get it?" asked Minegishi. If she had been anyone else Minegishi could have just pointed out that she was being a dumbass, taken her cigarettes from her, and that would have been the end of it. But this was not anyone.

This was Mob.

"Ok…if you think that it'll be a good idea…" said Mob. She didn't want to get in trouble…but she didn't want to make her friend mad, too, and that was what won out. She liked having someone who cared about her all the time, who liked her all the time, because it was just the nicest feeling…and she wanted to keep on feeling it. Feeling this feeling was enough to get rid of the empty and aching feeling inside of her…at least for a little bit. She didn't know how long it would be gone for this time, it never truly went away, but Mob…she wanted to keep on feeling this feeling.

So if Minegishi wanted her to quit then she would quit…for the sake of their friendship.

After all, Mob said that she could quit anytime she felt like it, and now she felt like it.