Suzuki Touichirou did not like messes.

He liked order. He liked it when everything made sense. He liked waking up in the morning and having an accurate idea of what his day would be like. He liked being able to sit down at his desk and know where everything was. He liked being able to look at the day's pile of work and know what he had to do. He liked order, he prized it above all else, and he would have thought that his children would have understood that.

They did not.

"The roof caved in again!" said Son from underneath the fort that he had built out of Suzuki's office furniture and some bedding he had liberated from the laundry room. Clean bedding, thank God, though there would be an Awakened somewhere wondering why they had a bare bed…and then they would all get riled up…and then productivity would be shot for the day.

He hated so hated messes.

"So? Just use your powers to hold it up." Said Shimazaki. Suzuki wondered if he was looking at a future version of his Son sitting there in the fort acting like he was the one who was nine years old. It would have made sense. They both seemed to have some sort of impulse control disorder…and maybe he should have had Son looked at…no. He wouldn't be doing that. There was nothing wrong with Son.

He was just a tiresome little boy.

Suzuki must have been a tiresome little boy at some point in his life. He had vague memories of turning his living room into his own personal fort room too when he had been small…but it had been just that, his living room, and not his father's office. Suzuki would never have done anything like this and he didn't know where Son got these ideas from…

Though it was preferable to what he had been up to before.

Chair jousting….why had Daughter approved officially sanctioned chair jousting tournaments? What were people even thinking when they did….that? He didn't know. He had told those idiots to knock it off and they had…though he had broke it up too late and more work had been made for Fukuda…and then Son had come in all riled up…and now he was doing this…

At least he was in one place.

"That's a good idea. We have to make it big enough for Shibata anyway when he comes back from lunch. I don't know why he won't eat with you. It's funny when you take people's food. They're all like 'what happened to my food' and you're all laughing and stuff…it's funny." Said Son. Suzuki didn't think that causing unnecessary chaos was funny…but he said nothing. Son was over there in the corner of the room and that was what mattered. He wasn't causing any trouble. That was what mattered.

Where on Earth was Daughter? That was also what mattered.

She had gone on a coffee break about an hour ago. How long did it take to drink a cup of coffee? He could still sense her in the building, at least, which meant that she wasn't off doing God only knew what in the city. At least she took Minegishi with her when she went…even though this was Tokyo and he knew what could happen to little girls in Tokyo…which made no sense, his apprehension, because he knew that she was perfectly capable of defending herself. She was second only to him after all…and she didn't need protection…or a keeper…even though it would have been so easy to slip away into a city of millions…but not really. Not with her aura being what it was.

He felt around for her.

Still in the building. More specifically in the open air mezzanine. Probably still drinking coffee. She had taken Minegishi with her…that was why she had been gone for so long. Those two could spend hours and hours together…and he didn't quite understand it. What his Daughter saw in them…but he wasn't going to question her or anything like that. No, he was…glad…that her social development was normal. That meant that she would do better in that area than he had.

He still wanted her back, though.

"How the hell is he supposed to fit in here? He's ten and a half meters tall." Said Shimazaki

"He's not that tall." Said Son

"He's pretty damn tall, kid, he's taller than me and I'm pretty damn tall." Said Shimazaki

"We can get some more blankets and then I can hold them up with my powers." Said Son

"He's still not going to be able to fit." Said Shimazaki. He did not teleport out of the way when Son struck him. Odd. He wondered if he should have corrected Son…and decided against it.

"It's my fort and I'll decide who gets to come in and who doesn't. I'm President of the fort." Said Son

"Ok, Mr. President. Just remember that once you let everyone into the fort it sort of loses it's appeal." Said Shimazaki

"What do you mean?" asked Son

"It's not exactly a secret fort club if you let just anyone in." said Shimazaki

"Oh…um…no girls allowed in that case. WE don't need them. They're boring and bossy and stuff." Said Son. Suzuki wonders if that's something that should have worried him. Son should have been interesting in the opposite sex by now…right? Suzuki remembered being younger than him and constantly cycling through different infatuations…but then again he had gone to school and spent a lot of time around the opposite sex. Son only spent time with Daughter and he saw her as a sister even though there was no biological relation…though from a purely bloodline perspective if Son and Daughter were to reproduce…but that was a terrible idea. It would set an incest precedent, unless he told the children that Daughter was adopted which was something that he would not be doing, and nothing good came of setting an incest precedent….he probably had nothing to worry about when it came to Son. He just didn't know any members of the opposite sex, that was all.

The fact that he had found his Son dressed in his sister's clothes on more than one occasion did seem to be a bit worrying, though, just a bit.

"Eh, can't mess with the classics I guess. Ok, this will be the no girls allowed fort. Yeah, who needs the opposite sex?" said Shimazaki. Suzuki bit his tongue. Telling Shimazaki not to encourage Son would have meant, well, exchanging words with the man…and also Son might have decided to devout his life to celibacy from that moment on just to be stubborn and spiteful.

"Yeah, girls suck, we don't need 'em. We've got our whole lives when we're married to them to deal with them." Said Son

"God, to be nine years old again." said Shimazaki

"What's so great about being nine? I can't go to bed whenever I want and I can't eat whatever I want and I have to take baths and do school work. I wish that I was your age. Then I could do whatever I wanted." Said Son. Suzuki bit his tongue. Son already did whatever he wanted. Suzuki had been VERY lenient with his Son since he had promoted his Daughter to head of household affairs, the official title was still pending. Daughter had been dealing with Son and, honestly, it had been a load off of his mind.

Where were she?

"You can spend all day building forts and you don't have to bother with women…or Toshi. Stay away from Toshi until the seventeen at least." Said Shimazaki

"Ok. I don't like talking to them anyway. They're boring." Said Son

"Boring?" asked Shimazaki

"Yeah. They hang out with my sister all day and only read books and call people names but not in a fun way and they have no idea what fun even is. That's why they're friends with my sister. She's bad at having fun, the absolute worst." Said Son. Suzuki bit his tongue once again. Daughter wasn't boring, Son was just….he didn't even have words for what Son was. Well it didn't matter. Daughter was the one who tended to him now.

"Are we talking about the same Toshi, kid? The same Minegishi Toshiki?" asked Shimazaki

"The person with no eyebrows and purple hair who hangs out with my sister and always smells like dirt?" asked Son. Suzuki knew that making negative comments about others was rude but, well, he didn't really care all that much what Son said just so long as it wasn't about him or Daughter.

"Yeah, that's them….though you really need to learn to stop talking about colors and expecting me to understand what you're talking about. I have no idea what color is." Said Shimazaki. Suzuki braced himself for the rant that Son would go on. He never could admit that he was wrong, that child, even when he knew that he was. Where was Daughter? She could have put a stop to this. Any minute now Son would start up and-

"Oh….I'm sorry. I keep on forgetting that you're blind and stuff. Sorry." said Son. Suzuki looked up from his work and blinked. Well that was….odd. Very odd. Son…he never apologized. Not without being forced to. That had been…he had no idea what that had been. Nor did he have any idea what to make of son's aura or expression. The fact that he seemed to have turned red with shame at his mistake or that hiccup of his aura…and now he was pulling it inwards…and fidgeting with his hands…and he was staring down at the ground, too….out of shame?

Suzuki did not understand.

He did not understand and he did not want to listen to another word of this banal chatter either. He needed silence and order…or at least intelligent conversation. Like the kind that he could have had with Daughter…who had been gone for far too long. He would have given anything to have swapped out Son for Daughter both in that instance and also…in general. If Son could have been more like Daughter…though then Daughter would have been more like Son.

If he'd had two Daughters. Yes. That would have been just lovely.

But he did not have two Daughters. He had a Son and a Daughter and his Son was there and his Daughter was off on her own socializing even though she knew that she was the only one who could get her brother under control without having to resort to threats and violence. But she was gone and he was all alone with Son…

He began to think up errands that he could have sent Son on. Something pointless. Send him to count all the windows in the building. Sent him to sort out the silverware in the cafeteria. Sent him to make sure that all the chopsticks in the cafeteria came in pairs. They somehow ended up with, occasionally, just a single disposable chopstick…which was just odd…

Yes, he could have sent Son to that task.

He was about to, too, when he felt Fukuda at his door. He sensed the man before he saw him…but not at a great enough distance. His aura was dull, almost depleted, that was why. Suzuki wondered what had happened but then he remembered the chair jousting accident…and those morons only had to blame themselves. Of course someone had been bound to lose an eye….they were jousting with office chairs and broomsticks in a freshly waxed hallway!

He was surrounded by idiots…or at least overgrown children.

Thank God for Fukuda. He may have overstepped, and known way too many of Suzuki's secrets, but he was still loyal and valuable. Sensible, too, if the fact that he did not get into the fort when Son asked him to was anything to go off of. He had no idea what he would have done over the years without his most loyal….companion was a good word for him…at his side.

"Hey, boss, two things. First of all can I put in an order for office chairs without wheels? They're just going to keep on hurting themselves. Also can I borrow Sho for a minute? I'm…I'm exhausted from growing all of those eyes for people and I could use an extra set of hands…and you know how incompetent this batch of Awakened are." Said Fukuda. Suzuki didn't even have to think about it.

"Yes, please, take him. Take him for as long as you need….and also please destroy any and all chairs with wheels aside from mine and ordered ones without wheels. I don't care how long they take to come. Let people stand for a while. It might teach them a lesson." Said Suzuki. That was what he liked about Fukuda. They were both on the same wavelength about a lot of things…though he did not see how Gundam was superior to Galaxy Express…though they had not had that debate since middle school.

Had it really been that long?

Time passed by so quickly. He would have thought that he would have been ruling the world by now. Almost thirty years had passed since he first conceived of Claw. Since he had come to the realization that he could and would rule the world…but then life had gotten in the way. School. Women. University. Deaths. Marriage. Children. Daughter completely unending Claw and making far more work for him than he had ever thought possible…

A lot had happened in those thirty years.

And now he was here. Sitting at his desk trying to put his organization back together while the most annoying man in the world sat in a child's fort and sang a medley of Beatles songs…just the choruses….off key….and he was no music lover but he was pretty sure that those were not all the right words….

"Rocket Raccoon, sits in his tomb, waiting for his revival…" Suzuki wondered how a person got to be that annoying. Daughter had told him that Minegishi had told her that Shimazaki had a serious medical condition where if people weren't paying attention to him, validating his existence, then he would think that he had stopped existing…which Suzuki did not want to ask about. Mental health and madness always worried him. He did not like things that he could not see and measure….and he did not like things that he did not understand…

Also he did not want to think that his own mind could betray him so badly that he would forget that he existed if people were to stop paying attention to him…

Frightening.

Not that he was frightened for long, though, because he could come off of it quickly. He was not mad and he would never go mad. He was sane. He was the most sane. He was sane enough to know that, from a young age, that he was destined to rule the world. He was also sane enough to know that this man would drive him insane if he didn't think up some reason to send him away. If he just said to go away then…well….Suzuki knew that attempts on his life could come at any time and from anyone…and Shibata was still taking his lunch break…and Shimazaki really was the better bodyguard….but he just needed a minute of peace. A second. A moment.

He so wished that Daughter had been there. She had always been such a quiet and peaceful child.

He was a genius.

"Shimazaki. Bring me my Daughter. I have a task for her." said Suzuki. He needed a break anyway. She could….answer some of his internal emails. Politely rebuff people. She was good at that, being polite, and other such social skills. Also she was much better at using that machine than he was. She had been the one to teach him the undo function after all…

His brilliant Daughter.

"Sure thing, Suzuki-san." Said Shimazaki before he blinked right out of existence. Suzuki didn't even have time to correct him…but correcting him would have meant exchanging words with him and he did not want to do that anymore than was strictly necessary. No, he wanted to enjoy the precious few seconds he had until Shimazaki came back with Daughter…

All fourteen of them.

The energy in the room shifted as it was filled with Daughter's aura. The smell of bubblegum filled the air. Sugary and cloyingly sweet…but he would not complain. She didn't smell like an ashtray anymore and that was all that he could ask for. She smelled…artificial…though? Was she wearing perfume? Was she even old enough to wear perfume? She was ten…what was normal for a ten year old girl? Should she have been wearing something other than her costumes? Should she have stopped wearing her hair in braids? Should she have been wearing makeup? Should she have been wearing jewelry? Should she have been wearing high heels? Should she have had all of the other trappings of femininity that he had observed but had never understood? What about her social development? Should she have had more female friends…any? Should she have been seeing someone by now? Who would she even have been interested in? There was no man that he had ever met in his life that could have even begun to be worthy of Suzuki Shigeko.

He was getting ahead of himself. She was still prepubescent. Thank God.

"Hi, dad. Shimazaki said that you needed me to do something?" asked Daughter. Had he? Right, right, right. He got up and motioned towards his chair.

"Here. I need you to answer my emails. You know what to do…and what not to do. No more making your own decisions. Understand?" asked Suzuki. She had made so much extra work for him. She had just said yes to anything, signed anything that had been put in front of her, and it had set his work back by he didn't even know how long…but he had nobody to blame but himself. That was why he told her, explicitly now, that she was not allowed to make her own decisions.

He was such a good father.

"Yes, dad. I understand." Said Daughter. He stuck around long enough to wait for her to get to work. He needed to walk around for a bit. Stretch his legs and also check on a few things. Normal things for his normal day. He liked things like this, normal, and orderly. Things weren't exactly the way he wanted them but they were getting back to normal and that was all that he could ask for.

That and, well, the next crop of Awakened to have been more mentally mature than a bunch of nine year olds.

He had walked in on a group of them sock skating down the halls like his children tended to do. At least they'd had enough sense, enough brain cells between them, to scatter as he approached. He was going to have to send someone to the Seventh Division to see what was going wrong with the Awakening process. Fukuda. Yes, he could trust Fukuda with this. There. Having a plan put him in a better mood and he knew, as he headed back to his office, that spending time with his Daughter would only improve his mood further….

Or not.

"You know, Suzuki, I like that better on you. Bubblegum. It suits you a hell of a lot better than tobacco seeing as how you're so sweet." Said Shimazaki being his usual annoying self…at least Suzuki would have been annoyed if he had been in Daughter's place….but he was not in Daughter's place. She was in his place…at his desk…sitting at his desk…

And so was Shimazaki.

He was sitting there perched on the edge of his DESK and just…Suzuki had no clue what he was looking at. He knew that he was seeing Shimazaki sitting on the edge of his desk with one hand brushing one of Daughter's braids behind her back…and lingering….and Daughter wasn't even looking at him…and this was…this was…

Suzuki had no idea what this was.

He knew that it made him feel….he didn't even know. There was a dose of anger there along with a smattering of other emotions that he couldn't name…and he knew that it had not just been about the desk. Sure Shimazaki sitting on his desk was beyond the pale but…but so was touching Daughter like that….

Suzuki was a man. He KNEW what the gesture meant.

Well he thought that he did, anyway, he was never that good at those social things…and also he must have been misreading the situation because Daughter was prepubescent and one did not…not with someone her age…well they did…and Daughter was only….but she was stronger than him and if she had felt that the contact was unwelcome she could have killed him right there and she knew that Suzuki would never have faulted her for getting rid of an unwanted suitor-

What the fuck….

She was…she wasn't there yet? Was she? He had no idea what was and was not normal when it came to girls. He knew that they matured faster than boys, and also that he should have been happy that she was heterosexual since that secured the next generation but…she was only TEN. He had thought that there would be more time before she would be after….all of that…

Suzuki needed a drink for the first time in the better part of a decade.

Thankfully whatever it was that he was looking at ended the moment he crossed the threshold into the room. Shimazaki teleported back over to the mess that Son had made and Daughter…she greeted him like normal….like that had been normal for her….and he had been away for so long…

Suzuki needed time to think.

"Daughter, thank you for your help. I can take it from here. Go and…and spend time with your friend…with Minegishi. Go spend time with her…him…them. Go and spend time with them or your brother or watch your shows or go shopping or something. I'll see you at home. You are dismissed. Shimazaki, bring me Shibata at once and then go and…and keep my Son safe. Fukuda is in no state to be alone with him…and then tell Son to stay by Fukuda's side for the rest of the day." Said Suzuki. He fired off orders as he walked to his desk. Daughter had barely been out of his chair before he practically threw himself down into it. He hardly heard the affirmations that he had been heard. He could barely hear anything over his own racing thoughts.

He didn't know what he was supposed to do with this information.

He so hated messes after all.