Mob liked writing memos.

"How does this sound? Hello everyone. How are you? I am fine. Today is green Jell-O day in the cafeteria. Last time we had green Jell-O day someone got their ear bit off. That was not a good thing at all. There is enough Jell-O to go around. Everyone gets firsts. Nobody gets seconds until they've had their firsts. Please be nice and do not bite anyone's ears off. Also no kicking, scratching, spitting, eye gouging-" said Mob as she read out the first draft of me memo. Dad said that she could write memos just so long as she didn't go off and try to change anything in Claw.

She wasn't dad anymore.

She was glad that she didn't have to make any big choices to make in Claw. Being dad was tiresome. She would much rather have just been Mob. Actually she would much rather have been Mob but when she hung out with Minegishi. This was coffee day. This was the day where they went to Starbucks, it had to be Starbucks because Minegishi liked consistently mediocre coffee and not coffee that was mediocre in unexpected ways they'd said once, and read books and talked about books but also other stuff. Mob wanted to hang out with them so badly….but also she felt awkward because she had walked in on them doing adult stuff with Shimazaki.

Things were still very awkward.

Which was why she was sitting in dad's office writing out memos for all of Claw. She had a chair pulled up to dad's desk, he had a very big desk, so she could work. Shibata was there too, he was knitting something that was either a sweater for an octopus or some kind of weird three man snuggie. She didn't know and she didn't ask because she didn't want to hurt his feelings. Shimazaki had hurt his feelings before by telling him that he was bad at knitting.

And then Shibata told him that he was bad at holding the yarn and then they almost had a fight.

Dad had stopped the fight before it could turn into anything more than name calling. Dad didn't have the time or energy to deal with their antics, he had said, and it had been scary but he hadn't even hit a single one of them. Not that Mob had done anything to earn getting hit. Not that Shibata had done anything either, well anything that bad. Shimazaki had been hit already, though, and she still felt bad about being responsible for that…but dad hadn't hit him then.

Which was nice.

Shimazaki was being really nice, too. He was sitting on the desk or playing with her hair or touching her hands or telling things just to be annoying. He was staying on the other side of the room where he was supposed to be. That was where dad had told him to be and for once he was doing as he was told. Mob was sorry that dad had been mean to him but she was also happy that he was sitting far away from him.

And not just because he could be so annoying.

"You should tell them to keep their clothes on, too. There's this one guy who always gets naked whenever there's a fight…it's weird. Even Shimazaki thinks it's weird…and if he thinks so too…." Said Shibata with a shudder. Mob nodded and then added it to the memo.

"Ok, so now it says 'please be nice and do not bite anyone's ears off. Also no kicking, biting, scratching, spitting, eye gouging, getting naked, or stealing anyone else's desserts. Please be nice to each other and do your jobs. And then after that I have the happy birthday list. Or maybe I should make the birthday list it's own memo. I'm not sure. Are memos supposed to be short?" asked Mob. She had been treating them, so far, like nice little messages that she could send people while they worked. Little ways of making the happy and less likely to kill one another.

They were always so close to fighting one another.

Maybe because dad set such a bad example for them. He had said, before, that the Awakened acted like a bunch of little kids. Well maybe they would have acted better if dad acted better. Maybe if he didn't go around beating people up all the time then the Awakened wouldn't think that it was alright to go around beating each other up all the time.

Not that she would ever say this to him or anything like that.

"They can be whatever length you want them to be, Daughter. I don't really care." Said Suzuki. He really didn't care. Everyone seemed to enjoy receiving these little messages from Daughter. He had no idea why. He also had no idea why they cared who had a birthday that day. Birthdays didn't matter once you became an adult. They just brought you another year closer to death.

Especially if you were in your forties.

He had thought that the existential dread would have passed ages ago but it did, occasionally, come back. Daughter was ten. Son was nine. He remembered when they had been so small that he could hold them each in one arm. He remembered when they had clung to his legs begging him not to leave them. He remembered the day that Daughter joined his household. The way she was so curious about everything. The way that she refused, at first, to call him 'father' even though he had become her father just that day. She had come around eventually and now she was no longer two. She was ten and she was doing her part to run Claw.

Mostly keeping moral up since it had taken a nose dive…and he was not bringing back the chairs with wheels.

"Oh, ok. I'm done in that case. I hope they like this one…and they stop fighting over the Jell-O. I just got them to stop fighting over the cookies…" said Mob

"If you want them to stop fighting over the Jell-O why not just cause another cookie shortage? Then they'll fight over the cookies." Said Shimazaki as he played with the yarn in his hands. He liked this a lot. Not to wear but he sort of wanted to chew on it. He wondered what this would feel like in his mouth. Itchy? He was thinking itchy. He wondered what it tasted like. He wondered if Shibata would notice if he-

"Hey! What are you, a moth?" said Shibata as he pulled his yarn away from Shimazaki. He was either on something or just being weird. One of the two. He hoped that he wasn't on something again. It set a terrible example for Her Little Ladyship….though watching her smoke was cute. But also very, very, very bad…but so cute!

"No, I just have trouble with impulse control among other things. Things that I know that I need help for but have no plans on getting help for. That would just be too much." Said Shimazaki as he pulled on the knot of yarn. Shibata pulled it back and he let him. He wanted to get into a tug of war, it would have been a lot more fun than listening to the clicking of computer keys, knitting needles, and feeling Suzuki glaring at him about…he wasn't even sure.

He was not being creepy!

He had not said or done one thing to Suzuki's daughter that could even be considered to be creepy. He had been sitting there like a good Ryou! Just like Toshi had told him to. He didn't mind getting his ass kicked, well he did but it wasn't like Suzuki was going to kill him, but he did mind Toshi being upset with him. They had been more than upset with him…and even getting a tattoo of them on his arm hadn't made it better…and he had been beginning to think that he had finally ruined whatever it was that they had…

But then sex happened.

Well it would have happened if he had been more aware of his surroundings. He should have sensed the presence of Suzuki's daughter and if he had then sex would have happened but it hadn't happened and the only thing that happened was Toshi got super high after the kid went home and then he had to reassure them all night that they were a good person and not an idiot and also he may have messed with them just a bit.

Just a bit.

Toshi wasn't mad at him anymore but now they were all sad and stuff. Not normal person sad, Toshi sad, which involved being all mad but with a sort of cold undercurrent to them. Toshi never cried when they were sad, they just acted like a wet cat, and while it wasn't boring it was….it made him feel all weird inside. Kind of like he had to do something but he didn't know what but he HAD to do it because when he did whatever it was that he had to do…and he had no idea what he had to DO!

Toshi could be so complicated sometimes.

"I think, maybe, you need help…in the nicest way possible. At least about the thing where you aren't sure if you exist unless someone pays attention to you." Said Shibata. He felt bad for Shimazaki sometimes. Well not about him getting his ass kicked for flirting with Her Little Ladyship, she was ten and he was lucky that Suzuki hadn't murdered him for that, but about everything that was wrong with him. Mainly how he didn't know if he was real if people weren't paying attention to him. That must have been the worst.

Though maybe a professional could help with that…and also some of the other weird stuff that he did.

"It's a serious medical condition for which there is not treatment or cure." Said Shimazaki. He wondered how long he could keep this up for. Shibata was too trusting and it would be his downfall. Shimazaki would make sure of it.

"I'm sorry about that, Shimazaki, but don't worry about anything. I'm paying attention to you and so are Shibata and dad. We're all paying attention to you. You are real." Said Mob. She wished that he didn't have that wrong with him. That must have been the worst thing in the world. She was just trying to be nice but dad's aura flared when she said that…and she didn't know why. She was just being nice. Just because she was nice to a boy that didn't mean that she wanted to be his girlfriend. No way. Not with Shimazaki. He was nice, and he knew where to get the best vapes, and he was tall…but he did not make her heart go doki doki. If your heart didn't go doki doki then you weren't in love. Her stomach sometimes felt all bubbly but that was not doki doki. She didn't know what that feeling was, she hadn't seen that in manga yet, but she knew that it was not love.

She didn't know where dad got these crazy ideas from…or why he refused to listen to her when she said that she did not and would not ever have those kinds of feelings for him.

Dad was so weird sometimes.

"You sure? Because I feel like this might be a Matrix scenario. Yeah, we're in the Matrix, most definitely." Said Shimazaki

"What's a Matrix?" asked Mob

"A movie about the world really being a computer simulation…possibly a documentary. Possibly the greatest documentary in the history of mankind." Said Shimazaki. Honestly, kids these days. He had lived and breathed that movie when he had been her age…and he was blind! And movies for the blind hadn't really taken off back then.

"But…how does that work?" asked Mob. She had seen him listening to TV before. Music, mostly, but also podcasts about music. Also terrible murders…but those might have been the ones that Minegishi liked.

"Yeah, I've been wondering that for a while too. I mean if that's ok to ask." Said Shibata

"Well, no, it's not. You've offended me greatly and I am going to have to immediately dissolve our friendship….you know I'm kidding! If you didn't piss me off when you rearranged the whole bathroom, I will stick your hand in a glass of warm water while you sleep if you ever even think of moving my toothbrush again by the way, then this won't piss me off. Well actually I was kind of pissed off…don't ever move stuff again without telling me or I swear to God that I will do…something…also moies for the blind. Some of them have narration. It's like someone's reading you a story. Also don't you dare rearrange the house again." said Shimazaki. He could feel Suzuki glaring at him. He didn't know why. He was just talking to the kid, not being creepy at all, so what was there to be pissed about?

That guy was way too high strung.

He needed to take a page out of his kid's book. Now that was a fun kid. Little budding stoner and alcoholic. She'd love coke when she got older. Acid, too, and she was old enough for that but Toshi wanted to be the one to take it with her for the first time and only when she was older. Even though slipping people stuff was fun and more fun for them, too. Well at least he had fun when people slipped him stuff just because. Like the first time he tried molly he thought that he had lost his mind but in a good way…

God, he and Toshi had so much fun and she was pretty much like a smaller but nicer version of Toshi that he didn't want to have sex with so she was going to end being tons of fun too.

"I said that I was sorry." said Shibata

"Sorry isn't good enough. I'm going to be bringing this up until one of us dies. Probably me and probably in some ridiculous or awesome way. Or maybe I'll just end up slipping in the shower, hitting my head, and lingering on life support for the next seventy years. Either way when I die I want to be stuffed and put in the natural history museum." Said Shimazaki

"Are you on something right now?" asked Shibata

"When aren't I on something? But yeah I'm not on much right now. Might take a smoke break later. Hey, Your Ladyship? Want to take a vape break later?" asked Shimazaki. His pen, of course, not hers. Toshi got her the worst kind of vape. The kind that was just water and flavorings. What was the point of that? Well to smell like…cotton candy today. Yup, she smelled like cotton candy. Why smell like cotton candy when you could smell like hash oil and tangerines?

"Um…..I don't know if I…" said Mob. She wasn't sure if she was allowed to vape. There was no law that said that kids couldn't because there was no nicotine in what she was smoking, that was what was in the good kind of smoking, but she also knew that people still treated it like smoking. That was why people gave her looks when she vaped out in the smoking break area.

Dad seemed sort of mad.

But he was always sort of mad when other people were around. When it was just the two of them he was always so nice to her. Maybe he just didn't like being around people. That would have made sense. She loved dad and he loved her but…but he might not have liked other people…or something.

"Daughter, your memo?" asked Suzuki. He could not listen to another word of this. If he had to sit through another sentence out of these….well he wouldn't group Daughter in with them because she was his Daughter…but he could not stand another word out of a single one of them. Except for Daughter. She was so much better than the people she called her friends.

The morons she called her friends.

How could she stand to be there? To be there with the two of them and just…sit there talking. She was just talking with them both like it was nothing…including Shimazaki. She was sitting at his desk just to put some space between her and the truly infuriating man that she had fallen in love with…and she was still in love with him. It was obvious in the way that she couldn't even look in his direction when she spoke with him. The way her aura was acting…the way she had a sort of redness to her face…all of it.

At least his message had been received and her feelings would no longer be returned.

"Right. Um…I think that this is going to make them stop fighting….and I want them to stop fighting all the time. It isn't nice and we should all try to get along. That way we can all work hard to make the world better for espers everywhere like dad wants." Said Mob. She looked down at her work while she spoke. She knew that she was being rude, and had been rude this whole time, but she just could not bring herself to look at Shimazaki after what she had seen.

Even if it hadn't been much…which she was very grateful for.

"But it's fun when they fight over stupid shit. Like the time when I brought in a single fork back in the…which Division is the spork Division?" asked Shimazaki

"The first….and that was you? Those guys got into a really bad fight over that fork. Someone ended up with salt in their eyes and ears and stuff and Fukuda had to spend the whole day getting everyone sorted." Said Mob. That had not been a good time at all. She wished that she had been in charge when that had happened. She would have just taken the fork away so that nobody would have had any fork to fork with. If people couldn't handle their forks then she would take away their fork privileges. Like how if she and Sho couldn't agree on what to watch on TV then mom would take away their TV privileges when they had been little.

"Yeah I remember that…" said Shibata with a shudder. Those Awakened….they could be scary when they got all riled up. Like a bunch of little kids but not cute. Like if Little Suzuki was a grown man.

"Hey, it's fun when they fight over stupid shit. They go from zero to a hundred over literally everything. I love those guys." Said Shimazaki. He wondered if Her Ladyship would get pissed if a few Jell-O cups were to 'disappear' or something…that would make for a good time…and also Jell-O had a good mouthfeel comparable to that of pudding.

"I don't want them to fight over anything. Also only put food in your mouth. Food or candles but not yarn." Said Mob. She ducked her head down when she spoke to him. She could talk to him. That was all. She hadn't seen his naked back…well she had because she had seen him in sleep clothes and he slept in just gym shorts…but that was different. She had never even seen Minegishi in shorts…and also she had never seen anyone doing what they had been about to do…and also she was closer to Minegishi and stuff. She was just more awkward feeling when she thought about talking to Minegishi…or even being near them…

At least she could still sort of talk to Shimazaki….sort of.

"Daughter, your memo is fine. Send it out and take a break. On your own." said Suzuki. He didn't want to send his Daughter away but he did not want to have to listen to this for another second. At least Son wasn't there. Son would have had them building forts or playing the game where the floor was made of lava…even though had the floor been made of lava they would all have been dead long before they could even jump from one piece of furniture to the next.

"I don't need a break….but I'll take one if you want me to. I can…um…make sure that nobody is fighting in the breakroom." Said Mob. She wanted to be near dad…and it had been a good conversation even though she couldn't look at Shimazaki for more than five minutes without remembering what she had almost seen…and what had been going on between him and Minegishi….it had still been a good conversation.

But she had to do what dad said so that was what she would do.

"That's a good idea. Do that." Said Suzuki. Seeing her around would be good for moral. Everyone loved her. Who wouldn't love her? She was his Daughter. She was perfect in almost every way. She was intelligent and kind and had good interpersonal skills and had enough sense to choose some very powerful espers for her inner circle and she was very good at caring for Son…

Who wouldn't have loved her?

Though if anyone loved her in anything more than an abstract sense he would have to have a very violent word with them. Especially Shimazaki. Literally anyone would have been better than that man…and he would have Shimazaki in the ground before he had him as a son in law…the thought sends an unpleasant shiver up his spine…but that will pass. That will pass and she would find a better man and…and he does not want to think about that part of his Daughter's life…the part that he had not been prepared for…

He was the one who needed a break.

"Ok….bye everyone. I'll come back with Jell-O." said Mob. She didn't much want to leave….but she also didn't much want to stay. Not with the awkwardness between her and Shimazaki. Not with dad being all mad at him whenever he tried to talk to her and also how she couldn't talk to him without remembering…things. Things that she would rather not have remembered. She wondered if this would pass. She wished that it would pass soon. Normally she would have been hanging out with Minegishi at this time…and they would have probably had read a new book or something else that they would have wanted to talk about…and Mob had things that she wanted to talk about too…

No little brother, no best friend, and a dad who was mad a lot of the time…

At least she was allowed to write memos. She liked to write memos.