Sho was making an effort to be nice and part of being nice was playing games that his big sister liked to play.

Even if they were pure and utter torture.

"Am I brushing your hair too hard?" asked Mob as she tried her best to get Sho's hair to lay flat. She couldn't believe that he had actually volunteered to play dress up with her. He only did this on her birthday or if he had been very mean to her. But he hadn't been very mean to her in a very long time. He had come home some weeks ago and he hadn't been mean to her once. Sometimes he went to the other room to yell or kick holes in the walls but he had been so nice to her.

She liked it.

She would have loved him just the same even if he hadn't been nice to her. She was his big sister and the job of a big sister was to love her little brother. So that was what she would do no matter how mean he was to her. She would love him when he was nice, too, because it was nice when he was nice. Like today. Dad said that he wasn't going to take them to work with him today, he had something very important to do and Sho would just be underfoot, he had said, and this was not for her to know about because she was a girl, he had said, so she and Sho were home alone.

She had not planned this.

She had been going through her clothes and getting rid of the ones that didn't fit anymore. That way she could get new ones which were mostly the same but still fit. She been doing that all on her own Sho had come in and asked her if she wanted to play the Shoko game. That was the game where she pretended that instead of a little brother called Sho she had a little sister called Shoko. She loved that game so much…but she also knew that he hated it.

But he had suggested it anyway right out of the blue…so of course she said yes.

Who wouldn't have said yes to playing the most fun game ever. She already had a little sister, well a pretend one, but Mukai was a baby and also thinking about her made Mob sad. Even if she had ownership of the little baby sock she still felt sad when she thought about Mukai. This was different, though, because it was even more pretend than pretending that Mukai was her little sister. She had always wanted a for real little sister to do stuff like this with and pretending….pretending was almost as good.

Especially since Sho had volunteered all on his own to play this with her.

"….no. It's fine." Said Sho. He hated this. He hated this so much. There was nothing in the world that he hated more than the Shoko game. This was pure and utter torture. He was in one of her dresses that didn't fit anymore, a purple one since she had said that purple was a better color on him than pink, and he would rather have walked around naked. He didn't like this. He didn't like the dress that he was wearing or the necklace around his neck or the earing she had clipped on to his ears or the nail polish that was drying on his fingers and toes and he especially did not like the brush in his hair.

But he had to do this.

He had gotten mad at breakfast because dad had left them behind. He knew what dad was doing. He was meeting with the shady people. Sho had gone to a million and one of those meetings and he had never been underfoot even once. He had told dad that but then dad had all been 'shut up, Sho' and then Sho had gotten mad and his cereal bowl tipped over and a lot got all on big sis…and he hadn't meant to…so he said sorry and then went to his room to scream and kick holes in the walls…but she still must have been upset or something because once he left their room she went in and started messing with her clothes and stuff.

He had felt bad about what he did and he knew that 'sorry' wasn't good enough.

Sho knew what he had to do. He asked her if she wanted to play the worst game in the history of people thinking up games. And that was what they were going now. She had dressed him all up like a girl and now she was trying to brush his hair even though she knew that his hair didn't like to be brushed. She knew that his hair liked to stand up and she was just going to brush it anyways. Why did girls like to do this? What was the point?

He didn't understand girls one bit…and his sister was the hardest one to understand out of all of them.

"I wish I had hair like yours. It's so pretty how it stands up. Mine just hangs down. It's a very nice color, too. I love it so much." Said Mob as she brushed Sho's hair so it stood up even more. She had wished that she had hair like Sho's since she had first realized that she looked different from the rest of her family. Mom and dad were both half Japanese which meant that she and Sho were both half Japanese but for some reason Mob had gotten all of the Japanese.

She wished that she looked like her family.

She didn't look a thing like mom or dad or Sho. When she got older she was going to color her hair like Minegishi did. Purple was a nice color and she would try that. She would do red first so that she and Sho could look like brother and sister. They were brother and sister but they didn't look like it. She wondered if Sho would play this with her when they grew up. Then they could look like sister and sister too.

That would be so wonderful!

"I don't care about my hair or your hair or any hair. It's just hair." Said Sho. Was that mean? He didn't know. He was telling the truth. He didn't know why girls were always trying to do stuff to their hair and look pretty. When Sho grew up he was just going to leave it the way it was now. He didn't care about his hair at all…mostly at all. He wished that he had hair like hers. Black hair. Everyone else had black hair in Japan but him. Even out in the rest of the world people were always staring at his hair and trying to touch it and stuff since red was such a rare hair color and all.

Also it was really hard to brush.

"Why? You have nice hair." Said Mob as she finished brushing it. She went to her bag of hair ribbons and looked for ones that would match Sho's dress. This was so much fun! She couldn't wait until she had a daughter or Sho had a daughter. Then she could play this all the time. She wished that she didn't have to wait until she was an adult though, she wished that baby Mukai had still been there, because if baby Mukai had been there even if she was too little for this she would have grown up and then she and Mob could have played this all the time.

"I just don't care about hair, that's all. I'm having…fun…though." said Sho. He was lying through his teeth but sometimes you had to lie to make things better. Sometimes people had to lie to the people they loved just to make them happy. He had to make her happy.

He was her little brother.

And he had been such a jerk for their entire lives. He needed to be better. He needed to be better than dad. He was not going to be like dad. He was not going to be mean and stuff. He was not going to tell big sis that he hated this game and wanted to rip this dress off and run around naked. That would have been the worst because he was too old to be running around naked and stuff. That was how much he wanted to end this game.

But he didn't say a thing.

He didn't even say anything when she tied some of her ribbons in his hair. She had been trying to braid his hair but he didn't have enough hair to braid. Thank God that he didn't have enough hair to braid. He didn't want to have his hair braided. He could barely stand the bows that she had braided in his hair. He could barely stand this…but he had to do this. She loved him and she was his big sister and he loved her and…and he was just going to o along with whatever she wanted.

All day.

"We can watch something else if you want to. I know that you don't like movies like this." said Mob. She wanted Sho to be happy and he did not seem happy. She could see his aura, feel it, and he was unhappy. She didn't ever want to make her little brother upset. She'd had enough fun. Dressing him up was the most fun part. She liked watching movies like this but she also knew that Sho didn't and she didn't want Sho to be upset. That was being selfless. She was a very shellfish person and she wanted to be selfless.

She hated being so selfish.

She was selfish for wanting to play this with Sho even though she knew that he didn't like it. Even though he had suggested it she still should have told him that he didn't have to do this. That would have been better. Less selfish. She always felt selfish. Like how she didn't do more to help dad even though he had told her to stay here alone with Sho. She was also selfish because she wanted to smoke even though she had promised Minegishi that she would quit. She was also selfish because….because she just was.

"This is fine." Said Sho After doing his hair and putting jewelry and stuff they were watching one of her movies where people feel in love and broke up but then got back together even though the whole movie would have been hours shorter if when the guy said 'I can explain' the girl LET HIM EXPLAIN.

How could she just….watch this? What good was it to watch people fall in love? It was long and boring. Love was long and boring. Love was…he didn't think that he'd like love. Not if it meant that he would act like an idiot and think about some girl all the time and want to stop doing all the stuff he loved just to make her happy. He didn't think that he could handle it. He had too much going on in his life. If he had a girlfriend she would probably just make him dress up like this and watch things that she loved. Also she might make things that he didn't like for dinner. Like salads with cucumbers in them.

Ick.

He was never falling in love, he decided, and if he did and some girl wouldn't let him explain then he wasn't going to follow her around trying to win her love. He was going to go back to being single and drawing pictures or hanging out with his friends or something. Yeah, he could hang out with Shimazaki all day. He didn't do the girlfriend and boyfriend thing either.

Yeah. That would be great.

Just him and Shimazaki hanging out all day. Just the two of them building forts and petting dogs and seeing who could eat the most pudding cups in one sitting and then making pyramids with the empty ones and then they could climb trees and bother the baby birds….well that was kind of mean but if Shimazaki wanted to do that then Sho would because he really, REALLY wanted to be his friend.

"Are you sure? Your aura is being all…pointy." Said Mob. She felt his aura with hers. Yes, that was definitely pointy. She didn't want him to be upset. She wanted him to be happy. She wished that all of their friends weren't working. Sho could have gone and hung out with Shimazaki and Shibata…though she hoped that Shibata wasn't planning on tossing him in the air again or anything. That was dangerous.

"I know." Said Sho. He forced his aura to be normal. He was not going to be a jerk to her. He was going to scream into a stuffed animal later and kick a hole in the wall but he was not going to be a jerk to her. Not anymore.

"We can watch one of the things you like if you want. It's enough that you played with me for this long. You can change out of that and we can be normal if you want." Said Mob. She didn't want the game to end but she didn't want him to be upset either. There was nothing worse than having a little brother who was upset. She didn't care if he got upset enough to hit her, she didn't care if she got hit, she just wanted him to be happy. What more could she ever ask for in life than a happy little brother?

Well maybe someone who liked her so much that he chased her to the airport to tell her how much he loved her.

But no boy would ever do that for her. First of all they never went to the regular airport, they only took little planes, and second of all no boys liked her like that. Not even…she couldn't even think his name or else she would turn red and maybe even lose control of her powers. He didn't like her like she liked him…if she even liked him like that. She didn't know. She had liked boys before, she had even been kissed once, but those feelings had all been doki doki. There was some doki doki here but also her stomach felt like it was full of soda and pop rocks. This was new and she didn't get it. Also she didn't know if she even COULD like him.

Because she didn't know him at all.

She knew he worked in floating tech support, which meant that he moved around a lot in Claw, and she knew that he sometimes took two desserts even though she had made it clear in the memo that nobody got seconds until everyone got their firsts. Also he had a sweater for every day of the week and all of them had cute animals on them. He only had two pairs of jeans, though. She knew because he got a stain on his pants on Monday and didn't change his pants until Friday and then the next time she saw him, Sunday, he was still wearing the Friday pants but then on Monday he had changed back into the first pants but hadn't washed them.

She didn't get it.

She didn't get him because she didn't know him and love at first sight was not real even though she felt…something…when she first saw him. She knew that she had felt something really sudden and new and…and she had never felt that before…and she knew that she liked being near him and sometimes she even made up reasons to walk by the tech support room just so she could look inside and see him…

But that was not the same as liking someone.

So she didn't know and movies were no help. She could have asked Minegishi but this felt like something that she should keep to herself. After all if this got back to dad, that she liked someone, then dad would beat him up just like he had beat Shimazaki up just because he got the IDEA that Mob liked him…and she did not want to put him through that…so she decided that instead of thinking about him all day she was going to watch movies where people fell in love and got married and lived happily ever after.

But not if Sho didn't want to. If he wanted to change it then she would change it.

"No, it's ok. I like doing stuff that you like. This isn't…that bad." Said Sho. He was going to be a good little brother and good little brothers did stuff that made their big sisters happy. Like this. Good little brothers made it up to their big sisters when they accidentally got cereal and milk all over them and then kicked a hole in their bedroom wall. Good little brothers did not tell their older sisters that their taste in movies was terrible and that they should have been banned from the Netflix for life and then the afterlife.

He was working harder at being a good little brother.

And it was so much hard work. But this was what you did. She loved him and she put up with his boring stuff. Well his stuff wasn't boring but she thought that it was. She hated fighting shows and movies. She hated shooting guns and playing target practice. She hated all of that stuff because he loved him. When you did stuff for people you loved you didn't have to enjoy yourself. That was called being selfless, not selfish.

You had to think about people other than yourself.

That was the thing about dad. He only thought about himself and what he wanted. He wanted them to move so they moved. He wanted them to pretend that mom had never existed so they pretended that mom had never existed. He wanted them to never talk to baby sis ever again and that was what they did…as far as he knew. Sho was not going to be a jerk…even though it was a big effort.

A really big effort.

"You don't have to just say that. I know that you don't like this stuff." Said Mob

"I don't like it but I want you to be happy. I've been too much of a jerk lately…for our whole lives….and I'm going to be nice to you. Ok? Even if this is boring and I don't even get why you like watching people fall in love and stuff. Love is so stupid." Said Sho

"That's just what boys think and you're a boy and you can't help it. Here, let's watch Zootopia. You love Zootopia and I love Zootopia so we'll watch Zootopia." Said Mob. She liked this movie and all but she also liked it when Sho was happy…and she also liked Zootopia. The two main characters were so obviously in love but they couldn't be together because they were two different species and also predator and prey. Society wouldn't understand. The best love was the kind the society wouldn't understand. Like in manga where the student council president fell in love with the delinquent and they weren't supposed to be in love because they were from two different worlds and then they didn't care and they kissed and…and it was really nice.

Love was really nice.

She wished that she had a for real little sister so they could watch movies about love and read manga about love together. They could do girl stuff together. Mob liked girl stuff, she liked some boy stuff too, but she always did boy stuff all the time with Sho. She wanted Sho to be happy but…but she also liked having someone to do girl stuff with….but she also had to think about him.

So they watched Zootopia.

"If we were in Zootopia I think that we would be predators, not prey, I think. Even though I like Judy a lot." Said Mob. They were in the second half now. She liked this movie. She would have liked it better if Judy and Nick admitted that they loved each other but that was never going to happen, probably, because of society.

"What do you mean?" asked Sho. They were halfway through now. He wanted to enjoy this while he could before she put Frozen on. She loved Frozen and they had to watch it at least once a day…and he didn't even know why. They had been watching Frozen nonstop since they had been kids…and also Zootopia but at least this was interesting.

"Because we're espers. There are a lot more normal people than espers and normal people are afraid of us and stuff just because we can do things that they can't. I think that we would be cats if we were in Zootopia." Said Mob

"Nah, I want to be a hamster. Hamsters are awesome…not that we'll ever get one…" said Sho

"Those are prey animals, though." said Mob

"I still would want to be one." said Sho

"I don't think that it's a want to thing. I think that we would be predators and people would be scared of us…I hate how people are scared of us." Said Mob

"Nobody's scared of you. They think that you're cute and stuff." Said Sho

"I mean of us as espers. I can't wait until dad takes over the world and makes everything better. Then normal people and espers can be together and everyone who wants to be an esper can become one…once they figure out how to make Awakened without hurting people….and then things'll be so much better. We might even be able to stop moving all the time…and also when we grow up and get married and have families then we can have pets." Said Mob

"Ugh, I don't want to get married. I mean I know that I have to but I really don't want to. I've had girls telling me what to do my whole life. Mom and then you and then when I grow up I won't even get a break. Whatever girl that I have to marry is going to probably make me eat stuff I don't want to and make me go to bed when I'm not tired and she's going to make me kiss her and stuff. I don't understand why anyone would want to get married." Said Sho

"You get to be with someone you love. You can spend your whole life with that person…and I bet that it's the best thing. If nobody runs away I mean. I guess that people do run away…but your wife probably won't because when you grow up you can take dad's place as ruler of the world and then she won't be able to run away because she'll have no place else to go." Said Mob. She hoped that no girl decided that she was going to play with Sho's heart like that. If some girl married Sho and then decided to run away Mob would do…something. Oh yes she would do something. The things she would do…they would be….mean. Anyone who broke Sho's heart deserved to be called named and maybe even pushed….maybe.

"I don't want to keep someone prisoner. That's even worse than being regular married. At least if I'm regular married she'll want to be around me and stuff. I don't want to be near someone all day every day until I get old and die who doesn't even like me." Said Sho

"You won't have to worry about that, though, because I can't imagine why a girl wouldn't like you. You're the best little brother ever. One day you'll make some girl's heart go doki doki and then yours will go doki doki too and then you'll fall in love and get married and have babies and then your babies will be friends with my babies and I'll be friends with your wife and you'll be friends with my husband and-" said Mob

"I'm already friends with the guy you're going to marry." Said Sho. He sounded a little bit mean there, just a little, but he couldn't help it. Out of all the guys in the world why did she have to like him? Well because he was the coolest guy ever.

"…you know Haotri?" asked Mob

"Who? No, I'm talking about Shimazaki. Who's Hatori?" asked Sho. He didn't know who this guy was but he hated him. He had to hate him because his big sis liked him and it was his job to keep big sis safe. This guy probably was only after one thing…which from Sho's understanding was kissing a girl and touching her boobs and looking at her naked and stuff. Well no guy was going to trick his sister into doing that! Not on his watch!

"Just a person I met…he works in tech support…he knows how to fix the Wii in the Awakened's breakroom…and he wears sweaters…." Said Mob. She held her braids down with her hands and she pulled her knees up to her chest. She did not want to talk about this with her little brother…even though he was dressed more like a little sister than a little brother. She would talk to a little sister about this but not a brother. There were just things that you did not discuss with your little brother.

"So you don't like Shimazaki anymore?" asked Sho. He loved this guy. He didn't know who Hatori was but she loved him. He had gotten big sis to stop being in love with Shimazaki. She wasn't planning on kissing him and marrying him and having babies with him. Sho felt….good. He wasn't going to beat this Hatori guy up too badly, now, just bad enough so he had trouble walking but not so bad that his legs were broken and stuff. That would be too much.

"I never liked him to begin with. He never once made my heart go doki doki. Sometimes I feel weird when I'm around him, like when he gets really close I get this feeling in my stomach kind of, but I know that it's not love….and I wish that people would believe me. Why would I lie about this? We're just friends." Said Mob

"Ok. I believe that you don't like him." said Sho. He believed that she didn't like him like that anymore but she had liked him at some point. That was why he had been acting that way around her. Why else would you act that way around a girl unless she liked you like that first? That was just a thing that you were supposed to do when a girl liked you.

"Good. Finally, someone believes me. Dad doesn't. His aura gets all mad when I talk to Shimazaki and I don't know why he won't just listen to the words that I say." Said Mob

"….what do you talk to him about?" asked Sho

"Stuff." Said Mob

"What kind of stuff?" asked Sho

"Just stuff. Sometimes about funny things that are happening in Claw and sometimes about stuff that he's heard or sometimes about stuff that's happened to him in his life. Normal stuff….and please stop making your aura all pointy. You just said that you believed me." Said Mob

"I do, I do. I don't know why my aura's like this or why I get so…it's like mad and hurt and a little scared at the same time when I think about you liking him and taking to him and stuff. It's like…I don't know." Said Sho. He hated the way he felt sometimes. He didn't know what this was or why he felt it but he did know that it made him say stupid stuff sometimes and also it made him mad at his sister too and he didn't want to get mad at her.

But he was not dad.

Fukuda said that dad was afraid of feelings. Well Sho was not. Sho was not afraid of his own feelings. He had them and they were there but they did not scare him one bit…even if he didn't know what they were. He knew that he wanted to be Shimazaki's friend really badly. He had felt like this before when he met really cool guys and he wanted to be friends with them and stuff. It was just sort of…worse…now. Yeah, that was it. Worse.

But he wasn't dad. He wasn't going to act like he had no feelings at all. He wasn't afraid of his own feelings.

"I don't know either but I am sorry that I made you upset." Said Mob. She didn't know much about these talking sorts of things but she did wish that she could help Sho out. She couldn't, though, because she had no idea how to fix the way he felt. So she did the only thing she could do and just said sorry.

"Stop saying sorry all the time. It's not your fault that I'm like this. It's my fault. But it's ok because I'm trying to be better. To be less like dad. I just…I want to be more like me and to be less like…like dad." Said Sho

"Sho….you are nothing like dad. You're like yourself. Dad is…he's mean and sort of nice sometimes but mostly mean. You're the opposite. You're nice and only sort of mean sometimes. You're nothing like dad. You're like….don't tell dad I said this but you're like mom. Mom was always so nice, sometimes she could be mean but she was mostly nice, and you're a lot like her…and if she were here you would have been her favorite kid. Because you're like her, ok, and not like dad." Said Mob. She hugged Sho when she was done saying that. She would have hugged Sho for the whole rest of the day, or until her arms got too tired to keep the hug up, when she felt it.

Dad's aura.

It was like he had been summoned. He had been teleported back so maybe they had summoned him like the time that they had tried summoning Bloody Mary. Mob and Sho stopped hugging and just sat up as straight as they could. If dad was teleported back that meant that he was in a bad mood and wanted to hide in his room away from them, which was fine, but it also meant that when he came in through the door he would be ready to punish them…or mostly Sho…for anything that he could think of.

Mob took Sho's hand. She knew how scary this was for him.

She held his hand and he held it right back. They tried to stay as still as possible as they felt his aura pass over them as he entered the house. The TV was still going but neither of them were watching. They were waiting for dad to pass through this room and go to his. Mob would join in him later, he liked having her around, but right now her place was with Sho.

They heard him step out of the genkan.

"Son. Daughter. Explain." Said Suzuki. He'd had a VERY rough day and just wanted to sit in his room and wait for his aura to settle and for tomorrow to happen. He did not want to deal with…whatever it was that the children were up to. He knew that, at their core, clothes were just cloth and they meant nothing…and also the way one wore their hair was not indicative of much…and also jewelry could just be jewelry…and also Son was a child…

But also he knew that this might have been something to worry about.

"We're watching Zootopia." Said Mob. She had no idea what there was to explain about. The house was clean and they hadn't been fighting. Still dad was staring at them, though, with his eyes and his aura…and his eyes were doing that thing where they got way too focused.

"Yeah. What, we can't watch TV now?" asked Sho

"No. You can watch all the television you want. What I want to know is….Daughter, why is your brother dressed in your clothes?" asked Suzuki. It was bets to just get right to it. Either this was nothing and he could rest or this was something and he had to rethink his whole plan for Son's future.

"We're playing, dad." Said Mob. That was what dad was so upset about? Why? He had seen them playing the Shoko game before.

"Playing….." said Suzuki. That…that answered none of his questions…not that he was even fully aware of what those questions were. There were too many questions in his mind and he was too tired to sort them out into logical and illogical.

"Yeah, we're playing." Said Sho. He knew that dad must have been a kid at some point and he knew that dad had played games and all but he also knew that dad had been a jerk when he was a kid. He didn't know what dad and Fukuda had played, it might have been written down in the notebook he took but he hadn't been able to bring himself to read it, but he knew that dad didn't understand playing and fun and also how sometimes you had to do things like wear dresses and stuff to make your big sister happy.

"And you….you actually….you want to…to wear that dress?" asked Suzuki. This could be nothing or it could be something but he had to stay calm because either way he was exhausted and when he got this exhausted he tended to lose control and he could not lose control. This was…..this was something or nothing. That was all. Something or nothing.

"No, not really, but I'm doing this to make big sis happy. Haven't you ever done something just to make someone happy?" asked Sho. He knew that he was going to get hit but…but at least if he got hit then it would be the longest possible time before he got hit again. At least for a few minutes he wouldn't have to be worried about when he would be hit next.

"….then take that off if you don't want to wear it. I'm going…to my room. Don't disturb me." Said Suzuki. There. It was not a thing and he could go to his room and rest. Yes, rest sounded wonderful. He would have stayed with Daughter if Son had been away again but he did not want to sit with both of them.

Son was forever finding new ways to be tiresome.

Maybe another away mission would be in his future. Son seemed to enjoy them and did well, too, so it would make sense. Suzuki enjoyed having Son away as well. He could come home to peace with his Daughter. Yes, things were better when it was just him and Daughter. Son…he needed to work on his independent skills too. He should not have been wearing a dress because his sister had asked him to…or at all. It might have affected him in some detrimental way…or not. Suzuki was too tired. He'd worry about this tomorrow.

Or maybe not.

"Sure, I'll take it off…later." Said Sho. He said the last part very quietly. So quietly that dad hadn't been able to hear him. Yeah, he wanted to get out of this dress and back into his own clothes and to clean off his nails and fix his hair and stuff but he wasn't dad. He wasn't dad and he was going to make big sis happy.

Even if he really, really, really hated playing this game. He would endure this torture, though, for big sis. To make her happy.