Mob felt like she hadn't played in a while.
Which was a weird way to feel, she thought, because she and Sho had been playing together a lot since he came back from his mission with Fukuda. They had played things that she liked, mostly, but also some stuff that he liked. Like this. They were playing the game where had to jump from floor tile to floor tile because some of them were lava and some of them weren't. Sho was the leader and he decided which ones were lava and which ones weren't. Mob was happy to let him be the leader. She was always happy to make him happy.
"Sho, slow down. My shoes keep on sliding." Said Mob. This hallway had just been waxed yesterday. It was sort of slippery under her shoes. She was wearing the blue ones that lit up. Sho's were better at being all grippy and stuff. Or maybe he was just belter at jumping.
"Fine, but we're not even halfway done with this floor. We still have all the other levels to jump through." Said Sho. They weren't playing the game right but he wasn't going to tell her that. You were supposed to try and knock the other person off the safe squares with your powers. That was how he and Shimazaki played. He wanted to play with Shimazaki, it was always more fun to play with Shimazaki, but he had to guard dad because someone tried to shoot him on his way into the building.
That had been kind of scary.
But then Shimazaki teleported the guy to the place where people got punished. Sho didn't like dad all that much, he was a jerk most of the time, but he didn't want him to get shot or anything like that. The sound had been loud, too, like fireworks but worse. He would never get used to that sound. Shimazaki even said that you never get used to that sound, it would never stop being loud and scary and stuff, so it was ok that Sho got a little bit scared. If the coolest guy in the world got scared of loud sounds sometimes then it was ok…not that Sho was scared or anything. He wasn't.
He was fine. He was playing with big sis and he was fine.
"Do we have to jump through all of them?" asked Mob. Her feet were starting to hurt a little. Maybe it was because she was in sandals and he was in gym shoes. She didn't know how he could wear gym shoes in the summertime, his feet must have felt like they were on fire, but then again he sort of had to. He had to cover up because of all of his scars.
She wished that Fukuda could have fixed them.
She had asked him about it, fixing Sho's scars, and he had said that he couldn't fix scar tissue. Not without taking off all the skin on Sho's arm and then re-growing it from scratch. Mob would never put her little brother through something so terrible so she said that doing that was not at all an option. Fukuda had said ok. Well he had said 'Understood, Miss Suzuki' which was kind of….she didn't like it when he called her Miss Suzuki. He used to call her by her given name but…but that was just part of being older, she supposed. You became a 'Miss'.
Sho still got called by his given name.
Minegishi said that things were different like that between boys and girls. People expected more from girls and treated them like they were older than they were. It sucked, and Mob agreed, though she was older than Sho…but it still didn't feel nice. Fukuda treated her like he treated dad. She didn't want to be treated like dad. She wanted to be treated like herself. She wasn't' dad. Even when she had been filling in for him she hadn't actually BEEN him. She didn't want to be. Being dad involved a lot of being mean to people and bossing them around. She didn't want that at all.
She didn't want to be older than she was.
She wanted to be ten. Well sometimes she wished that she was older. She wished, sometimes, that she was old enough that dad didn't always tell her what to do. She wished that she was old enough to decide things for herself like what she would be when she grew up and if she could like someone and who that person would be and stuff. She didn't get to decide what she would be when she grew up and dad was going to beat up everyone who he thought that she liked and also she couldn't even decide where she would live or even visit. Dad had been talking about another away mission that Sho could go on but she couldn't go with because dad wanted her to be at his side all the time…for the rest of her life…
At least she got to decide what she and Sho played…sort of.
"Yes. Otherwise we won't win the game." Said Sho
"How do we know who's the winner?" asked Mob. If he was the one who decided which part of the floor was lava and which part wasn't then wouldn't that make him the winner by default? Not that she had a problem with him winning or anything. No, she wanted him to win and to have fun and stuff like that. She wanted her little brother to win at everything.
"Whoever makes it to the end without stepping in the lava is the winner." Said Sho. Actually the winner was whoever didn't get knocked down but he was not about to knock his big sister down. That wasn't a good way to play and he had to play nice with her. Like when they had been little…well he hadn't been nice to her when they were little, either, but…but he could be better now. He could be better now and he would be better now.
"Ok, Sho, that makes sense." Said Mob
"Good. Now come on, let's jump to the cafeteria. It's big cookie day." Said Sho. All of this jumping was making him hungry. That was why he wanted to go to the cafeteria. Not because it was twelve fifteen and that was when Shimazaki usually took his lunch break and he liked to eat in the cafeteria because then he could mess with people and also he liked cookie day because the cookies were the best in the world.
Not an exaggeration.
Sho didn't know who had thought up this recipe but he knew that, in a lifetime of eating cookies, the ones in the cafeteria were the best in the world. He had no idea how dad had come into such a good cookie recipe since he hated desserts and mostly lived on eggs, ketchup, and bread. He wasn't going to question it, though, because then he might end up jinxing it and he did not want to jinx the best cookies in the world.
He'd take two.
One for now and one for later. He had read big sis' memo, he knew that he couldn't have seconds until everyone had gotten their firsts, but that rule was for the Awakened who got in line five or six times just for the cookies. Sho was not going to do something like that, he had better things to do than wait in long lines all day, but he would get two. In case he got hungry later. Jumping around burnt a lot of energy and he needed to keep his strength up or he could pass out or something. It had never happened to him before but there was a first time for everything. Yeah, he would just hold on to the second cookie until he either got hungry or made it back to dad's office.
He could share it too, maybe, possibly….but he was not planning on taking a second cookie for the express purposes of sharing.
"I'm not that hungry…but ok." Said Mob. She usually ate around one forty five, that was when dad had his lunch and usually ate with him, but she would eat with Sho too if he got hungry. She'd eat again at one forty five, though, to make dad happy. He said that one of the best parts of his day was sharing a meal with her. So she had to eat again to make him happy.
But she had to be done by two twenty.
She had times it perfectly. If they were done by two twenty that gave her enough time to take their plates and stuff back down to the lunchroom, she knew that they had Awakened for that but she also knew that exercise was good for her and stuff so she told dad that she needed the exercise which was not a lie at all, and then she would walk down to the lunchroom and she would see…she couldn't even think of him without her hair trying to float away.
Which made no sense at all.
Because she didn't even know him. Not really. She knew what department he worked in and how he liked sweaters and what his powers were and stuff but she didn't KNOW him. She didn't know what his favorite color was or his favorite type of milk or breed of cat or Disney Movie or non-Disney movie or….anything really. She just sort of liked him…even though she knew that it made no sense. She had liked boys before but there had always been something that made her like that. Like how back when she had been seven she liked that boy from her class because he had been nice to her or how she liked that other boy when she had been nine because he had kissed her….she just sort of….liked Hatori….
Just from seeing him for the first time.
There were two felings there when she thought of him. There was the doki doki sort of feeling that was in her heart, she knew what that one meant, but also there was the sort of fizzy feeling that was in her stomach. The fizzy feeling was very new and very weird…but also kind of nice…and she didn't get it. She couldn't ask, though, because it felt like the sort of thing that she should keep private. Well she would have told mom because mom was a girl…but she didn't have a mom and she didn't know any other girls…any other people who she knew for sure were girls. Minegishi was nice and smart and always helped her when she had a problem but they also might have been a boy and she did not want to talk to a boy about this stuff.
So she kept it to herself.
She kept it to herself as she and Sho hopped down the hallways towards the cafeteria. Some people stared at them, some people said 'hi', and some decided to hop along with them. The Awakened were the ones who did that. They waited until she and Sho passed by and then they started following too. It was nice to have someone to play with but…well…she liked everyone. She liked everyone because she was a good person and good people liked everyone but…but she didn't much like spending time around the Awakened. They acted like little kids and she did not need another kid to take care of. She already had Sho to take care of and he was enough for her.
"Why are we doing this?" she heard one Awakened whisper to another.
"I don't know but everyone else was doing this so just shut up and follow." Said another Awakened. By the time she and Sho got to the stairs there was a line of about twelve people following them. All Awakened and all the lowest uniform level. The last batch, the one that dad had sent Fukuda off to see what had made them so…weird, and the ones who Mob felt the least comfortable around. Not that she didn't like them, she liked everyone, but she just…didn't much feel like spending any more time with them than she had to.
"Can you guy get lost or something? We're trying to play here." Said Sho. He didn't like these guys at all. He knew that he sounded like a jerk there but he did not want to have to deal with these guys. They were like little kids but worse. They were so annoying, truly annoying, and when he got annoyed he got mad and he could not afford to get mad because then he might have gotten mad at big sis and he had already decided that he was never going to get mad at her ever again.
Because he was done being a jerk to her.
So maybe it was ok to be a jerk to these guys. They were kind of jerks already. Big sis was always telling them to stop fighting and stop taking too many desserts and eat all the food groups and also to keep their clothes on…which was a weird thing to have to tell someone in Sho's opinion…and he knew that he should have been happy that she was bossing people around who weren't him but the whole thing was sort of…weird. Because they were adults and stuff.
Also nobody got bossed around by his big sister but him. That was just not how it worked.
"Sho, we should be nice to them." Said Mob. She knew that when someone wanted to play with you the polite thing to do was to let them join in even if you didn't want them to. When she had been little, and had still been allowed to play with the other kids, it had always hurt her feelings when they had told her to get lost and that they didn't want to play with someone as weird as her. She didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings…but she also really didn't want to play with them….but also she had to be nice. Like mom would have wanted. She was supposed to be sweet and stuff like mom had said.
"Why? I don't want them to play with us. Besides, they all have jobs to do and when they don't do their jobs dad gets mad and I am sick and tired of dad being mad. Also they're so annoying to be around." Said Sho
"Um…that's right…the part about my dad getting mad at you guys…" said Mob. They were all looking at her now. They were staring at her with their eyes and their auras, which was all the same aura, and she hated how they all had the same aura because it was like they were all clones or something and it was so creepy, and she knew that she had to tell them to go away…because they all had jobs to do…and she really didn't want to hurt their feelings…but also she had to keep people working. She was a part of Claw and they were a part of Claw and they all had to work together to make dad's dream come true.
"Yeah, of course it's true. That's why I said it." Said Sho. Honestly. How hard was it to tell people to get lost? Not very. Besides, it wasn't like they were going to hit them or anything like that. He was trying his best to be a nicer person but maybe big sis was just too nice. Girls were like that. Dad had even said that girls were just naturally nicer than boys….but then again dad was a jerk…
"Ok…um….all you need to get back to work because you all have jobs. When you're on your breaks you can play and stuff but right now…um…you know that you can't all go on break at the same time." Said Mob. She knew that she sounded mean, there, and that she should have been making more of an effort to include people but right now she just…wanted to play with Sho. She wanted to play with Sho and she wanted to get lunch, she wasn't hungry but Sho was, and she just…did not want a bunch of Awakened following her around.
Did that make her a bad person?
She didn't know. What she did know was that she had maybe been a little mean, one of the Awakened cried a little bit, but also she had been right. Everyone had jobs to do including them. Actually they did the most out of everyone. They were the ones who cooked the food and served the meals and did all the cleaning and stuff like that. Dad said that they weren't good for much else, which was sort of mean, but also Mob could sort of see that. Some of them were really bad at following directions and they could be easily distracted and also they fought all the time.
Like a bunch of little kids.
Mob had been sort of like that when she had been little. She wasn't little anymore, she was ten now, and Sho was nine. They acted like big kids. Well Minegishi said that Mob acted like a teenager sometimes but they were just trying to be nice to her. She was a kid and she acted like one…even if sometimes she didn't. Sometimes she had to act like an adult. Like when she had filled in for dad or like when she had to take care of Sho and baby Mukai and stuff. But she was a kid. Even if she didn't always feel like one she was a kid.
Like now. She was a kid and she was playing and that was a normal kid thing to do.
"Here, you can be in line first." Said Sho as they got to the cafeteria. She had been sad, he could tell by her aura, so he let her go first. Also when she went first people just go out of line and let her go right through. They didn't have to stand in line at all, which was nice, but also if she went first then she couldn't tell that he had taken two cookies. He didn't want to get into it with her about what was and was not fair. He knew that he should have waited until everyone had their firsts but lunch ran from noon to two thirty. That was a long time to wait for everyone to have their firsts.
He didn't have all day.
He had important stuff to do. Like he had a lot of squares to jump on and then he planned on visiting Fukuda in his office if dad didn't have anything for him to do and then after that if Shimazaki was free he was planning having him teleport them to the dog park and then they could pet dogs and also climb trees to visit the baby birds and stuff. Also if he still had the extra cookie he could give it to Shimazaki and then Shimazaki would tell him how cool he was that he had thought of him and then they could hang out even more and…and it would be a really fun time.
Yeah, this was looking like it was going to be a great day.
"Are you sure that you don't want to be first? I don't like to be first because when I'm first people get out of line on my account and then I feel bad for making their lunch breaks take longer. Also sometimes they try to carry my tray for me and try to give me extra food that I don't want or need…but when you're in front people are more likely to not notice me…or they do but they don't come near." Said Mob as she and Sho grabbed their trays and plates and cups and stuff. She could see that some people had already gotten out of line even though she never once asked any of them to.
"Just go first. You know how it goes, ladies first and stuff." Said Sho
"But it's also women and children first and you're younger than me so you should go first." Said Mob
"Yeah, it's women and children first. That means that girls have to go first." Said Sho
"But…um…it's not fair that I get to go first because I'm a girl. I think that's not fair at all. What does me being a girl have to do with my going first?" asked Mob
"Well what does me being younger than you have to do with my going first?" asked Sho
"You're little and you need more food than me. Like if we were stuck on a lifeboat I would give you more rations so that you would stay alive for longer." Said Mob
"But this isn't a lifeboat, it's the line for the cafeteria, and we're on land. Lifeboat rules are not land rules." Said Sho
"No but…um…if we were starving to death like…um…if there were zombies outside then I would let you go first…" said Mob
"But there's no zombies and even if there were we wouldn't hide in here. We're start killing them and stuff and then we would be the rulers of Tokyo because we killed all the zombies and then we would have all the food so we wouldn't have to ration it…and also we would be the last two people alive so it wouldn't even matter if I went first." Said Sho
"That's very sad, Sho, I don't want us to be the last two people alive. We'd get so lonely." Said Mob
"We would not. We'd have each other." Said Sho
"That's true…but what if we grew up and wanted to fall in love with people and get married. We can't get married because we're brother and sister. That would be wrong." Said Mob
"Then the human race would have to die out, I guess." Said Sho
"But I don't want the human race to die out." Said Mob
"Well then we'd have to look for survivors because I am not marrying my sister." Said Sho
"You're right, there probably would be a few survivors." Said Mob
"Yeah, and then when we found some we could open the cafeteria back up and then you could be first in line for lunch." Said Sho
"But I don't want-" said Mob. She would have said more about how in the new, post zombie world, they would just have two lines so then they could both go first since neither of them wanted the other to go second, she actually had a very well composed argument in her mind, but it all went out the window when she felt a familiar aura coming near. She felt it in her phone and in the walls and also in the screen on the wall that told people what was for lunch and reminded them that they had to be nice to one another and not have food fights and stuff…and then the screen changed to say…something not very nice.
He was there.
He rounded the corner with his phone in his hand and his earbuds in. He took out his earbuds and wrapped them around his neck. Then he reached over and picked up a tray. Mob could hear Sho talking, he was speaking, and she knew that he was speaking but she couldn't understand a word that he said. All knowledge of the Japanese language left her mind. She had forgotten everything but her name…and also breathing.
"Once the zombies would be gone we would have to rebuild society and in the new society….big sis? Shigeko? Hey? Are you listening to me?" asked Sho. She was staring at…some guy. Sho found no reason to stare at that guy. He wasn't cool at all. His hair was messy and his glasses were shaped like squares and his sweater had a puppy on it and also a lot of Cheeto dust. Sho kind of wanted to play connect the dots with the spots on his forehead though but that didn't mean that he was cool.
Sho stared at people sometimes but only when he thought that they were cool and he really, really wanted to be their friend.
"I-I…um…." Said Mob. Sho was talking to her and she knew that she had to talk back but words were sort of hard for her right now. Hatori was RIGHT THERE even though this was not his lunch time. Also he was there and he was doing something on his phone and she wanted to ask him what he was doing and if he liked phone games and if so which ones he liked and then she could learn which ones he liked and then she could practice and get good at them so then she would have something to talk about with him and then they would be friends and she really wanted to talk to him but she had nothing to talk to him about and his sweater had a puppy on it and now puppies were her favorite animal and-
"Oh. Hey Suzuki-sama. You in line?" asked Hatori
"You-you can go first." Said Mob. She was proud of herself for having made words. They were in the right order and all in Japanese. She could feel her hair trying to float away. She reached behind herself with one hand and kept her braids down. Sho was staring at her now.
"No, it's ok. You and your boyfriend can go first." Said Hatori
"H-He's my little brother, not my boyfriend. I don't have a boyfriend. I'm single. I've never had a boyfriend before. I'm not seeing anyone at all right now. I like your sweater it's very nice." Said Mob
"Gross! What's the matter with you? That's my sister!" said Sho. It was one thing to assume that he would willingly have a girlfriend but it was another thing to assume that his girlfriend was his sister! That was just…not right at all.
"Sorry, my mistake. I had no clue you two were related. You don't look a thing like each other. Like, I can see how he's Suzuki's son, the red hair and all, but you two don't look a thing alike. What, does one of you look like your mom and one of you look like your dad or something?" Said Hatori
"Sho looks like dad but I don't look like either of my parents." Said Mob. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? Did he like the way she looked? Did he still think that she looked like she was six or seven? She was wearing the Belle dress today and that one went off of her shoulders…but now she realized that he could probably see her undershirt…and maybe she should have worn the Aurora one again since he had already said that the Aurora dress was nice on her…
"Oh. So are you like adopted or something?" asked Hatori
"No, I came from my mom and dad. I got my powers from my dad. We're just half Japanese and I got all the Japanese but Sho got all the half." Said Mob. She wondered if she was talking too much….or maybe not enough….or maybe she should just take a vow of silence for the rest of her life so she doesn't have to worry about this stuff anymore. She doesn't now. All she knows is that she really, really, wants to talk to him but she also wants to run away and hide so she never has to talk to him again.
And also Sho was staring at her and she had no idea how to explain this to him.
"Heh. Genetics are weird. Anyway you gonna get in line or…" said Hatori
"Oh! Right, sorry, come on Sho! We need to have lunch now…which is why we're here…in the lunch line….right now. To get our lunches…right now." Said Mob. She couldn't stop talking. It was like her brain was giving orders without her telling it to. She felt like she had to say something or things would be awkward but in talking things would be even more awkward and…stuff.
Sho ended up having to drag her to the lunch line.
Mob let herself be dragged through the lunch line and to a table. She saw Sho take two cookies and she decided that she would remind him of the rules later. Her mind was too….messy…right now. She wanted to know why Hatori had been there outside of his usual lunch time. She also wanted to know if that was a new sweater since she hadn't seen it before. She also wanted to know how he got his hair so shiny. She also wanted to know what game he was playing on his phone. She also wanted to know why he ate his dessert first, then his meat, then his salad, and then finally his rice. She also wanted to know what his favorite color was and his favorite food and if he had a girlfriend and if he wanted and girlfriend and if-
"Why are you being so weird?" asked Sho. She was ignoring him again. He had been trying to talk to her about their plan for what they would do if there ever were zombies and she was just ignoring him to stare at that guy. Sho didn't get it. He was just a guy. Not even a cool one. if that had been a cool guy he could understand the staring but he wasn't cool. He didn't have a cool jacket or spiky hair or cool tattoos, probably, and he probably wasn't a lot of fun to hang out with either since he was sitting alone at lunch and playing on his phone and stuff.
Big sis could be so weird sometimes.
"I-I'm not being weird." Said Mob. She looked away from Hatori and stared shoveling rice in her mouth really fast. There. She was not being weird, she was eating, and that was not weird because it was lunch time and at lunch time you were supposed to eat. So she was being normal. The most normal.
"You keep on staring at that guy." Said Sho. He wondered if she was going to choke. Now he regretted not paying attention to those 'what to do if someone is choking' posters on the walls.
"What guy?" asked Mob with her mouth full even though she knew that it was rude to talk with your mouth full of food and stuff. She opened her milk and tried to wash down the rice…and almost spat it out. Yuck. She had been so distracted that she had accidentally picked up some soy milk….great.
"That guy in the glasses. You keep on staring at him and when he was talking to us you got all weird. Why?" asked Sho
"Um…no reason. I just…I just get sort of…like that…when he's near me. That's all." said Mob. She liked Hatori. She knew that she liked Hatori. She wanted to be his friend and his girlfriend and…and a lot of other stuff that she did not want to talk to her little brother about. If he had been a girl, her little sister, then she would have maybe talked about this…or not. Dad did not want her to like anyone and she didn't want to get anyone beaten up or anything like that.
"Oh. He's that Hatori guy you were talking about….I like him. You should be his friend and talk to him and hang out with him and stuff." Said Sho. Also she should hold his hand and kiss him and marry him and have babies with him and stuff like that. Sho liked him. He would have to beat Hatori up, of course, but he was glad that big sis had found a guy who she liked instead of Shimazaki.
Sho felt good about that. He felt very good about that.
"Yes, maybe I'll do that. I don't know. Come on, let's eat and then we can play some more or something. It's very good rice today. You should eat the rice. It's such good plain white rice." Said Mob as she ate more and more rice. Maybe if they ate then they could talk about something else, anything else, because she did not want to talk about this to her little brother. He was a boy, for one thing, and also dad might find out about how she felt and then beat up Hatori.
She didn't want that.
She wanted to…to eat her lunch. She wanted to eat lunch and then play and then just…not talk about this stuff. Sho thought up the best games. They should play those games, yes, and not talk about this anymore at all ever again forever.