Mob sometimes broke her promises.

She knew that she had promised Minegishi that she would stop smoking and start vaping instead but…but there were circumstances. Her vape pen didn't make her feel better like smoking did. Well smoking whatever this stuff was. She liked cigarettes, they gave her energy and made her feel better when she was stressed, but she liked whatever this was even better. This was the same stuff that Shimazaki said that his vape pens were made out of. She would have kept on sharing his vape pen but the battery died and it would need time to charge.

Shimazaki called these 'extenuating circumstances'.

So this was ok…sort of. She hadn't set out to break her promise, she was not a promise breaker, but she also didn't want to feel bad anymore. She had been feeling…well not bad but not good either. Dad hadn't been scary since the other night. He hadn't grabbed her and looked at her like he was mad at her since that night. They'd been pretty happy together, or at least dad had been happy. Every night before bed they watched a few episodes of the Galaxy Express together and then went to bed. Dad also told her nice things, mostly that he cared for her, and he never said them in a mean way. They just said goodnight and then dad told her that he cared for her and that she had to remember that.

Of course she did.

She still had the bruises from where he grabbed her and told her that he loved her. That wasn't new. Dad had left bruises on her before. He didn't usually grab her, he just shoved her and stuff, and sometimes that left bruises. Sho always had more bruises than she did but that was because dad punished him more. Dad hardly ever even said anything to Sho these days…because he loved her so much…and that was a good thing. She had dad's love and she knew that dad loved Sho a lot less but…but maybe he was better off. Too much of dad's love could be kind of scary.

Just a little bit.

He hadn't been scary lately and that was good. He hadn't been scary and he hadn't hurt her since that night and she was happy, she really was, but also…also she kind of felt not good. Like…sort of like when Sho held her under the water when they'd played the drowning game…but she wasn't in drowning or in water at all. She felt like that when she was near dad, though, like she was drowning in his aura…like she couldn't breathe. Maybe because she was always supposed to be at his side and stuff. But that was a good thing. It was a good thing that he loved her that much.

Dads were supposed to love their daughters.

And daughters were supposed to love their dads…and Mob did love her dad. She loved her dad so much and she wanted to be with him and she wanted to make him happy…but she also wanted to be happy too. That was why she had come here. She had wanted to spend time with Minegishi because they always made her happy but Minegishi was taking a bath so she was hanging out with Shimazaki.

He was nice to hang out with too.

"You call that inhaling? Your Ladyship, I'm truly disappointed in you." Said Shimazaki. He sighed and shook his head in disappointment. What had Toshi been teaching this kid? She was so lucky to have him….and he meant that in the least creepy way possible in case any telepaths were listening or something like that. Or worse, Toshi had suddenly figured out how to read minds. Toshi was going to kill him, he knew that as soon as they got out of the tub he was a dead man, but at least he would die doing what he loved.

Getting high and improving the life of his youngest friend and future boss.

"What? I did inhale. My throat hurts and my lungs hurt. I know how to smoke." Said Mob. She handed him back the cigarette. You inhaled and then you passed even though it was sort of like sharing germs. That was the social aspect of this. That was what made this different from regular smoking. Also this made her feel really nice, too, like all of the bad feelings that she had been carrying inside of herself had just floated away in a puff of smoke.

Heh.

Her feet felt so good against his bedspread. It was so soft. Not silk, though, she knew what real silk felt like. Dad had gotten her another pure silk kimono because he saw how she liked to dress like royalty, he said, and she should dress like Japanese royalty. Then he told her that she is, was, and always would be royalty and that she would be the princess of the world some day and also maybe the queen if Sho died before dad did…which made her sad because she didn't want Sho to die…but he wasn't going to die because he was with Fukuda and Fukuda would keep him alive…and also she didn't want to be the queen of the world or the princess of the world or anything like that.

She just wanted to smoke and also to wear her own clothes.

She wasn't wearing that kimono dad had gotten for her. She was in her pajamas, the nightgown without the sleeves and also it had a cat on the front and also it was kind of short but that was ok because it was so hot out and humid and even the air conditioners were having trouble dealing with it. This was the last gasp of summer, mom had called the time when it got super hot towards the end of summer the last gasp of summer, and that meant that fall was coming. She would be sad when fall came. Then she would have to wear socks again and she wouldn't feel how nice Shimazaki's bed felt against her skin.

Her skin felt good against her skin, too.

She just felt so…good! She felt good and her aura was being all calm and quiet and not even moving and she was moving, though, she was trying to feel everything at once because it all just felt so good! She wanted to stay her forever but she couldn't. She knew that she couldn't. She had to go home soon and be with dad because dad needed her to sleep next to him to keep the other side of the bed warm even though it was summer and he could just turn the air down if he was so cold and also she was the one who knew how the TV worked even though he could totally learn how it worked too…but that was ok.

She knew that she couldn't stay here forever.

"You've got to keep it in your lungs. Trust me, you'll feel a lot better." Said Shimazaki. She was lucky to have him there to teach her these things. Nobody had taught him and he had been smoking like an idiot when he had been her age. Wasted a lot of very good weed back then, too, and it had been a hell of a lot harder to get when he had been a kid…and not just because he hadn't had Toshi back then. He couldn't let her waste the shit that Toshi grew. Sure the pen was easier and more convenient but this was grown with love, not that they'd ever admit it, by Toshi themselves. They were the greatest weed grower, friend, and all around person that Shimazaki had ever known.

They were also going to kill him.

But what a way to die! He had never seen himself making it to thirty anyway. He had assumed that someone would have killed him by now or that he would have died doing something awesome. Well he was alive, he was pushing thirty, and he was getting high with the second most powerful being in the world while the first most powerful being in the world was none the wiser. The fact that Suzuki would have killed, or at least terribly mangled, him made this whole thing even more fun. Surreptitiously smoking with this kid.

They had fun together.

Fun where he kept his distance, of course, because she was freaked out enough already. He could tell that she had finger shaped bruises right there on her shoulders/upper arms. He could see them if he focused enough. The blood was there pooled just under her skin. Suzuki was such a piece of shit sometimes but then again all dads were. He knew that his certainly had been and the less said about Toshi's the better. Yeah, he was never having kids. Well he liked them and the idea of a fun little person to always hang out with did appeal to him but then he would have to take care of it as a baby and he'd have to be with the same woman for the rest of time and also the vomit…he did not want to deal with the baby vomit.

So maybe it was best that he stuck with borrowing other people's kids for now.

Toshi didn't want any kids anyway. They had made that perfectly clear from the beginning. They did not ever want to reproduce. They knew that they would just end up ruining the kid's life. Shimazaki didn't agree but it was not a subject that he was going to press. He would have been a shit father anyway. His father had been a shit father and his father's father had been a shit father and it was just shit fathers all the way down his family line. He wondered if Suzuki's kids would end up being shit parents. Their dad was a shitty father and all but they were some pretty cool kids.

Especially her. She was a pretty cool kid.

"But I feel pretty good already." Said Mob as she was passed back their cigarette. The room was all hazy and smoky and stuff. She made the smoke dance with her powers even though she was the only one who could feel it.

"That sounds pretty good. What are you doing?" asked Shimazaki. He spun in his chair as her aura reverberated in his skull. That was nice. That was so nice. How did she DO that? God, that was so nice. It felt nice. It sounded nice. God, she was so nice. How she come from an asshole like Suzuki? They needed to preserve that man's genes, just fill a couple milk jugs or something , because he had some world class sperm right there if they were making such great kids. Just save it and preserve it and then sell it in the grocery store so the world could be populated by that bastard's bastards and then he'd have a whole army of kids to get stoned with.

Or something.

"Making the smoke dance." Said Mob. She took it and made shapes. Cubes and spheres and whatever the shape that cans were was called…cylinders! She made cylinders too and diamonds and the thing with six hides….hexagons! Yeah, those things. She could do that. She could do a lot of things with her powers. They were listening to well today. Maybe because had calmed down. Maybe because she had calmed down. She was so calm and happy and she just felt so….good! She felt so good and she wanted to keep on feeling good and she could feel good because the cigarette was being passed back and forth and this was just so good!

"How's it look? Explain it to me." Said Shimazaki. He saw her face cringe and her aura cringe. She was so much more expressive like this. God, her aura was so loud but…nice. Sort of like a soft rock show vs metal. Not that he didn't like metal, he just hated going to metal shows since it was just too damn loud…and he was not going to stop standing right in front of the speakers if there were any telepaths listening.

"Don't say explain. My dad says explain. He always says 'Daughter. Explain' and it's just…please don't say explain." Said Mob

"But I need you to explain because I can't see." Laughed Shimazaki. He was laughing at that approximation of Suzuki's voice that she did and the fact that he was spinning in his chair and the fact that he could feel Toshi and they were getting dressed….God, Toshi had it going on…..Toshi was so going to kill him…but what a way to go.

"Ok….um shapes. I'm making shapes. 3D shapes. Like balls and cubes and stuff….how come you can sense some things but not other? If that's ok to ask. I never know what is and is not ok to ask. Like sometimes I ask dad stuff and he tells me not to pry but then he asks me a bunch of personal questions and that's ok…for some reason…and also sometimes I ask Fukuda stuff like how his day was and he just says 'fine, Miss Suzuki' and then he just keeps on walking and it makes me feel bad but I know that he still likes me because he said so and-" said Mob

"Don't let that guy piss you off. He's an asshole and a hypocrite and also a tattoo ruining…guy. Yeah, a tattoo ruining guy. Did you see what he did to me? He practically deformed me!" said Shimazaki. Well truth be told he had no idea what any of the ink on his skin looked like, there were limits to what his powers showed him, but he did know that he'd had a very long date with the needle to get it all fixed up.

"Um….you look…nice." Said Mob. She did what he asked and she looked at him. She thought that he had too many tattoos to be honest. They were all together and it was hard to tell where one picture ended and the other began. He still looked nice, though, kind of….nice? Nice. She was going to settle on nice. She was going to settle on nice and then she was going to stop looking at him because it was impolite to stare.

"Well yeah, I look nice now, but I have it on good authority that he messed up pretty much everything." Said Shimazaki

"Why does it matter though? I mean since you can't see it even though it's a part of you….and I'm still not sure how that works." Said Mob

"It matters because other people can see it. They're a part of my skin so I can't separate it out from me to see it properly but that doesn't matter. Other people can see and that's what matters. I can't see things that are too…I guess light would be the work. I can't see steam or smoke or fog or clouds and I can't see ink on paper or on my own skin. But, hey, I can see in all directions and it's super hard to sneak up on me. Like now. Toshi's got a plant with them and they're coming to kill me right now." Said Shimazaki

"What do you mean? Minegishi…they would never hurt you. You're their friend and also they like you enough to kiss you and…and stuff." Said Mob. She laughed when she said 'stuff' even though that had not been very funny, what had happened, at all. She ducked her face down and pulled her nightshirt up over her face even though he couldn't see her and also it was warm in there with how she was breathing. The world looked weird, the view through her shirt, she could see the light and the outline of Shimazaki spinning back and forth in his chair and also Minegishi's aura getting closer…and then the door opened.

"You have ten seconds to explain yourself, Ryou, ten seconds." Said Minegishi. They had a spider plant and they were not afraid to use it. In fact they wanted to use it. He had JUST gotten his ass kicked for being creepy with Mob and now he was there in his room getting stoned with her. Minegishi could feel a migraine coming on thanks to the both of them.

Mostly Shimazaki, though, since Mob had a complete and total inability to say 'no' at the best of times….and judging by those bruises these were not the best of times at all.

"Suzuki's being an asshole, well more than normal, and she came here looking for you. Since I know how much you hate it when I intrude upon your tub time me and her got to hanging out." Said Shimazaki. Honestly. They were just smoking a little bit of weed, the same shit that Minegishi had grown, it wasn't like he had taught her how to smoke meth or something. He wanted to show her a good time, not ruin her mouth.

"We were going to vape but then his pen died and mine only tastes like bubblegum, it doesn't make me feel as good, so that's why I'm smoking even though I promised you that I would stop. There were extending circumstance." Said Mob

"Extenuating." Said Shimazaki

"Right. Extenuating circumstances." Said Mob. She looked up at Minegishi. She tried to read their aura. They went from mad to tired….well it looked like tired….and then they sighed and put their plant down on Shimazaki's desk. Mob hoped that they put a brail label on it later. Shimazaki liked to label where things went because it helped him stay organized. It was important to be organized because he hated losing things, well everyone did, but he said that he especially hated it because it was extra hard for him to find stuff when it got lost.

"…fine." Said Minegishi. Those were deep bruises. Mob was pale as all else but those were still deep bruises. Finger shapes bruises. Not her brother. They were spread too far apart. Minegishi knew that if they put their hand up to them they would spread too far apart for even their fingers.

Goddamned Suzuki.

They sat down next to Mob. She needed this. If she was this stoned, and she had five finger shaped bruises on each arm, then these were truly extenuating circumstances. Minegishi hated this, the way they felt, so powerless. They hadn't felt like this since they had been about Mob's age. Before their powers fully came in and they could be strong enough to make sure that nobody even got close enough to hurt them. Mob…Mob was already that strong…but Suzuki was stronger. He was strong enough to do that to her, to leave bruises so deep, and he was strong enough to hurt Minegishi too and anyone else who had a problem with the shit he pulled…

It took a really big man to hurt a ten year old girl, didn't it?

"Yay! Toshi's here! Now smoke this." said Shimazaki. That was surprisingly quick. Good, they were finally coming around. Really his way was the best way. Toshi had this crazy idea that doing this was going to ruin Mob's life. Well her life already sucked dick for a living in a public bathroom for counterfeit hundred yen coins. Much like his only she wasn't going to do anything about it, it seemed, and she was certainly strong enough. She and Suzuki were at about the same power level but she could always fall back on her superior agility. Suzuki was old, he was in his forties, and Shimazaki could tell that he was starting to feel his age.

He hoped that he didn't live long enough to have to deal with back pain.

"Come to our level…it feels nice. Soft. Soft and warm and…and nice." Said Mob. She let her skin rub against the bedspread under her. So soft. It was so soft. She let herself fall to the side until she was laying down on it. It smelled so nice. Sort of like Shimazaki but also like fabric softener. He smelled nice, actually, when she thought about it. She liked his cologne. She liked cologne in general. Hatori smelled nicer. Not that Mob got close enough to smell him that often. He had been showing her his game the other day and she had been close enough to see his screen…and also smell him…and he smelled so nice…and stuff…

She hid her face in her nightshirt again.

"I think that you might need to come back down to my level." Said Minegishi as they passed it back to Shimazaki. There was hardly anything left for them to even use to get on Mob's level…and she should not have been on that level at all. She was way too stoned. Well if they had been normal people she shouldn't have been stoned at all but they were not normal people, as Fukuda was fond of muttering under his breath they were a bunch of degenerates, so this was…not un-ok. Mob had a hard life. She had a life with privilege that Minegishi would never even have dreamt of at her age but she also had a father who grabbed her, it looked like, hard enough to leave bruises….plus just his general weirdness.

Goddamned Suzuki.

If Minegishi didn't have their sense of self-preservation fully intact they would have done what they did best to Suzuki. But they knew that they had no hope of beating him. Nobody did. The man may have been certifiable but he was correct when he said that he was the most powerful man on Earth. Mob would get him one day. He was getting older and she was getting older and one day she was going so snap and probably maim if not kill him. So at least Minegishi had that to look forward to.

"But I like it here. It's soft and it smells nice. You should smell this. It's like fabric softener and Shimazaki. He smells nice. You smell nice too. Because you took a bath. That's why you smell good. I smell good too because I also took a bath today. My brother doesn't smell good though because he only pretended to take a bath. I could tell because his hair wasn't wet when he came out of the bathroom. It's important to take baths." Said Mob as she rolled over onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. There were cracks up there. She didn't know why. She moved her feet so she didn't accidentally kick Minegishi. That would not have been a nice thing to do to her friend at all.

"Yeah, don't I smell nice, Toshi?" asked Shimazaki as he passed Mob their rapidly dwindling joint. No matter, he could always roll another one. He could teach her how to, too, because it was a good life skill to have. Yeah, he didn't know what Toshi was always going on about. He was a responsible adult. That was what responsible adults did, they passed life skills down to the next generation.

"You need another cologne bath." Said Minegishi as they snatched it away before Mob could get it. Nope. She was too far gone. She may have had her own demons to run from but there was no need to get her this messed up. Especially because she had to go home eventually. Apparently Suzuki needed to have his daughter sleeping next to him every single night now. Weird, weird for Suzuki and weird for normal people too, but there was nothing that Minegishi could do about that. Besides, the worst Mob said about that whole arrangement was that Galaxy Express 999 was long and boring and even though they were on a space train the show never went anywhere. Yeah, the boredom was probably the worst of it.

Minegishi eyed Mob's bruises.

Mob would have said something if…Mob never said anything. She just waited until things got too big for her to deal with on her own and then she went and did…this. Well who's fault was that? Minegishi knew that this was why they could never be a parent. They had messed Mob up for life without even trying. They shuddered to think of what they would end up doing to their own offspring. No, the world did not need any more messed up people in it. There were already the three of them, what did they need to add to the mess for?

"That sounds expensive, bathing in cologne, and also Minegishi doesn't like to be called Toshi but you keep on calling them Toshi even though you know that they don't like that at all. Also it's my turn." said Mob as she sat back up. She reached for the cigarette that Shimazaki was handing her but Minegishi took it before Mob could get to it. They had messed up the rotation. Shimazaki had said, he had been very clear, that you were never supposed to mess up the rotation. It wasn't nice.

But that was ok.

Because Minegishi needed to get on their level. They felt good and they wanted their best friend to feel good too. They wanted their friend to feel good, to feel as good as she did, and the only way to feel this good was to get on her level. That was a saying that Shimazaki taught her. He was so smart like that. Sure he could be annoying and weird and stuff but he also taught her stuff and was nice to her and stuff. Also he smelled nice. That was important. All of her friends smelled nice. Everyone in the world smelled nice. The whole world smelled nice.

She loved the world.

She loved the world and everything in it. She loved the way it smelled during the summer when she and Sho played outside and she loved how the sky was big and blue and pretty and she loved how the world had cats in it and she loved cats so much! She wished that dad would let her and Sho get a cat, well Sho wanted a hamster but she wanted a cat, but dad didn't want any pets. She wondered if dad would let her get a pet when she grew up. Dad said that he would always be there with her but when she grew up she would be able to do more for herself…right?

When she grew up she was doing this every single day and night and afternoon and evening and whatever other times of the day there were.

"You've had enough turns. Don't you have to go home tonight?" asked Minegishi

"You're right. You need turns more than I need them. I want you to be happy. You're my very best friend." Said Mob. She knew that she and Minegishi were not the kinds of friends who hugged, Minegishi had made that very clear when they had first become friends, she still really wanted to hug Minegishi. They smelled like soap. Flowery soap. They smelled like flowery soap and Mob liked it. They smelled good. Everything and everyone in the whole world smelled so good!

"Hey, what am I then?" asked Shimazaki

"You're also my friend. You're both my friends. I haven't had a lot of friends before and I am so happy to have you guys for my friends. I'm just so happy. I was sad before but I'm happy. Are you guys happy? I'm happy." Said Mob. She started laughing, too, even though she had no idea what was so funny. She wished that she knew what was so funny because then she could explain it to everyone and then they could laugh as much as she was laughing. She wanted her friends to be as happy as she was. She wanted everyone to be as happy as she was. She wanted dad to be as happy as she was, too, because then maybe if he was a happier person he would have been a nicer person, too.

He could be so mean sometimes.

And scary. Him being mean was normal and also scary but him being mean and nice at the same time was just…not a normal kind of scary. She wasn't worried about him being mean and nice at the same time again, though, because she was just having trouble being worried about anything. She was so happy and the world felt so good and smelled so good and everything was just so good…well she was hungry and thirsty but aside from that everything smelled and felt good…but she was kind of hungry.

"Mob, I don't think that there is anyone in the world as happy as you are." Said Minegishi. She wasn't drunk. At least she wasn't drunk. That was…good. She wasn't drunk. You had to take the small mercies where you could get them. She wasn't drunk and she wasn't going to end up with psoriasis or anything like that. So that was…ok. This was ok. Everything about this was ok.

Really, it was.

"But I want you guys to be as happy as me! You're my friends and I want you to be as happy as I am right now. Why can't you be as happy as I am? I wish that I could make you as happy as I am. I wish that I could make all of my friends, so pretty much just you guys and Shibata but not Sho even though I love him but he's too little, to be as happy as I am. I like to help out my friends. I wish that I could help everyone be happy and-" said Mob. She would have kept on going on and on because nobody got it and nobody ever got it when she talked. She was bad at talking so maybe if she talked enough then she would be understood and stuff. She would have kept on going but maybe then she had been talking too much. She also did that sometimes. It was hard to find the happy medium.

"I get by with a little help my friend…get high with a little help from my…gonna try with a little help from my friends…" said Shimazaki

"You know owe the surviving Beatles a lot of money. Hope it was worth it." Said Minegishi as they handed him what was left of their joint. If he started to roll another one they could not be held responsible for their actions. Nope. He was pretty messed up and Mob…there was no mistaking her for sober.

"Always is. Anyway I'm going to roll us another one. Any requests? I've ot Toshi's blend and-" said Shimazaki

"No you're not. She's stoned, Ryou, and she needs to go home tonight. Suzuki already hates you. Why would you give him another reason to kick your ass? Hell, you know he doesn't even need a reason, right?" asked Minegishi

"My dad wouldn't beat you up. He doesn't think that I like you anymore…at least he hasn't said anything in a while." Said Mob. She hoped that dad never brought up his crazy ideas about her liking Shimazaki every again. He was a nice enough person and he was also very tall but she just did not feel that way about him. She felt sort of weird when she was around him but not all doki doki. So that was not love and she didn't think that she ever could love him. He was her friend and that was all. Also Minegishi kissed him and all of that other stuff that adults did together so of course Mob could never like him like that because then things would just be awkward and stuff.

"How about we don't test that theory out. Come on, Mob, you've got to give it a rest. Trust me, you've had more than enough." Said Minegishi

"Ok…but only because you're my friend." Said Mob. She would have kept on going, Shimazaki said that there was no such thing as too much and she believed him. How could you feel TOO nice? She didn't get it. She would listen to Minegishi, though, because she had already broken her promise to stop smoking. She had might as well make it up to Minegishi by listening to them.

Even though she was so happy right now.

She hoped that it never faded but it would. It would face and she would have to go back to dad and stuff. Dad…he had been ok lately. Not scary. Not since that night. But he could be scary at any time….but that was ok. Well it wasn't but Mob felt ok about that. She felt ok about everything. She wished that she could feel like this all the time….

But she couldn't.