There were a lot of unwanted pests out on the open air mezzanine.

And Minegishi was not just talking about the bugs.

They felt his aura long before they saw him. Mob had felt it to. Minegishi could tell by the way she perked up from her manga. From the smile she tried to force away. That guy…what did Mob see in that guy? Was that just her type? But why would a guy like that be anyone's type? They didn't know. The decided to keep on reading. He was heading right towards them, they could feel it, and they knew that unless they felt like upsetting Mob there was nothing that they could do about the annoyance heading their way.

"Is it ok if I ask Hatori to sit with us?" asked Mob. Minegishi shrugged. They had nothing against the guy, not really, he was just annoying. They weren't about to go and ruin this for Mob, though. She had enough going wrong on her life as it was.

That had better have been a normal vape pen in her pocket.

"It's fine as long as he doesn't bother me." Said Minegishi. They did not feel like being hit on by some nineteen year old kid and they did not feel like being hit on right in front of their ten year old best friend. Either that guy was too stupid to know that Mob had a massive crush on him or he just didn't care about crushing a little girl's hopes and dreams and ruining love and romance for her for the rest of her life.

"Ok. If he starts to bother you I'll send him away…but I don't think he will. He's so nice…" said Mob. Minegishi rolled their eyes. Yeah, Mob had it bad. Either she had it bad or Shimazaki had decided to give her the means to get high on her own….and if he valued his life he had better not have given her another one of those damn pens.

"Calm down, he's heading over. Don't look too eager." Said Minegishi

"Why shouldn't I look too eager?" asked Mob

"Because then he'll know how you feel and, honestly, I don't think that a relationship between a ten year old and a nineteen year old would work out." Said Minegishi. Mob, somehow, turned even redder than she had been before. Minegishi wondered if she was in danger of passing out. They had no idea how they were supposed to explain Mob's state to the healer without revealing the secrets which they had been entrusted with.

Minegishi was many things but they were not a gossip.

"I-I'm not going to confess to him. I'm not dumb, I know I should wait until I'm older." Said Mob. Minegishi was not going to say anything to that. Let Mob have her dreams. Everyone needed to have dreams. Even if hers involved….that guy. She needed something to look forward to for her adult years even if it was just being the girlfriend of Hatori Nozomu. It didn't take a fortune teller to know that her teen years and adult years, the ones in which her father was still alive for, wouldn't exactly be a glass of wine in the park.

"Well then I'd try and act natural before he starts to suspect." Said Minegishi. Though if he hadn't noticed by now then he must have been a moron. Mob could be very obvious with what she was feeling if she was feeling something strong enough…and also if she was drunk and/or stoned. The liquor came from her father's liquor cabinet, Minegishi figured, but what they could not figure out was how her control freak of a father hadn't noticed. The weed was coming from Shimazaki, at least that was Minegishi's best guess, though really it was not hard to find even in Japan if you had enough money and knew enough people who knew enough people.

And Shimazaki was people.

They were people too and they knew how to get much harder stuff than that but Mob didn't need the hard stuff. She didn't even need the soft stuff…well she sort of did. A power that big came with a bigger expense. Control did not come easy to Mob without some outside help. That was why it was…sort of ok…for her to do the things that she did. In moderation. In the moderation that Minegishi was trying their hardest to teach her. She was ten. If she was going this hard at ten then Minegishi shuddered to think about how hard she would be going at eleven and twelve and thirteen. What kind of adult trouble she would end up getting herself into.

That was not a small adult sitting across from them. That was a just a child. A child with many very heavy burdens but a child nonetheless.

"Oh…um….how's this?" asked Mob. She took a deep breath and calmed her aura and her face. Now she looked like something a bit closer to normal. Still a very flustered ten year old girl in love but that was her normal look.

"Perfect. Have fun, your dreamboat is almost here." Said Minegishi. Mob turned red at that and hid her face in her manga. She was attempting to act natural, it seemed, and of course in trying to act natural one never did look natural now did they? Mob certainly didn't. She clutched that manga compilation in her hands like she was holding the answers to human existence. She was red, very red, and honestly it was kind of cute.

Or at least it would have been if she had gotten into this state over someone her own age.

Minegishi sort of got it. They'd never had the patience for people their own age either. They had never really felt their age, more like a very short adult, and as a consequence of that they had never really been attracted to people their own age. They had all just seemed so…childish. So they couldn't fault Mob for the way that she probably felt. She didn't even know anyone her own age besides her little brother and her dad…well the less said about him the better. She was, in so many ways, like something of a tiny adult.

But in reality she was a ten year old girl with a massively adorable crush on the gangly teenage boy heading over towards them.

"Hi Hatori. Here, you can sit with us. There's room." Said Mob as she pulled another chair over with her powers. She didn't look up, she just kept her face buried in her manga. Minegishi didn't say a thing. They weren't going to chase away the guy that Mob liked. Let her have some happiness in her life and all of that. Even if the guy that she liked was this gangly, annoying, pimply faced dork.

"Well alright if I'm not imposing." Said Hatori as he sat down. Minegishi did not tell him that he was imposing. That he was imposing on their solitude. Well their solitude with Mob.

"You're not imposing at all. We want you here. Um…why are you here? You normally take a break and get a soda from the vending machine on the fourth floor by the boy's bathroom that's always out of order because someone keeps flooding it. This is the second floor mezzanine and the only soda machines here have healthy drinks like milk and water and tea. You mostly just drink soda and sometimes coffee but mostly soda. So why did you come all the way here? Not that I don't want you here, because I do, because um…you can be wherever you want to be." Said Mob with her face still buried in her manga. Minegishi did not laugh. They were not going to laugh at whatever that was. Apparently Mob had a bit of a stalker in her. Minegishi couldn't blame her. When they had been ten they had memorized this one man's delivery route because he had complimented their hair after they'd cut it for the first time….

Oh to be ten and in love and to lack any and all self-awareness.

"Just felt like doing something different, that's all." said Hatori. Minegishi rolled their eyes. He hadn't taken his eyes off of them since he had sat down. They were not going to be making eye contact with him. That would only serve to encourage him and they had no intention of encouraging him. They knew what he wanted from them, he was as transparent as Mob was, and they were not so hard up.

Also they would never do that to Mob.

So they just sat there and read. Well they pretended to read. It was a bit hard to read when some teenage moron was focusing his aura on them. Mob's aura was focused on him. To the outside observer this whole thing must have just been hilarious. Well it wasn't. It was painful for all involved.

"Um….what's that book? I mean it's manga, not a book, but um…what is it?" asked Mob. She was playing with her braids now, keeping them from floating away, and Minegishi wished that they could take a picture without being noticed. Then they could torture Mob, in about ten years, with memories of her awkward years.

"This? This the first volume of Evangelion. I just thought that I'd reread it. You know, revisit some old friends. Have you ever heard of it?" asked Hatori. Mob shook her head. Of course she hadn't. She was ten and her world was pastel and princesses. Minegishi knew that the question had been directed at the both of them but they pretended not to notice. Maybe this was the same rules as went for Shimazaki. Maybe if they ignored him then he would get bored and wander away.

"No…but it looks…interesting." Said Mob. That was not her cup of tea and Minegishi knew it. At some point they would have to teach her not to try and change herself for anyone. That wasn't the way to start a relationship. Not that Minegishi was any kind of expert. No, they hadn't even tried since….well it had been ages. They knew, however, that you should never compromise who you were. Especially for someone else's affections.

"It's pretty cool. You might like it. I mean if you like sci-fi then you'll like it. You still watching your way through the Galaxy Express?" asked Hatori

"Yes. Me and my dad area about halfway through. I think he might want to watch it again from the beginning…" said Mob. Minegishi knew her well enough to know how much she didn't want that. Well who would want to spend night after night sitting next to Suzuki watching his favorite show? At least she hadn't had any new bruises lately…and the less Minegishi thought about those the better. The ones on her arms were pretty much faded to nothing now. Minegishi tried not to think about the placement of those bruises, five finger marks on each side, because well…there was nothing that they could do about that anyway.

And Mob would have said something, anyway, if it was something that they should have been worried about.

"That's cool, how you and your dad are so close I mean. I never would have taken him for a Galaxy Express fan….or a fan of anything at all, actually." Said Hatori

"Dad likes things. He likes outer space and he likes documentaries about outer space…and other things…but mostly outer space. He likes space a lot." Said Mob

"So, what, he never became an astronaut so he decided to take over the world?" asked Hatori. Minegishi smiled a little. They couldn't help it. The thought of little Suzuki sitting in a refrigerator box space ship with one of those empty silver oatmeal can on his head dreaming of the stars…and then realizing that the Japanese government only sent ten people into space and maybe, just maybe, he needed some more realistic life goals.

Like world domination.

"No, he never wanted to be an astronaut. He said that for his whole life he wanted to rule the world because he's the most powerful esper who ever lived and that means that he has to rule the world. Dad said so." Said Mob. Minegishi shook their head. Hatori looked like he didn't know what to make of that. Well that made sense. He hadn't been orbiting Suzuki for years. You got used to his insanity eventually.

Hopefully Hatori wouldn't be joining them on their little never ending world tour.

"Right…that makes….sense." said Hatori

"It does. Dad said so." Said Mob. Minegishi wondered when she would wise up and spit the Kool-aide out. She actually believed all of that insanity her father fed her. Minegishi knew how Hatori felt, there, making that stupid face. Those were Suzuki Touichirou's deeply held beliefs. He hadn't started all of this for money or for power or for any other perfectly sane reason.

He honestly believed that he was the rightful ruler of the world.

Really once you got used to it, his insanity, it got pretty boring. Such a cliché. He wanted to rule the world because he was the strongest kid on the playground. They imagined that nobody had ever told him 'no' in his life. Who could have told him 'no'? He had been a kid at some point, as powerful as Mob, but without all of the things that made her 'Mob'. None of that niceness, that need to be accepted, that unwavering belief in the powers of love and friendship. He must have been a holy terror as a kid.

Because he certainly was one as an adult.

Minegishi hoped that Hatori didn't wind up joining them. The Ultimate Four or whatever else Ryou in his infinite stupidity had decided to call them. Mob would probably try and take him with them when they left Tokyo. If they ever left Tokyo. There were times that they moved every other month, or even week, and then times that they stayed put and got bored and lazy…and this was one of those times. They hoped that they moved along soon.

And without Hatori Nozomu.

"So, what are you reading?" asked Hatori changing the subject even though it must have been a much more interesting subject than whatever Shoujo hell that Mob had found herself in.

"This is about a bunch of kids and they're all friends in a club where they don't really do anything but hang out. What's your book about?" asked Mob

"Kids piloting giant mechs and fighting monsters." Said Hatori. Minegishi rolled their eyes so hard that it hurt. THAT was what he got out of Evangelion? Not that Minegishi was a fan or anything. They had dabbled, of course they had they were Japanese, but they weren't exactly a fan. But apparently he was. Well good for him.

"Existential dread, the nature of existence, the need for human connection and how terrifying it can be. You know, and other such topics that a ten year old is absolutely going to love." Said Minegishi

"That sounds very interesting actually. Dad might like that. We might not even have to watch Galaxy express from the beginning again." said Mob. Minegishi smiled again, just a little, because the thought of Suzuki getting into something like Evangelion…it's hilarious. Maybe at his heart he was nothing more than a big dork. Maybe he was trying to take over the world because he had just been a wildly unpopular dork in his youth

Maybe that was why Mob had a type.

Daddy issues. Mob had daddy issues like the sky was blue, water was wet, and Starbucks had constantly mediocre coffee. Yeah, her teen years were going to be a blast. Minegishi got the feeling that they were going to have to fight off a lot of nerds and dorks once Mob hit puberty. Yeah, those teen years were not going to be a fun time. When she stopped looking so much like a child and her crushes stopped being so cute. God. Their work would never be done with, would it? Maybe they should just savor this time now when Mob was ten and the subjects of her affections were too clueless to even realize that she had feelings for them and if they hadn't been they would, of course, not want anything to do with an actual child.

Minegishi thanked God that they still had a few more years where Mob would still be a kid. Visibly, at least. They knew firsthand how some men could be.

"So, what are you reading, Minegishi?" asked Hatori. Minegishi shrugged. Hopefully they had made themselves clear enough for Hatori but not clear enough for Mob. They did not want to be bothered. They wanted to read and let Mob dip her toes in the world of guys.

"A book." Said Minegishi simply.

"What's it about?" asked Hatori. Well, he was persistent…and not in the good way. Not in the Ryou way. At least he could tell when he really was unwanted. Truly annoying…and he could be truly annoying. But also he could just be…himself. He was annoying but sometimes he could be tolerable. Also he knew when to get lost.

"Things." Said Minegishi as they turned the page. Maybe he would take a hint…but he probably wouldn't. Teenage boys weren't exactly known for their mastery of tact and grace. No, he would be persistent, a persistent pest, like a mosquito buzzing in their ear over and over again.

"What kinds of things?" asked Hatori. Minegishi closed their book and tried to put as much annoyance into their face and their aura as they could. Was he really that dense? Was it really so hard to take a hint? Even Mob wouldn't be this clueless. They didn't want to tell this guy off considering Mob's feelings for him…but they might've had to…

"Minegishi doesn't want to be bothered right now. They said that if you bothered them then you'd have to go…and I don't want to kick you out….but I would like to know more about your book….if you'll tell me about it." Said Mob. Minegishi would have to get her some 'thank you' milk or something. She may have only saved Minegishi because they had some kind of bizarre infatuation with Hatori but they were still grateful.

There were a lot of annoyances out there, not just insects, but Mob was proving herself to be a good little friend and wingman.