Mob had a new dress.

She liked this dress a lot. It was blue and sparkly and also was fun to spin in. She liked this dress a lot. She had picked it out herself. Usually she just told the Awakened what she wanted and then brought her what she wanted…or something close to what she wanted at least. They sometimes came back with stuff that was nowhere near what she wanted…but she always thanked them and accepted what she got. She would have done that, again, but this was for a party and she had never been to a party before so she wanted to wear something nice.

She had never been to a party before.

The party wasn't until later but she made sure to get the clothes and stuff for it now before she forgot or got too busy or something like that. Also Minegishi had wanted to go and then she had gone with. They needed their own nice clothes and also nice ones for Shimazaki because he didn't know what colors were and that made it hard for him to buy his own clothes. Their shopping trip had been nice. Minegishi had been worried about having to wear a dress but then they decided to wear pants. They were comfortable in pants for some reason. Mob didn't get it.

What could be more comfortable than a dress?

She spun around as best as she could. She didn't have a full length mirror so she was using the one in the bathroom. She could see most of herself if she stepped all the way back until her back was practically against the wall. Not a lot of room for spinning around. She liked to spin around sometimes, if she was wearing the right dress for it, and this was the right dress for it. It had layers underneath the skirt part that made it stand up. It was itchy, though, very itchy. She would have to wear tights with this even though tights were almost as bad as pants. She didn't have a choice, though, because this dress was itchy and also it was sort of shorter than the ones she usually wore and when she spun her underwear showed.

And she could not have that.

She had never been to a party before and she didn't want to embarrass herself at her first party by accidentally showing everyone her underwear. Minegishi worried about that a lot, too, that was why they didn't wear dresses they said. They had said that they needed to wear something long and with sleeves and a back so they didn't end up accidentally flashing everyone, which meant showing them parts of you that only you were allowed to see, and Mob understood that. Though pants seemed very impractical as they could fall down. Still, though, if they wanted to wear pants then Mob was not going to stop them and if someone else tried to stop them…well Mob was not going to let that happen either.

Mob took good care of people.

She took care of her brother and she took care of her friends. She was not going to sit there and let someone make Minegishi feel bad for wearing pants. They felt like they had to wear a dress for some reason, they may have been a girl but that was none of Mob's business anyway, and even if they had been a girl then they could have worn pants anyway. Mob didn't understand all the rules about clothes. About who was allowed to wear what and when. She wore things that made her happy. So did Minegishi. Everyone should have just been allowed to wear things that made them happy. The world was a much better place when people were happy and nobody should have been so bossy as to tell someone what they could and could not wear…unless someone was wearing something showed off their private parts or their underwear or something. Then that would not have been ok at all.

Which was why Mob was going to put on some tights.

Mob crossed the hallway from the bathroom to the bedroom as quietly as she could. She didn't want to wake Sho up. He needed a lot more sleep than she did because he was so young. He was ten, the same age as her, but that was just because their birthdays were so close together. Mom had said that she and Sho had close birthdays because she just hadn't been able to wait to have a boy baby so the family could be complete. That was why she put her mind to it and had Sho so soon. That way that family would have equal numbers of boys and girls and also Mob could have a little brother to play with. At the time she would have preferred a sister but now…well she was happy with her little brother.

Especially when he was being nice to her.

Aside from the big fight that they'd had he had been really nice lately. He had been reading the book that Minegishi had gotten him. That was good. It was nice of Minegishi to think of him like that. Mob should have thought of getting him a book like that but she hadn't known that they even made books like that and also she knew that Sho didn't like to read. He was reading the book, though, he had even started reading it in bed after she had tucked him in. She saw the book on his lap as she opened the door. She marked the page, closed it, and put it on their dresser with her powers as she entered the room. She left the door opened a crack so she could let some light in. She needed to move quick before Sho woke up.

She was glad that she didn't own that many pairs of tights.

Finding the right tights had been easy. They were the only ones that sparkled. These were her blue, Frozen ones with sparkling snowflakes and Olafs on them. They went with this dress. That was good. This was what she would wear. She needed to look pretty. Hatori would be there and she knew that he didn't like her that way she liked him, he was nineteen and she was ten and Minegishi said that he probably wouldn't end up waiting for her to grow up and stuff, but she still wanted him to think that she was pretty. She had also heard that a lot of people, the business people who gave money to Claw and stuff, would be there too and they would bring their kids.

Mob didn't know how to feel about that.

On the one hand she would finally get to be around some kids her own age. On the other hand she would finally get to be around some kids her own age. She hadn't talked to someone her own age since she had been…she couldn't even remember. Back when they had lived in the Castle at least…and Sho didn't count because he was her brother and not someone who wasn't related to her. She had no idea how to talk to someone her own age who was not her brother. She was nervous and scared and…and she had to not be nervous and scared because she was the one who approved this and she was the one who wanted this party and…and stuff.

She would be fine.

And if not she could just hang out with her friends for the whole thing. Well for before the whole thing to. Shimazaki said that you always had to pregame before a party. Mob didn't know what he meant but she did know that he had he best ideas, well sometimes he had the best ideas, so she would do what he said. Minegishi said that Shimazaki was stupid sometimes but Mob…sometimes Minegishi could be a little less fun than Shimazaki. But that was ok because they were nice and a fun person most of the time and she was their best friend and they were hers. So it was ok if they were a little less fun, about some things, than Shimazaki was. That was ok.

She was going to be ok.

She closed the bedroom door and would have gone back to the bathroom…but dad was in there now. The door was closed and she could hear the water running and she could feel his aura. She knew that he was in there taking his nightly bath. He would be in there for a while…but she wanted to wear her dress and spin. She wanted to but she couldn't because the only other mirror was in his bedroom…and she wasn't allowed in there. Well she wasn't sure if she could or could not go in there. Dad had said that he loved her and he didn't hate her…so maybe it was ok.

She missed him a lot.

She didn't miss the part where he smothered her but she did miss the way he was just…nice to her. How nice it was when he was with her and watching Frozen and playing Minecraft and just…hanging out with her and stuff. She just wished that dad could just…not love her so much but not take all of his love away too. She wished that he would just love her like she loved him. Enough to enjoy being around him but not so much that she needed to be around him all the time….and also that he would think about Sho more and give some of his love to Sho. It had taken him a whole week to say 'happy birthday' after all. Sho said that he didn't care that much but Mob was sure that he did.

Birthdays were important.

Dad must have just been busy, that was all, because Claw was a very big place and he had a lot to do as the president. So dad must have had a good reason to forget and stuff. That was all. He loved Sho, he must have loved Sho, he must have just been bad at showing it or something. Sometimes dad had trouble with things like that. Like how he said that he loved Mob but he also stopped talking to her or looking at her or spending time with her or any of that stuff.

Mob didn't understand him sometimes.

But she knew that he would be in the bath for a while and she knew that he had the biggest mirror in the house so she was going to use his mirror…for a little bit. Or maybe until he came back…and maybe she wanted him to come back and she…she maybe wanted to spend time with him. She didn't like, before, how he was always trying to keep her near and stuff. How he had kept her from going anywhere or doing anything…and she didn't want to go back to that…but she didn't him to never talk to her or spend time with her again, either.

She just wanted dad to be…to be more…more like how she imagined other people's dads to be.

She didn't know any other kids but she did watch a lot of TV. She knew that parents were supposed to love their kids and also…also that other people's parents knew how to split their love between their kids like splitting a giant churro. She wished that dad could love her and Sho the same and that he could be nice to her and Sho…but wishing wasn't going to do anything. She had already tried wishing, tried folding a thousand paper cranes, and she knew that wishing wasn't the same as getting. She had been wishing for a lot of things for a lot of years and none of those wishes came true, ever, but that was ok.

It had to be ok.

She knew that she just had to make the most of what she had. She had a dad who loved her and a brother who she loved and friends and…and she had a new dress and he had a tall mirror to play in front of and…and it was nice. This was nice. Being in dad's room was nice. She didn't know why she had expected dad's room to be different. It wasn't. The bed was the same and his shirt was on the dresser like normal and his laptop was on his nightstand like normal and he had left his TV on, too, and he had been watching a documentary about outer space and that was normal too.

Dad wasn't in the room.

That wasn't normal. She could feel him. He was still taking his bath. She was still looking at herself in the mirror. She had stopped spinning and was just looking at herself. It hadn't been that long since she had been friends with dad but…but for some reason she expected something to be different. The room. Herself. But she looked the same. She looked like the same old Mob she had always been. Well of course she wouldn't have been different. She wasn't the one who'd had the birthday. Sho had been the one to have had the birthday and he was older…but he still looked the same as he always did.

Things had and had not changed.

She wondered what next year would be like. She knew that she should have been more excited for Christmas than New Year's because Christmas was closer and also she got presents. On New Year's she just got money and also stayed up late and stuff. Still, she was excited for the next year. This year had been very…very busy. Too much had happened and all she wanted to…to do was have a peaceful year next year. That was all. Just her and her friends and Sho being friends with her friends and dad being nice…as nice as he could be…nicer than he had been lately.

She felt his aura move.

She felt his aura move and she heard the bathroom door open and she had no idea what she was supposed to do. She wanted to hang out with dad, she always wanted to hang out with dad, but only when he was normal. Not when he was smothering her. Not when he was grabbing her so hard her arms had bruises and not when he was telling her that she had to be with him for the rest of her life and not when he kept her up all night playing Minecraft even though he knew that she was tired and also he was tired too…she just wished….

She had no idea what she wished for.

So she stayed put. She stayed there because she knew that dad knew that she was there and she knew that even if she went back to her room she would still have to cross paths with dad and…and she knew that she wanted to be with dad. Not if he was going to be all…weird…but she wanted to be with dad. She missed dad. She missed him so much…even if he had forgotten to tell Sho happy birthday for a week…well she was a little bit angry about that….but dad said happy birthday eventually and also Sho said that he didn't care so it was ok…so this was ok.

Being in dad's room and waiting for him was ok….right?

"Daughter. Explain." Said Dad. He said it in a way that made her think that she had done something wrong…but then again she always felt like she had done something wrong. That was just a part of being dad's Daughter. She had a lot of stuff that she was in charge of and a lot of stuff could go wrong. She had no idea what had gone wrong, though, or what she had done wrong to make dad not like her anymore and stuff. Well he didn't hate her but there were times, like now, when it felt like he didn't really like her.

"I got a new dress for the party and I wanted to look at myself and you were in the bathroom so I came to your room to use your mirror. I didn't know if it was ok or not, being in here, but if it's not ok then I can go." Said Mob. She sort of wanted to go. She could see dad's aura and she couldn't tell if he was mad at her or happy to see her or if he wanted her to leave or if he was going to grab her by the shoulders as hard as he could again. She couldn't tell anything…and she wanted to go…but he hadn't dismissed her.

And also she would have to walk past him to get to the door, too.

"You….you look nice. That dress suits you." Said Dad. She liked it when dad said nice things to her. She felt a little better. He had said that he hadn't hated her but also he had said, too, that she had to go away…and he had never told her to go away before…well he had…but not after he got all…clingy and smothery and stuff. She didn't know what was with dad sometimes but she did want them to be friends, or as much of friends as she and her dad could be, again…but she also didn't want him to be all weird again.

She didn't know what she wanted, actually.

Dad was still there and he was still looking at her and she was still looking at him. She wondered if he was going to say anything else nice to her or if he was going to tell her to get out or what. She hadn't spent this much time with him in so long…and she had expected him to be different…but he wasn't different. He was the same old dad. He still wore the same white short sleeved undershirts to sleep and his hair was still the same sort of red and his eyes were still blue and he still had freckles on his arms like Sho did and he still had an aura that was all red but with some yellow and he was still as hard to read as always. He was the same and she was the same but things were not the same.

Things were different.

And she had no idea if she wanted things to be the same or if she wanted them to be different. She wanted to still be able to be in her own room to sleep and also to spend time with her own friends but…but she wanted to be able to sleep next to him, too, and she also wanted to be able to spend time with him and watch TV with him and all of that…but not if he was going to be all smothery. Also she needed to fix what he had done to her side of their Minecraft world because her ice mountain was almost gone…and stuff…

She mostly just wanted her dad back, though.

"Dad…are you still mad at me? For whatever I did to make you stop wanting to be my friend and all." said Mob. She just wanted to know what was wrong so that she could fix it. She had done something wrong and whatever it was she obviously didn't know and she would never be able to fix it, to fix them, unless he just told her already. It wasn't hard. He told people what they did wrong all the time. It was one of his favorite things, she felt like, to tell people what they had done wrong. Sho especially. He was always telling Sho what he was doing wrong and what was wrong with him…he could remember all of that mean stuff but not Sho's birthday….she wished that he would just give her some of that meanness so there was less left over for Sho. Just like when they had been little and she'd had to spend time with dad and stuff so there was less of a chance that he would notice Sho and be mean to him or punish him or something. That was just what you did when you loved someone.

"We were never friends, Daughter." Said dad. Mob felt her heart explode. Her stomach hurt. She felt like she was going to cry. The mirror behind her broke. How could dad just…conceal, don't feel. Conceal, don't feel. She made her powers calm down. It help that she had hung out with Minegishi all afternoon and they had shared a little with her. Her powers listened better when she had help. They listened very well now. The only thing that broke was the mirror. Well that and whatever it was that had been inside of her.

"Now look what you've done. Honestly. What have I always told you? Power is nothing without control. Now I have to fix that. Move." Said dad. Mob stepped out of the way. She watched as dad went up to the mirror and the pieces went back into their spots where they belonged. Her eyes went over to the door. She could just leave. Fad had just told her that they were not friends, had never been friends, and that was the worst thing that you could say so someone…so she could just leave.

She could go back to her own room.

She could go back to her own room with her brother who cared about her and who she cared about. She could go next door, Minegishi's aura wasn't all tangled up in Shimazaki's, and she could spend time with her friends who she cared about and who cared about her. She could have even gone and put on her shoes and went out to look for mom….or something…but she didn't. She stayed right there and watched dad work.

Because she hadn't been dismissed yet.

"Can I be dismissed now?" asked Mob. She felt bad and she didn't want to feel wore. She wanted to go to her room and get the fun vape pen out from between her mattress and her box spring and calm down before bed. Or maybe she would visit Shimazaki, he always wanted to share and he stayed up pretty late and stuff, or maybe Minegishi because they were always happy to hang out with her and never made her feel like this. Like dad made her feel. All bad and stuff.

"As soon as you tell me why you lost control, Daughter." Said dad. Mob wondered why she had to tell him. He had said something mean and then she had lost control…she hadn't been with dad for this long in a while. She had forgotten, for a second, that his brain worked weird. He had no idea, sometimes, when he was being mean. He just couldn't tell. It was like he said words and he knew what they meant but he didn't know what they really meant…or something. She could be bad at talking too but she would never tell someone that they weren't her friend. Even when she hadn't liked Shimazaki that much, when he had just been that guy who annoyed her, she had never once told him that they were not friends. Dad just wasn't as nice as her. She got her niceness from mom. Dad had given his meanness to Sho. That was how genes and stuff worked. You were either like your mom or your dad and she had to be like her mom right now.

"Because you were mean to me." Said Mob. She tried to talk like mom did when she and Sho had done something wrong. She spoke clearly and made eye contact and just…tried to sound like mom. She tried to stand like mom, too. Mob always stood up perfectly straight, like dad did, but mom sort of leaned when she stood, like Sho did. She did her best to stand like mom. She reach up and put some of her hair behind herself and some of it in front of her. That was how mom had her hair when she wore it down like Mob was now. She didn't know if that would help but she knew that dad listened to mom and she knew that mom was good at talking and she knew that dad had promoted her to mom so he had might as well try to be like mom.

"How was I mean?" asked dad. It took him a minute to say that. He was looking at her like…his eyes were doing that thing again, that thing where his eyes ate his pupils, and Mob hoped that he wasn't going to grab her again. She didn't want that at all. It had taken a while for her bruises to heal from the last time.

"You told me that we were never friends. But we were. We were friends because we played Minecraft together and watched TV and hung out and…and you told me that you loved me and that I was never allowed to leave you." Said Mob. She made sure that dad understood her reasoning. You had to be very clear with dad. Dad was bad at talking, worse than Mob, and he was bad at understanding too. It was sort of like talking to baby Mukai. You had to be clear because you had no idea how much he understood.

"We are father and daughter so therefore we can never be friends. Friendship is a partnership of equals and you are my child. We will never be equals." Said dad. He talked slowly, too. He was close to her now. She took a step back. She didn't want him to grab her again. It had hurt and been scary the last time. He looked like he did then, though, and she didn't want that but…but maybe she should just let him grab her just so that she could get it over with.

"Do you still like me, dad? Because sometimes you act like you do and sometimes you act like you don't and I just want to know that truth. So, do you like me or not?" asked Mob. She had no idea how dad felt about her. One day he wanted to spend all of his time with her and the next he wanted to never speak to her again. She would never be able to understand her own dad for as long as she lived. She wanted…she just wished that he came with an instructional manual or a walkthrough on Youtube or something so she could just understand him already.

He stepped towards her.

She let him. She didn't take a step back. She just let him get closer. She knew him, somewhat, well she knew what he had done before. He had grabbed her shoulders. He had grabbed them so hard that he left finger shaped bruises. She tensed up. She tensed up because he was reaching towards her and she knew that this would hurt but she also knew that there was nothing that she could do to stop him so she had might as well just…let him. She just let him grab her and-

Well at least it didn't hurt.

He had her by her arms, now, right under the sleeves of her dress. She was glad that this was a short sleeved dress and not a long sleeved one because then he might have hurt it and she had just gotten this today so, of course, she didn't want to hurt her new dress. She was glad, too, that he was grabbing her upper arms and not her lower arms. The scratches that Sho gave her had mostly healed. Only the deepest of them were still scabbed over. They had healed nicely, hardly any scars at all, but she didn't want dad to grab her too hard and reopen her scratches. No, she didn't want that at all. But all he did was grab her by the upper arm and look at her. She looked up at him and he looked down at her. He was a lot taller than she was…but that made sense because she was ten and he was forty three. He looked down at her and she looked up and she could feel his fingers pressing into her arms but it didn't hurt…well not as much as last time…and that was good. Maybe she wouldn't have bruises this time.

He looked at her and she looked at him and they just sort of…looked at each other.

"Daughter, I don't like you. I love you. I never disliked you or stopped loving you. You mean the world to me because you are my child. You are the hopes for my future and a reflection of myself. I could never hate you because to hate you would be to hate myself…and your mother as well. You're a reflection of her as well." Said dad. Mob nodded. Dad….had talked about mom? And not to say how much of a traitor she was? What the…how did that even….WORK? Just when she thought that she understood him…he went and talked about mom and…and now she understood him even less than she had before. Why would he say it like that? Like her being a reflection of mom was a good thing? He had been saying for years and years now that mom had been a traitor but now….what? Just…what?

"Dad….thanks?" asked Mob. She had no idea what to say to that so he thanked him. He was still holding on to her and she…she didn't know if she wanted him to let her go or not. She was so happy that he had never stopped loving her…and also he had been talking about mom like he loved her so that was good if he ever found her…but also hearing him talk about mom like that had been weird and hearing him talk to her like that…well he had gotten into the habit of telling her that he loved her but…but that had been…different.

She had no idea what that had been so she settled on different.

"You're welcome. Now don't speak to me again until Sunday. That will be our day together. Understood?" asked Dad. He let her go and took a step back. Mob nodded…and tried to remember what was so special about Sunday…and she couldn't remember. Google would tell her later. She would ask Google or Siri or Minegishi, who was smarter than both Google and Siri put together, but she would not ask dad because if this was something that she was supposed to remember then…then she didn't want to make him mad by not remembering.

"Understood." Said Mob

"Good. You are dismissed. Goodnight…and that dress looks lovely on you." Said dad. Mob didn't have to be told twice. She went back to her own room as quick as she could. Still quietly so as not to wake Sho, of course, but still pretty quick. She laid down in her bed in her new dress and tried to make sense of all of that. Dad was back to being nice again but not the smothering sort of nice…so that was good. But he had still grabbed her and his eyes had still been weird, which was not good, and also he was still a little mad at him, ok a lot mad at him, about how he had treated Sho…even though Sho had said that he liked his birthday better without having seen or heard from dad at all. So this was just so…so very confusing….

At least dad had liked her new dress.