Hatori was used to moving.
Claw was nothing but moving. He was moved around, ping ponged around, between HQs and Divisions and cells and bases all the time. He was the most powerful technopath in all of Claw. He was useful to a lot of people and that meant that he didn't get a permanent posting anywhere. That was fine. He was used to it. That was why he didn't complain when he woke up to an awakened standing over him waving a piece of paper in his face detailing his new assignment.
He knew that Tokyo wasn't going to be forever.
This was a damn good posting. An actual city that he could occasionally emerge from HQ and explore, the Awakened were morons here, not that culty, so there was that, the cafeteria was awesome, and the internet was stable and plentiful. But it was whatever. He had moved before and he would move again. He had no idea what this new posting was, it was just an address, but that was normal too. Sometimes he was just sent somewhere and then he got briefed when he got there. So this was normal. Him packing what little he owned up and then leaving was normal. Him sitting in a random car going down a random road was normal.
This was normal.
He had no idea where he was going but he had a good idea. They had been trying to rebuild the Eighth Division for a while and people were being diverted there. He was fully expecting to get out of this car at the airport and to have to get on one of those tiny planes and be able to relax, and maybe scare the pilots a bit, before touching down at the Eighth Division. What he had not been expecting was that instead of going to the airport, an airport, he instead was being taken into the suburbs of Tokyo. He didn't ask questions, though, because Claw was not the place for curious people. They tended not to last long and he wanted to last long so he kept his burning questions to himself.
Besides, it wasn't like the driver was going to answer them.
So instead he watched the world blur by. He watched the houses get smaller and more spread apart, he watched the city proper disappear behind him, and he watched the other cars pass him as he went off to…he didn't even know where. Maybe he had to do the wifi at another Claw neighborhood. There were neighborhoods that Claw owned to house the upper echelon as well as other important people. Unimportant people like him lived at the HQ. Important people got houses and apartments and stuff. He would never truly be in the upper echelon, he may have been powerful but he was totally useless in a fight, so he never would have guessed what his new assignment would be.
Well, maybe, because he had been warned.
He had been dropped off in front of a house. It was a house that looked just like the ones beside and across from it. Just an unassuming house in an unassuming neighborhood. This place was so unassuming, in fact, that Hatori had not been planning on assuming anything as he stood there ankle deep in the snow while the December wind cut right through his sweater….he needed to invest in a proper jacket…and he did not make any assumptions when he was handed his things, pointed in the direction of the house they had stopped in front of, and not even when the driver peeled out of there like he was auditioning for the live action Speed Racer movie.
He knew those auras.
But he still assumed nothing. Nothing at all. Even though all signed pointed to Minegishi having had been telling him the truth. He was…they had told him that because he had made friends with Suzuki's daughter he would be added to the Suzuki family entourage….and that made no sense. Suzuki surrounded himself with the most powerful espers in the world because he respected…or at least valued, power. He didn't just add people to his personal entourage because his kids like them…right?
Right?
But all signs pointed to that house being his new home. He could feel…there was Little Sister-sama's aura…and her brother's…as well as Minegishi's, which he had no problem with, but also two auras he mostly know in passing…and two auras which he knew that he should have run away from. Shibata Hiroshi and Shimazaki Ryou. Well, ok, Shibata was a nice guy but Shimazaki…Hatori could read and he had read files and he knew what Shimazaki did to people….what he could do to people…and what he did to people that he didn't like…
He could maybe make a run for it and spend the remainder of his life in a traitor hole…
"Hatori! Hi!" a door opened. The door of the house next door opened. Little Sister-sama ran out…and slipped….but then caught herself. The little brother stuck his head out and waved. Little Sister-sama zipped up her coat as she practically ran over towards him.
"Hey, Little Sister-sama….you live here?" asked Hatori. He was having a lot of trouble not making any assumptions. He knew how this looked but…but he couldn't have just been promoted to the near top of Claw because he was friends with the President's daughter….right? Or was this what they called 'networking'? He didn't know. All he knew was that there was a very red and chilly looking ten year old in front of him and he knew that he didn't look much better. He was in jeans, gym shoes, and a sweater. She was beet red and she had on more layer than he did.
He needed to get inside….but he didn't want to.
For one thing he didn't want to have to hang out with Shimazaki Ryou. Everyone….well everyone who wasn't an Awakened, had a story about that man. Even some of the Awakened did. He started fights for fun. He dropped people off the roof and didn't always catch them for fun. He had a weird temper and you never knew what would set him off or if he was even serious about being upset. He may have had something weird going on with the President's daughter at some point…though he thinks that she would have told him that if it were true…but still! Also he had something going on with Minegishi and Minegishi had rejected Hatori before he could even ask them out so there was awkwardness there….
He wondered how quickly he could get himself demoted back to tech support.
"Yes, I live in that house. The one with Sho in it. He doesn't want to come outside. He and Shimazaki are locked in a game of wits, he said, which just means that Shimazaki keeps on teleporting really close and putting snow down his back….because it snowed again and Shimazaki can be like that sometimes….but you should tell him if you don't like it and then he'll stop. That's the thing about him, you have to tell him when something is bothering you and…and…um….are you cold? I'm cold. Here, I'll carry your stuff for you and we can go inside…inside of your house…not my house. My house is mine and…and you can visit if you want but not when dad's home because he hates guests…and…um….you live there now!" she said. She picked up his things with her powers, he only had the back pack and the rolling bag but still she shouldn't have been making things float in public like that, and practically ran to the house next to hers. The house that he had been dropped off in front of….the house with all of the auras inside of it…of people that he didn't dislike but didn't know well enough, or knew too well, to just be living with….
He was trying as hard as he could not to make assumptions….but it was hard not to make assumptions when the boss's daughter was leading him to the house that, apparently, Suzuki's entire entourage lived in.
This was…something. He had jumped through the ranks of Claw in a day, all of them, and now he was as high as he could go without killing and replacing Suzuki…which he would not be doing because he had read the mission reports. He knew how well that went. He knew how well it would go if he tried and he didn't even want to try…even though that would get him demoted…if he even wanted to be demoted. This was what he had wanted, a better job, but…but this was going to be awkward as hell….
For all involved.
"Oh hell no." said Minegishi. Hatori hadn't even had time to take his shoes off in the genkan. Minegishi had stood in front of him, crossed their arms, and just stared glaring. Hatori looked away. They had a powerful glare, like they were looking right through him, and he couldn't even put up a barrier let alone withstand such onslaught.
"Minegishi, please be nice. Hatori is my friend and he could be your friend too if you gave him a chance…also I think he's going to be living with you forever so maybe it would be best if you guys at least got along." Said Little Sister-sama. She was standing in front of Minegishi now, like she was protecting him from their glare, or maybe she was negating it. Minegishi's face got a lot softer, and their aura a lot less sharp, when they started talking to Suzuki-sama.
"Mob, did you have something to do with this?" asked Minegishi. The only way Hatori could describe their tone was 'long suffering'. They looked like they wanted to go back to bed. It was only nine in the morning after all, they could have, and maybe that would have been best. Hatori had been shot down plenty of times before. Usually he just ended up never talking to the girl…person…ever again. He got shot down and that was the end of it.
But now he had to LIVE with them.
Awkward. They had said three words to him and it was already awkward. They had said three words to him and, yeah, message received. They didn't want this either? Who wanted to live with the person who shot them down? Or the person who they had shot down? Plus they had their…boyfriend? Friend with benefits? Really close co-worker? Whatever the hell Shimazaki was to them living in the same house. This was….awkward.
Awkward as hell.
"Um…kind of? I didn't exactly ask dad to add Hatori to the group. We were just hanging out yesterday, dad says that we can only hang out on Sundays now from midnight to midnight, and we accidentally got logged out of our Netflix and dad's not good at that kind of stuff and then I said that if we have someone like Hatori around then we wouldn't have these problems…and now he lives here." Said Little Sister-sama. Hatori blinked. So he was….he was the Netflix guy? Well he had been the Netflix guy before. He had also been the 'my YouTube video froze guy' and the 'why won't this dvd player read an HD dvd I got on clearance in the states?' guy and the 'I'm too lazy to blow into my game cartridge you fix it' guy….so being Suzuki's 'remember my Netflix password' guy wasn't so out of the ordinary. He hoped to God that he never became Suzuki's 'my laptop won't work and it has nothing to do with all the porn on it oh my God I have no idea where all this pregnant cat girl tentacle monster porn came from' guy.
He had been in Suzuki's history before. The worst he had on his computer were pictures of some brown haired woman in a folder marked 'important do not open'.
"Mob….you know better than to give your dad ideas. Please, for the love of God, never give him ideas again. Now I have to live with this-" said Minegishi. Hatori wanted to tell them that he wasn't thrilled with this either. He wanted to tell them that they had nothing to worry about, he knew that nothing was going to happen between them, and he wanted to tell them, too, that he was going to avoid them for the rest of his life just to keep the awkwardness levels low.
He, however, did not get a chance to say anything.
His range wasn't good. His aura mostly just travelled through electrical paths, circuits and such, so he didn't sense Shibata coming up behind him silently like an assassin and picking him up like he weighed nothing. Shibata hooked him under the armpits and picked him up and then just held him there at eye level.
"We have a new roommate!" said Shibata before he pulled Hatori into what as either a hug or an attempt as forcing his skeleton out of his body through sheer strength. His glasses fell off and he braced himself for the crunch of breaking glass but instead felt an aura pass over him. Little Sister-sama had caught his glasses with her powers and had brought them back up to his face. She had put them on him crooked but he could still see Minegishi literally face palming.
"Wee World." Said Minegishi. Shibata's aura pulled in close, a fear response some espers had, and immediately dropped Hatori. Little Sister-sama caught him and gently put him back down on his feet. She had managed to catch him, a grown man, and put him down….she could lift something as heavy as a person with telekinesis. He forgot, sometimes, how strong of an esper she was. How much stronger she was compared to him…but now he realized it. He was weak. Not just compared to her but to everyone else in the room…the house…even in most of Claw barring the Awakened….
He was in over his head.
"Oh shit! Sorry….just…I got excited. I had no idea we were getting a new roommate! Man….if I knew you were coming I'd of baked a cake…" said Shibata. Hatori resisted the urge to reach behind himself and straighten out his back. How was he that strong? And he hadn't even been using his powers, either….
He was in way over his head.
"Why don't you go and do that now?" asked Minegishi. Everything about them said that they wanted to be left alone. He would have left if he could but he wasn't about to go and disobey Suzuki like that…well people could live long lives in the traitor holes….but he didn't want to live in a traitor hole. He didn't much want to live here but he didn't want to live in a traitor hole either….
Cake sounded nice, though.
"I like cake. Sho does too." Said Little Sister-sama. She was such a little kid…and he couldn't blame her for this. She maybe have given her dad the idea to add Hatori to the upper echelon but she hadn't thought it through. Like now. She just wanted him around to be her friend and hang out with her. She didn't think of how awkward…well no, she didn't even know what had happened between him and Minegishi and she probably had no idea what, if anything, was happening between Shimazaki and Minegishi right now because he was ten and stuff, so he didn't fault her for any of this.
On the bright side at least he had someone to play co-op with whenever he felt like it…so….yay?
"That's a great idea! But the new guy should pick which kind. It's his first day in the house after all. What kind of cake do you like?" asked Shibata. He was WAY too close…and Hatori did not think that he could survive another hug…but he didn't show fear. Shibata was a nice guy and he was offering to bake him a cake so, yeah, calm the hell down Nozomu.
"Uh…chocolate?" said Hatori. He didn't much want cake but he did want some room to breathe. He was in over his head. He knew that he was in over his head. He had no idea how not to be in over his head. He was…he was a member of the upper echelon now….and not only that but a member of the Suzuki family's personal entourage….
He felt a little dizzy.
"Hatori Nozomu….I think that you and I are going to get along just fine." Said Shibata. Hatori prayed to whatever God cared to listen that Shibata didn't try and pick him up again…and thankfully he hadn't. He practically skipped over into the next room…which Hatori assumed was the kitchen. There. At least could breathe a little bit better now….
"So. This is a thing that's happening. I have no clue where you're going to sleep or how one bathroom is supposed to be enough for four people but this is a thing that's happening." Said Minegishi
"He can sleep with me!" said Little Sister-sama. Her aura flared out and then pulled in really close after she said that. It was cute. She was ten, she was starting to get things, but he knew what she meant. She didn't mean it like that. She was only ten.
"Mob, slow the fuck down." Said Minegishi rolling their eyes. God…they were so…he needed to stop looking at them like that because they lived in the same house and they had already rejected him and made it perfectly clear that there was more hope for Suzuki's crazy take over the world dream to bear fruit than there was of anything happening between the two of them.
"I-I meant that he can have my bed and then I can sleep with Sho…because we can still fit in the same bed even though we're both ten…this is the part of the year when we're the same age…and that's what I meant…that he can have my bed…I don't think that my dad would notice since he has a little aura…not to be mean or anything…." Said Little Sister-sama
"Uh-huh, sure. Anyway someone else can get his sleeping arrangements sorted out. I'm going back to bed, wake me when the cake is done." Said Minegishi
"But you said that sugar is poison." Said Little Sister-sama
"I know what I said." Said Minegishi. They didn't even look at him as they went down the hallway and back to what Hatori assumed was their room. He wondered how many bedrooms this place had…and also where he was going to be sleeping. He could see the couch from this vantage point…and it looked like it was trying to eat itself. Not a good night's sleep at all…
He had no idea what he was supposed to do now.
"Um….Minegishi likes chocolate. I mean that's why they want the cake…because they like chocolate. I like chocolate too…and so do you….and that's something that we have in common…and also you live right next door…which is something else that we have in common and…and stuff…" Little Sister-sama was rambling again. She did that sometimes. She was nervous but he had no idea about what. He was the nervous one. He had no idea what he was going to do or…or anything! Not that he was freaking out. So far, so good. Shibata was nice and Minegishi was Minegishi and he hadn't done anything awkward so…so this was pretty good. So far so good.
Maybe this would go well.
Yeah, this could be ok. His job just got a hell of a lot easier. He didn't have to deal with the Awakened anymore, he didn't have to sleep in a room with three other guys…most of whom had never seen a can of lynx in their lives…and he didn't have to do his laundry in the communal laundromat anymore…and no more communal showers…and also he lived next door to a couple of very nice kids…and his career was going well…he had gotten as high as he could go and he was only nineteen…but in a good way…
Maybe this would be ok.
There was some shouting from the outside. He felt two auras pass right over him. He stumbled back a little bit. Little Sister-sama steadied him. She was so strong…everyone there was so strong. He hated this feeling, knowing how weak he was. He couldn't even put up a barrier. His powers were useful, in a practical sense, but did nothing at all for him in a place like Claw…but now he was expected to be a member of the upper echelon?
He was in so far above his head that he was going to drown.
"That's my brother and Shimazaki. They're having a snow fight again, I think…but not a real one! Don't worry. Sometimes my brother can seem kind of mean but that's just because he gets mad a lot. He gets that from our dad but he's also a lot nicer than our dad and he already likes you so you'll be ok…um…and Shimazaki is really nice, too. He knows a lot of things about a lot of things. Also he has a lot of neat stuff that makes you feel happy and sleepy and stuff and he loves to share…oh! And if you bring him a can of coke or a pudding cup then he'll be friends with you. He can be a little annoying sometimes, he has a condition where if people aren't paying attention to him he forgets that he exists, so he annoys people just so that they'll pay attention to him and stuff….but he's still a very nice person." Said Little Sister-sama. Hatori was not about to just tell her everything that he knew about Shimazaki Ryou. How his father had been called The Shogun's Executioner and what he had done to earn that title…what Shimazaki had ended up doing for the yakuza back before Claw….all of what he had done….the things that he had done after joining Claw….
She was a ten year old girl in a princess dress and braids. She didn't need to know these things.
He wasn't going to tell her the truth about her friend, no, he had been about to tell her that he was sure that he and Shimazaki would end up being friends, a bold faced lie but a necessary one, when the energy around him shifted…
"What the fuck are you doing in my fucking house you mother fucker?" asked Shimazaki. Hatori wondered if he should have been cursing so much in front of a child. He wondered if he should have been standing so close. He wondered, too, if he should have been opening his eyes like that….because all he had were empty eye sockets and Hatori had known that but knowing and seeing were two different things…and just having his eyes opened like that could not have been healthy…for either of them…
He got the distinct feeling that his life had just gotten a lot shorter.
"I-I live here now?" asked Hatori. There was no point in trying to sound tough. He had never killed anyone and he never would. Shimazaki on the other hand had been doing this since he was at least fourteen. He was thirty now so he had spent half of his life making stronger, more powerful men than Hatori disappear. He took a step to the side…right beside Little Sister-sama. He was relying on a little girl to protect him…but he needed to stop thinking like that. She may have been a little girl but she was also the second most powerful esper alive and if she was going to keep him safe then he would not be ashamed of hiding beside a little girl.
"He lives here now so please be nice to him….and also maybe say fewer bad words too. Dad says that he lives here now and since dad decided it then…then he can't go and since he can't go I think that you should be nice to him, ok?" asked Little Sister-sama. She could be very commanding for someone so small. Not like her dad, that man was terrifying, she was more…fair? Fair was a word that fit…sort of. She didn't dictate, she asked, but she asked firmly and for things that were fair. Not like her dad telling people to jump out of windows just because some woman went missing and, obviously, did not want to be found and Hatori had been sixteen and it had been is first major mission anyway and…and he was not going to get himself all worked up over that again.
"You want me to be nice to him?" asked Shimazaki. There was something in his tone and his aura that Hatori didn't trust at all.
"Yes. Please be as nice to him as you would be to anyone else and please don't treat him any different just because he's new." said Little Sister-sama
"So you want me to treat him like everyone else….ok. I can do that." Said Shimazaki. Hatori did not like the way that he said that, he did not like the way that he teleported away, and he especially did not like what he did when he came back three seconds later.
"Shimazaki! I said to be nice and that wasn't very nice at all." said Little Sister-sama, her aura flaring and her hair trying to float up to the ceiling. She may have said something else, too, but he didn't hear it. He wasn't paying attention. He was too busy jumping around trying to get the cold, wet, hell of out his sweater. That…that…that Hatori didn't even have the words for it! He put SNOW down his BACK like they were in elementary school! What the hell!
Though it had been, literally, the least that he could have done.
"You said to treat him like everyone else. Ergo I put snow down his back to make him feel like everyone else." Said Shimazaki. He smirked when he said that. He smirked but at least his eyes were closed now. His eyes were closed and the snow had turned back to water, so Hatori was uncomfortable but not…not like he had been before…and he wanted to say something or do something but he knew that he didn't have a chance again Shimazaki Ryou. Very few people did.
"Please say that you're sorry. He didn't know that you were playing snow fight with him and he's probably very annoyed or even scared. I can't tell, his aura is hard to read, but I do know that you should tell him sorry for what you did even if you didn't mean to make him upset." said Little Sister-sama. She was one of the only people who had a chance against him. Was that why he respected her? Or were they just good friends like that? Hatori didn't know. He'd figure out their dynamic later when the back of his sweater wasn't sticking to him and he wasn't shivering in the middle of the front room wondering how his life had gotten to this point and trying to figure out how he felt about it.
"Hatori…I'm sorry that you took me putting snow down your back in a bad way. I didn't mean it to be a jerk, I meant it because I like putting snow down people's backs, and if you're going to be living in this house then you need to get used to having snow put down your back. Welcome to the house." Said Shimazaki. He decided, again, that the best way to make his point was to invade Hatori's personal space. He didn't know what to do, what to say, and he didn't even have the chance to do or say anything before Shimazaki teleported away.
That had been…something.
That had been something and this whole morning had been something and he hadn't even been up for two hours! How was he supposed to make it through the whole day!? And tomorrow! And the next day too!? What was he even supposed to do and where was he even supposed to sleep and-and-and what was he even supposed to-to-to-
He was in over his head.
He had been in the middle of quickly freaking out when he felt something being pressed into his hand. It was cold and cylindrical and…and he could feel the wiring inside of it. A small battery attached to a heating element…he opened his eyes. He hadn't even realized that he'd closed them. He opened them and looked down at what her been pressed into his hand.
"That's my vape pen. You can have some if you want. Your aura is little and hard to read but I could tell that you were scared. It's ok, I understand. You're not as good of friends with everyone else and it can be scary being in a new place with people you don't know that well. It's ok. The vape will help. You just hold down the button down and breathe really deep until your lungs get full. Then you hold it in until you can't anymore. That's all, it's easy." Said Little Sister-sama. Hatori did what he was told. He had vaped before, he wasn't sure how it would help, but he would try anything at this point.
He wished that he hadn't.
That tasted godawful, smelled godawful, and now he had this godawful burning in his lungs. He didn't hold it in, not for very long, because he just couldn't. What the hell as she vaping?! Wait…oh. Right. She had told him, before, that she got up to things like this…even though she was only ten. Well then. This was…he was in way over his head. He was in so far over his head that he might as well just let himself drown. He had gone to bed in tech support and he had woken up a member of the Suzuki family entourage, he'd almost had his skeleton squeezed out of him, he'd had snow put down his back, he had to live with the person who had shot him down in the worst and most thorough way possible, and now a ten year old was trying to get him high….
Hatori Nozomu knew that he was in above his head, well above, and he knew that there was nothing at all that he could do but let himself drown.
There was nothing to do now but try and get used to it.