Dad's desk was still too big.
Not as big as it was before, she only had to make his chair a little taller, but it was still big. His chair was too big and his desk was too big…and Mob wondered if she was just still too small. She was eleven and a half now, almost eleven and a half, and she hadn't sat back here since she was ten. She was taller now, and bigger, but she still wasn't as big as dad…well she would never be as big as dad since she was a girl and all…but she still felt like his desk was maybe too big.
But there wasn't anything she could do about that.
It wasn't like she could make herself grow up quicker. Well she could wish but wishes didn't come true even if you folded a thousand paper cranes. She wished that she could grow up quicker, though, because then maybe she could have her own office….not that she wanted…well she did. She wanted to help dad out better, that was all, it wasn't like she wanted to leave her family or anything. She liked taking care of them. She liked cleaning up the house and doing the laundry and cooking the same thing every single day three times a day…she didn't mind at all…she just…she liked helping out dad.
That was all.
Dad wasn't feeling too good, it seemed, even though he had told her that he was fine. He spent all day locked in his room yesterday and he was probably going to spend all day locked in his room today, too. He wasn't sick…at least not throwing up sick or sneezing sick or that kind of sick where you bled from your eyes…Mob wished that Emmy would stop sending Sho gross hospital pictures….dad was just…tired sick. He was tired sick like mom had been tired sick…but he would get better. He had to get better. He was her dad. He would get better and then everything would get back to normal and Mob wouldn't be in charge anymore….
She didn't mind it, that she wouldn't be in charge anymore, not at all…
She just wanted dad to get better. Sometimes people got tired sick. Mom had been tired sick for years, Mob remembered, for most of the time that she had known her mom…and then she left…but dad wouldn't leave. He had promised her a million times that they would be together forever. Forever meant forever. For all of eternity. Until one of them died and then the other would die and then they would be together…and that was fine. She loved her dad…even if he could be really mean sometimes…and she wanted to be together with him forever…and she hoped that he got better soon….
Even if it meant that she would have to get up from this desk.
She knew that she would have to get up eventually, she had to eat lunch eventually after all, but right now she just wanted to…enjoy this. Being able to help dad…and she was being very helpful. She was making people happy. She already decided that everyone got unlimited jello at the jello bar, there was a jello bar now, and people could chair joust just so long as they wore goggles and helmets. She was doing a good job and she knew that dad would have been proud of her…or maybe upset since he hated fun….but she wanted to keep on doing a good job and that meant sitting at this desk for as long as possible.
Even when she had company.
"Hi Shimazaki." Said Mob as Shimazaki teleported into her, into dad's, office.
"Hey Mob I've got good news, bad news, and horrible news." Said Shimazaki as he teleported into the office. He sat down on the edge of her desk just like he did before to mess with her. He reached into his jacket and pulled out his box of cigarettes. She wasn't a fan of him messing with her but she did like smoking….and Minegishi…well they had said moderation and one was moderation….or something.
"Um…can I have the news from worst to best please?" asked Mob
"OK, so the horrible news is that we're out of jello, the bad news is that the Awakened are fighting over what jello is left, and the good news is that I managed to snag us a couple pudding cups." Said Shimazaki. He shook two cigarettes out of the box and held them between his teeth before he put his cigarette box back into his coat and then, like a magician, he pulled out two pudding cups and two spoons.
"Thank you…and please tell the Awakened that I'll order more jello and that fighting is wrong." Said Mob. She would go down there if she had to…but she didn't want to. When she went and talked to the Awakened they never let her leave. They all wanted to bow to hug her and touch her hair and tell her how much they loved her and show her things that they had drawn and made and…well the whole thing took hours if they did it right. She loved them, she loved everyone, but she had a lot of things to do in the office.
She had to be dad after all.
She had meetings to do and people to meet and people to move around and plan their move to London, Sho hadn't seen his girlfriend in a long time so he'd be really happy about seeing her, and also she had to make sure that everyone was happy all the time…there was a lot to do and as much as she loved the Awakened she didn't want to have to tell them that their macaroni art and crayon drawings were great, and in specific ways because people liked specific praise, at least not when she was this busy, anyway.
And she really was busy.
"Want me to give them lives so they stop fist fighting?" asked Shimazaki. Mob…had no idea where he came up with this stuff. No she didn't want that. She had just told him that fighting was wrong and also if they had knives they would hurt themselves and each other and that would make more work for Fukuda and he was such a complainer sometimes….and she didn't want to have to deal with Fukuda today…or any knife fights…or any real fights for that matter.
"No, I just said that fighting is wrong." Said Mob
"I know what you said but just hear me out. If we give them knives then the fighting will end faster and then we can get back to what's really important." Said Shimazaki as he lit both of the cigarettes. Mob wished that she knew that trick. Shimazaki was talented like that, he could talk and light two cigarettes at once without using his powers at all. He handed her one of the cigarettes and she took it even though she could see the bite marks in the filter.
She just really missed smoking.
"I don't think that they're all going to go back to being friends if we give them knives to stab each other with." Said Mob. What was more important than friendship? Everyone had to be friends, they really did, because otherwise what was the point of even being Claw? Claw was a place where all the espers of the world could come together and nobody would ever have to feel like they were alone. They were all espers here, and they were all on the same time, so she just didn't understand why all of the Awakened had to fight with each other all the time.
Maybe because they were all boys.
Boys had to fight each other all the time, that was just how boys worked, and Mob…well she was glad that she had been born a girl. If she had been born a boy then she would have probably been down there fighting with everyone…and also she and Sho would have fought but maybe not because she loved him…but boys did love to fight…and she hoped that she had all girls. She wanted to have nothing but girls so that they would all get along and be best friends and also she wanted Shimazaki and Minegishi had have all girls, too, so that their daughters could be best friends with her daughters…but that would come later. When Minegishi and Shimazaki felt like having babies, not now, they had only just become a couple after all. Well she could always tell them to get married and have babies since she had that kind of power now…
But she had to use her power for good.
"Well, yeah, obviously but that's not what's important." Said Shimazaki. He ashed on the floor as he said that even though he could see that there was an empty Starbucks cup right there on the desk that would have made the perfect ashtray…and she knew that he knew that it was there. He just did things for attention, sometimes, to be annoying. She didn't know, sometimes, what Sho and Minegishi saw in him….
Well he was really tall…but there was more to loving someone than them being taller than you.
"Then what is?" asked Mob as Shimazaki leaned farther back onto her, dad's, the desk. He leaned more onto it and took a long drag of his cigarette before exhaling a really big cloud. She wondered if they were going to have another contest to see who could smoke the best…there was no way to judge who the winner was since he couldn't see smoke and she hated beating her friends at things…so she stopped looking at him. She looked at her laptop. She had another meeting….and someone named Sakata wanted to talk to her…well dad…and she would get back to them soon.
As soon as Shimazaki stopped ashing on her head.
"If enough of them stab each other then that's more jello for us." Said Shimazaki. Mob put a barrier over herself. She didn't much feel like having ashes in her hair. She didn't much want to have to wash her hair later tonight. She had enough to do. She had to make dinner and do the laundry, and how three people could make so much dirty laundry she would never know, and also she had to make sure that Sho did his homeschool work, he was with Fukuda and Fukuda never made him do it, and then she had her own homeschool work to do…and also she had to return Minori's texts…and also she had to wrap Shimazaki's birthday present…not a lot of time was left for hair washing…and that was why she wanted Shimazaki to be a little less close to her…
She liked him but not like that.
"Shimazaki….did you do something? I feel like you did something." Said Mob. She didn't like him like that and she didn't know why other people liked him like that. Sure he was tall and he smelled good and he could be sort of fun sometimes…but also he was Shimazaki. He acted like a crazy person all the time and he started things just for the sake of starting things. He did things just so that he didn't have to be bored…like steal all the jello…and she knew that it must have been him because she had ordered more than enough jello for everyone. She'd had dad check her math and everything. So unless everyone was all of a sudden super hungry someone had messed with the jello supply.
Shimazaki, why do you do these things?
"I…may have liberated a box or two….or ten….of tiny multi flavored individual jello cups." Said Shimazaki. Mob…well if she had been someone else, like if she had been boy Mob, she would have said something mean like 'Shimazaki, you're a jerk sometimes' and 'sometimes it's kind of hard to do my job when you're messing up lunch' or even 'my head is not an ashtray' but she wasn't boy Mob, she was girl Mob, and girl Mob was nice to her friends….even when they did stuff like this.
"Shimazaki….you know that those are for everyone…right?" asked Mob. She knew that he knew…and she knew that he didn't care…but it was one of those things where maybe she wanted him to say that he didn't know and then she could tell him not to steal food and she would get through to him and…well she also knew that there would never be those times. This was Shimazaki Ryou after all.
"I know." Said Shimazaki
"Then why did you take ten boxes?" asked Mob
"Because I have no idea which boxes have the chocolate jello in them." Said Shimazaki. Mob shook her head.
"I stopped ordering chocolate jello because only you and two other people like it." Said Mob. Chocolate jello wasn't good. It was all slimy and weird…like pudding…but also not like pudding…but just…not good. She didn't think that it was good anyway and even the Awakened wouldn't take it….but maybe she should have gotten more because now Shimazaki was stealing again…well he had never stopped stealing…
She had no idea how he got Minegishi and Sho to like him.
Minegishi…well they had known him for years and they hung out all the time….and also Shimazaki hung out with Sho…but she had no idea why people liked him like that. He was tall and strong and smelled good and could even be funny sometimes…but he was no Hatori…not that she still liked Hatori. She thought that he was cute…and she thought some other stuff too….but she was never making that mistake again. She had learned the hard way….and Sho wouldn't. Sho wasn't going to end up going through what she had went through….even if he was in love with Shimazaki like she had been with Hatori…she wouldn't let that happen to him….she just had to figure out what to do about all of that….
After she figured out what to do about the cases and cases of missing jello.
"Mob…you really are your father's daughter, you know that." Said Shimazaki. Mob nodded and ashed her cigarette into the empty Starbucks cup like she was supposed to.
"I know. My mom and dad were married and then they did terrible things…and now I'm here." Said Mob. She loved her parents, one more than the other, and she was glad that they had been in love but ever since Minegishi had told her the awful truth she just…was sort of glad that mom and dad weren't together anymore…because the thought of them doing the terrible thing that adults did…well that just…was not right.
"Yup. Terrible, unspeakable things." Said Shimazaki. He was saying that it was terrible but he was laughing…and she didn't see what was so funny about that…but Shimazaki was Shimazaki. There was no telling what he would and would not think was funny.
"Yes, things that I don't want to talk about…even if we are just talking about how terrible they are….now please put the jello back where you got it from. If you do that then I'll get a big box of the chocolate jello just for you." Said Mob
"And pudding." Said Shimazaki. Mob nodded. She knew him. He liked pudding…for sad reasons. Minegishi told her, well Shimazaki had told her while they were on acid but Minegishi said it better, that Shimazaki's mom couldn't always feed him but when she did she brought him a lot of chocolate stuff and she had let him keep a bunch of pudding cups under his bed so he wouldn't starve to death when his dad decided to stop feeding him….and she didn't want to think about sad things anymore.
"Alright, and pudding." Said Mob. Now she didn't feel so good….but maybe if she made him happy when she would feel better. She didn't like to think about his life…but that wasn't fair of her. It was much worse for him. He had to actually live through all of that which was much worse than her just thinking about it.
"Hot pudding." Said Shimazaki. Mob…well she wanted her friend to feel better but that was just something that she could not say yes to. The planning of it was just too much…and she had enough planning to do already.
"Shimazaki-" said Mob. She didn't know how she was going to get him a box of hot pudding….well she could make him a box of stovetop pudding….but he liked it from scratch and only Shibata knew how to make it from scratch…and he had enough to do as it was. He had a lot of fights to break up and stuff…the Awakened sure did love to fight with one another….nobody needed any extra work.
"With extra skin." Said Shimazaki. Mob almost choked on her entire cigarette. Extra skin? What was the matter with him? She knew that sometimes he said things just to get attention but…come on! Extra skin!?
"No…the skin is gross…and also I don't know how I'm going to get hot pudding cups and-" said Mob
"Come on, Mob, it's almost my birthday. Birthdays are sacred you know. Without my birthday I would never have been born and then what would the world have become without me in it?" asked Shimazaki. Mob figured that the world would have at least had more jello in it and fewer ashes on the floor…but she didn't say that. It would have been mean if she said that.
"They are…alright. I'll make you some pudding from the packet myself…and before you say anything I only know how to make it from the packet and I don't want to make any extra work for Shibata. Alright?" asked Mob. That was called compromise and diplomacy. Dad had told her, before, that she was really good at stuff like that. Well he said that she was good at everything that she put her mind to but he said that she was particularly good at all of that. Also Shimazaki had a point. Birthdays were very scared occasions.
"Mob, have I ever told you that I loved you?" asked Shimazaki. He kissed his hand and then pressed it to her forehead. She wiped it away. He was just trying to mess with her like he did before. He didn't actually love her…well he did, but platonically, which meant as a friend. She would never have done anything with her best friend's boyfriend, even think about liking him, and also she would never like the same boy that her own little brother liked. That would have been terrible. She could never do that to Sho.
So she wouldn't.
"I know and I love you like a friend…and now you're gone." Said Mob as Shimazaki teleported away. Hopefully he went to put the pudding back where he had gotten it from. She really didn't need another thing to worry about. She leaned back in her chair and woke dad's laptop up. She scrolled through his work email…and it was nothing but meetings being rescheduled and cancelled and moved….people wanted to meet with dad and not her but dad….well dad was tired and stuff….she scrolled down. There must have been something besides this….but no. Just work and stuff. Work and…
Oh.
Possible talent. Talent was a word for a natural esper. So was asset but talent sounded so much nicer than asset. An asset was a thing you used and you weren't supposed to use people. Talent fit better because powers were like talents. Everyone was good at something, everyone had something that made them special, and for espers that thing that made them special was their powers. She would make a new rule, she decided, that all new people would be called talent instead of assets.
Or maybe friends would be better…because that was what Claw was all about. All the espers in the world coming together to be friends….
…and this guy seemed like he could really use a friend. His mom was the one that had messaged. She was sad because her son had been born an esper and he'd never been able to control his powers…that happened a lot with natural espers who didn't have at least one esper parent to teach them….and this poor lady's son was scared to even leave his room…sort of like Sho was sometimes but for…wow. That…must have been a typo or something….because….that was longer than she had even been alive for…
How could someone spend fifteen years locked away in their room?
That was…that was awful. Mob….well she had been a lot worse about controlling her powers when she had been little…before she figured out that drinking and smoking could really help….and maybe growing up had something to do with it too…but she had never been afraid of herself before. Not like…not like that. Maybe because most of her family was espers…well mom was gone so now all of her family was espers….and she was so grateful for that. She was so grateful to be Suzuki Shigeko instead of someone else, someone who had been born to normal people, not that she had anything against normal people but they couldn't have taught her how to control her powers and she could have ended up like this poor lady's son….
Fifteen whole years.
Well Mob would fix that. This was important and she would get right to this. She knew that, maybe, she should have told dad that she was finding new talent…but dad was tired sick right now. He was tired sick and she was the vice president of Claw anyway and…and she could make choices in her life besides what color eyeshadow to wear and what weird thing to put in the curry tonight. She knew what she was doing, what she was supposed to do, and she was going to do it. She was going to find this poor person and help him and be his friend. She was going to go to him and bring him into Claw and he was going to find a Division where he could make friends and learn to control his powers and then maybe he would want to be her friend too.
So she put all of that into the email.
She messaged the mom, Serizawa-san, back from dad's personal account. She told her that, yes, Claw could help and that she would be right there. Mob would clear her schedule and-oh. Wow. Serizawa-san typed fast. She said that she needed time to get her son used to the idea of someone coming into the house. He was scared of people, scared of hurting them, and Mob…she got that. When she had been little…and even sometimes now…she could lose control. It was always a bad feeling, losing control, and she didn't wish that on anyone….
She poured herself a drink.
She used her powers to pour herself a drink from dad's fancy liquor bottles. These were mostly for decoration but the liquor inside was real. Also it was real good. Brandy was good once you got used to it, sort of sweet, and very strong. Good for keeping your powers quiet. She'd have to teach him, when he joined Claw, all about the stuff that he could do to control his powers better. Then once he got better control he could help them take over the world so that no espers had to feel like him. No esper would ever feel alone ever again once Claw took over the world.
It would be a good future.
But it was a far future. She had to add this to her current future, meeting this person, and adding him to Claw. His mom didn't say when he would be ok to visit…but she would put a pin in the London trip until it was ok. She didn't want to have to land in London but then get right back on the plane again. Besides, he lived all the way in…Baked Goods City. That was one of the Industry Cities. Baked Goods City, Seasoning City, Cuticle City, Lower Back Pain City, Heavy Industry City…maybe they could do a tour of the industry cities as a friend trip….dad had done that when he had been a kid in school….and a friend trip might be good to help get this new person used to the group…if he wanted to join her friend group…she'd have to see if he wanted to or if he wanted to be in a Division….or an HQ…or a cell….she'd see. She'd see.
This was going to be so great!
Mob leaned back and put her feet up on dad's desk. She used her powers to bring the jello cup, it was green, to her hand. This was a good day. This was going to be a good week….month…year. There was Shimazaki's party coming up and now this new person and then the London trip so Sho could see his girlfriend and then Christmas and New year's….this was going to be a very good end of the year. She could feel it.
This was going to be big…but in the good way.