Mob was Minori's best friend…but that didn't mean that Minori was Mob's.
No, Mob's best friend was Minegishi. They had been friends for years and they had fun together and were never mean to one another. Mob and Minori had been friends for a little over a year and sometimes they had fun together but a lot of the time Minori could be kind of mean…kind of really mean….and also kind of a b-word. Not that Mob thought that she was a b-word, no, she just…could act like one sometimes….but that was ok. They didn't see each other very often.
Or at least they didn't usually see much of each other.
Mob lived in Tokyo now. Well she lived wherever she wanted to but right now she was in Tokyo. There wasn't any reason to move, not with dad being gone, so she supposed that Tokyo was her home. It was nice here. People spoke Japanese, which was always good, and there was enough space for everyone. Also she was close to Tokyo HQ if they ever needed her. This was a good place to be…even if she was away from her own dad…and also near to someone who was…maybe her least favorite friend…
Mob needed to learn to be nicer.
"Too cold. More cold." Said Mukai as she pushed her iced water away. Her mom wouldn't let her have anything but water. This was a Starbucks but that didn't just mean coffee. They had lemonade, too, and strawberry lemonade but her mom said that she didn't want Mukai to have any more sugar…which might have been a good thing since sugar kind of made her crazy…and Minori probably wouldn't have liked that.
Though Mob couldn't imagine anyone not liking her baby sister.
"So does she want more ice or less ice?" asked Minegishi not looking up from their book. They had their feet up on a chair across from them and an iced coffee in their other hand. They were trying really hard to relax, Mob could tell, and she almost wanted to tell Minegishi that they could go home if they wanted to. She knew that they thought that Minori was a b-word even though she liked them a lot and thought that they were Mobs coolest friend. Minegishi didn't want to leave Mob alone with Minori, though, and Mob didn't know why.
Minori wasn't that bad…not really anyway.
"She wants it at room temperature." Said Tsuchiya. She took Mukai's ice water and popped the top off. Mob wished that she could have done that with her powers, fished out the ice, but they were out in public and now and being out in public meant no powers. It would be better when dad took over the world. When he took over the world then everyone would know about espers and everyone could be friends and stuff…and also she wouldn't have to pretend to be someone who she wasn't. There were normal people on every side of her, like a normal person sandwich, and she was like some other kind of bread or something that someone had put in the middle.
She didn't want to be another kind of bread.
She didn't want to be a normal person either, though. She didn't know what she would have done if she hadn't been born with her powers. She was Suzuki Shigeko, she was a big sister, she had powers, and she liked warm milk with vanilla. That was who she was and she didn't want to change who she was…she just wanted to be able to be who she was in the world. Normal people didn't understand it. Normal people were just…normal. They always fit in no matter where they went. They got to do normal stuff like go to school and join clubs and have sleepovers with people their own age and have boyfriends and not have secrets sisters or dads that they had to kick out of the house. Normal people were just so…normal…and Mob could never be one of them…
And she didn't even know if she wanted to be…
"Soda. Soda now please and thank you." Said Mukai. She pointed over at the tiny fridge. Mob had money, she had filled her Elsa bag with cash before she left the house, but Tsuchiya didn't want Mukai to have soda even though Mob easily could have afforded it. Moms were weird about stuff like that. Even her own mom had been weird about how much soda and lemonade and juice and strawberry milk she and Sho could drink. That was just how moms were.
But not how big sisters were.
"I can get her one if she wants. I mean it's only one…it can't hurt her." said Mob. Mukai nodded. She understood more than she could say, Minegishi was right. Mob wondered what Mukai would be like when she could actually talk, talk to be understood, talk to be able to tell people what was going on in her head. Maybe she would be serious like her mom….or fun like Sho….but hopefully she wouldn't end up being a weirdo like dad was…
Not that she would ever be so much of a b-word as to call her dad a weirdo…to his face.
"No hurt, mama. No hurt. Sho mama say." Said Mukai. Minegishi looked up from their book and made eye contact with Mob. She didn't know what that meant. Maybe they wanted to know why Mob still let Mukai call her that. Well there was nothing that she could do about that. Mukai was too little to understand that just because Mob took care of Sho and made him happy that didn't make her his mom.
Mukai was little and didn't understand how things worked yet….so it wasn't her fault….and Mob was not such a b-word that she would have gotten upset at her own little sister for not being able to talk for real yet.
"Yeah, I heard what your sister said. Shigeko, she can't have another one. I know for a fact that your brother gave her two cans this morning and that's more than enough. Sugar's bad for you, you know that." Said Tsuchiya
"Sugar is poison. I hate to agree with her but, yeah, sugar is poison and we don't have a healer anymore." Said Minegishi
"But…you drank a whole two liter last night…" said Mob
"Orange soda. Over there." said Mukai. Mob didn't know if she meant the orange soda that Minegishi had drank last night or the orange soda that was in the little fridge on the wall.
"Mob, I was not in my right mind last night, you know that." Said Minegishi. Tsuchiya wrinkled her nose and shook her head. Mukai looked over to her mom and then made the same face.
"What? Got something to say?" asked Minegishi. They closed their book and put it on the table. Something, something that Mob couldn't read, passed between Tsuchiya and Minegishi. Something with eyes and auras. Things like that passed between them a lot…maybe because they didn't like each other…which Mob could understand. It was kind of hard to like Tsuchiya at first. She was kind of bossy, like in a mom way, and also…well Mob had thought somethings about her and dad that weren't true…but Tsuchiya was still a friend. She wished that Tsuchiya could have been Minegishi's friend too…even their least favorite friend…like how Minori was Mob's least favorite friend.
Everyone had to have a least favorite friend…and Tsuchiya could be Minegishi's.
"Orange soda?" asked Tsuchiya
"I've seen you drink grape." Said Minegishi
"What's wrong with grape?" asked Tsuchiya
"What's right with grape?" asked Minegishi
"Grape soda please and thank you!" said Mukai. She did that thing where she held out her hands like she was asking for something. Mob was glad even though she couldn't give Mukai what she wanted. She was glad that Mukai had cut through whatever that weird atmosphere had been. Mukai deserved two cans of soda for that…but she wasn't allowed to have two more cans or even one more can. Her mom had a point about sugar, it made Mukai crazy, and also Minegishi had a point about sugar being bad for you. They didn't have a healer anymore so they had to take care of themselves now….which meant less sugar….especially for someone as little as Mukai.
"Later Mukai, you get water now…and if you want something sweet then finish your scone." Said Tsuchiya. Mob had gotten Mukai a blueberry scone to be healthy. The berries made it healthy since berries were a plant and plants were good for you. They balanced out all of that sugar and stuff.
Mukai hadn't like it though.
She pushed it away. Minegishi reached over and tore some off. They were looking at their book again now. Mob…well Mukai hadn't wanted it…so she didn't say anything. Even though she wanted to say something. She wanted to tell Minegishi that they needed to at least ask Mukai first…but she had already made it clear that she didn't want it….
But it still would have been nice to ask.
"Hey, she was eating that." Said Tsuchiya
"She didn't want it." Said Minegishi
"She still needs to eat it. She ordered it so she has to eat it." Said Tsuchiya
"That's going to fuck her relationship with food up…and trust me, you do not want her to end up with a fucked up relationship with food." Said Minegishi
"I've seen you eat entire boxes of chocolate in one sitting. You're not one to talk." Said Tsuchiya
"I have my reasons for doing the things I do." Said Minegishi
"Um…please don't fight." Said Mob. She didn't know why they were fighting…and she knew a fight when she heard one. Tsuchiya was an easy person to fight with…but Minegishi still should have known better. Well, ok, they could be kind of mean to people….and sometimes they fought with people for no reason…but they all had to be nice to one another because they were friends. Even if Tsuchiya was going to be Minegishi's least best friend they still had to make an effort to get along with one another.
Though, from the looks of Tsuchiya's aura, Minegishi was on the way to being their least best friend.
"Nobody's fighting. I'm just giving unsolicited parenting advice, that's all." said Minegishi
"Exactly. Unsolicited advice…which I will be ignoring. Mukai, come on, you have to finish this. You ordered it so you're going to eat it." Said Tsuchiya as she pushed the scone closer to Mukai. Mukai…well Mob wasn't that good at reading people but that was the same face dad made when he was grossed out by something…which made sense since Mukai was dad's kid…and stuff.
"Yuck!" said Mukai pointing at her scone. Mob…didn't know what she was complaining about. Sho had caught her trying to peel and eat crayons the other day. Babies…well little kids…were really weird sometimes. She might have been that weird when she had been two. She didn't know. It wasn't like there was anyone that she could have asked. Everyone who knew her when she had been Mukai's age was either banished or had run away….or couldn't remember. Sho couldn't remember back when he'd been one….and she didn't even know why she wanted to ask anyway.
Maybe she should have asked when she had the chance.
Dad had been around for twelve years. In those twelve years she could have asked him what she had been like as a baby. What she had played with. The weird things that she did…if she even did any weird things. It was so weird to think that she had ever been the same age as Mukai…but she had been. Everyone in the world had been Mukai's age at some point…well not the babies. There were some babies in there too with their moms and they were too little to walk and talk and have their hair braided and play with dolls and stuff. One day they would be Mukai's age…and also Mukai would be her age…and she would be dad's age…and then dad would be dead. He would have died without them ever having had made up…but she didn't know if there was even a way that the two of them could make up….because he had done something terrible and she had called him by his given name…and told him to go away forever…and told him that he wasn't her dad anymore….
She…she had been so mean….but he had been mean first…and also Mukai was here….
"Mob? Hey, Mob? I think that's your little friend over there….finally." said Mukai. They pointed over to where a car was parking in a 'no parking zone'. That was Minori. She always made her driver park as close to where they were going to meet up as possible. There were a bunch of cars stopped in the middle of the road behind her…and that hadn't been a nice thing to do at all…but Minori wasn't always the nicest person….
So it was…ok-ish….maybe.
"Little? How old is that girl? She's dressed like a university student." Said Tsuchiya. Mob didn't think that Minori was dressed like a university student. She had never seen a university before or a university student but she knew that students had to wear uniforms and Minori was not wearing anything that could have been called a uniform. She wasn't even wearing clothes….well she had shorts on….
And also a bra…just a bra…a bra with a pretty pattern on it but still a bra.
Mob…did not know where to look. She was a girl and she knew that girls could be naked around other girls and stuff, that was why it was ok for her to take a bath with Mukai but not Sho, so she knew that she shouldn't have been embarrassed to see Minori dressed like that….but she was out in public! She was out in public and she was wearing one of those bras that Minegishi wore sometimes, the ones that didn't have all the lace and stuff like mom's had, and….that was not a shirt…and only boys could walk around without shirts on….
Maybe Minori was only walking around in a bra because it was unfair that boys got to walk around without shirts on but girls didn't.
"She's Mob's age." Said Minegishi. Tsuchiya made a 'huh' sound…and Mob could understand that. Minori looked a lot older than Mob. She knew that she looked like a first grader. She was wearing a Tangled t-shirt, since Minori said that they looked best in purple and pink, and one of her tulle skirts even though it was hot out…but she had the shoes that Minori said made her look older so…that was something. She didn't know. She wished that she could have looked…she didn't know. Minegishi had told her, before, that everyone hated their body and that a big part of the world economy was built on making people unhappy with themselves so they bought clothes and stuff. Mob….she didn't think that she hated her body…
She just didn't always like it.
Mukai was pulling on her own braids now. Mob…well she didn't know what she had thought about her body when she had been Mukai's age…but she hadn't been bothered by it. She hadn't started being bothered by her body until she was…ten? Ten sounded right. When she realized that people looked at her…well one person said that he did…well acted like he did…and that meant that other people could…and she had practically lived in her giant birthday sweater…and then she had started wearing makeup and she met Minori…and she didn't hate her body but…there were a lot of things that she would have changed…and changed back….and then changed again….and changed back….
She still wore an undershirt…and she liked her undershirt…and she wouldn't have walked around in nothing but a bra…but it would have been nice to have had the option….or something.
"She's my age…and she's my friend. I'm her best friend….she's my leas best friend…but she's still one of my best friends….so please be nice." Said Mob
"I'm always nice." Said Minegishi
"I'm sure she's great." Said Tsuchiya. Mob played with her braid. Nice…was not the word she would have used for Minori. Even when she was being nice she was kind of mean…and she hoped that Minori was going to be nice today…she seemed happy…and she had one of those fancy bags that she liked with the logo she said was a good one…and she was smiling as she climbed out of her car…
And also she tripped a little…and maybe that was an omen…or something.
"Shige! Oh my God, what are you wearing?!" asked Minori as she got out of her car. She stumbled a little bit as she started to run. That was because she had on higher sandals than Mob did…and her sandals were pretty high…because Minori had said that they needed to start wearing high heeled wedge sandals because they could make anyone's legs look good. Mob didn't know why her legs needed to look good….but she would do it if Minori asked…
But walking around in just a bra was crossing the line.
"Hi Minori." Said Mob as she got up. Minori ran up and hugged her…and she hugged Minori back…even though it felt kind of weird hugging someone who wasn't wearing a shirt. She didn't know where to put her hands…on the back of her bra…thing? Or on her back? Her shoulders? Mob settled for patting her on the back….
She was sweaty. It was weird.
"Shige, it's been too long…and what in the hell are you wearing? I said summer clothes. Those are not summer clothes." Said Minori as she let Mob go. Mob looked down at what she was wearing. She had just gotten this skirt and the shirt was from last summer…so they were summer clothes….but she knew that they didn't look like everyone else's summer clothes….
"I'm sorry….I've been too busy to get new clothes…but I have the shoes you said to get." Said Mob as she pointed down at her shoes. Mukai looked down at her own shoes.
"Shoes! Sho mama shoes! Over there." said Mukai as she pointed at Mob's shoes. Minegishi clicked their tongue…she didn't know why. They did that sometimes. Minori made that loud squealing noise she made sometimes usually when she found something cute to wear, and that….was a lot louder than Minegishi clicking their tongue.
"Oh…my…God! Is that her! Is that your little sister!? Oh my God she's so cute!" shouted Minori. People were looking…a lot of people. They had been sitting in the outside sitting area…so there were a lot of people walking by….and now they were looking….Mukai didn't seem to mind though.
"Hello!" said Mukai. She tried to stand up on her chair. Tsuchiya reached over and sat her back down. That was dangerous. She fell off of chairs a lot because she liked to do that. So far there had always been someone there to catch her but…well one day there wouldn't be.
"Hi! Hi baby! You're so cute! Oh my god…what happened to your face?" asked Minori as she went over to Mukai…a little too close. Mob held Mukai's hand back with her powers. She liked to pull hair, it was one of her favorite things. She had been about to tell Minori that, for the sake of her hair, she needed to get away…when Minori went and said that. What was wrong with…there was nothing wrong with…oh.
Right. The Scar on her cheek.
"There's nothing wrong with her face you….you know what, we're getting off on the wrong foot. Hi, I'm Tsuchiya, Mukai's mom." Said Tsuchiya. She got up and bowed. Mukai climbed down from her chair and bowed back. Minori bowed back after a moment. Minegishi just turned the page in their book and shook their head.
"Hi, Asagiri Minori, Shige's best friend….um….oh my God I love…um…karate…dragon ball…outfit…cosplay….thing. It's very…practical." Said Minori. Oh. Good. She was being nice. That was good. A lot of the time she was kind of mean…so this was nice…everyone was getting off on the right foot…good. Very good.
"It's called a keikogi….and I love your…belly shirt. The butterflies are very…cute." Said Tsuchiya. Oh, it was a belly shirt…duh. Like princess Jasmine wore in Aladdin…but they weren't in the desert…but it was hot out. Mob was glad that she hadn't said anything. Minori would never have let her live it down if she told her that she had thought that she had left her house in nothing but a bra. Mob wished that she knew what made her so clueless all the time. Even dad wasn't as clueless as she was…and he was dad. Sho and Mukai hadn't inherited the clueless genes either…
Maybe she got it from mom's side of the family.
"Thanks! I had to get this to match the belt. Butterflies are really cool right now….but…orange is in too. Like I bet there's a lot of cute orange stuff around….oh! And we can totally hit up the Skinholic store in Koreatown too and get something for your scar. I might actually have something that can cover it up too…and Shige's little sister's, too." Said Minori. Mob…well she was happy that Minori was trying to be nice and helpful…but also she was maybe being just a little bit rude…but that was ok. Sometimes Mob came off as rude too….so that was ok…and stuff….
"You're always so thoughtful, aren't you Minori?" asked Minegishi. They didn't even look up from their book. They did click their tongue again…and Minori did that squealing thing again…and now Mukai was doing it too. Mob had read on the internet that Mukai coped people because she was still learning how to talk and act and stuff.
"Oh my God! Mine! I didn't even seen you back there! How are you? How's your boyfriend? Still in an open relationship?" asked Minori
"I'm fine, Ryou is fine, and our relationship is better than ever. Go talk to Mob now." Said Minegishi
"Mine, you're so funny! Like, in a deadpan sort of way! I just love you so much!" said Minori. Mob…did not know why she had to shout that…should Mob had been shouting too? Nobody else was shouting…but Minori knew a lot about how to act and stuff. She maybe should have listened to her best friend…well her least best friend….but also she didn't want people to look at her…and also she didn't want Mukai to start shouting too….
But Mukai was going to do that on her own.
"Mine there! Mine over there!" shouted Mukai. Tsuchiya picked her up and tried to get her to drink some water. That was good. Mukai was getting way too excited. When she got too excited she got crazy and when she got crazy it always ended in tears. She either fell or tripped or bumped into things and hurt herself…or she just got really overwhelmed and had a tantrum. That was not how this day was supposed to go. They were supposed to go shopping for clothes and makeup and stuff, especially stuff that Mukai liked like toys and candy, and that all would have been over if Mukai had a tantrum….
Though it would have been nice to go home…
That was not a nice way to think about her least best friend. She needed to be nicer to Minori. She loved all of her friends…even the ones who were kind of mean sometimes. She had been mean enough by not making time to see Minori until now. She had just been so busy. She had been trying to unpack…there was more stuff than there was space in the house but she hadn't known that at first…and also she had to get Mukai used to everyone….and Sho was always kind of a handful…and Shimazaki was always a handful so that didn't leave a lot of hands to go and do things like visit people…plus Minori had been grounded because a bunch of b-words from her class set her up and made her look bad….so really it was both of their faults…
But Mob could be nice now….and she would be nice now…she was being nice right now.
"Um…do you want to go shopping now? We can go to Koreatown now if you want…or we can go to Ginza again…or Omotesando….or um…." Said Mob. What she really wanted to do was go to the Disney Store and get her and Sho some new t-shirts and pajamas. She wanted to get Mukai some costumes, too, since all of Mob's old ones were really worn and also way too big for her…and also going to the big manga store would have been nice…and the used book district for Minegishi…and also wherever Tsuchiya felt like going…
But she also wanted Minori to be happy and not…mean…so it was best to do whatever she wanted to do so she didn't get upset. Sort of like with Mukai.
"Wait, shouldn't we wait for everyone else?" asked Minori. Mob looked around. Everyone was here. Tsuchiya was wiping Mukai's mouth, Minegishi was doing that thing where they pretended to read so that people would leave them alone, and Mob was right there…that was everyone…well she could invite Shibata again but he was off on his own shopping trip. He was looking for a new waffle maker, one as good as his old one, because Shimazaki had tried to make caramel waffles again….by filling the waffle maker with caramels and melting them down until he just had something hard and sharp and burnt…and gross….
"What do you mean? Did you invite more people…because I'm glad that you're making friends but I wish that you had said something first." Said Mob
"No, of fucking course I didn't invite anyone else. I meant shouldn't we wait for your brother and stuff? You know, him and Yakuza guy…and I guess glasses boy to since you've got a thing for him." said Minori
"Minori! Not so loud!" said Mob. Mukai put her finger to her lips and went shush. Tsuchiya looked over at Minegishi. They just shook their head.
"What? You've been into him since you were, like, ten-" said Minori
"I don't like him like that anymore! I told you what happened…and not so loud!" said Mob. She knew that she was surrounded by friends and strangers…but she didn't want to talk about this! It was just…she just…she didn't want people to look at her and know that she had liked a boy…even though people liked each other all the time…it was just…private! Very private!
"Too loud! She too loud, mama!" said Mukai…loudly….loudly enough to be heard by everyone…and now Mob…well she didn't think that the people around her cared….but also she got the feeling that people were paying attention and caring and…and she didn't want people to pay attention to her or care about her or….well she wanted her friends to care about her but….but she just…why did this have to come up now?!
"Oh my God you are such a first grader sometimes….whatever. So your brother and yakuza guy aren't coming?" asked Minori
"No…today they're doing….well I don't know what they're doing but they're not coming." Said Mob. She knew why Sho wasn't coming, he didn't like how Minori always tried to kiss him, and Shimazaki was with Sho because they were best friends. Sho…well he didn't even like girls but Mob wasn't about to go and tell Minori that. Sho's secrets were big and important…to him. Mob didn't care who her little brother was in love with or who he would end up marrying and she didn't know why anyone else would ever care either. Her brother's heart was his own business and anyone who tried to make him feel bad…well they could go and….be somewhere away from her brother….
She didn't know if Minori would make him feel bad about it…but she wasn't going to find out.
"Seriously? You're brother's not coming?" asked Minori
"Um…no. I just said that." Said Mob. She felt bad for Minori, she really did. It must have been really hard to be in love with someone and not have them love you back…and it must have been even worse when the person that you were in love with kissed you and then left. Sho…she didn't understand what he was doing with his life sometimes. He knew that she would love him no matter what…and he knew that dad was gone and nobody else in the group had a single problem with the fact that he liked boys and not girls…and he knew that Mob didn't care who he loved so long as he was happy…but he was still Emmy's boyfriend and he had still kissed Minori before….she didn't understand him one bit. She wished that she could have just taken him and sat him down and told him how much he was hurting people by lying to them like this…mostly Emmy but also Minori since he was the love of her life or something….
But she was just his sister, not his mom, and she didn't get to tell him how to live his life…or fix it for him…even though she really wanted to.
"Really…well come on. We can have fun. We need to get you real clothes and something for your sister's scar…and also toys and that other baby stuff…now come on. Before my dad finds out about…stuff that's been blown way out of proportion." Said Minori. She took Mob's hand…and Mob let her. This was going to be a really fun day…even if it was hot out….and even if Minori wasn't the first person that she would have spent the day with….
Minori was…her least best friend…but they were still friends and this was still going to be a fun day…and if not Minori got grounded a lot so this probably wasn't going to turn into a regular thing.