This was the smallest apartment Teru had ever lived in.

He'd stayed in apartments before, when he traveled with his parents, but none had ever been this small. This was a one room. There was a kitchen area, a space for his bed, a space for his desk, a little table, and a TV. His own TV. It was big…kind of too big. He had bought the biggest TV that he could find…and maybe he should have measured first. Every time he opened the bathroom door, the only other room in the apartment, it hit the TV…so he had to be care. He should have measured first. He hadn't thought that he would have ended up living in a space that was this small…but that was his fault. He had forgotten how small things were in Japan.

It was weird being back in Japan again.

Teru was half Japanese. This should not have felt weird. He had spent most of his life in Japan. He had been born in Japan and had only left when he turned ten…when all that stuff with Claw happened. He shouldn't have felt weird. He was in country where he spoke the language and he had grown up and….and this was home. This was more of a home than Berlin had ever been. Berlin had been a place where he and Mutter and Otosan had lived and that was it….and now he actually was home. Maybe this felt like….a place other than home…because he was here…alone. He lived in this apartment alone. Mutter and Otosan were back in Berlin…and this was ok. If anyone asked, of course, he was supposed to say that he lived with his nanny…but he didn't. After what had happened nobody would nanny for him…and that didn't matter anyway. He was twelve. He was too old for a nanny.

Teru was now, officially, old enough to live on his own.

At least that was what Mutter and Otosan had said. He was becoming a man and it was time that he learned how to take care of himself…so that was what he was doing. He was taking care of himself. He was pretty damn good at it too. He had already unpacked all of his stuff, gone to the grocery store, and done a load of laundry. He didn't need Mutter and Otosan, he didn't need a nanny, the only person that Teru needed for himself. He would rely on himself from now on.

His phone chimed.

He rolled over and picked it up. He hadn't been expecting anything…and he wasn't disappointed. His allowance had been deposited into his bank account. Ok, so he didn't totally rely only on himself. Mom and dad sent him money for food and stuff in addition to paying the rent on this place and the bills. He was still only twelve after all. He could live on his own but he couldn't get a job…and he didn't really want one. He didn't know what he wanted to do but he did know that he wanted….well he wanted to….he didn't know what he wanted. He just said that. He certainly didn't want either Mutter or Otosan to have texted him or emailed him or called him….well they had no reason to. They had said all of their goodbyes at the airport.

Really, what else was there to say after that?

That he was sorry that they'd had him for a son? That he was sorry that he had been born the way that he had been born. With powers. He had been born an esper. Mutter and Otosan were normal but Teru had been born an esper….and at first it hadn't been anything…bad. He just had to keep it a secret…and he had…done his best. He could have said that he was sorry for all the times he showed off when he'd been little. He could have told them that he was sorry that he had kept on showing off as he got older. He could have told them that he was sorry that even for all of his showing off he hadn't been able to stop Claw from kidnapping. He….he could have said…he could have said that he was sorry…and he had wanted to. He had wanted to cry and tell them that he was sorry….

But Hanazawa Teruki did not cry.

He was Hanazawa Teruki. He was the…the main character of this story. This movie. If this had been a movie then this would have been the start of his second act. This was one of those sappy coming of age stories. This was the part of the movie where he stopped acting like a little kid and learned how to be a man. So that was what he was going to do. He tossed his phone onto the floor and sat up. He was not sad. He was not homesick. He was fine. He had….he just had to learn how to adult….and he was already adulting the hell out of this!

Really, he had this.

The apartment was clean….well he could always vacuum again….and the dishes had been done….and he had already made a bunch of slow cooker stew so he already had all the meals he needed for the week. He…well what else did adults do? He...well those were the only two things that he could think about…that adults had done for him. Clean up after him and cook for him. He…well he could always….maybe his wardrobe needed rearranging.

He got up.

There. That was something that he could do….back in Berlin he would have had plenty to do. He could have put a football game together or gone shopping or taken some pictures for Instagram or hung out in the park until some cute girls showed up…well he could have done all of that in Japan…but he didn't know anyone…he could have met people. He could have gone out and met people….but it wasn't summer break here yet. It would have been suspicious if there had just been some random kid walking around at noon on a Tuesday. Mutter and Otosan hadn't needed to tell him to keep his head down. This was Seasoning City. This was where it had all started.

This was where Claw was.

There was at least a base here, he knew, he had been taken to it. They had put a bag on his head after they kidnapped him but he knew that they hadn't been driving for long. He had taken a much longer route getting back to the city after he'd escaped, he'd stopped the first car eh could and it happened to be going in the other direction. He had wound up in Lower Back Pain City….and that hadn't been far enough. Mutter and Otosan had found him and then the next thing he knew they were on a plane to Berlin and Japan was behind them…and it had worked out. Well he had noticed people following him but he'd kicked their asses and that had taught them…

Until they sent her.

Shigeko. Suzuki Shigeko. The prettiest girl that he'd ever met. Well…ok. Her skin was kind of bad and she wore too much makeup, and blue was not her color at all, and she was kind of flat…but she was still pretty. Like her eyes and how she acted and stuff. Even her voice was pretty. She…well she must have liked him…and he liked her…and this was a classic Romeo and Juliet story. Very basic. She was the captive daughter of an evil criminal family and he was on the run from them. They were from different worlds and they could never be together. Their romantic trysts happened under the cover of the moon…or rather in the middle of the day under the cover of bushes…well it was always good to subvert genre conventions…and maybe they would keep on getting subverted. He could…well there was no reason that this had to end in tragedy….he could have…well he had entertained thoughts of saving her. of finding that Claw base, breaking in, and carrying her off.

Preferable into the sunset but he would take whatever time of day or night just so long that he was with her.

He could have saved her…if he had been strong enough….and if he hadn't been thinking with his dick. He hadn't been able to help it. She was just so pretty...well mostly pretty….and she had been his first kiss so they had history….and also she had been into it. She had been really into it…well he had pushed her a little too far…but she had been really into it at first. Normally just to kiss a girl you had to take her out at least five times and if you wanted to feel her up then you had to be her boyfriend. He had been plenty of girl's boyfriend….but he wanted to be hers. She was like him. He had never once met a girl that was like him….aside from her…and she would have made a great girlfriend….

And he would have made an amazing boyfriend to her.

And an amazingly well dressed boyfriend too. He didn't have a lot of blue….pink, grey, and lime green had been big this season. He knew how it made him look, how well dressed he was, but really he didn't care. Girls liked it better when you dressed well, smelled good, and did your hair. He did not need guys who hadn't even had their first kiss telling him that he acted like he was gay…and even if he was then there wouldn't have been anything wrong with that. There were criminal organizations holding impossibly nice, sweet, and pretty-ish girls hostage. That was something to be get all upset about. Teru's outfit choices were his own…

And he really needed new clothes.

He had his uniform hanging on the outside of his wardrobe. Dark blue, not a true navy, but a color that did nothing for him. He was a sandy blond, he needed pastels. All the pastels. If this had been a pastel blue then that would have been something else…he was going to have to choose his own middle school. The only elementary school that could have been found for him on this short notice was Sea Salt Elementary school. He didn't know anything about it besides the fact that the uniforms sucked and he didn't need to know anything else besides the fact that the uniforms sucked…maybe something with pink would have been nicer…or purple….that would have been good….

Something flattering.

Dressing nicely was important. Girls liked you better when you dressed nicely and you felt better too. He knew that he never could have stood to be like the other guys his age. Too many guys walked around in stained and torn clothes with dirty faces and sticky fingers…how anyone could have stood to be dirty he would never understand. He hated it. Teru wiped his hands on his pants even though he knew, of course, that there wasn't a speck of anything on them. He couldn't help it. He was never going to be dirty ever again.

He had promised himself.

The worst had been how dirty he had been. Back then…on that day…he'd just….he had been the filthiest he had ever been in his life. He'd been dragged through the woods….and he'd thrown up on himself….and he'd wet his pants…and he hadn't been given a bath or a change of clothes. He was supposed to be left alone until the boss figured out what to do with him…the boss of Claw…the guy who was keeping Shigeko captive. She was his daughter but he'd seen movies like that before. She was like the captive princess and he was the guy who saved her…even though she had saved him. She had saved him and she hadn't even thought…well she hadn't even thought that he'd been gross…even though he'd been covered in pee and dirt and throw up…and he'd smelled so bad…and he'd been so sticky and wet…

She hadn't cared.

She'd saved him. She saved him and she'd kissed him and…and then she stayed. She stayed because she lived there. That was her home. She had Stockholm syndrome or something. She had stayed and…and at least she had warned him again. She had warned him even though it had been dangerous for her…and she had kissed him…and let him feel her up, too, which was a big thing for girls. He couldn't wait until he saved her and then she became his girlfriend. That would have been great. She could have stayed with him and then they could have lived here together and….yeah…it would have been great…

Really great.

He flipped through his clothes. He had arranged them by outfits…but a lot of these pieces could be mixed and matched…but he hated all of them. Really. He hated at least ninety percent of his wardrobe. Otosan had always hated the way he dressed, like a girl he'd said, and Mutter…well she liked to get him football jerseys. That was alright for him to wear, she had said, because boys were supposed to like football and the jerseys were colorful so they were something he liked….of course that ignored the fact that he didn't even follow most of these players or countries….he shook his head. He was all on his own now and he could fill his wardrobe with things he liked…things he looked good in.

Things that girls thought that he looked good in.

Girls dressed for guys so it only made sense that guys dressed for girls. He knew for a fact that girls liked it better when you were clean and dressed nice. Girls were what mattered…well one specific girl but he didn't even know where she was or how he could save her so…well what she didn't know couldn't hurt her. It wasn't like she was his girlfriend yet and she probably had a bunch of guys after her already. She wasn't super pretty but she was nice and she liked to kiss. What was better than a nice girl who liked to kiss? Well when a girl liked to mess around…but she didn't really like that…but that was ok. There was always next time…if there was a next time…

He liked to think that there would be a next time.

That was a game he played sometimes. He flipped through his wardrobe looking for what he could wear if he saw her again. He had been wearing a football t-shirt, at least not a jersey, when he'd met her…and maybe they could have done more if he'd been better dressed. Also he had been sweaty as hell. That had probably been something else that turned her off. She had been really into it before….well of course she had been. He was one hell of a kisser, for one thing, and they were fated to be together….well maybe not the last part. He wasn't a little kid, he knew the difference between movies and reality, but he also knew that art imitated life and shit. So maybe they were fated to be together….stranger things had happened. He could move things without touching them. At this point he would believe anything….

Though not that he would ever look good in orange.

Mutter had gone shopping crazy before she'd sent him away. She'd gotten him what she called 'smart' clothes. Things with buttons and collars…but not cool ones. Things like what otosan would have worn. Well Teru was not a forty something, he was a twelve something, and he was not going to dress like he was going golfing. He could have thrown that away…he took it off the hanger…and he could see the trash can. He could see it across the tiny apartment…and it would have been easy to get up and throw it away….

He didn't even need to get up to throw it away.

He had his powers after all. These powers that he had been born with…blessed with…cursed with. The powers that had had ruined his life…and these powers that made him special. He was the main character here. He was good looking, he had powers, and he had a basic plot structure going on. He was the protagonist here and…and he was the one in charge of his own life. He was like…even this was like anime. That was how it worked in anime, wasn't it? The main character was some guy who lived on his own because his parents were off on business or something. Yeah…he was in charge of his own life…he was the protagonist of his own life…and he could have thrown away this stupid cheddar orange shirt…

He put it back on the hanger.

He maybe could have done something with it later…like in the fall. Orange was a fall color…and if he paired it with a black cardigan and purple pants…straight legged skinny jeans….then he could have looked pretty damn good on Halloween. There were a lot of mixed people here, Halloween was kind of a thing in Seasoning City he remembered, and it would have been a great outfit for a Halloween date…and the football jerseys…well girls loved foreign guys…and he was only half Japanese so that counted as foreign….he didn't need to throw his clothes out….

He could have just…added to his wardrobe.

His allowance had been deposited so…so that was it. He could always go out….it was noon…he had a phone and he was twelve, not one hundred and twelve, he knew how to order things. Ordering clothes…well he knew that he had to measure himself…he had a measuring tape in the junk drawer. There. He had this. He knew what to do…and he would do it. He'd get some new clothes…things in blue…Shigeko seemed to like blue. When they met again he'd look good this time. He'd save her and sweep her off her feet…and bring her here…and they'd stay here together forever…all alone…so maybe it wasn't so bad that he was in this place. He could bring girls here, not just Shigeko but other girls, and…well this was better than the bushes at the park. Of course once he saved Shigeko he would stop with all of that since he was a lot of things but he wasn't a cheater, it wasn't a good look, and he wouldn't have had to anyway because she'd be his girlfriend….and it'd be great….

Even though this was probably the smallest apartment in all of Seasoning City if not the entire country of Japan.