Little Sis was going to be three soon.

Three years had seemed, before, like a long time. When Sho had been a little kid, like Little Sis was now. She used to be a baby. She used to be little enough that he could hold her with one arm. He could still hold her, now, but it took two arms and his powers. She didn't like it, being carried, because she could walk on her own. Like she was always saying, she was a big girl now. She was a bigger kid than she had been before but she was still little. She was little and he was big…and it was his job to keep her safe.

He had been doing a really bad job of it lately.

She was fine right now, sure. She was with her mom and Shibata probably sleeping or something. She'd had a good day, she had helped him and Fukuda give all of his hamsters a bath. She'd liked that a lot. The hamsters hadn't but that was just how they were. They were little and they didn't know what was best for them. That was the thing about getting older, bigger, you had to take care of the people who were smaller than you.

Like Big Sis had always taken care of him.

"What do you think?" asked Big Sis. Sho looked over the top of his sketchbook. She was on the floor of their room making…something. He wasn't sure, he hadn't been paying attention. He had been too busy working on his battle plan…well battle plan a. He knew how Dad was going to do it, take over the world. He was going to kidnap the Prime Minster and hold him hostage in the Seasoning City Cultural Tower. Then he was going to beat the JSDF and take Japan and then after that the world. So really he had to make sure that Dad never took Japan. If he didn't take Japan then the world would be safe. The best way to stop Dad was to…well to beat him during his address to the world, in front of not only Claw but the whole world. That meant kicking his ass while his guys, the two Fukuda had promised him, kicked everyone else's asses…

It was a work in progress!

"What do I think about what?" asked Sho as he put his sketchbook face down on his bed. She didn't need to see it, if she saw it then she was going to ask questions, and if she asked questions then he was going to have to lie. She loved Dad and she would have done whatever he asked her to, even take over the world. She would always love him, he had always been hers. Mom had been his but she was gone…and he had nobody…nobody but her.

Sort of.

"Do you think that Mukai is going to like this? She still likes popcorn, right?" asked Big Sis. She held up….oh, he knew what that was. One of those big popcorn tin things they used to get all the time, this one with a big and fancy bow thing. Mom had never let them have those, she said that they were a waste of money since you could make popcorn at home. He and big sis used to eat those as meals until they got sick of them…and you could get sick of popcorn. They used to have a whole stack of tins, he used to put his legos and cars and stuff in them. Things that he used to play with when he was little, back when he had been little enough to play with toys. Baby sis was still little enough that she played with toys and liked popcorn from the tin and stuff.

"She ate the popcorn garland off the Christmas tree last year, didn't she?" asked Sho with a shrug.

"Oh yeah, I remember that…Shimazaki helped her, though…he likes popcorn too." Said Big Sis. He didn't care that she mentioned Shimazaki. She didn't like him and he didn't know why Fukuda thought that she did and…and he didn't like Shimazaki anyway. Not like that. They were friends, of course, they always would be but he had someone better than Shimazaki, someone braver…someone who he hadn't seen in so long…

"He likes a lot of stuff." Said Sho. He picked his sketchbook back up and flipped to a different page. She was still looking at him, he could feel it. He flipped to a random page and pretended to draw.

"What's up?" asked Sho

"Nothing." Said Big Sis

"Then what are you looking at me for?" asked Sho

"Are you drawing something for Mukai? For her birthday, I mean." Said Big Sis. Sho didn't know what he was going to get her for her birthday. He knew what day it was…but it was still far away. Valentine's Day was coming before her birthday. Sho had enough to do then. He'd never had a boyfriend on Valentine's Day before….he'd never had a boyfriend before….

He'd been a boyfriend, though.

Valentine's Day was his anniversary. Emmy had been texting him and calling him and emailing him. She was sad, crying sometimes, asking if he still liked her or if she had done something wrong. He didn't know what he was supposed to tell her. He was a liar and cheater. He had no idea how he was supposed to tell her that he had betrayed her in every single way a person could be betrayed. Maybe he just didn't want to say it out loud…or something. Emmy should have just found another boyfriend/fiancée. She was a really nice girl. She liked videogames and she collected cool stuff and she liked climbing trees and looking at baby birds….

She deserved better than him….sometimes he felt like everyone deserved better than him.

"Her birthday isn't for a while." Said Sho. He didn't have a present for her yet. He hadn't even thought up what to get her. It had to be perfect, this was the first birthday she'd ever had with him. He'd never given her a present on her actual birthday before. This was big and…and he had to make it perfect…but he had enough to do as it was.

Rebellion was hard work.

If he had been bigger, stronger, and older then he would have been able to kick Dad's ass on his own. Dad was getting old, Fukuda had even said so. His back hurt a lot and he didn't move as fast, react as fast, as he used to be able to. Sho was still only twelve. If he had been older then he would have just been able to knock Dad down and all of his bones would have broken like glass. That was a big problem that old people had, they were always breaking their hips and backs and stuff. He didn't have time to wait for Dad to become an old person, he didn't have time to grow up. Dad had told them about the new time table, about how they were going to have to do even more heavy recruiting. He wanted to take the world before he was fifty. That was only five years away. If three years wasn't a long time anymore then five years wasn't either. Five years…in five years he would be seventeen. He'd been older and he….he would have been able to take Dad and…and….

And he didn't even know what came next.

He knew that he would have to beat Dad…and maybe kill him. He didn't know if he could kill Dad. He hadn't ever killed anyone before. Shimazaki said that it was easy…for him. He said that when he had been fourteen he had been given his first job, done it, and then he was an official member of his family. Other people had trouble, he had said. Some people had trouble their first time. They freaked out, threw up, couldn't finish the job, or ran away. He called those people a lot of names…names that Sho didn't want to be called. He didn't want…he didn't want to kill Dad…he didn't want to be an orphan. He just wanted this to be over.

He just wanted to draw.

"It's on-" said Big Sis

"I know when my own sister's birthday is!" shouted Sho. He held his sketchbook in both hands, one hand wanted to throw it at her and the other wanted to hold onto it. He stopped himself. She loved him and he loved her and…and he wasn't Dad. Dad punished the people who betrayed them. Sho was a better person. He loved his sister, both of them, and when you loved someone then you didn't throw things at them.

Ever.

"Sho, I never said that you didn't know her birthday. I just…I was just going to say that it feels like it's far away but it's not and…and I don't know where we're going to be next but I just want us to be prepared. I mean it's Mukai's third birthday and…and that's the first one that I remember….that's all." Said Big Sis. The first birthday that Sho could remember was actually Mom's. He remembered being really little and there was this big yellow thing in front of him with fire on top. He remembered trying to touch it but he hadn't been able to. He had just reached over and over and over but nothing happened.

That was all he remembered.

He didn't think that he had been three. He could remember being three. He remembered playing school with Big Sis, because he had been too little to go. He remembered Mom pushing him on the swings even though he'd known how to push himself. He even remembered…he remembered one time when mom had been making dinner, breakfast for dinner, because Dad had been coming home…he remembered being excited that Dad was coming back. He had been little then, little enough and stupid enough to miss Dad…

Little Sis was smarter than him.

"I remember being three, too, and I'm not going to forget her birthday. I just haven't gotten her a present yet. I will, I'm not dumb. I just have a lot of stuff to do…so let me do it." Said Sho

"I…um…." Said Big Sis. She did that thing she did when she wanted to talk to you. She made a bunch of noises and looked at you and stuff. Sho didn't get why Fukuda was always saying that she was a lot like Dad. When Dad wanted to talk to you then he just asked you to explain. He didn't like conversations or making friends…with nice people, anyway. Big Sis was always trying to talk to people, to him, and…and he didn't really…

He didn't know what he wanted.

"What do you want?" asked Sho

"I just wanted to know…are you ok? I mean you've been…we haven't hung out in a while, that's all." said Big Sis

"I didn't want to go to the mall, that's all. Every time I go shopping with you all you do is make me try on clothes even though you know me. I'm a medium and I like green." Said Sho

"There are different kinds of green." Said Big Sis

"I don't care just so long as it's not that throw up green." Said Sho

"I wouldn't make you wear that color….and it's not about the mall. It's about how…how you're always with Fukuda. I mean lately you've been hanging out with him every single day, nearly, and I just…worry. I mean…he's not being mean to you, is he?" asked Big Sis

"Fukuda's not mean to me, he actually likes me." Said Sho

"Oh…that's good. I mean I'm glad that he likes you. He doesn't like me but that's ok. Not everyone is going to like me." Said Big Sis. Sho didn't know why Fukuda didn't like her. He used to be friends with them both, he had known them since they had been born, but for some reason he had this idea in his head that Big Sis was a bad person like Dad was. She wasn't a bad person. She was bossy and annoying but she wasn't bad.

Just because she came from Dad, just because THEY came from Dad, didn't mean that they were destined to be like him.

"Sorry…I sounded like an asshole there. He's an asshole, I know that he is, but we're friends again…ok? So stop worrying about me and worry about popcorn or whatever." Said Sho

"Tell me when he stops being nice to you, ok? I know what it's like when…when he stops liking you." Said Big Sis

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. If Fukuda starts being an asshole to me you'll be the first to know." Said Sho. He didn't know what she thought she was going to do. She couldn't stop Fukuda from being an asshole to her so what did she think that she could do? He…well he knew that it didn't matter. Fukuda was on his side. Fukuda was the only person on his side. Everyone else agreed with what Dad was doing or they were scared of him. Well Sho was just the bravest out of everyone in Claw, that was all. He didn't even need anyone at his side! Not even Big Sis.

But here she was.

She got up and, for a second, he hoped that she was leaving. That she was going back to Serizawa and Hatori's. That she was going to have another all night videogame party with them or whatever. But she wasn't planning on doing anything other than sitting next to him. If they had still been in bunkbeds he could have just kicked the ladder away…he bit his tongue for even thinking something like that. She was his sister. She may have been bossy and she may have been on Dad's side….and the whole thing that happened in Seasoning City, but she was still his sister and she loved him. He loved her back.

Just not enough to tell her what was going on.

He picked up his sketchbook and held it close to his chest. She couldn't see his battle plan. She couldn't know what he had been doing. She was on Dad's side and as much as she loved him he knew that she would run and tell Dad exactly what he was planning. She would have thought that it was for his own good, her telling on him…

When you were older you had to take care of younger people, you had to do things for their own good, the things that you thought were right….but not always the things that actually were right.

"Are you drawing pictures of Shimazaki again?" asked Big Sis

"What? No, why?" asked Sho

"Because you're hiding your sketchbook like you're drawing pictures of him…and that's ok! If you still like him then that's perfectly ok!" said Big Sis

"I don't like him like that anymore." Said Sho. He wasn't lying so he didn't feel bad. He hated lying to her…but once everything was over then he could tell her the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

"Ok….but it would be ok if you did. I mean he doesn't like you back…um…he likes…he likes…" said Big Sis

"He likes Minegishi, I know. One time I even saw them doing it. It's not like it's a big secret." Said Sho. It had hurt, before, thinking about how he would never be able to be with Shimazaki no matter what happened. How he would always be second best to Minegishi of all people. How no matter how much he wanted it nobody would ever love him…that was the old Sho. He had someone who liked him, someone even better than Shimazaki.

"Yeah…and he also…um….hey! What are you drawing, then, that you don't want me to see? Your boyfriend?" asked Big Sis. Sho…had pictures of Ritsu in his sketchbook. He didn't want her to see him. if she knew what he looked like then she might have been able to point him out to Dad and then Ritsu would end up kidnapped…but also she had changed it, tried to, so kids didn't get kidnapped and brainwashed anymore….

She may have come from Dad, and she may have been on his side, but she wasn't a copy of him…not like Fukuda thought, anyway.

"….yeah. Here's….here's….him." said Sho. She pulled his sketchbook away from his chest, turned around, and flipped really fast until he found a rough sketch of Ritsu that he had been working on. It wasn't that good, he had been sad when he started it, and it didn't have any color….but it was good enough to shut her up.

He showed her the sketchbook.

He had expected her to tell him that it was nice, maybe ask him some questions, before she went back to whatever it was that she did. She didn't say that, though, or anything. She just stared. She touched the paper and stared. He didn't get it. It wasn't that bad. She had seen worse from him, she had known him back when he had been a baby scribbling away with big fat crayons, and really she didn't have to be so dramatic.

He closed his sketchbook.

"Yeah, I know it sucks. You don't have to rub it in." said Sho

"No, it was good. I just…he looked familiar, that was all, but I just couldn't remember where I'd seen him before." Said Big Sis

"Probably in the files or whatever. Dad did try to kidnap him after all." said Sho

"Yes…that makes sense, I guess. I mean I just have this feeling…I don't know what it is but I have it….and I don't even know what it means." Said Big Sis

"Maybe it means that you're high again." said Sho with a wave of his hand. She was always either high or drunk. Fukuda said that she did that because she liked to show off how she could do whatever she wanted. He was immune to everything, he didn't know how it made you feel good…but he didn't have to go off and insult her like that. He may have been Dad's age, and looked younger, but he was somehow a grumpier old man.

"I'm not." Said Big Sis

"Maybe it means that you need to get high, then." Said Sho

"Oh…maybe I should. Do you want to smoke with me? I mean a little because of moderation, or…or maybe you're old enough, now, that I don't have to tell you about moderation like before." Said Big Sis. That sounded good, very good, but…but he had work to do.

"Maybe next time." Said Sho. He knew that he was being kind of an asshole but…but he did have work to do. He had to work on his battle plan and his recruitment list and also…also he had to find a present for Little Sis. Something that she would love the most out of all the presents she got. Something that would remind her that her big brother loved her. Something that would make her forgive him for killing…for beating up, Dad. Something like…like a sketchbook of her own…or something even better. It would come to him, he just had to think harder. Just like how….how he was going to beat Dad would come to him too. He just had to think harder, to work harder, to…to be better….

He had to be better, and soon. It was nearly Little Sis's third birthday, she was getting to be old enough to remember things, and he needed her to remember him as the big brother that he wanted to be, not the big brother that he was.