So, this was the room where it happened.

'It' Bing a hell of a lot of forgery. It was finally Higashio's time to shine. He had two jobs in Claw, the first of which being helping to build and maintain. The more extreme parts of the bases, and the second of which being forgery. A lot of forgery. There was a surprising amount of forgery in this cult. Birth certificates, death certificates, various passports and forms of identification., building permits, deeds, dispensations from the government, and various other assorted papers that needed to be created. President Suzuki didn't normally have him do these things in person, but after the acquisition of. What had been called 'a hell of a lot of assets' had been acquired and these people needed papers, all sorts of papers. Deeds and permits had to be redone, too.

And it all had to be done soon. Very soon.

"President Suzuki wants all of these done by the end of the day." Said Hatori as he dumped yet another stack of documents on the table in front of him. Osuki have him a sympathetic look from his spot across the table. That was really all that he could do. This was outside of his area of expertise, He knew he would have been no help. The only thing that he could really do was fold himself another fan.

He had a collection of three.

Three that he'd made in the last hour. There really wasn't any reason for him to be there, He didn't really need the bodyguard, but they always travelled together. They were a package deal, Higashio didn't travel without Otsuki and Otsuki didn't work with Higashio. Both written high enough in the echelons to be able to make these demands. Not as high as the kid standing beside him, however, no somehow that kid outranked everyone in the room. That kid in the borderline inappropriate hoodie, he didn't know if it counted as inappropriate if it only showed the girls' faces, and the orange fingertips….the smudged glasses and greasy hair. That kid, somehow, could have had everyone in that room killed….or buried in sand. Whatever he felt like doing to you. That kid…Higashio would have been inclined to believe the rumors if he hadn't known any better. Fukuda swore that Hatori couldn't have possibly been the President's son.

He was inclined to believe Fukuda…even though the rumors made a lot more sense than the actual story did.

"Thanks, I'll get right on that." Said Higashio. First rule of Claw, do not argue unless you were prepared to fight. He wasn't a fighter, never had been, that was Otsuki's department. Higashio was one of the few people in Claw who'd volunteered for the job. Not for the wanton violence, no, he had come here to build a better world. To create something that would last for thousands of lifetimes. Something that would help make sure that nobody ever felt like he did growing up. Something that would make sure that espers everywhere could come out of hiding and become the people they were always meant to be.

Creating that world, though, involved a lot of forgery…so he had better get back to it.

"Did Suzuki tell you to pass along the message? Or do you just not feel like helping?" asked Fukuda. Higashio and Otsuki exchanged pained looked over the stack of papers. That was…not a smart move. They knew that Fukuda was highly ranked, he had helped build this thing from the ground up after all, but to talk that way to the President's new favorite…Fukuda usually would have had more sense than that.

Though Higashio could admit that it had been a while.

"What do you care? You have your own work to do." Said Hatori as he flopped down into his chair. It groaned under his weight, he didn't seem to care. He just leaned back, took a sip from one of his ever present cans of energy drink, and got to work on whatever he had in front of him. It could have been nothing, it could have been industrial sabotage, or it could have been horrors of unspeakable horror. Higashio didn't know and he wasn't about to look.

Unlike Fukuda he knew when to mind his own business.

"I just noticed that you haven't done anything today, that's all." said Fukuda. Higashio decided not to get in the middle of this….and he didn't need Otsuki to shoot him those looks. He knew to mind his own business unless he absolutely had to get involved.

"I did plenty." Said Hatori

"Videogames don't count. Does President Suzuki know that you're planning on passing your work off to someone else? I don't think he'd like that at all." Said Fukuda

"You know what? How about I ask him?" asked Hatori

"That really isn't necessary." Said Higashio quickly. He didn't want to be on President Suzuki's radar any more than he was now. He hadn't done anything that could get him demoted or removed….but it still wasn't safe to attract that man's attention. He had a temper and he could be downright sadistic when you angered him. Hatori too, less violent but more…well he was someone who would have buckets of sand or soda or jello dumped on you for your failures. In some ways it was better, you didn't run the risk of being maimed or seriously injured, but in some ways it was worse. Spending the day covered in either itchy, grainy, coarse, sand or something sticky like soda or jello was never pleasant. He would have been inclined to say that the apple never fell far from the tree…but he knew better than to believe the rumors.

And he knew better, too, than to mouth off when so close to the President and his favorite.

"Hey Touichirou! Hey!" shouted Hatori. He didn't need to shout. This place wasn't so big. Another Claw cell, not the one he came from, much smaller. This cell was pretty much just this building, the apartments inside of it. The Japanese branch supposedly got entire houses. The kid wouldn't have had to yell even if it'd been an entire house. President was right in the next room.

The very next room.

"What is it?" shouted President Suzuki. Higashio instinctively sat up straighter. Otsuki tensed, the paper fan in his hand crinkling. There had been a brightening of his aura there, not a flare but…nothing good. When the President's aura changed it usually meant someone was going to get it…and even if you hadn't done anything you still could have been that someone.

"Fukuda's being an asshole! He called me lazy and said I wasn't helping!" shouted Hatori

"And?" asked President Suzuki

"Make him stop!" said Hatori

"Nozomu, just come here and leave Tada-leave Fukuda alone." Said President Suzuki. Higashio felt his eyebrows rising of their own accord. Otsuki did his best not to react. So everyone was on a given name basis here….Fukuda hadn't said anything about that. Fukuda, apparently, had been mum about may things. That wasn't like him at all. He used to call and complain for hours and hours about the latest insanity in the Suzuki family inner circle. The President's insanity, whatever latest hijinks the kids had been up to, whatever headache the other adults had been causing... It wasn't like food could add be so mom about things.

It also wasn't like him to pick fights.

But then again, they hadn't spent a lot of time together over the years. There were rumors going around that they were getting to their end game now, that it was finally happening, that the President hadn't just been making wild claims all these years to keep their loyalty. They were really going to do it, They were really going to take over the world, and he supposed that world domination was enough to stress anyone out. Plus, there was also the fact that Fukuda was essentially a single father, and to a child that wasn't even his. A child that was nowhere to be seen.

But then again, the kid was at that age now, wasn't he?

A teenager. More stress. He couldn't fault Fukuda for not calling, not texting, and when he did call and text... well, he could be kind of cryptic. He alluded to things that people did not allude to in this organization. Defection mostly. Nobody defected from Claw. The only way a person left Claw was in a body bag, kicking and screaming, or they were just never seen or heard from again. Temporary insanity brought on by stress.

That was all it could have been.

"But then I have to move all of my-" said Hatori

"Nozomu, now." Said President Suzuki. Well that was that. Hatori glared at Fukuda, Fukuda gave him a look that could only have been described as gloating. That was…also not like him. Fukuda usually knew when to hold his cards close to his chest, his true feelings. He was the one who'd taught Higashio and Otsuki how to get ahead in Claw in the first place. Keep your head down, be useful, and never contradict he President even when it sounded like he really needed to be contradicted. The Fukuda he'd known back then never would have picked a fight with the President's favorite….

But that had been more then a decade ago.

"You win this round." Said Hatori as he picked up his laptop. He attempted to balance it in one hand and his drink and snacks in the other…and he wasn't much for the old balancing act it seemed. Higashio decided to earn himself some brownie points with the President's favorite. He picked up two empty soda cans and tore them apart…and then a third one. This had to be sturdy. He didn't make things out of nothing like people said, though it would have been amazing if he had, he just transformed things that were already thee. He could rearrange things on an atomic level, though if he started to think about it like that then it got harder. He didn't need to know what the mechanism by which his powers operated, he just needed them to work.

And work they did.

"Here, Hatori-sama, this might be easier." Said Higashio. Positive attention couldn't hurt, if it cut through the negativity in the atmosphere. He didn't want to move into the upper echelons but he did want to stay where he was. He was friends with Fukuda, it was a well known fact, and the last thing that he needed was to end up paying for Fukuda's mistakes.

"Hey, that does help, thanks…oh, and the end of the day can come whenever. He's really tired and he's about to crash so just look busy and he won't yell at you." Said Hatori. An entire demeanor changed there, His voice got higher and his eyes got wider, It was a little like he was a different person. A nicer person. Maybe the upper echelons were really the nice inviting place where friendship was magic. That vice President Suzuki and her followers insisted that it was.

"Good to know." Said Higashio as Hatori left. He stayed perfectly still until the sound of Hatori's footsteps stopped and a door opened and closed. As soon as that door closed he saw Otsuki relax. His shoulders slumped and his death grip on his fan loosened. Higashio felt for him, he really did. If he was worried then Otsuki was about to lose his mind.

He knew what Hatori had said, that he could take his time, but the last thing he wanted to do was spend more time here, near President Suzuki, than he had to.

"Sorry about him, he's like that all the time." Said Fukuda

"He's alright." Said Higashio. He knew better than to bitch about his superiors. Especially to someone who technically was his superior.

"He's really not. Honestly if I didn't know I'd live through it I'm about to jump off of the roof I swear…" said Fukuda

"You should, anyway, it might be cathartic for you. You seem like you need it." Said Otsuki, quietly. He'd perk back up in a minute. He wasn't the best when it came to new people. Higashio reached over and gave his hand a squeeze. The paper fan crinkled loudly under their combined hands. He felt Fukuda's eyes and aura on him.

He didn't let go.

"I don't need catharsis, I need peace." said Fukuda

"We all need peace." Said Higashio

"It's hard to come by around here." Said Otsuki, more of his usual self coming back into his voice.

"You don't know the half of it." said Fukuda

"What? I admit that Hatori can be kind of annoying but no more than Sho was when you carted him around." Said Otsuki

"Hatori is nothing like Sho. Sho…can be a little much but he's not annoying, disrespectful-" said Fukuda. Higashio knew when it meant when Fukuda got like this. There was a storm brewing there, one that he had no desire to get caught up in. Fukuda was a nice person, but he had developed a mean streak lately, but it was understandable. That was a consequence of the life they lived and the work they did.

"So where is Sho?" asked Higashio

"He's…elsewhere." Said Fukuda. His eyes darted to the side. Higashio nodded and sent a look to Otsuki, he nodded right back. Message received.

"When you see him next give him my best, if he remembers me." Said Otsuki

"You last saw him when he was ten, he remembers you." Said Fukuda

"Sorry. I don't know much about children. I haven't spent much time around them, even when I was a child." Said Otsuki

"So no kids in your future?" asked Fukuda

"Not at the moment, though we're open to the idea." Said Otsuki

"There aren't a lot of child espers in the world and I doubt it would go over well if we adopted a normal child. What about you?" asked Higashio. This was a painfully normal conversation. It seemed that they were getting to that age now, well Fukuda had been past that age. It was easy to mistake Fukuda for being their age. He certainly didn't look like he was pushing fifty, thirty maybe but not fifty. He was well past this point, actually, to be sitting there talking about kids and other such domestic things. Maybe they should have been talking about world domination, forgeries, torture, or other such supervillain types of things.

He preferred the domesticity.

"It's not going to happen…not with the way things are now." Said Fukuda

"You and him still on the rocks?" asked Higashio, a hint of a smile tugging at his mouth. An inside joke, a semi-joke, Fukuda and the President's relationship. It was mostly just a joke, Fukuda having been the old favorite and all of that.

"He and I…I don't even know what we are anymore…but I know he doesn't want me getting into it. Anyway he's not the reason I'm not having kids." Said Fukuda

"I'd imagine it's the distinct lack of female Claw members." Said Otsuki

"No, not that. I just….don't think that I can bring a kid into all of this. The life we live…and the world we're making." Said Fukuda. Higashio knew what he was going to say, and the answer hadn't changed. He liked being alive and he planned on making it to forty-six, Fukuda didn't get to have all the middle aged fun. Otsuki agreed with him, they'd hashed it out until Otsuki agreed with him.

"Fukuda, come on, we've been over this. What you're asking…it's a lot." Said Higashio

"More than a lot." Said Otsuki

"I know, I know, but just think about it. The world isn't great the way it is but…but it could be worse, a lot worse." Said Fukuda

"A lot of things could be a lot worse, like our lives if you don't be quiet about this. He's in the next room and he's already proven that he can hear us from here." Said Otsuki quietly. He was right to fear the President. Fukuda, it seemed, had forgotten that not everyone in Claw had the same privileges that he did. Otsuki had no desire to go back to the hit squad and Higashio had no desire to lose Otsuki. Fukuda didn't have to worry about these things. All of his real attachments were to the Suzuki family. President Suzuki, the son, the woman that….well Higashio hadn't looked too deeply into for is own safety. He had ever tried to purge her given name from his mind it was that unsafe.

"If we yell. I'm not yelling…and either way if I know him, and I do, he's either passed out by now or he and Hatori are neck deep in some game. He's actually pretty easy to distract…getting his attention is the problem." Said Fukuda. Higashio decided he needed to choose his words carefully. It was very tempting to look too deeply into Fukuda's tone. Into the look on his face, the way his aura turned inwards, the way he crossed his arms... It was easy to see him as a scorned lover. The thought was absurd, somewhat absurd, but there might have been some truth in it. Google Dot always spoken of President Suzuki with something that went beyond reverence, something beyond the odd that everybody else in this call spoke of him with, something like warmth and friendship... caring. They had been together for the past three decades, so of course, some kind of a relationship had formed, but what kind was up for the bait.

A debate which he was not about to have right now.

At the bait which did not ever need to be have. Fukuda's private life was his own, and some people were open about themselves and some people were not. Higashio and Otsuki had never hidden who they were, what they were, but they were two very powerful espers in their own right. They could defend themselves if need be. Fukuda... he was more of a support fighter than anything. And he was older too, over a decade older than them, He had come of age in a different time. People weren't so open of difference, back when he had been growing up, not like they were now... Well, the world wasn't exactly an open and accepting place right now... but it was better than it was before.

Not great but not horrible either.

"You broke up?" asked Otsuki. Higashio tapped his foot and shook his head, this was not the time or the place.

"We were never together. We're just friends…very old friends….and I'm getting to the limits of this friendship. He's been a lot lately and it's gotten to the point where I don't want to live this kind of life anymore. I don't know if I can keep this up for much longer." Said Fukuda. It seemed like an odd thing for Fukuda to complain about. He was one of the founding members of Claw. The only person who had been here longer was President Suzuki himself. What did he have to complain about? was second to the president, He very rarely saw heavy combat, and when all of this insanity was over, he was going to have a seat of power. He was on the right side, or perhaps the winning side would have been more accurate. In the coming war, insurgents, or whatever was going to happen when the day came, they were going to win. There was no other way, losing would have meant…well, prison time. There was a big enough stack of forgeries there to get Higashio sent away for the rest of his life…and Fukuda's hands were dirtier than his. Everyone in Claw had dirty hands and no amount of blue glitter soap, why Vice President had switch all the Divisions to that he would never know, wouldn't have been able to wash it all off.

If Claw went down then they all went down…and Higashio couldn't afford to lose everything that he and Otsuki had built together.

"From what I've heard, in Seoul at least, we're in our endgame. Within the next year or so we're projected to have finally gotten enough manpower to begin the next phase." Said Otsuki

"That's what I mean. I just…is this really what the both of you want to do with your lives?" asked Fukuda as he motioned to the table. Higashio shook his head and held Otsuki's hand so much tighter than he had before. He was in danger of cutting off his circulation. Well then it was a good thing that Fukuda was there now wasn't it?

"This is Claw. If we could be elsewhere we would have been." Said Higashio. He had come here to build things, to use his skills for the good of esper kind, to be able to truly be himself. Claw was a place that attracted not only people too damaged, too broken, too ill to live in society but those who society did not care for as well. Higashio had been told, for his entire life, that he was wrong. Wrong for what he could do, wrong for who he loved, wrong even for things as simple as the shape of his nose. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Not just him, no, Otsuki hadn't had the best life either, no, he hadn't been accepted any more than Higashio had.

Claw was the place for them…and that was alright. At least they were doing some kind of good, here, even if it involved committing a lot of very serious crimes.

"I've been involved in worse." Said Otsuki

"But don't you ever….don't you ever think about what your life could have been like if you hadn't joined? Don't you wonder about the person you could have been?" asked Fukuda

"No." said Higashio

"Yes. If I had been anywhere else in the world, involved in anything else, then my life would have been much worse." Said Otsuki

"How? Just…you used to be on the hit squad!" said Fukuda

"If I had been anywhere else in the world then I never would have met Higashio….I never would have met Makkusu." Said Otsuki. Higashio shook his head. He never used his given name and he hated it when other people did. He had no idea what his mother had been thinking. That had been his father's name, what his father's name would have been if he had been Japanese, and Higashio wished that he would have kept it. He didn't need anything from that man.

"And I never would have met you, Ama." Said Higashio. He left the second syllable off. A warning, a playful warning but a warning. He wondered if, in another world, it would have been their stupid names that would have brought them together and not their powers.

"Well, alright, it worked out for you…but it isn't working out for Sho. Or the other kids. I'm not saying this for myself and I'm not doing this for myself. I'm doing this for Sho. Listen…it can't leave this room but the President is…thinking of having another child. Another heir." Said Fukuda

"He's going to….pass over his son? Why?" asked Higashio. It made no sense. First of all the President already had an heir, second of all he was nearly fifty and he looked it, and third of all how had he possibly even found a woman willing to bear his children?

"The line of succession is not our concern." Said Otsuki

"It should be. You've met Sho, you know the problems he has…you know who caused them. It won't go well for him, when he isn't needed anymore. You know what he does with people who aren't useful to him anymore." Said Fukuda

"Sho is…a special case. I mean that's his son." Said Higashio

"And he's going to have another one. Think about it, the world under Suzuki…another one of him. One that didn't have me to temper the worst of his father. The world won't survive. We'll all be worse off and….and I don't know if I can let that happen. This isn't about me, this is about Sho, this is about all the kids, this is about the world. I know you both and I know that both of you are cut from different cloth than the rest of Claw. You've got more sense than the rest of Claw. You've both got actual moral compasses." Said Fukuda. Higashio said nothing. He just let go of Otsuki's hand, sat back in his seat, and got to work. This was crunch time. The day was coming, in as little as a year maybe, and things had to be done. He didn't have a say in it….and he didn't get to think about it either.

Nobody else was doing any building.

That was what Higashio had always wanted to do, build things. President Suzuki was the only one making an effort to actually build something. Sure, the underworld had done a lot for Aspers, If you counted calling their numbers and using them as cannon fodder as something. President Suzuki... Yes, he did use people as cannon fodder... and yes, he did a lot of illegal things... but at least he was trying to make the world a better place for all of Esper kind

And possibly himself.

Another air... that could be a real problem. There was a reason that hereditary monarchies had gone out of style. President Suzuki was not exactly of sound mind, but at least his son could be trusted to lead the world with a little bit of compassion. The son was more... human... than the father. Or maybe President Suzuki had just forgotten how to be human, or maybe it was something that came from being as powerful as he was, Or maybe it had nothing to do with anything and that was just the person fate had made him. Either way, his son. Was a better leader. It seemed than his father would be, but there was no telling with the next heir, or the next. Hereditary monarchies... They did not work... but that was the sort of world that President Suzuki was going to create...

But was it the best sort of world?

He didn't know. He just knew that it was close to the world he wanted to live in. Close enough had usually been good enough... but maybe they were talking about something a little bigger than buying a pair of shoes. Close enough for the world... It might not have been good enough. Fukuda a point, Of course. He had, He knew President Suzuki better than anyone else... and if he had his doubts. Then what did that mean for the rest of them? Did that mean that there was something to doubt?

An if there was...then was defecting really the answer?

Higashio didn't know. He was in the room where it happened, when the highest decisions in Claw were made, but he didn't get a say in those decisions. He didn't get a say in what happened, he just had to make it happen…for better or for wore he had to make it happen. He hadn't even though about the 'for worse' part….he had never been close enough to think about it.

He had never been in the room where it happened, before, and…and he didn't want to be in this room anymore.