Suzuki had no idea that soy sauce could be quite so dangerous.
Of course he wasn't going to be drinking an entire leader of it anytime soon, that was just insanity, But if there was one thing he had learned from his time on this earth, it was that people would do just about anything... and for no good reason too. Apparently eating detergent had come into vogue, as had drinking soy sauce, sticking your hand in an electric sandwich press, and leaning very far off of tall buildings. Suzuki worried, honestly, for the state of today's young people. It hadn't been like this when he had been young…mostly.
He had eaten detergent before.
Not the pod things that Shigeko liked, powdered laundry detergent, and not that much of it. No, the entire process had been very scientific. He and Tadashi had decided to test the limits of Tadashi's healing powers so they went to the emergency room with a box of laundry detergent and a spoon. Tadashi was supposed to bring two spoons but he forgot. Being the leader Suzuki went first. It had tasted vile and almost immediately his stomach had started cramping…but they had learned a very valuable lesson. Tadashi could use his powers to cure poisoning and also the nurses in the emergency room knew his mother and father's phone numbers. Even father's cellular phone.
They'd gone to a different emergency room after that.
The next substance that they tried drinking was dishwashing liquid. The results had been the same, almost immediate stomach cramping and nausea, and Tadashi had still been able to cure the damage. They had tried again once more with furniture spray before mother hid all the household chemicals and father beat him repeatedly with a kendo sword in an effort to knock some sense into him. That hadn't been the end of them eating and drinking strange things, of course, who could have forgotten their many jaunts into the forest to look for hallucinogenic mushrooms. There weren't any period. Plenty of tasty ones, and plenty of ones that would make you bleed from your eyes, and one that made him think he saw death, but nothing that was hallucinogenic in a fun way. There had also been the time with the dead frog, the microwave, and the batteries...
So maybe this new generation wasn't so strange after all.
"I'm so glad to have been born before YouTube." Said Suzuki as he crossed his legs and leaned forward. Just one more video, that was all, and then he was going to bed. He had a big day ahead of him. He would be painting the streets in the blood of his enemies, selling off some unneeded real estate, and also Shiori had been thinking of keeping tropical fish, and the two of them were going to discuss it at length. She knew his opinion on pets, but it was her home, and she did love marine life. She was just concerned about the state of her aquarium. Suzuki knew he had a habit of breaking things on accident so of course Shiori needed some assurance from him that her fish would survive his next visit.
Whenever that would be.
Suzuki didn't know his entire calendar off the top of his head, that was Hatori's job, but he knew that he was going to be extremely busy for the remainder of the summer, and deep into fall as well. This was what the end game looked like. A lot of running around, a lot of fighting, a lot of money changing hands, and a lot of time spent in hotel rooms and on airplanes. It would be worth it once it was over in the world was his. Running the world seemed as though would be a lot easier than taking it over. When he ran the world... everything would be easier... He'd be able to stay in one spot for longer, He be able to spend more time with Shiori, and they could even get going on that son of theirs. Or daughter, it depended on what she wanted. All he wanted was her...
... and maybe to get out of the YouTube rabbit hole.
"Why?" asked Hatori as he shook out the last of the Dorito bag into his mouth. Suzuki made a face and caught the crumbs with his powers.
"Because if there had been a YouTube when I had been a child I know that Tadashi and I would have documented the sheer stupidity we got up to on a daily basis." Said Suzuki as he collected the crumbs and threw them off the side of the bed. Hatori had this compulsion to not only eat orange foods but also to eat them in the bed. Suzuki was close to throwing him out but settled on taking the chip bag away and throwing that out instead. As much as he wanted his bed to himself what he wanted even more was peace at night.
Peace from Tadashi.
Tadashi had been…very forward lately…and it was Suzuki's fault. He was the one who had encouraged this. He knew that he was the person with all of the power here. If he wanted to he could have cast Tadashi out for his impudence. But he didn't want to cast Tadashi out. He wanted Tadashi to stay with him, to be together with him in all things, and in all ways. He wanted to share his bed, his life, with Tadashi….but he knew that it was a bad idea. Shiori said that it was alright as long as it was just for sexual reasons…but all of this went beyond sexual reasons.
There was a sexual component, of course, but also….also a component that he would rather have not thought about.
"Wait…you guys drank liters of soy sauce?" asked Hatori. Wow, Suzuki and Fukuda stupid kids... He could see it. They are already kind like stupid kids. They had weird fights, they played video games, They both had this really weird love... crush... thing happening...yeah, he could see it.
"No, but we did eat various household chemicals and detergents." Said Suzuki. The bed rocked as Hatori leaned in closely…much too closely. Suzuki could feel him breathing…and not in a good way. Not that there was a good way when it came to Hatori. He was, in his own way, handsome. If he brushed his hair and wore better clothing things would have been….well not different. The age gap was just too much, and that was even if he hadn't had Shiori. No, he and Hatori were better off as companions. As friends.
"Wait, there was a tide pod challenge when you were a kid?" asked Hatori
"No, detergent pods had no been invented yet. Tadashi and I ate powdered laundry detergent." Said Suzuki. That should have been the end of it….but Hatori had never been one for reason and logic. Instead of sitting back on his side of the bed, instead of licking the orange powder from his fingers, instead of finding them some new rabbit hole to go down, he just stayed there leaning in much too close.
"But why did you guys eat detergent? It's…detergent." Said Hatori
"Because I wanted to see what the limits of Tadashi's powers were." Said Suzuki simply. What other reason could there have possibly been to eat detergent? It wasn't as if the internet had been anything close to what it was now…and even if it had been he and Tadashi wouldn't have had anything to prove to anyone else.
"So you guys just ate detergent? Then what happened?" asked Hatori as he leaned in closer. This tide pod thing wasn't real, at least he had assumed that it wasn't. If people were eating detergent back when Suzuki and Fukuda had been kids….that could have been a fun way to punish people who pissed him off…
"My mouth burned, my stomach cramped, and I was told that I was lucky to have survived." Said Suzuki with a shrug. What did Hatori think would have happened? It was a poison.
"Well, yeah, you drank detergent." Said Hatori. What did Suzuki think he thought would have happened? It was detergent, it was poisonous, it said so right on the bottle.
"We tried this in the middle of the emergency room. I had taken our deaths into account, the probability of it, and I planned accordingly." Said Suzuki
"I kind of wish you guys had been born when the internet had been invented." Said Hatori with a shake of his head. If they had all been the same age then they could have been great. Suzuki and Fukuda doing crazy things and him recording them…or maybe just him and Suzuki. Fukuda was an asshole now and he probably would have been an asshole back when he'd been Hatori's age too. He didn't know why Suzuki still hung around that guy. He wasn't fun, he never had anything nice to say, and he couldn't take no for an answer. If Hatori had been the one in charge then he would have made Fukuda eat detergent until he agreed to stop being an asshole.
"Why?" asked Suzuki. First of all he had been born after the invention of the internet but that was neither here nor there. If he brought that up then he knew what would happen next, they'd be up all night discussing the history of the internet, and he needed his sleep. So he wouldn't be brining that up, the state of the internet during his childhood, and he also wouldn't be brining up…..well anything related to Tadashi.
"Because you guys were crazy and I think it would have been cool to be your friend. Yours, not Fukuda's. Fuck that guy." Said Hatori. Suzuki shoved him backwards, lightly. Enough to send him back to his side of the bed but not hard enough to send him flying. Enough to get the message across. Don't talk about Fukuda. Or else.
"Hey!" said Hatori as he caught himself. He could have died! Or at least broken his neck or-or-or-
"Yes?" asked Suzuki
"You pushed me!" said Hatori. Ok, fine, maybe he had been a little out of line talking about Fukuda but that didn't mean that Suzuki just got to kill him! They were friends, right? Friends didn't kill friends! That was pretty much the point of friendship!
"Yes. I had to." Said Suzuki
"Why? Because I said fuck Fuk-" said Hatori
"I have warned you time and time and time again about the cursing. If you can't think of a better way to express yourself verbally then I suggest you learn sign language." Said Suzuki. It was the profanity and also…also he didn't want to think about Tadashi. He didn't want to think about how just on the other side of that wall Tadashi was sleeping…how warm he was when he slept…the way his arms felt across Suzuki's body as he pulled him close to his chest. The feel of his breath across the back of Suzuki's neck as he was held tightly…closely…so closely that….
Too closely.
Tadashi never gave him enough space in the bed. He was a bad bedmate. He hogged the bed and the covers and he ran hot and he got up entirely too many times in the night. He alternated between needing water and needing the bathroom. Maybe if he had just watched his liquid consumption then he could have slept in one long unbroken string. He had always been like that, even when they had been young, and it hadn't gotten better with age. Maybe it was better, then, that they didn't share a bed. Also he slept in just his boxers and his legs always woke Suzuki up. The legs of his pajama pants would ride up in the night and then, every so often, he felt the sensation of something long and itchy against him…or he just had the dream where he was being submerged in a tank of live rodents.
He never had those sorts of dreams when he slept next to Hatori.
"Fine, fine, I'll stop…but I don't get why you even care. He's an assho-" said Hatori
"Hatori." Said Suzuki lowly. No. They were not talking about Tadashi…and he was not….he could be, yes, unpleasant, but the times when he was pleasant more than made up for the times when he was…when he made no sense. When he pushed with one hand and pulled with the other. When he tried to crawl into bed with you even though you both knew that it was over and had agreed to never talk about it again…and also the times when he went through your drawers and borrowed your socks without asking…and the times when he moved your things to make room for his own things but then he forgot what it was that he had done with your things…
Tadashi wasn't anywhere near perfect but….but that didn't make him an….he didn't want to talk about Tadashi right now.
"What? He is? Even to you." Said Hatori
"Do you want to sleep outside?" asked Suzuki
"No, of course not….unless you mean camping. I've never been camping before…wait, no, there's mosquitoes out there." Said Hatori. He slapped the back of his neck at just the thought of those bloodsuckers. No way was he going outside, not until mosquito season was gone, but if Suzuki wanted them to….well it wasn't like Hatori had a choice.
"Then I won't hear another word against…then I won't hear another profane word from you." Said Suzuki
"Ok, ok, ok…uh…you want to see what happened to the guy who ate five day old pasta?" asked Hatori quickly. He started scrolling through their recommended. He knew when he was getting too close to the line with Suzuki. It wasn't like Suzuki was going to hurt him or anything, not in a killing him sort of way, but he would push Hatori or slap him or leave him outside to become mosquito food…and that was the last thing he wanted. He needed to get Suzuki off of this, and now!
"Alright…one more and then we're going to bed, and this time I mean it." said Suzuki. He needed to get some sleep. He had a big day ahead of him and he'd just come off of another big day too. He needed to put his onto his pillow, lay on his back, fold his hands, and drift off to sleep. On his own side of the bed. Hatori was still very near to him and….and he did have a tendency to roll over and hold the closest thing to himself when he slept…
Better Hatori than Tadashi.
Better someone he wasn't entangled with sexually and…and possibly romantically. He still didn't know what his true emotions towards Tadashi were, he just knew that they couldn't be exorcised. He knew, he had been trying for most of his life. He had been trying and not even realizing what it was that he had been trying to do. He had feelings for Tadashi and they weren't going away….but there was no reason to feed into them. There was no reason to jeopardize what he had with Shiori. There was no reason to jeopardize his future.
And there was no reason to drink two gallons of grain alcohol in one sitting.
It was comforting, in a way, to know that there were stupider people in the world than he was. To know that other people made mistakes too. He was…he was Suzuki Touichirou, and he was supposed to be above all of this, but…but what he was experiencing right now in terms of his emotional state…it was enough to bring him back down to Earth with the rest of humanity. He was a prodigy, a genius, and the most powerful esper to ever live…but he was still a man. A man who had feelings for another man. A man who had to make a very pragmatic choice, his feelings or his future. A man who had to choose between the love of his….the two great loves of his life. A man who had to be smart enough to pick his future, not his past. A man who had to have the foresight to continue his bloodline. Instead of an heir he'd gotten a nightmare. He had to try again, to get the son he had always deserved. Hatori but better, Hatori but with his blood, and without whatever condition Hatori suffered from that made him so…excitable, at times. His son had been a bust so, of course, another son was a must-
-and another daughter too, perhaps
"It's Mob." Said Hatori as he paused the TV with a blink. Suzuki nodded and then stared down at his phone. That was Shigeko's name glowing across his screen right now. Right, he knew how to read. Shigeko. Nurturing child. He may not have named her but he knew her name…Aia would have been a better name for her, or Maetel….it didn't matter what her name was. That was still the same Shigeko…that was still his eldest child calling him….
What could she have possibly wanted?
A thousand and one nightmare scenarios ramp to his mind, each worse than the one before it. He saw scenarios about fires... death... plagues... mild inconveniences... not so mild inconveniences... everything leading up to an apocalypse! Well…yes, no. Apocalypse scenarios may have been the one step too far. Maybe she had just... been starved for company? Maybe she wanted to speak to him? Maybe...maybe there were too many maybes. Maybe it was he who had been starved for her company. Her company as she had been before... before certain changes had occurred in her life. Before she had become...the person she was now...
A person... He wasn't sure he wanted to speak to...
His phone was still ringing. It was going to ring for thirty seconds, and then it was going to go to voicemail. He never answered this phone, only for Shiori, because Shiori was the only person who called him on this line. Shigeko…something might have been wrong….he needed to answer his phone…but if it was something else about how she felt unloved or how she didn't approve of his life choices then, of course, he didn't want to hear it…
But he had no way of knowing what she wanted.
He hadn't picked up the phone in time. She was probably leaving his voicemail now. He wished that divination had been a more common gift. He had met very few true clairvoyants in his time and even they…well he would have had better luck throwing darts at a newspaper than listening to their predictions. Still, it would have been useful to have one of them beside him now. Someone who could have told him what Shigeko wanted-
-or she could tell him herself.
"It's Mob again." said Hatori
"Yes, I know how to read, thank you." Said Suzuki
"Do you want me to answer it for you?" asked Hatori
"No." said Suzuki
"Then do you want me to hit ignore?" asked Hatori
"No. I am….I am going to see what she wants." Said Suzuki. Two calls, one after another. That wasn't good. There was no way that it could have been anything approaching good. Maybe something had happened to Mukai! The thought makes his heart stop. Maybe something had happened to Sho…he didn't care. Maybe something had happened to Shigeko herself…..
In that case someone was going to die.
He would never know unless he hit talk…so he did. He hit the button and was immediately hit with a barrage of noise. Music of some kind. Loud enough to be heard by the phone speaker but not clear enough to be anything other than a series of incoherent sounds. Electronic shrieks and bumps….words in a language he was having trouble picking up on…what was that? Whatever it was it had failed him.
His Japanese, however, continued to be impeccable.
"Dad! Dad! Dad!" shouted Shigeko. He had to pull his phone away from his ear. She was shouting in an effort to be heard over her music…he didn't know why she didn't just move to a quieter room. It would have been easier on both of them…all three of them. Hatori's aura could be felt, briefly, and then the call went to speakerphone. It wasn't much better.
Shigeko was still shouting.
"Shigeko, yes, I'm here. Now what is it? Has something gone wrong? Where are you?" asked Suzuki
"I'm at a place where I don't know where I am but either way it doesn't matter because I can go wherever I want and I can do whatever I want and you even said so! You told me that I'm an adult and you're an adult and that adults do not…not concentrate themselves with anyone else! So don't concentrate yourself on me and I won't consecrate you and then nobody will be conscripted…contracted…conserved-" said Shigeko. She had switched to English now. Why he did not know. Practice? If she had wanted to practice her English skills then she should have done so with Minegishi or….or one of her other companions…
But not THAT companion.
"Contradicted?" asked…..Shimazaki. Suzuki knew that voice anywhere. It haunted his worst nightmares. Shimazaki Ryou was with his daughter…his clearly intoxicated daughter….
The window grew a web of cracks.
"Contradicted! That's right! Nobody will be contradicted and-" said Shigeko
"Shigeko. No. You called me, first of all, and second of all…second of all what are you doing with Shimazaki Ryou?" asked Suzuki
"We're dancing and also we made sandcastles and a bird took Ryou's sandwich-" said Shigeko
"I let him take it." said Shimazaki. The window shattered. Broken glass rained down upon the room no doubt getting into the carpet to harm him at a later date. Hatori shrieked and pulled the blanket up over his head. Suzuki didn't blame him. Shimazaki Ryou…was not a pleasant man. He was not the company that Shigeko should have been keeping and if Suzuki had been able to do away with him without Shigeko knowing he would have long ago! Long before it ever got to-to-to whatever point they were at right now! And Shimazaki shouldn't have been at any point at all with his daughter!
"But Shimazaki, the sign said-" said Shigeko
"Shigeko. Explain." Said Suzuki through gritted teeth. He had to stay calm before he lost control. If he lost control then he was just going to end up making more work for himself and he already had enough to do as it was.
"Explain? Explain….what do you want me to explain….cats? Do you want me to explain cats? Because me and Ryou saw a bunch of cats in a tree today and we don't have an explication for why they were there but you want an extra…explanation so maybe they just like trees or-" said Shigeko, her words becoming more and more slurred by the second.
"No, Shigeko, I don't want you to explain cats to me. I don't care about cats." Said Suzuki
"Dad! You take that back! Everyone loves cats and…and how could my own dad not like cats? Why are you like this!? What is the matter with you!?" shouted Shigeko
"The matter with me? What is the matter with you?! You know not to speak to me in that manner. I am your father, you are my daughter, and you will show me the proper respect. Am I making myself clear?" asked Suzuki. Shiori liked it when he did this. She wanted him to be able to control the children….his and theirs…but Shigeko was no longer a child. She was a woman, a short woman but a woman, and he had never spoken to a woman like this in his life…guilt. Another emotion that was very difficult to exorcise.
"You…you're mean! That's what you are! You're mean! You're mean to me and you're mean to Sho and…and that's what I called you to explain! I called you to tell you that you're mean and that it makes me sad when you're mean to me and it makes me even sadder when you're mean to Sho and if you start being mean to Mukai too-" said Shigeko
"I would never speak to your younger sister in the way I speak to you. She would never give me cause to speak to her in the way I speak to you." Said Suzuki
"You don't know that!" shouted Shigeko, her voice becoming as distorted as the music around her. He could still hear Shimazaki in the background. His voice was incoherent but there…wherever 'there' was. Shigeko was clearly intoxicated…he needed to hang up the phone. He would, of course, any moment now….as soon as Shigeko was done with whatever she had called him about. He was largely done with her, she was obviously too old to obey him, but…but she was still his daughter. As powerful as she was she was still an intoxicated thirteen year old…and he knew what people were capable of….Shimazaki would protect her, of course, but then who would protect her from Shimazaki?
She didn't want any protection from that man.
He reminded himself…and he hated himself for reminding himself. She wanted to be with him. She wanted to…to spend what little time she had on this world in the presence of Shimazaki Ryou. Because he was attractive and powerful. Anyone could have seen it…what she must have seen in him….what she should have been smarter than to let herself be blinded by….
She was a grown woman now, her paramours were not his concern.
"You want me to hang up? I think that maybe….maybe I should." Said Hatori from under the blanket. He didn't want to look. Suzuki was pissed…but who wouldn't have been if their kid drunk dialed them! Mob…she was a nice kid but she didn't always make good choices….he should have stayed with her. Suzuki had made him come with but…well Mob needed him too. It was hard to remember sometimes that she was just a kid…but maybe he hadn't been trying hard enough. She was in what sounded like a club with who sounded like Shimazaki….Shimazaki who may have had a thing for her….
Hatori was going to be sick…so he had might as well stay under the blanket before he made it all worse.
"You'll do no such thing." Said Suzuki. He had the urge to have her from herself, to drag her here and to tie her to the bedpost so she couldn't escape. She was too young to be out there on her own intoxicated…but she was too old for him to command her. He had been thirteen once before…but he had never been female. When he had been thirteen he had so clearly still been a child. She at thirteen…she was so clearly not a child…
But she was still HIS child.
"I can do whatever I want! You told me so! You said that I could do whatever I want and-and this is what I want to do and you can't stop me. You can't stop me from being here and you can't stop me from being with Shimazaki and…and I can't stop you from being mean to Sho and me and Mukai, probably, when she's my age and I can't stop you from marrying that mean lady and replacing all of us and….and I don't know why you have to be like that! All I ever did was love you….all-all of us ever did was love you…but sometimes it feels like you don't love any of us and when I think about it I just get so sad and…and I don't want to be sad anymore." Said Shigeko. Word salad. One word after another, and then another, and then another. Shigeko wasn't making sense. Of course he still loved her, and Mukai, and Sho…he didn't wish any harm upon Sho. He was going to be grown and out of his household soon, he no longer mattered. Shigeko didn't seem to see it that way. She spoke of love as if it were something that was just…there. As if it wasn't something that you had to work for. As if he would just love her and her siblings no matter what they did.
He couldn't.
He loved Shigeko because of their history together and because she had served him well in the past both in Claw and in their family unit. He loved Mukai because she was a delightful human being. He didn't love Sho because from the moment he had been born he had insisted on making a problem out of himself. First they'd had to filet Masami like a fish just because he had been too stubborn or too stupid to be born in the usual way and then he'd spent his entire childhood as a pest and now….now he had proven that he wanted nothing more out of life than to be a thorn in Suzuki's side. Of course he didn't love Sho…but he loved the other two….
Even Shigeko.
Even though she spoke of things that were none of her business. Even though every word out of her mouth made him want to break down the wall in front of him. Even though this whole exchange had gotten Hatori covering like frightened baby…now he was going to be up all night. They all were. Tadashi was up now, too, thanks to his little outburst. Shigeko….she had caused so much trouble for him…and she was still causing trouble for him….
But for some reason he still loved her.
"You're being ridiculous. Of course I love you. I have no idea why I love you but I know that I do…and I know that I made myself perfectly clear. You do not get to have any kind of an opinion about Shiori and I do not get to have any kind of an opinion about the men you waste your time with. You're your own woman and I am my own man and we exist as separate entities from one another…and that means that we do not become intoxicated and call one another…and especially not at this hour. Have I made myself clear?" asked Suzuki. He waited. The song had changed. Sometimes even faster and more annoying. There wasn't enough space, with the song going, to hear what it was, exactly, that Shimazaki was discussing with his daughter…if Suzuki had been there he would have….
He would have done nothing. Shigeko was no longer his concern.
"You're mean and…and I don't want to talk anymore. I want to have fun. I can do whatever I want and what I want to do is have fun and….and I would have explained cats to you if you had asked! They're really great animals and-and they're man's real best-sorry, second best friend! And…and I want to hang up now so that's what I'm going to do." Said Shigeko before she did just as she predicted she would have. He didn't need a clairvoyant in his employ to know that she had been about to do as she had said and…and this was alright. Shigeko…she could do whatever she wanted to do…just as she'd said. She wanted to be out with Shimazaki doing God only knew what then…then that was perfectly fine.
He didn't get a say anymore.
She was beyond his command and…and if she wanted to get intoxicated then that was fine. That was the nature of children, they grew up and grew away from you. Most children…he pulled the blanket off of Hatori's head. He was such a child sometimes…why couldn't Shigeko have been more like him? She used to be. She used to spend time with him. They used to stay up late into the night watching interesting things on the television together…but those times were over now. They were both adults and they had both…they were both in the process of moving apart…of growing distant….
He threw his phone across the room.
"Put something on." Said Suzuki simply. He faced the television, it had gone back to the home screen. This was Hatori's account. It was mostly people playing games, talking about games, people pulling mean spirited but amusing pranks, people pulling mean spirited and unamusing pranks, and large breasted women holding various objects and looking confused. Shigeko's account was much more pleasant. Cats…which he did not need explained to him…and women of normal proportions explaining cosmetics…people playing the sorts of games they used to play together. It had been so long since they watched a Minecraft tutorial together…
That time was over now.
"Uh…ok, but I just think you should know that Mob was in-" said Hatori
"I don't care." Said Suzuki
"But she was all alone in Osaka with Shimazaki and….and he doesn't have a good record when it comes to his boss's daughters-" said Hatori. He felt like he was going to throw up. Suzuki was pissed, really pissed. He was right there at his line and….and nothing good ever came of pushing him past it but…but this was the kind of thing he needed to hear. Mob was off with Shimazaki. On her own. At a club. Drunk. Ok, yeah, Mob was thirteen and when Hatori had been thirteen he would have killed to have had a girl, any girl, interested in him….but he had been a stupid kid back then! He hadn't known what he had wanted and-and Mob…he trusted her….it was Shimazaki he didn't trust….and with good reason. Hatori could read too and he'd read through everyone's files. He knew what Shimazaki had done and he knew Shimazaki well enough to know that he never learned from his mistakes. He didn't even see them as mistakes….
…and Mob….she wasn't always the smartest person….she didn't always make good choices…..
"I am aware of your concerns. They are mine. Shigeko isn't going to listen to either of us and-and anyway she is perfectly capable of making her own decisions. Now put something on, preferably another grisly medical report, before I make you crawl out that window and sleep outside." Said Suzuki
"But…there's broken glass on the floor." Said Hatori
"I can see that." Said Suzuki
"And we're on the fifth floor." Said Hatori
"I remember." Said Suzuki
"And there are mosquitos out there." said Hatori
"There are mosquitos in here as well. Now either put something on or go outside to sleep. Your choice." Said Suzuki. Hatori, of course, made the right one. All of his children Hatori was the favorite... and he wasn't even Suzuki's blood child. Suzuki had no idea what he had been done to be cursed with two nightmares for children, one of them his blood and one of them a later acquisition. Mukai was still a very good little girl, of course, a delightful person, and the best use of his blood . He loved her very much, but Shigeko... Shigeko was giving responsible for the vast majority of the silver hair on his head. She seemed to be making it her life's mission to drive him insane….he had no idea what he was supposed to do with her….
So he would do nothing.
That was really his only option. Null homotopic. A path if, when taken, was equivalent to staying in one place. No progress would ever be made on he Shigeko front. He….he had been her age once. He knew what it was like to want to take your own path and to be stopped at every turn. He knew what it was like to carry that into manhood…adulthood. He knew what it was like to be a grown man but to still have your mother and father command you as a they would have a child…and he knew how that ended. The last thing he wanted to be was a collection of severed limbs, liters of blood, and various bits of gore scattered across what was their front lawn….if she was even capable of…
He was never going to push her that far.
It hadn't even been a push that had done it. He had simply told Mother and Father his goals for his life, his last year of high school had been coming to a close, and they had torn them all apart. They had told him that he was never going to have the funds and manpower to create a world spanning criminal empire. He was never going to erect a cult of personality around someone as unpersonable as himself. He was never going to take over the world…the world was unrulable. Mother and Father had said all of that and more…and he'd disagreed….
The last thing he remembered was disagreeing.
Then he came too covered in blood and viscera while Tadashi was shaking him back and forth begging to know what had happened. That had been…an event which had happened in his life. An event which he knew better than to trigger. If there was one thing all these years as a father had taught him it was that his own father had left much to be desired. Suzuki was not going to make those mistakes. As painful as it was to watch his child throw her life away…it was her life….and he wasn't even his blood anyway. When he had Maetel it would be different…but he didn't have Maetel now, now did he? He only had the daughter…daughters hat he had…and that was just the facts of the matter. Facts that he did not want to deal with. The only facts he wanted to know were….were the facts of what happened when you ate twenty five silica packets.
Luckily the YouTube rabbit hole could deliver.