Suzuki Touichirou led a very stressful life.
He was a man with many occupations. Legitimate businessman, illegitimate businessman, cult leader, ESP researcher, and father. He tried to keep all of his roles in perfect balance. That didn't mean giving them equal attention, that would have been asinine, but giving each and every role the attention that it deserved. He wasn't everything at once after all. Right now he was Suzuki Touichirou the illegitimate businessman. Hatori had brought him plenty of money to launder and information to sell. That was all that needed to occupy him right now. He'd made his deals, done his part, and now there was an uneasy peace. He didn't have to do anything other than move some money around, well tell others how to move it around, and then the rest of his day could have been spent recovering from the hell that had been these past few weeks.
That had been the plan, anyway.
"Tell me again, what are your concerns?" asked Suzuki. He looked up over the top of his laptop. Nozomu was lurking in his doorway and clearly troubled. Something about Shigeko…he hadn't been able to listen after he'd mentioned Shigeko. It was best if he didn't think about her, about how she was doing, about how he had left her in charge in Hongkong, about how she had abandoned her post, about how she had taken a plane without even consulting him-
Her right.
She was a woman now and she chose the company she kept and what she did with that company. She was the Vice President of Claw, a title he really should have stripped her of long ago, and she was entitled to go wherever Claw needed her and she was entitled to take whatever mode of transportation she chose…even if it was one of the more expensive planes….well they were all expensive…..how Shigeko chose to hemorrhage Claw's money was not his business…well it was, he was the President but…
But he didn't have the time or mental energy to make it his business.
"I'm just worried that Mob's not in Hongkong like she'd said she'd be and…and she's been posting some stuff online that's kind of got me worried." Said Hatori, his eyes darted to the space between the bed and the floor. Suzuki never slept on futons even when it would have made more sense than an actual bed. You had to put as much space between yourself and the floor, he had said, that was what success felt like. Hatori didn't care about success, not in that case, he just cared about having somewhere to hide when things got bad….
Not that he expected things to go bad.
Suzuki liked him, that was what mattered, and right now….right now he needed to use up every single piece of goodwill he'd ever earned from that guy so he could save Mob….or at least stop her from doing something dumb. Or to at least stop her from something happening to her…he didn't get to hide, not now. He could hide in the bathroom later.
Right now he had to get Suzuki to listen to him.
"She's fine. Shigeko comes and goes as she pleases." Said Suzuki with a wave of his hand. He could have sent Hatori flying out of the room…but Nozomu was a very soft, very weak, man. He would have gotten hurt and then Fukuda would have had to tend to him…and then he would have had to deal with Tadashi…and he didn't want to even breathe the same air as Tadashi right now. He had work to do and he needed a clear head.
He would have thought that Nozomu would have understood that considering the fact that he had just come off of a mission as well.
"But the thing is she's with Shimazaki and-" said Hatori
"Shigeko keeps the company she wants to keep." Said Suzuki. He forced himself to stay calm. Yes, of course he was concerned about her proximity to Shimazaki Ryou…but he did not get a say in who she spent her time with. Her paramours were her business and hers alone.
"But doesn't he make you nervous? I mean he got kicked out of the yakuza, even they didn't want him, because he-" said Hatori
"I am aware of the circumstances that led to Shimazaki Ryou's acquisition. I am aware of his proximity to Shigeko. Please stop telling me things that I already know." Said Suzuki. How could he have forgotten that story. He'd been there when Shimazaki told it. Even he had been able to tell that Shimazaki had crossed so many social boundaries…and also the treason had been worrying as well….and now he was with Shigeko….Shigeko could take care of herself. She could have crushed Shimazaki Ryou like an insect if she had wanted to…oh how he wished she had wanted to.
"But…doesn't it make you nervous? I mean Mob's just a kid and-" said Hatori
"Shigeko is a grown woman and she can manage her own life. I don't involve myself in the private affairs of women, or men for that matter, and you would do well to live by my example. Now if all you've come here to do, Nozomu, is talk to me about my eldest daughter then I'd suggest you leave my room because I am too busy to entertain this right now." Said Suzuki. He had kept his powers under control. He was proud of himself for that. He…he had work to do. He could be proud of himself later. He waved his wrist again and the door behind Nozomu opened up even wider.
Hopefully Suzuki had given him the right hint.
"Touichirou….fine, ok. Whatever." Said Hatori with a sigh. He'd try again later when he was in a better mood. Maybe they could talk about it later that night before they went to sleep, well before Touichirou went to sleep, Hatori never got much sleep when they shared a bed like that…and he got the feeling that he was going to be up all night chained to his phone waiting for Mob to post or send or snap something else that she shouldn't have…
What else could he do?
"Thank you…and congratulations on a successful mission." Said Suzuki. He could see Hatori's aura. He was…not well right now. Praise would help. Praise always helped.
"You're welcome….I guess." Said Hatori. He should have been happy. Touichirou….Suzuki had just told him that he'd done a good job. Like he was…well it didn't matter what he was. What did anything matter when Mob was in danger or at least not a good situation. She was going way too hard and…and like Suzuki said, there was nothing that he could do. Mob, at the end of the day, was her own person. You could ask her to do something, you could get down on your knees and beg, but you couldn't force her to do anything that she didn't want to do. If Suzuki couldn't then neither could Hatori…he hated it, this feeling, like there wasn't anything he could do…
He needed to get out of here.
Touichirou didn't want him in his room? Fine, then Hatori could go to his…he didn't have his own room. There were two rooms here and the other one was Fukuda's….Hatori would rather have slept next to Suzuki while he did that clingy thing where he thought Hatori was his girlfriend or his ex wife or the blonde girl from Galaxy Express. Hatori….was stuck….the kitchen! There shouldn't have been anyone there. They hadn't stayed long enough to buy food and none of them knew how to cook. The kitchen was the perfect place to blow off some steam and maybe talk to Serizawa. Apparently he could speed run Mario, the first one, in four and a half minutes with that flagpole glitch….yeah, that was something worth discussing. Away from Touichirou-
-in the worst room in the house.
"Oh." Said Hatori. So they did have food…and Fukuda did know how to cook. Or at least heat up water for cup noodles. Hatori stopped in his tracks…the kitchen and the living room were pretty much the same room….and he didn't want to hang out with Suzuki…and he definitely didn't want to hang out with Fukuda…
Maybe he could take his chances in the outside world.
"What do you want?" asked Fukuda as Hatori just stood there and stared at him. He didn't need this right now. He'd just gotten off a very stressful mission, and been unsuccessful at another one. Suzuki was ignoring him, very obviously ignoring him, and…and he'd never done that before. Not for this long. There had been times when Suzuki hadn't felt up to talking, times when he'd picked up his Walkman and just zoned out, but…but this was different.
He didn't know what he was going to do if he didn't make progress on the Suzuki front.
He didn't know what Sho was going to do if he didn't start making some progress on the Suzuki front. Sho was Suzuki's only son, that was all that he had going for him, and if Suzuki had a boy then it was game over for Sho. He had to think of Sho…and the world….but mostly Sho. Even if he had been just impossible all day.
Fukuda's phone vibrated. He didn't answer it.
"I was just…aren't you going to get that?" asked Hatori. He didn't have time to think up a lie. The last thing Hatori wanted to do is get into it with Fukuda. Hatori, new Fukuda's opinions on Mob, the weird things he was always thinking about her, and he did not need to be pouring gasoline on this fire. No, he was just going to leave food alone and go... Well, he didn't really have anywhere to go. He could go and stay with the other two, Otsuki and Higashio but he didn't know those guys that well... and maybe it wasn't safe for him to be leaving the room for now.
The mission had been successful…but that didn't mean that he was safe out there on his own.
"None of your business." Said Fukuda. He looked back down at his meal, it tasted like Styrofoam an misery, and pulled his aura in close. He gave off every sign, save for buying an actual sign, that he wanted to be left alone. The last person he wanted to talk to right now was Hatori. The last person that anyone wanted to talk to right now with Hatori.
He just wanted a little post mission peace and quiet….was that really so much to ask?
"Ok, sure, none of my business." Said Hatori as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. He was Hatori Nozomu, everything was his business. He wasn't above a little sneaking, spying, hacking, and generally looking where he was not wanted. He couldn't help it. It was just so interesting, period. The lives people lead, the things they did in the shadows, the things they thought it was OK to do in broad daylight. He took a healthy interest in other people, was that so bad?
He wasn't ever going to actually ask that question out loud.
What he was going to do was see what was so private on Fukuda's phone. Maybe it was something good, like a girlfriend... or a boyfriend? He knew Suzuki, how Suzuki hated to be betrayed... and maybe he would count Fukuda getting a boyfriend as a form of betrayal. Then maybe Fukuda would have been out of the group finally. sure, they needed a healer, but maybe they could just heal on their own or go to doctors... or something...
Hatori didn't know if he was going to find anything quite so terrible on Fukuda's phone.
But he was going to look. The first place he was going to look was in the texts folder...he didn't have to look far. Apparently he had pissed off Sho in some serious way. A way that made Sho throw every single four letter word he knew, and in every single language he spoke, at Fukuda over and over again….Hatori looked up. Fukuda was making a point of ignoring him. Good. He wanted to get ignored. He needed to find the thing, the thing that would get Fukuda ousted from the group, the thing that would make everything around here a hell of a lot more pleasant.
He hadn't had to look far.
"How could you blackmail my sister….?" Muttered Hatori. He blinked. He took off his glasses…that didn't help at all and he didn't know why he thought it would have. He put his glasses back on. That helped…but….but it also didn't! What in the hell was any of this supposed to mean?
"What are you talking about?" asked Fukuda. Hatori was cleaning his glasses now. What, had he seen something scary on his phone? Did he need to be tucked into bed extra tight that night? Did he need the hall light on? Did he-
"What the fuck….you're blackmailing Mob!?" asked Hatori. Sho only had the two sister and Mukai was only three. She didn't even know what blackmail was….but Mob….this was a new low. This was low and…and Hatori should have done more to protect her. There were so many things she posted, snapped, shared….she didn't always think things through. He swore he had seen one pick of her actually snorting coke….damn it, Mob, why did she have to-
No. She…well yeah, she was doing something wrong, but so was Fukuda and he was Touichirou's age….older! He was two weeks older than Suzuki, he had no excuse!
"I am doing no such thing." said Fukuda. How had he…he put his phone in his pocket. Would have helped. Hatori could hack into anything, dig through any file, and he was nosy as hell…damn it…and damn Sho for not being careful. He had told Sho a thousand times before not to share sensitive information so freely like that! Why didn't he ever listen!? Why….ok, ok, he had to stay calm. Right now it was his word against Hatori's and Hatori…he was just a kid. Who would have believed a word he said?
Suzuki would have and he was the only person that mattered.
"Then why did Sho say you did?" asked Hatori
"Sho is just a little boy, he says a lot of things…and why are you snooping through my phone in the first place?" asked Fukuda
"Because I can, now why are you blackmailing-" said Hatori
"I am not blackmailing Shigeko. What can I possibly blackmail her with? Her father approves of everything she does. I don't care what she does or who she does it with…and use your head. Do you really think that she wouldn't have run right to her father the second I tried something like that?" asked Fukuda
"I-" said Hatori
"Because we both know that she would have and we both know that Suzuki wouldn't tolerate something like that…or at least I do. He hates people who don't know their place, people who blackmail his favorite child, and people who don't know to mind their own business." Said Fukuda
"Are you threatening me? Because I wouldn't do that if I were you." Said Hatori. He wasn't a strong man, he had never won a fight in his life, but he didn't have to be strong. He didn't have to be a good fighter, Claw had enough of those anyway. He had other ways….ways that Fukuda had forgotten about. Looking at him it was hard to tell that he and Suzuki were the same age…but talking to him, realizing that he had no idea just the kind of damage that Hatori could do with a swipe of his finger….
"I'm so scared. What are you going to do? Send Suzuki after me? Do you honestly think Touichirou would harm a hair on my head?" asked Fukuda
"He might if he found out that you…." Said Hatori before the world around him slowed to a stop. It wasn't like he was in that brain burst show or anything, nothing that cool, he was just doing a deep dive. He held his phone in his hand and dove his entire aura, his entire self, inside of it. He dove in and used it as a bridge into Fukuda's phone. The whole process took probably milliseconds, or however fast computers processed things. Just diving in and looking around….
Pictures were always a good place to start.
He flipped through pictures of Sho's artwork, Fukuda's cat, shopping lists, interesting clouds….looked like a train fighting an octopus, pictures of Mukai, dick picks, some lady…he flipped backwards. Fukuda had a whole file hidden away on his phone. Hatori starting walking around through it. Porn…a lot of porn. Porn and dick picks…which was why he'd skipped so far past it in the first place. Sandwiched between porn that he'd never wanted to see and what he assumed was Fukuda's…yeah….were pictures of a woman. A brown haired woman….a familiar looking brown haired woman. There she was smiling….making something on the stove…curled up with a cup of tea…sleeping…..
And then there was some black haired lady. He went backwards.
There was….in the picture of the lady at the stove he could see something reflected in the floor. He zoomed in and enhanced, it worked on TV and it worked for him, until he saw…red. That was a lot of red and…and that was in the shape of a person. A little person. When was this taken? Hatori checked….eight years ago…
That was little Sho.
He'd seen pictures of little Sho, really little Sho, Mob had them in her phone. She was a packrat when it came to pictures and…and everything…and so was Fukuda. Hatori knew who that must have been…he jumped into Fukuda's work email and scrolled backwards…yes! There, about seven years ago….back when he'd been new and Suzuki had sent everyone out looking for that woman…the defector….only no, she hadn't been a defector.
That was Suzuki's ex wife.
Masami. He name was…now that he knew her name he knew what to look for…and he found it. A hidden email account…emails from years ago. I miss you…the kids miss you…pictures of Mob and Sho! Wait, did this mean…where did this email lead to? He attempted to send one his own and he followed it…backwards? He felt like he'd been shoved back…
The email address didn't exist.
So either Fukuda was completely insane and sending emails to Suzuki's wife, and she was like his imaginary friend or whatever, or Fukuda had been keeping a big secret all these years. A Tory flip through the emails, it looked bad, it looked more than bad... But she never replied. If these had truly been going to Masami, then they would have been received and read and replied to. Hatori knew moms, he used to have a mom, and moms... moms and just abandoned their kids. If this lady really was Sho's mom…Mob's mom…then how could she have stayed away for this long if she knew where her kids were…unless she didn't want to be found….
Was Fukuda hiding her?
What in the hell had all those pictures been about? What in the hell... he didn't need to know what this was. Hatori knew that he was sitting on gold right here, blackmail, gold, and... and he could have gone running to Suzuki about this... but then it would have been over right then and there. Fukuda…he had a point. Suzuki would never kill him but this was big and…and Hatori….he wasn't going to just…
He had leverage. He was going to use it.
"….have pictures of his wife on your phone?" asked Hatori. Fukuda turned white as a ghost. It went well with his bright green aura. Good. He was right and now he could get Fukuda out of the group and off of…whatever in the hell he thought he was doing to Mob.
"I..I…I…" said Fukuda. He felt weak, period. His life was flashing before his eyes. He thought he was going to throw up, he was in real danger of throwing up, he was going to throw up. He couldn't bring himself to throw up. He just...he just needed more time. He just needed to figure out what he was going to do now. He thought that he had deleted those pictures, He thought those had been deleted years ago, and he knew that he had deleted... Some of them. He had saved his favorites for a later date. For time in his life when he was over Masami. For a time in his life when he didn't need to look at her face. Just to be able to feel something that wasn't abject, despair. Well, that they had come, he had gotten over her, or at least she had stopped occupying his every thought...but he had forgotten her. He had forgotten her and now….
Now he was going to die.
Or maybe he was just overreacting. Maybe….he had confessed. Last Christmas when Suzuki had been drunk enough to proposition him he had spilled it all and Suzuki had been too drunk to believe him. He was sober now, sober and pissed off, and…and he might have actually believed Hatori about this. He might…Fukuda could not throw up right now. He forced his aura down. He forced the contents of his stomach down. He forced himself not to fall down.
He was not going to let Hatori have the upper hand here.
"If you don't want Touichirou to know then-" said Hatori
"Tell him." said Fukuda
"What? Are you high or something? He'll kill you. We both know what he does to traitors." Said Hatori
"Yes, we both know what he does to traitors but we, or at least I, am not a traitor. I've known Touichirou for longer than you've been alive. You think that I didn't know his wife? I lived in Sendai with her, close to her, and we spent a lot of time together. The kids were very accident prone and her health wasn't the best either. We became friends…and you have no proof, nothing to go off of besides what happens in that insane head of yours, to suggest anything else. You're implying that something untoward happened. It didn't." said Fukuda
"Then-then-then why do you have emails too? That's weird as hell, you don't email someone else's girlfriend or-or wife! Why did you even have her email to begin with? And why did you send her so many emails?!"said Hatori
"What? You've never written a letter you never intended to send?" asked Fukuda
"I'm twenty two, I've never written a letter in my life!" said Hatori
"Well then that is very unfortunate. I forget, Hatori-chan, how young you are sometimes. How your mind gets away from you. Don't worry, we'll be back with the others soon and then you and Mukai can visit imagination land together. I bet Touichirou would love to hear all about it, too." Said Fukuda as he kept up his poker face. He wasn't going to break….if he hadn't broken in thirty three years then he wasn't going to break now.
"I….you…fuck you! Just…stay the hell away from Mob and stop blackmailing her! if you don't leave her alone then…then we can both see what Touichirou thinks about you having pictures of his wife and-and weird emails and…and you know he's going to think something crazy because he's always thinking something crazy!" said Hatori. No way….that bastard had an excuse for everything….but Hatori knew what he saw. Fukuda had been scared out of his mind, even now he was scared, Hatori could tell. He wasn't clueless, He knew what that face meant, how terrified Fukuda looked...the way he was sweating...the way it looked like he was about to throw up….Hatori had him.
He had this. He won. Mission accomplished.
"I'm not entirely sure how happy he'd be with you insulting him like that but I'm sure nonetheless that it would be an interesting conversation. Now if you'll excuse I'd like to eat my food in peace. Why don't you go play with your Gameboy or something." Said Fukuda before he sat back down. He pretended to be utterly fascinated by the misery soup he'd made himself. Spicy chicken flavor. Hatori was an idiot, he was just as clueless as Touichirou when it came to these kinds of things. He was a little boy playing big boy games. He was going to lose.
Fukuda was going to be fine.
"It-it's called a 3DS and…and just stay away from Mob. Don't look at her, don't talk to her, don't blackmail her, don't even think about her!" said Hatori before he left the kitchen. He needed space…he needed to put as much space between himself and that bastard as possible. What the fuck…what the fuck was that!? How…ok, so he had an answer for everything….but the ball was still in Hatori's court. He just…he was the one with all the leverage.
Even if Fukuda had an answer for everything none of this looked good.
Hatori had plenty of pictures of Shiori on his phone. If Suzuki ever asked about them then Hatori was going to come clean. Shiori was really hot, really milfy too, and he liked looking at her. That was all. Suzuki would be pissed at him, any guy would be, but it wasn't like he was being shady about it. Not like Fukuda. This whole thing...this whole thing was really shady...
Fukuda was hiding something.
Fukuda had been hiding something. He had been hiding all of this about Suzuki's wife... and this was really fucking shady. Hatori had this, He could keep mobs safe, in the only way he could. So really, this was another mission accomplished. Yeah…that was it. Another mission accomplished. Now he could…playing his 3DS sounded really great right now. Just sitting in his room…well he didn't have a room…well he kind of did…
He went back to Suzuki's room.
"Mind if I hang out in here with you?" asked Hatori as he knocked on the door. This was…not ideal. He knew things…he had underestimated how hard it was to keep a secret like this…but it wasn't like he had anywhere else to go. Besides, it wasn't like he was doing anything that would have gotten him killed. Hit, yes, inured, of course, disliked…well that was worse than death but….
He was fine. Everything was fine…but to make it even more fine he'd be playing his 3DS under the covers with the lights off.
"Are you going to try and get me to pry into Shigeko's life again?" asked Suzuki
"No….no. I know that you're busy and…and I won't bring anything to your attention that I'm not sure about…that I can't handle on my own." said Hatori. He could and would handle this. Mob was practically his little sister and she was worth risking everything. She was worth Suzuki looking at him like that, looking him up and down like he was trying to figure him out…to figure out what was happening in his head….
"Good. Then you may join be….but be quiet. I've had a very stressful day." Said Suzuki. He made room for Hatori…who practically sprinted across the room. Something had scared him…maybe whatever had frightened Tadashi earlier…it probably wasn't important. If it had been then he would have been informed. Not that he wanted to be informed of anything wright now.
His day had been stressful enough already.