Without Dad around it didn't make any sense for Mob to cook dinner.
She didn't really like cooking that much, she only knew how to make a few things, and Sho didn't like what she knew how to make anyway. He didn't like omelets and curry, her two best dishes, and she didn't feel like learning anything new. She was too tired to use her brain tonight. There had been so many people and they'd all asked her for so many things. Things that she'd promised to think about.
She was too tired to think.
She didn't want to think about quarterly earnings, which meant how much money they made, or staffing shortages, which meant that there weren't enough people for the expansions, or where the uprising would be or-or-or even why everyone was so tired of there being apples in the vending machines. There had been a whole meeting about there being apples in the vending machines. She didn't know why there had to be a whole meetings about apples in the vending machines, about how nobody liked them but people stole them anyway, and she didn't want there to be another meeting about vending machines or…or anything! She didn't want to have to use her brain at all for the rest of the night. She didn't want to have to think about anything for the rest of the night. She didn't want to do anything for the rest of the night.
Anything but have dinner with the friends and family she had left.
"This is really good, Shibata. I didn't know that you could make orange chicken at home." Said Mob as she picked up a piece of chicken with her chopsticks. It really was good, though it was sad that Sho couldn't enjoy it. He had to sit over in the doorway inside of a chalk circle. That was the citrus free zone, since Sho would have died if he ate any of the orange chicken. He had plain fried chicken and noodles with a little bit of butter. It wasn't healthy but it made him happy.
And it kept him from getting covered in itchy red bumps, too. That was always good.
"Thanks. Mukai had been asking for it for a while." Said Shibata, shifting in place. The table scratched against the floor…his doing. Minegishi glared at him and held their plate down. He looked away. Tsuchiya gave him a look, a 'get on with it' look. He looked away…and there was Minegishi again…he looked down at his food.
The safest place.
"This is good Panda chicken." Said Mukai as she looked down at her food like Shibata did. It didn't do anything but it sure did taste good. She tried to pick up another piece with her chopsticks…and she didn't need help! She could do this!
Her chicken rolled away.
"It's better than at Panda! I mean…I mean it's less sweet, which is good. I mean I like it." Said Serizawa as he caught Mukai's chicken for her and put it back down onto her plate…where she just pushed it off again. He didn't understand her sometimes, little kids were confusing, but then again so were most people. But that was ok, he loved his friends…the friends that he had left. He knew that he shouldn't have been sad, nobody else was, and also the friends he had left still outnumbered how many friends he'd ever had at any point in his life…
But he was still going to miss Shimazaki and Hatori.
He was going to do his best to take it well. Minegishi was taking it incredibly well and they were his partner…at least he thought that they were. They might have been broken up. He wasn't sure, he didn't want to ask. They didn't look like they were in the mood to answer any questions. They were stabbing at their food just as hard as Mukai was, but they looked twice as mad.
He wasn't sure if the chicken deserved that.
"Needs salt." Said Minegishi as they stabbed a piece of their chicken clean through. It tasted like ashes in their mouth…though maybe Mob's incessant smoking was to blame for that one. They'd barely managed to convince her to put it out at the dinner table. She hadn't been this big into smoking since she'd been ten….though there were worse things that she could have been doing.
Minegishi knew fully well that there were worse things that she could have been doing.
As far as they knew the milk in her glass was just milk, the tobacco in her cigarettes was just tobacco, and the sauce on this chicken was slowly but surely killing her pancreas. She could have been drunk right now, or stoned…which wasn't as bad, or she could have decided to go crazy with the parting gift Ryou had gotten her. There was also the matter of her new 'friend'. Minegishi did not think highly of men their age who went out of their way to spend time with thirteen year old girls.
Semi well adjusted men, that is.
"But…it's orange chicken…it doesn't need salt." Said Serizawa as he rolled his own chicken around on his plate. Maybe he had been wrong to say that. Maybe that hadn't been dinner table conversation at all. Maybe he should have minded his own business. Maybe he should have just shut up for the rest of the meal…Miss Suzuki would have told him, right, if he had done something wrong? But she was tired from work, he could tell by the way her shoulders were slumped and her aura was moving and her eyes had that sleepy look to them. So maybe he had to be the one to figure out, now, if he was saying the wrong thing….
Though with Minegishi it was hard to tell since they always looked kind of mad.
"It's my chicken and I can do what I want with it." Said Minegishi, stabbing a piece clean through with enough force to make their plate move. Serizawa jumped. Good. Sho cursed. Not good. That kid…was it even safe for him to be in here? Fukuda was still missing in action, their money was on some kind of pink salon…or whatever was lower than a pink salon, and Sho was deathly allergic to citrus. The doorway wasn't far enough, he needed his own table in his own house to eat at.
Or maybe some kind of hermetically sealed bubble. A soundproofed one.
"I don't care what you guys do with it, just keep it far away from me." Said Sho as he chewed. He felt itchy….but maybe that was just his brain expecting him to be itchy. Maybe he was going to worry himself into an allergy attack. He hadn't had one of those in years….maybe he was over it now? He didn't want to risk it, not with Fukuda so far away. It wouldn't have been that much of a problem if Shimazaki had been there, he could find anyone in his range.
But Shimazaki was gone, now, for a long time. Hopefully not past his birthday, though, since he always got the best parties.
"Don't worry, Sho, I was careful to avoid any cross contamination." Said Shibata. Tsuchiya was still giving him that look. They had decided, or rather she had decided and he'd given in, that they were telling everyone at once over dinner…but she hadn't said when over dinner. He still had food on his plate and then there was the matter of desert and the dishes and then re-decontaminating the kitchen and then it would probably have been so late that the kids would have gone to bed so…so it could all wait until tomorrow.
Or the next day, even….or the day after that.
"You better have, I don't want to die. I have a fish tank to clean in a week." Said Sho
"Sho's going to die, Mama, over there." Said Mukai, pointing at Sho. If he died then she would give him one of her one ups. She still had a bunch from when they went to Mario World. Sho would be fine. Mama just had to get the one ups from the suitcase. Not the best place to keep things….zippers were hard!
"No he's not, Mukai, see? He has plain chicken and plain noodles with a little bit of butter. He's going to be fine." Said Mob quickly. She didn't think he looked like he was going to die. She remembered when he'd been little, when they both had been little, and he'd eaten the grapefruit…he'd turned red and gotten spots and nearly stopped breathing…he seemed normal now…
But maybe to be safe next time they needed to invite Fukuda too.
"No, Sho's going to die, but I have one ups." Said Mukai
"Mukai, don't say things like that." Said Tsuchiya. At some point she was going to have to explain death to Mukai….among other things. Not now. Now she had enough to deal with. Hiroshi…she had thought that they had been on the same page, but dinner had been going on and on but he hadn't broached the subject…neither of them had…there just hadn't been a chance…
But it was something that had to be done.
"Mama, don't say things like that…now give me a cookie." Said Mukai, holding her hand out. Mama had promised her cookies a long time ago. She had said the things, so where were her cookies?!
"I want a cookie too." Said Sho, holding out his hand. He'd had more than three bites, that was more than enough for the three bites rule…and also he wasn't a little kid anymore and he could decide what he ate and when he ate it.
"But…but dinner isn't over yet." Said Serizawa looking around. He knew that he was a slow eater but…but everyone else had food on their plates, too. Miss Suzuki included…he would be done whenever she was done. That seemed like the safest thing to do.
"It is for me." Said Minegishi, pushing their plate away. They'd had enough. They needed to lay down and wait for tomorrow to happen. There was probably going to be a part two to the truly riveting vending machine meetings they'd sat through today.
"I'm done, give me cookies!" said Mukai, slamming her hands on the table.
"Mukai, you can have cookies, and so can Sho, but after you finish eating. You need more real food and less cookies and I even don't think that we have any more left in either of our houses." Said Mob
"Shimazaki took them all when he left. He'd better replace those when he comes back." Said Sho
"If he comes back." Muttered Minegishi. They didn't know or care if Ryou was coming back. It wasn't like he'd left in anything other than disgrace. He'd broken their trust…he'd never lied, they'd just misplaced their trust…but still, he'd crossed a line! He'd crossed…he'd made it perfectly clear that it was a line that he was planning on crossing someday…they had just been…they had just saw what they wanted to see…
It didn't matter now. Ryou was gone.
"If?!" gasped out Serizawa. Shimazaki wasn't….he wasn't coming back? Ever? But…but they were friends. Friends didn't just leave…not unless they got sick of you. Not unless you were a bad friend first. Not unless…had he done something? Or maybe it was just…just because of all the fighting or…or…
He felt Miss Suzuki's aura on his.
"No, not if, when. He's just doing some mission or something for Dad. He'll be back. He always comes back." Said Sho, rolling his eyes. Serizawa was always so over dramatic.
"He'd better not come back if he knows what's good for him." Said Minegishi, stabbing at their plate. Mob gasped and turned her attention to them….and she had better not have been about to say what they thought she was about to say.
"Minegishi…I'm sorry. Please don't be mad at-" said Mob
"Mob, I swear to God if you accuse me of being mad at you one more time…" said Minegishi
"What-what are you going to do? I mean it's none of my business-" said Serizawa
"You're right, it's not. Now just shut up and eat. No more talking about Ryou. If he comes back then he comes back and if he doesn't then he doesn't. I don't care." Said Minegishi
"Well, I do." Said Sho. Shimazaki may have been more of a coward than he had ever imagined but he was still his friend…sure the 'being in love with Big Sis thing was weird' but…but it wasn't like Sho was ever going to stop being his friend.
"Um…so…we should make cookies tomorrow. Lots and lots of cookies. We can make chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies and the kind with M&Ms in them and…um…" said Mob. Nothing good was going to come from talking about Shimazaki. If they talked about him then the conversation could turn to her and how she'd messed up and…and it was nobody's business but her own! And…and Minegishi was mad enough at her as it was…
"We make jellybean cookies tomorrow. I'll help. Mama help too." Said Mukai. Tomorrow was going to be fun. Maybe Caterpillars and Hatori and Ryou would be back tomorrow and then they could all help and then she could eat all of the cookies.
"Tomorrow…listen, there's something that I've been meaning to talk to you and Sho about." Said Tsuchiya. All eyes were on her…she could do this. She knew that this wasn't going to be easy but nothing worth doing came easy. Mom and Dad had told her that.
"I told you I don't know how those hamsters got in your shoes." Said Sho, kicking the wall. He hadn't noticed that Mukai had stolen some and it wasn't his fault that hamsters liked hanging out in shoes! And he hadn't done it on purpose! Why would he have put his own hamsters into someone's shoes where they could have gotten stepped on and killed.
"No, not that…but maybe they shouldn't be free range when there's a cat around…but that's not important right now. Tomorrow…listen, tomorrow Mukai, Hiroshi, and I are going to be leaving for…for the Seventh Division." Said Tsuchiya. She took a deep breath, held it for four, and then exhaled. There. It was out there.
"This can only end well…" muttered Minegishi under their breath. Now? Really? She was going to start this right now after the day they'd had…what did she even think about happen? The kids would say their goodbyes and then she would be free to go. Minegishi knew Mob, and to a lesser extent Sho, better than that. These kids didn't need any more loss in their lives.
"Hey, take me with you…but don't ask me why and don't ask me where I'm going to go or what I'm going to do." Said Sho. Ritsu…he hadn't seen Ritsu in so long and…and now he could. He stayed calm. He couldn't let anyone see him this happy. Everyone was always so nosy…nobody could know about Ritsu. Nobody but Big Sis…and even her knowing was kind of a lot.
"I'll watch your hamsters while you're gone but…but I don't know what to do for your fish. I'm sorry, I just never took care of fish before. You didn't have them the last time I was the pet sitter and I never had pets growing up and-" said Serizawa
"It's ok, Serizawa, I'm sure that Sho can send you directions and I can help if you get too overwhelmed." Said Mob. She patted Serizawa's aura with hers. She hadn't been a very good friend to him today, not at all. Tomorrow she would take him with. She had already lost two of her friends. She wasn't going to lose another one.
"But…but you're going to be busy with work." Said Serizawa. He didn't know if he could have been that selfish. Friends could leave, he knew that now, and he had no idea what he would have done without her…she had saved him in every way a person could be saved…so she could un-save him too.
"I could never be too busy for you." Said Mob. She only had so many friends left. Friends could leave…they hadn't asked to leave, so that was good, but also not good and…and all she could do was make the most of the time she had left with them….they could be taken away from her at any time…
The room was too small.
"Hang on, I've got to get more fish food. I only have enough for a few weeks…and we've got to stay for longer! But don't ask me why or what I'll be doing!" said Sho. This was way too soon! He still had so much to do and…and he would figure it out. He had to…to figure it out. If it came down to Ritsu or his pets…well he was going to pick Ritsu….but that didn't mean that he was going to be a dickhole to his pets.
"Well now I want to ask you where you'll be going and what you'll be doing." Said Minegishi. They didn't mean it, not really, although that was incredibly suspicious…whatever. They had enough to deal with already. They didn't need to add another kid to the mix.
"Well don't because I'm not going to tell you. You need to mind your own business." Sho
"Nobody's going to ask you any personal questions, don't worry. Don't worry about the fish either. Me and Serizawa can watch them for a few weeks…but try to come back for Halloween. I want to take us all to Disneyland for Halloween, the whole HQ. My new friend Joseph hasn't ever been and-" said Mob
"Shigeko, Sho, it's…it's not going to be a short visit." Said Tsuchiya. She needed to come out with it…but she also needed to ease them into it. This had been so much simpler in her head. Telling the kids…and they needed to be told. She wasn't just going to run away with Mukai. They had been through enough of that in their lifetimes.
"So you're going to miss Halloween?" asked Mob. Well that was…she had plans. She was going to make the whole Tokyo HQ into a haunted house but one that wasn't very scary so Mukai could go in…and she had been planning on serving all the candy she liked…it would have been her first Halloween. The first one that she would remember….
But there was always the Christmas party.
"What Tsuchiya is trying to say is…sorry, sorry. I'm not good at this kind of thing." Said Shibata. He couldn't do it. He couldn't look them in those big eyes of theirs and tell them that their family was getting torn apart. Tsuchiya had said, so many times, that this would be best for Mukai and the kids would deal with it but…but it was like before. He had been there the first time they'd lost their sister…
There had been so much crying…so many tears in those big eyes of theirs.
"At what kind of thing?" asked Mob. If he was talking about the food it was good. Maybe next time he would make something that Sho could eat without dying.
"Making chicken? Yeah, you're not. Who the hell puts orange in chicken? Oranges are evil." Said Sho
"No, oranges are annoying." Said Mukai
"We can watch the annoying orange show if you want when you come back…when is that going to be? Because I was thinking of throwing a Christmas party too and I would like it if you guys came…and also it would be weird to celebrate Christmas without my brother and sister and most of my friends." Said Mob
"Shigeko, we aren't coming back." Said Tsuchiya, biting the bullet…and then her plate. The second she finished speaking the entire table flew right up to the ceiling…that hadn't gone well.
"Sorry! Sorry! It just sounded like you said that you were never coming back and I got scared. Sorry everyone…I really am." Said Mob as she put the table down. She tried to keep it steady…so many of the plates had broken…there was water and sauce everywhere…why was she always messing up?!
"You could have killed me!" said Sho as he pointed to the fork sticking out of the wall beside his head. There was orange sauce on that! And all over the floor, too! He was getting itchy…he lifted his shirt and looked down at his stomach…was he getting spots? Or was he freaking himself out? Or was she freaking him out?
"I really am sorry! It just sounded like-" said Mob as she put the table back down where it belonged. She needed to stop listening to loud music. She liked let it go but not if it was the last thing she ever heard!
"Sho, Shigeko…you heard right. We aren't coming back. Your Dad already gave us permission and-" said Tsuchiya. Appeal to her respect for her father? Sho hated the man but Shigeko generally listened. Maybe this would work…hopefully this would work.
"Dad isn't here anymore. I'm the one in charge." Said Mob. No. Dad didn't get to take Mukai away. She could understand taking her friends away, everyone had to do their part to help make Claw stronger, but Mukai wasn't a member of Claw. She was a member of the family and their family was not going to be any more broken than it was.
End of discussion.
"Your Dad still said-" said Tsuchiya
"I don't care what Dad said. He did this to me, to us, once before. It's not going to happen again. You aren't going to take our sister away. Who wants milk?" asked Mob. She pushed her way away from the table and sat up. Her chair scratched the floor…now there were long gashes in the tile…she could have that fixed. She could even have a whole new floor put in or….or a new floor for every room of the house…or a whole new floor for the house all together. She was…she was the one in charge here and…and….
And she needed milk.
"Shigeko-" said Tsuchiya, reached out towards her. The refrigerator door swung opened and hit the wall. Some plaster came away. Tsuchiya put her hand down.
"I asked if anyone wanted milk." Said Mob. She looked at everyone. They looked away. Fine then, more milk for her.
"That's all you, Mob." Said Minegishi. They weren't going to say anything else. They knew better than to poke that wasp's nest. Mob's aura was bright, it was flaring, and Mob herself…well she was forcing herself to be calm. She was shaking where she stood, they could tell. Her shoulders were hunched. Her hands were shaky…even her telekinesis was.
She didn't drop the bottle, though.
She pulled the milk out of the fridge and a bottle of rum from the freezer….they weren't going to say anything. Not about Mob's drinking. Not about the truly disgusting drink that she was making herself. Not about the fact that she shouldn't have even been….that ship had sailed long ago…and anyway Mob had earned this. She ran Claw, she ran her family, and she had just learned that her family was about to be fractured even more than it already was.
They wondered if Mob knew about the vodka they'd hidden under the sink.
"How was everyone's day? Sho, did your hamsters have their babies yet? Serizawa, did you ever end up speed running that Zelda game? Minegishi, did you read anything interesting? Shibata did you…um…I know what you did today. Mukai, did you-" asked Mob as she sat down and filled her glass with half milk and half rum….it burnt going down…but that was the good kind of burning. The kind that made her feel warm on the inside in a good way…not cold like Tsuchiya had made her feel…
It was over now.
"Shigeko this is serious. Please, put the bottle down and listen." Said Tsuchiya, her entire body heavy. This was….this was not what she wanted for Mukai. It was like looking into the future, it was like she had taken her time machine to the edge of time and instead of finding a society of underground cannibals she'd found Mukai sitting there, at the age of thirteen, making herself a drink…
Tsuchiya would have preferred the cannibals.
"I'm not ignoring you. That would be mean. I don't like to be mean…even though you were mean first. That wasn't very nice, you know, acting like you were going to take Mukai from me and Sho." Said Mob After she took another drink. Tsuchiya was being mean and…and that was just how it went when you had friends…sometimes you fought but that was ok. Shimazaki had been mean to everyone but he'd been their friend for years. This was just…maybe Tsuchiya was trying to be Shimazaki? But then who would be Tsuchiya? But then who…who would…she just…that didn't even make any sense…
She took another drink.
"That's betrayer talk." Said Sho, glaring at Tsuchiya. He liked her a lot but…but if she was going to betray him then he was going to do…to do something….to do something bad…but not bad like what Dad did to people but…but she was not going to take his little sister from him! Not again!
"I'm not betraying anyone! I just think that it would be better for Mukai to come back to the Seventh Division with us. I'm her mother-" said Tsuchiya
"And I'm her sister." Said Mob
"-and what I say goes. This place…this isn't a good place for her to grow up. She needs to go back to a familiar place-" said Tsuchiya
"She can't even remember where she left her phone half the time, you think that she can remember a while Division?" asked Sho
"-and she needs to be around familiar people-" said Tsuchiya
"Who's more familiar than her own brother and sister?" asked Sho
"-and she needs to be in a place where she can be happy and grow up healthy and…and….Hiroshi, a little help here?" asked Tsuchiya
"Well…uh…if the kids are really against this then…uh….maybe…hey, you know what we haven't done in a while? Had dinner and show. I'll carry the TV in and then we can pick a movie-" said Shibata, rubbing the back of his head. Tsuchiya rolled her eyes and scoffed at him…he deserved it. He had…well he had tried…it hadn't been good enough but at least he'd tried.
"Train to Busan!" said Mukai. This was the best night ever! First Panda chicken and then table wars and now movie night! If only everyone were here, then it would have been even more better and perfect.
"Anything but Frozen." Said Minegishi. That was just the thing to turn their headache into a migraine…or maybe that was happening on it's own.
"The thing where they get the guys and sew them together so they share a digestive system and-" said Sho. That was just the first movie that came to mind. They just…they had to watch something…they had to stop fighting and…and then everything could go back to normal…as normal as things could be right now….
"Anything but THAT." Said Minegishi with a shudder. They would rather have watched Frozen again, or that Busan thing, or…or even the fight that was growing. If any of the Suzuki kids needed to be saved from their circumstances it was Sho.
"I'll get the deciding hat." Said Mob, pushing her chair away from the table. There. Now they had a plan. Now they could never talk about this ever again.
"Wait! Shigeko…no. No movie nights. We're talking about this. I love you and I love Sho but I want…I want better for Mukai. What happened to you both isn't your fault. It isn't. You're both great kids but you have some bad habits that I don't want Mukai picking up on and…and I miss the Seventh Division. I miss my old friends and I know that they miss Mukai and I…it would be nice to go back." Said Tsuchiya
"Then take the train and go for a visit. A short one." Said Mob. She was doing the best to keep calm. Conceal, don't feel. It hadn't worked out for Elsa but…but nothing this bad had ever happened to Elsa. Also Elsa wasn't even real….but Mob was. Mob was real and this was real and…and it didn't matter. Mukai wasn't going to leave.
Mob wasn't going to let that happen.
"Shigeko…it isn't going to be for a short visit. This hurts me as much as it hurts you, you know. I love you kids and I wish you could come with me…I wish a lot of things for you…but there are only so many things that I can control. I have to do what's in Mukai's best interests and-" said Tsuchiya
"Nobody is going anywhere, and we're not going to talk about this anymore. Now let's pick a movie." Said Mob. She sounded like Dad. She had always thought that Dad was mean and…and now she got it. Sometimes you had to be mean. Sometimes you had to tell people what to do, to be bossy, to be…to be the person in charge….
She was the one in charge here. She decided where people went. Right now everyone was staying put.
"Mob-" said Minegishi. Mob shook her head and downed some more of that drink. This was…Tsuchiya was going to pay for this. Didn't they have enough to deal with as it was?
"I vote for Frozen." Said Mob as she put her glass down…maybe too hard. Some of the milk sloshed out…she would clean that up later….after movie night. Right now movie night was the most important thing ever.
"Shigeko-" said Tsuchiya. Shigeko glared at her…actually glared….she hadn't even thought Shigeko was capable of glaring.
"If we're not voting then I'll get the deciding hat." Said Mob. She stumbled a little as she started walking away…the floor was just kind of uneven, that was all. She was…she was fine. All of this was over and it was fine.
"Shigeko, we need to talk in private-" said Tsuchiya. She was not…she was not going to let this happen to Mukai. She was going to appeal to…she wasn't sure…her authority? Authority that she shouldn't have had? Authority that…that Tsuchiya had to defer to…that she had to work around. There was no way this was happening to Mukai. She wouldn't let it.
"No, we aren't, and if you try to talk to me about this again then…then I won't be your friend anymore. You can leave if you want, if you want to see your old friends then that's fine, but Mukai stays here. Now everyone, think of a movie idea for the hat." Said Mob. Everyone's aura showed, even Mukai's…maybe she had gone too far…she had never threatened to not be someone's friend anymore. Friendship was forever. The only thing that was more permanent than friendship was family…but friends could leave and family could be broken apart…
Mob wasn't going to let that happen.
She had been ten, only ten, when she had lost Mukai for the first time. Seven when Mom had run away. Not again. She was never going to let her family leave and…and no more of her friends were leaving, either. She didn't care what Dad wanted. She wasn't going to lose anyone else. Things were going to be good from now on. She was going to make sure of it. Nobody was taking her sister away…nobody was taking her friends away.
Dad was gone. He didn't get to make those kinds of choices, orders, anymore.