Shiori was no stranger to being followed.

It came with the job. You couldn't do what she did, live the life she lived, without getting the attention of some other less than savory people. Other esper groups, the yakuza, even the government had come sniffing around a few times. She would have thought that there would have been bigger fish to fry, Touichirou had been working like a dog this year, but it was kind of nice to be a big enough fish to fry…kind of.

It could be pretty damn annoying.

Like now. All she wanted was a freaking bubble tea. That was all. She wasn't going to live her life in fear. She wasn't going to barricade herself in her home and wait for whoever it was that was watching her to get bored and find something else to do. She wasn't going to wait for them to come to her. She could sense…well there were a lot of people she could sense. Some near espers, the most common sort, some actual espers too. Unfamiliar auras. That didn't necessarily mean enemies. Some people were just unaffiliated. Not everyone was caught up in this…she didn't even know. Power struggle?

Power struggle seemed right.

Once you had power you struggled to hold onto it and if you didn't have power you struggled to get it. That was how their world worked. There were some espers who had opted out of their world. Weak ones, nearly powerless ones, powerful ones with useless gifts, powerful ones who had managed to fly under the radar…there were a lot of espers in the world and there was no telling that, here, these espers were following her.

Though she knew that she was being followed.

At the edges of her perceptions, the very end of her aural range, she could feel…something. Another espers, a powerful one. Not as powerful as Touichirou and his children, nowhere near that, but something that she needed to watch out for. In addition to whoever that was she was sure that she was being stared at. There was a man who had been following her. She knew what it meant when someone was following her, when she saw the same stranger on the same routes she took every single day, when someone sat down at a table at an outdoor bubble tea stand and didn't buy a drink. Whoever this man was he was an amateur.

Shiori was not.

She knew how to tail someone. Jodo was as peaceful of a man as he liked people to think. He had plenty of enemies, a person couldn't control a place like Cuticle City without getting their hands dirty, and he'd lived a very long time. They said that he was a hundred years old, some people said older. You didn't make it to fifty in their business unless you were prepared to let go of certain scruples and do some things that most people would find objectionable…or have your underlings do it for you. Underlings that left you…

That wasn't Jodo's work.

She had done Jodo's work. He never would have let someone be so…so amateur. She was being stared at now. Honestly! You never watched the person you were supposed to be tailing. This was…unless this was a distraction. She'd had that close call a little while back…but this wasn't the same people. She knew what their auras had felt like. The ones with auras. This was…that was barely an aura…it was unfamiliar. It could have been nothing, it could have been a trap, and there was no way of knowing.

Unless she did something.

She finished the last of her bubble tea, avocado strawberry had been a mistake she was never making again, and got up. She left the container there. If she threw it out she would have had to pass by her stalker. She didn't feel like getting into it here. This was the only bubble tea place near work worth going to. She was not going back to the golden dragon, they never put in enough boba. What was the point of bubble tea without boba? At that point she might as well as have just made a smoothy at home. It was not going to come to that. She was not going to lose this place.

She was not going to let someone else run her life.

She was never living like that again. She was never going to let someone else tell her what to do or where to go or how to be. She was Sakata Shiori and she was going to live her life that way she wanted to. If someone had a problem with her then they could come out and do something about it…and if someone decided that they were going to come after her than they needed to get on with it already. She had a full day to get back to and then another one tomorrow and then the same thing so on and so forth until the day she died.

Which was not going to be today.

The first thing she had to do was get out of the crowd. Anonymity was something that she just could not lose. If she got noticed then she could kiss everything goodbye. The government had been blundering their way through some kind of crack down. Organized crime this time. Protecting the people or whatever. They, of course, forgot the basic fact that espers were not normal people and their conflicts rarely spilled out into the world of normal people. They had their own world and espers had theirs. Shiori certainly didn't want anything to do with normal people.

Actually right now she didn't want anything to do with anyone.

She needed to end this. She made sure she walked away from the crowd. She didn't need eyes on her, eyes or security cameras. Goddamned things were everywhere. It was a semi-secret, that people like her existed. So far very few people even believed that espers existed. It was good for her, of course, nobody could suspect her of doing the impossible if it was, in fact, impossible. In some ways bad, too. Nobody wanted to be the moron who let the cat out of the bag.

Nobody but Touichirou, that is.

He had better have had some kind of contingency plan if his grand reveal and bid for the world went pear shaped, which it most likely would. Espers already didn't get along with each other let alone normal people, so she had no idea what he thought he was going to end up accomplishing. Hopefully he knew what he was doing. Hopefully he wasn't going to end up painting a target on her head when whatever he was planning imploded…any more of a target on her head than he already had.

She got the feeling that this may have been his fault.

She slowed down. Her stalker slowed down. If these people were really after Touichirou then she wished them the best. Amateurs. Sloppy amateurs. If these morons were really planning on using her to get to Touichirou then…well then they were going to pay. She balled her hands into fists. She wasn't going to lose control. She was just angry about…she didn't know what she was so angry about. That she was being stalked, that she was being stalked badly, that the only reason someone was coming after her was to get to Touichirou….she didn't know what she was so angry about…

But she knew who she was going to take it out on.

She turned around…and nearly fell flat on her back. Something felt…wrong. The energy around her had shifted, no, disappeared. It felt like there was a…vacuum? Like someone had opened a window on a plane or something. Her own energy was pulled forwards towards…towards some empty space. There had been a sound, too, like a…CD skipping? Like losing radio signal for a second? Like a…not a static, more like a gap. A sudden gap. That was what it had felt like, too.

A sudden gap.

There in an instant and gone in a flash. She knew what it meant. A teleporter, either that or someone who pulled a pretty good disappearing act. She had met a teleporter before but he hadn't been able to go more than five meters in any direct and he'd had to see or know where he was going. Died when he tried to teleport home and wound up inside of a wall. Not a great loss for the world. It was a rare powerset but she could have thought of rarer. Healing, that was rare. Fabrication. True clairvoyance. Whatever that guy was who could turn things blue. Teleportation was a rare power, and kind of useless too.

Most of the time.

She couldn't feel anyone in her range, active or passive. She expanded it out as far as it would go. Aside from some more of Touichirou's men, for some strange reason they all felt like him, and some of her own people…and a few of the gifted, she could feel them if she really strained, there was nothing. Nothing at all.

She got back to walking.

Back to work. She was not going to run all the way home, crying, like a little girl. She was a grown woman and she could take anything that got thrown at her. She'd lived through kidnapping attempts, attempts on her life, and the entirety of her thirties. She could live through some amateur stalker and her mysterious savior, too, wherever he was…

She walked a little faster.

She knew what could happen to her. She knew full well what would happen to her if she went around trusting good Samaritans. Sure, occasionally some esper read too much manga and decided that he was going to put on a ridiculous costume and reenact his favorite afterschool show, minus the giant robots of course, and decided that he was going to clean up the streets. Those idiots never lasted long, of course. If the government didn't recruit him then he'd just get bumped off by either whatever the local esper group was or whichever yakuza family he wound up pissing off the worst. Most of the time, though, these morons wanted something in return. After all what was the point in helping someone if you didn't get something in return?

Shiori couldn't sense anyone.

But she didn't let her guard down. She didn't feel anyone of note. No good Samaritans, nobody waiting in the bushes to kidnap her, not even anyone of any kind of note. Some of her people, some of Touichirou's, and a whole lot of normal people. Nothing to be worried about…she was not running. She was walking at a normal pace. She wasn't scared.

She was fine.

She made it back to work in one piece….not that there had been any doubt. She would have had that even if some good Samaritan hadn't decided to intervene where they were neither wanted or needed…anyone who crossed her path on her way back to her office scuttled away. As they should have. She was mad, now, angry….that was good. She could use anger. She could use it to figure out who was messing with her, who had the nerve to intrude upon her life, who had the audacity to-

-text her?

'My goldfish keep on trying to jump out no matter how big their tank is'

She was beginning to regret letting that kid have her phone number. It had been a simple thing at the time, the kid was probably going to end up killing his fish, and she couldn't be responsible for letting that happen. Too many people treated them like living decorations instead of the living creatures that they were. She wasn't going to let that happen again, doing her part, etcetera. She didn't mind if the kid texted her about his fish, or her fish, or just something that actually mattered. She did not take social texts from this kid.

She was not his mother.

This wasn't a social text this was…a picture. An eight gallon tank, that should have been enough for how many fish he had…wait…did he have fantails in with COMETS?! And common goldfish!? And…wait, did he have a beta fish in there too? That kid…what had gone wrong in that kid's mind that he thought that any of that was a good idea. Why did he…she could feel her desk rattling. Not good. Not good at all. This kid was not worth losing control over. She couldn't lose control here, in front of everyone. If she did then how would she look? She'd lose everything.

She forced herself to calm down.

Touichirou called it exorcising his emotions. She called it not acting like a child. She was supposed to have grown past this a long time ago. She stopped acting like a child and channeled her unbridled rage into something bridled and useful and constructive. She took a deep breath and started a message…and then ended it before she said something that an eleven…twelve. He was twelve. He was twelve and he already knew most of those words…she was not that person. She was not going to be that person. She was an adult and this was a kid and he…well he didn't know any better and she did. She knew best. She knew what she was doing and…and this kid needed help.

So she'd help him.

'Fantails don't belong with comets and beta fish need their own space. Never mix fish types unless you know what you're doing. Keep goldfish with other goldfish who look the same. Also don't bang on the glass. I see those fingerprints on the glass, I know what you've been doing.'

There. Now she felt better…she leaned back in her chair and undid her top two buttons with her powers. How was it still so hot in October? Global warming or whatever. That was it. Just the earth slowly starting to boil. Just another normal day. She undid another button. She was going to have to have the air conditioner guy in again…if he even was the air conditioner guy…now she was getting paranoid. She had no reason to be paranoid. She was…she could feel that aura again. That aura that had been nagging at the corners of her perceptions…she could feel it better if she focused on it…

Her phone vibrated.

'How do I figure out which one is the comet and which one is the fantail?' Shiori clicked her tongue. What was this kid, blind? This was why kids belonged in school. Her kids were going to go to school. She may not have trusted the schools but she could clearly see how well homeschooling went, and that was with all of the resources that Touichirou had at his disposal. No, her kid was going to go to school.

And he was going to learn the difference between a fantail and a comet, too.

'Use your eyes. Keep the top on that tank, too, or they're going to keep on jumping out. I don't need to see that thermometer to know that you've probably got that water way too cold.' She didn't have to wait long for a reply. She got send a picture of a thermometer…with the temperature in normal range. Huh. Miracles did happen.

'It is normal and why does it matter that their tails are different. They're all goldfish.' And then there was a string of smiley faces that she didn't feel like deciphering. Whatever happened to the colon, dash, and closed bracket combo? That had conveyed everything it needed to convoy. Kids. There was something wrong with these kids today.

'Goldfish like to stay with similar goldfish. Don't mix different types of goldfish. And don't bang on the tank!' she paused for a moment before she added one of those smiley faces, and angry one that time. Sometimes it was best to learn to speak the other person's language. Made them feel seen and noticed or whatever. She didn't mind making the little concessions for people. Emphasis on little.

'It wasn't me, my fingers are bigger than that. It was my sister, see?' and then a picture…oh. Right, his fingers weren't nearly that small. There was a tiny hand in his…attached to a tiny little girl. She didn't see much in the picture…but she knew that nose. She knew those ears. She especially knew those eyes. So that was the famous Mukai…alright then. She had known that Touichirou had a toddler and that was the toddler in question. She was so…she looked like him…but also nothing like her siblings. She had her brother's coloring but that was it. Her face was much rounder…well Touichirou had said that this one was half Korean. Different mother than the other two…though she had no idea how to account for Shigeko…she had no idea…

She had nothing to worried about.

She had on idea what she was even worried about. She was fine. Nothing had happened to her today, nothing was going to happen to her, and Touichirou wasn't going to abandon her with a baby…a baby that would severely impact her ability to defend herself. She was going to be fine…though those fish were not. Not at the hands of those two kids.

'I see. My mistake. If that's all then have a nice day.' No smiley face that time. Talking to him hadn't been so bad but she had things to do, contingency plans to make, and a stalker to find…and she would get to it…

After she was done with Touichirou's son.

'Are you coming to Universal with everyone? If you are please don't tell my dad. He's a dickhole and he hates fun.' Shiori had to give him points for trying, at least. There was grammar used…good for him. And no, she wasn't going to be joining the latest Suzuki family outing.

'Don't curse at me.' And then the angry smiley face after it. There was one that was cursing…but that didn't seem tasteful. Her phone vibrated….a string of characters that either meant nothing together or something that she was too old to decipher…and then real words.

'That was Mukai. She doesn't know how to write. And I wasn't cursing. Dickhole isn't a curse word.' And then a smiley face sticking it's tongue out.

'I said stop cursing. Nobody wants to hear that word. That's all I'm going to say about that. Not your mother. Not coming on your family trip. Enjoy your family trip. Goodbye.' There. That should have been the end of it…her phone vibrated before she even managed to put it back down on the table. This kid was relentless and needy…he was his father's son. He was like tiny Touichirou in so many ways…not all of them good.

'It's a work trip.' Shiori wasn't even going to begin to try and work out the logistics on that one. Served Touichirou right for putting his kids in charge. She'd heard of nepotism before but this…well this was a whole other thing…what did it even cost to send all of Claw to a theme park? Were they all going in shifts or…well either way there went any and all anonymity she might have had. Shiori knew that most of them wore uniforms and the ones that didn't dressed like they stepped out of a manga….traffic was going to be murder….

Touichirou could work it out on his own.

'Not an employee.' Said Shiori. She put her phone down on her desk, face down after it vibrated again. She didn't want to talk to him anymore. She got enough neediness from Touichirou, she didn't need it from his son…that kid. Maybe the entire planet was just annoying today. She closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. Far back…she caught herself with her powers. She had work to do. She had so much to do and…and she needed to get through it. No worrying about things she couldn't change…fish all the way in Tokyo…a crowd of Claw members descending upon her city…good Samaritans saving her life…people trying to kill her or worse…she didn't have time to worry about all of that. She wasn't a child. She could handle her own life.

She was no stranger to handling her own life.