Normally Sho would have hated war meetings.
They weren't as fun as they sounded. They had the word 'war' in the title but most of the time it was just Dad talking about all his plans for how they were going to attack. There was no real attacking, just a bunch of guys sitting around a table going over a million 'what if' scenarios. What if they have more telekinetic people than the scouts reported? What if they have guns? What if they have bombs? What if they have attack dogs? What if they have bees? What if they have telekinetic dogs with bees in their mouths and when they bark they shoot bees on you and also they have guns tied to them and when they ran they shot at you?
Nothing that cool was going to happen.
"Ok, so if the whole thing is one big curse room we can just…um…" said Sho, rubbing the back of his head. Dad always made this look easy. He could stand in front of the room and just know what to say, how to boss everyone around, how to come up with the best version of his plan. Not that Sho wanted to be like Dad or anything like that. He just…he just wished that he'd paid more attention so he could have learned. He didn't want to be like Dad. He wanted to be like himself…
But he had no idea how he would have run a war meeting all by himself.
He knew where she was. Shimazaki had found this place in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of curse rooms. Well he hadn't said for sure that they were curse rooms but to him curse rooms felt like black holes so, yeah, Sho didn't know a lot about outer space but he did know that black holes couldn't grow on Earth. So it must have been the place. They had traced the kidnappers to this town out in the country and that was the only mysterious place so the time had come to finally save Shiori!
He just wasn't sure how to do that just yet.
"We can wait for Dad?" asked Big Sis. Nope. They weren't going to be doing that. He bit his tongue. He was about to ask her if she had a bunch of brain worms or something, probably with a lot of cursing too, but he didn't feel like fighting with his sister and he didn't feel like getting Fukuda all pissed off at him about his language or whatever, too. He had to be the leader here and the leader didn't freak out at his sister…even when she had terrible idea.
"No way, we're not involving Dad at all, not even if…if they have people who can turn into guns or…or something. We don't need him. We just have to figure out what we can do, and I know that we can do something. It's just the curse rooms that I'm worried about and those affect Dad just as bad as they affect all of us." Said Sho
"But maybe Dad can help us with-" said Big Sis
"If the whole thing is one big curse room then what in the hell is Dad going to be able to do? He's going to be just as fucked as the rest of us if he walks into one and he doesn't know how to undo curses anyway." said Sho
"I thought that the President could do anything…" muttered Higashio. Ootski put his hand on his wrist and shook his head. Sho wanted to yell at him that, no, there were a million things that Dad didn't know how to do. He couldn't make his own breakfast, or put in the Netflix password on his own, or enchant his own weapons in Minecraft, or even hold his dick to piss without Hatori's help…ok, he wasn't sure about the last one but it wouldn't have surprised him…really gross though…
This was not what he was here to deal with.
"You can stay behind while more…seasoned…members of the group go in first. That way you can provide support for the rest of us." Said Fukuda
"Does anyone have another idea?" asked Sho, looking around. Fukuda wanted him to stay behind and hide like a baby. He wasn't Dad, he did his own dirty work, and beating these guys up was going to be the dirtiest work that he'd ever had to do in his life…mostly because he was pretty sure that he was going to have to really hurt them. More than he'd ever hurt anyone before in his life….but they had kidnapped and maybe even tortured Shiori. Sho was going to cross that line, he had to, since they had crossed it first.
He wasn't a little kid anymore, he could handle this shit on his own. He had to handle this shit on his own. It wasn't like anyone would without him telling them to.
"Come on, you guys have to have thought of something." said Sho. Dad would have just said 'well' and everyone would have started talking at once…but he wasn't Dad….and he didn't want to be!
"We could, Leader, if you want to that is, draw them out and pick them off one by one." Said Ootski after a second….hey, that was actually a pretty good idea. No wonder Fukuda kept this guy around.
"I can make a pretty convincing dummy out of scrap parts, we can have Shimazaki put those around the perimeter and then use those to draw out as many as we can. Then we can send a small scouting party inside the compound to ascertain whether or not the entire thing is one large curse room as the theory states." Said Higashio
"I never said it was one big curse room, I just said it felt like it. There are parts that I can sense and parts that are just these void spaces. The whole thing is just too shaky for me to get a good look at it. If I tried going in on my own then I'd probably just end up inside of a wall." Said Shimazaki
"Perish the thought." Muttered Fukuda
"I still think that we should wait for Dad. I mean he knows where we can get more people, like, um…Minegishi's boyfriend's friend? The one who knows a lot about curses….sorry." said Big Sis. Her aura went over to Shimazaki before her eyes did. Shimazaki's aura was all tucked in close now. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cigarette case. He leaned back in his chair like he didn't give a fuck about anything…which meant that he really gave a fuck. Sho wanted to hit him over the head, a bunch of times, with something heavy. They were in the middle of a war meeting and he was going to get all sad about how his they-friend broke up with him? There were plenty of fish in the sea, or whatever, and once they saved Shiori she could teach him how to go fishing or-or something! Something that didn't involve moping over someone who never had anything nice to say about anyone, like thin crust veggie pizza, best talent was complaining, and slept for half the day!
"Don't be, Toshi can fuck whoever they want to-" said Shimazaki
"I don't think that this is the time or the place to start discussing your relationship issues." Said Fukuda quickly. Sho nodded. That was why Dad had kept him around, he had said once, because Fukuda always knew exactly what to say…not that Sho was agreeing with Dad or anything like that.
"I wasn't trying to discuss anything, I just said that I was sorry. That's what you're supposed to do when you hurt someone's feelings, especially your friend's." said Big Sis
"Hey! Stop fighting each other and work on fighting the dickholes who took Shiori! And no, we're not calling Dad. I don't need him. I don't care if he can bring everyone in Claw down here, we don't need them. This is…this is one of those recon things. That's it, it's all sneaky and shit and…and you're just as strong as Dad is and I'm stronger than everyone else-" said Sho
"Eh-hem?" asked Shimazaki, putting his joint out on the table. Sho rolled his eyes hard enough that he knew Shimazaki noticed.
"Fine, I'm stronger than MOST of the people in this room. We don't need Dad or anyone else. What's he going to do, anyway, that you can't?" asked Sho, turning his aura to Big Sis. Dad, Dad, Dad…it always went back to Dad with her! They weren't little kids anymore, they were thirteen now, and they didn't need their Dad to come in and save them. They had never needed Dad to save them. They had never needed his help with anything before and he had no idea…he had an idea…he knew why she wanted Dad to help them. Because she loved him and shit like that….
Well then she could love him all on her own and not try to drag him into it.
"Keep you safe, little brother." Said Big Sis
"Yeah, Shigeko, because he's done such a great job of that for our whole lives." Said Sho
"I-I didn't mean-" said Big Sis
"Go not mean things somewhere else. This is a war meeting, not a…not meaning things…meeting." Said Sho
"Um…ok…" said Big Sis. Shimazaki reached out to her. She didn't even look up. She just slid out of her chair and walked out the door, probably to go and call Dad or something. That was fine. He knew who she was. She was the kind of person who, no matter how bad someone treated her, she would always still love them. That was why she still cared whether or not Dad lived or died…or helped them or did his own thing. Sho didn't give a fuck about Dad and if that was the way that she was going to be then he didn't give a fuck about her either!
That wasn't true.
She was sad, now, he could tell. It was written all over her face and her aura. He wanted to chase after her but he knew that it wouldn't have done any good. They would have just gotten into a fight. There was no way he was going to change her mind about Dad. He just had to accept it and work around it. That was why she was a part of the rescue team and not the 'take Dad down' team. She was who she was…and who she was, and always would be, was Dad's favorite…
But he could deal with that. He'd been dealing with that for his entire life.
"Miss Suzuki, may I have a word." Said Fukuda as he got up and followed her right out of the room. Sho hadn't said that he could go…he hadn't said that anyone could go…well he kind of had but-but-but he was supposed to be the one who said that the meeting was over. He was the one in charge here, not her, even though she ranked higher than him and certainly not Fukuda! He didn't just get to leave Sho here, he was supposed to be on his side!
Sho didn't have anyone on his side…
Or at least that was how it felt. He hadn't known that it was possible, before, to feel alone while having three people's full attention on him…well two people's. Shimazaki was smoking again, leaning back in his chair and making smoke rings that he couldn't see. Sho didn't get the point of any of this. Why he was doing that and why Higashio and Ootski chose to stare at him and ignore the, kind of cool really, thing that Shimazaki was doing right across the table!
This whole meeting was getting out of control…and that wasn't something that Sho could afford. Not with what was on the line.
"What? Don't you people have any ideas, I mean any idea of what to do besides stare at me?" asked Sho
"Technically I can't 'stare' at anyone." Said Shimazaki, blowing a really big cloud of smoke. Sho wasn't sure if he had just fucked up doing a smoke ring or if he had been trying to annoy Higashio. He pinched his nose with one hand and fanned the smoke away. Ootski looked up through his bangs and pulled his fan from his pocket.
"Fine then, how about you guys? Do you have any ideas or are we decided?" asked Sho. He bit his tongue as soon as he finished talking. He hadn't meant to say that, that was the kind of thing that Dad had said a bunch of times before, and…and it was just…it was just because he'd heard it said in war meetings before, not because he wanted to be like Dad or anything like that!
"I think that my idea is feasible…although having Vice President Suzuki on our side would definitely tip the odds in our favor." said Higashio. Ootski put his fan away and shook his head.
"I think…Leader, forgive me if I overstep but I think that perhaps the best course of action at this time would be to console your sister. She's hurt and for all of Fukuda's healing talents he isn't the best when it comes to these sorts of things…and as you have said before, she is the most powerful amongst us. Losing her as an ally would be…not to our advantage." Said Ootski
"Big Sis would never quit the rescue team." Said Sho with a wave of his hand. What did these guys know? Before Sho and Fukuda had put this team together they had only known Big Sis from the birthday shout out list.
"Mob's never been afraid to fuck off when she thinks she isn't wanted, we both know that." Said Shimazaki. Sho wanted to kick that chair out from under him and send him to the ground so hard the floor collapsed under him and he got stuck under the house for the rest of time, or until he turned into whatever kind of spirit haunted old country houses…like a soot spirit or something…or maybe he would have just passed on! Sho didn't know about spirits, he barely even knew his own sister it seemed…
Shimazaki had a point. Big Sis was like Dad, she just kind of fucked off sometimes….damn it!
"Fine, whatever!" said Sho as he followed Big Sis and Fukuda. He slid the door closed behind him as hard as he could. It didn't really slam that loudly, or stay closed. He tried to slam it one more time and the same thing happened…fucking door! Seriously, fuck that door and fuck this war meeting! He should have just gone running in like his original plan. Fuck Fukuda for suggesting that they have a meeting just because of all the curse rooms…
Sho still didn't know what to do about the curse rooms.
It had been a good idea, getting into contact with the curse guy who was friends with Minegishi's boyfriend. Minegishi's boyfriend would have been useful too, since it didn't matter if spirits got hurt. They weren't people and he could always collect more of them…and maybe they could have brought Shibata in, too, since even without his powers he was still really big and strong…but then if he brought Shibata Tsuchiya would want to come since they were in love and if Tsuchiya came then she'd have to bring Mukai and she didn't need to be a part of this. She was too little. This wasn't kid's stuff, it was serious, and…and Sho had this!
…just not on his own.
"…reconsider. I know how much your father means to you and you do outrank Sho. I know that we both have his best interests at heart here." Said Fukuda, his voice carrying down the hallway. These old houses were really echoy. He could hear everything…and he didn't like it. Fukuda didn't like Big Sis at all, so why in the hell was he talking to her?
He better not have been acting like a dickhole. Big Sis didn't need that.
Sho crept down the hallway, making sure not to step on any stray soot spirits. He could sort of feel them. He didn't want to hurt them…he didn't want to hurt anything. He didn't like hurting things or people. He wasn't Dad…but sometimes people needed to get hurt, they deserved it. Sometimes people did things that were so horrible that…that they needed to get their asses kicked, or even more than kicked. There were worse things that he could do to someone…things that he was going to have to do to a lot of someones…
But hopefully Fukuda wasn't going to be one of them…he still kind of liked him, sometimes, when he wasn't acting like an asshole.
"I don't know what goes on in your heart, Fukuda, I don't know you at all anymore. I know that you care about Sho but…but I also know that sometimes you have a weird way of showing it…and I know that you don't like me at all and I know that you've never been afraid of showing it." Said Big Sis. Sho turned the corner. She had her arms and her aura crossed in front of her. Fukuda was standing close, way too close…he didn't have to be so close, and he didn't have to talk to Big Sis either. Sho had made sure not to give them a chance to talk, he had tried to anyway, because he knew how Fukuda could be when it came to Big Sis. Sho had enough to worry about as it was without Fukuda being an asshole's dickhole.
"Miss Suzuki, I may not agree with every single life choice you've made so far but that does not mean that I dislike you as a-" said Fukuda
"Fukuda, don't lie." Said Sho, using his powers to push Fukuda away from Big Sis. Fukuda's sock slid against the ground. Sho couldn't see it but he was sure that he'd accidentally squished a soot spirit. He didn't know if they came back or not…but he didn't need to worry about things like that right now. He had to worry about Big Sis and Shiori and now Fukuda making more work for him…it was like Fukuda wanted Big Sis to leave…but that made no sense, he was the one who had said that they needed her help…
Trying to understand Fukuda always gave him a headache, so he decided to stop.
"Sho, I hadn't noticed-" said Fukuda
"I hate when you get like this, especially with Big Sis. Now go back to the war meeting and asked Higashio about his idea with the dummies." Said Sho
"But I-" said Fukuda
"Just go." Said Sho, pointing back down the hall. Sometimes you had to be bossy, and this was on of those times. He hadn't been that bad. Dad would have just picked him up with his powers and thrown him down the hallway…and Sho wasn't Dad.
"Whatever you want, Sho." said Fukuda with a sigh, the one he did when he was disappointed in him…well he had disappointed Sho first so now they were even!
"You didn't have to be mean to him, I was just going to-" said Big Sis
"When Fukuda starts acting like an asshole then the only thing that you can do is be an asshole right back, it's the only thing he understands. I think it's because he's been Dad's best friend for so long or something." said Sho
"Oh…but you don't have to be like that. Mean to him. I was just…just going to tell him to leave me alone, and then I was going to-" said Big Sis
"Don't leave, ok? I don't want you to go. I just said that shit because I was upset…I'm an asshole when I get upset. An asshole and a dickhole. We both know that." Said Sho
"I didn't think that you were either of those things." Said Big Sis. She always did that, she lied to make him feel better, she had been doing that since they had been little kids…but they weren't little kids anymore.
"Well I was, so don't fuck off somewhere. I still need you to help me. Higashio has a great idea about dummies and, ok, your idea about calling Minegishi's friends was pretty good too. I just don't want you to call Dad." Said Sho
"I know that you and Dad don't get along, little brother-" said Big Sis
"Because I hate him, he hates me, and I don't want to hear some shit about how deep down in his heart he loves me. If he really does love me then he wouldn't have been such an asshole for my whole life." said Sho. How did she not get it by now? She had been his sister for his whole life, she had been Dad's daughter for her whole life, she knew how their family worked. Sometimes it felt like she closed her eyes and thought up her own reality or something, one where Dad loved them both and they were one of those happy families you saw on TV sometimes. Well this wasn't TV and they weren't anything close to a happy family.
"I…I don't know what goes on in Dad's heart. He's really complicated and…and it's not his heart that we need. It's his help." Said Big Sis quietly. That…wasn't what he'd been expecting. At least she agreed with him…but that wasn't what they were fighting about. They didn't need Dad end of discussion…so why was there even a discussion happening?
"I don't need him, I can fight those guys on my own. I mean if you guys help me then we have this. You too, you're just as strong as Dad is and you know it." Said Sho
"I…I don't know that for sure." Said Big Sis. Sho rolled his eyes. She always said things like this. Of course she knew how strong she was, she had to live with her powers after all. They were too old for her to be playing pretend like this.
"Well I do so take it from me. You're just as strong as he is, you're stronger than me, and you've got this. We've got this together." Said Sho
"It's not about…I just don't want you to get hurt. These people are dangerous, people who kidnap other people are dangerous, and to stop them we're all going to have to do…to do the sorts of things that Shimazaki says you don't come back from. He's said, before, that the kind of work that he does is hard….it changes you in a lot of ways, and I don't know if I want you to change like that." Said Big Sis
"You're just worried about changing like that." Said Sho
"No, I'm worried about you. Dad's done this kind of work before and…and he doesn't have the same feelings you do. He has feelings but they just…it's like he's missing some, the good ones, the ones that make you a good person. I don't want you to lose those feelings too, I don't want to risk you turning into Dad. You're nothing like him now and…and I don't want you to turn into him. I love you." said Big Sis
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love you too." Said Sho. He did, he really did, and…and that was why he didn't yell at her. He didn't even want to even though he knew that he should have. She had said so much shit, compared him to Dad, and…and she had been right. He didn't just look like Dad, he was like Dad, and…and he didn't want to be.
If crossing that line, if that was the line that divided him and Dad, then he wasn't going anywhere near it.
"Little brother? Sho?" asked Big Sis. She took his hand. He pulled it away. He wasn't a little kid and he wasn't Serizawa either. He didn't need someone to hold his hand every single time he got a little bit sad.
"And, yeah, fine. Call Dad and tell him to kick some ass. He should, anyway, since it's his girlfriend who's in trouble and shit…I'll tell everyone else. I don't want to be here while you call Dad." Said Sho. He turned around and walked back down the hallway, probably stepping on a few soot spirits as he went. He didn't care…as much as he had before. He didn't have time to care about spirits. Dad was coming. He was coming to take all of this away from Sho and be the one in charge and-
-and this was Sho's fight.
Dad had been tearing the world apart trying to find Shiori. He had been panicked, Fukuda had said, even though Sho couldn't imagine such a thing. He was scared and worried about Shiori and in being scared and worried he'd forgotten basic investigation stuff and now…and now Sho was the one who had found her. Sho was the one who was going to save her. Dad was just coming along for the ride…yeah. This wasn't his war meeting, this wasn't his plan, and he was just a piece of a bigger puzzle…Sho knew that Dad was going to try and take it from him but…but really he was following Sho's plan…fuck yeah!
But first Sho was going to have to come up with a concrete plan, and the only way to do that was by finishing this war meeting, but he got the feeling that it wouldn't be so bad after all.