There were things that Mob didn't like to think about.

Bad things. She wished that the world could only have been full of good things, like people being friends and loving each other, but that wasn't the way the world worked. Sometimes there were bad things, bad people, in the world. Sometimes you even had to act like the bad people…sometimes you had to do things that you didn't ever think that you would have done…been a part of things that you never wanted to be a part of….but it was ok, right? If you were saving someone?

This was ok…right?

"Dad…is this ok?" asked Mob. There were a lot of people, here, hurt people. She didn't know these people. She knew most of the people at Tokyo HQ, and a lot of the people in Claw, and if this had happened to them…if something had happened that someone had to come in and hurt everyone…then it would have been ok to fight them, right? It would have been ok to do this, right?

Dad thought so…right?

"Yes. This is going well, now don't distract me. The last thing you want is to accidentally wind up in a curse room." said Suzuki tersely. He didn't know what Shigeko was on about. The plan was going well. Sho…he was full of surprises, it seemed. There was a competence to him that Suzuki hadn't been prepared for. Tadashi had helped him…that must have been it…or maybe it was the fact that Sho was his son.

More than Shigeko was his daughter, it seemed.

"But…but Dad…" muttered Mob as she grabbed onto his sleeve. He was still walking. Slowly, very slowly, but…but not slowly enough….the last thing she wanted to do was to wind up in a curse room…but maybe that would have been better.

Dad wouldn't have been about to hurt anyone in a curse room.

"Shigeko. What?" asked Suzuki as Shigeko reached out for him, her hand meeting his sleeve. She was clinging to him in that way she used to when she had been very small, when she had been small enough that she knew she needed to seek safety from him. It was instinctual after all to seek safety from your parent…and he was her parent. In name if not by blood.

It would have been much different if she had been his by blood.

He could feel Sho, moving, acting, thriving…he had sent Sho on ahead with Tadashi and the others. The 'B' team. There was a 'C' team but that was a team of one, Hatori jamming communications from a safe distance away. Out of all of his children Hatori was the most helpless, though Shigeko acted like she was the most helpless. Her aura was pulled in close around herself, it threatened to become a barrier at any second. She knew, though, that right now she needed no protection.

It was her that people needed protection from.

But she didn't know that. Her hand went from his sleeve to his hand. He stopped in his tracks. He could feel auras coming, dim ones, ones that he could and would absorb. He hated doing this on a large scale, it made his own abilities more difficult to control, and it took some time for the power to truly become his but right now he needed the energy boost. He had on idea who he would be fighting but, perhaps, they might have been something akin to a worthy opponent. They had managed to capture Shiori and she was the most capable woman that he knew. They had also managed to get Shigeko practically shaking in her shoes, though that may have just been her nature.

There was a certain…propensity to violence that came with being a Suzuki, and she didn't have it, but of course she didn't. She was a Suzuki in name only.

"Is this…please, just tell me if this is ok." Said Mob

"For the last time, yes. We are, at the moment, holding onto an advantage. We may not have the numbers but we do have the element of surprise on our hands, along with a bit of shock and awe, now either support me or fall back to the base. Whichever you see fit." Said Suzuki. Battle was no place for a woman, that much was obvious, and Shigeko….even if she hadn't been a woman battle would have been no place for her. But it did make sense to bring her along. She rivaled him in terms of power and right now he would have done anything to get Shiori back. He wasn't going to lose her, he wasn't going to go through this again, and Shigeko…if she wasn't going to be with him by his side then she could leave him…

He didn't want her to leave him…for her own safety, yes, that was it. Just…for her own safety.

"It's not about that." Said Mob softly, her fingers turning white as she clutched Dad's hand in hers. His aura met hers. It felt, for a moment, like he was going to push her away. Instead he held her aura in his and sighed.

"This is not the time to be indecisive, Shigeko." Sighed Suzuki. He had never expected it but right now he found himself wishing that she could have been more like Sho. The boy may have been impulsive but when he had to he could actually be something of an asset…something else he never would have seen himself thinking….this was truly an odd day for him.

"No, I mean is it ok to hurt these people?" asked Mob. Dad slammed someone into a wall. That person didn't even say or do anything. Dad just waved his finger and the guy slammed into the wall…and there was blood…but his soul didn't leave his body yet.

"Yes. Now either come along or fall back. Choose one, we have to keep moving." Said Suzuki. Shigeko held his hand tighter, he hadn't even thought that such a thing would have been possible, before nodding.

"Yeah…ok. I'll come with. Let's…let's go and save Shiori." Said Mob, still holding Dad's hand. If she held her Dad's hand then the whole thing was going to be ok. It was like when she had been little and Mom used to walk her and Sho to school. There had been so many people and she had just felt…felt like she was drowning, sometimes, even though she was on land. Back when she and Sho had been in preschool, back before she had gotten used to being around so many people…she turned her head. She was still drowning. She never wanted to get used to this…she never wanted to get used to seeing people bleeding like this…

She never wanted to have to do work like this again.

She kept her eyes trained to Dad's back. There was a tear in his suit coat, she could see his shirt. It was white, no blood, which was good. She was supposed to cover him. Sho was covering Fukuda and the rest of the 'B' team. She and Dad were supposed to be the 'A' team….she wanted to be the 'C' team. She wanted to be safe with Hatori…she didn't want to be here…but she had to be here.

This was kind of her fault.

Another person flew into the wall. This time she heard a crunch…but he was still moving. He was moaning in pain. That was good, that was something that Fukuda could fix. This was…she would have Fukuda fix that guy later. She would fix what she had done…and this was her fault. She had waited too long to come and help, she had left too much to Sho, and…and maybe some other things, too, now that she thought about how mean she had been to Shiori. She may have been mean, and dressed like a witch, and tried to steal Dad away from their family and give them another brother or sister that they didn't want or need…but she didn't deserve this. Nobody did.

If Mob had looked for her sooner, if she had taken this more seriously, if she had looked at the details of what had happened and put Mom and her running away out of her mind then she would have been able to get here sooner.

But she hadn't. She had been too wrapped up in her own feelings, her own hurt feelings, that she hadn't even considered that Shiori could have been in any danger…and then she had sent Sho out into this. Maybe it was a good thing, then, that she was letting Dad hurt all of these people. The more people he hurt the fewer Sho would have to hurt when the crossed his path. The more people he hurt, too, the fewer people who would have a chance to hurt Shiori…she walked closer to Dad. She wanted to hug him, to ride on his back like Mukai tried to ride on hers, to just disappear into him…but she couldn't.

Dad was still moving.

If Serizawa had been there then she could have disappeared into him. He would have stopped walking, held her close, and even closed his robe around her too if she had asked. He would have opened his umbrella above their heads and then it would have felt like they were the only two people in the world. She did that for him, sometimes, she had to make the world small for him when it got too big. She knew that he would have done the same. He was a good friend like that, her second best friend in the world, and the person she spent the most time with these days…he would have done that for her without her even asking…but he wasn't here.

It was for the best that he wasn't here.

Something cold passed through her body. Dad felt it too, she could see him shivering. She used to think, back when she had been little, that Dad was fearless. Back when he had been this person that sometimes lived in her house and sometimes didn't, who came back with stories about the other espers in the world, who never worried about if he was going to come home or…or if something was going to happen to him out in the world. He had just been this big, mean, fearless person…but now she could see more of him. The way his skin turned a little bit white, the way he shivered, the way his hand finally gripped hers…of course he was scared. Curse rooms were scary.

And they were getting close to one…it was right on the other side of that door.

She felt something warm, a shift in the energy around her, and for once she was glad for it. Shimazaki. He could teleport around here, he just didn't like to, and Dad had told him that it didn't matter what he did and did not like. It had been mean at the time, and it was still mean, but she was…a part of her was grateful that he was there. Even if things were weird between them now, and probably would be until they forgot about all the stuff they did together, it was nice to have someone who she knew could get her out of here…that had been a selfish thought. Someone who she knew could have gotten Shiori out of here, someone who could have gotten Sho out of here if he got hurt, someone who could have gotten Dad out of here if he got too scared, someone who could have saved all the other guys, too. She needed to stop putting herself first like that.

Selfishness was what had gotten them into this mess in the first place.

"Shimazaki!" said Mob

"Speak to me, not her." said Suzuki quickly. He actually welcomed this man's presence. The disgust, nausea, and percolating rage he felt just from looking at the man who dared to seduce his daughter more than overpowered the fear, loathing, and general about-to-vomit feeling of being near a curse room.

"East side's clear, boss. Nothing in there but a lot of corpses in curse rooms and Sho says that none of them are your girl-are the objective." Said Shimazaki in his most businesslike voice. He could feel the cocktail of hatred coming off of Suzuki. Now was NOT the time to test him. Toshi had told him so many times, before, that he had no sense of self preservation. Well he did, it was just kind of in the process of atrophying but it was there.

"Very well. Continue scouting and regroup with the 'B' team if you find anything. Now leave." Said Suzuki, trying with everything he felt to conceal the percolating emotions within him. Shimazaki gave a solute and teleported away…it helped, but there was a sort of…after feeling there. He looked away from Shigeko…he didn't need to deal with those sorts of emotions right now. Not when he was close…he could sense it. He could sense her…

He focused more on Shiori and less on Shigeko. He didn't have time to worry about that part of her life right now.

He couldn't afford to but he did. He should have protected her, a part of him said, while the other part of him reminded him that what she did was none of his business. He could hear Shiori's voice within his mind, too, telling him that he was the father in this situation and she was the daughter. She was supposed to bend to his will, not the other way around, since he was the parent and she was the child…

But he didn't feel like being a parent right now.

It was, it seemed, that there were different versions of himself depending on the situation. There was the father within him, the man tasked with raising his children and keeping them alive until they reached the age of majority, and then there was the president part of him, the one that was tasked with making a world fit for them to grow up into, and then there was the part of him that could only be called Touichirou…the part of him as a man, as his own person, it seemed, and that part…that part was not doing well right now. That was the part of him that Shiori knew, the part that she expected, and it threatened to overwhelm the rest of him. He couldn't stop being President Suzuki. He couldn't fall into the roll of Father, of Dad, right now. If he did then the weakness within himself that he was trying with all of his strength to overcome would override and destroy the rest of his body…of his self.

He couldn't let that happen, so he pressed on.

"Come along, Shigeko, and prepare yourself." Said Suzuki as he opened the door in front of him. The map that Sho drew had not been a topographic one, no, this building was tunnels upon tunnels. The curse rooms were stacked deep, it felt like, though it was difficult to measure absence. That was what a curse room was, just a blackhole, but one without the mass of gravity…the pull of it.

It didn't pull his physical self in, anyway.

"Dad, be careful!" said Mob as she grabbed Dad's hand with her other hand. Even with both hands she could still feel the pull as he opened the door. It was like someone was trying to suck her organs out of her belly button with one of Mukai's crazy straws. It was like cramps but all over her body. It was like she had run a mile in her old plastic Elsa shoes on the cobblestone parts of Disney World. It was like she had drank some bad milk and not stopped herself until the entire carton was gone and her stomach felt like she was going to explode.

She didn't know how anyone could have stood to live like this. She didn't blame Dad for being upset.

His eyes were wide, now, and he let go of her hand. It went slack in hers. She tried to get his fingers to close around hers again but he wouldn't let her. His hand was slack…and then he pulled it away. He just stared into the curse room. She didn't know why, it was a horrible place. It looked like she had always pictured Shimazaki's room to be, back when he had been locked away as a little kid. There was a pile of blankets and a thin futon in the corner, a bucket, and a broken bowl right in the middle of the floor. The room smelled like miso soup and there were a lot of scratches in the floor, and a shirt too. It was all torn up…a girl's shirt. No, a lady's shirt, from the boring lady's section of the store. All white with buttons down the front and one of those tiny pockets that was too small, even, to fit a phone.

There was a starfish right over the front pocket.

"Shiori…no…" said Suzuki. He let go of Shigeko's hand. It took everything inside of him not to lose control right there and bring this place down over their heads…it needed to be brought down over their heads. This room…she had been in there…he just knew. He took a step forward. A feeling of wrongness, of cold, washed over him…curses in the doorframe…and a sharp tug to his body.

He stayed in place.

"Dad, don't go in there! If you go in there then you might never come out and-and I love you! I'm sorry that we fought and I'm sorry that I didn't take this seriously and I'm sorry about fighting with Shiori and-and that this happened to her-" said Mob as she tried to pull Dad back. She was clueless, not dumb, she knew that this was a bad sign…she didn't want any bad signs! She wanted only good signs and…and successful missions where nobody got hurt and…and she just…she wanted this to be over! She wanted this to be a dream or something and-and she would wake up and…it would all be over…she wouldn't have messed up as badly as she had…

This wasn't about her, or how she felt, it was about Dad and covering him…keeping him safe…so that was what she would do.

"Shigeko. Be silent…for the love of God, be silent and…and fall back. Now. That's an order." Said Suzuki. The walls around him began to shake. Japan was earthquake prone, and he was underground…and so was Shigeko. He was going to lose control, he could feel it slipping through his fingers just as Shigeko's hand had slipped through his, and he didn't need her around for this. He wasn't going to lose her too.

He didn't need two people to find…to avenge.

"But Dad, I-" said Mob

"Do not argue with me. Shigeko…you should know by now not to argue with me. Not when I am acting as your father nor when I am acting as your direct superior." Said Suzuki

"I wasn't arguing with you, Dad, I just don't want to lose you too! Please, I love you and I can't-" said Mob

"Be silent and leave. That was an order, not a request. Regroup with your brother, one of your brothers, and leave me." Said Suzuki before he pushed her to the side with his powers…or at least he tried to…but she didn't move. She was rooted to the ground. Her aura was visible. Pink and blue. It clashed with the red and yellow of his…a concerning amount of yellow…and she had a concerning amount of pink to her…

He didn't have space within his physical or metaphysical self to be concerned right now.

"No. I'm supposed to be covering you and…and that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to keep you safe. Wherever you go then…then I'm going too!" said Mob. She didn't want to be here but this wasn't about what she wanted, this was about what was right, and right now what was right was doing the right thing. The right thing being helping Dad, keeping him safe, and making sure that he didn't get hurt…or hurt someone too badly…

He was going to explode.

"Dad, please." Asked Mob softly. She took his hand in his. He didn't feel like Serizawa. Whenever Serizawa felt like this it was just one feeling, fear, that filled him. Mob could feel so much more coming from Dad. Fear and anger…love…hate…there was so much to him now and she didn't know how he could have kept all of that inside of himself.

It wasn't fair.

She tried to take it away but before she could ever do anything Dad pulled his hand away. He pulled his aura away. He started walking faster than she had ever thought possible. She knew how it hurt him to move, sometimes, about his back…but right now he was practically running away from her. His aura looked like it was trying to leave his body…like it was trying to go somewhere. She followed him. She followed him to protect him, to protect everyone from him, and to right what she had done wrong…there was so much that she had done wrong, and so much more that could go wrong…

But Mob didn't want to think about that now, no, all she could afford to think about right now was keeping her Dad safe…and keeping everyone safe from him.