Despite what his daughter thought Asagiri Masashi loved her very much.

She had gotten this idea in her head that he didn't love her. He didn't know when it had developed, he didn't have an exact date, and it would have been helpful if he'd had. Sure, she had always taken to shouting at him from a young age that he hated her. He hated her because he wouldn't let her stay up all night watching television, he hated her because he wouldn't give her free reign with a credit card, he hated her because he made her go to school, he hated her because he wouldn't let her pierce anything but her ears, he hated her because he wouldn't let her get any tattoos, he hated her because he made her wear both halves of her outfits, he hated her because he worked hard to provide for her…

The list went on.

She had just been an overly dramatic child. That had been his reasoning for the past fourteen years. As a baby she'd bene very loud, very colicky, and it had been difficult to keep a nanny. He'd taken her to the best doctor's that money could by and they all said the same thing. She was just a colicky baby. She would grow out of it. She would eventually learn to speak and then she would be able to express herself and things would get easier.

Things never got any easier.

If anything they had gotten more difficult over the years. He didn't need his arm twisted to admit that he hadn't always been around as often as he should have. That was the tradeoff a man had to make to provide for his family. His wife and daughter wanted for nothing but at the expense of his presence. He needed to work, there was no way around it, just as his father had needed to work and his father's father before him. They weren't the leisure class, they didn't get to just lounge around and enjoy their piles of money like something out of a political cartoon. He needed to work and while it may not have been physically strenuous, it wasn't exactly twenty hour days down in the mines, his work did take up a lot of his time and mental energy. Just flying its self was strenuous…the endless meetings….brokering deal after deal. Still, though, he would have thought that as Minori got older she would have understood that there was a price to enjoying the fruits of his labors.

Hisako had understood.

Hisako had come from money the same as he had. She knew how it went. He worked, she raised Minori, and every so often they came together as a family. She hadn't been happy but she had never accused him of not loving her. She had never…well she had been a grown woman. Minori had been a child, a sensitive one, a dramatic one. She had been too young to understand the way the world worked. A person couldn't always do what they wanted, sometimes they needed to do what was needed, and sometimes what was needed took a man away from his family for weeks at a time. It wasn't as though he was leaving Minori alone in isolation. Hisako had always been there for her…while she had been there…and then after her passing there had been nannies and school groups, as well as plenty of servants, to keep Minori company. She had been so small when Hisako had passed and it had been so hard on her…but children were resilient. He had spent his entire life hearing that phrase. Children were resilient, they got over things faster than adults, all they needed was a new toy and a snack and they'd be fine. Minori…it wasn't as though losing a mother was an easy thing…but he had lost a wife and he'd had no choice. He'd had to keep moving, keep working, keep providing…

But he had been a grown man when Hisako died.

"Empathy. Put yourself in her place." Muttered Masashi into his folded hands. That was what the doctor had said, the latest one anyway. He had to have empathy for his daughter. She was going through a tough time. He hadn't been there as he should have been when Hisako died and that was what had caused this current bought of mental illness. Minori felt alone, unseen, and unwanted. He should have been there…

He should have done what he'd had to do….he should have done his duty.

He shouldn't have given a damn what other people thought back when there had been time to fix this. A psychiatrist was nothing more than a brain doctor. When Minori had fallen from her pony back when she had been eight he hadn't wasted time in giving her nanny permission to contact the family doctor. Her arm had been set and now it was as good as new. She'd had her arm set, taken her medications, and gone through physical therapy. The arm had been broken but now it worked as it should have. Nothing was wrong with it. Clearly something had gone wrong within her mind, something had happened to injure her brain, and he just had to find the professional that knew the right combination of medication and redhibitory therapy to fix whatever had gone wrong. That was all.

It was proving harder than expected.

Difficult enough, and serious enough, that he'd had to cancel an important networking engagement. Suzuki was trying to buy up more of the market share to…he wasn't sure, actually. Suzuki had been spending money this year like it was going out of style. The man was planning something big. The last time he had ever spent this much money he had built nearly an entire neighborhood in Beijing. Asagiri didn't even want to think of the return on that…the Chinese could be very stingy, sometimes, in these deals but at the scale that he'd built…of course that had been years ago. Not worth thinking about. That man…he wasn't worth thinking about. Not after what his daughter had done…if his father could hear him now.

He'd have been rolling over in his urn.

His father would have told him to fly to wherever it was in the world that Suzuki had found himself, get down on his knees, and do whatever he had to do to get back in that man's good graces. There was wealth and power and then there was whatever the hell Suzuki had cultivated over the years. The man was meteoric. His father hadn't exactly been a nobody from nothing himself, Asagiri could remember meeting the man briefly as a child when his father had hosted him…some kind of deal in electronics had been brokered, but Suzuki…it was dizzying, thinking of all that man owned. All that he had accomplished. He inspired as much fear as he did jealousy. His accomplishments, the wealth he'd cultivated, the…other talents that he possessed. The talents Asagiri had sought him and his group out for in the beginning…before things had been strictly business. As much of an interest as Suzuki had in business he matched it in his interest in the occult. It was said that he could even commune with spirits, amongst other things, things that Asagiri had never seen with his own eyes but had been assured were real.

He didn't know what to believe anymore.

When Hisako had passed he would have done anything to bring her back, including make a deal with the devil himself. One devil had spoken of another, and then another, and then another until they had all spoken of Suzuki Touichirou and what he and his people could do. Mediums, the finest in the world, along with healers and telepaths, people who could control life it's self, people who could move things with their minds…he had never seen it but he had believed. His belief had led him to several profitable business arrangements but no Hisako…they had all be in agreement, even Suzuki himself.

You could not bring someone back from the dead.

Dead was dead, Suzuki had said, and there was no coming back from the other side. They had met once, years ago, in some smoky club somewhere in Zurich. Suzuki had been accompanied by that companion of his, the man who in the twenty years Asagiri had been doing business on and off with the Suzuki Conglomerate had never aged. Not a single day. Asagiri himself had started to salt and pepper years ago but that man hadn't look a day over thirty…or maybe twenty five would have been more accurate. Clearly there was something more than natural going on with those people…but not enough to raise the dead. Not even enough to commune with them…dead was dead. Once someone crossed over that was it. Suzuki knew fully well…even he had never been able to look across to the other side…

What a fool Asagiri had been.

He had been so focused on the dead that he hadn't had time for the living. He had done something to damage Minori, or she had been damaged already and the years had just exacerbated the problem, and now here they were. His daughter was on drugs. Marijuana and cocaine…his daughter could have been caught and sent to prison. This was Japan, not some lawless backwater, and the government took drugs very seriously as they should have. Minori's whole life could have been ruined because some child, Suzuki's child, had decided to…because Asagiri hadn't been watching her closely enough. Because he hadn't employed enough staff to watch her. Because the staff that he had employed had been completely useless. But now…now he was going to do better. Her last drug test had come up clean, nothing had been found by the maids in her daily bedroom sweep, and her school…she hadn't physically fought anyone at her school. She hadn't done anything that they could pin on her.

Yet.

There was a chime. The front door had been opened. The Tokyo house, apartment really, was smaller than the country house. That was good, he had moved her here precisely because of how much easier it would have been to watch her. That and it had taken too long to drive from the country into the city each day to get her to school. She had to be a day student, the other children would have led her back down a bad path, and he couldn't have that. She was getting better…she had to have been getting better. She hadn't hit anyone at school yet or used profanity. She hadn't done anything wrong.

Anything that could have been pinned on her…anything that the school could have proven.

"…what do you care what kind of day I had at school? You aren't paid enough to care, I should know, I've seen what my father pays you." said Minori, her voice carrying down the hallway. Her voice had taken on a nearly emotionless quality lately. It wasn't just him she spoke to like that. He had thought that she had just grown weary of their weekly phone calls but, no, the staff reported that she spoke to everyone like that…and the things she said.

She was just being dramatic.

Maybe it was a part of the mental illness or maybe it was just a phase that she was going through. When Asagiri himself had been a few years older than her, about sixteen or seventeen, he'd gone through a phase of thinking that nothing really mattered and that the world was going to burn…of course he had come of age before the economic crash. He had been just about to end high school when the entire economy came crashing down. He had come so close to losing everything and things had never really recovered…though Minori had never known that sort of uncertainty. He'd shielded her from that…no, no, the doctor had said that he needed to be empathetic. He needed to meet her where she was, not where he wanted her to be, and then they could rebuild there relationship and she would start to recover from…whatever the latest diagnosis had been.

There had been so many at this point that it was difficult to keep track.

"Miss Asagiri, your father has requested your presence in the tea room." said a servant he couldn't remember the name of. This house echoed, that was why he'd purchased it. A three floor apartment in Tokyo, a penthouse really, had cost a pretty penny as had the staff but it was worth it. He heard Minori sigh, something jingling as it hit the ground, and then footsteps.

Nothing was getting past him. Never again.

"Father." Said Minori as she stood in the doorway. She looked…bored. Or maybe tired. Her eyes were sunken in, even with the makeup he could see the dark circles peaking out, and her hair lacked it's characteristic luster. She had tied it back into a short ponytail, not like her at all. She had taken the time, once, when she had been about ten or eleven to explain to him all the different hairstyles that worked with her face's shape. He hadn't been listening, it hadn't seemed important at the time…he had just been contributing to the problem. She needed to be seen, she needed to be heard, otherwise things would never get any better.

He saw her. He heard her. Things were going to get better.

"Minori, I finished up early and thought that we could spend some time together. Here, sit, sit. I had cook make a pot of your favorite tea. Peppermint." Said Asagiri as he pointed to the table. Minori said nothing, she just crossed the room almost robotically. A chill passed over him. A draft. Tokyo might as well have been in the arctic circle for how their winters went. Forget march coming in like a lion, winter it's self came in like a sabretooth tiger. Minori was so pale, he could see it where the makeup on her face ended and her neck began, he'd have to have housekeeper turn up the heat.

Even though, if anything, he had been a little toasty before the…the draft, that was it, the draft had come in.

"Thank you, I love the tea." Said Minori as she sat down.

"You haven't tried it yet." Said Asagiri. Minori said nothing, she just picked up the cup and sipped it. It was odd…she was using her left hand. Had she always been left handed? He couldn't remember…it hadn't been the sort of thing that he had noticed before…what kind of father was he?

"Thank you, I love the tea." Said Minori as she put her cup down. Some tea had dribbled onto the front of her uniform. Usually she hated ruining her clothes…apathy was a sign of depression. That had been one of her diagnoses. Executive functioning was also difficult with attention deficit disorder, another diagnosis…and then there was something else that the acupuncturist had said…

He was going to need to hire an assistant to keep track of all of this.

"So…" said Asagiri. Minori said nothing, she just continued to stare at him.

"How are…" said Asagiri as Minori kept on staring. It was…unpleasant. A bit like the first time he had ever had to sit and speak with Suzuki. The otherworldly stare…of course his daughter had been much worse…compared to that family this was nothing…

But to be safe he'd order another drug test, the kind where the doctor would take her blood.

"How was…" said Asagiri. Minori said nothing. She didn't even move a muscle. She just stared at him.

"So, Minori, how was your school trip?" asked Asagiri when the silence got to be too much. She had just started staring at him after she had put her cup down. She hadn't been staring at him angrily, or in that way she did before she asked him for something she knew he wouldn't approve of, she had just been staring at him. It was like the lights were on but nobody was home…disassociation had been another symptom of her diagnosis…but then again another doctor had diagnosed her with a hyperawareness disorder…

He knew nothing of medicine and would leave it up to professionals…he just needed to find better professionals.

"Fine." Said Minori, still staring.

"Did you have fun? What did you do?" asked Asagiri. He was seeing her, he was hearing her, and he was there…the only problem was that she wasn't giving him anything to see and hear. She was just sitting there…an odd look passed her face. Her eyebrows scrunched and her nose wrinkled. Her pupils widened and then narrowed.

"It was fine. We went to the new aquarium. One of my classmates tapped on the glass and was told to stop. She didn't." said Minori

"They built a new aquarium?" asked Asagiri, ignoring the subject of her classmate for now. There was nothing that could be pinned on Minori. Students had seen them talking, that was all, and it was normal. Kids were supposed to talk to each other on school trips, especially big grade wide ones like that.

"Yes. It wasn't there last time I went." Said Minori, another look crossing her face. Asagiri felt the hair on the back of his neck and arms standing up. With all the money he paid for this place he would have expected it to be sealed up tight. He didn't even want to think of how much money he was losing because of this draft, having to heat the outdoors, having to pay the doctor when Minori inevitably came down with something.

"Oh no, it's not new, you just went to the theme park last time we were in Osaka. That aquarium has been there since the nineties." Said Asagiri

"Oh. My mistake, papa, it won't happen again." Said Minori

"It's alright, Minori, you don't have to apologize. We all make mistakes." Said Asagiri

"Yes, but we don't all have to pay for them." said Minori

"Minori, if you have something to say then please say it. I know that I haven't been there for you like I should have but I'm here now." said Asagiri

"I have nothing to say beyond the fact that not everyone in this world has to pay for their mistakes. There are people with money, with power, with beauty that will live their lives without ever having to pay for a single mistake that they've made. Then there are others who have to flagellate themselves for eternity for a single misstep." Said Minori

"Minori…I hear you, and I'm not punishing you. I just want you to be healthy, to get better, that's all." Said Asagiri

"I'm perfectly fine, Dad, really. There's nothing wrong with me." said Minori

"It's not that there's anything wrong with you, Minori, it's just that you have an illness and we're just going to have to work together to make you well again. That's all." Said Asagiri

"Well? Or do you just mean obedient. I know that I was spoilt and selfish, that I took everything that you sacrificed and provided for me for granted, and I know that I can never make up for the years I wasted acting like a monster-" said Minori

"No, I never once thought that you were a monster…is that how you see yourself?" asked Asagiri

"It's how others see me. What am I, really, but a collection of other people's ideas? Do I exist if someone doesn't see me?" asked Minori

"I see you, Minori, I see you and I'm here…and you aren't a monster. Did someone call you that?" asked Asagiri. If someone called her that then he was going to sue. He was going to take them for all they were worth and leave them with nothing so that they could feel even a tenth of what they had made his daughter feel…to use such cruel words with a child…it was unconscionable.

"I know how I'm seen." Said Minori, making eye contact with him. There was something in her eyes…a glint. A spark of life. It should have been good and not…not whatever it was that he was looking at.

"Is this about what happened on the trip? Because I know that it wasn't your fault. All you did was speak to that girl, I'm assuming she was your friend, and it's not like you told her to do…what she did." Said Asagiri

"I didn't order her to walk out into traffic." Said Minori with something in her voice. She wasn't speaking like a robot anymore, and he should have been grateful, but there had been something about her tone…something that he had never heard before.

"Exactly. None of your classmates heard you say anything of the sort and the girl hasn't said a word about it, either." Said Asagiri, trying to smile. Minori smiled back, or maybe it was more of a smirk, or maybe….maybe it was just hard to tell with all of the lipstick she had on. Yes, that was it.

"It's difficult to speak with your jaw wired shut." Said Minori, that same tone she had used before appearing again. It sounded like she was almost…almost happy about what had happened. But that wasn't right. Minori, his Minori, would never have been a part of something like that. The worst she had ever done was call another girl fat and question her reputation and…and imply that she was sexually loose…but that was just the normal sort of conflict that teenage girls got into. Teenage girls didn't order each other to do the unthinkable. Grown men didn't even do things like that…or at least he hadn't, at any point in his fifty years of life….

"Minori…you didn't have anything to do with that, right? You didn't tell her to do anything…that girl…she was just ill, that was all. She had an untreated illness that manifested at that time. It was the same as…as if she'd had an asthma attack or…or a fainting spell." Said Asagiri

"I didn't order her to do anything." Said Minori in that same tone…that tone that he must have been misreading. He was just…he was just tired from his flight and….and distracted by work. The market was as hot as ever and he needed to strike, he needed to…to provide for Minori. After all, the doctors didn't work for free. They had spent time together, he had seen and heard her, and now…now it was time to maybe take a break.

Just for now…maybe…or maybe he was, once again, just being a bad father…

"Right, you didn't, you don't have that kind of power over people and your bullying days are over…and you were never a bully. It had just been school conflicts, the sorts of things that passed between children, the sorts of things that sometimes get blown out of proportion." Said Asagiri

"I didn't order her to do anything." Said Minori

"Right, you didn't…look at the time, it's nearly four. Don't you have homework to do?" asked Asagiri

"Yes." Said Minori

"Then why don't you get to it? I have some important calls to make. The market is hot right now and I've got to strike before it cools down. We'll see each other at dinner, alright? Dinner." Said Asagiri

"Yes Daddy, of course, we'll see each other at dinner." Said Minori before she got up just as robotically as she sat down and left the room. Asagiri listened as her footsteps echoed down the hall. He listened until he heard her bedroom door close, not slam, close. She used to always slam her door shut…maybe she was just growing up.

Into what?

Into who? Yes, who. Who because she was a person, she was just…just an ill person. She was clearly going through something and the medications weren't helping. All of the doctors had said that it would take time for her body to get used to the dosages, for them to iron out the right dosage, but so much time had passed already. This was…this was becoming difficult to deal with. That was a good word for it, difficult, but that was parenting. Nobody had ever sad that it was going to be easy…love was never easy…

Love wasn't easy, loving Minori wasn't easy, but that didn't mean that he was going to stop. No, he would love her until the day he died, despite what she thought…and how she acted.