Hatori didn't understand Instagram.

He knew how it worked, obviously. He wasn't Touichirou. You took pictures and then you posted them and then people liked them. It was like Facebook but also somehow not. Hatori had never been good with these kinds of sites, he had never understood the point. Of course he had never had anyone who cared about where he went or what he did. Mom used to post pictures of him when he had been a kid…but that had been a long time ago.

He hadn't understood it then and he didn't understand it now.

"Why the hell would you post this?" muttered Hatori as he scrolled through his phone. He had told Mob that he'd find her friend Minori for her and he had. That was supposed to be the extent of it. He had heard things, that her dad had gone rogue and was looking for espers outside of Claw. Apparently he'd had some luck with that.

Seriously.

He focused on the panicked people in the picture. If he dove in he could see them, their profiles, if he went even deeper he could probably find their actual selves and maybe delve deeper into where they were, who they were, and of course there was always blackmail. Search histories and all. Suzuki would have wanted more espers in the fold. They were getting close to the end, close enough that people were starting to mobilize on Tokyo HQ. Important people, not the ones that just wanted to hang out around Mob. Most of these so called 'espers' were frauds, or nuts, or whatever the hell that bikini guy was about but there were some people that were, of course, the real deal.

Like the kid who posted these pictures in the first place.

What was it with kids? Hatori felt like an old man, like he was the one who was forty seven and not Touichirou. Setting your account to private didn't mean that you were suddenly invisible. Hatori knew this kid. He was the prodigy, one of them, and Touichirou had been pretty crazy about finding him a few years ago. He still kind of was. Thank God that Mob made her rule about going after child espers…not that Suzuki was really in the mood to listen to her now. With how things were going and the manpower they'd need…

Hatori wasn't heartless. He wasn't going to bring this to Suzuki's attention.

Or Mob's, for that matter. She didn't need to know…he had promised her that he would find her friend…but contrary to popular belief he wasn't a moron. He knew that if he showed her this picture she'd immediately order a plane…wait, no, there wasn't an airport anywhere near this place. Some house out in the country…there was a trainline close…he delved deeper. If she took the three forty five train and then waited for the bus and then walked for about half an hour…while he was in the GPS satellites he might as well mess with a few people's trips just for the hell of it…

Since he was already here.

"Hope you like Gifu." Muttered Hatori. Mob, of course, would not have approved but Mob wasn't there. She was settling the very important dispute of 'finders vs keepers' up in her office. He shouldn't bother her with this. She was just going to end up hurting herself…or hurting someone else. He hadn't been there for the destruction of the Eighth Division but he'd seen the reports. Mob could do some really amazing, and terrible, things when she lost control….and she would definitely lose control. This spirit, or whatever it was, that had latched onto her friend was bad news and Hatori would have been an irresponsible big brother and friend if he told her about it…

But a promise was a promise.

But he was the adult here.

But it was better to hear about it from him than for someone else….

But no one else would tell her.

But she would be hurt if she found out on her own.

She would be even more hurt if she wound up accidentally killing Japan's all of bottom of the barrel espers, shysters, grifters, conmen, and nutjobs.

But she'd be even more hurt if she found out that he was keeping things from-

"Will you stop whatever the hell it is that you're doing? I'm trying to work." Said Fukuda from his side of the room. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. He didn't know who this was supposed to be a punishment for, him or Hatori…

Who was he kidding, it was a punishment for him.

He was the one who'd crossed Shigeko too many times. He was the one who couldn't even pretend to like her. He was the one who…well whatever other reasons she'd come up with in that head of hers. She had put Hatori here, kept him in this office, to punish him and there was nothing that he could do about it. Nothing but get his work done.

This endless pile of work.

The kind that piled up whenever Suzuki went on his little sabbaticals. This one was called 'Shiori' and the making of another kid that he was probably going to mess up in some way. It wasn't like he had anything close to a good track record after all. Three kids. One was Shigeko, Sho had all kinds of emotional problems, and Mukai…well she was getting to be kind of a spoiled brat. Fourth time was the charm, it seemed, or maybe fifth if he counted Hatori…which he never would. That kid wasn't Suzuki's son no matter how much wishful thinking was on both sides. That kid was just some manipulative little overgrown child who had wormed his way close to Touichirou. It was his own fault for being so damned easy to manipulate. First Hatori and now this woman…

Touichirou had made his own bed and now he was going to lie in it…not that he wanted to think about Touichirou or beds or who was laying where…

"What did I just say?" asked Fukuda, his screen again going black. He needed to work. He needed to stop thinking about things that he never should have been thinking about in the first place. Touichirou could do whatever he wanted. If he wanted to jeopardize everything that he had worked for, his entire life's work, then this was actually good for Fukuda. He could at least do right by Sho and their little resistance effort. He could at least do something. What did he care if the thing that he and Touichirou had spent their entire lives working on went up in smoke?

He didn't. If Touichirou didn't care then he sure as hell wasn't going to care either…or at least he was going to try not to care.

"I honestly wasn't paying attention." Said Hatori looking up from his phone.

"I asked you to knock it off. I'm trying to get this done here-" said Fukuda before his screen went black for a third time.

"There. Six hundred Awakened soldiers." Said Hatori as he shifted the personnel list around. He had no idea what Fukuda was getting himself all pissed off over. Just replace the regular Awakened with the Awakened soldiers. It wasn't complicated. Not like what Hatori had to deal with.

"Hatori…" said Fukuda

"What?" whined Hatori, not that he would have called it whining. His voice just got kind of high sometimes, that was all.

"You can't just…" said Fukuda before he rubbed his temples and took a deep breath. If he got pissed and yelled at Hatori, even though he deserved it, Hatori would just end up running back to Touichirou and then things would get even more sour between them and that was the last thing…it should have been the last thing that he wanted.

"What? Make your job easier?" asked Hatori

"No, you can't just move random people around like that. Just looking at this list I can see three people who absolutely cannot work together under any circumstances, one person who's been in the infirmary for the past three months, and also I'm pretty sure you moved some of the actually useful Awakened." Said Fukuda

"Which of those guys can even be considered useful?" asked Hatori. He knew the system. The ones who stayed Awakened were either so weak that they barely counted as espers, so unstable that they couldn't be trusted to pour a glass of water, or at some point during the Awakening process their brains turned to Jell-O. Not exactly Claw's best and brightest.

"I don't know off the top of my head. I'm not Shigeko." Said Fukuda. Hatori cringed at the mention of her name, that full body thing he did when he tried to be dramatic. Since they were acting like a couple of kids Fukuda decided to roll his eyes.

Really.

They'd had their differences but it wasn't as though he had it out for Shigeko. No, he was smarter than that. If he wanted to ruin her he would have just gone running to Touichirou about whatever it was that she had going on with Serizawa…not that he'd care. It was difficult to reconcile the person that she had become with the person that she used to be…a bit like how it was difficult to reconcile the person Touichirou was with the person he used to be.

Or maybe it was just Fukuda who hadn't changed…though that came with his powerset. Agelessness.

"Oh come on." Said Fukuda

"What?" groaned Hatori

"You're going to say something about me and Shigeko." Said Fukuda

"It's not always about you." said Hatori

"Then what are you acting like this about?" asked Fukuda

"Nothing. Everything. Complicated shit." Said Hatori

"What in your life could possibly be this complicated? Forget to save your game?" asked Fukuda. An empty chip bag fluttered impotently in the space between their desks. The empty soda can, however, made contact with the wall behind him.

"Will you shut up already? I have real shit to deal with, not moving people around or back or whatever." Said Hatori

"So your solution is to make a mess?" asked Fukuda. Honestly. Even Sho didn't throw things anymore…well he barely threw things. He hadn't thrown a fit in a long while. Not that he'd seen Sho in a while. Things between them were not good…things between them were to be expected. Sho being thirteen and all. It was a hard age on it's own without all the Claw bullshit thrown in.

"I have no fucking clue what my solution is. If I tell her then she's going to get herself killed and if I don't tell her then she'd going to kill, or at least be pissed off, at me!" said Hatori

"Shigeko." Said Fukuda. It always came back to her, didn't it?

"Yeah, Mob." Said Hatori putting his phone facedown on his desk. Another pictures. Absolute chaos…of course it was. That spirit was dangerous…too dangerous for Mob…or maybe Mob was too dangerous for it….

"What'd she do this time?" asked Fukuda. Maybe this was something that he could take to Touichirou or…or maybe it was something that Touichirou wouldn't care about or maybe it was even something that he could help with…to get back into her good graces. Not that he wanted to be in her, in this current iteration of Shigeko's, good graces but he wasn't a moron. He knew that the best way to survive was just to follow whoever was in power no matter how badly he disagreed with who they were as a human being.

"Mob didn't DO anything but if she finds out about her friend then she will and-and it's really fucked up, ok? I mean what the hell is wrong with kids today? You're about to be eaten by the most dangerous spirit ever recorded and you, what, post about it? And when you know you're supposed to be in hiding? Like…what the fuck even is that?" asked Hatori, his words getting away from him. It was like that morning, when he'd lost soda can roulette, even though he hadn't known he'd been playing. Of course he'd lost, every can had been shook up…such a waste of perfectly good energy drink…like right now.

It was always kind of a waste of time talking to Fukuda.

"So you found that spirit, then." Said Fukuda. He ignored the 'kids today' part. If anyone was going to complain about kids today it was going to be him. Forty seven years on this earth and he wasn't any closer to understanding kids than he had been when he had been a kid…but that didn't matter. He didn't have to understand Hatori as a person, he just had to piece together what Hatori was telling him…

And it was very good intel.

"It wasn't hard to find." Muttered Hatori

"And you're planning on keeping it from Shigeko? And Touichirou?" asked Fukuda

"I have no clue what I'm planning to do…and when I do figure it out I'm not telling you anything." Said Hatori. He didn't like the look on Fukuda's face or his aura, not at all. He knew better than to go and tell Fukuda anything…and he should have kept it to himself to begin with.

This was all too much.

Before Fukuda could probe for more information Hatori got up. He needed…he needed something to drink. He was getting tired. He just needed another energy drink, preferably blue, and then once he woke up more he'd figure it out. Yeah, once he got some actual energy then it would all be clear and he'd do the right thing and nobody would be pissed off at him and then it would all work.

It might have been wishful thinking but wishes had to come true eventually, right?

"You've told me enough already." Muttered Fukuda as Hatori practically ran out of the room. He didn't care where Hatori went or what he did. No, Fukuda had more important things to think about. He wasn't going to be indecisive on this, no, he was going to be the most decisive he'd been in a long while.

He was going to tell Shigeko.

If she went after this spirit and caught it then it was good for everyone. This thing couldn't be contained by even their best medium. Maybe it would decimate Claw. Yeah, destroying a tenth of it would be enough to at least set Touichirou's plans back…Sho would enjoy that. Even though it had been a plan thirty years in the making…it was better for Sho and better for the world that Claw was at least decimated. Of course that idea hinged on Shigeko being able to stop the damn thing.

She was just a kid.

She may have acted like she was older than she was but she was still just a thirteen, not even fourteen, year old kid. She was too young to know the magnitude of what she was messing with and her control wasn't anything close to Touichirou's. Maybe she wouldn't be able to win. Maybe she would even…he didn't know how he wanted to finish that. He didn't want her dead, or even seriously injured. He just wanted her stopped. Humbled. Taken down a peg or two. Brought down to where she was supposed to be.

Somewhere other than the top floor.

He didn't knock. He just let himself into her office. She was sitting there at Touichirou's desk, his sticker covered desk, looking much too comfortable. Serizawa was at her side looking just as uncomfortable as ever. Fukuda didn't blame him. Serizawa wasn't like the others. No, he had been dragged into this life. The others had chosen this just like they had chosen Shigeko. A part of him felt sorry for Serizawa, really. Fukuda knew just how impossible it was to say 'no' to the person who held your life in the palm of their hand. He also knew how difficult these situations, these never ending negotiations with the Awakened were….

Shigeko actually looked happy to be saved.

"Guys, please, for the last time. It doesn't count as finders keepers if you find something in someone else's cubby and-oh! Fukuda, what are you doing here?" asked Mob as she put her milk carton down. This had been going on for long enough that she could see a line forming outside of her door. She had a lot of these meetings today, and some other stuff too, along with trying to find Minori. Dad used to say that he was surrounded by idiots, which had been a very mean thing to say of course, but Mob kind of got it….

Though she would rather have been surrounded by idiots than surrounded by Fukuda.

"I have important information for you, Miss Suzuki." Said Fukuda trying his best to sound deferential. The Awakened in front of him scurried away from the desk. Good. At least they knew enough to give him the floor.

"He has important…um…I guess you heard him. Sorry." Said Serizawa before he looked back down at his DS. Miss Suzuki reached over and patted him on the back. It was nice…sort of. She had been touching him a lot more lately. That meant that she cared about him. It just felt…different now. Different in a weird way that he couldn't place….but that was just him being weird. Of course there was nothing weird about her.

She was Miss Suzuki. She was perfect.

"It's ok, Serizawa." Said Mob as she patted him on the back. His aura felt kind of prickly there. She didn't blame him, of course. Fukuda was standing right in front of them after all. Even her aura was getting a little prickly.

"Miss Suzuki, I have information about-" said Fukuda

"You should really wait your turn. I was in the middle of something important." Said Mob

"I'm afraid that this can't wait. It's about your friend." Said Fukuda

"If this is about Shimazaki and his dog I told him already that dogs shouldn't drink and if the dog doesn't stop being hung over by tomorrow he should bring it to you." said Mob

"I don't usually heal animals." Said Fukuda

"Can you at least try?" asked Mob

"I will but this isn't about Shimazaki and his dog." Said Fukuda. The mention of Shimazaki made him feel like he was about to vomit but he held it in and he held it together. He did his best, anyway.

"Oh, ok…um…is it about Minegishi? Because I don't know who keeps on breaking pieces of their aloe plant off but-" said Mob

"This is about your other friend, Asagiri." Said Fukuda. Now she was looking at him. She was giving him her full attention in that way that only she could. Hey eyes and aura were on him…he kept it together. If he hadn't known better he would have sworn that she was Suzuki's by blood…but he did know better.

Suzuki had never been anywhere near as unstable as Shigeko was, not even when they had been kids.

"Minori?" asked Mob. This time Serizawa put his hand over hers…oh. Her aura. She needed to try and keep it together. Even the Awakened looked scared. They didn't have to. She was fine. She was just…she was happy. Someone had found Minori! Even if it was Fukuda…but maybe Fukuda was…well not 'ok' but less mean than he had been before. Maybe he was going to be nice to her from now on and then things would end up becoming just like they had been before!

Of course she could have just been getting ahead of herself, like Mukai when she got it into her head that all the hamsters would come back after she opened the door to their cage…

"I think that's her given name, yes." Said Fukuda. That reaction…he still had trouble reading her. On Touichirou that aural flare would have denoted excitement. With Shigeko, and whatever state of mind she was in right now, who the hell even knew?

"Can you guys come back later? This is kind of…um….please just come back later." Said Mob. She didn't want to make the Awakened feel unimportant but their fight really didn't matter when it was compared to something like Minori being missing and possessed by a dangerous spirit. No, that might have been life or death and life or death mattered more than if it counted a finders keepers when you found a candy bar in someone else's storage cubby.

"Take five." Said Fukuda motioning for the Awakened to leave. They didn't need to be told twice. They practically tripped over each other as they scrambled for the door.

"Please be…be careful." Called Serizawa faintly. He didn't want anyone to get hurt…but he got the feeling that they would. He also got the feeling that Miss Suzuki would be hurt too. Serizawa knew what they were talking about, the thing with the dangerous spirit, and he knew that she could get hurt if she went after it…and he knew that it was weird that Fukuda was brining this to her attention. Not just because they didn't get along, either.

Fukuda was the person who made people feel better, so why was he putting Miss Suzuki in a position where she could get hurt?

"They'll be fine. Anyway Hatori found out where your friend is…well he didn't tell me but apparently someone posted pictures of her online or something." said Fukuda with a wave of his hand. He still had Shigeko's full attention…and he was going to keep it together…even if the weight of that attention was starting to crush him.

"Where?" asked Mob

"Where is she? I have no idea. Hatori would know but he was kind of on the fence about telling you-" said Fukuda

"No, I mean where are the pictures posted?" asked Mob

"The internet." Said Fukuda

"Where on the internet?" asked Mob, trying her best not to get annoyed. She reminded herself that Fukuda wasn't trying to be difficult, he was just old like Dad was and didn't understand things. That was all. She couldn't blame him just because when he was born computers were as big as rooms and you couldn't do anything fun with them.

"I….I'm not sure, you'd have to ask him. He just said that someone was posting pictures of her or something." said Fukuda, his voice faltering a little. Right, he should have pried some more information out of him…but how in the hell was he supposed to keep all of these websites straight? There had to have been a hundred just for posting pictures alone. Who in the hell even cared about posting pictures? Who in the-

Shigeko. She cared. She cared and he cared about whatever she cared about…at least as far as she knew.

"Minori posts, or at least posted, a lot on Instagram but also Snapchat…but her Snapchat was just for friends…but then how did Hatori…." Muttered Mob. She looked down at her desk and reached for her milk…it was empty.

Serizawa handed her another carton.

"Here you go, Miss Suzuki, you can have mine. I didn't even start it yet." Said Serizawa. He didn't know what else he could do. He just hoped that it was enough. He had never been in this position before, aside from Mom everyone he cared about was always with him, so he wasn't sure what to do in this situation…of course he never knew what to do in most situations.

Usually Miss Suzuki was the one who knew what to do…but right now she looked just as lost as he was.

"Thank you, Serizawa." Said Mob. Did this mean that he liked her or…she would think about this later. Worry about this later. Right now Minori needed her. She just had to find her and save her and then…and then they could be friends again. At least she thought that she wanted to be friends again. Minori had called her a b-word after all…and she could also be kind of a b-word herself…but they had been friends for years…

It didn't matter if Minori wanted to go back to being friends or not. That wasn't what this was about. This was about saving her and that was all.

"So what's our next course of action, Miss Suzuki?" Said Fukuda. That usually got Touichirou back on track when his mind went to that planning place. He assumed that Shigeko's mind had wandered in the same way that her father's did, though of course he didn't know her nearly as well. She could have just been thinking about strawberry milk for all he knew.

"I'm going to find Minori. You can…you can stay here and look after Sho." said Mob. She didn't know what she was going to do but she did know that whatever she did she didn't want Fukuda to be a part of it. Sure he was being nice now but she knew him. At any minute he could turn right back into a jerk.

"Are you taking anyone with you or-" asked Fukuda

"I don't know but…but um…please check on Sho. I think that he's still looking for his hamsters and…um…." Said Mob

"One of them might have bitten him. I mean Mukai did let them free this morning and they don't like to be…to be caught…because they like to be free even though they could get lost or eaten…sorry." Said Serizawa, his voice turning into a whispers near the end. He couldn't help it. The way that Fukuda was looking at him…he didn't know what, exactly, that meant but he did know that he didn't like it.

"Very well, then. I'll go and check on Sho. Serizawa. Miss Suzuki." Said Fukuda. He even put in a formal sort of bow towards the end there. She didn't need it, or like it, but it was needed. If she was going to dismiss him in such a…if she wanted to be that way then he could be the bigger man here. He had brought her the information, his mission was accomplished, and now he had essentially been given the rest of the day off.

"Thank you." said Mob as soon as Fukuda left. She didn't know if she was thanking Serizawa for giving him an excuse to leave or Fukuda himself for closing the door…maybe both at once. The office was quiet now and she had space to think….not that there was much to think about.

She just had to figure out where Minori was. It wasn't going to be hard.

"You're welcome." Said Serizawa. Miss Suzuki nodded and reached her hand out. Her phone jumped from the desk and between her fingers. He immediately reached down and handed her the pink charging cable. That one was hers and it was faster than his.

It was important to think of things like that, especially since she was always thinking about him.

"For sending Fukuda away, I mean. Thanks for that." Said Mob

"Anytime! I mean…I mean I know how he bothers you…" said Serizawa. Miss Suzuki nodded again, her face buried in her phone. He knew that it was rude, that he was supposed to think that she was being rude, but he was kind of happy. Lately when she looked at him there was something in her eyes that he just couldn't read, couldn't place, and it made him feel…weird. Kind of itchy, maybe, or just uncomfortable.

He had no idea why. She was Miss Suzuki. It wasn't like she meant him any harm.

"He can be kind of…well, not nice, but this was nice of him. Telling me about Minori and all. I mean I don't know why Hatori didn't tell me…" said Mob as she flipped through Snapchat just in case, but also because Mukai had been making snaps all day. Mostly just her shouting with different filters on…Sho was in a few of these too…

She could hang out with them later. Right now she had work to do.

"Maybe Hatori forgot or…or he let time get away from him. He might have been playing something and then just lost track of the time. I mean we were playing animal crossing the other day and the time just flew by…I mean it did for me. He wasn't playing so much as bothering other people, he likes multiplayer, and he kept on getting banned but he unbanned himself and…um…I sold all of our carrots! Sorry, that wasn't-" said Serizawa

"No, that's ok. We needed the money." Said Mob. She was being kind of rude, looking at her phone and being distracted like this, but she just…she kind of had more important things to think about than videogames right now….maybe Instagram….

"We did! I mean I did…I mean we did and…and um…I'm sure that Hatori would have told you if he'd remembered. He cares a lot about you and-" said Serizawa

"Yes!" said Mob loudly…maybe too loudly. The entire room jumped. She didn't know if that had been her or Serizawa. Maybe the both of them. She put everything back where it needed to be. She needed to work on control, Dad would have had things to say to her if he'd been there, but he wasn't there and…and she didn't need him to be there anyway.

She finally knew what to do.

"Um…yes?" asked Serizawa

"I found her, I mean I found who posted about her…and I don't want to talk about him…but I know where she is now!" said Mob doing her best not to pay any attention at all to who she had found. It had been a post tagged with Asagiri Minori. She had used one of her other accounts, the ones with different names that Hatori didn't know about, to friend this one. Kageyama Shigeko didn't really want to talk to, look at, or even live on the same planet as Teru but Kristanna Arendelle, the child of Kristoff and Anna, did…and now she knew where he was…

And where Minori was, too…or at least the train station giftshop by where she was, but that was a good clue. A really good clue!

"Who-who are you going to send after her? I mean even Shimazaki is afraid of this spirit-" said Serizawa

"I'm going by myself." Said Mob. The room. That time she was sure it was Serizawa's doing and his alone.

"Miss Suzuki! You can't! I mean not that I can tell you what to do but…but it's dangerous!" said Serizawa

"I don't care. She's my friend and I-" said Mob

"I can't let anything happen to you!" said Serizawa. He took her hands in his that time. Mostly to keep her from running away. He was so much bigger than she was. He could have kept her there, held onto her, if he had wanted to…even though her powers were stronger…but he shouldn't have been thinking like that in the first place!

Friends didn't trap friends in offices even if trapping them in offices was for their own good.

"Then…then you can come too. If you want to." Said Mob, her face turning red. She wasn't near a mirror but she was sure of it. Did this mean that he liked her? And did her reacting mean that she liked him? As more than a friend or…or someone she wanted to do things with? But did he like her as more than a friend or was he just…no, this meant more than…but…but what if…

This was too complicated!

"But Miss Suzuki, I can't let you go alone. I can't let anything happen to you. I don't know what I'd do without you." said Serizawa

"You can come with and we can do this together, ok?" asked Mob, keeping her hands in his. She would worry about this later. Right now she had to focus on what had to be done. She had a…a mission, yes, that was it. She had a mission and that mission was to save Minori. Serizawa would help…or panic…but the important thing was that she had someone with her who believed in her or liked her or just…just….

She was going to focus on the things she understood right now, like saving Minori, and worry about the rest later.