The Seventh Division wasn't home…but that was alright.
Tsuchiya had left home years ago and she had no intention of going back. Sure, it was better than here, at least everyone was sane, but the world of the temple was so small and cloistered. Mom and Dad had spent so much effort trying to keep the outside world away, her entire life, that they had inadvertently driven her out in the process…thrown her out. The old 'if you walk out that door don't bother coming back' ultimatum. She had made her choice years ago and even if they would have had her back it wasn't the place for Mukai.
She didn't have a place for Mukai. Not a good one, anyway.
This place, the Seventh Division, wasn't home. It had been a place to live after she'd run away from home but it wasn't anything more than that. A place to rest her head and keep her things. A place where she had thought, for a time, could have been home. A place where she had been promised the world, a chance to change it, but had only found a lot of chaos. Chaos, insanity, and whatever the hell the Awakened could have been called.
She didn't even have words for them.
"Alright, that's all for today. Back to your assignments." Said Tsuchiya as she wiped the sweat from her brow. They weren't listening, they were all rolling around on the floor hitting and biting each other. She was supposed to have been teaching them to fight, her old job. She had thought that if she just came back and got back to what she had been up to before that nobody would ask questions. This was not the time to be poking at any threads. Even the Division Leader knew to stay away from President Suzuki right now. This was not the time to be asking him why he had sent his people where he had sent them.
There was just too much going on.
"Hey!" shouted Tsuchiya. They stopped fighting, mostly, the little one in front got a few good hits in before letting go. She sighed and rubbed her temples. She was trying to get them in fighting form for the uprising. They weren't going to be able to take over a park, at this rate, let alone the entire world. Of course the whole idea was asinine the more she thought about it.
But she knew better than to go poking holes in things, not now, not when things were so precarious.
"All of you, knock it off! Get out of my gym and go back to work!" said Tsuchiya. There was some shuffling and grumbling. A few of them were looking at the clock on the wall…oh, right, first lunch.
"Those of you who have first lunch, and I mean FIRST, you can go and get something to eat." Said Tsuchiya. She had never seen them move as fast as they had in that moment. There was a cheer, something about jello, and then out they went as one mass. She could have sworn that some of them were even being dragged out…
They were like kids.
She sighed and straightened her gi out. There were still a couple other groups to go. She didn't know how much longer she could keep this up for. The Awakened were easier to deal with than the others, her…friends, if that was the word, but she was getting to the end of her rope. It had been easier when she had been younger, when she hadn't had a child of her own to deal with, and when she hadn't spent years with the President.
It was enough to drive anyone crazy.
She checked the clock. She didn't have first lunch but…wait, no, that was Hiroshi's domain now. He wasn't just there to watch Mukai after all. He didn't have to cook but he liked to, and he was better at it than he thought, it was a shame that he had to do this…take over some of her shifts. He would have made a great cook in the cafeteria or, if they had been normal people, an actual restaurant. But they weren't normal people and these were dangerous thoughts to have. It would have been easy to fall into some kind of fantasy where they were normal and they didn't have to deal with this. Where they could have had a house of their own, a family, and just…normalcy.
But they were espers and, therefore, no part of their lives could have been normal.
She checked the time again…she needed a break. If she had to herd children then she might as well have been herding her own child. Hell, Mukai was actually a better listener in a lot of ways. There was something about the awakening process that ruined them mentally. They were like kids…the lucky ones turned into big kids. The unlucky ones…she didn't want to think about that. She wanted to think about lunch, what was waiting for her above her head, not what was happening below her feet…
She got to moving.
She walked down the hallway like normal, politely greeting all of her former teammates. The ones she passed. She couldn't believe that she had ever complained about them. Sure, Sakurai was always carrying that sword around and talked like he'd stepped out of one of those low budget sword play movies, Koyama's ego was so fragile that he had to challenge everyone he passed including his own shadow, Muraki was just as committed to making life reflect art as Sakurai, Matsuo was-
-doing more than saying hello.
"Tsuchiya, hey, can I talk to you for a second?" asked Matsuo as he waved her over. He was pale, very pale, and it looked like he had a new scar on his face…yes, the thing by his ear was new…actually the closer he got the more he looked like hell…
"What happened to you?" asked Tsuchiya. Matsuo reached up and felt his new scar.
"This? That's nothing, I just had a run in with…anyway, Toshiki is here and they want to talk to you." said Matsuo
"Toshiki?" asked Tsuchiya
"Minegishi? Purple hair? No eyebrows? Secret collect of Sailor Moon doukinshi under their bed?" asked Matsuo
"Oh, you mean Minegishi…wait, what? What do they…did they say what they wanted with me?" asked Tsuchiya. She felt the sleeves of her gi start to strain. She didn't know why she had ever bothered with one with sleeves, they just got in her way, and right now she needed all the mobility she could get. If Minegishi was here then Mob was done waiting for her to come back. She had known that the lie wouldn't hold for long, Mob had made it very clear that she didn't want Mukai or anyone else gone, and…and obviously she was too busy to have come by herself…
She needed to calm down before she looked even more suspicious than she must have now.
"No idea, they just told me to find you. They're waiting for you in your apartment." said Matsuo. Tsuchiya nodded. Alright, this wasn't that bad, they were being polite and giving her a head's up so…so maybe this wasn't a 'drag her away kicking and screaming' sort of thing. Not that she would have gone quietly. If it was just Minegishi, and the fight stayed indoors, of course she could have taken them. They were weak, out of shape, and often at least a little drunk.
Minegishi she could take but the rest of them…she didn't know.
"Is everything alright? You look like you just saw a ghost, and I know you didn't, that's my area of expertise." Said Matsuo with a smile that didn't even get close to reaching his eyes.
"I'm fine, it's all fine. What about you, though? You look terrible…no offense." Said Tsuchiya
"None taken. I just…had a meeting with the President, that's all, and he demoted me back to the Seventh Division." Said Matsuo. Tsuchiya's eyes widened. She couldn't help it. That was worrying…worse than worrying….
"Matsuo…" said Tsuchiya
"Really, I'm fine. He just threw me around a little. Honestly my first fight with him was much worse." Said Matsuo as he ran a hand over the scar the crossed his eye and covered half of his face. She winced. She had her own scar, that was why she was a Scar in the first place, and that fight had been…hadn't been something that she had ever wanted to repeat. The President was terrifying when he wanted to be. She had seen him in his pajamas, seen him arguing with his kids, seen him dipping sliced bread into ketchup at three in the morning…but she was still terrified of him.
She still wouldn't have fought him a second time.
"Did he say…did he say what it was about? Or was he just, uh, blowing off some steam?" asked Tsuchiya. The president knew that she and Matsuo were friends and President Suzuki, for as much as he complained he did love Mob, wouldn't stand for someone to hurt her in any way, so if this was her fault then…then she didn't know how she was supposed to live with herself now.
"The spirit." Sighed Matsuo
"Oh." Said Tsuchiya, doing her best to keep the elation out of her voice. It wasn't about her! It wasn't about…her friend was hurt, that was what this was about, and she shouldn't have been happy that it hadn't been her. She should have been sympathizing with him…she'd spent way too much time with Minegishi and the rest. They'd rubbed off on her in the worst ways.
"Apparently his daughter tried to go off of it and it even managed to take her in and…and yeah, she nearly died." Said Matsuo
"Matsuo…I don't know what to sa-I don't know what he expected you to say for yourself, I mean, come on. If she couldn't beat it and she's second only to him then I have no idea what he expected you to do." Said Tsuchiya as she put a hand on his shoulder. He shrugged.
"She's not a medium, I am. Telekinesis is useful but it's not everything." Said Matsuo as he shrugged her hand off of his shoulder. She pulled back.
"Still, though." Said Tsuchiya
"It's just a few bumps and bruises, it could have been a lot worse and, hey, at least it keeps me far away from Tokyo. I swear, he's on a warpath…" said Matsuo before his smile, which had never truly reached his eyes, disappeared completely.
"Are you ok, though, that's the question. I mean you got kicked out of…you left Tokyo first." Said Matsuo
"I'm fine, at least I think I am. It depends on what Minegishi wants." Said Tsuchiya. Matsuo opened his mouth, closed it, and then looked around. Muto walked past, his robe gliding against the ground as if he were flying. Immediately Matsuo started humming the theme song from…she knew this one…something from TV. It took Tsuchiya a moment to understand but as soon as she got his meaning she cleared her mind of everything but lunch. She was hungry, she told herself, so hungry.
She hoped there was jello.
"…warrior for you and me…" muttered Matsuo and Muto turned the corner. Tsuchiya waited a moment before she stopped listing off types of jello in her mind. She didn't know exactly how his powers worked, she had never gotten friendly enough with him to ask, and she just…he creeped her out. A lot. A mind reader, someone pawing through her private thoughts, someone digging into all of her secrets from where she hid her savings to the time she had stolen a candy bar when she had been little and on one of her rare trips out into the world…
Green jello. Lime or sour apple. Yellow jello. Lemonade or butterscotch. Pink. Strawberry or raspberry.
"I don't think he was paying attention to us." Said Matsuo
"How can you tell?" asked Tsuchiya
"I didn't feel his aura pass over mine. He doesn't know about-" said Matsuo
"About what?" asked Tsuchiya. Matsuo leaned in close.
"Toshiki says that things are…aren't well in the Suzuki family. Something's happened and people are starting to…take sides." Said Matsuo. He looked behind her. She turned around…the security cameras. They didn't have sound and were manned by Awakened but still, this was not the thing that people needed to know about, this was not…
She didn't know what this was but she knew that, when things were hush-hush, they weren't the sort of thing that needed to be broadcasted for all of Claw to hear.
"That's all I know. Just…talk to them, ok? They're waiting for you. I have to go and clean out the body disposal room. Lots of lingering spirits." Said Matsuo before he hurried off, his sneakers scuffing the white tile beneath their feet. Tsuchiya walked more normally, naturally, making sure not to draw attention to herself. She couldn't afford to, she wasn't even supposed to be here, and running off like this….
It could have looked like she had been taking sides.
Maybe even the wrong side, not that she knew which side was right and which was wrong. Mob and her father…those were the only two side she could think of in the Suzuki family. Mukai was too young, their mothers had all run off, and Sho…well he was an angry little boy but nobody followed him. Not like his sister. She couldn't take two steps without running into an Awakened wearing a blue ribbon around their neck. Claw was President Suzuki's but the people, a good number of the people, were his daughter's.
And Mob, as young as she was, was still a hell of a lot more pleasant than her father.
Tsuchiya didn't know what she was supposed to do so she just kept on walking. If she sided with Mob then it would mean going back. The uprising would happen here for some reason. Here and then Tokyo, it was backwards but that was the plan, and she…she didn't know. Tokyo would mean being back with the others in the asylum. Being here would mean another asylum but, at least, she wouldn't have to hang out with the inmates…and here…it was easier to slip away when she was so far away from the center of power.
From the Suzuki family.
She sighed as she made it to her apartment. Her aura was out. She could three more on the other side of the door. Hiroshi, Mukai, and there it was…Minegishi's aura. She took a deep breath and opened the door, fully prepared to fight. To lie. To do anything to keep from being dragged back to Tokyo. Anything at all. Anything including-
Having shoes thrown at her.
"Time to go outside, Mom, come on! Mine wants to play!" shouted Mukai as tossed her shoes to Tsuchiya. She was jumping around, her coat was half off, and she had jam on her face. The floor shook, she didn't worry. She knew why.
"Mukai, where are you…oh. Hey…" said Hiroshi as he picked Mukai up and threaded her arm through her coat sleeve.
"Hey." Said Tsuchiya as she picked Mukai's shoes up off the ground. She hesitated a moment before slipping her shoes onto her feet. Maybe this was all for the best, her going outside, even though the woods were far from safe. It would give Tsuchiya some time to hash things out with Minegishi…smooth things out with them…maybe even come to some kind of an agreement…
Though if they were here on Mob's behalf then there probably wasn't much of an agreement that they could have came to.
"Minegishi's here!" said Hiroshi
"Over there." Said Mukai as she pointed down the hall and into the living room….where, yes, Minegishi was sitting on her couch flipping through a book. They weren't reading, though, their eyes weren't moving. They were gripping that book pretty tightly, too, their knuckles were practically white…that wasn't a good sign. They knew Minegishi. If something was scaring them then it was bad.
"I know, I ran into Matsuo on my way up here, or maybe he was trying to warn me. I don't know." said Tsuchiya
"Did he say why they were here? I haven't been able to get anything out of them besides 'it's a nice day for a walk' so…maybe they're taking us out to the woods to kill us?" asked Hiroshi as he pulled Mukai's hood over her head.
"No, they were on body disposal and the hit squad. Walking people into the woods is more personal…if he'd sent Shimazaki after us then I'd have been more worried." Said Tsuchiya as she pulled Mukai from Hiroshi's arms.
"Stop talking and start walking, I'm bored." Said Mukai. Tsuchiya immediately put her down. Right, she was older now. It was easy to forget that, now, she was old enough to know what was going on at least somewhat.
"I'm with Mukai. It's a good day for a walk in the woods, don't you think?" asked Minegishi, the couch groaning as they got up. Tsuchiya pulled Mukai close as they came over and slipped their shoes on, not bothering to undo the laces.
"Will you just tell us what you want already? If you want us to come back then-then that's up to Tsuchiya." Said Hiroshi. Tsuchiya didn't like that, didn't want that kind of power in this relationship…to have all of this pinned on her. Hiroshi wanted to leave just as badly as she had.
"I think that we should take a walk in the woods." Said Tsuchiya, making eye contact with Minegishi. They looked tired, well they always looked tired, but now it was worse than she had ever seen it before. They had heavy grey bags under their eyes, their shirt was wrinkled, and their hair was washed out and greasy. At least they didn't seem hurt…Tsuchiya thanked whoever was listening for small blessings.
"Good. Then come on, while there's daylight." Said Tsuchiya as she opened the door. Mukai ran out ahead of her, she always did that. Hiroshi lingered in the back. Minegishi walked beside her, keeping pace with her no matter how much she slowed down or sped up. It was almost like they were watching her, trying to keep her from leaving, from running away…of course they were, they were trying to bring her back.
She didn't want to go back.
She knew that she couldn't bring Mukai back. This had always been a stop on the way to where she was going, not that she had any idea where it was that she wanted to go, but she knew that it couldn't have been here. This wasn't a home. This wasn't the place for children. This wasn't the place for anyone. She wished she had known that years ago…
A tug at her pant leg.
"Chase me when we get outside. Like Sho does." Said Mukai
"Of course." Said Tsuchiya. She didn't wish that she had never gotten in, if she hadn't ever joined Claw then she never would have had Mukai, but she did wish that getting out was easier. It was going to be hard but…but she would have to do it. She had tried doing it the safe way but now…now…
If she had to take Mukai and run then she'd risk it.
"When we get outside can you please tell us what this is about? If it's about us leaving then-" said Hiroshi
"It's about taking a walk in the woods, nothing else." Said Minegishi, their eyes darting towards the security camera prominently sticking out of the wall. Tsuchiya didn't know if they were manned right now, or manned by anyone competent, but she wasn't going to risk it. She slowed down and put her hand on Hiroshi's arm.
"We're almost out. Let's just get to the woods." Said Tsuchiya with an edge to her voice. She sped up. So did Minegishi. Hiroshi hung around in the back, casting a shadow over all of them. The shadow followed them down the hall, down the stairs, out the door, and then out into the tree line. Minegishi didn't take them on any of the paths, no, they just cut straight into the brush. It was still early spring, a lot of the trees were still dormant, and the bushes were largely bare. Still, for some reason they stopped every so often to touch a plant and mutter something before they kept walking.
And walking.
And walking.
They stopped long after Mukai had started complaining, long after the lingering cold had turned their noses and cheeks red, long after they'd circled what felt like the same collection of trees at least three times. Minegishi, somehow, didn't seem to mind despite being the most out of shape out of the three of them. They had always been pale and thin but now…well, now they were starting to look like a ghost. A thin, tired, pale ghost.
Tsuchiya felt for them, being stuck with Suzuki, stuck in all of that.
"My feet are tired. No more walking." Said Mukai as Hiroshi put her down. Minegishi, thankfully, didn't say anything. They just picked up a stick and threw it.
"Fetch." Said Minegishi
"She's not a dog." Said Tsuchiya
"No, but she does hear like one." Said Minegishi
"So?" asked Hiroshi
"And she talks like a parrot." Said Minegishi, an edge to their voice…their gravelly, raspy, voice. Had they always sounded like that? That had been a near lifelong smoker, she remembered them telling her that, but she couldn't remember them sounding like that. Maybe she had just gotten used to them or maybe…maybe it had always been bad but now things had gotten a hell of a lot worse.
"Mukai, go get the stick. Be the puppy." Said Tsuchiya. Mukai barked and then ran off. She craned her neck to the side, trying to keep an eye on her. These woods went on for miles. She had never even gotten to the end of them back when she had been young and spent her breaks taking long nature walks.
"I'm the puppy!" shouted Mukai, her voice carrying through the trees and scaring the birds.
"I'll go after her." said Hiroshi
"She's fine." Said Minegishi
"I can't see her." said Hiroshi
"She's alright." Said Tsuchiya. She couldn't see Mukai but she could hear her, that was good enough.
"I can sense her. She's fine." Said Minegishi. For a moment their aura was visible. They were truly in their element. She could see their aura moving from their body, into the ground, and then presumably the lines she was seeing was the root system in the forest. Tsuchiya flexed her arm. She could have, in a normal fight, taken them but in the woods…in their element…
"But-" said Hiroshi
"Just let them say what they need to say." Said Tsuchiya
"We already know what they're going to say. They're going to say that we need to get back and…and if we need to I will. I don't want to…I mean I miss the kids but…but I want…to stay with-" said Hiroshi
"This goes well beyond you running away, not great by the way Mob's been through enough, but that's not what I'm here for." Said Minegishi
"If you're not here to bring us home then what are you here for? I know that you didn't come all the way out here just to walk in the woods…or maybe you did. It's hard to say with you sometimes." Said Hiroshi
"I wish that I had come all the way down here to walk through the woods but, no, this isn't a vacation. This is…it's about Mob." Said Minegishi
"What happened? Is she ok? Did that spirit get her? Oh god…we should have stayed. She needs me!" said Hiroshi. Tsuchiya rolled her eyes. They would talk later about how quickly he switched sides. One minute he wanted to leave with her and the next…well, she couldn't blame him. Mob was just a kid and she had, last they had heard from her, gotten herself into some real trouble…trouble that she never should have even considered going near. She was thirteen, so was her brother, and they were such kids still sometimes they felt even younger…they needed someone to be there for them. They needed…they needed…
They needed parents, not friends, and Tsuchiya couldn't be their mother. Not if they didn't want her to be,
"Mob's alive, just stupid. She's…I can't believe I'm even saying this but she's making her move." Said Minegishi
"They're moving again? Where, back to Disney?" asked Shibata
"No, I think that they mean she's….making her move against her-" said Tsuchiya
"Against Suzuki. She's making her move against him, or at least she's planning on making her move, and it's time for us to pick sides. That's why I'm here." Said Minegishi
"To convince us to side with her?" asked Tsuchiya. She loved Mob, she didn't really care about Suzuki, but in the end she just wanted out…she had to tread carefully. She had to lie like she had never lied before. She had to…she had to keep Mukai safe. Nothing was more important than keeping Mukai safe, even if she was keeping her safe from her own family.
The President wasn't just going to pat her on the head and step aside. The President…she touched the Scar on her face. The President wasn't going to just take this…there would be blood.
"I shouldn't have to convince you to do anything but, yeah, my money's on Mob." Said Minegishi
"How can you be so-so-how can you make jokes right now? This is bad, this is so bad…you need to convince her to-" said Shibata
"If I had any power over Mob don't you think that I would have used it a long time ago." Snapped Minegishi. Hiroshi took a step back. Tsuchiya put her hand on his arm.
"We're going to…going to…" said Tsuchiya. He knew what he wanted, it seemed, and it was to go back. She got that feeling, anyway. He knew just as well as she did that there was nothing that they could do for those kids but, at the same time, he didn't have any of his own. They were practically his but, and that was it, they weren't their kids. Tsuchiya could only think of her child…of Mukai's well being.
"I'm going to side with Mob…I mean, I have to…sorry. I could never work against her and if these are our only options then…then I'm going to side with Mob…sorry." Said Hiroshi, turning away from her. She sighed…he only saw two options here…
"I'm siding with Mob, too, I mean I have to." Said Tsuchiya. She mentally crossed her fingers. She knew what she had to do and what she had to do was lie. She couldn't just tell Minegishi that she was going to take Mukai and run. She had been making plans, ideas really, to slip away somehow during the chaos of the uprising. She didn't think that they could win, not the way things had been, and not with Suzuki being the leader her was. The ship was going to sink and she was going to take her child and get to the nearest lifeboat.
She didn't know where that lifeboat would take her but she knew one thing, this ship was sinking, and Mukai didn't know how to swim.