Suzuki always kept his promises.
To the best of his ability. He was not in the habit of making promises which he couldn't keep. He never had been. He was many things but he was not a liar. Especially when it came to someone he cared for deeply, like Shiori. He had promised that he would come and see her before he took on the world and that was what he was on his way to do.
Well, what he would have been on his way to do if he ever got himself packed.
Shigeko was really so much better at this. She had less to worry about, she wasn't the one with the weight of the world on her shoulders after all, which made her the perfect person to perform these little acts od domestic drudgery. He simply doesn't have the space within his mind. Not when he had to juggle, mentally, the logistics of taking over the world. Where people needed to be, what they needed to be doing, how they needed to do it, and all of the thousands of other moving parts that kept Claw moving. He was perfectly capable of doing so, of course, but it left him with precious little time and mental space to calculate how many socks he would need for his final trip to Osaka.
Three?
He at least didn't have to chose which socks to wear when. All of his socks were black, it was just easier, just like all of his suits were blue and all of his shirts were white. It saved so much time…it should have. He knew he changed his socks once a day but then if something were to happen to a pair it would have been nice to have options, he would have felt much more secure if he'd had options, so maybe four pairs…but he didn't want to overstuff his suitcase either. Then it would be such a pain to unpack and repack…but it was just one pair of socks…but articles of clothing did tend to multiply.
And not in the fun way.
Then he'd end up taking more of everything to compliment the extra pair of socks he had taken…not something he wanted. He ran a hand through his hair…no, across his head. That was a much better descriptor for the action he had just undertaken. His hair had been getting long, not as long as son's but embarrassingly long for a man his age who was about to take on the world. Everything was going according to plan, he just had to keep everyone on track, and take care of a few lose ends. Haircuts, visits he had to make, figuring out why his children were avoiding him.
He wasn't an idiot, he knew when he was being avoided.
Not by Hatori, of course, but Hatori wasn't his blood child…and neither was Shigeko…but he'd known Shigeko for longer so her presence was even more missed. As was son's now that he really examined his emotions as Shiori had commanded him to do. He didn't miss Sho's presence but he does miss something else about him. The…fact that he was his son, perhaps. Seeing that small reflection of himself at the end of the day. Himself at that age, when he had realized that he had the potential to take over the world, when he first made a break from his father. Father had wanted him to follow in his footsteps but Suzuki had never been able to see himself working under others even if others were under him. With as much power as he'd possessed, even at that young age, it had made no sense. So he'd had nothing left but to take over the world.
Sho was not nearly so ambitious.
He had no idea what Sho wanted out of life but it couldn't have been much since he had never said anything. He had never declared a single goal for his life. In fact he seemed contented to simply sit and draw and play with rodents all day.
How that boy could have come from him and Masami he never would have known.
There was too much of Masami in Sho and not enough of him…but that was just the hand that he'd been dealt as far as biological sons went. It was still customary for the two of them to share a meal together, and there was some enjoyment which could have been taken in seeing a smaller version of himself there at the other end of the table. The worst parts of himself, perhaps, but parts of himself. Not seeing him there was an annoyance, yes that was a good word, but not seeing Shigeko was painful.
He may not have liked her but that didn't mean that he didn't enjoy her presence.
But instead of her presence, as was customary, he only found a plate of food in his spot and his daughter nowhere to be seen. He had prepared himself for this day, or at least tried to, for some time now. The day when she grew up and no longer needed him. The day when she prepared to leave the family home and started a life of her own. The day when…the day he had tried to mitigate. They were supposed to be together, as had been the plan, but now she was gone and…and he could still sense her, of course, but it felt like something had left. Something between them was gone and he wanted it back.
That was the one part of her that he wanted back.
He did not like the person that she was becoming, and he did not care for her as a person, but he did care for her as a daughter. If there had been some way to go back in time and cherish the days even more, the days when the two of them had practically been of one mind, the days when they each wanted nothing more than to be near one another, then he would have. But she was thirteen now, nearly fourteen, and she had made a bid for her adulthood. A bid which he would grant.
This was nature's way.
But he wasn't ready to let her go completely, not yet. He still needed her assistance. She wasn't gone from him yet and for so long as they were together she would be there for him as he was there for her…and that included packing him up for a short stay with Shiori. He searched for her aura. He felt her near but near could have been next door. If she was next door then he would leave her be. There were aspects of her life that he knew he wouldn't be able to survive, mentally, if he started poking into them. She was…she wasn't doing anything that he wouldn't have done at her age if the opportunity presented it's self. Of course nobody had been interested in him when he had been her age, short, covered in acne, and with a voice that couldn't decide if it wanted to be a tenor or a soprano. She had completely skipped her awkward years, though, as Mother and Father had called them…so he couldn't fault her completely for doing what she had done.
They both had made their fair share of romantic and sexual mistakes.
Shigeko was in the house. He had, though, extended his aura too far and met Tadashi's. Tadashi and Serizawa…now there was a friendship he never could have seen coming. Though, then again, he never would have seen himself becoming friends with Hatori. Maybe the old idiom about not judging a book by it's cover had some truth to it. He should have been happy, glad, elated, delighted, that Tadashi had someone to keep him company. Maybe if he had someone to keep him company then he would stop trying to start something between the two of them…rekindle what they'd had before. The fifth best sexual experience of his life up to this point…
Tadashi noticed him!
His aura had lingered for far too long. Tadashi's aura had noticed his. He quickly retracted his aura back closer to his physical body. That had been close. Tadashi couldn't know that he was still interested…Suzuki didn't even like knowing how he felt. It was so difficult to not be interested, they had such a long shared history and…and there was the feeling that he had wasted too many years not being with him, but he wanted children and he loved Shiori and he was not an adulterer. He did not betray anyone. Not the woman he loved, not himself, and not…and he hadn't even betrayed Masami. She had been gone, with her being gone he had been free to pursue other women, and one of those women had been Mukai's mother. He hadn't betrayed Masami or…or Tadashi, though they had been physically together nearly daily all the time and his feelings had been present, just hidden, and…and…
And he needed to figure out how many pairs of socks he needed!
"Shigeko! Come in here! There's a matter of great importance that requires your immediate attention!" shouted Suzuki. He felt her aura growing nearer and nearer to him…it wouldn't have harmed her to move with some sense of urgency! This was important, this was perhaps the most important problem facing him right now. If he didn't get packed then he would never be able to leave and if he wasn't able to leave then he would be too tempted by Tadashi and then he would betray Shiori, be unable to trust himself, and become so emotionally harmed that he may have faltered in the face of the world's opposition to it's conquest!
So yes, she could have moved with a bit more urgency.
"Dad, if you found another hamster don't kill it, just let me catch it and give it back to Sho." said Shigeko as she opened his door. He used his powers to attempt to pull her into the room. She pushed him away, his telekinetic grip on her loosened, and he found himself grasping at air…that had been odd…
He hadn't really been trying. His failure meant nothing.
"This isn't about rodents, this is a matter of even greater urgency." Said Suzuki
"What? You want me to make you ketchup bread or something? Because it's really just two ingredients, Dad, ketchup and bread." Said Shigeko
"True, yes, but you have a greater grasp upon the best ratio of each…but that is not what I've called you here for." Said Suzuki
"Then what is it?" asked Shigeko. She crossed her arms. She was glancing at the closed door. She seemed impatient. But what did she have to be impatient about at this hour? It wasn't as though she had any duties to attend to, he had relieved her of that, and it was about time, too. This way she could focus on her own life, the life she was trying to make for herself as an adult woman. She didn't need to attend to anything within Claw. She didn't need to attend to anything outside of the household.
It was as Father had said all of those years ago; a man's success could be measured by how little his wife needed to work.
"I need you to pack my suitcase as you have many times before." Said Suzuki as he pointed to the mess he had made of his wardrobe, the way it had seemingly vomited onto his bed. Shigeko's eyes widened and her aura formed, quickly, into a barrier before dissipating.
Yes, it was quite the mess he had made.
"You're…you're going to Seasoning City already? But it's…it's not my birthday yet." Said Shigeko
"No, I'm going to go to Osaka. Now pack." Said Suzuki as he pointed to the mess on his bed. Shigeko, thankfully, immediately got to work. She began to fold his clothing into miniscule little squares. He knew he had made the right call by demanding her assistance. She was so much better at these sorts of these things, just the way her mother had been.
Masami had always been so good at taking care of him….
"To see Shiori. For a week at most." Said Suzuki quickly. thoughts of Masami, thoughts of Tadashi, too many thoughts about too many people. He had Shiori, he loved Shiori, and he knew that he should have wanted no other human being romantically or sexually than Shiori.
"I'll pack you enough clothes for two weeks since you always spend extra time with her." said Shigeko
"Yes…no. Time is too tight right now and even a week away is pushing it." Said Suzuki. Shigeko stopped folding, the parade of clothes that had been flying into his suitcase stopped midair, and she was looking at him with wide eyes.
"So everything is on-on schedule?" asked Shigeko. Suzuki nodded. He had never been good at reading people but he knew her, he knew fear, but what he didn't know was why she was feeling any of that right now. There was nothing out of the ordinary happening, nothing that should have effected her like this…though she had always been a confusing human being even at the best of times.
"Yes. Through my efforts, and Hatori's, and I suppose Tada-Fukuda's as well we have corrected course and are still on track to make our bid for power on your birthday." Said Suzuki
"Why my birthday?" asked Shigeko, the clothes in the air falling to the floor.
"Because the world is my gift to you, now pick those clothes up off of the floor." Said Suzuki. Shigeko nodded and, thankfully, did as she was told. He had been worried that she had been attempting some petty form of rebellion, much like Sho did by not bathing for days at a time, but no. He didn't know what he had been thinking. This was Shigeko, she didn't have a rebellious bone in her body.
"And fold them before you put them in the suitcase." Said Suzuki. She had attempted to stuff them directly in as they were. She had been so conscientious before…he should have kicked her out of the room after her first failure but, no, he had to give her a second chance. He had always had a soft spot for her.
"One more mistake like that and I'll do it myself." Said Suzuki
"You can if you want to but…but Dad? What if I don't want it?" asked Shigeko
"To fold my clothing? I can't imagine why you wouldn't, you seem to take great pride in your housekeeping abilities as most women do." Said Suzuki
"No, I mean what if I don't want the same things that you want…what if I don't want the world?" asked Shigeko. Suzuki wondered if she had been intoxicated. She didn't smell odd, she wasn't slurring her words, and she seemed to have complete control over her abilities. So she was fine…mentally unwell? That was the only explanation…either that or she was confused.
Or just being confusing.
"Explain." Said Suzuki
"I just…the world is a big place, running it is going to be really complicated and take up a lot of time…time that you could have spent seeing Shiori or playing Minecraft with Hatori or watching Galaxy Express 999-" said Shigeko
"I am aware of the burden ruling will place upon me, yes." Said Suzuki
"And it just was thinking that maybe…maybe it would be better if things just stayed the same around here for now. If we could just…if we could just let things stay the same." Said Shigeko
"Explain further." Said Suzuki. She wasn't making sense. For things to have stayed the same, as she had stated, things would have had to have been static. But Claw had never been static. Claw had always been dynamic, from the day of it's inception it had always been moving forward, moving towards this day. Towards his goal. He was so close to meeting his goals, to finally being what he had always known deep within himself that he was meant to be, that the idea of stopping…it made no sense. This whole thing was just so confusing…she was just so confusing…
But then again that was the way that she had always been.
"I just mean that…that maybe running the world will be too much trouble and maybe we can just…stay the same. I mean we make a lot of money and we don't really have to worry about much and…and if maybe you were a little nicer then we all could be happier and…and it'll feel like we're living in the world you want. Because everyone will be happy." Said Shigeko
"I still don't understand what you're trying to say. We cannot stay the same because we are moving forward, changing every day, and as such things can never be the same." Said Suzuki
"I just mean that…that a lot of people don't agree with what you're trying to do to the world and maybe…maybe things would be better if you just stopped trying to take over the world. That way things would be safer for you and…and you wouldn't have to worry about getting hurt or hurting anyone else." Said Shigeko. He had made the right call in asking her to explain herself further. She had been worried that the plan would fail and that he would be harmed in the process, and of course her dislike of violence was coloring the way she saw the plan. She wanted a world where no one ever had to get hurt…but even he couldn't make a world like that for her, the one she wanted.
But he could create the world she needed.
"Shigeko…no. There is no such thing as a bloodless coup." Said Suzuki
"What's a bloodless coup." Asked Shigeko
"A coup, a grab for power, in which no blood is spilt. Blood will be spilt but I assure you that none of it shall be mine." Said Suzuki
"But-but Dad, why do we have to hurt people in the first place? Why can't we just be…be the good guys? Why can't we make the world a better place without taking it over or hurting anyone?" asked Shigeko
"Because, Shigeko, the world doesn't work that way. Now stop worrying and run along to whatever it is that you do. You've done enough here." Said Suzuki. He felt for her, he really did, she was so young. This whole thing must have seemed large and terrifying to her. Well it didn't, not to him. He knew that he was going to take on the world, he knew that the world would try to take him on right back, and he knew that he would win. Shigeko would see, her and everyone who had ever doubted him would see, though not his parents due to the fact that they had died back in 1991…but that didn't matter. He was going to win. He knew it.
He had promised himself, thirty four years ago, that he would take over the world and he always kept his promises.