Claw was full of secrets…and Hatori was privy to all of them.

Mob was adopted. That was true, it was right there in the public record, the birth records. Her name had been Kageyama Shigeko before she'd been adopted. There was a kid in seasoning city born on her birthday with that name. A quick trip into poorly secured medical records found numerous doctor visits for unexplained phenomenon, and then there was a hospital trip for the little brother, and then the rest had been right there in the only adoption agency running out of Seasoning City. Suzuki Shigeko, her name had been changed, and the whole thing had taken less than five minutes to verify.

It had taken even less time for the secret to come out.

A secret that hadn't been shared with Hatori. He knew more about Touichirou's love life than-well, he told himself, there was always the chance it could get back to Mob if he knew and the truth, of course, was too much for her…and he wasn't mad about what she'd done. He wasn't going to let himself be mad at her. He wasn't even going to leave enough space in his mind for any anger at her to grow. No, he kept busy.

He kept digging up secrets.

Sakurai had gambling debt. Koyama had beaten several Awakened to death supposedly on accident. Tsuchiya had cheated on her entrance exams when she'd been a kid, Shimazaki…well, nothing in his past had been a secret but that hadn't been a rabbit hole Hatori had enjoyed going down, and knowing for sure just how many priors Shibata had for assault…it had been a lot but not enough to keep him from digging through as many secrets as he could find.

Not that he was sure what he was supposed to do with this information.

Maybe if he knew everything then he could use that everything to get Suzuki free? Blackmail, maybe, or bribes or…or something like that…he didn't know! Nobody had ever broken out of esper prison before. Plenty of people had tried but those people were executed. But he was going to have to be the first. Well, the first to break someone out, and he knew it wasn't going to be as easy as changing the records around so they said that Touichirou was free to go.

He didn't even have access to those records, those were locked down on an intranet.

He was going to have to be physically there, or close, to break into that. Or find a device that was already in…Joseph's phone wasn't anywhere near and he was the only point of contact Hatori knew…fuck! He ran a hand through his hair and went back to digging up secrets. Ishiguro had been skimming the books, Sho had been drawing weird pictures of Shimazaki and also hanging out with Fukuda and…well, Fukuda…

Huh….so he and Sho had been keeping all kinds of secrets.

Voice recordings that should have been purged but weren't, a piece of paper in the background of a photo that said 'plans to take down Dad', notes on Sho's phone under a file marked 'weird porn don't look'…yeah, he knew Hatori. There was no way he was getting into that part of Sho's life. Nobody wanted to know that about their little brother…but now he was digging and…and…

And he didn't hold anything against Sho.

Because Touichirou used to hit him. A lot. And Touichirou used to insult him. A lot. And Touichirou acted like he didn't even love Sho. A lot. And Hatori…he didn't have room to be angry with Sho. He didn't have room to be angry at either of his kid siblings…and they were his siblings. They were his siblings and…and maybe they needed him. Maybe they needed him to come out of his closet, literally, and step into the light and just…and just be there for them. Be an older brother. Be an adult…because he was an adult. He was twenty three years old and…and he was going to step out of the closet and into the light.

At least he would have if someone hadn't beaten him to it.

"I give up! I'll do anything!" shouted Hatori as the closet door was thrown open. For a moment he was blinded by the light, literally, and he did the only thing he could do. He put his hands up and surrendered. For all he knew, in that moment, they had just been double crossed and the government was there to drag them off for torture, horrible experiments, and ultimately execution.

Yeah, none of that appealed to him.

"I'll talk, I'll talk! I know everything, I have names!" shouted Hatori as he held his hands in the air and ducked his head down. Hopefully this would work and he wouldn't end up in esper prison or dead or…Touichirou would have called him a coward but Hatori didn't care. He wasn't a fighter and never would be.

Not that there was any fighting the government, really.

"Your loyalty knows no bounds, does it?" said Fukuda…Fukuda? Hatori's eyes adjusted to the light and…yup, that was Fukuda. Fukuda in all his dirt covered glory. Hatori groaned and closed his laptop.

"Oh. It's you." said Hatori

"Yeah, it's me." said Fukuda. Hatori braced himself against the wall and stood up. He wasn't going to deal with Fukuda…but he was blocking the only way out so it looked like he didn't have much of a choice.

"Can you move? I have a lot to do." Said Hatori

"Like cower in the corner?" asked Fukuda

"No, like try and figure out how I'm going to get Da…how I'm going to get Suzuki out of this." Said Hatori. Fukuda's eyes narrowed and his lips decided to mime sucking on a lemon. Hatori stood up to his full height and glared…which might not have been much but it was better than nothing. He wasn't scared. This was Fukuda. Even he could take Fukuda…and the asshole deserved it for what he did to Suzuki.

At least Mob had an excuse for betraying him, she was just a kid and Touichirou had always been really weird with her and mean to Sho, Fukuda had no excuse. Suzuki hadn't done anything but love him.

"…you're insane. You're completely and totally insane. You might, actually, be his son…that's how insane you sound right now." Said Fukuda

"I AM his son and he's not insane. If not for Mob it would have worked, you know, and we could have all been ruling the world and…and things would have been great. They would have been the way they're supposed to be…the way he wanted." Said Hatori

"Since when do you care about world domination?" asked Fukuda

"I don't but he did, he worked his whole life for this, and so did you. You should know better…better than anyone. You both worked together but you betrayed him." said Hatori

"I…have no idea what you're talking about." Said Fukuda. Hatori didn't say anything, he just pulled his phone out of his pocket and focused on what he'd found. These things were always listening even though the companies swore up and down that they weren't. It wasn't hard for Hatori, not very hard anyway, to find some recorded snippet of conversation on some poorly protected database and play it right then and there for the two of them to hear.

It was highly effective.

"That means nothing, Sho was just playing and I was humoring him. This whole thing was just a-a game and-" said Fukuda. Hatori didn't wait to hear the rest of it. He pushed Fukuda out of the way…wow! He had no idea that he was that strong. His arm hurt like hell though but he didn't let it show. He just walked away. The light was bright. It was bright and somehow too…too white, maybe, too pale. Too sterile. It was like a hospital room or…or something.

He could see everything.

He could see everything and it was cold. The living room closet, of course, opened up to the living room…the living room that was still full of boxes, his and Touichirou's. Touichirou's laptop was still there…Hatori focused on it. If he'd turned it on he would have found the last draft of the speech…if it had been a normal day he would have found Minecraft or…or maybe space Invaders or…or something.

He was being followed. He could freak out later.

"Will you just go away? Haven't you done enough?" asked Hatori as he put his laptop down on the coffee table. He thanked God that there weren't any windows. No, windows would have just made the whole thing worse than it already was. He could feel it, the walls, the way they felt like they were…were spreading apart, maybe, leaving too much space. Leaving him alone. Leaving him vulnerable. Fukuda wasn't a threat, he told himself, and…and he was fine. He was…he was twenty three years old. He wasn't a kid anymore even if people acted like he was and…and he was the only one left. The only one Touichirou had.

The only one who hadn't betrayed him.

"I just need you to-" said Fukuda

"No! I am done! I don't have to listen to you anymore! I only listened to you because of Touichirou and…and you betrayed him! You're done, you're out, and I'm amazed that Mob hasn't put you in a traitor hole! I'm…well, no, I'm not since she's not like that….but she should be!" said Hatori

"Is this really the time for hysterics?" asked Fukuda

"Yes! And I am not being hysterical!" said Hatori

"Yes you are. You're acting crazy right now. You're screaming at me over someone who doesn't even, who isn't capable of, caring about you. He's not your father. Actually, he killed your father, and your mother t-" Hatori didn't let him finish. He couldn't. He hadn't planned on it but the next thing he knew his laptop was flying through the air on a collision course with Fukuda's head.

Direct hit.

"You little bastard!" shouted Fukuda as he rubbed the lump on his forehead. There was blood trickling down into his eye…good. Hatori didn't care that he needed a new laptop now. He was glad that he could have done something to hurt him, hurt him for real, hurt him on Touichirou's behalf. Hurt him like Touichirou should have hurt him years ago.

Love really did make you blind, huh?

Well there was no love lost between Hatori and Fukuda. He didn't say anything, he just picked up the mug from the coffee table and threw it. Cold tea splattered the floor as the mug shattered against the wall…maybe he shouldn't have cut gym so many times as a kid…whatever! He picked up the glass next and it made a direct hit. Hatori hoped that it wasn't just ketchup running down Fukuda's face. He hoped he got him in the eye. He hoped that he'd done the impossible and actually managed to hurt Fukuda in a way that he couldn't recover from!

But, of course, he couldn't.

"Why you little-!" shouted Fukuda as he launched himself at Hatori. The next thing he knew he was on his back and he tasted blood. The pain came later. He tried to move but he couldn't. It was like his body was stuck, like someone had put a thousand pound weight on each of his limbs, like the floor was made of quicksand…he was stuck. He had to move. He had to move because it hurt. He had to move because he was getting his ass kicked by FUKUDA of all people. He had to move because Touichirou would have been so ashamed if he saw Hatori getting his ass kicked.

He had to move but he couldn't.

"You little bastard! You son of a bitch! You have no idea how long I've wanted to do this…you have no idea! Always there! Always annoying! Always, always, always!" shouted Fukuda as he hit Hatori. He had to move. He had to say something. He had to…he had to hit him back. Because if anyone deserved it, if anyone deserved to have the shit kicked out of them, it was Fukuda.

Always Fukuda.

Fukuda. Always a bastard. Always picking on Mob. Always telling Sho God knows what. Always walking around like was better than this, than everyone else, than Claw even though he'd been the only other founding member. Always fucking with Touichirou. Always acting like-like a bastard! He had to pay for what he'd done! He'd been asking for this for years!

And Hatori could give it to him.

He moved his leg. He kicked Fukuda in the stomach. He moved his arm. He punched Fukuda in the face. He moved his head. At some point he bit him. At another point he'd managed to get Fukuda pinned down. At yet another point the coffee table flipped over…and at the final point they were both laying beside each other on the ground struggling to breathe.

He wasn't sure who won.

"You little bastard…" muttered Fukuda. Hatori saw green out of the corner of his eyes and felt a tingling all over his body. The stinging and aching in his hands was gone, his vision was back to it's normal level of blurriness. He could feel his lungs filling with air more easily…

Part of him wanted to thank Fukuda but the rest of him just wanted to keep fighting.

"You know he's not here to protect you, right? And if you attack me again-" said Fukuda as he sat up. Hatori beat him to it.

"He's not here to protect you either, you know, and a lot more people hate you than hate me…and Mob may not like to throw people in traitor holes but you know she doesn't like you. You're going to get it…whatever Mob says it's going to be. She's going to-" said Hatori

"I don't care what Shigeko does to me, I won't be around long enough for her to sober up and even remember I exist." Said Fukuda

"Mob knows you exist, how could she forget? You're the asshole who's been making her life worse for her entire life." said Hatori

"She's with Shimazaki again. I doubt she even remembers who she is." Said Fukuda. Hatori didn't know if he was for sure going to throw up…he wanted to. He wanted to throw up on himself just so that he could feel cleaner. There was no way, no way in hell, that…the Fukuda…how could he still BE like this?! How could he possibly live with himself! What went on in his head!

"You're disgusting, you know that?" said Hatori with a shudder. Fukuda glared at him.

"Me? I'm not the one sleeping with a teenage girl." Said Fukuda

"No, but you're the one blaming her for-for Shimazaki being a creep!" said Hatori

"I doubt he has much of a choice…I doubt anyone could say no to her. You've seen what she can do when she loses control…and you could very easily end up in the same boat, you know." said Fukuda

"That's my sister!" Said Hatori

"Yes, and she's also the most powerful being on earth! None of you understand just how fucked you are, do you? Touichirou at least had…at least he made sense, there was some sense to his madness, but Shigeko…she has no goals, she has no plan, and she has no sense of…of anything! If you knew what was good for you then you'd get out while you still could." said Fukuda. Out? There was no out, not for him, where would he even go? He didn't have any…there was no reason to even be thinking like this. Mob wasn't like that. She'd been into him and then he'd rejected her and it had ended there. If she had wanted to…well, she wasn't like that, but there was nothing he could have done to stop her…but she wasn't like that!

And Shimazaki was so…so that was that and…and he didn't want to think about this!

"…I'd rather take my chances with Mob but if you want to leave you know where the door is." Said Hatori. He still felt like he was going to be sick. He didn't like thinking about this, about Mob, about Shimazaki, about how he had no way of saving her. Not that she…she wanted to but she was fourteen and dumb and…and also in charge of everything, including him, and…and he couldn't believe that he was letting Fukuda get inside of his head like this!

"I am leaving but first I need your help." Said Fukuda. Hatori wondered if he'd given Fukuda brain damage during their fight. There was no way….there was no way he was helping Fukuda with anything! Not unless it was helping him to get the hell out of there.

"The door is downstairs and to the left, that's the only thing I'm helping you with. Now go away." Said Hatori

"Shut up for one second and listen. I need you to find someone for me, a woman." Said Fukuda

"Try Tinder…but maybe don't use any close-up pictures." Said Hatori

"No, not like that. Just…there's a picture of a woman with black hair in Sho's boyfriend's phone-" said Fukuda

"I don't know what this is but even I think it's creepy." Said Hatori, shaking his head.

"Just find her for me, her address, and you'll never see or hear from me again." Said Fukuda

"Me or the kids." Said Hatori

"Fine, you or the kids. Cross my heart." Said Fukuda. He rolled his eyes as he crossed his head. Hatori wished he'd done the whole 'hope to die' part but he didn't. He hoped…he hoped that he never had a reason to be this angry at anyone ever again. Fucking Fukuda.

"And if you come back and bother them, especially Sho, I'm telling everyone about you and Touichirou." said Hatori

"You don't have-" said Fukuda

"I have a lot of proof. You know your phone is always listening, right? And he told me…way more than I ever wanted to know…and Shiori knows too so she can back me up. And anyway I don't think that people are going to be looking too hard at the evidence. I mean Sho's never been a patient kid." Said Hatori. He'd do it, too, if it came down to it…even though Touichirou would probably never speak to him again…but if it got Fukuda away from everyone then he'd tell everyone what he knew. It wasn't that much, as far as details went, but it was enough to get Fukuda looking scared.

"Just find the woman." Said Fukuda with a heavy sigh. Hatori pulled his phone from his pocket and got to digging. It wasn't hard, the kid's phone was even on the same seventh division's wifi, and he didn't have anything locked down in any serious way. It was easy to get into his pictures and start scrolling…though harder to find the specific woman. Lots of pictures of a blonde kid, though, he wondered how Sho was going to take that…there!

"Her?" asked Hatori as he turned his phone to face Fukuda. His eyes went wide, his mouth formed an 'oh' and his eyes actually started sparkling.

"Yes! Yes! That's her!" said Fukuda

"Her name's Hirai and she lives pretty close…there. Alright? Now go. Go away and never come back." Said Hatori as he took the ten seconds to figure out who she was. He couldn't believe that it had come to this. He'd gotten rid of Fukuda by helping him stalk some woman. Some mom from Seasoning City…named Masami…but there was no way. No, this woman was a lot older and her hair was black, and anyway if that was the woman who Touichirou had turned the world upside down to find all those years ago then…well, that wasn't anything that mattered right now, not with Touichirou waiting to be broken out of prison.

"You don't have to tell me twice. Goodbye and good luck, you'll need it. Congratulations on the life you've made for yourself." Said Fukuda as he gave Hatori a wave that could only be called sarcastic…fuck him! How could he possibly-

"At least I never had to sleep with my boss! At least…whatever, you're not worth it." Hatori as he opened Touichirou's laptop. The speech was there just like he'd sensed…he closed the window. He needed…he needed…

He needed to get out of here.

So that was what he did. He wasn't going to actually leave, no, he wasn't going to step out into whatever shitshow was out there waiting for him. He dove deep into Claw, into it's secrets, into everyone else until there was nothing left of him. Nothing to think about, nothing to worry about, no space for anything else other than what secrets he could uncover.

And there were plenty of them.