Touichirou knew hostile intent when he felt it.
He didn't know how he knew, just that he knew, and it was fascinating. He was going to have to write this down and bring it back to Fukuda. That was what this mission had been about. Data gathering. Figuring out how they took over the world counted as data gathering and, anyway, this was useful too. When was he ever going to be able to interact with another psychic who wasn't Fukuda again?
Well, in a few decades, but he had never been a big fan of waiting.
"Sho, hey! What brings you here in the middle of the school day?" asked Reigen
"I don't go to school, remember?" asked Sho
"Oh, right, I forgot. So what brings you here in the middle of the, uh, homeschool day then?" asked Reigen. As much as Touichirou would have liked to know how that worked, how Sho avoided going to school and Touichirou could do the same, there was one thing which he simply could not ignore.
"He's here to try and fight someone. Possibly me since I suspect that he doesn't like me very much. Not that I care. I know that I can't be beaten." Said Touichirou
"Hey! You don't get to-to-to be like that! At least be pissed off or something!" said Sho. Touichirou shrugged.
"Why? I know I'm going to win." Said Touichirou. He was at least ninety percent sure that he was going to win, at least, and if he didn't then it would be very valuable as far as data gathering went…even if he lost…even if he lost then it would be painful…and with Fukuda somewhere in the world that wasn't right beside him where he belonged…
Well then, he just wasn't going to allow himself to lose, that was all.
"Hey, hey, hey! No. You two are not going to fight and you're not going to start yelling, either, alright? I have neighbors." Said Reigen, motioning to the doors on the left or right of them.
"They're not my neighbors." Said Sho. He did have a point…but Touichirou was living here for the foreseeable future.
"Well that-" said Reigen
"And it's the middle of the day. Who's home in the middle of the day?" asked Sho
"Women and the elderly." Said Touichirou
"It doesn't matter who-" said Reigen
"If you want to fight me then we can go to the woods. That is if you really want to fight me. I wouldn't advise it." Said Touichirou simply. There wasn't anyone out there to disturb and there was plenty of space to move around. He had never fought anyone before. This was going to be very interesting. He had hit, and bit, and kicked, and thrown Fukuda before but that was different. Fukuda couldn't fight back. He had a completely different powerset. He and Sho were the same, it might have even been kind of like fighting himself almost…it would have been interesting.
Even if he already knew how it would end, with his victory over Sho, it would still be very good for data gathering.
"I wouldn't advise fighting me either." Said Sho
"No, I meant that I wouldn't advise you to fight me. I went through the trouble of creating you, I don't think that it would a good use of time or resources to accidentally kill you." said Touichirou
"Hey! No, nobody's killing anyone. Alright? No murder." Said Reigen. Touichirou rolled his eyes.
"I didn't mean on purpose." Said Touichirou
"Fuck you! You already tried to kill me once and you couldn't so, yeah, let's go out to the woods and we'll see what happens!" said Sho
"Fine by me." said Sho, taking a step forward. Touichirou wondered what he planned on doing. He decided to let Sho make the first move. Maybe it would be like fighting Fukuda, in Street Fighter of course, how sometimes it was best to let your opponent show you his entire hand before you attacked…so maybe it was more like playing cards than fighting. Not that Touichirou wanted to take a hit, he hated getting hit in real life even more than he hated getting hit in games, but strategy was strategy…or maybe it was better to come out strong and crush your opponents immediately, like in Space Invaders. It was always best to kill the descending aliens before they picked up speed…but that was a single player game. Maybe it was more like Pong then, or Breakout…no, no, no. That was a single player game too.
Sho was getting closer and his aura, somehow, felt even more hostile. He could figure out which game they were in later.
"Well, it's not fine by me." said Reigen as he stepped between them. Touichirou took a step backwards and bowed his head. He could see his aura, feel it trying to form a barrier. He stopped it of course. Father hated it when he lost control like that. A man took what was coming to him, Father had always said.
"Move. This is between me and him. You're going to get hurt and I don't have Fukuda here to put your back together…damn it…." said Sho. Touichirou could hear him stepping forwards. Didn't he know how dangerous that was? Touichirou stayed put. If Sho wanted to bring that on himself then that was his own stupidity.
"No, it's between you, him, and me. You're here in front of my apartment getting ready to fight and you both know that as the only adult here I can't let that happen. Alright?" asked Reigen, holding his arms out to separate them. Touichirou took a step back, and another, under the metal railing was pressed against his back…thankfully Father wasn't there to see that pathetic display of cowardice.
"You really can't do anything to stop me, you know that, right?" asked Touichirou
"No, not physically, but I can get rid of the mountain of videogames you've been playing nonstop since I got them for you and, uh, I can take the TV away and hide my phone." Said Reigen
"You have a point. Sho, we'll have to fight later when I am no longer living under Reigen's roof." Said Touichirou
"Well, that's never going to happen since Fukuda kind of…hung up on me." said Sho as he threw his hands in the air. Presumably he was frustrated. Presumably Touichirou should have been frustrated too. Presumably Fukuda was being frustrating and…and he should have felt frustrated or…or anything other than this.
He and Sho hadn't even fought and yet he felt like he'd been slapped across the face.
"…you've heard from Tadashi?" asked Touichirou, his voice going up an octave. He was…he was fine. Everything was fine. He'd already been a coward once, he wasn't going to do it again, he wasn't going to run away. A man did not run away. He shouldn't have even been feeling fear…fear and…and whatever else this was. This feeling that he was alone…suddenly very alone…
There were two living beings beside him and countless spirits. He was far from being alone.
"Alright, everyone inside before my neighbors ask why there are two kids screaming at each other in front of my door." Said Reigen as he started to dig through his pockets. Touichirou could hear his keys jingling. It was annoying. This whole thing was annoying and taking far too long. He undid the lock with his powers and shoved the door slammed opened. Something fell. He didn't care. He just had to get inside.
He wasn't running away.
He wasn't a coward. He wasn't! He was…he wasn't the sort of person who wore shoes inside. He unlaced his shoes in the genkan. He heard the door close. He could hear Sho and Reigen speaking. He could feel Sho's aura…and only his aura. Tadashi was…Fukuda was nowhere to be felt. But that was normal. Fukuda wasn't there…he was…he was elsewhere.
Touichirou took his shoes off.
They were dirty. He could see the dirt clinging to them….Mother would have been upset if she had been around. If she had been there to tell Father that he'd been ruining his things again. Fukuda would have taken the fall for him like Touichirou had instructed him to whenever Mother was upset. He was the one who bankrolled all of Claw after all and he wound up getting his pocket money cut off, or grounded, then the organization would have fallen apart. So if Tadashi had been there then he would have taken the fall for Touichirou and…and he would have…Touichirou put his shoes down and faced them the right way. He knew how to be a guest. He knew how to be himself. He knew how to keep himself under control.
He knew exactly who he was and who he wanted to be…and right now he wanted to be someone doing important things.
He ignored everything else in the world aside from the Atari 7800 in front of him. He had important work to do. He had to…he had to get back to Space Invaders. Yes. This was the newest version…the newest version that he knew of. For all he knew Nintendo could have made their own version. Tadashi would have cared more about that, Tadashi was the one who thought Nintendo was anything more than a mascot and one mildly interesting game, Tadashi was the one who, if he had been here, would have been saying something like 'bo-ring' or 'you know that this is a two player game, right?' or 'you know that you've been playing this since you were a little kid, right?' and he would have told Tadashi to shut up and feed him or bring him something to drink and Tadashi would have listened, or, if he had been in a contrary mood would have told him to get it himself and then they would have wound up rolling around on the floor together and-
"…just saying! He ruined my life…."
"…know that things were bad…"
"You don't know anything!"
"Stop it. I'm trying to concentrate." Said Touichirou. He was getting a headache. He didn't need to hear whatever it was that they were arguing about. He didn't need to hear about that and he didn't care about that and he didn't care about anything! Tadashi, the one who existed now, wasn't the Tadashi he knew. There were things that he didn't know about Tadashi…the thought makes his chest freeze. It felt like the time he and Tadashi had tried to see if it was possible to die of brain freeze but worse. It was annoying. It was distracting. It made him drop his controller.
It made him nearly die.
"Well I don't care! You can't ruin my life and then tell me that I'm distracting you from playing some dumb game and-" said Sho. Touichirou said nothing. He just pushed Sho back. It hadn't been much effort, no more than he would have used for Tadashi, which was why it didn't work. Sho should have gone flying into the wall. He simply slid back a few centimeters.
Clearly this would take more effort.
"Is that the best you can do?" asked Sho as Touichirou half focused on what he had been doing. He was going to have to stop shooting through his own shields. It was the quickest way to ensure his own victory but it was also a strategy that would only work if he was paying attention. With his mind being pulled in two directions, and his body threatening to betray him, he couldn't afford to let go of his defenses. He couldn't afford to be defenseless. He couldn't even make sense of this. Sho was speaking and he couldn't even hear a word-
-and he couldn't see, either.
"Nope. No videogames for people who start fights." Said Reigen as he stepped in front of Touichirou. He reached forward. Touichirou instantly pulled his hands back and crossed his arms, keeping his hands tucked into his armpits. Cowardice, pure cowardice, but he couldn't help it. Mother was the one who stopped him in the middle of his important work and she…well, she had just as much power as Father even if she was just Mother. He kept his eyes down. He focused on their socks. Reigen's were torn in the toe. So were his.
They matched. He focused on that.
"If you don't want us to fight in your house then we won't fight in your house but we're going to fight so, just, quit it!" said Sho…like a moron. How could any son of his have been such a moron?!
"Shut up." said Touichirou
"Why? Because you know I'm going to win. You're not invincible, you know, you lost to Mob and you could lose to me." said Sho
"Just shut up and stop being stupid." Said Touichirou
"You shut-" said Sho
"Sho, I think you should drop it for now, alright?" asked Reigen
"…fine…since it's your house and all." said Sho as he crossed his arms and looked away….Touichirou had no idea why.
"It's an apartment." said Touichirou as he scooted back. Really, did he have to be stupid too? How did he have a son who acted like that? Touichirou had never been stupid enough to act like that even when he'd been little. Father would have killed him. Mother would have killed him, too, if Father allowed her to….future people were very strange, he decided.
And he was being strange too. He wasn't usually this much of a coward.
"I know it's a-" said Sho
"Hey Sho? Can you head to the other room for a minute?" asked Reigen
"There is no other room." said Sho
"Well then can you just hang out in the bathroom for a second? I have to talk to your Dad for a second and you need a second to cool off, too." Said Reigen
"…whatever." Said Sho
"Hey Touichirou? You mind if I sit down next to you for a second?" asked Reigen
"I don't care, it's your home and you can do whatever you want in it." Said Touichirou
"Well I wouldn't want to get in your space…any more than I was. I'm sorry about that." Said Reigen
"…I don't understand." Said Touichirou
"I know I freaked you out and I'm sorry about that." Said Reigen
"That doesn't make any sense." Said Touichirou
"Walk me through the part that doesn't make sense." Said Reigen
"First of all I wasn't freaked out because I don't get freaked out because I'm not a coward and even if I was a coward I obviously wouldn't expect an apology from you because my being a coward is my own fault and, anyway, I'm not a coward. I mean I shouldn't be and…and I don't know why I am now….if I were to be a coward which I am not! I'm Suzuki Touichirou." said Touichirou
"Hey, hey, I never said anything about you being a coward and…and you know what? If anyone has a right to be freaked out right now it's you. You're stuck in the future, your whole world is…different, you're away from your parents, your son wants to fight you-" said Reigen
"I don't fear Sho. If anything fighting him would be interesting. I've never fought anyone before. Anyone on my level. Tadashi, I mean Fukuda, doesn't count. He can't attack in any meaningful way and, anyway, fighting Sho would have been more exciting and I don't know why I want to fight Fukuda or be near him or what this sense of senseless loss is." Said Touichirou
"Well, he is your best friend. It's normal to miss your best friend." Said Reigen. Touichirou stared straight forward and glared.
"I don't miss him because I don't need him and, anyway, he's here. He just…does not wish to speak to me…and I don't know why but I shouldn't let it affect me or the important work I have to do." Said Touichirou
"Don't tell me you're trying to take over the world again! Why are you like that?!" asked Sho. Touichirou shook his head.
"I've decided that while world domination is my main goal in life I'm also going to make the most of freedom and of pleasure." Said Touichirou
"Huh?" asked Sho, turning towards Reigen. Reigen shrugged and pointed towards the pile of catridges on the floor.
"He's mostly been playing videogames since you guys left him here, sometimes he watches TV but mostly videogames. Saw him play Space Invaders for an entire three hour stretch but, hey, it's a pretty addictive videogame." Said Reigen
"It is not addictive and I am not addicted, you sound like Mother, I can stop whenever I want. I just have no reason to stop, not when it's on a new console, and no when I have to go through the trouble of tricking the machine." Said Touichirou. Sho shook his head.
"That's hard for you? Seriously? I've been tricking arcade machines since I was seven." Said Sho
"Well I've been doing it since I was five. It's not difficult, just annoying, and my time is much too valuable to waste on something annoying." Said Touichirou. He did his best impression of Father there. Sho, for some reason, didn't seem to think it was that good. He was even laughing a little! Oh! He was lucky that Touichirou didn't feel like risking his precarious living situation.
"How about we don't do that anymore, alright? Stealing is wrong and…I mean it's not a big crime but how about we don't commit any crimes at all? Even if you've been doing that since you were…how old, exactly?" asked Reigen
"Five." Said Touichirou
"You're kidding, Reigen, you must be. Your parents let you go to the arcade alone at five? I mean it was a different time." Said Reigen. Touichirou shrugged.
"I was five in 1978….wait, did your parents not allow you to? Did I not allow you to?" asked Touichirou as he directed his attention towards Sho. That didn't sound right at all. No wonder Sho disliked him. Without the arcade what even was there to do during the day? They only aired baby shows and things mothers liked and one could only have so many cartridges of their own…though Sho had friends. Yes. There was much more to do during the day when you had
"No. You never gave a fuck what I did." Said Sho. Touichirou felt his shoulders sink down in relief.
"Hey, come on, you know better than to say things like that." Said Reigen. Touichirou made a mental note on the subject that adults in this century were just as overly concerned with language as the ones in his time period were. Even Sho was looking at him like he expected him to say something. Was he supposed to? That was his son…but he wasn't his father. Not now. He didn't feel like a father. Father was a father and he didn't feel a thing like Father right now…he didn't know how he could have.
Father was Father, he was just Touichirou.
"Good. I was worried for a moment." Said Touichirou
"Yeah, because the only thing as important as taking over the world is videogames." Said Sho
"Good. I'm glad you see it that way." Said Touichirou. He knew that something had happened between him, the older version of him, and Sho. He could put two and two together, he knew what he'd heard, and he knew that things weren't good…but why? He liked Sho and, obviously, they got along…unless he'd put childish things away as Mother and Father had told him that he was going to have to.
Which maybe he had since he wasn't the ruler of the world…since he wasn't the one who made the rules.
"I can't believe your parents were that cool…don't know why you weren't." muttered Sho. Touichirou shook his head.
"Mother and Father are many things but 'cool' is not one of the words I would use to describe them…but it can never get back to them that I said that. Even if they consider everything I enjoy to be childish nonsense…but it is so it doesn't matter." Said Touichirou
"So did they get mad at you when you played too many videogames?" asked Reigen, something to his voice that Touichirou didn't recognize. He didn't know what it was…or why he felt this way. Maybe it was the thought of Mother and Father being upset with him…mostly Father. Mother only shouted and he could ignore that. Father shouted and punished and got disappointed, too…
The disappointment was the worst.
"…they had emotions, yes." Said Touichirou
"Well yeah, people have emotions, I mean I know that's hard for you to understand being you." said Sho…even though Touichirou had no idea why.
"I am well aware of the fact that people have emotions. It's not a difficult thing to understand. I'm not stupid and I hope that you aren't implying as such…otherwise I may risk my living situation after all." said Touichirou
"Hey, no, none of that now. We're not fighting, not in here and not out there either. I'm responsible for you…and maybe you too, Sho, while you're here, and I don't want to be responsible for the two of you putting each other in the hospital." Said Reigen. Touichirou nodded.
"You have a point. Without Fukuda I risk injury….but it's a risk I'm willing to take. Even I you do get upset with me I doubt that it would be anything like Father being upset with me…and anyway he doesn't care if I fight, just if I lose or draw Mother's attention to the fact that I've been fighting. It's healthy to fight, Father says, if you're a boy. Most of life is fighting, he said, even if it's not physical fighting, and if you can't fight then you might as well lay down and die." Said Touichirou, doing that thing where he twiddling his fingers together even if it was annoying, even if Mother would have had a problem with what he was doing…even if he was being looked at. He got that feeling, that annoying feeling, that he wanted to be small…
Maybe because he was sitting and Reigen was standing.
"What's with you?" asked Sho as he sat down beside him. It helped….somewhat, though he had no idea why. Having Tadashi beside him when he felt like this helped, which made sense with his powerset, and Sho was no substitute…
And now there was a tightness in his chest that he didn't like, either,
"Hey, can I ask you something?" asked Reigen
"Asking me if you can ask me something is already asking me a question." Said Touichirou. He hadn't been thinking. He shouldn't have said that. That was something that he would have said to Tadashi…to Fukuda. Fukuda would have laughed. Much in the way that Sho was laughing.
Even though he shouldn't have been laughing.
"He's an evil jerk but he does have a point." Laughed Sho. Reigen sighed.
"Let's not call each other names, alright? And I was just wondering what happened when your parents got upset with you, that's all." asked Reigen as he got down to Touichirou's level…and now everyone was on the floor. They really shouldn't have been on the floor together like that. That was what furniture was for, Mother had made that perfectly clear, and anyway adults did not sit on the floor with children.
Not that Touichirou minded…because there wasn't anyone around to tell him to mind.
"They punish me, obviously, they are my parents after all." said Touichirou
"What else do parents do when they're mad at you…dads I guess, not moms." Said Sho
"Yes, I have to agree. Mothers are much kinder than Fathers. More emotional, yes, but much kinder." Said Touichirou. For as much as Mother shouted she almost never struck him, not since he'd been small.
"Moms are weird. Dads at least don't pretend. Moms are always trying to pretend and it's, like, why? We both know how things really are. Why are you trying to pretend that things are ok?" asked Sho. Touichirou didn't know what he was supposed to make of that. Mother had never been one to play pretend, even when he'd been very small, and Mother had also taught him to always face the reality of the situation no matter how painful it was…
Maybe all Mothers weren't created alike.
"Pretend that…what do you mean?" asked Touichirou
"Everything! Ever since I came back, I mean even before then, since before she left-" said Sho
"She left? Why?" asked Touichirou. Mothers couldn't leave…well they could, the door was right there, but that was the sort of thing that only happened on television. Divorce was a thing but he'd never seen it happen in real life…and anyway, it wasn't as though it had happened, and if it had then…then he must have failed in some way…
He had an even greater mission now, one even more important then conquering the world and mastering every single game Atari had made between the time he left and now, he was going to figure out how he had messed up with one of two girls that he'd ever been with…two wasn't a very big number at all.
And there was no way he was letting Fukuda beat him.
"How about we just get back to your parents, alright?" asked Reigen
"They punish me in the normal way, like Sho said, now can we please get back to Sho's mother. She left. I can't let that happen again." said Touichirou
"Mom left because you're an evil jerk, alright? Moving on. How could grandma and grandpa punish you? It's not like they could do anything to you, you have powers and they don't, you could kill them if you wanted to." Said Sho
"Why would I want to kill my parents? I am dependent on them for my continued survival. Also they're my parents, I owe them for my existence, they have told me this numerous times…and I'm not an evil jerk." Said Touichirou. He didn't know what he had said, maybe things had changed in the future, though he couldn't imagine that things had changed so much that children were no longer indebted to their parents for the gift of life and all the other things which their parents provided.
"Which part do you have a problem with? The evil part or the jerk part?" asked Sho
"Hey, no, be nice. If you want to stay then you have to be nice…and that goes for the both of you. Alright? You two play nice or you don't play at all." said Reigen
"Well we aren't playing anything so there." Said Sho. Reigen sighed and stood up…and suddenly Touichirou felt small. Maybe because he was small, smaller than Reigen, though not by that much. Father was really much taller and much stronger, too, he imagined. Or at least in better shape. He didn't smoke or get sweaty climbing up a flight of stairs…yes, Reigen was not nearly as…imposing, as Father…
Though he didn't much like feeling small.
And he shouldn't have felt this way in the first place! He was Suzuki Touichirou! He was the most powerful…or at least he was up there in terms of power. He was not small and he was not…he didn't know. Bored. Maybe he was bored, that was it, or maybe he just found himself missing…no, not missing, he was just…this was not the way he normally spent his day.
Normally he would have spent his day with Fukuda.
Fukuda who was avoiding him. Fukuda who he hadn't seen in days. Fukuda who he had last seen telling him that this was all a bad idea, that he needed to get out of the wagon, that he was going to end up road pizza. Fukuda who could have put him back together with no effort at all…Touichirou pulled his sleeve down. This wasn't his jacket. It was scratchy and the wrong color and Mother hadn't taped the tag down in this one like he liked. Mother wasn't around to tape his tags down or tell him to get off the floor or to tell him to get off the Atari and do something constructive with his time…
He was free.
And he could make the most of freedom and of pleasure. He looked at the, no, at HIS 7800 and then at his son…yes, Sho was his son, and he could be his friend…no, he had a friend. Even if something had happened between them in the decades that separated the version of Tadashi he knew from the version that existed right now Tadashi…Fukuda was still his friend. But Sho could be his friend…no, his companion. The word friend carried more weight. Sho could be someone who he enjoyed spending time with.
Sho was, after all, half of him and who was better company than himself.
"There's a two player version of Space Invaders on the 7800. You'll be player two." Said Touichirou as he used his powers to shove a controlled into Sho's hand…which Sho then used his powers to shove away.
"And what makes you think that I'm going to play some boring old game from the 80's with you?" asked Sho
"It's from the previous decade. I played it as a child…and anyway if you don't want me to beat you in that then I can beat you in pong or-" Said Touichirou
"And what makes you think you'll beat me?" asked Sho as he narrowed his eyes.
"I always win." Said Touichirou with a shrug. He had never lost a match yet, not at the games he knew, but those of course were the only games worth playing so that was what they were going to play.
"I'd still beat you." said Sho
"I doubt that, even if you are my son, I have never been beaten once in my life." said Touichirou
"Right here then!" said Sho. And that was that. He was vaguely aware of Reigen saying something about going to his computer to do some research, something about there being cup noodle in the cupboard and frozen dinners in the freezer, and then something about them keeping it down before the neighbors started to complain. Touichirou stopped listening after that.
He couldn't afford to lose focus.
Sho was, after one loss, a worthy opponent…the first he had ever met. He had been kicked out the arcade for winning too many times, though he suspected the owners knew he was cheating, though he and Fukuda had been very discreet. Not that Fukuda ever managed to beat him when they went head to head…so that was where this hollow feeling was coming from, he'd finally found a worthy opponent, which meant that he wasn't the best.
But he was supposed to be the best.
He was supposed to be the best that there had ever been. At everything. He had always been at the top of his class, he won every single game they ever played in gym, he'd even run out of room in his bedroom for his awards! He was a powerful psychic, too, though he'd met Mob…Shigeo…he didn't know what to call him. His rival…which he had now…
He missed Tadashi.
When it had just been him and Fukuda things had been so simple. But things changed, like Mother and Father had said, things always found a way of changing…so he just had to adapt, that was all, he had to adapt and he had to win…or figure out where he'd gone wrong.
Learn from his mistakes.
That was a thing that people did, right? They made mistakes and then learned from them? Well Touichirou had never made a mistake in his life…up to this point. Apparently, he made quite a few of them in his adult life. The kind that made his son want to fight him, and call him evil, and even a jerk. The kind that made his future wife divorce him. The kind that made his parents disappear to parts unknown. The kind that made Fukuda ignore his very existence…so many mistakes….
But he could learn from them. He'd never learned from his mistakes before but he was capable of doing so, he could feel it.