Thirteen

Japan Entertainment Channel broadcast.

"It's amazing what parents with money will do for their children. Kai Riden tore down a whole school for his daughter simply because of bullying. I mean, was that necessary? He turned it into a private playground too." The female host says chuckling with disapproval.

"Well, if you had kids Brenda you'd understand." The male host claps back facing the camera getting serious, "Kai Riden and his corporate rival Toya Hiryu are said to actually be great friends lately as their children are spotted always hanging around together.

"The humans versus Supers war has gotten so out of hand that parents are starting to fear for their children. It's unprofessional for educators to no longer see children as children but as monsters, I mean could you imagine the kind of stress it puts on a parent having to allow your child to go through that simply because there is no better school then the one they attend?"

The female host rolls her eyes, "Well eye witness reports say that the school principal was assaulted by Kai Riden."

The male turns to his partner, "Brenda, if that phone rings right now and we're sued because of your loud mouth, you're fired. You bring facts to this table or be quiet." He turns back to the cameras.

"Well I have the facts. The chief of police is Toya Hiryu's father, the facts could have been tempered with. How sure are we that …"

The phone rings and the male answers the phone agitated.

"I'm outside, open the damn door!" Toya shouts from the other side of the phone. The male glares at Brenda who holds her head high. Her eyes widen when Astrid runs into the room. Kasai is sleeping in Toya's arms and Kaen is munching on liquorice barely watching where he's going.

He carelessly walks towards the light and trips on the stairs. He gets up and looks at the cameras before turning to the male reporter awkwardly staring at him.

"I guess we have a witness in the building. Catch you all after the break" Brenda says cutting the show to commercial.

BEHIND THE SCENES OF CHANNEL.

Toya glares at the male who stands up talking to him in private.

"What's up boss?"

"What's up boss? Jin? I've been calling you for weeks now, I need you on a really big job."

"Sure, anything."

"My kids are going to camp, I need you to use your connections to keep an eye out for them. People they don't know either wise their mother will know I was watching them."

"That's it? You're not worried about the news report?"

"If I gave a damn about everything the news said about me, I wouldn't have enough damns to give."

"Sure thing more then happy too. Though, you know Kaen isn't leaving without a fight." Jin points at Kaen already comfortable in a chair.

"Bring him home when you're done here."

"Sure thing boss."

~

News channel back from ad.

Jin is sitting next to Kaen who has his own chair now. He's still eating his liquorice.

"Good evening and welcome back ladies and gentlemen." Jin says.

"Hello uncle Jin." Kaen replies still paying more attention to the confection in his hands.

Jin tries to carry on with the news as scheduled, but Brenda cuts him off turning to Kaen showing him a picture of what she assumed to be Kaiya's playing ground.

"Do you recognise this place?" She asks and Kaen nods, "That's the training room. Many big kids go there for training when their power is very bad and dangerous. I don't go there because I could get hurt. Uncle Jin was there yesterday."

"Oh? Well how come you didn't bring up the news." Brenda asks.

"Because we don't have permission to do so, I was there to ask if I can report on the place and I got a no. it's private property so any sort of filming of the place violets the home owners rights, and therefore we are in breach of a very serious privacy law as a broadcast channel, how do you even have this job if you don't even know that much?"

Brenda keeps quiet the rest of the time and Jin reports the news. The first news session ends and the cameras are turned off. They will be back again in 4 hours.

Brenda goes over to the weather station and is distracted watching Kaen so comfortable with Jin. She does the weather report and then gets back to her desk. She takes a breather before the cameras come back on.

She shows a clip of an attack in a city and Kaen points out a child.

"That's Shadow. He can make shadow monsters, their really cool, but his monsters are mean and don't listen to him. Yesterday the shadow gave me a cake. I love cake."

Brenda rolls her eyes, "Alright kid, no one asked you."

Kaen looks at her then points a scolding finger, "If you keep rolling your eyes around like that, one day they'll roll out of your sockets and you'll turn blind young lady. You don't do that." He got that from his mother when she scolds Kaiya about it, and she got it from her father.

Jin chuckles and shakes his head.

Brenda glares at Kaen who glares back. He's staring at her very intently. The glare is so intense she clears her throat uncomfortably, "Quit gawking."

"What is gawking?" Kaen asks

"It's a bad word, ignore her."

Kaen covers his ears, "Huh, why would you do that? You shouldn't use bad words. You shouldn't."

Brenda stares at how serious Kaen is, "That what your mother taught you, she's sure a hypocrite to go around attacking school principals when she feels like it."

"I don't like school. The teacher is mean to me, she said I was a freak. Daddy said we're never going back to that school."

"What school is that?"

"Kitakaze private school. Mom did not hit the principal she was crying. Daddy was very angry. His fire was like swoosh." He throws his hands up dramatically and carelessly eats another liquorice stick.

~

Toya

I turn off the news, knowing my son, Kaen's upset, and won't utter another word after that.

Rei is watching the news in her room. I open the door and she looks away.

"I hate it when you cry and try to hide it from me. I want you to talk to me."

"Yeah? What am I supposed to say? My kids are in danger. There's nothing I can do, I have to sit and wait. You know how many kids have been chased away from home? The centre was supposed to be a training ground, not runaway house.

"I can't help but wonder what I would do if I wasn't born like this. Would I really take the children I carried inside my own body, I labored for, and one day look them in the eyes and toss them out?"

I brush her cheek, "That's the anxiety talking, the reality is that right now, you wouldn't, not even in a million years. Just keep taking care of those kids, they'll thank you for it one day. So, please try to get some rest, I'll finish packing the kids stuff."

"Don't think I can."

"I'll stay in bed with you. Move over."