Disclaimer : I do not own Made in Abyss nor its characters, which are the properties of Akihito Tsukushi.

'Come to think of it, why are you dressed like a girl, Marulk ?', Riko asked suddenly.

Marulk snapped his head to look at Riko, who was inspecting again the relics. There were scattered all over the room now that she pulled them out of the wooden boxes.

Since Reg and her had arrived at Seeker camp, they barely had time to rest. They had met Ozen, spent their first night at the settlement talking with Marulk, trained for ten days in the second layer after dealing with Ozen's brutality. That proved to be exhausting, surely because of the woman's personnality. However, Marulk assured them that his master was in fact an admirable person that could be trusted. While it was true that she gave Riko and her robot companion a wide room with at least ten boxes full of relics and warm beds, Reg stayed weary of that woman who seemed to like hurting other people, especially Riko.

Riko had bathed upon her arrival, and again after thee ten days of survival training. It was refreshing to feel that her body was clean. During that time, Reg took the opportunity to ask Marulk about something and it was reavealed that the shy and cute little maid was actually a boy.

'Reg told me you are a boy, but…', Riko hesitated, 'you look so feminine !'

'W-well, um…', stuttered Marulk.

As suddenly as Riko got curious, she abandoned the relics she was playing with to look really closely at Marulk's traits while humming playfully. Her eyes wide, she soon grasped the hem of the maid's dress.

'I guess there's only one way to confirm… !'

'Riko, stop already !'

The girl stopped moving after hearing Reg's voice. The robot was blushing madly, remembering that Riko had looked at his private parts out of sheer curiosity. His companion was so curious that every time she got her hands on something new, she always had to name it or to investigate its properties.

When she almost became bird's meat and Reg saved her, the first thing she did after waking up was naming his weapon. She could worry about a million things, but no, she had to choose a name for that thing, she had to wonder how it worked… And that attitude could be applied to everything, even body parts, it seemed.

'You did that to me, that's enough !', Reg tried to reason her.

'But, you're a robot, Reg ! So it doesn't matter !' Riko countered.

'Hey, I have feelings too – wait, that's not it. Well, it's right, but I'm a robot, and Marulk is not. He's an actual human ! Would you try to look at Nat's ?!'

'Ew, no', Riko made a face of disgust, 'y-you're right, I guess.' Now she was blushing, and Reg hoped she learnt the lesson.

Riko moved away from Marulk to sit down on a box. Reg, glad, sighed in relief while Marulk fidgeted nervously, not knowing what to say. After a while, Riko spoke again,

'But seriously, why do are you dressed like that ? There's your manners, too… Everything points to a girl.'

It was true that Marulk was shy, often stuttered, spoke politely, and crossed his arms in front of him like a maid would do. Moreover, he spoke with a quiet voice that ressembled that of a little girl, and wore a dress and a feminine hat.

'Well… Master wanted me to wear that…', Marulk ried.

'Really ? Ozen like that sort of thing ? I would never have guessed', said Riko, surprised. Then she turned to Reg, 'see, she's not that mean !'

The robot boy didn't seem convinced and only hummed at her with a dubious look. He didn't want to even think that the woman who said such mean things to Riko – that her birth was a real annoyance, that she was a living corpse – and who tried to test out his sturdiness could be a kind person. He got that she was less evil than she seemed, she offered them a room, a warm meal, and more importantly, knowledge. Futhermore, she did gave Riko her mother's weapon. The girl was overjoyed at the idea, to fight with the same weapon Lyza used in the past. Reg could tell it fueled her desire of reunion with her she seemed like nothing could lead her away from her goal.

'Master is not mean, really !' cried out Marulk, shocked. 'I admit that she is rather…violent, and certainly strange, but she is kind. Why should she have saved me otherwise ?'

Reg and Riko looked at each other, and again at the scandalised Marulk, feeling guilty somehow. The maid really liked Ozen, and loathed any harsh comment about her, even if he understood them. Sometimes, the woman frightened him as well.

'We know, Marulk', responded Riko, trying to reassure the boy, 'Reg doesn't like her very much. But he knows that on top of all she's done for us, she had us trained at surviving and even at using my mother's weapon ! And that's awesome ! And she have all those Relics too ! Really, I wonder how they're named !'

Marulk and Reg chukled at their friend's antics before turning their head to the side when the door opened, reavealing a tall, almost giant woman dressed in black. It was difficult not to notice her black and white hair : it was sliced back in a disturbing hairstyle with sort of spikes on the sides. Quite strange indeed. As always, she was imposing and her presence caused everyone to stop talking either of fear or of admiration.

'What are you doing ?', Ozen asked calmly, almost too calmly with a slow and husky voice, 'You should be preparing your depart. You leave tomorrow.'

Marulk remembered something all of the sudden, and tried to get out of the room. He rushed toward the door, exclaiming 'Ah, right ! I need to make dinner !'. However, the hem of his dress got stuck on the doorknob – the door was only partially open – and while he continued running, the dress ripped itself vertically.

Seeing that, Ozen frowned, took a step ahead and caught Marulk with one of her head. The boy shrieked in surprise and stumbled but didn't fall due to Ozen's solid grip on him.

'You tore that dress', she made Marulk realize, blame in her voice, 'making that dress was a real pain, you know. I had to ask that useless team.'

'S-sorry…'

'It seems totally torn…. I wonder if it can be sewed back. If it's not… Will you walk around stark naked then ?', she laughed darkly, making Marulk blush in embarrasment at the idea.

The boy freed himself from Ozen's grasp easily, mostly because the woman let him, to rush toward his room this time to change clothes, while Ozen looked silently at his leaving figure. The image of the torn dress replayed again and again in her mind. It was mostly ripped at the seams, but some frills were caught in the clothes' earthquake.

'It was a pretty dress too… What a shame.'

Riko had finished inspecting the relics, and hearing that, she walked past Ozen with a grin on her face, sidewalking while keeping eye contact as she chuckled. She would never have imagined Ozen enjoyed seeing cute things.

'How cute !', Riko exclaimed as she hid her laugh with her hand.

'How cool !' said once a little Lyza with admiration.

Ozen smiled and replied playfully this time,

'Say another word and I'll kick you again.'

A/N : I wanted to write about Marulk and Ozen this time, bit somehow I had to add Riko and Reg and they became the principal subject of this story. I'm still satisfied about how it turned out thought.

I hope you enjoyed this !