AN: Double chapters, because, why not?

As a request from the Doctor Sakaki, everyone in the 1st unit, besides Soma, arrived at Sakaki's lab. Once they entered the lab, Sakaki started to explain why he called them here. "You want to... name her?" Alisa asked.

"Naturally. We can't keep calling her 'the child', and 'the specimen', while accurate, seems... cruel. I simply have no aptitude for such a task. Hence I have tasked all of you with finding a suitable name for the child in my stead. Go to."

"Go to!" The Aragami girl repeated what Sakaki said.

"Hahaha! Well, I hate to brag, but I'm a pretty darn good name... er... of th-things and stuff." Kota said not sounding all that confident at the end.

"Well, that sounds ominous," Alisa said.

"Hmm... Let us see here." Kota closed his eyes as he started thinking of ideas. "Bam got it! Norami!" Everyone was quiet for a few seconds they took Kota's idea in.

"Uh... no!" Alisa said.

"What do you mean. No?! You got a better idea?"

"I didn't say that... Why should I have to..." Alisa looked away in embarrassment.

"Ha! I found you out, sister! You're afraid, aren't cha? You got no style!"

"I most certainly am not afraid, you brute! Um... Well, she could be... Uh..." Alisa desperately tried to figure out a name and prove Kota wrong."

"Shio!" The Aragami girl said.

"Yes! Yes, that's perfect! And precisely what I was going to say. Thank you, Shio."

"You're such a liar! Shame! If we can't think of anything, let's go with Norami."

"Shio!" She said again.

"Is Shio... already your name?" Sakuya asked.

"Yep! Shio!"

"Well, it appears this was a vain exercise. The child has already been christened. Very well then, Shio it is?"

"Whaaaat?! Come on!" Kota couldn't believe this after coming up with a name he thought was good. "Are suuuure you don't wanna be Norami? It's pretty cool."

"Nope!" Shio said.

"Gaaah! Work with me here!"

"Kota, that name wasn't really good, anyways," Claire said,

"What?! Oh yeah! What about you! Do you have any good names?"

"Oh, no. I'm terrible at naming things."

A Few Hours Later

Sakuya had left since she had a mission that she was assigned to and the only ones left were Claire, Alisa, and Kota. Since they had no missions for today they decided to spend time with Shio as a request from Sakaki. For the past few minutes, Kota had been teaching Shio a certain way to speak. It looked like a success in some way. "Yo!" Shio chuckled a little.

"Yes! Told ya!" Kota said.

"Ugh! Of course, you'd teach her to talk that way! It's positively vulgar!" Alisa said.

"What? There ain't nothing wrong with it."

"Ain't nothing wrong!" Shio repeated.

"Shio, don't listen to Kota. You don't want to grow up to be an idiot, right?"

"I'm not an idiot..." Kota muttered to himself.

"How about this. Good day to you, Shio."

"Mm... G-Good day to you?"

"Perfect! Oh, good job, Shio!" Alisa said as she patted Shio's head.

Shio gave a small giggle before she crawled over to Claire who was just watching the whole time. "Alisa said... good job, Shio! That's a nice thing, right? When she says, 'Good job, Shio!'"

"Yes, it is, Shio." Claire smiled as she too patted her head. Shio started to speak to herself feeling happy after receiving some praise from the others.

"She's pretty quick, isn't she?" Kota said.

"Indeed. She's learned so much so fast, partially due to your engaging her like this. Hm... Even so, she is much more intelligent than I thought she might be. It's astounding that she survived so long in the wild, all the time having this locked inside. She must have been starving for communication and interaction!"

Claire yawned and rubbed her tired eyes. "I'm tired."

"You are? Maybe you should get some rest for the rest of the day." Alisa said.

"Yeah, I should."

"I think we should call it for today too," Alisa said as they left the room.

Three Days Later

"Sakaki has asked me to see him. It's probably for another mission... I better get Soma to come along." Claire said as she entered the elevator and pushed the button for the veteran God Eater section. She walked down the hallway looking at the door she past wondering which one belonged to Soma.

"Which one was Soma's room again? I can't remember. I'll just pick at random." Lucky for her, the first door she opened that wasn't locked was Soma's room.

"What? Oh, it's just you. What do you want?"

"I need you to come with me."

"What? Why?"

"Just come on."

Soma let out a frustrated sighed. "Fine!"

Now that she had Soma with her, she made her way over to Sakaki's lab. They entered the lab to find Sakaki sitting on one of the coaches with Shio standing right next to him. "Good day to you. Working hard, I imagine? Yes?" Sakaki greeted the two. "Thanks to you, Shio's natural intelligence has skyrocketed. She is nearly at an adult level of comprehension and conversation."

"I did really good! Thank you! Thank you, both!" Shio said as she bowed twice.

"Though she still does retain some speech patterns. In any case, I asked you to come here as we have a pressing issue. I don't mean to frighten you, but... We have no source of food for Shio. Suffice it to say, this must be handled immediately. I had a sufficient stockpile of cores... heh, or at least I thought it sufficient. But just yesterday it seems I have emptied my coffers. So, that in mind, I think it's time you took her out for a night. Uh, a date, if you will."

"So you want me to help Shio kill some Aragami so we can feed her?" Claire asked.

"Yes, correct! A full three-course dinner should suffice very well. Good luck."

"Good luck!" Shio repeated.

"Okay," Claire nodded.

"So explain why the hell I'm here. You can't just force jobs on me!" Soma said.

"Ah, so you recruited Soma, did you? Truly proof of your leadership! Well done! I suppose you won't be able to resist now, will you, Soma?"

"Damn you, old man."

"Lovely! Now, go forth and feast! I put my faith on you."

"Thank you much," Shio said. "Doctor? Uh... What's a date mean?"

"It's... a joyous occasion for all!"

"Sounds delicious! I'm ready for some joyous occasion!"

In the lobby, Claire, Kota, and Soma got ready for the mission. "Argh! I can't believe I let you rope me into this!" Soma said.

"No point in complaining about it now."

"So... what's the mission?" Kota asked.

"Uh..." Claire leaned closer to Kota and spoke in a quieter voice so nobody could hear what she was going to say. "We're going to feed Shio."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Claire said before she went to go buy some supplies. It wasn't until she was done buying her that someone called out to her. She looked behind herself to see Alisa walking over to her.

"Where you off to?"

"I'm going... on a date."

"A d-date?!"

"Stop calling it that!" Claire and Alisa heard Soma shout at them.

"Wait! Is that... Soma? So, your..."

"Okay! It's not really a date..."

"Oh, that's good." Alisa sighed with relief.

"Yeah, it's really-... Wait! Why's that good?"

"I-uh, I don't know."

"Huh... oh, well. We're really going on a mission to feed Shio." Claire said. 'Maybe she likes Soma... I didn't expect that.' Claire thought.

"That's what you're doing?"

"Yep. I have to go now."

"Alright, bye."

At the abandoned carrier, there only targets were just a couple of small Aragami. Two Zygotes, and one Orgetail. So they were pretty easy to take down. Kota, Claire, and Soma stood next to Shio who was about to dig into the Orgetail. "Hey, Claire, you're not..."

"Don't worry. As long as I don't look, I'll be fine." Claire said as she stared at the ocean towards Aegis.

"Did... Did something bad to Claire?" Shio asked.

"Don't worry. It's nothing."

"Okay."

"Don't you think it's time to eat?" Kota said.

"Oh, that's right! Let's eat! It's time to eat!" Shio was about to dig in when she suddenly remembered Soma. "Oh, wait, wait, wait... Soma! Soma, you want to come eat too?"

"Whoa there Shio. We don't eat Aragami. We're human, you see?"

"Human? But... But... Um... Soma's Aragami says he's hungry and he wants to eat."

"What the-?!"

"Shut up! That's... I'm not a monster! I'm nothing like you! Nothing!"

"Soma..." Claire looked at Soma knowing why he started shouting.

"The hell, man?!"

"Just be silent for once! I'm so sick of this!" Everyone watched as Soma turned to leave. He didn't get very far as Shio tried to comfort him.

"Soma! Um... I was alone for a long time." Soma stopped when he heard Shio's voice. "I didn't have anybody at all... So now... Um, is that right? So now..." Shio started to mess up with her words as she tried to explain. "So now, I'm happy. Because I found you, Soma. I'm happy because I found all of you. My friends. And because I... So... So, now, I get to... Um... So now..." Shio started to mess up again. Soma stood there silent to what Shio said to him. Without saying anything, he continued onward, leaving the team behind.

"Hey, Soma, get back here! Come on!" Kota tried to stop him, but it ended up being useless. "Be moodier, Soma, damn."

"Kota... stop it."

"Wait, what's with that look? You know something?" Claire began to explain everything she was on that disk that was related to Soma's past to make him realize why he acts like what acts like today. Kota gaped at the information in amazement.

"Wow... That's just... So I guess that makes him the original God Eater, huh? The basis of all this, of God Arcs and... Wow. And worse, the poor guy thinks he killed his own mother? Just by being born? That's awful... How long has he been carrying that around? How long has he held it in?"

"Yeah, you understand now, right? So why don't you go easy on him a little."

"Yeah, I guess I will."

"Good." Claire walked past Kota and towards Shio who was just sitting on the ledge, staring at the sea. "Come on, Shio. I think it's time to go back."

"Okay."