Project Motherhood: Valentine

by Gamer95

During the darkest hour, an unexpected entity arrives to destroy the Skullheart once and for all. Nurse Valentine seeks atonement for her actions... And she will find it in the form of a little pink haired boy.

6. Chapter 6

The next morning, Valentine groaned as she leaned up in bed. It had been a peaceful night, and she smiled when she saw Crona tucked in at her side still soundly sleeping. 'I guess Robo's first shift went just fine.' Valentine mused to herself. She hoped the Robot hadn't gotten bored, or done anything too extreme in a reaction to the most mundane of things. She looked over at her mechanical daughter, who was sleeping soundly, and smiled, then turned that smile over to Fukua. 'My two good girls...' She thought to herself. Though most of her affection was going to Crona, her love for her daughters could not be understated...

Still, Crona. She picked him up and held him on her lap, letting him lean against her as he continued sleeping. He seemed happy and content, and that was what she was just fine with. She wanted Crona to be happy, she wanted his life to not be... what it was. And she was happy she was able to help in some regard to that. She cuddled him close and rocked him in her arms. She hoped he had a good time with his elder sister the night prior, sitting around in that office must have gotten terribly boring for the both of them after a point.

Still, it had been quiet on her end, so Valentine had no reason to believe things went wrong, or bad or anything like that. Now, she had to accept what was going to happen today. Fukua would be taking Crona with her to classes, and she didn't know how to react to that. Crona had said he wanted to try all three options before deciding which one he was most comfortable with, and now that he had been with her and Robo, Valentine knew she couldn't really say no to Fukua. But there would be a lot of people around, and she was deeply concerned that Crona might get overwhelmed. Still, she did trust that her daughter would take care of him. She had definitely learned her lesson after their trip to town and would definitely be more vigilant. And, well, if worse came to worse, Crona would spend more time with her or Robo. Yes, Fukua would be somewhat bitter over that, but she'd understand Crona's apprehension towards large groups. For now, Valentine sighed, and hugged Crona close to her chest, patting his back happily.

The little boy wiggled slightly in her grip to make himself more comfortable, and she smiled mirthfully at him. He really was the most precious child she ever laid eye on. And she definitely wasn't just saying that because she was biased. Crona cooed softly in her arms, clearly in heaven (to him). The Nurse felt happy, she felt like all her training and schooling was leading to her finding this little bundle of adorableness, and being able to care for him. If that was the case, then all the tests, studying, all-nighters and everything else was worth it. "Sleep tight, cutie." She cooed.

She decided to lay back in her bed and hold her youngest close just a bit longer. Not like she had to go to work just yet, she had about two hours before she had to be on that. She wasn't sleepy, but holding her son was all the entertainment she needed. He snuggled closer, letting out tiny snores as she slept in her arms. He really did look like a porcelain doll like this, so small and fragile... if the situation that lead to him being like this wasn't so horrific, it would honestly be even more adorable. But Valentine wasn't about to try and justify the abuse of a small boy by comparing it to his overall cuteness. But again, she hated thinking these thoughts, his 'hold me, protect me, love me' aura was something she really did love about him. It was honestly what made her realize that she was mother material. Before Crona, she never even thought of Fukua and Robo Fortune as her children. The thought just never crossed her mind. But then came little Crona, and everything just clicked.

Now, she saw them as her family. Fukua and Robo clearly thought Crona was their family, and the love they had for him was honestly adorable. While their fighting was a little irritating at times, seeing them fight over Crona was oddly entertaining, as it was clear they both cared for him, and they wanted to take care of him. Ultimately, though, it was her job to take care of all three of them. To help them grow, learn, mature... She was their mother. And she had so much she needed to teach her kids to help them become responsible members of society. Well, as responsible as a clone with living hair, a robotic death machine, and a blood-less boy with a living weapon inside his body could be. Honestly, she couldn't even Say Crona had the chance being the most 'normal', but Ragnarok made that not exactly true. Still, Fukua and Shamone were pretty 'normal' all things considered.

Looking over at her daughter, she smirked slightly. Fukua was so excited to be attending school... It was kind of adorable. She was still trying to keep a cool facade, but she wasn't able to fully mask her excitement. Even while she slept, she was grinning like a child on Christmas. Which was ironic, as Valentine remembered her mornings being much more 'Noooo...' and 'Five more minutes, please...' rather than excitement to be attending school. Then again, Fukua was an interesting case, and she wasn't going to judge her daughter.

The girl was clearly lonely in spite of having Shamone and the rest of her family, and she wanted to make friends like any girl her age would. Valentine suddenly had a feeling Fukua would be bringing friends over soon enough. 'Is she gonna use Crona as an icebreaker?' Valentine wondered, thinking it over, looking down at her son. 'Probably.' She wasn't sure if she was okay with that or not; but it seemed relatively harmless. Heck, if anything, it'd help build up Crona's confidence. Maybe. She wasn't sure.

She imagined a lot of the girls would be quick to fawn over the little boy. In fact, she found herself wondering if Crona would end up being deemed a distraction to the students and requested to not show up to class anymore. Heh... what would happen if that was the case? Crona wouldn't argue (he was probably afraid to talk back to anyone) but the girls may argue against that... oh well, she'd deal with it as it came to pass. "Well, let's see how your first day at school goes, Crona." Valentine remarked, smiling down at her sleeping Son.

He murmured something in his sleep and nestled in closer to his mother. Valentine looked over at Robo Fortune, still plugged into her charging station. Seemed she was nearing one hundred percent charge... It was another hour or so before her daughters began to wake up. The time passed in the blink of an eye. "Mrgh... morning already...?" Fukua muttered, rubbing her eyes.

"Yes." Valentine nodded.

"Ah! Wait. You." Fukua gasped, surprised to have someone respond so suddenly. "Right. You don't sleep..."

Valentine blinked at that, then laughed softly in amusement. "Of course I sleep, I just wake up a lot earlier than you do." Fukua snapped her head over to her with a shocked expression on her face. Evidently the idea that she slept was equivalent to telling her she was the tooth fairy.

"The human body can't even function without rest, Fukua. Of course I sleep." Valentine rolled her eye in amusement.

"...Sure..." Fukua yawned. She cracked her neck and sighed, rubbing her eyes. "Well, I can't wait for today..."

"Right. About that." Valentine began, and Fukua seemed to snap awake, clearly nervous about what came next.

"Hey, you said I could take Crona with me!"

"I know. You can." Valentine nodded. "But if he starts to get nervous, I want you to take him to the infirmary. I know you'd want to try and comfort him, but if he gets upset, please bring him to me." Fukua sighed and looked down at her little brother. She wanted to keep him with her, but she couldn't really argue with that... No matter how badly she wanted him with her, his mental health was the most important thing in the world to her...

"Okay, mom..." She said softly.

"Hey... If it doesn't go well, we'll find another way for you to spend time with him. I would never let you get left out like that." Valentine assured her daughter.

"I know, it's just... I want him to get better, and I think some sense of structure might help him." The Clone reasoned. Valentine nodded, understanding where her daughter was coming from, but thankful that she understood where SHE was coming from as well.

"He's only like, six, Fukua." Valentine commented. "He's been through hell. He'll get better in time, I think it's safe to say we'll all ensure he gets better." The Nurse hugged her sleeping son, then passed him to Fukua.

The dark skinned greenette accepted him with a soft smile and gently nuzzled his face with her cheek. "It'll be okay, baby bro, big sister will make sure you stay safe and happy today." She cooed softly,

"Oh, and another thing. Try to make sure the other girls in your class don't overcrowd him. He seems to gave that aura of cute that attracts the fairer sex like flies to honey." Valentine warned in a semi-joking manner.

"Heh. He sure does." Fukua smiled "I don't even know what it is, but he's just so adorable... I just wanna hug him."

"I'd say it's his hair and eyes." Valentine remarked. "The hair is just cute and the eyes have a 'help me' thing going on with them. Still, a bunch of the classmates you meet may want to hold him, I don't think he's ready to be held by anyone other than us."

Fukua narrowed her eyes into slits. "They will have to pry him out of my cold, dead hands if they want him."

Valentine couldn't help but laugh slightly at how blunt and serious her daughter was. "They just might if you aren't careful, hun." She joked. Fukua simply huffed and tightened her hold on Crona with a pout.

"It's not my fault he's so adorable...he's just a little snuggle muffin" Fukua muttered. "Did I say that last part out loud?"

"Maybe... Muffin." Valentine remarked.

"Don't... don't start with that..." Fukua muttered, looking away. She was... excited, really. She hadn't been to a normal school... ever. So, now she had a chace to see what that was like. She hoped it was like what she had seen in the TV shows she watched. A large circle of friends, a few cool teachers, regularly hanging out after classes, all that good stuff. Actually, who would the teachers be? She hadn't met any of them, aside from Lord Death, who wasn't a teacher, he was essentially the headmaster. Apparently the Medici woman with the hat-parasite would be working here, so she kind of knew her, but not really. Aside from Dawn, Church, Caboose and whoever that weird kid was, she didn't know ANYONE here. On the one hand, that was kinda daunting, but on the other hand, she was kinda thankful for it. She didn't know anyone, and no one knew her; therefore, no one knew about her being a clone, they'd just see her as Fukua. So long as she didn't blow that, she'd be fine!

But then her mother had gone around and informed people who she knew about the school and Lord Death's scouting them out... And among the people she knew was Filia... That meant there was a chance Filia was here... Ugh, she didn't want her ANYWHERE near her baby brother... Crona was too sweet and pure to be around a monster like her. Fukua tightened her hold slightly and looked away in irritation, why did SHE have to come here!? Fukua would've been fine leaving well enough alone if she had stayed in that casino her family owned, but nooooo... she just had to come out here and make her life so much worse! She shook her head rapidly, making Shamone slightly dizzy. 'Take it easy, Fukua, you don't even know if she 's here yet... And I don't wanna set a bad example for my little bro by being mean to anyone even if they are worse than I am...'

At this point, Crona began squirming in her arms, yawning when he began to wake up in her arms. Fukua blinked and smiled widely at her little brother turning over in her arms and accidentally burying his face into her chest. "Mrgh... Mama?" Crona mumbled.

"Hi, cutie." Fukua smiled.

Crona blinked at realizing his mistake and closes his eyes again. "Big sister Fukua..." He corrected himself. The teenage girl giggled and rocked him back and forth. He cooed and rubbed his eyes sleepily.

"So... did you have fun last night with Robo? Or was it super boring?"

"It was... nice..." Crona yawned, rubbing his eyes. "She was really nice and warm, and I liked being with her..."

"Oh. Well..." Fukua blinked. "Well, I bet you're gonna have a lot more fun with me today!"

'And so it begins...' Valentine smirked, knowing this was probably the beginning of Robo and Fukua's daily fight to claim Crona as their 'own'. Honestly, Valentine would by lying if she said she wasn't somewhat interested in how it'd go down.

"Negative. There is no chance he will have more fun with you because you are boring and you have a very strange face." Robo Fortune droned as she powered on. Fukua narrowed her eyes and growled before turning away from her metal sister with a huff.

"Ignore her." Fukua remarked, hugging her little brother who was still in an uphill fight to fully wake up.

"M'kay..." He mumbled, not totally sure what he was agreeing too. Fukua just grinned victoriously.

"All right you two." Valentine frowned, trying to end this fight before it got worse. It was a 50-50% chance it'd work or they'd keep arguing. Luckily they both let out a huff at her words, but decided to obey her this time. That was a relief, she really didn't feel like getting tough with them this early in the morning.

"Breakfast shall be created soon." Robo said as she made her way to the kitchen. Fukua remained on her bed, playing and cooing over Crona as the little boy giggled in her arms. A few minutes later, she needed to get changed, and set Crona onto her bed, pulling a blanket over him.

"Be right back, Crona." She smiled, then disappeared for a minute and then came back to help him get changed for the day. After he was all set, she picked him up and gave him a quick twirl, eliciting a soft "Whoa..." and a quiet giggle from the little pink haired child. Fukua booped his nose with a smirk. "Your clothes look awesome on you!" Crona blushed in embarrassment, still not used to being given compliments and tried to look away. Fukua laughed and rested Crona on her hip.

"C'mon, let's get ready for today!" She remarked, gathering some things and putting them into her bag. She made sure she packed food for her and for Crona. She nodded as she added an extra water bottle, not sure how his body processed water or food. Valentine watched with an approving smile beneath her mask. Her daughters really did put a lot of thought into what their brother needed. The pure, genuine love they felt for him truly did warm her heart.

"Food is ready." Robo declared from the kitchen. Robo considered taking her son back, but since today was essentially Fukua's day, she let her daughter take Crona and settle down to eat. Fukua ate quickly, clearly excited for the day, before turning her attention to her baby brother and feeding him his breakfast. Grabbing his fork, she set a forkful of food into his mouth before helping herself to some of her own breakfast, then giving some to Shamone, then feeding Crona once more, and alternating back and forth between the three of them. Crona remained settled on her lap, enjoying the food his sister made with every bite. It tasted great! His sister was really good at cooking, and he wondered if he could ever learn to cook like her. He wasn't sure what it took to cook in the first place, maybe he could ask his sister after school. Actually, what was school going to be like? He was going to be with his big sister today, which made him happy, but there might be a lot of people, which made him nervous.

But maybe there would be people he recognized, like that one really nice girl and those blue boys. Maybe the other people in the school would be nice to him like they were... He certainly hoped no one would hate him... Fukua noticed this and gave him a squeeze, deciding not to say anything, but let her actions speak for her. Crona blinked, then looked up and smiled at his big sister. She'd take care of him though... Fukua said she'd keep him safe! So... she would, right? It felt like she would... he trusted her that she would.

He decided to put all his trust in his big sister and latched onto her shirt, getting a giggle out of her. Fukua would ensure that he felt safe and at ease. If anyone swarmed him, she would fight them off. Anyone bullied him, she would beat them up. "Well... time to go." Fukua said, sighing slightly as she rose to her feed and tucked Crona into one arm. She picked up her bag, and smiled, her eyes hopeful but her face trying to remain neutral. "I'll see you after school!"

"Take care." Valentine smiled. "And have a good day at school. And take good care of Crona!"

"I will." Humming to herself, Fukua made her way out into the hallway, holding Crona close. She hummed a merry little tune, very softly to herself to make sure no one heard it because she wanted to give a disinterested punk girl image. Crona held onto her arm, looking around the school in the day again as Fukua held him. The two headed to her first class, and entered the class room. It had a sort of auditorium design, and Fukua found a place for herself and Crona. The tiny boy sat next to her, and was able to look over the desk-table-thing.

Even seated atop his big sister's lap, all anyone could see of him was the top part of his head from his forehead to his eyes. Fukua cheerfully began to pet his head and looked around the room at her classmates. She didn't recognize anyone immediately, and that was okay. First day, new faces, just act casual. As more and more entered, she saw the red-skinned horned boy from yesterday, but he didn't seem to notice her. There was a good mix of people and Fukua wanted to say Ferals, but she wasn't sure how to explain it. Still, first day, just keep casual and go with whatever the flow is. Crona was silent, and practically as still as a statue, and while it was clear he was nervous, it wasn't the fear Fukua needed to take him to Valentine over. He was trying his best not to show it, and if being quiet and still was how he did so, Fukua would leave him be then.

She wrapped her arms around his midsection and kissed the top of his head. To hell with anyone who saw it, her little brother feeling safe and happy came before her upholding any kind of reputation. Crona smiled up at her. He still didn't say anything, but again, if he felt safe and happy, that was good enough for the clone. Fukua noted that the classroom actually got pretty full, there were more people than she expected, and she still had that awkward feeling of not knowing anyone here aside from the little boy seated on her lap. Well, at least she and Crona had a similar feeling on something... She leaned down to the boy. "Don't worry. We'll try and make some friends so we don't feel so alone." She whispered softly. Crona nodded his head. If they could become friends with these people, it wouldn't be as scary to be surrounded by them.

"Hey... Fukua, right?"

Fukua raised a brow, then felt her eyes widen as Dawn sat down next to her. 'YEEESSSSSS!' Fukua mentally screamed. "Yeah, Dawn. Right?" The Clone nodded.

"Heh, yeah." Dawn nodded, looking at her bandaged arm, and then looked down at Crona. "Aww, he's so cute..."

"Heh, yeah. Crona's a little cutie." Fukua smiled.

Crona looked down shyly with a blush and tapped his fingers together with a small, shy smile. He didn't know if he'd ever get used to being complimented... Dawn smiled. "Man, I remember when I used to be this shy..."

"Yeah, he's still getting used to being around people." Fukua remarked, trying to act casual as she patted Crona's head. "Hey, which class is this? I got the classrooms but didn't get which class this was."

"History." Dawn nodded. Fukua nodded, thankful for having that cleared up. Okay, history. This should be interesting. Crona blinked and decided he would pay attention too. He knew a little bit about history based on what he was taught by Ragnarok, but he wasn't really the best teacher, so he really wanted to know more... Fukua was interested as she knew pretty much nothing about what the heck was going on around her, so hopefully history would help her get a grip. She let out a quiet sigh, squeezing Crona's arm reassuringly.

She wondered what the teacher would be like. On the one hand, the shows she watched had shown some truly wonderful teachers that had their students' best interests at heart. On the other hand, they showed just as many bad teachers... "Professor Tyrion should be here soon." Dawn remarked. "He's... interesting. He's pretty relaxed, all things considered, and he's clearly seen a lot, and knows his stuff, but he can also be kinda off putting."

"How so?"

"He doesn't really care for anything, himself included. And sarcasm tends to be his most common response to most things. Also, he drinks a lot off-hours."

'Okay, so I found a professor like me, great!' Fukua thought.

Well, minus the drinking part, because her mother would never allow her to touch alcohol at her age... She just hoped the guy wasn't TOO mean or strict, because her little brother would be ill at ease if that were the case. He arrived not long after, and he was shorter than Fukua expected. Still, he seemed to have an air of 'Cool, let's just go' and didn't seem to be too rigid. "Morning." He nodded, and the class replied. "So, I got nothing to note, let's get to it. Last class we were discussing the Phoenix Wars. Because of the fights that occurred, can anyone tell me what happened afterwards?"

Fukua blinked. 'Phoenix Wars, Phoenix Wars... I think mom mentioned that at some point, how did it go again...?' She noticed Dawn had her hand raised, and the teacher called on her. She listened closely.

"After the final battle, the burning feathers changed the weather. The time of year permanently shifted, giving us the longer summer we experience every twenty years."

"Exactly." The professor nodded. "Now, this wasn't the last that we had to deal with this problem, as..."

'Huh, I didn't know that." Fukua thought. "Still, I guess I haven't been alive long enough to go through one of those." She listened with rapt attention as she held Crona close, enthralled by the lesson. She almost forgot she even had her brother she was so focused. Luckily for them both, Crona was just as invested in the story as she was. The next hour and a half went by extremely quickly, but also at a snail's pace. Fukua didn't really get a chance to talk to anyone, as her attention was on what was being taught and the notes she was taking, but she did notice a few of the students looked to her (clearly able to tell she was new) and a few looked to Crona. Thankfully, no one said (or tried) anything.

Even the teacher gave the small boy a look, though his was more of a questioning one, wondering just why a little kid was brought into class, but he wasn't at all disruptive, so he ultimately didn't care. The class came and went, and Fukua set off for her next class. Annoyingly, she and Dawn didn't have the same second class, but lunch was after, so they planned to meet then. "Well, how was that, little bro?" Fukua asked as she walked down the hall.

"That was interesting." Crona answered, somewhat timidly, but still responding. Fukua smiled down at him, trying her best to be a comforting presence. She looked around at a few of the students in the school, and looked away quickly when she saw the knife-handed kid from yesterday... his arm now wrapped in bandages. Entering her second class, Fukua bit her lip, unsure of where to sit. "Hey, look, Church, it's the new girl! Hey! Hey new girl! There's a seat next to me! You can take it and we can be sitting buddies!" Fukua looked over ar Caboose, who was eagerly trying to wave her over to join his group of friends. Fukua looked down at Crona, who shrugged indifferently, willing to trust her. Fukua sighed slightly, deciding to give it a try and headed over and sat down with Crona on her lap. She wasn't sure which class this was, but again, that was kind of the entire point of today.

She felt like someone was looking at her. Raising a brow, she turhed to see one of the boys at the table was giving her what she assumed was meant to be a cool grin, but just came off as... dorky. "Ah geez, here we go..." Church facepalmed as he realized Tucker was about to flirt again.

"How long till she hits him?"

"Considering she's never met him? I'd say a minute." Carolina shrugged.

"Nahhh, you give him too much credit." One of them shrugged.

"Hey, Church. Who's the kid?" Griff asked, noticing Crona.

"Huh? Oh, she's the Nurse's kid."

"Huh... Little guy looks like he needs to fatten up a bit..." Grif chuckled as Tucker spoke to Fukua.

"Hey, baby. " Fukua looked at him weirdly.

"Uuuuhh... Hi?" She replied.

"So uh, you new around here?"

"Yeah. So?"

"Th'names Tucker."

'Oh, please no.' Fukua blinked, realizing where this was going.

"That's a... nice name..." She replied awkwardly, turning away to avoid meeting the boy's gaze. Unfortunately for her, Tucker was extremely dense and failed to notice her clear discomfort as he continued on to his traditional pick-up lines.

"So uh, how's your first day been?"

"Good, until now..." Fukua muttered, noting a few of the others stifled laughs. She wasn't exactly against potentially meeting someone, but in her second class? No. Just... no. Especially with how clearly dense he was. Fukua didn't want to make enemies, but at the same time, this wasn't exactly helping her make friends.

"Ignore him, he's always like this." Church muttered, looking down at Crona, who nodded.

Shamone decided to step in. "Excuse me, sir, you're making my host uncomfortable, so if you could please stop trying to hit on her, I would greatly appreciate..."

"Whoa, didn't realize this was gonna be a three-way! Heh. Bow-chicka-bow-wow!"

"Crona. Don't watch this." Fukua ordered, then hit Tucker where it hurt. He let out a 'Grk!' in shock and his breathing hitched, Fukua scowled and looked away.

"Yeah, he does that to everyone." The one woman in the group remarked. "And that happens every time he does."

"Makes sense." Fukua muttered.

Crona looked at Tucker with a small frown, hoping he wasn't hurt too badly. At that moment, Rsgnarok decided to make himself known, rising from Crona's shoulders and shaking his head at Tucker. "That's rough, buddy."

"Uh..."

"It's a long story." Fukua cut them off. The others were a bit surprised that someone as clearly young as Crona had a weapon-parasite-thing in him, but then again, they'd seen weirder.

"Huh. That thing's like a physical version of Epsilon..."

Ragnarok rested himself atop Crona's head and grumbled. "I am not a thing, I am all man, don't you call me a thing, I'll call you a thing, you..." His grumpy muttering quickly became unintelligible as he sulked.

"Right..."

"So, what class is this, anyways?" Fukua asked, noting that she still wasn't sure what this class was.

"Zoological Combat." Carolina remarked. "Essentially understanding where to attack certain animals, we go through this before weapon training."

Fukua blinked at that, and Ragnarok decided to explain. "Kishin can take all sorts of forms, kid. Sometimee they're humanoid, sometimes they look like animals, and sometimes no one knows what the hell they're supposed to be."

"Oh, weird..."

"Yeah, apparently they've been kinda dropping off as of late, but still, that's why we're here, I guess."

"That or Sarge got drunk, trashed half the city and then blamed us for it resulting in us having to come here so we learn what he was supposed too..." Griff muttered. Fukua looked ot him., but decided not to press this. Based on what she heard about this Sarge person, he sounded like someone she wanted to keep away from her baby brother as much as possible lest he do something that gets him hurt. He sounded more than a little crazy. Crona looked up at his sister and then looked forward, curious as to what this class would be. The last one was interesting, so he was hoping he'd learn something here too! Fukua looked down and smiled, laughing slightly at his curiosity.

"So, is he your son, or little brother?" Carolina asked, looking down to Crona, smirking slightly when he squirmed back somewhat in Fukua's lap.

"Little bro." Fukua answered.

"I told ya he was the new nurse's kid." Church said with a shrug. "And I dread the day Tucker has to go to see the new nurse, because he will not be able to keep his big mouth shut for two seconds when he sees her."

"Ugh... right..." Fukua muttered. "...although I'm not sure how that would end..."

In her workspace, Valentine felt like someone was judging her, and not in the way they normally did, and she wasn't sure how to react... She shook her head, she was probably just being paranoid.

"Honestly if he got hurt to a point where he'd stop talking, we'd all be better off." Church muttered. "We tried doing that to Caboose, but he just walks it off. Somehow."

Fukua frowned at Church. "Okay, I understand not liking him for the things he DOES, but why do you not want him talking anymore? He's a little... slow, but he seems nice enough." Caboose looked over at her with pure joy in his eyes.

"You haven't lived with him."

"Don't take it personally, Church has also been stuck dealing with every weapon injury for a few years now." Griff added. "The dumbass doesn't know how to duck..."

"Yes, because you can duck to avoid a point-black sniper shot."

Fukua cocked her head to the side. "You don't know how to do that?" Everyone turned to look at her, and she looked away bashfully. "I uh... went through a few tests a while back... I can dodge gunfire, I can lift a few hundred pounds, um... I tanked lasers and missiles in sparring matches with my sister..."

"...yo, that's friggin' awesome." Simmons blinked.

"Surprised a human can do all that, but hey. Considering what we've seen, done and seen here, I can believe it."

"Like when that dude cranked gravity up to nearly a thousand times earth and Caboose just kept going?" Griff asked.

"Pretty much, yeah."

Fukua cocked her head to the side. Seemed these guys lived interesting lives... Then Grif spoke up. "Hey, do you know anything about the weird new security guard? The robot cat girl? These guys don't believe she's real."

"Oh yeah, she's my sister." Fukua replied with a shrug.

"Aw come on, don't start teasing me too!" Fukua frowned.

"But... I'm serious..."

"She's telling the truth." Crona spoke up.

"Yeah." Ragnarok nodded.

"..." There was a silence that was a mixture of confusion, disbelief and amusement.

"Cool, can you tell her to calm down already? We trashed a classroom because she thought I was stealing from the vending machine."

"Were you?" Fukua asked.

"..."

"He totally was." Ragnarok piped up. "The kid and I saw the whole thing. I gotta say, you took all those shots to the dangly bits pretty well considering they were caused by missiles, lasers and razor sharp claws."

"...thanks..." Griff muttered not sure how to feel about being thrown under the bus by... whatever Ragnarok was. Fukua wanted to ask Crona what Ragnarok was talking about, but the professor walked into the room, and everyone turned to focus on the class. The professor was a man in a full suit of crimson red armour. "Atten-hut, soldiers! I best have your undivided attention! I don't want none of you lazin' around, stuffin' your face or fallin' asleep! We clear on that, Grif?!"

"Sure, whatever."

"Wait. He's a Professor?" Fukua asked flatly, having a feeling this was the 'Sarge' mentioned a few minutes ago.

"Yeah." Simms nodded. "Don't ask how."

"You kids can chitter-chatter amongst yourselves after we're fone learnin' how to strike the underbelly of a warthog to spill out all those tender, juicy innards!" Sarge barked. "Now, who here took down a kishin in the last month?" Crona raised his hand innocently. "...Really? Well damn! Looks like you slackers are getting your asses handed to you by a toddler! Who'd you slag, kid?"

"...uh, my... my mom..."

"...uh, I think it was some kind of bug..."

"Oh yeah, he was an ugly SOB. Looked like a big praying mantis. Nasty arm blades, but easy enough to take down if we could get the abdomen." Ragnarok chipped in.

"Ha! That's how it's done!"Fukua wasn't sure how to feel about what she had just been told. She knew her brother had been through a lot, and she really didn't like the idea of her baby brother being forced to fight and kill... then again, that monster who was supposed to be his 'Mother' made him do it... Sarge saluted. "I dunno what your plans for the future are, son, but if you and your weird deformed blob partner step into the weapon meister business, I know you'd be one of the greats. Killin' kishin at your age is no small feat."

Crona shrank back, still not used to positive reinforcement from someone that wasn't his family, and not entirely sure he liked the idea of killing things for a living. Fukua patted his arm reassuringly, and Crona let out a quiet sigh, trying to remain calm. Fukua let a small smirk form on her face, not even a day in and already her brother was one-upping everyone. Not bad, not bad at all.

"Pretty badass partner."

"Poor little thing, why was he even fighting a kishin?"

"Are they fused together? Is the new nurse some kind of mad scientist?"

"Mommy isn't a mad scientist! Um... My old one was though. She's gone and I'm glad." Crona replied to a boy's remark.

"Atta boy, son, don't let any punks smack talk the most important woman in your life!" Sarge chuckled. "You and your partner know any other tips for these good-for-nothin's?"

"Oh... Well, if they have a shell, tip them over and hit the tummy... Um... A lot of the animal ones have sensitive ears, so make loud noises... I saw one that looked like an elephant, it was scared of the mice in the walls..."

"Yeah, those things can be a pain to put down, you can't go for the head, that skull is thicker than Griff's." Sarge remarked.

"Screw you!" Griff yelled in irritation, effectively proving Sarge's point. Fukua wasn't sure how to react to someone yelling that at a professor, but this group seemed to know each other outside of school, so she decided she'd figure it out later.

"But they're also really smart..." Crona said with a thoughtful expression. "They can all talk, they can think, they act like humans, and some even look like humans... So... you really have to try your best to trick them... They're all really different and really dangerous." He spoke so calmly, as if he was entirely used to fighting the monsters.

"Okay, so... how old is he?" Tex blinked in surprise.

"I think he's five or six." Fukua answered.

"That just raises more questions."

"Indeed, like why the hell did it take him this long to show up!?" Sarge asked.

"Sarge, this is a high school." Church said flatly.

"I thought I told you idiots to stop smoking that stuff!"

"No, not- ugh..."

Fukua stared at her baby brother, greatly concerned. He was used to fighting these monsters? These dangerous creatures that couod easily kill a normal human being? But he was so tiny... How? How could he ever have won, even with Ragnarok's help? By now, Sarge seemed to have gotten distracted by something, and they returned to their class. Fukua let out a quiet sigh and put an arm around Crona, kinda wishing he hadn't been used to killing these things. "He's been through hell, hasn't he?" Carolina asked, and Fukua blinked in surprise. "One of you two is clearly adopted, and the way he's reacting, it's clear there's some sort of trauma."

"Yeah, he's... he's been through a lot." Fukua muttered.

"Damn." Carolina frowned. "Still, seems like things are getting better for him."

"Yeah." Fukua smiled. "It's getting there..." She rested her chin atop the boy's head with a small smile. It was going to be a gradual process, but she knew the day would come when he would move past all that awful woman had done to him... They would all make sure of it...

Admittedly, for as abrasive and un-professor-ly as he seemed, Sarge clearly knew what he was talking about, as he pointed out several different types of Kishin, and their weaknesses. Even going so far as to label the weakest joints and nerves, and what kind of ammo was best used for those types of foes. Fukua wondered if this was something she could do for a living when she got older... hunting down monsters? That's kinda what she was made to do... Still, she wasn't sure she liked the idea of Crona doing or, or maybe she was just being an over-protective big sister. Still, when the conversation turned to human-kishin hybridization and human genetic weaponization, Fukua felt a little awkward. Thankfully, anyone who noticed would write it off as the understandable uneasiness about the topic of human-weaponization. She didn't know how they would react if they knew the truth about her... If they ever found out she was just a copy of someone else... Would they still like her, or would they reject her? She clenched her fists and sighed quietly.

Crona looked up with concern in his eyes at his sister. Fukua blinked and reeled in her emotions, shaking her head, making Shamone blink before quietly speaking. "You okay?"

"I'll be okay."

"Hey, you're you. Don't think of yourself as a weapon, you're more than that." Fukua smiled and patted her parasite gently. Shamone leaned into the gesture appreciatively. Fukua remembered when she and Shamone were firsr born. The two of them could only speak in phrases Filia and Samson had previously said for the first month or so... That had been weird, only saying what someone else said? Even Robo-Fortune could speak more than that... Still, they got better, they moved on, they learned... now? Now she was Fukua, and she was keeping her baby brother safe and close. Actually, on that note, she was surprised Crona seemed so... okay with killing these creatures, but seemed afraid of hurting the rabbit he now had as a pet. Heck apparently he wouldn't kill even a rat... maybe it was because WHY he had to do it. Whatever, she'd figure that out later.

Of course, when it really came down to it, she figured it was because kishin were big, intimidating monsters and rabbits and rats were cute, fuzzy little creatures that generally didn' mean harm to him at all. Maybe she'd ask him later, maybe she'd-

CrUnCH

"AGGH! CABOOSE! WHAT THE F-"

"Oh, c'mon, Church! It's just a flesh wound." Sarge remarked. Fukua blinked, realizing they had been working on some practice forms and Caboose had somehow already hurt Church. Again. This time having stabbed him through the leg. As crude as he was, Fukua did feel bad for him... how many times had this happened?

"The longest we've gone without it happening was nine days." Griff stated, reading Fukua's mind. "And that's because Caboose wasn't here."

"I was sick." Caboose said with a nod. Fukua grimaced and felt immensely grateful she already had a partner physically attached to the back of her head so she wouldn't end up getting paired with the large boy. The class was certainly different than she expected. But then again, going from general history of the land and the wars which were fought long, long, LONG before the Great War of the Canopy Kingdom to 'Killing-Stuff-101' wasn't exactly the education Fukua had expected. But then again, she realized now in her excitement for the day, she hadn't read the outline of what her classes would be. And that was back in her room, so she couldn't run and grab it. Oh well, the sense of chance (for lack of a better word) on what each class could be was interesting. She paid close attention to Sarge's lecture. She felt like this was stuff she would really need to know, as the information could very well save her life one day, or the life of someone she cared about.

Time passed, and eventually the class was over. Fukua checked the tine and noted it was lunch now, and then she had three classes in the afternoon, and then she was done. Things seemed to be moving relatively quickly, and she was thankful that the nervousness in her gut had mostly gone away, letting her just get a feel for everything and go from there. She heard two growling noises and looked down at Crona with a smile. "Well, looks like we're getting lunch now, baby bro..." Crona smiled softly and rubbed his little belly. Fukua giggled and lightly poked his ribs. Crona looked up and gave her a small smile. He was kinda enjoying his day so far, and a good amount of that probably came from being with his big sister. He really liked her, and she was keeping him safe, he didn't fear that he was gonna get lost again. Also, the people he had met thus far were nice, kinda weird, but then again, who wasn't?

As long as they were nice to him, he decided he liked them just fine. He quietly allowed his sister to carry him to the cafeteria for lunch. He was very hungry... Upon entering the cafeteria, Fukua sought out Dawn. She walked past some tables, not noticing a familiar black-haired girl who didn't notice her, and found her... friend? Yeah, she'd say so. Found her friend off to one side looking at her phone. "Hey Dawn."

"Hm? Oh! Hi, Fukua!" Dawn smiled when she saw the clone (not that she knew that) approaching. "How was class?"

"Weird." Fukua admitted. "We were dealing with Zoology combat or something, the professor was kinda weird."

Dawn chuckled. "Yeah, Sarge is pretty crazy. I should probably warn you... Try to avoid wearing anything blue in his class. For some reason the guy really has it out for the colour blue. Like, to the point where people have caught him screaming at the sky for its 'blatant blueness'."

"Is... is he safe to be around?"

"I really can't say." Dawn admitted. "There's one guy, Lopez, wears brown."

"I saw him, didn't talk to him though."

"He only speaks spanish, but one time him, Sarge and a few others went to war against gravity. Or, Sarge did and dragged the others along and drove a truck off the city edge."

"Why!?"

"I don't know, it's just how he works." Fukua stared in pure disbelief at the man's insanity. She... needed to keep her baby brother as uninvolved with that class as she reasonably could in case he decided to draft him into a crazy idea like that.

"Honestly, he leaves most of the classes alone, it's just that group of eight or ten that he drags into everything." Dawn added with a shrug. She had a few experiences with Sarge, and they didn't end as badly as some others', but she tried to avoid him when she could.

"There's some guy with long dirt hair, who-"

"We don't know what his deal is, or where he came from." Dawn cut Fukua off. "We don't even know his name."

"But..."

"Look, that's a whole other thing, have you guys gotten food yet?"

Fukua blinked, then slapped her forehead. "Right, right, right, food..." She muttered, setting her little brother down. "Okay, Crona, just stay with Dawn for a sec while I go and get us some food." She said gently. Crona nodded, sitting on the table-bench-thing and looking around. It wasn't built for someone as small as him, and because of this, he could just barely see over the table top. He felt a little self-conscious about his size right now, and looked away awkwardly. Dawn smiled down at him, she had to admit, he was pretty cute.

"Hey, no worries, little guy, you'll get bigger soon enough. And hey... being little isn't so bad. I'm one of the smallest people in this school, and I don't let it get me down." Dawn reassured Crona with a friendly wink. Crona nodded in understanding, Ragnarok deciding not to say anything on any of the present topics. Both because he felt Fukua would tell Valentine he made fun of Crona, or that he was perving on her friend, which again, was incredibly creepy. "So, have you been in Death City your whole life? Or did you move here recently?" Dawn asked casually.

"Uh..."

"We've been here both our whole lives." Ragnarok decided to step in (metaphorically) and answer. He didn't really want to go into their whole life story, so he figured he could keep the conversation away from that.

Dawn nodded her head in understanding. "Cool, cool... I uh... used to live in Canada myself... Moved here to learn to fight and stuff... Typical story for most of the kids here... You gonna be a meister someday, Crona?"

"I dunno..." Crona mumbled.

"Probably." Ragnarok shrugged. "Kid's still getting used to the idea of fighting these things. We've killed a few Kishin, well, I've killed a few, but the kid is still getting used to all that." Dawn nodded in understanding, it took her a bit to get used to dealing with these freaks, but apparently there was another school like this (or was), Beacon or something, and apparently they dealt with similar issues.

"This whole thing is pretty nuts... I mean, they're generally pretty easy to kill, as long as you know what you're doing, but not enough people actually know what they're doing." Dawn began muttering to herself. Crona nodded, that made sense. Sort of. Kinda. Well, he roughly understood what she was saying, so he decided that was good enough.

"True." Ragnarok muttered. "The amount of people I've seen nearly kill themselves trying to fight these things would be hilarious if it wasn't so pathetic."

"That's not really what I meant though... I meant all the people that can't fight... They're totally defenseless unless someone gets to them in time... It really bums me out just thinking about it..." Dawn said softly.

"Hm." Ragnarok shrugged. "That's what this place is for though, gotta start learning somewhere."

"Yeah." Dawn nodded in understanding. Crona quietly listened to Ragnarok and Dawn talk. He wasn't sure what they were talking about, but still, what they said made sense. People were in trouble because there were bad scary monsters all over the world. And this school taught people how to fight those monsters to keep the people that couldn't fight themselves safe from them.

Where did he fall on that regard? He had killed a few of those scary monsters, but that was mostly thanks to Ragnarok. Was he someone who would fight these monsters? Or would he be unable to do that? Honestly, he hadn't even thought about what he wanted to do. He was so used to being left in a cage and experimented on, he never thought he'd be going to school... or, going to school with his big sister. He was learning a lot today, and that brought forth a feeling he didn't really understand. He felt proud of himself for being in the classroom full of people, and not only not panicking, but speaking and even teaching them some things himself! He wondered how his Mother was doing while he was in class. She was probably working hard on helping people, ensuring that students weren't getting hurt, and helping them like she helped him!

"...I should've brought a book or something..." Valentine muttered, looking around the office. Church and Caboose had returned (apparently she should just get used to that) but other than that, it was dead quiet. "Hope Crona's okay..." She smiled softly to herself. Fukua hadn't brought him in, and she trusted her daughter would never disobey her, and so that meant that Crona was most likely doing just fine... Perhaps he would return excited for school himself someday. That did raise the question of where he'd go to school. Sure, they were in a high school/university style school, but was there a public school? There had to be, somewhere, otherwise where were the kids here going before this school?

She shrugged. Worst case scenario, she had more than enough credentials to homeschool her son for as long as he needed it... But if he was already adapting to school life, then surely he would want to try it for himself, right? That made sense. Crona clearly was smart, and he was clearly trying his best to adapt to his new life, but Valentine frowned at the report Robo gave her. He probably didn't know what was happening in his mind, and he may be too afraid to talk to her about it. She sighed softly and looked up at the ceiling, thinking about her little boy. She needed to help him get to the bottom of his issues... He may be healed physically, but mentally was a different story...

She thought about what Nadia had said, how her son took a few days to open up about everything, and how after that, things got better for them. Maybe Crona just needed a little more time to open up and realize things were okay. Or, maybe he felt like talking would put a burden on his family, and knowing Crona, he wouldn't want to do that. He was the sweetest little thing, but sometimes that came as a detriment to himself. She wanted more than anything for her child to burden her with his problems so she could do all in her power to fix these problems. Still, if she asked about them, all that'd do is probably push him back further. While she had a little bit of training in psychology, that was more to get into the heads of targets, not to help abuse victims cope and heal. She wasn't sure if she had the training, but Hallow always seemed better at that then her.

As creepy and sarcastic and rather morbid as that woman was, she very clearly did have a warm heart and cared deeply about others well being. When they had taken Carol for the Painwheel project, she was by far the most effected by the hard decision. Heck, Valentine questioned if Hallow had still considered her a friend after all that... not that she could ask her now. Still, as she was frequently telling herself, almost like a broken record, that was the past, and she was here to change her future.

"Hey... Nurse?" A voice spoke up and she snapped back into her 'medic mode'. A dark-skinned boy entered looking rather sheepish about something. "Uh, weapon misfire." He said, clearly embarrassed as he held up hand up, revealing some sort of hidden wrist blade, and a large cut across his arm and hand. Valentine nodded. Time to get to work.

Back in the cafeteria, Fukua had returned with two trays full of food. She set them down with a small smile and rubbed her brother's head gently. "Here's your lunch, baby bro, eat up!" She chirped merrily. Crona nodded, taking a small bite of his food. It was good, not as good as the food his big sister Robo made, but still, he liked it. Fukua sighed and sat next to him, eating as well while talking with Dawn. The girl was a bit nervous, but so was Fukua, so really, they seemed to work off each other well. Awkwardness was less awkward when both parties involved were equally awkward, at least that's what Fukua felt. The two had similar hobbies and interests, yet also a few things that the other didn't much care about. Did friends have to have everything in common? Fukua hoped not.

There was something kinda funny about Crona watching their interactions, clearly confused by something, most likely trying to figure out why they seemed so awkward talking to one another. They both seemed happy talking to one another, so why was this happening? Still, he was too shy to ask, so he mainly focused on his food. As the trio comfortably ate, Fukua and Dawn started to get progressively more comfortable with one another's presence, able to speak to one another far more casually and naturally. Fukua was thrilled. She was getting the hang of this friends thing!

Dawn was pretty happy as well, she was a bit awkward around new people, but Fukua really seemed to be someone like her, or at least, someone she'd like to hang out with. "Hey, how's your arm, by the way?" Fukua asked, remembering how she met Dawn in the first place. The girl looked at the arm in question, then shrugged.

"It's healing, I think." She commented. "It isn't getting worse."

Fukua nodded. "Are you able to move it any better?" Dawn managed to bend it slightly before wincing. "I would definitely call that an improvement." Fukua shrugged. Dawn smirked slightly and took a bite of her food. "You okay, Cro?" Fukua asked, looking to her brother. The tiny boy looked up and wordlessly nodded. He didn't really have much to say, he was just enjoying the food.

"Geez, he actually likes this stuff?" Dawn asked. "Most people here only eat it because they forgot to bring their own food..."

"It's not... terrible." Fukua conceded. Her sister (and she hated saying this) was way better at making food.

As if on cue, the door to the cafeteria was thrown open and the robotic feline stepped in. "It has come to my attention that my brother is eating a meal that was not prepared by me. This is not acceptable and must be corrected." She was indeed holding a lunchbox. This led to a few awkward minutes as Fukua tried to get her 'sister' to leave, but more surprisingly, no one really seemed to question it. Probably because they had a feeling that challenging a robot to a fight wouldn't end well, and partially because they knew she was technically the new security guard.

"Huh. Was not expecting that." Dawn blinked as Robo left.

Fukua stared at the massive lunch bag in annoyance. "And she made way too much, too... Ugh... There is no way we're gonna eat all this, especially not in time for class... And she'll get all huffy if we throw it out..."

"Is she always like that?"

"No, it's- man, I don't know." Fukua admitted. "She's weird, she means well - for Crona, at least. But I can't ever really figure out what her deal is. It changes so frequently."

"Weird." Dawn remarked. "She seems... interesting."

"Yeah, she definitely keeps things lively... For better or for worse... We tend to argue quite a bit is what I'm getting at here." Fukua rubbed the back of her head sheepishly and Dawn simply smirked in response.

"Ah, sibling rivalry..."

"Crona's perfect though." Fukua added, patting her brother's head. "He has literally done nothing wrong, ever."

"I can imagine that." Dawn smiled at Crona, who timidly returned it as he looked away embarrassed. He saw something that seemed familiar, but blinked and shook his head, he was probably just seeing things. Crona picked up the juice box and took a sip from it. It was apple juice. A flavour he had grown a fondness for in recent days. It was sweet and refreshing. He sipped at his juice for a few seconds before setting it down and turning back to the food. Fukua and Dawn looked to Crona for a second, then both shrugged. He may have just seen something interesting, and no one could blame him, there were a lot of interesting things to see around here...

'Oh, please don't see that. Please don't see that...' Fukua mentally groaned as she saw Griff flipping off the closing doors, and most likely Robo-Fortune. Still, apparently Griff had made enemies with her, so maybe she should befriend him to annoy her? She'd think about it... He had slipped Crona a granola bar back in class, and she thought that was a very nice gesture on his part, so he was certainly a decent enough guy to be friends with. Though the binge eating was a bit concerning... Either way, Fukua figured she didn't need to get everything perfect on day one.

"So, what comes after lunch?" Fukua asked.

"Math." Dawn muttered, clearly unenthusiastic about it. Fukua seemed indifferent, but had a feeling that wouldn't be the case long-term. The one thing she had always been told about school was that math was the WORST. It waa certainly boring, but she could do it easily enough. Sure, she wasn't a living supercomputer like her sister, but she was built with the knowledge of all forms of mathematics up to college level, so she wasn't worried. She was slightly worried at how Crona seemed to have retreated into his shell somewhat, but she wrote it off as him being out in a public place for more than a few minutes. He didn't seem uncomfortable, but he also clearly felt a little awkward. He had been doing just fine thus far, and maybe when they were in a classroom and it was quieter and someone wasn't trying to start something on the other side of the hall he'd feel better.

She gently ran her fingers through the boy's hair with a warm smile. "You're doing really good today, Crona. I'm proud of you, and I know mom will be too." Crona visibly perked up at his big sister's praise, feeling his resolve to get through the day strengthen. He looked around again, wondering if he'd end up here when he was older... he wasn't against that, in fact, it'd probably be pretty cool. Maybe he and Harry could be friends going here. He apparently already knew some stuff even the students didn't, and that was weird, but also kinda... empowering? Was that the word? It made him feel a bit stronger. Meanwhile, Dawn was giving Fukua a friendly warning regarding the math teacher. "So yeah, Professor N. Gin... He seriously gives me the creeps... There's just something so offputting about him ever since he got that missile stuck in his head..."

"The... what?"

"It's a long, long, LONG story..." Dawn muttered. "One of the other professors well, he doesn't work here anymore, was kind of insane. One of the students drove him psychotic more than a few times..."

"Okay, I thought this school couldn't get any weirder."

"Hey, just be thankful your sister didn't show up when the old cook was here. 'Dile was pretty proud of his cooking, and he'd take offence to what she did. He'd probably start a war with her..."

"What happened to him?"

"He quit and opened a diner."

Fukua blinked. "Huh... Any other teachers I should watch out for?" Dawn shrugged her shoulders.

"Eh, Professor Cortex can be a bit of a jerk sometimes, and Professor Stein likes to dissect live animals in front of the school, but other than that, the teachers are all pretty okay."

"I'm sorry. What."

"Yeah, it's... he's... weird." Dawn admitted. Kishin have weird natural properties, so he's been trying to figure out how that works. It usually ends pretty badly for him, but we're all pretty sure he has no idea what he's doing."

"Sure sounds like it."

"No, I mean, like, he has no idea what he's doing... anymore." Dawn re-iterated. "Again, long story." Fukua looked down at Crona with a frown. She really didn't want to take him to this Stein character's classes if he was going to dissect animals in front of them. Her baby brother loved his bunny, she knew seeing animals die would scar him. Crona meanwhile was looking off at something else, trying to put together if he was seeing things or not.

"You okay?" Fukua asked.

"Mmhm." Crona nodded. "The place is... big."

Fukua nodded her head. "Yeah, it sure is. You're not feeling scared, are you? I can drop you off with mom if you're starting to feel overwhelmed." As much as she wanted to have her brother with her, his comfort came first.

"I...I'm okay." Crona nodded, looking back up at Fukua. "It's just... different."

"If anything changes, let me know." Fukua said, and Crona nodded again, looking around for where he could throw his garbage out.

"Garbage cans are two tables down." Dawn remarked.

"Okay. Thank you." Crona got up from the table and made his way to the garbage can. Fukua, not wanting a repeat of their trip into town, craned her neck about to keep a close eye on him and make sure he didn't get lost. Crona walked down about fifteen feet, and then Ragnarok throw the trash into the bin. As Crona turned around, he blinked. "Hey, Ragnarok?"

"Sup?"

"Is... does she look a lot like my big sister?" Crona asked, looking to someone.

Ragnarok blinked, then looked over to find a certain parasite infested schoolgirl seated at a nearby table. "Wow. She totally does look like a whitewashed version of your sister." He said loudly enough for the girl to hear. At first, she was a little annoyed, but she smiled down at Crona when she saw him. Yeah, she looked EXACTLY like Fukua, but her hair was black and her skin was lighter, more like Crona's skin colour.

"Aww, hi little guy." She smiled. "What's your name?"

"Uh... I... I'm Crona."

"That's a nice name. I'm Filia."

Fukua, who had been watching her little brother close the whole time, immediately decided to put a stop to that, rushing forward and snatching her brother up. "Okay, thanks for finding him, don't follow me, bye!" She blurted as she carried him off.

"...was that you?" Samson asked, blinking as he looked from Filia to where Fukua had went.

"I don't know if we just witnessed a kidnapping or not." Filia admitted, deciding to ignore... her? orders and follow anyways. Once she was down the hall, Fukua stopped and tried to collect herself, breathing heavily.

"Okay, so... I have questions..." Ragnarok slowly began.

"I'm a clone. I was modeled after that girl you saw in the cafeteria. I'm not a real person, just someone else's shadow. She is the real thing and I'm just the afterthought. That the answer you want?!" Fukua snapped at the black blood.

"Oh. Huh. Didn't... didn't expect that..." Ragnarok blinked, taken aback by both the answer, and her anger. He had heard something like that when she was talking to Lord Death, but he was half-asleep, inside Crona, and not paying attention, so he had ignored it. Crona was silent, he didn't understand why she was so upset by this, but she seemed really unhappy... he hadn't done anything, but... no, he had been the one who talked to her. Maybe this was his fault. How could he make it better?

Fukua saw the guilty look on his face, looked crestfallen, then took a deep breath to force herself to relax. "Sorry, baby bro... It's not your fault, you just wanted to throw away your garbage like a good boy..."

"I don't get it... why is being a clone a bad thing?" Crona asked, still confused on that subject. Fukua bit her lip, unsure of how much she wanted (or was willing) to explain about her origin, her purpose, and, well, what she was.

"Okay. What the actual hell is going on!?" Fukua froze, then slowly turned around, seeing Filia and Samson looking at her. The former seeming confused, and oddly calm, and the other seeming bewildered beyond words.

Ragnarok looked over. "This girl here is a clone of that girl and she's really self conscious about it so she's hating on her to try and make herself feel better about her self esteem issues." He replied bluntly.

"Rag..." Crona muttered, knowing that was probably the wrong thing to say in this situation.

"Huh..." Filia frowned, looking to Fukua, who seemed... angered. "You're a clone of me?"

"Yeah..."

"Okay..." Filia muttered, not sure how to react to this. It was creepy, like, undeniably creepy, but at the same time, did this mean she had a sister? That was interesting.

Fukua looked away. "So what? You gonna tell me that I shouldn't exist or something? Get mad and call me a faker? Tell me there can only be one and try to kill me?" Filia was taken aback by how bitter this girl was.

"Okay, you REALLY need to take some prozac or something." Samson said flatly.

"Samson!" Filia hissed.

"What?! We didn't even know she EXISTED until like, twenty seconds ago, and your first reaction is thinking we want to kill you or something?! The hell's with that?!" Fukua... hated to admit to it, but Samson made a fair point. However, it wasn't helped by his 'We-didn't-know-you-existed' remark...

Ragnarok, on the other hand, laughed in delight. "Oh wow, I like this guy already! Dude, if I wasn't surgically attached to a five year old kid, I"d totally grab a drink with you!" He said to Samson excitedly, happy to meet someone more his type of potential friend.

"Same." Samson nodded. "But- hold on. What? You're... you're not just attached to the kid like a parasite?"

"No. I'm his blood." Ragnarok replied, and Filia's eyes widened in terror at the implications of that.

"That just raises even more questions!" Samson muttered. The black hairy parasite snickered. "That's still freaking badass though. Totally makes up for the pink hair." Fukua bristled at Samson's words and stomped her foot angrily.

"Don't you dare insult my baby brother!"

"I think it's cute." Filia remarked, irritated with Samson (as usual).

"Yeah, of course you do..."

"There's nothing wrong with it." Shamone said, making himself known. Samson blinked seeing his counterpart.

"Huh..."

"My name is Shamone, and I don't think it's nice of you to insult my family like that... Crona's hair's fine..." The green fuzzball said in what was trying to be a stern voice but just came off as a little bit whiney.

"Hey, I'm not the one who assumed we wanted you dead for no reason other than existing." Samson countered, raising a fair point.

"Fukua, do you have a sister?" Crona asked, still clearly confused by... well, what was happening before him.

"No, I'm..." Fukua began.

"Fukua?" Filia asked.

"Yes. That's my name."

Filia smiled softly. "I like that. That's a really pretty sounding name." Fukua blinked and suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable. Filia tilted her head to the side with a small frown. "Did I say something wrong?" She asked.

"I...you..." Fukua tried to respond, but couldn't. Crona looked up in confusion, then looked to Filia.

"What happened?" He asked.

"I dunno." Filia shook her head. "Don't take this the wrong way, are you a clone of someone too?"

"No. He's human." Ragnarok shook his head. "Sorta. Mostly. Long story."

Filia tilted her head. Then she turned back to Fukua with a perky smile. "Hey, I really like the way you did your makeup. I can't stand the stuff myself, I can never get it to look right and I feel like it takes too much time..."

"Oh. Uh... thanks?" Fukua muttered.

"Ignore Samson, I think your hair is super cute~!" Filia smiled down at Crona, who looked down bashfully before giving her a smile.

"Th-thank you." He said, his voice shaking somewhat before he smiled timidly back up at her.

"And your hair is pretty cute too!" Filia chirped as she turned to Fukua. "The green colour goes so good with your skin tone, and he has a really cute little personality!" Shamone blushed at the sudden praise he was getting.

Fukua sighed quietly. 'Damn it...' she cursed. 'She's not some horrible monster that I'm better than... if anything, she's just proving why she's better than me...' There was a bit of an awkward silence that followed, Fukua questioning her... well, everything. But mainly her attitude towards this girl she had never prior met, and her feelings of self-worth at being a clone.

Filia frowned softly. "Hey... I don't really know how much it means coming from me, but I don't think you should feel bad about yourself for being a clone. Because honestly, I say you're still... your own you."

"Yeah, I'm YOU." Fukua muttered.

"No. You're... you're you." Filia shook her head. "What you are and what I am aren't the same aside from how we look. And even then, we don't look the exact same." Her words were kinda reassuring to Fukua, but she still felt... bitter, but she didn't know why.

She looked down with a small pout and crossed her arms. "Please stop being so nice to me. You're making it way too hard for me to justify hating you." Filia let out a giggle at that, putting a hand to her mouth.

"Listen, if you think I hate you or something, you've got it all wrong. Sure, it's kinda weird to suddenly find out you have a clone... but at the same time, there's weirder stuff in this world."

"Stop. Stop doing... that..." Fukua groaned.

"She can't. She's like this all the time..." Samson groaned.

"Wow, what a goody two-shoes." Ragnarok snorted as he crossed his arms. Filia huffed and crossed her arms. She was not a goody two-shoes! Just the other day she politely complained that her order at a restaraunt was wrong!

"I think it's nice." Shamone shrugged.

"I really think we got the wrong hosts." Samson stated, looking flatly to the green parasite. "You and Fi are pretty much MADE for each other..."

"Well... Honestly, I think it's perfect that we ended up with our current hosts... I can keep Fukua from getting too moody, and you can make sure no one takes advantage of Filia's kindness..." Shamone replied, shrugging.

"Fair. The amount'a times that's almost happened..."

"It hasn't happened that many times!" Filia protested, irritated.

"That time in the diner?" Samson asked.

"Well..."

"And that time with Eliza?"

"Hey, that..."

"And that time with that mutant?"

"Okay, that one..."

"And that time with the bat ferals?"

"They weren't..."

"And the thing with Painwheel?"

"I was trying..."

"And that thing in Canada?"

"We agreed never to speak of that!"

"Thanks for proving my point." Samson shrugged.

Filia pouted and crossed her arms. "Everyone is ganging up on me, it just isn't fair!" She whined. Fukua snickered softly. She certainly had one thing over Filia, and that was the fact that she had a much cooler personality.

"I'm just doing what you keep telling me to do. Being honest." Samson retorted. Filia growled in irritation but didn't say anything, unsure of what she COULD say...

"Look, don't take this as my judging you, but I'm kinda curious, why... Me?" Filia asked, looking to Fukua. "I think clone or not, you're your own person, and that's just fine, but I'm kinda wondering why... me, y'know?"

Fukua shrugged. "I think my daddy mainly wanted a perfect copy of Samson, but he needed a host just like the real deal so I was made alongside Shamone here to keep him alive." Filia deflated. And she was thinking she was special...

"Can't say I blame him." Samson nodded. The bell rang, meaning lunch was over and classes were starting in five. Fukua let out a quiet sigh of relief at that... so, maaaaybe she had been a bit quick to judge/hate/loathe with the hatred of a thousand hellfire suns Filia, and she really didn't seem that bad... she was also thankful they didn't act the same, so Fukua could at least feel different that way.

"Well, time for math class..." Fukua began to walk, and Filia followed after her. "You have it too, huh?" Her fellow schoolgirl nodded. "Well, I have been warned that the teacher is more than a little bit creepy."

"That's what I've been picking up on a lot of the stuff around here." Filia frowned. "I really don't know why they hire who they have..."

"They hired that Medici woman weightlifter, so it's not like they did it only in the past." Fukua shrugged. Filia bit her lip but didn't say anything. She knew Cerebella a little, but didn't really know how she felt about her, well, cousin.

"Right... so what's the little cutie's story? You had him a long time?" Filia asked, smiling down at Crona.

"Um... A few days actually. My mom found him. He's my adopted baby brother." The greenette cooed and smiled down at her little brother, gently running her fingers across his tiny scalp as he leaned into her touch.

"Oh." Filia blinked, a bit surprised by that. "Yeah, I can see that, you don't look a whole lot alike... not that there's anything wrong with that."

"Hm." Was all Fukua said in response, and Filia got the message that this wasn't something she wanted to talk about.

"Um... So he really is a cute little guy, his hair is adorable. I mean, how can you get any cuter than pink hair, right?" Fukua smirked and nodded her head, glad that Filia appreciated the perfection that was her baby brother's fluffy pink hair. Crona looked up and gave a timid smile, his lip quivering slightly before he let out a timid 'eep' and buried his face into Fukua's chest.

"Aww, it's okay." Fukua smiled, patting his head. "He's just shy, is all."

Filia giggled. "Yeah, I used to be shy when I was little too... But if you're shy all the time, then it makes it really hard to make friends... I hope Crona can find it in himself to come out of his shell soon..." She said softly.

'There's a lot more to it than him being shy...' Fukua thought, but nodded in agreement. Really, she didn't want to go into Crona's whole life story, mainly because he hadn't said it would be okay. Also, that'd probably just really upset him, and she didn't want to have to take him to Valentine... "Well, anyway, guess we're at class now..." Fukua muttered as she entered the classroom. "This is gonna be a real drag... Bet Crona's gonna end up taking his nap, heheh..." She chuckled softly as she gave her baby brother a warm smile. Crona seemed a bit confused, but then again, this past twenty minutes had been really weird to him. He had a lot of questions now; was Fukua the clone? Or was Filia? Why would someone clone someone? Fukua seemed really upset over being a clone... why was that? Also, he wasn't sure if she was or not, but was Filia also his sister? Fukua was his sister, but she was a clone of Filia... he didn't know what that meant. He figured she wasn't - not because he wanted to be mean, but because his Mom had never mentioned her.

This whole thing was confusing him and making his head do some weird spinning thing, so he decided to stop thinking about it for the time being as his big sister carried him to their seat next to Dawn. "You... you okay?" Dawn asked, concern clear in her voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Fukua sighed. "Look, it's a whole thing, I'll explain it to you later."

"Okay..." Dawn frowned, just hoping her friend was all right. Still, Fukua seemed to be telling the truth, and from the way Crona looked up at her, she decided to leave well enough alone. She had just met Fukua, and didn't want to push her away. Filia decided to take a seat a little bit away from Fukua. She could see the clone was still a bit awkward around her. Everyone waited for the teacher to arrive, and soon enough, Professor N. Gin entered the room. And yeah, he was as weird as Dawn had said. There was something off putting about his voice, and Fukua figured it'd be something she'd get used to. Furthermore, the class was as dull as Dawn had warned. Admittedly, this was stuff Fukua had always been interested in learning, but she could tell that having to do this every day for a few years would become a real drag. Still, Crona seemed to be doing okay, and worse comes to worse, she could go to the Nurse.

Meanwhile, Valentine finished bandaging up another student, who nodded thankfully and left. The Nurse took a step back and sighed. It wasn't as busy as yesterday, but it still felt weird to be here doing this for so long without having to consider what her next target was. Evidently the only real target she had anymore was the happiness of her children, a very welcome change of pace, but a disorienting one. The nurse fiddled with one of her scalpels and let out a sigh. Waiting was rather boring. She continued to believe that if Fukua didn't show up, things were okay. The other kids she had met yesterday hadn't returned (aside from Church, but apparently that was to be expected.) So... yup. Waiting...

'...mmm...' Valentine sighed, looking around the room. She realized how much she had gotten used to structure in her life, and now, with that gone, things were quiet. But not quiet in the way she liked them. At least for the time being, it was a very boring quiet that slowly wore away at her and drove her to eat some of her dark chocolate. She idly chuckled to herself as she remembered how much Fukua hated the stuff. Normally, Valentine wouldn't trust someone who didn't like dark chocolate, but Fukua was the exception. She was young, she would learn. Or else.

'Wait, back up.' Valentine blinked, realizing what she had just thought. She shook her head and looked around. Man, the silence was messing with her... she returned to the chocolate, thinking about how best to plan things for the future. Aside from work, she'd need to spend time with each of her kids (Robo was more fine with being alone, but still) and she needed to help Crona's trauma... Being a single mom was hard, but she wouldn't even begin to deny that it was very, very rewarding. She smiled at the thought of her kids. They really were her whole world, her everything, at this point in time.

Really, it was Crona that pulled everything together. Even if she hadn't found him, she would've gone back for them eventually. She couldn't just leave them in the remains of Lab Zero... but with Crona, it felt like there was a new layer of purpose behind going back for them. Valentine frowned, unsure how she thought about that. She didn't want to start the belief that she only cared about them because of Crona, that was just a straight-up lie! But there was something to the tiny pink-haired boy that brought more than a few things into the light, for good and for bad. But mostly for good.

She eventually came to a conclusion that was satisfying to her. The reason it felt so much more meaningful to unite her daughters with Crona was because the dynamic between the three would be very good for them. Fukua and Robo were their own 'people', but they needed more of a connection. The only real experience socializing being either a clone, or a robot probably wasn't best for them long-term. Again, she wasn't a psychiatrist to the extent she sometimes thought she was, but having Crona gave a good balance for things. They got to feel like they were part of a (relatively) normal family. Also, as much as Fukua may have loved the place, it was good they got out of Lab Zero. Valentine would've had no issues with going back-and-forth from time to time, but in the current state it was in? Really, it was better to let those fires burn. Still, she couldn't help but understand why Fukua felt so strongly about it, she hadn't been anywhere else her entire life. Now? Now, they got to go to school, work, hopefully make friends, the things she wanted for them. Change was hard to deal with, but it was unavoidable and it was everywhere. The girl needed to learn how to properly adapt if she was going to truly make it anywhere in life. And she was adapting so nicely. Valentine was proud of her.

And then, there was HER change. Aside from the obvious (motherhood), she wondered if her training would be used anymore. Not her medical training, that was her job, but her shinobi training. She wasn't sure what she'd used it for, but she wanted to use her skills somehow... oh well, she'd figure it out. There was no way in hell she was going to let herself become rusty. She needed to maintain her skill as a warrior in case something ever happened to threaten her children. Plus it was a perfect way to stay in shape and maintain her perfect figure... But how?

'There's probably a gym or something around here.' She thought with a shrug. 'Maybe I could get some equipment in here, work out when I'm not working.' Valentine nodded, she liked the idea of that, she'd try to figure that out at a later time. She would certainly need a dartboard as well, now that she thought about it. Something to throw her kunai at so that she could keep her accuracy sharp and ready... And maybe pass the time in her office... Yeah, that could work. She thought about how she had tried to use a rope kunai, and how she had nearly lost her other eye because of it... how did they make it look so easy in movies?! Well, okay- Never mind. Valentine turned to the cabinet of medication and began going through it, frowning deeply at several bottles that shouldn't be there. Then again, it probably wasn't for the students, but for her experiments on her son...

She grabbed one of the bottles off the shelf. It had a very blatant skull and crossbones on it. Clearly some sort of poison. She dumped it in a nearby glass to see what it was. The liquid melted the glass, then half her desk, then through the floor. 'Wait. How did the bottle-' Valentine blinked, looking down into the hole before looking around awkwardly, and slowly punching a garbage can over the hole. There, problem solved. For now. "Ain't as bad as the acid bath... kid still has nightmares about that..." Ragnarok had said, and Valentine inhaled sharply. She didn't get it. Why?! Why torture him?! She hated, HATED thinking like this, but she understood using someone to make a weapon. She was disgusted by it, but she understood it. But to torture them relentlessly? It wasn't as if they fought against her orders, Crona was a baby! He was a little boy who wanted some sort of affection! Hell, (again, she hated thinking like this) but all Medusa had to do was be nice to Crona, and she'd have total control over him... but no. She wanted to hurt him. For some twisted reason...

"OW! WHAT THE HELL!?" A voice suddenly shouted from several floors down. Valentine looked to the garbage bin, and then took a few steps away. She slowly raised the bottle of acid and put it in the can, sealing it shut. She... might need to take this particular item to Stein... Because damn it was some strong stuff... Why did it need to be that strong? God knows why! Was it some sort of acidic blood? It kinda looked like it... man, where'd it come from? And why couldn't she have forced Eliza to drink it- never mind. Don't think on that.

"I'm gonna need a wet floor sign or something for that." Valentine muttered, deciding to pretend like nothing had happened. Because as far as anyone knew, she hadn't done anything. "Also, why did she have arsenic?!" She scowled and shook her head at the cabinets. "Everything in this cabinet I don't recognize goes." She said flatly. Then a small green creature popped out of the trash can.

"Hey, throw it all my way! That last bottle you put down here was delicious!" The creature said. Valentine stared blankly at the creature.

"I choose to pretend you don't exist."

"I get that a lot."

"..."

"Welp, if yer dumpin' acid, be more careful." The creature said, then disappeared.

Back in the school, math was over and Fukua walked back int the hall, noting Crona had fallen asleep (predictably) and she shook him to wake him up. Crona stirred, and was quickly awake once more. "Mmm? Is the answer four over pi...?" He mumbled sleepily, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. His big sister let out a soft giggle and gave him a kiss on the forehead to help wake him up.

"Math is over, baby bro. Surprised you slept through the teacher's...laughing fits..."

"I didn't. The hell was that?!" Ragnarok asked, still unsure as to what he had been witness too.

"That's just the way he is. You'll get used to it." Dawn shrugged. Ragnarok looked to her skeptically, but didn't say anything.

"I mean... I guess..." He muttered.

The teacher in question passed by them, snickering creepily to himself and muttering something about rock music. Somehow Fukua couldn't imagine this creepy man having anything to do with rock music.

"So... what's next?" Fukua asked.

"Weapon training." Dawn nodded. "It's not as fun as you think, it's more about learning about the bond between a weapon and it's wielder."

"That should be interesting." Fukua shrugged. "Me and Shamone have been working together for some time." Fukua said, Shamone appearing and nodding.

"Apparently, we have some new professor, she apparently was from New Meridian."

Fukua perked up. "Oh wow, someone from my hometown? Maybe it's that lady mom was talking to the other day." It seemed Lord Death had every intention of making good on his promise not to harm the woman's magic friend.

"I dunno who she is, apparently she's new, that's all people really know. That and her girlfriend has some sort of power, apparently she and Professor Drizzit have already found some sort of connection."

"...yeah, I think I met her the other day." Fukua nodded.

"Miss Cerebella?" Crona asked.

"Yup." Fukua nodded.

Crona smiled softly. "Good... I liked her... She was nice..." The group walked down the hallway and actually saw Cerebella. She seemed to be using Vice-Versa to give a boost to one of the other teachers to help him reach a high shelf. Said teacher was a short man with an N on his forehead.

"Yes, yes, i know you can lift me, but I have rocket boots, please put me down." The man said grumpily.

"Hey, they weren't working, so..." Cerebella shrugged, seeming as upbeat as ever.

"Yes, yes... the indignity of it all..." He muttered, leaving the room as the students entered. "They always work fine, then when they need to, they can't be bothered to work... the enigma of it all..."

"So, you know either of them?" Dawn asked.

"I think her name's Cerebella, don't know the other guy." Fukua shrugged.

"Huh? Oh, that's Cortex, I meant the hat-thing."

"Oh, um... I think that's just a living weapon... Some kind of muscle hat that can lift elephants or whatever, I dunno, I only saw her for a little bit while my mom was talking with her." At that moment, Cerebella noticed her.

"Oh, hi Fukua." She smiled at the clone, who smiled in response.

"Hey."

"Hi, Miss Cerebella." Crona timidly waved, which seemed to melt the ex-weightlifter's heart. There was something about how timid yet hard he was trying to not let fear overtake him that was adorable.

"Hey, cutie." She gave the boy's head a gentle rub, messing up his hair slightly. Fukua pouted and set to fixing it.

"C'mon now, don't mess up his cute little hairstyle." She whined softly.

"Heh, I think anyway it is, it'd still be cute." Cerebella laughed, and Crona shut his eyes, embarrassed.

"True." Fukua nodded, getting Crona's hair back to the way it was. She sighed in satisfaction when it was back to the adorable way she liked it. "But seriously. Leave it be." She said with an annoyed expression. Cerebella shrugged her shoulders and smirked at her new student.

"Hey... I'm above you authority wise. I can give out detentions now."

"Rgh... fine..." Fukua sighed, knowing that getting detention on the first day was probably a bad idea. Dawn watched with a smirk, before they headed to find their places for class. Filia was there as well, and there was also that redhead cartoon girl from Lab 8. Carol was also present, though she seemed to be keeping a distance from her. And the zombie girl Squigly also attended the class. Those who hadn't met met Fukua or Crona shot them a glance, but decided not to question it (Filia had thankfully told them to leave Fukua be for the time being.)

"You know them?" Dawn asked.

"No, they're from my home town, but I've never met any of them." Fukua shook her head.

"Oh... How do you know they're from your hometown then...?" Fukua shrugged her shoulders.

"Memories implanted in my head." She replied casually. Dawn looked at her with a brow raised in confusion. "Well I was born in a lab..."

"Uh..."

"I'm a clone."

"Oh, cool." Dawn smiled. Fukua blinked in shock. That... that was all she thought!? 'Cool.'?! That... that...

'YEEESSSSSSSS!' Fukua mentally screamed. "You... you just-"

"Fukua, we're in a mechanical city in a school run by the Grim Reaper where we bond with weapons and fight monsters. A clone ain't the weirdest thing here. Sure, it's... it's weird, but still, it's not like this is some sort of cosmic horror thing. I guess."

Fukua rubbed the back of het head which got a smile out of Shamone. "Ah. Fair point... Heh... I guess I don't reslly need to worry about getting judged here, huh?" Dawn shrugged her shoulders in response.

"No more than anyone else here." Dawn seemed to think something over then added: "You'll probably be asked if you're her sister, but other than that, I can't think of anyone who would judge you too harshly." Fukua smiled, feeling relieved somewhat by her words. Maybe they were right, she was more than just a clone.

"Ugh... great, I can't remember his name, but there was a guy I was friends with back in Canada, he was a living weapon, went though all this mental strife you're going through. But he found a way to be himself. 'What you're made to be isn't what you are', or something like that..."

"Hey, Dawn?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

Dawn blinked, then smiled. "No problem."

"Okay!" Cerebella's cheerful voice sounded out as she clapped her hands together. "So this is a new class for all of you... Living weapons! You'll be surprised to learn that they aren't the same thing as what you guys use." She motioned to Vice-Versa, who sprung to life, to the surprise of a few students. "This is Vice-Versa. Typically you guys are bonded with your weapons in one way or another, but sometimes they can be attached physically, we call them 'Parasites', although I'll be real, that term is a bit misleading, it isn't the kind of destructive relationship the name implies. Typically they're almost an extension of yourself, much like your weaopns." She removed the hat from her head and tipped it. "Vice Versa here? He doesn't have a human form like a lot of the weapons in this class. He can change to be a lot of things, but at his core, he's a hat... Yet he's as sentient as you or me."

The class watched, intrigued by Versa. It was clear Cerebella knew what she was talking about with all this. There was much more to bonding with a weapon then the students expected, it wasn't just 'get-attached-and-work', it was almost a mental state. When connecting, you had to be prepared for the link, both the user and weapon would connect, and they had to be prepared for that. Cerebella lectured the class for an hour. "...So at the end of the day, once you've paired up with a weapon, then it's not just you anymore. The two of you are synchronized and fighting as one. You need to totally trust in one another." The bell rang, and Cerebella nodded.

"Okay, see you all tomorrow. Try and find that middle ground I was talking about! It'll help you excel at figuring out how to connect with your gear." Fukua looked down at Crona, who looked up at Fukua, and the clone nodded.

"Well, that's another class down." Fukua commented. "Just one more and we''re done for the dsy... Aaaand it's Stein's class... Geez, guess we're about to watch another live animal get cut open..." Fukua grimaced and looked down at Crona. If that was really what the man did, maybe he should keep his eyes shut... Or maybe she should take him to Valentine, this probably wasn't something he wanted to see anyways.

"You may wanna take him to the Nurse." Ragnarok commented, briefly appearing. "The kid's seen gore before, but he ain't a fan of it. I have no idea how he'll react to whatever Stein's gonna do." It was clear the black blob didn't want Crona to have a mental breakdown (more because he didn't want to deal with that, but still) and he made a decent point.

Fukua sighed in defeat and decided to just accept this. "Okay... I'll take him to mom..." She mumbled, giving her brother a kiss on the forehead. "I hope you had a good day with me today, baby bro." She cooed.

"I did." Crona smiled. "Do... do I have to go?"

"Well, are you comfortable seeing animals getting cut apart?" Fukua asked, and from the way Crona tensed up, she had her answer. Admittedly, she couldn't say she blamed him. "I'll be gone for an hour or so, we can hang out after that."

"Okay." Crona nodded, understanding his sister's reasoning.

She cuddled him close with a smile. "I'll have days where I don't have to go to that weirdos class, so you can totally stay with me all day when that happens, sound good?" Crona smiled and nodded his head in affirmation. Fukua made her way to the Nurse's office, passing by who seemed like a reptile feral leaving with some sort of mouth guard covering his mouth. "Hey, Mom." Fukua said as she entered, Valentine looking over with concern, but relaxed when she saw Crona seemed okay.

"Is everything all right?"

"Yeah, it's just... yeah." Fukua sighed, hugging her brother. "Apparently Stein's class is gonna be a bit... excessive, and I don't think Crona would be okay with it."

Valentine blinked, then smiled at her daughter. "I'm very proud of you, Fukua. You put your brother's comfort over your own desires. That's a very mature decision to make." She said. Fukua beamed happily at her mother's praise. "Come here, love." Valentine smiled, taking Crona and holding him close, earning a happy sigh from the boy. "Did you have a good day at school?"

"MmHm." Crona nodded. "There was a lot of cool stuff... I didn't know any of it!"

"Well, glad to see you're learning." Valentine smiled down at him. He smiled back at her. Valentine was proud of him for paying attention in classes, but she still intended to home school him. She didn't think he was quite ready to be anywhere without her or one of his big sisters by his side.

"Ugh, I gotta go... see you after class, Baby Bro!" Fukua called as she left, leaving the two alone. Valentine smiled down at him, then sighed, nodding in affirmation.

"So... when were you gonna tell us she's a clone?" Ragnarok asked, appearing from Crona. Valentine blinked, taken aback by the blunt question. "It ain't an issue, it's just... weird running into the real one."

Valentine's eye widened. "Filia is here too?!" She exclaimed in shock. That was not good at all, Fukua hated Filia, she might pick a fight with her and cause damage around the school and get herself hurt!

"Yeah, but she's really nice." Crona nodded. "Fukua and I met her."

"Fukua met Filia?!"

"MmHm. They seemed kinda confused at first, but she was really nice. Her hair was kinda aggressive..." Crona nodded. "Big Sister Fukua seemed a bit anxious for some reason, but they seemed to get along."

Valentine breathed a sigh of relief. "Good, good... I was so certain those two would murder one another if they had ever crossed paths..." She whispered softly. Crona had a visibly concerned look on his face.

"W..why?!"

"Well, you big sister isn't 'human' like you or I, she's a clone of Filia. Because of that, she often feels like she's less than human, and she gradually got more and more agitated towards Filia. As for Filia, she seems perfectly nice, but no one ever told her Fukua existed, so I can't say how she'd react to that."

"That... is an extremely fair point." Ragnarok conceded, thinking it over.

Valentine gave her son a hug and smiled down gently at him. "You don't have to worry about your big sister, Crona. She can take care of herself just fine. Just let us worry about you, okay?" She spoke soothingly.

"Okay, Mama." Crona nodded, looking around as Valentine set him on the counter. "Uh, was work good today?"

"It was slow." Valentine shrugged. "There were some injuries, but nothing too major. Church and Caboose were back-"

"Yeah, we saw him get stabbed in the leg. Funny as hell." Ragnarok commented, and Valentine didn't know how to respond to that.

"But other than that, it was a slow day."

Crona nodded his head. "Um... I know helping hurt people is how you make money, but... I'm kinda glad not a lot of people came in today because that means that not a lot of people got hurt today..." He says softly.

"You're such a sweet little boy." Valentine smiled, pulling her mask down and kissing the top of his head.

"Euch..." Ragnarok muttered, then disappeared before Valentine could reprimand him. He really seemed to be determined to get on her nerves, and really, really seemed to want to find out where the limit was on how far he could push this. Well, she'd deal with him later. Perhaps she could figure out some way to trap him inside Crona until he could learn to behave himself... Maybe a magic spell of some sort... Well, that was a bridge she would need to cross at another time. For now, Crona remained on the counter, watching Valentine clean up and put things away, tearing off the parchment paper and rolling out a new layer for the table. Once that was done, Valentine returned to the world of silence and boredom she had been in-and-out of the past few hours. Well, except now, she had Crona with her, so that was a plus.

She picked her son up and sat down in her office chair, setting him down on her lap and letting out a sigh as she looked at the ceiling. "Why don't you tell me about your day, sweetie?" She suggested with a smile.

"Well, it was kinda scary at first." Crona admitted. "There were a lot of people, but most of them were really nice. We learned about weak points on Kishins, and after that..." Valentine listened and nodded as Crona talked. It was delightful seeing him so... relaxed, really. Feeling comfortable not only talking about his day, but not stammering every other word. She was also happy that Fukua seemed to have made a friend, or was on the way to doing that. And she was impressed that Crona had managed to earn the respect of one of the teachers, though that impressed feeling also came with sadness upon discovering that it was because he knew how to kill kishin. It wasn't really helped that said teacher was the one Church had been grumbling about, as apparently he was both eccentric, and somewhat unhinged. Still, it was something, he was trying his best, and the fact that he hadn't come here in tears was more than good enough for her. Crona was clearly uncomfortable being around so many people, even with Fukua, but the fact that he was trying his hardest not to let it get to him was commendable.

"You're so brave, Crona... You're not even trying to hide from the things you're afraid of, you're confronting them head on and overcoming those uneasy feelings you have. I'm very proud of you." She said softly. Crona looked downcast though, looking away and trying to avoid his mother's gaze. "What's wrong, Crona?" Valentine asked concerned, pulling him into a hug.

"It's... it's still there..." He mumbled, and Valentine blinked in confusion. His scars? He at no point had made mention of them, were they now upsetting him? "Every time I sleep, or I'm alone, I feel it..."

"Huh. Thought you had moved past this." Ragnarok remarked, appearing. He looked to Valentine and explained; "Th'kid had nightmares every night for years. At first, I saw them too, and then I didn't. Maybe I wasn't paying attention, maybe I was being an asshole and ignoring them, I don't know... But I he stopped screaming and shaking, so I figured he moved on, or something."

Valentine frowned softly and tightened her hold on her son. "It's not going to disappear right away, sweetie... These things are going to take time... But I promise you, someday it will go away, and you'll come out stronger from it."

"I..i..." Crona wanted to say something, but couldn't. Thankfully, Valentine had a pretty good idea what he wanted to say, and smiled sadly at him.

"You don't have to be afraid to talk about this kinda stuff with me, Crona. I'll always be willing to listen and help."

"I've been tellin' him that, but he's still scared of it." Ragnarok commented, and Valentine raised a brow skeptically.

"I've overheard most of your conversations, and you've never said anything like that."

"We're connected, remember?" Ragnarok said flatly, then seemed to grow somber. "I don't like doing it because it feels like a violation of someone's... body, kinda... but we can see and hear what the other is thinking, and to an extent, I can talk to the kid without saying anything. It's just... it feels wrong to do that. But either way, I've told him if you were willing to kill to protect him like you did to Medusa, you probably won't be angry at him for wanting to talk."

Valentine tilted her head to the side, then nodded. "Thank you, Ragnarok. Okay, Crona... I want you to talk to me... Tell me what's on your mind. Get it all off your chest... I promise you'll feel better afterwards."

"I just don't understand why..." Crona mumbled. "Why did Mommy hate me? I tried to do everything she said, I tried not to scream when she did the things that burned... but it hurt so much... and it still feels like she's out there, and I don't really know what to do..."

"Keep going, Crona." Ragnarok said, motioning for the young boy to continue. "Just keep talking, it'll all come out."

"And...and I'm scared...I'm scared I'll get hurt again...I'm scared I'll make you upset...I'm scared I'll do something wrong, and...an..an..."

"He's afraid you'll do what Medusa did to him if he makes you angry." Ragnarok finished. "He doesn't believe it, but he also does, if that makes any sense. He still fears the dark and crap, thinking it'll take him back."

Valentine nodded her head with her eye closed, feeling an intense wave of pain wash over her heart. "I see... I see... Well, Crona... Your mother was just simply evil... She loved no one but herself. She is not out there anymore. She is dead and gone from your life. I will never hurt you, nor will I allow anyone else to do so. You need to listen to your reason. The side that tells you I won't hurt you is right. Listen to that. And if you're afraid of the dark, we can keep Robo's charging station near our bed at night. It gives off enough light to help with the darkness."

"Mmmm..." Crona mumbled, leaning into Valentine's embrace. It wasn't clear if he was going to cry or not, but Valentine knew this had been a long time coming. Well, maybe not a long time as it hadn't been a week since she saved him, but still. She knew sooner or later, this stuff would be dragged up to the surface, and she'd need to do all she could to help him, just like Nadia had told her.

"It's okay, it's gonna be okay. I'm never going to hurt you, I'll never be upset that you tell me how you're really feeling." The Nurse continued softly. She gently rocked him back and forth in her arms, whispering soothingly and running her fingers through his hair. He nestled in closer with a timid expression on his face, unsure of what to say or do next. However, in this moment, Valentine knew the best thing for him was to simply know he was cared for, to know the darkness was behind him. One way or another, she'd help him get through this, he'd come out stronger.

"I know it seems scary now, Crona. But soon, it'll all be behind you, and then you can look to the future, and all the amazing things you'll do."

"She ain't lying, Crona." Ragnarok nodded, surprising Valentine as he didn't simply refer to Crona as 'Kid'. "Things suck, life is kinda hell right now, but it ain't gonna get worse."

"Unless you try to give him life advice."

"I'm trying to be reassuring for once."

"By telling him life is hell at a point where he has a loving family and more than he's ever had in his life?" Ragnarok drooped slightly, muttering something about not liking it when she had a point, which was always.

"What do you expect from me? I don't exactly have the experience in compassion you do." He retorted, raising a fair point. Valentine sighed, and nodded. Right now, she wanted to comfort her son. He was silently crying, and it wasn't clear if he needed to cry or if this was simply out of fear. Either way, she didn't like it. She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes with a soft sigh, gently patting her youngest child's back to soothe his fears the best she could. He clutched at her shirt timidly. "Do you have anything else you want to get off your chest?"

"No. Not really." Crona mumbled, seemed paler than usual, like when the nurse first found him. His eyes seemed hurt, and his face seemed tense, as if he was afraid of being hurt. She looked to the Black Blood, who shook his head, the kid was done talking.

"All right then. But if there's ever anything you need to tell me, you don't need to hide it." Valentine said soothingly.

"Thank you, Mama."

He rested his head against her tummy, and she smiled and gently ran her fingers through his hair. "You're welcome, hun... Just remember that you're not alone anymore... I love you very much, and so do your sisters..."

"Thank you..." He mumbled again, enjoying the feeling of security his mother brought him. He knew deep, deep down that she'd never hurt him, that Medusa was gone and he didn't need to fear her coming back. Ragnarok was right in that regard, but it didn't make feeling it any easier. But with his family, it became easier. He just needed to keep his focus on them... His mother... His big sisters... And even his bunny... They were the best things in his life and he needed to put his trust in them... To make sure not to lose his faith... Valentine smiled, her son really was a gift to her. He appeared out of nowhere, and yet she felt like she had been searching for him her entire life, or something like that. She felt content, she felt... happy, honestly. This cute little boy had managed to grab so many of the pieces of her life's puzzle that were out of her grasp and pull them all together. She was forever thankful for that.

A knock at the door signalled someone was probably in need of medical attention, and Valentine looked down at her son, kissing his head. "Mama needs to work for a minute, okay?" She said softly, and Crona nodded in understanding.

He settled down in his seat and watched his mother attend to the next patient. This time it was one of the teachers, the large headed man Miss Cerebella had helped. "One of the students accidentally knocked a beehive on my head and I was mauled by a bear..." He muttered, clearly embarrassed and annoyed. Valentine wanted to question both where said bear and hive came from... but at the same time, figured it'd be better to just work and get the injuries patched. Furthermore, the amount of weirdness in this school wasn't unheard of (the kids were literally bonding with weapons) so really... this probably wasn't the weirdest thing to ever happen at this school. Cortex was rather whiny the entire time she was tending to him, though, so that was a little bit sad... yet quite entertaining as well. "Ouch! Why does this stuff have to sting so much?! Why can't science build painless disinfectants?!"

"We've tried." Valentine shrugged. "The issue is it doesn't really work then. Take the strength down to a point where it doesn't sting, and you lose the effectiveness."

"There has to be a better way to do that..." Cortex muttered. "The compounds can't be that difficult to properly use." He began muttering to himself, no doubt trying to figure out how to create the painless antidote he wanted himself. Clearly he was the mad scientist type. Valentine would know, she had been around one a good percent of her life. Actually, the more he muttered the more she realized he and Brain Drain probably would've worked together at some point. There was something so... eccentric, yet painfully un-aware of himself that Valentine knew all too well.

Soon enough, she was finished treating the injuries. "Well, there you go. Just keep the bandaids on for a couple days and the medicine will take care of anything bad that may come from the injuries." She explained.

"Hm." Cortex nodded, still deep in thought about... something. Probably involving some sort of experiment and a plan to create something that more likely than not would end with him returning to the Nurse's office after something went horribly, horribly wrong.

"So, you're liking school so far?" Valentine asked as she began putting things away once more.

"Mmhm." Crona nodded. "Some of the teachers are really nice, Miss Cerebella was really nice."

Valentine blinked. "Oh, so she did come to work here after all... I wonder if she brought her friends from the circus..."

"Ah yes, the magician that teaches witch studies and the boy with the birds in his hair that teaches the drama class." Cortex piped up. Feng was passing by at that momend and overheard Cortex call her a boy.

Her eyes narrowed and a storm cloud appeared above her head. How did people make that mistake?! She dressed, talked, everyhting about her... 'AAGH...' She mentally groaned. 'And of course, no one ever gets it wrong for Cerebella or Beatrix... although I guess Cere has a pretty distinct- why am I thinking about this?!'

"I honestly still don't know how a twelve year old landed a job as a teacher in the first place. He must be some kind of prodigy. Or he has connections to a rich parent, or-" Valentine never knew what Cortex would say next because Feng threw a chair at him in a fit of frustration.

"Ow..." He muttered.

"I'm a girl!" Feng yelled. "And I'm Twenty-two!"

"...Huh. Find both of those hard to believe, but okay." Cortex muttered, rubbing his head.

Feng's eye twitched. "Well at least I don't have a head twice the size of a hot air balloon! Heck, I bet you're even full of hot air!"

"Oh yeah?! Well at least I know how to pick a hair colour! Or is the white colouring just your pet birds doing their business?!"

"At least I have a head of hair, baldie! You look like you're about to put on makeup and go perform at a kid's birthday party!"

Valentine watched the two go back and forth with a flat, annoyed expression on her face. Why was no one but her able to act like an adult, rather than a five-year-old? Okay, well, her and Crona. But Crona was five, or he certainly looked it... and he was surprisingly more mature than any child his age should be. Granted, that wasn't for the best reasons, but still.

After a certain point, she didn't want to listen to them argue anymore, so she sighed, shook her head, then grabbed their ears and dragged them out of the room. "Honestly, come back when you can behave yourselves." They kept arguing, but Valentine just closed the door, it thankfully silencing most of their fighting. Although she swore she heard what sounded like a cartoonish laser gun... whatever. Not her problem. "By the Trin- wait." She began but stopped, realizing something. The Trinity was dead (Ha!) so what was their short-hand for a God-figure? By Lord Death? That just sounded wrong. Whatever, she'd figure that out later. She looked over and smiled when she saw Crona looking at one of the charts depicting a human body, studying it with clear interest.

She approached and decided to explain what everything was. But then he did that thing he did where he would say something that left her feeling enraged and heartbroken. "I saw that stuff before when mommy was experimenting on me." He paused then added; "Those were outside, and I couldn't breathe..." Pointing to two specific organs, which made Valentine's blood run cold.

"She was trying to get me more attached to him." Ragnarok stated, summing up the ordeal. "She wanted o see what I could and couldn't do, and replacing organs was one such question. It didn't work, and I think it's the only time she was ever nervous that she may have gone too far."

'And she only gave a damn because Crona might DIE...' Valentine seethed. She snatched her son right up and hugged him close. Words failed her completely and utterly. She just needed to hold her little boy close until she felt she was good and ready to put him fown. Tears streamed down her cheek.

"Mama? I'm sorry." Crona whimpered. "I didn't mean to make you cry..."

"It ain't you, Crona." Ragnarok said, oddly somber. "She's crying because she's upset we went through that. She feels that way because she gives a crap about you." The Black Blood disappeared, knowing there may be some mushy family stuff coming up, but he'd grin and bear it, this time.

"He...He's right, sweetie... He's absolutely right... I'm so sorry you ever had to go through such pain... It's wrong... You're such a sweet boy, you never deserved to suffer like that..." She spoke softly. She tried to keep her voice level, yet it trembled slightly. Crona let out a small sigh and curled up against his Mother, he didn't really react, but still. He closed his eyes and just let himself be held by the one who kept him safe. Crona was thankful to hear everything his Mother said, there was something about the way she spoke that reassured him. She really did love him the way a mommy was supposed to love their child... Medusa was never his mommy, she was just the one that brought him into the world. Miss Valentine was by far the most ideal parent he could imagine.

Thankfully, it was only another twenty minutes or so before classes were over, and while Valentine would have to stay here for another hour or two (hey, it was what it was) that meant if he wanted to, he could continue spending time with Fukua, or he could stay with the Nurse.

"Do you feel better now, Crona?" Valentine asked, hugging her son close and smiling down at him.

"Mmhm... thank you..." Crona mumbled, still trying his best to show that he was doing better.

She gave him a kiss on the forehead. "I'm glad to hear it... Now, do you want to stay with mama, or would you rather go and spend more time with your big sister?" Crona thought about it... He didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings...

"Um... will either of you be upset if I choose one or the other?" Crona asked, and Valentine laughed. She didn't mean too, she actually thought it was somewhat mean to do so, but it was just a sweet, funny question.

"No, we won't." Valentine shook her head. "Whatever makes you happy, you should do. If you wanna stay with me, that's great, if you wanna be with Fukua, that's also great."

Crona looked down and fidgeted slightly. "Um... Fukua wanted to spend more time with me after she was done class, and I don't wanna disappoint her, so I think I'm gonna go with her, okay?" He asked timidly.

"That's just fine, Crona." Valentine smiled. "Don't think I'm upset because you want to spend time with your sister." Admittedly, she was kind of upset, as she really liked having Crona around, but she understood his reasoning on this decision. "She'll be by in a little bit, and the two of you can do whatever it is you're going to do." Crona smiled and nodded his head, grateful that his mother was so understanding. He sat patiently and waitied for his big sister to arrive. It took merely ten minutes after classes ended for Fukua to enter the room.

"Hey Mom." She nodded.

"Hi, Fukua. How was school?"

"Interesting, but it wasn't as fun when Crona left..." The clone admitted, smirking slightly. "Still, I don't blame him, I'm pretty sure some of the kids from back home passed out..."

"Yes, about that, I..." Valentine began but awkwardly trailed off.

"Crona told you I met Filia?"

"Yes, Fukua, I want you to know-"

"It doesn't matter." Fukua cut her off. "We met, we talked, we figured something out, you don't need to worry about how I used to act about her... for now, at least."

Valentine let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad to hear that. And I'm also very proud of you for coming to terms with your feelings. You've shown a lot of maturity todsy, doing what was best for your brother and giving Filia a fair chance..."

"Yeah..." Fukua rubbed her arm, looking away in either embarrassment or awkwardness, then smiled when she saw Crona reaching out to her. "Aww, hey, Baby Bro." She smiled, picking him up. Crona smiled as his sister held him close, it was nice and reassuring.

"Fukua? Crona had a bit of a discussion with me earlier, so he may be a little... off. Don't worry, he's gonna be okay." Valentine added. Fukua frowned softly and tightened her hold on her brother. She has the feeling she was better off not knowing, yet she also felt like she needed to know because damn it, that was her brother's pain and suffering!

"It's okay, Baby Bro... you're safe now..." Fukua sighed, holding the small boy close. Crona smiled and leaned into the hug, believing every word she said. He had no reason not to believe her, she hadn't lied to him yet, and she cared for him!

"I'll fill you in later, Fukua." Valentine nodded, knowing her daughter would want to know what had happened.

Fukua nodded in understanding, then turned to the door. "C'mon, baby bro, we'll go and hang out now, just like I promised." Crona smiled and cheered softly, getting a giggle from his big sister. Valentine saw them off with a smile.

She was happy to see her daughter genuinely happy, there was something so... normal, about it. She sighed in content and nodded to herself.

"So... what do you wanna do, Crona?" Fukua asked as they walked through the halls.

"Uh, I dunno..." Crona mumbled. "Just... I dunno, sorry..."

Fukua shrugged her shoulders. "Well, let's go sit in our room for a bit and we'll figure it out from there." Crona smiled and nodded as his sister turned on the path to their room... forgetting that their other sibling was going to be there. "So, did you enjoy school today?" Fukua asked. "Well, what you were there for?"

"Mmhm." Crona nodded. "I liked the history stuff. That was cool..."

"Yeah, I thought so as well." Fukua nodded with a smile. "Still I don't blame you for taking a nap during math, I think more than a few fell asleep as well."

Crona nodded his head. "I had a weird dream that Ragnarok and I were fighting this weird black blobby guy with really sharp teeth... He was kinda scary, but we won..." Crona said softly. "He had two souls though... That was weird... He had a weird voice, too." Crona added. "He always said 'We', when he was talking about himself..."

"Well, it's good you won." Fukua smiled, unsure of what exactly she should say/do in this situation. It was a dream, and dreams could be weird. So long as said dream wasn't hurting her little brother, she decided to let him talk all he wanted about them.

"Yeah... He wanted to eat me... Ragnarok ended up eating him instead though, so it was okay..." Fukua had to smile at that. The fact that her brother was dreaming about winning fights against monsters seemed like a good sign... But he was still little, so she'd do everything she could to keep him safe. She knew she couldn't try and control every waking moment of his life, but there was clearly a lot he had been through, so she wanted to give him all the compassion he had clearly been denied. That way, he'd grow up to be stronger than he could ever imagine being! It was a nice thought to the clone, helping someone so much without even really knowing it... She liked the feeling of it, it made her feel, well, human. She was...human, right? She was built and modelled after a human, after all, and she had her own complex thoughts and emotions. But then, those also applied to Robo Fortune, and she couldn't exactly say she was human...

Her mind began wandering, and oddly, it returned to her conversation with Filia. The girl hadn't said she wasn't human, heck, she didn't even see her as a 'clone' in the way Fukua expected her too. If anything, she seemed really calm about it. Fukua kept thinking quickly, she saw herself as a clone, but a clone of a person, therefore, she was human. Sure, it may not be the traditional sense, but she was still human. At least, to her. Satisfied with this decision, she found the door to their shared room and pulled it open... And then seconds later, she found Crona missing from her arms. She gasped, then narrowed her eyes when she heard a robotid "Hahahahahaha."

"Damn it, Robo! Give him back!" Fukua snapped as her robotic sister hugged her little brother. Robo was clearly enjoying this way, way, way too much. Probably because she had Crona.

"Negative. I will not." Robo replied. "I have not had access to my little brother all day. You, can deal with it." Fukua threw her arms up in the air and growled in frustration, stomping over to a nearby chair and sitting down, crossing her arms over her chest in a huff. Robo Fortune looked at her little brother. "Greetings, my precious little brother. Did your day go well?"

"Yeah, it was interesting." Crona nodded, looking up at his mechanical sister, who smiled (or did the robot equivalent) and nodded in satisfaction. R. Fortune believed she would be a better teacher than the staff here on certain topics, as she would be able to download, analyze and plan lessons in mere minutes, but she understood fully well that Crona needed to have some form of social interaction, even if pretty much everyone here was almost a decade older than him.

"That is good to hear. I would expect nothing less." She held her brother close. "Did you enjoy the lunch I brought to you?" Crona blinked. He hadn't realized his big sister had brought him lunch, he just thought the food she had brought was part of what Fukua had gathered.

"I liked it!" He nodded, knowing both it's what would make her happy, and because the food was good. He also didn't mind the cafeteria food.

"How dare you provide sub-par food to my Crona." Robo states, glaring at Fukua, who rolled her eyes at her sister's anger.

"Hey, it's what the school makes, he liked it."

"Impossible. Cafeteria food is known for being disgusting."

"I liked it though." Crona spoke up.

"Does not compute. Does not compute." Robo's head exploded before immediately being replaced by another one. "All logic has been defied on this day. I believe I am now the uncle of a primate."

"Considering everything we ate was either force-fed to us, drugged, or I had to kill it, I think Crona would eat pretty much anything." Ragnarok remarked, and the two girls looked it him, realizing what he was getting at. "Seriously, after like, ten years of being trapped in a lab, you kinda forgo any sense of what good or bad food is, you just want to eat." Both girls exchanged a glance at hearing that and Robo Fortune decided she was going to make an extra specal dinner that night just to make herself feel a little bit better about what her brother had been through.

"Regardless, I am happy that you are happy." Robo stated, and Fukua had to nod in agreement. He was just a lot cuter when he was happy... "What would you like to do with your sister?"

"I dunno. Fukua and I couldn't think of anything." Crona shrugged.

"Of course she could not, her feeble human mind could not achieve such tasks." Robo stated matter-of-factly. "You are still learning, do not think of yourself as inadequate."

Fukua narrowed her eyes angrily at her metal sister. "Hey, I can come up with something just fine!" She protested. Robo Fortune stared blankly at her for several seconds. The message was clear. 'Then why didn't you?' Fukua bit her lip, unsure if she actually could, but decided she was gonna rise to the occasion. Pushing her sister to the side, she entered the kitchen and began looking around at what they had and what she could make. Robo smirked and adjusted Crona in her arms.

"Hey, you've got a fire extinguisher in there, right?" Ragnarok asked.

"Shut up!" Fukua snapped from the kitchen.

"Affirmative." Robo nodded. It didn't even take five seconds before a very grumpy Fukua was sitting in an armchair as Robo Fortune doused the flames in the kitchen. She didn't even know what happened... All she had been doing what chopping up lettuce...

"Sister, for your own safety, this is why I shall be preparing meals." Robo spoke. To Crona, it sounded like genuine care and concern for his sister's well-being, her tone was gentle and reassuring. To Fukua this was her way of saying 'I-told-you-so' without ever saying it, therefore making it much harder to get irritated with her, as she hadn't technically said anything. The cloned girl decided to let out a grunt in response, not wanting to dignify anything her sister said with a response. Robo Fortune closed her eyes happily, content with getting another one up on Fukua, "This is why I should be Crona's caretaker, I am not likely to start fires that would put him in danger." Robo added, and Fukua's face reddened in anger.

"Oh, now you're just playing dirty!" She snapped, refusing to let her sister get this one over her as well.

"Statistically, it is common for the truth to be uncomfortable and even harmful."

Fukua crossed her arms over her chest. "Why, oh why did daddy build you to be so sassy? Why can't you just say stuff like 'beep boop' and 'affirmative' all the time?" She groaned in frustration, entirely fed up with her sister's crap.

"I was given a warm and likeable personality, perhaps you have leaned too far into your 'Goth' mindset to see clearly." Robo Fortune replied with a shrug, before giving Crona a reassuring hug to prove her 'kindness'. Crona didn't know what they were arguing about, but had a feeling he should just let this one play out, he probably couldn't help that much.

"No, I just wish you'd stop messing around with me every chance you get... You're always doing things at my expense and I'm seriously over it... Can't we have a relationship that isn't exclusively you trying to get under my skin?" Fukua asked softly.

"Yes." Robo simply replied.

"Wh-what?! That's it?!"

"Yes." The robot repeated. "You just had to ask." Fukua blinked, genuinely surprised, then narrowed her eyes in realization.

"You're just saying that, aren't you?"

"Perhaps."

The robotic feline turned back to her cooking. "I will not entirely cease irritating you, sister of mine. It is a part of who I am. But I did not foresee that you wished to have a more cordial relationship with me. I apologize." Fukua sighed somewhat, nodding. Maybe this could work, maybe they could get along better, maybe they could be more like real sisters... "However, I am not surrendering Crona."

...or they could remain mortal enemies until the day they died/were deactivated and scrapped.

"Why do you care so much? You had him all night last night!" Fukua tried to think of a good counter argument.

"Affirmative, but he was asleep for much of that time. Plus, you had him during the day, and by the standards of time it is currently-"

"All right, all right, whatever!" Robo Fortune took pride in her win and stirred the meal she was preparing. It was just a small appetizer for now, she didn't want either Crona nor Fukua to spoil their dinner by eating too big an after school snack. Crona remained in her free arm, watching as she cooked. It was clear he was clearly interested in learning how to cook, but didn't have the first idea on how to begin doing so. Robo noted she should teach him at some point, it could be something they could do together.

For now, she decided to give him a few tips and explain what exactly she was doing to help him get a headstart. "As you can see, you cannot prepare a confectionary delight if you fail to crack the eggs in the correct manner." Crona nodded, watching as she did so. She noted that you really, really didn't want any of the shell left over or in the food, so you needed to crack it at a specific place to ensure that the shell fragments wouldn't get into the food. "From there, you can create almost anything, so long as you understand what foods will mix well with each other."

She turned to Fukua with what she hoped was a pointed look. "For example. You do not mix hot sauce in chocolate pudding, chocolate sauce on scrambled eggs or three scoops of ice cream on spagetti and meatballs."

"I thought we agreed never to talk about that!"

"Why not?" Crona asked, seeming genuinely confused as to why. It honestly just made the picture clearer as to the type of food he may have been forced to eat for so long.

"Some things do not mix well together, those are some examples." Robo answered simply, and Crona nodded, he figured it'd be best to trust his big sister on this. Even if it was at the expense of his other big sister getting pouty and crossing her arms with a huff. He gave her an apologetic look, to which she responded with a small weak smile. Then he turned back to watching Robo cook. Again, Robo got a weird feeling running through her CPU, and again, she questioned if it was some sort of virus. But it didn't seem to be altering or affecting her programming in any way, shape or form. Rather, it seemed to be activating the programming for when she was happy, but it felt different, it felt real. Robo-Fortune couldn't put it into words (to her annoyance) but there was something about spending time with her little brother that just made her happy, happy in the way lesser flesh-beings would feel.

She decided not to make a big fuss about it though. After all, it was far from a bad feeling. In fact, she kind of wanted more of it. The more time she spent with her brother, the more this feeling inside her grew. Crona was thinking to himself about some things he hadn't considered yet. Why was his sister a robot? Why was she a robot based on Harry's mom? Why was Fukua a clone? Why was she a clone of Filia and so on. None of these questions made him think less of his family, but he felt like asking them directly may be inappropriate in one way or another. His questions weren't rooted in distrust or disgust, but rather child-like curiosity. Where had they come from? What was their story? Why were they made and what drove them to make the decisions they did?

Oh well, he figured he could find out later. He was just happy to have a family, and even happier that they liked him, and wanted to spend time with him. Those were two things he never thought possible, but now, they were possible. The smallest flame of hope had been lit, and it would take a long time, but somehow, Crona new things would get better. Robo Fortune finished preparing their snack, taking the newly baked batch of muffins out of the oven. "Mission accomplished. After school snack completed. Come, sister. You may have a muffin as well." Fukua muttered something inaudible, but smiled when she saw Crona looking in confusion at the muffin. He knew it was food, but it was clear this was a new concept to him. Slowly, he took a few timid bites out of it, and his eyes widened at the taste.

"It's so good!" He said softly.

"Affirmative. Part of its quality comes from the fact that you helped make it." Robo said matter-of-factly. Crona felt a wave of pride wash over him, which did not go unnoticed by his robotic older sister, who beamed at him. This was good. She was helping him build something resembling a sense of self confidence. Fukua had to admit, they were really good. Part of that was because her little brother had made them, and part of it was because, well, they were really good. She hated admitting her sister was better than her at something, but cooking was something she was undeniably better at than her. Thankfully, she was also better than Valentine at it, and the Nurse may be worse than Fukua was, so it all evened out in a weird cosmic circle sorta way. Or at least, that's how the green-haired girl saw it.

She pouted slightly as she remembered that Robo was better than her at most things... She had a few things over the robotic feline, yet she couldn't help but feel like she was stuck in her sister's shadow... Crona meanwhile was enjoying the muffin. He really did love his family, they were so nice to him, and they were helping him learn new things! He looked up at his robotic sister, then settled back into her arms. Both girls knew it was honestly somewhat sad that Crona was so small that he could sit in one arm, but they also both thought it was kind of adorable. Sitting down, Robo set him atop her lap and watched him eat bis muffin with a slight metallic purr. Seeing how much enjoyment he could get out of a simple confectionary item was enough to melt anyone's heart. Even a robotic one.

Then again, her scans revealed that until her Mother found him, all he had been eating was effectively sludge with enough nutrients in it to not kill him. It was saddening that someone so small and innocent was treated so badly, but it just strengthened the robot's resolve to take care of him in any way she could. Robo noted that she'd be working again tonight, and wanted to ask if Crona wanted to come along again, but decided that could wait. For Crona, it was muffin time. And she figured her mother would want him for the night anyway, as he was in class with Fukua all day and then she was spending time with him at this exact moment. Her mother deserved some time with her brother too, she supposed. She'd figure it out later, right now she wanted to enjoy her time with her little brother.

'Crona is happy. Mission accomplished.' Robo thought as she patted his head in a similar way to what Valentine did for her, and much like herself, Crona leaned into the contact with a small smile. 'This is satisfactory for him, I shall keep doing this. Bleep-bloop.' She continued to pet her smaller brother's head, noting the way her hand made brief prints in the soft mop of pink. "Your hair is unusually soft, brother of mine. Are you a common user of the product known as L'oreal?"

"L'oreo?" Crona asked, looking up at Robo. The cat-robot smirked slightly and patted his head again.

"Never mind. The secrets of your hair softness will be unlocked, one day."

"I don't get it... is soft hair something nice?" Crona asked another question. Both Robo and Fukua seemed fascinated with his hair, and he didn't know why.

"Yeah. It's kinda the same feeling you get when you pet your bunny." Fukua responded. As if on cue, the rodent in question scampered over and hopped up and down on its hind legs to try and get to Crona. Crona blinked, then smiled as he picked up his rabbit friend. The small animal nuzzled with its nose into Crona's arms and settled down, its back leg kicking slightly as it got comfortable. Settling down on its new friend's lap, the rabbit looked up as Crona slowly patted the rabbit.

"This is really soft."

"That's what your hair is like."

Crona blinked at the sudden understanding he was hit with. "Oh. Okay. I get it now." He said with a small smile, reaching up to run his fingers through his hair. "My hair's all fluffy..." He says softly. "Just like my bunny..."

'Dang it, how can one little boy be so adorable?' Fukua smiled as Crona calmly petted his rabbit, Daisy. Although he might need to change its name, as apparently it was a boy. Either way, there was something so relaxing about watching the little boy and his bunny relaxing. Honestly, the rabbit seemed to have completely forgotten about the fact that Crona was supposed to kill him, and now saw Crona as a friend. In fact, one had to wonder if tbe rabbit had ever actually understood the situation it had been in with how relaxed it was. Likely not, its intelligence was probably just s bit too basic for it to get what happened. Still, that didn't matter now, it seemed happy, and it made Crona happy, so neither girl felt any need to press this further than it already had been. Crona had been through more than enough, they didn't want to bring that up right now. Even if they did want to have a better understanding of what their brother had gone through, that could wait.

Robo Fortune decided to hold Crona's muffin for him so he could eat it and pet his bunny at the same time. Robo idly noted that rabbits were similar to her brother in terms of the cuteness department snd began to pet it as well. Robo also noted that the elevated levels of stress, fear, and pain were somewhat subsided in this moment. That was a good thing, that meant he was making progress in getting better. Sure, she was debating bringing up potential medication of some kind to assist with his mental stability, but that kind of felt like a 'Later' thing to deal with. Right now, it was clear despite his love and appreciation, there was still a little bit of disconnect between Crona, herself and Fukua. That was natural, relationships took time to solidify, so Robo decided to help solidify this one. Mark her words, by the time of his next birthday, she and Crona woulf be thick as thieves! Fukua was on her own.

Actually, when was his birthday? Did Crona even know? Considering his life thus far, it wouldn't be a huge stretch to say he may not know his birthday, or rather, what a birthday was meant to be. Crona meanwhile, kept eating the muffin, enjoying every bite of it. It was nice to spend time with his other sister, but he couldn't really say which was his favourite. Probably Valentine. Wait, she was his mother, not his sister. He didn't have a favourite sister, it seemed... Well, it was probably better that way. He didn't want to hurt either of their feelings by picking one over the other after all. 'Even though I'm the better one...' Both sisters thought at the same time, having had the same thought previously. Crona had finished his muffin, but was enjoying petting his rabbit, so he felt no need to move, and Robo was more than happy to keep him where he was.

Fukua, meanwhile, was not happy with this arrangement. "You know I did promise him we would hang out after classes were over." She said flatly.

"Why would you lie to him like that? Clearly I am the better sibling."

"Actually, you're proving to be selfish as you're going against a promise I made to him for your own personal benefit." Fukua countered, beginning to think of a way to beat her sister at her own game for once.

"Negative, does not compute."

"Yeah, because it's a human thing." Fukua shrugged. "We hold promises and social events in high regard, taking someone from one or breaking one is seen as a terrible deed." The clone spoke with a calm, almost dismissive tone, but smirked inwardly when she saw Robo clearly thinking it over.

"A difficult situation. Scanning for rebuttal. Analyzing... Analyzing... Rebuttal found. You are present within the confines of this room. So long as you are present, that meets the requirements for hanging out, as you humans say."

"Sure, that's one way of looking at it, but I don't think you can see it any other way, really. Your programming's too limited." Fukua shrugged, leaning back in the chair. Shamone looked from her, over to Robo, then back to Fukua. The parasite didn't say anything, but had a feeling hw knew where this was going.

"That matters not."

"Ehhh... again, it's a human thing, you probably can't understand."

Robo Fortune bristled at that and tightened her hold on her brother. "You have no right to say such cruel and unreasonable things to me. I am more than a robot. And this time I really mean it. There is no error to play off."

"Eh." Fukua shrugged dismissively.

"That... seemed a bit harsh." Shamone muttered.

"She took my brother, she's been acting like this for ages. Let her see how it feels." Fukua muttered in response. The Parasite frowned but wasn't sure what to say, he looked over to Robo, who refused to look at Fukua.

"Uh, big sister Robo? Why are you fighting with big sister Fukua?" Crona asked timidly, looking up at Robo.

Robo looked down at her brother. "Because she wishes to prevent me from spending any time at all with my very favourite brother. She wishes for nothing more than to keep you all to herself, which is cruel and unfair."

"But... why don't you do stuff with her and me?" Crona asked, in his mind, that was the easy solution, he didn't see why his sisters wanted to do stuff with him but not with the other.

"He has a point." Shamone spoke up, Fukua biting her lip in irritation. Sure, she could do stuff with Robo, but she wanted to do stuff with Crona! What was so hard to understand about that?

'The fact that he has no family, and this is the first family dynamic that hasn't hurt him.' Spoke up in Fukua's head, and the clone frowned, understanding that reasoning. She let out a deep sigh and looked over at her sister with a strained sister. "You...wanna hang out, Robo?" She asked with a strained voice. Robo looked down at Crona, then looked up at Fukua, then back down at Crona.

"It is... acceptable." Robo nodded, rising to her feet and walking into the next room. To Fukua's annoyance, Robo didn't surrender Crona, but still. The three sat in a bit of an awkward silence for a few minutes. Fukua slowly reached for the TV remote and turned it on. Much to her annoyance, Robo kept denying everything they flipped through because she wanted them to watch something appropriate for Crona. Which was fair, except The Lion Prince was deemed inappropriate because apparently the word 'sex' was in there somewhere in a blink and you'll miss it moment. This went on for several more minutes until they landed on some channel that was having an annual 'Shark Week' event showing a bunch of nature programming about sharks. Robo (finally) had no protests, and they settled down to watch that for the time being, Fukua kept looking over to Crona, both trying to gauge his enjoyment and find a way she could take him.

He seemed to be intrigued by the documentary. In fact, he seemed to just really enjoy animals in general, as every time a new creature popped up onscreen he would curiously ask Robo what it was. Robo answered every question with the appropriate amount of detail. It stood to reason Crona had never seen fish before, so his intrigue made sense. To him, this was essentially an entirely new world he didn't know had ever existed until now, so naturally he'd be curious. The fish seemed enthralling to the little boy, and both girls had to admit it was pretty cute. He seemed so mesmerized by the colours and the underwater worlds of it all. Even the sharks eating other ocean life was more intriguing to the boy than anything. Robo had been slightly concerned that seeing the pretty fish he had come to enjoy getting eaten would scare him, but he seemed to understand just fine.

Nature was nature, he seemed to understand this just fine. He watched in curiosity at the hunting skills of the different types of fish in the ocean, before occasionally asking a question. "Do people have sharks as pets?" Crona asked, looking up at his sisters.

"Apparently, Yeah." Fukua nodded. "It's be cool..."

"Affirmative." Robo nodded in agreement. "However, the amount of food required to sustain one would most likely be problematic." She ran a quick scan. "Error. Sharks eat less than their body weight within the span of one week. Food would be of no consequence. However we currently do not have the space necessary for such a pet, as they are quite large."

"Hm. Fair." Fukua shrugged. "Still, it'd be cool."

"Affirmative." Robo nodded in agreement. "Sharks are not a vicious predator unless provoked, keeping one as a pet may prove to be engaging as well as, as your kind would put it, 'metal AF'."

"But- they're fish, not metal." Crona blinked, confused.

"Indeed.i too fail to understand why humans phrase things the way they do. I was merely trying to convey the message in a way that I felt those of lesser intelligence would understand, Ragnarok." Robo Fortune droned.

"Oh, screw off." Ragnarok muttered, having said nothing to irritate the robot thus far, and was now being attacked for some unknown reason.

"Oh, okay." Crona nodded, understanding what his sister was getting at. Still, he thought a pet shark would be pretty cool. He could feed it raw fish or steaks and watch it tear it to shreds... Oh... That was bad, wasn't it? He felt slightly embarrassed for having those rather dark thoughts. But hey... The shark had to eat too after all. Robo purred and gave him a hug. Crona smiled as he felt himself be wrapped up in his robotic sisters' arms. Fukua sulked slightly, watching Crona and Robo hugging it out. She wanted to be the one hugging it out with Crona... which was weird considering she wasn't really one for physical affection in the first place, but she really, really liked it when Crona was concerned.

Actually, now that she thought about it, it wasn't exactly a Crona thing, it was moreso a 'children in general' thing... There was just something about children that brought the warmth out of her... She wanted to be a mom someday too... "But..." Robo blinked, looking down. Fukua was confused at first. "No..." Robo seemed disappointed by something. "Fine..." Fukua saw Crona was holding his arms out to her, asking Robo to pass him over to his other sister, and while the robot was unhappy about it, she passed Crona over to her.

'Yaaayyyy!' Fukua mentally cheered. She accepted her little brother into her arms and hugged him close, gently nuzzling her cheek against his face and kissing his forehead. Any interest in the TV was now gone, she just wanted to focus on her baby brother. Crona was still interested in the show, but giggled at the interaction from his sister. She was really nice and affectionate, she really liked having him around, and that made Crona happy. He didn't know how or why, but it seemed like just being around his big sister made her happy, he wished he understood why, or what he could do to make her happier, but for now, he was content where he was.

He drifted back and forth between enjoying the show they were watching and enjoying being in his big sister's embrace, though subconsciously he was most certainly enjoying being held by his sister way more. Fukua sat on hr bed, Crona snuggled into her lap, enjoying every moment of this. Honestly, she didn't mind the three of them together, so long as she got time to hold Crona, she saw no issue with hanging out with her sister and baby brother. Although, he wasn't really a 'baby' now that she thought about it. He looked to be six or seven, actually. But that didn't matter much to her, he was as small, sweet and adorable as one, and he seemed fine with her calling him that, so she saw no reason to stop. She was physically the older one, so that meant he would always be her baby brother. ...At least she thought that was how it worked... How old was he compared to her...? She had been made about seven years ago. Was he her big brother?

Honestly, it didn't seem like Crona cared all that much. To him, Fukua and Robo were his big sisters, regardless of how 'old' they technically were/weren't. Crona may have been too young to fully understand the implications of his sisters being 'made' rather than born, but again, he didn't put too much thought into it. They were his family, nothing changed that! The sheer amount of love the boy had for his family was something that deeply touched all of their hearts and brought them a previously unimagined amount of joy. He truly was the catalyst that brought them together as a family. Crona looked between his two sisters, then back to the tv. He was happy with his family, he was happy to have a family. Crona nuzzled closer to his sister, wanting to make her happy any way he could.

After a few more minutes, the door to their room opened, and the trio looked over to see their mother enter the room. "Hi, kids. My shift is over now." Valentine greeted as she set her bag down by the door.

"Hey, Mom."

"Greetings, Mother."

"Mama!" Valentine smiled at the greeting she received from her three kids. She was surprised all three of them seemed to be doing something together, but also had a suspicion Crona had been the reason for that.

She walked over and toom a seat next to Crona and Fukua on the loveseat, leaning over to plant a kiss on her son's head. "It's good to see you're all getting along well and not blowing holes in the wall during a fistfight."

"That happens?" Crona asked, bewildered.

"Sometimes, Robo starts them." Fukua shrugged. Robo's head whirled around and glared at Fukua, her eyes turning red.

"Negative, you are lying." The Robot stated. "Understand that I am taking this purrr-sonally."

"Oh, don't you start with that!"

Valentine raised her hands to signify that they needed to relax. "Come on now, girls, don't start fighting. We're having a nice moment here." She chided her daughters, who both responded by sulking a bit. Valentine took the opportunity to take Crona back, and while Fukua sulked, she knew there wasn't much she could do to stop her Mom at this point. She was a better fighter, plus, she had Crona, and her baby brother probably wanted to be with her right now. So, she begrudgingly let him go, for now. The nurse placed her child down on her lap and gently stroked his hair with a smile. "Did you have a good time watching TV with your sisters, sweetie?" Crona smiled and nodded up at his mother. "Ah, I knew you would."

Crona nuzzled into his mother's embrace, making the nurse smile warmly. Crona really was too sweet for his own good, and that kindness made her happy, it was a nice sight to see. Wrapping her arms around him, she sighed contently, before nodding to herself. "So, there weren't any issues while I was gone?" She asked.

"Nah." Fukua shrugged.

Valentine nodded. "Good, good." She supposed that was the logical turnout, this school was highly protected after all, but she was pretty sure every mother worried about leaving their children alone, even if just for a little while. She smiled down at Crona and hugged him, enjoying the embrace of mother and son. She wasn't sure what tonight would be like, she didn't know if Crona wanted to go with Robo again, or if he wanted to stay, but she'd figure that out later. Right now, she wanted to enjoy being with her son. "Was it a fun day for you, sweetie? You had a good time at school, you got spend time with your whole family, everything went well for you?" Crona nodded his head and she smiled warmly and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

Crona snuggled up against Valentine's chest, and the Nurse let out a soft 'Aww' at that. It seemed like it had been forever since she adopted little Crona, but it hadn't even been a full week yet. Still, maybe that was reflective of how terrible his life was beforehand that he'd quickly latch onto the first person who ever showed him kindness, and that was a somewhat troubling thought in and of itself. Whatever his reasoning, Valentine was more than happy that she had been the one who found him. She was immensely grateful Lord Death had arrived to take down the Skullgirl. If he hadn't shown up, not only would everyone have been killed by the skullgirl, but Crona would have remained trapped with that THING. She couldn't, and didn't want to, imagine what that would be like for her little Crona. It would be akin to being trapped in an inescapable nightmare where you were forced to flee for survival or be sacrificed to some sort of entity on meat hooks... she couldn't imagine Crona living that kind of life, and she didn't want him too! Even if she hadn't adopted him, he deserved so much better. Heck, she still kinda thought he deserved better than her. But those thoughts didn't matter, he was here and he was safe.

She looked down at him and hugged him tightly. Those rather depressing thoughts had compelled her to comfort her little one, whether he needed it or not. She needed to feel better at this point... Crona didn't care, he just hugged his Mom to the best of his ability. She seemed unhappy about something, even if it was just in passing, but he wanted her to be happy, so he figured he'd do what he could to make her happy. It worked. Valentine smiled and gently stroked her child's hair, closing her eye in content. He really did have a nack for making her feel happy... No matter what he did, it always felt so cute and wholesome.

'Also, how did his hair get so soft?! It's not faiirrrrr...' Valentine mentally groaned. She didn't care too much for her hair, and kept it short to keep it out of her face, but there was something about Crona's hair that she just got lost in. She didn't know how or what he used or did to get it like this, but she now understood why Fukua seemed so entranced. And considering she was wearing gloves, the fact that she could still feel how fluffy her son's hair was spoke volumes. And it also gave off the faint scent of lilac, which was just an added bonus to his cuteness. She now saw Crona seemed to have decided that this was a good place to curl up and rest, as he was now huddled against her in a tiny ball, eyes shut in pure joy and relaxation. The smile on his face felt genuine, and it was a nice thing to see, it was such a sweet, pure little smile, Valentine sighed, giving her son a smile of her own.

Not that he could see it, as he was very clearly about to take a nap right there. Valentine gently patted his back. "Go right ahead, hun, take a nice long rest. It's been a very big day for you, after all." She said gently.

"M'kay, Mama..." Crona mumbled, letting out a soft yawn and closed his eyes. It didn't take long, but Crona had soon fallen asleep in Valentine's arms, his soft breathing reaching the ears of the Nurse, as she smiled and held him close to her chest.

"Sleep tight, love." She cooed softly. She rocked him gently in her arms to keep him asleep as she carefully adjusted her hold on him so that she was cradling him like a newborn baby, planting a kiss on both his cheeks, followed shortly by his forehead. Crona had drifted off to a deep slumber in his caregiver's arms. Valentine remained on the love seat with her child in her arms, letting the warm feelings flow. Things were looking up, and she was fine with that after everything that she had been through, and admittedly, everything she had put people through. She couldn't claim she was innocent, she couldn't even joke she was, but taking care of Crona, finding him, saving him, caring for him, it helped. It made her feel like there was hope for her still, hope for her, and for her family.

In fact, she had Crona to thank for bringing them together as a family in the first place... He was the catalyst that prompted her to accept that she could be a mother, and convinced her to officially adopt Fukua and Robo as her daughters. Now, the four of them were a happy family, and Valentine had the sweet, precious little cinnamon roll in her arms to thank for all of it. He made all their lives better in ways she doubted he'd ever fully understand, but honestly? That was just fine with her. He was happy, and he was safe, and that was good enough for her. She looked at the TV, then had a thought. "Hmm... We were running low on groceries this morning... I'll go and get some more when Crona wakes up."

For now, she was happy to just relax with her sleeping child in her arms, it then occurred to her that she was kinda hungry, but with Crona in her arms, she didn't want to move and risk waking him up. 'Oh well, I guess I can wai- are those muffins?' Valentine began, but realized a smell coming from the kitchen. 'Oh, that's not fair...'

Robo Fortune seemed to catch on, and she stretched her arm out to grab onto one of the muffins from its tray. "Here you are, mother. We baked them earlier today to satiate Crona's after school snack needs."

"Thanks." The nurse smiled at her daughter.

"Crona helped make them." Robo added. "They taste better because of that fact." The Nurse smirked at her daughters remark, knowing Robo's food was great no matter what, but knowing Crona had helped just made it better before she had even tried it.

She took a bite of her muffin and hummed in content. It really was incredible. Seemed her children had put in that little extra effort to make them the best they could possibly be. Well, except maybe Fukua, she had her cooking skills. As for Crona? She hoped he'd land more on Robo's side of the skill line rathe than her own. Who knew, Crona clearly had some degree of talent at least in survival, so she looked forward to what the future had in store for him. Maybe he'd be a fighter, maybe he'd be a teacher- 'Honestly, I don't care, I don't want him to grow up just yet. He's so adorable like this.' Valentine said to herself with a slight sigh, hugging her son close.

This was just not the time to think of the future. This was the time to live in the moment. Her son was only going to be small and cute for a little while, so she needed to enjoy it as much as she reasonably could. Actually, screw reasonable. So long as Crona wasn't getting hurt, she was gonna enjoy his cuteness as much as she could, and then some. Crona didn't seem to mind, as he cooed happily and snuggled against her chest, snoring peacefully as he sucked on his thumb. Maybe he was a bit too old to be doing that, but Crona was still practically a baby, at leas to her, so she wasn't gonna comment on it. 'I'm bringing you with me to get groceries. Just you. Only you.' Valentine smiled.

And then she might just do something with him... Just her and her son, bonding over something... In fact, she decided she would also need some one on one time with her daughters at some point as well. But for now, she just wanted to settle on the couch with her sleeping son. She had nothing that needed done in the next ten minutes, or hour, so really, she was content to spend some time with Crona asleep on her lap. The tiny boy seemed so happy... she didn't want to disturb him. She let out a soft sigh and gently stroked his hair to keep him sleeping, because to be perfectly honest, she really didn't want him to wake up just yet. His tiny sleeping form was just too adorable for words.

"Mama..." Crona mumbled in his sleep, only further proving Valentine's previous statements about his adorableness. He said it with such love and child-like adoration, but also such sleepy energy that it was barely audible, and the whole thing mixed together to sound absolutely adorable. Which, added to how he looked, simply added to his overall cuteness.

She felt like she was being watched, then looked over to see the jealous looks her daughters were giving her. "Well you two had him all last night and almost all of today. Don't you think it's fair I get him for a while?"

"You've had him to yourself since you found him!" Fukua protested, huffing slightly at the unjustness of her Mother getting to spend time with her baby brother. Valentine just raised a brow in response.

"Did you fight the woman who was abusing him?"

"Well-"

"Did you comfort him during his trauma-induced nightmares?"

"Yes." Robo spoke up.

"Oh, uh... did you find him?"

"No..."

"Then I feel like I get special Crona privileges." Valentine concluded. The two girls sulked and just turned to look at the TV. Valentine made a mental note to get them something when she took Crona out later. Fukua could certainly use some new paint supplies, and Robo an action figure to play with perhaps... Crona, meanwhile just yawned and turned over in Valentine's arms, clutching onto Valentine's top as he kept sleeping peacefully. Valentine blushed slightly and patted his back, letting Crona keep sleeping.

She thought back to all that had happened in these past few days. It had been absolutely insane. She saw the skullgirl's final defeat, met Death himself, moved to a moving city, fought a witch, adopted a child, and that was just the first day. Still, she was happy with that. She was happy to be a mother. Her thoughts interrupted by a small groan which got her attention as Crona began stirring in her arms. "Mrgh... M..mama..? Is that...isthatyou...?" Crona mumbled. Valentine smiled and kissed his head. She frowned slightly when she saw he seemed to be squirming about, probably having a bad dream or something.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. I'm here, sweetie."

The sound of her voice seemed to calm her son down almost instantly as he cooed and nuzzled his face closer into her chest. "Mommy's here... She'll keep all the bad stuff away..." He mumbled sleepily.

"There, there. It's all right." Valentine spoke calmly, rubbing Crona's back, which thankfully seemed to do the trick, as he settled back down and had fallen asleep rather quickly once more. The nurse sighed, knowing this would happen sooner rather than later. With everything he had gone through, it was only natural that there would be scars remaining, no matter how far away he got. And in the end, these were wounds that medicine and remedies couldn't even come close to fixing. All she could do was be there to help see him through his trauma and pray for him to be happy sooner than later.

Patting his back, Valentine thought about what she'd need to pick up at the store when she went out later. There was kinda of a big mix-up of what they'd need. Robo's cooking, while delicious, burned through a fair amount of supplies. Speaking of which, she reached over and took a bite of the muffin, smiling as she ate it. It would probably be logical to ask her robotic daughter to use up less resources on meals... Buuut that would lessen the amount of delicious meals they would get to have every night, so she would just do the shopping.

She decided Crona could keep sleeping as she made her way to the store and rose to her feet. Making sure Crona was close, comfortable and safe, she headed for the door. "Hey, if we need anything other than what's necessary, send me a message." She remarked.

"I need Crona." Robo spoke up.

"No. But good try."

"Awww..." Valentine smirked, her kids could be pretty creative at times, and that led to some interesting conversations. She just hoped the room wouldn't be on fire when she returned, as leaving Fukua and Robo alone together didn't always end well. After she closed the door, she took a moment to listen in. Her daughters weren't sniping at each other the second she left the room, so that was always a good sign. Letting out a chuckle, she shook her head and walked off.

Crona was snuggled up against her chest, his breathing being the only thing she heard immediately as she left the school, beginning the walk towards town. She had to admit, it was pretty nice all things considered. Not too long, but not so short that you would begin enjoying it, only for it to end. Midway there, Crona had decided he had slept enough for a little while and woke up with a soft yawn, rubbing his eyes with his tiny fingers before looking around. "Mmm? Mama...? Where are we...?" He asked softly.

"Hi, cutie." Valentin cooed, kissing his head. "We needed groceries, so I decided to bring you along so we could have some time together."

"Yayyyy..." Crona yawned, stretching out as he continued to pull himself up into the world of the living. Valentine chuckled at his little reaction, clearly he was happy to be with her. Good. It was clear to anyone with eyes that he just really loved being with his family at any time of the day. In fact, he never wanted to be apart from them... She would have to make sure to guide him towards self reliance over the years. Still, the important word there was 'years', as Valentine had no intention of pushing Crona away in any way shape or form yet. Not after everything he had been through, he needed the comfort and love of a parent and in time, as the wounds healed, he'd become his own person. To Valentine, everything kinda worked together, and she had a good feeling that Crona would be okay.

Holding him close, she gave him a pat on the back. "I promise we'll bave a good time today... We'll do something fun while we're here, does that sound good?" Crona nodded his head with a big smile.

"Being with you is fun to me." He added, and Valentine let out an audible 'Awww...'

"Gag me..." Ragnarok muttered.

"Don't give me ideas." The Nurse retorted, re-adjusting Crona so he was sitting in her arms, able to look around as she walked. This was the same city he had gotten lost in the day his mother and sisters had taken him out. He made a mental note not to make the same mistake he had made that day and just stay close to his mother. Valentine realized this when Crona tightened his hold on her arm, leaning into it somewhat, and the Nurse smiled. If Crona wanted to walk, she'd let him, but she had no intentions of letting him get lost again.

'Don't worry, Crona. I won't let that happen again.' Valentine thought with a smile. The way she squeezed him lightly seemed to get the message across, and he looked up at her with a tiny smile that conveyed one simple message: I trust you. Valentine leaned down and kissed his forehead. "All right... here we are." Valentine nodded, looking up a the town, entering a nearby grocery store, Toriyama Market, or something like that. From the moment they entered, Crona shivered slightly as the temperature seemed to drop, and Valentine smirked slightly, noting it was just the mist used to keep the vegetables clean.

"Don't worry, it'll just be a quick in and out." She assured her son gently, patting his back. Crona gave her a small timid smile. She went and picked out all the vegetables she needed before getting out of the vegetable isle.

"Sorry Mama... it... it felt weird." Crona mumbled.

"Aw, don't worry, that happens sometimes." Valentine smiled, moving down to another isle. I take it you've never experienced winter before?" Her question was meant to be simply conversation, but she quickly realized this may go south. And it did.

"No, we didn't." Ragnarok remarked. "She froze th'ki- Crona, a few times to try and see how the Black Blood would react, if there was some sort of point where it wouldn't work anymore."

"I don't remember that..."

"Yeah, for some reason the ice shut your entire mind down, it was weird, even by the standards of what we went through."

Crona shuddered and hugged himself at the thought of it all. The fact that he had to go through such nightmares was really damaging his poor child psyche. He wished he could forget all of it. "I hate Miss Medusa..."

"Aww, it's okay. She's gone now." Valentine said reassuringly. "She can't hurt you, or anyone, ever again."

'And if there's any justice in the world, she's suffering for her sins...' Valentine mentally scowled.

"Hey, Slayer. Check this out." Zarathos said, coming back to where the green-armoured man was still beating Medusa senseless, holding a new weapon. "Some guy named Caleb Quinn built it, it's some sort of harpoon gun."

Back above, the rest of the grocery run was pretty simple, Crona looking at the different types of foods, not having the first idea what many of them tasted like, or what you'd make out of them, but again, he was curious if his big sister could teach him. Valentine was taking various items off the shelves and setting them into her shopping basket. Crona watched her, occasionally asking what certain items were, and in record time, the necessities were all together. With a smile, she paid for her groceries, and then thought about what to do next. More importantly, what to do with her son. It was just the two of them, so she wanted to do something he'd enjoy, but she didn't really know what he liked, because he hadn't been shown much kindness before. Well, might as well try something and hope for the best.

Her first order of business was to pull the chocolate bar she had bought for him out from the shopping bag. It wasn't her preference of dark chocolate, but she knew that children didn't tend to enjoy dark chocolate. "Here, hon. I think you might like this." She smiled, then felt her spirits fall when Crona recoiled, seemingly afraid. "What's wrong, love?"

"Ugh... yeah, Medusa drugged those things, a lot." Ragnarok muttered. "Hey, Crona. Just try it, it's not gonna get us hurt again, okay? She wouldn't do that to you." Crona was still shaking somewhat, but nodded, seemingly calming himself somewhat and taking the bar. Slowly pulling off the wrapper, he tentatively took a bite, wincing as he awaited the oncoming sensation of something going wrong.. And it never came. Nervously, he took another bite. Okay... This was good...

Valentine let out a small sigh of relief as she saw Crona begin eating the bar with more child-like happiness. It was clear (frustratingly) that this was the first time he had ever had chocolate and it wasn't poisoned or drugged, or... whatever. Still, Crona seemed happy now, and that was good enough for her. "All right then... Let's see just what this city has to offer." She said with a nod as she carried her son along, looking around at the sights. It seemed there was a surprising amount of activities to do here... Again, for a city with mechanical legs run by the Grim Reaper (essentially, Valentine still wasn't sure if they were the same entity) the city seemed rather welcoming. She passed by a few stores, noting places where Robo or Fukua would most likely want to go when they were out. There was that restaurant they all went to after finding Crona again, the clothes stores, and that garage place Lord Death had mentioned. Valentine didn't bother stopping in, but from a brief glance it seemed like this place may be helpful if Robo ever needed larger repairs.

And there was a shop that specialized in the type of clothing and accessories that Fukua would like. The punk style, with the type ot makeup that her daughter liked to wear in various shades of green, black and purple. She never understood the use of make up, and maybe that just stemmed from the fact that she usually got ridiculed by the other members of Last Hope for wearing it improperly, because apparently THAT was a whole thing people needed to deal with on top of everything else concerning fashion, body type, looks-

"Mama?"

"Hm? Yes?"

"Uh, I think we're at the edge of the town." Crona remarked, and Valentine realized during her tirade, she had gone too far.

"My mistake." The Nurse muttered, turning and heading back to the town.

She had an internal chuckle at herself. Despite the fact that she didn't have any interest in pursuing relationships and had no reason to make herself look all dolled up, it seemed even she valued her good looks. Crona was still secure in her arms, and looking around curiously. This was his new home, so he was curious where everything was. He wasn't sure what most of the stuff around here was, but some of it looked interesting, while some of it looked weird. And again, that was looking past the nearly constant skull and bones theme of everything, although that didn't really bother Crona as much as one would expect it would a child. It was actually kind of cool if he were to be honest. The city felt like Halloween all year round, with skeletons, pumpkins and all sorts of different dark gothic things all around. It kind of felt... right to him.

'Okay... what would Crona like?' Valentine thought as she kept walking. 'A movie is too long, and we've got groceries, I think I saw a park a block or two ago, is there a bookstore? I know he likes it when I read to him...' As the Nurse's thoughts continued, she kept moving about the pathways throughout the city. She felt a sense of mild annoyance at this whole thing. It always seemed that even with all these activities surrounding her, there was never really anything to do. Shaking her head, she knew she had to decide sooner or later. "Uh, what should I be looking for?" Crona asked.

"Well... how about that?" Valentine made a snap-decision, deciding to see if a record store interested him.

"What's that?"

"Music."

"Huh?"

"Stuff y'listen to kid, it's worth a shot." Ragnarok shrugged. "I think I used to come here with Boomstick and listen to heavy metal when we should've been at school..."

Crona blinked and nodded his head. "Okay." He said simply. Smiling under her mask, Valentine carried him into the store to see what they had in stock. There was a young teen working at the counter with blue hair, a backwards cap and a white shirt with some sort of symbol on it. He gave them a friendly wave, and Valentine began looking through the music. There was some stuff she recognized (both liking, and not liking) but also a bunch of stuff from Death City.

'Huh, they have the Contiellos, neat.' Valentine thought, seeing a record for a family who's talent she knew of, but hadn't heard much of. There was a lot by some guy named Brandon Yates, and some other things that at least had a cool album design.

"So what kind of music is there?" Crona asked, his question genuinely surprising the Nurse.

"You really haven't heard music before?"

"No, aside from one experiment Medusa tried with that dubstep crap, he hasn't." Ragnarok answered. "That was one of the few times I saw her give up on something before Crona did."

"I didn't mind it." Crona frowned. Valentine nodded, but decided to answer his question.

"There are all sorts of different types of music... It's a bit difficult to explain... Maybe we can get a little sample of each type while we're here so that we can find out what you like..." The nurse explained. Crona nodded, and they began walking through the isles. There was a lot to look at, and she wasn't sure where to begin. She picked up a few records then set Crona down so she could set them onto the player. "Hmm... This looks like a decent place to start..." She muttered before placing the record down and playing it. It was some generic pop music. A genre she would admit she did harbour a bit of a soft side for.

Crona listened for a minute and seemed... indifferent. Secretly, that was disappointing to the Nurse, but hey, she wouldn't judge. He listened to a few songs, but never had much of a reaction to it, beyond a shrug or 'It's okay.' Deciding to change things, the Nurse put down some alternative records, old voice-and-guitar, or whatever that genre was called. She knew it as the genre everyone's parents liked, and then they ended up liking if/when they became parents. Crona seemed to like it though, the calm, but somewhat energetic songs, usually telling some sort of story, it seemed to work for him. Then she had the idea that he might enjoy that moody depressing rock music that Fukua was so fond of... She found a record for some band called Breaking Benjamin and decided to set that up for him. After a moment, it quickly became apparent that Fukua and Crona would be bonding over a shared taste in music. 'Wonderful.' Valentine thought, half genuinely and half sarcastically. It was nice that her daughter and Crona would like a similar type of music, but it was also the kind of music one would blare as loudly as possible to say 'It's not a phase, DAD'. Still, he seemed to oddly enjoy it. She went through a few more types of music, Crona (predictably) liking rock, not having much of an opinion on techno, but he seemed entranced by the Contiellos singing. Valentine hadn't even realized she had put it on, but he seemed enthralled with it. The other type of music she was surprised he seemed to enjoy was reggae. Then again, after everything he went through, songs about peace and tranquility probably appealed a lot more to him than most.

'Man, I didn't even know half these bands were still making music.' Valentine thought to herself, realizing how out-of-touch she had gotten as of late. She simply hadn't had the time to listen to music like she had when she was younger. Occasionally catching a song in a public setting was more or less the extent of her music consumption in her adult life. Still, there was something she enjoyed about spending time listening to music with her son. The two of them went from album to album for a little bit, gauging what Crona liked and disliked, it was relaxing.

Valentine noted that the records were really quite cheap, about a dollar or two each, and she was putting them in a basket as she found artists one or both of them enjoyed. She ended up getting forty dollars worth of records. When they were done there, they left the store, Crona looking at some of the records, trying to get an understanding of who was who in sense of these bands. "Hm... what else to do..." Valentine mused, walking down the street. She took another pathway and was gradually making her way back to the school when she saw a public park, and lo and behold, it was empty. "That'll do nicely."

She looked down at her son and smiled. "How would you like to play for a while?" She asked gently, taking a moment to expertly balance the bags she had on each of her arme while maintaining her dexterity. She walked over and set the bags down, before setting Crona down on the swings. She gave them a gentle push, and smiled as Crona's apprehension at the sudden movement changed to enjoyment. The two enjoyed it, the feeling of having time together, Crona enjoyed the odd feeling of going higher and higher, back and forth, but always feeling like he wasn't moving. It was a strangely soothing feeling. He had honestly expected he would have felt weird in his tummy, but his mother was making sure not to push him up too high. He was going back and forth at a nice steady pace.

Valentine smiled, feeling relaxed as she pushed her son back and forth. This is the kinda thing Nadia had told her about, what she had been doing with her kit, and Valentine was thankful she found Crona. Otherwise, she doubted she'd have ever gotten the chance to do this. It really was the simple little moments with her son that she enjoyed the most. Doing ordinary, mundane things like playing on playgrounds, eating meals, reading books or cuddling at night... Even grocery shopping!

Still, Nadia was right. There would be days when Crona would have real issues with things, it was unavoidable that there would be days when things would hit the wall, and harshly. There was nothing she could do about that, but she'd do all she could to take care care of him. She'd be there to comfort him through all of it. Because that was what this whole thing was all about, wasn't it? Bonding with her children... Being there for them when they were feeling down and scared... And one day, seeing them grow up and leave the nest. She wondered what that day would be like, not just for Crona, but for Robo and Fukua. Sooner or later, they'd move on, they'd have their own lives, their own relationships, and maybe someday she'd be Gramma Valentine... granted, she hoped that wasn't for some time (she wanted to convince herself she was young for as long as possible) but each day was a new story, in a sense.

It was a story that would never truly end. So long as they lived on into the future and continued to have children of their own, the story truly did have the potential to go on forever... But for now, she decided to just live in the moment. Another half an hour passed before Crona wanted to get off the swing. Scooping her son up, Valentine kicked the two bags up to her other arm and then adjusted everything in her arms. "Well, that was fun." Valentine smiled.

Crona nodded with a small smile. "It was kinda like flying with Ragnarok." The nurse paused and looked at her son with a raised brow. He blinked and tilted his head to the side. "Ragnarok can fly. And I go too."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Ragnarok nodded, appearing. "It was one of the few things the kid kind of enjoyed, and that's only when we weren't being shocked for falling..."

"You haven't mentioned this yet."

"Well, yeah. I figured you'd be against it, and the other two would probably freak the frick out if they saw me carrying the kid while flying."

Valentine chuckled. "Well, Fukua might, but I feel like Robo would just be jealous that she isn't the one carrying him around while flying. Hmm... Also, she probably wouldn't trust you now that I think about it..."

"My point is made." Ragnarok shrugged.

"Look, if there's something you can do that'll save the world or something, don't hold onto that until AFTER the event, okay?" Valentine asked, and Ragnarok shrugged.

"If I can find a reason to care, sure thing." Valentine rolled her eye. Ragnarok was honestly such a nuisance. His abrasiveness was going to be the death of him someday... Which she wouldn't mind so much if it weren't for the fact that Crona would get dragged down too. For now, Crona was snuggled close in her arms, and that was good enough for her. She loved her son, and wanted to do everything she could to make him happy, even if that meant ignoring some of Ragnarok's... Ragnarok-ness.

Still, things were going to have to change for Crona's sake. She simply couldn't have Ragnarok getting up to his usual shenanigans as Crona got older, as the last thing she wanted was for her son to get dragged into fights he never wanted. But what could she do? That was the real question. Like it or not, she couldn't fully blame Ragnarok for how he was, 99% of it, yes, but there was still a small part of him that was more a result of the nightmare he and Crona were put through. But then, he himself had admitted that he was always a pervert, and the idea of an older Crona getting slapped by an irate teenage girl for his partner's shenanigans didn't sit very well with her at all...

She'd need to figure that out, Crona was innocent, and Ragnarok was corrupt, it was as if they were two halves of one person that had separated, but been glued together ineffectively. She let out a sigh and gently stroked her son's head with a small, tired smile as she gathered their bags and made her way towards a nearby park bench. For now, maybe a little bit of people watching would be a nice pasttime. Crona snuggled close, feeling cared for in ways he never thought he would be cared for. His mother loved him, she saved him, and she cared for him. She showed him kindness when no one else had, he was everything she ever wanted.

He nestled down on his mother's lap and looked around curiously at everyone around him. These were people that had their own lives and stories just like him... He found himself interested in everyone that passed by. Valentine wrapped her arms around him protectively, and the pair enjoyed the afternoon sun (creepy face non-withstanding). Occasionally, Crona would ask an innocent question, usually about New Meridian or some other aspect of Val's past, and the Nurse did her best to answer them honestly. He seemed curious in a child-like wonder way. This was how it always should have been... But since it wasn't, Valentine felt immensely gratetul that he was learning to feel safe and happy enough to have this childish curiousity. It was a sign that he was recovering a bit faster than she had initially thought he was.

Sure, there'd be good days, and there'd be bad days, but Valentine resolved to help him get through them every way she could. Her life wasn't one of covert assassinations and mutilations any more, now she lived a life where she helped people for real, and more importantly she helped her son. If she was honest, he probably helped her as much as she helped him, but it didn't really matter that much to the nurse. Well... No, that wasn't true at all... Truthfully, it mattered to her very much. He was the catalyst that brought her closer to her daughters after all. If not for him, she would likely still be keeping Fukua and Robo at the same distance she had before. Well, he was certainly a good thing for her, she couldn't argue that fact. Crona seemed to think the same thing, as he snuggled closer to his mother's chest, wanting to be held close by the woman he loved. There was a real sense of trust not just in his eyes, but also in his body language, and it was something Valentine never realized she both had trouble showing, and very rarely ever saw from anyone she knew.

So many of her relationships in the past had been so... distant. She was never all that close to her parents, she was considered the weird loner girl in school outside of the perverts that wanted to get into her skirt, and even her relationship with the Last Hope was mostly professional... Did she regret that? No, not exactly. The work she did didn't exactly leave a whole lot of room for socialization and relationships, but she did regret some of the work she did. But again, she had been down this path many times already, and knew she wasn't done going down this path yet. Regardless, she wanted to focus on the 'now', and more importantly, the little boy she was holding in her arms. She looked down at him and smiled at how invested he was at just watching random people walking by. She remembered when she first took him in, he was sent into a panic at the mere sight of the city.

Not to mention how frightened he was when he had gotten lost, she owed Carol a great deal for helping him... and a great deal else for what she had put her through. Nothing was ever going to make up for the Painwheel Project. Really, she couldn't make up for tearing her life away, even after the parts were removed, the scars and nightmares would follow her forever... was she just using Crona to help deal with that guilt? Was that why she wanted to keep him? No! No, of course not... Valentine shook her head to clear it. She saved Crona and adopted him because she saw an innocent child who needed someone to show him kindness, that was all. But her demons weren't gone, she knew that all too well. Still, Crona was an angel in that darkness, helping her in ways she doubted he'd ever fully understand. He really was the path to her salvation. The one that would see her through to redemption... In spite of what she had done in the past, she knew that she was doing good now. And she would continue to do good for many years to come. But for now, she simply sat with her son firmly on her lap. Content to enjoy the way things were for the time being. She knew she needed to get the groceries home at some point, but right now, she had something far better, and far more important on her mind.

"So Crona... You seem to be feeling far more confident about going outside." She said softly. "You really are growing more and more confident lately... I'm very proud of hoe far you've come since the day I found you."

"Thank you, Mama." Crona smiled up at her. "I...I'm really happy you found me too. You made my life so much better."

"Aww, and you made mine so much better, too." Valentine smiled, pressing her forehead to his. The pair both smiled, and Valentine pulled her mask down, kissing her son on the forehead.

He let out a giggle at the display of affection, which brought a larger smile to the nurse's face. He really was too sweet for his own good... No wonder she had fallen in love with him almost at first sight... The pair sat on the bench, and Valentine felt something growing, strengthening, she couldn't think of the right word for it, but still. There was something between herself and Crona which was growing stronger by the moment, and Valentine loved that feeling. That connection, that bond, that... love. That's what it was. She smiled softly. It really was a curious thing, the concept of love... It came in so many different types... From the simple love for a favourite food to the deeper sense of love one felt for the love of their life. Yet she felt that the love a mother had for her children was the very purest form of love there was.

That love was clearly being returned by Crona, no questions asked. But for now, they sat where they were taking in their new home, their new world, in a sense - thanks to the skullheart being gone for good - but above all, their new life. No longer were there lives anchored in violence and pain, a history of mistakes they would always have to turn away from, now it was being rebuilt on a foundation of hope, a foundation of love, and for the first time in a long time, the Nurse felt like there was genuine hope for her, and for her family. Not just a sense of one last shred of hope (and not because of her previous team being named 'Last Hope') but a feeling of true, genuine hope for herself, for the future, and above all, for her family.

And that felt good.