"So, how did the job hunting go?" Washington asked all the soldiers gathered at the table in the Maple Inn. Silence. "Should have expected that."
"Actually, I got a job at the bakery!" Donut exclaims.
"That... is good news." Washington admits.
"I'll be sure to use the money to help out around here." Donut exclaims.
"Thank you, Donut." Kouta says.
"Kay, cool. On another subject, that girl that was here the other day, I think she's homeless. We should do... something to help her." Tucker says.
Grif groans. "Why do we gotta do anything? Besides, why do you think she's homeless?"
"She's always dirty like she's never taken a shower, she wears the same clothes everyday, and finally when we tried to ask her where she lives, she avoids the subject like the plague." Tucker explains.
"Even so, we can't just invite her to the house... can we?" Church questions looking to Kouta.
"Do they usually do this?r Great Get so caught up in the conversations that they'll ignore what or who they're conversing about?" Kouta whispers to Kaede.
"Pretty much. Its usually... different, but its essentially the same." Kaede confirms.
"Its fine." Kouta speaks up. "To be honest, I've been kind of worried about her. Poor thing is so reclusive, I wonder what happened to her?"
"Kouta, not that I question helping a poor girl in need, but can we support her and ourselves with the little we have?" Yuka questions.
"We will. Donut got a job so thats more income, once the others get jobs, things will get easier." Kouta explains.
"So that means trying extra hard to get hired guys!" Tucker exclaims. Grif groans.
"To think he was the laid back one..." Carolina mutters to Wash.
"Yeah... Tucker really steps up to the plate when things are serious." Church agrees.
"Hey, Tucker, can I talk to you about something?" Kaede asks, slipping into the blues room.
"Uh, sure." Tucker responds.
"Yeah! What did you wanna talk about!" Caboose comes out of no where.
"Caboose, not so loud." Kaede chastises.
"What did you wanna talk about?" Caboose whispers. Kaede is silent, mentally debating if she should let Caboose know as well.
"Kaede?" Tucker questions.
"Just a minute." Kaede says. A few more moments pass. "Fuck it, He can know." She mutters.
"Whats going on?" Tucker asks.
"Has Nyu taken over in the time Kouta's let us stay here?" Kaede asks.
"No." Tucker says.
"No." Caboose repeats.
"Okay, if... if she ever takes over could you please cover for me?" Kaede asks.
"Cover for you?" Tucker questions.
"Cover you if Nyu shows up. Got it." Caboose says.
"No no, I mean... I don't want anyone to know." Kaede says in a low voice.
"Why wouldn't you want anyone to know?" Tucker questions.
"They, I don't know... might think I'm weird or something..." Kaede says.
"Kaede, take a moment to think about this." Tucker starts. "Who have you been hanging out with your whole life..."
"I know, I know, I just... don't want anything to get more complicated." Kaede says.
"Yeah, I hate it when things do that." Caboose agrees.
"What's going to get complicated is Nyu pops up and Kouta and Yuka are taken by surprise by it." Tucker says.
"Yes, which is why I'm entrusting to you to see that that never happens." Kaede says. Tucker can only sigh at this.
"Fine. But if the two of them figure it out, you're on your own." He says.
"Thank you." And with that, Kaede leaves.
...
"What, Sorry. I wasn't paying attention." Caboose says.
"Whatever. I've got something to do tomorrow." Tucker says before turning in.
The next morning, everyone got a stern talking to by Wash and Carolina regarding finding a job to help contribute. Once Kaede, Yuka, and Kouta headed off to school, the soldiers, still all out of armour wandered around looking for work. All except one that is. Our aquamarine coloured soldier was out looking for someone.
"Hey." Someone begins him says with a tone of apathy.
"Holy shit!" Tucker quickly turns around to find Grif there, a bored look on his face. "Hmm, Maybe Sarge was right. You should keep your armour on." He said looking at Grifs unkept brown hair and beard as well as his potbelly barely managing to fit in his orange shit.
"Nice to see you too." Grif simply replies. "So... can't help but notice you ain't looking for a job."
"No. I'm looking for Mayu." Tucker says.
"Who?" Grif asks.
"Fuck, don't you pay attention to anything?" Tucker exclaims.
"I mean... not really." Grif honestly responds.
"Mayu is the girl that came to have lunch with us the other day. I'm looking for her so we can offer her a place to stay." Tucker explains.
"Right." Grif says sounding uninterested. "Need any help with that?"
"Huh? Did I hear that right? You're offering your help?" Tucker questions.
"Well, it's gotta be better than job hunting... or job doing." Grif explains. "So yeah, I'll help you with whatever."
"Fine you can tag along. I've searched the beach and the shrine looking for her and she wasn't at either place." Tucker says. "I don't know where else she would hang out at.
"Thank you." Mayu says to the lady handing her the bag of bread crusts at the bakery.
"My my, that dog sure eats a lot." The woman said to the girl.
"Well... you know how dogs are..." Mayu nervously replies. With that, she takes her leave with her meal for the day when she accidentally bumps into a man with blonde hair and wearing a pink shirt.
"Oh, sorry." She apologizes.
"No worries. It's nice to see you again." The man replies.
"Wait, your the man in the pink suit." She realizes. She quickly hides her bag behind her back.
"Yup. Franklin Delano Donut. Bearer of the light red armour, friend to animals, supporter of moderated government spending." He happily exclaims as if such greetings were normal.
"Yeah... well... it's good to see you too." She replies. "Um, I've got to go." And like that, she speeds away from him.
Making certain she wasn't seen by Donut, Mayu slows down. Her whole situation was embarrassing to say the least, best not to get anyone else involved in her problems, even if they are really nice.
"He's really nice. All those people at the Maple Inn are really nice. I wish I could spend more time with them without the fact that we're homeless looming over our heads." Mayu says to her canine companion.
"You don't have to let that remain a problem anymore." Mary's face paled considerably as she turned around to the speak. It was him.
"No..." Mayu weakly let's out, dropping Wanta's leash in shock. The dog ran out, barking like crazy. The man let it pass.
"You've given me quite the trouble running out on me like that." The man said as he slowly approached. "But that alright now that I've found you again. What does my girl have to say to that?"
Mayu backed into a wall with pure terror written on her face. It couldn't be happening. Her bastard step father had cornered her. She went through so much trouble to avoid him, but she got careless. The nightmare will start again.
"I... no. No! Not again!" Mayu yelled, hoping to whatever higher power someone would hear her.
"You're quite louder than last time." Mayu's step father said finally up close to put a hand on her shoulder causeing the the girl to attempt slinking away but to no avail. "It doesn't matter to me. I like you either way."
Her step father raised his other hand, Mayu imagined all the possibility's of what he was going to do when she heard Wanta's barking again.
"The hell! Get the fuck off her!" Mayu turned to see the real soldier also out of his armour along with a really fat man. The orange armoured one? Wanta was beside them, continuing his aggressive barking.
"Hmph. Who who might you be?" The man asks, his voice still low even though his tone was one of annoyance.
"We're the guys who're gonna kick your ass if you don't get away from the girl!" Tucker exclaims.
"Ye- Yeah!" Grif quickly adds. Tucker reaches into his pocket as if to grab something. He pauses as if thinking something over. He abandons whatever is in his pocket and gets into a fighting stance with just his fists. Grif groans before getting into the same stance, albeit a lot sloppier.
"Hmph. This has nothing to do with you. Get lost." Mayu's stepfather shortly replied.
"Fuck no. If anyones gonna fuck off, It'd be you." Tucker shouts back.
"Thats one way to say it." The stepfather said almost inaudibly. "Very well. I'll leave. Lets go Mayu."
"No! I'm not going back! I don't want to do it anymore." Mayu screamed as she was pulled along. Tucker than tackled her stepfather to the ground releasing his grip on her. Mayu then ran to pick up Wanta, holding him close as the fight continued. The two traded blows with one another with Tucker having a slight edge. Grif just sat and watched with apathy as the two continued to beat the ever living shit out of each other.
Before long, the fight reached its climax. 'I'd rather not do this to another guy, but some gut feeling is telling me that I really should.' After that thought went through Tuckers mind, he launched his next punch and hit the man in the groin. Hard. Tucker stood up as he watched the man double over in pain.
"That was me being nice. If you try something as fucked up as what you were about to do with Mayu I outa castrated you!" Tucker shouts to him. He then walks over to Mayu who's still on the ground, hugging Wanta. "Are you alright? He didn't hurt you, did he?" Mayu gives a nervous nod, signalling she wasn't harmed, then turned away.
'Now how am I supposed to explain this to them. I don't want to tell them the truth, its embarrassing and... and I don't want to think about it anymore. But I don't want to lie, and I don't even think I can.' Mayu thinks as she sits there.
"Damn you. What the hell-" Mayu's stepfather was cut off when Grif sat on him.
"Give it a rest. He beat you. Let the man do what he wants." Grif says. The step father let out pained breathes as he tried to get the fat man off of him but with no amount of success. He swore he could feel his ribs beginning to slowly crack and fracture. Just how much did this man weight!
"Listen, we're not going to question you on your past or anything. We know it makes you uncomfortable. As for what happened today, it never happened. Grif and I will forget everything." Tucker explains. He then looks to the man in question. "Or the fat ass wasn't paying attention to begin with." He turns back to Mayu. "Anyway, everyone at the Inn is worried about you. They've agreed to let you stay there for awhile."
"Bu- but I can't." Mayu lets out. "I'll only be a burden."
"Hey, look at that guy over there." Tucker says, pointing to Grif. "You can NEVER be more of a burden than that guy. Besides, the others really like you. It'll be better for everyone."
"O-okay. If you insist." Mayu hesitantly responds.
"Yeah. Once you spend a whole day there, you'll never want to leave. Guaranteed!" Tucker exclaims. With that, Mayu gets to her feet, still holding Wanta. "Come on Grif. We're heading home."
"Ugh, finally." Grif says before slowly getting off Mayu's stepfather who may or may not be suffering from a broken rib or two. Who knows. With that, the three left for the Maple Inn.
"Sir, thats the third round around the world and still no hide or hair of the Queen." Kurama reported to the Director.
"Not good enough Kurama!" Director Kakuzawa exclaimed, slamming his fist on the desk. "Need I remind you the fate of humanity hangs in the balance! If we can't have the Queen, then we need solid proof of her termination! I cannot accept anything short of that."
"I understand sir." Kurama says. "I'll make one more round in search of the Queen. Though I do have a request."
"Very well then." Kakuzawa says.
"I would like to have #7 as our tracker rather than #6." Kurama states. "She is far more co-operative and easier to work with as compared to every other subject we have held."
"#7 Huh? So be it then. Take number 7 and find the Queen."