By the time Grif and Tucker brought Mayu home, everyone was already seated at the table, awaiting supper.
"So, how'd the job hunting go?" Washington asks. Silence. "Right..."
"So, how'd the search go?" Simmons asks. Silence.
"Haha." Grif laughs.
"It's fine. Don't feel too pressured." Kouta assures them.
"Anyways, welcome Mayu." Yuka greets the little girl. "Feel free to make yourself at home."
"Th- Thank you, but I don't want to be a burden." Mayu says.
"It's no trouble at all really. It would just be nice if you help clean every now and then." Kouta says.
"Oh okay." Mayu hesitantly says.
"Anyway, what are everyone's plans for the weekend?" Yuka asks. Silence. "Really? You guys don't go out and do anything on the weekend?!"
"Lady, listen. We spent most of our time in a hot ass canyon with nothing to do." Grif says. "Of coarse no one developed any hobbies."
"Actually that's not true!" Donut exclaims. "Back when we were in Blood Gulch, -"
"Anyway, did you have something for us to do?" Simmons asks.
"Huh? Oh, no. Nothing in particular." Yuka says with a smile, clearly avoiding something. "You guys are free to just hang around here for the day so long as you don't destroy anything."
Everyone minus Kouta, Yuka, and Mayu looks to Caboose.
"Huh? Do I have something in my teeth?" Caboose asks.
"We'll be fine. We'll watch over him." Church says.
"Oh... um yeah." Yuka responds.
The Next Day
"Hmm, shouldn't Kaede be up by now?" Simmons asks himself as he lounges around.
"I dunno. Why do you care?" Grif asks.
"It's just, she's always up at this time. In fact, she gets up before we do." Simmons points out.
"Yeah, so she does." Grif says in his usual I don't give a shit attitude.
"Hmph, I'm gonna go check on her." Simmons says, getting up.
"Yeah, you do that." Grif replies. Simmons walks up to the door of Kaede's room.
"Uh... Kaede? You okay in there?" Simmons nervously asks. Kaede simply opens the door and pears at the maroon soldier curiously.
"Nyu?" Nyu asks.
"Oh... um, hi Nyu..." Simmons greets.
Nyu looked to Simmons curiously. First, she woke up in this strange new place and now Simmons looked different. Nyu touched his arm. It felt like when she touched her own arm instead of the metal she usually felt.
"Nyu?" She questioned again.
"Oh, I guess you never saw me out of armour." Simmons realized. By then, Tucker comes strolling past.
"Hey Kaede, Hey Simmons. Have you seen Wash around?" Tucker asks.
"No." Nyu shakes her head. Unlike Simmons, she had seen Tucker out of armour, so it was a relief for her to see something familiar. "Nyu?" She asks. Who was Wash again?
"She's Nyu again?" Tucker questions
"Yeah. Did she ever tell the others about her shifting personality's?" Simmons asks.
"Nope. Only told me to not tell." Tucker answers.
"That seems like it would cause some problems." Simmons says.
"Thats what I said!" Tucker exclaims.
"...whelp, have fun with that." And like that, Simmons leaves.
"Hey, hey hey! You can't fucking leave me to deal with this myself!" Tucker exclaims. Footsteps approach.
"Hey Tucker, whats with all the yelling? And, uh, is Kaede available today?" Kouta asks.
"Nyu? Nyu?" Tucker hears muffled through the door.
"Uh, actually, she's not feeling well right now." Tucker says. "Maybe try again later?"
"Oh... thats too bad." Kouta says, honestly saddened. "Please get well soon Kaede!" He yells behind Tucker before walking off.
"Nyu! Nyu!" Nyu's voice can barely be heard. Meanwhile, the alternate personality's mind was in overdrive. Who was that person? Why did he sound familiar? Why did she get this strange warm feeling inside her when she heard him speak, similar to when she was with Caboose. It sparked something in her brain, she was in a water fight with a little boy and from her perspective, she was about the boys hight. She was never that short though, was she? Almost as soon as it came to her, the memory ended, leaving Nyu with an alien feeling she couldn't describe.
Tucker then entered her room.
"Nyu! Nyu!" Nyu exclaims.
"Okay okay! Calm down." Tucker tries to assure her. "I'm sure your confused by the new place.
"Yes." Nyu confirms.
"Long story short, we got stuck and some kind people are letting us stay here with them." Tucker explains.
"Nyu?" Nyu says. "Nyu!" She heads for the wall Tucker cane out of. She liked meeting new people.
"Wait, hold on!" Tucker holds her back. "I kinda promised Kaede that I wouldn't let said people know about the split personality's thing..." he trails off.
"Nyu?" Nyu questions, eyes watering. Why would her other self not want the nice people to know about her?
"Hmm, how am I supposed to go about this..." Tucker says to himself. "I know! Nyu, I'll be right back, stay here!" Tucker slides the wall open and slips right through. Nyu inspected the wall Tucker left through. It was like some weird door!
Tucker spent a few minutes looking around the house before finding who he was looking for.
"Hey, Mayu!" He calls out to the newest housemate.
"Uh... y-yes?" Mayu nervously replies.
"Could you come here to help me with something?" Tucker asks.
"Uh, sure." Mayu replies with determination. With that, Tucker brings her to Kaede's door.
"I need you to help me with something involving Kaede. Its something I promised her but I'm gonna need help to keep it." Tucker explains.
"Okay, what is it?" Mayu asks.
Tucker quickly looks both ways before looking back to Mayu. "Kaede has a split personality and doesn't want Kouta and Yuka to find out." He whispers.
"Don't worry. Yuka took Kouta out somewhere today." Mayu tells him. "Whats Kaede's other personality like?"
"We call her Nyu since thats what she says a lot of the time. She's very child like." Tucker explains. "I think its best you meet her." With that, he opens the door, exposing Nyu and Mayu to the sight of each other.
"Nyu?" Nyu says to Mayu.
"You're... Nyu right?" Mayu asks. The way Kaede's eyes looked was different.
"Yes!" Nyu exclaims. "Nyu?" Nyu points to Mayu.
"You... like my shirt?" Mayu asks. Nyu shakes her head. "Oh, who am I? I'm Mayu."
"Nyu!" Nyu hugs her new friend Mayu. Mayu hugs her back.
"Nice to meet you, Uh, Nyu." Mayu responds.
"Yeah, cutesy stuff and all, can you help me look after her?" Tucker asks.
"I can. But you really should tell Yuka and Kouta. It's best for them to have to be told of her condition rather than find out first hand." Mayu says.
"That's what I said! But Kaede insists I not tell them. I don't remember her saying not to tell you so..." Tucker trails off.
"Okay. How hard can it be to look after her?" Mayu questions.
"Got starters, I think she's left the room." Mayu whirls around to find Nyu absent.
"Oh no!" Mayu cries.
"Oh shit." Tucker groans. The two run out to find Nyu happily expiring the place, running around like a child after moving in to a new home. "Well, I guess this isn't so bad."
Nana twitches in excitement as the scientists coldly put her into a dark dress. Papa said he was going to take her out to explore the world! She had only heard of it from what her papa had told her, and she was eager to see it for herself. She looked down, excited about wearing clothes like papa and the other scientists.
She fantasied of all the things she and her papa would see together. All the people wanted in return for this was for her to tell them if and when she sensed another Diclonius. That would be easy enough. She would do that and make her papa proud and explore the world at the same time.
"This is gonna be the best day ever!" Nana happily exclaims.
"Quite." One of the scientists harshly responds.
"Sorry." Nana says sheepishly.
Sarge was walking back down the the hall when he spotted Nyu on the floor taking apart the old grandfather clock.
"Heh. Just like me when I was growing up." Sarge smiles. Mayu passes through and sees the mess.
"Oh no! After I told Tucker I would help look after her! She broke it and made a mess!" She panics.
"Nyu?" Nyu asked, confused about Mayu's behaviour.
"Oh relax. Yuka did say the clock was broken. Nyu here just wanted to fix it." Sarge exclaims.
"Nyu!" Nyu nods in confirmation of Sarges words. Tucker comes in and sees the mess.
"Please tell me you did this." He looks to Sarge.
"Of coarse not. Our little girl is learning how to fix the mechanical wonders of the world." Sarge explains.
"I don't care if she's using the parts to fix Optimus Prime! We gotta clean this stuff up before Kouta and Yuka get back.
Nyu looked at the mess around her. She understood the word clean and knew what to do. With the help of the other three, they quickly shoved all the parts back into the clock, loose or attached.
"Are you sure this is okay?" Mayu asks.
"It's broken. They aren't gonna notice a thing." Tucker assures. "Sarge, bring Nyu to her room and keep her there."
"Sorry, I don't take orders from a blue." Sarge quickly replies.
"Please just do it. It's for Kaede." Tucker says.
"I cans do it." Mayu elects. With that, she takes Nyu's hand and leads her to her room. Mayu closes the door and looks to Nyu. "Sorru Nyu, But Kaede doesn't want yo to meet Kouta and Yuka for some reason.
"W-why?" Nyu asks. She liked meeting new people. Why couldn't she meet those people.
"I don't know. I can ask Kaede for you when she's back and when you come back I can tell you." Mayu suggests.
"Nyu!" Nyu says before enveloping the smaller girl in another hug.
Not long after, Kouta and Yuka arrived, the latter with a smile that looked hard to wipe off. The two met up with Tucker and Sarge beside the clock.
"Hey guys, how was your day?" Tucker starts.
"Pretty good." Kouta answers. "Everything okay here?"
"Yup! Everything is A-Okay!" Sarge exclaims in a strange tone. Kouta raises an eyebrow to this but brushes it off.
"How is Kaede? She feel any better?" Kouta asks.
"She's better just now well enough to come outside." Tucker says.
"Aw, that's too bad." Yuka responds
"Hopefully that will change by tomorrow." Tucker says.
"Yeah." Kouta agrees.