Mobile Suit Gundam: Tekketsu No Kyojin

by Stryker. AJ

The Battle of Edmonton was won, though in its aftermath, Gundam Barbatos and its Pilot were lost in an apparent explosion caused by the Graze Ein that alledgedly destroyed them both. In actuality, however, it had simply sent the Gundam and its Pilot to an entirely new world, where they now fight for a new cause, and with new friends. (Slow burn story) (Hiatus)

6. Carolina

East Sector of Trost, sometime near midnight

Trost, and to a more drastic extent Shiganshina (before its fall), was, in short, not the most popular place in the twelve districts which the Walls of Maria, Rose and Sina held.

Situated on the southernmost side of the Walls, the southern districts were known to be the two hottest districts of them all. Ehrich, Sina's southern district, wasn't as hot as it was situated closer to the middle. Oftentimes than not, the temperatures would soar up to about ninety to eighty degrees on average, and on one recorded instance even went up to 104.5 degrees, though that was quite a long time ago and was a one time incident.

Because of these rather hot climates, most residents of the Walls preferred to avoid the southernmost districts. Originally, that did include Shiganshina, but as it is gone now, it probably wouldn't be. Strangely enough, however, the Eastern region of the southern districts, namely Trost, were a lot hotter than most other regions, leading to the comparatively few residents of the district in question to outright avoid it.

Of course, there were other reasons for the eastern sector of Trost being abandoned. Many superstitious residents claimed to hear the screams of Garrison who had fallen off the walls in the past and, more recently, the voices of soldiers who fell in combat during the Fall of Maria. They were rather wild claims, but they were prevalent enough to keep people away from the region if the sun hadn't done it already.

Somewhere in the east region of Trost stood a small barn. The thing used to belong to a rather experienced farmer who passed on five years prior due to old age, something that was incredibly uncommon in any region outside of Sina. Since then, the barn was left on it's own. There were plans made by the Garrison to tear it down, but they decided that it wasn't worth it, mainly thanks to the scorching heat and overall reputation of the area it was located in. So, the military left it as it was to slowly rot away.

However, the barn was much sturdier than they had anticipated, having survived for five years under the rain, heat, occasional flooding and windy days since it's abandonment, and it's rather uninteresting look and rather inconveniently secluded location made it the perfect place to use as a hideaway for any kind of criminal or random person looking to be alone. And eventually, it was used as such, though not by a regular resident of the Walls.

Instead, it was used to house what could arguably be considered the strongest weapon within the Walls, the ASW-G-08/F6, Gundam Barbatos Form Six, whilst also serving as a 'home' for it's pilot, Mikazuki Augus.

Currently, Mikazuki was sitting right in front of Barbatos, his back resting against the knee armour of his unit. And right in front of the boy was a small fire, its tiny flame just barely lighting up the admittedly large barn's interior. Augus had created the fire not too long ago with some loose pieces of wood he pried off the walls and by crashing two random rocks he found on the ground together until the sparks ignited the wood, an old technique he learnt back when Tekkadan was still CGS.

After he had created the flame, an admittedly small yet serviceable one, Mika sat himself down in front of it, with his Tekkadan jacket draped around him like a makeshift blanket. He was as silent as always and his expression was neutral, his cold blue eyes reflecting the glimmer of the flame as he stared at it, with his gaze alone threatening to snuff the small flame out. Whilst on the outside, the boy appeared to be devoid of life, inside his labyrinth of a mind, the boy was still feeling mixed emotions towards his current dilemma.

'How long has it been?' he thought, staring up through the huge hole in the roof of the barn, up at the night sky rather wistfully. The sky of this earth looked so… beautiful. Much better than the sky from the earth he was more familiar with, at least. Then again, he was only there for the better part of, what… three to four days. 'Three days…?'

Mika wasn't exactly too off course from the actual amount of time where he had been stuck here. In actuality, he had been here for five days in total, if one were to start counting from the night where he had first landed on the planet. Though to give him some credit, if he were to be extremely exact and count how many days he's been inside the district of Trost, he would have been here for more or less three days.

During said three days, Mika found himself feeling rather… hollow. Almost as though he were missing something. For about an hour or so after feeling it, Mika found himself confused as to why… but before long, he realized it… he was lonely.

Yes, the fact that he was on another planet seemed rather trivial to him when compared to his biggest issue, his lack of camaraderie. Over the past years of what Mika would consider to be his childhood, the boy had no form of camaraderie outside of whatever friends he had in CGS/Tekkadan. In his eyes, anyone from his group, be it new members or old comrades, with the exception of the CGS First Group (minus Dexter), were at least a friend, and at best, family. They were the only ones he could speak to freely and the only ones he could trust.

And now, they are gone. Probably lightyears away from him… perhaps even dead. What their current condition was, he will most likely never know, though he hoped that they were all right. He wondered if they were mourning his supposed death. It was likely, but he hoped not. He especially hoped that Orga didn't take his disappearance too hard as he still needed to lead Tekkadan down the path he had envisioned for it.

He still needed to lead them to the place that they belonged…

Rather abruptly, Mika violently shook his head, effectively ridding himself of those thoughts. No… he shouldn't be dwelling on such things. Doing so would only distract him from the present, he reckoned. He had no way of turning back time, no way to change what had happened, and he could only move on and try to survive.

Heh… survive. Just thinking that word made Mika chuckle as he rested his hand on an object beside him, his pistol, a gift from Orga. Wrapping his fingers around its grip, Mika raised it up to his cheek and felt the cold 'body' of the weapon against it.

It was one of his only remaining reminders of home, something which he used to defend his life on many occasions. And, rather ironically, he had nearly used the glorified hunk of metal to end it not too long ago…

---

Three days prior

It was dark, perhaps a little darker than Mika was used to, at least on (his) Earth.

Perhaps it was because this planet, which looked exactly like earth, was a little darker at night, or because of how high the moon was up… or perhaps it was because he was standing right underneath the massive eastern Wall of Maria, which shadowed the place something fierce. Whatever the reasoning was, Mika held little care for it as it kept him out of view. Not from the Titans as they seemed to be able to smell him or something, but from the humans.

Rather paradoxically, Mika was not hiding at all from the Titans, but from the humans who called themselves 'Garrison' and 'Survey Corps', according to what Mika overheard on occasion. They were rather strange names to him, but Augus supposed that Tekkadan was probably a strange name to anyone who wasn't part of it as well.

The boy knew that if he or Barbatos were spotted by any one of those soldiers, they would at the very least keep a very close eye on it, and at worst attack him, which wouldn't be too bad as Mika knew that his Gundam could withstand whatever they threw at it. But he knew that if they kept a close eye on him, it would ruin all chances of him being able to enter the Wall which was at the northern side of Maria. He had heard several soldiers call it Trost, so he decided to call it that from then on.

Turning towards the Wall in question, Mika snorted. The damn thing looked exactly like it's breached counterparts, with a massive gate smacked at the center of a fifty metre tall Wall. At first, he did think against infiltrating the Wall, seeing as how two of them were breached within a day. But he then considered that being inside the confines of a Wall which could be breached at any moment was probably better than striding out on his own as, if the houses within the confines of Maria were anything to go by, civilization did exist within these Walls.

Once he came to terms with that, Augus, rather quickly, formed a simple yet effective plan on how he'd get over that huge Wall. It was more or less similar to his original plan of getting into Maria before it was breached; he would wait until nightfall and, using the power of all the thrusters and pistons in Barbatos, leap his entire MS straight over the Wall of Trost. Now that he thought of it, he realized that he had never leapt Barbatos that high up in the air before, but he was pretty confident that his Gundam could make the jump.

And from where he was currently kneeling his MS at, Mika could vaguely see the top of Trost. It seemed as though the south and west sides were rather heavily guarded, with cannons being manned by several Garrison. The east side, however, was guarded only by a small handful of soldiers, all spaced out rather randomly. Mika knew that he could use it to his advantage as the soldiers were spaced out far enough to let Barbatos leap by them without much issue

After knocking a Five Metre Titan off to the side with the flat side of the Longsword and snorting at how far it flew, Mika crouched Barbatos down low as he began warming up all six of his Gundam's boosters. And, without warning, Mika activated all six thrusters at maximum power and jolted the leg units of his Gundam upwards. The force he used caused Barbatos to soar straight up into the air and leave twin Barbatos-sized feet indents in the ground in the process.

As he expected, Barbatos made the jump… a little too well as it was launched close to seventy metres up into the air, prompting Augus to wince a little as Barbatos reached the apex of its jump. To slow his descent, Mika activated the thrusters of his MS, something that did manage to slow his Gundam's fall rather dramatically, but even so, the impact still shook Mika up to some extent whilst also creating a shockwave that shook all of Trost and launched several thousand particles of dirt into the air.

After recovering from that rather jarring impact, Mika shook his head and looked around. Through his Mobile Suit's optics, the pilot saw that Barbatos was now kneeling in a rather grassy field, and there were no humans in his general location. Despite being rather secluded, however, Mika decided against standing Barbatos up to its full height to reduce the chances of him being found.

"The fuck was that?!" came a rather too far off voice that was just barely being picked up by his unit's local comm links, prompting Mika to turn Barbatos upwards to investigate. Zooming in on the top of the Wall, he noted that a small group of soldiers were staring at his landing point. Deciding to not wait around to be found, the boy immediately got his unit to move.

With the grace of a typhoon, Mika snuck Barbatos through the forested eastern confines of Trost, keeping his unit as low to the ground as he could manage as he moved it. He wondered if he should just leave Barbatos in a massive grove of trees, but he decided against it. Leaving his unit in a random place was not a smart move, even to Mika, as anyone could come across it by accident. No, he needed a structure… hopefully big enough to conceal Barbatos. It was unlikely that he'd find one, but he decided to not lose hope so soon.

After some time, Mika found what he was looking for. It was a rather large structure, perhaps twenty metres tall and wide, somewhat resembling a barn. It looked somewhat rotten through, with it's wooden walls looking as though they could break apart at any moment. Despite that, Mika thought it looked rather sturdy, and it was more than capable of containing Barbatos.

Standing his Gundam up to its full extent, Mika just barely saw that there was a fairly large hole on the top of the barn, large enough for Barbatos to go through without much effort. Deciding to use it as his temporary hideout, Augus crouched his MS down a tad before springing it up and in through the hole. Amazingly, Barbatos managed to get in with the greatest of ease. Once Barbatos was in, Mika positioned it in a kneeling position with both it's weapons by its side.

As soon as he got the Gundam situated properly, Mika wasted no time in attempting to contact Tekkadan with the unit's comm-links. He had spent hours upon hours trying his best to establish some kind of link with his friends, his family. He had held onto the idea that he was just in a different part of earth rather hopefully, though as time went by, Mika found himself losing hope. and by then the sun had begun rising. Every one of his fifty or so attempts to contact them had ended in him getting the message of No Signal on Barbatos' cockpit monitor, and by the time he gave up, Augus had more or less believed that he was on a seperate bloody planet.

His initial response to being possibly stuck on another planet, one which was similar, yet so different, from his own was to take a look at the only proper weapon he had at his disposal, his rather sizable pistol, gifted to him by Orga, with his cold blue eyes. It was rather obvious what he was thinking of; to end it all with a single bullet. The gun currently held twelve bullets, each able to at least heavily dent a piece of metal, definitely more than enough to punch a hole into the skull of a human.

For the briefest moment, he did consider it. Part of him thought that it was better to die right here than live on some twisted variation of Earth than to be stuck in it. However, he then thought of what Orga would tell him to do. Would his old friend, practically his brother, agree to him putting a bullet through his skull, or would he tell Mika to try his best to survive in spite of his predicament? It was a rather simple answer, as evident by the fact that he was still alive three days later.

Once he had come to terms with the fact that he'd be trying to survive on a planet which was essentially a carbon copy of a planet he knew very little of, with the only difference between it being those Titan things, Mika felt that it was necessary to at least know what his new… 'home' was like. So, after he got some sleep, the pilot went out to have a look around Trost, at least the eastern districts of the place.

Augus wasn't exactly surprised by the lack of people living in the eastern district. The sun there seemed to be enough to boil someone's blood in a metaphorical sense. Mika, on the other hand, knew how to resist it. After all, he's faced much hotter temperatures in his lifetime. Admittedly, however, Mika did feel hot enough to not bring his jacket on the walk. He never bothered to hide his Alaya Vijnana systems from anyone. No one really noticed anyways, and those who did didn't comment on it, even if some of the younger lads did point towards it on occasion.

In his walk around Trost, Mika saw nothing noteworthy. At best, the old-timey aesthetic of the district, at least the parts he's seen so far, reminded him of Chryse, with houses that were similar in size to those found in his old home. The houses had their brick walls held up by wooden supports and what seemed to be roofs made out of hay. The stores were also similar, with moderately sized stores selling food items, mostly bread, or some poorly made dolls. It was less than impressive, but it did give him a mild sense of nostalgia, though, so that was something.

In the middle of his walk, Mika had come across a rather sizable crowd. It seemed to be at least three times bigger than the entirety of Tekkadan, at least it looked that way. It didn't take much for Mika to guess that they were what remained of the residents of Shiganshina/Maria district/wall. If he were honest, it seemed rather small as he suspected that the huge group before him was at best one quarter of every resident from the breached walls.

At first, when Mika saw them, he paid them no mind. But he then noticed that the refugees were being handed free pieces of bread, and that was what caught his eye. Mika knew that he wouldn't be able to get any food, not without stealing, which would be a little difficult as he had never stolen much, even before he got into CGS. He also wasn't exactly good at working for money to buy food, as all the jobs he's seen thus far had something to do with selling stuff, something he had almost no experience in.

Deciding to take his chances, Mika joined the crowd of refugees. And, to his surprise, he was actually mistaken for a refugee of Shiganshina/Maria. Either that or the soldiers who handed the bread out, the Garrison at he heard they were called, couldn't tell if he was a refugee or not, meaning he could simply walk up to them and grab a piece of bread without much more than a glance from those soldiers.

The piece of bread which he had taken looked stale, but at least it looked edible and didn't seem moldy, though this was just judging by its appearance. Thankfully, when he took a bite, he found no mold inside. It did taste dry, however, sucking up all the water in his mouth. He rectified that by popping a raisin into his mouth and letting what little juice it still had rehydrate him. He managed to finish the piece of bread in five bites.

Augus found himself lingering by the refugee site as he ate the stale piece of bread. He stood a good distance away from the crowd, but he also found himself relatively close to a pair of soldiers. From where he stood, Mika could overhear a small conversation between the two. The first quarter and a half of their conversation didn't interest Mika in the slightest, but the last quarter had caught his attention.

It was a small conversation relating to the refugees. Most of what they said was usually them complaining about why they were here or grumbling about their duties. Now, however, they were speaking about what they could possibly do to them. They spoke relatively silently, so much so that Mika had to strain his ears a little just to hear them. They were speaking of possibly carting the expendable refugees, which Mika presumed to be the old or the disabled, off to try and retake the Walls of Shiganshina or Maria. It was the worst idea Mika had heard in a very long time, to say the least, and it was enough to make him shake his head.

As for those who were not expendable, which Mika assumed to be the moderately healthy or strong refugees, they would most likely be sent to the western side of Trost to tend to what the Garrison had dubbed the fields. Mika also overheard that those without identity papers which linked them to Trost, or those with no papers at all, had to either work in the fields or march to their deaths.

Mika admittedly began wondering if he would be bundled up with those who had no identity papers as, well, he didn't have any. Part of him didn't wish for that to happen, but the other thought the opposite as Mika, admittedly, wouldn't mind working in a field. After all, the boy did always want to start a farm of his own. That, and he was curious as to what a farm could actually grow, as his only experience with farm growths was corn.

On his second day here and just several hours ago, Mika further explored Trost, spending a solid thirty hours in total doing nothing more than walking around the district. He memorized the place to the best of his abilities and capped off his long walk off by going to grab two pieces of bread from the refugee site. One of the two had been eaten earlier that day, whilst the other one…

---

...was currently being eaten, with Mika nonchalantly taking several large bites out of it. As he chewed, the boy leaned his head up against Barbatos' knee and began wondering what Tekkadan was currently doing. He knew that, if Tekkadan were still operational, Orga wouldn't be that happy despite their victory. But he was rather curious on how the others took his disappearance. If he were someone else, he would have just assumed himself to be dead. He suspected the others did too. Whether they were lamenting his death or not was another topic all in itself. A select few would definitely lament his absence, but several others may not.

However, the one person whom he was worried about, perhaps just as much or even more than Orga, was Atra. He didn't know why, but he got a strange feeling in his stomach just by thinking about the little pink haired girl feeling sad about his disappearance. It just didn't seem right to him. Despite him never speaking of it, she was immensely important to him, important enough that he had stormed a building with armed, official guards just to save her. Little Atra was precious to her… and he'll probably never get the chance to tell her now.

As he sat there, thinking about the little girl, Mika felt a small, wet object slide down his cheek, trailing down onto his chin. At first, he thought it was raining, prompting him to look upwards expectantly, though when he noticed how there were no dark clouds above his head, he raised his hand up towards his face and wiped the wet thing off. And it was then when he realized that he was crying.

Strange, Mika never knew how it felt to cry, or at least he didn't remember when was the last time he did so. All he really knew was that it felt weird, feeling those droplets slowly slide down his cheeks, and strangely comforting too. He didn't know why, exactly. Perhaps it was because he thought of Tekkadan and it triggered the response, or maybe it had something to do with Atra. Or perhaps he was just accepting one rather cruel fact.

'I'll be dying here. Alone,' thought Mika, as he raised his head upwards, looking at the night sky. And, despite his rather unexpected tears and his current situation, however, Mika managed a small smile.

'But at least you guys can have a chance at living the way you want…'

---

Several days later

Mika did suspect that this day would come, but he never expected for it to be here so quickly.

Not long after Mika had arrived in Trost, roughly two days ago, he and at least a hundred refugees from Shiganshina and Maria were tending to the fields of the district. Despite the horrid weather and the rather unsavoury prospect of working in the fields, something the other refugees did grumble about, Mika found himself to be rather content with what he was doing. The pay was nice, too, though then again it could've been better than just bread…

Despite being a child soldier for a majority of his life, Mika's real dream was to eventually become a farmer… a weird goal to be sure, but he didn't really care about its general strangeness. The teen did have experience with farming thanks to the fact that Sakura Pretzel, an acquaintance of his, owned a farm. He even worked there on more than one occasion, and it was probably there where his interest in farming came into fruition.

When they were first carted off to the fields, the refugees who were tasked with tending to them were split up into various groups of differing sizes. Mika got a small group of at most thirty people, mostly children and young adults that looked close to being as old as himself. He made no effort to interact with any of them, and none of them seemed to try anyways, most likely because his flat gaze would send a chill up their spine so cold that it'd threaten to freeze it.

By his third day on the fields, Mika was more or less used to the experience. Planting and tending to them wasn't exactly hard, and his 'income' was serviceable. One and a half pieces of stale bread in exchange for about twelve hours of work seemed to be fair trade for Mika, that and free lunch was always neat, even if it was typically just some bread or a baked potato. Even so, food was food, so he couldn't complain.

During his breaks, Mika would busy himself with thoughts about Tekkadan while he ate whatever he was given, though he did his best to refrain from doing so for too long as it would usually cause him to lose his appetite. Other thoughts included him wondering about his possible future in this God forsaken place or him just absentmindedly wondering if anyone had accidentally stumbled upon Barbatos. It was unlikely, but not impossible.

Currently, Mika was on his own, as he usually was, secluded from his designated field group. The person closest to him was a black haired girl who lingered near him, unrooting a couple of carrots alongside him. Mika did vaguely remember seeing her multiple times in the past, and she seemed keen on sticking close to him for some unknown reason, though he never bothered to ask why, considering how she didn't attempt to speak to him at all.

If anything, Mika seemed to be more concerned that carrots were even edible. Before he got here, he thought they were simply the noses of snowmen, not food. That thought crossed his mind several times as he unrooted them, though as per usual, he was quick to backlog it as he tossed it into his issued sac.

After he unrooted another carrot, however, Mika heard a relatively soft yelp from behind him. Acting on instinct, Augus was quick to turn on his heel, sprung his arm out and wrapped his fingers around a wrist that was rather small when compared to his. It took him awhile to realize that he had just inadvertently saved a person from falling onto their back, most likely thanks to the rather muddy ground they were on, and it took him just a little longer to realize that the person he had saved was none other than the black haired girl whom lingered close to him.

The girl whom he saved seemed to take a moment to process what had just happened, and when she did, her cheeks almost instantly turned a soft shade of red. Mika, on the other hand, kept his expression neutral as he hauled her back upright. When she was up, Mika got a better look at her.

Her black hair was a lot thicker than what Mika was used to seeing and was tied up into twin ponytails that were slung over her shoulders. Aside from her hair, the girl had a pair of light grey eyes, a small, thankful smile on her face, and her height generally told Mika that she was about thirteen or fourteen years old, making her a year or two younger than him, even if she was almost as tall as him. Her attire was rather normal, a knee length teal blouse and a grey shirt.

After a quick look at her, Mika gave a soft snort as he shook his head. He didn't exactly care if she was alright, though he decided that it wouldn't hurt to ask, prompting him to speak up as he tossed the carrot he had off into their issued sac.

"Are you alright?" asked Mika as he turned away and tossed the carrot into the sac and snorted when it landed inside it. As he did, however, the Pilot missed the rather goofy smile on the girl's face as she replied, tapping her fingers together rather awkwardly in the process.

"Y-Yeah! I'm f-f-fine!" she replied rather awkwardly, tripping over her words as Mika stood up, holding a decently sized carrot in his hands. He didn't intend on answering, but he did at least give an acknowledging grunt in response. Once that was done, Mika expected her to move on and leave him alone, but to his mild surprise, she lingered around, making him occasionally turn to glance at her. She seemed to notice his occasional glances, as she kept tensing up whenever he looked her way, though to her credit, she did smile and wave at him in response to his constant glances.

After a few awkward moments of silence, the girl seemed to gather up all her courage and cleared her throat, prompting Mika to raise a brow as he glanced at her from the corner of his eye. The girl seemed to notice that she got his attention, prompting her smile to widen as she straightened herself out and continued.

"Erm… so…" she began, sounding just as awkward as one would expect. Mika didn't say anything about that, however, and she was quick to continue. "What's your name?"

Well that was unexpected. In Mika's experience, only new members of CGS, before it became known as Tekkadan, and Kudelia had asked for his name. Everyone else seemed content to call him a Rat. So to hear this girl, a complete stranger, ask for his name was definitely somewhat surprising. And apparently it was so surprising that Mika froze for a second, as he didn't notice the girl approach him and gently tap his shoulder. "Hey… you alright there?"

Shaking his head a little, Mika blinked and got himself out of his minor trance before nodding, raising a brow as he glanced towards her. "...yeah," he replied, before looking at the girl, considering if he should tell her his name. It wasn't a hard choice, as his name had literally no meaning in this place. No one knew he piloted Barbatos, so giving out his name wouldn't affect him in the slightest. So he answered her as simply as he could. "...Mikazuki, Mikazuki Augus."

"Nice name!" proclaimed the girl with a large smile and no trace of sarcasm, making Mika wince a little at how loud she was, though as soon as he processed what she said and the way she said it, Mika did think that she actually meant what she said. He was pulled out of his thoughts rather quickly when the girl placed both hands on her hips in a dramatic fashion as she responded. "Name's Mina Carolina, but you can just call me Mina!"

Mina Carolina, it was a simple name, one which Mika wouldn't find much difficulty in remembering, probably because her name was quite literally one letter away from being the same as what most people preferred calling him.

After the girl, Mina, introduced herself, Mika simply gave a grunt and a nod in response before heading back to work, clearly not interested in interacting with the girl. Mina, however, seemed keen on lingering close to Mika, assisting him in his area to the best of her abilities. She did inadvertently become an obstruction, though Mika was too amused by her rather childish attempts at helping/getting his attention to really tell her to leave.

For a long moment, both of them were mostly silent, simply carrying out their given duties with little interest in doing anything else. Finally, however, Mika spoke up. He didn't exactly mind Mina being close, but he still preferred to be alone.

"Shouldn't you be with a friend?" he asked, glancing at Mina with a raised eyebrow. Mina, on the other hand, looked at him with a somewhat confused stare. She then apparently connected two and two together after some time, or at least she thought she did, and responded.

"Not exactly," she admitted, stretching her back a little. Mika could hear a few pops as she did, and the black haired girl rolled her shoulders as she responded, sounding rather pleased with the cracks of her back. "Annie's back at home resting… so is Nac… I'm only here because I wanted to."

"You wanted to?" questioned Mika, an eyebrow raised as he asked. He didn't know why anyone who had no interest in farming would willingly work here, so he decided to ask out of natural curiosity, though right as those words left his lips, Augus found himself internally groaning. He probably just lengthened this meaningless conversation…

"Yep. I kinda felt bad for the refugees… and kinda volunteered to join…" admitted Mina sheepishly as Augus sighed internally, though he did pay attention to Carolina, if only to humor her. "Mum didn't exactly approve… neither did Nac… but I managed to convince them…"

Augus snorted at that little piece of information. It was a naive mindset, but he wasn't about to voice that out as he nodded. And, for another brief moment, neither one of them spoke, with Mina remaining awkwardly silent as Augus kept his trap shut in an attempt to stop any more potential conversation. However, when he realized that Mina was still here, he gave a sigh before speaking up once more. "...why are you staying beside me instead of trying to make new friends?"

"Come again?" said Mina, not quite getting what Mika meant.

"Why are you here with me when you can go make friends with other people?" repeated Mika in a more conventional manner. His question made Mina blink in apparent surprise, though before long she gave a gentle giggle before replying.

"Well…" she muttered, scratching the back of her neck rather awkwardly as she gave a crooked smile, one that made Augus raise a brow. "You… erm… you kinda just seemed… lonely, ya know? Everyone else has someone accompanying them… everyone but you. I felt a little bad and decided to at least stand close."

Lonely… that was a word Mika didn't expect to hear from the girl. He had expected some crazier reasons, not something as simple as him being lonely. And, as much as he didn't want to admit it, without anyone from Tekkadan to converse with, Mika was beginning to feel his sense of camaraderie slowly fade, replaced by a rather strange sense of loneliness.

It seemed as though Mika had frozen for a while, thinking about what Mina had brought up, as the girl in question had to wave a hand in front of his face in order to snap him back to reality. As soon as she did so, Mika blinked his eyes and saw that Mina was bent down a bit so that they were staring at one another at eye level. "You alright, Mika? You kinda spaced out there."

Mika's response to that was to quickly shake his head and grunt softly. When that was done, he refocused on Mina, who, to his surprise, looked somewhat concerned for him. And, strangely enough, Mika now felt rather differently towards her, with his usually cold gaze softening ever so slightly as he grunted. However, he quickly ignored both the look on her face and his new perspective of her as he responded. "... I was just… thinking about something."

That wasn't exactly that smart. He knew that if anyone were to use that as an excuse for anything, the one who they told it to would ask what they were thinking of. And, sure enough, after an admittedly adorable tilt of her head, Mina asked. "Of what?"

"Of…" muttered Mika, not entirely sure on how he should answer, so he improvised, pursing his lips as he rather mindlessly responded, only to seemingly regret his answer almost immediately after. "Of how… lucky you are."

"Lucky?" questioned Mina, tilting her head with a raised brow. And though she didn't notice, Mika was now silently cursing himself for saying that. But he didn't let his unease show, instead keeping his expression neutral as he improvised another reply, one that would hopefully not have the same outcome as the last…

"Ah…it's…" he began, looking away from Mina as he carefully chose his words, racking his brain as he improvised, only to sigh as he replied in a somewhat truthful way. "You… have friends. I only had a few back at… Shiganshina."

Mika needed a lot more effort than he had expected to not say 'Tekkadan'. The boy was still very used to uttering that name, and he needed to remind himself that it didn't exist here. However, Mina didn't seem to notice how he had to pause in between certain words. Instead, she seemed… well, sad. For what, Mika was unsure of, though he did also notice what appeared to be a small amount of guilt mixed in with her sadness

"Oh… right…" she muttered, looking away from Mika and down at her own feet. And for a surprisingly long moment, the girl stayed quiet. So much so that Mika assumed that the conversation was over and went back to unrooting whatever he could see, only stopping when Mina snapped her fingers rather loudly, making the boy turn his eyes towards her once more, sighing just a little in the process. This was, admittedly, getting rather annoying at this whole exchange. "Hey, I've got an idea!"

Mika did originally intend on ignoring her, though he was quick to change his mind, as he sighed and took a glance in her general direction, intent on humoring her by giving a mild grunt, though he probably let it out a little more aggressively than he intended, as Mina audibly gulped at that, though it didn't stop her from speaking.

"Why don't you be our friend?" she asked, smiling like a maniac as she spoke. Except unlike a maniac, her smile seemed genuine and non-psychopathic… almost as though she were actually asking Mika, a child soldier who killed hundreds even before becoming Barbatos' Pilot, to be her friend. Granted, she didn't know about that, but still, he was surprised that she offered him, a complete stranger to her, a welcoming hand of friendship.

Mika seemed to have frozen from surprise once more, as the boy ended up staring at the girl in slight shock for a few seconds, making Mina tilt her head to the side and raise one of her eyebrows. She was quick to snap her fingers in front of his face a little, effectively snapping him out of it. "...huh?"

"I asked-" repeated Mina, only to shut her mouth when Mika shook his head.

"I know," said Mika, cutting Mina off as he looked at her in mild shock. "...but why?"

"Why?" echoed Mina, sounding genuinely confused as she unrooted a sizable carrot and stared at it for a moment, almost as though she were considering if she should take a bite out of it. She then turned to face Mika. "Well, it's pretty simple. No one deserves to be alone, you know? And besides, you seem like a nice guy. I'm pretty sure Annie and Nac would like you… maybe Nac more so than Annie… but I don't think Annie likes many people anyways."

"...you're serious?" questioned Mika after staying silent for a moment or two, genuinely taken aback by Mina's sudden offer and seemingly genuine compliment , so much so that he ended up widening his eyes a little more than usual. That question, alongside his rather out of character expression, earned him a gentle chuckle from Mina.

"Why would I lie?" she asked, pointing the sharper tip of the carrot in her hand towards Mika in a somewhat teasing manner. Mika didn't flinch, something which the girl had apparently expected him to do, as she gave a rather disappointed sigh as she tossed her carrot into the nearest bag and extended one of her small hands towards Augus, making the boy raise an eyebrow. "I don't exactly have anything to gain by lying to you. If anything, I'd probably lose something if I did."

"And what would that be?" questioned Mika, gazing at her small hand with a raised brow as the girl gave a smile that seemed a lot more genuine than most that he's seen in his earlier life.

"A potential friend," responded Mina cheerfully, once again surprising Mika, who raised a brow at that. "You seem a little intimidating, I won't lie, but that's how everyone is when you first meet them. They're kinda scary and maybe a little mean… but below the surface, I'm sure you're a great guy, I just need to know you better!"

Frankly, that response shocked Mika, though unlike the past three times, he didn't freeze up from shock. Instead, he looked down at his feet, a little flattered that someone would say something like that. Sure, she knew next to nothing about who he really was, but by all means, he was a complete stranger to her, and for her to see as much good in him as she did… it was honestly rather flattering…

When he had first met her, Augus, admittedly, thought that Mina was nothing more than a naive young girl. And, while him thinking of her as a simple naive child hasn't changed, Mika was starting to see her in a new light, so to speak. Her naivety was irritating to a certain degree, yes… but her general politeness towards him and her mannerisms reminded him of someone, just a lot less nervous than he was used to… and it was almost enough to bring a smile upon his solemn face as he stared at Mina's outstretched hand.

For a brief moment, Mika averted his eyes up to Mina and stared with a newfound sense of camaraderie as she kept her smile fixed on him, oblivious as to what was on his mind as she asked a simple question.

"So, you gonna take the offer?" inquired Mina expectantly, smiling rather excitedly as she bounced a little on her heels. In response, Mika simply glanced down at Mina's smaller hand before lifting his own up to eye level. He clenched it a little, before huffing and looking down at Mina's. And, with a shrug, he accepted her handshake, only for Mina to widen her eyes with a small amount of surprise. "Whoa…"

Mika raised one of his brows as he looked at the girl in mild curiosity. "Hm?"

"Your hands… they're pretty big…" she mused, smiling as Mika released her hand and looked at his own.

That comment brought back some good memories, fond ones from a past life. Looking at his hand wistfully, Mika allowed a small smile to crawl onto his face as he nodded. And unbeknownst to him, Mina felt some heat enter her cheeks as she noticed that genuine yet small smile on his face. Instead, he opted to just stare up at the sky, his fist clenched rather tightly and held up against his chest.

"Yeah… I get that a lot."

---

Several days later

If he were absolutely honest, Mika had expected Mina to completely forget about him just one or two days after the two met and had apparently become friends.

One couldn't exactly blame him for that, however. Even before he had arrived in this Hellhole, Mika had issues with trusting others outside of Tekkadan. He knew from personal experience that almost anyone would try to take advantage of a child, especially one who looked as frail as him. Almost every 'friend' he had which wasn't from Tekkadan tended to leave him within a week of befriending him to pursue their own personal matters, either that or they would usually use him to further their own ambitions, teaching him that the term 'friend' was to never be used to refer to anyone outside of Tekkadan.

Mina, however, did the complete opposite of everything Mika had come to expect. The girl had not only kept him company for the entirety of the day they met, but she had also made a serious, and somewhat impressive (and perhaps a little creepy if Mika thought too much about it) effort at seeking him out and accompanying him every single day at the fields. Whenever he thought that he'd be alone, Mina would suddenly pop up from nowhere to kick that thought straight out of his mind.

At first, Mika had found her somewhat annoying. He wasn't one who enjoyed the company of strangers, and in his eyes, Mina was still considered one, even if she did remind him of a certain someone. But as the days flew by, with the days turning into weeks and weeks gradually evolving into a month, Mika had inadvertently found himself getting used to Mina's company, perhaps even taking a liking to the girl, something which surprised even him.

More often than not, Mina would talk to Mika about trivial things which he held little concern about but still listened to just to be informed, such as the state of affairs in Trost or how the mission to try and retake the breached Walls ended in spectacular failure, with that latter bit of info not surprising the pilot at all. He did pay a little more attention to her when she was talking about herself, however, more because of a small amount of respect he held towards her than anything else.

Over the next two weeks since the two had first met, Mika learnt that Mina was raised by only one parent, her mother. She never knew her father, which technically made her half of an orphan, and she came from the neighboring district of Karanese, coming here out of necessity. Her admiration of the soldier group known as the Survey Corps wasn't too hard to notice, as she tended to focus all her conversation topics around them. Part of him suspected that she intended on joining them, though he could be wrong. He also remembered her talking about Nac, Annie and her mother rather fondly on several occasions. She considered her single parent to be a literal angel and her friends to be the greatest in the world, if her tone of voice was anything to go by whenever she spoke of them.

By the third week since he befriended Mina, Mika found it rather routine for him to be talking to the girl, or rather listen to her as he much preferred to let her do most of the talking. He found her company rather welcomed by then, especially since it helped him cope with his current dilemma. However, he didn't expect her to ask one rather awkward question which he had no way to answer.

"Hey, Mika?" asked Mina rather abruptly during one of their field works while they plucked some corn off their stems. Mika didn't look at her, simply giving a grunt of acknowledgement as he tossed a rather sizable cob of corn into a basket. He would have worried about it breaking on impact, but he's harvested enough corn to know that they won't break that easily. "I was wondering… and uh, you don't have to answer this question if you don't want to… but… erm… do you have any parents?"

Mika's response was swift, so much so that Mina was . "No."

"Oh… were they…" she said, before stopping, a little uncertain if she should continue. But Mika knew what she was about to say and cut her off almost immediately.

"I never had any," he said in a nonchalant tone, accompanied by an equally nonchalant shrug, prompting Mina to widen her eyes to a rather impressive extent. She did always have a gut feeling on that… though she didn't think that he'd be so nonchalant at admitting it. "At least, I don't remember them."

"You're an orphan…" muttered Mina, barely audible as Mika nodded and rolled his shoulders. Mina had apparently thought it to be a sign of irritation, however, as she immediately began waving her arms around rather apologetically, much to Mika's amusement. "S-Sorry about asking… but… you're… how can you be so calm when telling me that…?"

"Because it doesn't matter if I'm an orphan," responded Mika as nonchalantly as usual as he took a quick sniff of a corn he had in his hand. That one sentence managed to cut Mina off rather effectively as he continued on, this time with the intent of messing with Mina a little for his amusement. He reckoned that for once he may as well be the one being mouthy, after all. "Does me being an orphan matter that much to you?"

"N-No! Wait… I mean… yes! Well… uh…" was his immediate answer from Mina, who began waving her arms frantically as she struggled to respond. Mika was amused enough to snort as he gave a nod and went back to his business, with the gesture being more than enough to tell Mina, who had picked up on quite a few of Augus' social cues after a few weeks of being with him, as she mellowed out a little and tapped her fingers together awkwardly. "Do… do you have a home?"

Her response was a rather harsh huff from Mika. He knew that it wouldn't be smart to tell her the truth, as the barn he used to hold Barbatos was technically his new home and he'd rather not let anyone know about it, so he lied straight through his teeth.

"No."

Mina didn't seem surprised by his answer, but she still had a look of sadness stuck on her face. It was soon replaced with a thoughtful look, however, followed by an expression which told Mika that she had just thought of something which was supposedly smart, something that was somewhat confirmed when she snapped her fingers triumphantly. "Hey, Mika?"

"Hm?" muttered Mika with a raised brow, sounding somewhere between curious and annoyed.

"Why don't cha' come live with me? Or, with us, rather!" asked Mina with a somewhat sly, yet still friendly, smile. Her question made Mika raise his eyebrows, surprised that she actually asked that as it was the last thing he expected her to even inquire about. He had apparently froze up once more while staring at her, as Mina had to snap her fingers in front of his face in order to break him out of his minor trance. "You there, Mika?"

"Huh… yeah," said Mika with a nod, feeling a little more awkward than usual as he scratched the back of his neck. "... are you sure?"

"Well, yeah!" replied Mina with a wide smirk as she placed her hands on her hips. "My mom wouldn't mind. I mean, she let Annie and Nac live with us… and she really enjoys talking to them! And honestly, I think another boy would be pretty good, since Nac's the only boy in the house right now… pretty unfortunate for him…"

Mika gave an acknowledging, and somewhat amused, grunt. Nac's situation seemed to mirror Atra's, as she was technically a girl in a sea of boys whenever she visited them before CGS became Tekkadan.

"So, you up for that?" asked Mina, waiting for a response. Mika, on the other hand, took a moment to think about this.

It didn't exactly take long for Augus to find his answer to Mina. He felt as though he's been with Mina for long enough to know that she didn't intend on doing anything malicious to him, mainly because she looked as though she couldn't even harm a fly even if she tried her best, and she had earnt at least a small amount of his trust. That, and living in an actual house, no matter how shoddy it could be, would be better than spending the rest of his days inside a barn, sleeping inside the cockpit of Barbatos.

"... but I'm an orphan, and we met not too long ago. Why trust me so much to the point of inviting me to live with all of you?" pointed out Mika, intending to test Mina's sincerity. Though, to his surprise, the girl giggled.

"I probably should've mentioned this, but Annie and Nac are also orphans, and I trusted them enough to invite them much sooner than I invited you! And honestly, if I knew that you were an Orphan sooner, I would've given the invite much sooner," stated Mina with one index finger in the air, and Mika raised an eyebrow in mild surprise, not expecting Mina's mother to already have two orphans alongside her actual daughter under her wing. "So in a way… I guess you could say that me and mum are used to having Orphans with us. Annie's also like you in a few ways…"

Mika simply raised an eyebrow at the girl, mildly interested in what she meant. "Meaning?"

"She acts a lot like you, y'know?," said Mina, quick and straight to the point. "Not talkative and not very friendly… and…"

When she said 'not very friendly', Mika swore that Mina's face paled by at least ten shades as her voice trailed off, seeming almost as though she wished she didn't say that. Mika simply looked at her, somewhat confused by her sudden silence, though before long, he snapped two of his fingers in front of her face, a trick he learnt from Mina herself. It worked pretty well, as Mina snapped out of it almost immediately, flailing her arms all over the place as Mika watched in mild amusement. After a second or two, Mina seemed to regain her bearings and clear her throat.

"W-Well… erm… forget what I asked," she muttered, scratching the back of her head in a mixture of nervousness and embarrassment, something that amused Mika a little. "D-Do you accept…?"

"Sure," was Mika's response, quick and simple, but when she heard it, Mina gave an adorable fistbump which Mika couldn't help but smile faintly at.

"Alright!" proclaimed Mina with a victorious smirk as she pointed to a location not too far from where they stood. Turning towards where she was pointing, Mika saw that it was the entrance/exit to the fields. "I'll meet you over there at sunset. See you then?"

"Count on it," was Mika's reply, not sounding too enthusiastic, but perhaps a little more so than he usually was.

Though what he didn't expect was that him accepting Mina's invitation to live with her would be perhaps the smartest move he made in this God forsaken place.

---

A couple of hours later

True to his word, Mika had waited for Mina at the entrance/exit of the fields. The girl, on the other hand, had not shown up for a while, making Mika wait for about ten minutes. On a regular day, Mika would be able to wait for hours on end without an issue.

However, that was if he was fully awake and with a full stomach. Currently, it was rather late, with the sun about to disappear at the corner of the earth, and his hours of admittedly tiring work were catching up to him, so much so that he had to rub his eyes to keep himself from sleeping while standing up. He was thankful that he brought along his Tekkadan jacket, as the air of Trost was rather cold when night fell, a harsh contrast to how hot it was in the morning.

Finally, after about thirty minutes after the sun had set over the horizon/top of the Wall surrounding Trost, and after Mika had nearly slept whilst standing up for the third time in a row, the boy finally heard Mina's voice in the distance, accompanied by the sound of her sprinting towards him. Quickly, the boy shook his head and looked towards where Mina's voice came from and saw the girl racing towards him at a rather worrying pace, looking breathless yet still somehow ecstatic. When she came to a stop in front of him, the girl looked ready to pass out from exhaustion, though she instead slouched down and propped her hands on her knees in an effort to try and keep herself upright. For a moment, Augus thought about smacking her on the back, something that would apparently help calm someone down, though before he could, Carolina held up one of her fingers and spoke up.

"S-Sorry… Mika… needed… permi-" she stopped to catch her breath, as well as indirectly stopping the boy in question from possibly dislocating part of her spine. "Permission! Needed… permission from mum…"

That explained why she took so long to get here, Mika supposed as he offered a nod. And with that, the two began the trek to Mina's home, something that was generally uneventful, consisting of several turns, with Mina at one point walking into a dead end by accident (or so she claims) and having to cross a bridge. Mina tried several conversation topics along the way, all of which Mika held no interest in but still listened to just to humor her.

After about ten minutes of walking, and after learning about an incident within Wall Rose's residential southern village, namely Dauper Village, involving a girl known as Sasha having stolen a basket of bread and feasting upon them like some rabid animal/Titan, Mika and Mina found themselves in front of a modestly sized structure, at least when compared to most places Augus has seen in the confines of the Walls, anyways.

Roughly as tall as Barbatos while it was kneeling down, though not as wide, the modest little brick house was held upright by a couple of wooden planks. From what he could see, there were two levels to this house, as evident by the small window near the roof, and a decently sized window right next to the door of the house. Said door appeared to be partially rotten through and in need of either some serious repair or be outright replaced. There also seemed to be a small balcony on the second floor, with some clothes lines positioned on top.

His examination of the house was interrupted by Mina when she cleared her throat, a sound that prompted him to turn and face her before he raised a brow at that somewhat nervous expression she had on her face, leading Mika to think that his opinion on her house would end in life or death, and if he said he didn't like it, she would spontaneously combust right there and then. That thought was more or less confirmed when she, somewhat shakily, asked: "So… erm… whaddaya think?"

Mika simply shrugged at that. It was similar to a lot of the house's in Chryse, so it wasn't exactly impressive by any stretch of his imagination. But at the very least, he supposed that it was alright, so he gave a shrug, not noting how Mina was holding her breath up till that point. "It's nice."

Upon saying that, Mina released her breath and smirked rather proudly, confusing Mika to a certain extent as he tilted his head to the side. Mina gave a chuckle at that as she scratched the back of her head, making Mika's confusion increase by tenfold as he raised a brow up his face.

"Well," said Mina once she was done staring at Mika's admittedly adorable confused expression, holding a finger up to her cheek in order to emphasise her words. "Let's not stand on ceremony! Come on!"

And before he could say anything else, Mina seized Mika's wrist and dragged him towards her house's door. Her strength, despite her small frame, did surprise him to a certain degree, and while Augus knew that he could easily stop her in her tracks, he allowed her to pull him in just to humor her. Mina only stopped when they were right in front of her house's door, and she swung it open rather intensely before spreading her hands apart in a dramatic fashion, most likely to show off the interior of her home.

Admittedly, Mika found the interior was better looking than the exterior. It wasn't too cramped despite what what the exterior would suggest, with a decently sized couch over to the side, a somewhat sizable wooden table with two normal looking chairs alongside two more which looked to be haphazardly slapped together with sticks and string, and what appeared to be a kitchen area with an old fashion stove and a box. The stairs which led to the second floor seemed to be nearly rotten through, just barely holding together, and there seemed to be a smaller room to the side, most likely a bathroom.

Mika, in spite of his usual attentiveness, did not notice the lady who was approaching them from the kitchen area until she was right in front of them. The moment he did, however, he almost immediately turned and fixed his attention squarely on her, even if he had to crane his head up rather intensely just to look the person in the eye.

Standing somewhere close to Chocolate Guy's height, and perhaps around the 30 to 34 age group, the lady looked rather similar to Mina, with thick black hair and some rather fair skin with just enough wrinkles to signify her older age. Her eye colour was similar to Mina's grey, though perhaps a tad darker, and she wore an ash brown shirt and a long, medium brown skirt, both of which looked to be hand sewn, most likely by herself. Atop her attire was a dark grey apron which may or may not have been sewn back together multiple times if the random patches of cloth was an indication of anything.

"Hiya, mum!" greeted Mina as soon as Mika noticed the lady before them. The lady, Mrs Carolina, as Mika decided to call her from then on, simply smiled in response and gave Mina a gentle, hearty pat on the head, ruffling up her hair in the process, making the girl blush in embarrassment, though she didn't voice out her apparent discomfort outside of a simple pout. Mika, on the other hand, watched with a small amount of amusement and perhaps a small amount of envy, though he disregarded the latter feeling rather quickly.

Once she was done ruffling up her daughter's hair, the older Carolina turned to regard Mika. The boy watched as the lady eyed him from the tip of the ahoge on his head all the way down to the soles of his CGS/Tekkadan issued combat boots with a hint of suspicion in her gaze, most likely due to how Mika seemed more than a little threatening in her eyes. He didn't think too much about it, however, as the worst that could happen was her kicking him out of her home, something that Mika was expecting to happen anyways.

And as such, it was more than a little surprising when Mika saw that Mrs Carolina had allowed a warm smile to grace her face not too long after she finished examined him, and even if it did look partially forced, there was an undeniable hint of warmth to it… one that made Mika feel… off, to say the least.

"Welcome home, Mina," was the first thing that left the woman's lips as she kept her gaze on her daughter with a warm smile. Mina returned the expression, smiling as though she had won something, before her mother turned back to Mika. She still seemed wary of him, though it didn't show too much as she smiled warmly at the boy. "And I assume that you are Mikazuki Augustine?"

Mika ignored the misinterpretation of his last name and simply gave a nod. Mina also nodded to confirm that with the added measure of correcting the minor naming mistake.

"Ah… I remember my daughter talking a lot about you. I do apologise for misnaming you however. I admittedly didn't catch onto the specifics of your last name," apologised Mrs Carolina as she bent forward to look Mika in the eye. And Mika thought that the smile on Mrs Carolina's expression went from being somewhat friendly and morphed into a more juviel, playful look. Mina herself began glowing bright red beside him. "I'll be honest, the way she speaks of you… it's almost enough to make me think that she views you as her boyfriend."

For a second, no one spoke. Only silence hung in the air, silence so absolute that it was practically deafening, with both Mina and Mika taking a moment to process that information. But after that single second was up, the redness that overtook Mina's face emerged in an instant, with the colour threatening to overtake her entire face as it turned a shade of red which was so extreme that Mrs Carolina thought she had given her daughter a fever. The only thing stopping her from placing the back of her palm against her daughter's forehead was Mina swinging her arms wildly and yelling at the top of her lungs.

"EEEEEEEH?! MUUUUUUM!" she exclaimed, her red face threatening to somehow turn five shades deeper. The sudden yell made Mika flinch a little while Mrs Carolina tried calming her daughter to little avail, though in Mina's defence her mother was also doing her best to hold back laughter.

Once Mina had calmed down a little, even if her face was still red, and after Mrs Carolina gave an apology, she turned to Mika with a mildly apologetic smile. "Sorry about that," she said, scratching the back of her neck with a rather sly, open mouthed smile. "What I meant to say was that my daughter tells me about you every day after her work in the fields."

"She does?" questioned Mika as though nothing had happened, an eyebrow raised. And for some reason, Mrs Carolina seemed a little surprised by his voice, most likely because it sounded a little gruff for someone as young as him. But her surprise left as soon as it came, replaced with her friendly expression.

"Why, yes!" replied Mrs Carolina, smiling and cupping her hands together, ignoring the embarrassed look her daughter was giving her as she continued speaking. "Every day, Mina comes home and tells me about you… she says that you're an attentive listener. On top of that, she tells me that you're incredibly headworking, considering how often you visit the fields. Oh! And-"

Rather rapidly, the older Carolina began listing down the things which her daughter had told her about Mika. While the younger Carolina was visibly embarrassed by all that info as she made an attempt to shut her mother up by waving her hands around in an embarrassed manner, Mika showed no signs of it. In fact, he seemed perfectly calm with all this new info, much to Mrs Carolina's surprise, as the lady had expected him to at least be a little flattered by all that, not to simply stare at her blankly as he listened.

"...and just an hour ago," continued Mrs Carolina, her tone and expression slowly turning a little serious as she looked at Mika, her wariness of him showing through a little as Augus raised a brow. "Mina told me that she invited you to live with us."

Mika gave a shrug and nodded impassively at that, and Mrs Carolina seemed to consider her words rather carefully from there on as she rubbed her chin. Her eyes narrowed themselves rather intensely as she examined Augus closely, with Mika simply giving her glare his usual flat stare as a response, something that unnerved her ever so slightly, something that almost made the older Carolina decline right there and then.

Even so… the pleading expression on her daughter's face, aside from the embarrassed blush on her cheeks, stopped her from outright saying no. Allowing Annie to stay with them was already rather worrying to the woman, considering how lifeless she acted, and having what was essentially a boy equivalent to her was not helping anything. Still… Annie wasn't too bad after she had warmed up to her… so Mrs Carolina supposed that it would be fair to give Mikazuki a chance as well.

So, with a decisive nod of her head, she reluctantly muttered out: "I suppose that… I could allow you to stay with us for some time."

Mika's response to her was to raise a brow, genuinely surprised that Mrs Carolina had actually said yes, though his attention was drawn away from the older woman when the younger Carolina literally leapt up into the air and gave a loud "WOOHOO!". And within a second, she seemed to realize what she had just done and chuckled awkwardly, prompting her mother to chuckle as well while Mika stood where he was, confused towards her enthusiasm over all this as he tilted his head a tiny bit to the side. Families were truly a strange thing…

"Ha… well, erm… sorry…" apologised Mina sheepishly as she looked between her mother and Augus rather awkwardly as she fumbled over her words, causing Mrs Carolina to giggle a little as she patted her daughter's head gently, something that made her redden in embarrassment as she waved her hands in dismay, prompting Mika raised a brow in amusement as he watched her pout. Heh, how cute… "Hey, mum, could I… erm… show him around?"

Mrs Carolina's reply was a small smile and a nod. "Go right ahead, darling."

With that said, Mina seized Mika's wrist and dashed up to her room on the second floor, ignoring the rather worried expression which her mother gave her all the while.

"Ah, the joys of being young…"

---

Mina/Nac/Annie's shared bedroom

According to Mina, Nac, Annie and herself all shared a room with each other to conserve space in their small house, a reasonable decision if Mika were honest. The room they shared was one of the two on the second floor of the house, with two small beds inside. One of the two was a double deckered and one which was single. Both were held together with a lot of strings which varied in thickness, and the top bunk of the double deckered bed seemed to be hastily stuck on instead of being part of the original bed frame, something which made it very precarious looking.

Over by the only window in the room was a bedside table, a very wobbly one at that. It held a single, oil powered lantern which had more cracks than most things Mika's seen back at Tekkadan. Outside of the beds and the aforementioned bedside table (and the lamp, maybe?), there were no other pieces of furniture in the room, though there were several pieces of paper scattered about the floor.

When she had entered, Mina first turned the lantern on. The tiny flame lit the room up to a surprising degree in spite of its size, and as soon as Mina was sure that it wouldn't go off anytime soon, she took a seat on the bottom bunk of the makeshift double deckered bed. The bed visibly squeaked under her weight, but thanks to some divine miracle, it stayed upright. Mika himself opted to just stand in the middle of the room, unsure of he should test his luck and sit on one of the precarious looking beds.

When Mina suggested he sit on a bed, Mika only half listened to her, as he leaned back and dropped his rear down onto the floor in front of her. Mina did try to get him to take a seat on a bed, though he would decline every time, with him not wishing to pay her if his weight had ended up breaking the beds. Not that he even had any money to pay her anyways…

"So… erm…" muttered Mina after an uncomfortable few minutes of silence, making Augus look up and face her. He noted that she seemed to fidget a little more than usual, clearly anxious and perhaps a little apologetic. For what, he currently didn't know. "Yeah… sorry about the way my mum acted back there…"

Ah… so that was it. At that, Mika simply raised his brows, having not expected Mina to notice the way her mother seemed to distrust him. He himself did notice, but he didn't bother bringing it up, and he honestly didn't intend to. Even now, his only real reply to Mina was a mild shrug alongside a subtle grunt which told her that he didn't mind the way she acted towards him. However, Carolina didn't seem to get it, as evident by her curious blink, and to that, the pilot scoffed a tiny bit as he responded verbally.

"It's fine. I was expecting it anyways," assured Mikazuki empathetically as he shrugged, surprising Mina quite a bit as she tilted her head a little, though at that, she chuckled a little.

"Jeez, I forgot just how passive you can be," quipped Mina with a small smile as she leaned back on her bed and laid down atop it. For a brief few seconds, she simply stared up at the ceiling as she gathered her thoughts for the allotted time, and before long, she spoke up once more, catching Augus' attention once more as he raised a brow. "But… mum is a little… let's just say… cautious around some people. I guess you're among that group of people, for better or for worse…"

Mika got the basics of what Mina was trying to convey to him. Mrs Carolina was not one to trust so easily, something which could be an issue if he was trying to live in her house. After all, despite what one would think, Mika would prefer to stay within the confines of a wooden house instead of the interior of a half broken barn, and as such, the boy decided that he would take his chances at earning the older Carolina's trust.

"...but hey!" continued Mina, smiling ever so cheerfully at Augus, who was quickly snapped out of his minor trance as he turned to face her, with the pigtailed girl now sitting upright as she spoke. "If my mum can warm up to a girl version of you, however slightly, then I'm sure she can do the same with you!"

Upon saying that, Mina appeared to have expected Mika to give out a laugh, or perhaps a chuckle or even a small smile. Unfortunately for her, however, while Mina did have a good grasp on Augus' personality… she had yet to realize that Mika had a tiny, practically nonexistent, sense of humor, and her rather tasteless joke had completely gone over his head, making her sign in defeat.

'Least he didn't make fun of me for that…' Mina thought before she regained her cheery mood, clapping her hands together energetically, an act that made Mika raise an eyebrow in mild confusion, not knowing that Mina intended on telling and showing him everything which she currently had with her until she was either out of things to talk about or passed out from exhaustion.

"Hey, Mika?"

"Hm?"

"Mind if I tell you a story…?"

"...sure."

"Alright! Here's one about a girl called Mary and a lamb!"

---

Two hours later

Mrs Carolina trusted her daughter, yes… but even she had her limits when it came to that, and as of now, she found that trust being stretched rather thin as she sat on the living room couch, still unsure on if she should leave little Mina alone with that Mikazuki child.

For the past two hours, the woman found herself fretting over the possible consequences of leaving her daughter alone with that boy whilst sitting on the living room couch, ready to leap up off her chair and charge up into her room at the first sign of trouble. If anything, it felt rather similar to the day Annie had first stared living with them, ironically enough. However, if anything, Mrs Carolina felt that she was just a little more worried about this Mika child than she was about Annie, and she suspected that it was because of how… well, lifeless Mikazuki was, even when compared to the blonde.

While, yes, Annie was certainly rather emotionless, the blonde could still be rather emotive from time to time, being able to express surprise, sorrow or even regret whenever needed. She would act annoyed whenever irritated or show confusion if a joke flew past her head rather well, and on at least one occasion, Mrs Carolina swore she saw Leonhardt give a soft chuckle.

Mikazuki, however… he was something else entirely. On the surface, he appeared to be nothing more than a simple male copy of Annie, to say the least, but something about him unnerved the older Carolina enough to put her on edge, more so than Leonhardt at least. Staring at Augus… it felt almost like staring at a walking corpse, and she suspected that his eyes were the main reason as to why she saw him as such.

Annie's eyes, while rather blank, were unmistakably the eyes of a child, or rather, they were eyes that shone with life and sparked with juvenile passion in spite of all that she had been through… something that couldn't be said for Mikazuki. Mina may not have noticed such a detail… but as for her mother, the only thing she could really see in Mika's eyes was the loss of innocence. The child in him seemed to have been lost long ago, now replaced with what Mrs Carolina thought to be a killer…

And the prospect of allowing a killer to live with them, let alone be in the same room as her daughter, was not appealing to her.

The sound of footsteps snapped Mrs Carolina out of her mild trance, and without missing a beat, she turned towards the staircase and raised her brows when she saw the very boy she was thinking of walking down from the second floor. She had initially expected her daughter to be walking down, so seeing Mika was a little surprising to say the least.

Mika himself spared Mrs Carolina a quick glance before he moved to sit on the couch, roughly an arm's length away from the woman, who remained silent as she eyed his every movement. Augus definitely took note of her staring, as evident by how his eyes narrowed quite a bit when their eyes met for the briefest of moments, forcing her to look away as a shudder went up her spine.

Yeah, definitely the eyes of a killer…

As soon as his foot hit the ground of the first floor, Mika walked towards where Mrs Carolina was at, something that made her feel rather nervous as he approached her general location, though she noticeably relaxed a little when he simply sat down quite a bit away from her on the couch, with his rear meeting the flattened cushions of the couch before he let out a soft oof and leaned up against the backrest, his eyes closed as he leaned his head back. Mrs Carolina eyed the boy closely, unwilling to keep him out of her sight for too long, something that Mika didn't seem to mind or care about as he kept his eyes shut.

Rather abruptly, Mikazuki's eyes cracked open, something that made the woman wince a little. And then… she paused briefly when she noticed something… different with Augus. Gone was the gaze she had seen quite some time ago, the gaze that she had associated with a murderer… with it now being replaced with what appeared to be a rather… sad stare at nothing, and it made Mrs Carolina raise her brows in mild surprise.

That look he currently had in his eyes went against everything Mrs Carolina had thought about him for the past two hours, and within a second or two, she began wondering… was the boy beside her simply putting up a facade… or…

"You're staring," came Mikazuki's voice rather abruptly, snapping the older woman out of it as she widened her eyes and turned to face the boy, only to wince ever so slightly when she saw his cold gaze. However, after a short while, the woman soon noticed how his eyes expression softened, if only by a small amount, prompting her to raise an eyebrow in mild surprise.

"I-" began the woman, only to cut herself off as she bit her lower lip and instinctively outstretched her hand towards Augus as she spoke. Mika himself didn't seem to notice this until the older woman's outstretched hand made contact with his forehead. Turning towards her once more, the pilot raised a brow as he felt the woman brush aside some of his bangs to get a better look at his eyes, and for the briefest of moments, the two of them locked eyes as the single mother's gaze softened a little.

Perhaps it was because Mika looked rather tired, or Mrs Carolina herself was, but the woman found herself seeing Augus in a somewhat different light. His gaze seemed much softer now, and Mrs Carolina began seeing him differently… not as a killer, but a child who was struggling to do his best to survive… one that had everything taken away from him but still refused to lay down and call it quits.

"Mrs Carolina, what are you doing?" inquired Augus after some time as he raised an eyebrow. He was curious as to why she was doing this, though he didn't really mind enough to swat her hand away. Even so, she ended up wincing at his question, the woman in question retracted her hand and awkwardly tapped her fingers together as she attempted to get an answer to his question. Thankfully for her, however, Mikazuki was worryingly patient, so much so that she was given more than enough time to fumble for a response whilst he fixed his hair a little as he waited.

"There… was something in your hair…" muttered the older woman rather lamely as she attempted a smile, one that made Mika raise a brow apprehensively as he rubbed the top of his head curiously. "D-Don't worry though, I got rid of it!"

"Ah…" was all Mika said as he gave a mild yawn, prompting Mrs Carolina to wince when he didn't cover his mouth. Before she could voice that out, however, the pilot spoke up. "Does anyone happen to sleep here?"

"The couch?" muttered Mrs Carolina, confused. She didn't know why Augus rather abruptly asked such a strange question out of seemingly nowhere and was left momentarily puzzled at that, prompting her to blurt out a continuation. "Uh… no… but why-"

"Ah. I'm sleeping here," cut off Augus as he fluffed up one of the two pillows on the couch, seemingly leaving no room for an argument if the tone of his voice was anything to go by. His response was for Mrs Carolina to raise her brows at him as he began removing his Tekkadan jacket, though right before he could slide it off his shoulders, the woman spoke up.

"Wait… what?" muttered Mrs Carolina, her brows raised as Augus turned to glance at her. He was admittedly surprised when he saw that she seemed to be genuinely concerned for his sake, though he said nothing of it as she continued. "The couch is not the best place to sleep…"

"Then where would be better…?" inquired Mikazuki, and what he said and the way he worded it reminded the older woman of something…

"The ground?" deadpanned Annie, frowning deeply as her bangs shielded her left eye from view. She had said it with little emotion, and yet… as a mother, Mrs Carolina could tell that there was a small, practically unnoticeable amount of sadness behind her words as she averted her gaze from hers.

"I know you don't trust me," added Mikazuki, leaning forward ever so slightly as he raised an eyebrow, brushing away the bangs that had fallen over to shield his left eye, and his voice… it was…

… it was as monotonous as ever, though a small amount of emotion still managed to crack through it, prompting Mrs Carolina to widen her eyes ever so slightly. Annie, on the other hand, continued speaking. "You don't trust me enough to sleep with either Mina or Nac…

"... so I'm going to sleep here," finished Augus, frowning mildly as he turned to face her before adding on.

"Unless you change your mind, of course."

Blinking at how Mikazuki had nearly recited what Annie had said to her mere days ago, Mrs Carolina found herself biting her lower lip as a small amount of guilt began tearing at her heart.

And, at the same… she found it almost funny. How this boy was almost a literal reflection of Annie Leonhardt, a stoic, usually emotionless teenager who was more than they let on. And, much like Annie, Mrs Carolina felt that she was judging this Mikazuki boy a little too harshly.

At a glance, he seemed like a cold hearted young man, but… much like Leonhardt, Mrs Carolina suspected that there was more to him than that, and seeing his cold facade break away to show a seemingly broken and beaten young man, even for the briefest of moments, was enough proof to her.

So, with that in mind, and after taking in a deep intake of air, she spoke up, deciding to go with her maternal instincts once more.

"Nac and Annie won't be coming home until tomorrow. They'll most likely be spending the night at Bertholdt and Reiner's place… so…" muttered Mrs Carolina rather awkwardly as she turned to face Augus, who, much to her surprise, did appear mildly surprised by her sudden statement, almost enough to get the woman to giggle at how jovial he appeared, especially when compared to how he was earlier today, before continuing. "You can have Nac's bed for the night…"

"...but-" began Augus, only to be cut off by the woman.

"No buts, young man!" whisper shouted Mrs Carolina, who was already beginning to speak to the boy like her own son as she turned and gave him a rather stern look, one that amused him to say the least. "You're still young, and sleeping on the couch is no good for your posture! So you will take Nac's bed for the night, am I understood? I will look into a new bed for you tomorrow!"

"...alright," was all Mika could really mutter out, feeling a small amount of shock run through him as he stood himself up and began making his way up the stairs. Whilst his back was turned towards Mrs Carolina, however, the boy did pause for a brief moment, before he turned his head ever so slightly and muttered out-

"Thanks."

That one word echoed in Mrs Carolina's head in both Mikazuki and Annie's voice, creating a mild reverb effect as she gave a small nod. Augus returned the gesture as he walked up the stairs, leaving the woman to her own devices as she clenched a hand close to her heart.

'I really am a hopeless mother,' thought Mrs Carolina meekly as she heard Mikazuki open the door to her daughter's room before shutting it. And, in spite of her current conflicted situation, she couldn't help but give a small smile.

'Even so, having another boy wouldn't be so bad…'

---

As you can see, this chapter contains very little stuff regarding Barbatos. In fact, it's almost 90% human characters. Now, a forewarning, the next few chapters will NOT be containing any Mobile Suit action, namely the next 6 chapters. That is because it will focus on character interactions and Mika forging bonds between his new companions. This chapter covered the Carolinas. The next few will cover the other two.

This chapter is probably a little messy… alright it's very messy. I wrote this in an awkward time during my Preliminary Exams. What? Ya didn't know? Currently, I'm in my National Exam year. This year will determine my future. So if I don't update too frequently… you'll know why.

On another note, I recently got Overwatch. I main Reinhardt, as you can probably tell. Names StrykerJ. If you wanna play alongside me, please, stay behind my shield.

Onto some replies now.

---

Ulydace: it's probably my fault that it's underrated. I did reboot it after all. The original was a lot more popular. And the idea of Barby being a deviant will be touched on in the next chapter… not to spoil anything.

CrazyCriticer46: *counts* 10361 words, including the outro

Glasses Writer: ah shucks, you make me blush. And the bullies I go against are kinda gone, so I guess I got lucky. And dang. I will pray for you.

Now I shall away. It's 1 in the morning… see ya whenever I see ya.

---

Bonus

Some undetermined time after after C6

Absent-mindedly staring at Mikazuki and Mina who sat not too far from her, Ms Carolina smiled as her daughter spoke enthusiastically to her newest friend, who, as she had said, was a great listener.

While she watched, Ms Carolina couldn't help but feel that Mina really did like Mika, at least in the same way that she liked Nac and Annie, as in as good friend.

Or perhaps…

'Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to have some fun~' thought Ms Carolina with a sly smile as she cleared her throat, prompting Mina to stop talking to Mika and turn to face her mother. Augus did likewise, and they raised their brows when they saw that smile on her face.

"Since Nac and Annie aren't here, I guess now's a good time as any to ask you two this," began Ms Carolina with a suggestive tone and smile. Mina and Mika looked confused at that, and it only made Ms Carolina smile wider as she asked her question. "You two seem close, close enough that I'm beginning to wonder if either of you like each other in that way?~"

Mika and Mina both took a second to register that question, and when they finished processing, the former raised a questioning eyebrow while the latter slapped both her cheeks and screamed like a banshee.

"MUUUUUM!" protested the younger Carolina as she zipped towards her mother and shook her by her shoulders. Her current embarrassment overridden her usual politeness, though Ms Carolina didn't seem to mind as she was still smiling as her daughter shook her. "PLEASE DON'T SAY THINGS LIKE THAT!"

"Why though? Mika doesn't seem to mind," pointed out Ms Carolina, prompting Mina to stop momentarily and turn to look at Mika, who was staring at them in amusement and confusion. However, Mina didn't seem to care much as she went on to shake her mother again.

"WHAT ABOUT ME?! I MIND A LOT!" protested Mina, and as she did so, neither she nor her mother noticed the odd expression on Mika's face, one which seemed to resemble a smile.

'Adorable…'

Edited on: 28/8/2021 during army deployment