I'm back, sorry I was gone for so long, going almost 6 months without an update was not my plan, but life became busy for me and so writing had to take a back seat for a while. For those interested in what I was up to, I was working on my artwork and animation project along with making a DeviantArt and patron that are both still in the process of being tweaked. I also had college so there is that. The story has a new cover, since I myself am a visually inclined person and I figured some of you are as well so I drew Tatsumi as he currently looks in the story with his ponytail and hoody, this picture along with the others I've been working on will be on my DeviantArt which I'll post the link to in the next chapter; So the next update should be out soon. Fair warning nothing really important happens in this chapter as it is mainly a flashback of sorts for Tatsumi, but the next chapters that proceed it will advance the story much farther, at a reasonable pace of course. So with that out of the way, enjoy.

Chapter 2 – Just a Dream

Waking up with a light start, emerald eyes fluttered open as Tatsumi found himself in an interesting predicament. Now said 10 year old was currently staring at the ceiling of the admittedly very lavish room with only one inquiry at the forefront of his still foggy conscious mind.

"How?"

A question that he asked himself more than anyone else as the only other person from whom he could receive the answer from was currently in the thralls of sweet slumber. He presently found himself in what he could only describe as a foreign environment, and by foreign environment he meant a bedroom that was far more posh and luxurious than the shed transfigured into impromptu separate living quarters that was his shack. He felt a myriad of sensations at the moment but the most prominent ones to stand out was a soft comfort, a warm touch, and oddly enough a chill in the air that was not at all uncomfortable as it managed to balance out the seasonal summer heat, the cover that cradled most of his body and the warmth that emanated off his current bedmate. Speaking of aforementioned bedmate, she and the place he finds himself in is where the origin of Tatsumi's question stem from.

Through his short existence, Tatsumi could wholeheartedly say he has rarely ever put himself a situation that was inherently compromising, that was Ran's job, and she would do it out of boredom or just to get a laugh on most days. So when he found himself where he currently was he had to really stew on the position he was in. Tilting his up slight he was rewarded with the soft-featured face of the pale skinned girl, Esdeath; someone that Tatsumi was growing more convinced was going to soon become an ever constant part of his new life in the capital; For better or for was worst was of course yet to be decided. From the distance between them or lack thereof, Tatsumi could make out a content look that marred her face while also taking the chance to notice that his ponytail had been undone allowing brown to mingle with light blue as their locks lay sprawled out around them. Both of the girl's arms were bond around his neck as they pulled his head into her maturing assets which admittedly were ample enough to serve as a comfortable resting spot. One of her legs had wrapped itself around his waist and upper thigh and a cover lay atop about halfway up both their bodies. Basically she was using him as a pillow and from the peaceful sleep she seemed to be enjoying a comfortable one at that.

"Well, this is happening." was his blunt assessment of his current predicament. Still, it just didn't add up, he thought back to that morning's events, from the time he woke up to the scant few hours he had until he passed out after his final attack in his skill assessment. He went over it repeatedly in his mind but no matter how he crunched it he just couldn't get how 2+2 had come out to equally 10, how it was possible for the short interactions he had with anyone that day to lead to this as the end result.

"Welp, nothing to be done now, not like I could move anyway." which was absolutely true, not because he couldn't remove the girl who was currently pinning him down if he really wanted to, but because he literally could not move any part of his body, save for his neck. It was a form of 'punishment' for pushing his power to far, the lowest form he could receive for doing so; his body shutting down completely and then being paralyzed after waking up. It was annoying being stuck unable to move right after waking from a dreamless slumber, but it was leagues better than the price he pays for going beyond the first stage drawback.

"I overdid it huh?" He thought as he reflected back to his match with Budo. If there was one thing he could say about it it was that he was easily outclassed. True to the objective of anyone seeking only knowledge out of something Budo's main goal in that scuffle was to observe Tatsumi's strength to gauge his overall potential, which he managed to do despite being an active participant in the 'fight' and the target of his assault in their exchange. He stood and took blows with little effort and blocked or dodged when it wasn't wise to do so; all with, from what Tatsumi could glean from his demeanor, minimal exertion on his part. Even when he activated those gauntlets of his, it was only because it was the wise course of action and not because he perceived Tatsumi as any real threat. Even with his final attack, Tatsumi could tell something was off. Using lightning himself in many different ways for both offence and defense he could tell just at a glance that the lightning armor he applied to himself would have been more than strong enough to handle his attack, yet, he chose to match Tatsumi's twin plasm railgun with a technique of his own, one that he put just enough power into to make sure the two colliding attacks would cancel each other out. Why was a question he was more than likely never going to get an answer too.

One thing he did know though was that had that been a real fight, had they been enemies on the field of battle, there would be no talking, be no time to prepare his assault, no time to pull out trump cards and switching between forms. He would be dead, even if he was not going all out and wielding Ran he could tell he would be shut down before he could even make an attempt had Budo's first instinct been to kill.

With a sigh, Tatsumi put away the topic for now as his mind wandered to something Ran told him before. It was after he had taken her and start on his journey to the capital during a time were the memories of that day were still very fresh in his mind. It was a lesson, one that Ran saw important enough to drill in his head, and one she had sought to teach in a 'trial by fire' sort of manner.

-1 year ago-

Screeeech…

On the coast of an island that lie in the middle of the ocean somewhere some ways away from the mainland was a large avian danger beast that lay in a crumpled heap on the beach. It let out a low weak screech, impaled through its neck by Ran, not deep enough to kill it but she didn't need to be as she continuously coursed lightning through its body to keep it immobile.

'You look so beautiful right now master' she gushed in delight despite the agony he was experiencing. 'Like a wilting flower awaiting its next blooming season.'

A little ways away adrift in the shallow part of the ocean by the island's beach was Tatsumi. He could not talk, could not see, could not hear, but he could feel everything and no matter how much he wish for his mind to give out, for there to be a reprieve to this anguish, none came. Floating in the water bloodied and broken and dying the sea red with his blood, was his emaciated from, but this state wasn't do to the danger beast, it was the result he got when he overused the power stored in his body. His bones felt as if they were being ground up, whole organs felt as if they were melting inside him, muscles ripping apart, all of this happening as his body healed itself and the haze of dark blue bubbles that signified the healing process wafted of his form and into the sky above. A continued hell of having to feel your body destroy itself in the worst ways imaginable only to heal itself at the same time repeatedly over and over again.

'I bet you are curious as to why I made you do this?' she threw out a question she knew he could not answer at the moment, her playful tone still present even through his suffering. 'The answer is simple… the only power that you will be able to count 100% of the time is the power you yourself have at your immediate disposal.'

Tatsumi attempted to glance in her direction through his pain, emerald eyes that were slowly reconstituting their selves managed to take in the tridents form before exploding in a mess of bloody gore. Ran noticed the brief exchange he tried to make and managed to guess what the child was attempting to convey.

'Aww to think we've gotten close enough to the point where we only need just a look to understand what we have on our minds' she teased before her voice grew serious 'Tatsumi, you are only as strong as you allow yourself to be, though it is true that I am your weapon and that together we are stronger there is no guarantee that I will always be at your side. The moment I am knocked out of your hands that power will no longer exist, in short, it is false. However the power that is inside you is constant, every present, it is the strength you will always be able to rely on no matter the situation you find yourself in. The only way to gain more is to push past your limits and use the gift I've given you to the fullest.'

She paused to allow what she said to settle into his mind. The power they had together isn't real? It sure feels real when they work in tandem with one another, but if there is one thing that Tatsumi learned about Ran, it was that she was a lot wiser than she'd let you believe.

'So my dear sweet master, savior this pain, for through this pain and struggle you will grow stronger, through feeling this hell more power will be obtained. I look forward to seeing how well you'll grow from here.'

"Through pain and struggle huh?" He mused with a soft hum thinking about the power he held. If he hadn't lost village, his family, had he not suffered through that pain, Ran would not be with him today, so in a way her point was made, at least when it came to convincing him it was. However thinking back on it he couldn't help but think she had a deeper meaning at the time.

Tatsumi took the chance to glance at the window as best he could with his limited neck mobility, to see it was still dark out, probably early morning, maybe around 3 am? He focused back on Esdeath's soft breathing as he felt the continuous upward and downward movement of her chest in conjunction with her heartbeat in his ears. It was calming. So much so that he let his eyes shut once more and steadied his breath slowing allowing himself to lull back into slumber.

"I'm not getting up anyway, might as well have a rest on my own terms this time"

"..tsumi…?"

….

"Tatsu…ear..e?

….

"Tatsumi!"

"Huh!" he jumped with a shrill shriek as he fell out of his chair a land on his behind with a thud and the clatter of wood hitting wood.

"Geez kiddo, you spacing out on me again?" a man of impressive build with short yet unruly brown hair, a goatee, and deep blue eyes asked.

"Ouch." he said rubbing his backside "sorry dad, I guess I did. What were you saying?"

"I said I was going for a haunt in a few minutes and asking if you wanna…"

SWOOOSH!

"….tag along…"

In the blink of an eye the boy dash with comically fast speed, a dust cloud left in his wake and an after image of him where he stood, before returning back with his haunting and a supply bag on his person.

"What are we waiting for? LET"S GO!"

The older man couldn't help but smirk at his son's antics, as he prepared the last of his gear and made way for the door.

"Someone's awfully excited today."

"Of course! Because today's the day I catch bigger game than you old man." He proclaimed puffing out his chest.

"Suuuure, just don't be disappointed when you're old man comes out on top." Grabbing the handle to the door the older man couldn't help but feel like he was forgetting something, then the room felt as if it had gotten a few degrees colder and a chill went up his spine.

Tatsumi didn't notice the sudden change in mood as he practically skipped towards his father and the door, only for him to notice a shimmering flow of silk-like blonde hair flit past his vision, and feel the sudden pain of something tug against his ear as he was forced to abruptly stop mid-stride.

"Haru dear~" the women who had Tatsumi's ear in a vice practically sang with a sickeningly sweet smile on her face, her very voice making both males present pale "I know very well that you are aware that today his Tatsumi's study time~ now you wouldn't happen to be undermining my plans for our son…" She exerted the effort to punctuate her question with a pointed glare directly into Haru's eyes, Lime green jewels promising a harsh punishment if the man so much as twitched wrong, let alone gave her an answer she was not satisfied with. "…now would you?"

"Oops, looks like I completely forgot haha…ah." Haru said as he tugged on the collar of his shirt and gave a nervous chuckle while avoiding the women's gaze.

The boy stared at the women, his mother, as she continued to fix his father with that icy stare of hers, making his dad involuntarily twitch every time her eyes looked him up and down. A long pause followed his father's statement as they all just stood there, the two men awaiting the women's verdict.

"…"

*whimper* *gulp*

"…..Silly Haru, you know we haven't changed his schedule, you big goofball you" She beamed as her once sharp eyes softened into ones fill with something akin to childlike wonder and she playfully slapped the man near 3 heads taller than her on the arm lightly as she released the grip on her son's ear. "Silly Haru!"

A sigh of relieve was released as his father's rigid body lost most of the tension in it. "Sorry Yuno," He told mom as he turned to me. "Guess you have to wait till next outing huh kiddo?"

"Come on Tatsumi, I have 5 books with your name written all over them~"

'Knowing her she might have actually spent the time to write my name all over the cover of those books' Tatsumi thought as he looks at his mother's smiling face. 'At least she's in a good mood or dad might have had some broken ribs'

*sigh* "geez mom, 5 of them today, that doesn't sound fun at alllllll~" he groaned before whispering "going out to hunt is way better."

She must have caught it as she replied "Remember Tatsumi a foolish hunter can always be taken unawares by craftier prey, the roles can always be reversed. You're not a foolish Hunter are you?"

"No, that's dad." he said pointing to his father without looking in his direction.

"Hey!"

"Exactly, which is why we're going to strive to avoid you being anything like your dunce of a father." She said as her smile grew even brighter.

"HEY!"

"Oh, you're still here dear? Didn't you have a hunt to do?"

The man's eye was twitching as the two people he loved the most were opening insulting his intelligence in his face.

"I'm leaving!" he shouted as he opened the door with a slightly irritated look on his face grumbling "a man gets swallowed whole once and he never hear the end of it" referring to the time he did indeed get swallowed by a large danger beast before slamming the door.

"Were we a bit too hard on him?"

Yuno simply waved he hand at the question. "Your father's a big man, I'm sure he can take a few blows to his ego." She turned on her heel and beckoned him to follow. "Come on we've both got work to do."

He stared at his mother for a moment as he tried to prepare himself for the mind-numbing task that was his 'study time' as she liked to put it. Yuno is a woman of slightly below average height and a very voluptuous figure with long blonde hair that goes down the length of her back and darkens into a yellow-green at its tips. She has eyes that are of a far lighter shade to his own with a complexion a shade or so fairer.

Her attire consists a cherry red dress shirt that is tucked into a black business skirt a bit higher up her waistline with a black bow tied in the collar, dark black leggings, black high heel shoes, and a freshly cleaned pure white lab coat. A women most would consider a beauty or as she would put it 'way out of his father's league' her most prominent facial features is a perfectly circular mole just under her left eye, thicker than normal eye brows that actually didn't detract from her looks, and eyes that when sharpened put a chill in the hearts of even a danger beast that faced her glare but when softened gave her an almost juvenile look.

A wave of her hand from her retreating form beckoning him to follow was all it took to break him out of his unenthused stalling, as he ran straight to for her back. As if already prepared for what was to come his mother simply took her abundant amount of hair and tossed over one of her shoulders into her front as she felt small hands latch onto her lab coat and climb up her back until a tiny hand and head peered over her shoulder.

"Seriously since when did I start raising a monkey?" she commented as she gave him a slide glance.

Tatsumi blew a raspberry at her and she poked him in the forehead with a smile on her face in retaliation which made him return it with a toothy grin of his own. A book shelf about six feet in height near the back of their home is where they ultimately stopped. He watch as his mother lifted one of her hand up and began tracing a dainty finger across the spines of the books on a shelf that was eye level with her, it only stopping when it reached a book with a navy blue cover that was leaning to its side slightly as this particular shelf was not packed full enough to keep it from leaning. Her next actions were very meticulous, grabbing the book she had her finger on she placed it on the shelf above the one it was on previously 3 spaces away from the left side of the shelf then she grabbed another book off of that shelf that just so happened to be laying on its back and placed it on the lowest shelf only she placed so the book upside down, then she repeated the process several more times with some books being placed page out rather than spine out on the shelf, books being tilted to lean on others, and some being stack so that their backs were against the back of the shelf so that the cover would face you. One last repositioned book brought with it a clicking sound and the shelf began to sink into the floor revealing a metal door behind it.

The door opens up to a large stairway that would take them down to were they needed to go. As they made their descent Yuno dug into her pockets and pulled out three things a bag of gummy bears, a box of pocky, and lastly a hand full of lollipops.

"Hungry?" she asked opening the gummy gears first.

"Pocky and lollipop." He answered simply and said items were handed to him.

It didn't take long to arrive to their stop, a large underground research facility were his mother did most of the analysis for her field work. Unlike everyone else on the island she wasn't native, rather she was a researcher who came to study the bizarre weather patterns and varying species of danger beast unique to the island they inhabited. Supposedly this subterranean laboratory was of her own design and was funded on her dime, though Tatsumi didn't really ask how it came to be because it's been here for as far back as he could remember. Expensive looking equipment, an archive of data put to paper, and danger beast cadavers from which she would do dissections floating in glass containers in some kind of unknown liquid.

What was her true purpose? Did she do this to satisfy her own curiosity or was it more of a routine like task that had to be done? Tatsumi suspected the former considering how happy she looked doing her work and discovering anything new. Climbing off of her back he made way towards were he knew she left the books she wanted him to read, setting on a desk in an area that looked something like a library was the material that was picked out for him. He never knew what he would get because it was never told to him before hand, but more times than not the books covered varying education subject matter. Thus far Tastumi has studied mathematics as high as advanced calculus, science that went into physics, meteorology and advanced biology, history dating back to the times of the first emperor, and medical study that started off as basic but was quickly ramped up so much in level that by this point Tatsumi could be a certified doctor in any field of practice based solely on his knowledge and understanding alone; all of this at the tender age of 8. What attributed to this the most was the fact that he could speed read through most material given to him, only really needing a glance at a page to gather its information, and that he had a near photographic memory that retained the things that he read and allowed him to review it later in his mind.

1 hour of practically scanning over every page in the books assigned to him and a few brief summaries written down as his prove that he not only read but understood the subject matter given to him marked the end of what his mother wanted out of him. Taking the opportunity to stretch his arms upward over his head and take a deep breath tatsumi looked over his shoulder to take a look at what his mother was up to. The women seemed to moving with amazing speed between her multiple documents and a very large table with a huge danger beast strapped to it. Narrowing his eyes at the operating table Tatsumi could see the beast chest was heaving in up and down motion.

'A live specimen?' he thought. Such things were rare as his mother preferred to work with most of her subject post-mortem, though she has dealt with live subjects from time to time.

After jotting down a few more things onto one of her clipboards she pulled a lever and the floor opened up next to the operating table, a low hum starting to sound as a glass case filled with medical equipment rose up; How she came up with the idea to have her tools rise out of the ground like that escaped him, but she did tell him that it involved some intuitive thinking and some literal inventing on her part. Now if only she could invent a way for them to get down here without taking an annoyingly long flight of stairs each time that would be great.

'I wonder if she realizes yet that that's the reason I have her piggyback me kukuku' he said in his head, an evil laugh coming with the thought.

A repeated beeping sound flared as the case stopped raising and a foggy mist went off inside the case, a sign of the decontamination protocol going off to sanitize the equipment before use. She smiles as the case opened with what she would call a satisfying *Shwoooosh* -ing sound, again another impressive show of her mind as that to was something she invented for convenience sake. Her hand twitched in anticipation as she reached for something from the case but before she took the item she was reaching for she glanced in his direction and a smile bloomed across her face.

"Tatsumi." She called as she waved him over.

Tatsumi made his way overtaking his time to glance at the beast on the table as he did, a giant iguana looking creature that clearing was brought into this lab from one of the many access point scattered across the island rather than the stairs they took to get here. Its color changed sporadically like it couldn't control what it was doing, a drag his mother pumped into it having some adverse effect perhaps? He couldn't linger on those thoughts for long as a file was thrust into his unsuspecting hands.

"Go over that?" she told him as she stepped away for a moment to go over to her desk and grab her favorite snack, chocolate chip cookies and a large glass of milk.

"You know you stopped growing a long time ago right mom? You're not going to get any taller by drinking milk." He said as he gave his mother a deadpan look his eyes focusing on the ridiculous amount of milk she was prepared to drink.

"No one asked you and you never know, I might!" she pouted dipping a cookie in the milk before eating it. Despite how smart she was she never gave up on the notion that she could still grow just a little bit through drinking plenty of milk. "Keep talking like that and you won't get any."

He closed his mouth at that, one thing he would admit is that his mother made some of the best cookies around, especially chocolate chip, so he bit back his next comment and decided to get back to the task that was literally in his hands.

'Bile reaper? A creature that uses its sticky saliva to trap its prey, from there it creates a poisonous smug that it breathes into its victim. The poisonous substance slowly liquefies the internal organs of it victim, a process that could take a whole week to complete and is extremely agonizing for the one suffering through it. Once that process is done it then slinks its long tongue into its deceased victim's mouth and scoops out the gore it calls its dinner.'

The true danger in this particular danger beast is its ability to camouflage its body near perfectly in any terrain which allowed to get the drop on most of its prey. Once you were caught in its saliva it was pretty much game over.

"So what do you want me to do mom?"

Another milk soaked cookie went into her mouth before she answered that. "I want you to dissect it *MUNCH MUNCH*, it produces some rare chemical in its body that can be extracted *GULP*, but you only truly get the chemical while it is still alive."

A comically large bead of sweat falls down the back of his head as he watches his mother's sloppy eating habits at work, not that he was much better but then again he didn't have to watch himself eat.

"Are you sure? This seems kind of important." He cautiously.

"I trust your ability, I am the one who taught you everything about carving into flesh after all." She proclaimed as she proudly puffed out her bountiful chest and slammed her fist into it with a cat like grin, in fact, Tatsumi could have sworn cat ears and a tail sprouted out of her, the ears twitching and the tail happily waving as the claim was made. What she forgot was that she still had her glass of milk in hand, so when her fist made contact with her chest the white liquid was splashed all of her chest and began to soak through her shirt.

"…"

"…"

An awkward silence was shared between them with Tatsumi looking at his mother with narrowed eyes and lips pressed into a thin line (for those wanting more detail on this particular expression think Konosuba and the faces the characters make any time someone does or says something stupid in that show.) while the cat-like appendages on Yuno faded from existence and she stood there with the smile on her face before the color drained from her skin and she went into a panic.

"My…my milk…" she said as she look down at her shirt, then the floor, then back to her shirt, and then finally to the glass that was now only a quarter full. Sob*

"Huh?" 'Was that just-?' but his thought was interrupted as…

"My poor millllllllk! *sob* now *sniffle* now how will I drown my delicious chocolate chip cookies in its milky goodnessssssssss!" She whined/yelled as she crumpled to the ground on her knees lamenting her lost beverage, an aura of depression surrounding her.

"You could, I don't know, pour yourself some more milk?" He off handedly suggested.

Yuno, while still looking at the floor with her cheeks puffed out, raised her only slightly filled glass of milk. "Can you?" she said in a small whisper with a melancholic tinge to it.

*Sigh* Tatsumi quickly relented while walking over and taking the glass out of his mother's hand. A quick walk over to the large fridge and short refilling of the glass with the dairy product later saw the older women instantly snap out of her funk. Carefully setting the glass down safely on the desk she swiftly lifted him up in a bear hug, joyful tears streaming from her eyes and her face nuzzling against his own.

"You're the best Tatsumi! Truly the greatest son a mother could ask for! Hmmm~" she cooed in his ear.

"It's just milk mom." He deadpanned at her ridiculousness.

This exchange lasted for a few more minutes before his mother settled down and they got back to what they were originally about to do. With the assistance of a stool, Tatsumi was staring down at the beast easily bigger than his mother and himself combined, its skin was still flittering between an array of colors and upon closer inspection it eyes would blink very slowly within long intervals.

"First things first, were going to start by flaying off the skin." She told him very nonchalantly before digging into another cookie.

"I thought our goal was some kind of chemical, why waste time flaying the skin off?"

"Tatsumi, Tatsumi, Tatsumi" she started while shaking her head. "Although it's true that the chemical is the main goal of this little endeavor we must not forget that this is still a fresh research subject that we have free reigns to study thoroughly." She said putting emphasis on the last word. "And as scientist our job is what again?"

"To study the unknown and to dive into the realm of infinite possibility."

"And right now said unknown is fresh samples taken from this live specimen, just think about, if we can gain a special chemical while extracting it while it's alive then just think of what else we could get while harvesting other parts."

Tatsumi gave a slight nod of understanding before pulling out a large, flat edged medical knife so sharp it looked like it came clean of a whetstone. With no hesitation on his part he placed a gloved hand on the top of its head and took the knife to its jaw at a very practiced angle. The moment the blade touched flesh and drew the slightlest trickle of blood he dragged the knife towards himself, rending flesh as he did, even with the sedatives in its system the bile reaper still found enough strength to convulse at the pain of having skin peeled off, however Tatsumi didn't let it bother him much as he adjust the blade with its frantic jerking not once letting it cut any deeper as the first stripe of flesh was stripped away. Interestingly enough it stilled changed color even with it being detached from its host, an observation his mother swiftly jotted down.

"Heh, mom?" He started casually as he began to sink the knife into flesh once more.

"Hmmm?"

"What did you do, before this I mean?"

"Ara, like my work?"

He nodded.

In a far too exaggerated fashion, Yuno crossed an arm under her chest and placed her elbow into her hand as she place a finger to her bottom lip with her other hand. The only way he knew she was truly giving his question any real thought is the fact that she didn't answer instantly as she opted to close her eyes and think in a sagely manner.

Lime green eyes slowly opened up to regard him once more. "I never did tell where I came from did I?"

"No, but dad did say you weren't from the island."

She nodded. "I see…" she took a sip of her milk "..well, I come from a wealthy family, very wealthy, that live in a province right outside of the imperial capital. Had I so wished I could have lived my entire life doing nothing but living the life style that came with such wealth, but…" she trailed off.

"But?" He encouraged her to continue.

*Sigh* "BUT THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SOO BOOOOOOOORRRRRRING!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Uh…" He was now giving his mother that 'you're acting crazy look' but she wasn't paying attention.

"I mean seriously, who wants to spend their enter lives sitting on their high horses and thumbing their nosing at the less fortunate while they wipe their asses with their tax money? Social outings with snubs? Push and horridly garish everything within eye sight? Looking down at even other rich people if they so much as have a penny less than you? Boring. Boring. Boring. Everything about that life style just didn't mesh with me."

A calming breath was taken, it seemed just thinking about that situation riled her up in a negative way, despite how hard that may have seemed considering she sounded like a child having a tantrum as she said it. Wait wasn't she the adult in this here? Oh well.

"My passion was discovery, learning and building, that's what I wanted to do…..and shockingly my parents supported that goal." She continued with a strained smile, there was something else there that was being left unsaid, but he didn't press his mother on it. "Oh good, your done cutting the skin off the stomach area, cut into it and remove one of its internal organs without killing it like we practiced. It shouldn't bleed out with the doping it received."

For style Tatsumi gave the knife a quick twirl between his fingers before cutting the belly open, not even flinching or halting his action as blood sprayed on the side of his face. The little bit of flare earning him praise as he ended up receiving a thumbs up from his mother. "You were saying?"

"Well, with the money given to me I bought my own supplies and started doing things like we're doing now, of course on a far more minuscule scale. During that time I was more into tinkering with machinery than I was into biological work, I spent most of my time designing a making inventions."

"Like with some of the upgrades in the lab?"

"Yep!" she beamed. "However my talent eventually caught the eye of the…. A certain group." Her tone grew serious with that. "They hired me …. And for a time it was fun, but I didn't have the freedom to do as I pleased even though all the equipment I could ever need was right in front of me. That, and… what they desired of me was not what I wanted to be stuck doing all of my life, so I quit after sometime."

"What did they have you do?" He asked.

"I tell you what they didn't let me do, which is have some time to make what I wanted!"

"And what did you want to make?"

At that her eyes sparkled and she ran to the other end of the lab, evidently that question had lit a fire in her. While she was off grabbing something, he assumed, he managed to free the liver out of the beast he was dissecting. It was still alive, the thrashing it did being prove of that, but that was of no concern to him. Danger beast were their island's main so source of economy with the fishing trade coming right after it and some of the best pieces of these creatures that could be sold were only obtainable when they were alive. Going on haunts with his dad ever since he could walk, even if he wasn't actively helping at that time, and learning how to cut into danger beast through his mother when helping her in the lab ensured that he saw such things as normal. The rushed steps of high heeled shoes on the floor was the sign of his mother's return from her brief reprieve, several pieces of parchment in hand, some rolled up being held under her arm and others held close to her chest, she was practically vibrating in place, stars in her eyes, and blinding bright smile shined toward him.

"First of all, do you see those stairs over there?" she point to the long flight that was taken to get to the lab.

"Yeah?" Tatsumi answered and questioned simultaneously.

"Fuck those stairs!"

Tatsumi jerked at that sudden declaration, almost messing up an incision.

"Those damn things are the bane of my existence, walking down them every time I want to reach my lab Ugh!" she said in disgust. "However image if you didn't need to walk down stairs to get down here, what if the stairs moved up and down for you or if there was some automated pulley system that took us down at the click of a bottom?"

"That would be…..convenient." He said still trying to figure out what she was getting at.

"Exactly! It would make life easier and make moving through multiple story building simple. You see what I wanted to do, what I really wanted to do, was create things that made living easier….and create the other wacky things my brain could come up with."

"So why don't you? You still have money to buy material so why not invent stuff here?"

Her face grew glum. "Because *sigh* because the stuff I would need would draw to much attention, the material I would use is also used by…the capital…to make their weapons and other equipment. To buy all I would need and have it shipped here would get attention, attention I'm not sure I want to be brought to me."

"Oh." He couldn't say he understood, but from the look on his mother's face he could tell it was depressing to her or at the very least bummed her out slightly.

She looked down at her papers. "All of these are plans for things I wanted to build, ideas that needed to be scraped unfortunately." She brought her face back up to look at him, determination clear in her eyes. "However one day things will change and I'll go through with these ideas of mine. So what do you say Tatsumi, feel like helping your mom out with her crazy ideas?"

"Since when did this become some sort of business pitch and proposal?"

"Hmmm, I d'know." She said with a shrug. "So what will it be?"

She knew he couldn't say no to her, not only because she was his mother but also because her excitement was infectious and often got others on board with her plans no matter how crazy they could be at times.

"I'm in, it sounds like fun."

"That's my boy, I'll turn you into a mad scientist yet Hahahaha!" she stated with a boisterous laugh that followed.

"Not foolish like dad, but crazy is okay?"

"Hey, everyone is a little crazy y'know, in fact, the crazier you are the better, it keeps you from being a boring person or dear I say *nervous gulp* normal."

Tatsumi found himself laugh at that, those would be words that he would keep with him for the rest of hislife, and that promise…. Well, it would be one to go unfulfilled. After that they went back to work, continuing to indulge in conversations ofvary topics as they did and at the end of it all Tatsumi got to eat his mother's delicious chocolate chip cookies. It was a better time.

Eyes opened once more, the light of the day was now shining through the window and illuminating the room, and thankfully he had regained the feeling in the rest of his body during his slumber; which only made the next moment a bit awkward for him. At some point while he was out he moved in his sleep and wrapped both of his arms around the girl with whom he shared a bed with and to make matters worse said girl was currently staring at him with a smile on her face and a glint in her eyes.

"It's about time you got up sleepy head." Esdeath said, clearly having been up at least for a few minutes before himself.

Tatsumi slowly unwrapped his arms from around her, a light tinge of red dusting his cheeks as he lifted himself up and let the cover drop from his body. A bare chest was exposed as he did so which forced him to become aware of his state of dress. When you wear as few clothes as Tastumi does you become painfully conscious of what you do have on and at the moment that was only a pair of boxers.

"Fresh boxers?" he thought and now that he thought about it his hair smelled of shampoo and his skin had no dirt or soot on it at all from his fight. Eyes widened at that. "She didn't…" He turned his head to face the girl next to him who was now getting off the bed, the only thing covering her modesty being a slightly over sized shirt, evidently she liked to sleep mostly naked.

"We have a long day today so let's get ready." She stated as she walked over to a wardrobe.

"Esdeath."

She turned to look at him. "Yes, Tatsumi?"

"Explain."

A/N: like I said nothing really big was done in this chapter unless for some reason you guys were curious about his mom then in that case you're welcome ;). All of that aside, I decided to do this chapter because I feel like I established something sort of important to Tatsumi's character and that is despite the fact that he's still so young he is smarter than a kid his age typically is. He looks at things with a critical eye and thinks things through...most of the time anyway. I could have done this whole story with this chapter omitted, I mean you would get to know how he acts through his actions, known the way he talks through reading his dialogue and figured out his motivations through the story itself, but I felt that it was important to know why he is the way he is in the present portion of the story and although I could have said Ran was the one that influenced him it would have felt like a cop-out to me, not to mention it would have seemed like Ran was the one dictating his actions and with her being an OC that's a big no-no.

Besides, I don't know if you guessed it or not but I had a ridiculously fun time writing Yuno's character. By the way, I did indeed name her after Yuno Gasai from Future Diary and even almost considered making Gasai Tatsumi's last name, but it never came up.

Anyway, that's it for now, the next chapter will have more substance to it I promise. Feel free to Review or PM me and as always see you next time.

Dear god, I'm going to need a Beta soon, so many small mistakes because I don't check my work before hand. :/