Chapter 3: Snack break

Madison woke up from her nap, first thing greeting her was the scream of the woman and the crying of an infant titan. Shaking her head from feeling a slight headache, her gaze immediately snapped to the side.

The baby Godzilla she was taking care of, wasn't having its head laying upon her lap anymore, but stood outside, starring off with a scared looking Ilene. If its intentions where to hurt her or not were unclear. Ilene had yelled out because she wasn't expecting to come face to face with it when turning around the corner.

Having fallen on her butt, she now tried to not move to quickly, slowly attempting to back up further, pushing herself away with the feet. But for each centimetre of distance she got, the hatchling made a step closer. Tilting its head curiously, while giving off a bit of a long growling sound. It walked hunched down, with the arms closer to the chest a bit like a tyrannosaur. Slightly arching its back as if it was a kitten trying to seem intimidating, it hissed when Ilene did a sudden movement with her hand. Nervously she swallowed, putting the hand down on the ground again. Unsure what to do she didn't move as it came even closer. Should she keep eye contact up to not seem like prey or evade it, to not appear as a threat.

With a body as powerful as a lion but the mind of a literal newborn kitten, it was hard to say what its next move would be, and the consequences of it. Giving into some sort of play instinct where it "pretend fought" with its opponent? Or was it just checking something it perceived a threat to its nest and family, trying to help protect it.

Luckily, its guardian was able to snap it away from that.
"Hey!"
Madison shouted over to it.

It turned back with its head, Madison was approaching it quickly, not running as to not scare it off and make it attack.
"Come over here." She demanded, starring intensely into the eyes of the young one.

For some reason the expression she saw in its face seemed a bit, confused. As if it didn't understand what it did wrong. Quickly it looked back and forth between the two, wanting to continue what it had done but the stern voice of its guardian pulled it over instinctively.
Despite it still being unclear to Madison if it understood her words, it seemed to follow her commands and scuttled over to her, more hunched down then before and its tail dragging down straight, its arms still held close to its chest and belly, but tapping its small claws together a little bit.

Going up to her it rubbed its head against her side trying to bury itself and hide away from her gaze. Seemed like it understood the stern voice of Madison as it doing something bad. Giving out a sigh, she smiled and petted it on the head, scratching the top and rubbing it a bit.

"It's okay, you just got scared."

Recovering a bit from the shock, Ilene was able to get up and brushed off some saw dust that got on her pants and was able to take a breather, as she watched Maddie try and contain the little titan again. It followed her every movement as best as it could but had to yet learn what certain words might mean, even with Maddies ability to communicate with them.

Carefully she kept rubbing underneath its chin and neck, while slowly pushing down its back, making it sit on the ground. Giving it praise for following that along quite smoothly. Normally when training a dog they would get a treat, unfortunately there was none to be given right now, perhaps another time.

It was still giving her a sad expression as it looked up at her, head roughly at her chest height, as if it wanted to say sorry. So, she hugged it, took it into her arms, calming it down as she felt the overwhelming feeling to comfort it.

Ilene stood around awkwardly, not really wanting to interrupt the moment and not able to gather much data she waited a bit before clearing her throat. Madison let go of the hatchling, making it stand up remaining at a lower position hiding behind her.

"I told you to keep an eye on it, someone could have gotten hurt."
The attempt at a sterner tone ended up feeling more clunky and forced to her, as she really couldn't feel angry with Madison and neither blamed her much for it. It was late, she was tired, no wonder she needed to rest.

"I… am also sorry, I seemed to have spooked him when I came in to check on you two, when he was right in front of me."
"It's fine, don't worry," Madison said, the awkwardness of the situation didn't escape her either.
Rarely were the two exclusively together in a room without Mark. Despite Madison giving her personal approval a while back, the fact Mark and Ilene were dating was still a bit of an weird topic to talk around, despite there being nothing wrong inherently.

Mark had been divorced for 5 years at that point. Yet even some colleagues in Monarch gave the two a suspicious side eye, as the whole thing happened rather quickly after Emma Russells betrayal and death, if not that being the whole reason they met in the first place.

Despite Madison being fine with it and the two were on good terms, a lingering weirdness was always hanging in the air and would probably do so for future as well. There was much Ilene felt needed discussing regarding that matter, but that was for a later point.

"Let's get back into the Osprey. Mark is still clearing up a view things but should be heading to the next Outpost soon."
"Which one are we going, I assume its not Castel Bravo?"
As observant as ever, Chen noted to herself.
"Yes, we will transfer to a different facility…"
"Alright. Come on Junior, back to your seats," she turned around to the child, but it kept cowering behind her, giving her a look before looking back at Ilene.

"What is it? It's fine you didn't hurt her she just got a little bit scared," Maddie assumed the hatchling felt bad over what it did, but as she touched it again at its forehead to make it more comfortable, she sensed something else.
It felt similar to whenever her and Godzilla communicated, but instead of a quieter direct connection it was more like a baby shouting out things it didn't know how to form properly. Almost literal in this case.

She started making sense of what it was feeling and the emotional state, realizing that it wasn't sad over having hurt Ilene, moreso over making the other human it was with feel scared of it. It viewed her as another member of its kin.

With a bit of a smirk, she turned around to Ilene.
"I think he wants to apologize," lifting her arm to show the hatchling that it was fine to get out of hiding behind her.
"Seems like he is sorry for scaring another family member."

Unexpected for Ilene, but it made sense once she thought a bit more about it. Back at the dig site, other than Madison being the first thing it saw, the other person right next to it and helping take care of it was her. Despite still having a hard time confirming what Madison could see, once she had mentioned to her that she saw Godzilla's past, that apparently, they used in small familial groups, raised by the mother.
Some of the very view fossil records they possessed of the titans might support that with other ancient and extinct species that more knowledge was gathered on serving placeholders to fill in the gaps. From modern day apex predators, especially ones that lived aquatic live like whales, to extinct large theropod dinosaurs and marine reptiles. Obviously, titans operated much different due to their size and intelligence. Almost possessing their own sapient society and culture. Parental care did not seem out of the question for them, even for some like the Mutos that bread in vast quantities similar to insects.

Madison lured the baby over to her, holding up her hand and snapping it lightly, looking at it to keep its attention.
With a swift casual confidence she grabbed Ilene's right hand, still looking at the baby. It was a bit weird, but she decided to trust her and just let it happen. The hatchling was now looking directly at Ilene again, giving off a soft chirping like sound, tilting its head again in that curious manner, signed with that sad expression.

"Just stay calm, let him know you're not a threat or angry," she slowly guided Ilene's hand near the snout of the hatchling. Letting it both gather her scent and building up trust so that it wouldn't bite in defence. Gently like a warm spring breeze she put the hand onto the hatchlings head, making the scientist familiar with the soft, yet rough surface of the young titan, and making the young one equally familiar with the touch of her hand.

For the first time Ilene came in direct contact with one of them. Sure, she had been very close on the occasion, even with Godzilla himself, but not like this. Despite the initial expectation of the skin being cold like one of a reptile it was much warmer.
"Warm blooded," she noted to herself.

After a view moments of standing still it started cuddling up to her hand, and then further up, rubbing its head up her arm and against her side now.
Madison smiled, "I think that's him apologizing."

Ilene nodded hesitantly before looking back down at the creature, it was looking back up at her, this time with a more joyful expression then the cautious or saddened one she had met before. Giving it a scratch beneath the chin the same way Madison did before, it closed its eyes and gave off a tiny "mwearp" sound. After that was done, she gently pushed it away, it started waddling back over to Madisons side.

"Now we have figured that out," she cleared her throat, "lets get back in." Pointing at the Osprey. Madison nodded ad went along with her, the hatchling following very closely behind.

They got back in where they had sat before, bit was just then that Madison remembered the hole that the hatchling had bitten out of the seat. Only glancing at it quickly, hoping it wouldn't be noticed, but Ilene very much did, pointing curiously with her index finger at it.

"Did he-"
"Yeah I, uhm, tried to figure out where he likes to be pet, ended up on a spot that was a little bit too good, and he went crazy for a second."

Deciding to move on from that, they went a bit further into the back of the machine, right before the cockpit. Ilene sitting opposite Madison, while she guided the baby back onto the seats, having its head rested on her lap again. It still seemed content, giving off a long yawn and stretch.

Giving it slow strokes from the top of the snout to the back of the head, before it gave off what seemed to be a low grow, looking up at her with a pleading expression. She moved her hand away, uncertain if it was her fault.

"Is something wrong?"
"It seems like he wants something from me, but I'm not sure what?"
The low growling noise repeated itself, the vocal cords of the creature where inactive for this one however, the sound coming more from deep within it.

"Maybe he is hungry?"
Ilene's guess was answered by another growl that now unmistakenly seemed to come from its stomach. Madison hadn't considered that part yet. It had been a view hours since it hatched, normally in social animals the offspring get to feed very quickly afterwards.

"That would make sense, but what would he even eat?"
"Does he like Hamburgers?"

A male voice cut in from outside, the two snapped their head towards it, the baby confused from the sudden movement from the mother stayed low and tried to stay still, instinctively hiding.

The co pilot was back, holding a large paper bag in one hand, still having his helmet and visors on so that he appeared fully masked.
"Oh…sorry. I didn't want to scare you…" He motioned around while talking, holding up the other hand to try and ease the situation.
"I, eh, thought maybe you all were so exhausted, and could need a bite!"

Struggling to get the words out as nervosity and anxiety took him over, Madison saw the kind gesture and didn't have a reason to believe there was anything malicious behind it. And a burger was something she could need right now, feeling a sense of hunger come on as she thought about it.

"Sure, come on in," she gestured him over to them, he walked in with a bit of an awkward strut, then sitting down one seat over next to Ilene. He put the bag down on his lap, the smell of oils and greasy paper taking over the air in the machine within minutes. With its keen smell the infant titan very much reacted to it, lifting up its head and looking at where it came from.

The co-pilot quietly rummaged through the bag, sorting out the items.
"I have 5 burger, 2 cheeseburgers and 3 hamburgers, no fries, weren't any good ones at the joint."
"I'll take a hamburger, lactose intolerant," Ilene mentioned, he handed her over one wrapped in white paper and red stripes, opening it up it was a little bit messy given the burger had sat in the bag for a view minutes now.

"And you?" He turned to Madison.
"Give me cheese burger, haven't eaten anything today otherwise."
"Alright, catch."

He threw one after the other over to her, same wrapping around it but one was yellow. She opened that one up first, similarly a bit squished and messy, but she was too hungry now to care. Eagerly she took a bite out of it, tasting the beef, pickles, shredded onions, ketchup and American cheese coming together and building a up the synergy of a burger that she enjoyed so much. Not the juiciest burger she ever had, and usually she would have liked some lettuce or tomatoes on it, but again, too hungry to care.

While they were eating the co-pilot took out a medium sized soda cup with a paper straw attached to the side. With his gloves still on he gently tore it off from the cup, peeling away the plastic wrapping by pushing the straw against his legs and then stabbing where the hole of the cups cap. Adjusting the fabric of the mask he was wearing, he pushed the straw through it and started taking sips from it. Ilene looked at him curiously.

"Don't you want to take the mask off? It's fine by us."
"Thanks, but I like to keep it on," he muffled with the straw still sticking in it, pulling it out and having the feeling of a view drops still sticking to the mask.
"Sorry, I'm just a bit nervous around people without it is all."

Ilene nodded confused, while Maddie did more agreeing.
"I get it don't worry," he looked over to her, she whipped a bit of sauce from her lip.

"Say, what's you name pilot?"
"Name's Marius Nie."
"Nice to meet you Marius, and thanks for you and your pilot to pick us up."
"No problem, Mrs Russell…"
"Please, call me Madison, or Maddie."
"Alright, you're welcome, Maddie."

It was nice talking to someone new from Monarch, she noted his accent was quite different to the main pilots.
"Sorry if it's a bit rude, but where are you from, you don't really sound American."
She took another bite from the burger, the hatchling slowly tilting its head towards trying to investigate the smell it was giving off.

"Yeah I'm from Germany, came recently to this job with Methusela waking up."
"Oh? What did you do there?"
"Was part of the german military that worked on cooperative effort to evacuate civilians. Things got a bit rough, luckily out of all the titans it is one of the slower ones. Did some stuff where I defied orders from my commanders, got fired for it, but Monarch offered me a new place as pilot. Said they were impressed with my flying."
"So why didn't you fly this Osprey here?"
"Well, given I defied some orders initially they couldn't immediately take me up as pilot again, well actually, that just changed."
"Hmm?" Madison wondered with a full mouth, swallowing hastily. Ilene was meanwhile just about finished with her burger.

"I am set to fly you guys over to the next Outpost, just waiting for another pilot to join me and Dr. Russell obviously."
"Awesome. By the way I noticed you had Godz- HEY!"

As she was about to ask him about the words written on his helmet, the infant titan bit down on the rest of the burger she had. Because she didn't know if it was good for him, she tried to get it out of his mouth, but too late, he had already bitten off a chunk and swallowed it quickly, leaving her with a tiny bit of the crust left, grumbling to herself.

"Seems like he likes it." Marius noted.
"Yeah, but I don't know if its going to be any good for him, what if he can't digest it…"
Realising that was a possibility he felt a bit ashamed, getting quite nervous at the idea of having hurt the son of Godzilla. The three looked at the baby, and it looked back, confused as it wanted to eat more, but Maddie pushed it away.

"What does Godzilla usually eat?" Marius asked.
"We aren't sure, for the most part we have mostly seen him absorb radiation passively-"
"I saw him eat honey once, but also some meat from a Nozuki."
Madison cut Ilene short, having a bit more knowledge.

"Honey, from like, giant bees?"
"Yeah, there were some on Skull Island."
"Woah, you were on Skull Island?"
"Long story…"

Madison mumbled, intently touching the babies face to feel if it was getting any negative effects from it. By bringing up those past interactions, sugar and meat were at least ruled out from it negatively affecting him. More worried was she about the bread and the oil from the burger reacting negatively with the small titans physiology. Most reptiles weren't known to digest bread well at all, usually it can block their intestines, but then again titans and Gojira weren't really regular reptiles either.

Carefully she went with her hand under its stomach, trying to feel out if anything was happening, but everything seemed normal.

"I think it should be fine…" Madison looked at the rest of the burger she been holding in her hand, she wasn't keen on eating the rest of the sandwich now dripping with saliva and fed it the rest.

"You're sure about that?"
Marius asked, now Ilene tried to explain again; "I think its likely titan stomach acid might be a bit more advanced in breaking down material."
"Yeah, I mean the Mutos did eat nuclear warheads after all."

Ilene turned over to him, now as well noticing the writing printed on his helmet.
"You seem very curious about the titans," the scientist noted, the pilot looked over to her and nodded, rubbing himself at the neck a bit sheepishly.

"It's a hobby you could say. I mean Godzilla and some of the others did protect us after all when all of them woke up. Also, I just find them kind of awesome…"
"Agreed," Madison said, still starring at the baby. From what she could sense, everything was fine, only thing that seemed to bother both of them was the remaining hunger.

"Hey Marius can you throw me the other cheeseburger and the hamburger."
"One cheesy one hamburg, coming up."

With a bit of awkward arch, he threw them over, she caught them easily. Opening up the hamburger first, and then giving it over to the baby. First it tried to get a sense of the smell again to make itself familiar, then it happily bit down on it and started devouring it. The cheeseburger Maddie kept for herself, which she bit in with equal eagerness.

While the two were having a meal, Ilene tried talking a bit more with the pilot, being interested to hear what he had to say.

"Don't you want to eat one yourself?"
"No thanks, I prefer to eat in private, had one earlier anyway." Intently he watched the mini-Godzilla eat the food, studying and noting things down to himself.
"I recently heard people were starting to worship the titans as deities. Do you happen to be one of those?"
"Me? I don't think so… well, I find them awesome, that's how I view them, an awesome part of the world and nature, not gods."
"I see."
It seemed he meant well and was just excited to meet a titan in person, but Ilene was more hesitant to fully trust him. Well, at least Maddie seemed to have a good time.

"Can I have the last burger? Seems like he's still hungry."
"Of course, here, woa-"

He almost spilled the cup in his lap as he threw it, with her barely catching it, having to squish down a bit harder on it, with the sauce almost dripping out. Carefully she lifted it out of the paper, trying to not get her hands too smudged with ketchup. With two finger she held it above the baby, pushing it down with the other hand, to sort of train it to follow commands.

"Steady, steady… now." She let go of it and the small titan grabbed it in one bite and started chewing it whole immediately.
"Good job," she praised giving it pets as a reward, it smiled up at her with closed eyes.

After Marius was done with his drink and the others done eating, he collected all the trash back in the paper bag and was just about to head out to throw it away.
"Everything ready to go?"

Mark finally came back, with a co-pilot for Marius in toe.

"Eh-uhm-yes sir." Awkwardly he stood at attention, despite being the designated pilot, not too used at this yet at all.
The Monarch assistant director was a bit confused as to what the pilot was holding but waved it aside for now.
"This is Ramirez from G-Team, they will be your co-pilot for this flight."
"Nice to meet you-" Marius shook her hand, almost losing the grip of his bag in the other hand.
"Pleasure is all mine."

Before more awkwardness could arrive, he decided to cut in, "I'll throw this out quickly, you go to the pilo- I mean co-pilot seat." With a lot of haste he ran out, somewhere around the back corner of the hangar. Ramirzed didn't offer much more as a shrug to Mark, and headed to where she was assigned to.

With that out of the way he sat down over to Ilenes seat and leaned a bit back while sighing. "How did it go?"
"Well you know how Foster is when she isn't happy. Enough of that, everything went alright here?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't it be, right Maddie?"
"All good here." She smiled, whipping away some ketch stuck to the babies face with a paper towel. Once again, Mark raised a confused eyebrow, but connected the dots quickly.

"So did you figure out what the titan signal that was coming from here was?"
Ilene peaked up, having forgotten to ask Maddie about that, and Madison peaked up not being told that was happening.
"I… didn't yet-"
"Might've been me." Madison admitted sheepishly, scratching at her head. Mark sighed, having guessed something like that.

"What did you do?" The question was asked no in anger but a mix of concern and wanting to genuinely know.
"I, decided to take a nap, and ended up communicating with some of the others. Because I wanted to know if they knew what was going on with Godzilla."
"And… did you figure anything out?"
"Not really, it was decided we would be on cautious. I am still not fully sure what is up with him."
"Will this change their behaviour?"
"For most of them? No. Just be a might stick more to their own territories."
"Then I guess I can leave that out of the report…"

He murmured, right as Marius came running back in and into the pilot cabin, stumbling in and being a bit hasty, nervous to reprimanded to be late.
"Alright, everyone read to go?" He said, waiting for Dr. Russell to give the order.

"So whats that facility we are going to called anyway?"
"The Super Species holding facility prototype, in Pensacola." Mark answered her, as the hatchling titan on her lap went to sleep.

Through darkness of the abyss, Godzilla swam. Angered by what happened, angered by what he did. Already had he tried to apologize but he worried this wouldn't be enough for her to forgive, even if he was King, his partner was an equal.

Whispers of some titans went around, one shouted and swore at her he noticed. Certainly, that wouldn't go unpunished. Yet that could lead to further digression of the opinions on them if violence and strength was thrown around like that. On both sides things have gotten strenuous and the two of them were at the centre of it, and despite his instincts driving him to it and having a sense of responsibility, the more personal side wished they didn't have to be.

Nothing to be done about that yet however, this was something to act upon at a better date. Swimming through the underwater tunnel that made up the hollow earth system, trying to find a spot to lie down for a little bit, to strengthen himself. The big open areas on the south and northern hemisphere were inaccessible from here, but perhaps a smaller pocket could be around here somewhere.

In the meantime, he had called out to his closest aid, his right hand. No answer came of it. Still could he sense his presence, but barely so, as if it was hiding away. Perhaps it was still over that one incident. That still made him feel hurt, personally.

Whilst diving deep within the earth, going through tighter connections, seize wise for him at least, all sort of other critters swam in the waters of the tunnels. Many blind, many highly derived from extinct lineages. Worm-like creatures with bizarre leaf like structures on their back clinging to the sides of the walls grassing on some of the bioluminescent algae.

Blind trilobites digging through the mud towards the centre of gravity, filtering microparticles and small creatures out. Placoderms with bioluminescent plating and stripes, slowly paddling along the waters current that he amplified.
All these animals were on the lower end of the food chain down here, with a couple of others either beneath them or above, mixed and mashed together from periods of time, only partially tunned to one another.
The sling like appearance of a predatory bristle worm, 2 meters in length, attempted to grab one of the fish with its trunk. In some cut off parts of the world, hidden water reservoirs, this creature might have been the apex predator, but unfortunately for it this wasn't the case.
The hunter became the hunted, via a Dunkleosteus relative, 12 meter in length, able to detect its prey with very limited vision and bioluminescent available down here. In one quick gulp it sucked in the worm and crushed it between its teeth made out of bone platting.

Slowly the predator floated by Godzillas eye, the two creatures giving each other no mind, neither viewing each other as prey or predator, just mutual existence. Until the ancient fish made a sharp turn back, as if it could sense something ahead. So did Godzilla.
Through an opening he finally arrived at a bigger pocket of water, this would be a perfect place to rest. But something wasn't right. He wasn't alone in here.

He swam into the middle of it, gaining a bit of a footing onto the muddy sentiment onto the ground. Within the mud crawled many different creatures he could sense, small to medium sized. There it was. Something bigger. Something in his size.

No sound could be heard under water as from the ground burst a gigantic creature, that immediately slammed Godzilla back against the wall. The mud made it hard to see, but he felt needle like stings going into his belly. He unleashed a muffled roar, that blew away the cloud of mud and sediment the creature had thrown up, revealing its form.

Claws and mouths full of needle like appendages, many scuttling legs and a paddling tail with a stinger. A super species derived from the eurpytids of the Silurian seas. Thought to have gone extinct in the mass Permian extinction, just like they thought of Godzilla.

Compared to the king however this creature remained at a more basal primitive level, just like the Skull Crawlers it was only a creature looking for prey and food, in this case anything that could satisfy its hunger, which was rare. Via vibrations in the sand and water it would calculate if a meal was big enough to waste the energy, and then strike. This however was a severe miscalculation. The king was prey to no one.

These creatures he had countered time and time again on ocean floors or tunnels, it was easy to deal with them. He grabbed it his hands bac the back of the head that connected the torso and with one might pully ripped it apart at the seams, letting a cloud of blue blood stream onto the ground as he roared angrily.

Immediately creatures came swimming, ready to feast upon the gigantic source of meat and nutrients, this area would soon get a lot richer in live then previously.

Catching his breath, he looked upwards, seeing the top of the cave glistening with bioluminescent fungi that was blue like the stars in the sky and noticed, that there was a surface of the water being reflected.

One light swing from the tail let him drift towards the surface, as he breached the water he finally took in some proper air again, if with a slightly mouldy aftertaste. He looked around, and saw a slight perch on his right that he could lie down onto.

Swimming towards it he put the giant euryptid torso and tail between his jaws, holding it as he pulled himself onto land. He had to crouch down on his belly to fit in, but it would suffice, his tail still lying in the water as he positioned himself correctly. Smaller organisms started nibbling at his tail, removing dead skin and scales.

Before going to sleep, he decided to enjoy his own meal now, and started biting into the exposed white meat of the crustacean like creature, enjoying the smooth and sweet flavour of it while of its juices and blood started dripping into the water.

Muttering a curse broke some of the silence as a view droplets of lobster juice dropped down on her clothes. Not trained too much with fork and knife she just stabbed into it with force, holding it up and just bit right out of it. Tasted great, that's what she was sure about, didn't care much for the rest of the booshie meal that was prepared, but hey it was on the house.

"Are you enjoying the meal Mrs. Belvera?"
The older gentleman asked from the other side of the table while taking a swig of his whisky glass. She never understood why he drank that stuff pure; she hated the taste.

"Yes it's quite good." She grumbled swallowing the food and before taking another bite, dipping it in some sauce and grabbing something else from the table. The employer didn't really eat much, merely wanting to drink and discuss some fine details over dinner.

"So how is the restructuring process going?"
"Currently we are gathering up the remaining man that still work for us and the rebranding. Apex and its assets should be dissolved within a couple of weeks," she took a swig of the wine that was offered to her. The old man with the grey silver hair nodded.

"And what does our friend Serizawa think about this? Why hasn't he joined us for dinner?"
"He said he was still of training and tuning his senses, and he doesn't seem to care much about it, he wasn't attached to Apex."
"And you?"

Half from chomping down on some bred she took a second to think.

"It was nice when it was smooth running but after what happened in Hong Kong investors paid out and pulled out as fast as they came. With it some man and resources, especially after we had dealt with Jonah. But it gave us access to some notes and resources we could use again them in this project."

"I assure you this all will be well worth the price you have been paying, and I am thankful you took me up on my offer."
"Not like we had too much choice," Belvera mumbled, feeling somewhat done with dinner at this point.

"So what will you call the new organization that you are planning to build up, unless you wish to take me up on that other offer."
"I'm still thinking about both, but I'll rather stick independent after this, no offence."
"Non taken," he ordered the waiters standing in the corner of the room to gather the plates left, they walked past hastily and in fear.

"A view names have been floating around, Ren suggest something that I quite liked," she swirled her finger around the edge of the empty wine glass.
"Which is?"
"What do you think of Red Bamboo?"

Meanwhile, somewhere in Aomori, Japan

"What a terrible name dude."
"Hey I mean at least it wasn't as edgy as the name you wanted to pick."
"But I didn't stick with it now did I?"

Two sons were fighting in a café, their father sitting across each other.
"Now now, finish your meal you two, we should get back to training soon."

"Fine by me," the young man in the jacket grumbled, he looked over to his brother. "How come you never try to disguise yourself?"
"What's the point tin livin' if you can't express yourself?"

The old man shook his head at that.

Hi, sorry this took longer then expected, but at least it was back on my 1 month schedule, this was initially planned as a shorter chapter but it took longer, I was watching stuff with friends like Dungeon Meshi and also I'm visiting a course again. So I decided to throw in some bonus stuff to make up for it, next chapter this time I might finally stick to being shorter but we'll see.
With summer coming around I hopefully don't end up falling into another long hiatus as the heat usually makes it hard for me to write. But we'll see.
Thank you for reading!