-Faith, Love, and Forgiveness - Chapter Twenty-three: Unfamiliar-
Three months later
Staring out of the bus window, Lucy couldn't help but smile. Before coming to Kaeda House, the last time she remembered seeing snow, she was still just a child living at the orphanage. Now in her early 20's, she was finally able to express the joy and wonder she then had to hide so other kids wouldn't bully her for it.
That wasn't her only reason for excitement. The pink-haired girl's wedding was approaching, and every day she woke up a little happier than the day before.
And a little more terrified. It was the first week of December, and the wedding was set for the first week in April, right about the time the Cherry Blossoms were in full bloom. She had not yet picked out a wedding dress, OR a dress for her bridesmaids (Yuka, Mayu, and Nana volunteered for the roles, unsurprisingly), the location hadn't been decided on, and Kouta still didn't have a Best Man yet.
Yuka's family, generous to the point of absurdity, offered to pay for the entire wedding. Kouta, who had recently been hired by a telecommunications company to do remote data entry (and tech support, if needed), had attempted to decline. He felt that he should pay for it himself now that he was bringing in a paycheck every week, but after a great deal of insistence, he finally relented.
"Are you ok, Lucy?"
She nodded her head at the younger Diclonius. Nana was enrolling in the same High school as Mayu, and the two of them would start attending class together in January. At this moment, the two Diclonii were on the way to Kamakura Jogakuin Junior/Senior High School to drop off the last of the paperwork they required and pick up her school uniforms and handbook.
Usually, Yuka would be going with her for this, but the brunette wasn't feeling well, and with Mayu in class and Kouta working, Lucy was the only one who could go with her. Nana assured the pink-haired girl she'd be ok going alone, but Lucy insisted she didn't mind tagging along.
Besides, Kouta still had just under four hours to go before he could stop for the day, and the two of them rarely went anywhere by themselves.
"Believe it or not, I do like spending time with you... sometimes." she half-teased.
Nana smiled at the older Diclonius. "It's times like these I really wish Papa was here... I would have loved for him to see you now."
"Why?"
"So he could see how far you've come." Nana said, looking at her in admiration. "I mean it, Lucy. You're amazing."
"Whatever..." she replied, deliberately turning away from the Sipelit.
Nana just grinned. She had seen the blush on Lucy's face before she went back to staring out the window. Undeterred by her harsh demeanor, Nana put an arm around her and leaned her head against her shoulder.
"You're not fooling me, Lucy." she whispered playfully. The fact that she wasn't immediately pushed away had all but confirmed she was right, and even if that didn't, the older Diclonius briefly resting her head against Nana's certainly did.
"Come on, we're here."
Lucy, wearing a red knee-length skirt, black stockings, and a black turtleneck, pulled her red coat back on before following Nana off the bus. "Are you sure you're going to be able to do this?"
Nana sighed quietly, looking at the older Diclonius with clear uncertainty. "I'm honestly not, but I'm going to give it my best. Mayu and Yuka said they'd help out if I need it, but I want to do it on my own if I can."
Snow began falling as they walked the short distance from the bus stop to the school. As is usually the case when the two Diclonii were together, Nana did the majority of the talking, but Lucy was much more conversational with her now than she had been previously when it was just the two of them.
"When are you going to stop wearing that thing?" the pink-haired girl asked, referring to her lilac hairbow. It was originally hers, but had been given to Nana when she made the decision to stop hiding her horns.
"I'm working up to it." she answered. "I'll get there eventually."
To Nana's credit, at least she planned to remove it for her school ID photo.
As they walked up the entrance stairs, the Sipelit confessed to being a lot more nervous than she acted. "I'm not as smart as the other students, and there's still so much I don't know that most of them probably do."
Lucy held the door open for her young counterpart, telling her she's sure she'll be alright if she takes it seriously enough.
"You really mean it?" Nana asked with a bright smile on her face. When the pink-haired girl nodded, her smile got even brighter. In all honestly, she was pretty much certain she'd need at least a little help, but it was more adjusting to student life than the actual coursework and subject matter.
"Ok, Yuka said we needed to go to the Faculty Office, so..."
After a little looking around, they eventually found what they were looking for. Just before Nana entered, they suddenly heard horrendous screaming coming from inside. The Sipelit froze in fear, but Lucy just groaned in annoyance.
"You gotta be fuckin' kidding me..."
"What's wrong?"
The older girl just sighed, motioning for Nana to go inside. After a moment of hesitation, she opened the door to see the most unfortunate-looking mega-bitch she'd ever seen in her life having an utter meltdown.
"What the hell do you mean my Akane doesn't qualify for the gifted program?!"
"Like we already told you, there is an entrance exam required for admission into the gifted program. The minimum score is 80%, but your daughter only scored 72%. Therefore, she does not qualify for the program. I'm sorry you don't agree, but that's not our fault."
"My Akane is smarter than every last one of you idiots put together! If she didn't score high enough, it's because you dumbasses graded the test wrong!"
As Japanese-Karen continued to whine and bitch, the other employee waved Nana and Lucy up to the counter.
"What can I do for you girls?"
"Hi, I'm here to pick up my uniform and drop off my enrollment paperwork."
"You must be Nana Kurama. Give me just a moment, I'll be right back."
Despite Lucy's silent prayers, eventually, Japanese-Karen noticed her.
"What are YOU doing here?! You're too old to enroll!"
"She's enrolling, not me." Lucy pointed out.
"Oh, God... another junkie slut with stupid-looking hair dye!" Japanese-Karen whined.
The two employees gave her an irritated glare. "Ma'am, do you know this girl personally?"
"No, of course not! I'd never associate with someone like her!"
"Then stop harassing her. If you don't know her, you have no right to call her a junkie slut."
Seeing things were going downhill fast, the woman who tried to help Nana excused herself and left. As the argument between Japanese-Karen and the other employee continued, the lady returned with three brand new uniforms, a fact-sheet that had the address, phone number, a list of the faculty members, the class Nana would be joining, and the contact information for school officials, three brand new P.E. uniforms, and a copy of the student handbook.
"You're seriously going to let her enroll?! Look at her! Does she look like someone my child should have to be around?!" Japanese-Karen ranted.
"Sorry, we don't base enrollment eligibility on your opinion." the woman said with a smile. She ushered Nana over to the wall and took the purple-haired girl's picture for her student ID.
"Doesn't the handbook say NO UNNATURAL HAIR COLORS?"
"This IS her natural hair color." one of the women pointed out.
"That's the same thing this drug-addicted little skank tried to tell me. Do you people really think I'm too stupid to know what dyed hair looks like?!" she yelled.
"Diclonii don't have normal human hair colors. I know it looks dyed, but it isn't. Furthermore, I thought I told you to stop insulting people you don't know?" one of the women said.
It was almost surreal in a way. When Lucy was a child, almost no one knew that Diclonii even existed. The Government denied there was any such thing, and blamed birth defects for their unusual hair/eye colors and horns. Now, posters detailing how to identify them were in most schools, hospitals, and police stations. Countless documentaries had been made, but most of them were unflattering and full of the same shit the Institute used as scare tactics (I.E. "Their murderous nature makes them kill their own parents when their vectors develop.")
The fact that Lucy ceased hiding her horns in the wake of her and Kouta finally admitting they were a couple was just another reason why Nana looked up to her so much. In Kouta, she had found the courage and confidence to stop hiding what she was and face life head-on.
"WHAT?! She's one of THOSE?! Oh, hell no! There's no way I'm going to let one of those lab rats into the same school as my precious Akane!"
"Again, enrollment decisions aren't based on your opinions. She's completed the necessary programs and has an official Government-issued ID. She's just as welcome here as your child is, and frankly, I like her. She's certainly far better behaved than you are."
Nana blushed as the women smiled approvingly at her.
Despite resenting that they had to jump through hoops in the first place, Lucy was happy to see the school employees sticking up for Nana instead of treating her enrollment like it was some sort of mandate they opposed, but were forced to allow.
"I'm not letting you put innocent lives in danger just because you want to embrace diversity! People of her species don't belong in public, let alone public schools!"
One of the women turned to the other. "Yujia, call the police. I'm done listening to her."
Instead of realizing this would be a great time to leave, Japanese-Karen decided to stay put, convinced they would take her side and force the school to cancel Nana's enrollment. While they were waiting, the door opened and in walked an obviously excited Mayu. Nana hugged her happily, while Lucy at first just smiled and waved, but eventually gave in and hugged the girl after Mayu and Nana started teasing her about it.
"Hey! Get your hands off her! She's a human! Understand? A HUUUUUMAAN!"
"We know, she lives with us." Nana told her, immediately triggering another rant that got even worse when Mayu asked Lucy if this woman was "that entitled bitch Yuka told me about."
Lucy nodded with a smile, and though the women scolded Mayu for the language, they still laughed about it. Japanese-Karen flew into another red-faced rant, this time one that came pretty damn close to getting a violent reaction out of Lucy.
"Hmph... no wonder you live with people like them! I don't know what happened to your real parents, but I bet they kicked you out for having friends like her. Good call on their part! They probably had enough problems as it was without you adding to it!"
Mayu broke down in tears almost immediately, and Nana's anger turned to panic when she saw Lucy's vectors start coming out, though thankfully she was the only one who could see them (for now at least. She knew Lucy sometimes made them visible if she was pissed off enough).
After getting over the shock, the women informed Japanese-Karen she was being trespassed when the police arrived. Nana gave the woman a disgusted look as she comforted her crying friend.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" the Sipelit asked her. "Is your own life really so utterly miserable you take it out on people happier than yourself?!"
Before Japanese-Karen could say another word, the door opened and three police officers walked in.
"Oh, I'm glad you're here! This school is trying to let that Diclonius girl enroll as a student!"
The cops looked at Japanese-Karen, then Nana, and back to Japanese-Karen. The smirk on her face told Lucy she was expecting them to override the law itself and force the school to reject Nana's enrollment.
Too bad they weren't interested in giving her what she wanted.
"So?"
Now, Lucy was the one smirking.
"What do you mean "So"?! She one of those freaks with horns and erectors!"
"Vectors." the pink-haired girl corrected. It never ceased to amuse her when ignorant know-it-all's proved themselves to be idiots.
One of the police officers asked to see Nana's ID, which she provided. He looked it over for a few seconds, then gave it back. "I don't know what your problem is, but her ID is valid, and she has just as much right to attend public school as humans do. If it bothers you that badly, you might want to see about transferring schools."
"TRANSFER SCHOOLS?! No! I'm not uprooting MY daughter out of HER school just because that slut wants to hang out with her homeless human friend! I want to speak to your policeman manager!" Japanese-Karen yelled.
"That would be me... Chief Dojima."
As the "policeman manager" argued with her, Nana comforted her best friend, but wasn't able to completely hide her contempt for the woman.
"You know, I'm starting to understand why Lucy hated humans so much..." Nana whispered to Mayu. Still a little teary-eyed, Mayu sniffled and nodded her head. "Me too..."
After the fifth attempt to be courteous, the cops looked at each other, then to the school employees. "Would you ladies like her to leave?"
"Absolutely!"
"WHAT?!"
"Alright, ma'am, let's go... now."
"I refuse! That thing is dangerous! How can you expect me to be ok with her being around my Akane?!"
"Well, she hasn't killed YOU yet, and if I had a choice between killing your child or killing you, I'd definitely pick you."
As the school officials, Nana, Mayu, the other cops, and even Lucy laughed at her, the lead police officer grabbed her arm and politely but firmly escorted her out of the school. Mayu, cheered up by Japanese-Karen's removal and the comforting provided by her two Diclonius family members, hugged them again in appreciation.
"Are you excited about starting school?" Mayu asked.
The Sipelit nodded happily. "It's a shame I have to wait until January."
"Would you like to start sooner?"
"She can do that?!" Mayu asked in surprise.
The women went on to explain that given the "special circumstances", Nana could start going to class this coming Monday. With it being Friday, that gave the purple-haired girl about two days to prepare herself for life as a student. To nobody's surprise, Nana accepted.
On the way out of the faculty office, Nana was so busy talking to Mayu she didn't even notice someone was coming until she ran into him and knocked him and herself down. She quickly apologized and started helping him pick up his dropped belongings.
"Nana?"
The young Diclonius looked up, and smiled brightly at the boy. "Kenji?! What are you doing here?!"
"I go to school here. What about you?" he asked. When she told him she started Monday, the boy just blushed and started tripping over his own words. "How do you know each other?" a genuinely curious Mayu asked, to which Nana replied they met at the hotel during Kouta and Yuka's graduation. Hearing this, Mayu suddenly remembered she was on clean-up duty, and Lucy decided to go wait for her outside. Exchanging grins, Mayu and the Diclonius Queen left the two alone to talk.
"I... I'm glad to talk t-to you again." he stuttered.
"M... Me too..." she said shyly.
After a few seconds of awkward silence, he asked if she'd maybe eat lunch with him some time, an offer Nana immediately accepted. Lucy, meanwhile, had taken a seat on the metal railing outside the entrance to the school, and was watching the snow falling silently to the ground with a genuine smile on her face.
She looked down at her engagement ring, thinking back to the moment he "officially" asked her to marry him. The memory of him down on one knee proposing to her right in front of all those people never failed to extract tears from her eyes, and this time was no exception. It wasn't something she ever actually expected to happen, especially not organized by Yuka of all people.
"Just four months to go."
She closed her eyes with a smile, jarring a couple of tears loose.
"Hey!"
Lucy turned her head to see Nana coming her way, and she wasn't alone.
"Kenji, this is Lucy. She lives with me at Kaeda House."
"Hi..." Lucy smiled politely (or as close to it as possible).
"You're that girl in the red dress from graduation, aren't you? You have no idea how insanely popular you were!" Kenji said.
"Gorgeous, isn't she?" Nana teased. "Anyway, we gotta get going, so... see you Monday?"
"S-Sure!"
Nana waved goodbye, and the girls started back down the street towards the bus stop. After a couple of minutes, Lucy turned to the young Sipelit.
"Do you like him?"
Nana nodded with a shy smile. "He seems like a nice guy."
"Didn't you say the same thing about Taru?"
"Ughh... don't remind me."
Lucy grinned at the young Diclonius. "This one doesn't seem like a creep. I think he'll be much better for you."
The bus stop was deserted when they arrived, so they sat down to wait. Lucy shook the snow out of her long, pink hair, giving Nana a curious glance when she noticed her staring at her.
"What?"
"Umm... I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but you really ARE beautiful. I really do mean that, Lucy." Nana said sincerely.
The older Diclonius blushed faintly, shaking her head. "Looks like Kouta's not the only one who needs glasses."
The purple-haired girl giggled. "You get complimented for being beautiful all the time, but you never let it go to your head. It's never made you look down on other girls, or flaunt your looks for attention. "
"Nana..."
"That's what's REALLY beautiful about you, Lucy." Nana said gently. "I know it's a strange time to be talking about all this, but-"
"Excuse me!"
The girls looked over to see a couple of police officers looking at them from the sidewalk.
"Yes?" Nana asked.
"What are you two doing here?"
"It's a bus stop, what do you THINK we're doing here?" Lucy asked a bit rudely. The officers responded by getting on the radio and calling backup. Lucy just rolled her eyes and sighed. Typical human police... the moment you hurt their feelings, they call for help.
"Let me see your ID's."
The girls handed them over without protest. Predictably, as soon as they saw the red border around their pictures and the big red DICLONIUS printed on their ID's, they immediately went for their guns and started backing up.
"You know, if you just told us what the problem was, we really wouldn't need to do all this." Nana offered, trying to calm everything down before one of them did something stupid and forced Lucy's hand.
"We've received a call about two suspects matching your description assaulting a woman at Kamakura Jogakuin."
'That uppity little bitch!' Lucy seethed mentally.
"We didn't do anything wrong!" Nana insisted.
"Well, we're bringing her over here, and if she identifies you, you're both going to jail."
"This is bullshit. We never touched her, just ask the women in the Faculty office!" Lucy said.
"Let's not drag them into this, ok? We've got the complainant, and that's all we need."
Before long, a patrol car arrived and parked across the street from the bus stop. As they both expected, it was Japanese-Karen in the backseat. The officer driving opened the door and the two of them walked across the street.
"That's them! Those drug-addicted, promiscuous little monsters don't belong anywhere near human children, especially not mine! The only reason they didn't kill me was because there were witnesses around!"
"If there were witnesses, then let's go ask them what they saw!" Nana retorted.
"I already told you, we're not dragging them into this."
Nana took a step forward, trying to convince the officers to actually go investigate a little bit more instead of just believing their "victim" over everything and everyone. In response, the officer closest to her roughly shoved her back. The Sipelit slipped on the ice and fell hard on the concrete. The one who shoved her aimed his gun at her and started threatening to shoot if she did it again.
"Nana!"
"Hey! What are you doing? We didn't say you could do that!"
Lucy squatted down beside her, using her hand to cover the now freely bleeding cut over her eye. "Are you alright?"
Nana nodded her head. "It's not bad."
"Hey! We're talking to you!"
After the older Diclonius ignored them in favor of helping Nana up, the officers decided to go ahead and arrest her. The one closest to her grabbed Lucy's arm and yanked her back, causing her to both drop Nana, and lose her balance. Instinctively, she tried to grab on to something to steady herself, which happened to be cop. His partner grabbed her other arm and twisted it painfully behind her back.
"Now we're adding assaulting an officer to your charges!"
"Not so fast, Officer Miradi..." someone behind them said.
They turned to see the three officers who had come to the school casually strolling up.
"Good morning, Chief Dojima!" the two officers bowed after letting go of Lucy.
Seeing that Nana had blood on her face, the Chief opened a small pouch on his duty belt and handed the Sipelit an unopened sterile wipe to clean herself up.
"Why is Miss Nana bleeding?" he asked nonchalantly. "Before you answer, let me tell you I've been sitting right over there watching you since the moment you asked for their ID's."
Japanese-Karen suddenly wasn't looking so smug anymore.
"We... We received a call from this lady that she was assaulted and threatened by these two suspects. She positively ID'ed them, and they admitted they were at the school."
"Did you talk to the women at the school to verify any of this?"
"Well, no..."
"Did you watch any surveillance footage?"
"We didn't feel it was necessary. We had the complainant, so..."
"I see..." he said calmly. "You still haven't told me why Miss Nana has blood on her face."
Lucy could see the man was desperately trying to think of an excuse that would seem at least remotely reasonable. "She took a step towards me, so I shoved her down and pointed my gun at her" was not going to hold water and he knew it.
"Well, she tried to approach me, and I thought she was about to attack us. She's a Diclonius, and since Diclonii possess vectors, I... I thought she was about to become violent."
"You know, I've got important business to take care of, so let's just forget about this... ok?" Japanese-Karen said as she turned to leave.
"Take another step and you're getting arrested immediately." one of the officers with the Chief warned.
After a few moments, Dojima continued.
"It looked to me like you shoved her down and then pointed a gun at her, Officer Daisen."
"I was in fear for my life!" he claimed.
"Why did you grab Miss Kaeda?"
"She... she was going for my gun!" Miradi claimed.
The Chief smiled at the officers so unnervingly it actually started creeping Lucy out.
"She went for your gun..." the Chief repeated. "She has vectors that can cut through concrete, deflect bullets, and rip apart solid steel, and instead of using them, she tries to take your gun, which has limited ammunition, is easily detectable, and is nowhere near as lethal?"
In fairness, yes, Lucy DID use a gun against Bando, but that was a different circumstance.
"Well..."
"From what I saw, Miss Kaeda was trying to help Miss Nana get up when you decided to grab her, haul her to her feet, and force her arms behind her back.''
"She was resisting arrest!"
"She was resisting an UNLAWFUL arrest is more like it." one of the Chief's entourage replied. "And If you hadn't shoved Miss Nana down in the first place, it wouldn't have happened."
Lucy couldn't help but feel something was odd about this situation. Instead of backing up the two officers who started this in the first place, these three were backing up THEM, and being what could almost be considered hostile towards the other two.
"We... We were in fear for lives. Given the circumstances, I believe we acted reasonably."
The two cops with the Chief just laughed. "If you seriously call that pathetic display of police-work "reasonable" you're sorely mistaken."
"We were prioritizing officer safely!"
"You were prioritizing your ego." one of the Chief's men said. "You told her to do something, and when she didn't do it, your snowflake ass couldn't handle it, and you decided to show her who's boss."
"If you were truly concerned with your safety, you'd be backing away from her. You didn't, so get the fuck outta here what that "officer safety" crap." the other man said.
The Chief looked at the officers in the same way a parent would after catching their children in a ridiculously unfeasible lie.
"So, you get a call that these girls attacked this lady at the school. You check no footage, nor look for witnesses. You shove one of them to the ground, giving her a bleeding head wound. Then, you point a gun at her, and when this other girl tries to help her up, you grab her arms, violently haul her to her feet, then top it off by trying to arrest her for something that even the dumbest cop in the world could see wasn't her fault."
"Then you stood right to your Chief's face and deliberately lied to him." the other cop said.
"Well, um..." Miradi started to say before the Chief cut him off.
"There is no place In my department for such incompetence. Both of you are fired... effective immediately."
Lucy looked at Nana in shock. She expected at best a slap on the wrist for them, and at worst time in jail for her and Nana on the word of this lying bitch who simply cannot learn to mind her own business.
"What?! You can't do that!"
"I just did." he replied, then turned his attention back to the Diclonii. "Would you ladies like to press charges for the unlawful and excessive force you just experienced?"
When both girls said yes, the officers that arrived with the Chief immediately arrested the two that caused the situation to begin with.
"Chief, come on! It's gonna be Christmas in a few weeks!"
"Well, maybe you should try asking Santa for another job."
'Damn!' Lucy thought to herself.
Per the Chief's order, the two men who came with him put the fired officers in the back of their own patrol cars and drove them to the station.
Now, only the Chief, the two Diclonii, and Japanese-Karen were left on scene.
"What about her? Do you want to press charges?"
"You'd put a HUMAN in jail on account of THEM?!"
The two girls watched quietly as the Chief ripped Japanese-Karen a new asshole, calling her out for every single insult and false claim she'd made against them and immediately shutting down all attempts to justify her egregious lapses of decency and morals.
When she was finally cowed into silence, Nana told him they wouldn't press charges if she'd simply apologize. She thought for sure she'd refuse, but surprisingly, she actually gave them an apology, albeit a half-assed, insincere one. Then, without another word, she turned and walked away.
For a long moment, they watched her walk away. The Chief then turned his attention to the girls.
"Come on, I'll drive you two home."
"We don't mind waiting for the bus." Nana offered, to which he replied he didn't mind taking them. Rather than argue, they just accepted and got in the back of his unmarked car.
When they arrived at Kaeda House, the first thing Yuka thought was one of them, likely Lucy, had gotten in trouble somehow, but the Chief assured her they'd done nothing wrong.
As she took Nana in to clean the girl up, he turned to Lucy.
"I had a daughter once. She'd be about Nana's age if she were alive."
"What happened to her?" Lucy asked.
"She was one of you..." he answered quietly.
The pink-haired girl looked at him in shock. "You mean..."
"Euthanized..." the Chief said. "Those two officers I was with? The same thing happened to them."
'So THAT'S why...' she thought to herself. It had greatly shocked her to see police so blatantly taking their side over the other officer's, but perhaps protecting her and Nana was their way of apologizing to the daughters they never got to see grow up.
"After she was born, the hospital reported the birth. Some suits from some Government group showed up and actually asked me and my wife to sign some paperwork letting them kill my only child."
"Tell me you didn't..."
"Of course not!" he replied. "They tried everything they could think of, but we wouldn't give in. The next day, we went home as a family. Then, her ten-day checkup comes around. They take her in the back, then she suddenly codes out of nowhere. They diagnosed it as SIDS, but that's a lie. They murdered my only child..."
The pink-haired girl looked away, getting angrier by the second.
"They used to smother them, or give them a lethal dose of something. People didn't take that too well, so they started using pretexts. They'd wait for a scheduled checkup or late-night ER visit, take the baby in the back, and... and then kill her, then make up a reason for COD."
"Bastards..." Lucy said quietly, so enraged she was actually on the verge on shedding tears.
"That girl, Nana... her last name is Kurama, correct?"
Lucy now knew exactly where this was going. "She's not related to him. He just happened to be the only one at the institute that treated her nicely, so she took his last name when we went through the Cohab program."
The Chief nodded. "Between us, I'd love to get my hands on that son-of-a-bitch."
"He's dead. Him and his real daughter both died years ago." Lucy informed him.
The Police Chief looked... surprised? Or disappointed? Lucy wasn't sure, but he nodded his head dropped the subject.
"I noticed your engagement ring. Does your boyfriend live with you?"
The pink-haired girl smiled and nodded. "He works from home. We're getting married the first week of April."
"You two planning on kids?"
Rather than try to explain her situation, she simply said they hadn't decided yet, an answer he seemed to readily accept. "If you do, you watch those damn doctors like hawks. Don't let your baby out of your sight for NOTHING... you hear me?"
Lucy bowed slightly, "I do. Thank you again for everything, and... I'm sorry about your little girl."
"Thank you... If you need anything, just call the station."
After saying goodbye, Lucy walked in to find Yuka patching up the Sipelit. The moment Kouta heard her voice he dropped everything and went to check on her with the same urgency that Yuka always showed whenever one of them were hurt or sick.
"Kaeda!"
Seeing him coming, she rushed over to him.
"Are you alright?"
She nodded. "I'm fine."
"No, you're not! Look at your arms!" Yuka spoke up.
Lucy looked down, only now noticing the bruises on her arms.
"What did those assholes do to you?!"
"It's OK, Kouta... It's not that bad." she assured him. Secretly, it made her happy to know he was pissed about the way she was treated. Granted, she didn't want him to go all vigilante over it, but it's still nice to know he cared.
"Like hell it isn't!" Yuka ranted. "What are they going to do about this?"
"Don't worry..." Nana said. "The Chief saw the whole thing and fired them on the spot. Plus, we both pressed charges, so they also got arrested."
"Good!" both cousins said in unison.
He hugged her tightly against him again, offering to stop work early so he could spend extra time with her. She blushed, grateful and more than a little flattered that he was so willing to put her over everything else, but again assured him that she was fine. He reluctantly nodded his head, and they shared a long, gentle kiss before he returned to his room, and she went to see how Nana was doing.
Now that the Sipelit had been cleaned up a little, Lucy could see the cut she received was a little worse than she'd thought.
"I can't believe those douchebags actually treated you two so badly! And over a false report, no less!" Yuka fumed.
"Don't worry about it. Both of them got fired and arrested, so it all worked out in the end." Lucy said.
Changing the subject, the brunette asked Nana if they let her enroll, and the Sipelit gave her the condensed version of events.
She was surprised by the news that Nana would be starting school so soon, but her and Mayu were going to be in the same class, so she wasn't worried. Besides, Mayu had already gone over what school was, and what was expected of her, and Nana seemed to understand what life as a student would entail.
She HOPED she did, anyway.
Kamakura Jogakuin Junior/Senior High School - Three days later
"Class, we have a new student joining us today. This is the first time she's been in a public school, so I'd appreciate it if someone would answer any questions she might have."
The Sipelit cleared her throat nervously, fidgeting with her uniform tye as she spoke.
"Um... m-my name is Nana Kurama. I'm new to human schooling, but I'm looking forward to getting along with everyone." she smiled brightly. Mayu gave her an encouraging smile, only now noticing that she didn't have her hairbow.
"Do you live with your parents?" someone asked.
"Umm... I don't have actual parents, but I live with Mayu, and we both live with our adoptive parents."
"Do they know you're not, like... normal?"
Nana nodded her head. "There's another Diclonius named Lu... I mean, Kaeda... she lives with us too. She's kind of like a big sister to me and Mayu."
After a few more questions, Nana took the empty seat in front of Mayu. It didn't take long for her to realize how utterly screwed she'd have been had the human girl not spent time getting her prepared for life as a student.
By the time the day was over, Nana was exhausted, but hopeful. She had made a fairly good impression with her classmates, and Mayu had told her privately that she thought she would fit in just fine.
Taking a page out of Lucy's book, the Sipelit decided to retire the hairbow and stop hiding her horns. Her classmates already knew she wasn't human, so there was little point in wearing it to school (and if she wasn't hiding them at school, she might as well not hide them anywhere else.)
Nana wasn't the only one stepping into unfamiliar territory. While she was at school, Yuka and Lucy walked to the nearby grocery store to pick up ingredients for dinner. On the way home, the Diclonius had noticed a "Seasonal Help Wanted" sign outside the little bakery Mayu had once frequented, and asked Yuka about it.
"Seasonal just means temporary. A lot of businesses hire extra help for the holidays. Why? Are you thinking of applying?"
When Lucy nodded, the girls went in to talk to the owner, but the line of customers made this impossible.
"It's OK, I'll just come back in a couple of hours." the pink-haired girl said. Kouta wouldn't be done with work until around 4pm, so it gave her plenty of time to walk home with Yuka, nap for a little while, walk back to the bakery, talk to the owner, and return home, all before her fiancé finished work.
"That place used to be little more than a Concession stand, but the owner remodeled it. Now it's got an actual lobby, doors, and a bigger kitchen." Yuka said.
When they returned to Kaeda House, she hung her coat up, but kept on her tight-fitting, dark blue sweater and black micro-pleated skirt. Unlike the rest of her skirts and dresses, this one came down to just below her knees, whereas the rest of them were knee-length or shorter.
She helped Yuka put away the groceries, then made her way to Kouta's room and silently crept inside.
"Ok, no. That... That's not going to fix the problem. You're basically trying to fix a sinking ship with a roll of package tape. Hold on a second for me..." he said, muting the call when he felt Lucy's soft lips on his neck.
He took his headset off, got up, and hugged her against him. No matter how busy he was, he always stopped long enough to, at the very least, hug and kiss her. It wasn't always possible to make it a lengthy hug and kiss, but the Diclonius didn't mind. She was just happy he took time out of his work day for her.
He cupped her face and gently kissed her lips. She wrapped her arms around his neck and happily kissed him back. "I love you..."
Kouta smiled and kissed her again. "I love you, too."
"Is it ok if I nap in here?"
He nodded, holding her lovingly in his arms for a few more seconds before letting go. She smiled as he sat back down to continue working. She took her black scarf off and curled up in his futon, watching him work. She smiled to herself as she thought back to the first time he was "Live" as they put it.
After she found out they didn't use webcams and thus could hear, but not see what he was doing, she silently worked his jeans down and gave him oral sex while he was on the phone.
His reaction was nothing short of hilarious. He first tried telling her to stop, then he started slapping her hand, which worked at first, but eventually the customer heard them arguing, and he was forced to just try to ignore her.
Despite his best efforts, he eventually lost the battle. Once Lucy got his pants down, she put her soft lips to good use, and soon, it was "Game Over".
When she was done, she wiped her lips off and sat on his futon with a smug grin on her face.
"I feel violated..." he had said when he finally hung up. That remark made her laugh so hard, he couldn't even pretend to be angry about it.
Today, however, the only thing she wanted to get intimate with was his absurdly comfortable futon and pillows. Before he had even finished the call he was on, she was sound asleep.
Three hours later
Kouta had been a little iffy about her working, but that was to be expected. His family was kinda old-fashioned, and tended to lean a bit towards the "the man is supposed to be responsible for working" line of thinking.
"It's just seasonal, Kouta. Besides, isn't it a good idea to have some sort of work history in case you get sick or injured and can't work for a while?"
He agreed it was, and the issue was resolved.
"I just... I was worried maybe you thought I wasn't doing enough to support you, or that me working was causing you to get bored here..." he admitted uneasily.
"Kouta, you do far more for me than I'll ever deserve, and I'll never get bored with you no matter how much you work." she had assured him.
"Just be careful, ok?"
Lucy kissed him long and passionately, promising she would be. Just for fun, he gave her ass a playful slap as she started to leave.
Before long, she made it back to the bakery, which thankfully was now deserted.
When the owner asked if she needed to order something, the Diclonius shook her head and informed her she was here because of the help wanted sign.
"I was beginning to think no one was interested in working here." she smiled at Lucy. "Do you have any experience with food service?"
She shook her head no and replied she'd never had any sort of job before.
"Well, you look like the type that catches on quickly, so I don't think that'll be a problem." the owner replied with a cheerful expression. "I'm sure you've noticed by now, but this is a small shop. I don't have any other employees, so it's going to be just the two of us."
Lucy nodded in understanding, so the owner continued.
"I'm not going to lie to you, I can't keep you more than a couple of weeks. Our hours are from 9 am to 5 pm, but I'll only need you from about noon onward. We're closed on Sundays, and because we're generally slow as hell on Mondays, it's going to make your hours noon to 5pm, Tuesday through Saturday. Still interested?"
The Diclonius Queen nodded again. Truth be told, she was actually a little relieved. This was a first for her, and having to work open-to-close five days a week may have been a little bit too much for someone who has literally never worked a day in her life.
"I know it's not much, but would you take ¥3,000 per day?" the owner asked hopefully. "I'm sorry... I wish I could give you more, but-"
The pink-haired girl shook her head. "Don't worry about it. ¥3,000 is fine."
The woman seemed relieved to hear it. "Thank you. I'll do my best to give you more if I can. I'm Yuri, by the way."
"Kaeda."
Yuri smiled, shaking hands with her new (albeit temporary) employee.
"I couldn't help but notice your..." Yuri gestured to her horns. "Would you prefer if I did most of the interacting with customers?"
Pleasantly surprised, Lucy gratefully accepted the offer.
"I know people like yourself are kind of a hot-button issue lately, but I want you to be aware that, while I DO expect you to be cordial even to irate customers, I DON'T expect you to just stand there and tolerate abuse. That's not how I do things."
Lucy smiled and nodded at Yuri. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, hun. See you tomorrow."
Walking home, the pink-haired girl felt a sense of pride she'd never felt before. Sure, it was just a short-term stint at a small bakery, but it was still a job, and for someone who at one time wholeheartedly believed she never be able to have a "normal life", it was a good start.
Plus, it came with an unexpected perk in the form of Kouta asking her to just sleep in his room the nights she had to work. When Yuka questioned what sleeping in his room had to do with her having a job, he innocently said she didn't have an alarm clock and since he got up before noon, he'd be able to ensure she didn't oversleep.
"It's her first job. You don't want her to be late and make a bad impression, right?"
Yuka knew her cousin was bullshitting her, but didn't argue.
"Just remember to keep it down, your rooms a lot closer to mine than hers is."