-Faith, Love, and Forgiveness - Chapter Twenty-four: Harassment-
Yuri's Bakery - The next afternoon
"You're much better than I thought you were going to be!"
Lucy smiled sheepishly as she went about icing one of the several cakes they had made that day. Even though she had no job experience, she had plenty of experience helping in the kitchen at Kaeda House, and was glad that it was paying off in ways other than simply helping make dinner.
"Thanks." she replied simply. Yuri watched as the pink-haired girl carefully ran her knife around the sides of the cake, wiping the excess frosting on the top in preparation for the next layer. After a few minutes, she frowned as she dipped the blade back into the bowl of icing.
"I'm not sure I'm doing this right..." she confessed. "It seems like I'm having to use too much frosting to get the sides covered."
"You're pressing down too hard. Try easing up a little."
Lucy dipped into the bowl again, this time easing up on the pressure she used. Her boss smiled encouragingly as the small adjustment to her technique worked perfectly. Soon, the cake was complete, and she moved on to decorating with an icing bag.
"So, how good is your handwriting?" Yuri asked after it was time to write the message on the cake. When the Diclonius replied she hadn't really had much experience writing, the owner and her swapped places. As soon as they did, the door opened, and a man walked in wearing an expensive-looking suit.
"Can you get that?"
Lucy had no idea what she was supposed to do or say, but she washed her hands and went upfront.
"Can I help you?"
"Are your chocolate chip cookies fresh?" he asked.
The pink-haired girl nodded. "They've only been there for about a half hour."
The man thought for a moment, then asked for a dozen. Since she didn't know how to use the cash register, Yuri handled payment while she worked on bagging his purchase.
"What's that girl's name?" he asked, gesturing to the Diclonius.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Does it matter? It's an easy question."
"Yes, it matters. That's my employee. If you're asking about her, I think it's fair to want to know why." Yuri replied.
"It's none of your business." the man snapped at her.
"Then neither is her name."
He just glared at her, finally explaining he wanted to offer her a job.
"Where at?" Lucy asked.
"Erotica." he answered. "It's a gentlemen's club I happen to own. I'm always scouting for new dancers, and I think my customers would love to see you naked. I know I would."
"I appreciate the offer, but I'm happy where I'm at."
"I could pay you a LOT more than she can." he said. "With a body like yours, you could easily make ¥25,000 or more every night."
"Like I said, I'm happy where I'm at. Besides, I'm getting married in a few months." she answered.
"What does that have to do with it? Most guys would love to see their woman take her clothes off on stage." he said with a pervy grin. "And most girls would be happy to show off their tits and ass for that kind of money."
"Well, he's not like most guys, and I'm not like most girls, so have a nice day." she said as she handed him his bag of cookies.
"Well, if you change your mind, you know where I'm at."
After he left, Yuri smiled at her. "If I could afford it, I'd hire you permanently."
"I was just being honest."
That just made Yuri's smile even bigger. "You're something else, you know that? Your boyfriend's lucky to have you."
The two of them got back to work. Before she knew it, it was already after 4pm. As they were working on cleaning up, they heard the door open.
"Lucy! Are you here?"
The two women walked up front to find Nana and Mayu waiting for her. Mayu blushed a bit, giving Yuri a shy smile as she waved. Thankfully, she smiled back, but didn't mention anything about their... "prior arrangement".
"That apron looks cute on you, Lucy." Nana teased. Seeing her boss's confused look, she explained that while "Kaeda" was her real name, "Lucy" and "Nyu" were nicknames that she was still sometimes called by.
"Do you have a preference? I can call you something different if you'd like."
"Just "Kaeda" is fine." Lucy said.
"Would you girls like some cookies?" Yuri asked.
Nana immediately replied that she'd love some, only for Mayu to jab her with her elbow.
"That's not why we came here!" she hissed at the Sipelit. Nana glared at her, but didn't push the issue.
"Lucy, have any of the men from the Cohab program come by?" Nana asked.
The pink-haired girl gave her a surprised look. "No... why?"
"They came to our school and pulled Nana out of class." Mayu replied.
"What?!"
Kamakura Jogakuin Junior/Senior High School - Five hours ago
"The Warring States period is considered the height of the age of Samurai, marked by numerous conflicts between clans such as the Azai and Oda..." Nana read outloud.
Mayu smiled proudly at the young Diclonius, happy to see that all the prep work that she and Yuka put in to get her ready for public schooling had paid off. It was only her second day, of course, but so far, things were looking great.
"Nana Kurama, please come to the Faculty Office. Nana Kurama, come to the Faculty Office."
Her and Mayu exchanged looks, then Mayu took over for her so she could go see what they wanted. As soon as she walked in, she immediately figured out what the problem was.
"Hello, Nana. I'm Mr. Saito, this is-"'
"I know who you are. What do you want?"
"Why don't we go back to our office and discuss this privately?" Saito asked.
"You're not leaving school grounds with one of my students." the Principal spoke up. "If you want to talk to her, you're going to do it here, and I'm asserting my right as a school administrator to be in there with her."
Nana smiled gratefully at the Principal, who smiled back.
"I don't think you understand who you're talking to." Hara told him as he glared at Nana.
"I understand exactly who I'm talking to. You're a bunch of bureaucrats that don't like the fact that a Diclonius is trying to assimilate into human society."
The officials just sighed in frustration.
"Look, we don't think it's safe for her to be around human children."
"Didn't she finish your program that was specifically designed to prepare her to live and function in human society?"
"Well, yes, but..."
"BUT... nothing. If she completed the program, that's enough for me. If there's nothing else, I'm sending her back to class, and may I highly suggest that unless you have actual evidence that she's endangering the other students, you leave her the hell alone."
Yuri's Bakery - Present day
"If they came to harass me at school, they'll probably come to harass you at work."
Realizing Yuri had no idea what they were talking about, Nana gave her the condensed version of what happened at the Cohabitation Program.
"You had to get the Government's permission to live a normal life? That's bullshit!"
The three girls nodded in agreement. "Even after all the red tape and hoops we had to jump through, they still won't leave us alone. If they come to Lucy's wedding, it won't surprise me in the least."
"I don't understand why they're making such a big deal about it. You two seem fine to me, so what's the problem?" Yuri asked.
"They don't want us in human society." Lucy answered bitterly. "They have no problem with keeping us locked up in a lab and experimented on, but God forbid we try to have lives like everybody else."
The older woman smiled sadly at her employee. She had watched one news report after another make exaggerated claims about Diclonii; That they murder their own families as soon as their vectors develop, attack and murder humans on sight, have no emotions or conscience, can't have any sort of romantic relationships with humans, can't be trusted to be alone with humans, can't hold down a job or attend school...
She didn't know much about her kind, but she knew enough to know the two Diclonii in front of her weren't what the media was making them out to be.
"Girls, I... I can't even begin to imagine how hard it must be to try and have a normal life with the way things are now, but it'll get better. Just keep your head up, ok?" she smiled at them.
Lucy just sighed and motioned for Yuri to come to the back of the shop with her.
"What's wrong, Kaeda?"
"Listen, I appreciate what you've done for me, but-"
"Please tell me you're not quitting..." the owner interrupted.
Lucy blinked in surprise. "I... I was actually going to say I understand if it's too big a problem keeping someone like me around."
"Honey, I don't care what people say about your kind. If those men show up, I'll tell them to piss off. I might not have a fancy college degree like they probably do, but I can tell when I'm being lied to."
"Yuri..."
"I know you've done... things... in the past..."
"How did-"
"I can see it in your eyes, sweetie. You don't have to tell me what you did, but I want you to know that whatever it was isn't going to make me have second thoughts about you working here. That was then, this is now, ok?" Yuri smiled.
The pink-haired girl just nodded. "Ok... If you're sure."
"I am."
The two women walked back to the front of the store to find that someone else had come in while they were in the back.
"Kouta! What are you doing here?"
"I got off early and wanted to surprise you." he smiled. Lucy looked at Yuri, who nodded her head in consent. Walking around the counter, she ran over and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"How's your day been?" he asked, gently rubbing his fiancé's back.
She pulled away and kissed him, telling him how good things were going so far.
"She got another job offer!" Yuri teased.
From the way she blushed, Kouta knew this was going to be a good one.
"Some... creep... came in and wanted me to come work In his strip club..." she confessed.
"Doing what?"
"It's a strip club, Kouta, what do you THINK?"
"I don't know. I've never been to one." he innocently replied.
Lucy sighed in embarrassment. "He... He wanted me to get naked and... "show off my tits and ass"... as he put it."
He nodded. "So, when do you start?"
"KOUTA!"
He, Yuri, Nana, and Mayu all broke out laughing. The older Diclonius knew he was just teasing her, but still blushed in embarrassment.
"Don't worry, she turned him down. She really loves you, so I hope for your sake you never make her regret it." Yuri warned.
"I won't, that I can promise you." he answered seriously.
The two lovers hugged and shared a long, gentle kiss. Then, another one even longer than the first one.
"Alright, break's over! Back to work!" Yuri teased, tugging gently on Lucy's apron strings. The group laughed at the older Diclonius's sheepish expression, and after one final kiss, she went back inside the kitchen while Kouta, Nana, and Mayu started walking home.
"I hope you're not mad about me telling him that."
"Of course not." Lucy smiled.
Yuri just smiled back, and the two of them got to work cleaning up for the day. A little over an hour later, she was ¥3,000 richer and on her way home.
As the couple lay cuddling in bed that night, Lucy asked him rather bluntly if he'd be upset if she'd taken the job at that sleezy man's strip club. When Kouta immediately answered "Yes", she smiled and kissed him deeply on the lips.
"Good." she replied.
"Umm... were you seriously consid-"
"Never..." she interrupted. "My body is reserved for you, and you ONLY..."
He grinned playfully at her. "What if I wanted to be a stripper?"
"If my body belongs to you, then yours belongs to me!" she teased.
He smiled and held her a little tighter.
"It always has, and always will."
Lucy smiled gently and nuzzled her face against his.
"Same here."
Yuri's Bakery - Four days later
Lucy had adjusted very well to having a job by the end of her first week. Yuri had taught her how to operate the register, and no longer had to stop what she was doing to ring up sales. This freed her up tremendously, and this brought a noticeable increase in productivity as a direct result.
It also made her deeply regret she couldn't afford to keep the Diclonius much longer.
On Saturday, Lucy arrived at the bakery and was greeted by a very irritated Yuri. The woman yelled some rather uncharacteristic words when the door opened, but stopped when she saw it was her.
"I'm sorry Kaeda, that wasn't meant for you..."
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Some little bastard called me and wanted almost ¥15,000 in cookies. I make them, he pays, leaves, then comes back twenty minutes later and says they're the wrong kind. Whatever... mistakes happen, you know? So I apologize and tell him I'll replace the order. I even allow him to keep the first batch. He tells me what he wants, and this time I even ask him if he'd write it down."
Lucy nodded, waiting for her to continue.
"He leaves, but then comes back and says it's the wrong kind AGAIN! I show him the order HE wrote down, then he leaves, comes back again twenty minutes later, and says they were too hard to chew!"
"Greedy, foolish humans..." Lucy muttered.
"I'm baking him replacements now. When he comes in, would you please give them to him?"
The Diclonius nodded. "Sure."
Yuri smiled gratefully, and Lucy tied her apron on and started helping fill the other orders the bakery had received, most of which were cakes, but there were a few orders for cookies and other pastries too. There were even a couple of them for loaves of banana-nut bread, which the Diclonius Queen didn't even know existed until then.
Before long, Yuri nudged the pink-haired girl and informed her the man who was having such a bitch-fit just walked in.
"I'll go handle it."
Yuri watched her go up front, wishing for the 500th time she had the money to hire her as a permanent employee. Until she came along, her seasonal hires seemed to be either lazy as hell, or difficult to get along with. The Diclonius was neither, and finding somebody like her was not a common occurrence.
"Can I help you?"
The man looked at her in confusion. "Who are you? What happened to the owner?"
"She's busy. I'm filling in for her." Lucy answered. The man just looked her up and down for a moment. Today, she had decided to wear her knee-length burgundy jumper dress with a red and pink striped top underneath. It was nothing fancy, but she didn't care. It was comfortable to wear, and that's all that mattered to her.
"I see... anyway, I'm here to pick up an order. It should be under "Hiryu."
Lucy walked away, returning shortly with several bags of freshly-made cookies. The man reached for them, but the pink-haired girl stopped him.
"I need you to check these before you leave."
She could tell instantly he wasn't expecting a request like that.
"I don't think that's really necessary, I'm sure it's wha-"
"I DO think it's necessary." she interrupted. "I'd hate to give you an incorrect order." she said.
Yuri, who had crept close enough to hear their conversation, but not enough to be seen, just stood there listening in case the man (or the Diclonius) decided to get hostile.
"I'm kind of in a hurry, so I'll just take your word for it."
"Check them now, or you're not getting them."
Seeing no other option, the man reluctantly opened the bags, confirming that the order was indeed correct. Lucy wanted to be absolutely sure he had no reason to complain, and insisted he taste-test one of them.
He balked a little, but eventually gave in. STILL not satisfied, the Diclonius insisted he repeat the process with all five of the remaining bags. One by one, they were all opened, inspected, and taste-tested. When he was done with the last bag, Lucy made him confirm that the order was correct, fresh, and acceptable before allowing him to leave.
As soon as he left, Yuri came back to the front of the shop, thanking her profusely for taking care of the matter.
"If he calls back, I'm telling him to piss off." Lucy told her.
The owner just laughed. "After that, I don't imagine he will."
The rest of the day went by quickly, and the pink-haired girl went home that evening with an extra ¥2,000 and two dozen cookies. Despite the fact he was still working, Kouta did the same thing he always did when she got home: Put whoever he was talking to on hold, removed his headset, got up and held his future wife in his arms.
"I missed you." he said just before they kissed.
"I missed you too." Lucy smiled, kissing him back. The couple talked for a minute about how each other's day went, then he went back to work while she went to help Yuka make dinner. At the kitchen table, Nana and Mayu doing homework together while Yuka was working on dinner. The girls smiled and waved at her as she walked in.
"You know, that uniform doesn't look too bad on you."
Yuka turned around and smiled warmly at her. "Hey Kaeda, how did it go?"
Lucy gave her the short version of what happened. As soon as Nana found out she had come home with cookies, she tried to get up but was dragged back down by Mayu, who told her to wait until after dinner. The purple-haired girl wasn't too thrilled about it, but didn't argue.
"Want to help get dinner ready?"
"That's actually what I came in here for." Lucy replied.
"You might want to wash your face first."
Confused, the pink-haired girl went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror to see a long streak of cake frosting down the right side of her face, and a noticeable amount of flour in her hair.
Apparently, Yuri and Kouta both thought it'd be funny to withhold this little bit of info from her and see how long it'd take her to notice. Smiling despite her annoyance, she washed up and returned to the kitchen.
A few minutes later, Lucy turned to Yuka and asked what she thought Kouta might like for Christmas.
"Well, if I had to guess, I'd say art supplies. He was really into that as a child."
She smiled at the pink-haired girl, asking her quietly if that was the reason she suddenly took such an interest in finding a job. When she admitted it was, Yuka reached over and squeezed her hand.
"You're so much sweeter than I give you credit for."
Lucy smiled, asking her to keep quiet about having this conversation. Yuka agreed, and all mention of the subject was dropped.
Yuri's Bakery - Three days later
"For the last time, no, we don't have anything "meat" flavored. This is a bakery, not a butcher shop."
Yuri smiled as she watched her frustrated employee hang up the phone. "Sounds like you just met Mr. Meat Cookie."
"What the hell is wrong with him? Who calls a bakery and asks for meat-flavored pastries?" the Diclonius asked. Yuri just laughed, "Yeah, he does that about once a week. Sometimes he'll order something, but he keeps asking if we have something that tastes like chicken or pork or some other kind of meat."
"Lucy!"
The two girls exchanged puzzled looks and walked to the front of the store to find Nana and Mayu waiting for her.
"What are you two doing here? Is everything okay?" Lucy asked.
"Those men came back again."
The pink-haired girl just sighed. "What did they want this time?"
"You."
Seeing the confusion on the older girl's face, Mayu clarified that they were wanting to know where she was working.
"How did they even know she had a job? I never keep information about seasonal employees on file." Yuri said. She had hired the Diclonius basically "under the table", so there shouldn't have been any way of knowing she had been working.
"I don't know, but me and Mayu told them to piss off."
"We asked them why they wanted to know, but they wouldn't tell us." Mayu added.
Lucy had already told the owner all about the CoHab program, and the mistreatment she and Nana had been forced to put up with. This saved the two Diclonii a great deal of trouble, as it meant they wouldn't have to constantly keep explaining things and hoping they made sense.
"That sounds kind of shady. If they wouldn't tell you why, they're probably doing something they're not supposed to." Yuri said.
"I don't understand why they're still bothering us. We went through that dumb program and did everything they wanted us to, so why won't they just leave us alone?" Nana asked.
"They will eventually." Lucy assured her. 'One way, or another...'
"Ah, there you are!"
Nana and Mayu turned and saw the three officials from the program had walked in behind them. Immediately, the Sipelit pulled out her smartphone and hit record.
"Hello again, Lucy. I'm Mr. Sa-"
"I know who you are. What the hell do you want?" she asked coldly.
"We're just checking in on you, that's all." Saito replied.
"I'm fine, as you can see."
"So, a bakery, huh? How long have you been working here?" Hara asked. Yuri immediately told the men it was none of their damn business.
"Well, actually it is. You see, Lucy's not a human being like me and you, she's actua-"
"I know what she is." Yuri interrupted. "She's a Diclonius with horns and vectors... she's also the best employee I've ever had, not that any of it concerns you."
"Don't you realize how dangerous Diclonii are? This girl's a killer, and you hired her anyway? Why?"
"I don't care about her past. She's been nothing but kind, honest, and hard-working from the moment she started here. That's what's important to me."
"She's a mass-murderer! You're jeopardizing your own life, and the lives of your customers by keeping her around!"
"She doesn't seem very murderous to me."
"Maybe not now, but it won't last. Her kind is incapable of controlling their urges!"
Yuri gave the three men the snarkiest smile Nana had ever seen.
"Kaeda?"
"Y-Yes?" Lucy asked in surprise.
"You're not allowed to murder me or any of my customers. The next time you kill someone, I'm cutting your wages in half for that day. Do you understand?"
"Yes ma'am, I won't kill you or any of your customers." Lucy said solemnly as she bowed.
Yuri turned to the three stunned officials.
"Well, as you can see, the problem's been taken care of, so I'd say you're done here. Come, Kaeda... we have cleaning to do."
"Yes ma'am." Lucy bowed again and obediently followed Yuri to the back of the store.
The men looked at each other in shock. Finally, Mr. Saito snapped out of his stunned disbelief long enough to angrily scream, "DO YOU THINK THIS IS SOME KIND OF JOKE?!"
Nana and Mayu were both literally in tears laughing at the men.
"Oh my God! I am SO glad I recorded that!" Nana said when she finally caught her breath.
With no other options, the three officials walked out and returned to their car.
"That little bitch is going to pay for this..." Naga muttered as they drove off.
"Lucy! We're going home! Bye, Miss Yuri!" Nana yelled after the officials were gone.
"Bye, girls! Be careful!"
Alone again, Lucy turned her attention back to the owner.
"Did you really mean all that?"
"Yes, I did. If you kill one of my customers, you're only getting ¥1,500 for the day."
"Yuri..."
The woman smiled at her in an almost motherly way.
"Whatever you did in the past is just that, the PAST. If you're talking about what I said about you being the best employee I've ever had, yes, I meant that too."
Lucy looked away and fell silent. Yuri reached out and lightly touched her arm.
"Are you afraid I think differently of you because I found out you're a murderer?" she asked gently.
When the Diclonius nodded, Yuri smiled sympathetically and shook her head.
"Well, I don't. You're an exceptionally unique girl, Kaeda. I know you've got regrets about the things that you've done, but just remember that those regrets have helped you become the young lady you are now... and from what I can see, the young man you've decided to marry seems to be quite happy with who you've become."
Lucy looked away for a minute, clearly struggling with her emotions. When the older woman reached to hug her, the pink-haired girl gladly hugged her back, using her apron to wipe the tears out of her eyes.
"Thank you..."
"Thank YOU, honey... I just wish I could afford to keep you permanently." Yuri replied.
The two women embraced in silence. Finally, Lucy cleared her throat and spoke.
"You know, if you need help from time to time, I don't mind... even if it's for free."
"You'd really do that for me? Even knowing you wouldn't get anything out of it?"
"Of course."
Yuri smiled and hugged the pink-haired girl a little tighter. "Bless you, Kaeda..."
Kaeda House - Later that night
"DO YOU THINK THIS IS SOME KIND OF JOKE?!"
Kouta and Yuka laughed hysterically as they rewound that part for the fifteenth time.
"No matter how many times I see it, it still kills me every time!" Nana laughed.
Lucy couldn't help but blush a little at the attention. She had given Mayu consent to post part of the video online under the title: "Bakery owner and Diclonius girl troll gov stooges" and it didn't take more than an hour or two to receive thousands of views and comments (most of which were about Lucy's attractiveness and not the video itself).
"You're famous, Lucy!" Nana teased.
"Lucky me..."
Kouta just smiled at her. It was pretty impressive how quick-witted she could be when she wanted to.
Plus, it gave them a new respect for Yuri, and not just for being able to come up with that little stunt off the top of her head. She had found out about her new employee's past in a way that was far less than ideal, but she was able to look past it and see the Diclonius for who she IS, rather than who she WAS.
As the couple cuddled in bed that night, the pink-haired girl thought back to the night she left Kaeda House, specifically the part where she told Nana that humans were worthless. It's hard for her to believe that was over three years ago.
And even harder for her to believe she was so wrong.
Miss Amari... Meyumi and Mesumi... the Turtle Woman at the zoo... the Police Chief... Yuri... At one time, she would have seen them all as nothing but an obstacle to be removed. Even Mayu and Yuka were once considered little more than something she had to tolerate because they lived at the same address. Now, she couldn't picture Kaeda House without them.
'Well, I guess if I was wrong about not being able to have a normal life with Kouta, there's no reason to think I couldn't be wrong about humans being worthless.' she thought.
"Baby?"
The Diclonius smiled to herself. Kouta didn't often call her names like "Baby" or "Honey", so it always seemed to catch her attention when he did.
"Yes?"
"What would you like for Christmas?"
"Kouta, you don't have to bother getting me anything. I've got you, and that's enough for me." she replied with a barely noticeable blush on her face.
"That's sweet, but I'm still doing it." he teased.
Lucy thought for a moment, but couldn't think of anything at the time.
"I'll think about it and let you know... as soon as you do the same." she smiled.
Kouta just sighed and shook his head. "I knew you were going to pull that..."
Yuri's Bakery - The next afternoon
"Ok, tell me again how many people are going to be there?"
"Well, probably fifty or so, mostly children and their parents."
Lucy looked at the woman like she was an idiot. "Um... I don't think one single cake is going to be enough."
"Why not?"
"The cake you're wanting is a bit on the small side as it is. With that many people, I don't think there's going to be enough for everyone."
"What if we make the slices really thin and only allow one serving per person?"
"I don't think that's going to help much." the Diclonius answered.
"Well, what if we use some kind of lottery system? Like, give everyone a number, then pick numbers at random and only let those people have a piece?"
"I... really think you should just order a bigger cake, or at least more than one." Lucy replied, trying her best not to completely lose her patience.
"What if we cut the slices thin, AND charge ¥500 for them?"
"Kaeda, would you be a dear and start on the icing for me? I'll take over here." Yuri smiled.
The pink-haired girl turned around and walked off without a word. A few minutes later, the owner came up to her with a sympathetic expression on her face and a few assorted cookies on a small paper plate.
"Here. I thought you might want to take a break from dealing with customers." she explained.
Lucy smiled, thanking her for taking over. As Yuri started mixing the batter for another order, she took a seat and started eating. By now, she had saved about ¥22,000. The present she wanted to give Kouta was just under ¥30,000. She was about ¥8,000 short, but by the end of the week, she would have more than enough.
And every single Yen of it had been earned by her, through hard work... something she was pretty damn proud of.
After she finished eating, she used the bathroom, washed her hands, then returned to the front counter to help a couple who had just walked inside.
"Can I help you?"
The two of them stared at the large, wall-mounted menu. "Just a minute, we're still looking."
While they were deciding what to order, Lucy went to check on Yuri. As expected, she already had the cake in the oven, and was working on making the icing.
"Do you need anything?"
The owner shook her head. "What did that couple want?"
"They haven't decided yet. I'll go back up there in a little bit." the Diclonius replied.
The two women chatted for a couple of minutes, but when they heard the service bell being rung, the pink-haired girl returned to the front counter.
"Ready?"
The woman whispered something to her presumed husband, who then whispered something back.
"We'd like a triple-layered red velvet, but without pecans in the frosting."
Lucy nodded, writing down their order. "Anything else?"
"Actually, yes." the man answered. "We'd like to speak to your manager."
"Give me a minute, I'll go get her."
The Diclonius Queen relayed the couple's request to Yuri, who followed her back to the front.
"I'm Yuri. What can I do for you?"
"Well, we just ordered a red velvet cake, and this girl took our order." the woman explained.
The owner looked at Lucy, then back to the couple. "And?"
"AND... we don't want her making or handling our cake." the man said.
Yuri just laughed at the couple's request. "I know she's young, but I can assure you she knows exactly what she's doing." she replied, proudly putting a hand on Lucy's shoulder.
"We don't want someone of her species involved in making our cake, so we'd appreciate it if you made it, and gave her something else to do."
"Excuse me?" Lucy and Yuri asked simultaneously.
"We've seen documentaries about your... kind. We know how people like you feel about humans. Honestly, we can't believe she even hired one of you." the woman said.
"Her "species" has nothing to do with baking cakes." Yuri answered, clearly pissed off. "She's extremely competent at her job, and that's all that you need to be concerned with."
"If you can't guarantee us she won't be involved, we're taking our business elsewhere."
"Well, don't let the door hit you on the way out." Yuri replied with a "Go fuck yourself" smile.
The couple just looked at each other, clearly not expecting to have their request refused.
"This is ridiculous! Just make her go wash dishes or something!" the man responded.
"I'm not degrading one of my best employees because you watch too much television. As I said, all you need to know is she's good at her job. Everything else is none of your business."
"We know a whole lot of important people." the woman said. "As in... a whole lot of RICH important people."
"One phone call from us, and your sales could skyrocket. With that kind of profit, you could afford any renovations you've ever wanted. Hell, you could even open another location!"
Yuri leaned forward and made eye contact with the couple, speaking in a low, dead-serious tone of voice. "I will close this place down and move back to Tokyo long before I'll give in to a couple of racists like you. Good day to you both."
"You're seriously going to-"
"Good day to you both." Yuri repeated.
"What about our cake?"
"You're taking your business elsewhere, remember?" Lucy spoke up.
"We weren't talking to you." the woman retorted. "We're talking to the human."
"You're taking your business elsewhere, remember?" Yuri responded, giving her employee a smart-ass'ed grin.
Disgusted by not getting their way, the entitled couple eventually gave up and stormed out.
"You know, it wouldn't have bothered me if you had asked me to just go clean or something."
"It would have bothered ME. Honestly, Kaeda... I can't believe this is the kind of crap people like you have to put up with! It makes me sick!"
Lucy smiled at the older woman, quietly thanking her for what she did.
"Does the Diclonius you live with have to put up with things like this?"
The pink-haired girl nodded. "Remember those men that were here yesterday? They tried to get the school to revoke her admittance on the second day she went to class."
The owner just sighed and shook her head. Lucy hesitantly reached out and patted the older woman's back. "Don't worry about it... It's not your fault."
Yuri smiled and put an arm around her. "You're something else, honey... I wish more people could see that before they rush to judgement."
The women smiled and got back to work. Lucy went home that evening with ¥4,000, plus the triple-layer red velvet cake the racist couple had wanted to order. After she finally managed to get Yuka alone, the two made plans to go buy Kouta's Christmas present Sunday.
After recounting her savings, Lucy confirmed she'd have plenty to buy Kouta something nice for Christmas, and she'd even have enough left to pay for them all to go out somewhere to eat on Saturday night, the scheduled last day of her temporary employment.
"Scheduled" because she had planned to offer to work a few days extra for free, an idea that Kouta had already said he supported. Nana and Mayu were going to be out of school for that entire week, and both of them expressed interest in doing the same.
Honestly, she knew they'd most likely be doing odd jobs while her and Yuri handled the actual baking and decorating, but they didn't seem to mind.
Yuri's Bakery - Two days later
On Friday, Lucy came in at 10 am to help with a large order made by the hospital. Three hours later, both women were exhausted and covered in a combination of batter, icing, and flour.
"I'm sorry to pull this on you so suddenly. I normally wouldn't accept such a big order on so little notice, but..."
"Since you've got extra help, you made an exception?" Lucy finished for her.
Yuri nodded, looking almost ashamed. "I'll pay you double for today."
The Diclonius Queen shook her head. "I didn't mind. Don't worry about it."
"Kaeda, you make me feel so horrible, you know that?"
Seeing the girls confusion, Yuri started laughing. "I don't mean that seriously, honey. I'm trying to say I hate that I can't pay you as much as you deserve."
"It's alright. Kouta makes good money doing remote data entry from home, and besides... I happen to like working here."
Yuri smiled gratefully at the pink-haired girl. "If you ever want anything from the store, it's on the house. That's the least I can do fo-" she started to say, but was interrupted by someone walking in. They walked up front together, and neither one of them were thrilled to see the three officials standing in front of the counter.
"What do you assholes want now?" Yuri asked rudely.
Mr. Saito produced an envelope and handed it to Yuri.
"We have a court order permitting us to conduct an observation on your employee."
"On what grounds?" Lucy asked.
"You were the first adult Diclonius to complete the Cohabitation program. We felt you should be observed to see if you've assimilated into human society, and the judge agreed."
Seeing the murderous look on her face, Naga quickly added that they were merely there to watch, and would be gone by 5 pm the next day, as that was the end of her employment. They also pointed out that because the order specified observation had to be conducted at her place of employment, they had no intention of following her after she left the bakery.
"When you leave, we leave."
Lucy and Yuri exchanged looks, but didn't press the issue. The men had a valid warrant, and both of them knew trying to defy the court would do nothing but get them in legal trouble (and with her wedding fast approaching, the pink-haired girl wasn't about to do something that could negatively impact such an important day.)
"Just make sure you stay the hell out of our way." Yuri warned.
All three men knew they were on extremely thin ice, and not just with the owner and Lucy. Their direct supervisor wasn't happy with the amount of resources they had poured into the only two Diclonii left in the Kamakura region, and they had been told explicitly that this was going to be the "end of the file".
In other words, unless Lucy did something egregious that justified further contact, they would be fired if they bothered her or the Sipelit again.
For the first hour and a half, the men just watched from the front of the store as the two girls baked, frosted, cut, mixed, decorated, stirred, and measured a seemingly endless amount of cookies, cakes, bread, and other pastries. After that, they took turns shadowing Lucy. One of them would stay literally right next to her at all times, while the other two would remain at the front of the store.
This backfired horrifically when Lucy told the owner she needed to run to the bathroom. It was Saito's turn at the moment, and the Governmental stooge followed her to the employee-only bathroom at the back of the store.
Just as she'd hoped, he stopped at the door, waiting for her to go in and relieve herself.
"You should come in with me." Lucy suggested innocently.
"I... I don't think that's necessary."
"I do. You're supposed to be observing me, right?"
She might be smiling sweetly on the outside, but she was laughing like hell on the inside.
"Your interactions with humans, not your... sanitary requirements." he said uncomfortably. It was obvious he really didn't want to go in with her, which just made her more determined to make him do it.
"If you don't, I'm going to call your boss. I'm sure he'd like to know about your half-ass job performance."
The look of defeat on his face made the Diclonius Queen's day.
With no other choice, he reluctantly walked in behind her. Lucy removed her apron and hung it over his shoulder. She reached under her knee-length black and blue plaid skirt and pulled her panties down before having a seat on the toilet, dragging the process out as long as she possibly could.
Saito turned around to face the other way, sighing unhappily as he waited for her to hurry up and finish. Not willing to make this easy on him, Lucy pulled out her smartphone and took a picture of the humiliated stooge standing against the wall like a child on time-out. After she sent both the picture, and an explanation message to Kouta, she started humming "Be Your Girl" to herself. She didn't know who the singer was, but she'd heard the song on the radio, and happened to think it was catchy.
"Are you done yet?"
"Nope. I'm a girl, it takes us a while."
She sent a copy of the message and picture to Yuri, just to make her aware of what was going on. She got a reply full of laughing emoji's.
Lucy didn't actually "use" the bathroom until she'd been in there for just over a half hour. The pink-haired girl washed her hands, tied her apron back on, and rejoined Yuri in the kitchen. As the two women got back to work, the first thing Saito did was switch with Hara, just in case the Diclonius decided to pull that stunt again.
Hara stayed within arms reach of Lucy at all times, but didn't try to talk to her. Saito had tried to make conversation with her, and Yuri had immediately gotten hostile over it, telling him:
"Your court order says you can observe her, not communicate with her."
When Lucy interacted with the customers, Hara would take notes, but not interfere. Even after one of the regulars addressed her directly ("Kaeda, honey, has Yuri gotten any of those White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookies in yet?") he said nothing, though he noticeably bristled when she was asked who he was and she replied with "nobody important".
The last customer left just after 5 pm, and by 5:30 pm, Lucy had collected her ¥3,000 and was on her way home. She wanted to tell Yuri about her offer to work unpaid for a few days, but decided to wait until the officials had left for good, just in case they decided to hang around for the unpaid days too.
Kouta, to her surprise, met her about a block from Kaeda House. He wasn't exactly thrilled that the officials were still bothering her, and wanted to meet her partway home, just in case they decided to follow her. She ran over and literally jumped on him. It was an attempt to be cute, but it ended up knocking him to the ground, and caused her to fall on top of him.
"Ow..." he groaned. Thankfully, he had fallen on snow covered grass rather than on concrete.
"Kouta, I... I'm sorry! I wasn't trying to do that on purpose!" she apologized. When she tried to get up, he grabbed her by her coat and pulled her back down.
"Oh, no you don't! I'm already down, now... we're making the most of it."
Without hesitation, she leaned her head down and kissed him deeply on the lips right there next to the sidewalk. It was only supposed to be one kiss, but that went right out the window when he reached up and cupped her face. In response, she gently bit down on his lower lip. In response to that, he slipped his tongue in her mouth, and in seconds, the two were making out right there on someone's front yard.
In broad daylight... undeterred by the falling snow.
The couple that owned said front yard watched the young couple in amusement, but decided to intervene when Lucy took off her coat and seemed to be trying to get Kouta out of his as well.
"God, I want you..." Kouta said as they kissed.
"Then, take me... I'm yours."
Kouta actually managed to get her top most of the way off before a loud "Ahem!" stopped them both dead in their tracks. How both of them failed to notice the couple was a complete mystery.
"I'm glad you're so in love with each other, but we got kids, so I've got to ask you not to have sex on my front yard... ok, guys?"
Lucy apologized as she pulled her top back down and slipped her coat back on.
She helped Kouta up and the two of them headed home.
"You know..." the man said as he watched them walk off. "I wonder just how far they'd have gone if we hadn't interrupted?"
'A lot farther than we've gone in a while, that's for sure...' his wife silently complained.
Kaeda House - One hour later
"They came back AGAIN?!"
Lucy nodded at the younger Diclonius.
The residents of Kaeda House were sitting around the table eating dinner, everyone talking about how their respective days went.
Kouta had been asked to help with IT Tech Support not long ago, and what was supposed to be a once-a-week assignment ended up being a 3x a week assignment. This was on top of his data entry work (which he was still expected to complete).
Mayu and Nana were in the same classes, so their days were nearly identical. The only real exception was Nana had talked to Kenji, and Mayu had not.
Yuka had neither work nor school, so her day consisted mainly of shopping and running errands. Like Kouta, she found the little stunt Lucy pulled on the officials to be hilarious.
"Wait, so Lucy peed right of front of that Mr. Saito?" Nana asked.
Kouta just started laughing and showed her the picture she sent to him.
"You MADE him follow you in?!" Nana asked in disbelief.
"He said they had a court order to observe me. I was just being helpful."
What nobody knew but her was how close she had come to murdering him while they were in there. The bakery had no surveillance cameras, and there wouldn't have been any in there even it did. She could've easily induced cardiac arrest, caused an aneurysm, cut off oxygen to his brain, or any one of hundreds of other ways that no autopsy in the world would be able to connect her to.
Ultimately, her faithfulness to the promise she made Kouta won out in the end.
"Too bad we didn't have any American chili. I bet that would have made it fun!" Kouta teased.
Nana was the only one who didn't get the joke.
Yuri's Bakery - The next afternoon
On her "final day", Lucy told Yuri she would be back Monday to talk to her about something she didn't want to say in front of anyone else. Thankfully, the older woman didn't ask any questions, and simply nodded.
It was Saito's "turn" to follow Lucy around, and out of the three of them, he was definitely the one asking the most questions. "Why don't you use honorifics?" "Why did you stop hiding your horns?" "Is there some reason you always pass cakes off to her if something is supposed to be written on them?"
She tried to actually give reasonable answers to his questions, but when he asked, "So, what do you plan to do after you get off tonight?" she decided to abandon that tactic.
"Well, that depends. If Kouta hasn't cum by then, we'll probably make love or I'll go down on him. If he has, we'll probably cuddle for a little while and then go to bed."
Yuri's laughing fit nearly caused her to choke on her coffee.
Saito was so caught off-guard by her answer, he was legitimately rendered speechless, and he looked so... jealous, that Lucy actually found herself feeling sorry for him.
After a moment, she sighed to herself and gave him an honest answer.
"We're all going out to eat. Kouta, Yuka, Nana, and Mayu are coming here, and we're all going somewhere together. Not sure where yet, but we'll think of something."
Yuri had been invited, but was already planning on going to her sister's house.
"You're going out to eat like THAT?" he asked.
"Minus the apron, yes."
Lucy had opted for an outfit that looked similar to the one she had worn the night Kurama and Mariko died. The dress was a little longer and was dark red instead of grey, the undershirt was long-sleeve and a shade of pink closer to her hair, and the striped stockings were gone, but she kept the decorative red ribbon tied in a bow around her neck.
"Why aren't you more... girly?" he asked.
Yuri looked at him like he was an idiot. "She's wearing a DRESS! I think that's about as "girly" as you can get!"
"Why don't you wear any makeup or style your hair or anything like that?"
"I do, it's just extremely rare. Besides, Kouta prefers me without makeup."
'Unless there's sex involved!' she grinned to herself.
Pulling her smartphone out, she opened the picture Yuka had taken of them on the night she and Kouta graduated college. She had her arms around his neck and was kissing him, but you could clearly see she was wearing red lipstick, had styled her hair and painted her nails, and even see her engagement ring.
"Oh, wow! I had no idea you looked so amazing dressed up!"
Lucy blushed slightly and looked at Saito out of the corner of her eye. He clearly wanted to have a look, but didn't want to actually admit that outloud. Noticing the look the woman was giving her, she turned to him and let him have a look.
From the way he kept glancing from her, to the picture, then back again, she could tell he was trying to figure out if it was a real photo or one that had been edited.
"I don't need makeup and expensive clothes to feel loved, wanted, or pretty. Kouta makes me feel those things just from the way he smiles at me, or touches my hand, or brushes his fingertips across my face." she said softly. "That's what I love the most about him. He never tries to make me into something I'm not. He took me just as I am, and I deeply love him for it."
Minus the whole, "exterminate human life" thing, but she would have stopped that on her own even without the promise.
Putting her phone away, she went to go help the customer who had just walked in.
After she was out of earshot, Yuri turned to the official.
"She's something else, isn't she?"
"How can you STILL not understand how dangerous it is having her around?!" he asked in disbelief.
"I know that girl has murdered people, Mr. Saito. I'm not dumb, but I'm not blind either. She isn't who she used to be... that's obvious, and I've only known her two weeks. I think it's time you people accept that and leave her alone for good." she said before excusing herself to go answer the ringing phone.
Turning his attention back to the Diclonius, he went over to observe her, but stayed out of the way. He watched how she smiled and talked with the customer (in this case, an older woman wanting a cake for a granddaughters 9th birthday party) and watched her carefully for a twitch, or gesture, or expression, or anything that could indicate the Diclonius was putting on an act, or being deceptive.
And try as he might, he found nothing. The girl who had murdered over five-hundred people was standing in front of him patiently helping someone's grandmother pick out a birthday cake for a nine year old.
Maybe Miss Bakery Owner was correct after all... maybe it WAS time to call it quits and move on. Lucy and Nana might be the only Diclonii in Kamakura, but they weren't the only ones in Japan. If not for Lucy's status as the "Queen", his supervisors would have already fired him for the amount of resources they'd invested keeping an eye on her and the younger Sipelit.
As she was taking payment for the cake, Saito noticed a man in a long coat and a beanie-type hat walk in and get in line. As soon as the old woman had left the store with her cake, the man pulled out a gun and aimed it at the pink-haired girl's head.
"D-Don't move, bitch! Open t-the drawer and... and g-gimme all the money!"
To which Lucy just... laughed.
"Seriously? You're going to rob a tiny little bakery at 4 pm on a Saturday? That's just pathetic! What, did the bank close before you got there or something?"
The man looked around nervously, telling Saito and Yuri to back up and stay where they are.
"Kaeda, it's ok... just let him have whatever he wants!" Yuri urged.
"We had to work for that money. He can go get a job like everybody else." she said. Turning her attention to the thug, she smiled in amusement at him. He was clearly inexperienced and scared, and it showed. He kept looking around, stuttering with his words, and he could barely hold his gun because his hands were shaking so badly.
"You're not cut out for this kind of life. Just go home..." Lucy said dismissively, pointing to the door. "If you want money, be a man and work for it."
The would-be robber tried to get aggressive and loud, but Lucy just pointed to the door again.
"If I have to make you leave, I promise you will regret it until the day you die... which might be today."
He hesitated, apparently torn between doing the sensible thing and leaving, or doing the stupid thing and continuing the robbery.
Lucy leaned forward a little, completely unfazed by the gun pointed at her head as she motioned for him to lean in closer.
Surprisingly, he actually did it.
"Listen to me..." she said quietly. "The little bit of money in that register is not worth dying over, and if you make me kill you, it will not be quick or painless."
Amazingly, the man (or more accurately, the scared teenager) tucked his gun back inside his pants. After an awkward, mumbled apology, he turned and quietly walked out.
Yuri ran and threw her arms around the pink-haired Diclonius.
"Oh my God! Are you ok?!"
Lucy smiled and hugged her back. "I'm fine, Yuri."
"Lucy, what the hell were you thinking?!" Hara yelled at her as him and Naga approached. "You could've gotten someone killed pulling that stunt!"
"Not likely, that gun was fake."
"How in the hell could you possibly know that?"
In response, she visibly materialized her vectors. "I touched it, it was made of plastic."
Amusingly, the "experts" backed away in fear, while the bakery owner looked strangely excited.
"So THAT'S what vectors look like! I was wondering about that ever since that day where you were doing like, four different things at once and all I could see was things flying around!"
Lucy gave her an almost embarrassed smile as her vectors disappeared from view. Unknown to her, Yuri had hit the silent alarm as soon as the gun came out, and before long, the shop was swarmed by police.
Unfortunately, her makeshift family arrived right after the cops had surrounded the building.
"What the hell?!" Kouta asked in shock.
"Oh, crap... please tell me she didn't run out of patience with those officials." Nana said.
Her fears turned out to be unfounded, as shortly afterwards, the Chief that had protected her and Lucy not long ago came out to talk to them.
"Is Kaeda..." Kouta started to say, but the Chief raised his hand and interrupted him.
"She's fine. She's not in any trouble, somebody came in to rob the store and she stopped the robbery before it... well, really before it even made it off the ground. Nobody's been hurt, suspect included. They're looking for him now, so if you folks want to come on in, it's fine."
When they entered, the found the pink-haired girl covered in frosting and flour, trying to give a statement to police and ice a cake at the same time.
"Lucy!" Nana shouted.
She stopped and looked up, her face breaking into a smile as she ran over and hugged the man that would become her husband in a few months.
"Are you ok? What happened?"
"Excuse me..." a voice said.
The couple turned around to see Mr. Saito standing behind them. For once, he didn't look so damn full of himself.
"What happened was she persuaded the man to leave without having to use violence, and before he got violent with any of us. It was... kind of impressive, to be honest."
"He was just a kid... the gun wasn't even real." Lucy added.
"Anyway... Lucy, or Kaeda, or whatever name you prefer, we're closing the file on you, and on Miss... Nana?" he asked, to which Nana nodded.
"WHAT?! You can't be serious!" Hara yelled in disbelief.
"I am." Saito said. "This would have been the perfect chance for her to murder someone and get away with it scot-free. No cop in the world would have arrested her for killing somebody who had a gun pointed at her face. Even if it turned out to be a fake, she had every reason to believe it was real, and would still have been justified."
Saito sighed, almost as if he really didn't want to be admitting any of this. "She had every right to kill him, but she instead got him to leave through words alone. I suppose... even natural born murderers can learn to stop killing if given the right reason." he said, looking directly at Kouta as if saying that HE was her "right reason".
"But...!" Naga tried to object, but Saito just shook his head.
"We're done in Kamakura. It's time to move on." he said.
Realizing that arguing over it was pointless, Naga and Hara just nodded and stood up, bidding goodbye to the police, Yuri, and finally the residents of Kaeda House. That done, the men went outside to wait for Saito.
"Miss Kaeda tells me you're all going out to dinner tonight. Be careful, the roads are icy."
Yuka nodded and smiled, thanking him. As he turned to leave, Lucy called for him to wait. It took a few moments, but finally she stepped forward and stuck her hand out. Saito looked at her a bit suspiciously before he finally gave in and shook the girl's hand.
"You people take care of each other." he said politely before turning and leaving.
Minutes after they left, the door opened and the handcuffed suspect was brought in so they could positively ID him as the attempted robber. The women confirmed it was him, but in an unexpected turn of events, Yuri and Lucy both declined to press charges.
The Chief looked almost proud of their decision, telling the would-be robber that:
"You are DAMN lucky that girl is so kind-hearted. She could have ripped you apart in a split second if she'd wanted to."
Taking this as a cue, the pink-haired girl made her vectors visible again. The man screamed in terror and apologized repeatedly. The Chief looked at her and nodded in approval, so she once again retracted the ghostly appendages. The suspect was given to an officer with instructions to take the man home. Thanking the Diclonius for her "assistance" the Chief returned to his patrol car, followed by the rest of the officers still on scene.
With the crisis now officially resolved, Lucy excused herself to the bathroom to wash off the frosting and cake batter on her face, and wipe as much of the flour off her hair and clothes as she could. When she returned, Yuri produced an envelope and handed it to the pink-haired Diclonius.
"There's about ¥10,000 in there. I know it isn't nearly what you're worth, but I wanted you to have it. You've been such a blessing to me, Kaeda... it breaks my heart I can't afford to keep you longer."
"Oh! That reminds me!" Nana spoke up. "Have you told her yet?"
Lucy had intended to just do it Monday, but since the officials were gone, there wasn't much point in waiting.
"Told me what?" Yuri asked.
"Kaeda wants to stay and help out a few more days, and Nana and Mayu want to also." Yuka explained.
"As much as I'd love to take you up on it, I can't afford to pay just you for another week, let alone all three of you." Yuri replied.
"We don't want you to pay us... I mean... unless you want to pay us in cookies." Nana smiled.
"A-Are you girls talking about helping for... for free?"
"If you'll let us, yes." Mayu answered.
As tears welled-up in her eyes, she looked at them with a mix of confusion and gratitude.
"Why? Why would you want to put in so much effort when you know you're not getting anything in return?"
"Because you deserve it." Lucy said simply. "These two... well, they just like your cookies."
Nana gave her a dirty look. "Lucy, you know that's not true... at least not completely."
Yuri smiled as she reached out and hugged the three of them tightly.
"Thank you..."
Kouta watched his fiancé with a look of unbridled pride and love. Everytime he thought that girl had hit the glass ceiling of her heart, she did something that proved him wrong.
"We still have to clean up, but don't worry, it won't take long."
As she and Yuri got to work, the other residents of Kaeda House settled in to wait.
The two women managed to clean the entire bakery in just under twenty-minutes, though there was a little bit of corner-cutting involved. After thanking them again, Yuri told the girls she would see them Tuesday at noon, then went to lock up the store and head to her sisters. After some discussion, they decided to just go somewhere within walking distance and finally settled on a new Sushi place that had just opened.
As they made their way down the street, Kouta reached out and took Lucy by the hand. She smiled, gently squeezing his hand as they walked.
"I've got to be honest here, when we first got there and saw all the cops, we... we kinda..."
"Thought I'd gotten pissed off and killed those officials?" she offered.
"No, but I DID think they'd probably be in bad shape." he replied.
"I... kinda did too." Nana admitted.
"Same..." Yuka confessed
"They weren't THAT bad. Most of the time they just followed me around and watched." Lucy answered. "Sometimes they'd ask questions, but most of the time they actually managed to stay out of the way so I could do my job."
"What kind of questions?" Yuka asked.
"Just random things... Why did I pick a bakery as a first job? Why don't I carry a purse like other girls? Why do I add sugar to sweet tea? Why do I always have Yuri write the words on cakes? Things like that."
"At least they're done bothering you and Nana." Mayu chimed in.
'I sure hope they are...' Kouta thought.
As they walked up to the entrance of Goemon's Sushi and Sashimi, the younger Diclonius turned to her older counterpart.
"I'm curious... what did you say to that guy?" Nana asked.
"Nothing interesting. I just told him this wasn't something he was cut out for, and the money we had on hand wasn't worth dying over." she replied.
"How did you know the gun was fake?" Kouta asked.
"I touched it with a vector. If you manipulate them correctly, you can tell what something's made of just like if you'd touched it with your hand."
Nana looked at her in amazement. "You can DO that?!"
Lucy nodded her head. "Remind me sometime and I'll teach you how."
Just as they walked in, they noticed something (or rather someONE) peculiar.
"Isn't that Mr. Saito?" Yuka asked.
It was indeed. The tired-looking man was standing in line at a small booth that seemed to be set up for customers to pick up orders that had been called in in advance.
"You don't really see carryout offered in "sit down" restaurants much anymore." Yuka commented.
"He's probably picking up dinner for him and those other two guys." Mayu offered.
"You want to go somewhere else?" Kouta asked.
"I'm fine staying here if you are."
Kouta looked at the others, who all nodded.
"We're fine here if you are." he smiled.
Lucy smiled back, nodding in agreement. After a few minutes, their hostess came over to greet them.
"Party of five?"
Lucy nodded and the hostess pulled out a pen and pad. "Are you going to the bar, or ordering from the menu?"
"Well, we've never been here. What would you suggest?" Kouta asked.
"If you've never been here, I'd say menu." their hostess suggested.
The group nodded in agreement, and the woman picked up five menus.
"If you'll come this way, I'll take you to your booth." the hostess smiled.
Kouta nudged the Diclonius and pointed over towards the entrance. Mr. Saito had collected his order and was on his way out when he noticed them and changed course. Their hostess, apparently used to customers having impromptu conversations and holding everything up, waited patiently as they started talking.
"You planning on eating all that yourself?" Nana teased, referring to the large bag of food he was carrying.
"Of course not. I'm picking up dinner for my wife and kids."
"You sure you're not stalking us?" Mayu asked with a grin.
"I was here first! If anything, you're stalking ME!"
The group laughed, and bid the tired-looking man goodnight.
"Actually..." he said. "Could I talk to you privately?" he asked Lucy.
"Only if he comes with us." she answered. "I told you, I don't keep secrets from him."
Yuka spoke up, telling the couple she would go ahead and get settled in the meantime. The Diclonius nodded and stayed behind with Kouta while the girls went with the hostess to their booth.
The couple followed Mr. Saito outside to the sidewalk, both equally curious as to what he could possibly want to speak privately about.
"Miss Kaeda..." he started to say before stopping for a moment. Both her and Kouta could tell the man was wanting to say something, but didn't have the words for it. After a moment, Saito sighed and looked at the couple.
"As part of the "training" I received when I was appointed to the Cohabitation panel, I went to one seminar after another about your "species", some of which were taught by so-called "leading experts" on the Diclonii race. There were numerous tours of research labs, classes, lectures... you name it. it was a very comprehensive training program that took almost five months to complete."
He closed his eyes and shook his head. "Unfortunately, as it turns out, a great deal of it was just speculation and misinformation."
"For example?" Kouta asked.
"Diclonii cannot form any lasting bonds with humans because the two races are biological enemies by both design and decision. A Diclonius will inevitably attempt to terminate the human's life, and might resort to deceptive tactics such as emulating human emotions... or at least that's what they taught us during our "training", if you can call it that."
"I have loved Kouta since we were children. He was the only good thing to happen to me in my entire childhood. Even back then, I knew I wanted to be with him. Then, we lost touch, and we didn't meet again for eight long, miserable years."
"Was that when you escaped the Institute?"
"Yes." Kouta answered for her. "Tell me... have you ever been there?"
"The Institute? Of course, but that was after the mass-escape attempt, so there were n-"
"There was no "escape attempt". Those Diclonii were murdered to cover up Kakuzawa's crimes." Lucy said bitterly.
"That... that can't be true!"
"It is. Arakawa confessed right before she died. Kakuzawa murdered her too when she tried to help Kouta escape."
Now thoroughly confused, he asked why Kouta was there in the first place, and seemed taken aback that Kakuzawa would resort to kidnapping a college student just to make sure he didn't know too much about his son's heritage.
"Was that when Nana murde-...err... KILLED Director Kakuzawa?"
Kouta nodded. "He promised to let everyone leave if Kaeda surrendered and went back into custody, but then he tried to murder us anyway. That's the only reason Nana killed him."
"You'd have willingly gone back to that hell-hole to save him?" he asked. Lucy smiled as she took Kouta's hand. "In a heartbeat. I love him more than I love being alive. There is nothing I wouldn't sacrifice for him. My life, my soul... whatever it took, I'd give it up without a second thought."
Kouta squeezed her hand firmly. "I feel the same way. I love her... I always have, and I always will. No matter what she's done, or what she might do, I'll never stop loving her, and I'll never abandon her."
"Kouta..."
Lucy wiped unshed tears out of her eyes and wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her head on his shoulder. Kouta held her tightly against him, kissing her head gently as they hugged.
Mr. Saito just shook his head, seeing with his own eyes something that he had been told over and over and over again was an absolute impossibility.
"Miss Kaeda, I'm... I'm sorry... about the way we treated you. Well, you AND Miss Nana. It was easier for me to accept you were just a lying, sexually promiscuous murderer than it was to accept that I was wrong about you. I'm sorry..."
The pink-haired girl smiled as Kouta held her. "Don't worry about it, it's forgiven."
"Just like that?" he asked in surprise.
"Yes. When someone does something to hurt you, but you know they're truly sorry, you're supposed to forgive them... Nana taught me that." Lucy replied quietly.
Saito actually managed to briefly smile back before bowing slightly. "Thank you. Goodnight, you two." he said before turning to walk back to his car.
"Hey!"
The older man turned around as the Diclonius approached. "Yes?"
"I... I wanted to invite you to the wedding, if you're willing to come, that is." Lucy offered.
"Y-You're serious?" he asked in surprise.
"Absolutely."
For a long moment, he appeared to be considering it, but finally shook his head.
"I can't make any promises, but I'll consider it." he answered.
"Thank you."
After bidding her goodnight, the two parted ways; him returning to his car, and her returning to her fiancé. When she walked up to him, he opened his arms and wrapped them around her slender waist. She, in turn, wrapped hers around his neck, and the couple stood there, tightly holding onto each other.
"Come on, they've probably started running up a bill by now." he teased.
Lucy smiled, nodding as she let go of him. The moment she did, Kouta cupped her face and kissed her long and deeply. For several seconds, the lovers stayed locked together by the lips. When they finally separated, they just smiled at each other and hugged again.
"I love you..." he said gently.
"I love YOU..." she replied.
Opening the door, Kouta followed his fiancé back inside to rejoin their family.