The next day at U.A. they gave a tour of the dormitory.
"Ooh… it's pretty big." Albert said gazing up at what would be his new home.
The dormitory where he would be staying in had a massive 1-A and Alliance under it. The front has two double doors. It's height was about five stories tall.
"It is really huge!" said Sato.
"We are so lucky!" said Ashido.
"It seems kinda small." Said Momo.
"T-this is small?" Uraraka said a bit shakenly towards Momo, the girl from an affluent family.
"Alright quite." Aizawa said. "Now then Class 1-A. I am happy that all of you are here. I am sure some of you were surprised I still have a job, but thankfully, due to Albert calling the cops and even giving out our coordinates I still have a job. Thank you again Albert." He gave him a nod. "It would have turned out worse without you there."
"How the hell did you do that?" asked Bakugo.
"I bought my satellite phone. I went camping a few times with my dad, after one bad trip we always bought one along for any occasion in the wilderness." Albert answered.
"I see, I see." Midoriya made a note of it as did every other student.
"Anyway." Aizawa clapped his hands. "Let's get to giving you guys an overview of the dorms. Come along."
They followed Aizawa into the building. The first place they entered was the common area.
"I should begin with this." Aizawa said. "One class to each building. Girls on the right, boys on the left. The first floor right here is the common area. You will be doing your dining hall, baths, and laundry room."
The common area was furnished with what one would see in a lived in home. Couches, a large coffee table, some tables, and chairs with a kitchen and even a flatscreen tv.
"Uwaaah! It's so spacious!" Ashido said excided by how big it all is.
"We even have a interior courtyard!" said Sero.
"I-is this still small? Momo?" asked Uraraka, a bit light headed from all of this lavishness.
"Hm? Yes actually, my home is a lot bigger than this, but it is very quaint!" She said affirmably.
"Huff! Huff!" The purple one (Mineta) was huffing at a sentence Aizawa said. "D-did I hear right that the baths and laundry room are in the common area? D-does this mean we will share it with—"
"No their split up by gender. Any more out of you I'll have you kicked from the dorm." Aizawa replied.
"Y-yes sir." The purple one said not pursuing the thought anymore.
They followed Aizawa up to the second floor.
"Aight, the rooms start at the second floor." Aizawa said. "Four boys' room and four girls' room on each floor, five floors in all."
They followed him as he opened a room. The room was furnished with the bare necessities of a student, a bed with covers and a pillow with a desk, drawers, and a swivel chair.
"One student per room." Aizawa continued. "You got air conditioners, a bathroom with a toilet and sink, no showers you can do that on the first floor. You also got a refrigerator and a closet. Oh and as you can see," Aizawa pointed to the window. "You also get a veranda."
Momo while looking around had a thought.
'I thought this was a closet? Ah, hm… I should keep that to myself,' She glanced at Uraraka as if she was trying to ask a question she knows already in her heart. 'Yes, I'll keep it to myself.'
"Now then," Aizawa opened the top drawer of the room they were in and held out a key. "I will be giving out your assigned rooms. This is your key, it tells you where your room is. And before I forget the luggage you all sent are in your room."
Aizawa began to hand out keys to the students. When Albert got his he looked at it and saw where he will be staying engraved into the key.
"Hm, 5F, R-A Hiroyuki Albert. Huh? Neat." He quite liked it, should someone lose their key it would be easy to return it to its owner.
"Ribbit." Asui walked up to Albert. "You are also on the fifth floor?"
"I am, what luck huh?" He gave a light heated smile.
"Hm, yes." She nodded having a faint blush.
"Now then." Aizawa began to walk away. "Today you don't have to worry about class, it's been set aside so you all can settle in."
Everyone went to their rooms and began to unpack their things.
"Hm~" Mélusine floated around Albert's room. "So small. But very homely. Enough to really get to know a girl." She smirked looking at Albert as he began to organize his room.
"Very, hey did you put some of your Gundam's in my boxes?" he said pulling out a few.
"I did, I figured you need some reminders of me. This room is too small for me to work on my models with only one desk."
"Well… fine. So what has Kischur been up to?" Albert began to put on some sound insulators in his room to keep his voice from leaking into other rooms.
"He has been working on stuff. I would tell you, but I think it would be better as a surprise when he is finished."
"Hm, alright well if you are gonna be here you mind helping me?"
"Hm, I would but I have some models to work on bye!" She returned to her spiritual body and left back home.
"Hah… at least her hobby isn't too expensive."
When night had come Albert sat in his reclining chair looking out the veranda through the window.
"Hm…"
He took a breather and relaxed a bit or the very least tried.
"How annoying." He lifted his hand up. "I can control my body very well." He began to twist and move his muscles around and even some of his veins. "Yet I find it so hard to relax… Movies. Yeah, I'll keep myself preoccupied." He worked a bit more to set up his tv so he can watch it from his reclining chair and began to watch a movie. He didn't care what it was in particular he just wanted something to occupy his time.
He would shortly thereafter fall asleep.
Clack! Clack!
Clack! Clack!
Albert stands as he watches a small white haired girl spar with a young boy with grayish-white hair. He knows the girl, Mélusine back before she was summoned, back before she ate the bones of Albion. She wore a formal attire, a attire that really gave her a princely air to her.
He watched as she struck the boy, and he feel flat on his face.
"Percival." Mélusine said. "I told you, keep your sword up, do not hold it so tightly it will only be wasting energy."
"S-sorry big sister." He gets back onto his feet, wipes his face with his sleeve and rose his wooden sword.
"Come, lets run it again!" She said with a big smile.
"Didn't think Mel had a brother, hm. I don't remember Aurora pulling out another one from that bog." Albert said as he continued to watch.
The two would go again sparing for a bit more before the scene changed to that of a fine room with only a few people in it. Those people are Aurora and her servants with Mélusine.
"Oh? This is something." He saw Mélusine having tea with Aurora.
Aurora looked vastly different than the last time Albert saw her. Before she and Mélusine looked like sisters but now they looked completely different with only their eye color and long hair match. Aurora looked even more beautiful like a flower in full bloom after a light spring rain.
Mélusine, however, didn't change a single bit.
"Mélusine." Aurora spoke up, her voice had somehow gotten even sweeter. "You never ask for anything do you?"
"Afraid not, Lady Aurora." Mélusine smiled as she took a sip of her tea.
"Well that isn't good. I have given you everything, but you ask for nothing." Aurora shook her head in a teasing manner. "If you want something I own I would gladly give it to you."
"That is not necessary." Mélusine shook her head. "I am fine with everything you have given me. I do not need more."
"Nonsense." Aurora glanced to her side and noticed a book. "How about this book?" She grabbed and showed it to Mélusine.
"Well there has to be something? There has to be something you want? I am starting to feel guilty not knowing what you like despite how long we have been together."
Thump-Thump~
"?" Albert felt Mélusine's heart skip a beat, this was a first for himself as it was for Mélusine. "Well I can't blame you, she is a very pretty and nice lady, anyone would fall for her."
"W-well…" Mélusine began to get a bit shy, her face had a lovey shade of pink. "I do have a wish."
"Oh?" Aurora smile filled the room with warmth. "What is it that you wish? Tell me. I may be able to grant it."
"I…" Mélusine's tone had some hesitation, but she spoke her words with enough courage to let them leave her lips. "I wish I could become more like you."
Albert was taken aback. The face Mélusine made was so pure and sincere that he was engraving her expression into his mind to never forget. He looked to Aurora to see the kind of happy expression she made but he saw only a stunned expression.
"I see." She nods and makes a gentle smile.
Albert notices that's smile, he has seen it on so many politicians, world leaders, people of wealth and influence, Aurora made a false smile. A smile that the thought was egregious. Like she asked her to give away all of her wealth to the poor.
He hates to give her credit, but her smile was perfect, had it not been for that slight emotion in her eyes that said it all Albert needed. He didn't even needed to notice as Aurora spoke them.
"You may as well give up."
She said with such a happy, calm, and noble expression it broke Albert's initial image of her. He quickly turned to see Mélusine's face, and she had a blank, almost heartbroken expression that was stuck in the last expression she made. Her eyes widen and dulled a bit, her happy smile was left hollow. He could see in the corner of her eyes they were beginning to water.
Mélusine clenched her skirt and put on a fake happy face. Bottling the hurtful words of her idol, her love, her entire world, and reason to live, she kept all of her emotions bottled up.
"I know." She nodded. "All that matters is that I am of use to you." Albert could see, feel the pain in her heart. "That's enough for me, really."
The lingering thoughts in Mélusine resonated in his mind as the scenery changes to a array of colors.
"I'm well aware that you do not love me at all."
"Mélusine." Albert cried out in a painful, quiet tone
"I will never be truly visible in your eyes."
"Mélusine!" He cried out even louder.
"You are equally as kind as you are equally cruel to all."
The scenery quickly begins to darken and Mélusine's voice only gets more and more painful.
"That's fine by me!"
"No! No! That… You should be loved! Respected! Everyone should!"
Then it all goes black… and like when she plucked her form that swamp, Aurora appeared in the darkness like a candle at the end of a dark tunnel. Across from her was Mélusine sitting in that chair before it all went away.
"Oh Mélusine, you're a lifesaver." Aurora said wearing her signature gentle smile.
"Leave it to me to make you shine." Mélusine replies affably.
"I love you. I can endure all hardships knowing it will benefit you."
The scene, the world around shatters into glass. In that glass is reflected was Mélusine covered in blood. Blood runs down her hands as she covers her face at a horrifying realization. They were pacifists.
She had slaughtered an entire clan who would not fight back. To one who holds herself up as Aurora's finest knight, one who upholds chivalry… slaughtered the defenseless. But it was not just her pride in being a knight, no, it was her pride in being of the dragon race. How could one so powerful just murder one who wouldn't fight back?
She was stained in blood, done in the benefit of another that does not even requite that love back.
"The Mirror Clan…" She said as several corpses appeared around, all killed with a single attack through the chest. "Had to face their demise in the name of the most radiant fairy in the kingdom."
Seeing this Galahad looks solely at Mélusine.
"Mel…" He stretched out his arm towards to, but it only went through. "Tch." He wished to comfort her then and now.
Piece by piece… just tried to fix herself up with words to justifying to herself why these action are right. All she needed was words from Aurora, the one she loves, her beloved Aurora!
"I…" She removed her hand from her face which only had a wry, tired, and forced smile. "I did it all for you…"
Yes! Yes! Only she! Only the most radiant, the most finest, the most elegant, the most—Standing outside Aurora's room, Aurora speaks on the eradication of the Mirror Clan.
"The eradication of the Mirror clan must have been the work of the most hideous and foulest beast in all of Britain. A true abomination, I tell you."
Those broken pieces she picked up for Aurora to fix were shattered again…
"The very thought of that creature already fills me with disgust."
And then finely crushed into dust. She had hoped she loved her even a little in that manganous heart of hers… but…
"I knew all along."
Mélusine voice rung in the air as the world returned to darkness. Mélusine is left alone. She stood where she was as rain comes down.
"It couldn't have been more obvious that you do not love me at all. At the very least, the pain never gets excruciating."
Her faces scrunches up and the rain hides her tears, but it could not hide her face as she opens her mouth to cry out.
Albert was consumed by rage. How… how fucking dare her! How dare Aurora!
"YOU FUCKING—"
Then he opens his eyes.
Blink!
"Hm…" He was sweating a bit, his heart was pounding. "I wanted to relax not get angry." He noticed his tv was still on, so he turned it off. "Ugh… a bath."
He gets up and picks his clothes.
"Hm?" he notices the time. "Two in the morning huh? No matter."
He gets his things and head down to the first floor and takes a bath.
"Ahh…" He stretches his body out a bit in the large and empty bath.
'Maybe consuming Medusa's blood made me more snake than I imagined, this is nice.'
His temperature resistance kicks in when it becomes unbearable and that is determined by Albert himself.
"Albert."
He looks up to see Mélusine floating above him.
"Mélusine."
A few hours ago after Mélusine returned home to her room.
"Hm♪ Hm♪" Mélusine was enjoying herself building her Gundam models. "Aha! There nice and painted! Fuu! Fuu!" She blew on it to dry it more quickly.
She then moved onto the next desk with another model ready to be built.
Snip! Snip!
Snip! Snip!
She carefully snips the pieces out and begins to organize them before she gets started. Mélusine finished two kits that day before she called it a night.
Much like her master, Mélusine dreamt of Albert's past.
Rumble~
Vrrr~
Mélusine found herself on a truck a SAMIL Truck, surrounded by other children and some adults with dark skin and worn out clothing. They all had in their hands a AK-47. Around them were like a jungle with a humidity to go along with it.
"■■■■■■■■■."
"■■■■■■■■■■■."
Mélusine saw Albert, he had tanned skin, long hair that covered his face and military gear. His face was also covered with a brown scarf.
She saw Albert chatting with the other boys and even laughing in a language she doesn't know.
"Aww! He made a friend!" She smiled warmly.
One of the boys tap the hood of the truck and a song came on.
"■■■■■■♪ ■■■■■■■♪"
"■■■■■■■!!"
Everyone on riding where bobbing their heads and even beginning to sing along. Even under his scarf Mélusine could see Albert smile.
"This is nice." Mélusine smile widen as she stretched her limbs out to enjoy the moment. "Even when you are being used you had moments like these."
Then the scene changed suddenly and everything got darker. Mélusine only blinked before she found herself in the next connecting memory.
Caw! Caw!
Scavenger birds fly on high, they look down below the crowns of the trees, some perch nearby and peer down through the leaves. Below was a battle riddled compound deep within the jungles of the Congo. Bodies litter the area with bullet holes everywhere.
There kneeling in a pool of blood was Albert, his clothes were dyed in splattered blood and in tatters with bullet holes scattered around his body. Before him, on the ground bleeding out was one of those boys he was singing with.
"…Oh." Mélusine said with a pain in her heart.
He had a two bullet wounds, one in his side and one in the center of his torso. Blood still slowly dripped from his mouth, little bubbles of air pop and lightly stain the child's face. He still had life in his eyes, but it was draining quicky.
Mélusine shuddered. She went to see Albert's situation but as she got closer she could see tears dripping down his scrunched up face, his hands covering the bullet wounds trying to stop the bleeding.
He was crying like a boy his age should with red, teary eyes and little bit of snot running down his nose, sniffling trying to hold the snot back while breathing harshly and quickly. His heart racing so much his entire focus was on that boy in his hands.
"■■■■—se!" Albert's voice returned to English. "Please no! No! You are my first friend you can't—"
The boy spoke out in his mother tongue. Slowly trying to reach out to Albert.
"■■■■■… ■■■… ■… ■…" His eye lose their luster, and his hand falls back to his side.
"Ah… AHHHH—"
Then Mélusine felt a sound ring in her ear.
[Ding! Mind has ranked up!]
"His quirk!? Now of all times!?"
She looked at Albert again and she felt her blood run cold. Albert's expression returned to normal. His tears stopped flowing, his snot stopped running and his breathing returned to normal. He reached out and held his first friend. He held him to his chest. He doesn't want to part with him, but his expression did not show it.
"Ekeniyere…" Albert said his friends name with a cold expression.
Then a voice—his handler, Herod, rings in his ear.
"Get going Cain, there are some more insurgence north-east of here. Their making their way to the oil fields. Everhart wants them dealt with, make sure you leave an example."
"… Yes." He replies back as he gently lays his friend back on the blood-soaked ground and picks up his gun. "There is still more to kill." He walks away from his friend.
Just as Albert was leaving the parameter of the compound the birds that waited for the last living person to leave descended down and began to pick and at the corpses. Albert did not look back.
The very next scene Mélusine was in a scene she could only describe as nightmarish. Albert stood in the middle of hundreds of corpse, mangled, riddled with bullets, and ripped apart as the ground is slick and muddy from the harsh rain coming down and the blood of the natives. The area is only illuminated by the red lights of the gas flaring from the oil pumps around and several destroyed cars.
Albert's clothes were ripped to shreds with several bullet holes and slashes. He was covered in head to toe in blood. Yet he remained cool and composed. He looked down and met one of the dead native's eyes who he killed to keep the oil fields free from their control for a American oil corporation.
"It's done." Albert pressed his ear.
"Good job. Leave an example behind. Make them know what happens when you fuck with the U.S.A."
"Understood."
He reached down and picked up a broken machete and began to hack the heads off of each and everyone. Mélusine watched with cold horror and disgust as her master desecrates the dead.
Albert's thoughts on this ring around her. This was a first for Mélusine, but the thoughts were not in the voice of the young Albert but the current Albert.
"An example… an example. I wish they never said that."
'Are these his retrospective thoughts?'
"I wanna leave this place. My heart feels heavy."
[Ding! Mind has ranked up!]
His face grows even more calmer.
"Why was I born if I cannot cry? I wanna cry but my heart does not feel pain."
His thoughts go quiet up until he finishes stacking a small hill of heads where more of his thoughts ring out as he stares at the heads.
"I wanna cry for my best friend. They took it from me. They took it… how… how cruel can one be to take even the tears of a child?"
"If there is a god, I do not think I will beg for forgiveness. Not because I think I am unworthy of it but because I do not feel remorse at the evil—no, my actions are far above that. Sins. For the sins I have commit as the tool of the state.
I think… I would kill god and take their place. I will be a kind god. A god who would cares for children like me. A god who does not kill."
He reaches out and grabs one of the heads and holds it close to his chest. He holds it firmly as if to convey the deep dormant emotions that are buried in his heart.
"A god who loves."
One of the near oil pumps then breaks and oil shoots up into the sky. Oil rains down and drenches Albert and the heads. Mélusine noticed that there is someone else there.
'Is it my senses? No. This is a memory. My capabilities shouldn't influence anything here.'
They tried to find the person, but they couldn't find them. She looked at Albert to see a black-red mud like substance being slowly absorbed into Albert's body.
He then falls to the ground and loses consciousness. Like before when his memory ends the world goes black… but in that emptiness his Quirk rings again.
[Ding! Candidate has met qualifications! Body is not yet ready. Temporarily sealing will be applied.]
A faint, almost whisper of a woman's voice rings in Mélusine—Albert's head.
"Not yet, my child."
Then Mélusine wakes up.
"Huff! Huff!"
Her face grows gloomy. She gets up from bed and returns to her spiritual body heading towards Albert. She arrives in his room to find he wasn't here, so she goes around trying to find him when she finally did in the bath.
Back to the present the two looked at one another and understood. He saw a painful moment so she must have seen one as well. They didn't need to speak anymore because they knew one another intentions at this moment.
Mélusine's clothes disappeared, and she dipped into the warm bath. Albert held his arms out as she got in. He then wrapped his arms around her and she around his neck.
The master and servant closed their eyes and lightly placed their foreheads against one another in peace. In this moment they soaked not just the warmth of the bath but the warmth and comfort of one another's company.
And at the same time they said:
"I will never hurt you."
"I will never leave you."
Mélusine also stroked the part of his head where she saw that mud get absorbed. Albert meanwhile hugs her tightly.