65 Discrimination

While the apocalypse had just occurred and food was not yet scarce, it was still a challenge to acquire decent food due to the roaming Reapers. The men and women in the kitchen knew that Aida and Yukio had not eaten yet, but still deliberately chose to take all the food. They even giggled to each other when they saw the situation that Aida and Yukio were in.

Aida simply shrugged at this, she didn't mind too much as she had other ways to acquire food if necessary. However, Yukio was devastated by the mistreatment and began crying. Just then, Ms. Potts walked into the room and saw this scene. In a demanding tone, she asked, "Just what is going on here?"

All the people in the room fell silent and didn't respond. Despite their lack of response, Ms. Potts could deduce what happened. Narrowing her eyes, she turned to Aida and the crying Yukio. "You and you, come with me."

Without turning back, she led them into a separate room that was supposed to be her office. She walked behind the desk and pulled out two boxes of warm food. Continuing to speak in her rough tone, she said, "Here. Eat this and stop crying. Don't mind the other people. Next time, make sure you get your meal before the end and don't cause me trouble."

Aida took the food and nodded in appreciation. Despite Ms. Potts' earlier harsh treatment, Aida started to respect her knowing that she had some humanity left in her.

***

On the other side, both Light and Ace got sent to help with building the wall for the day. They were also having a rough time. A pot-bellied man came to greet them when they first reached the wall. Light went forward to introduce himself, holding his hand out to shake the man's hand, but the pot-bellied man just looked at his hand in disdain and turned away.

Surprised but not too bothered, the two followed him into the work site. Everywhere they walked, people were staring at them with a surprising amount of hostility and whispering to one another. Their task for the day was to move rocks. When they reached the team moving rocks, they were met with silence and distrust.

When lunch came around, they went to get their meal only to find themselves in the same situation as Aida and Yukio. There was no food left. However, they were not fortunate enough to have Ms. Potts. Instead, everyone just openly laughed and jeered at them.

As the day went on, the bullying became more obvious. People would knock into them and "trip" and pour muddy water onto them. Given that they were in a new base and didn't know the dynamic, Light and Ace pushed through the bullying. Nobody appeared to notice the growing darkness and anger in Light's eyes.

The day soon ended and everyone went back to their respective rooms. Aida and Yukio looked slightly worn, but still in fairly good condition. In contrast, Light and Ace both looked like they had been through hell.

Yukio quickly ran to Light for a hug but was pushed away by Light. He snappily said to Yukio, "Stop clinging onto me, you're not a child anymore. Grow up." Turning away, he went to take a shower.

After cleaning themselves up, they sat together to discuss what went on during the day. Light refused to acknowledge Aida's presence and continued to ignore her. Aida could feel the brewing darkness within him that threatened to erupt, but was helpless as she had no way to help him. Even Yukio had no way of approaching Light at this time. Aida would just have to wait till Rin woke up before trying to reason with him.

Ace was extremely willing to give her all the information and immediately told her everything. Hearing their experience and matching it up to Aida, she realized that there was something else going on beyond just the standard initiation process of a new person on the base.

Thinking a moment, she decided to go and have a conversation with Lucifer. Knocking on his office door, he responded, "Come in."

Walking in, she comfortably went to help herself to some tea and sat down without invitation. Lucifer watched her actions with a slight smile on his face. After a moment, he said, "Surely you didn't come here just to have some tea with me."

Rolling her eyes internally, she responded coldly, "Correct. I wanted to better understand the dynamics within the base. My group has been faced with a lot of bullying today and I want to understand why."

Hearing this, Lucifer nodded, "The news of your group having humans has leaked throughout the base and many people on base have been calling for your removal or infection. They aren't able to accept that the people who threw them away and left them here to die are allowed to live in the same base as them."

"I had hoped that the fact that I vouched for your group would offer you more protection, but it seems to not be as effective as I had hoped. I will go and speak to the leaders again and try to exert some pressure on them as well."

Aida nodded and then got up to return to her room. Lucifer, who was accustomed to Aida's abrasive behavior, did not mind at all. The usual smile on his face seemed to have a slightly deeper meaning than before.