Chapter 9

Salem entered the laboratory building of a Talon branch near her school. She went to the front desk and began talking to the secretary. "Hi l, Mell, how are the kids doing." Mell's face lit up at the sound of Salem's voice as she looked up from her monitor. "Salem! The kids are doing great, we are going on a climbing trip right now." "Anyway, I don't have much time to talk right now, Mell. I am expected in the genetics laboratory in five minutes." Salem responded to Mell's cheerful answer with her usual static face of indifference.

"Of course. Shall I bring you to the lab now, Salem." Mell said; before splitting vertically, it was a wonder that neither organs nor blood spilled out. Then the two halves began regenerating and not half a minute later two Mells stood before Salem.

"Shall we" the newly created Mell asked before going towards the elevator with Salem. "Hey, do you know anything about Dr. O'Deorain?" Salem asked on their way down. "Nothing much, she does not talk with anyone much, not even her assistants. But as long as you get on her good side, nothing bad should happen."

Not long after, they arrived at the floor where the labs are located at. "Now follow me, and please don't walk off. You know. The usual procedure until you get your name tag." Mell said. "Yea yea, why do you have to remind me every time I have to go to an area where I do not have access?" Salem said, quite annoyed by Mell, while not visually seeable.

Mell just gave her a look that could only interpret as 'are you for real'. "On your first day you wandered off in an area where without permission and Reaper nearly shot your head off." "Fair enough" Salem muttered the only reply she could think of.

"Anyway, we arrived. I will go back now so the brain of the main body does not overload. Bye" Mell told Salem before going back to the elevator. "Also, if you get the Dr. to have tea with you outside of work, I will get Reaper to somehow rage-quit this branch of Talon." And with that, Mellanie vanished behind the closing elevator doors.

"Hmmm, while I have to admit that it would be very amusing to see her try to get Gabriel, it would be more likely that he kills her." The voice of a young woman suddenly sounded out behind Salem. "Dr. O'Deorain I did not hear you approach, my apologies." Salem switched to her working personality in an instant.

"No worries, I do have the habit to sneak up on people if I see the opportunity." Moira replied in a similar tone. Showing her the way inside, Moira began talking once again. "Take one of these lab coats over there and put this name tag on it." Moira handed Salem a name tag.

After Salem found a lab coat that fit her, she put the name tag on it and went to Moira, who was already inside in the lab. "It seems you found a coat that fit you." Moira glanced at Salem before looking back at her work. "I put you some materials on this desk over at the window. Before you start going near any equipment, you need to go through them. Also, if you find any projects that interest you or if you have any questions, write them in the notebook I left on the same desk." She told Salem before fully focusing on her work.

Salem took a seat at the table she was assigned to and began reading. It was manly books describing how to use the more advanced equipment in the laboratory and some were about advanced chemistry, biology and of course genetics.

Some hours later, Moira walked up to the desk Salem worked on. "Looks like you are a hard worker. But sometimes it is nice to take a break. Would you like to go and get something for our stomach?" Moira asked Salem.

Salem looked up from her textbook about biology and searched for a clock in the laboratory. "I don't have a clock in here, Miss Toga. Some lab assistants had more interest in staring at it than to look over the experiments. But it is nighttime, so you should not worry about your special condition."

With a look of relieve on her face, Salem agreed. "It would be an honor to eat something with you, Dr." "Then let's go, I will show you your locker where you can store your lab coat and safety goggles." Moira said.

Arriving at the entrance of the branch building, Moira spoke again. "Follow me, I know of a pleasant place that is still open." Five minutes later they arrived before a small, plain looking house. "It does not look like much, but they serve good coffee."

Moira spoke to Salem while walking up the stairs to the café. When she opened the door, the chiming of a bell rang out, and they sat down. A teenage waitress girl with bob-length dark blue hair that had long bangs that reached her chin covering the right side of her face and clear blue eyes greeted them.

"Welcome to café Anteiku, what can I bring you today?" She asked the two. "For me a coffee and some cake, I will leave the choice to you Kirishima. My colleague will have nothing. She can only eat a specific sort of food, so you have to excuse her for bringing her own food." "Of course, miss O'Deorain, that is no problem and your order will arrive soon."

As Touka walked away, Moira turned to Salem again. "So, did you like the books?" "Yes, it is still a bit difficult to understands everything and to get the context, but I think I progress at a good speed." Salem replied to Moira's question. "That is good progress indeed. If you have any immediate questions, you can ask me right now." Moira agreed.

"Yes, I noticed that the books you gave me are mainly about changing the genetic code. Is that related to what I will do later?" Salem asked, curious about how her next years would look like. "Yes, I already spoke with Maximilian some days ago and we, as you know, agreed upon trying to change the fact that you can't go into the sun. So I thought it would be a great idea to let you work on this project yourself." Moira answered.

They continued talking until the cake and coffee was brought to their table by Touka, and she left again with a "Here you go, enjoy". After she left, Salem got a box out of a special back designed to keep the temperature inside, that she carried with her at all times she was at Talon. Moira already began eating and drinking her coffee while reading a scientific journal.

As Salem noticed this, she decided to focus on eating herself and opened the box. In it was some raw flesh piled up inside. Salem ate with a focus on not letting any blood drop on the beautiful wooden tables or the book she began reading that she took with her from the lab. Her food brought her a short surprised look from Touka.

After sitting there quietly for some time just reading and eating, Salem looked up just to see Moira staring at her with a hint of curiosity in her eyes. "Is there some blood on my face?" Salem asked, confused because she did not smear blood on her cheeks for years now. Moira shook her head before answering. "No no, don't worry. I was just curious why you didn't cook the flesh. But I also didn't know if you would consider it rude."

"I tried to cook my food some time ago, but it tasted horrible even adding blood didn't help, it was just like any other 'normal' dish. I also tried to dry the meat, but I got the same results, so I just went back to eating it like this." Salem said.

"Curious, I wish I could do some testing on you." Moira said upon hearing Salem's explanation. Anyway, it seems that you finished as well, let's go back." Moira stood up and just told Touka to add her food on her weekly tab.

And after working some more, the first day in Moira's lab was over for Salem, and she went back to the dorm, still having the last words of Moira in her head. "If you work hard and continue to be such a pleasant company, I will consider drinking some tea with you and sending Mellanie on her quest to bring Gabriel to rage-quit Talon."

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Let's gooooooo! Another chapter out. Time to address something.

I got my first review! Sadly, it's contend is not criticism or feedback on my fan fiction, so I will sadly delete it. Please remember that reviews are for giving feedback on a book and not something to spam. That is why I will delete any review with content like this ",.....,..............................,.....,..............................".

Don't take it personally. I am ok with receiving bad reviews as long as they have a reason or a point to criticize my book.

I hope you understand what I mean and I hope you like the chapter.