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When Kyrie asked him for help at the orphanage, Nero didn’t think he would say ‘Yes’ right away. Well... Why would he when that is the place he tried to avoid the most? The orphanage was hell for him! Memories of the abuse that he had to endure while staying there started to resurface. There’s no way he would want to go back there!
But as much as he hates that place, he would never wish for that place to be destroyed. Even if it brings bad memories to him, it's still the only shelter for children like him.
And what sin had these children ever done to him? It’s not like those who had once abused and bullied him are still here.
“Hey kids, food’s ready!”
At the mention of food, the children stop whatever they are doing. They quickly race to the temporary kitchen outside of the orphanage, excited for their meal. Kyrie quickly ushers them to queue, but the excitement on the children's faces causes her and Nero to laugh.
“Easy now. The food is enough for everyone,” Nero assures them as he starts scooping up the chicken soup into a bowl and passes it to the children’s awaiting hands.
The children of Fortuna Orphanage thank him as they take their bowl. Some of them even ask him about his right arm, wondering what it could do. Ever since the Saviour incident that destroyed almost half of the city, Nero has decided to not conceal his arm anymore. Although that decision has led some people to sneer at him, Nero doesn’t mind at all as there are others who accept him as who he is. Just like the children here, who look up to him as the hero that saved the island that day.
“Kyrie, is that the last of them?” Nero scans his surroundings, looking out if there are any children who haven't taken their food. It’s hard to keep track of them as the number of children in the orphanage has increased since the saviour incident to the point of overflow. They have nowhere else to go as they have lost everything. The orphanage is the only place they can go.
“I think there are few of them who are not here. I do not see Marcel, Frederick.. And Julio. Shall I ask the matrons to search for them?”
“It's okay, Kyrie. I’ll search for them myself. I probably know where they are.” He takes off his apron and puts it on the table. “Besides, you still have a lot of stuff to do here. So leave those kids to me.”
“Thank you, Nero. I really appreciate your help.” Kyrie smiles, and that smile never fails to redden his cheeks!
Nero rubs his nose, “It’s nothing.” He then bids Kyrie farewell as he starts looking for the remaining children.
Nothing much has changed for the orphanage. The saviour incident only destroyed part of the administrative building, but the damage isn’t as severe as in Fortuna Town. It’s a miracle that the dormitory is spared from the destruction, only a few broken windows here and there, but that can be easily fixed with a few volunteers teaming up.
Plus the orphanage really needs a makeover. It has been looking pretty rundown and gloomy since…forever. Really not a good environment for the kids, if Nero has to be honest. And with the new headmaster in place, he hopes the matrons will be kinder to the children here.
“Now where did those brats go?” he muses out loud while looking at the secluded corner behind the dormitory.
A smirk appears on his face as Nero recalls the places that he and other children used to hide in order to avoid the matrons. So he decides to give one of those places a check, as memories of his child self seeking refuge in the only place inaccessible to the adults starts to resurface.
Nero was only 5 years old when he discovered this place, after he ran away from the wrath of Matron Clarissa. It wasn’t his fault that Adrien's favourite mug had shattered to pieces on the ground. He was just trying to pour him a glass of milk. But Adrien, who was 2 years older than him, refused for his milk to be poured by Nero, claiming that the milk would be contaminated with his curse, and pushed Nero to the side. Nero’s grip on the milk jar wobbled, and he tried to keep himself steady so he wouldn't spill the milk. But in doing so, he accidentally bumped into Adrien’s arm, causing the boy to drop his mug.
And Adrien cried at the top of his lungs, screaming that it was all Nero’s fault that his favourite mug given by his dead mother had shattered. Matron Clarissa immediately swooped in and pulled Nero by his ears. Nero tried to defend himself but Matron Clarissa did not listen. Instead she screamed at him, calling him a damned child and a plague to society. Since nobody knew Nero’s birthmother, everyone assumed he was a whore’s child, and Matron Clarissa made it a duty for her to always remind him of that.
Matron Clarissa dragged him into an isolation room, but little Nero had had enough. He did not do anything wrong. Why did everyone hate him so much? So, with all of the strength a 5-year-old could muster, he yanked his arm from her and ran out from the building. He kept on running until he saw a small alleyway behind the dormitory, and with a quick thinking and small body, he slipped through, staying there until the sun went down.
Back then, Nero probably didn’t realise how narrow the alleyway was. It is when he is older and staring at the alley, does Nero realise why the matrons don’t bother checking out here.
Goddamnit, he definitely needs to squeeze himself in.
“You bastard!”
Nero pauses his steps as he hears a shout coming from that secluded corner.
“Who the hell do you think you are to talk back, huh?! So what if this is yours? As if you have the right to keep everything. Listen here you piece of shit, your dad was in the Order, and he caused all of this. Just because your old man’s dead doesn't mean you get off from shit!”
A fight? Nero concludes and quickly pushes himself through. He hears another shout from another boy, followed by a scream and a sound equivalent to someone being hit. He has to stop them now. This isn’t the time to play the blame game.
“You should have die-!”
“Hey, stop!” Nero shouts, stopping the boys from blowing their punches. Nero assesses the situation and finds five boys, about the age of 10 to 12, ganging up on a single kid on the ground. “Five on one, huh… You do know that’s cheating?”
“Oh shit,” one of the boys curses, and immediately, they scramble towards an opening at the broken fence.
“Hey, wait!” Nero shouts, but the boys have already made their escape. “Gosh, I was trying to tell them lunch is ready.” He heaves out a sigh and then turns to the boy on the ground. “You okay there, kid?” Nero crouches to get a better look of the boy. The boy appears to be much younger than the bully.
Nero tries to help him get up, but the boy slaps his hand away.
“I’m fine.” The boy gets up before he dashes towards the alley, leaving Nero hanging and confused as he tries to stop him.
When Nero returns back to the front of the orphanage, Nero sees the boy again, sitting alone in a corner instead of playing with his peers, holding a stuffed bear. A ball rolls over to where the boy sits, and a girl comes running after, only for her to stop and turn away.
“Hey, don’t get too close with that kid! He’s a troublemaker!”
“Yeah. Better leave him alone if you want to stay alive.”
“I heard his dad turned into a demon and killed a lot of people. I would not get close to him if I were you.”
“He’s cursed.”
“He is a son of a whore. Abandoned at birth and damned by Sparda himself.”
“Nero? Are you okay?” Kyrie’s gentle touch on his demonic arm pulls him out from the painful memories. He releases the fist that he has unconsciously held as he takes a deep breath to collect himself, then he turns to look at Kyrie, concern writtens all over her face.
“I’m fine,” he assures her with a smile. Then he turns back to look at the boy. Whispers from the boy’s peers are so harsh and cruel.
And it brought up painful memories as Nero had endured the same treatment back when he was just a child .
“Kyrie, do you know that boy?”
“That boy?” Kyrie follows his line of sight. “Ah, you mean Julio? Yes, I do!” She pauses, sadness shown on her face. “That poor boy… he always sits there, alone.”
Curious to know why, Nero asks Kyrie more about Julio. And that’s where he learns of the story of an innocent young boy, orphaned due to the Saviour incident, and blamed for the sins of his father. It’s unfair with the way he is being treated by his peers, but children can be cruel.
But adults can be much crueler.
Kyrie adds that on the day Julio was sent to the refugee camp, mobs of angry adults stormed at him, crowding the frightened, young boy as they threw venom at him over the crime his father had committed. Volunteers tried to calm them down, but their pleas were left buried under the screaming and shouting, leaving Julio alone to fend himself. The young boy was still grieving from the loss of his entire family, and those scalding words left the boy further traumatised with guilt and confusion.
Nero can't stop himself from clenching his fist, rage boiling within him as he listens to the tale. Even when Nero returns to his and Kyrie's home, his anger towards those damned adults is still there. And it opens up some old wound deep within him.
Why is it that the children have to pay for the sins of their fathers?
Why do they have to be punished this way?
Why?
Goddamnit, why?!
The next day, Nero returns back to the orphanage. Kyrie has told him that he doesn't need to come, but Nero insists that he wants to, as there is something that he feels he has to do.
He looks around the premises, and there, on the same bench as yesterday, sitting alone by himself is Julio.
"Hey, is this seat taken?" Nero sees the way Julio flinches when he asks that. The boy slowly glances his head to Nero before he starts to move away, but Nero immediately stops him. “Wait, I’m not telling you to leave. Plus, there’s more than enough space for two.”
“Okay…” Julio replied.
Nero takes it as his cue to sit. They sit in silence, looking over at other kids who are currently playing in the field. Nero glances at the teddy bear Julio is holding. He remembers the way Julio protected it from being taken away by the bullies. It might be a precious gift he received from his late parents.
“Cute toy. Is it handmade?”
Julio’s grip on the toy tightened, afraid that Nero might take it away. But as a few seconds pass, the boy realises that the question is genuine, and slowly, he loosens his grip.
A nod. Then after a beat, Julio speaks, “Mama made it.”
“She did? Woah, she’s really good!”
“You think so?” Julio’s eyes shine, the thick barrier separating them is dissolving.
“Eeyup! I don’t know how to sew, but I saw Kyrie do one of those things before, and it looked hard. So yeah, your mom’s really good!”
Julio looked back to the plushy, a soft smile gracing his features. “Mama gave this to me on my birthday. She....she was awesome. She can do anything.”
“She must mean a lot to you.”
At that comment, Julio’s face fell. “She does. And I miss her... “
Oh shit, I screwed up. Nero panics, scrambling to find a way to change the topic.
“Erm… Oh yeah, I forgot: The name’s Nero. And you are?” Nero internally sweats, hoping for Julio to pick up the conversation after he screwed it up.
And to his relief, Julio turns to him. “It’s Julio.”
“Julio, huh? Cool name.”
“Yours, too!”
“Mine? I don’t know, kid. I was named after the black blanket I was found in. Not cool at all.” Nero shrugs.
“What do you mean?” Julio asks, confused.
“I’m an orphan too, kid. Although our situations of how we become one are different, I also share the same experience as you when I was here.”
Julio hugs his plushy as he turns silent. Then after a moment, he asks: “How did you deal with all of it?”
“I’m not going to lie, Julio. It’s tough, and everything hurts. Was wondering what I did wrong to deserve it, but after years of it, I just didn’t care about it anymore. They hated me the moment I was born and left at their doorstep. Plus, me looking different from the rest of ‘em made me an easy target, right?
But trust me when I say, things will get better.” Nero smiles as he recalls the kindness that was given to him by Kyrie and Credo’s family.
“You think so?”
“I do. But trust me, it will be tough so you have to be strong.”
“Can you teach me,” Julio asks with hope in his eyes, “on how to be strong?”
A wide smile graces Nero’s features as he brings his right arm to tussle the boy’s hair. “Sure, why not? I was about to ask that myself.”
The rest of the evening is well spent with Nero teaching Julio on self defense and other things. He even shows Julio what his right arm is capable of doing, causing the young boy to bombard Nero with questions, which Nero happily answers for him. Without them even realising, the sun has already set. And for the first time since that day, Julio has never felt so happy in his life.
“Will you come by and teach me again, Nero?” Julio asks while the matrons at the back are calling for them to come inside.
“Of course! I’ll come so long as you need me, Julio.”
“Then it’s a promise!” Julio beams then runs towards his dorm before he turns and gives a big wave to Nero.
Nero waves back, feeling light and warm inside. Seeing Julio smile like that, full of promising hope, is like seeing his child self again, when he was shown kindness for the first time.
Somehow coming here again isn’t that dreadful anymore because Nero has something or someone to look forward to. He keeps his promise, visiting and training Julio whenever he gets free time.
And when the orphanage is unable to shelter half of its occupants, Nero doesn’t hesitate to take Julio under his wings.