Had Writing Energy today unexpectedly. There was something else I promised to write next, but I didn't want to re-read the sad thing I needed to read for it, so I decided to type up some Bonded I had written in a notebook and go from there.

Wow, it's been almost seven months since I updated?! I am so sorry, guys. Last year was not a good year for my writing.

One of the weirdest things about Rai (and there were a lot of weird things about Rai) was that he genuinely wanted to play Counterstrike even though after all this time and tutoring he couldn't even play. They'd shown him how to fire, even had him press the button, but when he was actually aiming at someone he just wouldn't.

It was weird even for Rai, but Ikhan hadn't asked about it. It seemed like it was something personal, and he wasn't good with that kind of thing.

Ikhan had asked, "Rai, do you want to play another game?" even though Ikhan wanted to play Counterstrike – he was good at Counterstrike, and wasn't it normal to want to play games you were good at, not games you were bad at? And Rai had shaken his head, looking determined to play.

It didn't seem as though he was just putting up with it because they wanted to play, but doing it because he wanted to do it, so Ikhan didn't want to stop him. Rai might start playing in the general multiplayer if they stopped playing with him, and people might make fun of how terrible he was. Ikhan wanted to protect Rai from that. Rai wasn't shy, exactly, but he was quiet and listened to everyone. Mean words might really affect him. Like Ikhan, Rai might not know what to say in the face of people getting weird ideas.

Not that anyone who knew Rai would say anything weird – or even something true, because Rai was weird – but people could be cruel online. Ikhan was worried about Rai, honestly.

Rai had the Chairman and big brother Tao looking after him, and he had a smartphone now for when he got lost, but the Chairman couldn't protect him from bullies that didn't go to their school. Shinwoo only could if it got physical. Or Shinwoo and Ikhan could maybe challenge them to a round of Counterstrike for Rai's honor if it was in-game comments, but only if they were there to do that. Yeah, he didn't want Rai gaming on his own, online gaming could get really competitive. People who wanted to win should be glad to play with Rai, if you thought about it, but that wouldn't keep them from being mean.

He was worried enough to ask, "Rai, do you play Counterstrike on your own?" on the walk to school one morning.

Ikhan winced when Rai's eyes widened like that was a fantastic idea. "Why don't you just keep playing with us?" he suggested quickly, "Instead of with random people online."

Rai looked a little confused – had he thought Ikhan meant playing solo? Like, with no one to shoot?

Thaaaat did seem about Rai's speed, but he wouldn't get better that way.

Rai nodded, accepting Ikhan's advice, and Shinwoo piped up, saying, "Let's go play after school!"

"You can eat your snacks at the PC Bang instead of in the house," Regis said, agreeing.

"You'll come to, won't you?" Yuna asked Seira, who nodded elegantly.

"What about you, Ajussi?" Shinwoo asked.

"He'll come," Tao said, grabbing on to Ajussi's arm. "I have to work on my rig – you have fun too, Takeo!"

"Oooh." Ikhan slid his glasses up his nose. "Can I help, Hyung?"

"Sure!" Tao darted away from Ajussi to clap him on the back.

They wouldn't have Seira's snacks while they worked because Seira would be at the PC Bang with the others, but it was really fun to work with Hyung on computers. Ikhan would be looking forward to it all day.

"Did Rael go in early with the Chairman again? Do you think he'll be done in time to come with us?" Shinwoo asked.

"He's gone home to visit his brother," Tao said.

It was a long, boring run back to Lukedonia, even at Kertia speeds. Even so, it seemed like far too little time had passed before Rael saw his brother again. His brother, what would his brother think of him contracting with a human?

Rajak met him on the beach and nodded when Rael greeted him with, "Brother!"

"The Lord has summoned us."

"Yes, Brother." So there would be no time to find out what his brother thought before he had to face the Lord's disapproval as well.

When they reached the castle, Rael followed his brother in through the double doors. Normally only the clan leaders were allowed in the Lord's throne room.

"I have brought my brother, Lord," Rajak announced with a bow. Rael hurried to bow too.

"Rael Kertia. Approach the throne."

Rael stepped forward out of the shadows at the back of the room, coming to where the clan leaders stood lined on either side of the carpet leading up to the throne.

"For bonding with a human without permission, you are to be sentenced to ten years confinement. However, as humans do not live as long as we do, your confinement is postponed until after the death of Takeo."

He bowed again. So lenient! "Thank you, Lord."

"What have you been learning from that man?"

"How to analyze intelligence reports and write reports. How to arrange a schedule. Making phone calls and passing as a secretary among humans. How to run an office. How to operate a computer and word processor. And spreadsheet program. He has been critiquing my combat skills – he says he learned the Kertia style from sparring with my father." What else? "How to teach, Lord – he paired me with the human, Takeo, so that I could learn how to instruct Kertia clan members in whatever skills I wanted to pass on."

"Was it his plan for you to make a contract?"

Rael thought for a moment. "I don't think it was against his plan, but he did not manipulate me into it."

"What affect has making a contract with a modified human had?"

Rael hesitated, before confessing, "When you sentenced me before, for my inelegant reaction to Miss Seira's choice," what was he doing, reminding her that this was the second time he had appeared before her? Most nobles didn't see the Lord once in their entire lives! "I was overemotional. The contract is calming. Even before we made the contract, Takeo would reach out with what little power he has to calm me. He claims he was doing it unintentionally, and I believe him. I hope I will be more mature in future, Lord."

"More mature than when you fled Lukedonia after discovering your brother knew you had a soul weapon."

"…Yes, Lord." He bowed again, focusing a moment on where his brother stood behind him, flanking him supportively.

"It has not escaped my attention that you acted immaturely at ages when your brother and the clan leaders were already fulfilling their duties." Rael winced, but the Lord went on. "I attribute it to losing your parent before attaining your majority. According to Ludis' studies, that often happens in humans."

"Yes, Lord," the Mergas clan leader said, bowing.

Rael's eyes widened.

"We shall see if forming a bond with a human and becoming responsible for them helps you mature, the way your brother's duty as a clan leader demanded of him." The Lord nodded. "Rajak Kertia."

"Lord." His brother stepped forward and bowed.

"You are satisfied with your brother's progress under Frankenstein's tutelage?"

"Extremely so, Lord."

His brother was proud of him?

"Then we will allow Rael to remain outside Lukedonia despite his violation of the laws. Rael Kertia."

"Yes, Lord."

"We expect a report from you on everything you know about contracts, from your own and observing the Noblesse's bond with Frankenstein, and Seira Loyard's with Han Shinwoo. Anything else you learn after writing that report will also be sent to us, in future."

"It will be so, Lord." What did he know about contracts? The one he had with Takeo… he would need all the skill he had learned with words to try to find words for it.

"You are dismissed."

He bowed one final time and immediately left the room, his brother turning and coming with him.

"Good job, Rael," Rajak said after the doors closed.

Rael let out a breath. "I'm just glad I didn't disgrace you again, brother." No, he had, by requiring punishment, but the Lord had given him a duty! Most nobles were never of use to the Lord.

His brother put a hand on his shoulder. "I have never been ashamed of you, Rael."

"Brother…" Rael was stunned by the intimacy.

"I promised our father that I would look after you in his place. I tried my best, but by not talking you about the soul weapon I let you feel guilt, blaming yourself for my incomplete power as a clan leader. I failed you in that, and perhaps in other ways."

Rael shook his head, stunned. "No… Brother…"

"I am glad that Frankenstein is teaching you. When I fought him, he scolded me for not using the techniques that our father developed. I asked Gejutel about when our father and Frankenstein trained together, and it occurred to me that Frankenstein may have helped him develop those techniques. They are techniques that allow someone weak to fight someone stronger than them, and those are techniques that Frankenstein might have needed, defending the weak against the strong. I understand now why our father respected Frankenstein, and I hope you too give him the respect our father would have wanted."

"Of course, Brother!" Or he did, now, after Frankenstein showed him the consequences of disrespect, but he didn't want to tell his brother that. Or remind him of the disrespect Rael showed Frankenstein when he first met the man, that led to Rael trying to fight him again on Lukedonia before his brother stepped in and, in hindsight, saved him. He didn't want Rajak blaming himself for Rael's shortcomings again. To hear the brother he admired saying he failed Rael… Rael didn't know how to handle this, it was too much. He might have been disrespectful to Rajak in the past, but he didn't want to be like that again.

He might have resented Rajak for being so perfect, when Rael was nothing but a burden and mess, so weak that their father took half the soul weapon Rajak should have inherited to give to him.

He hesitated to ask, but, biting the bullet, he said, "Is there anything you want to say about me making a contract with a human?" An enhanced human at that, the ones Lukedonia thought were filthy traitors to humanity because they served the Union?

"The Noblesse made a contract with a human," Rajak reminded him. "And our father deeply respected that human and missed him when he left Lukedonia because of his loyalty to the Noblesse. I only hope that you have found a human who will help you as much as Frankenstein assisted our father."

"Yes," Rael said. "Yes. I think so. Takeo does not lack elegance," he hurried to explain even though no explanation was demanded of him. "He's weak, and he wants to get stronger but only to protect his comrades! He isn't like the Union, craving power to oppress other humans." He wasn't!

"I trust your judgment, and the Noblesse's," Rajak told him, lips curled in a smile under his mask.

Oh. "Yes, Brother." Takeo was accepted into the Noblesse's home, so no one would question his worthiness unless they were as inelegant as Rael used to be. Rael had almost expected someone to say he shouldn't have bonded with an enhanced human like Takeo, to need to defend him, but Rael was the only one who still thought that way, when Frankenstein was an enhanced human and the Noblesse found him worthiest of all.

The front door opened, and they paused the conversation to see who it was. A good thing to, because one of the students they were at Ye Ran to evaluate had come in with the noble Seira Loyard.

"Oh hey, it's you guys." Shinwoo Han waved.

"Hey, nice to see you again." Sangeen nodded.

"No remorse for trying to have my student beaten up? Shinwoo, do you remember a bunch of young men – you wouldn't have recognized any of them – who approached you one evening outside of school and tried to beat you up unprovoked?"

Shinwoo scratched his head. "No, I can't say I do… They all kind of blur together."

"You get in that many fights?" Yonsu gave Frankenstein an incredulous look. And as a school chairman he tolerated this?

Frankenstein coughed. "They're usually asking for it… Has anyone mentioned the KSA agents to you?"

"Oh, these are them?" Shinwoo looked at Seira. "Right, you said they were teachers."

"You're giving away our secret?" Not that Yonsu would dare risk angering him by giving away the secrets he was keeping in exchange.

When Shinwoo Han might already know them, when he was the one who'd accidentally made a contract with Seira Loyard, according to Rael and Takeo.

So the noble had recruited the one they were evaluating for recruitment… She had seen him first, but he was a Korean citizen. So much for him having a normal life, but they weren't in a position to criticize.

"Have I said that it's ballsy of you to become a public figure?" Yonsu said. "Living openly, if that's your real face. Associating with a whole school full of hostages for them to use against you."

He chuckled. "The Union knows hostages are no use when it comes to me… although that wouldn't keep them from doing it anyway. What about you? You must know how to operate in enemy territory – and you've had to treat your country as enemy territory when the Union has a presence here - because you've had to hide what you were even from your comrades, haven't you?"

That was true. Wasn't it a fake marriage at first, to hide why they were together/be each other's medical contact, but they bonded over what they were becoming and why? Frankenstein didn't have anyone like that, until this noble, for centuries – they'd learned that much from the remarks of the enhanced humans.

Pursued by the Union, knowing they wanted to break and enslave him, tiring. The noble gave him refuge before he broke.

Would their country hate them the way humanity was told to hate him, by the Union?

"Why should we allow fear of the Union to dictate how we live our lives?"

"Because you're powerful, you don't have to be afraid of them?"

"No." The man frowned. "Weak, powerful, what does that matter? No one should have to live in fear of the Union. It's wrong that almost all who know of them do."

That was true.

"The idea that power is what makes the difference, that those with power somehow deserve different things, that enhanced people are better than others simply because they've been worked on… that's the Union's idea. It's one that only benefits them. If enhancements were the qualification to rule, and they were the only ones allowed to perform enhancements?" The Chairman looked contemptuous. "As for the idea that being able to perform enhancements makes someone a kingmaker or a god… Doctor is an honorable enough profession. There aren't many callings higher than saving lives." He smiled in a way that would have seemed free of menace if just knowing what he could do wasn't menace enough. "Education being comparable."

The Chairman's personal amusement aside, "The Ninth Elder was the Union's expert on enhancement research, and," Frankenstein chuckled, "He did not compare to me, so I've been the unrivaled best at human enhancement for over a thousand years, but my personal enhancements are far from optimal. I am not a model to emulate."

Tao, Takeo and M-21 looked surprised.

"Well in my day, we had to make our own lab equipment, and it wasn't as though I had Google to tell me what on earth those tiny moving things were. Or that the twisted ladders within a certain part of them were important. It took me awhile to get enough data to figure out what I was looking at."

DNA. He was talking about DNA.

"I had to get powerful in a hurry to fight mutants. What part of that sounds safe, let alone optimal? Fortunately, I managed to crack… something that the Union's design philosophy and how they treat their test subjects has caused them to dismiss as useless for their purposes. Relying on one ability to keep me alive while I experimented meant I couldn't risk any enhancements that would potentially conflict with it. In an ideal world, my enhancements wouldn't be so combat-focused, and hosting Dark Spear forced the drastic reduction of my skillset.

"There's no strongest, ideal or 'superior' set of human enhancements. Working with these three, I need to consider their individual circumstances and talents. For instance, I could give Tao stronger psychic abilities, and he would continue to not use the ones he has. The Union's factory approach to human enhancement is one of the main reasons they've made so little progress. They have centuries of data, so at this point they must be refusing to notice that most of their successes come from projects where the individual subjects were treated as valuable and some thought was put into designing the enhancements for the subject."

"I have powers like Takeo's?" Tao asked.

"I know you read your treatment overview."

"But… I thought they weren't working yet, or something. I'm information gathering and tactics."

"No," the Chairman said firmly, "You are Tao. If anything, it's because acting as mission control for the others is so important to you that you're refusing to use those powers. You've honed your mind to automatically process and use every scrap of information you obtain. Deliberately not obtaining information and not making use of it would slow down that process while you make decisions, and speed is important on the battlefield. Master had the opposite problem, because his duty as Noblesse fell under the seal of the confessional. He trained himself to compartmentalize information to avoid violating the privacy of the clan leaders, and 'IQ' is technically a measure of how easily one's mind makes connections between different pieces of information. Master's skill in that regard has its uses, and would have been quite a vital one if the nobles were still living as they did before humanity evolved, but it's not so helpful with classwork."

"So he's not perfect," Sangeen muttered. Someone so powerful, and not perfect.

"He's terrible at Counterstrike." Frankenstein sighed. "Can't manage a single kill."

Well, what would a noble need with the skill of hitting people with bullets? Even so, "Point taken."

"That the world shouldn't be divided into the weak and the strong, those with power and those without… That is why the Noblesse exists."