Elfen Lied Fan Fiction ❯ ich bin nicht noch tot ❯ 1 - picking up where things leave off ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer - I obviously don't own Elfen Lied. Its characters were created by and owned by Lynn (or Rin) Okamoto. The Anime was produced by Genco, and the manga serialized in Weekly Young Jump. Released in the states by ADV (although to my knowledge the manga hasn't been picked up yet for US distribution.)

A/N: So, I wouldn't call Elfen Lied one of the greatest Anime or Manga of all time, I would put it among my favorites. I think perhaps the concept's weakest point is its reliance on shock value and fan service. If you haven't gone through much of the manga, give it a whirl but be forewarned, if the anime held a bit too much gore for you, or nudity, or innuendo, well, stay the hell away from the manga. It definitely has shock value. Beneath it all, though, is still in my opinion an engaging story wherein you actually give a damn about how it comes out.

Hence the fanfiction. Intellectually, I can agree with the manga's ending. Since the manga goes several volumes after the anime ends, it doesn't seem fully appropriate to call the anme's finish an actual end - more of a stopping point, a reprieve before the manga gears up for the ending (as well as leaving out the way left field bits of the manga. Like that damn vector-tank-THING. W. T. F?) However, even though I can logically agree to the ending, frankly I think most folks, whether they ship Lucy and Kohta or Yuka and Kohta, believe that the characters deserve a something of a happy ending.

So, I decided to pick up where the anime drops off (literally) and work from there. And while I doubt I'll be providing the fanservice of either incarnation of the original, I'll be trying to keep some of the angst up, because while they deserve something of a happy ending, it certainly can't be all butterflies and faeries. I will also try to keep up with the violence and I can guarantee this isn't for the kiddies, who shouldn't be aware of this anime yet anyways. It just wouldn't be Lied without that beautiful, red, red kroovy… (1)

Kohta hesitated, Wanta yapping merrily, as the clock chimes faded. The silhouetted figure at the door knocked again, shaking Kohta from his reverie. He rushed the final steps to the door, “welcome home” sitting at the tip of his tongue. Despite his completely human strength he almost ripped the door from its framing as he hurriedly slid it open, desperately hoping to see the familiar locks of shockingly bright hair.

Instead of short, pink hair and bright red eyes, the woman on the other side of the portal was spectacled with long auburn hair. “I apologize for the intrusion,” she began, bowing politely. “I hope that I'm not interrupting anything.”

Kohta unsuccessfully tried to shake the disappointment off of h is face. “No, you're not interrupting at all. How may I help you?”

“Years ago, my family stayed at this inn, and there were so many happy memories here that I thought I might bring my husband sometime.”

“Gomen nasai,” the youth replied, scratching the back of his head and glancing down to the ground. “It hasn't been an inn for several years. My aunt and uncle own it, and rent it to my cousin and me so we can be close to school.”

“Ah,” the woman replied with a smile. “No need to apologize. This must be quite the quiet place to study… or to bring the ladies,” she finished mischievously.

Kohta flushed bright red and barely managed to stammer out an “I suppose so.”

“Well, I suppose I should let you get back to your studies,” the woman said, bowing as she turned to leave. Kohta managed to return the bow and stood transfixed for a moment, watching the woman walk away, hoping that waiting for just a moment longer at the gate would end in Nyu bounding around the corner. At the very least he hoped to see Lucy's sullen, deliberate steps headed towards the Kaede Inn.

Lucy crouched in an alleyway, pressing a sleeve liberated of its former owner to her head where the stump of her horn still bled slightly. She focused her mind away from the pain, desperately seeking to keep Nyu suppressed. She was certain that reverting to Nyu was the last thing she needed at the moment. Nyu would simply trot back to Kohta where life would merrily resume, until the next time her former captors decided to send someone after her.

“Baka,” she muttered, unsure which of her selves she meant it for.

“Kurama-san, you can't be serious!” one of the aides in the room blurted.

“The director feels that at this point further attempts to use the SAT as a primary means of recapturing Lucy will prove just as fruitless as previous attempts,” Kurama replied simply.

“But this list!” The aide countered. “These names have to be some of the most vicious mercenaries in the world!! They'll kill her before they'll recapture her!”

“Well, except for one merc,” another aide interjected, reading through the list. “Check out this guy's named occupation: Calligrapher. Ooo. Sounds like a truly dangerous person. How'd he make the list? At least it seems like we're starting with the least nefarious on the list if we're starting with this guy.”

Kurama smiled slightly. “I wouldn't worry about any of these killing Lucy. The names on this list are merely fodder. We only expect them to injure her enough to be brought back. You both should also remember that to survive in this particular line of work discretion is a positive attribute, otherwise every time a John Doe turns up dead on the street they're guaranteed a nice long chat with the local constabulary.”

“Y-You mean-“ the first aide stammered, his voice trailing off.

“Yes, if our sources are correct then this little calligrapher could very well be every bit as vicious as Lucy.”

Lucy grunted in approval as she looked at the rag she'd been pressing to her head. No fresh blood stained the uniform sleeve so she rose and jammed her hat over the stubs of her horns. Taking a deep breath she slowly started down the alley at a slightly unsteady gait.

“Oi,” called a voice from behind her. “It's not safe for fine young ladies to be walking alone down this street.”

“Is that so?” Lucy smirked over her shoulder. She counted four behind her, one carrying a sword and the other three armed with a mix of heavy sticks and baseball bats.

“Yeah, you should let us walk you home, or better yet, walk you to our place. We'll show you a real good time there,” a second voice called.

Lucy turned her attention back to the end of the alley she had been walking towards to find another four or so ruffian youth, similarly armed. All of them around her wore sadistic smirks that brought bile to her through with memories of a long-dead puppy. She paused, wanting ever so much to simply show them pain. However, the desire to avoid attracting attention weighed against that choice, and even more so was the simple fact that Kohta would be sad, even if they were still vermin.

“I don't think any of you could entertain me for long,” Lucy stated flatly, allowing her unseen vectors to writhe around herself, “Please leave.”

Mistaking her comment for innuendo,, the sword-wielding leader strode forward with a bravado he felt less and less as he grew closer to Lucy's cold, malicious gaze. “Well, if I couldn't entertain you for long, I'd surely love to meet whatever child you call a boyfriend. I'd slice him apart then let his dieing corpse watch as I teach you things he never could.”

“I have serious doubts about your ability to carry out such a threat,” the Diclonius stated, maintaining her flat tone.

“Well, bitch, I guess you're gonna find out, because once we're done with you, you're gonna take us to this boyfriend of yours and I'm gonna show you how to slice him like a daikon radish!” the thug snapped.

“Is that all you've cut with that sword of yours? A bunch of vegetables?” A new voice jeered.

Eyes and heads whipped towards the end of the alleyway to find a man a head and shoulders taller than anyone else present. He strode into the alleyway with an easy gait, a sword held loosely in his off hand.

“And just who the fuck are you?” the gang leader demanded. (2)

“I suppose I could say I'm just a passerby, but that might sound a tad stereotypical,” the man replied.

“Then back the fuck off, Jack, and pass on by,” the member closest to the intruder retorted. “We found her first, and there's no way you're stealing her from us.”

“Well, aren't we all just playing our parts?” the intruder mused. He narrowed his eyes and focused on Lucy. “However, I hardly believe that this woman is going to allow you to claim her as property. Oi, sword-boy, are you too stupid to sense what this woman is capable of?”

“Kisama! Don't you dare insult our leader!” the gang member nearest the intruder snarled, swinging his bat at the man's skull. The intruder cleanly dodged under the swing, taking the opportunity to conveniently place his knee in the path of the boy's abdomen. The attacker slumped off of his “victim's” knee, gasping for air as he hit the ground. Lucy watched the event with disinterested eyes, her mind more focused on pondering whether he knew what she was or had just made a lucky guess about the murderous intent she was attempting to suppress.

She watched as the two grunts left on that end of the alley came at the newcomer at once, armed with heavy slats of wood. The two appeared to have something resembling teamwork in their attack, which caused amusement in Lucy's eyes when they watched their weapons being sliced through with one smooth draw of their opponent's sword. She was disappointed that he didn't finish the job by relieving them of their heads, but the pair seemed to have lost their will to fight anyways. The four behind her rushed past Lucy, clearly attempting to take on the swordsman all at once. Feeling slightly annoyed at being forgotten by her would-b captors, she lashed out with her vectors and grabbed each by an ankle, sending the quartet smashing to the ground. Watching the reactions of the two men left standing in the alleyway she casually tossed all four against the walls with just enough force to break a few ribs and render all four unconscious. Despite her desire to please Kohta by not killing, she savored both the look of fear on the face of the youths' leader and the look of astonishment on the swordsman's.

“Kisama!” the leader snarled, whirling back to face the swordsman. He unsheathed his blade, dropping his scabbard to the ground. “What did you do to my men? What are you, a witch?”

The swordsman's look of astonishment turned to one of sudden sadness. “You really have no idea of the peril you've placed your `comrades' in, do you? Very well,” he continued, steeling his gaze, “Jo-chan, allow me to teach him a lesson first. Then you may punish him as necessary.”

Lucy glowered at the swordsman, trying to decide friend or foe, when she felt a wave of something wash over her. It filled her with dread, as if she were the subject of her own murderous look. Her gaze at the swordsman hardened further when a rattle from the young thug caused her to change focus. She realized that the thug was shaking so badly in fright that he was causing the blade in his hands to rattle uncontrollably.

“Ikousou,” the swordsman said flatly, snapping Lucy's attention back to him in time to see him lunge forward with a speed that threatened to rival the speeds she could achieve with her supernatural aid. She watched in pleasure as he drew his sword at the last possible second, cleaving through the air with the delicious howl of fleeing air that'd she'd often savored from her vectors. She felt a sudden, odd pang of remorse for standing behind the boy as swords made contact and half of the thug's blade went sailing through the air to embed itself in the alley wall. She wished to have been able to see the look of fear on the ruffian's face as the fool's life drained away. She let out a quiet sound of dissatisfaction at the blow, as the swordsman had drawn too early to cleave the gang's leader in two as she would have done. She watched as the swordsman sheathed his blade and the victim dropped to his knees. She casually walked around the kneeling figure to survey the damage and found herself further disappointed. The gang leader only had a deep cut across his chest - enough to likely scar but far from life-threatening.

Aggravated at the lack of permanent injury, she grabbed the thug by the neck with a vector, yanking him to his feet and roughly slamming him against the alley wall. A snarled “Kisama” and a glare at the swordsman managed to escape the countenance of her captive, indicating to Lucy that he still didn't suspect her as the greater threat, perhaps not even as a threat at all. She suddenly realized she should be happy with this turn of fortune - it meant that she likely wouldn't even be mentioned in any police reports of the incident, if any appeared at all. She cast a sidelong glance at the swordsman as he advanced towards them, noting that he showed no reaction to her vectors this time. The street gang leader still squirming against her invisible grasp, she threw a test punch with another vector at her rescuer, who ducked under it at the last second and scooped up the broken hilt and scabbard with the motion.

“Now tell me,” the swordsman began casually, “what was your intent for the young lady here?” He stepped around behind Lucy to face the thug, casually avoiding Lucy's writhing vectors en route.

“That's none of your fucking business!” the youth snapped, and made an attempt to spit in the man's face. Lucy considered batting the spittle out of the air for the swordsman, but the latter managed the task on his own with the remnant of the thug's blade.

“Well, you may be right, but it is this girl's business, and if I can choose whether it is a lady's hands or mine that reek of blood, then I choose my own. So. I ask again. What was your intent?”

Lucy released the vector holding the young thug by the neck and caught him by the wrists before he hit the ground. She yanked him into a crucifixion position, his toes just able to scratch against the ground. She smiled viciously as she stretched him just enough to make breathing difficult and his shoulders burn in agony.

“Fine,” the captive spat, glaring at Lucy for the first time, “you know what we were gonna do to you? We were gonna beat you until you were almost dead, then we'd each take our time with you, until you gave up and liked it.”

“Is that so?” Lucy replied blandly, her eyes returning a different response, one born straight from the fires of hell itself.

“Yeah,” came the meant to be menacing reply. “That's what we were going to do to you bi-AUGH!” he suddenly screamed in pain as Lucy dislocated both of his shoulders. “Why don't you just fucking kill me already if you're going to, you son of a bitch!”

“Oh, I won't kill you. If I killed you, you would never have a chance to repent. However, you do need a reminder,” the swordsman replied, meeting Lucy's cold eye turned towards him. “Jo-chan, don't you think there aren't enough eunuchs in today's world?”

Lucy smiled an evil smile as she turned her gaze up to a now thoroughly blubbering young thug.

Wrap-up notes…

(1) The red, red kroovy - A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. If you missed the reference, but call yourself a fan of the old ultra-violence, you're a poseur. Go read the book.

(2) “Who the fuck are you?” - This line's ripped from the dub of the Hellsing anime. Again, hopefully you already knew that.

Well, so it begins… hopefully I'll be able to avoid using OC's to drive this au of an ending. It's interesting to me that Lied manages to hang on to a relatively small cast without resorting to monster of the week tactics like even Evangelion does. Ack! Eva reference! Every comment past this point is officially moot!

Oh, and the title? It's courtesy of Babelfish - “I'm not dead yet,” as in not wanting to go on carts.