Elfen Lied Fan Fiction ❯ ich bin nicht noch tot ❯ 3 - hiring guns ( Chapter 3 )

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: Sorry for the length between chapter posts - got behind on some other stuff.

^_^

Lucy leaned against the door post of the temple that also served as Saitoh's home. Her brilliant eyes strained against the darkness to try to see the helicopter that by the sound of it was approaching the beach. The sound did nothing to quell her suspicion that the “government agency” that Saitoh's cousin told them wanted to hire the swordsman's skills was going to want to use those skills against her. Compounding the suspicion was the only other fact the man's cousin had been given - that the agency wanted to pick him up tonight for a briefing on the matter at that same beach.

“That damn beach,” Lucy muttered aloud. While it had brought her back to Kouta, it was beginning to hold many more evil memories for her than good. Her instincts told her that she would more than likely have to kill Saitoh as soon as that helicopter dropped him back off at the beach. Still, he had given her free reign over the temple in his absence, and in the quarters he kept in the back there were enough supplies and cash for her to hide here for quite some time if need be. She turned and headed back into the temple. Even if this acquaintance ended in betrayal as well, at least she wouldn't have to resort to killing families as she often had to as a child.

^_^

At the landing pad of the facility that for almost three years served as Lucy's prison, four individuals stood facing each other waiting for their host to arrive and illuminated by the landing lights. They had all arrived on the same helicopter, all picked up at the same beach, and yet all four had chosen to remain completely silent throughout their acquaintance.

“Long time no see,” the lone woman of the group dryly addressed Saitoh, finally breaking the silence.

“Indeed,” replied the swordsman with equal drought.

“So, you two know each other already?” the third commented, leaning two massive rifles against his shoulders to light a cigarette. “Well, might as well get to know each other, if they've got so many people they want dead that they'd hire more than just me.”

The woman and Saitoh both raised an eyebrow. The woman spoke first. “My name is Erina. This is Saitoh. He's friendlier than he looks. I think he just doesn't like government work.”

“Can't say I blame him,” the rifleman commented, puffing on his cigarette, “but killin's killin'. It's business, and business is good indeed. So, Mr. Fourth, you are…?”

“Shi,” the forth said simply from within the confines of his cowl. He produced his hands from within the confines of his robe, each holding a sickle, and idly scraped them against each other.

“'Death', huh? Well, guess there's also that you're fourth, too.” The third commented, laughing at his own joke. (1)

“And you are?” Erina prompted

“My name's Willy. Willy the Sonic Death Monkey,” the gunman replied proudly. (2)

“I assume then that those are your infamous `air cannons.'” Saitoh commented, speaking finally.

“That's what folks call `em, but these babies actually run on compressed nitrogen which they convert into plasma,” Willy replied, shouldering one of the massive weapons and walking towards the edge of the landing pad. As he neared the platform's edge, he stopped and targeted a flashing buoy a hundred yards out into the water. Those present watched as he squeezed the trigger and with a concussive burst a vortex of air shot out at the buoy. The vortex' heat superheated the water below it, causing the glowing trail to be ensconced in a cloud of steam as it raced towards its target. Willy yelped with what was almost glee as it struck the buoy, smashing it into hundred of fragments. “Like gettin' slapped in the face by a tornado from Hell!”

“An impressive display,” a voice called from the facility's entrance. “I'm sure you won't mind if we take the cost of that buoy out of your fee.

Four faces turned to face the voice and found Kurama, his left arm slung tightly to his chest, and two aides standing backlit in the entryway. “Since you al seem to have gotten acquainted, shall we step inside to discuss why you're all here?”

^_^

Lucy sat in the darkness of the temple, letting emotions and thoughts rambling, trying to do whatever she could to stay awake. She found herself terrified that if she were to fall asleep she might wake up as Nyu and go running back to Kouta. It was certainly tempting. She'd feel safe with Kouta nearby. Nana could slow down Saitoh long enough for her to wrest control of her body from Nyu.

“I can't do that, Kouta… I can't live that life,” she announced to the air. It also crossed her mind that if she returned to being Nyu she would be far easier to kill should her fears about the swordsman be confirmed. Even in her most sleep-deprived state she felt more confident in herself than in her ability to awaken out of Nyu, and she was certain that as soon as see saw Kouta again the more innocent Nyu would take over.

^_^

"Enough," Saitoh barked standing for the first time in almost three hours. "Presentation after presentation. Theories, vectors and radii. Diclonius, Silpelits, evolution, extinction. However, the question that you have yet to answer is one simpler than anything you've so eloquently covered. What are our targets?"

"Our apologies, Saitoh-san," Kurama replied quickly, adjusting his glasses with a bandaged hand. "However, it is necessary to establish-"

"Our targets," Erina finished, cutting the scientist off. "Saitoh-kun is correct. It is necessary to establish our targets. We are, after all, killers by nature, not salary men. I don't think that any of us give a spider monkey's left butt cheek about your ever so elegant but entirely worthless power point presentations."

Silence filled the room as Saitoh returned to his seat and all four hired guns stared at the presentation table. The uncomfortable silence persisted through one of the assistants snapping his pencil in silent rage. Shi produced one of his sickles and a honing stone and began slowly and methodically honing the blade, never taking his eyes off of Kurama. The grating sound exacerbated the thickening silence in lieu of mitigating it. From the back of the room a door opened and footfalls sounded as a figure approached the front of the room with a pace as slow and methodical as Shi's sharpening. The quartet took him in without shifting their gaze. A graying hulk of a man with crazed eyes stood before them, and they watched with disinterested eyes as he began to solemnly applaud them. "Very good. Fully ninety percent of the SAT trainees we receive from the police don't make it nearly this far without some sign of fear, but the four of you seem to welcome the terror! Kurama, I commend your excellent work in selecting them!"

"So you're the boss of this operation?" Willy queried.

"I am General Director Kakuzawa, and, yes, this is my operation."

"Then answer Saitoh's and Erina's question," Shi hissed in frustration.

"Kurama!" the Director answered n response. The chief dutifully pulled up a full-screen image of Lucy's visage. Erina heard the slightest gasp of recognition from Saitoh and smiled slightly, knowing that the other two, seated on the other side of her from Saitoh, missed the response. The Director continued, "This is Lucy. She is Diclonius, obviously. She is the... most interesting case among our subjects. The four of you will bring her back."

"Let me see if I get this straight, because I must have misheard you" Willy said, agitated. "One little teenaged bitch. That's all. One girl is what you have hired all four of us to capture. Capture, not kill."

"That is correct," Kurama acknowledged.

"Fuckin' loony," Willy spat.

“You should realize that- yes, Saitoh-san?” Kurama cut off as the swordsman stood again and walked to the presentation table. He stood for a moment staring up at Lucy's malicious gaze in the image, then leaned onto the table, his hands buried to the wrists in memory drives, papers, and other presentation materials.

“Is that all you want of us?” Saitoh asked flatly, staring intently into Kurama's eyes.

“Yes, capture but do not kill,” Kurama replied, meeting the gaze.

Saitoh stepped away from the table and walked up to the General Director. He stared directly into the maniacal gaze of the director for several minutes. “Director, you're not diverging the full picture, are you?”

Kakuzawa grinned toothily, “We're telling you what we need you to know.”

Saitoh cocked his head. “I suppose that's so. And therefore all that you need to know is that I'll have no part of this.”

As Saitoh walked towards the door, the Director pulled his favorite pistol from his jacket and leveled it at the man's back. “I'm afraid you know too much to not join us.”

Without turning around Saitoh said flatly, “If I hear that hammer fall, the other three may not have a facility left to bring your Lucy back to. The blood I smell in your halls won't compare to what I will shed if you fire.”

“I suppose we'll see won't we?” the Director smirked and began to squeeze the trigger.

“Dame,” Erina snapped, halting Kakuzawa. “I for one want to be paid, and your attempting to test any of us is simply going to piss the rest off.”

Saitoh glanced over his shoulder as he continued walking towards the door. “If you're going to shot, you should do it soon. Otherwise, I will await the rest of you at the helicopter pad.”

^_^

Kouta found himself wandering through the streets despite the late hour. He was torn about Lucy, his emotions dueling with each other. His strongest desire was simply to have either Nyu or Lucy back, so long as she was back. It didn't matter if it meant being witness to constant violence as her the military teams he'd seen tried to take her back, just as long as she was there and part of the family. The other side of the coin though was that she was still the murderer of his father and sister.

“I shouldn't forgive her for that, should I?” he mused aloud to no one but himself. He sighed, “I vaguely remember a temple around here, maybe I should go say some prayers. I wonder if it's open this time of night.”

“It may be open, but they say demons walk its halls after dark,” a voice responded, startling Kouta. He spun to see a man in black a head taller than himself with a sword slung across his shoulder.

“It's not nice to scare strangers!” Kouta responded, faster than he would have liked.

“Then I apologize. My name is Saitoh. Yes, the temple is open this time of night, but demons do indeed roam its halls at night.”

Kouta scoffed, “That's just superstition.”

“But you were going there to pray.”

“That's different.”

“How?” Saitoh asked. “If you believe in Kami, why not demons? Doesn't the universe naturally balance itself?” (3)

Kouta stared at the ground. “Because I met someone that everyone called a demon once, and… she's not like they say. They called her just a killing machine, and…” Kouta trailed off as tears tried to flow down his face.

“Indeed. Nothing can be pure good or evil,” the older man mused. “In everything evil there is a good, in all good, a glimmer of evil.”

“Yin and yang,” Kouta noted. “But Lucy… I don't know.”

Saitoh's eyes focused on the boy in the dim light. “Lucy?”

“It's nothing! It's nothing!” Kouta chanted quickly.

“I see,” the swordsman responded. “You should go home then, and get some rest.”

“Hai! Hai!” Kouta responded in fake cheerfulness, suddenly feeling the desire to get as far away form this man as he could. “You're right. I have classes in the morning so I really should be going!”

Saitoh watched as the boy's back shrunk and disappeared around the corner, then spoke to the empty air “You should go back to where you're staying as well. Doesn't everyone say that a lady needs her beauty sleep?”

“Can't a lady also enjoy the night air?” Erina asked, stepping from the shadows. “So why didn't you question him further? He knew something about our target.”

“Your target,” Saitoh corrected. “I believe I bowed out.”

“And yet if I'm not mistaken, you used that little stunt you pulled staring at people to get a flash drive buried in their papers. You didn't bow out, you just didn't take their offer,” Erina stated accusingly.

“I'd forgotten that old trick,” Saitoh mused.

“Liar,” Erina retorted. “You saw me plant two drives myself. So what was it you saw in the Director's eyes?”

“Five, actually,” Saitoh commented. “The Director, I don't know. I haven't had time to divine the finer points of what I saw, but there was deceit in why they want this `Lucy' back. There is raw desire for conquest in those eyes, and over all that… lust.”

“Government agencies always lie, and the more secrets they have the stronger they desire control,” Erina countered. “As to your other observation, she is a little hottie, isn't she? Even I'd like to know her taste.”

“'Even you?'” Saitoh laughed. “I remember you womanizing more than I the last time we were acquainted. However…” he paused, his tone returning to a more somber note, “The three concepts weren't distinct. They seemed to be a single thought.”

Erina breathed out slowly. “I guess I don't have to worry about tracking you down. We may end up with another partnership of convenience out of this.”

“That is, if you don't mind not getting paid,” Saitoh responded, turning to leave. He waved over his shoulder, “Ma, ja ne.” (4)

“Ja ne,” Erina replied quietly.

^_^

Lucy stood directly in front of the temple's alter. She heard footfalls approaching casually and steadily. A few steps later and Saitoh stood at the opposite end of the temple from her. They regarded each other silently for a few moments. Lucy broke the silence first. “So do you know what I am now?”

“Hai,” Saitoh responded simply.

“Yet you seem to be alone. You're either not alone, brave, or a fool,” Lucy observed.

“We are certainly alone, and I've been called both of the latter on many occasions,” Saitoh responded casually.

“And what are you going to do with your knowledge?”

“I believe that I should use it to take you home,” Saitoh replied coolly.

Lucy's eyes narrowed as she grabbed a massive candlestick by the alter with her vectors. She lifted it into the air, letting it hang there for a moment. “You would dare use a word like `home' to describe that hell?”

Without waiting for response she hurled the object at Saitoh, who merely crouched and watched it come. At the last second, he drew his sword underhanded, slicing the would be pike from tip to naught. “No,” Saitoh said finally, “I would not. That facility stinks of blood and death. That is the home of no one but a pig named Kakuzawa.”

“Then what did you mean by your comment then?” Lucy growled, lifting the first candlestick's equally massive mate.

“I suspect I refer to a boy I met on the walk back from the beach. When I recognized him referring to a `Lucy', he denied its significance. He seemed to be debating forgiving you for something, and seemed to be… missing… you.”

“Kouta…” Lucy whispered. Tears welled in her eyes as she dropped to her knees. “No, I don't want to be stupid… no…. Kouta? Kouta? Nyu…” she called plaintively.

Saitoh sheathed his blade and stared at the girl before him. “Your chi…” he whispered, “is… gone.”

“Nyu? Nyu! Kouta! Kouta!” the girl called plaintively again, burying her head in her hands.

Saitoh slowly approached Lucy, “I suppose this might have been covered if I'd stayed for the end of the briefing. I suppose this also is why your friends call you Nyu. And Kouta… is perhaps the man I met coming back?”

“Nyu…” the girl replied as she reached up and grabbed Saitoh's sleeves. He looked down to see a countenance radically different from the one a few minutes prior, with soft eyes full of tears.

Saitoh kneeled as well, placing a gentle hand on the girl's head and feeling the rough edge of a broken horn underneath the girl's tasseled hat. “Shall we go find Kouta tomorrow morning?”

“Nyu!” the girl replied, cheering instantly.

“I suppose that settles- Oi!” he cried to no avail. Nyu, now satisfied, laid her head on Saitoh's lap and promptly fell sound asleep. Saitoh stared down at the quiet form. “yare yare.”

^_^

So this one's perhaps a bit longer than I intended, but I wanted to end this chapter where it is instead of sooner. But then longer isn't necessarily a bad thing… it'll keep the overall chapter count shorter…

(1) `shi' - yeah, `shi' is both 4 and death. It amuses me to offset Nana / 7 with another wordplay `name'.

(2) Sonic Death Monkey - As much as I might like to, I can't take credit for this phrase. Sonic Death Monkey is actually a guys' body and hair gel/wash/thing from Lush. Coffee, chocolate, hemp oil and lime dumped in a bottle. Good stuff. I have not, however, tried to drink it. That'd be the mocha from Hell.

(3) Kami - I opted for “Kami” instead of “God” here to make sure and keep the conversation on an eastern route and not allow it to veer into western ideals. The sentence doesn't flow as well, but I think the concept does.

(4) Ma, ja ne - “Well, see you”, roughly. Probably didn't need to translate, but there you go anyways.