Missing Sorrow

Disclaimer: I do not own Disgaea 4. That belongs to Nippon Ichi. I do own the witch hunters Virtue and Jingle and the sorcerer Terror.

Summary: Life as a Prinny was probably the best thing that could ever happen to Nemo. After all of the suffering he has gone through, to be able to hit rock bottom and work your way to redemption is all he could ask for. However, even as a Prinny there were two things he deeply regrets doing and recollects himself on how he could have helped them.

Pairing: One sided Nemo/Artina

Rated: T

Genre: Angst, Drama, Hurt/Comfort, Family and Romance

Warning: Swearing, heartbreak, a backstory of despair and unintentional OOC

For the Disgaea 30 Day Challenge (Day 23 is your favorite rival/antagonist and while Xenolith is my favorite antagonist because of how sympathetic he is, I'm doing Nemo because I already tapped into Xenolith's backstory. Plus it allows me to tie into Artina's one-shot). I'm not doing all of them FYI.

Valvatorez was a saint toward the Prinnies. Prinnies were souls who weren't good enough to make it to heaven and were sent to hell for any sort of crime committed in their life. These would often allow smaller crimes such as thief, stalking and even cheating on your loved one could get you thrown into the Netherworld despite the bigger crimes like murder, mass genocide and rape would be the perfect reason you're in hell. No matter what the crime, Valvatorez told all the Prinnies that if you honestly wanted to atone, you would work for it (and this is without earning money of course as many Prinnies have tried to cheat death and less than one percent have actually succeeded paying their way out of Prinnyhood to reincarnate).

Nemo was a fortunate one. Even though he spent 400 years plotting the destruction of the human world for the loss of his family and the girl who saved his miserable life, he was still told by the former Tyrant that it could take forever but he would eventually reincarnate if he worked hard as a Prinny. Even a broken man like him could start over. If it meant being able to change the universe in the future, he would gladly take it.

When he started working under Valvatorez as a Prinny though, many happenings occurred in the process. The one that got him most started though was that apparently, if Fear the Great failed to get rid of earth, the Great Evil would be unleashed and finish what it started. This implied that universe was already going downhill and God didn't control the Great Evil. He feared that maybe he doomed humanity by plotting its downfall unless someone else would have done it before him…

Of course with the threat of the Great Evil looming that meant that Fenrich would hire witch hunters to deal with the problems they had now and naturally they would be the start of all the drama from Virtue implying a backstory with the werewolf the vampire did not know to an unnecessary rivalry with Valvatorez. Fortunately for Nemo, Virtue wasn't invincible and he and Jingle were blasted off when Artina attacked them.

That was the problem right there. Artina getting cursed should not have happened but apparently the Golden Land was bored and wanted to stir more problems. Yes Nemo supported Artina to hook up with Valvatorez if only because he was a great man…better than what Nemo would ever be as shown with him being a Prinny now. Yet, the way Artina showed her affection just now made everything worse. The tension was unbearable and things weren't getting better. The Prinnies suffered because of this but Nemo refused to complain. Yet, Nemo learned that it was because of his little brother Antimony that Artina was cursed in the first place.

You see Nemo never forgave himself during those 400 years of planning. He may have blamed humanity for losing everything dear to him, but his little brother was a huge regret in itself. Antimony worshipped the ground Nemo was on and joined the military ranking to be with him. Antimony was an exceptional soldier that was capable of going solo if the situation demanded it. His favorite tactics included stealth and infiltration missions no matter how guarded the enemy base was. The problem was that by being closer to a spy rather than a soldier, he was easily subjected to the same problems that Nemo had. When Nemo was declared a traitor of his country, his parents were the first to go. His brother went "missing" but it was reported that his own country captured and tortured him. Seeing his brother with a different shade of hair color should have been proof at what his country did for a man who has helped them win battles. If Nemo could speak to his brother more, perhaps he would have gotten more detail on Antimony's end.

What is clear though is the Golden Land and The One specifically saved him from being sent to the Netherworld as a Prinny or worse, end up as a vengeful spirit like Nemo. Antimony would have followed his brother and go along with the plan, but at least they wouldn't be separated like this. Nemo would one day reincarnate even if he didn't think so but the Golden Land is apparently forever until someone storms in and shatters everything.

Still, his brother seemed to be just fine given how he must have met a terrible end by his allies. Nemo wouldn't know from the small conversation they had and his brother told him was to look out for The Great Evil. If he could just sit down and chat with him all day, then maybe he wouldn't be filled up with so much regret leaving his brother behind and not even considering to visit him in his realm if he was indeed alive.

This lead to the other thing he regretted. He made Artina suffer even after death. She was the one person who showed him kindness when he lost everything and when he lost his ray of light, he went down the path of destruction. She was right next to him for 400 years and he refused to acknowledge her. He gave up on heaven's interference when she wanted to heal his pain. When he finally acknowledged her, it was already too late for him and here he was a Prinny. Even as a Prinny, he was still giving her hell indirectly in the form of his brother. Even if the Golden Land saved his brother, he still held resentment to someone who had no idea of his existence. It was sad to think about it…

Artina was doing better now after that awful transformation, so he wanted to check if she wasn't busy. Fortunately for him, Artina just split with that alien girl Jingle. Nemo thought he understood the alien race as a whole only caring about the elimination of the human world, but seeing how Jingle has no connection to them, he started to wonder if the "approval list" was true given Jingle held no ill will toward the humans that aliens apparently hated (but she did show resentment to the Golden Land).

Slowly he started to approach her but then stopped. Besides asking if she was okay, he didn't have anything else to speak to her about as a lowly Prinny. Artina though turned around and noticed and smiled.

"Nemo, it's you."

"Ms. Artina…"

Her smile filled his small heart with glee.

"How have you been holding up? I heard from Mr. Werewolf that a Prinny fight broke out not to long ago. I hope you weren't involved."

"No, I wasn't. I was doing my job when the other Prinnies didn't. Cleaning up after them wasn't…pleasant." He didn't want to complain too much simply because he didn't want to sound ungrateful. Given how the Prinnies were treated that day though, he had every right to be upset.

"That's good. I wouldn't want you to be hurt because of something Mr. Werewolf did."

She was obviously blaming Fenrich for what occurred. Even though she kissed Valvatorez, she was still finding some way to spite him. The more he saw her interact with the Hades' Party with no tinted lens, the more he saw she was starting to act more like a demon instead of the angelic being she was as a human.

"What about you though? That curse must not have been a nice experience."

The pink haired angel frowned at the memory. "Nemo, do you know who cursed me?"

"Yeah…the Blood Stained Sorcerer Terror…my little brother."

Her eyes widened at his as a matter of fact answer.

"Oh…your brother did that to me? He died during the war didn't he? Did I do something wrong?"

"I apologize for my brother's foolishness Ms. Artina." The Prinny apologized rather quickly. "He attacked you because you didn't save me from my own darkness. I feel ashamed that even as a Prinny I cause problems for you. I will do whatever it takes to make it up to you."

"…You don't have to apologize Nemo." She told him as she lifted the Prinny off the ground and embraced him. "It's true. I wanted to do all in my power to help you, but my voice wouldn't reach you no matter how hard I tried. Sometimes I wondered if I was doing something wrong…I wanted to give up…but I kept trying because I believed I could save you."

"You are too kind Ms. Artina. I do not deserve such kindness." Nemo was telling himself more than her this because he will forever feel guilty for rejecting her kindness even after death. "I want you to know something important though Ms. Artina that my brother wanted to tell the Hades Party, but chose to attack you instead of sending the message…"

"A message?"

"He said you, Valvatorez and everyone else need to prepare for the Great Evil's return. The failure of Fear the Great means that a bigger threat will be unleashed. Valvatorez's goal will have to wait because letting the Great Evil flourish will guarantee no goal will be accomplished."

"The Great Evil?"

"A being that was sealed away 2000 years ago by the Goddess of Light. The seal would eventually be broken and now is the time. It is time to get prepared."

The angel slowly absorbed this information before she simply said. "I will talk to Archangel Flonne about this. She must know of the situation."

"Everyone has to be involved this time Ms. Artina. It's not something Valvatorez can do on his own."

"…Yeah…he may be powerful, but he's not invincible…"

Hearing someone call her, Artina placed Nemo on the ground and smiled. "I'll let you go Nemo, I don't want you to get in trouble for apparent favoritism."

"Do not worry about it. I am sorry again for causing you so much trouble. You must hate me for it."

"Nemo, I could never hate you." She said with that same smile she gave to him 400 years ago. Radiant and full of hope, "If I hated you, I doubt I would have saved you from yourself."

At that moment Nemo wanted to drop everything and go to her. Confess everything he had felt for those long suffering years of despair. He could only talk to her briefly about his problems. However, there were more important things for her to attend to and as the archangel waved Artina toward her, Nemo continued to stand where he was in deep thought.

This is another regret. Nemo thought to himself as he turned around ready to head back to work. I cannot tell Ms. Artina how I feel about her because I don't deserve her. All I can do is watch from the sidelines and pray that nothing goes wrong when the Great Evil appears.

Me: Done with 2250 words.

Li: Sorry Pepper, but this seems to be pointless in comparison to the others.

Me: I feel like that too but I feel like this is needed simply because Nemo was a witness to what occurred the past couple of days and if I dedicated one fanfic to his OC brother, then I think I can dedicate something to him. Notes!

1. If you feel like this is a recap of what happened in Inexperience Curse and Every Prinny Has Its Tale, it kind of is especially since this is more on how Nemo felt about everything. At first I wanted the whole story to be about Nemo talking to Artina but I realized as a Prinny, he wouldn't have the privilege to do so, and Artina has important things to do.

2. The Great Evil is brought up again. The last one-shot will show what happens concerning this evil being, but given all of this talk, you can probably guess how it will end.

That's it. Reviews are appreciated. There's only one more one-shot for Disgaea 30 Day Challenge now…and it will be the end of the arc for good reasons. Ja ne!