Travelling through this gigantic forest was no easy feat for a strange trio on an even stranger journey. Lead by them was Ragna the Bloodedge, Nu-13, and Bullet.
An SS-Criminal.
A former experimental Murakumo unit now "purified".
A mercenary in search of her own answers.
Out of all the possible combinations, this particular one would be very rare, to say the least.
"I hear some strange celebration..." Ragna thought to himself when he heard some celebratory cheers in the distance.
Ragna knew where he was. He was closing in on the 13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi. It gave him chills to be aware that he was literally reliving memories, but he wouldn't be alone this time. He wouldn't be the only one the NOL's worried about.
"Tch. These ignorant bastards..." Ragna thought to himself in envy. Sometimes he'd wish he could, for once, go somewhere nice, crack a few smiles, eat some fine food, and be with friends. Then again, a chance at a normal life was all but lost to him at this point. There was no going back once he chose the path he did.
He was even warned by her that he was "about to go through hell". It was hell, but it was a path he chosen.
"Hey! Ragna!" Nu said from behind him.
Ragna felt his throat jumped from being startled while being deep in thought, but he kept the lump down. "What is it?"
As Ragna looked behind him, the pale girl pointed behind her at the mercenary that had her arms crossed, "Can you tell that hussy to lay off Nu? Tell her that I'm not squishy!"
Ragna looked over at Bullet and she sighed at both of them, "I'm concerned about bringing a child along to go through something dangerous. There are no nurseries during war, you know?"
Nu's face flushed red in frustration, "You-!"
"Women!" Ragna growled aloud, "Why the hell am I playing babysitter here?! Bullet, Nu isn't kidding. She might just surprise you with what she does."
Bullet scoffed at him, "I know a little bit about the Murakumo, Ragna."
"Not Nu," Ragna interrupted, "Nu's actually one of the more terrifying ones. She may behave like a snobby kid with the common sense of a cow, but it's hard to argue her capabilities as a fighter. That and she can fly; something neither you nor I can do."
Bullet blinked a few times before shaking her head and sighing at him, "Fine. I won't have any sympathy if she gets her ass kicked."
"Likewise," Nu replied back snidely, "You underestimate Nu. Also, it's her job to keep Ragna faithful from flirty wrenches like you!"
Bullet's eyes blinked rapidly a few times as she stuttered out of bewilderment, "W-Wrench? M-Me? A flirt? ME!?"
"LADIES!" Ragna boomed to silence the two women, "Stop it! You both sound like you're arguing over a teenage crush!" Ragna rolled his eyes as he said in his mind, "I can't believe I'M the mature one, here."
"Then what are we doing here just twiddling our thumbs? Do you have a strategy, fearless leader?" Bullet asked tauntingly at Ragna.
Ragna ignored the quip in her question as he said, "We're going to take a more-or-less, direct route towards the NOL base of this city. Nothing too fancy."
"What if someone tries to attack Ragna?" Nu asked, concerned over him.
Ragna shook his head at Nu, "No way, Nu. With the three of us here, nobody would dare to. I don't think anybody would expect an SS-Criminal to travel with a mercenary and a frail-looking girl."
Nu's eyes turned beady, and then spoke in a cute voice, "Oh Ragna, please! Nu is oh-so-frail! Nu only feels safe when she's with you, Ragna, so please protect Nu with all your might...and heart."
By the time Nu was done, she was startled to see that Ragna and Bullet was already ahead of her on the trail leading into the city.
Nu looked back and forth between the trail and where they once were a few times rapidly in bewilderment before yelling out, "H-HEY! DON'T DITCH ME! RAGNA! Don't go alone with that butt-floss woman without Nu!"
It is a very unusual fate that three fighters with very, very different objectives and fighting styles end up allies. However, this alliance has a purpose, though only temporary.
They all have one goal in common for now, to eradicate the Cauldrons that the NOL facilities are hiding.
The unusual trio stood at the edge of the door that leads to another one of these cathedrals.
The mercenary readies herself for another brawl that waits inside, "I never thought that my search would lead me to doing these kinds of tasks."
Ragna nodded, "Yeah. But it's what we have to do."
The pale Murakumo unit jumps for joy. "Yeah! Time to go kick some butt with Ragna!"
Ragna put a hand out to Nu in a "stop" signal, causing her to freeze in place almost immediately, "Not so fast, Nu. I want you to listen to me on something. You are not a killing machine anymore, and ALSO, we don't have time to be screwing around. If you have to push someone aside, do it, but nobody inside the NOL is your objective. Only the Cauldron is."
Nu nodded, "You got it!"
Ragna nodded at Nu, then started the discussion, "The three of us will go in first and wipe out any resistance. Nu, you have the most mobility out of all of us. We don't want to waste time so as soon as you can, destroy the Cauldron and get the hell out."
Nu gave a playful salute, "Roger-dodger, Ragna!"
Bullet gave a small scoff, "Is that it? It barely sounds like a training session. I was hoping to get my knuckles dirty this time."
"Grr... I remember hearing this before but women are scary when they are about to fight or are fighting,"Ragna thought to himself, "Okay. Sounds simple enough, right? Bullet, let's get cracking." The SS-Criminal withdraws his scythe.
At the same time, Bullet readied her gauntlet arsmagus, "Cracking? You haven't even given me a chance to crack my knuckles to warm up!"
Ragna growled, "Quit screwing around, and let's do this!"
With one Dead Spike and a fiery-punch, the door was destroyed. The NOL soldiers inside were in shambles both mentally and physically. They weren't preparing at all for an attack by three very powerful beings out with a thirst for vengeance.
Ragna knew that time wasn't on their side; they focused only on taking out the resistance while letting those who didn't try to fight flee. Even with the threat of rallying information that they were under attack, a mob of them could never pose a threat to the trio.
Before long, it was already over.
With both hands, Nu projected the time in front of her, "Hmm... According to this, it seems that we have cleared this place out in about fifty-seven seconds!"
"So what now?" Bullet asked impatiently.
Ragna looked around for that elevator shaft that led to it. He spotted it in a dark corner of the cathedral. He pointed with a single finger at it, "There. Nu, do it."
Nu zoomed to the corner where Ragna was pointing at, and she softly pressed the button to make the elevator door open. Bullet and Ragna silently watched Nu slowly go inside.
"Hey! Nu had an idea!" She declared.
Ragna thought that it couldn't be good, but he'll bite, "What?"
"You said that we had to save time, right? Well, what if Nu would just tear through the floor and fall down to the bottom! Save some time!" She replied with pep. "Oh, and don't worry. Nu can just fly up since, you know, Nu's the only one who can fly. Hee-hee!"
Ragna merely shook his head, but he knew her abilities; she'd have no problem doing that. "Alright, but get on with it. We'll stay here so that nobody can bother you while you're down there."
Nu squealed a bit, "Alright! Up, up, and away!" Nu started spinning while shaping herself into a drill as she tore through the floor of the elevator, "WHEEEEE!" The sound of her cry of fun can be heard as the elevator, funnily enough, closed in front of them.
Bullet's face leaked a drop of sweat, "Doesn't she mean 'down'?"
Ragna groaned, "You're wasting your time if you're going to try to figure her out."
Bullet squinted in a direction away from the elevator, "Hmm? What's that?"
Ragna looked where Bullet was facing, and he could see an entire crowd of NOL soldiers making their way to exterminate the mercenary and the criminal. Their battle cries overlapped one another as they all charged the duo.
Bullet rubbed her knuckles together as she grinned, "And I thought that I was going to be just sitting on my ass, feeling bored. Looks like they called for help."
Ragna went back into his fighting stance with his scythe withdrawn, "Dumbasses. Not our fault they're all about to die young. Just keep them away from the elevator while Nu does her work."
Meanwhile down in the basement that contained the Cauldron...
Nu's expression was monotonous and blank. The atmosphere of this place made her sick to her stomach, but she kept Ragna's request in his mind. She wanted to do this to gain his approval. Nu also looked at this as a chance to avenge herself in some way.
She flew over everybody. Some security guards with guns hit her with bullets but the pain was nothing to her. She could heal at such an alarming rate that bullet wounds would almost not affect her in any way. If they were annoying enough to her, one sword is all that it would take to silence them.
But she ignored that, flew over the area of the Cauldron, took a look down, and then readied herself.
"Everything... Disappear."
Hundreds of swords rapidly emerged from the portal, and then impaled the Cauldron below.
The impact of all those swords into the Cauldron caused the entire place to shake, and trigger the alarms. All the noise, which now included the screams of everyone in the vicinity, fell deaf on her ears.
Strangely, though, Nu felt a bit of her strength leave her. She thought it had to be the dreaded familiarity of this place and how much of a toll it took on her for all these years.
Ragna was waiting for her, though, and she did do her job. There was no point in lingering any longer in the area.
She turned around and flew for the exit. Nu looked down to see the people running away looking like ants from how high she was. However, she managed to spot someone escorting people to the stairs that was next to the elevator shaft as she descended to go up the elevator shaft.
Nu didn't know why this man even caught her attention, but once she landed a few feet from the man who was escorting people to the stairway next to the elevator shaft, Nu suddenly had a full memory recall of him.
Immediately, her mind drifted to the past, the past where she was helpless and couldn't move. She remembered everything. Nu remembered all the executions he pulled on her, all the experimenting, all the derogatory laughing, and all the times he said the line, "Terminate the experiment" to her. This man was directly responsible.
Slowly, with her right hand, Nu took off her battle visor. There were a lot of things she wanted to say to the man as she was overcome with great negativity from seeing the man who was directly responsible for all the hell she'd been through. All she could manage was, "...YOU..."
That managed to catch the attention of the scientist. He turned from where he was facing the stairway to see Nu. Immediately, his forehead began to sweat. The practically living weapon that he experimented on all these years relentlessly was standing right in front of him. Nu did not look happy at the very least, but that was a huge understatement.
Her left eye had that emotionless look, filled with killing intent. The man was on survival mode. He desperately tried to go up the stairs since the elevator shaft was broken, but he found himself running in place. He looked down and immediately recognised the Gravity Seed pinning him down where he was.
The scientist looked up, and he suddenly saw Nu right in front of him with her left eye looking dark red and voided of any emotion. He wanted to scream, but nothing ever came out of his mouth.
"Is that any way to greet an old friend?" Nu asked with a low tone.
"G-Get away from me!" The scientist took out a pistol and fired at Nu's face.
Nu didn't even flinch as the bullet merely bounced off her Grimoire eye patch, "That's something you didn't even give me a chance to do," She started to circle around the scientist pinned by the Gravity Seed, knees shaking, absolutely terrified.
One by one, she positions her swords around him, "I want to relive old times with you, except I'll be the one who'll be doing the operations. It's ironic how fate can be, can't it?"
"L-Look," The scientist said practically shaking at the sight of those swords almost ready to stab him, "I-I was only f-following orders. I-I was only doing that! You shouldn't be targeting me! Target the one who ordered me to do it! H-Have mercy, just let me go!"
Nu gasped at his request for mercy with exaggeration and sarcasm. She thought back again, about how much she mentally but not physically wished for it. If she didn't have a chance to have mercy, why should he have his chance, she thought. However, she made an idea to fulfill both the scientist's wishes, and her own.
As she finished positioning the last sword, she said to him, "Fine. I will give you the mercy you never gave me. I will give you the freedom to scream."
Then, like a puppeteer, she made the swords spin around the terrified scientist. With an unblinking stare, Nu commanded the swords to stop encircling the scientist, and then proceeded with her experiment.
Ragna and Bullet had finished off the reinforcements that tried to come their way. They weren't even out of breath for it was that easy for them.
Bullet took a moment to take in the after-silence of the battle and how deafening it was while she was looking around. "Looks like there won't be any more coming our way," She said in a calm tone as she turned around to face Ragna. She saw him having his arms crossed looking unsettled and impatient. "What now?"
Ragna glanced over at the jarred-opened elevator shaft as he said, "Something's not right. It was a simple task for her. She should have been back by now." "Unless, maybe that bastard..."
Bullet rested her right hand on her right side as she blinked once at Ragna, "Then you want us to go down there and check on her?"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"
The sound of that scream made Bullet flinch slightly. "Who in the hell? Who could be screaming that loud for us to hear it up here?"
Not wanting to waste time wondering, Ragna decided to take matters into his own hands. "Bullet, you take point here. I'll go and see what kind of shit is going down." He didn't wait for a reply from Bullet as he was already on his way down the elevator shaft by jumping down the hole made by Nu, previously.
Her work was done. The man was literally in pieces, laid out in a bloodied mess in a large pool of blood. The pool of blood even had a few of the man's vital organs in plain sight. Nu took a moment to observe her "artwork" she made out of her own operation.
Even though she made him as dead as he could possibly be, she was not satisfied. She wanted more. She could not kill him enough times for the torture that he has done unto her. She started to fantasise about what other creative ways she could kill this man.
Her first thought was slamming the man down on pavement full of shrapnel gravel. It wasn't on his neck for a quick and painless death, but instead impaling, crippling, and shattering his legs. Then, for about a minute, she dragged him through the sharp rocks on the ground. It then went on to her absolutely wailing on him with hammering stabs to his face as she screamed to have her vengeance. Then, finally, she exploded his head using a sledgehammer to slam it with.
This thought made her grin. Then, what started off as an insidious giggle...
"Heh...hee-hee-hee..."
...turned into a maniacal cackle.
"HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA! AH, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The insanity, she loved it. She wanted to carry on with this. She wanted to do it all over again.
"NU!" A very familiar gruff voice called out to her.
The moment she processed that voice through her brain, her insanity stopped almost instantly. Not even two seconds later, her insanity she had previously was replaced by overwhelming fear.
She remembered...
"You are not a killing machine anymore, and ALSO, we don't have time to be screwing around. If you have to push someone aside, do it, but nobody inside the NOL is your objective. Only the Cauldron is."
Nu didn't want to look, but she slowly turned her head to look at the entrance to the elevator shaft and saw the man she loved dearly standing there, staring straight at her. Her mind was racing once more, in a pure panic. She violated her objective that Ragna specifically told her. She killed someone unnecessarily; she was told not to do that.
"N-No... No! I...I...I can't let him know the truth! He's...he's going to... NO!"
Very frantically as Ragna slowly stepped towards Nu and the gory mess she made, the pale figure stepped in front of the carnage in a desperate attempt to block his view of it.
Ragna was unfazed. He continued walking in her direction, with a very serious look on his eyes which only intensified the fear inside Nu. "Nu, tell me the truth. What the hell happened here that took you so long?"
Nu was quivering. She could barely keep herself standing. She could not look away from Ragna. "I-I-It's n-nothing! Really! It is! It's not like... Nu found him this way! It wasn't her fault! Nope!"
Ragna was in point-blank range of Nu as he stopped advancing. He gently put his hands on both of the pale girl's shoulders as he slowly pushed her to the side to see what she was hiding. Nu was light as a feather to push away. She couldn't put up any sort of resistance to him.
The criminal was slightly astonished by the unusual meticulous way this human corpse was laid. It was almost as if the killer took their time to really make sure that the blood was really spilt with their body parts scattered all over. "Nu...?" He was almost afraid to ask, "Nu, tell me what happened here." Ragna tried to be as tender as he could, "...Did you do this?"
A single teardrop fell from Nu's left eye. "I...I..." A second of silence before... "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AUUUUUUUUUUGGGHHH! GUWAAAAAAAHH!"
Ragna had to take two steps back while covering his ears, "Ah! Shit! What the hell's going on here?! Seriously!"
Nu was uncontrollably sobbing while feeling the world around her spin. Nausea overtook her. "Don't be mad at me! Please! This man! I did it! But...this man he! He did terrible things to me! He killed me over and over again! He...he... WAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
After hearing Nu unable to talk through her uncontrollable bawling, Ragna took a moment to think about it. Through his own experience and the context with what Nu was saying, he could figure it out within a minute. "I see... So like with Terumi to me, this man... Ah... So she decided to... I see, now..."
Nu crawled on the ground and then grabbed Ragna's left shoe. "PLEASE! I'M SORRY! I'M SO SORRY! I'M REALLY, REALLY SO SORRY! PLEASE! DON'T LEAVE ME! PLEASE! YOU'RE MY ONLY COMFORT FROM THIS WORLD! PLEASE DON'T LEAVE NU AGAIN! PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE!"
Ragna clenched his teeth and his fists for a moment. A girl literally begging on her knees to not leave him and apologising so profusely; this was uncharted territory for him. He wasn't good at stuff like this, never was. But he could feel the vibe of emotion from her begging, and so he did what he thought was right.
He went on the ground, to about Nu's height, and then clutched her tenderly in his arms as he sat down with his legs crossed. "Just...calm down... You're...scaring me..." He felt his voice breaking a few times as he said that.
Ragna really had no idea what to say to this girl to calm her down. It felt like nothing he could say would make her mentally stable again. Ragna almost wished that Rachel would just appear and make everything okay again. The only reason why he couldn't cry along with her out of sympathy is because she's doing all the crying for the both of them.
With one hand, Ragna gently caresses her back to comfort the pale, thin girl as he said out of instinct, "Nu, I'm not going anywhere. Just calm down. I'm not mad. Just, please calm down. Everything's going to be okay, Nu... I promise."
"Uh...huh..." Nu could only manage through her sobs.
As Ragna let Nu take her time to recollect herself, he took a moment to realise how he was feeling. Strangely, he found himself agreeing with Nu for what she did to the man, almost proud, even. This made him ponder if she's really fit to be with Ragna. It wasn't even his doing; it was Rachel's idea. After something like this that happened while under his watch, Ragna didn't know what was right or wrong anymore when it came to Nu.
He understood. He truly understood what it's like to want to spill out all the rage, all the sadness, and all the devastation you were feeling onto the person directly responsible for that. Ragna knew they were in a hurry, and he also knew that he gave her specific orders to not kill anyone. Ragna also knew that scolding her for taking a side-trip was perhaps the right thing to do, but why did it feel righter to agree with what Nu must have felt when she wanted to take her revenge, as well as what she did?
Ragna didn't understand it. He just felt depressed thinking about it. He was never much of a thinker, he preferred action.
Not wanting to think about it anymore, he slowly stood up from the ground, gently carrying the pale girl in his arms. "Nu, we need to get out of here. You don't have to do anything. Just be quiet as we head back to camp, okay?"
Nu only nodded as her sobs were now mere whimpers like you'd hear from a helpless dog.
Thanks to his familiarity with the Cathedral's layout due to almost all of them being built identically, he was able to quickly take a staircase back up to the main level. As he made his way to the exit, he noticed Bullet running up to him. He ignored her and just continued to walk.
"Ragna? Ragna, what the hell happened down there? Why did I hear crying? Also, why is she in your arms like that? Did she get her ass kicked?" Bullet bombarded Ragna with these questions one right after the other.
Ragna simply continued walking as he only said lowly, "Just shut up and get out. I'm not wasting any more time here."
It took about an hour but Ragna and Bullet managed to retreat with an emotionally distressed Nu in Ragna's arms and make camp on the outskirts of the city.
Ragna was sitting on a large-sized log that's by the campfire, looking at it while still holding Nu, who was barely awake in his arms. It seemed like she finally stopped crying, and is now merely just looking blankly up at Ragna.
Ragna looked down at her curious eyes as he said, "You can sleep on me for tonight, okay, Nu? I promise I won't leave."
The pale figure simply nodded as she quickly drifted off into slumber, snoring softly and rather innocently.
Ragna let out a heavy sigh, full of relief and bittersweet. He thought that Nu just might have to be incarcerated in Rachel's care again.
"Ragna, are you sure there's nothing you want to talk about with me?" Ragna heard Bullet say behind him.
Ragna took a moment but he did finally answer after about a minute, "We'll be okay, Bullet. Just go to sleep."
The mercenary sighed as she went into her tent silently.
Ragna sat there for about a full half-hour quiet and still, just alone in his thoughts once again. He thought back to when he himself was just thinking about killing anything in his path with no remorse for anybody who met their end because of him. He slightly clenched his teeth from recalling this. Considering how much he's matured since then, he almost couldn't believe that was him back then.
Suddenly, the smell of roses filled the air. Ragna got a sense of relief just to feel her presence around him. She couldn't have more impeccable timing, and he never wanted her company more than he did.
Rachel was standing elegantly on the opposite side from where he was sitting near the campfire.
"Gracious, Ragna. You look like you've seen a ghost," She quipped.
Ragna sighed as he looked down at Nu's sleeping face before looking up at Rachel once more as he said with much difficulty, "Rachel... I think that... I think that I'm screwed up somewhere..."
Rachel's eyebrows rose as her gaze widened, "What's this? This is a much different display from the barking dog I'm used to seeing. What could possibly be such a matter that the dog is now unusually tamed and humble?"
Ragna softly growled at Rachel's flow of words as he said without much venom in his voice, "Just stop that, Rachel... I really don't have the time to be listening to your poetic bullshit."
"Oh come now, Ragna. I thought you could use some cheering up." Rachel smirked for a few seconds before turning serious again, "...In all honesty, it's not like you to admit a character flaw within yourself. What prompted this?"
Ragna wasn't really sure on how to break the news to Rachel. What was he supposed to do? Tell her that he was okay with Nu slicing and dissecting the life out of someone who was responsible for her torture? ...Perhaps maybe that was the only answer to his question. After taking a deep breath, he came clean to her. She listened to Ragna's tale with her eyes closed and the occasional nod of acknowledgement.
"...And that's it. That's all that I have to say about it..." Ragna said with weariness in his voice.
"...I see..." Rachel said as she opened her eyes.
Ragna looked down at the pale girl sleeping as he said, "...I really didn't see what was wrong with what she done despite my orders for her not to kill anybody that wasn't in her way. That man abused, tortured, and killed her several times. ...I thought it was only fair that what goes around comes around. If I were the one in her place, though... I may have done worse. Hell, I think I did do worse before... It was back when hatred and revenge were the only two things on my mind."
Ragna waited for a response from Rachel, but as he glanced up at her, she raised a single eyebrow at him, urging him to continue.
Ragna continued to talk but he couldn't look Rachel in the eye, "...I don't think I can handle this, Rachel. Sounds not like me to say something like that, but I AM saying it now. I don't think I have it in me to be a good influence to her. It's scary to think that she could revert to that crazy-whore killing machine she was before you worked your magic. I just don't want her to be used to kill or have killing as her sole purpose in life. I want her to actually be human. ...I just want better for her...you know what I'm saying?"
Rachel looked up at the moon that was partially blocked out by the clouds hanging overhead, "You have nothing to worry about."
"What? What do you mean, Rachel?" Ragna grunted at her.
Rachel averted her gaze to the moon to his glare, "Exactly what I said. You didn't have anything to worry about. She is still as fine as I made her to be. Do you not trust my work?"
Ragna shook his head a few times, "What could you possibly mean by that?! She murdered the shit out of him! It's something that she used to do for all her life before you gave her a second chance! Why would it be fine now to do something like that?!"
"Anger is also a part of being human, Ragna. I think you forgot that," Rachel said calmly to him as she toyed with him by waddling a finger at him, "You were right about one thing. Nu was overboard with her lust to kill that man, but you're still stuck in the past when it comes to her, which brings me back to my previous question: Do you not trust my work?"
Ragna just shook his head, urging the vampire to continue.
Rachel softly scoffed at him before continuing, "Tell me. When you found her there, what did she do?"
Ragna shuddered as he looked back at the slumbering pale figure in his arms, "She basically...freaked out and begged me to not leave her, not that I was planning on it..."
"Exactly," Rachel huffed, "She must have realised the consequences of her actions too late, which is normal for people under a rage. However, she fears more than anything being separated from you again for any reason imaginable. She showed actual remorse for disobeying your orders and killing meticulously on a person that she could have easily ignored. That's what ultimately makes this different than before."
Ragna spat at the ground near the campfire, "I still don't understand what you mean, rabbit, not that I ever do the first time..."
"He's actually right about that. For once, I pity him." Rachel cleared her throat after that mental note to herself, "Before my work was done unto the girl, she used to simply be insane. She wanted nothing more than to just kill everything around her and the world along with it that damned her many times over. I'm sure she told you something like this before..."
Ragna knew what she was talking about. The words Nu said to him as they spent a night in bed together.
"...So I...I tried returning the favour...by trying to be just as violent as you were those two times when we met again for the third time, but you beat me so easy... Like, was I not enough for you? Was I not violent enough? Violence was our love. The world has been cruel to both of us, so we should become one and tear everything up."
Ragna nodded, "Yeah...I guess... Like how being in love was just pure violence or some kind of screwed up shit like that..."
"You may or may not have this connection, already, but to her, that man was like how Yuuki Terumi is to you," Rachel said as her look turned stern.
All it took was one mention of his name to be angry, "What?"
"See? You are now angry at a mere mention of his name," Rachel smirked at him, "He single-handedly ruined your life and took your sister away from you. There's nothing more that you want in the world than to kill him, right?"
With Ragna's free hand that wasn't holding Nu, he clenched it into a fist as tight as he could, "Yes. For the living hell he put me through, I can't die until that son of a bitch goes down in a heap to my blade." Then, Ragna got it. "Oh. So that's why I felt like I could relate to her when I found everything out..."
Rachel nodded, "Excellent. It wasn't a blind rage she was feeling, but rather a righteous fury. Despite the two dealing with anger, it is completely different. That person who has tortured her and made her almost permanently discombobulated mentally, it was personal to her. She could do nothing at the time, and with a golden opportunity in her hands, how could she not take advantage? If you had the power to kill Terumi right now, wouldn't you take advantage as well?"
"Without a doubt," Ragna said without hesitation.
"Yes," Rachel paused before feeling one of her pigtails, "You have every right to want justice against the people who have hurt you very much. However, like with every emotion, there is an unwritten boundary you must discover. Like with time management, you should know when it is the right to indulge in such behaviour. These right times are...very rare, so to speak. It's also important that you know how far you should take your fury onto your target. Yes, even on disgusting filth like Terumi..."
Ragna growled lowly at that. However, because it was Rachel, he had to begrudgingly take those words into account.
"However, this is the most important factor for anyone trying to live a life as a human being:" She puts up an index finger on her right hand and puts it on eye-level to Ragna, "It's part of what makes you human." Upon hearing that, Ragna immediately ceases seething. Rachel continued, "Anger is a normal emotion to feel just like any other that a human can feel, and it is a product of adrenaline. Its boundaries and human value are no different than any other such as happiness, sorrow, elation, and disappointment. You would do well to keep that in mind if you truly want to live and die as a human being, Ragna..."
Ragna couldn't help but stare at Nu's slumbering body again that he was cradling in his arms and lap. He sighed deeply as he brooded over her words, "Thanks... Rachel... I think I took a lot of things out of what has happened today."
Rachel turned around and opened a portal in front of her, "Try not to dwell upon it too much. Nobody will care if you are stuck feeling sorry for yourself." She paused and sighed, "Take care, Ragna, and for my sake...please continue pushing forward."
Rachel stepped forward into the portal and then the portal closes itself, leaving nothing but air in the place of where the vampire used to stand.
The criminal stood up from the log with Nu still in his arms, as he goes to a nearby tree trunk and slumps himself on his back against it while still securely holding Nu in his arms. He sat her in the space between his legs as he tries to drift off to sleep.
"...Ragna?" Nu's voice called out to him.
Ragna sighed, "You heard everything, didn't you?" He should have known that Nu would fake-sleep.
"Y-Yeah... Nu did..."
Ragna took a look at the top of Nu's head. Then, he tenderly stroked it to comfort her, "...Damn it...this whole thing just...freaking sucks..."
Nu softly nodded her head, "I know, but...on the bright side, we seem to have a lot of things in common than we did before, Ragna..."
"Y-Yeah..." Ragna wasn't sure if that was bad or good. He hadn't been too sure of anything ever since he saw what Nu did despite him ordering her and the talk he had with Rachel about the difference between blind rage and righteous fury.
"It's just not fair, Ragna!" Nu blurted out at him, which slightly startled Ragna, "I wish we had other things in common than having one person who ruined our lives, blind rage that we both had, and a struggle to even live our lives! It just doesn't seem fair! What did we do to deserve all this!?"
Ragna clutched Nu slightly tighter, "...Nu... I really just don't know much of anything, anymore. Being human is one of the hardest things that I'll ever accomplish in my life aside from killing that bastard. Nu...you hated that man for everything he did to you, didn't you?"
Nu hesitated for a moment, but then answered, "Yes... I did. I only feel sorry that I disobeyed you, Ragna, not for killing that man. That kooky creep got what was coming to him."
Ragna swallowed his saliva, "Nu... I think I have to say 'thank you' to you for what you done today."
"Wh-What?" Nu turned herself around to look up at Ragna with purely curious eyes, "W-Why?!"
Ragna closed his eyes for a moment before opening them, "...I thought that I got past it...the hatred that I feel... It's not going away so easy... I don't want to go back to it, not now..."
Just then, Ragna felt a cold touch on both of his hands. He looked down at them to see that Nu was holding his hands close to her face.
"Ragna..." Nu slowly started, "...even if you still have hatred inside of you...know that you will always at least have me to remain at your side and calm you down from your own darkness."
Ragna stared at his own hands that the pale girl was innocently holding for a moment, and then managed a faint smile, "Thanks..."
"You know...call this crazy, but..."
"Yeah?"
Nu turned back around to lay the back of her head against Ragna's chest. "I think that Rachel knew something like this would happen."
"What? What do you mean, by that?" Ragna didn't expect something like this to come out of the pale girl.
"Just think about it. If Rachel didn't ask Nu to look after you, you wouldn't have been able to learn more about yourself and more about being human thanks to what I did."
Ragna wasn't sure on how to respond to that. Who knows what's going on through that gothic girl's head?
"Mmm..." Nu started, "...By the way, don't you wish you could hold her here instead of me?" She asked in a flirtatious tone.
Ragna wasn't going to bother with her anymore. He needs sleep for yet another long day tomorrow.
Author's Note: This Fanfiction was part of a heavily discussed idea by DarkOneBloodedge. This is a slight deviation from the original idea, but we constantly kept in touch to keep within the context of both the canon and the idea. Throughout the writing, DarkOne said that the writing was good and, now I present the finished test product of part of the idea.
Special thanks goes to DarkOneBloodedge.