Hey there! I'm .g and this is my first fanfiction, so go easy on me xD I've always written fanfics based on animes or books and movies but I always ended up with one out of two outcomes. Either I finished the piece and never got around to publishing it or I started writing a piece and wasn't inspired enough to finish it. This is the first time an anime has given me so much inspiration and room for continuation, especially since we're still holding hope for a second season. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'll try and post the next chapter as soon as possible. Please leave a comment or rating and let me know if you think there are any grammatical errors, I'll take any constructive criticism. :)
DISCLAIMER- I do not own Death Parade or any of it's characters. All credits go to Madhouse Studios for creating such an amazing masterpiece.
"Farewell.", Decim said with a final bow towards the elevator.
Nona had to admit, she never thought her experiment would work out this well. She had certainly had her doubts as well as worries about Oculus finding out and interfering with her plans as always. However, in the end, it turned out better than she had hoped. Chiyuki and Decim-a human and an arbiter with human emotions-had struck a chord of love in a hopeless place like the Tribunal of Souls. Nona was ecstatic. This was surely going to revolutionize the art of judging humans forever.
She pondered exactly how to approach the situation at hand from behind the bar counter as Decim started back towards the main area of his floor. She had already adjusted the elevator controls hours before, knowing two things for sure: Decim would send Chiyuki to be reincarnated and that Chiyuki wasn't going anywhere as long as she held Decim's heart.
Meanwhile, Decim was on the verge of passing out. He had never experienced such a surge of emotions all at once. In fact, he hadn't experienced any emotions at all until today. He knew by now that Nona had used him as a guinea pig and implanted human emotions in his system. He had found that out a little after his breakdown with Chiyuki as Clavis told him in the elevator. Truth be told, he didn't mind that he had been an experiment. To him, it was practically a blessing. Without these new emotions he was sure he would never have found out that his judging was unfair or that he had a special connection with Chiyuki.
Chiyuki. He just couldn't get her out of his mind. He wasn't sure what exactly he was feeling, but he liked it. He had started feeling it ever since Chiyuki had displayed her beautiful figure skating for him in Quindecim. He had felt the sudden urge to be by her side at all costs. He felt as if she were the center of everything he did. He felt...alive, as though he were truly human. These emotions, mixed with the terrible pain he came to learn as sorrow, suddenly became familiar to him. And before long he realized that this was what the souls he judged were always displaying in their actions and words. This was what humans called, "love".
Decim could hardly believe it. He had finally felt what he had waited so long to even catch a glimpse of. He had finally found his reason for living. His motivation for becoming a full-fledged human. There was no doubt about it now. He had found her, and he wasn't about to let her go so easily.
Decim sure is taking his sweet time standing there. I would've thought he was going to sprint to my floor as soon as the doors closed and beg for me to bring her back, Nona wondered. She figured this was as good a time as any to make an entrance and tell Decim the wonderful news.
She suddenly popped her head up from behind the counter expecting Decim to look at her startled. Instead, she found him already walking towards the staff elevators to her floor as expected.
"Ahem!" Nona cleared her throat aloud. This caught Decim's attention and he turned in shock to see Nona standing behind the bar with her usual "I am your superior" look. Decim had no time to waste. He needed to bring Chiyuki back before her soul reached the end of the elevator ride and she was gone from his reach forever. He quickly stumbled towards Nona.
"Madam please! You need to bring back Chiyuki. I...I think I've fallen in love with her. I don't think I can function properly without her at my side. Please allow me to bring her back. I'll do anything!" Decim was surprised by the tone of his newly found voice. Chiyuki had awoken a new personality in him he never thought he had. He could hear what he could only guess was desperation in his voice as well as hope and regret. It was a fascinating thing what you could express just by voicing words. He wondered why it had taken him so long to realize it.
Chiyuki had certainly opened his mind to new perspectives. She taught him so many things about humans and how easy it was to pretend he could judge them based on the darkness he drew out of them by force. She made him realize that humans weren't as complicated as he thought they were, that they could be judged the fair way rather than the inhumane way. She was his beacon of light. He remembered this as he begged Nona for her return.
Nona was flabbergasted. She didn't think he would break this easily, let alone realize what he was feeling was love. Granted she had only read about the powerful emotion and analyzed what the top arbiters before her had gathered on it, but she never thought Decim would know what it was without any help. It made explaining everything so much easier. It was almost a miracle.
"Decim, dear, there's something you should know.", she said hesitantly. She was unsure of how to break such good news to him without giving him a heart attack on the spot. She looked straight into his newly cleared, pale blue eyes. He's practically ready to become human, she thought.
"You see, I made some calculations and read up on some past knowledge left from the head arbiters before me and finally came to a fascinating conclusion this morning." She slowly stepped out from behind the counter as Decim stared blankly towards her. "It seems that there was once a situation similar to that of yours and Chiyuki. The arbiter, whom shall remain nameless, fell in love with a human soul that had slowly regained all her memories and fallen in love with him as well. They did everything they could to stay together until the last second when she was at the brink of returning to her puppet state and losing her soul forever. It was then that the arbiter shed a single tear dedicated to her loss. That single tear, as soon as it touched the girl's face, was enough to restore her to physical form, not just as a mannequin, but as a genuine human."
Decim's eyes widened to saucers. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. A chance to make her human again? It surely must've been a dream. Then he remembered how he had sobbed his heart out to Chiyuki after her last judgement. Had she turned human without either of them noticing? She must have. However, something didn't sit right with him and he knew exactly what it was.
"I am terribly sorry, ma'am. But I was wondering if there was a way for me to join Chiyuki in the living world instead." Decim implored. "I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I kept her trapped in this realm instead of enjoying the amazing wonders of being alive. And if I'm being honest, I would like to experience those wonders with her."
Nona was taken aback. She didn't think it'd go as far as Decim actually wanting to cease his job as an arbiter. Regardless, she had grown quite fond of her unexpected creation. She wanted him to be happy. She wanted a better life for him than what was thrust upon her. It would be a difficult task to deal with a certain flower-head if and when he found out, but she would endure it. After all, she was quite used to his constant interjections by now.
"I see." she started. She then proceeded to walk with her usual light-paced gait past Decim and and towards the elevators, knowing he was most likely close behind. She stopped just one foot away from the elevator doors leading to soul reincarnation and stepped to the side.
She reached out a pale, bony finger and pushed the button to open the elevator doors. It's up to him now, she thought. He needs to be the one to decide his future. It's his final test as my creation. Whether his heart tells him to be human or stay an arbiter with emotions, I'll support him.
Decim thought she had had enough of him. He thought he was asking too much for his own good. He was about ready to tell her that just having Chiyuki by his side would suffice for him and really it would, when suddenly she opened the elevator doors that had closed what had felt like ages ago though it had perhaps only been about 5 minutes. He was confused for only 2 seconds before he realized Nona's clever and quick thinking had saved him the trouble of racing to the elevator controls. A sliver of blinding white light was emitted from the sliding doors and inside, any other person would have described a pale girl with almost fully dark hair framing her angled face that was currently sporting a grin wider than anyone had ever seen before. They would have described her wearing a black skirt with an accompanying cropped top and coat and a thin necklace to match. To Decim, however, it was like seeing his guardian angel rising from the ashes. He put a swift hand to his heart and inhaled a quick breath through clenched teeth.
"Well, my dear, I'm afraid that is something you'd have to discuss thoroughly with the woman who awoke these feelings within you."