I always wanted to do a Nemu-centric fic....I don't think she gets enough attention. It seems that whenever I plan a oneshot, the finished product is a lot lamer than it sounded in my head -_-;
R&R please, and enjoy :)
Red.
Red is splattered on the field, singeing the grass brown.
Bodies are twisted, mutilated, to the point that they are no longer recognizable.
It is heavy with the stench of death.
In the center of the slaughter, stands a single female figure, dark hair plaited behind her.
Her face shows no distress, even though her father lies in front of her.
Instead, it is perplexed.
She is wondering why he is not getting up.
Why he, the invincible one, the man able to replace his innards with fakes in one hour and still win a battle, is not breathing.
Why his presence is getting fainter.
She wonders what he meant when he told her to "live". It didn't sound as condescending as the other orders he gave her.
She had nodded and then waited for him to get up, beat her, tell her to make herself useful, start healing himself, plot some other scheme, something.
He didn't.
She frowned. Obviously, it had been an order, meant to be obeyed.
But for once in her life, she did not know how to carry it out.
How does one live?
Wasn't she already living? Hadn't he already given her life, decades ago, when he placed his DNA in a gigai?
She had timidly asked him this. He had glared back at her (it wasn't as harsh as it usually was--but then again, he had been seriously damaged) and told her to "move on".
And then--just like that--he was gone.
Leaving his daughter staring at an empty shell, watching as it disintegrated into glowing dust particles.
Leaving her artificial mind buzzing with unanswered questions.
She knew he was gone. The man who had created her was...gone.
She had always, always obeyed his orders without question, endured his abuse and taunts, simply because she was in debt to him, and now that he wasn't there...
She might as well carry out the order. She looked through her memory, of the stories her fellow Shinigami Women's Assocation members told after they came back from the real world. They had said quite a bit about how happy the place seemed...they brought back pictures of people, laughing and smiling as if sharing some hidden joke.
Smiling.
It seems to be something that all humans and shinigami do, all but she. Nemu knows that she has never smiled before. It's just one of those things she never learned how to do (of course, she had witnessed her father do it several times, but it was not in her place to share in his pleasure), so how would she start?
She hesitates, then gingerly moves a muscle. A timid half-smile forms on her face. She does it again, a more confident grin splitting her face.
This, she thinks, is this what it is to live?
She decides that she likes it.
So she smiles again, tries a laugh. She straightens her back once more and spreads out her arms, spinning around gently (after all, there is no one to see her), and makes her way off to wherever she might go.
For the first time, genuine happiness is on her features.
As she leaves, a cleansing rain begins to fall.