Envoy of the Beginning

Disclaimer: I do not own Elfen Lied or any of the characters associated with it.

"talking"

Thoughts

Prologue: It has been eighty years since the time of the diclonius incident when the world learned of the presence of this new human species. With the coming years, much discord followed as neither side were able to find peace. Humans who hated diclonius for their powers. Diclonius who hated humans for their prejudice. Slowly the world was on the dawn of war.

But even in this dreary world, there still exist one small glimmer light. But does this light come to save or to destroy? Only the right choices made can say what will happen.

Fortitude

~ Kamakura ~

"Another morning . . . . Another day . . . ." thought a young boy of seven years. Ruffling his spiked black hair, his hand smoothed along his head till he felt two lumps. Rubbing the appendages, they were solid bone that protruded from his head in the form of horns. Sighing, the youth jumped out of bed going to the bathroom to clean up for the morning.

Looking himself over in the mirror, the young boy saw his reflection looking back at him with amethyst colored eyes and light skin. Dragging his feet, he looked out the window to see the absolute wreck and destitution that was his home and neighborhood. But more accurately, the area was practically like a ghetto as all the houses around were pretty much slapped together junk. It was a rather unpleasant sight, "but that's life" he then thought.

"Kohta! It's breakfast! Come and eat niisan!"

Giving another yawn, the youth smiled wearily to his little sister. "Thank you Karin. I'll be out shortly". Going out for breakfast, he greeted his family. To his eyes, they seemed pretty ordinary. A strict understanding father, a loving caring mother, and a bit of a twerp of a little sister. But as a family of psychics, things were a bit different.

His father was a powerful diclonius. When it came to providing for them, he always made sure they were all well taken care of with food on the table, cloths on their backs, and a roof over their head. But due to the excessive prejudice in the world his dad didn't have a job. But he was usually gone for the day as he was around in the community helping other diclonius with much needed help.

His mother was rather unique in a way. Although she was a diclonius, she had no horns or vectors to speak of but had a certain degree of telepathy. She was just a carrier of the 'virus' as she could easily pass off as a 'normal' by human standards. But choosing between living with humans or diclonius, she felt more at home amongst psychics.

Then there was his sister Karin. As most little sister's were concerned, she was adorable and bratty in a certain way. Looking at her horns, they were oriented more to the side of her head while his were more focused to the front. He didn't understand why there was a difference in their horns, but he figured it was more or less a gender thing with some of the kids he saw around.

Finishing his breakfast, Kohta got up to leave to go do what he did everyday.

"Be careful" said Kohta's father.

"If you are stopped by patrol men, you know what you have to do" said Kohta's mother.

"I understand. I'll be going now". Strapping on a satchel, Kohta departed as he came into full view of where he lived. Quite honestly it was nothing much to speak of. It was pretty much a garbage heap as even basic resources such as water, gas, and electricity were lack luster at best.

For amongst them, there were two groups. There was his group which wanted to live peacefully with humans. Then there were the 'Wechsel', revolutionists who wanted better treatment. In the beginning, they did things peacefully with protests and petitions. But as time went on, human-diclonius relationships continued to degrade as violence became inevitable. Soon the Wechsel started more aggressive campaigns against anything or anyone that dared looked down on them.

Through their actions, it didn't make things easier as soon all humans generally saw diclonius as the enemy. With that as an excuse they were all rounded into quarantine communities till the time the Wechsel were dealt with.

But in retrospect not much had really changed besides where they were living now. Humans for a long time have been quietly withholding their distaste for them. With such events, it allowed them to openly vent their hate for their kind. "Nothing new really" Kohta thought offhandedly.

"Hey Koh! Do you have time to play?"

The youth looked to see some of the neighboring kids playing junk ball. Frankly they really didn't have much in terms of a 'regular' life as diclonius were pretty much treated as second class citizens. Hence they made due with what they had using their vectors to create their own amusements with make shift playgrounds and toys. Since resources were so lacking, it forced some of the older members of the community to improvise. Scavenging junk, many crude efforts were used to supplement their needs in order to provide more to their basic living standards.

"Collecting again huh? You really need to relax sometimes".

Kohta turned to see who was talking to him. "Yeah, sorry Kiri. It's just something I needed to see too".

"It's no problem" smirked the boy. "Just make sure to come back as soon as you can. We're about to have another round of junk ball and I definitely want you on my team".

"Sure when I get back" Kohta softly smiled. Kiri was a boy his age with downward spiked black hair, crimson eyes, pale skin, and horns just like him. For the longest time, his best friend was generally regarded as the cool kid around.

"Alright" said Kiri, "but do be careful".

"Just make sure not to get your butt kicked before I get back" Kohta chuckled as he was soon on his way.

Making his way through the community, he arrived at a check point area where several armed men were waiting. Looking them over, this was essentially standard life. These men were military police here to restrict and control their movements. For the most part, they were only ever allowed to go to areas with very little human population. Hence the city was pretty much off limits as well as any place that might seem 'suspicious' for them to go too.

As for their weapons, military technology had significantly evolved in the last eight decades specifically to fight dicloniuses. Synthetic-osmium bullets, Rail guns, super compact vector cancelers, these were just the tip of it. Kohta then looked behind the men to see a twelve foot mech suit. Honestly he would think it was cool if it wasn't designed for the specific reason of killing him. But that's how afraid these humans were which was well founded in how easily they could be killed by them.

Moving up to the check point, "name and purpose?" asked the guard.

"Kohta" the youth answered solemnly. "I'm just going to the junk yard as usual".

"The garbage heap huh? Just remember to stay within the limits as you will be watched at all times. If you do cross the limit line you will be shot and killed. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir I do" Kohta nodded answering apathetically.

Passing through the check point, he made his way towards the mountain of trash most people would generally take for granted.

"Kohta . . . ." as the youth thought about his name. It was not really the name his parents chose for him, but rather his grandmother. "Hmm . . . . I wonder what granny Yuki is doing these days . . . ." However he has never met her in person as she always communicated through telepathy. Though concerning his name, she once told him it belonged to a kind and strong man. By giving it to him, it was in hopes that he would grow up to be that kind of person. "Not that I understand how a name is supposed to matter . . . ."

But moving to another line of thought, his parents always told him something better will always come along. Truthfully he never understood what better was supposed to mean.

It had been five years since they were quarantined as most of the children in the camp were just babies when they were sent away and those younger were directly born into it. Thus they never knew what a normal life was supposed to be like. But in terms of education, they got all they needed from the telepathic network which functioned more or less as a kind of internet for them.

Sharing knowledge psychically from the older generation cut down on the learning curve as most kids his age already understood the basics of math, science, reading, and culture in general. As most of them would modestly put it, there intellect was equivalent to a graduated high schooler.

But concerning his trip to the junk yard, since resources were scarce in the community some kids were usually asked to help out. So being linked to the network, some of them specialized in particular skills that were required. Working in a hive mind fashion within their groups, they shared their knowledge and skills to get done what needed to be done.

Sorting through the garbage, Kohta picked apart broken machines that were discarded to salvage them for parts. For the specialty he chose was engineering as some machines were needed to make daily living a bit more tolerable. Ripping apart everything he thought useful with his vectors, he took what he could physically carry back as he didn't care to be stopped by the military police to be questioned about what he was doing with some of his loot.

As Kohta continued to work, "now what do we have here?" asked a patrol men along with his partner. "Looks like we have a little critter scurrying around in the trash".

"Definitely looks like it. What's a little maggots like you doing around here?"

"Well I" Kohta started before being pistol whipped on the jaw. Being caught by surprise, he fell to the ground as he held his face to where he was hit.

"Who said an animal can talk?!" Without anything further, the two patrol men began to beat the boy kicking him as hard as they could. Laughing in sadistic pleasure, they continued to hurt him as his blood splattered onto their boots. But after a while they got bored of it. "Shit, we didn't go to far did we?"

"Nah he's breathing, just leave him be" as they then walked away.

Coughing out almost on the brink of tears, " . . . . Hurts" was all Kohta could get out. He was suffering from lacerations, several bone fractures, and a very good possibility of internal bleeding. Withering in pain, in a couple more minutes he could very well be dead. But focusing his mind, he started the mending process. Stimulating his EC cells, he started to flood his body with serotonin numbing down his pain receptors. Then working from the inside out from the most critical areas, he held the internal bleeding back while repairing his bruised and punctured organs. Then resetting his bones, all that was left was suturing the skin. After a moment he sat back up as if nothing ever happened.

Sitting there his expression was blank, ". . . . I think that's the seventh time this month that happened".

It's wasn't anything new of the military police roughing them up. There was little point in reporting it as their superiors didn't really care much for them. Although it bothered the diclonius that this was happening, so long as it never went further then that they chose to endure it as they could easily heal themselves right up. But more so they didn't want to cause any trouble with retaliating. However women were specifically instructed never to go out unless paired in groups as inhumane military police were especially more sadistic to female diclonius. Hence safety in numbers.

Since doctors hardly ever visited them out of fear or distaste it was usually up to them to deal with their own sickly and injured. So they had to further develop their own healing methods as well as cultivating their own medicine as vectors could only do so much.

Sitting there for a while making certain his body was ready to move, Kohta got up dusting himself off as he sighed somewhat. He felt rather irritated and annoyed about how crummy everything was. However there was not much that could happen as most humans didn't care and the Wechsels wasn't helping there case much. Thinking about it, he wasn't sure who he should be angry at as this was all a big mess to begin with. But giving another sigh, he went on his way.

Returning back to the community crossing through the checkpoint, he made his way towards the 'machine shop' if you could call it that where he would drop off his loot. But on his way there he stopped by a shrine as quite a number a people were gathered around appearing to be praying to it. At it's center was a bronze colored statue of a diclonius woman. Standing before it, "so this is supposed to be our savior?"

He wasn't sure when it started, but this woman was hailed as the savior of the diclonius race. To his knowledge she was the first and most powerful amongst their kind. As time passed, she was worshiped as a kind of saint or deity as stories were told of her ability of healing the sick and punishing the wicked.

Frankly Kohta never really cared much for these kinds of rituals as he was more pragmatic and logical in his approach to the world. As he saw it, they were all they had on this Earth and that had to be enough. But sorting through all the facts and fiction, he was certain that she was real at least at one point in time. Probably before he was even born at the very start of his species. But for everything else, that was up to people in what they wanted to believe.

Taking one last look to the statues face, no one seemed to know what her name was. After a few upheavals in society, records tended to get lost in the chaos. One of those things was her name. But if anything, she was usually referred to endearingly as 'the light'. Other then that, no one knew anything about her aside her face and a few things she did in life.

But that's as far as he cared to dwell on it.

"Hey! Come on!" called Kiri who ran up to him. "I need a good partner to play junk ball with. Are you done yet?"

"Just dropping off the stuff now. The diesel generator they gave us is going to fail soon. Not that it was supplying much electricity anyways".

"Ahh, you've got all the parts then? This will be exciting. If we got the blue prints right our science project is going to do something really cool. I really want to put it through it's test run".

"Alright" Kohta excitedly smiled. "Let's see if this thing works".

Going to the machine shop, a few adults were present along with some teens and a few kids their age. A lot could be achieved when combining the experience of an adult with the imagination of a child. When the disciplines of physics, mathematics, and engineering were coupled within the telepathic network anything was possible.

Depositing the loot, everyone was connected telepathically communicating instantly within their thoughts concerning ideas or objectives. Having all the parts they needed, they got to work in building.

"The math should be right".

"Even if it's a prototype, it's potential yield will certainly supply more electricity where it's needed".

"I really hope this goes well".

Working like a well oiled machine, some worked by hand as others used their vectors to assemble the smaller and more delicate parts. As pieces were being completed, they were telekinetically placed together as the children understanding the design worked in sync as the machine was being assembled from the inside out. As the components were coming together, Kohta and Kiri were charged with finishing the central core that would make this machine work.

"Alright Kohta we only got one shot at this. Let's make this count".

"Same goes to you Kiri. This has to be timed down to the micro-second".

Since they didn't have the equipment to smelt or forge, it required the diclonius to be more creative when it came to synthesizing things they needed. Understanding the principle of vectors which could vibrate at ultrasonic frequency, the boys had everything handled.

So taking their base metal, Kohta psychically contained it in a high pressurized sphere as Kiri began to destabilize it's molecular structure reducing it to a liquid state. Concentrating to maintain it, the boys quickly got to work. Coordinating their efforts, other kids helped out too with their vectors as this item had to be extremely dense. After a few minutes of synthesizing, it was completed as they squeezed the central piece into a super compressed sphere. For a moment, the sphere was red hot as it still glowed brightly. But within seconds, the vectors that held it stopped it's vibration steadily cooling it down till it was solid and in room temperature.

With almost perfect timing, the machine was ready.

"Everything is looking good. We just need the last piece".

Placing the sphere into the machine, it dropped right into the center before stopping as it held steady in perfect axis to the middle. With things looking good so far, one of the children pushed the sphere as it begun to spin around the central column. Steadily it began to spin faster and faster till it was no longer in sight anymore. It was then that the central column lit up with blue light as it's surrounding parts began to rotate around it.

For every second that passed, the diclonius were holding their breath hoping that this would work. After a while, everything seemed stable as they went to diagnostics.

"Magnetic containment holding steady".

"Energy output is within projected ranges".

"Looks like the perpetual motion engine is working just fine".

With a flip of a switch, their new power source was connected to the rest of the community as lights all around the area grew brighter in intensity.

Upon their success, they all cheered giving high fives, hugs, and laughter.

"We did it Koh!" Kiri exclaimed patting his friend on the back. "It works!"

"Yeah" Kohta cheerfully smiled.

Looking into everything he knew to be true, life wasn't great as it was filled with hardships and many misfortunes. Being a diclonius, everyday was battle as each moment was a fight for survival. Although humans hated them it didn't matter. As psychics connected to each other, they were a community. No, it was much more then that as they were family. Food, shelter, safety, they looked out for each other. Even if they didn't have a lot themselves, despair was something they would never allow to hurt them.

Although their lives sucked, it didn't stop them from taking what bits of enjoyment they could from their lives.

Smiling widely, "yeah that will do" Kohta thought privately at what they were able to achieve.

To be continued . . . .

Author's notes: Somewhat of a sequel to the Butterfly Effect. I did originally write another story with this name. However I learned that I had to do a lot of backtracking for context reasons. That would have gotten rather cumbersome really fast.

So here is the reboot starting at the beginning of Kohta and Kaede great granchilds life. He's going to have one hell of a trip if everything goes to plan.

Now for a bit of commentary, think of the telelpathic network just like the internet. Connecting to each other psychically, they are able to download knowledge and experience from each other in whatever they need to know. Kind of like in the Matrix when Neo looked to Morpheus saying he knew Kung Fu lol. However this will be an important point through out the story with how fast the diclonius will become a bigger and bigger threat to humans as the story goes.

As a bit of a warning, this story will get darker as it goes challenging the characters ethical stand point and moral compass when it comes to growing up in a world that hates his kind. But it will have it bright points as there is always a silver lining somwhere.

So thanks for reading and please review if you can.