Summary: AU: After the events transpired at the end of Elfen Lied, a new set of problems arise. Kouta is suddenly accused of a crime he didn't commit, and is sentenced to death. His punishment, he is sent to Deadman Wonderland. The question is, will he escape this nightmare alive, or will he die? Read on to find out! Reviews appreciated.

*Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or contents from Deadman Wonderland, or Elfen Lied, they belong to their respective creators.*

Kouta in Wonderland

Chapter 1: End of the Dream, Beginning of the Nightmare

... ... ...

Kouta's Dream:

A little girl with hair as white as snow, eyes red as blood, and skin just as pale, is sitting up against a tree on a hillside in Kamakura. She looks a bit forlorn and gloomy for a six-year-old. She sighs as she looked on ahead to a boy who was playing with an Ace Man action figure not too far away. She was bewildered at the sight. How could anyone be so carefree and happy?

She continued to eye the boy. She thought the boy didn't notice her. But, as soon as she thought that, the boy responded to some invisible force of some kind, and turned in her direction. The boy's eyes widened. Widened in fear? No. More like curiosity and awe. The boy continued to stare, and got closer as he did so. This made the albino girl very annoyed.

"What are you staring at?" she asked as he got closer.

"Woah!" the boy exclaimed. "Is that your real hair color?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" she furrowed her brow and turned her head to the side with a noticeable pink blush on her cheeks.

"It's just that I've never seen white hair on a kid before." The boy said.

The girl fiddled with her hair and tried to conceal her embarrassment. Her hair had always got her attention, and sometimes she was even ridiculed for her unusual appearance, but whenever someone tried to do that, she'd beat them up anyway.

"Sh-shut up! And go away!" she shouted.

The boy was confused as to why she was trying to hide from him, but he knelt down and petted the albino girl on the head.

"I didn't say I didn't like it. I think it's actually pretty cool!" he said.

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's totally cool!" the boy exaggerated and waved his arms wildly in the air. "My name's Kouta! What's your name?"

"Sh-Shiro…"

"Hey, let's be friends!"

"Okay."

Flash forward-

Kouta and Shiro are playing hide and seek out in the field and Kouta's it. Kouta turns toward the tree and counts while Shiro hides somewhere.

"…Four…three…two…one…" Kouta counted. "Ready or not, here I come!"

Kouta looks around and spots a head of white hair behind a bush. Kouta feigns ignorance and whistles while he looks around.

"Oh, Shiro! Where are you hiding?"

Kouta creeps closer to the bush, and opens it to find Shiro behind the bush. Shiro bursts out of the bush and runs toward the tree, but Kouta catches up to her, and grabs onto her arm, and pulls off the girl's arm. Kouta's eyes widened, and Shiro's eyes widened in horror. For fear that Kouta would be aghast at that, she quickly grabbed her arm back, and reattached it back. She was going to run away from Kouta, but before she could get very far, Kouta stopped her.

"Wait! Don't go!" he exclaimed, tears forming in his eyes.

Shiro stayed very still, her heart beat rapidly in her chest.

"But…my arm." She stuttered out.

"It doesn't matter! I still like you!" he confessed.

Shiro's face at this point flushed several shades of red, and for the rest of the day, they spent chatting and playing games.

Fast forward a year-

Two seven year olds sat in chairs in the hospital room where Shiro lived at. The albino girl was coloring a picture while the boy was busy tinkering with his action figure of Ace Man. The boy suddenly got out of the chair and started running around the room making random action sounds while playing with his toy. The girl placed her crayons down and pressed her fingers to her forehead. The whole day, she had been suffering from the pain of the past few experiments Sorae and Hagire conducted on her. Ever since she could remember, the scientists have been using her in some very excruciating experiments, and she may have gotten used to it, but they were, in a way, the only family members she has left.

All of a sudden, Kouta shoved his Ace Man close to her face, startling her out of her reverie. White hot pain coursed through her, and she slapped the offending object away from her, and pushed the boy down. The boy was so shocked that her friend pushed him down. All he wanted to do was to introduce her to Ace Man, and get her to laugh at him like she always did. But, there was none of the usual glee today. She had been quiet the whole time, and didn't even stop to look at him for a second.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

Shiro didn't seem to hear him, or even if she did, she ignored his words, and advanced forward. She picked up the wayward action figure and broke it in two pieces. Tears filled the corners of the boy's eyes, and he started bawling.

"Wh-why…d-did…you…d-do…th-that?" he managed to get out.

"You're so weak." Shiro said bluntly.

"Wh-what?" he cried.

"You're weak."

The tears stopped flowing, and he shot up with anger and got in Shiro's face. It wasn't all that hard since Kouta was about four centimeters taller than the girl.

"What makes me weak? If I'm weak, I'll be strong like Ace Man!" he shouted angrily. "Why would you do that?"

"You're useless. You'll never be anything but weak." She said. "Ace Man doesn't exist!"

"How dare you!"

The argument escalated so fast that Kouta was driven to tears again, and caused him to pick up his toys and leave the room.

Later, he was walking around until a bark startled him. A rabid dog was behind him. Kouta turned around and horrified, he ran away from the dog. The dog chased him around until he stumbled over a rock and fell on his face. Kouta turned around to face the dog, closed his eyes prepared for the dog to supposedly bite his face off, but nothing came.

Instead of the dog launching an attack on the boy, he heard a hard thud, a loud yelp from the dog, and the soft padding of feet walking on the ground. Kouta opened his eyes, and looked up to his savior. Bathed in all her glory, was Shiro, who seemed to glow with the mid-afternoon sun.

"Kouta, you BAKA!" she shouted.

Kouta, bewildered, just stared right at her face, and the two just continued staring.

"You're weak! You'll never be strong because you always cry over stupid things!" Shiro exclaimed.

"Is that why you broke Ace Man?" Kouta asked.

"Yes! Because you don't need Ace Man! I'll be your Ace Man, because you're weak!" Shiro cried, and with that realization, Kouta just laughed.

Shiro also joined in on the laughter and the two just laughed at the irony.

The next day, Shiro and Kouta were playing a game, and Shiro began to hum a small tune she had gotten from her surrogate mother, Doctor Sorae. She sang it to Kouta, and Kouta listened intently. Just then, Doctor Sorae Igarashi came around to pick Shiro up for her check up. Kouta was sad to see her going so soon, but Shiro promised to come back next time. But, there was no next time. As Kouta was walking home, a devastating shockwave came his way, and a huge surge of energy that came from a distance erupted all at once, and Kouta blacked out from it.

… … …

Present-

The shock of the dream woke Kouta up, and he found himself dripping with sweat. He had no idea why he dreamed that. As soon as he woke up, he began forgetting details from the dream. Kouta felt a chill like no other. He got up out of bed and walked out to the kitchen to fetch a glass of water.

While he was filling up a glass, he walked outside to gather some fresh air. After having that strange dream, he never realized that it would be hours until he really needed to wake up. After the events at the bridge happened, he would never be able to look at Lucy/Nyu the same way again. He knew that the girl was dangerous, and now the girls with horns are creatures designed to kill humans, but now that she had revealed her true nature to Kouta, he could never see her as innocent.

The revelation that she had killed his family was shocking to say the least. At first, when the memories came flooding through his mind, as if someone pulled an imaginary plug on them, and the rest came out like a drain. He never thought that in this world, there would be people that could kill so easily.

It had been a silly thought, but he realized that the reason that Lucy went berserk that day, eight years ago, at the festival, was mostly his fault. He knew he was lying to her. But, had he known about her state of mind, she wouldn't have done that and he wouldn't be alone, or have to deal with these bad memories. He looked back at the clock that had recently started working again. It was now 5:30 am, and he had been out there for nearly an hour and a half.

He contemplated about going to bed, but in a few hours, he'd have to go to work. The 19 year, almost 20 year old, worked in a middle school as a teacher's aide, which was apart of his career services. Since he was up, he decided to make breakfast for everyone. He cooked a simple American breakfast and set the plates out on the table. He ate his breakfast separate, and got ready for work.

The time was now 6:45am, and it was nearly time for the house to wake up. The first one down the stares was Lucy, now in her Nyu form. She was so bubbly early in the morning and she was ready to go. Next came Nana, Yuka, and Mayu.

"Good morning, girls!" he greeted.

"Morning…" Yuka yawned, before her eyes shot open. "Wait! What were you doing up? You're already ready to go to work! This isn't like you."

"I couldn't get much sleep, so I made breakfast for everyone." He said simply. "It's not the best gourmet meal, but I made it simple. Now, I'll be going to work now, so behave everyone!"

"Nyuu!" Nyu exclaimed happily, and waved Kouta off.

… … …

It was a peaceful day with everyone just lingering around. As soon as Kouta entered the room, the kids stopped to turn toward him. He sat down in his chair, and the students went back to bickering. In the corner, he noticed three students, Ganta was one of their names, he believed. A few more minutes passed, and the teacher walked in, and everyone bowed as usual.

Sensei gave Kouta a bunch of forms to pass out, and he went by the rows passing down the papers, but as soon as he reached the middle, he noticed an ominous shadow looming in the window. He looked toward the window, and made out a figure clad in red, with a mask covering most of the face, but not the mouth. Kouta was bewildered, until a few students looked in his direction. He heard a strange melody, one he's heard before, but not the one he was most familiar with.

"Ah! There's a guy floating out there!" a random boy shouted, and several heads followed after that.

Kouta was frozen in place, and his heart was racing a mile a minute. The ominous figure was obviously some kind of illusion, or some kind of fragment of his imagination. From what he's seen so far, flying men should not surprise him in the least. The young man then noticed something else off with the man floating. He noticed a wide grin on the figure's mouth. Then, something he heard he didn't think he could ever forget, came as a throaty chuckle from the figure's mouth.

"Kishi!" without warning, the windows exploded and the desks in the surrounding area were blown backward, along with the students in them. The students were killed immediately, as if a gale force blew by. The figure entered the classroom, and the next thing Kouta knew, he blacked out, and the muffled sounds of screams echoed through his head, and he falls forward, landing in a puddle of some sort of liquid.

Minutes, or perhaps it was hours, later, Kouta opened his eyes little by little, and turned around onto his stomach, and stood up. The room was dark, blackened by the shadows. A few minutes later, his eyes adjusted slowly to the darkness, and he spotted a lot of blood splatters and pools on the floor, ceiling, and walls. The pieces of glass already littered the floor, and most of the desks were overturned, and some were broken in half. It looked like a disaster zone struck through the place.

Gasping at the stench of once fresh blood and deteriorating corpses that had probably been lying there for hours. Kouta tried to maneuver his way through the masses, but then he noticed that he wasn't alone. The figure in red stood in the corner. In fear, Kouta shrunk toward the wall and tried to make himself as inconspicuous as possible. He covered his mouth, but could not seem to keep the bile building up inside. He let out what had been left in his stomach out, and added to the bloody mess around him. He fell to his knees, weak, and looked up to see the figure floating toward him as if he had unfinished business left with him.

Great, this is a crappy time for me to get killed! He thought. And the culprit is most likely a diclionis of some kind, because only damage on this kind of scale could have enough power to kill everyone and leave havoc in its wake. The figure came increasingly closer and the young man kept moving backward. He stumbled over a body, and landed squarely on his butt. Tears gathered at the corner of his eyes. Damn it! He was not going to cry over something like this! He was a MAN! Yet, in a dying situation, it seemed okay to bawl like an idiot.

"P-Please…don't kill me!" he stuttered out.

"Kishi!"

The figure pulled something out and held up a narrow ruby gem in front of him. It was sort of dull, and Kouta stared deeply at it. The object was alluring, and yet he knew that he was getting into a dangerous situation, but he wasn't sure anymore. Maybe the figure decided to spare him for some odd reason. Suddenly, the figure knelt down to Kouta's level and pushed the jewel into the bare skin of Kouta's chest, right over his heart. Red hot pain coursed through Kouta's body, and he fell right over, limp.

… … …

After what seemed like another few hours, Kouta woke to find himself at the hospital. He surveyed the room around him, and looked down at his arm. It was bandaged, and apparently it still stung from earlier. He opened the white hospital shirt and saw his chest was also bandaged, which suggested the strange gem that the figure in red shot him with. The massacre that had occurred was still fresh in his memory, and it felt like the incident was days ago, but it was still the same day, but later. Suddenly, he heard voices out in the hallway. He recognized the voices as the girls! It seemed that Mayu, Yuka, Nana, and Nyu had come to visit him, and Yuka was arguing with what seemed like the doctor and some other person.

"Doctor, you have to let us in! He's with us!" Yuka tried to reason.

"I am sorry, but we cannot let him be seen by anyone until the attorney and police get here." The doctor said.

"Why would we need to wait for an attorney?" Yuka asked.

"There has been…some complications and we have reports that say that he is not to be seen by family members or friends until further notice." The doctor explained.

Then, the sound of multiple footsteps was heard, and stopped until they reached the doctor.

"Ah! Mr. Tamaki! You may see him." The doctor said.

"Oh, really. That's too bad, I hate to be a harbinger of bad news, but there is something deeply troubling that we simply must discuss with the lad." Tamaki said.

"Very well, you may proceed." The doctor allowed.

"You may enter too, if you girls wish." Tamaki said, and the door opened to let everyone into the room.

In a second, Kouta made it look like he hadn't listened in on their conversation and pretended to still be asleep. He pretended to stir, and open his eyes slowly to see an aveage-looking middle aged Japanese man with glasses within his peripheral vision. He slowly rubbed his eyes and sat up in bed.

"Ah, you're awake, my boy!" Tamaki exclaimed, opening his arms wide. "How are you feeling, Kouta-kun? My name is Tsunenaga Tamaki, and I am an attorney, and I wish to help plead with your case!" Tamaki asked, his eyes narrow like a fox, or something like that, and his face contorted into a sick grin, but whether good or bad, no one could tell. The way his expression was at the moment was starting to seem suspicious, but since the doctor did mention that he was an attorney, Kouta had no choice but to trust this man.

"C-case?" the young man made out. "What case?"

"There is no easy way to put this," Tamaki stood straight up, and adjusted his glasses. "but you have been accused of mass murder, where a class of 31 second year junior high school students were found dead earlier today, and you were the only one left alive."

"Wh-what? Th-that can't be true!" Kouta nearly lost it, and the girls who stood by completely quiet were staring wide-eyed and couldn't believe what was happening. "I was among the victims too! The red man even shot me with something! I can show you!" He opened his shirt to try and reveal that he had indeed been hit with the gem thing that had caused him pain, but the jewel was not there, and there were no signs that indicated that it had been there in the first place.

"It's not there…" he whispered to himself after seeing the confusion on everyone's faces. "I'm innocent, I tell you! I would never kill anyone, especially junior high kids, please believe me!" he cried hysterically.

"I'm afraid that there's no evidence that says that you're innocent anywhere. You'll see what I'm talking about later at the court case, but the evidence has been laid out in front of us this whole time. This is a case where many lives were taken, and their relatives and respective friends have been afflicted emotionally, and you have been conveniently left alive. There's just no way in reality that a murderer would leave just one person alive after they murdered 31 kids and one teacher, it's too much of a coincidence." Tamaki explained. "And, whoever this 'red man' is, I promise I'll try to defend your case to the best of my ability. Until the court case, why don't you rest? You'll need your full energy later."

"No."

"No!"

"NO!" he shouted, and cried in panic until he blacked out.

… … …

Until the time of the hearing, no one was allowed to visit him, as he was recovering emotionally, and his inner demons were at war with each other. It had escalated so badly that he has barely eaten or slept since the news of his accusations came. He knew that he was innocent, at least in his mind he felt he was innocent. What of the red man? Well, all the thoughts kept revolving around the man that was in red. All of his anger channeled and boiled to the surface every time he thought of the wicked man that murdered his students. He simply held no recollection that he was the one responsible for killing those kids, but if he did, maybe he just did it while he blacked out. But, why would the red man still remain there even after the massacre? It seemed all too selective, as if he had been the target all along.

The TV was on and then he tried to focus on it as it had an eye-catching news report going on. The news showed a giant amusement park with many happy people, kids and adults each, they looked a bit too happy to be there. It was odd. The oddest thing wasn't the people, or the park, but the attention was focused on a huge dome in the middle of the amusement park.

"It is the 12th year anniversary ever since the amusement park, Deadman Wonderland has opened its gates to the public eye. With eye-popping rides and games for families, and attractions, every year we get approximately 10 million worldwide that visit this amusement park." The reporter announced gleefully, but continued. "What's special about Deadman Wonderland is not only the thrill of the rides, but the spectacular shows that it has to offer!"

The scene changed to the inside of the Dome, and there were a bunch of people in skintight grey bodysuits with metal braces on their necks running around obstacles, with some of them falling in, or getting hit with big boulders and other objects.

The event changed to a cage match between two similar dressed people, two men, going against each other in a head to head battle, but it was cut short for some reason. Then, the scene changed to acrobats of the same uniform doing their act, and other such activities. Overall, the only thing that was strange was that the performers looked very frightened and scared, like they were about to die, or something.

"So, come one, and come all! Come to Deadman Wonderland!" the reporter finally said. "It's the best place on Earth to be!"

That was when the report ended and a commercial came up. All Kouta was wondering throughout the entire program was 'why in the world would an amusement park be called 'Deadman Wonderland'? It sounds stupid.

… … …

He got ready for the day and wore a suit that Yuka had left for him, at the request of Tamaki. He dressed for the horrible day ahead, and walked to the entrance where the police and Tamaki were waiting for him. He hung his head low and got into the police car and they drove him to the court.

At the court, the judges had settled on a verdict, and the evidence had been laid before everyone's eyes, and even Kouta's. Yuka, Nyu, Mayu, and Nana were there as well, but they couldn't do anything for fear that they would start a public scandal. They watched the court case unfold, and a first time in a long time, they were feeling confused and lost.

Kouta was equally punched in the face with each new revelation about his involvement with the massacre. Why was the world accusing him of a crime he knew he never committed? He just prayed to any deity out there that someone would take him there and then, but he knew that he had to face the cold hard truth of reality.

"The jury has reached a verdict!" the judge proclaimed. "Mr. Kouta Fujiyoshi, you are hereby deemed guilty of all charges and you are charged with the death penalty as a death row inmate..."

He didn't seem to hear the last bit the judge said, but by now, the crowd was in uproar, and as much as the public just wanted to kill him right then and there and get the damn court case over and kill the murderer that killed their children, they could not as the police had to maintain the order.

"Order! Order in the court!" The judge pounded his gable and shouted, immediately silencing the court. "Take him away...forever." he pounded his gable one last time, and let the police wrap his wrists with handcuffs each and led him toward the exit. The whole time, the crowd threw objects at him, or literally him with something.

He turned his eyes toward the four he had been living with the whole time. He noticed something wrong with Nyu at the time. Her head was bowed, and her eyes were covered by shadows, which meant something was about to go down. Her head dipped up again, and he saw the slither of vectors come out from behind her, and that caused Kouta to snap, making Nyu, now Lucy come out of her reverie.

"Stop! No! Don't do it here!" Kouta managed to kick the two officers down, and proceed down toward the judge. "I'm innocent, I tell you!" he shouted hysterically.

"It was the Red Man! He killed all those kids! I saw!"

"Well, what proof do you have that those kids weren't killed by you?" A man near him at the time asked angrily. He immediately pounced on Kouta and proceeded to beat him up. "You killed my only daughter, and now you're getting what you deserve!"

Two new police officers came and pulled the man away from Kouta, while he shouted and flailed like a wild animal. For the first time in his young life, he was scare for life, and he knew that he would never look at life the same way again.

The judge pressed a thumb to his forehead and signaled over to Tamaki who turned on the projector and the whole court room focused at the front of the room. There, in the aftermath of the devastated classroom, with all the bodies all around the feet of…what could only be Kouta! He was looking real smug and he was even smirking evilly.

"Ha! If you're seeing this then that means by now you've seen the true human nature! Yes, it was I who slaughtered these pathetic kids! Why? They were asking for it, and I did them a favor by killing them! It was simple, really. This world is full of bullshit, and I decided not to let it come to that with this pathetic generation! Now, grovel at my feet! For I will bring upon retribution onto this world with my 'Branch of Sin'! Ha ha!" He laughed as he ended his speech, and the video ended.

The shock on everyone's face was evident, and Kouta looked on empty at the crowd. His friends were looking at him with confused looks, even Lucy was too confused with the way the events transpired, and even looked away. When Kouta saw this action, his mind became a big blur and all the sound from the room just became a bunch of muffled sounds. He didn't care anymore, and he simply just wanted to die right then and there. If they were going to kill him any way, why not do it in front of them?

The police came in and he let them drag him away to a prison and he prayed to some deity out there that he would just wake up from this nightmare! All the while, he was murmuring 'I didn't do it. I'm innocent. It was the Red Man.'

And, this is just the beginning of a long nightmare.

… … …

A/N: Phew! How's it going, everyone! I have had a busy schedule these past few months, and as such, I wasn't able to make any updates with any of my stories, and this story has just been bothering me in the back of my mind for ages, and I just wanted to get this out. I know I have a growing stack of unfinished fics, but I will try to finish this one here, and see how my success will go from here. I have recently watched and read from both of these anime, and I have to say that they have sparked an interesting scenario story in me. I hope you pardon my choice in Kouta's last name, because when I tried to look, there was no mention of any of their last names, so I made one up that sounded remotely similar to Ganta. Their names are even alike! Kouta and Ganta! Sorry I had him killed in this story, but I just wanted to put in a sort of mature mind and equally tragic character into this story. Also, about their ages, I'm thinking of making Shiro the same age as Kouta, so she'll be around 19, like Kouta is. So, bear with me! Hope you liked it! Rate and review here, and I will be back with another one as soon as possible!

Next time: Death Row Inmates