Light shone in from the window of the church, illuminating a small room. Within the room resided a desk with neatly ordered books and a candle upon it, a china cabinet, and bed with a lone girl upon it. The girl had long silver hair done up in a braid, and bandages covering her right eye. She wore a loose white nightgown. Her name, Nu-13. She stared out the window with a despondent expression, how long had she been like this she thought to herself, she couldn't even remember, it felt like forever to her. A soul crushing emptiness enveloped her being and she couldn't bring herself to do anything. Always tired, just wanting to sleep. A white bird landed by the window, it looked in at Nu, and Nu in turn stared at it until it flew away. The window's view was unchanging, effectively the same day in and day out, with only slight variations depending on the day. Occasionally she'd see some people travelling by on the road, or her sisters, Noel and Lambda, working outside.
From the other room, pots were clanking around and Nu's sisters were talking.
"Like this." a monotone voice asserted, must be Lambda, she is blunt and keeps her statements brief, but she has a kind heart and is very curious.
"Like this?" came a sheepish response from Noel.
"No." shot back Lambda. Noel is a shy and at times clumsy girl, but she never lets it get in the way of her passions, and she is very caring and friendly to those around her.
"Dinner is ready Nu!" Noel proclaimed as she and Lambda rushed through her door and into her room, Lambda carefully handed Nu a bowl of stew and proceeded to sit at the chair by the desk with her own food, and Noel opted to sit on the side of her bed.
"Makoto and Tsubaki came over to visit today, it was really nice to see them, Tsubaki has been really busy at work and Kagura is harassing Makoto again, I really wish he'd stop, it's only a matter of time until Makoto uppercuts him in the mouth"
Noel recounted her day gleefully, even though Nu didn't take part in the conversations often, Noel and Lambda repeated these sessions each day, eating dinner together and talking about their days. Every now and then Noel would come in and read some stories with Nu, she didn't want Nu to be lonely so made a point of spending time with her each day. Lambda also wanted Nu to feel better, she didn't like seeing Nu in this condition.
"Lambda is teaching me to cook some more, I think I made some really great progress today!" Noel looked over to Lambda expectantly to which Lambda paused and replied "Progress is slow."
"Eh!? Well, progress is still progress, I'll master it someday." Said Noel with newfound conviction.
Nu didn't really want to eat, but she tried to anyway. Even though Nu didn't show it, she appreciated their company, Nu felt like something important was missing, as though a part of her very essence itself was gone.
After they finished eating Noel and Lambda hung around a bit longer. "Well, I'm going to head to bed, good night Nu" and Noel left the room, Lambda got up to follow suit, stopped by Nu before leaving, gave her a hug, and left. It was night time now and the window on her room had gone dark. The only thing outside now were the stars and the full moon, both of which seemed brighter than usual. Nu closed her eye and fell asleep.
It was raining outside, Nu woke up to the sound of a door slamming open and heard arguing.
"Get off me, I don't need your help!" came the voice of an unknown man from the other room.
"You're injured" Lambda stated.
"Damnit! I never should've trusted that masked asshole, we were travelling to Kagatsutchi and- that son of a bitch, when I get my hands on him I'll-"
Nu's heart skipped a beat and something within her sparked to life, she felt nostalgic, she didn't understand why.
"Y-you need to calm down! You're in no condition to be out there like this, you need to r-rest!" Pleaded Noel.
Silence followed, but in a defeated voice the man said
"Alright, have it your way. But I'm not staying long."
The sounds of Noel and Lambda treating the man resonated softly throughout the house, Nu tried to stay awake but she didn't succeed for too long, and ended up falling asleep anyway.
The next morning Nu woke up feeling a bit excited, she crawled out of bed in her excitement, stumbling a bit on her way out. She couldn't even remember how long it had been since she had last been out of bed, and her body had paid a noticeable price. It was refreshing for her to be up and moving again after so long. She cautiously walked towards the door, hoping to see who this person who had arrived was, down the hall she saw an open door, she walked over, a little bit anxious, and peered in. On the bed she saw a man who appeared to be in his mid-twenties, he had short black hair, bandages on both his right leg and right arm, and an NOL uniform propped up on a chair by the bed. Nu didn't know what she expected, but she felt a bit disappointed nonetheless. Before she could do anything else, she heard Noel shouting.
"AH! NUU!" Noel ran over and gave Nu a giant hug, almost knocking Nu down. Noel was overcome with emotion, almost ready to cry because of how happy she was.
"I was starting to get worried that you'd be in that bed forever! Are you feeling better?"
hearing the commotion, Lambda excitedly came and joined in on the hug
"I'm happy you're better" said Lambda in her usual monotone. Nu hugged them back.
"I had a dream of a guy with white spikey hair, it felt like Nu knew him. He was nice."
Noel found Nu some proper clothes and proceeded to show Nu around the church, including showing her around the nearby land, Noel was ecstatic to see her up and moving about after so long and while Nu still hadn't fully recovered, it was a nice change of pace to be up and moving around instead of withering away in bed she felt. Later that day, the man from the previous night thanked them for their hospitality and left, despite insistence from Noel that he rest more. Over the next few weeks Nu made a point to be more active, she enjoyed exploring the outdoors more than rotting away in bed so she decided to take walks each day to explore, sometimes Lambda would come with her and excitedly show her bugs and little critters she found along the way. Over time Nu's body started to return to its old strength, though she still felt the incessant nagging that something was missing from her life, but she wouldn't let it keep her down.
One day on one of her treks she saw a familiar white bird, she decided to follow it a bit and see where it went, after a couple of minutes the bird landed in a large tree overlooking a cliff. Past the tree she made out two objects, curious as to what they could be she decided to investigate. The first thing Nu noticed was the phenomenal view from the cliff, you could see for miles, every bend and dip in the land, the curves and twists of the roads, and little groves of trees, even the mountains in the distance felt small. After some brief appreciation of the view, she returned her attention towards the objects. There was a wooden cross with a red bow tied tied around it, and some flowers arranged in front of it; it appeared to be a grave, or perhaps a memorial. Right next to it stood a large, bulky, beat up sword, it had definitely seen better days and looked like parts of it might chip off if so much as a moderate wind blew by. Seeing this sword rend Nu's heart in two, she didn't understand why but looking at this sword filled her with a deep sorrow. Her legs gave out beneath her and she buried her face in her palms and started to cry.
"I had not expected to stumble upon anybody here." Came a dignified voice. Startled, Nu shot around to see who was talking to her.
"Who are you?" Nu asked, trying to regain her composure.
She didn't sense any hostility from this person, she appeared young, her blonde hair done up in two long twin tails with ribbons attached to them, and an elegant black and red dress.
"Pardon me, my name is Rachel Alucard, and who might you be?" Rachel was intrigued that there was another person with a connection to this sword, she had thought herself to be the only one.
"My name is Nu."
"Might I inquire who this sword belongs to?"
"I.. don't know" Nu replied, mostly calmed down now.
"Oh bother, I arrive to see you bawling your eye out just to discover you aren't even aware whom it belongs."
Nu turned her head away from Rachel. Rachel continued
"I myself do not know either, though this sword is very dear to me. I hope to one day find its owner." Nu wondered if this sword had anything to do with the void within her.
"Nu would also like to find this person"
Rachel grinned and replied
"Very well, I wish you the best of luck."
Nu looked back at the sword, but instead of feeling sorrow like before, she now felt a fierce determination. This sword was important to her, she just didn't understand why. She looked back at Rachel but she was nowhere to be seen, Nu stood up and extracted the sword from the ground and proceeded to head back to the church to prepare for her upcoming journey.