Other Songs 5-6
88
(Note: A follow-up to #86)
"Papa? Nana knows someone who can help us fight Lucy."
"Then let's go to him, Nana-chan. Lead the way-heh-especially if you intend to be my wife."
Nana recalled with horror the previous night, when his condition demanded she act as Hiromi. Hiromi, who she once believed to be her own Mama.
"Only teasing, sweetheart. You just sounded so funny when you said that last time. Nana is my daughter."
She smiled sweetly and let that bad night go forever.
"Nana is your daughter, Papa."
Nana decided that day that, wherever babies came from, they could just stay there.
89
The Clone Diclonii let the workers evacuate, fascinated by something they found on one viewscreen.
The supervisor of operations got his people out while the bag-faced genetic constructs, soulless duplicates of the loving but dangerous Mariko, did their odd thing.
"What are they watching, Kenichi?"
"I-was playing a video game, sir."
"I'll discipline you later-maybe. After all, it has distracted them. Hmm-they seem to be learning from it."
"That's the good news, sir."
"What's the bad news?"
"The game I was playing, sir, was-"
The supervisor felt his heart stop at the revelation.
"-Mortal Kombat."
90
Just as Diana prepared to make real her threat against Arakawa. someone slapped her control disc back into place.
"That really wasn't a good idea. Trust me on that one."
Arakawa was shaking with terror, and found a working sink to clean her glasses.
"Who are you?"
The voice, almost androgynous in its way, responded.
"Someone who knows the problem of releasing these girls from captivity."
Arakawa calmed, and she saw her savior.
"Nousou?"
Nousou pointed to a bruise on Barbara's head.
"Ever tried aiming a nurse's head with a pillowcase?"
The two girls took aim at their faceless 'sisters'.
91
"Idiot."
Lucy prepared to execute Kakuzawa and her brother.
"Am I, my dear?"
Guards led in the prisoners taken from Maple House. Declared useless, Nana died first. Lucy knew the others would not be alive long, this way or that.
Six months later, Lucy patted her swollen belly. As foreseen, one by one, the others had been executed. She found she missed Yuka. Then, Kakuzawa screamed.
"MY STATUE! Who is that man?"
Lucy saw the boy who had supposedly been her baby's father playing with Mariko clone Elizabeth.
"That statue is of Kouta's father...the real God of our new race...idiot."
92
The admiral saw the brain matter oozing out of the leaking vector attack craft.
"What the hell is that?"
The Saseba operative shrugged.
"That is a military spending boondoggle made by a government desperate to deny having sponsored a madman it once funded on levels that would make the US wince. It contains the cloned brain material extracted from many hundreds of failed clones of a girl who seemed like a monster but really only wanted her Daddy's love."
The admiral started walking back to the Bridge.
"You know, you could have just told me that I lacked the clearance."
93
The Agent fired her pistol.
"Back off, you little horned witches!"
The Agent fired off spiked iron balls.
"You're not getting that vaccine!"
The Agent launched harpoons meant for landing craft.
"No further will you go!"
The Agent threw rocks and debris. She looked at Arakawa.
"It's a damn shame."
Arakawa took the bait.
"It's a damn shame Human and Diclonius can't live in peace?"
"No".
The Agent shook her head.
"It's a damn shame I never learned how to shoot with any accuracy."
As the pair was torn to pieces, Kouta was treated for a flesh wound and released.
94
The bag-faced clones surrounded Arakawa and the Agent.
"I'm going to throw you over the side!"
"I'd never make it. But there is a way out."
Arakawa looked at their attackers.
"You have to stop."
Curious, they paused long enough to listen.
"Even if you eliminate that vaccine, your suffering won't end. Your kind is still Human. Even in a world you run, a Diclonius scientist will find a reason to conduct horrid experiments. Is that what you want-Mariko?"
The Agent saw the clones part like the Red Sea.
"You're smart."
"No - I just know how to be smart."
95
As the vector attack craft's systems overloaded, only Arakawa jumped out in time.
"Here's the vaccine. No one to deliver it to..."
Inspiration struck her.
"It's the only way."
Lucy rose from the grotto that was now the Kakuzawas' final resting place. She sensed the vaccine.
"What do you want?"
Arakawa nodded.
"You don't care about anyone but him. This stuff and my brain are the means by which he won't have to die as your kind rises."
"For Kouta-yes, I will. But just one question."
"What?"
The nude Lucy looked her over.
"Why are you in your underwear?"
96
"Before our power, Lucy is just a little girl!"
Arakawa rolled her eyes.
"We are talking about Lucy?"
The operative waved his hand.
"This creation is Lucy as a tank or gunship!"
"You're serious? Its vectors can match hers?"
"Match? Its vectors are like the sun compared to Lucy's one H-Bomb."
Arakawa shivered.
"NO! If they're that powerful..."
Arakawa ran about and pulled the hats off of all the officers - revealing their horns.
"Hey, Mister Agent sir? You should take a -"
"Silence, woman-as we prepare to welcome Lucy-"
He grinned.
"Our Lady and Our Queen!"
97
The operative cried out.
"Lucy will pay!"
Lucy screamed as her body was taken apart, absorbed by the craft. Arakawa gasped.
"What did you do?"
The operative chortled.
"This unit is powered by the brain matter of slain Diclonius-like Lucy."
"SIR! The other vector attack craft are on the move-the broken ones are repairing themselves!"
Above them was a creature with arms, legs and a head made up of the attack crafts. It smashed the fleet with ease. Arakawa let loose one last bit of snark before saying her prayers.
"Stop calling her Lucy-now call her 'Voltron'."
98
Lucy closed her eyes before Kouta.
"I have no right to ask you this-or anything else."
She pointed to her companion.
"He's my little brother. They killed my mother to make him-but he's innocent..."
Kouta shook his head.
"Then he's Nyu's little brother, too. We must go into hiding-and the control device stays in."
A delighted Lucy gathered her charge. Kouta's thoughts turned grim.
*When you have decided that you love him and want only his safety and happiness-then, and only then, LUCY-will I make you know the pain I felt when you killed Kanae.*
99
The two sat and bemoaned their fates.
"I want to forgive you. But that would dishonor my family's memory."
Lucy nodded.
"Even if you did, there are too many people after me for us to ever know peace."
Kouta looked at the moon.
"Even if they went away, choosing between you and...life should be like those silly old forties movies."
Lucy grinned.
"You want the moon, Kouta-San? I'll lasso it down for you!"
Improbably, they kissed, until Kouta's eyes snapped open and saw Earth's natural satellite grow ever larger in the sky.
"No! Lucy-PUT IT BACK! PUT IT-"
100
Lucy saw only one way past her pursuer while keeping her promise to Kouta.
"Kurama - my friend is someone I hurt as badly as I have you with less cause. Please let me get him to the hospital, and I am yours."
Kurama relaxed his stance.
"Go and get your friend. But like before, Nana must disable your vectors."
She turned, and on an instinct he could not control, Kurama shot her dead. He felt his gun-arm tear loose from his body. He heard Nana's tearful voice as she took their wounded friend away.
"PAPAS SHOULD KEEP THEIR PROMISES!"
101
Yuka saw the explosion from the lighthouse, as Lucy raged. Nana explained everything to her.
"We have to make her stop being Lucy, and bring out our friend Nyu."
Nana shook her head.
"How can we do that?"
Mayu spotted someone in the distance.
"That woman is a celebrity from America-I'll bet she can help us."
Yuka approached the woman, explaining the bizarre situation.
"I'll do what I can, darlin-but how can little ole me be of help?"
Yuka sighed at the Country and Western idol.
"Ms. Parton - you may be the only one who can help!"
102
The heads of the departments of the Self-Defense Forces contemplated.
"Our own standard forces are helpless."
"Saseba's Vector-based craft have shut down in fear of Lucy."
"The Americans can offer no guarantee an atomic weapon would strike true."
"It seems that there will never be further contact with Chief Kakuzawa."
The Prime Minister raised a hand of calming.
"The steps we took to contain and keep silent the Diclonius threat have all backfired in the worst ways imaginable. Help must be taken where it is offered."
"Do you mean..."
"Yes. Tell Umbrella Corporation we will test their virus against Lucy."
103
As she turned to aid Kouta, Kaede realized it was far from being enough.
"I will heal them all!"
On the approach, the others she now counted as friends felt her power as well.
Nozomi.
"I can sing again!"
Mayu.
*I still know what my stepfather did-but it's like it happened to someone else*
Nana.
"Nana can control her arms, legs-and her other arms without breaking a sweat."
Even Kurama.
"Looking at my life from outside, I see my mistakes-and I see what I must now correct."
Finally, Yuka.
"Wow-you mean I hit him THAT often?"
104
All looked at what had been Lucy. Yuka gasped.
"Is that-her?"
Kouta held her while her small sobs carried.
"Yes-she gave all she was to heal me."
Mayu looked at the melted flesh, and what was pulled from it.
"I don't even have to warn Wanta off it. How did this happen?"
Nana looked the mess over.
"She's gone entirely, this time. There's no trace of Lucy or Nyu in the - -"
The soldiers arrived, shouting as always.
"Where Is Lucy?"
Yuka shook her head.
"No Lucy here. Just our family-"
Yuka held up the regenerated, non-horned infant.
"Including our daughter Nyuu."
105
Kouta looked scornfully at the lead agent.
"Surrender."
The Saseba operative laughed, and his soldiers with him.
"Why should we surrender, boy?"
Kouta shrugged.
"You just should."
"But we have guns."
"Yes, you do."
"We have logistics."
"Yes, you do."
"We have manpower!"
"Yes, you do."
"And what do you have? A melted Lucy?"
Kouta shook his head.
"No. We have the history of this manga, as regards the fates of any unnamed soldiers."
The operative tried like hell to put together a comeback against Kouta's logical remark. But as he did this, he noted his soldiers deserting en masse.
106
There was no pulling away from this.
"I made a promise."
He thought of all the ups and downs of knowing Nyu-and Lucy.
In his hand was an object of small yet huge weight.
"Kanae-Chan, Father-is this how to best honor your memory?"
It was Yuka snapped him back.
"I don't like where this has ended up, but I love you both, and Kouta-you must keep your promise."
He reached out and took the trembling hand of Nyu. He seized the object in his own hand-and placed it on her finger.
AND THEN I MARRIED NYU
Author's Note : Because I owed them that last one. To paraphrase 'Mamma Mia', 'Say Nyu, Nyu, Nyu, Nyu, Nyu, Nyu!'
Since a volume's worth of events occurs in the final manga chapter, it will get its own separate section for these drabbles.