Chapter 6: Realization

Synopsis: The truth has always been the wings that set the soul free when burdened by guilt. In other circumstances it may be the very thing that chains the heart down. But in the end it depends on the recipient if they chose to allow the truth to be their freedom or their cage.

Reminder: I do not own Elfen Lied or any characters associated with it

"talking"

thoughts

Kaede was feeling the dense atmosphere come around her again. She feared the specter's warning about what was to come, her mother's judgment towards her. At the last statement, she picked Kohta up being careful to not hurt him while sitting at his spot with him on her lap.

"I guess this is it" thought Kaede sadly.

In her very core she felt Mikomi unsettling feelings towards her. For she believed what she just displayed scared her biological mother beyond reason and words. Heck, even in her own perspective this power scared her a lot to what they could be capable of. Kaede then looked up after absentmindedly petting Kohta a few moments ago to be met with a serious stare from Mikomi. Kaede felt at this point what was about to come next. But remembering the last conversation she had with the specter, she would not allow her heart to be weak no matter what Mikomi decided to do with her.

"Back to the old life I suppose" thought Kaede sadly again. At this time the horned girl decided if she had to go back to the orphanage she would request to be left in a new place far away from her former abusers. At that train of thought she then heard her mother speak up to her.

"Kaede" said Mikomi to which she paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. "Was it you who did all those things?" obviously referring to the assailant some time ago.

Kaede looked towards the elder woman and simply nodded not being able to use her voice from the growing anxiety of the situation.

"So you are different from normal people?" once again obviously pointing out her powers and not her unique physical traits.

Kaede nodded again feeling the building tension of what was to come. Tears then slowly began to fill up her eyes in anticipation of her mother's rejection of her. As she looked down she could only wonder why fate was so cruel to her. For her appearance and abilities far separated her from what people would deem normal. At this thought she hugged Kohta closer bracing herself for what she was going to hear next.

"Kaede" Mikomi said. "I guess we have more in common than I thought".

Kaede hearing that last statement looked up quickly to be met with Mikomi's soft smile. The girl to say the least was confused at what Mikomi had just said a moment ago or was probably thinking she had just heard wrong. Although this wasn't what she was expecting the heavy feeling she had before had definitely gotten lighter to which she felt like she could breathe again.

"What?" wanting to know for certain what she just heard while also daring to pray what it meant.

"I said we have more in common than I thought" said Mikomi patiently. "Although not exactly at the same time" she said with a half-embarrassment.

"Huh?" replied Kaede confused at what that was supposed to mean.

"You see Kaede, I also have powers too but not like yours".

"Wait, you have powers? But if you have powers why didn't you use them to defend yourself?"

Mikomi cringed a bit at that memory, but then settled back down to answer her question. "Well as I said before my powers are different from yours to which they are not used to hurt people". The elder woman then thought about how to word her statement. "My powers are sort of like telepathy, but instead of minds what I read are hearts."

Kaede took this information in without any problems. For with these new facts she felt less alone in the world to which there existed other people who were different from what was normal.

"For that is how I found the both of you in time, but only if my powers were a bit stronger I would have found you sooner" Mikomi said saddened at her last statement. The elder woman immediately perked up when she looked towards Kaede. "But your powers seem to be telekinesis which are far cooler than mine".

Kaede blushed at that comment, and although she didn't know how to feel about her powers it felt nice that it wasn't being perceived as something evil.

"But Kaede there is something I need to ask you" as Mikomi displayed a serious expression.

Kaede then sensed some worry from her mother's voice. "What is it?"

"When you were using your abilities I sensed two different hearts inside of you. One of them I recognized as yours, but the other suddenly appeared there . . . . Kaede, do you know what is going on inside of you?"

Kaede thought back to her mental space where she encountered the specter.

"Yes, but . . . ." she hesitated for she didn't want to share what the specter wanted her to do.

Mikomi noticed this, "It's OK, I know already what the other entity wanted because I could feel its intentions."

Kaede flinched at that statement.

"But don't worry, I am proud that you resisted its allure and made a righteous choice with what you did".

The said girl looked very happy to be complimented. At this point she felt ready to take her next step in life.

"Thank you . . . . mother" smiled Kaede

"You're welcome" responded Mikomi feeling slight tears forming.

"Kakkoii!" interjected Nyu. "So both okaasan and oneesan have super powers. So you are both like super heroes!" Kohta barked in response to Nyu's outburst."So does that mean Nyu has super powers too?"

Mikomi and Kaede giggled a bit at Nyu excitement.

"We'll see in time".

"But I want to see now" said Nyu giving a cute pouting face.

"Alright that's enough for now" said Mikomi. "For girls should always be presentable at all times, so let's get ourselves cleaned up OK"

"But what about that bad man?" asked Nyu.

"Don't worry, he won't be coming back" said Mikomi making note that she felt his fear as the thug ran away.

Now for the most part no one was that badly hurt besides some nasty cuts here and there with minor bruising everywhere, and to Kaede amazement Mikomi was actually tougher then she looked if she could take a beating like that and be relatively OK for the most part. Although she still felt she was putting on a front to hide her emotions of the traumatic experience. But thinking back to when the man was shouting at Mikomi, she couldn't understand why. Although she wanted to question her on it she kind of felt that doing so would spoil the mood that was created so far. Besides when her mother was ready she will say it, and if that man came back she'll definitely teach him another lesson. But for now she wanted to let things be and allow the happy moments to continue.

"Hey Kaede are you coming?" asked Mikomi

"Coming?" asked Kaede

"They have a nice Jacuzzi tub here and I wanted to share some girl time with you".

"Come on oneesan" said Nyu.

"Heh, alright" said Kaede after a short time to think about it. Although she didn't know what a Jacuzzi was she kind of figured why not?

"Bark bark" called Kohta.

"Sorry Kohta, girls only" winked Mikomi.

The pup whimpered and sat out in the bath area as the three female occupants entered the bathroom and shared a nice bonding time with each other.

Now after they finished cleaning up, everything was then fixed and set aside for the following day. Mikomi then led her daughters to the bedroom to settle in for the night. As they settled in, Mikomi hugged her two precious girls close to her.

"Goodnight okaasan" said Nyu before falling asleep rather quickly.

"Goodnight . . . . mother" said Kaede for she was still a bit shaky about using such a word since the feeling of it was still rather new to her.

"Goodnight my girls" said Mikomi and soon the three bed occupants were asleep waiting for the next day to come.

~ Dream Sequence ~

Kaede stood in front of a tree before a small burial. She didn't understand why she was there nor did she understand why she was feeling so sad at this time. But she knew that someone or something had just died and she was grieving because of it. A feeling of emptiness and solitude then came over her as she continued to stare at the small burial. Kaede didn't understand why she was feeling this, but she felt this had happened before. Now thinking about the scenery, she did recognize the area as a place near the orphanage. But she didn't understand why she would be at this place or the purpose of the burial or her feelings at the time.

But before her thoughts could finish she heard a strange melody. Although it was a sad and lonely one it was quite beautiful. As she turned around her eyes met with a boy she had never seen before, but strangely enough somehow knew.

Then she found herself enchanted by the music as if something compelled her to stay there and listen. As soon the music came to a stop one question came to her mind which she wanted to know.

"Have we met before?" thought Kaede

But before she knew it the dream had come to an end as she began to awaken to the new day.

~ End Dream Sequence ~

Kaede awoke from her sleep dazed finding herself alone on the bed. As she looked around she wanted to make sure that everything that happened yesterday wasn't a dream to which she was rewarded that it wasn't. She then thought about the dream she had last night.

"That was weird".

"What was oneesan?"

Kaede turned towards the door way to see Nyu looking right back at her.

"Nothing Nyu, so where is mother?" said Kaede redirecting the conversation.

"Okaasan in making breakfast so come on and let's eat" smiled Nyu.

"Alright I'm coming" said Kaede as she climbed out of the bed

"Oneesan, would you like to wear one of my pretty dresses?"

Kaede took notice of her sister's fashion and although they were nice they were a bit too girly for her.

"That's OK Nyu" smiled Kaede.

So the pink diclonius got dressed in her usual white dress shirt and red skirt and as she went out to have breakfast with everyone she still took pleasure in eating a mother's home cooked meal.

Mikomi then took notice to Kaede as she sat down to eat.

"Enjoy your rest sleepy head" smiled Mikomi.

"Yes" smiled Kaede.

The family then said there grace and proceeded into consuming their morning meal. As they ate, Kaede then had a vision of that boy again from her dreams. She didn't understand why it had so suddenly appeared, but she knew it was important for some reason.

"Mother" said Kaede

"Yes dear?" said Mikomi

"I would like to go somewhere today".

Mikomi felt an unusual feeling inside of her daughter, but didn't want to push it unless it was necessary too. "OK, but do you need me to take you there?"

"No it's OK, where I'm going is in walking distance".

"Alright then, but be careful and come back soon because we have to make preparations for our departure back home in a few days".

"Alright mother".

After the meal Kaede made her way out of the area. As she walked towards the hills she would try to move as quickly as possible avoiding any attention that her horns would draw upon her. At times she would be stopped by people curious of her appearance to which she would respond that they were sort of like head ornaments. For the most part people bought it and believed it to be like an otaku thing such as cat ears.

Eventually Kaede made it to her destination without much distraction. Although the constant stops by people made her nervous.

Now at the tree she remembered in her dreams she was looking at a burial that was supposed to be right at the base of it. After a short time looking she concluded there was no burial there.

"This is so stupid" thought Kaede. "Why am I getting so worked up over a dream?"

She then took a seat at the base of the tree thinking things over of what have had just occurred for the last thirty-six hours or so. For so much had just happened over such a small amount of time. The discovery of a mother, a sister, her powers, and the strange feelings she has been having recently.

After a good half hour Kaede got up and decided to head back.

"What was I suppose to expect?" as she looked towards the tree again

Now as if god were answering her question she then heard a melody coming from right behind her. Thus remembering that same tune from her dreams she slowly turned around to be met with that same boy again. As the music enchanted her only one thought came to mind.

"Have we met before?"

To be continued . . . .

Authors' notes: Well since Kaede/Nyu/Lucy mom was by technicality the creator of the Disclonius race I would expect her to be pretty special in some way too. Also by Kakuzawa analysis it was actually their mom who was the real mutant and not them. Also I do apologize if it seemed too long for Kohta and Kaede to meet again. But hopefully I will finally get that started already. Also Nyu powers won't develop until later in the story. If some are wondering why Mikomi powers didn't sense the guy, it is because they are the active type in which she needs to concentrate to use them. Finally I'm trying to keep things relatively in the same chronological order. So yesterday is when her powers emerged, today is when she meets Kohta, and the next four days in when fate will take another route and avoid tragedy on Kohta's part. Plus if it seemed that the girls recovered too quickly from the attack just try to imagine them as really resilient people.

So I thank you for your time in reading this fic and further extend my gratitude if you can review it as well.