Nana saves Bando's soul from oblivion, possibly at the cost of her own. But can he really bring himself to lash out at someone who – truthfully- has nothing to do with his malice?
CHAPTER SIX
Nana, blindfolded and gagged and tied in manacles, could hear violence occurring right in front of her. She could hear a man's frenzied screams, she could hear hundreds of swooshes of air, hundreds of blows impacting and dozens of deranged cackles, amongst her own whimpers and cries. She could feel two and a half years of frustration, anger and sadness vented in her direction on her own promise that in order to save his life he could do anything and everything he wanted to do to Lucy on her own willing body. She heard him scream out Lucy's name amongst dozens of swearwords, and after several minutes such utterances became less frequent, mixed in with exhausted pants. Lastly she heard him slump in front of her, gripping her legs and sobbing quietly, apparently having his fill of bloodlust.
She physically felt precisely nothing until he grabbed her. Confused, she took a vector and removed her blindfold. They were both naked, and she was unharmed. He was in tears at her feet, a complete wreck consumed by undying hatred and - after all this time - the ultimate lack of will to implement it. She'd expected from his tone that he would maim her like the scientists had back at Home, and when done re-arranging her pale skin into gore he'd take advantage of her prone body with Lucy's face etched into his mind, irrespective of how either would feel about the experience; but after everything he told her he would do, he'd achieved precisely nothing of the sort. Instead the wooden walls bore deep scars of their own, sap and stain covering the gouges having bled from them some time ago. She could also see the knife she'd held to her own throat an hour or two before lying shattered on the floor. He laid his head on her ankles, whimpering slightly as she looked at him with complete disgust, shaking her head.
"Leave me in peace", Bando said. "I've sated myself."
"I'll do no such thing, whelp" she replied. "I am yours for the whole night, remember? Was it just because it was me that you didn't hurt me with your knife, or was it because your obsession with Lucy lost its meaning once you lost your job?"
"… Both, I think. Not only have I wasted my hate on her, I've wasted your time and… your sympathy as well."
"Shut up, Bando. I am damn sick of hearing you run yourself down. I'm supposed to be the worthless creature. I'm supposed to be the one with no place in this world, and yet I've found both a place and some worth to me. Is it really that difficult for you to find someone to be impressed at you enough to show confidence?"
"… Yes. I've had several women since I got canned and it always comes to this. Most of them tell me exactly the same things that you have, but coming from you it's all the harder to bear. Right now if I had Lucy in these shackles… I don't know if I'd have killed her either… you've honoured your promise, do what you please."
"But you haven't honoured yours, Bando. I've got no guarantee that you won't lynch yourself as soon as I walk out of that door, and I will never forgive you if you don't survive this."
That scared Bando half to death. Someone actually had the nerve to tell him to his face that she was angry with him – with no fear of reprisal – because he hadn't done his job properly. She actually had faith that he'd carry out his sick threats and hadn't cared for herself as long as he stayed true to his word. She… actually had faith in him.
"Okay… because it's you telling me, I'll sort myself out. I'll find something to strive for and work towards it, I need my edge back" He submitted to her, looking her in the eyes like a small boy being admonished by his mother. "Sorry for pussying out."
"That's more like it!" Nana chirped up. "You haven't been yourself for some time, it's about time you showed some passion… what time is it, anyway?"
"About 7pm."
Suddenly, Nana's cell-phone rang and she panicked a little- she hadn't had the chance to tell anyone where she was at. She looked at Bando a little concerned, and he relented- he loosened her chains and she dashed to her phone to answer it.
"Mayu?… yeah, I'm OK. I'm still at the studio, actually- they called me back because they want me to be familiar with the equipment. It sounds a bit naughty I know but I'll be here all night… what? Oh, tell the folks I'm out with some college palls or something, I owe you one… groovy, I'll try and sneak in tomorrow morning, See ya then, bye!"
"What was that about?" Bando asked.
"I was actually starting a new job tonight, about 4 in the morning."
"4 in the morning? Doing what?"
"DJ-ing for some local radio station."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah."
"… Cool. So you're not just assing about waiting for a calling to drop in your lap, huh?"
"Nope. As I say, I've found a place for me for now. As your saviour, I order you to do the same." She said in a mock-serious tone.
Bando took the shattered knife and held it to her throat, pinning her to the wall with fire in his eyes. She stood shocked in front of him, and he smiled at last.
"As your captor and owner, I order you to drink with me in celebration at a bar of my choice."
---
"What freaking kept you?" Nana yelled out at Bando a year and a half later. He swaggered through the newest wreckage of the gate in big leather boots packing a pump-action shotgun that was currently superfluous. He took a huge drag of a beastly cigar in his mouth and grinned like an idiot at her.
"Sorry I'm late, toots!" He bragged. "I had a run-in with some interesting company that I couldn't pass up. Turns out he did send some goons to get you after all, I'll tell you all about it in a little while. Let's just say for now that whoever wants you dead… it ain't Kakuzawa."
Bando took a huge sniff of the carnage he'd just created and his nostrils swelled in appreciation. He sighed and looked around… His eyes met Lucy for the first time in an age. Her eyes just looked right back at him with no trace of emotion.
"You've barely aged a day, bitch" he addressed her with bravado. "Are you still your psychotic murderous self by any chance, or are you on the wagon at last?"
"Nice to see you as well, Bando" Lucy sarcastically uttered. "I'd have thought Nana had slightly better taste in men, though."
Just as Kurama got to his feet in the doorway Nana took a few steps forward to stand toe-to-toe with Bando looking him in the eyes, fists shaking. Then in full view of everybody she stood on her toes, wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him to her lips, to which he obliged.
Lucy's eyes widened, as did Kurama's. This was news to both of them. Inside the kiss Bando took a free hand and flipped Lucy the bird, slapping Nana's back with the other and parting from her.
"Nice to be wrong, ain't it? I should know!" he laughed. "Not but eighteen months ago I was ready to throw it all away, but Nana here gave me a reason or two to keep on fighting. And now I'm returning the favour. Mind if I take charge of the situation, ladies and gents?" He looked at Nana, Lucy, Kohta and Kurama in turn; getting no resistance from any quarter. Lucy dropped the hostility to her human near-equal for a moment and stood to face him, shooting him a thin smile.
"As good as it is to see that you've found someone who doesn't believe you're a total douche, would you mind elaborating on the newsflash that it possibly isn't the Director who wants Nana to die?"
"If you're all sitting comfortably, I'll begin…" Bando replied.
---
Arakawa ran down her brief checklist of specimens a few times to add the numbers up- thirty-eight regular Silpelits, eleven healthy high-risk Silpelits and one empty, unpowered chamber- Lucy's former home. She could think of no particular reason why they'd turned the lights off in Lucy's old room and not Mariko's, but took that thought no further. Leaving the restricted area she thanked the guard again and strolled past Room 22, finding the door wide open. She looked inside out of curiosity and found Kakuzawa talking to the young man inside. It was idle chit-chat at first but the Director dropped his light tone after a few minutes, looking to the floor. She couldn't help but walk into the control chamber to find out why he'd become so serious.
"I can't lie to you anymore, Marvin. You're a bright young man and you deserve to know the truth of the matter. The deal is… I'm being relieved of command, effective immediately. You're the first boy Diclonius we know of at all and I wanted to carry on experimenting on you because I think you're stronger and better than most of your kind, but people from the government have heard enough from me and want to take over for themselves. They know about you and want to keep you here for their own, I know it sounds kinda selfish but I've got great things in mind for you, my boy."
"But all I want to do is go home, sir" Marvin protested. "I've never hurt anybody, you know that."
"That's true, and I wouldn't ask you to" Kakuzawa lied. "But they will, one day. If they don't kill you they'll make you into a killer like every other Diclonius."
"And there's nothing you can do to stop them?" Arakawa interrupted from behind.
"I got the call not long after you left my office. They'll be here inside the hour to take control. They're going to steal my dreams from me, Arakawa, and it scares me shitless."
"Dreams, sir?"
Kakuzawa had put his foot in it this time. He'd told Kurama of his grand plan to use Lucy to revitalise his family's bloodline but he'd kept it from everybody else in the company, only hinting to Arakawa that somehow his plans involved her.
"I need her back, Arakawa. I need Lucy back here in a bad way, to make all this worthwhile. They'd sooner have Lucy and Number Seven dead before entertaining any notion that a Diclonius can be reformed into human society, not that I especially care to tell you the truth. My desire for her is somewhat more selfish but at least I would have her live through this unharmed if possible. I told you earlier that Number Seven could wreck my plans for good if she put her mind to it, and that's still true. But at least she hates me honestly. She has a good reason to stop what I have in mind, one that doesn't involve crass profiteering. Arakawa, you may hate what I do…"
"With a goddamn passion" she replied. "I think you're a creepy bastard who screws lives up needlessly."
Kakuzawa smiled. "You've every right to think that and make it known. But at least my cards are on the table, I've nothing to hide anymore. The only thing I'm worried about is if the government's already sent people to kill Lucy and Seven yet. It's only 9am now and they could both be dead before noon and I wouldn't know it."
Marvin spoke up next- "Pardon me for being dense, sir, but what reason have they told you is it that they're taking over?"
"It's about the electricity thing- we told them we have twelve chambers to hold the most dangerous Diclonius in, and… they claim we have thirteen. If I can find the thirteenth then perhaps I can at least persuade the government to…"
Kakuzawa's cell-phone rang in his pocket to interrupt him.
"Yes, what is it?" Kakuzawa spoke.
"Uh, a Mr. Albert Briarecht is here from the Diet to speak to you."
"I'll… be right up."
Kakuzawa gripped on his phone so hard his knuckles went white and chucked it at the wall besides Marvin. Marvin thoughtfully caught the phone mid-flight with a vector, and tossed it back to him. Kakuzawa sheepishly put the phone back in his pocket but still kept his angry look.
"Who's Briarecht?" Arakawa asked.
"The last person I wanted in charge of this place. He's a hatchet-man in everything but name."
"Well… what can we do?"
"Papa… huh? Eh? What's going on? Where am I?… huh? There's a note here, lemme see what it reads. 'Dear Nana, thanks for agreeing to the Bando sub-plot, can't think of a witty footnote so please ad-lib a preview of Chapter 7, lots of bad language, sex, violence and stale soccer gags our four readers won't get. Yours, Seph.' … What an unreal dweeb. Right, what shall I say?… um…"