DISCLAIMER: The characters that don't exist in the Elfen Lied anime belong to me, as per usual.
After being rudely denied her freedom under whichever convention is en vogue at the moment, Number Eighteen is awoken by a concerned face, possibly presenting the opportunity to try again...
CHAPTER TEN
Angela Hayes awoke from her enforced slumber to see the world as a melted ice-cream, unable to form solid shapes. Accompanying the bizarre vista was a cacophony of human voices- one fairly close to her speaking in a concerned manner with an alien tongue, and other more urgent voices crying out from further away. Also dancing around Angela's skull was a reminder of her last escape attempt that ended in sickness and humiliation alongside the tiniest face of shock in the background, a glimpse snatched just before all faded.
The nearest voice repeated its utterance and the picture started to clear itself up somewhat. Angela craned her head upward to focus on the siren in front and blinked several times on that point. She began to take deep breaths as if to help expedite the lifting fog. One final deep cough and all was revealed- she was right back where she started, chained up against the wall; but the face of fear from earlier was right in front of her staring into her eyes with genuine, almost tearful empathy.
Angela looked past this warm sight for a second. The voices in the back had ceased and one of them, the man with no hair, appeared to be loading a gun.
"Sorry" she whispered, then grabbed Arakawa with four vectors with bullet-ferocity. Taking care not to wound her she turned her captive around to face the threat in the control room opposite, then thrust her forward – screaming – to around a few feet from the glass.
"ARAKAWA!!! DO NOTHING!" Kakuzawa shrieked from the other side. "What's her range, Albert?"
"Four metres."
"She's only four-and-a-half from the door, she could have rammed her straight into the glass but she stopped of her own will."
"Why? She could have torn her in half, freed herself and killed us both before I got a shot off!"
"… she's desperate, Albert. All she wants to do is escape. I think we should let…"
"Stop that sentence before I shoot you, Iori. No creature is getting out of this facility on my watch!"
The two continued their bickering for a few moments while Arakawa breathed heavily, not daring to move a muscle lest Number Eighteen tear it immediately afterwards. Collecting her thoughts for a moment the Diclonius eased her prey closer backwards before taking a spare vector to cleave her newest shackles just as easily as she did the last set. She forced Arakawa onto her knees with a firm shove and held her there with two arms aimed straight at her throat. Looking at the pair of men argue onward she dragged Arakawa with her real arms back towards the rear of the wall, then deliberately sat behind, legs akimbo and ducked behind, with Arakawa sat in the middle. She began to whisper, in English, into Arakawa's ear-
"Ssh ssh shh, don't say a word. All I wanna do is leave."
"I don't understand you, please don't hurt me" was all Arakawa could reply.
"Ssssshhhhhhh, don't be afraid, I'll let you go when they let me go."
"Please don't hurt me! Please don't hurt me, I'm sorry!" – Arakawa was in tears.
"LET HER GO, ANGIE!" an unfamiliar voice cried out from the entrance.
---
"Are you alright, Nana?" Kohta asked.
"I could kill a cigarette right now" Nana replied ruefully. "It would've been better if you said 'No, I can't'."
Kohta looked behind through the rear windshield to see two distinctive black marks snaking back out of the Studio gates and left back up the hill they just bombed down, half-expecting to see a geriatric head-over-tail in the bushes opposite the gate, a school of splattered hedgehogs or a police cruiser with cackling officers. In his mind Kohta had got off lucky with his flaming great whopper of a lie; in Nana's she was eternally thankful she had her own parking space in spite of the fact she neither drove nor was particularly inclined to learn how.
"Alright Kohta, here's the deal. If I've still got my job my ID should work, we wait in reception, Mayu staggers in, we leave, that's it. Nothing else unless Bando tells us different."
The pair exited the car, catching whiffs of melting rubber and petrol in their wake. Sidling up to the front gate Nana composed herself and produced her identity card from her coat, handing it over to a bored-looking security guard. Before he could buzz her through he heard footsteps rushing from the building inside. With no particular urgency on his own part he held his free hand up to stop her from proceeding while the dervish burst through the doors and approached.
"Blu! Thank Christ you're here, massive fave needed." Her studio director yelled out. Pained, Nana collected herself and allowed him to catch his breath.
"Umm…. What's up, Hiro-chan?"
"Horace's wife's waters have broke and he left about 2 o'clock, traffic's shafted because of the police, gunfire was heard a few hours… wait a second, don't you live in the hillside? Did you know anything about it?"
"Well, no, um, heh, I mean… wow, I didn't realise she was due about now. Eh, listen Hiro, now's not really a good time, I'm just here to meet a friend…"
"It's not for right now, Blu, it's for 7:30. Harvey was supposed to be live from San Francisco but he's caught something from the locals, probably Mary-Jane related, and Horace was supposed to be doing Harvey's set. I REALLY need you to play his set otherwise it's re-runs from the shit-hop hour and what's the freaking point if we have to cut most of it out?"
"I really appreciate the dilemma, but this can't…"
"Double, Blu, double – no – treble pay just for now. And if you like it, you can take 7:30 for a month."
-
"Oh… balls." Bando summed it up on the phone minutes later, pained. "Not one word, I beg your immortal soul, not one word about today."
"What's going on?" Kurama asked, still laid chest-down on the sofa. His back was neatly sewn up and clean.
"They want her to work 7:30 through 9:30, they strong-armed her with three-times a day's pay. Nothing funny, just some other loser's setlist."
"What can we do to plan around it? I don't think she'll say no even if I disowned her."
"Precisely… (deep breath) jack, apart from listen in I guess… one second. Nana, are you still there?"
"Yeah."
"How's the boy's driving?"
"I wish you hadn't asked. The car's just about in one piece."
"Get him to wait outside for your friend and pray she shows up before 7:30. If she doesn't he's going to have to drive her back here."
"Wait up Bando… … … yes! That's her outside right now. I'll get her and Kohta to sit in reception."
"Remember, honey, just play the music and bail. No callers. I'll be listening if I can get a radio in this dump. Stay silent, stay safe. Love ya."
Nana heard Bando hang up on her with an unusual – but justified – measure of fear in his voice. She knew for certain the shootout had attracted municipal attention but unless there had been survivors able to give accounts of the fight surely they had no idea of the parties involved? For all his machismo and theatrics she was sure he came to the rescue that morning as silently as possible even in a car that was built for speed in the same way Mayu was built for sobriety. She walked back out towards the gate to find her step-sister leaning against the guard hut.
"Mayu, are you alright?"
Mayu cupped her hand to her ear and slurred "Haben sie das gehört? es gibt einen frosch in meiner gelben unterhose…" as Nana put her palm to her face, ready to burst into tears it seemed.
"Only joking!" Mayu perked up as if on command. "The look on your face just then…"
Steam appeared to come from Nana's eyeballs in her glare- "Mayu, we could be dead before the day is out, so please let's just stop assing about and get the hell inside, OK?"
---
"Who are you, and how do you know my name?" Angela asked Marvin, sill gripping her hostage in front of her. Marvin began to speak to her in clean English-
"My telepathy is more advanced than most of our kind. I can identify every Diclonius inside a mile and read their thoughts. I haven't tried speaking to you yet, I'm not sure you'll hear me. Please let my friend go."
"All I want to do is go home, I don't want to hurt this girl if I don't have to."
"That's all I want to do as well but they don't trust us to exist with the rest of them, and all you're doing is giving them more reason. Miss Arakawa's got nothing to do with this."
"Why do they want me at all? I knew I had this special power but I haven't hurt anybody with it, I swear."
Marvin was in a bind- should he tell her the terrible truth Kakuzawa confided to him, or...
"They just... want to see what you can do to help other people like us, to be normal."
"LIAR!"
Infuriated, Angela shot four vectors straight at Marvin. He didn't flinch at all, staring his possible death straight in the face.
Four ghostly clanks filled the air, and Angela looked on in shock. Out of desperation she flung another six in his direction, and all six were parried just as easily. Marvin bowed his head and shook it, whimpering.
"WHY?!?" she screeched in defeat, before inexplicably having her arms prised apart, allowing Arakawa to dash to safety. Angela was then held up by her ams and her legs were forcefully prised apart, leaving her staring back at him with impotent rage- she had all ten arms in play and he not only cancelled them out but had apprehended her with little effort. The thought "What the hell is he?" ran through her brain as she strained under his firm grip. He looked back up at her, tears in his eyes.
"That's why you can't leave." Marvin spoke, matter-of-fact. "Don't take it badly, it's just our instinct."
Angela bawled out, completely powerless. Relieved, Briarecht stepped into the control room and looked Marvin in his eyes with a relieved smile.
"Verwunderbar! My boy... that was just fantastic. What's your number?"
"My number... Twenty-two, sir."
"Sterling work, that could have been a very messy situation... ... ... kill her."
"... beg your pardon, sir?"
"We cannot release her into society, not like this. Kill her immediately."
-
Hanging up his phone Ganso ran down the hallway in fear, passing Kakuzawa dashing in the opposite direction. Having read the paper he knew exactly what the ramifications could be if the United States found out one of its more-important citizens was being held and experimented on; plus he had to honour his promise to his best friend to observe what was going on in the facility and only intervene in the direst circumstances- even though these didn't immediately pertain to Nana, they could at a later date.
Ganso stopped just short of Room 18 to catch his breath and straighten himself up, preparing to make a plan up on the fly. He motioned towards the room but stopped- Briarecht stepped outside, angrily cussing to himself. Arakawa followed with Marvin hand-in-hand and the three of them stopped. Marvin's eyes widened and he turned to look at Ganso in amusement as Briarecht continued to lambaste Arakawa for getting herself into the situation that almost resulted in the deaths of two people and two experiments. Ganso looked back at Marvin for a second, then at Arakawa as she pleaded with Albert not to take action.
Albert took an extremely deep breath before deciding his course- "Very well, you idiot. Take Twenty-Two back to his room, and permanently double his food ration; then find out where that coward Kakuzawa's run off to. As for Eighteen... I'll have to discuss her with the ministry..." he caught Marvin looking at the cleaner, then addressed Ganso.
"What are you doing here?"
Ganso was stuck for an answer for a moment, then composed himself- "I've run out of bleach for my mop. Can I order some?"
Briarect shook his head, unable to utter anything in his fury. He merely flapped his hand in indifference then stormed off away from the scene. Ganso wiped his brow and looked back at the smart Diclonius in front of him. Marvin shot him a knowing wink and was led away by Arakawa.
"Why were you staring at the janitor, Marvin?"
"He works out too much, I think he's on steroids" Marvin joked back. "Miss... what did Mr. Kakuzawa ask you?"
"He asked me about a little girl called Nana who used to live here in Room Seven."
Ganso walked into Room 18 whilst the door remained open, and found Angela slumped on the floor at the rear of the wall, blood in front of her. He cautiously approached the prisoner, looking over her... and found the situation was not as it seemed.
-
"Something about her... something about Nana" Kakuzawa said out loud, reaching Kurama's office once more. Clambering over the mess he caused with more determination than ever he took a quick look at the menacing keypad and produced his cellphone from his pocket, dialling a government number with impatience. As the phone dialled he rifled through Kurama's framed photographs once more looking for any clues, thunderously placing each one down in turn. Finally he got an answer.
"Hello?"
"This is Director Iori Kakuzawa of the Taurus Institute, Kamakura. I would like to register a strong complaint with whoever's in charge of the Army..."
Kakuzawa stopped mid-track and stared at his phone's keypad. "It can't be, it's so stupid." his brain laughed at him, and a smile cracked through his face.
"... never mind, I'll call you back." he hung up and looked back at the alphanumeric pad, his smile transforming into a broad grin. Marching back over to the hidden door he took a moment to register what could be his salvation, paid Kurama a mental salute and entered the digits 6-2-6-2 with authority.
As if to the climax of the 1812 overture Kakuzawa pumped his fist to the air as the door slid open and out of the way.
"YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Kakuzawa entered the secret chamber.
"NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The empty water tank in front of him bared its arse at him mockingly, dried fluid and broken glass strewn on the floor in places.
"Whooooooah, double rump steak! back-of-the-net!"
"That's because you've been a good boy, Marvin. That could have been a lot worse, you were so cool about it."
"One thing still bugs me about it, Miss... he's not going to let me go either, is he?"
"I'll work something out, Marvin, I promise. Now be a star and do the preview for chapter 11."
"Alrighty then... the next chapter will likely have a musical pun for a title, questions will be asked and answered whilst Nana tries very hard to remain calm during the ensuing tsunami of supercilious insig...pffft... I knew I'd feck that up, I spent all day rehearsing it."
"Never mind. Now eat your dinner."