DISCLAIMER: Lack of feedback aside, that was a hard chapter to write. But believe it or not, this one was even harder although I knew what I had in mind.

Finally reaching the gateposts of hell, Kensuke Kurama checks his suit and tie before ringing the bell for service. However, he turns back to find a familiar figure sporting a lasso.


CHAPTER TWELVE

Kurama continued his journey into the abyss in front of a shocked Nana.
"Hiromi's death sent me to hell. I had no reason to feel anything but disgust about what I'd done to her and so many people. I'd stopped thinking anything good could come of my actions, and that I'd just become the Director's tool to murder and hunt down anybody with horns, no matter if they were good or bad. But there were times I thought I could fight against him, to take the good road"
"Like when?" Nana asked.
"When you were three years old, we found Lucy. Rumours of a serial killer had spread many years before you were born, and at their peak there was a massacre during a festival in which 6 people were slaughtered by a 10-year-old girl with horns, and another two were butchered on a train later that night. For 5 years after that, nothing at all happened bar a couple of urban tales. Then we got lucky- a warehouse security guard had tipped us off towards a couple of young girls hiding out there. We took a fleet of security there and found Lucy with who we thought was another Diclonius. Lucy fought us back throwing crates at the police, but…"
"Papa?"
"But… her friend was shot in the crossfire. Turns out she was just a normal human girl who'd made friends with her." Kurama wiped his eyes.
"Lucy gave herself up without a fight provided we saved her friend's life, but for all I knew she was dead at the scene. I waited by her bedside hoping for her to wake up, but I've no idea what we'd have done with her if she had. The Director made me tell Lucy but I guess I owed it to her to tell her anyway."
"How'd she take it, dare I ask?" Nana interrupted.
"She swore to kill everybody I ever loved until I was all alone. Little point in telling her that I was already alone, I guess."

Nana looked him right in the eyes. "Not for long, right?"
"Everybody I knew or cared about was gone and all that was left was Lucy who wanted to see me suffer, and the Director who was willing to sit back and gloat. So I became just an extension of his sick fantasies, watching Diclonius after Diclonius put through things they should never have gone through in his name. They all hurt, they all suffered, and they all asked why this was happening, but I said nothing. Nobody said anything, and I became swallowed up. I became the monster we were telling the world these people with horns were."
Nana started shaking one of her vectors like a fist. "You're not, Papa."
"Yes, I am Nana. Just another monster."
"Shut up. I won't hear you say that. You loved me."
"I pitied you."
That shocked Nana to the core.
"Not long after Lucy's capture I first saw you in the cannonball chamber, the same place as Chigusa. You were being hit with balls at far higher speeds than she had to bear, and I didn't even think to stop them, not after what happened last time. I lied to you telling you that things were going to be okay, you were being brave and you were doing well to last this long. It was all… bullshit. All of it."
"But what about when you let me out? When you wanted me to hunt Lucy? You had faith in me then, didn't you?" Nana asked. Kurama turned his head away from her. The thought "I see. If you're not willing to be proud of that, then…" ran through Nana's head.
No more tears, not for this whelp.

"Out… fucking… side." Nana barked. She got up off the toilet and unblocked the door. Exiting, she found that Yuka was listening in, and she had quite a shock to see Nana floating above the floor, just like… a ghost. Nana barged past Yuka on the way to the bedroom, lightly pushing her aside with a vector. She re-entered the bedroom and gathered up her limbs from the bed, re-attaching them. Walking out, Yuka confronted her.
"What the hell is going on?" she asked.
"I've got some things to get off my chest" Nana replied. "I've been lied to." Not wanting to hurt her adoptive mother any more, Nana preferred to hand-jump the rail down onto the stairs, and stroll out of the front door. Yuka was about to give chase, when she saw a blur in front of her walking away. For a second she swore she could hear a man crying.

Outside, the rain came down in a ferocious torrent. Nana was standing outside facing the front door, and the apparition (which Yuka could now clearly make out in the rainfall) was facing her. Nana looked behind her to see Yuka standing there shocked.
"Get Wanta inside. He'll catch a cold." Nana said in a low boom. Yuka complied, scared almost stiff. Nana then returned her gaze towards Kurama, to address the biggest insult she'd ever had.
"Bullshit was it, my good Doctor Kurama? Bullshit that I endured 6 long years of nightmares? Cannonballs to my face, my body and my arms? Being sealed in water-tight chambers until my heart stopped, then having shocks run through me? Having a mask over my head and being run through a room full of sharp wires? Spending half a day being cut open somehow, and sleeping with my blood running down to my ankles, without even the dignity of so much as a bed being afforded me? Being told that I will grow old soon? Being told that I was a monster, being told that I was here purely to murder and destroy?" She then donned a mocking tone- "Doctor, dear doctor, would you prescribe any of the above under that sweet name of 'bullshit' in good faith?"

Nana then turned around to face a mortified Yuka, and started to whimper in the dawn rain. She had no idea whatsoever about the true business that happened in this facility Nana blithely referred to as "home". Before she could react, however, Nana looked her dead in the eyes, gave her a wink and mouthed the words "Do nothing." Turning back towards her 'tormentor', Nana slumped to her knees and continued to whimper. Kurama made no attempt to comfort her, instead falling on his knees, beginning to cry. Nana's whimpers grew louder for a few second, drowning out Kurama's genuine tears… and turned to laughter. Her head darted up to look at his face.
"No, what's bullshit is the notion of you continuing to suffer now. You enjoy this."

"… What?" was all he could say.
"Why else do you persist in refusing to see the good things that you've done as good things, preferring to focus on the pain? You sound as if you accept the bad things that have happened to you as if you deserve them, as if you worked towards them. I bet you figured out what Chigusa did to you long before Mariko was born, perhaps even before Omori had his kid. Why, the discovery of how us monsters continue to breed must have been the highlight of your career, you fucking snake."
"That's not true, Nana!"
Nana was now bullish in her stride. "OF COURSE IT'S TRUE! Like either an idiot or a genius you stood back and watched, writing in your diary some sick little tale of how you'll have to report –with horror, I might add- that after all this time his child would have to be killed for the glory of The Director! Yes! In his majesty, he would pat you on your head and feed you with another yummy bone – lord knows where he gets them from, of course!"
Kurama looked at his immediate tormentor with complete and utter disgust. His fists were shaking.
"But that's not the real prize is it? What, may I ask, would be even better than telling your best friend the fate of his own child?" Nana covered her own face as if swirling a cape over her mouth.
"… telling your own wife the same thing."

Yuka couldn't tell who was more shocked out of herself and whoever Nana was addressing.
"Oh, excuse me for one second." Nana turned behind to address Yuka.
"Mommy, dear, I am so rude. I would like to introduce you to the man wilfully responsible for the pain and suffering of (enunciating) Hundreds of Proud Parents to feed his bloated nightmares, and the self-proclaimed reason for sweet little Nyu's well-hidden pledge to massacre the whole of humanity- Dr. Kurama. My beloved Pap.."
Her voice was cut out with a fist to the mouth. It wasn't Yuka's.

Nana flew into the hallway, hitting the wall behind the inner door. Yuka held her hands to her mouth and bit on her fingernails. Nana turned towards her and spat out blood over her sodden coat and naked body.
"Hehehe, it's just another day for me. Best get outta here Mom, this fight is going to be a Cu.." thwack. Right in the guts. Nana shrieked and spat more blood out, falling onto her front. Crawling towards the front door, she was suddenly lifted violently and hurled out into the rain. Yuka looked forward, petrified, to find that silhouette with the fire of hell in his eyes marching towards Nana. She dared not interfere lest she got caught in the fury of either of them.
"Beat up an innocent little girl would you, Papa?" Nana cried, redundantly.
"I've never MET an innocent little girl" the demon roared, followed by a swift boot to Nana's ribs that hoisted her almost eight feet into the morning air. Crashing to the ground, her false limbs fell off- the pain had momentarily rendered her vectors mute. Yuka rushed forward in order to stop this madness but caught some sort of fist into her own abdomen, and she fell back down in pain. This brought Kohta running down the stairs to the surreal sight of Yuka clutching her guts, Nana naked and bleeding on the floor and the outline of a man standing over her.
"Kohta, stay back! This doesn't concern you!" Nana yelled.
"What the HELL is going on?" Kohta was furious.
"Discipline, that's what." Kurama roared. "Get the woman outta here, I have to teach this little monster some manners."
He then picked Nana up by the shoulders and bent her over his transparent knee.
"Pardon the cliché, but this is going to hurt me a lot more…" he started
"LIAR!" was all Nana could yelp, in tears.
"… alright, I'll give you that." Kurama sneered. He then started administering the obvious parental judgement onto Nana's buttocks, time and again.

"I brought you from the depths of hell, Nana. I looked into your eyes and knew of the hell you were going to, asking why it happened to you time and again. I took pity on you because I've seen it all before." Her butt was turning sore by the second as he orated, and she could speak no more except in pain. He stopped for a moment, then continued slapping her.
"Dozens of little girls, dozens of deaths, dozens of unanswered questions. But with you, I could take no more. I did not answer your questions, but I did the next best thing. I told you it would be fine. I told you to be brave. I told you that you were a good girl. I had faith that you wouldn't go insane and start killing like Lucy. I gave you something to look forward to. I thought that this one good deed would redeem me." He raised his hand higher to apply a slap with more authority, but Nana looked right back up at him in his furious eyes.
"IT SHOULD HAVE. BUT YOU WERE TOO STUPID TO LET IT!" she cried, hoarse with pain. Nana then dropped to the ground, onto her back from Kurama's knee. Kurama was instantly aghast.

"Papa, right here, right now, I will admit that you saved my life from madness. But why the hell won't you admit yourself the same thing?!?!?"
He looked at his hands, then at Nana. Despite the physical pain that could rival a day back at the facility, her mind was never more resolute.
"That… was… all…" he began to speak.
"Bullshit, Papa" Nana said with a wry smile. "It hurt me far more to do that than you ever could, but someone had to make you see what you've done. Even if what you say was true about pitying poor, pathetic little me; even if you didn't say those things because you loved me at first, even if you were there for the wrong reasons, Papa, you were still there for me when it mattered. I bless the day I met you, Papa. You convinced me I wasn't a monster, you told me I was a somebody."

Regaining her vectors as the pain faded, she picked up her falsies and put them back on. Kurama's eyes were full of fresh tears.
"Nana… I… I'm…."
"NO! Do not say that. Do not ever be sorry to me again. You did what was right, you did what was proud. But then again, I'm not the only person you have to make up to, am I?"

---

Somewhere in the high trees opposite, the solider who was the only other witness to this affair radioed into his superiors-
"Confirming the presence of Number Seven alongside two human witnesses. Secure now, or await instruction from Mr. Director?"


NEXT: Hiromi realizes - to a complete lack of surprise – it really was nothing personal.