Somewhere in Yokosuka...
"Mayu, you are so nice...I will never, never forget about that...this is wonderful..."
Nana had the knack for saying things at the wrong moment. For instance, such a declaration in the middle of a shopping mall had the result of making more than a couple heads turn, since Nana, in excitement, had said this in a rather loud voice this sentence that was somewhat strange in the mouth of 14 years girl, especially while thinking that this concerned merely a frozen treat...
Nana had not a taste for ice cream. It was a passion. If she had been allowed to, she would have eaten almost only that. And she was especially liking this Gelatto thing Mayu had just paid her...
She had already eaten three servings. With the prices there was there, this was bound to be a very pricey afternoon...a thing that did not mattered much for Nana, who still have a rather sketchy understanding of what was money. Mayu, whose relations with the thing was quite different, could have been appaled by the behaviour of Nana...but the younger Diclonius was so cheerfull that it was very hard to have hosile feelings for her. Besides, this was technically her money that she and Mayu used on their modest spending spree, so...why if she found entertainement in little things ? This was a trait of character that was rather admirable, honestly...
Nana comment made reference to the mere fact that Mayu had suggested her to try gelatto instead of traditionnal ice cream. The small portion had initially dispirited Nana, but as soon as she had tasted this...hmm ! This was not the first time that Nana showcased such a passion, but this was certainly one of the most intense time. This pushed Mayu to ask to her friend a very basic question, a rather natural one...but with Nana, there was no such things as easy questions
"Why you like so much ice cream ? I mean...you like ramen, rice, cookies...but it's really ice cream that you love the most ?" (a very cheerful Nana nodded as Mayu said that)
"Oh, it's just because Daddy let me taste some of this, once…I enjoyed that a lot…."
A moment of silence. Mayu did not have the hostility of Yuka concerning Kurama.
No. It was worse. It was dozen of times worse. This monster had abused of the trust of Nana. He had tricked her into accepting monstruous things. This was even worse that what Mayu's stepfather had done to her...No. It was the same kind of thing. Her stepfather had tried everything to make her shut up. Giving her small stuff to keeping her quiet. Telling her that this was her fault too...And...and Mayu had accepted this, for a while. There had been times when...when she accepted to shut up, because her stepfather had promised her to buy things if she submitted. With the obviousgoal of saying, later on, that Mayu...was just a ...a...He had told this to her countless times. This...this was partly why she was sympathizing with Nana: similar fates. Similar despair. Nana looked to be more or less aware of this situation, for some reason...The fact that she sometimes eyed curiously Mayu when the girl was talking about her family was a clear hint of this. Mayu felt bad about lying about this to Kouta, Yuka, and the others...
Well, Lucy was almost certainly aware of the situation. Mayu got very nervous at the thought. Lucy reaction had been rather friendly, but certainly frightening. Who was this Natsume that she had mentionned ? The circumstances in which she Lucy had...pushed, to say the least...Mayu to talk about the situation, some weeks ago, was certainly a good hint about the whole thing...
What angered sometimes Mayu was the fact that she had to flee. She had to live in the streets. She had to lie each day to her friends. All this made that...the protest she had voiced when Lucy had told her that she would be delighted to take care of stepfateher was less than a token protest...
Chassing the thought about Lucy/Nyu (besides, she was Nyu those days...and very busy, as Yuka was frantically trying to "brief" her about behaving in a way that could look normal), Mayu thought about the current situation...Could telling her experience to Nana could be a good thing ?
This would certainly be good for her. And for Nana too. Nana trusted her...she had shared with Mayu her darkest memories. Maybe doing the same would show to Nana that Mayu trusted her...
And if I told her about my stepfather...would this help her to realize the truth about Kurama ? Or she would rather think that what...that what he done to her was not that bad ? How to blame her to think like that...I still think, at times, that my life could have been worse...if I had been born with horns, like her. She...she have told me everything...This allow me to...to judge her. I should do the same thing. I should...tell her about what he did to me. When...this will be the good time.
"The good time" would have to be triggered, however...Like Yuka, Mayu was trying to open the eyes of Nana. As Nana saw her as a friend/sister rather than a mother figure (like this was likely the case for Yuka), maybe this would be easier if Mayu was the one doing the talking...
Mayu took a deep breath, and decided to try, one more time, to raise the subject...
"Ah ?" finally said Mayu. "This is interesting...How this happened, Nana ?"
Mayu saw clearly that a part of the happiness present in the eyes of Nana moved away...
"Well, I'm almost sure it was flavoured chocolate, and not actual one, but still, this was so good-"
"Nana, this was not I was asking...How...why he gave you this ? Why you liked it..."
"Like you", said innocently Nana, "he gave ne this a reward because I had been nice…."
The "nice" part refered to the whole shopping event in Yokosuka. In fact, this had proceeded amazingly well, when speaking off the social abilities of Nana. Not a single faux pas. Nana had behaved mostly like a perfectly normal Human girl-except her excitement over certain things...
This decision to send them to Yokosuka instead of Kamakura was straight from Yuka. Currently, it was a safe bet that most commercial zones of Yokosuka were under watch. Yokosuka was certainly safer for the little things Nana still needed. Yuka had began to "prepare" Nana for the departure toward Hokkaido. She had already found the hotel where she was going to "hide" her for a couple of days (with, to make things easier for her, at least twenty litres of ice cream, of all flavours, tucked into the room bar….) As Yuka was aware that she would "trap" Nana into this room, in a situation not unlike her previous life, the Human girl had at least tried to find a good hotel…an luxurious one, even. This time, with Yuka's own money. (This point was...nagging Mayu. She liked to pay treats to Nana, too, but she had trouble doing this-the best she could was to pay for things like the gelatto..with Nana's own money. This was not right)
The hotel was complete with an large swimming pool. Recalling how she was excited, when she was young, about the possibility of swimming, Yuka had decided to use this as a "selling point" for showing to Nana the good point of the trip. The results had been an even more enthousiast answer of Nana, who had carefully kept secret the fact that she had trouble with the concept...
Nana was not sure of what exactly this "swimming" thing meant. She understood the basic concept (go in water), but she had never figured out why Yuka had made such a fuss when she had took Nana and Nyu to the beach. She had complained because Nyu had walked into the water fully clothed. This, Nana could understand, but she had trouble with Yuka's other reaction, when Nana had, mindful of not damaging her clothes, had removed them. This what you were doing when bathing, no ? Or rather, Nana had started to remove them, before Yuka told her that this was inappropriate. Fortunately, Nana had not done a similar thing today, when she was trying the different swimsuits/clothes that she and Nana were supposed to buy in Yokosuka...
Still, even if she had no go strolling with this in the shopping mall, Mayu had to admit that Nana's pick for swimsuit was maybe a little audacious...(even if Mayu had to admit that Nana was…striking…in this amethyst two pieces, that was on the verge of being tiny)
Complete with pareos, and various clothing that looked great on her, Nana was certainly a very attractive girl...and she was somewhat conscious of it. How to explain, otherwise, her question to Mayu, as she was asking her opinion on a yet smalller swimsuit ? Do you find me cute into this ?
Mayu, on this point, was ill placed to spoke on this matter. She had answered, without thinking that, yes, she thought that Nana was gorgeous into this. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.
The saleswoman, who had then made to a colleague a puzzling comment about a couple of French female tourists that had come recently (apparently, Nana recalled her the younger French girl...Mayu was sure that this meant that the two French girls were, ahem, close), had a very positive attitude: she had said, very sincerly, that this was kawai to see girls so much in love...
Mayu had managed to walk out of this, while avoiding an explanation on the whole concept of love and like, with Nana. This was immediatly after, in part for preventing her to think too much ot the comment, that Mayu had decided to stop with Nana to eat a little something...
In any case, this little event had been more fun than anything else...Not like what was to come.
"Nana", continued Mayu , "I...did not pay you ice cream because you were a "nice girl". I paid you ice cream because you like it, and because I wanted to do something to please you..."
"This is exactly what happened with Daddy. He gave me some of this because he knew I-"
Nana did not specified that this had been the only solid food that she had eaten in years. This was not necessary, as Mayu realized this. So...even the so cute, so kiddy trait of Nana liking ice-cream was related to a dark thing ? What wretched life this poor girl had been forced to live...
"Nana, how...how could he know that you liked it ? What you did to have this reward. ?"
Ah, she should not said that. Yuka looked to be a lot less happy than before, now…
Another "chunk" of cheerfulness vanished in Nana's eyes. She knew where this was leading...
"…Well, they…needed to test something, and this required that I told them honestly what I was feeling. He told me that if I did it, he would gave me a treat…a surprise…"
Mayu was outraged with this. This recalled her furiously the conduct of her step-father...who had made to her similar offers. "Shut up, and I will (insert a tiny thing, that coud please a young girl)
"I see", Mayu managed to say in a neutral tone...What you needed to do in exchange..."
"Oh...oh not much. You see, the...reward made this much easier to me..."
"Nana. What you had to do ? " (Mayu said this in a much harsher tone that she had wanted to)
"Not...not much, actually. I just had to tell them how I was feeling...you know...to see if the razor blades where just annoying to me, or if they prevented me to…to…do stuff…"
Up to this point, Nana's conversation could have been made by a normal girl. The comment about the razors blades just...just cut that. In front of Mayu, there was no longer a girl who was excited over ice-cream, but a former guinea pig, who had been tortured during years...
"Do you know, Nana, that this thing probably took to him two minutes to buy ?" finally managed to utter a deeply shocked Mayu. Nana, for her part, was...was almos on the verge of tears...
This is so difficult...I...I can't tell her about Mitsune. Maybe if I used a different way...
Nana recalled a plot device in her favourite movie. The old man knew that the truth could hurt the young hero. About his daddy being a bad person. So, he invented a tale, to tell him what had happened, without outright lying ! Yes, this was the thing to do. Unfortunately, Nana had a rather limited "bank" to make up her story...this was going to look very, very strange...
"…you know, I have been trying to read some of your books, Yuka. I…I have came on a story, you know…It was about two sisters, that looked alike. Twin girls who had a very sad life..."
Nana took a good minute to think about that. Yuka had gave to Nana carefully chosen books, to cheer her up. Stories about depressive people with wretched lives where maybe exactly what she needed, not to mention that this would be problematic with her currently limited reading skills. And she was quite sure that there was not such a story in those books. Which meant that Nana had made up the "I read that" part. This meant that the sister part…had actually occured ?
What followed for the next minutes was a rather weird tales, about two princesses that had rings with magical powers, and one of them turning bad because of the ring (that point, obviously, could have been lifted from one of the books Nana liked the most...) What Mayu noted was the pain that Nana took to explain that both sisters liked each other, after all, very much...
The interest to the story made that Mayu did not noticed that the breath of Nana was getting irregular, that her voice pace was increasing...the terrible memories she was telling was as bad as any armed agression toward her. Especially...especially that, once she started to tell the story, she realized plainly the lies, the half-truths, everything they have used against her on the island...
They...laughed of me. They always did that. They joked about how I was submissive. They told me that once I would no longer be useful, I would end like Mitsune. They did not respected me the slighest bet because I was good girl. They thought that I was an idiot, a DOLL for them !
"So, the...the bad princess say that she could not stand anymore, and, and the dragon and king..."
And Daddy watched her. And Daddy was there, after she had been crippled.
"and to punish her of using her magic, the dragon decided to...to bury her alive, and..."
He did not say a word. He did not tried to help her. He let Kakuzawa do that to her, alive..."
"Then…she go straight to Hell…to Hell…her sister watched her…she watched her…they forced her to watch, to teach her a lesson. No. They…done that just for the fun of it..."
Mayu realized that Nana's voice was changing-a process she knew, since it had happened sometimes with Nyu. A couple of other sentences, and Nana would have told to Mayu about a very important thing to her. But...she was growing hostile. She would probably not harm Mayu in this state. No...the harm would for herself. Mayu had to stop her. And she know how,.
Nana stopped suddenly. Mayu, whose cheeks were bloodred, had just kissed her on the forehead...This...calmed her, at once. Unlike Nyu/Lucy, there was not clear distinction between Nana and the Hostile Nana (or, to take Nana's own conception, between Seven and Three...)
This was slightly...hmm...delicate to do in a little restaurant, in the midst of a shopping mall (and Mayu noted, with disdain, that Nana's horrible tale did not raise attention...while two girls kissing did draw the attention of many, many men nearby...) Nana did not looked to be much disturbed. She was looking at Mayu in a strange manner. Oh, oh ,oh...
Mayu had a certain interest for American cartoons. In any case, this had gave her an almost perfect expression for expressing her feelings about the pertinence of her action. DOH !
This impression vanished quickly, as Nana moved to kiss her back in turn. On the lips. And...well, with what could be labelled as passion: Mayu felt very clearly Nana's own lips and tongue moving on her lips...it's lasted for a good half minute. Nana was clearly delighted.
And she topped it with the sentence that would convince manage to convince every single person watching them that she and Mayu were, err, intimate (which made Mayu go even redder...)
"You know", she said all smiling, "your lips taste very, very, very good, Mayu..."
Mayu managed to mumble something, while noting that Nana's comment looked...looked strange. Did she had picked this expression somewhere ? Mayu made a mental note to told to Yuka to check a little more what Nana was watching on TV. Or rather, make sure that Kouta delete is vast, vast collection of works where two female characters could say such things...
Nana felt, one more time, really lost. Visibly, she had done something that had displeased to Mayu. What this could be ? When Nana had kissed Mayu, days ago, as they were bathing (to try if this had the same effect with Mayu then with Nyu. Answer: no. Mayu was...special for Nana) Mayu had not the same reaction. She had even looked to be quite pleased by this-Mayu disliked deeply the "tickling", but this was not the same for the more...discrete...shows of affection.
Then, Nana saw it. This was probably a sort of secret thing, again...Maybe the people around them were not supposed to know ? Nana eyed curiously the people sat at tables next to them. If there was some hostile looks, most people were...interested, at the very least...
In any case, Mayu's intervention had chased away most of the hostility of Nana.
Nana was still slightly worried...but nothing compared to what she felt some minutes later. Like someone had just stabbed her. And...and this was her punition, because she had been a bad girl.
Nana, with dread, was realizing something. Mitsune was a very lonely, very desperate girl. Very angry. Very hostile. Diclonius "sixth sense" worked a lot with agression. Mitsune had been quite visible, in this way. Someone had sensed it. Someone walking toward them right now.
And Nana knew the Diclonius girl that was coming here. And this was making her heart jump in her chest. She was so afraid that it's took her a good two, three minutes, to gather her spirits, and manage to say something to a rather startled Mayu. Nana realized, with horror, that this delay, that her fear, had allowed the ennemy to come much closer. They were almost to the mall...
"Nana ! Nana ! Snap out of it !" (Mayu said this in a rather low voice, to avoid making the situation even worse. To top Nana's peculiar sentences, there had been her strange story, then Mayu's kiss, Nana's even weirder declaration, and her looking aghast for two minutes...)
"She...I don't know how this is possible, but she is coming...Mayu...she...she is after me. She is laughing of me. I...I don't have a chance against her...I don't wan't to go back there, I..."
Nana was saying this with a terror-striken voice. She had to bit her lips, to be able to talk.
Mayu did not lost time by asking to Nana who was coming, and how she had sensed it. Her reaction was a pretty good hint of it. While trying to calm her friend, she paid up for the gelattos.
After that, she led Nana away. Nana was trying to focus her mind, but the fear of being recaptured...of being one more time being beaten, laughed at, treated like a toy, was too much.
Especially considering that Daddy was dead. No one would love her, at the facility. No one would be nice with her. Would they even allow her to live, once they would have forced her to say what she knew about Lucy/Nyu. Probably not...even if Nana could live a very normal life with her false limbs, this was not enough to be allowed to be a guinea pig there...
And...and Nana did not wanted to either die, or to return there. She wanted to say with Mayu, with Yuka, with Nyu, with Kouta.. But even afraid, Nana was able to think clearly.
Like right now. She was trying to see if there were not others options...She would be unable to fend off the ones that would come against them. Mitsune could be able to fight against them.
Sure, Nana prefered to be...Nana, and not be a...a.bad girl. It's not that she did not understood Mitsune to be so angry. It's just that she knew that the stuff she liked to do was...was awful. The fact that Nana was very well aware that, in reality, Mitsune and her were the same person (even if Nana's conclusion on the matter were a little peculiar: far from thinking that Mitsune had a different "soul" than her own, or that Mitsune soul had somehow jammed herself in her body, Nana was deep down sure that Mitsune was what she would have been if the money piece had landed on the other side. A rather disturbing conception, to say the least) did not prevented her to realize that doing the same actions than Lucy was a thing to avoid at any cost. At any cost.
At the cost of Mayu's very own life ? Nana had not said this to the poor Mayu, but...well, Mayu's life, happiness, mattered to her. Like the others members of the Kaede's household.
It was just that Mayu was...well, special, for her. There was no doubts for her: if Mayu was ever threatened, she...she would defend her as long as possible as a good girl. If this was not enough...
Nana's looked at her prostethics arms and legs. She could live with them. It's was even a happy life. But Mayu was without Vectors. If the Diclonius realized that Nana liked Mayu, she was sure that, just to harm Nana, the other Diclonius would do to Mayu what Lucy had done her...
And then, an alarm began to ring. This made Nana shiver even more. This recalled her the darkest days at the facility...when such an alarm had been raised, after...after her own sister had been murdered. All those very dark considerations put her in a kind of second state...
Mayu, who was certainly less exposed, could afford to try to identify who was coming, while motionning her friend to move away. And sure, there was something bad coming at them. Vehicles were stopped next to the main entrance, and suspicious folks were checking the people that were hastily evacuating the shopping mall, thanks to the fire alarm that had been ringed...
Among those individuals, there was of course individuals with the mercenary type...
And also US servicemen, from the Seventh Fleet, in uniforms and in weapons. A dozen of them.
The mere presence of armed soldiers was sufficient to motivate people to move away, rather fast. Who know ? It was maybe a terrorist attack, or something like that. The thing was, Mayu and Nana could hardly hope to pass in front of them...since the Diclonius was very, very near.
They feigned to move toward the exit, then darted in an little hallway near the gates. Neither Mayu and Nana had much experience into escaping grunts. What motivated Mayu was mostly the service staircase. She was more than a little worried by the fact that it was more than likely that, once she pushed the door to the service staircase, a new alarm would ring...
Mayu tried, by overhearing conversations, to figure out what was happening. Apparently the Americans, which were within meters of her were completly unaware of the situation. They were chatting about this right now, wondering, in English, what the hell they were doing here. Those soldiers were not stupid to the point of not being aware that being ordered by Japanese officials to do an police operation in Yokosuka was really strange, orders from their own officers or not...
"I'm telling you, the lieutenant must be blackmailed by the Yakuzas, or something like this..."
"This will end up bad. Those guys...are...are...weirdoes, to say the least, and...
The two American soldiers stopped to chat suddenly. Mayu could not see it, but it was because one of the «weirdoes» had moved toward them. The soldiers had suddenly realized that this man was likely to be able to understand English. They returned to their passive crowd control role.
The sais crowd control was going rather quickly. The agents of Kakuzawa did not even bothered to ask for papers-they knew very well that their target was not moving toward them...
Once the place would be empty, however, well, they would be able to search extensively in the mall. And, on this pont...time was running out. The people moving for the main exit was dwindling. Mayu had hoped for a kind of improvment over the situation, but now...
"Nana, calm down...where...where is the Diclonius ? the other one..." she tried to ask...
"I don't know...I just don't know" said sheepishly Nana. "She is getting closer...but...but..."
Nana just did not know, indeed. The Diclonius sixth sense was usually not very precise, and Nana was so afraid that this was disrupting it: she was «feeling» the Diclonius next to the main door, but also just in front of her (where there was nothing but thin air), above her, below her...
Mayu, hoping that this would not end in disaster, pressed the door. She did not overheard the Americans and goons yelling outside about the new alarm. Maybe they had a chance, after all. This service staircase lead to the rooftop. This was a start. Once they would be there, maybe an opportunity would present itself. But...reaching this relative haven was going to be problematic. Mayu had, more and more, to help her friend to move. She was so nervous that she had now trouble to use her legs and arms, which was going to slow them down a lot, and Nana was very conscious of this. She was feeling ashamed at the thought. Especially when she tripped down very hard on her «knees»: with real legs, she would have ended up quite bloodied...
Her left leg almost flew away, and Nana's breath was knocked off. Mayu let her catch her breath, pause a little...and realized, at this time, that there was now perfect silence. The mall had been evacuated. The fire alarm had been shutted up. But the staircase alarm was not ringing...Startled, Mayu took a deep breath. They were next to another door. Mayu pushed it...Nothing.
Mayu's heart sank when shen realized that this was...too easy. The alarms for the staircase had been desativated. The doors had been unlocked...Was she leading Nana in a sort of trap ?
"Mayu"...said weakly Nana. "I...if I stay here, you can go away, you know ?"
Mayu protests were as sincere as they were utterly conventional. She would not do this...
Nana was so overwhelmed with a feeling of dread that she did not really listened...
"Can I have a farewell kiss, however ? Plize, this would be very nice of you..."
Nana was mortified that Mayu blushed at her offer. On TV, this worked so well.. Maybe she should have topped this with this thing they usually did after...the...the...ah, yes, the strip tease. Seriously, Nana was just curious. She liked this whole kissing concept. It's made her feel good.
She liked to be close of Mayu. She had to...to be very cautious, however. Mayu was obviously not very keen on this issue. Nana had understood, thanks to deduction and some broken sentences of Nyu, as well as mumblings of Lucy sometimes, that this was a similar thing that had put a strain on the friendship of Lucy and her friend. Besides, just looking at Mayu lips was...
On this very precise point, the fact that Mayu lips had the taste of this so tasty gelatto (hence explaining the fact the, ahem, passion, Nana had put in her kiss. As well as the very sincere comment on the lips that tasted good...) was just a sort of very neat bonus for Nana..
Besides...I like Mayu not just for the tickling. Just being with her make me feel good. And, well, for the tickling, Nyu is always very, very willing. (Nana's train of tought could have been voiced in quite different terms, to say the least...)Just thinking to the good aspects of her life helped Nana to regain some focus. If she died...no more ice cream and ramen. No more Mayu and Nyu. No more vacations with Yuka in the OKKADO place. No more...so many things.
She raised back to her feet, and continued to follow Mayu up to the rooftop (maybe, after,she could ask as a reward kiss...but maybe this was better to wait for a more strategic moment. She was not as good as Number Four on this-the thought briefly made Nana frown. Bah, at least, Number Four was not very hostile-but she could have an idea of the feelings of Human for her. It was very good for her to know that Mayu's reaction to her kiss had been rather warm...)
Mayu, in addition of having to deal with her feelings concerning Nana actions, had to think about their escape. Now, she was overhearing Japanese instructions shouted to the Americans. Rather drastic. Nana was labelled as a target, and she should be fired upon ASAP. Apparently, they had not been briefed, at all, on what Diclonius could do when they feel to be threatened...
Then, Mayu understood it, in a flash. This was supposed to end up this way. One of the agents of Kakuzawa would fire at Nana...she would, well, turn hostile. Maybe end up like Lucy.
With her limbs (or lack of the said limbs) she would never be able to hold long against trained soldiers, who would almost certainly fire on her once she started to hack away.
US servicemen involved in the slaying of Japanese civilian...a pure nightmare for Washington.
Of course, they would not be able to hide something this big. But many would think, in Japan, that the murders in Kamakura were related to an obscure conspiration of the Americans...
And there was also the added advantage that witnesses would remember the Americans who had entered the place gun blazing, not the non-descript Japanese agents that were with them...
Finally, the pair reached the roof. For doing what ? Jumping to the next building was not really an option, with the distance involved. Mayu was about to ask Nana for suggestions, when she noticed that, one more time, her friend was looking in thin air, with startled eyes...
Nana had just felt that the Diclonius girl knew where she was. And...something else, too...
"Sorry, little ladies, trying to escape by the rooftops is very, very classic…."
Nana and Mayu then saw an foreigner woman (Russian ?), quite smiling, advance toward them...
"Might I ask why you are on a rooftop right now ?" she asked, in a friendly tone...
Mayu managed to grasp the basics of the situation...Those guys were after Nana, since they had with them a Diclonius-they were using this poor girl as a sort of living radar...This woman was a a sort of bonus for them, probably. No...upon seeing those grunts, the interloper had thought that they had been sent after her. Of course, there was the issue of knowing why this woman thought that they were after her.And then, Nana curiosity kicked on, at the wrong time. She was puzzled by the situation, and voiced, in her most innocent voice, the worse question...
"Miss...excuse me...did you were hold up there too ?" finally asked Nana.
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