Linkinparkfan9799 Stories

Elfen Lied-Anime

Rated T for Gore and Cursing

Minori

Chapter Thirty-Six

Library: Minori

I scream in my dream.

Heads of people I know surround me. They do not have bodies. Blood comes up to my knees. It is thick, warm, and overall gross to stand in. Jumbled-whispers cause the fear I feel. The sky is pitch black. The air is cold. My screams echo as I try to tear off my ears, but nobody seems to hear me.

Mini appears, again with just one eye and horn. This time I can see some of a body, but it is only shadows. How many people have to die for you, Minori? she asks. I know you heard Lucy and Mayu on Saturday! That means three people died, and one almost did.

"Nobody said they died…" I whimper. "They just tried to save me!"

From what? Her eye and horn slant to one side. Do you think the answer is "the human scum"? I think it is.

My face gets hot with anger. Everything she says seems to tie into a hate for humans. Can she focus on something else – like the fact that heads are everywhere? The blood increases somehow and rises higher. It feels like it is dragging me down. "I don't know what they were saving me from! All I know is that I want OUT OF HERE!" Tears should feel hot on my face, but it just feels warm. I touch the streaks and inspect my hand to find red on my fingertips. "…W-What the…?"

A dark giggle sends a cold feeling over me. I try to back up, but the blood feels so solid that my legs cannot work. Blood splashes when I fall into it. Mini starts to laugh, but it does not sound right. The sound makes my ears hurt and my head ache. Blood, blood, blood~! YOU'RE COVERED IN BLOOD NOW, MINORI! There's no going back, you know?! You can never wash this blood off your hands. It can never disappear! From this point on, there will only be more blood! More blood, SO MUCH BLOOD~!

"STOP IT!"

"…Minori, sweetie?" I open my eyes and see Mommy sitting over me. She has two cups in her hands, and has a tired look on her face. I'm guessing it's morning, then. "You okay?" I shake my head. Mommy puts the cups down and picks me up. "Aw. Wanna talk about it?" I shake my head once more. She watches me as I wipe my wet eyes and yawn out my tiredness. "Okay then. Oh, and guess who's here?" I blink in confusion. "Megumi~"

My smile stretches far. "Megumi!" Mommy yelps when I start bouncing in her arms. "Megumi, Megumi, Megumi~!"

"I'm going to guess the screaming room has Minori in it." When my door stops talking, it is pushed open to reveal my babysitter. "Hello Minori!"

"Yay~!" I hop away from Mommy and tackle Megumi. "Megumi's visiting!"

Kouta laughs and turns to Mommy. "Megumi finally caught a break today, so she came to visit."

Yuka giggles and puts a hand on Megumi's shoulder. "Well, I'm glad. She's been working herself to the bone ever since the accident!"

Something smells good, so I remove myself from the group of adults and rush to the kitchen. Inside is Mayu stirring the cooking pot while it steams. Nana is sitting at the table with her head where a plate should be. "Sorry Nana, but you are notorious for your cooking impairment."

"There was only one actual fire," Nana complains.

"That's because I stopped you before you could start any others!"

Mayu jumps when I slam a stool down next to her. I hop up and peek into the pot. There is too much steam to see anything. The nice smell is enough to satisfy my curiosity for now. "You're good at cooking, Mayu!" I say as I jump down.

Her smile makes me smile as well. "Thank you, Minori!"

The rest enter. Mommy comes over to me, kneeling down to my level. "Hey sweetie!" She gives me a tight hug. I try to hug back, but my upper arms are pinned under hers. "Small question, but how did you recognize Megumi when I brought her over?" I tilt my head and blink like I did earlier. "She showed us this picture and…needless to say, she looks very different."

Mommy hands me the picture she is talking about. It has my original parents, plus Megumi and I. In this picture though, Megumi has her long blonde hair. Her eyes are blue, like they should be. The clothes she wears shows a lot, like they usually did. I am also considerably smaller. All of us are in the backyard of my old house, Daddy dressed as a clown and Mommy wearing a party hat. 'Happy Fifth!' is on a banner that is pinned to the house.

Megumi comes over, laughing. "I told you Lucy! After Minori and I parted, I changed my style a little. After all…uh…" Her laugh fades and the expression on her face darkens. "…I just felt like I needed to change things up, you know?" The smile returns. Its brief disappearance bothers me, though.

Comparing the present Megumi to the one in the picture, I can find a lot of differences. She certainly is more colorful these days. But there is still something that I can see that says that she is Megumi. That, and she sounds pretty much the same. "I don't know," I shrug. "I just knew it was Megumi, I guess. Though, I do have a question!" I point at Megumi's head. "How did your hair and eye color change?"

"Hair dye and contacts," she replies. I do not know what either of those are though. "…Uh…Hair dye is stuff you put in your hair to make it change color. Contacts are…Well, this." She kneels on the ground next to Mommy. Mommy starts panicking and tells her to 'not do it'. Never the less, Megumi pokes her eye and presents me with the red-color that her eyes turned into. I scream and start crying at that point.

Since I refused to stop crying this morning, the family decided to venture out. We would have been working, since it is Wednesday, but Hoshi said that Boss closed up shop for the next two days. Something happened and he had to deal with it, apparently. It gives Mommy and I some free-time, so it is not completely bad. Yet, it might be nice to use the free-time for something we like. Right now, we are just walking around looking at things. This is mainly thanks to Yuka. Since she is not a fun-person, I can understand.

Kouta carries me. Nana says this is because I was crying. I do not see how crying means my legs do not work anymore, BUT! I will trust the older ones on this. Mayu carries Wanta. When I ask if he was crying too, she laughs and tells me he cries when I cry. I apologize to Wanta, causing Mayu to laugh again. Her laughing is another thing I do not get.

Megumi and Lucy are getting along well. They talk to take up time, mostly about things I do not understand. At random points, the world around them turns red and the word "KILL" flashes on their faces. This is from Mini, who I am trying to ignore. As the walk drags on with nothing coming out of it, along with the increase of my boredom, the flashes spread to the other members of my family.

…Family. That is right! These people are all part of my family! Which just means they're going to be shot up eventually. I pout and reach for Mommy. "Uh, Lucy? Minori wants you, I think," Kouta tells her.

Mommy looks back at me with a smile. Her smile brings me to do so as well. "Ha, she must like Mommy more than Daddy~!"

Kouta's face grows into a red-shade. "Wh-What?!" The same shade of red appears on Yuka too, but her expression is more anger than shock. "Wait a second here-!"

"Mommy!" I laugh. "Mommy, Mommy!"

"Yeah, yeah." She is laughing as she takes me from Daddy. I tug on her nose a bit. With a crinkle, the part is yanked from my grasp. "Wah! Don't be mean to Mommy~!"

The two of us laugh. There is a lot of that today, compared to the recent days. As the walk continues, the laughs continue. Seeing all of my family this happy makes Mini go silent. I like it when she is silent; her silence means that my head will not be scary.

Mayu stops in front of a window. Since she stops, we stop. Nana asks what she is looking at. "It's a candy shop," Mayu announces. "Sorry, but…This display is really colorful, so I felt compelled to stop and see."

"Ah, the miracle of advertising," Megumi declares. "Good to know those ad-companies are doing their job right." I laugh, but Yuka says not to make fun of Mayu. Mommy tells her to relax, and the air around us changes. It is now tense and unpleasant. Ha, Mini scoffs. Haha.

Daddy puts a hand on both Mommy and Yuka's shoulders. "Come on guys, not today. It's a day to be happy and not...well, stressed. Is that the word?"

"I would say so." Mommy pats my head. "Wouldn't you agree, Minori?" I nod. "Anyone else?" Mayu firmly nods once. Nana does as well, but waits a bit first. Megumi holds her thumb up. Yuka shakes her head. "Oh, what a shocker that you'd disagree."

"Lucy!" Mommy flinches once Kouta yells. I try to kick him, but Mommy is standing too far. "…Sorry, Minori. But you do understand that Mommy can't be mean to Yuka all the time, right?" I shake my head. "…Well, Yuka can't be mean to Mommy either, so don't you think it's fair for Mommy to not be mean to Yuka either?" All the words confuse me, so he just gives up and pushes Yuka, Megumi, and Nana forward. The rest of us just follow.

All of the buildings we pass start to look familiar. I realize this is because I walked past them before, when I was trying to go to the beach. At the time, I just saw the colors and an item or two in a window. Now I can read the big words, but they sound weird when you say them out loud. "Cho's Pharmacy" makes sense, sure, but "Sakura Strippers" makes no sense at all.

It makes sense to Mommy though. Otherwise she would not flick me when I recite "Sakura Strippers". She starts wailing when I ask what a "Stripper" is. Nana starts asking too, but Mayu starts wailing. We look at each other, shrug, and say we are not going to ask anymore.

Yuka stops, making the rest of us stop again. "Oh, Kouta! Didn't we need to get a book for class?" He nods. "Then let's go inside. Minori, I'm sure you can find something here!"

"Where are we though?" I ask. She does not answer. Instead, she drags Kouta inside and leaves us here. Megumi holds open the door for all of us, smiling. "Megumi, where are we?"

"This is a library, Minori," she tells me. Mommy puts me down, so Megumi has to kneel down. "People get books here, and can research stuff on computers. It's a study-place though, so you have to be very quiet, okay?" When she sees me nod, Megumi grins and rubs my head on the top. "Good. Now, how about you, Mayu, and Nana look around? I want to talk to Lu-…Mommy, okay?"

I blink. What's a "Lu-Mommy"? Then I understand what she is doing. "You don't have to call Lucy 'Mommy' for me. I understand either way." This surprises her, but I walk off with Mayu and Nana without paying it much mind.

There are a lot of books, like Megumi said. Computers that look much like the ones Mommy and Daddy had adorn most of the few tables we can find. Since Diclonius never seem to get opportunities to go to libraries, Mayu decides to give us a tour. "These are computers." Her hand slaps the top of one of the computers. It makes a loud 'thud', but does nothing else. "In libraries, people use these to research information! Like, 'how tall is the average dog', and other things."

Wanta wags his tail at the mention of 'dog'. However, I can tell he is careful not to bark. Nana ignores this and just thinks to herself. "Computers are cool," I giggle. "Can I try searching something?"

"Sure." Mayu helps me onto the chair. As she turns it on, I swirl around without much effort. "Oh, don't do that a lot, okay Minori? Swivel chairs are known to be somewhat unstable." I stop my swirling altogether. The computer is bright, but has words and pictures on it. "Okay, so this little icon is an 'Internet Browser'. The internet is where you can search all this information." She grabs a little thing of plastic. As her finger rolls the tiny ball around, an arrow on the screen moves. "This is the 'cursor'. You use it to click on things. Try clicking the white bar at the top!"

Mayu releases the plastic. I take it, and roll the ball around. Up makes it go up, down makes it go down, and so on. I lead it to the long white bar at the top, and Mayu claps a little. The victory is not long-lived, since something rams my chair and sends it flying to the left. "Ah! Nana!"

Someone stops my chair, and I look up to see a stranger. "Be careful, little girl." Instead of answering, I just scramble out of the chair and run to Mayu. "…Huh?"

Mayu is comforting Nana, who seems upset. "Are you okay Minori?...Eh? Where'd your seat go?" I shake my head and point to the computer. "…Well, I guess I could continue." She grabs me and sits me on top of Nana. Her hands then move to the plastic. "So, we use the mouse to click on the bar."

"What mouse?" Nana asks. Mayu taps the plastic. "…That's not a mouse!"

"SHH!" We jump and see an elderly woman walking by us. Mayu bows and apologizes, then taps our noses. Nana and I, once again confused, just shrug and keep quiet.

With one tap of the plastic, she continues. "We click on the bar and type something in. Let's say I type 'sakura'." She types in the word, then hits a picture of a magnifying glass. A whole bunch of other words pop up. "I have now searched for 'sakura' and got all these results. Nana, how about you try?"

Nana and I push the chair in front of the computer. Mayu removes the word 'sakura' and leaves it blank for us. I ask if we can search for 'angels', but Nana has something else in mind. She types 'stripper', and results pop up. "I did it!" Nana cheers.

"…W-Well, you did…" Mayu laughs nervously and tries to erase it, but Nana will not let her. "N-Nana! You can't-!"

"Oh, is this the definition?" Nana clicks something, and loud noises come from the screen. The video that now plays is weird.

"AAAAAAAAH!" Mayu shoves the chair lightly and mashes buttons. "Nononoooo! CLOSE, PLEASE!"

People start to stare. A couple seems shocked, but I guess that is due to them understanding what is going on. "…You need help?" I ask Mayu.

"NO! No, i-it's fine! Gaaaaaah!"

Eventually the rest of the group arrives at the sound of Mayu screaming. Wanta is still in one arm, perfectly silent (in fact, I think he is trying to block out the noise with his paws to his ears). The other arm is bashing on the board frantically. "OH MY GOD!" Yuka runs over and turns off the computer, but the sounds still play. Kouta puts it back on, stops the noise, and turns it back off.

Megumi apologizes to everyone. Mommy grabs me, asks me what I searched, then starts yelling at Nana when I tell her it came up when Nana clicked something. This all leads us to an old woman yelling at us to get out.

At home, Megumi parts with us. As we get ready for bed, I overhear Mommy talking to Daddy. "It's sad that Minori's time in a library had to result in Nana fucking up everything."

"Well, we're the only ones to blame," Daddy sighs. "We were the ones to not tell them what 'strippers' were."

I still do not know what they are, but I think I will just keep that to myself for now.