This has got to be one of my stranger ideas. Then again, I'm genuinely surprised that nobody has tried it. I'm basing it on a challenge I recently posted.

I am talking about a crossover between Elfen Lied...and Jekyll.

Now, for those of you who don't know, Jekyll was a BBC TV series starring James Nesbitt as Tom Jackman, a scientist who starts developing an aggressive split personality that is later named Hyde. In fact, the Jekyll and Hyde story not only exists in the universe of the show, but was based on real events, as revealed in a later episode, with Jackman a descendant of one of Hyde's illegitimate offspring. The series was written by Steven Moffat a couple of years before he took over as showrunner on Doctor Who, and there's even a few lines that may sound familiar to fans of that show. One of the biggest draws of the series was how they portrayed Hyde, less as an ultra-strong monster, and more as a childish psychopath, albeit one who shows himself to be more inclined to help Jackman's estranged family than Jackman thought. His appearance is only subtly different too, with the main difference between him and Jackman being his behaviour. It's a brilliant series, and one I recommend.

Now, given that Elfen Lied does revolve around an alternate personality, I thought it'd be an interesting mesh. My original thought was to do another Potterverse crossover with a Harry/Lucy pairing again, but with Harry taking Kohta's place. I had even considered giving Harry a split personality. But then, I had a thought: what if Kohta was like Jackman? What if he had his own Hyde? Would that mean that he is able to empathise with Kaede more?

I decided to plan that Hyde has been within Kohta from a young age, and that, thanks to Kaede sensing a similar predator within Kohta and Kohta telling the truth about Yuka, the massacre that traumatises Kohta doesn't happen...though he has enough problems of his own. And unlike Jackman, Kohta is a little more likely to let Hyde off the leash, albeit under special circumstances...so, Mayu's so-called parents are fucked.

The pairing for this story will be Kohta/Yuka/Kaede, or rather, Kohta/Yuka/Kaede/Hyde/Nyu. Five personalities, three bodies, one hell of a love polygon!

Anyway, enjoy!

MISS KAEDE AND MR HYDE

CHAPTER 1:

REUNION

Kamakura. Once the capital of Japan centuries ago, now a somewhat quiet seaside city, a tourist trap, noted for its religious sites and festivals. It was the last place you would expect events that would shape the future and destiny of humanity to take place.

And yet, they did.

On a daily basis, on an island off the Kamakura coast, a struggle had been taking place, a struggle between two species, a struggle against extinction, a struggle between the old and the new, one where the trappings of humanity were discarded and inhumanity was inflicted, seemingly without any true purpose but gratuitous cruelty. It was a struggle where the saying Homo homini lupus est held sway. And now, this struggle had just escalated.

It starts with a chamber containing a figure restrained in a straitjacket, wearing a strange helmet. Guards are slaughtered left and right by unseen forces, some willing participants in the cruelty, others just people doing a dark job. The figure, now divested of their straitjacket, and revealing themselves to be a young woman, apparently in her late teens, walked through the facility, uncaring about her current nudity, merely humming a tune to herself.

The young woman cut a bloody swathe of destruction through the facility, invisible forces slashing her quarry into bloody shreds, blocking bullets. Sometimes, her killings were brutally efficient, and other times, they seemed to be calculatingly sadistic. Indeed, of those who crossed her path, only the author of her torment was left alive, unmarked save for a bloody handprint pressed onto his back, despite the fact that she never touched him with her hands. It was an affirmation of an earlier promise, no, a solemn vow made in anger and hatred.

Then, the young woman manages to escape the facility, not knowing that she was assisted by a traitor who nonetheless didn't have her best interests in mind. She walked to the edge of a cliff, watching the reflection of the Moon in the ocean below. She marvelled in its beauty, one of the few truly beautiful things about this world, even as another part of her mind began wondering exactly how she'd get down to the ocean.

An instinct warned her, and she turned her head in time for an explosion of pain to erupt in her temple, shattering the helmet. She felt part of her mind fragment. The part still capable of lucid thought remarked, Anti-tank round. Lucky I turned and had my Vectors up on instinct. Still, this is unpleasant.

She was, after all, falling down a cliff, uncontrollably, and about to hit the water with quite a bit of force. Using her powers, she managed to slow her descent a fraction, but it was enough. A plume of water erupted as she hit it, nearly being rendered unconscious immediately. Just enough of her remained conscious to right herself, so that, when she floated to shore (she hoped), she'd still be alive.

Before darkness finally consumed her, her last thought was, Kohta…I'm coming…

Kohta Okamoto(1) groaned as he staggered into the kitchen of the Maple Inn, getting a drink of water and some paracetamol. As he swallowed the capsules and washed them down, he heard the door to the kitchen slide open, and looked over at the newcomer, his cousin Yuka. "Hi," he said, before wincing.

"Hi." The brown-haired young woman went up to him and peered at his eyes. "You're really hungover, aren't you?"

"Which is bloody irritating, considering I didn't actually do the drinking," Kohta said. "I swear, he takes me out drinking purely to get me hungover. It's bad for my brain, bad for my wallet…not that he cares."

"Maybe you should seek help."

"Are you trying to be funny?"

"He's been around since you were a kid. We've had time to get used to him, but…maybe we need to bring him along to, well, an AA meeting? Stage an intervention?"

Kohta laughed, a cracked, braying sound. "Yeah, like that's going to happen. He'd probably spend the meeting mocking everyone present and challenging them to a drinking contest, just for fun. Still, he says that, once we start university, he'll cut back on it." Kohta looked wistfully at a picture. It appeared to be of Kohta, Yuka, and two other girls, one with dark hair, the other with pink hair and red eyes, wearing a beanie. "Yuka…what do you think happened to Kaede after that night?"

Yuka shrugged. "I don't know. There was something…not quite right about her, Kohta, and I'm not just talking about those horns of hers. She looked so unhappy when she left. Then again, that orphanage you found her near shut down after those murders. Maybe she had been there, and was being forced out. Poor girl, probably couldn't be adopted because of those horns." She then frowned, thoughtfully. "Did he leave any messages for you?"

Kohta winced, before hurriedly plucking a slender rectangle from his pocket, and pressing a button on it. The voice that emanated from the dictaphone sounded eerily like Kohta's, and yet, was not. It had something like a Kansai accent(2), and a childish demeanour, albeit one with layers of malice underneath. "Did you like my early morning present, Daddy? Just a little celebration before you go off to boring university. A shame Yuka was asleep when I got home, you'd have felt much better in the morning, and Yuka wouldn't be able to walk straight. But, well, I prefer my women willing and awake."

Both Kohta and Yuka blushed heavily. But any remarks they would have made were cut off when the voice started up again, only more solemn and contemplative. "I walked along the beach last night, Daddy. And I could smell something in the air, from the breeze that blew off the sea. I could smell blood, so much blood, and gunsmoke. The smells of violence, Daddy. They came from the sea. Now, isn't that interesting? But do you know what else I smelt, Daddy? Faintly, almost overwhelmed by blood and gunsmoke? I could smell her, Daddy. Ever so faintly, but it's more than what I have smelled for years. And while this ain't proof that she's back…I know she is. I've got a gut feeling."

The chill that followed that remark was promptly dispelled by a belch from the dictaphone. "Oh! 'Scuse me. Hope you don't mind that I had Chinese, I know it repeats on me, but I couldn't resist. Anyway, I've got the feeling interesting times lie ahead. And I mean that in the cursed sense of the term. Cheerio!"

Kohta and Yuka, his cousin, co-student, and even lover, looked at each other. Their relationship had, admittedly, been a somewhat trying one, with Yuka struggling to get over her hair-trigger jealousy response, and Kohta dealing with…well, not so much issues as much as a subscription. It was these issues that led him to distance himself from his family: they supported him and all, but he knew Kanae was frightened of him. Even though she knew that he, and the one behind the other voice on the dictaphone, would never hurt her.

Actually, no. She was not frightened of him, of them…but frightened FOR him.

Yuka, however, had become his rock. After graduating high school, she had helped him negotiate with her mother to have him become the caretaker of the Maple Inn, a former restaurant turned boarding house. He actually liked that…because of the name. Maple. Or rather, Kaede. Like her name.

Yuka knew he pined for her, for Kaede, the strange, sad girl with the horns. The girl they had tried to make happy, that they both had tried to make happy. Yuka had been jealous, true…but when she was told of how sad and lonely Kaede was, she decided to let her join the fun. True, something about the girl seemed off somehow. But by that point, she knew that her cousin was off as well. She'd had come to terms with the fact that she might have to share him, albeit with one other, and ONLY one other. She would not countenance Kohta bringing home any other hussy.

After a moment, it was Yuka who said, "How about we check out the beach?"

"Really?"

"Stuff gets washed ashore all the time. Plus…might as well get this over and done with, right? I know you'd want to go there, just in case. But…why would Kaede be associated with blood and gunsmoke?"

"I don't know," Kohta said quietly. "But it can't be good…"

"Remember when Kanae found that beautiful seashell?" Yuka asked as they walked across the sand, having made it to the beach.

Kohta smiled wistfully at the memory. "Yeah, I remember. She gave it to me when I left, as something to remember her by. I don't know why, we've still got phones. And it's her shell."

"I think it's because he thought it pretty as well. She gave it to him as much as you, because…well, as much as he scares her and your father, she loves him all the same, because she knows that he would never hurt her."

"She's his sister as much as I am," Kohta said. "And in any case, if he ever did anything to hurt her…well, he knows the deal. He knows the rules. The only time I ever let him off the leash was when that bastard tried to rape you."

"I know. I was there. I still have nightmares about it. It's the main reason I tolerate him. He's even likeable after a fashion. But…the police hadn't seen such a brutal attack since Kaze no Kaede. Only the man's record and that lawyer ensured we didn't get into trouble…Kohta, look!"

Yuka pointed, and Kohta saw, to his astonishment…the very person they were looking for.

She was about their ages, maybe eighteen, and wholly naked, standing in the nearby surf. Her slender, beautiful body was bare to the world. Her posture was hunched, her hair falling lankly around her face, concealing it partly like some parody of an onryo or vengeful ghost. Blood from a wound on her head trickled down her face.

And yet, there were more bizarre things to her than just her nudity. Her hair was a bright shade of pink. Her eyes were crimson. And protruding from her temples were what looked like cat ears, but which both Kohta and Yuka knew were actually horns.

"…Kaede?" Kohta asked as he ran over. "Is that you?"

The crimson eyes sharpened, and then widened in recognition. "…Kohta? You're here…" And then, suddenly, she convulsed, clutching her head, crying out in pain. Then, when she spoke again…it wasn't even a word.

"Nyu?"

Her expression had changed utterly. In fact, though the physiognomy was the same, it was as if it was a different person wearing the same face. The expression was infantile, with fear.

"…That just happened," Yuka remarked, peering at Kaede, before she winced. "Kohta, quickly, your shirt!"

Kohta swiftly pulled off his clothes, before giving Yuka his shirt. She promptly gave it to Kaede, and put it onto her. After being buttoned up, she now looked decent. Yuka and Kohta looked at each other, and an unspoken agreement passed between them. The whole time, the only syllable Kaede uttered, since her seizure or whatever it was, was 'Nyu'. That, and crying like a baby.

So, between the two of them, they took her home…

Taking her home wasn't without its own trials and travails. Shortly thereafter, Kaede seemed to be in pain and distress, before sagging to her knees, and urinating on the floor, something Kohta promptly cleaned up. Yuka decided to bathe Kaede and dress her in spare clothes.

As they watched Kaede messily eat an onigiri, Yuka frowned. "She spoke earlier, just before she had that episode. She recognised you. And then…well, now she's regressed into this infantile state. What do you think happened?"

"…That wound on her head. Maybe it caused some sort of brain trauma. I think the Kaede we knew is still in there, but…"

"She's created another personality due to head trauma?" Yuka asked, catching onto what he meant. "That sounds farfetched." Noticing Kohta's unimpressed look, she said, "Look, I know, our situation is pretty farfetched too. I've done a lot of reading, and, well…in cases like this, I don't think it's neurological trauma that causes a split personality. Psychological trauma, yes, but…"

"I don't think it's a normal case, any more than he is," Kohta said. "And besides…she has horns. Her brain may not be wired up the same way as normal people."

"Nyu! Nyu!" chirped Kaede after finishing the onigiri.

"…He's interested, you know," Kohta confessed. "We don't always share awareness, but I think he wants to try."

"That could be a disaster. Anyway, why was Kaede naked? How did she get that wound?"

"I don't know. And that worries me as much as it worries you, I'm sure." Kohta winced, his blue eyes briefly seeming to turn black, before he shuddered. "He's coming."

"Right…just leave him a message."

Kohta nodded, before taking out the dictaphone. "Kaede is here. However, she seems to have an alternate personality, one that's on display now. Do not hurt her. Do not scare her. Try to draw out Kaede, but gently."

As he slumped, seemingly into unconsciousness, a curious Nyu plucked the dictaphone from his hand, and replayed the message. "Nyu?" And then, she looked up, and recoiled. Yuka was less startled by the transformation, having seen it enough times.

The transformation, in terms of appearance, was relatively subtle. Kohta's blue eyes had turned dark, his hair was a bit wilder, his face had a subtly but noticeably different shape. But that was only the physical changes. Kohta seemed to hold himself differently now. A vicious grin split his features, showing more teeth than good cheer, the grin of a predator.

"Well, well, well…hello, ladies," he purred. "It's nice to see you again, Kaede…I dunno whether you remember me, but I've got a name now. Just call me…Hyde."

CHAPTER 1 ANNOTATIONS:

Well…that just happened.

1. 'Okamoto' was the surname I decided on Kohta in my Potterverse crossover Children of the Revolution, after Elfen Lied's author Lynn Okamoto.

2. In the original Jekyll series, Hyde speaks with a very strong Irish accent. Admittedly, Jackman speaks with an Irish accent as well, but it's more pronounced in Hyde. Kansai is pretty much the only regional accent I know in Japan, so I put it in there.