After a brief run, Tucker, Simmons and Kaede arrived at the Kamakura college to meet with the rest of their group.
"I knew it! I knew there would be danger!" Sarge kept shouting.
"Ugh, we know. Can you please shut up." Grif groans.
"What was that, private?" Sarge asks.
"Shut up, sir." Grif corrects. Kaede then notices the additional faces.
"Aiko? Mayu? What are you two doing here?"
"We decided we're going to help you no matter what." Aiko declares. "After what you did for us, we wouldn't be good friends to leave you hanging."
Kaede could help but smile, alleviating herself from the self deprecating mood she was in earlier.
"Ahem." The group turn to find Carolina waiting for them. "This way."
The group makes their way through the school until reaching what Kaede and Aiko recognize as Professor Kakuzawa's office. Stepping through the door revealed the man being watched by Washington.
"Kakuzawa?" Both Aiko and Kaede question at the same time. Kakuzawa was also surprised with the Queen arriving with another of his students and one other girl. He also was left to wonder about the large number of soldiers. Where they a harem with the purpose of assisting with repopulation once humanity was destroyed? If so, he did not like that one bit.
"Y-yes. I have information that will be very useful to you." The professor quickly composed himself. If he were to become king of the Diclonii, he needed to find a way to usurp all these contenders to the throne to make him the only choice for the Queen. Or the leading choice.
"How do you have this info?" Kaede asks.
"My father is the head of that Institute you broke out of." Kakuzawa reveals.
"What does that institute entail?" Simmons asks.
"Officially, it's a medical research institution. In actuality it was constructed for the purpose of studying Diclonius through tortures methods." Kakuzawa explains.
"There's more Diclonius there?" Kaede questions. "More like me and Nana?"
"Yes. They are nothing but sipilets, but they are there nonetheless." Kakuzawa confirms.
"And they're torturing them? If that Nana girl was anything to go by, then they're torturing them pretty young." Tucker says. "That's fucked up."
"Wait a minute, what's a sipilet?" Simmons asks.
Grif dramatically gasps. "We've come across something you don't know! We gotta mark this day, this has to be a first."
"Grif! Shut your mouth so we can hear more important people speak!" Sarge orders.
Kakuzawa looks to Kaede. "Shall I explain it to them?"
Kaede raises an eyebrow. Why would he need her permission? "Go ahead."
"A sipilet is a Diclonius born from human parents who've been infected with the vector virus. A sipilet is always born female, but cannot bear children. They also age more rapidly than a normal human would." Kakuzawa explains. "They are best compared to worker bees."
"That sounds a little harsh." Donut comments.
"No Donut, don't you see! It's a compliment!" Sarge exclaims. "Worker bees are hard working, as their name implies. Those little girls are practically born to be soldiers! I'm wondering if I can adopt some."
"Please don't." Washington quips to him.
"Only you, can give birth to more pure Diclonii." Kakuzawa states to Kaede. Before Kaede can ask further about this, she remembers another thing Kakuzawa said before this revelation.
"Wait, Vector virus?" Kaede questions.
"That is what we call the virus you spread with vectors." Kakuzawa explains. "Your invisible arms are what we call vectors."
"Oh, good. Cause just saying invisible arms is way too annoying to say over and over again in conversation." Sarge says.
"Or to write." Caboose adds.
"Since when do you write?!" Tucker incredulously asks him.
"Is that a trick question?" Caboose asks.
"Huh?" Mayu is completely lost by their conversation.
"Do you have any files or more detailed information on anything?" Simmons asks.
"Yes, I do." Kakuzawa opens a drawer, takes out a folder and hands it to Simmons. "Small details I won't mention are in there."
"Okay. We kind of ran into more of their soldiers getting here, so we better get out of here if we don't want them to come back and learn you're involved with us." Kaede says.
"Very well." Kakuzawa says before producing a slip of paper and handing it to Kaede. "My number, should you ever need me."
"Thank you." Kaede accepts.
"Let's head back." Carolina says. "It wasn't a smart idea to bring your robot along. You might as well have all come with your armour with him."
"Just sounds like more evidence to be to keep it on at all times." Sarge says.
"Let's just go." Washington sighs, prompting everyone to pile out. Kaede being the last, turns back to Kakuzawa.
"See you tomorrow, professor. And thank you again." With that, she leaves.
Kakuzawa smiled confidently after this transpired. He's made it into the queens group! He briefly was left to wonder about the brown armoured soldier that they said was a robot? How? Technology to make one that advanced looking didn't even exist in the Institute. Where did they get it? And why was Aiko and another girl with them? Maybe the Queen was planning to use them to produce more sipilets invade of a shortage or something to that effect. Pushing these thoughts away led to more thoughts of the Queen. 'I should go curate more files to help her.' He thought.
On the way back, Kaede not so subtly took the files from Simmons and flipped them over to being reading them intently.
"Kaede?" Aiko worriedly asks.
Kaede turns towards the rest of the group. "You guys can do whatever you want the rest of the day. I want some time alone to read these."
"Are you sure?" Tucker asks.
"Yeah, I'm sure." Kaede assures before turning away to walk back to the Maple Inn.
Aiko and Mayu look to each other, unsure.
"So Kaede's... this other species?" Aiko attempts to broach the topic.
"Apparently." Simmons confirmed. "She's never known until all this shit has happened."
"It must be hard dealing with something like that." Mayu looks down.
"S-S-So What now?" Caboose asks.
"I think we all still have some job hunting to do." Washington says.
"Aw, come on!" Grif exclaims.
"Sarge?" Carolina asks.
Sarge smacks Grif over the head with his shotgun.
"Ow!" Grif cries out.
Kaede sits alone in her room, looking through the files Kakuzawa procured for her. It was all too unbelievable. She read that her brain had an enlarged pineal gland which was how she could produce her vectors as they called them. It also did explain how she was able to sleep so well, provided that Tucker never kept her up with his mopeing that one time. She read that she infected people with a virus when she touched people with her vectors. She felt sick at being responsible for unknowing altering her friends reproductive DNA. She read about the sipilets, how they functioned and all the horrible things done to them. And finally, she read about the Queen. The supposed leader of the Diclonius who started the first infection and unlike sipilets could age normally and bear children. The one who's supposedly supposed to kill humanity and bear children to replace it. The one who could end all human life should she choose not o take that route. The one everyone told her she was.
She would deny it at first, but the fact that she was a Diclonius who had aged normally was enough to argue against her denials. After awhile, someone slipped into her room unnoticed. He sat down right beside his friend, though she was to engrossed in reading to notice.
"I-Is everything okay?" Kouta asks Kaede, snapping her out of her trance.
"No, it's just-" She stops, recognizing Kouta as well as not knowing what to say. "I-It's just... unbelievable." She finally breaths out.
"Oh... I take it that's the information you were getting from Wash and Carolina?" Kouta asks. Kaede nods. "I wanna apologize about not going with you to that, but I guess it's not the time. Maybe I can help you now. I might not have an answer to whatever you're worried about but I can still listen."
"I... I dunno." Kaede hesitantly says.
"It's better to get this kind of stuff off your chest. Trust me, I know." Kouta assures her.
Kaede takes a moment to breath, thinking about what to say.
"Look at this." She hands Kouta the files. "It talks about what they were doing in that facility you broke into... and it talks about me."
"About you?" Kouta skims through the page, curious as to what she means. The page he's on talks about something called the Diclonius Queen who the people behind the Institute guess is fated to destroy humanity and replace it with Diclonius.
"It's talking about me." Kaede says. "The way Kakuzawa explained things made it sound that way. The information also aligns with what I know about myself."
Kouta was momentarily surprised that the informant was their science teacher, but that took a backseat to Kaede's current dilemma. Kaede, his friend, was supposed to destroy humanity? Even though she was strange at times, Kouta didn't feel that it was in her character to do anything close to that.
"I just... I can't... I don't know how to process this." Kaede gets out in a choked sob. "It's too hard to fathom that I'm this creature that's destined to end the world or something."
"That's because it's not true." Kouta firmly states.
"Kouta, you don't-"
"Those people don't know that. Maybe other Diclonius are violent but that doesn't mean you have to be lumped in with them. You clearly don't want to do any of those things, so you won't."
"But Kouta... for... for awhile there's this... been this voice in my head. It keeps telling me to do horrible things when I get the chance. I ignore it as much as I can, but I can't help but think one day I'll give in."
"But you won't." Kouta confidently says. "And if you feel like you will, come talk to one of us, the reds, blues, Yuka, Aiko, Mayu, and myself. We'll help you however we can." He then surprises Kaede by pulling the Diclonius into a hug. "And don't call yourself a creature. Far as I'm concerned, you're human in every way that matters."
"K-Kouta." Kaede fiercely returns the hug.
Unbeknownst to the two, Kaede's door lies open a crack, allowing Yuka to hear everything from just outside the room.
AN: If you've been paying attention to my updates on my profile, you'll know that uploads on this fic will be even SLOWER than they were before. Now that this little mini arc is finished I don't know what I wanna do next. Theres always Nana joining the inn, but I want something to happen in between this arc and that one. I have an idea for what the next arc will be about, its just thats all it is. An idea. Additionally, I'm having trouble with the massive cast this fic has amassed. I wanna prioritize the Elfen Lied characters to show how things have changed because of Kaede's absence as well as give them some development. But I don't wanna negate the RvB characters to the background because then that would just eliminate the purpose of this fic. However, that IDEA for the next arc might push that problem back, at least until that Nana arc. Sorry if this news inconveniences you in any way.