Disclaimer: I don't own Elfen Lied.
Nana and Lucy are now the only ones in front of the fight game: the game that will place them against each other. But will the seemingly harmless rivalry that Nana has pitted against Lucy go any further? Read on, and enjoy.
From Game to Reality
"You and me, let's go!" Nana challenged.
"You're on, weakling", Lucy accepted with complete confidence.
Nana once again selected her own character. Lucy did the same for hers. The character control configuration was still the same as for young Lucy, so the versus mode was immediately starting to load. As the game was still loading, Lucy sensed that something was wrong with Nana. Was it something she said? Maybe she took one of her past comments a bit too seriously. In the past she could usually care less about her fellow diclonius; however, this time, she felt the need to speak up. After all, Nana was a relative whom she had managed to peacefully coexist with since last week. Come to think of it, she seemed to be like a little sister to her.
"Nana, you and I need to talk", Lucy started off.
"About what?" Nana asked.
"Well, about how you're acting right-"
"Fight first, talk later!" Nana hastily answered back. "The game is ready!"
Lucy glanced at the computer monitor: the versus mode was already loaded. She rolled her eyes. Guess the chat would have to wait. For now at least.
Round 1! Fight!
Lucy immediately blocked Nana's first offensive, ROCKET PUNCH. She immediately charged her own character at Nana's and used a swift VECTOR ATTACK as a counterattack. Nana's character was knocked back, moderately damaged. Nana; however, remained unfazed. She kept a serious, albeit hostile expression on her face as she reattached the thrown limb with a free vector. Now it's her turn. Nana pressed the movement keys and jumped into midair before throwing two more ROCKET PUNCH attacks. Lucy once again blocked the first one, but was hit by the second. Her character partially stunned, she saw that Nana had left herself open to another to another attack. Lucy slammed down the VECTOR SLICE key and took off Nana's left leg before said character had a chance to reattach her other limbs. Nana immediately fell, unable to attack Lucy's character.
"Look familiar?" Lucy asked Nana jokingly.
Wrong move. Nana wasn't in the mood for more reminders of her failures. Her hands curled into fists and shook.
"THAT'S IT! I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!" she screamed as she yanked the keyboard and threw it to the other side of the room.
Lucy was absolutely flabbergasted. She had never seen her fellow diclonius snap like that. Even in their first encounter at the graveyard, Nana always maintained an air of calmness and empathy. Apparently, her light-hearted, but teasing comments, had offended Nana and pushed her over the edge.
"Nana, I-" she tried to say.
"You think I'm weak!?", Nana yelled in a vicious tirade. "A worthless subordinate!? You just had to keep pushing it didn't you!?
"Look, Nana I'm-"
"Taking off all four of my limbs wasn't enough for you!?"
Mayu had heard the ruckus and the deafening crash of the keyboard and tried to calm Nana down.
"Um, Nana, what's going on?" she asked. "What's wrong?"
Nana turned in her direction and pointed an accusing finger.
"And you, damn you, Mayu-chan!" she further condemned. "Had it not been for you getting in my way, I would have won against Lucy and made Papa proud of me! You cost me my fingers and left leg!"
Mayu immediately recoiled and cowered in fear.
"Leave Mayu out of this!" Lucy defended her.
Now Kouta and Yuka started to hear the argument escalate and decided to come over and see what was going on while Nana continued to verbally vent on Lucy.
"How could Kouta-san take in a sadistic hell spawn like you!?"
Lucy instantly reached her wit's end. She was obviously struggling to try to be civil.
"What!?" Lucy yelled after being insulted, "Who are you calling a sadistic hell spawn!? First of all, I'm not that person anymore. Second, society made me that way!"
Just as the two were about to come to blows, Kouta intervened.
"Enough!" He said as he wedged himself between the girls. "What is going on? If this is about the hostilities that you both have held against each other in the past, this isn't the way to solve it! Name-calling and empty insults aren't going to get you two anywhere!"
There was a brief pause among the whole group.
"Hmmmmm…Kouta-san does bring up a good point", Nana thoughtfully said.
"Yeah, he does", Lucy agree, seeing that the tirade was brought to an end.
"We're going to have to solve this honorably."
Kouta smiled. He had defused a potentially dangerous, ticking time bomb. Or so he thought.
"I'm going to follow through with what you said before, Lucy-san".
"What was that, Nana?" Lucy asked.
"When I first showed up at this place and you later reverted back to your usual self, you asked me if I came back for a rematch", Nana reminded her. "Well, I want a rematch."
"What!?" everyone else yelled in unison.
Lucy was once again stunned. Nana was challenging her! Had the peaceful coexistence between them ended? Had she gone mad? Literally? It wasn't the fact that Lucy was scared of her, or of getting seriously hurt. It was because she had promised herself never to raise vector against humans or diclonii alike. Like her fellow diclonius, she had made several horrible memories before, and recreating them was the last thing on her mind.
"You heard me", Nana further beckoned. "Fight me. Tomorrow at dusk, at the same graveyard that we fought at before. I don't want to kill you, I just want a simple rematch."
Yuka was also shocked upon hearing this. Even more so than Lucy.
"Nana, what do you think you're doing! This is-"
Lucy held out her arm, motioning Yuka to stop. Deep in her mind, she knew that she had to follow through with this challenge to fight. After all, there would be no killing, limb tearing, or other lethal forms of attacks, if she heard Nana right. Besides, she had to teach her a lesson.
"Fine", she accepted. "Tomorrow at dusk it is. Keep in mind; however, I also don't want to kill you. I just can't. But teaching you a lesson, I can do that."
"We'll see about that". Nana scoffed, as she got ready to walk off.
"Nana, stop!" Kouta called as he placed a hand on her shoulder.
Nana angrily swiped it off and ran back upstairs to her room, slamming the door behind her. Mayu tried to run after her but gave up at the foot of the stairs.
"Should I go talk to her?" Kouta asked turning to Yuka.
"I wouldn't, Kouta-kun", Yuka responded. "Let her cool off. Maybe she'll sleep if off. Anyway, dinner is ready. So I'm going back to the kitchen."
Kouta looked down and sighed.
"And Nyuu?" he asked turning in Lucy's direction.
But Lucy had disappeared. Mayu was still there though, trying to make sense of what just happened.
"Yuka-chan, may I at least ask Nana if she wants dinner?" she asked.
"Okay then, I guess you could try", Yuka answered with reluctance.
Mayu headed upstairs and went to Nana's room. She hesitated for about a minute before gathering enough courage to knock on the door.
"What do you want?" Nana grumpily asked through the door.
"Umm, dinner is ready, do you want some?" Mayu offered.
"No, I'm not hungry."
"But-"
"Leave me alone!"
Mayu backed away and quickly ran back downstairs. Kouta also tried to call Lucy, but got the same response. Looks like only three people would be eating tonight.
In Nana's room…"Geez, what do I do?" she asked herself. "Papa, what do I do? I failed to make you proud and I hope that I can make it up to you this time. The only problem is, what if I lose? What if I face another shameful defeat? Oh, papa, I don't even know where your gravestone is! Who can I turn to for help!? I know that the others are probably siding with Lucy. Who do I know around this area that can help me-?"
She cut herself off at mid-sentence and remembered Bando. She also remembered that he still resides on the nearby beach.
"That's it! Maybe that man can give me some advice."
Nana glanced at the clock: 6:49. If she left now she would be able to get there in about fifteen minutes and hopefully be back before 8:00, when nightfall hits.
She quickly slapped on some cargo pants, a t-shirt, and her purple necktie hair ribbon before getting ready to sneak out the window. Looks like the real fight game was about the appear on the horizon…
Well then, this chapter really exhausted me! So anyway, the fight game and Lucy's teasing comments causes Nana to lose her temper and challenge Lucy to a rematch fight. What guidance could Bando possibly give Nana? And how will the Kaede residents cope with this rift? Next chapter: Preparation. Anyway, please send in a review. Tell me if there's anything I could improve on. Or just give me a suggestion. See you next time.