Summary: AU: After the events transpired at the end of Elfen Lied, a new set of problems arise. Kouta is suddenly accused of a crime he didn't commit, and is sentenced to death. His punishment, he is sent to Deadman Wonderland. The question is, will he escape this nightmare alive, or will he die? Read on to find out! Reviews appreciated.
*Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or contents from Deadman Wonderland, or Elfen Lied, they belong to their respective creators.*
Kouta in Wonderland
… … …
Chapter 4: G-block and the Branch of Sin
Nighttime had arrived, and Shiro, Kouta, and Yoh end up directly beneath a ventilation shaft that Shiro knew led to the mysterious G-block. She seemed very tense about something, but what it was, she wouldn't tell, so she just kept quiet for once. The others found this strange, but figured that it would be best to let it go for now, and just find the G-block first, so they could find the Red Man, whom Kouta and Yoh suspected was trapped in.
They both took surveillance before proceeding, so Shiro jumped up and kicked the vent in with a spinning axe kick. The two boys stood dumbfounded at the sheer amount of agility and overall acrobatic ability she seemingly possessed in her tiny body. Once shaken, Shiro leapt through the vent first, but not before a security robot comes around and spots them. The robot surveys them, and the two froze in place, before the alarm went off.
"Emergency! Prisoners N 5580 and 9061 are escaping into the ventilation shafts! Security lock down in place, all prisoners report to their cells immediately! Necro Macros Capture N 5580 and 9061!" Makina's furious voice echoed through the intercom.
Upon hearing the announcement, a squad of Necro Macros drove around the corner and had the both of them surrounded in no time. Before the security robots could attack, Shiro came down the vent and hung upside down with her legs hanging onto the edge. Kouta and Yoh took both of Shiro's outstretched hands and in turn, pulled both of them into the vent before the robots fired their lasers.
"Damn it! Of all the lousy times!" Kouta cursed. "Thanks, Shiro, by the way. We would've been toast had you not been there." He thanked her, but she didn't appear to be listening to him.
"There's nothing we can do now anyways." Yoh stated as a matter of factly, and followed Shiro after realizing that she had already gone ahead. "Let's just go."
They both started following silently behind Shiro until they reached the end of the vent, which meant that wherever they were headed, they were indeed going in the right direction. Shiro kicked the vent clear off its hinges and hopped out, followed by Kouta and Yoh. Once outside, they were standing in the middle of a seemingly abandoned hallway, with a load of scrap metal and macro parts in various places. The only source of light they had was a dim red light.
"Where is this place?" Kouta only had to confirm it.
"I don't believe that this place is marked anywhere on the map, so I believe it's the G-block." Yoh said definitely.
Kouta walked up to a steel door that seemed to be shut tight. Kouta turned around just to survey the ground and walls around them more clearly. What remained of the G-block hallway were the macros in various disarray of damage, and what looked like dried blood.
"So, are you sure that the Red Man is down here?" Kouta asked.
"Maybe." Yoh said. "It doesn't look like it's been inhabited in years, so I don't doubt that they keep him somewhere down here."
Kouta could just feel the triumph in his veins. His revenge was now closer to being fulfilled now that he found the G-block. All that remains was to find and defeat him once and for all. With that said, he turned around to face Shiro, who was staring blankly into space, deep in thought.
"Thanks, Shiro!" Kouta said. "It's good to know that you're useful in some things!" he said bluntly.
Suddenly, a laser zipped past them, and blasted into a wall beyond them. All three turned around to face a lone macro approaching them. They had no time to rethink the situation when the macro started pining after Kouta. Kouta, the one in question, started running away, trying to escape from the gaining robot.
Meanwhile, Yoh found a nice pile of junk metal and hid behind it. He snickered at something, but just as he thought he was home free, the macro spotted him in time and fired its laser at his head. Yoh ducked under, and watched as the ventilation above him collapsed upon him, and sent him into a whole new injury.
"Damn it! Why does this keep happening?!" He cried out in pain. His arm had only just gotten better in the day that it had been injured, so now his legs are probably broken.
The robot kept chasing after Kouta now, and it seemed that no matter where the young man hid, the robot would fire its laser at him. He was now moving to the point of exhaustion, and he wasn't so sure that he could handle it.
Kouta ran over to where Yoh was, and dug him out of the pile of metal. Thankfully, he wasn't hurting too bad, otherwise, they'd have another problem on their hands. The robot fired and the two rolled out of the way in opposite directions. As they panted, the macro kept moving closer until they were backed up into the wall.
"It's over, right?" Kouta whispered, to which Yoh silently nodded.
They both closed their eyes, waiting for the macro to fire a charged laser at them and obliterate them, but instead, they heard a loud crunch of metal, to which they both opened their eyes and saw Shiro had leaped out of nowhere and flying kicked the robot square in the side. The macro's lights blinked in and out as soon as Shiro's foot came into contact with it. After that, Shiro sent the robot flying over into the wall across from them, creating a huge hole in the wall with the force and weight of the macro.
"Woah!" Yoh exclaimed. "She's either one, a strong girl, or just plain insane…"
"I'm having second thoughts myself…" Kouta commented.
Shiro turned around in a huff, and faced the both of them, hot anger present on her face, with a coating of red spreading on her cheeks. She puffed them to add the effect, but did little to make her intimidating, but only succeeded at making her looked annoyed.
"How dare you, Kouta!" she shouted. "I am useful to Kouta! Don't you forget that!" she declared, and turned around with her arms folder across her chest with an angry 'hmpf'.
"That's all she was mad at?" Kouta sweat dropped.
"Well, you did just say she was 'useful in some things'." Yoh said. "Take it from me, if you say those kinds of things to women, they wouldn't like that, so of course, she'd be mad. I mean, come on, a woman that can kick robot ass is a bingo in my book!"
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Kouta said. "I should apologize to her."
But, before he could go toward her, the macro powered back to life and was now rushing at Shiro. She snapped out of it quickly, and watched as the robot sped towards her. She had almost no time to react.
"Shiro!" Kouta called out.
The macro used one of its mechanical arms to throw Shiro into a wall across from it. Kouta looked back over to find Shiro, but the light was too dim so he can't see her prone form anyway. Kouta had little time to panic when the robot kept approaching him, inch by inch. Kouta backed up even more, but stumbled over a piece of scrap metal, and landed on his butt. He waited, but nothing came. In the blink of an eye, the robot was ripped to pieces by some big force that looked like red blades.
… … …
A man with spiky black hair walked through the shadows, and into the light. Protruding from the man's arms, were thick, red scythe-like blades extending out like appendages. The man had an indescribable smirk on his face, and power hungry glare fixed in his eyes. He stared Yoh and Kouta down, like dogs. What came next was unexpected. The blades protruding from the man's arms retreated back in, like liquid rushing back into slash lines and disappeared.
The force it took to disperse the blades was similar to what the Red Man had done. Kouta's mind immediately jumped to a conclusion. There was only one person in the world he knew who could do such a thing. Whether or not he was prepared to face such an opponent didn't matter at the moment. The man waited, before turning around and walking around. Kouta found this action very annoying, and decided to charge in blindly at the man.
The man, instead, swiftly dodged the outstretched fist that Kouta aimed at the back of his head and immediately the scythe-like blade exploded out of his veins, like a hurricane with a pattern of hexagons surrounding his forearm. Kouta stumbled backwards, and the man merely pushed Kouta away with the force, and slammed him into the wall.
"What do you think you're doing, brat?" the man spoke for the first time.
"I'm here for my revenge, you bastard!" Kouta declared and charged at the man blindly again.
The man sighed, and the other scythe-blade exploded out of his other arm and slashed at Kouta. Kouta ducked under the blade, and immediately the other blade came in to sweep Kouta off his feet, and fall uncharacteristically on his butt.
"You're not even a match for me." The man said, literally twelve feet away from him, while pinning Kouta to the ground with his blade inches away from Kouta's neck.
Either Kouta was seriously out of his mind, or he simply did not think things through. The man made the blades disappear back into the skin of his arms, and walk away. Immediately, Kouta couldn't help but try to fight away the familiar wave of anger he always felt when he thought of the Red Man. He closed his eyes in thought, and immediately a flash back fluttered into his line of sight.
He remembered the feeling a few times before. He felt the familiar surge of anger when he saved Shiro from the falling debris, and that last time when the Red Man appeared again. Kouta also remembered feeling the surge of power, and a rush of blood (maybe) that flew out in a non-concentrated blast at the villain in question. Just now, the man held a similar power to his own mysterious one, and just as he caught on, he realized that he must defeat the man in front of him with the same power. But how can he activate it like before?
"Kouta, what are you doing?" Yoh asked from his hiding place behind a junk pile. "Get away from him!"
"No!" Kouta shouted, and held his right wrist and pointed an open palm straight at the man that had just stopped and stared at him. "Not until the Red Man pays for his crimes!"
He tried to summon the familiar power from earlier, but no matter how hard he seemed to be forcing it, the energy would not come out.
"Damn it! Why can't I do it?" Kouta cursed out loud.
"Oh, so you possess a Branch of Sin, too?" the man sounded mildly interested.
"A what of sin?" Kouta said, confused.
"Hmm…you don't even know how to use it, huh…" the man muttered under his breath. "Fine. I'll play with you for a little while just to see what you've got, kid." He smirked.
The man summoned his blades and stood his guard, waiting for Kouta to make a move. Kouta raised a confused brow. The more he tried to exert energy and stare at the man's red blades, the more he tried to figure out why he couldn't summon the power he had earlier. The man sped toward him fast, and that snapped Kouta out of his stupor, and made him roll over and trip over a blindingly fast blade that came from under him.
He stumbled and his hand scraped against a sharp piece of metal. Kouta kept up his guard, even though he knew that he didn't stand a remote chance against this opponent. Now, Kouta had never been in a fight before…and he most certainly didn't want to do that at the moment. Kouta took the time to focus even more in the dim light, but noticed how the red blades on the man's arms dripped with some red liquid.
Kouta curled his hands into fists, but once again he was reminded of the pain he felt when he remembered how his hand was bleeding slightly. He quickly made the connection, and brought his hand up to the light and examined it like it was an alien's hand, and not his own. He thought about the power, and saw the blood in his hand jump, and floated over and under his hand. It jumped and floated according to his will, and whatever he was thinking of at the time. In the meantime, Yoh and the man were staring in anticipation, and anxiety, for Kouta to make a move.
"Kouta, what the hell are you…" Yoh mumbled.
"Interesting…" the man smirked, and put his guard up to defend himself for what he sensed coming next.
Kouta's thoughts sorted itself out, and his determination once again returned to the present battle. He now knew the way to control this new power. The first few times he unleashed this force was when he was bleeding somewhere. The power, now that he realized, was his own blood. And, if the man was turning his own blood into those scythes that stuck out of his veins, then he could do the same thing, only he'd need to be bleeding first to use it.
"I have you now, Red Man." Kouta whispered, and opened his fist to expose his bloody palm at the opponent. "Eat this!" Without needing any prompting, the familiar blue hexagon pattern surrounded his arm, and out came a stream of concentrated blood.
The man blocked most of the blood that were aimed at him, but failed to notice that some of it was able to break through his heart and hit him straight in the chest, dead center. The force of the blast caused the man to be blown away and into a pile of scrap metal.
Kouta lowered his arm, and panted as he dropped to his knees in exhaustion. He had defeated the Red Man, and it was with using his newfound power, but now he needed to reconsider using it so often. As it is pure blood that he's using as a weapon, he shouldn't be so careless, after all, if he used too much, he'd die of too much blood loss. Yoh let out a breath he didn't realized he held in after seeing the display of power again.
"What is with these freaks?" he said to himself, and climbed out of his hiding place to rejoin Kouta.
Kouta was almost hyperventilating because of the anxiety and the use of too much blood in that last attack that he could die of anemia any time soon. But, just as the two basked in the moment of triumph, the man's arm broke through the junk pile, and he emerged from it, as if he didn't just get shot near the heart. At best, Kouta had broken a couple ribs and pierced the lungs, and was dangerously near the heart, that it could be fatal, but the man acted as if the blast didn't happen. The man smirked, and summoned his blades again, and walked toward the two with a frown on his face.
Kouta was done for had that last attack not work on the man. He had put everything he had into that one attack, and it still wasn't enough to defeat the man. He waited for the man to deliver the finishing blow, as he was too exhausted to get up and move out of the way. But, unexpectedly, Shiro jumped in and flying kicked the man in the abdomen, immediately earning a loud cracking and breaking of ribs in the process. The man flew backwards and hit the wall again. He still remained in the upright position, but refused to blank out.
"Don't pick on Kouta! Don't you people understand?!" she huffed, annoyed. Everyone sweat dropped at her childish naivety.
The biggest shocker of them all, was that the blood had rushed to the man's nose, and leaked out. If this was a comical moment, well it would be considered one considering how he reacted upon seeing Shiro. Of course, any self respecting man would had they been in the same situation.
"Well, isn't this something?" he said, after plugging his nose. "You have a woman fight your battles for you, huh?" he ranted. "Call your girlfriend aside, kid, and just let me end it for you, like a real man!"
"Huh?"
"A woman that 'big' should not be allowed to get near a man's fight!" he shouted.
"What the heck?" Kouta said. "Is this really how the Red Man is?" he said as he struggled to stand up, and walk over to Shiro.
"What do you mean by 'woman that big'?" She said, obliviously. "I'm here to protect Kouta, and you should leave him alone!" The men around her just sweat dropped at her childish threat. Though if she wanted to, she could take on everyone there, and beat them up senselessly.
She took on a different position, and bent down so she could give the man an earful. Without even meaning to, she puffed her already ample chest, and made it seem bigger by doing so. To make it even more taxing, she bent even more, so all that the man seemed to be focusing on were 'those things'. This caused more blood to trickle down his nose, to which he recovered, and plugged his nose and look over at anything else that wasn't on Shiro.
"Hello! Are you even listening?" After she had finished ranting, the man had the nerve to look away while she was talking to him. "When someone's talking to you, you should look at them, you know!"
"Yeah, well, 'those things' are really distracting, and I don't know if anyone's mentioned this to you yet, but of all things to wear, they give you a skin colored, tight-skinned body suit…" he said. Shiro didn't understand, but the two other boys understood completely, but chose not to reveal it.
"What does he mean, Kouta?" Shiro asked.
"Eh, never mind that." Kouta said, trying to deter the conversation, and go back to the man. "So, I have half a mind to beat you to a pulp for the damage you've done to me!"
"What damage?" the man said, confused.
"Don't play dumb!" Kouta accused. "I know you're the Red Man! Face it, you escaped from prison and killed all those middle school students and got me the death sentence for it!"
"What the hell do you mean?" he said, incredulously. "That's bullshit. Why would I focus all my time in supposedly 'escaping' this hell hole, and kill a bunch a snot-nosed kids and frame you?"
"But, the Red Man's the only one who could use that power and attack people like that! I know that, because we heard that the Red Man is kept within the confines of the G-block, which is where we are now, and you're the number one suspect." Kouta said confidently.
"Uh, sorry to point out your mistake, but I'm not the 'Red Man'." The man deadpanned. "I'm Kiyomasa Senji, also known as 'Crow'. If I'm not mistaken, you're 'Woodpecker'."
"Stop with the lies, I know you're the Red Man!" Kouta would not give up until he had solid evidence.
Senji sighed.
"One question, do I look like I'm wearing any red, right now?" he asked, rhetorically. Kouta took a quick glance, and noticed how he was wearing a plain prison uniform with the electronic collar.
"Well, how else would you explain the blood blades?" Kouta threw out another interrogation question.
Senji sighed again.
"You must be a newbie, then. What those 'blood blades' are things called the Branch of Sin. Those who use the Branch of Sin are known as Deadmen. My ability just so happens to be named 'Crow Claw: Invisible Black'. I don't need to tell you why it's named that way, it's pretty self explanatory." Senji explained. "Just so you know, even if the 'Red Man' exists, that would mean that the person you're looking for might just be another Deadman, just like us."
"What do you mean 'us'?" Kouta asked.
"You don't really think that you, and this 'Red Man' character, use this power alone, do you? Well, let me tell you that this prison is filled with them." Senji said. "The thing is, even if you succeed in finding this 'Red Man', it'd be like trying to find a needle among other needles in a huge haystack." He explained, finally making Kouta's eyes widen at the big picture.
"You…you mean to tell me that I've been searching all over for nothing?" Kouta said, incredulously.
"I wouldn't say 'for nothing' quite yet." Senji said.
"Then would you know of him, if I gave you his description?" Kouta asked, hopeful. "I mean, the Red Man had broken out of the G-block and attacked me twice."
"Well, no one's broken out of here…otherwise, I'd know about it already…" Senji said. "In that case, you're the kid that everyone's been going on about. You're the one that's been accused of killing middle school students. And before you flat out deny it, nothing can be set in stone just yet. For all you know, there might not be Red Man to find here. It's filled with only Deadmen."
Kouta's face fell, and he collapsed to his knees with a depressed look on his face.
"After all I've done, what do I do now?" Kouta mumbled.
"You're in for a rough ride, kid." Senji smirked.
Suddenly, a laser fired past Kouta and stunned Senji into unconsciousness, and out of the darkness, another macro had arrived, and used a stun laser on Kouta. Kouta felt himself blacking out, and saw the floor rushing into his face faster than he could process. Whatever happened to the other two afterward, neither one of them knew, but all they had in mind, was something big was going to happen.
… … …
A/N: So, it's finally that time of year, people! The holidays are just around the corner, and it's time for people to get out of school, and do their shopping, and spend time with families. I don't even think I'll be around for the next couple weeks, but with this in mind, Happy Thanksgiving, and happy holidays, from yours truly! Things are really heating up, and it's finally time for the Carnival Corpse arc to begin! Please tell me what you guys think, and I'll come back with another chapter soon!
Next Chapter: Carnival Corpse! Crow vs Woodpecker!