"I'm surprised you offered to let the Americans lodge here."
"I'm surprised they agreed to let one of their cyborgs to stay here."
"Vincent's a good man."
"He reminds me of my brother."
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"It depends."
"Well, for me, it's a good thing. Danielle and Henrietta get along very well."
"Call it the spirit of intra-service service cooperation."
"Keep your friends in front of you and within arm's reach?"
"If you would have it that way…"
"You never change, Jean. And here I never thought we would use 'Etta's new room again."
"We did have the door repaired. It would be a shame to waste the money."
"Oh, yes. Triela's temper back then was spectacular."
"It was. I told Hilshire to properly discipline her."
"And what did Hilshire say?"
"He said he was going to increase in her conditioning."
They both knew that Hilshire had no intention of forcing his ward to change. And neither Mireille nor Jean minded.
All was right in the world.
.
Life Goes On
Note: Text in "" are said over the radio. Italicized text denotes thought. Bold text emphasizes certain words.
Disclaimer: Gunslinger Girl, Noir, Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, Metal Slug and Saikano are owned by their respective owners. I 'own' Giuseppe, Elena and Rolito. The Handsome Men and Jeremy Colt are courtesy Person With Many Aliases, who gave me permission to use them. I highly recommend you read up his work with the same title to get a better feel out of them.
Revamped Chronology: This story happens past Volume Six of Gunslinger Girl, several years after Noir, sometime after Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid and five years or so before the events of Saikano (manga).
Nineteen
Familia
(Family)
.
Two days earlier…
They looked exactly alike.
Or not. There were immediate, noticeable differences. Danielle's hair was longer and tied in thick ponytails, and Henrietta was taller by half a dozen inches and arguably dressed better.
Yet their hair was almost the exact same red-brown and their eyes the same shade of soft brown. They shared the same small, cute heart-shaped face that seemed purpose-built to appeal to people's compassion. Looked so much alike, they could have been mistaken as twins at all but point blank range, and sisters at any distance. They even carried the same primary weapon– though Danny's P90 had a custom pistol grip while Etta's retained the standard one.
So Henrietta stared and Danielle stared back, both girls thinking the same thing: she looks like me.
Their handlers shared their stupefaction. Mireille and Vincent silently stared at their wards, then at each other, then again at their wards.
"Ah, 'Etta," Mireille slowly said in Italian while gesturing to the man beside her, "This is Vincent. That girl," she pointed, "Is–"
"Danielle," the slightly dazed Vincent helpfully supplied.
"Danielle. Yes." Mireille switched to English. "Vincent, Danielle, this is Henrietta, my partner."
"Hi," Vincent tried.
The adults were– politely and kindly, but also completely– ignored.
"Henrietta. My name is Henrietta."
She said it in melodically flowing Italian. Her opposite number nodded. "I'm Danielle."
"Am I missing something here?" Vincent, not being very fluent at Italian, asked as bright beams blossomed upon the girls' faces.
"Not much," Mireille told him with a smile of her own.
.
No smiles for Jean Croce. The blond man donned his sternest look and armed his harshest tone. His English was nearly perfect, concise and sharp.
"Your presence here is a violation of international laws. Your mission here is an insult to my country's sovereignty and my service's capabilities. And your audacity to bring cyborg weapons borders on the criminal."
The Handsome Men handlers were not accustomed to being on the receiving end of a tongue-lashing. Adding an additional spice of danger was that both groups' cyborgs were present, armed and very overprotective.
The blonde Italian in the suit looked the Americans over as if they were the very terrorists he loathed. "If it were up to me," Jean said grimly, "You would never be heard of again."
Danielle bristled at that remark. Yuki eyed Jean. Rico shifted her position to meet any attack on her handler head-on. Henrietta, Claes and Triela prepared to break up any potential hostility.
"That said," and here Jean's frosty blue eyes lightened some, "Since there is no official record of you having entered Italy, and since there is no solid evidence of your presence here, you are not here, and thus you cannot be charged with breaking any laws.
"Welcome to Rome."
.
"And this is my Mateba." Danielle proudly displayed said monster Magnum auto-revolver. Henrietta, Rico and Angelica obliged with an outpouring of oohs and ahhs.
At first Danny had fiercely resisted the idea of separating with Vincent. She complained and wailed and wept. Threw the mother of all tantrums. Their audience of Italians, French, Scandinavian, Dutch and Corsican privately enjoyed their American comrade's trouble. Rather mean, true, but it was funny.
"They're like a young father and a spoiled daughter," Mireille thought aloud.
"Like my brother and Henrietta," was Jean's comparison.
"'Etta isn't spoiled…"
"You haven't seen her that way yet."
Somehow Triela kept her commentary to herself, which Hilshire appreciated.
Henrietta's solution was elegantly simple. "Danielle? Would you like to sleep over at my room?"
Her doppelganger took all of two seconds to agree.
Rico generously moved into the refurbished bedroom that until recently housed a recovering Henrietta. Meanwhile Yuki remained with Vincent and Lazarus to provide security. She declined any offer to stay over with her Italian comrades-in-arms, though she didn't mind visiting the Section Two warehouse.
The sleepover was great fun. The other Italian girls dropped by at various times to say hello. Claes and Triela brought gifts of tea, cakes and biscuits. Petrushka put on a theatrical one-girl performance worthy of Broadway. Rico escorted Angelica both during the first visit in the evening and this morning.
By now Angie had received the full benefit of Henrietta's second-generation conditioning drug and Petrushka's second generation cybernetic parts. No longer wheelchair-bound, she could now walk on her own again. Rico was very solicitous of her friend and kept close to her at all times.
"It's so big," the awed Angie murmured as she ran her hands upon the massive revolver.
"Vincent customized it so that it looks like Vash the Stampede's Turn Gun," Danielle loftily explained.
Rico blinked. "Vash the Stampede? Is he an American commando?"
"No," Danielle primly corrected, "He's the hero from Trigun."
"What's Trigun?" Henrietta asked. "An American counterterrorist team?"
"It's an anime…"
"What's anime?" two Italians and a French girl asked aloud.
"You mean to say you don't know what anime is?" Danielle wallowed in disbelief. "Under what rock have you three been living lately?"
Henrietta blushed, Rico smiled sheepishly and Angie innocently asked if The Powerpuff Girls, whose Italian translation she occasionally watched on her hospital room's cable-supplied TV, counted.
"Looks like I'll have to educate you girls the hard way," Danielle grumbled.
.
Yuki stared.
The entire wall was a bookcase. Books of every cover conceivable filled every square inch of it. All clamored for her attention, asked for her favor, demanded to be read and enjoyed.
For the first time since becoming a cyborg, Yuki felt rather light-headed– and without the slightest dose of conditioning to account for it.
Beside her, Claes smiled. "I thought that you might like books. Feel free to borrow any of them. Consider it an elaborate apology for my earlier unpleasantness."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
.
Mireille was puzzled. She and Henrietta earlier agreed to spend some extra hours at the firing range this afternoon. But there had been no sight of her ward at any of her usual hangouts. Not her room, not the corridors, not Claes and Triela's room or Claes' reading room. Worse, no one knew.
She found Vincent wandering about a corridor while sporting a similar troubled look. "Miss Mireille? Have you seen Danielle? We were supposed to meet up today."
"No. 'Etta's gone, too. There isn't anyone in her room."
A huffy Marco appeared out of a side corridr. "Have any of you seen Angelica?"
Mireille shook her head. Vincent shrugged.
"Rico took her along to Henrietta's room a couple of hours ago," Marco grumbled. "They haven't come back yet."
"Didn't you say there was no one at Henrietta's room?" Vincent asked Mireille.
"Yes."
Three handlers exchanged looks of sudden comprehension almost bordering on horror.
.
Yuki being preoccupied with a certain infamous book written by an equally infamous author, Claes was free to use the laptop computer recently provided by Mireille. She found her online friend eager for conversation.
Claes: Hello, Black.
Black: Hey, Claes.
.
Jean was poring through a sheaf of documents sent by Mr. Superior, the Handsome Men's boss, when he noticed Amadeo skulking about the corridor like a seasoned infantryman canvassing hostile terrain for enemy ambushers.
Huh?
.
The hunt for the missing Fratello quickly expanded in scope. Priscilla, Amadeo, Alfonso, Olga and Bianchi were drafted into the searchers' ranks. The agents combed through the base for any sign of the missing girls. None were found.
Finally, desperation beginning to get the better of her, Mireille went to the firing range. She found Triela and Hilshire– and a clue to the location of the missing girls.
"Wasn't Henrietta with that new girl?" Triela asked her handler. "The one who looked like a younger version of her?"
Hilshire nodded. "Rico and Angie were with them as well. They were heading for one of the conference rooms, I think."
"Suspiciously, too," Triela added. "That new girl was hiding something. You might want to hurry, Miss Mireille. I wouldn't put it past those four to get into trouble."
"Thanks for the info. By the way, Hilshire," Mireille wondered, unable to help herself, "Have you upped Triela's conditioning yet?"
Hilshire gave her a bland look. "I have not the slightest idea of what you are talking about."
Though Triela faced away, Mireille thought she saw the girl grin.
.
A quartet of small, shivering forms clung to each other and held their breaths as the hideous, horse-headed, bat-winged monster opened its fanged maw to screech at them in ravenous hunger.
"What's this?" archly asked a strident voice that rose above the monster's scream.
The girls shrieked and tumbled into each other's arms.
The lights flashed on. "Miss Mireille!" Henrietta exclaimed.
Seeing four cyborg assassins huddling together like the startled little children they should be caused Mireille to chuckle. "And here everyone was worrying themselves sick over you girls..."
"We weren't doing anything bad!" Danielle, obviously the leader of this little gathering, protested for her companions.
"I can see that. But Chief Lorenzo and Jean won't approve of you girls using the conference room's equipment to watch cartoons."
"It's not a cartoon! It's anime!"
Danielle's companions vociferously echoed her argument. Even Henrietta–darling, loyal 'Etta– turned traitor.
"If you're going to watch a movie," Mireille suggested when the furor died down, "We have a TV and DVD player in the lounge. You can watch there."
"But…"
"No 'buts'."
The girls stared with eyes that were suddenly huge and watery. Mireille couldn't help but smile at the flood of cute pleading directed her way. She tried to fix them a patented 'Jean Croce Stare Of Disapproval', but failed to suppress the twinkle in her eyes.
"Danielle. Henrietta. Rico. Angelica."
Four heads drooped with disappointment. "Yes, Miss Mireille…"
"And you'll also have to apologize to your handlers for causing them to worry so much. Except for you, Rico. Don't tell Jean a word. He'll get angry."
"Yes, Miss Mireille…"
.
Marco was beside himself with relief. Also rightfully angry in a fatherly way. "They hid from us to watch a cartoon?"
"Anime." Vincent, the youngest in the gathering of adults save perhaps for Priscilla, was quite sheepish. "Blood: The Last Vampire is a fairly old anime movie. I bought it for Danielle a month ago. I thought she'd already watched it. Guess not."
"Vampires." Marco snorted. "How banal..."
"No more banal than, say, a dragon," Olga reminded the creator of The Prince of Pasta.
"My stories are better than some cartoon."
"Anime," Vincent corrected.
"They're all the same!"
"Aw, come on, Marco," Amadeo suggested. "Angie needs to watch new things every now and then. Hearing the same story over and over again will bore her to tears."
Marco's gaze was as frosty and hostile as Antarctica. Nearby, Bianchi was failing to contain a broad grin.
"Well, they seem to be enjoying it," Alfonso noted, "As is someone who should be acting like the grown-up she is."
In the lounge, the girls and Priscilla all squealed and hugged each other as the onscreen menace lunged at them.
.
Heading back to their hotel, Lazarus finally noticed the book Yuki possessively held to her body. "Is that a book?"
"Yes. Claes lent it to me."
"That was kind of her. What's the title?"
"Lolita."
.
Triela yelped.
"What's the matter?" Hilshire asked.
"I bit my tongue."
"Someone must be talking about you."
Evening fell upon the former monastery.
.
Jean sat back to consider the dossier– and its contents' implication for one redhead girl.
The atheists ask if God exists. Here is proof of Him– and His appreciation of irony.
.
TOP SECRET
Handsome Men
Personnel Dossier
"Danielle"
"…survivor of a grisly robbery-murder-rape of an Italian family… somehow survived despite receiving critical gunshot wounds … her sister was even more severely injured and further raped… uterus cut out… cultists were deemed the likeliest culprits…"
.
Giuseppe, my brother, Jean thought, What do you think of this?
Then and there, he swore to do anything in his power just to make sure that Danielle and Henrietta would never became anything like him– or his brother.
.
"Shopping?"
"'Etta–" Vincent saw firsthand that Mireille's mode of addressing Henrietta was infectious. "–and Miss Mireille invited us." Danny put on a pleading face. "Can we, Vincent?"
He made a show of thinking it over. Seeing his ward's hopeful face, however, was persuasion enough. Plus Mireille and 'Etta– she even got to me, Vincent wryly thought–were waiting.
"Well, we haven't done any shopping here yet, anyway. Besides, Lazarus is going over the mission details with Jean, and he's better at that than me. So I think we do have some time to spare."
The double whoops of delight deafened the adults.
.
Henrietta and Danielle wore identical light blue sundresses and sandals.
After admiring his ward's undeniable cuteness, then staring at Henrietta's similar garb, Vincent gave their dresser a rather strange look.
"I couldn't help myself," Mireille admitted with an almost wicked glee quite unlike her. "I just had to dress them alike…"
Women, Vincent glumly told himself.
He drove them to the department store in a rented Fiat. They parked nearby and let the girls go ahead. The handlers noted that their wards held hands while walking. Almost like siblings– though it was the smaller, younger Danielle leading Henrietta around instead of the other way around.
"Oh! What pretty girls!" A stout woman with a faded but kind face waddled over to the matched pair. "Hello, my dears. You must be sisters."
The two girls exchanged confused looks.
"Ah," began Danny.
"Well," 'Etta stuttered.
The matron gave the approaching Vincent and Mireille a curious look. "Are you two these fine children's parents?"
Vincent gagged, and then blushed, at the suggestion. Mireille was made of sterner stuff. She smiled back. "No, ma'am. We're their guardians. They're orphans."
"Oh, terrible, how terrible! The poor dears? May I?"
"Of course."
The woman promptly rumpled the girls' hair. "You're so sweet and pretty!" She sniffed. "Pupa! Your guardians must be spoiling you two pretty."
It was Mireille's turn to eye Vincent. "I buy it from an import shop," the American explained after the matron left. "Danny seems to like it. Why?"
"It's the exact same perfume that 'Etta's old handler buys for her."
Vincent blinked. "Old handler?"
"It's a long story."
"Well," he said as the department store entrance approached, "We have enough time for it."
While Henrietta and Danielle tried on various articles of clothing nearby, Mireille tutored Vincent in the finer points of selecting girl's clothes. Among other things, the lesson involved dragging him into various places he would rather not even think of entering– such as the women's lingerie section.
"Do you have to drag me here, Mireille?"
"You have to know what Danny's sizes are so that the clothes you buy for her fit her comfortably," Mireille candidly lectured while rifling through a rack of cute children's underwear. "The ones you gave her are a bit tight, or so 'Etta tells me."
He could not exactly argue with that, being busy looking for something to look at aside from flimsy cotton and sleek silk. He settled for his white-and-red Nikes. He nearly lifted his head in surprise, though, at Mireille's revelation. "Wait. Henrietta told you about what?"
"Danny told 'Etta. 'Etta told me. That's why 'Etta wanted Danny to come with us today. 'Etta wanted to get Danny nice ones."
"Danny never tells me…"
Mireille glanced at him. "It's not exactly something a girl can tell a man. Even if he is her handler."
Vincent felt so ignorant, inadequate, embarrassed and male.
The women who did notice his presence only smiled or giggled at him. "Aren't they offended to see a man here?" he asked.
"They probably think you're my boyfriend," Mireille nonchalantly explained.
That made him blush.
"They also believe that a man accompanying his girlfriend into the women's clothing section is very gentlemanly. A 'turn-on', as you Americans would call it."
Vincent blushed even more than humanly possible.
"Ah. Here you go." Mireille carried a good number of girl's underwear in her arms. "Have Danny try these on."
"Can you give them to her for me?" Vincent's gaze was nailed to the ceiling now. "I'd rather not be arrested…"
"Oh. Sorry about that. I've never gone shopping with a man before."
Vincent wondered if Mireille was doing this to him intentionally and if anyone else shared his inadequacy.
.
"Hey, Hilshire! What's up?"
"Priscilla. I need advice."
"On what?"
"Clothes."
"Oh? For whom?"
"Triela."
"What kind of clothes?"
"…"
"Hmm? What was that?"
Big hands gestured stiffly as a squarish jaw worked up and down.
"Hilshire, I can understand English, Italian, French and German. I can't translate sign language."
.
Jean met the happy party on their return to the base. "I have an important matter to discuss with you," he told Mireille and Vincent.
The girls went ahead to their shared room– but not before Henrietta asked Jean if she and Danielle could go to the rooftop of the base's tallest building later. Jean's cold blue eyes had glistened for the briefest moment. He agreed.
He also dismissed Rico for the day. "Take a break," he told his cyborg. "You've earned it." The blonde girl happily accompanied her friends.
Jean brought his fellow handlers to his office. He locked the door.
"What's so important that you sent Rico away?" Mireille asked.
He told them everything.
.
They sat beside each other under the cool night sky at the very spot where Giuseppe took Henrietta to watch the stars. There were no clouds and no moon. This far out from Rome, artificial lights could not spoil their view.
"This place is very nice," Danielle murmured.
"I'm glad you liked it," Henrietta happily told her.
"Of course, but what also I meant is that I like it here with you."
"Me?"
"Yeah. You. I like you a lot. It feels like we've know each other for so long."
"I feel the same way, too."
"Really, 'Etta?" The younger girl grinny. "I'm real happy to know we're very alike."
"Maybe that means we're soul mates."
"Soul mates?"
Henrietta nodded. "Miss Mireille told me that soul mates are people who have a very close and special relationship."
"Oh, you mean like Rico and Meir," Danny suggested, having heard of that legendary love affair perhaps a million times, the topic being a favorite way to tease Rico.
"Or Triela and Hilshire," 'Etta joked.
They enjoyed heart laughs at that last example before resuming their quiet watch of the stars. Henrietta pointed. "That's Polaris. The North Star. It's at the end of the Big Dipper constellation. And that's Orion, the Hunter. And that small group of stars is the Pleiades."
"You sure know everything about the stars, Henrietta," Danielle murmured in awe.
"Not really. Giuseppe taught me most of what I know."
"Giuseppe?"
"He was my first handler. He died."
Dannielle started at that revelation. But Henrietta wasn't unhappy. "He told me to be happy even without him," she added without rancor or pain. "I am."
"I'm real glad for you. I don't think I can do that if I lost Vincent."
"I think you can. I have Miss Mireille and my friends. You have your own friends. They're our families."
"Familia," both girls breathed. Family.
.
"Impossible," Mireille breathed.
"Improbable," Jean corrected, "But still possible."
"But," Vincent began.
"Is it a bad thing they met?"
No one answered. There was no need to say the obvious.
.
"'Etta?"
"Yes?"
"Do you think Miss Mireille likes Vincent? She seems to tease him a lot. From what I understand, people tease other people because they like them."
"Oh, no. Don't worry, Danny. Miss Mireille already likes Jean."
"No way!"
"Really!"
And the night wore on.
Life goes on.
.
Old friends meet again for what the diplomats refer to as "a confluence of interests". Next on Life Goes On: Proposta (Proposition).