Elfen Lied Lilian's Vault

**CHAPTER ONE**

_Wait for me at the stone steps…_

Somehow, when she had spoken those words and fled the bridge with that mad gunman giving chase, Kouta knew that his time with Nyu, that sweet, innocent girl who he had only just begun to understand, had come to an end. He knew that when she came back to him, it would only be to grant him the opportunity to say goodbye.

Unfortunately, he couldn't bring himself to utter that unspeakable word. He knew it was time to say it and put an end to this bizarre relationship, stained with the blood of his father and his sister Kanae and countless others with whom Lucy had crossed paths, but when he opened his mouth to speak, all that came to his lips was another question. Though he knew he was just delaying the inevitable, there were so many questions he desperately needed to have an answer to, even if he realized that the answers would be horrible beyond description.

"That girl I used to know," he murmured, casting her a sidelong glance. Lucy sat beside him at the top of the stone steps outside of the old Maple Inn. She had blood on her from an injury to her forehead, an injury she had obviously sustained in battle. One of the strange horns had been snapped off. He wondered how that had happened. Still, he knew her injuries weren't what affected her mood. While her body might hurt, it was quite clear that her real pains were from an emotional scar that cut much deeper than any blade or bullet. Kouta shuttered involuntarily. "The girl I played with when I was a child," he continued softly, looking away. If she looked back at him, he didn't know. "And the girl we call Nyu. They're both you, aren't they?"

If he thought she would hesitate to respond, she did not. What she had to say, however, was nothing at all like what he anticipated. "You have to understand," she said calmly. "I was born to put an end to human life." Kouta glanced up, stunned at her reply, but Lucy only stared to the city below and the bay in the distance. There was no desperation in her soft tone, only misery mixed with cold fact. "In five years—in just five years—I can see to it that there are more of us born than there are human infants. But if I succeed in remaking the world, you're going to have to die."

It was insane, yet he knew what she was telling him was true. He had _seen _her future for himself. Though he had forgotten until just today, he had seen it years ago, her legacy foretold in a river of blood—in his sister's blood, and in his father's blood. And then, today on the bridge, he had seen it again. The woman and the soldiers with her… it had been devastatingly brutal, and while he should have been horrified, sitting beside the monstrosity who was the cause of all his pain, he could only look at her and see in her the goodness he had come to know.

"Kouta… you were a happy dream in a life that's been nothing but a hellish nightmare. Those days I spent with you… they were the only good days I've ever known." Her voice had begun to break. Unshed tears began to shimmer in her eyes. He wondered what horrors those gorgeous, sad eyes had witnessed throughout her lonely, broken life. "I cherish them." Though she had not yet met his gaze, she turned her head away from him so that she could not even catch a glimpse of him from the corner of her eye if she wanted to. She began to shake uncontrollably. Kouta longed to reach out and pull her into his embrace, but he hesitated. "All this time… I've lived in hope of telling you how sorry I am." She lowered her head into her hands, resting on her knees, and began to sob. "I've fought armies just to have this chance. But now… there's nothing I can say that's good enough."

When Lucy lifted her head and turned at last to meet his gaze, he realized she was trying to say just what he could not. She was trying to say goodbye. There were tears in her eyes, rolling down her cheeks, and she looked to be just about the loneliest wretch he had ever seen in his entire life. It broke his heart.

She rose without another word. He watched her take a single step. Whatever she intended, he did not know. He did not care. He wasn't ready to let it end this way.

He rose to his feet and threw his arms around her shoulders from behind. "Don't go!"

Lucy was stunned. "But… Kouta, I killed your family!"

"I can't explain it," he said, and he realized that his own voice was thick with tears, the same as hers. The emotion nearly forced him to his knees, but he clung to the strength he didn't know he had, strength he was certain that Nyu had given him. "There's no way I could forgive what you did to Kanae or my dad. I'll never get them back." Lucy grit her teeth at the painful memory. "But I can't… I can't let you go knowing that you'll hurt people. There's already too much in my life that I regret. I want to put a stop to the bloodshed." He drew a breath. "Besides… I love that lonely little girl I met so long ago. And I love Nyu. She's like nobody I've ever met."

Lucy sobbed softly. "Kouta…" She took the arm he'd wrapped around her shoulder, just under her jaw, in both hands, and cried with her back against him for several seconds before finally turning to face him. They stared at one another for what seemed an eternity, though he knew it had only been a second or two.

She reached up and rested her hands on his shoulders.

Then she pulled him to her.

Her lips were so soft. He could still remember that moment long after she pulled away from him and left him there at the top of the stone stairs.

Where she had gone, what she had done in the days following, he did not know.

* * *

"Look, if you'd just stay organized cleaning up wouldn't take so long."

Kouta scoffed quietly to himself. He didn't protest aloud—he'd learned a lot time ago that his protests would fall on deaf ears… or worse, Yuka would actually hear him, and then there'd be hell to pay. Regardless of what she said, however, no amount of organization could have changed his mood today. A half hour or all day, it didn't really matter. He just didn't feel much like cleaning. It was actually quite impressive, though: Yuka sounded an awful lot like a mother.

"If you don't hurry up and get it done you're not gonna get lunch."

"Alright, I know!" And he did, too, Kouta thought glumly, staring down at the pink seashell that Nyu had given to him. It seemed like ages ago. A sad, haunting melody seemed to hang in the air like a ominous haze, clinging to his soul. The girl from his past, years ago, had loved this song. He did as well, though Kanae and Yuka had told him it was a dreadfully sad melody. They'd suggested he get a music box that played a happier song, but he'd chosen the one on the floor before him now. The shell he kept inside the box had been given to him by Nyu, but originally he'd kept the one Kanae had found for him during her last summer of life there. Nyu had broken it, the same as if she had ripped his heart in twine.

"What's the matter?"

Kouta looked up. He hadn't even heard Yuka enter the room, but here she was. "Oh, it's nothing." He slipped the shell back into the music box, not really knowing whether or not Yuka bought the lie he'd just told. He was pretty sure she didn't, not that it mattered. He rose to his feet and put the box back in his dresser where it belonged, and though he had no desire, he did his chores just as she'd asked. Later, lunch would be served, and maybe time with his family could help him to put aside the lonesome thoughts swirling in the back of his mind.

_Nyu…_

His heart skipped a beat, and he stared at the floor.

He could feel Yuka's sad eyes upon him, trying to gaze into his soul. He knew why she was so sad, and it wasn't solely because Nyu had gone away. There was something much more personal, something between him and her alone. He wasn't very comfortable when considering it, so he'd never brought it up. Maybe it was about time that they'd made new strides.

After all, Nyu was never coming back. If she was even alive…

* * *

"You're getting better already, Nana."

"Oh please. Anybody can grill sausage."

Mayu smiled. Though she could tell Nana was delighted with the compliment, she decided she couldn't let the opportunity go to waste. As she moved over to the sink to drain the somen noodles, she delivered a timely and playful retort. "That's true, but this time they weren't burnt."

Nana gasped. "Hey, that's mean!"

Sisters, Mayu decided as her heart fluttered in her chest. It felt as if they were sisters. She'd never had a sister before, only the other children at the orphanage. There had been a few friends of course, but no one had ever gotten close enough to be like a brother or sister to her. Nana had been through a hell of a different sort on her path to the Maple Inn, but in the end, they were much alike in many ways. They were broken children made whole when they came together with Kouta and Yuka watching over them.

They were family.

She was pretty certain that Nana felt the same.

* * *

While the girls of Maple Inn continued preparations for lunch, Kouta sat in the dining room, staring out into the yard. His chores complete, he took the time to simply breathe, to cherish these precious moments of life. Though she had brought death to him tenfold in their brief time together, Kouta had come to understand that Lucy had also brought something else, something wonderful, something beautiful, that he was only just beginning to comprehend. Because of her—because of Nyu—Kouta could see a vastly different spectrum in the rainbow of life, beginning with his blossoming love for the three young women with whom he shared his new home.

Yuka joined him, and while he sat watching, she set the table. Two places to the left for Mayu and Nana, and two to the right for herself and him. He was slightly surprised when she set a fifth bowl in front of the seat that had been unoccupied for the past week. He smiled sadly. "Yuka…"

She looked up. "Hmm?"

"You know you just put out an extra bowl."

She smiled. "I thought it would be nice. You know… having her here."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Yuka could be so thoughtful. It was a trait he lacked. Just another reason why he was beginning to realize that he loved her, just as he was beginning to love the two younger girls in his life.

Several minutes later they gathered around the table. Kouta was impressed with the spread. Mayu was such a talented cook for a girl of her age, and Nana was a fast learner as well. Luckily they had a talented teacher in Yuka. He knew that if he were the one cooking, they would probably be eating out or munching on instant noodles every day. Most likely it would be the latter—instant noodles were by far the cheaper option—and Yuka would _kill_ him for not eating a balanced diet.

"Thank you for the food!" the family said as one, and at last they dug in.

Dipping her noodles into her bowl of mentsuyu, Nana slurped up her first bite, and by her reaction, a delighted and decidedly juvenile "Yummy!" along with the look of sheer ecstacy plastered on her face, Kouta knew that somen was a hit. He had to smile.

"That's right!" Yuka said. "This is your first time eating somen noodles."

"Oh yeah. I couldn't be here last time you served them."

For a moment, time seemed to halt. The four of them sat in silence as the memory of that dreadful day returned, the reason for the empty seat at the head of the table. Neither Kouta nor Nana had said a thing to the other two regarding the horrors they had witnessed, but he was pretty sure that Yuka understood at least some of what had happened. After all, Nyu was gone, and Nana had been beaten up something awful when she stumbled back into the house that night. Kouta had simply said that Nyu had gone away. Someday, he might even tell Yuka the truth, but he wasn't ready. Not yet.

Tears were welling up in Nana's eyes. "There are just so many wonderful things in this world. So many good things." Kouta suspected she was thinking of the two others, of the one called Mariko and also of Lucy, girls who had been like kin and yet her mortal enemies at the same time. He just didn't understand what it must be like to be born into the world for the sole purpose of killing, but these girls… that was the reason they had been born. It was tragic, to say the least.

Mayu broke the moment of silence. "Nana?"

Embarrassed, Nana covered her face and shook her head, and as quickly as it had fled, her jubilant mood returned. "Oh, I'm sorry!" She stuck her chopsticks into the big bowl of noodles in the center of the table. "Let's eat!"

Yuka smiled. "That's right! You need to eat if you're going to grow up healthy."

Kouta watched in silence, still somber even though the moment of reflection had passed. His heart ached for the girl. He had no idea what Nana had been through, and could never understand her tortured existence. How could such a fragile and tormented soul survive the same hell that Lucy had endured and ultimately be so different?

From out front, the sound of Wanta's excited yipping drifted into the house.

"Huh? Is someone at the gate?" Yuka asked.

Kouta abruptly set his bowl and chopsticks down and got to his feet. "I'll go check."

He moved quickly to the front of the house, down the hall past the old grandfather clock. When he walked past his room, he could hear the faint song from the music box and wondered momentarily if one of the girls had wound it up before coming to the table. Not that it was a big deal, of course. He still loved that haunting melody.

Stepping through the threshold, Kouta slipped on his shoes and walked out into the front yard. Wanta was still yapping excitedly as he walked past. The puppy's little tale smacked the air unforgivingly.

On the other side of the yard, he could see the silhouette of a slender figure standing on the other of the gate. He headed over to see who it was.

Halfway across the yard, something unexpected happened.

He turned back to the house with wide eyes as the grandfather clocked suddenly tolled. He tried to make sense of it in his head, but only a single thought came to mind. There really could be no explaining it. Nyu had been fascinated by the clock, and had probably taken the thing apart piece by piece, down to the last screw and coil, in her quest for… whatever it was she had been doing. He hadn't understood just what it was about her and that timepiece, but her fascination had bordered on an obsession. He hadn't been comfortable letting her take it apart, but in the end, the truth was that it had been broken for a long time. It wasn't like she could do more damage than had already been done, so he'd let her obsess, with Mayu's supervision.

But why did the clock toll now, of all times. Nobody had touched it in more than a week. His head began to spin as he tried to make sense of it, but he knew there was no sense to be made. It was impossible, wasn't it? He shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. Of all the bizarre and impossible things that had happened since he'd met Nyu, this was perhaps the most strange.

At least it was not the most horrible, though that really didn't put his heart at ease.

Turning back to the gate, he took a step forward.

For a moment, he thought his heart would stop.

There, standing on the other side of the gate, which now stood wide open, was a girl with long, violet hair, completely tied back in numerous tight braids. Her simple green dress hung loose against her slender frame. Her expression somber, she locked her calm, violet eyes onto his and simply stared. Kouta stared back, wide-eyed.

The stranger had not even bothered to cover the horns on her head, horns that matched those of Lucy and Nana, marking her as one of them, the creatures born to put an end to the human race. He felt himself trembling as he stared at her. From what Lucy had told him, he knew he should be afraid. He should be terrified. Somehow, though, he knew in his heart not to run away. He stood his ground, staring at her as she took several slow, deliberate steps toward him. He felt his heart thundering in his chest. All he could do was wait.

When she spoke, something as unexpected as the chime of the grandfather clock nearly sent him reeling to the floor. "Kouta?" she said softly, pausing several steps away, as if she was trying not to frighten him. It didn't matter; though he wasn't really frightened, he might as well have been. He simply stood frozen In disbelief. She could have disemboweled him then and there, and there was nothing he could have done to stop him.

She _knew_ his name. His _name_. He couldn't believe it was possible, but whoever she was, she had come here for a purpose. She had come looking specifically for him, hadn't she? He was certain of it. "Yeah… that's me. Who are you?"

She clenched her fists, staring at him for the longest time. Closing her eyes, she swallowed hard and seemed to gather her thoughts. Whatever she was doing here, it was obvious that she was struggling as much as he.

"My name is Lilian," she said finally. "I have a message for you."


End file.

Elfen Lied, Adventure, Suspense