It was a good thing she was good at waiting, she thought. She'd had to do so much of it, in her not so very long life...
And now, the person she had been waiting for had come. Well, waiting for this time, anyway.
"Charles Winchester."
"Kururugi...Nana." The man quirked a smile.
"Is that actually your real name?"
tt Nana thought about that.
"...It's real enough, now."
"Well. Then that would have to do, eh?"
"Quite."
Nana jumped off her perch, and walked up to Charles.
"This is the first time we've actually met in person, I think... I mean, except for then>"
"Oh, yeah, I think so too."
Charles sighed.
"So - What now?"
"So."
Nana smiled at him, and then handed him her gun.
It was big and heavy and low-tech and clunky, and had served her very well, in the world that she had come from.
"We can't really afford to - keep dragging things with us, right?"
Charles looked at the gun in his hand for a good long while.
"All those times."
"Yes, Charles."
"That I killed yours."
"Yes."
"And you killed mine."
"Yes."
Charles spun the gun around several times in his hand. It was loaded, of course.
"And we both..."
And then his face collapsed.
"How do you do it, High Priestess? I - I can't..."
"Neither could I. - But I had to. Nobody else could."
Nana said quietly, looking at the grass and flowers at her feet.
Charles looked at her, and then looked at the gun in his hand, again.
And then, he handed it back.
"Truce, then? - You're quite right, of course. As usual. We can't afford to - keep on dragging things with us."
Nana nodded. "Accepted. - Thank you."
Charles looked at her.
"Don't you go around thanking me, now... Oh, hey. High Priestess?"
Nana twitched, for the first time.
"I - I am not - that, any more..."
"Nana, then. If it's all right with you. - Just - What do you think of the rest of our - Teammates?"
Nana smiled at him, gently.
"They are so - innocent, in some ways. Even though their, ahh, 'death count' is..."
"Hmph. Who's the highest?"
Nana looked at him, expressionlessly, and pointed at herself.
"First me."
And then at him. "Then you. - Mine is much higher, of course."
By an order of several magnitudes. Charles swallowed. Oh, it wasn't like he hadn't known that, but...
"I meant the brats out there, young miss."
" - Oh." Nana smiled, sadly.
"Ahh, Lulu - Lelouch is sitting on the top of that particular pile, actually..."
Charles's eyebrows rose. "The beanpole?"
"All the deaths of a sapient being, directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, correct? Though once one gets past a certain number..."
".....Right."
"After that Cornelia, and Clovis is last. - They're both much lower than Lelouch, though they're still...Well."
"Well, yeah - " Charles sighed. "But still."
"Well, we are the Legion of the Damned, after all - "
Nana smiled.
"Though some of us are more damned then others and I'll like to keep it that way if at all possible. - What do you think, Charles?"
Charles sighed, and nodded.
"We'll - Try to keep things clean. Right?"
"As clean as things can be with Them involved, yes."
Them.
Charles shuddered, remembering their Enemy, the main one, not the minor nuisances that turned up every once in a while.
The Timeline Eaters, damned be their name.
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:50)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.