Rusty Angel (MementoMori/ DanMachi)

[Stimpak Medic]

Prologue: A Slight Glitch in The System

A tiny frail girl with skin and short rough hair whiter than dry bone walked barefoot down the cold metal hallways of an underground facility. The only thing she wore was an oversized white jacket that hung down to her knees. Even just the collar of the jacket almost was wider than her. Her wide eyes were dull and red. There was little light in them, and her movements were almost entirely mechanical. Each step the exact same as the one before it.

Atop her head, floating as if suspended directly above her was a large cog. It was thin, and about the width of her thin face as it slowly rotated clockwise. It looked to be of dull iron. Floating behind her, as if they were tiny metal wings, seven blades on each side spread in a crude imitation of what must have been those of an angel.

She stopped before an open door, bowing and asking the room's inhabitant if she could enter with a light, airy, feeble voice.

---

"I am Experimental homunculus, serial number 30682: A.A.

A puppet that, from birth, was used in endless experimentations, and disposed of when broken.

A tool that has no will, nor heart of its own.

That is what I am."

But one day, the professor said she would raise me as a human—an experiment to give a puppet a heart. The days that followed were nothing like what I was used to.

I read books, and had long talks with the professor.

Slowly, I gained knowledge, and my heartbeat grew stronger.

When I asked the professor what the sky was, she laughed and said, "It'd be nice if you could go see it one day."

I am a puppet. I have no emotions, nor desires.

But...

I started thinking about how I wanted to go see the sky.

---

"Let's go see the sky." The professor said suddenly one day.

"Let's run away from this place and go see the world."

As a puppet, I have no right to refuse. I must obey the professor. But...

"Where should we go? What should we do?" The more the professor asks, the more something within me swells.

"Tomorrow's the day, Little A. Aren't you excited?"

To the professor's words, I gave a small nod... even if I couldn't comprehend what being "excited" meant.

Then the day came to go see the sky.

The professor...never came.

She appeared three days later. She was with someone people called the Pope.

This is the first time someone other than the professor has come.

I don't understand why, but... Something doesn't feel right...

As I stand there silently, the professor looks at me and smiles.

"I'm sorry, Little A." The professor apologized.

She was smiling, but also...crying?

Why...are you apologizing?

Why are you crying?

Why are you smiling?

I didn't understand anything. Not the professor's feelings,

Not my feelings... Nothing. Frozen in place, I watch as the Pope readies her spear.

"The last emotion this heartless puppet needs to be complete...is despair." The professor says to me, her smile and tears...They spark somethin within me.

Then, the Pope thrusts her spear... into the professor.

The professor collapsed in a pool of blood.

To me, the professor was my everything. She made me. She gave me knowledge.

Everything was her doing. But, that professor...has died.

I'm sure dying is something "sad," but...Ahh... It's no use.

I don't feel anything. There aren't any tears in my eyes.

And yet, I can't see anything anymore. I can't hear anything anymore.

My legs are shaking so much I can't stand anymore.

My chest hurts so much... I can't...think of anything...

Professor, what...is this? Why...do I feel...?

Professor... Hey, Professor... Uuuuo... Uuuuuou...

Professor, Professor... Professor...

Professor...? Professor, Professor, Professor...

Professor Professor Professor Professor

Professor Professor Professor...

AAAAHHHH!

After I shout for the first time, overwhelmed by the torrent of emotions within me...I lose all that kept me whole, spiraling to the darkness. Then, all is silent again.

---

When my eyes open, I am no longer in the lab. The professor is dead...My reason to live. Gone.

It is dark here. Cold and dark. No. It is not cold. At least. My body senses the air is mildly warm, and the dirt and stone around me is warm as well.

This cold...It's coming from within..

What is this I'm sensing now? Is this what emotions are? I feel them for the first time. Tears. They fall from my eyes..

Was this what the professor felt as she died? Am I dead? Is this the Underworld I had read about?

I'm so confused.

Is this freedom? Can I chose where to go? What to do?

Should I cross the line and make my own commands? Or do I wait here for a new master?

Even as I think this, the tears keep falling. Now that the professor is no longer around to fix my heart. What do I do?

I'm so confused.

There are small glowing rocks in the wall, as well as glowing moss that faintly pulses a bluish green glow.

I cannot stay here. I have made up my mind. I have to find something. Someone. I have to find a way back to the professor. So strange of me to be longing to return to the lab now that the professor is gone...yet I have nowhere else to go.

I hear something nearby.

I think it's a scream. Shortly after, a bellow of something deeper.

The sounds are getting closer.

Moments later, a human comes running towards me. It looks to be a boy as described in some of the books that I have read. He has white hair, red eyes, and a small body similar to mine. He is taller than me though.

He looks scared.

"Run!" He shouts to me as he sprints past me.

He seems to be trying to lose his pursuer, a very large muscular creature with the head of a bull. It seems to be a mythical creature from one of the books that I read. The Minotaur. A bizarre tale of Gods and Mortals.

The minotaur slows down upon seeing me, seemingly deciding on which target would make for a better death.

"Stop." I say, but the Minotaur ignores my words, raising it's fist the size of my head, and pulling it back.

Oh well.

My wings, as they were called by the professor, spring to action, flashing from their space behind me on my back to the front, dicing the minotaur into small chunks with a slight flash.

They return to my back, now steeped in minotaur blood.

This is the first time that I have killed someone, or, something. It is less intense than I thought it would be. In the professor's books, the descriptions of killing can be described as passionate and fiery...But all that I feel is sorrow. Professor.. I miss you so much.

I turn to the boy who has stopped,. He is watching me with nervous but awestruck eyes. I start and ask him a question.

"Where is this...And who are you?" I ask, taking a breath in between questions. Talking to a stranger other than the professor. It is hard.

With this newfound ability to channel my sensations, I realize that communicating with strangers can be scary too. I'm used to doing just what I'm told, not making my own decisions or asking questions.

So silly of me to be thinking that I can do anything without the professor.

As I am speaking with the boy, I hear another person coming to a halt behind me.

Light footsteps. Very fast. Likely a fighter or someone powerful perhaps as powerful as the professor? No. Nobody is as strong as her.

"This is the fifth floor?" The young boy says. His tone sounds incredulous, as if it was obvious. Almost as if to ask how I did not know it. Then he seems to regain his senses and bows to me.

"Where were my manners? I'm Bell. Thank you for saving me!" He bows deeply many more times.

My heart thumps. What is this feeling? It feels warm, like when I was with the professor.. Yet also not.

Is this what kindness feels like?

I don't know, but it feels good. A small part of me wants more of it.

"Nice...to meet you, Bell." I say, giving him a respectful bow, as I have done thousands of times for the professor. This is comfortable. Just get my orders, and it will feel comfortable again. I don't need to think.

I don't want to think.

 

[Stimpak Medic]

Chapter One: Rust

Professor..

No..

Mother.

Mother Mertillier told me this.

"Homunculi who have become witches usually live for about a year. Maybe three years at most. That's why I want you to live out the rest of your time like a normal girl, little A."

That's the only explanation for this situation I find myself in. I've become a witch.

I don't want to be a witch.

I don't want to die.

At most three years. Three tiny years.

Three.

That was all that was going through my man-made mind right now. What the boy said to me had momentarily distracted me from this. I looked down at my tiny, pallid hands. They almost shone in the soft glowing light from how blindingly white they were.

Not a scratch to be seen, but my body looked like it could break apart and turn to dust at any moment.

Did Mother mean for this to happen to me? Did this happen according to her plans? To save me from the pope?

I'm so confused.

I don't know. I really know so little.

"Mother..." I say, my voice barely making it out of my mouth.

"Are you two alright?" A soft young woman's voice comes from behind me. I ignore it.

Alright? How can I be? The professor. My mother died, and I have been spirited away to somewhere I know not of.

"Mother. What should I do?" I clench my tiny fists. So tiny. So frail.

Something within my heart cracks, like glass subjected to too much pressure.

Fragments of an untamed Curse are stirring within me. Through that very Curse, I can feel it. The death that approaches me. Yet that very curse, it holds back that exact same death.

What does this mean?

What will kill me will also save me?

This contradiction I cannot grasp.

The face of a young lady quite older than me appears in front of my face. She has pale skin, golden hair that looks made from strands of the richest, finest gold. Her eyes are also golden, but unlike mine, or the other experiments, there are no numbers in them.

Does this mean that these numbers hold a meaning? Does anything have meaning anymore?

One. Two. Three years? I will fade, and then disappear. Just like mother.

The young lady's hands gently clench my shoulders that disappear under those hands.

Nobody but mother has ever touched me gently like this before. I remember in the beginning, when I didn't know how to feel, the researchers would cut into my flesh, adjust bones, and scrape out my nerves. Only to replace them later. But this was a gentle touch. One of concern. Of care.

"Are you alright?" the young lady asks again, staring directly into my eyes, directly into the numbers VII that were imprinted onto me.

I drop my arms by my side.

"I don't know." I say, and the tears return.

She looks over at the young boy near me accusingly.

"Did you-?" She asks, then shakes her head. No. What was she thinking? This boy was not the cause of this.

She gently wipes the tears from my cheek with her free hand. Her skin is somewhat soft, but firm in a manner only one who works hard can boast.

"Do you want to get out of here?" She asks gently, holding my shoulders softly. Kneeling in front of the four foot tall me as to not look down at me, I can see she's a good person.

"Yes." I say, my body trembling faintly.

She gets up and walks over to the young boy, who goes beet red seeing her approach.

"What's your name?" She asks calmly, and with a not so subdued interest that he seems to not pick up on.

"B-Bell." He stammers, looking away from her.

His face is burning red, as if he had suddenly caught a serious illness. Humans get illnesses, right?

"Bell..." She pauses for a moment, then turns to me.

"What's your name?" She asks, looking over to me. It's an easy question. One the new researchers always ask me.

"Experimental homunculus, serial number 30682. A.A." I answer as I always do.

The girl's eyes narrow to near slivers.

"Say that again." She says, a blade forming in her words, as if she had just heard some horrible news.

"Experimental homunculus, serial number 30682. A.A." I respond again. Perhaps I was speaking too lowly? There's a hint of trepidation in my voice, as my heartbeat speeds up. Something feels wrong, and the young lady looks at me as if she had just been bashed across the face with a steel pipe.

"Experimental homunculus...Experimental homunculus.." She repeats it to herself several times in a whisper as if she can't fully understand what I had just said. Then she stops, and comes to a conclusion.

"You two. Come with me right now." She commands, her voice dark and scary, even for me who is not used to fear. Who cannot properly feel it. I understand the severity in her words and tone to some degree.

Have I done something wrong?

---

We make it to the surface with little words exchanged, and as we step out into the strange world above ground, I can't help but freeze in place. Looking around me, above me, there are so many strange sights.

My chest tightens, and I find it hard to breathe. I clench my hands over my heart, the artificial heart gifted to me by my mother.

"The...Sky.." I squeeze out through the apple sized lump in my throat. My eyes stretch the widest they ever have.

I fall to my knees. Tears welling in my eyes again.

"The sky!" I cry out.

"Mother, I have seen the sky.." I'm half choking, half laughing, whilst also crying. It's beautiful. It stretches far beyond what I can see. It is regal, infinite, and so beyond everything I know.

My knees are dirty, and my coat gets marred with dirt and grime, but I care not.

I laugh and weep, the line between the two blurring and dancing together.

"Mother. I wish you were here.. To see this with me... Uwaaaah.. Hahaha... Uwaaaahh!" I weep and laugh even more, just on my knees on the dirt path outside of the dungeon. I'm shivering and crying whilst hugging myself as I look at the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

I sniffle as the tears finally stop.

"It's so beautiful."

I whisper it out, and the young lady runs over to me.

"Did something-" She cuts off as she sees the strange crazed smile on my face.

"The sky is so beautiful." I say as my tears dry up and I heave a breath.

Humans and beings not completely human from all around are looking at me strangely from their stalls, windows, and just walking. Many of them turn away as they see the young blonde lady walk up to me, confident the incident has been resolved. Still, some gazes linger on my tiny form.

Sadness, sympathy, worry, concern. They all feel so strange.

Other than my mother, the researchers would take me apart with a cold, dethatched feeling.

Everything was so overwhelming.

I was dizzy, and my vision started to blur.

Something was building inside me. The curse. It felt like my body was beginning to flake away from the inside. It hurt. It hurt so much. Yet I didn't cry out. I just shut my eyes and grit my teeth.

Something was raging inside of my heart. This painful curse.

But with the pain came a rush of something I could not fully grasp. I hugged myself tighter. Hoping for this pain to pass. I closed my eyes for a moment, just to get some relief, and that was when it happened. The pain subsided a little. However, when I opened my eyes, the young lady and the boy that I had met were looking at me with horror in their eyes.

Something didn't feel quite right. My right hand felt flaky, like my skin was falling off.

I looked down at my hand. The bone white hand that was usually there was replaced by rusted metal, and rust seemed to be flowing from my hand into the ground, eating away at even the dirt, leaving a shield sized hole filled with rust where my hand was.

"AA" The young lady calls out to me. Her voice is faint, and the rust is comforting in a way I do not understand. It is the only thing that is truly mine. It represents me, just a useless homunculus that will rust and fade away.

Then, on my other side, two hands grasp my tiny one. I look to who it is. It's the boy. He has a warm smile on his face as he gently holds my hand.

"It'll be okay." He says, gently holding my hand.

"You'll be alright." He said the exact words that I had wanted to hear for so long in that lab.

That's the last thing I hear before the strange rusty feeling leaves me and I fall to the darkness.

This gentle young boy.. He gave me release.

He gave me an answer to a question deep within my heart.

Why should I live when my mother did not? He gave me a why.

I should live because people cared. Because I was not alone