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She was fifteen. Soon to be sixteen. Both almost too old to be considered marriage material according to his culture's standards. Yet also too young to be forced through what the AI BB was putting her through.
Gilgamesh quietly carried Hakuno out of the dungeon, settling underneath the cherry blossom tree right outside of the gods-forsaken hellhole that was the old school building, looking over Hakuno's body.
To say it wasn't great was an understatement. Gilgamesh's eyes roamed over the wiring poking out of the girl's body, the way her breathing came out in shallow bursts.
Of course, he had known that Hakuno Kishinami wasn't human. That hadn't bothered him. Enkidu had not been human, after all. Not to say this NPC dying in his arms was anywhere near an equal to his friend.
He, however, had been enjoying watching her struggle. It had been a long time since he had anything like this. Perhaps Fuyuki? But that had been an entirely different flavor of fucked up, and it was some type of irony that the priest he had colluded with was manning a shop as if he were a simple shopkeeper.
Gilgamesh could feel his mana draining. Even with his Independent Action, they only had a couple of hours at most.
He could fix his contractor, couldn't he? He was good with tech. How hard could it be to fix her?
He had spent far too much time, energy, and strength on this endeavor just for this girl to die on him. He had been clear.
Hakuno Kishinami could only die by his hand. BB had no right to interfere with what he had going on.
Gilgamesh carefully turned Hakuno over, ignoring the small whine the girl gave him. BB had grabbed the back of her neck before he was able to free himself enough to get to his contractor. He had seen that at least, he thought as he brushed the brunette hair that reminded him too much of the Cedar Forest aside enough to see, noting the problem immediately.
There were so many wires sticking out of her neck. He took a closer look, ignoring the electric sparks hitting his gloved hand as he looked over what looked to be an insert for something.
A computer chip? He had built computers during his time in Fuyuki. This Moon Cell tech couldn't be that complicated.
Or he could head back into the dungeon and attempt to find BB. But that felt like a waste of time when they had no idea where the woman even went and hid after she was done messing with these high school children each day.
Gilgamesh opened his gates, pouring down a good amount of CPUs. One of them had to fit. There was nothing in his gates that he did not have.
He was not taking her back to that dusty classroom they called a dorm. If he could not fix her, then she at least deserved to be with the blooms she admired so much.
"Fool, this is the second time you have put me to work today," Gilgamesh complained, although there was not much meaning in it. "When I fix this wiring of yours, you will owe me a great deal. Far more than you currently have on your tab now."
The sheer mess of wiring and damn near clean broken off limbs the girl had was not great. He would almost prefer blood and gore to this.
He needed to fix the CPU chip. Or at least, what he assumed to be a place for a CPU chip. It could be something entirely different for all he knew. This Moon Cell and its rules were cumbersome and asinine.
He worked carefully, trying not to jostle Hakuno too much. He wasn't sure how long he had worked, but he growled as the fifth CPU he tried was not a fit in the slightest.
Gilgamesh glanced back at the door to the dungeons. He had enough energy left. He could go, find BB, and demand that the woman fix the mess she had created before killing her himself.
He could just take Hakuno and run. She didn't need the Holy Grail or this place to begin with. He highly doubted that the Grail was not corrupt in some sort of manner. Hell, if the grail was corrupted, he could see it creating BB in the first place.
Gilgamesh moved to get the girl comfortable enough. She could wait for him. He had enough energy left. He wouldn't take long, he'd just-
He paused, feeling a hand on his wrist. Gilgamesh glanced back down at his contractor, finding his honeyed-brown eyes looking up at him blearily.
"Gilgamesh," His plain contractor dared to whine at him. "Don't go."
"You have no need of moving, Kishinami Hakuno," Gilgamesh chided, finding himself easing back down next to her. "You are wasting your energy."
Gilgamesh stared right back at Hakuno. Even close to death, her eyes looked at him with every bit of distrust and defiance that she had upon their first meeting.
A weak laughter rang in his ears, coming from Hakuno, he realized. Gilgamesh scowled, failing to see what was so amusing about this.
"You know as well as I do that there is no fixing this, Gilgamesh."
He had been trying. Did she not see the tools he had scattered across the fake grass? All of the computer parts he had? He just needed that damn chip BB had taken. If he were able to procure it, then he could simply work on fixing her limbs slowly.
Let the other so-called mages in this place do more for once. A few of them had Servants, and they were sitting around in a classroom, doing nothing. Where were her companions now? They had seen what happened on the screens. Yet, only he was here. He had known they had been using them, but Hakuno had considered these mongrels friends.
"I can get the part that the woman took from you," Gilgamesh murmured, keeping close to Hakuno, his hand refusing to let go of hers. "The CPU is what you need to function, I am quite certain. If I am able to retrieve it, then I will personally fix your limbs. You may thank me properly later."
The girl didn't seem to hear him. Her head was leaning against his leg, leaving him to huff. She was not playing fair, trapping him like this. Gilgamesh adjusted her, trying his damnedest not to damage her even further.
"We were talking… about…" The words came in too slowly. His breath caught in his throat, only relaxing when she saw her chest rise and fall again. "About what I would like to do when we leave here."
They had. Gilgamesh watched, waiting until her eyes opened again before he replied, nodding.
"You told me a list of things. More like an essay than anything else. As if I would indulge you so much."
He needed to tease her. He needed to keep their back-and-forth going. He had to keep her here longer.
"Perhaps not, but the ear piercing thing…. do you think we can manage it?" Hakuno asked, wincing even as she spoke. "Something to experience before I can't anymore?"
Gilgamesh stared. Of all the things- he had not been expecting that to leave her lips.
She was definitely cheating. She was doing this on purpose, keeping him here so he couldn't run off and save her.
"I know I will owe you. I just- you had looked excited about the prospect before, so…"
Gilgamesh opened his gates again, finding the kit easily enough along with the earrings he had known would be best for her. He didn't simply stop there, bringing out attire from his culture.
She wasn't dying in that ugly uniform. He hated the thing with a burning passion. She was going to be dressed as she should.
"Gilgamesh," Hakuno whined, feeling Gilgamesh moving her around. However, the man didn't stop, tossing the garments off her body and beginning to redress her.
"You asked me about my homeland before," he began, slowly getting her arms through the fabric. "Women in Uruk often dressed in this manner."
Royal women, anyway. Hakuno didn't need to know that. Didn't need her getting arrogant before death with the knowledge he was dressing her like a princess or queen from his homeland.
Gilgamesh watched her nod, those brown eyes closing. She owed him terribly for this. She couldn't look like a proper woman before her death. She had been cheated. As was he.
"You should look upon the earrings I am placing on your ears," Gilgamesh murmured, picking up the earrings.
He liked them well enough. The gold matched her eyes when they flashed with curiosity or anger. The ruby gem in the middle matched the way her brunette hair had shades of red in it as the false sunset of the Far Side of the Moon Cell hit her hair. If she could walk, they would jingle, much like the friendship bracelet she had made with those female "friends" of hers.
"Hakuno," He called again when the girl took longer to open her eyes. "Look upon your king when he is speaking to you."
It took longer than before. Hakuno's eyes struggled to open, as if her system itself was struggling to follow basic commands. Her eyes, which looked too much like honey, glanced at the earrings in his hand, a small smile on her lips at the sight of them.
"Pretty."
They were pretty. Under normal circumstances, he would tell her that she could do better than those one-word answers. He had been helping her with her vocabulary. Alongside teaching her how to hold a pencil so she could draw in their room. She had called the lions he had shown her in a book her had pretty as well.
He had been helping her with a lot of things, actually, Gilgamesh thought to himself as he began to work on her ears, easily piercing them. To her credit, his Master did not whine nor complain about the state she was in. The pain had to be awful, all things considered.
He looked down at his work, pleased with himself. Hakuno finally looked the part of being his contractor. She was dressed as she should be.
The girl was not going to leave him in the lurch like this. While he was not a mage himself, he had potions to help him find her again. If she had been in his time period, he would have taken her. Probably.
His gates opened, a small vial coming from it. Gilgamesh uncapped the lid, forcing Hakuno to down it all. If the potion worked like it said it would, he would find her again in his past life or a future one.
He kept his gates open, pulling a weapon out. As he held the knife in his hand, he looked over his contractor one more time.
Hakuno, for all of her faults (and there were many), did not deserve to die a slow and painful death in this manner.
His Independent Action may not let him stick around for long, but it would let him stick around for long enough to use Ea. He could use what remnants of mana were left in Hakuno's body to fuel him.
He would find her again. She owed him, and he was not one to let a debt go unpaid. She had left him when he was enjoying himself. Truly, her sins knew no end.
Gilgamesh watched as Hakuno's chest rose one last time before he plunged the knife right into her neck.
They had an agreement. He had taken all but one of her Command Spells upon said agreement. Even if Hakuno could not consent to this, it didn't matter.
Only he was allowed to kill her. BB may have sped up the process of such an ending, but he was getting the final hit in.
The AI wouldn't take that from him.