Editing BlazBlue:Calamity Trigger Part 1 Chapter 5 (section)

===Part 2===

As if the previous silence had never been, the devices around the cauldron began to whir and hum. Turbines spun, and various machines scattered around the room flickered to life. The fasteners lining the circular edge retracted, and the lids beneath them began to open slowly, like a clenched fist uncurling. It was reminiscent of a flower bud blooming, but at the same time, it was like a grotesque monster opening its mouth to devour its prey.

As the lids rose, light spilled out from the other side. It wasn't the gentle light that illuminated the statue of the goddess of branches. This light was intense and vibrant, capable of melting anything.

Once the opening was complete, the space beyond was filled with an almost sacred atmosphere that belied its cold, metallic walls and ceiling. It looked more like an underground laboratory than a place of worship.

"Damn..." Ragna cursed under his breath, standing still in the overflowing light. Without taking a step forward, he peered into the cauldron. Beyond the giant hole was a crucible of light and heat. It looked like molten lava or molten glass, swirling in a viscous mass.

That was the Boundary. And at the top of the cauldron, illuminated by the otherworldly light from below, was a magnificent decoration that looked like the hilt of a sword thrust into that Boundary.

Shifting his gaze from the contents of the cauldron to the giant sword hilt, Ragna furrowed his brow.

"I was too late." 

The cauldron was completely open. That meant the refinement experiment had been completed.

What was being refined? The answer... slowly rose from within the Boundary, entering Ragna's field of vision as he looked up.

Amidst the overflowing light, as if gravity didn't exist, a slender girl began to materialize. She was a white girl, cool and serene despite being bathed in scorching light. Her skin was so pale that it was almost ghostly white, and her long white hair, tied in a braid on her back, fluttered in the air. She wore a simple white dress that clung to her slender body, and over that, a loose white cape.
With her arms lowered, she rose up towards the hilt of a massive sword, as if descending from the earth itself, then slowly descended to the cold floor.

She had a lovely appearance. If she had white wings on her back, she might have looked like an angel. But instead of wings, it was her long braided hair swaying behind her, and a double-edged sword hanging at the tip gave her a more dangerous presence than anything mystical.

As she descended as if she were asleep, Ragna instinctively stepped back, maintaining some distance. The girl's bare, white feet, with delicate nails, gently touched the metallic floor as she landed.

"——Loading." Her pale lips whispered mechanically. "Loading, loading. All functions normal. Murakumo is activating."

Her voice was mechanical. After moving her lips mechanically, the girl closed her mouth and, with a slight click, lifted her eyelids.

"...Huh?" In an instant, her voice changed, taking on a sweet, almost affectionate tone.

The girl's eyes were red. They were the same color as Ragna's right eye. Her large, long eyelashes that nearly spilled over, and dark shadows gathered beneath her eyes. Only the left side of her face was healed; her right eye was covered by an eyepatch with a red prosthetic.

With her left red eye, the girl looked straight at Ragna, and then her eyes shone with a look of longing.

"Oh, Ragna! It's been a long time. You came to see Nu again, didn't you?" she cooed, smiling seductively. "I'm so happy. Is this the fourth time?" Ragna frowned deeper.

"It's the third time," He replied bluntly, and the girl calling herself Nu clasped her white fingers in front of her mouth.

"Fufufu, that's right, the third time," she said, counting the number of visits.

While Ragna was attacking the Librarium's branches and facilities, destroying cauldrons, there were a few instances where he found cauldrons in the middle of refinement experiments.

The first time he destroyed one of those cauldrons was the "first time" Nu was referring to. And the second time he destroyed a cauldron in the middle of a refinement experiment at a different location was the "second time."

Ideally, this "third time," he would have finished the job before the girl-shaped body, the prototype, came into contact with the Boundary and completed the refinement process. But he was too late.

"But it's okay, this time I have a proper body. So we can talk, Ragna. The last two times, I couldn't talk to you because I wasn't ready by the time you came." 

For Nu, it seemed she had missed out on two opportunities. To show off her newfound ability to move freely, she opened her arms and spun around in place.

"But Nu was watching, you know. The first and second times... Ragna stabbed Nu with his sword, cut her to pieces, killed her." Oh, what a sweet memory. Nu hugged herself, swayed her braid, shook her head, and spoke dreamily, as if savoring the words.

Ragna felt a sickening twist in his stomach, as if he were being embraced or caressed. It was a terrible feeling of disgust. He couldn't imagine being happy or calm hearing someone describe his actions in such a blissful manner.

Moreover, although he had only seen three of the prototypes, including Nu, they all had the same face.

No matter how artificial the prototypes were, it was impossible for him to feel good about being told that he had "stabbed and torn apart" someone with the same face as the previous ones.

"Ragna, you looked so happy back then. Nu knows. You were smiling while you stabbed me, weren't you?"

"...Stop it. I don't want to hear that."

"Why? Fufufu, it felt good, didn't it? Hey, did it feel good to tear Nu apart?"

"Stop it!" 

"Nu felt good. It was like Ragna was entering Nu, it felt so good. Fufufu, even now when I think about it, my body heats up..." 

"I told you to stop!" Ragna shouted, leaping back. His muscles tensed, and the deep wounds in his chest and shoulder ached.

But what troubled Ragna more than the pain was the unpleasant, sticky feeling that clung to the inside of his chest.

None of the previous prototypes had ever activated. They just laid there, lifeless and silent. But Nu was different. She smiled with a familiar face, spoke with a familiar voice, and nodded with a familiar gesture. Nu... and at the same time, the two prototypes he destroyed before, were too similar to his youngest sister, Saya, whom he lost along with his brother.

'Ragna, do you hate talking with Nu?' Nu asked with a slightly hurt look in her eyes. Ragna gritted his teeth.

"Yes, I hate it. I don't want to talk to you," he said, his voice filled with disgust. The more he looked at her, the more he heard her voice, the more memories flooded back. His mind was filled with things he had lost, and he felt like he was suffocating.

(What an idiot I am...) Ragna thought to himself, his mind racing. He was so pathetic that he couldn't even be surprised at himself.

Jin and Saya were both gone. And yet, today, he felt an overwhelming urge to wallow in self-pity. He had been suppressing these feelings, but now he couldn't seem to contain them.

Nu pouted her lips in a childish way and placed her white finger beside her mouth, looking displeased.

"Aw, that's cold. Ragna can be so mean," she said, walking towards him with her slender bare feet gliding across the floor. Ragna held his breath and looked up as the damp sound of her footsteps grew louder, and he took a step back. Even so, Nu didn't stop approaching. The sound of her footsteps continued.

"But that's okay. We'll be together forever. I'll do anything for you. Nu belongs to Ragna. I'll love you very much." 

As Nu approached, she held out her hands to Ragna. She smiled sweetly and invited him into a hug. Ragna gritted his teeth so hard they made a sound. If he had bitten his lip, he would have cut it with his canine teeth.

Don't look at me with those shining eyes. Don't say those seductive words in that voice.

He was irritated.

"Don't get the wrong idea. I didn't come here to play nice with you," Ragna said, placing his hand on the hilt of his sword. He drew it and pointed it downward.

Nu stopped. Her eyes widened in wonder and stared at Ragna's sword, then smiled with an ominous cheerfulness in her bright red eyes.

"I know. Ragna came to kill Nu, didn't he?" 

"No. I came to destroy you." 
Don't claim to be human when you're just an artificial creation, an imitation.

The words that Ragna muttered to himself were a scolding of his weak spirit that, if he didn't constantly remind himself, would be swayed by appearances and dull his blade.

The words spoken were filled with rejection.

Nu, who had been the target of that rejection, lowered her chin and looked down. Soon, the thin shoulders covered by her white cape began to tremble slightly, and the light cape rippled like waves.

"Fufufu... Ahaha, hahahahaha!" A high-pitched laugh burst from her small jaw, a sound that seemed to grate on the ears, almost like the scraping of metal. "That's right, Ragna. You destroy everything. Everything, all of it... Just like Nu."

With a dreamy intoxication, Nu narrowed her large eyes and smiled. But her smile was far too unsettling to be a girl's smile and was overshadowed by a dark desire.

Disliking the red gaze fixed on him, Ragna swung his arm wildly to brush it away.

"Don't think we're the same!"

"Ahahaha, we are, Ragna. After all, Nu and Ragna are the same, right?"

Chuckling merrily, Nu shrugged and tilted her head. With her eyes wide open, she looked at Ragna from a tilted angle, as if trying to peer into his brain through his green and red eyes. 

"Hey, Ragna, don't you want to destroy everything? Don't you want to destroy everything you hate? Nu, the people you hate... this world, even yourself?" Ragna flinched at her words.

What did he really want to destroy? His subconscious mind asked him.

(What do I want to destroy...)

Was it the prototype, the cauldron, the Boundary, the NOL? Was it that green shadow that had robbed him of his memories, or his foolish younger brother?

Or was it something else?

Staring at Ragna, Nu said with a drowning affection, "It's okay, destroy it. Destroy Nu with your own hands. But in return, Nu will destroy you."

A giant sword flew from somewhere and plunged into the floor behind New. The impact shook the ground. The huge sword that had been thrust into the ground was also a refined Murakumo, a part of Nu.

"Ragna..." Nu called out his name with a deep affection. Ragna felt a cold chill run down his spine at the sound of her voice.

The huge sword, which had been thrust diagonally into the ground, began to unfold at Nu's command. The tiny parts that made up the shape of the sword clattered and rearranged themselves in a complex manner.

It was like turning a switch on and off, or opening and closing a lock. As the giant sword transformed, so did the clothes Nu was wearing.

When the sword finally quieted down and Nu's transformation was complete, standing before Ragna was no longer the barefoot Nu with her fluttering white cape, but an entirely artificial-looking version of her, with her vision obscured by headgear dotted with red lights and her legs transformed into swords.

Eight thin blades spread out around Nu, as if she were spreading her wings. Beneath the headgear, Nu's small mouth smiled. The corners of her mouth were drawn back into a sharp slit, and her sweet smile carried less of a seductive allure and more of a simple, life-threatening danger.

"Nu is going to hug you tight!" With a joyful shout, Nu launched all eight of her wing-like swords at Ragna.