I had ordered the akuma once known as Leo to bring his meddling friend to the graveyard where I waited. My darling akumas were so obedient.
"Hello, John," I said, patting the young boy on the head. He jerked away from my hand quickly, already knowing me as the bad guy. It irritated me that children even so young were under the influence of their pitiful excuse for a god. I didn't want to kill him, a mere child, but it was for the greater good- humankind was dirty and needed to be cleansed.
"The M… Millennium Earl?" the boy stuttered. "Take that!" He tossed a device that looked like an onion at me. Not only did it look, but also smell like an onion. "Run Leo!" he began to skate past my akuma. "Leo?! What's wrong with you? We're gonna get killed by the Earl!" The boy, John, shook his grinning friend.
"Leo has been dead for quite some time." I took a bit of pleasure in telling the kid this. "He died on the day of his mother's funeral." My mask smiled, but on the inside, I was irritated by the blind faith in which the boy held the world. "That… is an akuma that was deployed to punish you for getting in my way." Yes, the child needed to die. He was a pain in my plan, always getting underfoot and in the way of my akumas.
"You're lying…" John began.
"It's true… John. That boy is the Millennium Earl's akuma." Another player entered my script.
"Leo?" John asked, trying to understand. Trying to disprove what we were saying.
"Believe me, John. That boy isn't human. It's the Millennium Earl's weapon wearing your friend's skin. It's an akuma!"
Yes, my patience was being rather tried right now. What with that brat barging in and pretending to know everything. "And you are…?" I began. Well, if not polite what was I?
"Greetings, Millennium Earl. I am you nemesis," he responded.
"Are you an exorcist?" He just glared. Ah, yes. I almost pitied the poor exorcists. They believed so highly in their god- in the false god. "Well, I'm pleased to meet you." Or is that right? Quite a familiar face… "Wait… meet you?" I amended.
"Cross, destroy the akuma!" The somewhat familiar boy started towards my akuma. "Bring salvation to his soul!" He was about to destroy it when the boy, John, jumped in front of Leo. "John…" I was impressed the exorcist managed to stop in time- but no matter- they would both be dead soon.
"Wh… why? What makes you think Leo is an akuma?" Leo grinned widely behind him, mirroring my own face's amusement. "He's my best friend! We started the akuma patrol together. We swore we'd work hand in hand to protect the city… there's no way he's an akuma! Prove it!" I fought the urge to clap at the rousing speech he used to defend his friend. I could almost hear his heart break as the tell-tale sound of the akuma's guns on John were heard. "Leo," he whispered, sounding devastated.
"John!" the exorcist called, jumping in front of said boy. John gasped as the pentacles of the akuma's blood virus began appearing on his face.
"Allen!" John yelled, even though it would do no good. I could see the boy's thoughts racing.
"How heroic of you to jump in the line of fire without hesitation," I sighed dreamily. This was becoming bothersome- both of them were like cockroaches. "How do you feel, John?" Well, they were both as good as dead so… a little honesty time was in order, I believed. "You irritate me. You have no power… yet you have a strong sense of justice. Always calling me the bad guy." I glared at him over my glasses. "I create the akuma with everyone's best interest at heart." Yes, once humans were gone, the world would be created anew, and the sin putrefying this planet would finally be purified, in the same way the silly exorcists believed they purified the souls of akuma. But their sins remained; would always be there. "What do you think? Hideous, isn't it." Yes this human's sins were great, but no greater than the other disgusting creatures destroying our 'beloved world.' "This is the physical manifestation of one's sin. You think an akuma is a mere weapon, but it is actually molded by the feelings and emotions of humans. And akuma is created by the yearning in one's heart." It was a shame really… "And that's exactly what this akuma is. It's an akuma that your friend Leo has created." A shame, seeing the face of desolation on the boy as he learned the truth.
"It's Leo's late mother," the exorcist muttered. My attention snapped back to him as he spoke. "Leo borrowed the Millennium Earl's power to bring his mother's soul back into this world… thus turning her into an akuma. I can see her… I can see his mother suffering from being turned into an akuma."
"You can see her?" I played along with the exorcist since he so obviously had a whole monologue planned. Besides, I was almost curious to see what those idiotic exorcists believed. "What are you trying to say, you little runt?" I threw at him.
The exorcist glared up at me. "I may be human but I carry an anti-akuma weapon inside me. I can purify the virus inside my own body." I felt my eye twitch as he did just that. My thoughts turned back to my earlier theory- he was definitely a cockroach, and as with all insects, someone needed to squash them. But as the virus receded, I saw the mark I hoped I wouldn't ever have to look at again. I grinned wider as the exorcist explained how he had turned his own foster father into an akuma.
"Ngyaaah! Now I remember you! We met a long time ago." I dramatically paused for effect. May no one ever call me bland. "You're Allen Walker! You're that kid who turned his own father into an akuma!" I was kind enough to stay silent as Allen proceeded to explain his whole life story to John. Anger rose up inside me at how Allen believed the akuma's felt. "Oh, Allen… I should have killed you back then." Then I wouldn't have to listen to this sob story.* I added silently, smirking inwardly. "You can see the akuma's soul? You're going to save them? Go ahead and try! Exorcist!" I taunted, jumping atop the akuma. My mood darkened further when, after attempting to shoot Allen, he blocked all my bullets.
"You're showering me with bullets because the virus has no effect on me?" Allen guessed. "Don't underestimate me. I was shot earlier but that was only because I was protecting John. It takes more than an akuma bullet to kill me." Somewhere during that speech, he gained a cocky smirk, which made me want to groan; exorcists always thought themselves hotshots, when all they really did was pollute this disgusting earth further. Allen went on to yammer about how important his magic hand was- that it was a weapon of god.
Now, here I was sitting around listening like a good boy, and he just goes and basically tries to offend me. And he did a good job, I was pretty offended- him talking about their false god, flaunting him around when they were the ones incorrect!
"Hmph. Such impudence." That's right, I mustn't lose sight of my plan. Exorcists were chosen by a false god and yet so highly they think of themselves. "Well then. Do you know Eastern proverbs?" Allen glanced around cautiously. "'Unskilled gun, but the more guns, the likely they will hit…'" I quoted, as many akuma floated down from the sky. Look at all the sin I thought. "I've got plenty of akuma to go around." As I ordered the akuma to fire, Allen told the boy to wait outside the cemetery. John did so and looked deep in thought. It wasn't long before he began to shake, tears rolling down his face.
"Destroy him, Allen!" he screamed, his voice cracking with emotion. Allen nodded before using some attack called 'Cross Grave' which simultaneously destroyed as my akuma at once. I wondered why he hadn't used that move before but, I didn't say anything as I jumped off the akuma and let myself float away on Lero. It didn't matter, though, I could kill any one of the exorcists whenever I wanted.
I laughed a little as I gave the exorcist a suitable warning. Inside my mind, however, as I shifted my grip on Lero, I was thinking about how Tyki-pon said that he felt bad for the umbrella because he had to carry my weight. I'm not fat I mentally groaned. I shook those thoughts out of my head as I finished my monologue and then began to drift away.
The plan was in motion.
* When my mother read "sob story" she thought it said "gob stop". So from now on, I'm calling Allen a gobstopper.
NAW: If anyone's curious, everything that the characters say except for the Earl's first greeting to John is quoted directly from the manga. Everything else was just me angsting a bit. So, when I first wrote this, I wasn't really planning on continuing it, but if someone wants me to continue, send me a message with a scene from the anime or manga to rewrite. (For the people who follow my other story, Let Your Silence Sing, I felt like typing this up, so I'm kind of taking a break from that right now. There's an awkward transition in the next chapter that I don't know how to fix, so I need a bit to figure out what I'm going to do with it so I don't change too much of the plot I already have written) And just in general, it's going to probably take me a while to do whatever I'm going to do because my school is starting tomorrow! *Runs away and hides forever* I don't wanna go! TTATT
Neah: We need to do something about this.
NAW: About what?
Neah: Your tendency to ramble on and on until you drive yourself into a depressed state.
NAW: Oh... yeah... *Blush*
Allen: D. Gray-Man belongs to Katsura Hoshino, not NAW. Please read and review, and even favourite if you want ^^ Thanks for reading!
NAW: Also, a little shout out to my brother... I was planning on writing something like this from one of the "bad guy's" pov, but I never could figure out which part I wanted to do, so my brother kind of inspired me to rewrite the John arc. And thusly, this is what happened. ^^;