It has been four years since the very first level four appeared.
And so much has changed.
Now, there is a new form of akuma.
No. They can't be called akuma.
They are by far superior to those.
They are faster, stronger, and may gain new powers over time.
And the worse part? They are half human too.
Born from a Noah gene implanted into an akuma.
Now they breed. Multiply.
Their eyes are dark, soulless. Not just the pupil. All of it.
They have wings.
And they survive and grow by drinking the blood of humans.
They are...akutenshi.
Evil Angels.
"Ah, hell, another mission?" Kazue slumped in her chair wearily.
"Don't be like that, Kazue-chan," laughed Lavi easily. "Besides, with me around, it'll be like a blink of an eye!"
"Says the person who smashed up a full village with his hammer, but then the akutenshi got away...then WE had to rebuild the place..."
"That was a one time thing!" Lavi protested in an attempt to defend himself.
"...whatever."
Komui rolled his eyes.
"There's been movement concerning the Milennium Earl's forces."
"Yeah, what else is new?" snorted Kazue irately as she leaned back in the loveseat that Komui had supplied his office with. (It looks like a loveseat to me, am I wrong?)
Komui ignored her blatant insults and continued. "But you know what's been going on...ever since four years ago..."
"Don't be like that, Komui," admonished Lavi. "After all, that was when the akutenshi stepped in."
"Stepped in? More like the Earl just found a whole new type of akuma," snapped Kazue. "why are we even calling them akutenshi? They're just akuma on a whole other level."
"That's because instead of infecting humans with the normal akuma virus that turns them to ash, they need only to well...bite, and then you've got another akuma. And besides, these akuma are on a whole new level. They still retain their human form, even when their true form is revealed. They are like a Noah, really, except these can exponentially increase..."
"Well of course," smiled Lavi, though it didn't meet his eyes. "They implanted a single Noah gene into an akuma, and well...look what we've got."
"Mutations."
"Well, I was going to say just akutenshi, but that works too," sighed Lavi.
"Well it's true. Akutenshi are just pretty much a mix of human soul, akuma, and a single Noah gene. And so now we've got akutenshi wreaking havoc and making new baby akutenshi." Kazue started mimicking a high girlish voice. "Oh, what an adorable baby! What's your name, little one?" she switched back to her normal voice. "and then chomp chomp, and the idiot's gone from the world of the living. Seriously, akutenshi are like leeches or vampire bats."
Lavi shuddered. "Don't talk like that, it's scary."
"What, not girly enough?"
"Too girly is more like it," muttered Lavi under his breath.
Komui sighed. "Look, Kazue, I know you're not pleased, but we have few options left..."
Lavi's eyes narrowed. "What happened, Komui?"
Komui hesitated.
"Timothy..."
Kazue and Lavi's eyes widened. "What happened to him?"
"He was caught by the akutenshi and the Noah forces."
"What? No!"
Kazue bolted up from the loveseat. "Do you know what happened to him?"
"We know he's alive, and human."
"What are the akutenshi and Noah's planning?" hissed Kazue.
"That is what we need to find out. Marie, Miranda, Lenalee, and the generals have been searching nonstop for akutenshi. It's been rough. We need you go there to find out, Kazue, Lavi."
Kazue and Lavi said nothing. They both knew what he meant, even though their hearts sank into a pit of desperation.
The Ark.
Kazue's stomach churned just at the thought of the Ark. It just wrenched and twisted into a thousand kinds of positions that stomachs just shouldn't be in. She smirked bitterly, looking down at her exorcist coat. Black with red trimmings. How suitable, for all the violence that followed their wake.
"Ready?" Lavi's voice jolted into her thoughts and she turned around unhappily.
"I was the one waiting for you."
"Sorry, sorry, Panda-jii wanted me to record a few extra things..."
"Liar. I bet the both of you were talking about something else"
He gave a rueful chuckle. "Ya know, you were always the only one who saw through me."
"I still do. Spill it."
He hesitated. "Panda-jii's been talking about leaving."
The news was not surprising to Kazue.
"The Order will be poorer for your absence."
"We've been here for more than four years already. It's time to move on."
Kazue laughed bitterly. "Do you truly think Central will let you go?"
"The Bookmen will never be influenced by corruption, religion, or the many wars that take place in the world."
"You did not answer my question."
"...Central cannot hold sway over us."
Kazue snorted. "And you really believe that? But I can still tell you're still hiding something."
Lavi said nothing.
"Is it really that bad?"
"...pretty much."
Kazue shook her head with a sigh. "I always thought you'd leave earlier...but now that you just spring it on me...it seems so fast."
"You asked for it. Literally."
"No need to rub it in."
Lavi turned to look you directly in the eye. "Sorry Kazue...but from now on, just in case..."
Kazue nodded, listening.
Lavi suddenly stopped. "No. Forget about it. Pretend I never said anything."
"Wait! I want to-"
"You never really opened up to me, Kazue. I didn't open up to you either. But in the end...you made the wise decision. Let's go."
"Wait, Lavi-"
"Come on, we need to get to the Ark." Lavi walked off abruptly, leaving Kazue staring after him, lost.
"How does Komui even know where the Ark is?"
"Leverrier ordered him to install a tracking device in it before shit happened."
Kazue snorted, but was relived that Lavi had managed to easily skirt the delicate topic.
"Well..."
"Well what?"
"Aren't you going to find it for us?"
"Say what? You're the one with the coordinates."
"Uh...Just because I have the coordinates does not mean I'm in the same dimension it should be Kazue."
"Oh. Right."
Lavi sighed and tapped his foot in a mock show of impatience.
"Hurry up..."
"Ugh, dammit, I hate this...innocence activate. Ripper."
A gun materialized in the air, and a chain linked it to her wrist.
"So...where is it?"
"I believe it's somewhere in that general direction."
Kazue shrugged.
"Cover your ears, stupid," she snorted, taking out earplugs and inserting them into her ears. Lavi nodded, and he barely had enough time to do so when Kazue started to fire random shots into the air around them.
"What the heck are you doing, Kazue?"
"Finding the Ark." she replied airily. Lavi had to shout over the sound of firing to make himself heard.
"So you're just gonna fire like that? I thought you had a plan!"
"Hey, I'm the one with a gun here. Shut up."
But honestly, it wasn't doing anything. Lavi watched as bullets ripped through the air itself, opening rips in the dimension and into different places, then repairing themselves. But then one particular bullet ripped through the air, and then made a small hole, but then a golden light formed.
"Oh? I think we've found it. Kazue continued to fire, but aimed directly at the hole, and widened it. Sure enough, it was the Ark. Lavi watched as she continued to burst the dimension apart with her innocence gun. It was in its special stage, Ripper. He had never seen it, but knew that it allowed her to essentially teleport, similar to Road's ability because she could rip holes in the dimension.
"We're good. Let's hurry before the rips repair themselves." Kazue's gun transformed into a small revolver, and they hurried off.
"Uh, Kazue?"
"What?"
"What happens when you don't get through the hole in time?"
"Then I think half your body gets split into two different dimensions. Wanna try? You can be the guinea pig."
"Ah, I'll pass..." Lavi shuddered.
Kazue looked around wearily. Using Ripper wore her down, and it was all too easy to deplete all her energy using it and pass out from exhaustion. But she was still alert, and she watched intently for any signs of anyone here.
"Lavi...is he..." Kazue trailed off.
"No. We would have heard it."
"You're...right."
But then they heard the sounds of a piano, and they stopped dead in their tracks.
No one enters my Ark without my knowing.
Lavi's eyes widened.
"Oh, shi-"
"It's...him..."
Kazue's finger wrapped itself around the trigger, and Lavi slowly drew his hammer.
One of the many doors opened, and a figure stepped out.
He was older now, as so were they. Time had gone by, and he was different. Taller, his white hair just slightly longer than Kazue remembered it to be, shaggier too. But it wasn't just time that had altered his features.
No, it was mostly the entity that once resided within him, and was now him.
Blank cold hard eyes had replaced the warm, friendly gray ones, but his scar remained the same. An indifferent scowl. His arm, warped and twisted was just as she still remembered.
"I believe we have met before." His voice was cool, collected, could even be called professional. But there was the slightest hint of a snide, condescending tone lurking deep within.
"Fourteenth."
Yes. The Fourteenth. It could no longer be called him.
He did not exist anymore.
Only the nameless shadow, and even the shadow of the boy she knew no longer existed.
Kazue smirked, but it was a pained, bitter smirk. She knew why Komui had specifically picked her for the job. Anyone who had encountered him would not be able to fight him. Lenalee, especially, could never have done this.
Really, she was just the Order's puppet, doing all the dirty work.
"Hello, Fourteenth. We have met, but we have never been properly introduced. But it's too late for introductions now, isn't it?"
Her revolver clicked, and the bullets spat into the cold air accompanied by a soft, lilting, haunting melody that broke her heart.