Well, I haven't posted a story in ages! My bad, I have so many ideas but not the discipline to edit them enough to post. This one I am not completely happy with either, but mainly because my idea here doesn't start until the next chapter. This is the 'I should add more detail beforehand' part of it. I also am not very good with writing action so this entire story is a tad outside my comfort zone, but oh well, enjoy it or not- that's up to you!
Standard disclaimers apply
It was chaos. Kanda was engaged in battle by time Lenalee, Timmy, Marie and the finders arrived. Two level five Akuma were towering above the destroyed village, mocking the tired and battered samurai.
The newly arrived exorcists were immediately fighting as well, leaping fearlessly into the fray. They automatically split into pairs to fight. Marie and Timmy quickly took care of all the lower level Akuma that were watching the battle. Marie catching them in his strings and Timmy leap frogging through their bodies to purify them. Lenalee found herself at Kanda's side, tugging him out of the way of an energy blast.
"Kanda!" She yelled frantically. "Are you hurt?"
The man did not immediately answer but wiped blood from his mouth and death glared the Akuma.
"KANDA!"
"Che, of course I can. I won't lose to this." He spat.
"We won't lose to this," Lenalee snapped back. She was near breaking point and he could see it. The war had suddenly accelerated in ferocity and Lenalee's world was being threatened like never before. Every battle, every injury, every death was fraying her already fragile mental state.
Kanda sighed and grabbed her shoulders. "We will destroy them all."
The girl smiled in an uncharacteristically evil manner and opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by an explosion beside them.
Time for talk and reassurance was over; the battle could not be delayed. The exorcists all joint forces and somehow took one Akuma down, the second proved to be stronger. It caught all aerial attacks, throwing them mercilessly to the ground. It dodged Marie's strings repeatedly and threw energy blasts at him with surprising precision. Marie's energy was taken up with swiping the blasts away from him. They fought for hours not gaining any ground or advantage whatsoever. Eventually exhaustion and injury took their toll on the exorcists. Their blood stained the grounds, Kanda's ran in a river. He had been taking a lot of direct hits, pushing his already strained healing ability to the absolute limit.
Timmy was knocked unconscious when the level two he was in was destroyed violently and he was thrown to the ground. Two finders were able to drag him to relative safety behind some rocks away from the fighting.
Marie flung an energy blast away from him, but did not see the second blast following it until too late. He was hit and severely wounded.
Kanda and Lenalee knew at that moment that unless reinforcements arrived at that exact moment they were all toast. The Akuma knew it too.
"You are lost little exorcists," it gurgled at them. "Stay still so I can crush you and put this to an end quickly."
Its foot started to lower over their heads, too large for them to escape it. Kanda squared his shoulders and Lenalee positioned herself defiantly in a desperate effort to try to hold it up.
As the Akuma slowly put his weight onto them, they realised that they had lost. They both said a quick apology to the people that would miss them, to God for failing him, to the innocence for not being strong enough to fully utilise its power, and finally they vowed to die fighting.
Witnessed only by the dumbfounded finders, Kanda's river of blood was twisting and writhing. It began to grow upwards, into an almost human figure. A flash of light suddenly emitted from it, and it began to move rapidly towards the desperate exorcists.
A mighty yell cut through the air, a female's desperate cry, "YUU!"
Then the blood creature disappeared underneath the foot, out of the sight of the finders. The Akuma roared in pain and fell back, staggering in shock and grabbing miserably at its foot, which had been sliced in half.
A woman stood before Kanda and Lenalee, holding a sword before her and breathing heavily.
Something strange was happening to the Akuma's body. Wisps of smoke were trailing the length of its arms and falling from its fingers.
"Ignite," the strange woman commanded and the smoke flickered with the orange and red of flame.
As they watched, the Akuma began to claw desperately at its body, howling as it tore off its own limbs, and then plunged its arm through its own torso exposing a fire that burnt in its chest. The flames leapt greedily at the open air, catching and consuming the Akuma's armour. With one last wail, it disappeared into oblivion leaving only embers to fall to the earth.
"What just happened?" Lenalee exclaimed as the dust settled. "Who are you?"
The woman turned towards them, she was older than them but not by much. She was Asian but clearly had some European heritage. Her eyes were deep cobalt blue and her blue/black hair hung long down her back. She wore a black dress that flowed around her ankles, a short black coat and simple black boots. Her coat had a strange symbol on it, similar to the Black Orders one, but of an older style. The symbol was gold and stood out against the all black that she wore.
She gave the stunned exorcists a huge happy grin in greeting.
Kanda lunged forwards, "ALMA!" He yelled in warning. The woman spun, barely deflecting Tyki's attack.
The Noah stepped back, laughing at this turn of events.
"We meet again," he said.
"Your ugly mug again," the woman countered, her voice measured and cold.
"I met your mini me recently," Tyki informed her.
"Quite the devil, wasn't he?"
"Just as energetic as you, I thought."
"Just as insane as well, I had noticed."
Tyki chuckled, "well, I expect a few decent fights now that you are back. The Order does like to meddle with human experiments don't they?"
"I'm not here as a result of the Black Order, Noah. I am not sure how I am here actually."
"Well, when you figure it out come visit me and we will talk about it over dinner."
The Noah doffed his hat to her, and turned to bow to the two exorcists behind her before vanishing.
The woman sighed and turned to face them again.
"Hello Yuu," she smiled, her voice now filled with absolute joy and excitement. "It has been a while."
"Alma," Kanda replied tensely. "What are you doing here?"
"You set me free," she said thoughtfully. "I think I'm here to set you free. Mugen called me back to this world."
"That is going to go down well with the higher ups," Kanda snapped.
"Oh, who cares what they think," Alma brushed off his rudeness.
"I'm sorry to be rude," Lenalee interrupted. "I am Lenalee; may I ask who you are?"
The woman smiled at her, "hello Lenalee. I am Alma Karma, an old, and previously deceased, General of the Black Order."
Voila! Now I can try to explore who Alma Karma and 'Lotus' were before they were fast healing scientific experiments of the Black Order. Who knows where this is going to go!