This is, you could say, a trial. I've got a lot of stories to update (and write!), but this side plot I had been thinking of has been bugging me for months. It is written in third person, but POVs change. There is no beta apart from myself, so forgive any mistakes. I'll be posting two chapters together so that you can have a taste of what these two OCs are like (hopefully not Mary-Sues; if they are, please point it out because I hate creating those sort of characters!)

I no own D. Gray man (boo...), but I own my two OCs.

The Usual Greeting

A faint breeze picked up the girl's blood red hair. Her midnight blue tail coat rustled, displacing her tie. She stood at the foot of a cliff, peering up at the castle on top with sharp green eyes. The girl was called Bryony, and she was going to become an exorcist.

Just before she proceeded to climb, a voice rang out, "Um, excuse me?"

Bryony turned to the speaker. Another girl, clothed in a white dress shirt, a blue corset, sailor's trousers and sea boots emerged from the night. Two lacquered leather scabbards hung from her waist – katana and wakizashi, Bryony noted. Brown hair with subtle hints of black feathered across her forehead, and the locks spun into bouncy curls, the longest just brushing her shoulder. Her eyes were a chocolate brown, and denoted an Asian, Japanese to be exact, heritage.

A bandanna was wrapped tightly around her head, but that wasn't the strangest thing. A black scar rested on her left eye, starting with a fountain like shape above her eyebrow and finishing as a cross on her cheek. Bryony was taken aback by the scar, and her right eye twitched.

"Do you know where the Black Order's Headquarters are?" She asked politely.

Bryony nodded, and pointed at the castle. "It's up there. I'm heading that way too, and it seems climbing the cliff is the only way to reach it."

"Oh wow, another girl joining as an exorcist!" The girl continued, bowing slightly in acknowledgement, "I heard that there aren't many female exorcists in the Black Order, especially not in the Asian Branch, so I'm glad I'm not the only one!"

Bryony smiled at her comment, but quickly developed a cold, calculating face. She analyzed the treacherous rocks quickly, trying to find a quick and efficient route. She fastened the belt straps of her suitcase around her shoulders, and could hear her new companion do the same. She found her first hold, and hoisted herself up. She paused, twisting her head to see the Japanese girl.

"What's your name?" Bryony asked, mentally cursing that she hadn't asked before.

"Arai Manami, what's yours?" she said.

"Bryony."

Manami looked confused. "Is that it?"

Bryony shared a secret smile with herself.

"Yes, that's it."

Kanda grimaced at the muffled tones as Lenalee dragged him down to the failure of a welcome party. Please, Kanda didn't even turn up for his own welcome. The bright lights pierced his dark gray eyes, which had become accustomed to the gloominess of his room. He gave a sigh, which could have been mistaken for a growl. Whose bright idea was it to cover everyone in makeup and then trash the place? When a Finder thrust a broom into his hand (and then ran away), he knew the answer. The broom handle snapped – Komui.

Before the Japanese exorcist could inflict a world of hurt on the Supervisor, who had mysteriously vanished, a blaring alarm screamed. Kanda dropped what he was doing, and sprinted to the surveillance room. He was greeted with the scene of Komui doing a coffee spit take right into Reever's face. He ignored the yells of pain coming from the Australian, and strode closer to the screen to hear what the Gatekeeper was blabbering on about now.

"A mysterious presence lurks in them! They must be a spy of the Millennium Earl! A spy!" the giant head screeched.

Kanda's gaze turned on the two figures in front of the Gatekeeper. Two girls? Whatever, they were a threat, and must be exterminated. With Mugen in hand, he started to dart past everyone to the entrance. Not long later, he was met with the snowy haired exorcist, Moyashi. Well, his real name was Allen Walker, but Kanda denied that even in his thoughts.

"Thought you could use a hand, Kanda - there's two of them," he said as they jumped from the roof ledge.

"Che," Kanda scoffed, "Are they Akuma?"

"No, but better safe than sorry, right?" Moyashi replied.

The younger exorcist ripped off the glove on his left arm, and it transformed into a monstrous gun. Kanda invocated his chokuto, Mugen. The Innocence laced sword glowed blue, and Kanda locked eyes on his opponent. The girl with the bandanna and the twin swords – a perfect match. He indicated to Moyashi his choice. Moyashi nodded and started to shoot the other girl.

It was about time some action would come to the Order.

Bryony could not believe it. A spy? She narrowed her eyes, and shot a string of profane thoughts to her idiot brother. She whipped around to see two falling figures in the night sky. Manami stared wide eyed, her fingers inching towards the two scabbards. Bryony touched her twin daggers, making sure that they were still inside the holsters strapped to her legs. Her quick eyes locked onto the approaching enemies, and saw the taller one dart off to the Japanese girl. And that was when the bullets came.

If Bryony had been a second slower, she would have been incinerated by the huge energised bullets. She quickly flipped backwards, her coat sweeping to her side. She noticed three things in succession; number one – his weapon seemed to be his arm, number two – he had hair as white as snow and number three – he had a scar with a pentacle on his left eye. Bryony risked a glance to Manami.

The girl had instantly pulled out the longer sword, the katana, to block the chokuto that was aiming for her head. The chokuto had a mysterious blue shine, but it was the wielder that intrigued Bryony. He carried a distinct aura of rage, but it swirled in a way Bryony had never seen before.

Without another thought, she snatched the twin daggers and cleared her mind.

Manami, switch partners, now.

Wait, where did that voice come from? Manami gave a couple of looks to the side before she was again engaged with the swordsman. His eyes looked positively murderous, and the blade struck repetitively, without mercy. Manami winced, feeling the strength behind every strike, but stood steady. She tried talking back to the voice.

Umm, who are you, and how did you get into my mind?

I'm the girl fighting next to you, and it's the empathy links between our aura-reading eyes.

Our eyes? Manami sneaked a look, and was surprised. Bryony-san lifted the crimson fringe which completely covered her right eye to reveal the exact same scar. Her attention was then caught by the white haired boy with the huge claw for a left arm. He drove forward to slice Bryony-san, but she expertly deflected the blow with her daggers.

"Oi, don't space out."

Crap, she had completely forgotten about her current opponent. Had her reflexes not been so good, her head would have rolled off. Well, the glowing sword was inching bit by bit towards her exposed throat. Manami gulped and then attempted to kick him away. The kick was successful, but only for a few seconds. Whilst he started running back, Manami focused her thought to Bryony-san.

Switch...now.

In an instant, she saw the silver eyes of the younger boy.

Shorter blade clashed with the longer. The metallic clang resounded through the night air. Their eyes met for the first time, neither showing triumph or mercy, calm or anger – just determination. He pulled back, and swung for another strike. Bryony stood her ground and concentrated. Just as the lethal weapon came to sever her right arm, she ducked and spiralled around. He looked back in surprise and barely missed the dagger aimed at his back. Bryony cursed, and proceeded to try again.

The incessant sparring continued, neither giving way. But the chokuto eventually found a chink in Bryony's defence. It shot towards her neck, eager to spill blood. She brought her two blades up and caught the sword, stopping its path. Their eyes met again, and Bryony could honestly say that she had never seen such ferocious gray eyes. A momentary ceasefire occurred as the pair fought to catch their breath. It was the stupidest time to study one's face, but Bryony did it instinctively. The high cheek bones and eyes betrayed a Japanese nationality. A few seconds later, Bryony could hear Manami shouting about a letter for some reason. He slowly retracted his sword from the daggers' grip, cursing in Japanese.

But before the battle could resume, a different voice spoke out.

"Kanda-kun! Allen-kun! Stop!"

The two guys froze instantly. Bryony sighed inwardly, but kept herself wary. The fight may not be over. Her opponent, presumably named Kanda since that name was Japanese, signalled to the other boy to respond to the voice, not taking his cold eyes off Bryony. It seemed that someone was speaking through a little bat object.

"Miss. Bryony? Could you confirm that your brother is Lavi and your grandfather is Bookman? Lavi just spotted the fight and told me that you were due to come today."

The aura of surprise flared up around the two black-clad boys. Bryony smirked.

"Yes, I can," the mentioned girl said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "I'm guessing that he's been ever so busy that he forgot to tell you that I was coming today. Do I have the pleasure of talking to the Supervisor right now?"

"Yes you do. Am I right in thinking that the young lady beside you is Arai?"

Manami sidestepped over, trying to avoid the range of the man's chokuto. She spoke to the bat.

"Salutations, Supervisor! I am Arai Manami. Bak-san told me that he had sent a letter of transfer from the Asian Branch to you," she said politely.

A shout was heard across the transmission, followed by a tremendous amount of scuffling. After a dragged out four minutes, someone shouted "I found it!" and the rustling of paper could be heard. The Supervisor's voice came back.

"We found the letter! Please, you two come in!"

The snivelling giant head roared "ENTER!" and the huge gates lifted. The white haired boy relaxed, and returned his left arm to normal. A warm smile spread over his lips. The four of them walked into the castle. He stretched out a gloved hand to shake. Manami didn't hesitate, and shook it, whilst bowing slightly.

"Welcome, Miss. Arai. My name is Allen Walker. Sorry about this, I had a similar experience when I first joined," Allen greeted.

Manami shook her head, and said, "Please, don't call me miss. It's too formal – call me Manami!"

Allen smiled once again; he came over and shook Bryony's hand as well. "I never knew Lavi had a sister. Nice to meet you, Miss. Bryony."

Bryony gave him a mock frown, "Lavi's becoming forgetful, I see. And geez, you make me sound old by callin' me miss. God, loosen up – it's Bryony."

Allen laughed, and ran a hand through his stark white hair in embarrassment. Bryony smiled jokingly at him, but then realised something. Where the hell was the other guy?

The other guy stood where he was, not showing any signs of welcome. He just glared and shook his ponytail back. Once his sword was back in its scabbard, he turned to leave. Allen grabbed the taller boy's jacket and yanked him back. It wasn't long before the sword was out again.

"What the hell was that for, Moyashi?" he growled, sword in hand.

Allen rolled his eyes, and dropped his previous polite tone, "It's Allen, idiot. And apologise for almost killing them."

"I didn't apologise last time."

"Well, last time, it was me. This time, it's two girls. Be nice."

"Che."

Kanda was not in the mood to humour Moyashi's wishes. He never was in the mood. Nevertheless, he turned back around, and faced the two new exorcists. The redhead re-sheathed those stupid daggers, and gave another smirk. God, she was annoying. The other girl, Japanese obviously, just looked from Moyashi back to him.

"He did the same thing to you?" she asked Moyashi.

Moyashi gave a sigh, and answered, "Oh yes. He came quite close to killing me. The idiot even damaged my Anti-Akuma weapon. Only when I told Komui about my referral letter was I spared – though I don't think I've ever been fully spared."

"Shut up, Moyashi," Kanda said, the vein in his temple throbbing. He re-sheathed Mugen, and crossed him arms. His narrowed eyes emitted many unvoiced threats.

"Don't expect any apologies. You two have scars, and the Gatekeeper picked up on it. This stupid Moyashi is cursed, and I won't be surprised if you two are as well. Just, stay away from me, noroareteru," he spat.

It was Lenalee who spoke after the three second silence.

"Kanda, don't be mean. If you can't say anything nice, then go and sleep - you've got a mission in a day. But you're always welcome to help with the tour if you feel like sticking around."

The Chinese girl stood on the stairs, with an annoyed expression. The clipboard in her hand was poised, ready to hit Kanda's head again. He didn't need to remind himself of Lenalee's strength every time a new recruit joined. Kanda's frowned deeper, and walked away to his room.

Two new exorcists? He would class this as one of the worst nights ever.

Once Kanda has gone, Manami followed Allen up the stairs to the petite girl, Lenalee. Her flowing green-black hair was tied into two long pigtails. Lenalee's ballet shoes clicked as she walked, her miniskirt swishing from side to side. Once the group got to the top, she faced them with bright amethyst eyes.

"Welcome to the Black Order! My name is Lenalee Lee, and I'm the Supervisor's assistant. I'm also an exorcist," Lenalee introduced herself.

Manami and Bryony said hello, then Manami added, "By the way, does the whole 'you're-a-spy-so-then-Kanda-san-will-come-and-kill-you' ordeal happen often?"

Lenalee laughed, and replied, "Well, for special recruits, this seems to be the usual greeting."

-oOo -

Again, it's kind of a trial to see if you guys like this parallel storyline of Aura-Readers. I'm only posting two chpater for now, and if I get a good response, then I will probablly tweak it a bit and repost. If anyone has any suggestions and constructive criticism, it would be really helpful. Sorry for the quick POV changes, I'll sort that out if it bothers you.

Noroareteru – 'Cursed' or 'Cursed ones'
Katana – a long and sleek Japanese sword
Wakizashi – a short Japanese sword (wielded with the katana in this story)
Chokuto – A medium sized Japanese sword