Summary: First Lavi and now Allen have been ensnared by the Noah. The key to their rescue lies with the arc...an encoded arc. Alas, Kanda is not a happy bunny.
Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of or rights to D-Grayman or the characters depicted herein.
[flashback]
Enjoy :)
Reliance
The first blushes of dawn began to slink haltingly across the sky.
Inside its walls, the Black Order slept on, its passages silent and still... and yet the tumult in Kanda's mind was thunderous.
It had been 8 days.
Tangled in his sheets, he ground his teeth together in exasperation. He'd known, the Moyashi had known all an-effing-long that this was on the cards. He'd been bloody prepping them for weeks- his jokes to Jerry about how the food store would expand exponentially if he wasn't around, his resigned aloofness towards Lena, the brutal skirmishes between him and the bean; nigh on every day, his machinations to get that bastard kid, Timothy, to latch on to Krory (although, to be fair that had been hysterically excruciating to watch.)
And then there was the arc.
He'd managed to coerce Komui (no one was brave enough to ask how...) into bringing a piano into lab 2; where the arc was currently residing.
He'd then 'fiddled' with it for 3 days straight, before emerging attractively mussed and triumphant.
(Kanda chose to ignore the candid internal compliment he'd paid the Moyashi - it was acceptable to appreciate aesthetics ; Mugen was bloody beautiful , for example.)
It transpired that the Moyashi had devised a 'code' in the form of piano chords, to remotely activate the arc. 'Just in case', he had said, he didn't want the black order to be ...disadvantaged.
He'd supplied Johnny with a cipher and plastered the activation puzzle onto the piano: 'The only one I rely on - then and now.'
Kanda shook his head in consternation - all that time spent with Lavi over the years had rubbed off on the sprout and fucked with his head. By the time any of them worked that one out, the Noah would have come, seen, conquered and buggered off again.
His thoughts jarred back to Lavi. That, of course, was the last piece of indicative evidence. They'd not been able to liberate him yet. When Alle-the Moyashi ,(the boys name had been snaking through his mind, slowly inching into the place 'Moyashi' occupied; even in thought the boy was damn devious.) himself and the rest of their rabble had returned to the order; once the initial interrogation and unavoidable emotional reunion were finished, the sprout had wanted to leave directly; to steal the rabbit back.
Komui was having none of it. 'They'd only just gotten them all back' he'd said. 'It was far too dangerous' he'd said. 'What about the Noahs effect on Allen, what about Neah?' he'd said.
Of course all of these were met by fierce objections and counter arguments, but when he'd said, softly, agonizingly:
'In truth, he's most likely dead already '...
Well...Lena had hidden her face in her hands, weakly trying to stifle her sobs and the Moyashis eyes had glassed over. Rouvelier had blathered on about martyrdom, or some such crap, but no one was listening and Alle-THE MOYASHI (Goddamnit) never truly let it go.
So when, a few months later, Tykii came for him..he probably didn't even put up much of a fight. Kanda wanted to believe that that was why no one knew till it was too late. In point of fact, he needed to believe that. Allen's (whatever) kidnapping left a sour taste in his mouth, and it distressed him, actually distressed him more than was effing tolerable.
But still..with all the signs...they, he, should have known.
Hauling himself, ungraciously, out of the bed, he stomped from his room and in the direction of the training halls. There wasn't going to be any sleep tonight, again ,for him. Thus, some mindless architectural destruction on a small to moderate level should suffice to clear his mind.
That or some insincere flirting with Lena - Komui's manufacture of his Komulin's was really coming on in leaps and bounds, and made damn fine sport when the akuma were low on the ground. His flirting wasn't as progressive however, but no matter how feeble the attempt, Komui could always be relied upon to...
be relied upon...
Kanda stopped, mid -prowl and let his eyes lose focus. (This level of detachment to his surroundings was necessary for any meaningful rumination to take place.)
He'd long decided to ignore both the Supervisor's and Rouvelier's prohibitions regarding a rescue attempt. The outcry when the Moyashi had disappeared was immense - although Kanda was too shrewd to believe all of it was love for the sprout, there were those who were frightened of what would happen if the Noah got their hands on Neah...it wasn't a pleasant prospect in the least.
This was the reason that Kanda was resolved to get the infuriating brat back.(It was the SOLE reason. He wasn't worried about him, not in the least , not at ALL, C'mon like HELL... Che, whatever.)
Lavi's situation was grating enough, but when Alle-the Moyashi disappeared as well...they HAD to take action. Inevitably, the only way to reach the shitty arc the Noah were sailing around on was with their arc, their bastard, mind-numbingly stupid, code-protected arc.
Did anyone even know the sprout well enough to know the answer to that puzzle, sure Lena had suggested 'Mana' for the first part and Miranda had offered 'his friends' for the last, Krory thought maybe 'his innocence' but... it hadn't worked.
Of course it hadn't worked, he thought , the Moyashi didn't actually rely on anyone after Mana, it was just a facade to please...
He stopped in his tracks. Eyes alike colossal sapphires, Kanda spun on his heel in a whirl of silky hair and deadly metal and ran (yes ran) back the way he had come.
A few minutes later saw him dragging a listless Johnny through the hallways of the order. In silence. There had been no explanations, only sudden and abrupt violence. It was a credit to how well Johnny had come to know the other man, during their brief time together, that his vocalisation of surprise had been minimal; his physical protest had been totally non-existent - he just dozed uncomfortably, waiting for the source of Kanda's current psychosis to become apparent.
He didn't have long to wait; Kanda soon dumped him, without ceremony, at the desk in lab 2. He, himself continued swiftly up the steps to the piano.
Placing his hands on the keys, he coiled round to face, a slightly more alert, but still somewhat hazy Johnny.
'Mana'. He growled.
Johnny was really nowhere near cognizant enough to deal with Kanda at this ungodly time of the morning. (To be fair even at midday and fuelled by Komui's 'hyper-coffee', Kanda was still a homicidally inclined enigma.)
"Umm, 'm Johnny" He mumbled, in a sleep-thickened voice.
In retort, Kanda endeavoured to slay, or at least, maim him with his eyes. It had the disconcerting but immediate effect of hot-wiring his brain - Kanda wanted the code...
"Ah, right, sorry...ok...start with Middle C for the first chord and then F sharp for the next...but, sorry again, um, haven't we tried this before?"
A hostile silence engulfed him and then..."myself", spoken in a voice that could carve diamond.
Ah, right. Clever. Hmm, Kanda and clever in the same sentence? Maybe not, maybe... knowledge was a better term, surreptitious knowledge perhaps...
The hostile silence bullied back up to him and he hastily scanned the cipher paper.
' Ah...B flat and, umm, sorry can't seem to, ah here we are, lower D."
The chords rang out tentatively. (Kanda had astonished them all by actually being able to play the piano, after a fashion. His explanation for this was, predictably: 'che'..)
Absolutely nothing happened. To call it anticlimactic would have been an understatement in the extreme.
Kanda diverted the focus of his murderous glare towards the impotent instrument. After a few minutes of this invigorating battle for supremacy, Johnny dared to interject:
"Maybe try Allen, or Walker, perhaps he used.." He began to hazard.
"No." Kanda cut him off, abruptly. A realisation was forming in his mind. (Much like the formation of an iceberg.) No, the Moyashi couldn't even rely on himself anymore, not after the 14th...so... no-one then? But no, that didn't feel right either. (As an inarguable master of the blade, he had come to rely on his instincts.)
A murky recollection was pleading entrance at the corner of his mind.(It had brought a recliner and some soup - this could be quite the wait.)
An incident, some time ago now, back when he had first hunted the fugitive sprout down...
[...air thick with akuma poison, another deluge had come sniffing out the Moyashi, or more accurately, the 14th he harboured. A whimper caught his attention; they hadn't been so lucky this time - the townspeople hadn't escaped unscathed. Another whimper, this one more familiar, from the right. The Moyashi's eyes were veiled , his head bowed. Kanda nearly didn't catch his whispered words - 'If IT ever-completely surfaces, if I can't subdue it. Would you, could you..." He trailed off. "Che, I'd end you " The veil lifted a little and a smile, somewhat inapposite, curved his lip. "Yeah. I know. I rely on it..."]
Rely on...another memory, slightly more recent, crept unbidden through the breach in his mind.
[ ...the moyashi screaming, his eyes flickering between grey and gold, his innocence, the sword limp at his side. Without a thought, Kanda grabbed it, plunging it through the Sprouts body, stilling the flickering to solid grey. "Thank you, Ha, I can always rely on your violent nature..."]
And another...(my that soup must be getting cold by now).
[...an akuma, seconds away from impaling the preoccupied Moyashi, Kanda's twin illusion interceding at the last moment..."You may be a complete arse, baKanda...but you're a reliable one at least!..."]
The fractured memories filled his head, becoming progressively more recent , .."...always rely on you..", "...thank you...", ...my only constant...","...only you...". By this point, Kanda was clutching the Piano so hard his knuckles were almost translucent. His other hand lay, spread-eagled, across his dumbfounded face. He was also vibrating, ever so faintly.
Johnny watched pensively; Kanda had evidently become unhinged. He sincerely expected him to spontaneously combust at any moment, or failing that, rampage fatally through the halls. An eruption of maniacal laughter would also not have gone amiss at this juncture. He was halfway between skulking off and approaching with acute suspicion, (I.e he hadn't, in actuality, moved at all.) when Kanda, called out, in an particularly, irregular voice:
"What's my name". He said, discordantly.
Right, thought Johnny, and then: Oh dear. The worst had indeed occurred and Kanda was now as mad as a box of monkeys. Best to humour him and extricate himself from the situation as expediently as possible. To this effect he warily replied:
"Ah, ha, ha..it's, you know, it's Kanda, your name I mean.." He said, hands searching frantically for something that could be utilised as a weapon in an emergency...
Kanda didn't deign to respond vocally, choosing instead to crash his now dead hand into the keys.
Johnny was rather taken aback, to say the least. Oh my, he couldn't suppose... no way!
"Uh, in code, umm...let's see..oh, that's odd it's just the key e..." He said, his face a mask of perplexity. (And terror of course, don't forget the terror.)
Kanda uneasily traced his fingers across the key, the sound echoed raucously throughout the deserted laboratory...and the arc...
The arc disappeared. It wasn't pretentious about it, it just faded gently out of view. However, the effect on both Kanda and Johnny was akin to the sudden crescendo of a complete chamber orchestra.
What. the .fuck, thought Kanda, articulately.
Woodenly, he depressed the chord combinations again and the arc fluttered, lackadaisically back into view.
They exchanged a glance: Johnny's: "Dear God, not for all the coffee in the world!" in answer to Kanda's more brutal: "Don't even effing think about divulging that code, you bastard." (yes, even his facial expressions suggested at excessive violence.)
Having reached a mutual understanding (or bowel clenching terror in Johnny's case) of the situation; Johnny scuttled off to inform Komui that the arc was operational, and to ascertain 'what came next'.
Kanda, however, already knew 'what came next'. Once he was...calmer, he'd marshal the other exorcists and they would commence an all out offensive on the Noah, to hell with the prohibitions!
Ugh, can only rely on me huh, che, I'm going to effing SLAUGHTER him for this, he fumed as he strode decisively through the corridors...
...and yet...
..and yet his murderous internal musing was somewhat at odds with the external smirk leisurely etching its way across his face.
fin
Thank you for reading. It stands as a one-shot currently, but if the idea continues to ferment in my mind I may continue it as a multi-part story. :)
This is my first fan fiction submission, so please treat me gently. If you have the time or inclination, then reviews are greatly welcomed. As is constructive criticism - flames will be duly ignored. (Although they will cause me to stomp around my flat, growling like a baby dinosaur and biting people - sigh, I'm a sensitive soul ;P)
Ja ne.