/A/N: Hello everybody, thanks for checking out this fic of mine. :)

As some of you may know, I became really bothered my the bad quality of the first three chapters of this fic, so I am now (in 2011) renewing them. This is the outcome of the first renewal project, Chapter 1 Renewed. :')

Enjoy~ /

1. Gomenasai

It had already been his 16th birthday when he had started getting back his memories. But even to this day, pretty much a year after, he didn't remember everything. Since it had dawned to him that the connection between now and then wasn't exactly small, remembering the Earl and the Noah became something he couldn't take as a sweet afterglow from his last life in the 19th Century; it was pure pain. Yes, remembering his former enemies meant painful memories of what had happened. Yet there was something that often topped even those: the memories about his own self.

Allen was a pretty realistic guy, really. He knew all those things were in the past and that it should not hurt or change anything even if he let himself know. He had a pretty good life, though orphan now on this century just like back then. He had his fair share of happiness and most importantly, peace. But what he really brooded on about the past was how the war hadn't actually been won with the best of victories. He didn't really remember everything about it, but he remembered the sadness, the agony, the helplessness of the end.

Yet, here they all were again. They had at least the outer elements to themselves alike to the past lives'. Maybe his Innocence wasn't what it used to be – hardly able to banish evil spirits – but since there were no akuma, what need would there be for a stronger weapon? It seemed like the others didn't have Innocence at all, which could be easily explained by the plain fact that he was the only (old) parasitic type on the school grounds. Or at least he thought he was… Ah, it was just too confusing to keep thinking about the past as part of the present. He didn't want to go to school today anyway; this was only making it harder.

Allen, the white-haired boy with a scary looking, deformed left arm, yawned tiredly as he looked at his reflection in the mirror. What a joke. Here he was: the child who had fought the most powerful of villains, Millennium Earl and won, too scared to go to school in time just because he had heard a certain individual had moved to his school. In itself, the whole fear was on questionable basis; Allen had never feared him before. Sure they had had their arguments and even fought, but never had there been any reason for either of them to be afraid of the other. Well, that man was known worldwide in the present time and for nothing less than his extraordinary skill of the sword. That would have been a good reason to worry for anyone else, but Allen was a karate black-belt, one who had earned the black as a 13-year-old and then quit for he lost interest.

But Kanda…he was different. Somehow or other, Allen knew things were different, he knew there was something…more to the Japanese now. And that was what worried him. For this was the beginning of 21st Century, 2017, the humans relied on information gathered by scientists to make their life easier and make up for the excitement they missed by living too comfortably. Even what had made Yu Kanda a special Exorcist in the past felt unreasonably light, knowing all the similar experiments surely taking place all over the globe.

It's strange we have the same names and bodies in this life… Allen thought as he scanned the insides of his wardrobe for something to wear. It all consisted mainly of two colors, but it had been a long time since he had last had money to buy new clothes.

…And what is that made us be born again anyway?

Black and white were good colors, he kind of liked them. So in the end he chose his normal attire of a white sweater (cotton and wool), gloves and black trousers. The trousers felt a little too tight, forcing him to admit it would be time to buy new ones soon. The reality swept away the ponderings of the long gone knowledge.

The school buildings weren't exactly inviting. They didn't say "Welcome to learn my pupils" like the newer buildings did. No. These here were obviously high-class and not meant to be educational institutes to begin with. During and after the World Wars, the place had been used as a hospital until the people who founded the school bought it. Allen got this snotty-bastard vibe from the high-and-mighty front entrance and the main courtyard, now littered with benches, trees and even a small basketball court to entertain the students with free time in their hands. Usually there were people who would greet him there but now he was late. Oh happiness.

He stood in front of his classroom and took a deep breath before knocking. The teacher opened the door and looked down to Allen, finishing his last sentence:

"…wasn't thought as the most carefully completed one. Allen Walker, you're late again. We're interested in hearing your excuse. Come on in and talk loudly, please", he was clearly making fun of Allen but the boy didn't even flinch. That teacher wasn't the nicest – well if you called Marian Cross nice you'd have to be insane or a sexy young woman. Cross had taught Allen many, many things, that man had helped him when everything fell on him. But even so, the almost-18-year-old didn't like really like the man.

"I overslept", Allen said.

"What? I'm sure the people in the back didn't quite hear you."

Really, they even lived in the same house, but never on the same schedule. Usually it was Allen who was in time, not his damned Master Cross.

"I OVERSLEPT, MASTER", he shouted so loud the classroom next to theirs could also hear. The class went quiet. There were many eyes that now looked like they were colored plates, so wide open.

It's turning out to be just as bad a day as I thought it would, he sighed to himself.

The silence was broken by airy laughter, coming from a recognizable source. Allen didn't have to turn his gaze to know it was the redhead of a bookworm:

"A HAHAHA! What the hell Allen? It's not like the teacher is your master or anything!" Lavi laughed. The said teacher glared at the boy, silencing him instantly. Lavi went more and more bluish under his red hair as the other redhead closed in on him.

"Now what is this? Have I not made it clear to you young man; you are NOT to interfere with my apprentice", the teacher suddenly reminded Allen of the Marian Cross back in the nineteenth century. Even though the adult gave the youngster a scary look Lavi fought back with an angry grin:

"Allen-chan's my pal, so I don't care what you say."

"He's my servant, bookworm", Cross thundered.

"He likes me more!"

Well, at least that was obviously true.

Allen smiled at the former bookman. It was pretty surprising to hear him say something like that. Something that clearly showed out he cared of the people around him, unlike a Bookman was supposed to. Well, in the end, Lavi had always been different with that, at least as long as Allen had known him. Though – he had to remind himself – this Lavi wasn't a Bookman. "Lavi" was his real, given name, Grayman his surname, and they had been friends for many years already: longer than Lavi had been under the care of some care-free uncle.

"Quit chatting about Moyashi, nobody's interested", the slightly accented words interrupted them, just when the debate was about to continue. Allen flinched.

Tell me I'm wrong…

This was only the first week of the new period in this college: this was the second history lesson of the new course, so Allen had been certain that individual would not pop up here.

"He's no bean sprout, Yuu-tan! His name is Allen – come on, say it!" Lavi grinned at the samurai like he had always been opposing the older man. Like hell he had, if you ask Allen, not in this life.

Allen's forgotten smile faded away as the longhaired samurai stood up, as if the other young man had offended him badly. Which he had not - Lavi had barely said his first name. Allen had no strength to do a thing, hadn't the teacher almost pushed him he would not even have sat down. Cross took control of the fiery situation in a blink of an eye:

"Kanda Yu, all students are equal in our school no matter how famous they're or not. You're clearly going off limits. This is my class and I expect everyone to honor it. You too, young mister", he referred to Lavi, making the younger red-head sit down with an intense glare. Kanda also sat down, his hands flat on the desk, like he was just as relaxed as ever.

Allen was a bit happy his seat was in the front row.

The school cafeteria was cramped as always. Allen was accompanied by Lavi when on the way to the tables under a glass roof. It was pretty popular with those who didn't like the rest of the school but they knew better than to go between Allen Walker and his food and there was always at least some table free for him. Especially now that the 17-year-old had become the favorite of the cooks via his extracurricular activities (he was the new home economics club assisting teacher).

"…it's ridiculous of you to pay him so much attention, y' know, I think there're rumors spreading among the female population of you being gay. …Hey, Allen? Allen-kun? Allen-CHAN? Ah, whatever, space out all you want, all I'm doing here is trying to help you save your reputation y' know… Oh, it's Yuu-chan", Lavi chit chat died out to him skillfully evading a kick aimed to his jaw. The white-haired youth next to the redhead blinked as he woke up from his daydreams (that of course never stopped him from eating).

Allen felt flustered, realizing only afterwards that Lavi had said a whole lot of other words aside from "It's Yuu-chan".

"Eh? Why are you sitting here?" Lavi raised his eyebrows at the Japanese, who had actually sat down at their table, on Lavi's side of the table though to the other end.

"You have the only table with free space, idiot usagi", was the answer. Allen glanced around and saw at least three other tables like theirs. Kanda's murdering black aura kept him silent, though.

One moment he had just been sitting in a bus on his way home as usual, bored in his own thoughts. Then the bus driver had suddenly screamed in horror and there had been flash of bright light. Afterwards Allen knew about nothing but noise, shouting, crashing and pain. He had trouble opening his eyes. Would he want to know what had made such a horrible sound?

Well he had to find out where he was, at least. The pain in his right hand was far too big to just ignore. He opened his grey eyes and looked around, moving his aching head slowly and carefully. What he saw was much more painful than he had thought. Loads of blood, dead people crashed around with metal junk, some fire where there had been engines, cracks of electricity snapping here and there. Then he looked at his left arm. It… looked strangely familiar. Huge and… white. His eyes widened when he recognized his activated Innocence – how could it be all big like that suddenly? But then he also recognized the feeling of it being pierced through. He sharpened his eyes that were unwilling to follow the order. Finally getting his sight under control he looked at the arm and flinched. It had been stabbed with a dagger made of something dark and cold.

Dark matter! his brain screamed to him, Akuma! Or Noah! You must get up and walk, fight!

Yet because of that black thing he was unable to move, no matter what he tried. His human arm wasn't strong enough to pull it out and his Innocence was punctured by an equally strong substance of the other side.

Lavi bit his tongue to keep himself under control. Whoever that big man was, he sure enough was crazy. He didn't even know how it was possible for someone to control lightning like that. Making it fly across the street to designated targets like in some rather fantasy/sci-fi-style movie. Like in the animated superhero series the redhead still sometimes watched. Looking through the glass window of the café he had felt as if he was watching one of them…

…Until a wheel from the used-to-be-passing bus had broken through the window, almost hitting Lenalee who had been with him.

To think that all of what was happening at the street was the cause of one enraged man…

"It's…Skin Boric…" Lenalee gasped from behind the table she had been pushed to by Lavi's quick reflexes.

"Skin what?" Lavi asked, eyes wide, feeling the weight of a huge question mark above his head.

"Skin Boric. The Noah Kanda killed…" the girl explained with a blank expression on her face before suddenly bursting into fear, "Oh no, are the Noah back?" she cried. Lavi could do nothing but sit down beside her and try to reason his way out of the question she hadn't answered well enough.

Has Kanda killed someone? And that man was obviously alive, he thought, frowning.

"We've received an alarming amount of calls for help here in the studio! Dozens of people have apparently been injured in a mysterious accident downtown. Some say they are surrounded by dead people. We've already contacted the police and help is arriving, as are our reporters. Stay tuned for news!" Kanda frowned at the radio. What the hell? They never sounded this alarmed before.

A mysterious accident in the days of computers and video surveillance? Maybe the biggest mystery here was that it was a mystery. How the hell was it even possible for something that had happened in the center of a city as big and developed as this one to be a mystery? It was like sky was able to fall after all.

Or, he thought, this person knows how to effectively spread terror. Is a professional at it.

He stood up from his lotus and tugged the sword in its new scabbard before taking it with him. It was not in his nature to just meditate when there was some mysterious action going on somewhere nearby.

People had gathered around the accident place. Police was keeping the hysterical crowds from jumping into the mess that consisted of fire-brigade's flame soothing foam, small snaps of electricity, crying people, whimpering people, dead people, blood, water, car wrecks and smoke. Kanda was easily able to jump into the mess when he just told the young police with the name tag reading "officer Boa Hesse" that he had seen other accidents before and was probably just as able to help the people within the mess as an emergency doctor would. She probably recognized him, especially since he was carrying a katana on his back, which most likely helped in letting someone in.

Kanda did help some people, his sword being of assistance when the metal carcass had imprisoned people in its sharp arms. He never said a word to them though, even when he was begged to say at least something. All he did was swiftly opening a way outside a wreck for them or pulling them into a puddle of water and foam so their burns would calm down. He had this feeling somewhere inside him, this touch of restlessness, like he was here for something specific.

Then he sensed something out of ordinary and – following his senses – walked to a bus wreck and slowly around and over it. Those who had survived were already gone – of all the bus riders still there none was alive. Kanda placed his feet carefully and finally arrived to see what had triggered his sense of supernatural. A huge hand with lethal-looking claws was stabbed from the middle with a knife that glowed as black as the hand glowed white. Something in the Japanese man's brain tried to tell him something but he had no time to listen.

"Oi", he called out to the human-shaped creature linked to the strange hand, "were you the one behind this mess?"

Allen turned around, shocked to find that Kanda had been the first one to answer his Call.

"Moyashi?" he uttered out with his usual frown deepening from the sight of the white-haired boy. He couldn't imagine any circumstances with Allen at fault to something like this. The younger one was just too soft for it.

The hell I can tell, I only know his name from school.

"Gomenasai, Yu… I almost died on you again…" he sighed and smiled weakly. Kanda stared at him. What the fuck was the bean-sprout talking about? And why was he calling him by his first name? And wait, since when had the British kid known Japanese?

Instead of just standing there pondering about the boy, he took action by taking a hold of the black dagger piercing the boy's strange left hand and pulling with all his might. It came out rather easily, though he sure could feel the vengeful aura of rage it emitted.

"…Don't call me by my first name like we were friends: we aren't", he then snarled at the boy who just smiled as if recalling something very old. That smile was rather disturbing and he didn't bother keeping that thought secret from Allen, who just smiled more when he heard that.

It turned out that Allen was unable to walk with his injured feet and so Kanda – unwillingly – took the smaller one in his arms and carried him through the foamy and smoky mess surrounding the place he had found Allen from. Kanda never said a word – and Allen never asked.

/ A/N: Let's get one thing straight from the beginning: I am not fondo f cliffhangers and will not write them on here, at least not on purpose. I will renew te chapters up to at least 3, but it's slow since I am still continuing this fic as well. ;D

Please poke me somehow, I really need more feedback than I'm getting to get back on the roll. /