Foreigner
Naruto and D Gray-Man crossover

Lavi sighed as he trotted down the hall of the Order, adjusting his headband and combing messy red locks into place with his fingers. He audibly let out a sort of half-sigh, half-growl of annoyance as he plodded on in search of a certain white-haired companion of his, not really liking this last-minute sort of stuff, especially not when he was already busy, but it couldn't really be helped.

He was certain he knew where Allen was this particular time of day, making a bee-line for the dining hall, though if he turned out to be wrong, then he'd just have to keep looking.

Luck was on his side for the intuitive Bookman-to-be – not that it was difficult to guess - as he spotted the uniquely pale teen at one of the tables, just where Lavi thought he'd find him.

Stopping just in the doorway, he cupped his hands over his mouth as he called out, "Oi! Allen! Komui says he wants to see us lickety-split! Says it's urgent so hurry up and finish eating!"

The albino teen paused with a forkful of food halfway to its destination a la his mouth and swiveled around in his seat to give Lavi a questioning look. Of course the redhead didn't offer up any explanations so he could only assume his friend didn't know the details yet either.

"All right, I'll be there in just a minute!" he returned, before going back to his food and scarfing down what was left of it in a hurry, making record time.

He was mindful to return his plates to Jerry and quickly jogged to Komui's office, slipping on a couple of the papers that perpetually blanketed the Branch Head's floor.

The Chinese man was looking oddly serious, even for a mission briefing, but it would be a moot point to ask what seemed to have him so edgy since he was about to get an explanation anyway.

"There you are, Allen. I need to send you and Lavi out to investigate something post-haste. This is considered an emergency mission."

"What happened?" Allen questioned, his brows furrowing in concentrated concern as he came to stand by Lavi.

"Perhaps not even a full hour ago, a town was decimated. The next one over had a few finders investigating for signs of unusual activity when they saw the explosion from afar and went to see what happened before reporting back."

"What do you mean by 'decimated'?" Lavi questioned with an unreadable expression.

"I mean the town has disappeared." Komui said somberly, dark eyes troubled. "It's completely gone. Only a massive crater remains where the town used to exist…and all of the people that were within it…"

Allen's grey-blue eyes widened. "But, how-?"

"We don't know yet. It could be the cause of Innocence…or of Akuma. It may even be the work of the Noah clan and the Earl himself, or a Level Four, though no for-sure information was reported by the Finders as to the cause." He paused for a moment and sighed. "Both of you, be extremely careful, and vigilant. We don't even know what we're dealing with just yet."

"Understood. Don't worry Chief, we'll be cautious." Lavi assured, offering a mock salute. "Just leave it to Allen and I."

"Oh man…" Lavi breathed, riding the handle of his hammer as it extended over the forest and valley, taking them more quickly to the scene of the carnage. "Komui wasn't kidding when he said there was nothing left."

Below stretched a massive dirt crater, seemingly a mile across. Only the faintest traces of rubble and debris from the buildings that had once taken up the space were visible, as if much of it had been incinerated into nothing but powder to intermingle with the dirt, and there was no visible trace of bodies out in the open.

Lavi could only assume that whatever bodies hadn't been destroyed and scattered must have been buried under the explosion of…whatever had caused this.

"This is awful…" Allen breathed in suppressed horror. "I can't believe a whole town…just…vanished like that."

"Well we'll get to the bottom of it," Lavi assured, more stoic than his fellow companion. He slowed their descent as they can to land at the very edge of the crater, Iron Hammer returning to a much smaller size.

The Junior Bookman's single green eye surveyed the surrounding devastation keenly, seeking out any of even the faintest traces of what might have happened to cause such destruction.

"Any clues about what could have happened?" Allen questioned, turning his gaze to Lavi.

"Well…I don't think it's the Earl or the Noah. A Level Four is still a possibility. Innocence could have been the cause as well…but this could have nothing to do with any of that too. Something else could be at work here."

Allen tilted his head in confusion. "Like what?"

"Maybe a meteor fell from space or something," the red-head proposed, pointing skyward. "Always a possibility. If it was big enough it could have done something like this, no problem."

"What are the chances of that though?" Allen couldn't help but ask, blinking.

"Very slim, but a chance none the less." Lavi returned. "I guess the best way to rule that out would be to first investigate the center of the ruin."

Having said that, Lavi hopped down the edge and jogged down the slope, almost taking a tumble a few times as loose dirt slid from under his feet, but there was no way the Bookman-to-be was going to be humiliated and defeated by a hill of loose dirt messing up his footing.

Allen wasn't far behind, having the same kind of trouble, but both made it down without too much hassle.

"Well, no space rocks that I can see," Lavi announced, gazing about carefully, especially as they reached the center. The space was empty and devoid of any sort of object that could have fallen to cause the damage.

Allen sighed. "I guess there's nothing here to be found."

Lavi hummed in thought and remained silent as he stared hard at the site of impact, drawing an inquisitive look from Allen.

"No, I don't think there's nothing here to be found," he announced, shaking his head. He stepped forward and kneeled down in the dirt, brushing his fingers over it. "Rather, I think that whatever landed here has since moved."

The redhead was experienced in many skills and tracking was not one that he had failed to pick up. As such, he could tell, however faint, that there were traces of something. Footsteps.

"Someone was here before us. And it looks like maybe they might've been dragging something…"

He straightened up and followed the traces, spotting darker spots in the dirt. Once again kneeling, he pinched some of the dirt between his fingers, lightly sniffing it.

"I think it's blood. Whoever was here, they must've been injured."

"A survivor from the town, you think?" Allen proposed.

"Maybe." Lavi's eye trailed up to follow a trail of more patches of blood that soaked the soil. "If that's the case, we'd better hurry and find them. They've lost a lot of blood, whoever they are, but we might not be too late if we hurry."

Allen nodded his agreement, the two quickly following the trail up the crater and out into the shade of the forest. For a short while, they lost the trail amongst the undergrowth, but a splash of orange caught Allen's eye.

"Lavi!" He jogged along, his companion not far behind, to find the body of a person collapsed amongst the bushes and leaf litter. Red stained the neon-orange clothes the person was wearing.

"I think we found who we're looking for," Lavi announced needlessly as they came to kneel beside them, flipping the person over.

He looked like he was only a teenager, somewhere around Allen's age. His hair was wildly spiked and honey-blond, three marks like whiskers on each cheek, wearing a bright orange jumpsuit with black on the collar and shoulder area.

A gaping wound to the kid's side was the source of the blood that soaked his clothes and he looked pale, like a fully-realized corpse. Lavi was quick to bend over and listen to his chest for a few moments before straightening up.

"It's faint, but he's definitely alive. He's going to need medical care right away though, or that's going to change."

"I'll summon the Ark and we can take him to the infirmary at the Order. The other town is too far away for us to get him there quickly."

Lavi simply nodded in agreement, pulling the unconscious male onto his back and waiting for Allen to take the lead, summoning one of the glowing gateways of the Ark as the two made their way quickly inside.