A/N: Ta-da-ta-da~ I am proud to present my latest and new story, Black Pepper.
Pairings are obviously Yullen. Well.. as for the rest... suggestions, anyone?
Summary: It was said that God was an object of imagination of the human brain. Just when all seemed to be lost for the Exorcists, help arrives in the form of a mysterious figure. But would he aid the Exorcist in their fight against the Earl?
One- or rather, two pairs of eyes studied the city of Azlehemir – or at least what was left of it. The city was in ruins; the buildings had all collapsed upon one another, houses were destroyed, tattered and torn clothing littered the floor as each and every of them marked the death of another Akuma victim. Not a single soul survived the attack, and all that was left was a lifeless, and dead city that used to be brimming with life.
"None of us could have done anything to stop this."
Silvery eyes that showed no emotion remained fixed on the scene in front of him as he sat unmoving.
"You already know, don't you? The thing's that going on in London."
Silence.
Nel tried again.
"Aren't you going?"
Klaw remained perched over the edge of the cliff overlooking the city of Azlehemir as the wind played with his silvery locks of hair.
---
Zylthe
Chapter 1: The Curious Appearance of a Maybe-Reaper
---
"Yuu! Watch out!"
Kanda looked back just in time to see a new wave of Akuma heading towards him.
"Che!" Kanda dodged and landed a furious slash on the Level 3 that was trying to sneak an attack from behind.
Lavi was not doing any better, and with the constricted space that he had, he could not swing his hammer around freely without the fear of hitting an ally.
"Just-" the enraged Exorcist aimed another slash at the Level 4, which gleefully dodged his attack as if it was nothing. "Fucking-" Kanda pierced Mugen through the body of an Akuma that was in the way. "-Goddamn-" The Level 4 aimed a blow at Kanda, sending him flying backwards and into Lavi, slamming into the wall. "-DIE." Kanda spat as he tried to get rid of the tangy taste of blood in his mouth.
"What the hell man, Yuu." Lavi sputtered, wiping the blood off his mouth with the back of his hand. "People don't just go slamming into another and sending them flying into walls."
Rolling his eyes, Kanda lifted himself up from the rubble, stepping over Lavi to retrieve Mugen that had been knocked off his hands when he slammed into the wall.
"But still," the red-haired Exorcist said as he picked up his Innocence, "Do you think we stand a chance of winning, Yuu?"
A stupid question really.
To Kanda, it was as simple as breathing. Once an enemy appears in front of you, you kill it. And that was exactly what he was intending to do.
Even if it meant dying in the process.
Kanda smirked as he raised Mugen and pointed high up to where Tyki and Road were, high up on the roof.
\
A lone Finder slowly inched through the dark and secluded corridor of the Dark Order's tower, wisps of his dirtied and pained breath escaping his chapped lips. This was how he was going to spend the last moments of his long, painful fifty years of life. Wallowing in a frozen crevice between two stone walls like a sick stray dog as he bleeding out from his wounds. Closing his dulled hazel eyes, he could hear the sound of battle echoing through the walls just upstairs. Taking a deep breath, he prepared for the legendary grim reaper to claim his soul.
A quick skitter resounded through the eerie silence.
A rat?
No.
Akuma?
His eyes fluttered once more as he squinted into the darkness. He could hear muffled footsteps coming closer and closer, until he could see small white puff of air.
Then nothing.
It all just vanished. The footsteps, the puff of air – everything was still.
This is was when he was wrong.
He turned around, and he gasped. He could feel the Akuma's (a level 3, if he was not wrong) breath on his face, its eyes seemed to stare right into his soul, and the temperature seemed to drop several thousand degrees. Behind the Akuma, a beggar in dirtied and torn clothings appeared in the blink of an eye. The beggar stared right at him, before an impish grin appeared on his face as he morphed into an Akuma.
"Die." The Akuma's voice had a chilling ring to it as it whispered into the Finder's ears.
The Finder closed his eyes as he awaited his death.
But it never came.
/
He felt as if he was being watched.
Tyki took a long drag out of his cigarette as he watched the dark-haired Exorcist slice his Tease into bits with his precious sword.
Nope, wasn't him.
He observed the Lenalee girl that Road had captured in her dreamscape.
No, it wasn't her either.
"Hey Tyki." The said Noah was brought out of his muse turned to look at his sibling.
"Mhmm?"
Road opened her golden eyes as she stared, into the eyes of Tyki from where she sat on the roof of the Dark Order's Tower, dangling her legs over the edge. They seemed to share something before Road looked away, and her gaze drifted down to where the Exorcists were battling with the Akumas while Tyki was once again preoccupied with his opponent.
Road's golden eyes narrowed as she felt the prickling sensation run down her spine.
Then, her voice echoed eerily in the night.
"Something's here."
\
Life wasn't a game, and everyone knew that for a fact. But life was still highly ironic in its own way. If life was indeed a game, then the Finder had already figured out that there was no way on earth that what he was seeing could be true.
That lead him to the second thing he learned about life. Namely, that death has its own ways of playing tricks on you. Especially when he knew that fate does things its own way, and his life was coming to an end as he felt the virus spreading throughout his body.
"W-Who are you?"
Silvery eyes glinted in the darkness as he stood over the remains of the Akumas.
It was then that the Finder knew that after years and years of praying, God has finally sent its answer.
With the last ounce of his strength, the Finder spoke his last words.
"Please save us."
Before the last of the Finder's consciousness faded away, he swore that he saw the ghost of a hooded skeleton with wings as vast as the sky. A grim reaper? Yes. Perhaps. No. Maybe. But was that ... mockery that reflected in the eyes of the reaper as he asked the question?
Unfortunately, or maybe for the best, he Finder never got a chance to ask.
\
Klaw stared at the soul of the man that was devoured by the Akuma virus. It was bound by the chain of dark matter, unable to go to neither Heaven nor Hell. As such was the fate of those who were consumed by the virus.
A tortured scream echoed through the walls, and silvery orbs glanced at the direction from where it came from before returning his attention to the soul.
That guy... he was smiling.
But no matter.
With a flick of his hands, the chains were broken and the soul was freed.
And then he was gone.
He had a job to do.
\
Lavi was in trouble. His hammer felt heavier by the minute, and he could barely keep up with the Level 4's attacks.
"Play." The Akuma squealed as it landed another hit on Lavi.
He couldn't win against the Level 4, and his only alternative is to temporize to buy more time for the general's arrival and for Komui and the rest of the Science Division to open up a portal to the Asian branch, but he was running out of energy. Every swing of his hammer and every hit he took sapped him of more energy, and he feared that he'd be broke in no time.
Praying Kanda was faring better, Lavi spared a glance his way.
However, the Akuma had plans for him and he was met with the grinning face of the Level 4.
"Plaaay." The Akuma droned, opening its horrid eyes and focusing it on Lavi.
Distracted, the Akuma poked its scrawny finger at Lavi's arm, and gnawing straight into and through his flesh.
Lavi bit his lip hard as he forced himself to remain silent. He wouldn't give the Akuma the privilege of hearing him scream, especially not after he had seen it torture all those before him. This creature had taken pleasure in torturing his prey and laughed as they screamed.
He narrowly dodged the attack of a nearby Level 3, and was just about to release a seal on the Akuma when the Level 4 he had been fighting with tore it into half.
"Don't intervene." Pleased with the other Akumas retreat, the level 4 closed in on Lavi easily. "Play with me?"
Lavi quickly scanned the area for any possible escapes, or anything that might increase his chances in getting away of this Level 4. Already, his vision was blurring.
As if sensing what Lavi was doing, the Akuma screeched in fury as it slammed Lavi against the wall.
"Why won't you play with me?"
The Akuma was beyond furious as it grabbed Lavi by the neck, attacking him over and over again.
"Why why why why why why why?!"
One by one, the surrounding Akumas were torn apart as the Level 4 took out its anger on them.
"Exorcists." The Akuma hissed. "All of them must die."
The Akuma turned towards Lavi, and grinned.
\
Kanda Yuu was an Exorcist that valued in his pride; but that didn't mean that he was dumb.
He could see that it was useless; Mugen couldn't even touch Tyki with the Noah's irritating powers and annoying as hell butterflies that doesn't seem to end no matter how he sliced them into pieces. He was getting tired of the long fight, and his limbs were hardly able to support his weight anymore. But he couldn't just stop here. Not that his pride would allow him to.
Slicing yet another one of the irritating insects, Kanda wondered just why in the world anyone would want to shape their flesh-eating golems like a butterfly, and an ugly one at that. First off, the colours were dull and lacked creativity. To add on, those butterflies weren't butterflies at all. They were simply golden, hard, and ugly faces with a pair of wings stuck at its back that continuously tried to take a bite at your flesh.
Looking at the Noah, then back at the butterflies again, something finally clicked in Kanda.
Ah...
Tyki had been observing the Exorcist for a while now, and he had to ask as he caught the look that was sent to him. "What's with those pitiful looking eyes that seem to radiate mockery?"
Kanda spat out the blood that has been accumulating in his throat and smirked.
\
Lenalee's heart was pounding so frantically in her chest that she fears it might burst soon. Eyes that reflected pure fear stared ahead as she watched all of the people in the Order reaching out their mangled, bloodied, and mostly importantly, dead hands towards her.
Lenalee clenched her eyes shut as she wished for all this to just stop.
Silence.
"Lena... lee..."
Lenalee snapped out of her thoughts and turned towards the direction of the sound. But all that she could see was a patch of black, leaving no traces of the nightmare she had to face previously.
"Le...nalee.."
There was it again. Lenalee was starting to have a bad feeling of dread in her stomach. Clutching her hands tightly, Lenalee whirled around as she shouted into the darkness.
"Who's there?"
"Lenalee..." A hand reached out towards her shoulder and she gasped, jumping instinctively out of the way.
Lenalee could only stare at the figure that was standing before her as she questioned what was left of her sanity.
No one that she didn't know of was supposed to be here in this dreamscape of hers that Road had trapped her in.
Which then lead her to the question.
"Who... are you?"
\
Road's tensed as she peered into the darkness of the shadows as she scrutinized the far corner of the wall.
Nothing.
The Noah relaxed a little, and continued torturing Lenalee who was still caught in her dreamscape.
But she couldn't get rid of the bad feeling in her stomach.
It was as if something big was something.
Something awful and dangerous.
A/N: Right-o. So that's it for this time. Love it? Hate it? Care to share? Review? Plox? Yea~
I've realized that i haven't updated any of my other stories for months, and i'm really really sorry for that. I will update, but i just dunno when.
Oh and, if you spot any mistakes anywhere, please do tell me. Thank you :D
Ohoho.
