A/N: Hiya, I'm Leon. This is legit my first time publishing any of my stories on any platform lmao. Ok first and foremost, the ocs aren't mine. These fucking nerds belong to my friend (soongnuolong on tumblr, show her some love mang) and I decided to make a fic with them because by god I just, love them so so much. I'll try to do them justice with the portrayals and such, and also keeping canon characters as ic as possible too.
Ok that's all that I wanted to say, happy reading erryone!
Chapter 1: Lost Exorcists
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Their latest mission had brought them down south, all the way across the continent to Africa. Specifically Morocco. This time their group consisted of Allen, Kanda, Lavi, Lenalee and a new finder. As anyone would know, the climate is far different from your gloom and rainy England. Spending a day or two here was probably more than enough to make up for the lack of sunshine in their life. For Allen, it was a nice change of scenery.
He changed his mind about that an hour or so when Akuma appeared.
It seemed that Akuma swarms were already present in the barren land long before they arrived on scene. They can see what Komui had meant when he said the African branch had their hands full. Getting rid of them wasn't a difficult, most were just level 1 and a few of them level 2, it was proven to be a simple task for all four exorcists to get through in a short time.
But the heat, the dry and hot air that kept blowing at them had everyone feeling dizzy and overall ill. Plus having used up much of their strength from fighting, hanging outside in a desert for hours after fighting a hoard of Akuma is never a good idea.
Either way they had to keep moving, Kanda was so damn stubborn about not slowing down. It was evident he wanted to get this mission over with and out of the unbearable heat. If Akuma made their appearance in the middle of the desert with no villages nearby, then they must be near what they were looking for.
The heat was considerably bearable for Allen, even if the sun was practically searing his back and head, and what with the sand blowing into his eyes. He's going to remain hopeful that they're not unlucky enough to meet with a sandstorm before they find the Innocence.
What he really could do without, is Kanda's constant bitching.
"This is stupid, why are they making us come this far when there's a branch in this very continent."
If the heat wasn't this bad, Allen would've found the energy to tell Kanda to shut up. He only turned to give the swordsman a tired glare.
"C'mon Yuu, this is a nice change for once!" Lavi, bless his soul, always the one to try and make Kanda see the bright side in things. "Besides, I think this might make up for the lack of vitamin D we get back at the Order."
That was a lie, Lavi knows you can't get any source of goodness from cooking themselves under the afternoon sun. Anything to try and make Yuu less pissy, hey. "You heard Komui, everyone at the African branch have their hands full at the moment."
"One, do not call me that. Two, I don't care."
It surprised Allen to see Lavi still in one piece without a pissed Kanda on his tail. Guess the heat was getting to Kanda as much as it was to everyone else. Really though, their coats weren't helping. He wouldn't be surprised if someone got heatstroke in these.
An hour passed by and they were still surrounded by sand and no closer to any Innocence.
Another hour passed and Kanda has had enough.
"Are we walking around in circles?!"
"We're not lost are we?" Lenalee piped up.
She was obviously concerned, but Allen gave her a comforting smile. There's no point in being pessimistic about things, even if they were lost, they'll just need to figure out a way to get back to the village where they'd left. Or at least find civilization before nightfall.
Their finder didn't look too good, the sheen of sweat on their forehead and hazy look in their eyes had Allen's gut twist anxiously. Now that he thought about it, their finder hasn't uttered a word for quite a while now, not after the Akuma had appeared. If anything were to happen to their finder because of this heat...
"Hey guys, look over there!"
Lavi's voice snapped his attention back to his group. The older exorcist was pointing straight ahead, and Allen's eyes followed to that direction. He honestly didn't expect to see a wall, and neither did the others judging from their surprised expressions.
A wall?
No, that didn't seem right. Allen shaded his eyes from the glaring sun rays with a hand as he tried to make out what he was seeing.
It was a building surrounded by a huge wall.
"What is that?" Allen asked.
Lavi shrugged. He mimicked Allen with how the younger was shading his eyes from the sun with a hand. "Dunno, but there's likely people living there. Maybe they'll let us stay for a bit to catch our breath."
"And maybe give us some water." Lenalee added.
Even the finder was looking ahead with the exorcists, save for Kanda. "Oi, how about we just push on and find the damn Innocence instead of wasting time sightseeing."
This time Allen did snap at him.
"We all need a break, Kanda. Our water supply is running low too, we need to refill them before we can go venturing further." Allen's face hardened when Kanda shot him a glare. "I don't know about you but I'd rather avoid death from dehydration."
"Beansprout-"
The sound of heavy load falling effectively put a stop to Allen and Kanda's bickering. Lenalee gasped at the sight of their finder lying motionless on the sand, their belongings spilling around their body. She knelt down and gently flipped the finder's body around, their breathing was shallow and completely out of consciousness.
"Oh no, they got heatstroke." Lenalee whispered just loud enough for the others to hear. "We need to get him out of the sun."
It was just as Allen feared, but now that it's come true, their highest priority now is to get their finder away from the blazing heat before their condition gets worse.
Allen looked over to the large wall in the distance, then back at the finder. It's not like they can proceed with their mission while having an unconscious member. Dragging them along the sand is out of the question, no matter how Kanda's face seemed to be suggesting the unspoken idea.
He crouched down next to the finder and carefully heaved their body up, with their limp arm draped over Allen's shoulder. Lenalee was already picking up whatever equipments and supplies that had fallen from the finder's backpack earlier.
"Lavi, help me out." Allen called out to the red head, and he came over instantly to help Allen heave the finder's body up on the other side. Their arm draped across his own shoulders. The heavy weight lightened significantly on Allen's part, with Lavi being so much taller than him.
Okay, now for the next step.
"Uh..." He looked at Lavi, then at Lenalee and Kanda with pursed lips. Neither two seemed like they have any suggestions, Kanda avoided eye contact by adverting his ever present glare anywhere that isn't Allen.
It was Lavi who broke the brief silence. Looking over to Allen, he grinned crookedly. "Mysterious building in the middle of the dessert then?"
Everyone, including Kanda, nodded.
The group began moving again, their pace slowed to match Allen and Lavi's own. They should reach that strange building soon enough, it's more important to make sure their finder doesn't slip and fall face first on the hot sand again.
"That looks like a really big wall." Lavi said, following it up with an impressed whistle.
Kanda in turn grunted. "Probably just perspective."
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"Do you think those people are tiny, or is it maybe just perspective?"
The question went ignored by Aylin as kept her focus solely on watching the stumbling folks out on the desert through her telescope, her eyes wide and peaked with curiosity. With a jerk of her head, the chicken atop of her clucked in surprise before settling back down on her hair.
It gave the girl a peck on the forehead, grumbling when there wasn't any response from her. Talking didn't get her attention, neither did pecking. The chicken's known her long enough to tell what she's thinking right now, and it's not something it likes. Not a good sign that's for sure.
"Habibi, please don't tell me you're about to do what I think you're gonna do..." It groaned.
But just as it thought, she didn't reply, her attention fully taken by the strange people a good distance away from their wall. Baham couldn't help but still feel annoyed despite his prediction. Before it could give Aylin an earful of clucking, its other owner came out from the shadowed corridor and stepped into the light.
It greeted the man with a cluck before jumping off of Aylin's head and made a beeline towards the other human. It had high hopes that this one will stop the girl from doing anything crazy. With that in mind, Louise clucked rapidly and jumped into his open arms.
A second after landing, it ignored the affectionate petting from the man and immediately fired away its latest report.
"Ehaan! There's some weird folks out in the distance! Your sister is definitely thinking of getting a closer look at them!"
The response it got from its owner was a light hearted chuckled. If a chicken could frown, Baham would be doing just that right now. It got another firm pat on the head which further made the chicken bristled.
Ehaan chuckled. "Well now, that's not normal. We don't get much 'weird folks' out around these parts of the desert these days."
His relaxing voice and generally calm response only had Louise's temper flare up, not enough to start pecking at the human's face though. "They're exorcists! Exorcists!"
What.
"What?" Ehaan asked.
The chicken cawed. "Oh, now you listen." It really wanted to peck that dumbfound look on Ehaan's face. Talk about a delayed reaction.
"Exorcists. From the Black Order, they're here."
Baham and Ehaan turned their attention to the girl. For the first time since she spotted the exorcists on her telescope, Aylin finally spoke, her voice just as- if not more calm- than her brother's own. She was already up on her feet, hands patting away any dirt on her skirt before running past the others. The end of her ponytail swishing against Baham's beak as she left.
"Hey! You wait-"
By then the girl had already left, whatever it was Baham wanted to say evaporated in its throat, leaving it exasperated in the arms of its owner.
Ehaan clicked his teeth. If what she said was true, then this would mean trouble. He'd like to see who these exorcists are and why they have the galls to show up again after the last incident.
Baham hopped out of his arms and went chasing after the girl. Ehaan let it, he'll need to see these exorcists with his own eyes first. He took out his own binoculars and began his surveillance.
A sharp exhale escapes him at what he saw.
Those guys out there are definitely Black Order's exorcists, the uniform and insignia proves it. But one thing that bothered him was that he didn't recognize them as any of the exorcists that he's met from the African branch. The ones he knows of aren't foolish enough to go wandering in the desert on foot. They always take either camels or horses with them on their journey across the land.
But these guys, they look like they've been through hell or something. Suppose that's a close enough description for anyone who walks into a blazing landscape without proper precautions. Definitely not from the African branch.
"Hmm... what's this?"
Ehaan turned the dial on his binoculars, adjusting the lenses to take a closer look at these seemingly lost exorcists. He squinted, focusing his eyes on the one with red hair and eye patch.
That one stood out the most for him. The others have their own distinctive appearance, but for some reason the tallest of the bunch just reminds Ehaan of someone he's met a long time ago. He could be wrong, the world's a big place after all, there's always a chance of there being more than one person that has fiery red hair and wears an eye patch over their right eye.
Only one way to find out.
A sigh escaped him as he lowered his binoculars. Ehaan looked below where he stood, the rumbling from their gate's door being opened caused the whole row of walls to shake. Soon a draw bridge falls and slams against the ground, the thick clouds of dust and sand that the impact created disappeared as soon as it appeared when Aylin emerged through them on her galloping horse. It shouldn't take long for her to reach those guys out there on horseback. It's only now that he wonders if those exorcists are friendly ('friendly' around here means 'won't maim' if anything).
Ah, too late for that.
His neutral face was replaced with a wryly smile, his shoulders slumping.
"Well it seems we're having guests over."
...
TBC
A/N: Ayeee, chapter 1 finished! I'd really appreciate it if y'all could leave a review after reading, and criticism is alwaaaays welcome. Please, please do tell me what you think of it, if enough people like it then I can find the motivation to continue. I just hope I wrote enough for this chapter to get y'all interested.
With love, Leon xoxo