"You're so beautiful, Hime-chan." A dark voice spoke into the darkness, his pale hand soft against the cool glass that encased his most precious possession. Her pale eyelids were a soft and pale violet, flickering only a fraction but never opening wide enough to reveal their sapphire orbs. Her long, dark-as-night hair splayed around her in the cool crimson fabric that made her glass coffin a striking comparison to her pale, nearly translucent skin. She was a vision of beauty, a sleeping beauty, her soft white dress only adding to the charm of her innocence.
And to the addiction of the man who watched her sleep. The blond smiled, his adoration for his love the only pure feeling that ever made him feel alive. She was the only one who made him feel as if he had a soul...but could also be the one who reminded him of how much he was a monster. His shadow rippled on the floor, growling at him as it felt his lust. Desperate as well.
He sighed, removing his hand from the glass, calming himself and his shadow as he breathed deeply.
"Soon," he said softly, looking at the clock on the wall. "It will happen soon."
Then he would be able to hear her again, hear the melody that only she could sing into his very bones.
His shadow rippled again.
Allen watched beside Lavi, sharing the same horrified expression as his friend as they watched the building they had just been heading for completely burst into flames.
"The hell?!" He heard Kanda shout and Allen just barely withdrew in time for something to dash passed him and toward Kanda and Lenalee, who had landed on the roof just behind them.
"Is that an akuma?!" Lenalee asked in shock even as she reacted instantly and flipped backward, bringing down her boot in mid-air on the black, flexible missile that insisted on attacking her.
"I don't know!" Their finder, Mirrick answered her, taking shelter through the balcony on the other side of the roof they were settled on. "I have never seen any akuma like this and there wasn't supposed to be anyone in the building at this time!"
"My eye isn't reacting to it," Allen observed in some shock even as more seem to shoot out from the rubble of the large church that has once stood so proudly in its small down of Hato. They were instantly on defense.
"I can see now why Komui thought it would be better to send all four of us in," Lavi stated with a grin even as he called forth lightening through his hammer, though there seemed to be an endless barrage of the special varuga emerging from the building rubble.
"The reports only suspected that akuma were being made in that building, not that there were new types, but I guess Big Brother just wanted to make sure we would be safe just in case," Lenalee remarked as she landed back on the roof once more.
"It doesn't matter," Kanda growled, Mugen slicing clear through the horde as he pounced forward, uncaring of Lenalee and Allen's cries of alarm as he charged forward. "All that matters is that they're taken care of." The creatures in front of him never stood a chance as he unleashed Mugen.
"Yu," Lavi sighed, sounding like a scolding parent a he, Allen and Lenalee landed beside him on the ground that was still covered in ruble but now free of the new monsters. Allen looked around, noting that none of the people of Hato had dared adventure outside during battle. It was a relief, but it also slightly saddened him that the villagers had probably learned over the last month that they were better in locking themselves inside and ignoring the events than to actually understand what was happening to their small town.
Four young girls were dead already because of that willingness to turn the other way as evil awoke in their town. If their finders had not been visiting the area at the right moment, there may have never even been a report filed. A mourning silence descended upon the four, maybe done unconsciously, as they watched small fires crackle and begin in the rubble, probably caused by the electrical units, but never ignite.
Only the howl of the winds as they slid between buildings filled their world.
"What's that, Yu?"
Lavi's question had every silent observer blinking and turning their gazes toward where he was staring. Kanda looked down, a white rectangle fluttered helplessly beneath his boot. A smashed photo screen laid somewhere close to it.
"A picture?" Lenalee asked even as the exorcists gathered, Kanda holding the picture up so they could all see it.
"It's a girl." Lavi observed, his voice awed at the beautiful young girl, who was turned toward the camera. Her impossibly blue eyes seemed to glisten even through the picture as she turned toward whoever had taken the picture, a hand on one hip and with a look as if silently asking someone if they'd lost their mind. One of her delicate eyebrows was even arched. She wore some kind of tan dress, yet it looked tattered, though that didn't seem to bother the girl in the picture as she eyed whoever had held the camera, some of her long dark hair trailing over her left shoulder.
A silence once again settled over them as Allen was the first to speak.
"Mirrick, let me see the file, please."
The confused founder handed the file over without question and Allen opened and flipped through it, clearly determined in what he had observed, much to the confusion of his team.
"What's up, Allen?" Lavi asked and Allen apparently found what he was looking for.
"Look here," he said, gathering the pictures of the four victims and showing them compared to the one between Kanda's fingers.
A surprised silence as the four compared the five pictures.
"They look just like her." Lavi breathed softly and Allen nodded.
"Could this be another victim we haven't seen?" Lenalee asked in worry but Kanda shook his head, finally breaking his silence.
"Seeing as how it was in the building and framed, I highly doubt it."
"Then this could be the girl they're searching for," Lavi deduced but Allen spoke up again quickly.
"Maybe, but the victims are all about our ages and the girl in the photo seems younger, maybe eight or so."
"Then...could it be...," Lenalee started, her voice hauntingly soft. "They're searching... for a body... for her?"
"But Akuma aren't made that way though... right?" Lavi asked, a cold feeling snaking its way through him as he looked down at the picture of the little girl who could be dead for all he knew- or maybe even taken away. Both were bad.
"We need to speak to Kamui," Kanda said gravely and, surprising all three of the exorcists around him, placed the young girl's picture safely within his coat. "Come on, " he growled then, not even elaborating on the surprising gentleness he had shown. "I'm leaving."
"Hey! Yu!" Lavi called in exasperation even as Kanda started walking away and people slowly started to exit their homes, eyeing their destroyed chapel in horror and then the exorcists. Lavi didn't even know where to start.