Chapter 1: Nao
"Have ya' heard of any weird things happenin' around here?"
Nao blinked. Standing before her were four oddly-dressed people she's never met before. One had distinctive white hair and a strange marking on his left eye. The boy asking her a question had red hair, a bandana, and an eyepatch. An innocent-looking girl with two long pigtails stood behind the two boys, and next to her was a short and serious faced old man. All four were wearing black and white clothing that bared a chrest.
"Um… are you okay?" the white-haired asked.
Nao bit her lip. There were some weird events happening in the town. Painting, statues, and dolls have recently begun to spring into life. At first many things were out of control, it wrecked havoc as the mysterious phenomenon spread throughout the town. But it soon died down and objects have only been moving in a few places, not many were seen jumping around the town lately.
"Uhhh... Lavi, I think you might have scared her."
"Whadya mean, Allen? There's no way anyone could be scared of lil' ol' me! Riiight?"
But Nao couldn't tell the people before her any of this. If they were officials of some sort they were going to investigate and probably try to prevent the phenomenon. And that would mean trouble for her.
"Sorry, I've only been in this town for a month. I wouldn't know if anything has been going on," Nao replied, hiding and gripping her arms behind her. Even though they were covered by the wristbands, Nao couldn't help but feel like she needed to hide them.
"I see. Oh well. Sorry to bother you, and thanks for the help!" the white-haired boy replied and waved goodbye to her. The strange group left without asking anymore questions.
Once they were gone, Nao relaxed her grip and sighed. Hopefully they won't be back, I don't want to deal with any more trouble. She began walking back to her apartment when a crane popped off the painting on the wall next to her and flew into the sky. Along the way, some girls playing with their dolls screamed when their dolls suddenly sprung to life. When Nao arrived at the entrance to her apartment complex two lion statues guarding the doors bowed to her. She ignored all of it.
Closing the door to her apartment behind her, Nao let out a loud sigh. "Why does this keep happening?"
Nao dropped the groceries she picked up at the market on the kitchen table. She slowly took off her wristbands on both her arms and sure enough, the symbols on them changed again. Her left hand looked like a flickering flame and on her right was a bird, pecking at some invisible bug beneath it.
"Bleeeh…" Nao shivered and quickly covered both birthmarks up with the wristbands again. These things were really creeping her out. She was starting to get the hang of controlling things around her though. Creatures near her began to move around less and less the more Nao willed them to.
"Soon things will be under control," Nao told herself calmly. "Don't. Panic."
*Meanwhile...
"Yeah! Things have been coming to life! Like sometimes trees and animals in my paintings will start to move like they're alive!"
"How long has this been going on?"
"Uhhhh… About a month I'd say."
"Okay, thank you very much, mister!"
"No problem, young lad!"
"Allen!" Allen turned around to see Lavi running towards him.
"All the townspeople are saying the same things, objects around the town have been coming to life," Allen informed Lavi.
"So you too, huh. Hey, I just passed by a statue of a dragon, and it roared at me! Wanna see?"
"Um probably later, we need to find out what is causing this as soon as possible."
"I think I have an idea!" Lenalee greeted the two boys as she walked up to them. "People at the nearby market have been saying that noticeably more things come to life in the mornings just as the market opens!"
"So whatever is causing this would be around that area at that time," Lavi determined.
"That's great! Then let's go visit the market tomorrow morning!" Allen declared.
"Yes! That means we have time to explore this town!" Lavi boasted excitedly.
Lenalee nodded, "Then I'll go look for a place to stay for the night."
"Maybe I'll try some of that famous chinese tea…" Bookman mumbled as he walked away.
When both Lenalee and Bookman left, Lavi turned to Allen, "So whadya wanna do, Allen?"
"Ehehehe… I'm a bit hungry so…" Allen looked at Lavi, patting his growling stomach.
"Ehhh? But we just ate!"
"Sorry…"
"It's fine. I'll just look around town then," Lavi replied, waving his hand as he sauntered off.
"Alright, be careful Lavi! There might be akuma lurking around!" Allen shouted after him.
"Gotcha!"
*Meanwhile...
"But still this is pretty cool," Nao muttered to herself as she looked at the painting of the beach in her room. It's absurdly blue waves rose up and down the serene shore, giving off an awfully relaxing sound. She could even hear seagulls chirping, though they were painted a bit too small for her to observe flying around.
"I wanna try something…" Nao looked around the room for any form of artificial life until she spotted the glass figure of a white rabbit sitting at the entrance of her apartment. "Maybe if I…" Nao pointed at the glass rabbit. "Move."
And with that the rabbit hopped into life, it sniffed around for a bit before hopping towards Nao. "Woah wait hold up," Nao stepped back and waved her hands in front of her. But the rabbit continued to hop slowly towards her. It's actually kind of cute.
Hesitantly, Nao put out her hand, letting the rabbit sniff her. When it seemed satisfied, Nao proceeded to pet it gently.
"Huh." It's smooth and glassy surface felt cool to the touch. The rabbit sat obediently as Nao continued to pet it. "Awww, you're not so bad."
The rabbit poked its nose at Nao's wristband. "Hm? You wanna see this?"
She removed the band, revealing the mark of the bird. The rabbit pawed at it playfully, and the bird jumped back a little. "They're so cute!"
Suddenly the rabbit's ears perked up. It sniffed the air for a while before jumping up and down in a panicked way. "Woah woah woah what? Oh my g-!" Nao stumbled back as the rabbit began jumping all around the room before finally stopping in front of the door.
"What's wrong? Wanna go out?" Nao slowly opened the door. As soon as the door opened wide enough, the rabbit hopped out of the apartment.
"Ack wait! Get back here! It'll be bad if you broke!" Nao ran after the rabbit.
*Meanwhile...
"What can I do~" Lavi sang as he walked down the street with his arms behind his head. "I'm kinda bored- WAAAH!" Lavi jumped back when a white rabbit suddenly hopped out in front of him. "What the- oof!"
"Opps!"
Lavi felt someone bump into him. He steadied himself so he wouldn't fall over.
"Sorry about that!" A girl about his age bowed apologetically to him.
"Oh! Uhhh don't worry about it!" Lavi smiled. Hm? It's the girl from before…
He heard a sort of clanking noise beside him and turned his attention to see the white rabbit from before jumping up and down in front of another man.
"Lee!" Lavi heard the girl who bumped into him call out.
"Nao, it's good to see you," the man greeted the girl. "Is this rabbit yours?"
"Oh, um I guess?" Nao hurriedly picked up the jumping rabbit. "Lee, I thought you weren't feeling good. Are you feeling better now?"
"Yes, don't worry about me," the man replied politely.
"Are you sure? I know it must be hard for you to lose your sister…"
"I'm fine, really," Lee laughed.
Nao frowned, she looked troubled. And so did Lavi, this man who lost his sister caught his attention. Following the pattern, this would mean…
"LAVI GET BACK!" Allen's voice rang out from down the street. Lee's body suddenly began to twist and swell oddly.
"I knew it! Innocence activate!" Lavi quickly drew out his hammer. He looked back at Nao, "Stay back! Big hammer, little hammer. Grow. Grow. GROW!"
Nao gasped as Lee's body burst into the form of a monster. It was now a floating object embedded with what looked like a bunch of barrels with the face of a crying crown. Terrified by the sudden turn of events, Nao shrieked as more bodies of townspeople around her transformed into monsters. The rabbit in Nao's arms began to writhe in her arms, trying to get away. Soon the monsters filled the entire town, surrounding her and Lavi, who she recognized as one of the strange people she met this morning. Lavi swung the hammer and it made contact with the monster closest to him.
"Akuma!" he shouted as another boy, the white-haired one, joined him.
"Yeah, it looks like almost the entire town is filled with them. Innocence activate!"
Nao gasped as she watched the left hand of the white-haired boy transform into a large gray claw. "Your hand!"
The white-haired boy looked back and smiled, "Oh this? Don't worry about it. It's supposed to happen." Just as he finished his sentence a akuma lunged at him, but the white-haired boy swiped at it with the large claw and it disappeared.
"Awww there were exorcists here? That's no fun~" a girl's voice echoed from somewhere above. "And I was so close to getting the innocence!"
"Road!"
"Hi~ Allen."
"Noah!" Lavi glared at the girl floating over them.
"What do you mean? Are you saying there's innocence here, Road?" Allen asked the girl.
"That's right~," Road pointed at Nao, "That girl beside you, she has innocence in her."
"Huh?" Both boys turned around to look at Nao.
Nao pointed at herself and blinked, "Me?"
"That's right, and we're here to capture you!" Two different looking akumas appeared behind Nao. One grabbed her and lifted her up into the air. "Not good!" Nao gasped as the ground grew further away. She gripped the rabbit tighter in her arms, making sure to not drop it.
"No!" Allen prepared to jump but was stopped by the second akuma. "Tch, level 2."
"I'm not letting you get her so easily~"
"Same here!" Lavi jumped up towards Road and hammered down at her. Road laughed playfully and floated back, avoiding the attack. "I'll leave this up to you, akumas~" And she disappeared.
"Tch! She got away."
"Lavi!"
"I know! Fire Seal!" A chinese (/japanese) character for fire appeared on the ground. Lavi lifted his hammer to hit the seal before the level 2 akuma holding Nao floated over the seal.
"I think not!" the akuma laughed, "If you use that now, this girl will suffer, right?" Lavi gritted his teeth and lowered his hammer.
I'm getting in the way of the exorcists. Nao frowned. I need to somehow get out of this. "She said I had innocence right?" Nao called out to Lavi.
"Huh? Yeah, but what are you… oh!" Lavi understood what she was trying to do. "You know how to use it?" he shouted back.
"If I remember clearly it was…" Nao closed her eyes and tried to remember. The white-haired boy shouted something earlier about innocence, and his arm transformed so he could use it to fight.
"Hm? What do you think you're trying to do?" the akuma holding Nao asked her suspiciously.
"Here goes…" Nao took a large breath of air. "INNOCENCE ACTIVATE!"