Ten
The Earl of Millenium hovered over the gravestone, his pointy-toed boots feet from the ground as he leaned his head on his hands, surveying the upcoming entertainment. He confessed, he'd been surprised when the boy's hideous arm began to glow, but it didn't take long for the Earl to guess just what had happened. There were those born with Innocence, he knew, and the Black Order called them those with the parasitic-type Innocence. He, for one, preferred to call them a nuisance from birth.
There really was no competition. Even with the boy kicking and screaming, that Innocence arm of his gave no quarter; the Akuma was going to be dead within seconds. The Earl grinned lopsidedly. Oh well - he would just have to create another then.
Just then, the boy turned towards him, his eyes frantic. Blood covered half his face and drenched his collar, but that didn't seem to matter as he screamed. "Help me! Save him, save Mana! Please!"
The Earl tilted his head to the side, the lopsided smile growing symmetrical as he made no move to help the boy. Mana? Where had he heard that name before?
The boy screamed again as the monstrous white arm rose up like a wave before slashed viciously across the skeleton's body. The answering howl from Mana jerked the Earl's memory, and he started upright; his smile didn't quite fade - it never did - but it did fade slightly.
Mana. Mana Walker.
Neah.
The dead man was Neah's brother. The Earl remembered now, albeit vaguely, the small mentions that his once-brother had made of his own human brother, the brother that Neah had abandoned when he joined the Noahs. And this boy was that brother's foster son? And an Exorcist to boot?
The Earl leaned forward even more, his interest piqued. The fight was over already, and the boy lay on the ground, sobbing, his arm suddenly lifeless next to him, although still faintly glowing green. Just who was this boy?
He drifted forward, towards the boy. "That's quite enough, little boy."
The boy didn't even look up, his gray eyes dazed and tear-filled.
"Such a pity...your father could have come back, you know. If not for what you did...Oh, well. Nothing for it." The Earl held a hand out, the gesture more fatherly than anyone could have imagined. "On the bright side, seeing as you're so lonely, what would you say to joining my family instead?"
Tyki looked up from his book as one of Roade's heart-shaped doors blurred into visibility on his right. His brows rose, his expression skeptical. "Earl?"
"Yes, my dear Tyki?"
"Who's that tyke? Is he a human? Why did you bring him here?" Tyki frowned, carefully placing a bookmark on the page he was at and snapping the book shut.
"Of course he's a human, such an adorable boy couldn't be anything but a human!" Roade suddenly exploded into the room, making a mad dash for the boy the Earl cradled against his bulk. Tyki reached forward neatly, grabbing the blue-haired girl by the cuff. "Not so fast, Roade. We still don't know who this guy is."
The Earl held the boy up for Tyki's inspection; for this first time, Tyki realized that the boy was unconscious, totally knocked out. "He is the newest member of our family. His name is Allen. Allen Walker."
Tyki's brows rose. "A new member of...?" The Earl waved away any questions the Noah of Pleasure had, dumping the boy into his free arm. "I'll tell the family everything later, just get this poor little dear cleaned up now, Tyki."
"I'll help!" Roade's arm shot into the air, her expression cheeky. Tyki rolled his eyes, giving his niece a little shake. "You're a girl, he's a guy, you are not going anywhere near us while I clean this kid up. Here." In one smooth motion, he tossed Roade towards the Earl, who caught her with ease, then began to tickle her, the younger Noah writhing in delighted laughter. Tyki lifted the boy up to eye level. "A new family member, huh?"
The Earl and Roade left the room, the former tossing his beloved Noah up in the air again and again as she giggled. Tyki shook his head; his family could act so childish sometimes! He turned back to the kid, eying it with a mixture of apprehension and annoyance. There was no question who was going to get saddled with taking care of this kid for the next few years - the Earl was far too busy with planning the war to bother about this kid he'd brought back; Roade looked like she was ready to jump the kid as soon as she was alone with him, to hell with his age; Lulubell would probably just leave the kid to the Akumas to take care of and end up getting him killed; Jesdevi would probably kill the kid themselves and Skin...well, there was no way anyone was giving this boy to Skin, was there? Not that he was flattering himself, but he really was the most responsible, and the only one who could be trusted with this.
On the other hand, this was not something he particularly wanted to be trusted with. Tyki bit back an inevitable sigh.
Twelve
Allen twisted out of the way and blocked the ensuing punch with his sleek, blackened left hand. "Tyki, can't we take a short break please?"
Tyki looked around his outstretched fist that Allen had effectively stopped. "Um, let me think...No." His fist sank right through Allen, reaching for his neck, but Allen was more than wise to that trick. In a single fluid movement, faster than could be seen, he weaved out of the way and retaliated with a punch straight to Tyki's gut. His fist went straight through, and Tyki smirked. "When are you ever going to-umph!"
Tyki tumbled back, clutching the side of his face.
Allen rose with a grin. "How's that for speedy, Tyki? Now can we take a break?"
Tyki rolled his eyes. "Why do you keep going on about a break, Allen? It's not like I like doing this any more than you do, but the Earl did say that he wanted us training longer today, and it's only been five hours."
"But I'm hungry." The snow-haired boy whined, rubbing his stomach. "Not to mention I'm also really bored with training."
Tyki's face became sly. "How about a lunch and poker before we resume training?"
Allen's face brightened. "Deal! And after lunch I'll kick your butt!"
Tyki smirked. "You wish, boy! Come on, let's go. I'm sure you're starving."
Tyki watched as his ward, friend, whatever Allen was to him guzzled down a whole bowl of soup, then attack the pasta right away. Delicately, he placed his hand over his face. "Boy, I've told you before you really should learn better manners when eating. You put everyone off their food!"
Allen looked up, then around at the other patrons of the restaurants, every one of them who was gaping open-mouthed at him, as were the waiters, and even the chefs inside the kitchen were peering out to stare.
Allen's cheeks reddened with embarrassment. "Oh, I'm sorry." He apologised to the other patrons before turning back to Tyki. "You know how I get when it comes to food. Especially good food." He finished before taking another huge gulp of pasta. Tyki sighed. "You're doing it again, boy."
"On the bright side, Tyki, I eat a lot faster than you do, despite the disproportionate amount." Allen replied brightly as he lay his fork down, reaching for his napkin to dab at his mouth with. "Because I'm done, and you've barely touched your steak."
Tyki made a face. "I was going to start after you'd finished, so that I could avoid getting nauseated by your eating habits."
Allen pouted slightly. "Really, Tyki! Of all the ways to hurt me!" He glanced out of the window. "Anyway, if you're going to take a while more I think I'll go out and take a look around. I've never actually been to this part of Britain before, I'd like to take a look."
It was, honestly, a great comfort to Allen that it had been Tyki who had been put in charge of his general education, which also included dining ettiquette - something Tyki had been very particular about. Regardless of the looks he got because of the speed at which he ate - or his voracious appetite, at least Allen knew how to differentiate between his salad knife and his steak knife, and look elegant while doing this. All this, thanks to Tyki. And not just that, of course. He'd learnt much from his Noah family; but none more so than from Tyki, who was practically a brother to him.
Tyki made sure to finish swallowing his piece of steak before he spoke. "That's true. You're from Britain, aren't you? I suppose this is almost like home to you. Don't be too long, though. I'll probably be done in half an hour."
Allen nodded, his trademark cheerful smile already on his face as he headed out of the restaurant.
London air was really the freshest you could get, Allen thought as he peered curiously into a little shop selling quaint antiques. The Ark was home, that was for sure, but it got stuffy and boring in there - not to mention how dark and even slightly creepy it was, such that it only worsened his nightmares, and for the first two months of his stay there, he'd been forced to sleep with Tyki. Or more accurately, the other way around. The worst times were when neither Roade, Tyki or Skin were around; then he had no one to talk to, given that his other choices were the Earl and Sherill - who were far too busy dealing with that pesky Black Order - or Jesdebi - who preferred to shoot at him rather than talk to him - or Lulubell, who would just make him paint her nails, and that made Mimi, Lulubell's personal Akuma assistant, more than a little jealous.
All of a sudden, Allen was pulled out of his thoughts as someone knocked into him, hard - caught unawares, he stumbled back, falling flat on his back as the wind was knocked out of him. Rubbing his back as he got to his feet, he opened one eye to see who had knocked so unceremoniously into him - and then was startled when he saw it was a girl, not much older than he was. The gentleman in him took charge - Tyki had trained him well in that - and he immediately offered a hand towards the girl, an apologetic smile coming over his face. "I'm so sorry about that!"
The girl looked up, and a smile graced her face as she dipped her head in apology. "No, no, it was my fault. I should have seen where I was going!" She took Allen's hand, and he heaved her up - she was lighter than he expected, given that they were about the same height. He took a good look at her, sizing her up - yet another part of his training, although this was one part that every single Noah that trained him engraved into him. She looked - well, there was no other word for it. She looked totally harmless. A rather attractive sort of harmless, at that, but still harmless.
"Are you all right?" Allen asked, concerned, as the girl winced. She maintained her cheerful smile - she looked bright and happy, like she would be a nice person to be around. "I'm fine, it's quite all right."
"You're not from around these parts, are you? I come to this town often, and I've never seen you before." The girl continued, making light conversation; he could tell that he piqued her curiosity - maybe it was his white hair or something, but intrigued look in her amethyst eyes was something he read easily. He rubbed the back of his hair with his hand. "Ah, you've caught me out. I'm from overseas. Germany. I'm here for a family visit. The rest of my family's just wandering around this place taking a look, though - it's quite different from where we're from."
"Germany? You don't sound German." The girl looked surprised, as she tilted her head to one side. Allen shrugged. "Ah, we travel around a lot."
It was a good thing Allen was a good liar - he'd had a lot of practice, plus living with Roade and Tyki, both of them great liars themselves, tended to be a big help. Nevertheless, he'd never enjoyed lying to girls, and if this girl kept up her questioning, he wasn't sure for how much longer he could keep weaving his web of lies.
Which was fortunate for him, then, when a voice suddenly called out. "Hey, we gotta go! Your brother's calling!" A man with distinctive, messy red hair stood further off in the distance, waving conspicuously at the girl. He was dressed in black and silver, but stood too far away for Allen to see him clearly. The girl started. "Oh, I gotta go. Nice meeting you!" She waved a quick hand at Allen, then ran off, faster than he could have expected.
Just then, a hand lay on his shoulder, and he was jerked out of his reverie. He looked around, only to see Tyki standing behind him, his expression bored, yet still able to show disapproval. "What happened to keeping your guard up, Allen?"
"Ah...sorry, I was just slightly distracted." Allen apologised. "Are we going?"
Tyki gave a cheeky grin. "Yep. Time for poker! This will probably be our last chance before the summer holidays end - after that, it's back to school for you and Roade, so we better savour it!"
As much as Allen enjoyed school - it wasn't much fun interacting with dull, clueless human kids, but he did enjoy the learning process, something he hadn't had much experience with before he joined the Noah family - he could not disagree with his brother.
Fifteen
Allen leapt lightly off the chair, stretching his muscles as he completed his five hundredth push-up. Well, pseudo push-up. With one arm. He turned to grab his shirt, his breathing slightly unsteady.
Training, training, training. That's all he ever seemed to do recently, especially now that the Earl had insisted he be withdrawn from school - and he didn't even know why. He'd thrown a bit of a fit, to be honest - it was learning! It was good for him! - but in the end the Earl had been insistent, and now he was stuck here in the Ark, twenty-four seven, like some kind of caged prisoner.
The worst of it was that everyone else knew why he'd been pulled from school; Roade, Tyki and even Skin had hinted that all he had to do was to be patient, and he would understand all - he would be happy, even, that he'd been withdrawn from school. Fat load of good that did him now; he was still in a bad mood.
Almost as if his complaints had been heard, there was a sharp rap on the door, and an Akuma poked his head in, his voice mechanical and heavy just as all of the Earl's other Level Ones were. "Lord Allen. The Earl requires your presence in the Great Hall now." With a slight bow, he backed out of the room, not waiting for Allen's response.
Allen sighed, expecting the Earl to either ask him for help with Roade's homework - Roade had been allowed to continue schooling, something which neither of them had been happy about - or ask him for some "family bonding time", since every single one of the Noahs had all been spent on missions, which left only Allen and the Earl in the Ark.
Nevertheless, it wasn't like he could refuse the Earl. Biting back yet another sigh, he pulled on his button-on shirt and headed for the door as he tidied up his hair with his hands.
The Earl was munching on yet another dessert, his teeth visible as always. And, as always, his desserts made Allen drool when he saw them. This one was with vanilla ice cream, three wafers stuck into the side, five cherries, chocolate sauce poured on top and sprinkled with marshmallows. Allen's eyes were fixed to the dessert, as he seated himself next to the Earl. "You called for me?"
The Earl spooned another huge mouthful, taking his time to swallow before he spoke to Allen, waving his spoon around slightly as he did. "Yes, of course, Allen. You've been rather lonely haven't you, with all the others gone on missions."
Allen nodded, a little forlornly, but inside, he was starting to get a little excited. Was he finally going to be sent on a mission of his own?
The Earl confirmed his eager thoughts. "This war is starting to become a little too boring, so perhaps we need another entrance to spice things up a little. And that would be you, my dear boy."
Allen leaned forward, locking his fingers. "What do you need me to do, my Earl? I'll be sure to succeed!"
The Earl's grin widened at Allen's eager determination, reaching out to ruffle the boy's hair. "That's just the right attitude, my boy." He flicked his fingers, and an array of Akuma were suddenly assembled behind Allen, at the ready. "Your first mission will be in Germany. There is a strange little town there; the Black Order calls it a rewinding town. I am sure you will understand when you get there. The Order believes that there is an Innocence in that town, and what I want you to do is to go there and observe them."
Allen started. "Just observe them? I don't need to kill them or anything?"
"No. That is Roade's job. You will be joining her on this mission, but what you have to do is simply to watch, and learn what you can from them. I have given strict orders to Roade not to kill them; she is merely to give them a warning, let them know that the scene is finally changing, that a new act is starting. But as you know, Roade often goes overboard. So I'll be trusting you to make sure she doesn't do anything unnecessary, my dear boy. Can you do that?"
Allen inclined his head sharply. "Yes, my Earl. I will do as you ask."
The Earl waved his spoon again. "You may go."
Allen pushed his chair away from the table, getting to his feet to address the Akuma. "Let's go, then." He rolled his neck. "Time for some entertainment at last."
Hey everybody! So here's the first chapter (the prologue, actually) of Monochrome, and I hope you guys enjoyed it! Basically it's just a little AU idea that popped into my head while I was watching (rewatching, really) DGM. Characters might be a little OOC (my characterization isn't the best) but I tried to keep the characters as true to the anime/manga as possible. Allen will, of course, be quite different from the book (duh! Not an exorcist anymore!) but other than that the other characters should (hopefully) be the same.
In any case, I hope you liked this first chapter, and please give reviews on how you found it! I eat reviews for breakfast, lunch and dinner and it's not fun to starve!
1 For those who don't quite get this, this is the age that Allen is. I know canonically he should be 12, but I made him a bit younger for this story.
