I was trapped in blackness. Darkness with no substance, just black. As I tried to focus, a transparent checkered floor materialized beneath my feet and candles suspended in the inky darkness. Like a world made of the thinnest glass, it felt like everything would shatter at the slightest touch.

"Akumako!" I turned to see a blue-haired girl running towards me. Looking at her face, I felt like I should remember her, but I couldn't. To my eyes, she was as frail-looking and glasslike as everything else in this dimension, yet once she reached me, she hugged me as if I was the one who would float away. "I finally found you! Will you come home with me now, Akumako?"

"Sorry, who are you?" I asked her.

"It's me, ****," The girl's voice disappeared when she spoke her name. "Don't you remember me?"

"I'm sorry," I told her, "But I don't know who you are. I don't even know where I am." The girl drew back sorrowfully.

"You're in a dream, Akumako. I've been trying to find you here for so long. How could you forget?"

"Forget what?"

"Me! Did you forget **** too? And *******? *****? *****? Everyone?" I could only assume she was listing off names, for I couldn't hear them. "Akumako…"

I woke up with a start, drenched in cold sweat. The voice in my dream echoed hauntingly against the inside of my skull, pounding at my temples. Similar nightmares had been coming more and more often, and they were getting harder to escape. More and more frequently, I was even starting to hear it long after I'd woken up.

I'm still here, Akumako…

Ignoring the Voice, I abandoned the thought of going back to sleep and donned my Exorcist's uniform. I felt around my right eye to check whether or not my eyepatch was still covering my eye. Upon finding that it was right where it should be, I left my room and groggily made my way down to the lab, assuming the Science Division would be needing help again.

"Up already, Freak?" a cynical, yet not terribly threatening voice said from behind me.

"Good morning to you too," I groaned, already well aware of who was behind me. I turned around to see his usual grim expression. Not once had I ever seen Yu Kanda smile. "So, where're you headed?" I asked, pointlessly hoping he might actually want to be pleasant for once.

"Why would you care?"

"It's called conversation, idiot."

Kanda scoffed, "Why would I want to have a conversation with you?" He turned on his heel and walked away in his typical dismissive, arrogant manner.

I glared at him, muttering, "I should say the same to you." As I watched him leave, I shook my head in disappointment, sincerely wishing we could learn to be civil with each other. Like that would ever happen.

The Science Division was in its usual state of desperation and insatiable thirst for coffee… Assuming they were still alive under those mountains of paperwork. Clearly some clutz had knocked them over again, and the only sign of anything living was someone's hand sticking out from the very bottom of one pile and Komui's unmistakable zombie-like moan, "Coffee..."

I sighed, somewhere between amused and dismayed, "Again? How did you guys get stuck in this mess?" I pushed my red bangs away from my eyepatch. "Nevermind. I don't want to know." I calmly began gathering up papers and re-stacking them, not even attempting to put them in the correct order. "Are you going to crawl out of there, or do I have to dig you out again?" All of the buried personnel quickly started shuffling out from their paper tombs, not eager for a repeat of the last time I had to excavate them all from their dreaded paperwork.

Johnny whimpered, "Please don't make us do our work in tubs of ice water again! I was sick for a week after that!"

"Don't worry Johnny. I won't do that again." Just before the little guy could breathe a sigh of relief, I added, "I think next time I'll send the Komlin in here to quote-unquote 'help' you instead." All of the men shuddered, their skin obviously crawling at the thought of such a punishment. They each quickly wrestled their way free of their paperwork and began cleaning the mess up. The whole process took around an hour, but eventually the entire office was clean again.

"So, Akumako, what brings you to my office today?" Komui said cheerfully.

Reever protested, "What do you mean, 'your office'?! We all work in here!"

"Right, Reever, whatever. So, why did you come down here?"

Having known the man since I was a kid, I was pretty used to his antics. Even so, sometimes I couldn't help but shake my head at Komui's ridiculousness. "I came down to help, as usual. I figured you all were drowning in paperwork. Didn't expect it literally though."

"Ah, I see. That's nice of you. Does that mean your Innocence has been holding up well, then?"

I cringed when he mentioned the Innocence in my body. "Yeah. Everything is fine with it! Nothing's wrong," I assured him. In reality, my Innocence had been acting strangely. I had a pretty high synchronization rate, according to Hevlaska. However, during training against akuma dolls, it had begun changing form, unexpectedly and against my will. Sometimes it wouldn't activate at all, or it would look distorted or discoloured. Even so, I preferred training difficulties over Komui's 'maintenance'.

"Oh, that's good. I'd still like to have a look at it today though," said Komui, "I know you've had problems with it before, and it's better safe than sorry. I'd also like to take you down and have Hevlaska take a look at your Innocence to see if your syncro-rate has changed at all. Sound good?"

Good? Not so much. Inevitable? Unfortunately. Komui had been running tests and maintenance checks on my Innocence at least once a month for as long as I could remember. None of my attempts to get out of them worked. Even being sent on a mission only served to delay my appointment. "Fine, Komui. Let's get the exam over-with. Might as well do it now, rather than have it hanging over my head all day."

The eccentric supervisor sprung out of his chair and ran into one of the smaller rooms that branched off of the main office. He reemerged wearing a safety helmet and carrying his giant drill, amongst other horrific tools he used to repair parasitic Innocence. I shuddered, but willingly followed Komui down the hall to the room used as an O.R. for parasitic-type Exorcists, like myself. "Please activate your Innocence for me, Akumako."

I did as he asked, letting the urge to destroy take hold in my mind. This time, the Innocence seemed to activate properly. Even now, it was almost foreign to me, feeling the black cross embedded between my shoulder blades warm up and trigger the pearly armoured plates covering my arms and shoulders, the spiky crenellations on my shoulders, and the slender, wicked claws crowning each of my fingers. Komui examined my weapon closely, poking and prodding in spots, but finding no flaws. "Looks good. How's your secondary activation?" Upon request, I shifted from my basic form to my secondary, trading the sharp talons for plainly armoured hands and a pair of scythe-like blades curving up out of the back of my forearms. Once again, he examined my weapon and seemed satisfied. "Wonderful! Any problems with either of them?"

"Not that I've noticed," I lied.

"That's good. Have you noticed any changes in its behaviour? Any signs it might evolve a new form again?"

"Nope. Don't think so," I lied again.

"Alright. Go ahead and shut it down then. We can go see Hevlaska now."

I gladly deactivated my Innocence and followed Komui to the elevator. With the flick of a switch, Komui and I plummeted to the very bottom of the tower that housed the Black Order. The elevator screeched to a halt in front of Hevlaska, the keeper of the Innocence.

"Akumako… I am glad to see you again," said Hevlaska, "Do you need me to check your synchronization rate again?"

"Yes, Hevlaska. I do. I want to see if there is any change," I replied to her, switching to my more formal way of speaking, as I often did with Hevlaska. The giant being lifted me up to get a better look at my Innocence. No matter how many times Hevlaska examined me, the sense of something probing my insides remained bizarre.

"Let me see… 19%...23%...42%...66%...85%...93%...Yes, 93% is still your maximum synchronization rate," Hevlaska confirmed.

"Great. Thank you, Hevlaska. I will be going now. Komui, would you let me off near the cafeteria? I haven't eaten yet."

Komui responded quickly, "Yes, of course. You must be starving! We'll be there in a moment."

"Komui, would you please return here when you have a moment? There is something I'd like to discuss with you," Hevlaska requested before Komui could zip us away, "It is important that you hear it." Komui nodded then flicked a switch, sending us flying towards the upper levels of the tower. It was still early, so I didn't see many people as we whizzed past each floor. I felt the elevator begin to slow down as the doors all began to come into focus. We stopped in front of the hallway that eventually branched off into the cafeteria.

"Alrighty, here's your stop," said Komui, "I've gotta get back to work. If you want to come help out, we'll give you free coffee!"

I leapt off of the elevator onto the solid floor. Before I took off down the hall, I turned back to Komui and told him, "Sorry, Komui, it's a tempting offer, but I already get free coffee!" I turned again and sprinted, laughing, away down the hall.

If I closed my eyes, I could almost pretend I was a kid again, running down a cobblestone road in a normal little town, living a normal little life.