Hello!
Just a disclaimer: D. Gray-Man doesn't belong to me . T_T
Anyway, enjoy ^^
A soft knock on the door interrupted Kanda's peaceful meditation. The blue-haired swordsman cracked open an eye. There were only two people who would knock softly on his door—the first was Allen Walker, and the second was Lenalee. The Finders were all too scared of him to go within a 3m radius of his door. Kanda sighed, rising from his position on the floor. And after one unfortunate incident where Allen had knocked on his door and Kanda had answered it, in one of his most foul moods, Allen never knocked again. Let's not dive into the gory details.
It must be Lenalee, calling him to go to Komui's office, Kanda decided, and his intuition was right.
"Kanda, nii-san wants to see you!" she announced, sticking her head around the door. Said person nodded, threw on his coat and left with her. The weather had gotten chilly lately and even around the Order, he had to wear his Exorcist's jacket to keep warm.
As they entered Komui's office, Kanda saw a mop of white hair popping from behind the couch. He suppressed the urge to smirk. So Allen was coming on the mission too. He sat on the far end of the couch, Lenalee in the middle, Allen at the other end.
Komui cleared his throat and began to summarize their mission plan, "Lenalee, Allen, Kanda, I'm sending you on a mission to retrieve innocence from Japan, Osaka, and we think it is in the North-South part—" Kanda's eyes widened slightly, and he stiffened, but it went unnoticed. "—it's been destroyed because of Akuma activity but there apparently is just one house standing, absolutely perfect, among the ruins. It looks like it hasn't been hit by the Akumas. The Order suspects that there is Innocence there, protecting it. But be very careful, it's close to Edo where the Earl of Millennium probably has his HQ. You are due to leave in an hour."
Each Exorcist was handed a binder, and taking it, they turned to leave. Kanda stopped at the door.
"Komui Lee." He spat the words out like they were poison.
"Yes?"
"What's the meaning of this?" Kanda turned around, glaring.
"Meaning? Meaning of what?" asked the supervisor, clearly confused.
"You know very well what I'm talking about," Kanda glared at the man. "That… That place! Why send me there?!"
"I dunno… you're one of the Order's best Exorcists?" Komui blinked twice, really confused. "Don't you want to go? I thought you liked missions."
"Yes… I mean no! I mean yes! I mean… argh! Oh, what the hell!" Kanda scowled, storming out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
Komui blinked again.
"Huh?"
-
Kanda sat ramrod straight opposite Allen and Lenalee in the train, staring at the scenery flashing past the train's window. He looked calm on the outside but inside, he was raging.
"Stupid Lenalee, does she absolutely have to come on this mission?! Do I have to come on this mission?! Damn you, Komui; so what if I'm one of the Order's better Exorcists? So what? I thought I had left that cursed place for good! I thought I'd never see it again. But noooo…" Kanda thought, grimacing.
"Kanda? Is there something wrong?" Lenalee asked. Said person had frowned to himself.
"No," came the reply, terse and sharp. But, god, everything was wrong! Firstly, he did not want to go back to that… that place again. Secondly, he did not want Lenalee coming on this mission, bugging him. Thirdly, he especially did not want Lenalee in this train carriage, sitting next to HIS precious Moyashi! …wait. No. no, no, no, scrap that. He would not—and definitely would NEVER—admit that he loved the white-haired boy!!!
Hours later, the train pulled to a halt, and the Exorcists and the Finder accompanying them continued on foot to their destination. True enough, the land was so flat, everything burnt to the ground, and they could see the house they were supposed to go to, sticking up like sore thumb.
Kanda gulped. Nobody noticed.
He started making his way to the house, slowly, mechanically, Allen and Lenalee chatting away behind him. It was pissing him off! He stopped a few metres away from the house, glaring at it with all his might. As if it would make it go away, though.
"Kanda? Are you okay? You're frozen on the spot! Kanda?! KANDA?!" Allen was practically screaming into the swordsman's ear, but to Kanda, his voice seemed so far away.
The house Kanda had grown up in, all ten years of his life before he was taken to the Order, now stood in front of him, in all its wooden glory.
-
The house was made entirely from wood—it was from a fishing village. The sea was not far away, and the air around them was humid and thick with ash and smoke. Kanda could not believe his eyes. The house he'd grown up in all his childhood years was right in front of him (nobody but him knew that). The bittersweet memories came to him in a rush, clouding his other thoughts, making his head pound and throb.
"ARGH! IT'S GIVING ME A HEADACHE!!!" Kanda hollered, reaching for Mugen for comfort.
"AHHH!!" Allen sprung backwards, shocked by Kanda's sudden response. He had been shouting into Kanda's ear, literally. But since Kanda didn't seem to know or acknowledge that, Allen decided to keep it a secret. He treasured his life more than Kanda's hearing abilities. By then, the Finder had backed away to a safe distance (he is a very quiet Finder, huh) .
Lenalee rolled her eyes, pushing open the front door, "You know what? Let's just go iiiii—"
"LENALEE!"
Lenalee had just stepped, and fallen, into what appeared to be a bottomless, floorless house. The door swung shut after her, and then a creepy silence ensued. Kanda and Allen exchanged looks.
"Should we go after her?"
"Hell, yes."
Allen, being the martyr with his masochistic complex, decided to go first. Swinging the door open in a very hero-ish manner, he took a giant leap in…
"OW!"
…and landed with both his feet on a hard wooden floor, pain shooting up his nerves. Kanda sighed, walking in normally, the Finder entering after him.
"You know, I thought that there wasn't a floor when Lenalee went in… so why is there one now?" Kanda frowned.
"That's what I was thinking, Kanda… Ow, my foot. OW."
"Oh shut up, Moyashi, we should go find Lenalee."
Kanda stalked past the boy, without even sparing so much as a sympathetic glance. Said person pouted (in a very cute way, but Kanda would never admit that), and started going after Kanda. For safety reasons, the trio decided to go together, looking for any clues as to where Lenalee could have disappeared to. The house was not exactly the same as what Kanda remembered it to be—then again, it had been almost a decade since he'd last saw it. For example, there was that rope-like chain thingy in the corner; he didn't remember it being in the house.
"Hey, what's this rope-like chain thingy in the corner?" Allen asked, tugging at it. "Gosh, it's rusty."
Allen tugged hard, with all his might. With a creak and a bang the chain was tugged down, much like a toilet flush. But when Allen turned around to talk to Kanda, Kanda was nowhere to be seen. Instead, where Kanda used to be standing, was a wooden panel sliding back quietly into its place to conceal a large hole.
He stared at the rusty chain which had broken off, lying on the floor like a brown snake. Now, what was he supposed to do?
-
"Allen-san, there's a girl… over there, in the room," the Finder said quietly, pointing to a doorway. "Maybe she can help find Kanda-san and Lenalee-san."
"Yeah…" Allen nodded, dazed. Don't remember that there was a girl in the house when we explored it though… maybe she was hiding? Also, why was there a floor, when I came in? I clearly saw that there was no floor! But if the girl lives here, then she can help…
The duo walked into the room, and there was the little girl, reaching out of the window, straining to get something. She heard the footsteps and turned around, her black eyes meeting Allen's. He gasped. She was in almost every way the same as Kanda—in her physical appearance that is, except that she was female and very young, about 6 or 7 years old. But she did look a lot like what Allen would have imagined Kanda to be when he was young, except that this girl was more feminine looking. What was so striking between Kanda and her was that they had the same piercing eyes that seemed to capture every movement they made, and the same straight hair that hung down neatly, her fringe nearly covering her eyes. She had an extremely pale face, a sharp contrast with her blood-red lips. She was garbed in a plain white dress without frills or anything.
The girl blinked, her large eyes taking in their appearance. Then she stepped aside, and asking in a quiet voice, "Can you help me get my ball back, please? It's outside. The window's slid up but I can't get the ball."
The Finder nodded, went to the window and looked outside: "It's not there."
The girl shook her head, "You have to lean out. It's just below the window ledge."
The Finder nodded, and then did as she said. Allen tilted his head to the left, and as he did, he saw some metallic part of the window glinting in the sunlight.
Wait… metallic part? The window slides up… the Finder's head is out of the window… the metallic part… the metallic part… the metal—
"GET BACK IN HERE!" Allen cried out, but his warning came one second too late. The window came slamming down, metallic part first, and closed with a sickening thud. Allen gulped, paling. This mission was going to be a nightmare. He turned to look at the girl, who was backing out from the room. Her face was just as pale as when they'd first saw her, but there was an unreadable expression in her eyes. Suddenly, she turned and ran.
"Hey, wait!" Allen called, turning to run after her.
But when he had gone out of the room, the little girl had already disappeared.
Mwahaha it's a cliffy ;D
Oh well, please review! Reviews will be really greatly appreciated. Thank you! ^^