Hey guys! I don't know how many D. Gray-Man fans there are out there, but it's my favorite anime and manga ever. If you've read my other fanfiction, Spirit Trinity (50% of the credit goes to RavenNightshade98 for that fanfiction, and this fanfiction, too), then you'll be familiar with Neliel and Karasu. I hope you enjoy it! This chapter is in Neliel's POV.


Ch. 1 Black Order

Exorcists. Chosen by God himself, they destroy all evil that lurks in the darkness-an evil that brings pain and suffering. Considered apostles of God, they exist to keep a balance between good and evil. This has gone on for nearly 7,000 years.

However, we exorcists are more commonly labeled weapons than we are called apostles. We are weapons of mass destruction. I guess it should irritate me that people judge me by what they see instead of actually getting to know me, but I've become used to it.

Although it's true some exorcists could be considered weapons. The parasitic-type exorcists' anti-akuma weapons are actually a part of their body. However, there are the more common equipment-type exorcists, whose anti-akuma weapons are tools created from common items.

Exorcists' weapons hold Innocence within them. Innocence was carved from the God Crystal. Supposedly, there are 109 fragments of Innocence spread throughout the world. One of these fragments is the Heart. Nobody has ever found or accomodated the Heart-according to the recordings of the Black Order.

Which happens to be the destination of Karasu and I. We each accomodate two Innocences-a parasitic-type and an equipment-type. We've known about it for a long time, but we had never really been on good terms with the Order. But we decided to put the past behind us and help them out. We heard they had a shortage of exorcists.

As we approached the gates to the Order, the gatekeeper, Alestina Dolloway Gyonathan P. Rubison Gear Amadeus the 5th, examined us. "Time for the assessment!" Lights shot out of his eyes as he scanned us. "These two fail! They are AKUMA! Friends of the Millenium Earl! The pentacles on their hand and wrist are proof!"

"Allen, Lenalee, take care of them," a voice boomed.

"Is that God?!" Karasu screamed.

"No, Kara-chan," I responded in an irritated tone. "That's Komui Lee."

"Panda-kun!"

"I will never understand why you call him that."

Two people jumped down from the gate, their anti-akuma weapons activated. One was a girl with long black hair put up in pigtails. Her anti-akuma weapons were black boots. The other was a boy with snow white hair and an odd scar on his left eye. His anti-akuma weapon was his arm. A parasite-type and an epquipment type, eh? I thought to myself. This should be interesting.

"Wait!" the boy suddenly yelled out. "They're not akuma. If they were, my left eye would've reacted."

"Then how do you explain the pentacles?!" the gatekeeper yelled.

"The pentacles on our bodies are scars from akuma wounds," I responded. "We're exorcists."

"We have not received any word about this," Komui's voice boomed. "Who sent you?"

"Nobody sent us," Karasu replied. "We came because we wanted to make amends and give you a hand."

"Make amends for what?"

"We've given you guys-"

"Oh, nothing," I interrupted Karasu. If they didn't know what we were talking about, then they didn't need to know.

"Wait, aren't you two the ones who have interfered with the missions?" I flinched. Crap, he remembered. "Give me one reason why I should let you join."

"I could give you hundreds!" the girl shouted. "We need them, brother. If they're exorcists, then we shouldn't pass this chance up. If you turn them away, I won't forgive you." I could practically hear Komui flinching. I smiled.

Komui sighed. "All right, they can come inside, but I'd like to talk to them before I let them join."

"O-open the gate!" the gatekeeper yelled. The gate slowly opened, and we walked inside.

Before I went inside, however, I stopped in front of the gatekeeper. "Could I ask you a question?" I asked him.

"W-what is it?"

"You're name's really long, so can I just call you Amadeus?"

"Um, sure, I guess. What did you say your name was?"

"I didn't." I walked inside.

Inside, Komui led us to what I assumed was his office. I couldn't see anything, however, except for the papers everywhere. This would be fixed.

Komui sat down at his desk and cut straight to the point. "Why are you two really here?"

"We already told you," Karasu answered. "We're here to make amends and give you a hand."

"And organize this place," I added. "I can't see anything with these papers everywhere."

"Ignoring that problem for now, let's get back to the point," Komui said. "You've given us many problems in the past, including-"

"Let's not mention the problems we gave you."

"All right, then. How do you plan on making amends?"

"Well, we could...um...let's see...maybe...I have no clue."

He sighed. "How about you work for Jerry in the kitchen everyday for breakfast until I've decided it's enough?"

"That works." I was relieved to hear that we would be working in the kitchen. I'd grown up cooking, and I could now cook just about anything. Karasu was still a better cook than me, however. "When do we start?"

"Tomorrow. If I were you, I'd settle down for the night pretty soon. It's late, and you guys will be getting up early tomorrow."

"How early is early?"

"You'll have to see Johnny for your uniforms," he said, completely ignoring my question.

Once Karasu and I found Johnny, he gave us our uniforms. My uniform consisted of black short shorts, black knee-high boots, and a black long-sleeved jacket that buttoned up and had a rose crest, the symbol of the vatican, on the left side of it, over the heart. Karasu's consisted of black knee-high boots, thigh-high black socks, black short shorts, and a long exorcist coat that had one button at her chest.


~The Next Morning-4am~

"Time to wake up!" a voice said, waking me up. I opened my eyes to see a man with very long hair pulled back into two braids, and he was wearing sunglasses.

"I have two questions," I began. "First of all, who are you? Second of all, what time is it?"

"To answer your first question, I'm Jerry. For your second question, it's 4 in the morning." I regretted ignoring Komui's advice and not going to bed until 1 am. Tonight I would go to bed extra early.

"Have you woke up Karasu yet?"

"No, I haven't."

"Good luck. Try not to get killed."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll see." He walked out of my room and went to the room next door to wake Karasu up. I followed him as far as the hallway and waited just outside the doorway to listen to how smoothly things would go when he woke her up.

"Time to wake up!" he said in the same way he did to me.

"5 more hours!" Karasu responded.

"No, you don't even get 5 more seconds." Karasu started screaming and yelling at Jerry to never wake her up again or else she'd chop his head off. Jerry started yelling back at her that she's lazy and shouldn't complain about getting up a little early. This went on for a long time, and gradually got louder as it went on. I yawned. When people began waking up because of the screaming, and started coming to see what was going on, I decided it was time to put an end to this cat fight.

I walked into Karasu's room, right past Jerry, and stood in front of Karasu for a few seconds before speaking. "Stop complaining and get dressed. You have five minutes to get ready. When those five minutes are up, if you're not ready, I will come in here and make you sit in seiza*." Without saying another word, I went back to my room. Jerry just stared at me in awe. All the people that had gathered outside Karasu's room gawked at me. I ignored them.

It took me about two minutes to get dressed. I only had to wait about another minute before Karasu was ready. Jerry led us down to the kitchen.

"All right, so Neliel, I'm going to put you on dishes duty, while Karasu will help me cook," he ordered.

"Works for me, I guess," I responded.

"I like cooking," Karasu stated.

Jerry gave us half an hour to eat, and then he asked us some questions. "Where are you two from?"

"Japan," Karasu answered.

"Isn't Japan infested with akuma?"

"Yes, it is. That's the real reason we came here. We had no where else to go. Japan wasn't safe. All our friends and family were killed by akuma. We had to fight akuma everyday so we could survive."

"So you two are exorcists?"

"Yes, we are. We both have incense."

"Innocence, Kara-chan," I corrected her.

"Whatever, I was close enough."

"How old are you?" Jerry asked.

"I'm 15, Karasu's 18," I answered. "Are you going to stop with the stalker questions anytime soon?"

"No."

"Then I'm leaving." I started to stand up and leave the table, but I stopped when I heard the door to the cafeteria open. Two guys walked in. One had long black hair pulled back into a ponytail, and the other had red hair and wore an eyepatch. They both wore exorcist uniforms. They were both gorgeous. I sat back down.

They began to walk toward us. "Hey there," the red-haired guy said. "I'm Lavi. This is Yuu." Yuu glared at Lavi with an angry tick mark on his brow. I snickered. "Sorry, this is Kanda. You two must be the new exorcists we heard about."

Karasu stood up and moved to stand in front of Lavi. "You're beautiful," she said.

Lavi looked shocked. "What did you say?"

"Um-I-uh-gu-Neliel!" She grabbed me and put me in front of her so she could hide behind me.

I grabbed her and put her back in front of me. "Karasu."

"I-um-" Karasu stopped making unintelligible noises and took off running. Lavi took off running after her.

"Wait!" he yelled. "Come back! I was just a little shocked! Please! I think you're beautiful!" That did it. Karasu stopped running and turned around. Lavi tripped just as he caught up with Karasu, and he caught himself as his lips touched hers.

They stayed like that for a minute. I stood still, shocked at what just happened. I looked at Kanda, fantasizing about what it would be like if that happened with us. I quickly dismissed the thought. I barely knew him, and I didn't know if I even felt anything towards him in any way.

Finally Lavi and Karasu pulled away from each other. I couldn't see Lavi's face, as his back was toward me, but Karasu's face was so red that it looked like someone had painted her face. I almost burst out laughing, but held back. I didn't want to get on Karasu's bad side after what just happened.

"Ahem," Kanda cleared his throat. "Komui wants the four of us in his office. You don't have time for kitchen duty right now."

"All right," I told him. "Karasu, Lavi, stop gawking at each other and let's go."

"Huh?" Lavi said. "Oh, right. We're coming." We walked out of the kitchen and went to Komui's office.

"I would like you four to go on a mission to Constanta, in Romania," said Komui. "It's the oldest city in Romania, and there have been reports of strange events."

"Such as?" Karasu asked.

"Such as the oldest buildings disappearing overnight and the citizens hearing strange noises. Your train leaves at 6. You have 20 minutes to get to the station." We left his office and headed to the train station.

When we got to the station, our train was getting ready to leave. We hurried and got on.

"Where's your ticket?" asked a train attendant.

"We're with the Black Order," Kanda said.

"Oh! In that case, come with me." He led us to a room in first class. "Here you are."

"Wow," Karasu said. "How do you get first class just by telling them who you are?"

"That rose crest on your jacket is the symbol of the vatican," Kanda explained. "With it, you can enter any place you desire."

Karasu flopped down on a bench, taking it for herself. "I'm beat!"

"I want to sit there," I said. I sat down on Karasu's stomach. Her legs and arms flew up.

"Neliel! Can't...breathe! Get...off...of...me!" Lavi burst out laughing. I looked over to him and Kanda to find that Kanda was holding his hand over his mouth, trying to hide the fact that he was laughing.

Lavi gawked at him. "Yuu, are you laughing?"

"What?" Kanda responded. "I was doing no such thing."

"He never laughs?" Karasu whispered to me.

"I guess not," I whispered back.

"He sort of reminds me of you, Nel." I elbowed her head.

"Ow! Nel! Why are you so abusive?" She looked at me with puppy dog eyes, and she had tears at the corners of her eyes. I looked away. I do have a heart, after all-in more ways than one.

Lavi took a seat next to Karasu. He put his arms around her in a comforting manner. So that's what one kiss and less than an hour of knowing each other can do to people.

Kanda sat down next to me. Karasu glared at him. "What's that look for?" Kanda asked.

"I don't like you," Karasu replied. I stood up and walked over to her. I slapped her and sat back down.

"Why are you so mean to me?" she asked with the same eyes from before. I looked away.

I happened to look in Kanda's direction. I blushed and looked in the other direction.

"What's your problem?" he asked me.

"Um-I-uh-nothing," I replied nervously.

Karasu walked over to me and slapped me. The action turned my head in the other direction. I fell forward slightly and my lips met Kanda's. I blushed intensely.

"Oops," Karasu said in a small voice. "Don't kill me, Nel!" She ran out of the room. Kanda and I pulled away. I stood up to run after Karasu, but Kanda grabbed my arm and pulled me back down.

"Wait..." he said in a small voice, placing his arm around my soulders. This time it was my face that looked like it was painted red.

"Wow, Yuu," Lavi said. "This is a side of you that I've never seen before."

"Sh-shut up." I looked up at him to see that his cheeks were bright red. I smiled. I now understood why Karasu and Lavi were so close after what happened between them.


~Karasu's POV~

I came back to the room about an hour later to find Neliel's head resting on Kanda, and his arm around her shoulders with his head resting on hers. They were sleeping. I took a mental picture. Lavi was drawing on their faces.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"I was bored, okay?" he answered.

"You're ruining this very precious, very romantic moment! Neliel's never acted this way with anyone before!"

"Yeah, neither has Yuu. That still doesn't stop me."

"Wash it off, and then let's go scam people out of their money...playing poker."

"Oh, no! Another Allen?!"

"What? What's wrong with poker?"

"It's not the poker I have a problem with! It's the cheating!"

"I don't need to cheat! I'm a natural at poker. I've never lost. Ever. And I've been playing since I was 5."

"Seriously?"

"Wash their faces!" Lavi washed their faces. I grabbed him by the ear and dragged him out of the room.

After walking around for about 20 minutes, we found a guy with black wavy hair down to his shoulders. He was wearing weird round glasses, a long sleeved white shirt, and overalls, and he was smoking a cigarette. I approached him.

"You look familiar," I told him. "Oh, well. Would you like to play a game of poker?"

"Sure. But be prepared to lose."

"I'm the one who should be saying that to you."

"Tch. Brat. It's on."

We played poker for about two hours, and played about fifty games. I hadn't lost one game.

"It's been a while since I've played anyone this good that didn't cheat," the guy said. "You...didn't cheat...did you?"

"No," I answered. "I didn't cheat."

"Kara-chan," a voice said. I looked to see Neliel and Kanda standing behind me. "Playing poker, huh?"

"Yeah, you wanna play?" She stared at the guy sitting across from us.

"No, I'm good." She turned around and walked back in the direction of our room. Kanda followed her.

"Well, that was weird," the guy said. I ignored him and went back to the room.

"Done already?" Lavi asked. "But you were doing so good." He sighed and followed me back to the room.


~5 Hours Later~

"Ahhhhh, it feels so good to be off that stuffy train!" I said. We had just stopped in Zagreb, Croatia. It was about 2:30 pm, and we needed a break from the train.

Suddenly, at the same time I did, Neliel went really stiff and made a weird sound with an odd look on her face. We looked at each other.

"Kara-chan?" she said to me. "Did you just realize who that was you were playing poker with, too?"

"Yeah, I did," I answered her. "That was-" I stopped. There was no way I could say that was Tyki Mikk from the Clan of Noah.

"And exactly who was that?" Kanda asked in a demanding tone.

"Um, I forgot. Do you remember, Nel?"

"Nope," she answered. "I forgot, too. Let's go check into an inn. We'll stay there until tomorrow morning." Kanda and Lavi gave us a suspecting look. We pretended to ignore it and walked away. Kanda and Lavi followed us.

We checked into an inn that was pretty close to the train station. Kanda and Lavi were walking around town for a while. Neliel and I were at the inn talking in our room.

"Nel," I said, "I can't believe we ran into him, of all people!"

"I know!" she responded. "Of all the people to run into at a time like this, we had to run into Tyki!"

"I wonder what he's doing out here. Do you think it was a coincidence that we ran into him?"

"I highly doubt that."

"If he's after the innocence, we've gotta get to it first." The door slammed open. Kanda and Lavi were standing in the doorway with angry looks on their faces.

"Oops," Neliel and I said simultaneously.

"That was Tyki Mikk?!" Lavi yelled.

"Who's Tyki Mikk?" I asked, turning my head and batting my eyelashes.

"We don't know what you're talking about," Neliel said with puppy dog eyes.

"Stop the acts!" Kanda yelled. Neliel and I started crying.

"I'm sorry! We didn't want to hide it from you guys! We just didn't want you to yell at us!" Kanda and Lavi had looks of guilt on their faces.

"We're sorry," Lavi said. "Please don't cry. We didn't mean it." Lavi and Kanda came over and hugged us. Neliel and I looked at each other and smirked. Guys are suckers for a crying girl. And it's so easy to fake crying.

"It's all right," I told them. "We forgive you. And you guys are idiots." Lavi and Kanda both looked up at us to see that we were totally fine and not crying-in fact, we were almost laughing.

"You guys are jerks," Lavi said, almost laughing himself at our little trick. "That was just plain mean. But funny."

The rest of the day, we split up and walked around town. Lavi and I made up one group while Neliel and Kanda made up the other group. We walked around until it was late and then returned to the inn.

When we got back to the inn, Kanda and Neliel were already asleep on separate beds. I snuggled into the bed with Neliel while Lavi took the bed with Kanda. I smiled as I imagined what Kanda's reaction would be in the morning when he found Lavi sleeping next to him.


~The Next Day 8am~

When I woke up, Lavi was in the bed with me, and Neliel was in the other bed with Kanda. What's going on? I thought to myself. When did those two switch beds...and why? I walked over to the other bed and sat on Neliel to wake her up. I soon found myself face down flat on the floor with Neliel on top of me. I turned my head to see her. Glaring purple eyes stared down at me.

"What do you want that is so important at 8 in the morning?" she hissed at me. "Wait...it's 8 in the morning?! Why didn't you wake me up earlier?! Our train leaves in 10 minutes!" Neliel quickly woke Kanda and Lavi up, while I continued to lay on the floor wondering what I did to deserve this and why I was punished so often...and why it was always Neliel who punished me. I couldn't figure out why.

As soon as everyone was up, we quickly gathered our things and hurried to catch our train. We just barely made it.

"Next time, we wake up an hour early," Neliel ordered.

"Neliel, I have a question for you," I told her.

"Okay, what is it?"

"Why did you and Lavi switch beds last night?" Neliel and Lavi both looked at me questionably.

"We did?" they asked at the same time.

"Yes, you did. You don't remember?" Kanda was looking out the window with a guilty look on his face. "Kanda, is there any chance that this could have been your doing?" He didn't respond. An angry tick mark appeared on my brow. "Kaaannndddaaa! You're dead!" Kanda stood up and ran out of the room. I chased after him. "Get back here! Take your punishment like a man!"

All of a sudden I felt a tug on the collar of my jacket. I turned to see Neliel holding me. She had a very annoyed look on her face, and a tick mark on her brow. Her parastitic-type innocence was activated-Flaming Angel-which was literally wings of flames. If one was not careful around those wings, well, let's just say the wings work on more than just akuma.

Neliel ended up dragging me back to our room after she left very minor burns on my arms, while walking hand in hand with Kanda. Seriously, what did I do to deserve this? When Lavi saw the burns, he started freaking out and almost yelled at Neliel, but then he noticed the burns were healing abnormally fast.

"What's going on?" he asked in a quiet, surprised tone. "How are you healing so fast? It's nearly impossible for a human to heal that fast. So how are you doing it?"

"Umm...well...there's a very reasonable explanation to that question, and that would be because...Neliel?" I said.

"We've never really known why we heal so fast," Neliel explained. "We've never really thought about it, either. It's always been...normal for us."

We didn't talk for the rest of the train ride. It was obvious that Lavi wasn't buying our explanation, and neither was Kanda, as a matter of fact. Lavi kept looking at us like he thought he knew the real reason, but then he would look away as if he talked himself out of believing it.

Before we knew it, we were in Constanta, Romania. When we got off the train, there was a finder waiting for us with a man.

"Hello," said the finder. "My name is Toma. It's nice to meet you Lady Neliel and Lady Karasu. This is Ghenadie Constantin, the acting leader of the town. He's the one who contacted the Black Order with the reports."

"All right," I said. "So since it's almost late, should we check into an inn and rest for the night, or would you rather we start investigating now?"

"I would like it if you could start investigating tonight," Ghenadie said. "The incidents have occurred every night, and recently a new incident has begun occurring."

"What's the new incident?" Lavi asked.

"For the past week, every night someone has gone missing and the next morning, ashes are found on their doorstep."

"Hey, what's that?" Kanda asked, pointing behind us. We turned to see what he was looking at. A building was floating out of the town. Our mouths all dropped open as we stared at the building. Neliel and I looked at each other. We both activated our innocence. Neliel's innocence was her parasitic-type Flaming Angel, and her equipment-type Silver Tears, which was a set of twin swords with silver blades that, like her wings, also use fire for some attacks. My innocence was my parastic-type Angel's Salvation, which is a pair of wings with feathers that can turn into blades, and my equipment-type is Reaper's Death, a scythe similar to Lavi's hammer**.

We flew over to the building to see what was making it move, but we couldn't see anything from the outside, so we found an entrance and flew into the building to find at least two dozen level 4 akuma waiting for us. Neliel and I smiled in delight. It'd been too long since we've fought in a battle that mattered.

"Are you ready, Nel?" I asked her.

"I'm more than ready," she answered. "My whole being is itching to fight them. This is why I'm alive. I exist to fight." My question had been answered. At the same time, Neliel and I attacked the level 4 akuma. We moved faster than the akuma, or any other being for that matter, could comprehend. In less than 30 seconds, the majority of them were either burned or had been pierced to the point that they made themselves self-destruct. Just as Neliel and I were killing off the last two, Kanda and Lavi burst in just in time to see Neliel burn a screaming akuma and me slashing at another screaming akuma with my scythe.

"What just happened in here?" Lavi asked looking around at the few remaining level 4 corpses.

"Oh, nothing, Lavi dearest," I answered him. "We were just having some fun." I could feel the look of delight from our fight still on my face, and I looked over at Neliel to see it still on her face, too.

"The Innocence is this way," Neliel said, leading us deeper into the building to where she felt the Innocence calling to her, wanting us to help it find its accomodator.

When we came to a small, dark room in the back of the building, Neliel burned a hole in the wall. She reached into the hole and pulled out the innocence.

"How did you know the Innocence would be here?" Kanda asked Neliel with a curious look on his face.

"It's hard to explain," she answered. "Basically I can sense the location of Innocence, and Karasu can find their accomodators."

"Ok, but how can you guys do that? Does it have to do with the fact that you each have two anti-akuma weapons?"

"Well, yes, but it's more complicated than that."

"Then explain it to me."

"I think I'll pass. You'll figure it out eventually. Besides, it's no fun if I just tell you. I'll keep you in the dark a bit longer."

"Does it also have to do with why you know Tyki Mikk and you heal abnormally fast?"

"No, those things have nothing do with this. Those can be explained by something else."

"Can you at least explain those to me, then?"

"Nope. Like I already said, you'll figure it out on your own eventually. And if I did tell you, you might not let me do this." Neliel went over to Kanda and kissed him on the lips. She was right. Lavi, Kanda, and no one else in the Order could find out about our secret. Not yet, at least. It wasn't time.

We found the mayor and assured him that he no longer had to worry about the buildings and people disappearing, then we left on a train that was leaving that night. We all slept on the train, and we didn't get off until we got back to Headquarters. When we got back, we gave the Innocence to Hevlaska, and were then told to go to Panda-kun's*** office.

"Lavi and Kanda informed me of a few things," Panda-kun said. Uh-oh. I was hoping they wouldn't speak of those things.

"And what would those 'things' be?" Neliel asked.

"First of all, they informed me that you personally know Tyki Mikk. Second of all, they informed me that you both heal abnormally fast. Third of all, they said you are both strong enough to take on two dozen level 4 akuma, and you enjoy it. Lastly, they told me that Neliel can sense the location of Innocence and Karasu can sense the accomodators. Is all of this true?"

"No, it's-" I began.

"Yes, it is," Neliel interrupted me. "We won't keep anything from you as long as you ask about it. All of that is true. They witnessed all of it on our mission. I'm assuming you're going to want an explanation for all of it?"

"Yes, but not right now," Panda-kun answered. "I'm sure you'll explain on your own when you're ready to do so. For now, get some rest. You had a long first mission. You look tired." Neliel and I obeyed and both went straight to bed.

Panda-kun was right. We were tired. We slept on the train ride back, but we had been on the train for almost two days, and it hadn't been very comfortable, despite being in first class. I fell asleep almost instantly. One mission down, many more to go.


*Seiza-sitting with legs tucked under you

**Karasu's scythe is similar to Lavi's hammer in the sense that it grows and shrinks in size

***Panda-kun is Karasu's nickname for Komui-she calls him this because he's Chinese


Well, there you go! I think that's the longest chapter I've ever wrote in my life. I hope you enjoyed it! Review, please!