Chapter 1: Klaud Nine
A woman looked up blankly at the cloth ceiling that hanged precariously above her bed. It had been like this for quite a few days and her fellow performers were starting to get worried over the young beast tamer.
The doctor had said that it would heal eventually, but with the dirty conditions of the circus, it had a high chance of becoming permanent. The injury would become a scar, an eternal reminder that she was lacking in skill.
It had been any normal performance. The ringleader had introduced her to the crowd as the elusive beast tamer who was friends to humans and animals alike. She was called Klaud Nine, the Beast Whisperer.
But that had obviously been proven wrong when a lion pounced on her unexpectedly. The lion was a strange thing who acted like a dog. He licked things, ate bones, and waged his tail. He had never bitten anyone before and the woman considered him a good friend.
She forgot that friends could be backstabbers too.
And so the woman spent the rest of her recovery worrying over the fact that she might lose her job. Beast taming was the only thing she had and if she wanted to be hired by another circus, they had the chance of hearing of her past failures and decide that they didn't need her.
Her only comfort was a monkey, named Lau Jimin. He was a small thing, not capable of harm. She took him in as her companion the moment she set out into the world on her own. Coming from an orphanage, she had no idea who her parents were. She could have had siblings, but whether they were alive or dead was unknown. Her name wasn't even her true name.
Klaud Nine.
It was a clever play on the words, Cloud Nine. Her caretaker at the orphanage often caught her daydreaming during their lessons that the nuns from the nearby church would give them. Klaud remembered how her caretaker had said, "You're always on Cloud Nine."
When she asked a nun what the lady meant, she was given a kind smile and a light laugh. "Being on Cloud Nine means that one is always day dreaming. It's like they're not even in the classroom, but somewhere else instead."
It would only be later when a government official had visited the orphanage and asked her what her name was. She didn't want to be any old Beatrice or Elizabeth. She wanted to have such a strange name that when someone heard it, they would never forget it.
"My name is Cloud Nine."
The woman gave her a nod as if there was nothing strange about the name."And how do you spell it?"
"K-L-A-U-D."
Klaud, at the time, didn't know how to spell and had unknowingly messed up the spelling. When she finally found out about her mistake, Klaud shrugged it off and embraced it. It was different and she had rather grown attached to it anyways.
After she became too old for the orphanage to take care of her, she set off and met Lau Jimin. He was the reason why she wanted to become a beast tamer.
Klaud shifted slightly and felt her stomach growl, a reminder that she hadn't eaten in a few days due to worry clouding her thoughts. Her ears picked up someone walking into her tent. Klaud turned slightly to face the wall.
"I'm not hungry, thank you anyways."
She had expected the person to express how they were worried for her or how she should eat soon else she faint from starvation. Instead, she got a strange question.
"Where is the Innocence, girl?"
It was such a scratchy voice that Klaud abruptly sat up and turned to see a hunched young man with a disheveled face and growing, unmaintained beard.
"Pardon?"
"The Innocence! Don't play dumb with me! The Earl want's results and results I shall give!"
Lau Jimin gave a squeak and scampered up her shoulder. The man's eyes narrowed at the sight of the monkey and he gave an unsettling grin. "Ah. So it was there all along."
He reached out to grab it but Klaud quickly scooped up Lau Jimin and ran out of the tent. That man gave her a strange, unsettling vibe.
He stumbled through his steps to get to her and Lau Jimin snarled and barred his fangs. Klaud had that feeling that something was off. That the man in front of her was not human.
But that couldn't be, because he looked distinctively like one.
Klaud was entranced by the man's careless way of walking and the way his head would tilt back as if he didn't care about her presence about her.
Though she knew that it wasn't true.
Her knees rattled and her hands shook. What was this feeling? Was it dread, fear, or something else?
It was a sense of foreboding.
Why? Because at that time of her realization, the man turned into a monster. Floating in the air with a white human mask with a black star and cannons attached to it, it looked like the shape of a giant eyeball. It sickened her just by looking at it.
The canons glowed purple and she shut her eyes, knowing that it would be too late to dodge it or find a safe place to hide. The man… no, that monster, wanted Lau Jimin and Klaud would die than give him to it.
It fired and the loud sound of canon fire echoed through the air.
But Klaud was still alive.
She tried to open her eyes but the dust that rose into the air due to the impact of the bullet got caught and it was a few moments later until she could fully see. The sight that confronted her was like a dream, or a nightmare.
There was Lau Jimin, no longer the small and cute monkey that he used to be. Instead, he was easily larger than the ticket booth of the circus and was definitely taller than Klaud herself. He slashed out at the monster and caused it to explode right in front of her.
Definitely a nightmare.
Klaud still had the bandages wrapped around her head and perhaps the bandages covering part of her eyesight made her mistake objects of imagination as real life events. Yes, that must be the case.
"I'm quite lucky to have found an accommodator. I really only came to get rid of Akuma but I'm glad that I found you."
Klaud whirled around to face a woman with beautiful blond hair pulled up into a ponytail along with a band of cloth wrapped around the end of it. A few short strands of hair framed her face and she wore a black long dress with silver trimmings along with a waist-length jacket with a high collar.
She smiled. "Hello. My name is Katrina. What is yours?"
The woman offered Klaud to buy her lunch. She accepted, as she hadn't eaten in days. Katrina simply smiled across the table as Klaud wolfed down anything within her reach. She knew that she was hungry but she didn't know that she was that hungry.
Katrina smiled towards her. "Do you like the food?"
Klaud could only nod. Of course she would like the food. It was much better than the simple bread, soup, and cheese that everyone would get for every meal.
Katrina eyed Lau Jimin and Klaud sharply glared at the woman paying for her meal. While she was grateful, Lau Jimin, who had returned to his small form, was still a close friend and confidant of hers.
The woman who was always smiling laughed. "I don't mean any harm. It's just that it's rare to see Innocence that's parasitic and not a part of the accommodator's body."
Klaud sat up straighter. "You said that word again. What does an accommodator mean? Do you know what that monster was from before?"
"Questions like that could get you killed, but yes. I know what that 'monster' was from before. That was an Akuma. An accommodator is someone who has a bond with Innocence, the only thing that can destroy Akuma. There are two types of Innocence, Equipment and Parasitic. Equipment types are basically weapons while Parasitic types are a part of you. Parasitic are extremely rare."
Klaud patted the head of Lau Jimin absentmindedly. "What about the Akuma?"
"That might be a bit harder." remarked Katrina. "Let me tell you a story of a husband and wife who loved each other very much. One day, the husband passed away and the wife, in her grief, attracted the Millennium Earl. He's the bad guy in the story."
Klaud felt like a child by the way Katrina worded things but continued listening nonetheless. She was curious after all.
"The Millennium Earl offered the wife a way to bring her husband back from the dead. All she had to do was call out his name with all of her heart. She did just that and inadvertently trapped her husband in a skeletal machine that was controlled by the Earl. Now this is where it gets a bit bloody so don't throw up on me. The Earl ordered the husband, now under another's will, to kill his wife and wear her skin as his own."
Klaud, who had eaten quite a lot, felt like throwing up. What kind of maniac would order a husband to wear his wife's skin?
Katrina nodded, the smile no longer present. "That's when things get tricky. The husband is now known as an Akuma and his… no its sole purpose is to kill people and power up. Its life is simple, kill, level up, repeat. This cycle of bloodshed will only create more Akuma from the first Akuma's victims.
"That's why the Black Order was created. The Order's goal is to find Innocence and Accomadators, destroy Akuma, and defeat the Earl once and for all during the final confrontation.
"Now to address the elephant in the room. Will you join the Black Order and fight on our side as an Exorcist?"
"But I never told you my name."
Katrina waved her hand through the air dismissively. "The Order doesn't care about our names. They only care about what we can contribute to the war."
Klaud may have been illiterate for more of her life but she could catch onto things rather quickly. "You said 'we'. Does that mean that you are an exorcist too?"
Katrina gave a short bow as she stood up. "Equipment Exorcist, Katrina Lentz of the Black Order, at your service."
Perhaps Klaud agreed to become a soldier for a secret war because she knew that she would probably lose her job as a beast tamer. Perhaps it was because deep down, she knew that underneath all those smiles, Katrina was just a soldier whose only job was to find Innocence, kill monsters called Akuma, and get accommodators. Now that Katrina found Klaud, there wasn't a doubt in her mind that Katrina would do everything in her power to bring her back to her superiors.
But fear held her back if not for a moment. It was the fear of the possibility of dying. Klaud wouldn't let herself get dissuaded with the thoughts of saving the world. A war was still a war and a soldier was still a soldier. Blood would spill if it hasn't already been spilt and Klaud might not always be the hero in everyone's eyes.
Even though these thoughts plagued Klaud's mind, she turned her will into iron and followed Katrina to the main road after she packed all her stuff and officially left the circus, her former home. Katrine had informed her that because Akuma often went after accomudators with no training as they were easier to kill, they would team up with another exorcist who was around the area before traveling back to the Black Order headquarters located somewhere in England.
Katrina told her that the exorcist that they were meeting up with was somewhere in Nevada. His name was Ives Dastilon, a man with light colored hair that overshadowed his eyes.
Katrina and Klaud waited at a train station. The man named Ives would arrive along with the 8:00 train. Klaud wasn't blind at how Katrina put a bit more effort into her appearance than usual and she was constantly fidgeting with a silver pen that she twirled around her fingers.
Either Katrina liked this 'Ives' person, or she just liked to dress well on Tuesdays.
Klaud tried to start a conversation between the two to get Katrina's mind off things but after numerous failed questions that received simple, short answers, she stopped trying.
Eventually, the train arrived and Katrina anxiously searched the crowd for Ives. A man light colored hair called out to them and waved his hand to catch Katrina's attention.
"Rina, long time no see!"
Katrina broke into a smile. "Ives!"
As he approached them, Klaud noticed how he wore black clothing with silver trimmings, similar to Katrina though he had a jacket and a pair of pants. They were most likely the uniform for the Black Order but if Klaud was forced into wearing a dress, she would jump ship immediately.
It was rather ironic when Klaud found out that they really were taking a ship to reach London.
So this story will alternate through people, at least that's what I'm hoping to do. Canon characters might be a bit OOC but that's before certain events happen that will make them how they are in the Canon Timeline. Of course, expect a few OCs because there were different exorcists and scientists seventeen years back. This is also a tragedy and, well let's just say, there's a reason why you don't see any of the new characters from this story in the canon story for a reason.
Also, I'm still alive after several months of disappearance from FanFiction! Yay...
So about my other stories...there will be author notes! *gasp*
