Nine year old Sol woke up to the loud sound of an explosion and the shaking of the ground in response to said occurrence, followed by screams and the sound of lots of people running about just outside her door. She sat up on the big bed she was currently sharing with her seven year old sister, who was still blissfully asleep, rubbing her eyes and looking around.
In that precise moment the slamming of the room's door made her jump and effectively wake her sister up. The person that came in was a man in his forties. He was wearing the same white coat their mother wears when she's at work, his glasses were cracked and precariously perched on top of his nose.
"Sol, Luna, get dressed now! You're leaving!" the man ordered firmly without even glancing at the girls and going around the room collecting items from shelves and drawers and stuffing them hurriedly into a canvas bag, his movements rushed and panicked.
"Move, girls! You have to run!" the man rushed them, gently helping them out of bed and throwing some random clothes on their hands.
"You gave me Luna's shirt." Sol helpfully informed the man, her mind still not registering the note in which the man was rushing about. The man groaned and pulled a white shirt out of a random drawer.
"Are we playing dress up?" Luna asked looking at her mismatched clothes in the mirror.
The sisters were the daughters of a couple of scientists who met and married and had Sol and Luna in that very room. They were named by their Asian father, but their physique was entirely South American; from their tanned skin, to their wide eyes. Sol was taller than her sister seeing as she was older, her dark brown hair was very curly and very long, reaching the small of her back. Luna's was short and straight. They both had hazelnut coloured eyes but Sol's chin was more prominent than her sister's and Luna's nose curved upwards.
"Mateo, what's going on?" Sol asked as she took her coat from the man's hand and threw an arm through the sleeves.
The man, Mateo, turned and kneeled in front of them, his enormous adult hands on their shoulders and an alarmed look on his usually kind features.
"A horde of akuma has penetrated our defences and we don't have enough exorcists to fight them off." He explained. "Every person who's able to fight is giving us time to evacuate. I have to take you away."
"Mom and dad too?" Luna asked, eyes watering from fear.
Mateo looked to the side, pain evident in his stance.
"No! No! No!" the girl screamed. "Not them! Not mom and dad!"
"Luna!" Sol called holding her sister's head in her hands. Her hazelnut eyes were fighting away her own tears while a brave façade took over her young features. "Mom and dad are fighting to protect us so we have time to escape! We have to be brave and do what we are told!"
"Mom will find us. You'll see." Sol said although she didn't believe her own words, but her child's heart could only hope.
The girls turned to Mateo, hand in hand and childish bravery plastered all over their faces while their tears threatened to escape their not-so-innocent-eyes-anymore.
Mateo handed the canvas bag to Sol and took her small hand on his, running as fast as the children's legs would let them through explosions, debris, splashes of akuma blood and smoke and into the hidden stairwell where they often saw their father off before his missions.
The South American branch was an underground facility and the entrance was situated behind a waterfall of leaves at the base of a mountain. A narrow path was easily hidden in the thick rainforest, a few miles away from the nearest town.
"As soon as you can see the light outside you need to start running. Run as fast and as far away as you can from here." Mateo told the girls, the rush and fear evident in his voice. "Don't stop in any of the nearby towns. Go further. Try to get a phone and contact Komui. Do you remember Komui?"
At the determined nod from the girls Mateo smiled a short lived smile that vanished at the sound of screams of defeat from the human's side. "Tell him what happened. I packed a golem in that bag so just turn it on as soon as you're safe. Don't stay too long in one place. Do this and the exorcists will find you."
An explosion threw down a wall too close to them to be any safe place to stay. Mateo's face showed his desperation and the evident need to get the children out in that exact moment.
"Take this." From his belt the scientist took a sheathed rapier (1) and gave it to the child in front of him. "This is the last fragment of innocence we have left. This is your mission: take it to Headquarters."
Sol's eyes were as wide as they could get. She had never have any sort of contact with the innocence she so admired from the exorcists and now she had a mission of her own, even if the innocence did not choose her to fight. With renewed determination she nodded her promise to Mateo. She would do her upmost best to help in the fight.
With a last smile from Mateo and a sniff from Luna, the girls made their way out of the South American branch of the Black Order without chancing a look back.
-o0o-
"Sol, I'm tired." Moaned Luna as her hand was pulled by Sol.
"…"
"Sol, I'm hungry." She moaned again, a limp in her steps that mirrored he sister's.
"…"
"Sol, I'm thirsty as well." She moaned yet again, a new wave of tears coming to her eyes.
"…"
"Sol…"
"I know, Luna!" Sol yelled turning back at her sister with an angry expression, frustration and exhaustion wearing the child out just as much as her younger sister. Her expression softened however after seeing the tears running down the other child's face, clearing a path on the dirty cheeks and falling on the dark coat she was wearing.
"I'm sorry." Sol apologized, cleaning the tears away, managing only to smear the grime more on her sister's face with her dirty thumbs. "I am tired and hungry and thirsty too, but we have to continue. We are on a mission, now. I promise you we will have a lot to eat when we get to Headquarters."
Her sister just sniffed and nodded weakly and Sol took her hand once more to continue their path through the dark forest.
The children had run so long after leaving the branch that their legs gave up on them and their throats felt like they were bleeding. They ended up in the middle of a corn field when they finally stopped for breath. They couldn't even cry without feeling pain.
Sol took the chance that they were covered from view by the long vegetation to pull the rapier from her back, where she had stowed it along with the heavy canvas bag to admire it. The hilt had a sturdy metal cup that extended over the blade from the silver crosspiece. It was decorated with designs of crossed rings often painted in maps, small waves indicating the ocean and the occasional bit of land with small palm trees or treasure chests. Sol wondered if this sword had come from any of the places half depicted in the cup. The silver knuckle bow was actually made of three intertwining bows elegantly wrapped around a fat silver pommel, decorated in the same fashion as the cup. The scabbard was made from what once used to be rich leather that now was more than a bit torn in places where the stitching had come off, revealing a stunning silver blade, sharp on both sides and as thick as three of her small child fingers together. She thought that whoever was chosen by this innocence better be a good fighter!
Luna had fallen asleep in the time Sol admired the weapon, but the loud grumbling of her stomach alerted the oldest Avila that her sister wasn't as comfy as she looked.
Their rest was cut short, however, by the sudden appearance of two level one akuma that promptly pointed their oversized cannons at them. The children managed to dodge them by hiding in the corn, but soon the same plantation was in flames going from cover to danger in less than ten seconds.
Sol and Luna ran all their small legs would let them to get away from the attack, panic threatening to overtake them at any second and the akuma followed them close behind.
It was then that Sol felt the rapier getting warm in her hand. She stopped and unsheathed the sword and her heart sank all the way to her feet. From the rich intricate designed scabbard came a blunt silver blade that would do less than bruise if she were to actually use it in combat.
With tears in her eyes the scared child turned to the rapidly approaching akuma, her hands and knees trembling.
"Sol…" Luna whined in fear. "Sol what are you doing? They're coming!"
Sol's breath became laboured as she started to panic. Her eyes looking around her for an escape route but her mind could only think of one thing. That blade was innocence.
The only thing that could kill an akuma.
Steadying herself and without thinking twice about it, she followed the example of all those exorcists she had witnessed back home and called forward the innocence, yelling at it to please, please just this once, come forth for her.
Nothing could have prepared the child for the feeling of mighty power that the rapier carried when a red light lit it from base to tip and faded seconds later, turning the old blade into a brand new lethal thin sword and thus indicating the response of the akuma slaying weapon to Sol's plea. Recovering from her shock by the sound of the akuma readying their guns, she turned to face them immediately. Because in the mind of the nine year old the situation was quite simple: it was either them or the akuma, and she wasn't about to get killed by the same things that destroyed her home…twice.
Sol charged ahead, clumsily pointing the Rapier to the huge akuma in front of her. Even with her non-existent experience in swordsmanship there was no missing it, yet she had to try twice before her weak thrusts caused enough damage to slay her enemy. She didn't stop when the first exploded into a cloud of smoke and debris and blood. She charged towards the second and exterminated it, much faster than the first, learning fast.
When the smoke settled around her she collapsed to her knees, panting and drenched in akuma blood, the rapier going back to its dormant form, becoming the same blunt blade with a need of repair Sol had first unsheathed and that now her shaking hands struggled to give back to its sheath.
Luna ran to her sister's side and immediately panicked at the sight of so much blood on her.
"It's akuma blood." Sol reassured her trying to will her legs to stand the hell up because there were more akuma on their trail. "We need to keep going…"
Luna didn't hesitate to help her sister away from the burning corn field. They could hear men screaming in the distance to bring the buckets of water.
After that encounter the children were ambushed several more times by level one and level two akuma. They escaped most times, especially to the level twos since Sol was nowhere near skilled enough to even scratch them, but she had had to kill more akuma that she ever though she would resulting on the exhaustion of both girls.
Until night fell and found them lost in the very dark, very cold forest.
"Sol, is it not time to turn on the golem?" Luna reminded Sol looking at the canvas bag hanging from her sister's back.
Sol face palmed at her own stupidity and quickly searched the bag for the sleeping device. The black ball with wings started flying around them immediately, following them as they slowly continued to walk aimlessly and lost, but they didn't dare stop. Stopping would mean they gave up, and they would die before admitting defeat.
When Luna collapsed from utter exhaustion Sol tied the rapier around her small waist and gave Luna the canvas bag while she carried her younger sister on her back and when her own knees twisted painfully at weird angles and threatened to give up, she used a broken branch to support her.
It felt like hours of more walking in the darkness before they heard a broken sound coming from the black golem that followed them.
It was fuzzy at first, but soon Luna jumped and screamed in joy the words she heard in between her sister's raged breath, words they both longed to hear "It's Headquarters! They're coming for us! They're coming, Sol!"
Sol didn't dare utter a word for fear of wasting precious energy. Her sister was a very smart girl. She was perfectly capable of guiding the exorcists straight towards them. And the seven year old Luna did not let them down.
The feeling of relief was only a tad smaller than the feeling of joy at finally, finally being discovered by the ally. The light form the torches was like God's light. Their salvation.
"Hurry up, Marie!"
"Master, they're alive! Kanda found them!"
The last thing Sol saw before she lost the war against exhaustion was a pair of fiery dark blue eyes.
-o0o-
"Maa, Yu-kun. Just let Ma-kun carry her." A raspy male gentle voice reached her ears. It was hushed, as if the speaker was afraid of being too loud. That confused her.
"Shuddup ossan!" a child's voice bit back in clear annoyance.
"There's no use in arguing with master, Kanda." A very deep voice commented gently.
The child tched.
Sol opened her eyes.
She took in her surroundings realizing in the first place that she was being carried by the smallest of three people, the child she now identified as "Kanda". Was that his name? The raspy voice had to belong to the old man traveling behind her and Kanda and there was no way the deep voice didn't belong to the very big man walking beside them. Marie she thought they said his name was.
The next thing she noticed was that her sister was sleeping soundly, cradled in the arms of the old exorcist. All three of them were wearing black coats that belonged to the Black Order. She spotted the canvas bag being held by the huge man's hand and…wait, where's the innocence she was supposed to take to Komui?
She frantically looked around and tried getting off the child's back when she didn't find it anywhere.
"Stop moving, damnit! I'll drop you!" Kanda threatened, a pulsing vein popping on his forehead.
"Let me go! We forgot something!" Sol demanded, still struggling against Kanda's surprisingly strong grip.
"No we didn't! Stop moving I said!" Kanda barked fighting to keep the annoying brat on his back.
"The rapier! That sword is innocence!" Sol exclaimed loudly and alarmed. "We have to go back!" and her struggling proved to be more than Kanda could handle. A particularly strong pull from Sol at the raven haired child's shoulders made them both fall on the cold floor of the forest.
"Are you stupid or brain-dead?!" Kanda cussed, insulting her for making him fall flat on his butt.
"Rather being that than deaf and a midget!" Sol insulted right back, standing up tall…and falling back on her butt when her knees twisted painfully and gave in.
Kanda seemed to have noticed the two inch difference in height they had and blushed, his frown deepening and two more pulsing veins popping on his forehead.
Sol didn't wait to see or hear what the irate boy had to say. She simply stood up on her shaky legs, turned the opposite direction they were travelling and ran. She had to find the sword. Luna was safe with the exorcists, that she was sure of.
Kanda "tched" and immediately ran after her. He easily caught up with the curly haired girl due to her exhaustion and injured knees and tackled her none too gently to the ground where they proceed to wrestle.
Many scratches, bites, slaps and hair pulls later, Kanda managed to pin Sol's arms above her head and yell in her face to "just be quiet already! Marie has got your sword!"
Sol stopped squirming and trying to kick the insufferable boy out her way and stared at him in surprise.
"Marie?"
Just then a huge dark hand picked both children off the ground from the back of their coats as easily as someone would pick up a couple of kittens, and cradled them to his arms in a similar fashion as the old man had Luna. All the while Kanda fought and protested sputtering some very colourful language whilst Sol just stared wide eyed at the distance she was now from the ground.
"I am Marie Noise. I am an exorcist of the Black Order. Nice to meet you" the big guy said with his very deep voice. Were his eyes closed? "I am sorry, I did not intend to hide your innocence from you. I wanted to protect it. It's in my bag."
Sol blinked -quite stupidly, dare she admit- several times before smiling sheepishly at the man who was carrying her. "My mission is to deliver that innocence to Komui. My name is Sol Avila."
"Nice to meet you, Sol. I am General Freud Tiedoll." The old man introduced himself with a smile under his vast moustache, speaking to her for the first time. "And the lovely child next to you is Yu Kanda. They're my sons!"
"You are not my relative!" Kanda immediately growled. "Delirious old man!"
Tiedoll ignored the child's outburst. "How do you know Komui?"
"He came to the South American branch once when I was younger." Sol explained. "I don't remember much about him but his squeaky slippers.
The old man laughed a warm laugh, like a grandpa's laugh. "That's Komui alright!" when his laugh died down he looked at her confused. "Why do you want to give away your innocence? Do you not wish to fight?"
And an even more confused look took over Sol's face at those words. "My innocence?"
Silence.
And then: "Baka!"
Sol scowled at Kanda. "Are insults and spiteful words your only vocabulary, you retard?! What about me even reminds you of a cow?!"
Kanda frowned. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
Sol growled. "You tell me! You're the one who called me a cow!"
Tiedoll laughed a hardy laugh and both children looked at him puzzled.
"Sol-chan, Yu-kun is Japanese. In Japan, baka means stupid. It's said with "b" not "v"."
Sol's face illuminated for a moment before she frowned again.
"He still insulted me!"
"Yu is a very sensitive boy-"
"Hey! I'm not sensitive, baka jiji!" Kanda interrupted.
"-but you mustn't take him seriously." Finished Tiedoll.
Sol smirked. "Oh really!"
Kanda clicked his tongue in annoyance while his forehead veins pulsed vigorously.
And before they could start another fight General Tiedoll brought back the conversation to the innocence: "Sol-chan, you invoked the innocence, before, did you not? You were the one who killed those akuma, right?"
Sol stared at him confused again by his words. "How..? What…?"
"We followed your trail all the way from the South American branch to a burning field." Marie Explained. "We found traces of a fight with akuma and since we had no information of another exorcist surviving the collapse of the mountain side, we instantly assumed it was you."
Anything else they might have said after that was drowned in Sol's brain. Her heart was pierced by this new information and it was painful. Extremely so. She didn't even register her tears or the trembling of her body.
"Sol-chan?" Tiedoll called softly, his eyes turning compassionate when she turned her crying wide eyes at him. Pain and panic obvious in them as her young heart broke in tiny, tiny pieces bruising her soul and making it hard to breathe.
"How am I gonna tell Luna that…the mountain…mom and dad…?" Sol's voice whispered like a frail thread.
Marie's big hand patted her head and brought it close to his chest where he felt the girl clutch his coat and cry desperately.
The adults nodded and decided to keep walking while Sol slowly cried herself to sleep in Marie's arms.
-o0o-
When she woke up again she had no idea where she was. The only thing she knew was that she was on a bed, in a sunlit room with cream coloured walls and white ceiling. Her open eyes stared at the cracks on the ceiling, unblinking, unfocused, her mind as blank as its colour. She felt drained of her energy and her feelings.
She turned her head to the side
Luna's sleeping face greeted her and all the recent events came crashing down on her. Hazelnut eyes immediately released more tears that ran through her skin and onto the soft fabric of the pillow she was resting on. Her beloved younger sister was blissfully ignorant of the turmoil they would soon share. How was she supposed to tell her sister that they were now alone in the world? How do you go about destroying someone's world without causing too much pain?
"Why are you crying?" Luna asked, her voice still sleepy. She brushed a tear away from Sol's face with her thumb. "Don't cry."
Sol took a breath and opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She sighed and smiled.
"Good morning. Did you sleep well?"
Luna smiled back and nodded happily.
Sol's eyes prickled as tears were rapidly forming. She hugged Luna close and tight and laid her on her chest.
"Sol, you're squeezing me!" Luna laughed. Then she frowned. "Why does you heart sound weird?"
"What do you mean weird?" Sol asked trying her best to keep her voice steady, her throat constricting and her teeth biting her lower lip.
"Different from usual…" Luna said concerned. "Did something happen?"
The silence that followed stretched through long minutes until the younger of the two thought the other had fallen asleep. That thought was crushed at the sound of Sol's voice calling her name. Luna hummed in response.
"I want you to promise me something."
"Whatever you ask, Sol."
"Promise me that, no matter what happens or what you might hear from now on, you will be strong. Promise me you will never let the Millennium Earl convince you of anything. That you won't become an akuma."
"What are you talking about?" Luna's scared voice asked from the girl's position on her sister's chest. "You're scaring me."
"Promise me please, Luna." Sol begged, her voice becoming a whisper. "Please."
"I promise. I promise, please don't cry!"
Sol hugged her sister a while longer until her voice was steady enough to talk.
"Luna, when we get to the Order's Headquarters we will have to fight hard and we will be alone. We will only have each other. Do you understand? We have to be strong and be always there for the other."
"Sol…?" Luna's voice was also breaking down and then Sol knew her sister understood.
"I promise you Luna, with every molecule of my existence that I will never leave you alone." Fresh tears rolled down the path that the previous had threaded down her face. "You can always count on me."
"Mom and dad…they're…gone, aren't they?" Luna managed to whisper between sobs and at the tightening of her sister's embrace she knew they would never see their parents and friends again.
Sol hated the whole world at that moment. She buried her face in her sister's hair and prayed. She prayed for the strength to fight and never die, to be always there for her most beloved treasure and she prayed for the sky to open up and wash away the pain of her sister's heart.
Outside the door, peeking through the small fringe was a pair of deep dark blue eyes. A silent "tch" escaped the lips of those eyes owner.
-o0o-
"Why did it go blunt again?" Luna asked, her eyes fixed on the rapier that Sol was holding out of the scabbard.
The party had breakfast that morning at the inn they had spent the night at and continued voyage. Sol had discovered spare clothes in the canvas bag Mateo had packed. They had to be taken shopping for coats, though. Not for the short journey through the land, to the Venezuelan coast, but for the crossing of the ocean and their arrival to European soil. It was winter there after all.
They had all walked right through cacao, sugar, coffee and corn plantations, making the shortest way to Caracas, where they would embark a steamship that would take them to Spain and from there getting to the Order's Headquarters would be easy.
"The innocence is not activated so it makes sense that they would go back to the way they were before." Sol told her, still examining the rapier before giving up her study of the rusty blade and putting them back on their sheath.
"I still don't get it, why would the innocence heed my command?"
"You are compatible. That's all there is to it!" Kanda rasped.
Just then Sol noticed the katana Kanda had strapped to his back. Its scabbard was black and simple. It looked elegant and powerful, she decided. "Is that your innocence?"
Kanda looked at the katana and then at her. "That's Mugen, my innocence."
"It's awesome!" exclaimed Luna. "Can we see it?"
"No." was the immediate reply.
"Why not?" Luna's lips pouted but Kanda's expression told her and her sister that they didn't want to know more than that. They just shared a look and it was enough.
"You also kill akuma with a sword, so you're gonna teach me!" Sol decided pointing at Kanda.
"No I am not!" Kanda refused, his forehead vein popping up again and pulsing. "And Mugen is a katana, not a sword."
"Same difference and yes you are! I can't fight if I don't know how so you're teaching me."
"Before you can fight, however, you have to report to the Order and measure your synchronization rate." Tiedoll interrupted in a happy voice before gasping loudly. "Such a beautiful landscape!" he took his canvas out and the carbon and started sketching the expanse of green and brown of a coffee plantation and a small square house with a triangular roof. Nothing special, but the little house painted blue and the palm trees growing around it. A woman was collecting coffee beans to a huge basket, her clothes white, floral and fresh, her long skirt a light pink, making her natural tan stand out.
"What's so nice about it?" Kanda bit annoyed.
"People in this part of the world are really nicely tanned!" Tiedoll commented, pointedly ignoring Kanda's jab at the beauty of the working woman under the sun.
Various stops later –many of which were from Tiedoll's part- the group finally made it to port. The variety of ships anchored there was astonishing. Sol and Luna had been to the port many times before, but they would never get tired of the salty smell of the ocean, the fresh fish and the burning South American sun on their skin. That feeling was obviously plastered on their faces because Kanda couldn't stop staring at them in confusion.
"What?" Sol asked, suspicious of the boy's genuine curiosity.
Kanda frowned. "I don't get it." He muttered. How he hated not getting something.
Sol's eyes shone with mirth.
Luna explained it to him before her sister could start another fight with the short tempered boy "it's the feeling of the ocean and its smell and the sun. Close your eyes and breathe deeply."
Kanda eyed her for a few seconds before doing what she told him. Sol and Luna did the same.
The feeling was completely indescribable. It was warm and fresh and oh so free! All at the same time and it made him almost want to cry.
"Now multiply that by hundreds." Sol whispered close to him, eyes still closed. "Imagine you're flying over the waves of the ocean, touching it with your fingers and tasting it's saltiness with your skin."
Kanda was feeling like he was in a completely different world altogether. He certainly didn't know what it felt like to fly, but if it was anything compared to what the girls next to him were making him feel, then he wouldn't mind turning into a bird for the rest of his life.
Until a very strong push on his back made him fall headfirst to the water and he gasped in the exact same moment he hit the cold surface. His lungs suddenly filled with water and his mouth felt incredibly salted. His mind couldn't tell which way was up inside the foam and the current and as time quickly passed, his empty lungs started to burn. His heartbeat threatened to break his ribcage and his toes and fingers started tingling. Just as his vision tunnelled he felt a pair of arms embrace him and lips on his own, blowing hot air into his mouth. He looked at his saviour and decided that he was pissed he owed Sol now. The blush on his face and the loud and heavy beating of his heart had nothing to do with her. Absolutely not!
When their heads broke the salty and fresh surface of the water, both children breathed deeply. Kanda and Sol looked at each other and then at the pier, where one had been pushed from and the other jumped from.
A couple of level two akuma and some level one were shooting at innocent bystanders and causing havoc, death and destruction. They saw Marie fighting. Luna was with Tiedoll, inside what Sol could only describe as white rose bushes. It seemed to be strong since the akuma bullets did not cause a single scratch. Marie was using invisible strings to fight. He would catch the akuma and they would suddenly explode. The level two akuma cussed and hid behind the level ones several times until they were caught by Marie's unforgiving innocence.
"Noel Organon!" Marie said and the level twos screamed in agony before exploding.
"Amazing." Sol muttered stunned beyond belief.
"Noel Organon." Kanda said and he extended his hand to pull Sol out of the sea. When did he get to the pier? "That's Marie's Innocence."
Sol took his hand and promptly unsheathed her rapier just as Kanda unsheathed his Mugen.
"Mugen activate!" Kanda ordered it while running his fingers through the blade. The black metal turned shiny silver and deadly. "First Illusion: Kaichu Ichigen!"
Fascination took over Sol's features as she watched the weirdest creatures coming from the Katana and attacking the akuma, effectively and effortlessly destroying them. An akuma attacked Kanda from behind, but the child leaped high in the air, escaping and bringing Mugen down on it in a long slash, rendering the machine in two.
"What are you waiting for to watch my back, baka!" Kanda yelled at Sol. Immediately she smiled and shouted. "Innocence activate!" the red glow transformed her blade into a deadly weapon and she charged at the akuma, stabbing at them the best she could.
"You lack style! And what the hell is that?! Dancing?!" Kanda criticized and slashed an akuma to his left as if to show Sol how she's supposed to do it.
"Tiedoll-san, Kanda is helping Sol. He's teaching her." Luna told the General, pointing out her finger to the fighting pair. They were bickering between each other at the same time they destroyed the last of the level ones. Marie was also watching them with a faint smile.
"Yes he is, Luna-chan." The old man smiled tenderly. The broken child he had taken in back in Asia was nowhere to be found. This child was lively, very bad mouthed, stubborn and had a powerful bright fire burning inside of him, though he knew Kanda was never going to forget what the Order had done to him. Such a thing is inerasable and unforgivable.
Smoke and blood covered the pier when they were done with the akuma. Tiedoll released Luna once he deemed it safe and they headed to the tired fighters.
"We need to make our way now." Marie said, a hand on the strange device he had to cover his ears. "I can hear more akuma approaching. They're a couple of days away."
Luna furrowed her eyebrows and steadied her posture, turning to the next steamship she found with a Spanish flag. The group saw her, surprised as she stalked away and greeted a sailor that had been watching the fight from the deck. The group followed her when she waved at them. Sol smirked feeling extremely proud of her sister.
"I asked them if they knew a ship that wouldn't mind taking a group of exorcists back to England." Luna told them as they climbed the stairs in the ship, following the sailor. "He said they are a group of supporters currently trading passengers and goods between Spain and Venezuela and that he didn't mind taking us to the captain."
They were escorted by the bystander to the lower levels of the ship and instructed them to wait there as he knocked in the door to the Captain's cabin.
"Quién me llama?" asked a tall and very bulky man from the metal door that led to the captain's cabin. He was wearing a red overcoat over a black uniform and thick black glasses over his eyes. his hands were clutching a book and some papers and there was a pencil lodged behind the man's ear.
The exorcists and the children were quickly surrounded by sailors looking scary with their greedy grins.
"Capitán, se dicen exorcistas." A sailor told the captain in a mocking voice.
"Lo son! Yo los vi con mis dos ojos! Destruyeron a los akuma, Capitán! Los niños también!" another sailor yelled, the one Sol had previously been talking to.
"Si, pero tu eres ciego de un ojo!" the first sailor mocked and the rest of the crew laughed out loud.
"SILENCIO!" the captain yelled, his voice stretching through the ship and reaching the ships around. Silence was absolute. "Welcome on board the SS Andrea, exorcists of the Black Order!"
The smiles on the children's faces, –Kanda was smirking. SMIRKING!- as well as the adults shone like the sun on this tropical land where the summer was eternal.
-o0o-
"The South American branch has been completely destroyed. The akuma attacked at night and passed their security by sheer numbers. No South American exorcist remained alive. Fortunately the innocence they possessed was minimal, perhaps two or three cubes. Reports said they were taken by the akuma."
"What about survivors?"
"Only two children, sir. One is even compatible with innocence and has effectively destroyed a two digit number of them on their escape."
The inspector's eyes shone evilly. His intertwined fingers hiding an even more evil grin.
"Excellent!"
-o0o-
Two months later found the exorcists at the table of the cafeteria of the Black Order. They had arrived during the night, completely exhausted and had immediately been shown to their sleeping quarters. Sol and Luna marvelled at the snow outside and the cold and the vapour that steamed from their breath as they spoke. They made Marie and a very reluctant Kanda promise to take them outside the next day to make a snowman. Their stomachs had priority that morning though.
"Aren't they adorable?" a very flamboyant dark skinned cooker squealed his delight at the three children currently occupying one of the cafeteria tables. Finders and exorcists alike were openly staring at them and smiling at their childish antics.
"The order is becoming more of a kindergarten than a religious organization currently at war." A finder in his yellow hood commented, concern lacing his voice.
"They are young, that's true. I wonder if they'll be fine…" the cooker whined, truly worried with the adorable children.
"Don't eat it all!" Luna moaned when Sol snatched yet another piece of bacon from the serving.
"There's loads more, Luna!" Sol complained, her food still in her mouth.
"That's disgusting." Kanda said with an utterly repulsed face to what Sol retorted by opening her mouth showing him the chewed up food it contained and watching as Kanda's Mr. Vein, as she had secretly called it, appeared on his forehead.
The children continued to gulf down their food, except Kanda who always eats his food quite graciously, until two sets of footsteps approached them.
"Good evening, children." a man in a German uniform greeted. When the children looked at him, they saw an enormous cake being offered to them. Immediately the girls' eyes turned sparkly and their hands brought their forks at the ready, however Luna was the only one to attack the cake as Sol became totally paralyzed by the man's malefic smile.
The man seemed to be greatly pleased at her reaction.
"My name is Malcolm C. Leverrier. I am what you only need to understand as a higher up." He explained.
"I know who you are." Sol said a dubious look on her face. "I heard…people talking about you."
"Good things I hope." Leverrier inquired as he set the cake on the table for Luna to devour since her sister was preoccupied with the newcomer. Serves her right for eating everything else on the breakfast table!
"Very." Sol replied, sarcasm heavy in spite of her being only a nine year old child.
Truth was Luna and Sol had overheard Komui talking to their father one night. He had been crying because a Leverrier person was holding his younger sister captive somewhere and Sol didn't like people messing with younger sisters.
"Then I am sure we will be great friends." Leverrier continued with his creepy smile. "Have you met Hevlaska? She is another great friend of mine."
"They are going to see her after getting Sol-chan's weapon looked at, inspector." Tiedoll informed him, Marie just behind him, both just coming right through the cafeteria's doors.
"I am finished eating." Sol said, final and determined. That man was not scaring her!
Who the hell was she kidding?! She was terrified!
"Good. Shall we go then?" Leverrier invited her extending his hand as if politely taking a lady's hand to guide her where he wanted.
The child followed the man in the German uniform, but ignoring the offered hand completely, steady steps, two for each one of the grown up man's, and determined façade. Her hands however were shaking just the slightest bit.
A warm hand made its way into her sweaty one and squeezed, reassuring. On the other side of the arm was the last person Sol ever expected to see. Kanda was walking just as determined as she was, looking forward with a tint of pink adorning his cheekbones.
Sol smiled a small scared smile.
Kanda blinked.
Their hands squeezed.
Truth be told, Kanda and Sol had become friends during their time at the SS Andrea. Kanda had taken to himself the responsibility of teaching Sol everything she needed for a good base in swordsmanship and they started developing and improving their own fighting styles, often sparring with each other and pausing only to eat, bathe and sleep. "It's painful to watch the kenjutsu (1) being butchered so badly!" he had moaned one day but his words lacked their usual venom. But their styles required different training as different as their weapons were so, more often than not, the Captain of the ship himself would teach moves to Sol that has somehow saved him in numerous occasions through uncountable adventures that sounded more like fairy tales.
The occasional day they wouldn't be training found Kanda and Sol on deck talking. Most times Luna would join them in those conversations and she would often watch them train for an hour or so with a book on her lap.
Sol told Kanda that her sister wanted to fight her own way, by becoming the most brilliant person to ever work at the science division of the Black Order. It had been Marie's suggestion when the girl came to him quite depressed that she didn't have something to offer to the Order so that she could stay with her sister so the big kind man started telling her about the Black Order. Luna marvelled at everything the Science division took upon themselves to protect the exorcists and finders when they were out there in danger. She immediately ran to the captain's cabin and asked him to lend her all the books he could so that she could study and she set herself to work. She was doing spectacularly too!
"Oh! A rapier!" the scientist they were seeing whistled. The man looked just a little out of his mind, but had an air of knowledge on him that Sol absolutely liked. He took the Rapier and started inspecting it, all the while explaining Sol all about innocence and what she could one day be able to accomplish with it.
Hours later, the dormant rapier no longer looked like old blunt memento. It looked just as elegant and powerful as Kanda's Mugen, and that made Sol feel just a little bit smug. It also had been named: Coloso.
-o0o-
Hevlaska was, in Sol's mind, amazing. She couldn't, for the life of her decide if the thing she was seeing was a sea creature or vapour coming out from one that was clearly hidden somewhere. She looked down and she only saw a circle on the floor, way, way below, with shining lights. It looked like some kind of alchemist rite.
"That's the true form of the innocence. They are cubes like this one." Tiedoll explained pulling an Innocence cube from his coat and showing it to the child in front of him.
Sol's wide eyes made him laugh. "This cube will someday become a weapon to fight against the Millennium Earl. But before you go to fight, Hevlaska has to examine your innocence."
At that precise moment a white tentacle wrapped around Sol's waist and pulled her up towards the huge sea creature's head. The fear inside her compelled her to take her innocence and fight her off. Her mind had a different opinion. None of the exorcists below showed any sign of this being any dangerous, so she trusted her head.
"Nine percent." A female's voice said, almost as if reciting "Eleven percent." Sol looked around, but she and her sister were the only female presences in the seemingly infinite room "Thirty three percent." She realized then that the voice must be Hevlaska's voice "Fifty four percent."
"She's measuring my synchronization rate…" she whispered with a smile, anxiety building inside of her.
"Eighty nine percent." Was Hevlaska's last number before she brought the child back to the elevator where the rest of the exorcists, the Inspector and he sister were.
"How is she Hevlaska?" Leverrier asked as the white exorcist examined her innocence.
"89%. That is her maximum synchronization with her weapon."
"Perfect" Let us go then.
That was good, right? It had to be. Someone say something!
The elevator made it all the way to the top, where its passengers disembarked and the silence was broken.
"Miss Avila, from here on you are an Exorcist in training." declared Leverrier, hands behind his back in and authoritative pose that left no room for questioning. "You shall depart with General Tiedoll as his disciple and train yourself to the duties of a Disciple of God. I expect you to be a full-fledged Exorcist on your return and be available to undertake assignments immediately."
Sol nodded her head, her rigid posture preventing her from speaking.
She was ready to fight this war, to take her revenge on the Millennium Earl and rid the world from the akuma.
"Get rid of the unnecessary luggage." The inspector shot a nasty glare at Luna, leaving no doubts as to the implications of that sentence. The girl's own glares on the verge of being able to kill. Then his creepy grin was back full force. "I hope I have the pleasure to see you again, Miss Avila."
Another silence. One charged with all the hate a human could muster towards a single enemy. No one dared to even move in case the friction would start a fire so big it would burn the entire place.
Until:
"Who the hell does he think he is to decide my sister's future for her?!" Sol yelled feeling outraged and betrayed. "She's been burning her lashes in books all this time! No way he's gonna cut her off! I refuse!"
"Sol-chan, I'm afraid you don't really have a choice in this matter." Tiedoll explained. "There are other ways…"
"The hell I don't!" she turned to the old man. "I made a promise with her! I am not going to break that promise at the first obstacle!"
"Then protect her!" Kanda yelled getting so close to her face that she could feel not only his breath, but his rage and see the fire burning brightly in those deep dark pools of blue. "Fight for her! Come out victorious like a good exorcist and let her fight her battles on her own! The life of an exorcist as well as a scientist is hard and you both will suffer, all of us will, but you are sisters and you have each other! So fight!"
Sol's eyes couldn't get any wider. Kanda had never had such an outburst in the time they knew each other. Not that it was a long time, but if Tiedoll's and Marie's expressions were anything to go by, then she was sure it wasn't an everyday occurrence.
"Sol, Kanda is right." Luna said, approaching her with her hands held forward. "You go and become a good exorcist and you'll see I'll come back in no time like a real genius! I'll be so smart that the Order will have to have me!"
Sol frowned and hugged her sister so tight she might have broken a few bones.
"I know the perfect teacher for you, little one." interrupted the scientist from before, his coat fluttering about as he approached them.
The group looked at him expecting him to elaborate. Their only answer was a plotting grin.
-o0o-
"I'll see you in a while, Luna!" Sol told her sister, her hands fighting to get out of her exorcist coat's sleeves so that she could wipe her sister's tears away. "You better take good care of my sister, Komui! I have a sword now!"
Right after seeing Hevlaska Tiedoll instructed Sol to go and train as hard as she could and leave her sister in the care of the scientist that identified himself as "Supervisor and that's it!" Sol didn't really know what they were doing, but her sister always returned to their room as exhausted as she herself did from training with Kanda and Marie.
Three months of the same routine after, Supervisor announced that he had found the perfect teacher at last and that they were departing the next day to Asia to meet him. The sister's face couldn't be more hilarious in Kanda's opinion when they came face to face with Komui Lee. The man hugged them and cried muttering about being told that no one had survived the South American tragedy. They even named it…
Komui laughed his obnoxious laugh and placed a hand on Luna's head. "I will treat your sister as my own with a Spartan education to boot!"
Sol smiled. Her sleeves covered her hands again and she restarted the struggle with the piece of cloth. "Couldn't I have gotten a smaller size?"
The uniform she and Kanda had gotten from the Order was similar and way too big. They kept trying to pin the sleeves up to be able to handle their innocence and their colourful language was indication enough that their efforts were frustratingly and spectacularly failing.
"You're a growing child!" Komui stated. "Think positive, it'll fit perfectly in the future!"
The man's ominous laugh seriously pissed her off. Mr. Vein also popped up in Kanda's forehead.
The train announced its departure with a loud whistle and the roaring of its engines.
Sol hugged her sister one last time before embarking the machine that would separate them for quite some time. "I love you Luna. Please stay safe and sleep a lot!"
"I love you too, Sol!" Luna told her sister with a bittersweet smile fighting back tears.
The Exorcists leaned on the train's window to say their goodbyes as the huge machine crackled loudly as it started to move slowly away from the platform.
When she could no longer see the form of her sister or even the platform, Sol came back inside the train to find Kanda smirking at her in playful mockery "Touching."
"Shaddup." Sol scowled. "I'll kick your ass!"
"Keep dreaming, princess…" Kanda muttered.
Sol tched.
Kanda smirked.
Sol laughed.
They walked into the compartment they were sharing for the voyage and settled in front of each other and looking at the window. Sol could feel the beginning of a very long journey coming ahead. She was sure that it was going to be hard, but she had her Master, General Tiedoll and her brothers in arms Marie and Kanda. She swore at that moment to give her all to become powerful. So much more powerful and protect everything that mattered, she would become the Order's tool to vanquish the akuma.
-o0o-
(1) Rapier: "is a slender, sharply pointed sword, best suited for thrusting attacks, used mainly in Early Modern Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. – Source: Wikipedia
(2) Kenjutsu: " term for all traditional schools of Japanese swordsmanship." – Source: Wikipedia