The Innocence of Our World

~CHAPTER 1~

Ayano Tsui and Yumiko Amaya walked along the somewhat crowded streets of London, heading towards their favorite destination in the world; Bertrand's Book Emporium. People hustled around them, carrying briefcases, talking into cellphones, holding umbrellas that shielded them from the gentle rain, and doing various other things. Cars rolled through the streets, slower than usual as they navigated through the soaking streets.

Ayano twirled her umbrella and knocked Yumiko with it, grinning at her friend, who smirked back and returned the favor by whacking Ayano's red umbrella with her own neon green one. "One of these days, you're going to stop doing that so that I don't have to resist the temptation the whack you in the face with my umbrella," Yumiko joked.

"I'll stop smacking you with my umbrella the day it stops raining here for a few months." The two friends turned down a street, more of an alleyway really, but considered a street nevertheless.

Not many people usually traversed this path, mainly because there was always that one hobo who was always muttering incoherent words and sipping a large, tinted bottle with a faded label, only to be surprised when he found there was nothing within.

They walked down the street, their boots causing big splashes when they purposely stepped hard in in an effort to drench each other even more than they already were.

"Hey look, hottie at 12 o'clock," Ayano whispered to Yumiko and she looked at what Ayano was talking about, her eyes, bright, almost neon green in all honesty, piercing the three approaching men as she watched them intently.

"Which one of them?" she replied softly as they continued to draw closer to the trio. "The white haired one or the one with the long, dark hair?"

"No, not them," Ayano said, "The red haired man." The three men came to a halt in front of the two friends. The one Japanese-and-somewhat-feminine-looking one with long, dark hair opened his mouth to speak and then his dark blue eyes, almost black flickered to Yumiko, and he shut his mouth, as if nervous.

The red head grinned, his single green eye, the other of which was hidden behind a black eye patch, twinkled in mischief. "What's wrong Yuu? Cat got your tongue?"

The long haired man turned and grabbed the red haired man by his green scarf and snarled, "No, but if you don't shut up, you certainly won't have a tongue." Ayano and Yumiko began to laugh and the long haired man let go off the redhead's scarf.

The white haired boy smiled almost apologetically, his unusually gray eyes closing as he did so, bringing out the strange scar on his face.

The white haired man spoke, "Excuse me, but would you happen to know where we are? We, uh, got… lost."

Yumiko smiled, "No need to be embarrassed about it. London is a REALLY big city; it's easy to get lost around here. We still get lost from time to time. Where are you three headed to?"

The boy took out a folded piece of paper and unfolded it. He handed it to Yumiko, "Do you know where this place is?"

Yumiko smiled, "Well, what a coincidence! It seems we're headed to the same place."

"R-Really?"

Ayano nodded and smiled, "Yup! Why don't you three come with us?"

"Sure, thanks!" the white haired boy said with an elated grin. "Oh, I'm sorry, we haven't introduced ourselves," Yumiko said, laughing a little at that.

"I'm Yumiko Amaya and this is Ayano Tsui." The redhead grinned, something he obviously did often. "I'm Lavi Bookman, the longhaired samurai with the vicious temper is Yuu Kanda,"

"How many times do I have to tell you to not call me that!" Kanda hissed, but Lavi only grinned and continued, "And the white haired short stack here is Allen Walker."

"Short stack!? Who the hell are you calling short stack!?" Lavi laughed and even Kanda smiled a little, "Obviously you moyashi, considering your smaller than a grain of rice."

Allen glared at Kanda and made a rude gesture; one you wouldn't usually consider doing to your grandmother. "So, shall we get walking?" Yumiko said and the three men nodded in agreement.

"By the way, the bookstore is thataway," Ayano said grinning, pointing to the entrance of the alleyway where Allen, Kanda, and Lavi had appeared at. "Damn it moyashi, I knew we shouldn't have let you have the map!"

Allen laughed sheepishly, "Sorry, I just got distracted by the smell of food." "Shocker," Lavi chimed in, and everyone began to laugh. Well, everyone except Kanda, but his version of laughter is a small smile, more of an upwards turn of the corners of his lips really.

They strode through the streets, marching through puddle after puddle that had collected on the cobblestone road, in the little indents between each piece of asymmetrical stone that had been cemented together.

A crisp wind started up, pushing the dark gray clouds above faster across the sky than they had before. Thunder began to rumble throughout the sky, and a flash of lightning would race through the clouds every now and then. "Great," Allen muttered, "More rain on the way."

Yumiko grinned, "Well, at least we aren't in the middle of a monsoon season in China or India." Allen paled at the mention of India and nodded. Ayano glanced at Lavi and saw an evil grin upon his face. He ever so slowly and carefully stretched an arm out from beneath his umbrella until he could almost touch Kanda's hair.

Just as he was about to grab Kanda's hair tie, the dark haired samurai whirled around and grabbed the redhead's wrist. "So help me God, you baka usagi, I will break your arms if you try that again."

Yumiko grinned at that and Lavi just smiled even wider. "C'mon Yuu, you've been threatening that for years and haven't done it yet." Kanda's eye twitched once, twice, three times.

Within seconds, he had the redhead in a headlock and was proceeding to cause him to turn a lovely shade of red that completely clashed with his hair. "Can't… breathe!" Lavi gasped, scrabbling at the air and Kanda's arm. Kanda let him go, satisfied with the near choking for now. Yumiko and Ayano began to laugh at the two; Kanda smirking in satisfaction and Lavi choking and gasping for air.

"Well, I guess it's a little late to point out that we're here," Ayano said with a chuckle and instantly, three heads shoot up and looked at the store they were in front of.

The store in front of them was ancient looking; the sign to the shop was hanging on by a hook and overall the outside made the bookstore seem abandoned. The wood on the outside was wearing out and the iron on the sign and what it was hanging from were rusted and very old. The three men stood there, confused. Lavi finally spoke up, "Are you sure this is the right place? I mean it's so old and… well… OLD!"

A man came out of the shop with his arms folded, "Haven't you EVER heard the phrase, 'don't judge a book by its cover?!'"

"Yeah, but we're not talking about a book."

"I know that you bumbling buffoon! You were talking about the shop! Don't just look at the front of the store and expect the same thing inside!"

"I already can tell what it looks like inside. It's old, dusty, and full of boring old books."

Yumiko and Ayano heard what Lavi said and both became irritated. Ayano started practically yelling at him, "You're such an idiot! Don't you get it?! That's why the shop looks this way! So people would understand that phrase!"

Yumiko put a hand on Ayano's shoulder, "Calm down. You can't stop stupidity. Besides he'll learn what that phrase means once he walks inside."

The man nods at Yumiko and Ayano, "Good thing you two are here. If I had to try to explain to this idiot any further I would have gone insane!"

"No problem! We love coming here anyway. Maybe we should show them inside so they can finally understand what we're talking about."

"Sounds good to me!"

Yumiko, Ayano, and the man led Allen, Kanda, and Lavi inside the store and what they saw made both Allen and Lavi's mouths fall agape. Kanda just stood there in his own way looking around in amazement.

To say that the building was simply pretty or elegant was a major understatement. It was like saying a Tyrannosaurus Rex was massive and somewhat frightening. It was like saying that ants were relatively efficient and good at finding food. It was like saying the Empire State Building is simply big.

The bookstore was posh. It was chic, stylish, swanky, elegant, and any other word in the Dictionaries and Thesauruses that could possibly sum the store up in a few words. The interior was brightly lit with little sconces, sculpted so that they resembled animals ranging from cats to elephants to whales, all hiding the bright light bulbs behind.

The walls were covered in tall, dark brown oak shelves; so many that you could barely see any part of the wall itself. They stretched up so high that a ladder was needed to reach the highest books, which were easily fifteen feet up. Books lined the shelves, ranging from ones that seemed no bigger than a hair to ones that took up the entire five foot section of the shelf.

Titles ranged from familiar English titles like Oliver Twist to strange ones in foreign languages and codes that the five didn't recognize. Dark mahogany desks were placed approximately five feet away from the shelves, with high-backed pine chairs with soft red cushions, worn from the thousands of people that had sat upon them. In the center of the building, there was a staircase made of the same dark, stained oak that the shelves were made out of.

It started out going straight but then curled back around, forming a double staircase that led to the floor above, where a stained glass ceiling of Earth allowed light through, painting the shop a million colors. "Holy shit," Lavi said, finally able to get his mouth to shut and his voice to start working.

"That's a bit of an understatement," Allen said, gazing around open-mouthed. "Well," Kanda said, "Are we just going to stand around and admire the shop or are we going to start looking for that book?"

Lavi and Allen nodded, concentration and seriousness suddenly washing over their faces and they separated, Lavi going right, Allen going left. Kanda went up the stairs to inspect the floor above. Ayano turned to Yumiko, a broad smile on her face. "Should we help them?" She asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

"Might as well. After all, they'll probably need all the help that they can get." With a grin, the two friends split up, Yumiko going up the stairs to join Kanda and Ayano going right to aid Lavi in his search.

To help her find out what she needed to look out for Yumiko asked Kanda, "So what book are you looking for?"

"Some book called, The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe."

"Ah, I see. I don't believe I've read that one, so we'll just have to search until we find it." Yumiko went down a little bit a ways from Kanda and began looking. After about an hour or so of searching Yumiko yelled to Ayano, "Have you found it yet?!"

"Not yet! What about you?!"

"Nope!" As Yumiko went to the next column of books, she came across an old book that she knew quite well. It was an old fairytale book her father used to read to her and her brother. She took it from the shelf and examined the book. Yumiko never opened the book she just looked at the cover, her eyes became foggy.

The shopkeeper came up beside Yumiko, "Are you alright there?"

"Huh? Oh, yes. I'm fine." Yumiko quickly put the book back in its place and continued searching.

The shopkeeper looked at Yumiko confused, "I noticed that you always pick up that book when you come here… Why don't you ever just get it?"

"Well… Let's just say it brings up bad memories…"

As Yumiko put the book back on the shelf, Ayano slid up to Lavi and stretched up onto her tip toes so she could look over his shoulder. "What'cha lookin' for?" she said, head tilted to the side. "The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe," he said as he scanned the shelves, "But that might be a bit difficult considering how many books there are in here."

Ayano laughed, "And don't forget that it might not even be in English." Lavi grimaced, "I hadn't thought about that. Thankfully, between Kanda, Allen, and me, we cover a relatively broad range of languages."

"Oh really?" Ayano said with a grin, "Do you know any Swedish?" Lavi rolled his eyes a little and laughed, "Yes, despite the fact of that I'll probably never meet anyone that can speak it, unless I go to Sweden of course."

Ayano laughed, "Good point, good point. So, do mind if I help you search?" Lavi shook his head, "Not at all. Do you mind getting the top shelves" Ayano grinned and thrust her hand in the hand, making a thumbs-up gesture. "Leave it to me!" She said and scaled up the ladder, nimble as a monkey.

Yumiko smacked her hand onto her forehead, realizing something, "Duh!" She turned to the shopkeeper, "Do you have the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe book?"

"That's what you were looking for? Okay, come with me." Yumiko and Kanda followed the shopkeeper to the other side of the second floor and the bookcase that sat with its side against the wall. He searched down the shelf and finally took out an incredibly thick book.

He handed it to Yumiko and before she could get a proper grip on the book the shopkeeper let go of the book and it fell from her hands to the ground with a loud THUD! The book had fallen open and papers scattered on the floor. Yumiko quickly began to pick up the papers and noticed that they all seemed to be some sort of map. She picked several up and examined them, "Huh."

The shopkeeper looked at her curiously, "What is it? Are they not pages from the book?"

"They're not from the book at all… They're maps. How odd. Why are maps in a book of poems and short stories filled with riddles?"

The shopkeeper shrugged, "I'm not entirely sure…" Kanda appeared at Yumiko's shoulder, seemingly out of thin air. He peered down at the scraps of paper that Yumiko had collected and the ones that were still in the book. "… Jesus how many maps did that Finder need to make?" he said, shaking his head in wonder.

"Allen, Lavi, Ayano, come here," he called downstairs to where the three persons mentioned were. Within moments they joined Yumiko, Kanda, and the shopkeeper upstairs. "Well, that certainly is a lot of maps," Allen said, staring down at the five-hundred-plus pages, although many seemed to make a larger map. "Soooo, should we begin the search then?" Lavi said, face serious for once as he looked to his two companions.

Allen shot a warning glance at the shopkeeper and the two girls. The shopkeeper did not appear to notice however as he bid them a farewell a few moments later and wandered back downstairs, where another customer had entered the shop.

"Search for what exactly?" Ayano inquired, head tilted slightly to the right, dark brown eyes piercing the three men in turn. Yumiko nodded fiercely in agreement, neon green eyes wide and set in determination. "Are you grave robbers?" she asked, and it would have been funny if she hadn't had said it so seriously

Allen smiled and shook his head, "No, not grave robbers. Far from anything disgusting like that." He turned to his two companions. "Should we bring them along?" He asked in a soft voice that easily carried to the two women.

"Oi! Don't even bother asking them about whether or not we can come along because if you refuse, I'll tie you up and kick you three to the other side of the galaxy, and no matter what you say, we're coming." Yumiko said as forcefully and intimidatingly as she could, green eyes blazing with defiance. Ayano nodded in agreement, jaw set indetermination.

Kanda rolled his eyes, "Suit yourselves." He picked up the book and pushed all of the papers that had fallen out back in before handing it to Yumiko. Their fingers brushed ever so slightly, causing Yumiko to turn a little red and snatch the book out of Kanda's hand before she could go any redder. Ayano smirked as she watched; thinking to herself about what excellent jokes could spawn from that.

"Since we have so many maps, which place are we going to first?" Yumiko took out several of the maps from the book to see where some of the locations were, "How about this one? It's pretty close by." The map showed some place near Canterbury, "I think this is where some ruins are because if they weren't it would be crowded by the city and the civilians."

Kanda looked at the map closely, "So have any idea how to get to Canterbury? This map just shows how to get to the place once you reach Canterbury."

"Well I've only been there once… What about you, Ayano?"

"Well…" Ayano said slowly, "I have been there a few times. My cousin lives there; I went to visit him twice for a week or so last year." Everybody grinned, "Excellent," Lavi said, "Just the luck we needed." Ayano just grinned, cheeks going a little pink at the compliment. "So then," she said, whirling around suddenly, "Shall we head back to our apartment, grab some stuff to take, sleep, and leave first thing in the morning?"

Allen raised an eyebrow. "Why not leave now?" Ayano turned back to them and grinned, "Because it's nearly eight o'clock and I'm relatively sure the last ride we can get for the train there was at eight. But the first one in the morning is at about six thirty." Lavi blinked, "Wait… we can just take the train?" Ayano nodded, "Of course. Did you think I drove there?" Ayano and Yumiko grinned, "Now come on, let's get back to the apartment and get ready!"

Nods and murmurs of agreement followed and the five new companions trooped down the stairs, out of the shop, and down the street to their destination, six blocks away, ten stories up, and three doors down the hall to the left.

As they went into the apartment Lavi, Allen, and Kanda noticed that it was a little small. Ayano spoke, "So this is our lovely apartment. There are two bedrooms, one bathroom, a small kitchen, and the living room. You three will be sleeping in the living room. Oh, and if you want to see the view we have a balcony." They all decided to go to bed early so they wouldn't be too overly tired when they travelled in the morning.

Yumiko left to her room and Ayano left to her room. Kanda, Lavi, and Allen got situated and quickly fell asleep. Yumiko was the last of all to find her way to the world of dreams. She knew, however, that she would be joining everyone with their pleasant dreams instead she would once again fall into the terrible abyss that was a nightmare. Soon she found herself falling once again into that solitary abyss.

Yumiko opened her eyes and found that she was in a hallway. The only door was the one at the end. There wasn't even a door behind her. She walked down the straight walkway. She saw paintings appear on the walls, all of them horrifying. She averted her eyes away from the grotesque and horror-like paintings and looked at the door. The door creaked open and Yumiko heard a voice coming from the room beyond the door. "Yumiko! Help me!" Her eyes widened as she recognized the voice.

"Kalon! Is that you?! I'm coming!" Yumiko ran as fast as her legs could go. When she reached the door, she jerked it open searched for her brother. A light shone down in the middle of the room. She saw Kalon sitting limp in an unstable wooden chair. She walked up to him, "Are you alright?!" Yumiko saw Kalon's head jerk in several directions and when her brother looked at her Yumiko screamed and fell back. There were no eyes in their sockets just blood running down from the empty holes. His body was beaten and bruised.

Kalon's voice was crackly and raspy, "Sister… Why did you… Let me die in that hospital…?" His body fell from the chair, his body fell to the floor, and blood splattered upon the white tiled ground. His head bent up and looked at Yumiko. Kalon's arm slowly reached out for his sister. Tears slipped down Yumiko's cheeks and before Kalon reached her, the floor beneath her opened and she fell into darkness.

The next thing Yumiko saw was that she was in a car. She tried moving her body but it was restrained to the seat. In the other seats she saw her family smiling and laughing. She knew what was going to happen so she yelled out to them, "Stop! Slam on the breaks!" Her family didn't hear her. To them her voice was nonexistent and within seconds another car slammed into their car. As the car rolled, the space around her turned to black again. Now in front of her were three scenes. Each of them were one of her family members dying as she saw the day when they truly died. When the videos were over they turned like cards until they took shape of people.

Yumiko gasped, in front of her she saw three bodies fall to the ground practically lifeless. As one head jerked up, she recognized who each person was. The first was her mother, the second was her father, and the last was Kalon. They were all in the same condition she had seen Kalon in earlier. She could no longer control her tears and she fell to her knees. Her family inched towards her and when they got close enough to her the jumped like snakes catching their prey. Yumiko screamed as she was taken down by her family.

Yumiko jumped awake, her hand on her chest. Sweat trickled down her face and she looked around and saw that she was in her own room. She let out a shaky sigh of relief. Slowly she got up and walked over to the mirror. When she saw her reflection Yumiko jumped back. She saw herself as if her family had ripped out her eyes and had beaten her.

She blinked and saw her regular self in the mirror. She breathed heavily and walked outside her room. She shook all over and walked to the balcony. She tried to make as little noise as she could. Yumiko stared out into the dark night sky, with stars cascading overhead.

Kanda's eyes snapped open, automatically reaching for his sword as his dark eyes tracked the shadow as it moved across the room, walking quietly and quickly. The form seemed to be shaking, so much that Kanda thought it might shake itself to pieces. A strange thing for an Akuma to do but then again, you never knew.

The figure passed in front of the curtains in front of the sliding glass doors and stopped, reaching out a hand and tugging the door open before stepping out into the warm night hair. As the figure turned, Kanda realized that it was no Akuma; it was simply Yumiko. What she was doing up, he had no idea, so he slowly stood and picked his way across the room, stepping out onto the balcony with her.

At first she didn't notice, not until Kanda leaned up against the railing and looked up at the sky. "Bad dream?" He said gruffly, making a point to not look at her so that she wouldn't feel embarrassed or anything. Yumiko rubbed her hands along her arms and when she spoke her voice wavered ever so slightly. "…Yeah…" Silence wrapped back around them as neither of them spoke for a long, long time.

Finally, Kanda straightened back up and stretched his arms out. "Well, good night then," Kanda said, almost a little awkwardly. Yumiko turned to him slightly and her eyes opened wide as Kanda wrapped an arm around her, almost timidly, as if she was immensely breakable and he could shatter her with a touch. Without another word, he vanished inside, quietly sliding the door back into place. When Yumiko turned back to face the night sky, clear of clouds for the first time all week, a smile was on her face, and the sadness was leaving her eyes until the next time the nightmares paid a visit.

"Morning~" Ayano called out as she more or less skipped into the living room-kitchen combination, nearly tripping over a still sleeping Allen and almost stepping on Lavi's hand. "Sorry, sorry!" She said with a grin and small laugh, her voice instantly dropping so that she didn't wake the small white-haired teen. She practically danced into the kitchen, bobbing her head to an unknown beat, mouthing the words to some song.

Lavi and Kanda's heads turned when they heard Yumiko's door creak open, revealing an extremely messy-haired, deep-circled eyed Yumiko, who had a neon green blanket with black zigzags on it wrapped around her. She stopped and looked at the two men, blinking blearily in the pre-dawn sunlight. "Wha…?" She mumbled, before crossing the room with slow, lumbering steps, and throwing herself onto the couch face-first.

"Oi!" Ayano yelled, "Up and at 'em, it's time for another grand day!" Allen suddenly shot up, "Krory no, please don't suck my blood! I'm too young to die! Oh…" Everyone who was conscious laughed while Yumiko just groaned and pulled the blanket over her head.

"Oh no you don't!" Ayano said forcefully, striding over to her friend and yanking the covers back, "You will wake up, eat your Pop tart, drink your milk, and get ready or I will hang you upside down from the balcony." Yumiko rolled over, opened one eye, and gave her friend the death glare. Ayano smirked back, unfazed. With a sigh, Yumiko got up and trudged over to the tiny counter, where Kanda, Lavi, and Allen were already digging in.

"Um, Ayano, do you think I could have like, forty more packs of these?" Ayano's eye twitched ever so slightly. "Allen… I'm pretty sure we don't have that many."

Yumiko ate her breakfast and slowly moved to get ready for the trip. When they were all ready to go, Allen saw that Yumiko looked still looked like she didn't sleep at all and he became worried, "Yumiko, are you okay?" Yumiko nodded but didn't convince Allen. "You look like you didn't get any sleep."

"It's alright. I'll be fine."

Ayano peered at Yumiko, "Hmm, you know what'll fix you right up?" She said with a grin before producing a large travel mug from behind her back. "Since you're always like the walking dead when it comes to getting up early, I figured you could use some." Yumiko's eyes lit up and she snatched the coffee cup from Ayano.

"Frappuccino?"

"Of course."

"Two sugars?"

"As always."

"A teaspoon of cream?"

"You bet your bottom dollar."

"A teaspoon of vanilla?"

"Naturally."

"A tablespoon of arsenic?"

"But of course!"

The two friends laughed, obviously used to this exchange while the three men exchanged dumbfounded looks. Listening to them had been like watching a rapid-fire tennis match, but with words instead of tennis balls. Ayano pivoted, arm flying up into the air to a ninety degree position with her pointer finger up. "Let's mobilize!" She commanded, and proceeded to march out of the door. Lavi chuckled and shoot his head. Kanda simply made a "Tch," sound. Allen just smiled. Yumiko simply sipped her Frappuccino in delighted bliss as they trooped out the door behind the obscenely energetic woman who led them.

~Chapter 1: END~

And nau… for a short Afterword:

Hello, my name is Kiyohara. Not really but for you guys it is XD. Aaaanyways, thank you for reading our first chapter in The Innocence of Our World. I hope you can stomach the fangirlyness to come. Mwahahahahahahahaha! Anyways, I am Ayano in this story. And I hope your enjoying this story so far. It would really make my existence if you were to possibly, ya know, take a few moments to write a review… or to favorite or follow this… Just one little click? :3 I will give you an Internet llama if you do so!

Hi, my name is Xandra. At least that's my alias but anyways, I just wanted to thank you for reading our story! It means a lot! Kiyohara basically summed up all the things I wanted to say XD. Any reviews, followers, and/or favorites are always welcome and appreciated. Please be nice with the reviews though. Please! Thanks again!

DISCLAIMER:

Kiyohara and Xandra do not own anything but this account, this story, their aliases, their characters, the Innocence that they shalt use, and the general plot of the storm. WE DO NOT OWN D. GRAY-MAN (unfortunately), nor do we own LAVI, KANDA, ALLEN, OR ANY OTHER CHARACTERS THAT ARE MENTIONED! THANK YOU FOR READING, HAVE A GOOD DAY SIRS AND LADIES!