"Watch out, Rabi!!!" shouted Allen, while sparks of an Akuma shot sprayed up beside him.
With a curse on his lips, Rabi jumped back and pulled out his hammer. He had been on a mission to find Innocence, however, as they had found it, they were attacked absolutely abruptly by an Akuma which had probably waited to attack until they had found the Innocence.
Both whirled around and attacked it, recovered from the near miss.
While Rabi ran further and furthed from the shots, Allen reached to
the Akuma from the back end and fired on it, however, the Akuma could still make its way towards Rabi and attacked him once more! // Shit, just die already!! // thought Rabi .Usually, he and Allen could easily destroy a level 2 Akuma without big problems, however, this one ... was stubborn.
He slid by the remains of the destroyed houses and shouted, "Now Allen !!!"
Distacted by Rabi's shout, the Akuma turned for a split second before it turned back to Allen- this one moment was long enough for Allen to attack it. The Akuma exploded in a garish light.
"Done!" said Allen, exhausted, and deactivated his arm. He sat down on a conveniently placed piece of remains.
"Damn, that stupid Komui!!" Rabi snarled, despite himself. "He said that NO Akumas would appear this time!! That bullet would have singed my head just now!! "
"Calm down, Rabi." smiled Allen and wiped a few strands of hair from his face "Everything went nicely, didn't it? "
Rabi paused and thought about it. He sighed. Allen was right, even if he didn't want to admit it. "Nicely ... this time ... " he rumbled and crossed his arms behind his head; however, in the middle of the movement he stopped and listened in.
A quiet noise, thinly and pitifully, sounding almost flat echoed amoung the he mistaken or did he hear wines? It seemed to come from the remains of the destroyed house....
"Tell me, did you hear that also?"
Allen nodded and put his hands behind his ears. "Sounds like a small child ..."
It had to be an inhabitant of a house, destroyed now, which had not been killed. As the cry began again, they ran into the remains. It sounded like it was coming from under a wooden beam and broken glass.
"There! In front of us!! " Called Allen and ran on to a bigger piece of the remains. " It's here!!! " he shouted to Rabi, who was a little behind him.
A small boy with brown hair was sitting in front of the fragment. He wore torn and muddy clothes and stared at the sky, tears running over his face. Allen and Rabi looked at it helplessly.... Why was he crying?
"D .... Da-a .. ddy .... " It whispered. "D..addy has become a monster ...... "
Allen gasped. Then the Akuma that they had destroyed before had been the father of this boy ?
He felt sick. Slowly, he kneeled beside the child on the ground and looked up at Rabi,who looked helpless and confused. " What should we do now?? We can't leave the child here." Rabi sighed.
Allen nodded once and tried to meet the boy's eyes. "Hey .... are you alright?? Does something hurt you?? " It was a ridiculous question he knew, however, he just didn't know what they should do with the child....
The boy did not react at all at first, even when Allen moved his hand before the child's face to and fro, but suddenly he looked up. He raised his muddy face and just stared at first, then suddenly he noticed Allen who was kneeling directly beside him; frozen.
His face become distorted in a way as Rabi had never seen. And the eyes ....... from them there shone a shining fury. "You!!!! You ... you have killed my father .... you monster!!! You both are monsters!!! " Then he spat in Allen's face.
Stuned, Rabi stepped back and shouted: "Hey what are you doing?! We just saved your life, you snotty little brat!!! Say, are you alright, Allen?" No reaction.
"Allen ...?" Confused, he took in Allen, still kneeling directly beside the boy, the spittle runned down his cheek . His face had turned white, his silver-grey eyes had widened and glazed, so that you could see the reflection of the child in it.
Words of long ago resounded again and again in Allen's head .... // You have him killed ...... you have him killed .... you have killed your father.... You murderer!!!!! //
The little boy in front of him became blurred, everything became black, and suddenly he saw himself as a 10-year-old,brown-haired boy on a wide, dark suface which was lit only by the ghostly light of a red moon.
He had a glove on his left hand all covered in blood which dripped from the wound from the cut over the left eye. Allen's whole body started to tremble uncontrollably, because the boy ....... was he himself!!!
The boy grinned in an inhuman, demoniacal kind of way, and murmured with shining hatred in the voice: "If you didn't kill my father, why are you so messy?? Do you not want to help the poor child who has lost his father .... his family??? " Allen's face put his face in his blood covered hands. "In the end ... it was you who has killed him, was it not?? Exactly how your own father ....... you murderer!!!!"
Allen reeled back and whispered, "I... I am no murderer, I loved him .... I loved Mana ...... "
"Oh? Then what's that on your hands? " the little boy smiled and cruel pleasure resonated in his voice. Allen lowered his hands and looked out them ...... and couldn't hold in a shout. Blood flowed out from his hands, ran about his skin and dripped onto the ground where it formed a dark pool which became slowly bigger.
// Nnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooo!!!!! //
"Allen!! Hey Allen!! What's wrong?! " Rabi's dismayed voice suddenly penetrated Allen's yelling. After the other boy had spoken, Allen went stiff like a statue and moved no more. Suddenly, he couldn't hold back another shout. It echoed loudly and piercingly, and reflected his horror.
Rabi graspd his shoulder and shook him violently, calling his name. Allen broke loose and fell to ground, tripped and swayed several times when he he stood, then ran away.
" Shit, where are you going? What's wrong with you?! " Rabi shouted, still behind Allen. He cursed and looked back to the child again and stared. // What has happened to Allen?? Why he has reacted like this ?? // he thought, then he murmured "Damn!" and chased after his friend, with renued vigor.
It began to rain.
The water ran over Allen's face, flowing through and around his hair. He ran in the paled light of the evening lanterns through the streets and lanes, without taking into consideration passers-by who shouted curses and furious statements after him.
Everything became blurry, until nothing was recognizable, when tears began to flow.
Then, he bumped into a passer-by and fell, injuring his hand on the , he stared at the resigning blood, while in his head the words of the boy echoed over and over again, relentlessly and cruelly, disdainfully and brutally, knives boring at his heart and tearing it up.
// You have killed your father and mine .... you have killed them .... you murderer .... // Allen sobbed convulsively and clasped his bleeding hand to his chest.
Was he really a murderer? Had he not killed Mana just because he had become an Akuma? And weren't his last words 'I love you' ......?
The mumbles of some people who had paused when he had fallen down startled him.
" Do you see this boy ...... why is he sitting on the ground?? And the hair .... it's intirely white!! "
"There, see his face .... there is a gigantic scar, its a curse!! A bad omen ...."
The words met him like lashes, reeling he rose again and ran further through the streets, until he came, to a narrow, dark lane in a more desolate part of the town where he slowly sank on the wall, laid his head on his knees and cried.