Disclaimer: Own nothing but my OCs!
Summary: He was bright, fun, and interesting. He drew her to him like nothing or no one ever had. He was the one who showed her how to be selfless. He was the one who taught her how to love. He was the one she wanted to stay beside yet, it was the first time she had actually ever let go of what she wanted. Lavi/OC
A/N: First few chapters might be a little boring since it's only going to be following the anime/manga exactly, and the OC isn't going to have much interactions with the canon characters until later.
A/N: Edited on 11/04/2017. Mostly changes in the phrasing and small details.
-CHAPTER 1-
Have you ever heard of Pandora's box?
It must never be opened.
Why not? Because…
A source of great and unexpected trouble. It holds all the evil and sins that ever existed from the beginning of time inside of it.
It exists in all humans, in the form of the Seven Sins.
Wrath. Pride. Lust. Envy. Greed. Gluttony. Sloth.
But at the bottom, there was a light. A glowing green speck of hope.
What are we?
Are we evil, or are we hope?
We are the Pandora.
It was cold.
It was dreary.
It was boring.
Boring. Boring. Boring.
Awfully dreadfully boring.
She was going to die of boredom at this rate.
Well, at least there was an upside to all this. She got to dress in the nice fashionable long coat that she had been eyeing for the longest time but never had a chance to wear. She had always liked winter fashion the most out of all the four seasons, and Europe was perfect for such fashion.
The girl sneezed, scrunching up her nose irritably. But how long was this blasted time loop going to continue?
Blue eyes stared out the window from her vantage point in a quaint little bookshop café on the second floor, the dim sunlight shining on her platinum blond hair. If she squinted a little, she could just make out the dark fog outside of the village gates, no doubt encircling the whole village.
THUMP.
The girl winced, already knowing it was the helper boy downstairs dropping the load of books again, for the nth time. She didn't particularly love books, but she appreciated them enough to feel a tinge of distress, just imagining the damage done to the delicate pages and corners of the books over and over again. There wasn't anything she could do to stop the clumsy boy. Goodness, those poor books..
She sighed, resting her cheek on her palm, her figure slouching across the table. How long more would she be stuck here, to repeat this day over and over again? She hadn't even been intending on staying long when she came, perhaps a week or two, but then, the day had started repeating itself and before she knew it, it had already been October 28 for a month.
It had been fascinating at first, of course. Thinking about the mischief she had managed - even though she was the only one who knew and they all forgot the next day - brought the ghost of a grin to her lips. People had been repeating the things they did exactly as they had the day before. She had wanted to see what she could change, and what effects the changes she made would have. Oh, she had been a right terror, indeed. Not that they remembered it the next day. If they did, she might have been thrown into jail or probably the mental institution.
But she was bored now.
She had gotten the information she had wanted. They weren't here. There was no more excitement here for her. Messing with the same people every day quickly grew old. She wanted more, needed more than this monotonous lifestyle of sitting in a bookshop, sipping tea and watching the gates, and she couldn't have that if she didn't leave.
Her eyes narrowed in thought, fingers unconsciously tapping out a random tune on the tabletop.
Except for one tiny little tidbit that she wanted to continue observing to see what happened next. There was a woman. Miranda Lotto. Rather pathetic looking, with scraggly long hair tied up tightly in a bun and perpetual dark eye circles. Constantly twitchy and really really ill-starred. The only other human that had an inkling that something was not right in this rewinding town. The root cause of all this was connected to her.
Suddenly, movement caught her eye. Perking up, her vision focused in on the gates. People had just appeared inside the gates. Two, in fact. They were unmistakably new visitors to the town. Apart from their clothes - black coats with a silver cross emblem emblazoned on the front – which were different from the usual German citizen, their appearance was vastly unique and rare in this part of Europe.
A white-haired boy, with a red tattoo-looking mark beginning from the outline of a five-pointed star above his left brow partly hidden under his snowy fringe and running down his cheek to nearly reach his jawline. She wondered fleetingly what kind of injury could result in such a peculiar scar. And the other; a girl with distinctly Asian features and her green hair up in twin-tails. Both looked a little younger than she was herself, maybe fourteen or sixteen.
Nobody had entered the town ever since the rewinding started, and she hadn't been able to leave either, always somehow inexplicably walking back into town despite not having turned back. So these two must be…
Finally. The girl cheered internally, the only sign a smirk on her face. She hoped the exorcists would settle this as soon as possible. The faster she could leave, the better. She would have helped them – she already knew what was causing this - but she had no intention of drawing attention from the Order to herself in any case.
For now, she would just watch.
"Oh. We're... in." Allen and Lenalee both stared in surprise at the bustling crowd of people that had seemingly materialized out of nowhere. From outside the gates, the streets had been looked to be silent and empty of all life; like a ghost town.
"It was kind of anti-climactic, wasn't it?" Lenalee laughed. The girl had been expecting well, something, after seeing the Finder being repelled by a barrier of sorts, unable to even stick a hand through past the gates. "We just walked in."
They walked along the main street for a while, observing the behavior of the townspeople. If they weren't sent here on a mission, they wouldn't have known that anything was wrong. No one behaved in any way that was out of the norm. It looked like your average day in a quiet countryside town. Of course, Allen had already suspected that none of them would be aware of the fact that they were repeating the same day over and over again. After all, they had been sent here to investigate by their Supervisor and Lenalee's brother, Komui, based on complains by a half-curious half-annoyed alcohol supplier. Apparently, one of the bars in that town had been ordering ten barrels of rose wine for the 29th of October for a month now.
"Should we split up for now, then? We can get more information this way." Lenalee suggested, a faraway look in her eyes that told him she had some things she wanted to check out herself. After all, they couldn't do anything without understanding the situation. Knowledge of the surroundings and the enemy, if any, was the most important thing in any battle. "We'll meet at that bar at noon, alright?"
Allen agreed, waving at Lenalee as she walked away. Well then, he wondered, where should he go now? Where was the best place to gather information yet be inconspicuous? Was there an Innocence here or not? He didn't really want to walk around aimlessly in hopes of stumbling onto something. That would be rather inefficient.
Actually, wouldn't the bar be suitable? People would be coming in and out and talking amongst themselves. He could simply just sit there and eavesdrop. His eye would alert him to any akuma around anyway. Thinking of his experience with General Cross in the many bars over the years, Allen decided that, yes, the bar would be a good place to start.
"Hey! Unlucky woman!"
He was just about to cross the road when a shout caught his attention. He paused in his steps, staring in shock at the rudeness of the bunch of children jeering at a rather haggard-looking older lady.
Allen had just been about to continue on when one of the children suddenly lobbed a coil of poop at the woman, sticking a tongue out for effect, and she surprisingly dodged it quite expertly. How had she- it was almost like she had known it was coming!
"Wha- She dodged it! How-" The kid's eyes bulged out in shock.
The lady huffed indignantly. "People tend to remember it if you throw the same thing at the same time for thirty-one times!"
The group of kids unanimously gave her a very disturbed look, suddenly looking like they might have picked the wrong target to tease. "What are you talking about?! It's only the first time today!"
"Miranda's gone off her rocker!" They squealed, running away. "Unlucky, unlucky!"
…Wait, what?! She remembered it?! Why? Out of all the people in the town, why was she the only one who re-
Allen gasped, his left eye turning black and red. There was an akuma nearby! He'd have to find it first, and then question that lady after!
He ran quickly, wanting to prevent anyone from getting killed unnecessarily, already hearing the sounds of crashing ahead. Just around the corner! He increased his speed.
"-the Innocence? Where?" That voice with the mechanical undertone was unmistakably an akuma.
The akuma is looking for Innocence? That means it is here, in this town!
Turning the corner, Allen saw that the level 2 was pinning the woman from before – why was she there?! – to the wall with a clawed hand. Activating his Innocence, his arm transformed into its sword form, an orange energy pillar as the blade, with an ominous green flare of energy at his shoulder, he said firmly. "Let the woman go."
The akuma immediately fired, a blast of purple shooting straight towards him. Jumping out of the way, he swiftly brought his arm up to block the next attack; a swipe from the akuma with sharp claws intending to at least take his head off. He grunted, still not too used to this new form his arm had taken on as he exchanged blows with the akuma.
The woman yelled something that was muffled in between the sounds of the clashes between the akuma and his Innocence, but her crazy laughter as she went speeding out of the alley made it to his ears clearly.
"Ah, no, wait-!"
The akuma fired again and distracted as he was with the sudden exit of the woman, Allen almost got caught in the explosion. Though Timcampy wasn't as lucky and got slammed into a wall by the gust of air billowing forth from the point of impact.
Allen gritted his teeth. Jumping high to avoid the bullets, he was in the perfect position to cut the akuma in half in one fluid motion as he landed.
As the akuma exploded, he sighed sadly, pulling his hood back over his head. Their lead – probably the only one – had just disappeared. What was he going to tell Lenalee?
Horrendously wonky lips, too sharp a nose and weird squiggly eyes, or at least she assumed those were eyes and a nose, judging from the general placement of those features in what was supposed to be a face. It could've been a hippo, for all she knew. Anything with eyes, nose and a mouth would do. Or maybe Allen had created a whole new species of being.
Lenalee stared blankly at the piece of paper in her hands. She had just been scolding her fellow exorcist for losing that woman.
'It's alright! I've made a sketch of her!' He says. Is this even a woman? How am I supposed to recognize this woman from this drawing?
She couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. She had never even dreamt that someone could have such a serious lack of artistic skills. Or maybe that was because she grew up around Lavi and Bookman? Those two could make a drawing come to life, literally.
"Eh? Is it weird?"
"Yes, it is." Lenalee said matter-of-factly, not even bothering to disguise what she thought about his drawing. They wouldn't be able to move forward like this. Not with this lack of information, or more like, the lack of proper communication of information. She sighed. "If this was going to happen, we should never have split up."
Yeah, if his drawing skills are this bad, we're definitely never going to split up again. Never.
"You're certain the akuma you destroyed was asking for 'Innocence' specifically?"
"Mmrgh." Allen made an affirmative noise, his mouth too stuffed with half a steak that he had shoved into that cave he called a mouth in one bite to be able to properly enunciate words.
"Y-you've got quite the appetite, don't you." Lenalee eyed the various plates laid out on their table, their contents instantly vanishing into Allen's black hole of a stomach within a blink of an eye. She had never seen him eat before. No doubt Jerry was one happy chef to be able to cook for someone that obviously lived for his stomach.
Wiping his mouth, he brought the conversation back to the point. "Anyway, we've got to watch out for this woman. We're quite lucky, aren't we? To meet so her quickly."
"You're quite the optimist too.." She noted, wondering just how they were going to find that woman again. Well, despite his drawing skills – or lack thereof – they should be able to find her by asking the townspeople around. Allen could just describe the woman in words. "Next time, we're definitely sticking together."
"What about you, Lenalee?"
"Oh, well, it looks like my brother was correct. We aren't able to leave this town now that we've entered it. I tried earlier, but I just found myself back inside again." Lenalee said, frowning a little. She had never seen anything like this before. It stumped her greatly. Earlier, she had kicked a hole in one the town's walls and tried to walk out of town but had somehow only ended up where I had started. "Seems like we can't leave unless we solve this phenomenon caused by the Innocence."
Allen tilted his head in thought, pondering about the whole situation when he got distracted by a sudden surge of the weird feeling that had been itching at him ever since he and Lenalee had sat down at the table. Looking up, he froze at the sight of a head wrapped in a shawl creepily staring at them from the booth behind Lenalee.
"Allen? What's wrong?"
"AH! That's her, Lenalee!" Allen yelled, jostling the table slightly with his knee as he jumped to his feet violently, brandishing a finger in her face.
Lenalee barely held in her flinch at the sudden appearance of the gloomy-looking woman and at Allen's sudden outburst.
After that, everything descended into chaos rapidly.
There was screaming, cups of water flying everywhere, a window escape, and a near face-plant by Allen as he nearly got tugged out the window by his grip on the back of the woman's dress, saved only by Lenalee's quick reflexes.
Eventually, the two teenagers managed to calm her down enough to be seated at the same table with them, assuring her that they meant her no harm. Miranda Lotto was apparently, quite the jumpy woman.
Though, Lenalee noticed that she kept eyeing them as though she was expecting them to up and disappear any moment now.
"-so happy to meet someone who can tell that there's something wrong with this town. You're the first ones! Everyone only made fun of me when I tried to tell them. I thought I might have gone crazy and started hallucinating! I really was ready to kill myself there!"
No, please don't do that. Really, don't do that.
The two exorcists paled, polite smiles twitching on their faces.
"Ah! But I did manage to dodge that poop though!" Miranda gave a smug snort of laughter – though it looked rather disturbing paired with her gloomy aura - and smiled to herself.
This woman... She sounds like she's losing it..
Lenalee managed to pull herself together, pushing back the surprise she felt towards Miranda's personality. "Miss Miranda, do you remember everything that's happened since the town started rewinding?"
"Yes, but everyone else seems to have forgotten..." At this reminder, Miranda became increasingly distraught. "You have to help me! Please!" She lunged over the table to grab Allen's collar, wailing into his face, not even noticing his panicked squeal at her horrifying expression up close. "I'm going to go mad at this rate!"
"J-just calm down first!" Allen forced a placating smile onto his face, though the twitching eye gave it away. "We'll help you! We're going to help you! Right, Lenalee?"
"Eh?" She startled, not expecting to be dragged into this situation, before smiling at Miranda. "Y-yes, of course! We just need to find the source first! Something had to have happened on the first October 28. Do you have any idea?"
"Noo!" Miranda wailed even harder, still not letting go of Allen. "I went to sleep and it was October 28 again before I knew it!"
Allen grimaced before tensing up, his left eye activating again, alerting him to the four men at the bar counter behind.
Akuma!
He gently pried her hands off of his collar, before removing his left glove, exposing the red mottled skin of his parasitic Innocence. "It seems that they've noticed that you are the only one unaffected by this town's phenomenon too. I'm certain it's because you came in contact with the Innocence causing this."
Lenalee stood up as well, preparing to activate her Innocence at a moment's notice. Miranda screamed as the four men transformed into their monstrous akuma forms.
Lenalee swiftly dispatched of one of the akuma with a solid kick with her Innocence, darting out from behind Allen's cover the moment there was a lapse in akuma fire. She may be female, but Lenalee was definitely no damsel in distress.
Taking advantage of their higher numbers, one of the akuma reached out for Miranda, pale and frozen to the spot in fear, while the two exorcists were busy with the others. Before it could grab her though, a long enlarged adamantine arm grabbed him and flung him into the wall hard.
"Lenalee!" Allen shouted as he let loose a barrage of energy beams with his cannon form to block the akuma from advancing. "Leave first and take Miranda with you! Your Dark Boots can get you to her house first before any of them!"
"Got it!" Dodging the dark energy beams of the akuma with a graceful backflip in the air, Lenalee landed in front of Miranda, feet touching the ground for only a moment, before she was up in the air again, speeding away with Miranda in her arms.
Allen fired at the akuma again, blocking them from following after Lenalee. He clenched his teeth, eyeing the three level 2 akuma in front of him.
This wasn't going to be easy..
"Sound Pulse!" The green pumpkin-shaped akuma cried, sending out a supersonic wave.
My head's going to explode!
Allen choked back a shout of pain, his right hand coming up to grab his head. That scream was giving him a splitting headache and ruining his ability to focus. Gritting his teeth, he rolled to the side in a somersault, avoiding the volley of sickle-shaped dark energy from the grey akuma. Coming to a stop, he spotted the grey akuma coming at him with its claws and quickly raised his arm to block. He traded blows with that grey akuma for a while, swiping at each other back and forth, neither one giving ground when suddenly, the pink-haired akuma loomed over him from behind. It nearly pummeled him to the ground, striking the floor of the bar instead with both hands and then, unexpectedly spat out a blue stream of icy fire.
The icy fire caught Allen on his shoulder despite jumping away, sending a sharp lance of pain through his body, causing him to let out a cry as he fell to his knees.
"Icy Fire!" The pink-haired akuma howled in laughter, relishing the sight of the exorcist in pain. "If it so much as touches you, it'll burn your flesh off you in an instant!"
"Let's cut him, let's cut him!" The grey akuma chanted.
"No, no! Let's scramble his brains with my voice!" The pumpkin akuma protested.
"…" The three akuma turned to each other, forgetting that their target was right in front of them and that they were currently in the middle of a fight.
"We're burning him."
"No, cutting him!"
"No! His brain!"
They glared at each other, disgruntled, before raising their fists above their heads. "Rock, scissors, pape-!"
BANG. BANG. BANG.
"Sorry, my finger slipped."
"What are you talking about, you bastard?! You don't even have a finger! Attacking us when we're not paying attention isn't fair!"
"What idiot would wait?" Allen deadpanned, his dark side emerging for a fleeting moment. He couldn't believe that this was what he was stuck dealing with. Childish akuma. He really wanted to send them off now.
"Kill him!" They roared.
Hold it right there. Looks like you guys are having fun.
The three akuma froze mid-pounce at the disembodied voice echoing ominously through their heads.
Have you forgotten that you were supposed to collect the Innocence? Get back here. Now.
Immediately, the three akuma shot off, bursting through the roof, leaving Allen clueless at to what just happened.
"Allen! Are you alright?" Lenalee touched down outside, having come back to check on her comrade, running into the ruined bar. Her eyes flickered over the debris and the empty area. "Did you manage to kill them?"
"..No, they just suddenly backed off.." He trailed off, still staring blankly at where the three akuma had just been, perplexed with their behavior.
It looked like they really wanted to kill me, though..
The blue-eyed girl stiffened. There was a weird feeling bubbling up in her gut. Something that was causing her to tremble, practically vibrating.
In fear? Or was it in anticipation? Anger? Excitement? Dread?
Whatever it was, she couldn't put her finger on it but she was looking forward to whatever was coming.
She could sense it.
One of them was here.
A wide grin – borderline maniacal – slowly spread across her lips.
Let the fun begin.
A/N: A little short but this is sort of a prologue-ish chapter. The length of the chapters kind of depends on where I want it to end so some might end up short and some might be long. Do you actually prefer short or long chapters? And I apologize for the action scenes because writing the fights out is so awkward to me
As usual, any reviews would be greatly appreciated!