Prologue: Fairy
For the record, when you think of the exorcist Kanda Yuu, emotional does not come to mind. Austere, fierce, deadly…now those are the kinds of words that pop into your head when you think about him. Most of the people who know Kanda will tell you that he isn't much of a people person. On first sight, you'd agree with them. But he is, obviously, a human being, and you know that all human beings feel each emotion at one point or another.
Anger, rage, spite, jealousy, fear, relief, confidence, cockiness, happiness, joy, love, lust…
Out of those emotions listed, Kanda only seems to show the first three. But the others are more than likely buried underneath everything else, deep inside of him, seemingly forgotten. But that theory was tested, and the test began with his two rookies, Sayo and Hoshino…
"Hey, are you listening?" Sayo jerked him.
"What?"
"I was asking you about NiSayo. You saw her that night, didn't you?"
Kanda groaned. "You're not going on about that woman again, are you?"
Hoshino took off his clawed gloves. "She's been talking about it ever since she disappeared."
Sayo ignored her brother. "I'm serious you guys. She was crying, right? You said you saw her cry when you were leaving, didn't you?"
"So?" Kanda replied, not really caring to remember that night.
"So, then you must've figured it out. I have. We shouldn't have just left her there—"
"Sayo, think about it for a second," he cut her off, "You almost got killed because of her, remember? She's not your fairy anymore."
She was about to say something, but then closed her mouth, her eyes saddening. Kanda looked at her for a second, then stood up and started walking towards the house, considering the matter over and done with. He stopped when he heard her mumble something to Hoshino.
"She tried to protect me. It's not like she wanted me to get hurt."
Hoshino whispered something in her ear, but Kanda couldn't hear it. He waved it off as nothing and proceeded inside the house. He didn't realize it, but NiSayo would be part of this great test.
He's just mad because she turned out to be an accommodator.
It was true…NiSayo's human body, a body that had been grown for her, had somehow been created with an Innocence inside of it, so she ended up being a parasite-type accommodator. She didn't want to be a fairy anymore, but her reasons were unclear why she decided to be a human instead. All of this kept Sayo from sleeping that night.
I wonder if she's okay…
"I never knew how badly she was suffering," she whispered to herself guiltily.
"Don't make it sound like it's all your fault."
She turned at the sound of the voice beside her. There stood a woman with wavy black hair in a Chinese-style dress and red high heels. She looked dirty and beat up. Her hand was bandaged where Kanda had pierced it with his katana.
Sayo's face lit up. "NiSayo!" she exclaimed as softly as she could without waking Hoshino.
"You don't have to call me that anymore, either."
Sayo kept talking as if she didn't hear her. "Are you okay? Did Kanda hurt you? Did Hoshino? Did that guy with the weird-colored skin? Was he a Gost or something?"
The woman held up her hands. "Calm down, will you? I did get a little scuffed, but I'm fine. I never expected to come out of that unharmed. And as for Thrax, well…I really don't know what he is, other than a body-grower."
"He made you that body, then? You didn't steal it?"
"Of course not. Fairies don't possess people, dummy."
The girl smiled. "It's cool that you turned out to be an accommodator. That means we'll see you at the Black Order whenever Hoshino or I have a mission!"
To Sayo's surprise, the woman looked down at the ground sadly. "I'm…not so sure."
"Why not?"
When she didn't answer, Sayo thought about it, and then figured it out, as if it were obvious. "He won't let you go, will he? That guy…"
The woman nodded. "True…but he doesn't have to. I escaped. I cut my ties with him. I realized how stupid it was of me to trust him."
"What if he comes to take back that body?"
"He can't. I'm in here permanently. From now on, I'm one hundred percent human."
"But what if he comes back for you anyway? You have to go to the Order! It's the only place you'll be safe!"
"Do I really deserve to be safe after what I did to you?"
There was a long silence after that question. The woman walked over to the window and stood in front of it, arms crossed, gazing at the night sky. Sayo climbed out of bed and stood behind her.
"It wasn't your fault that akuma attacked me. You tried to stop it, but Kanda wouldn't let you, that's all."
"No, that's not all. Sayo…I failed as your protector. I realized that, in my own selfish attempt to be free, I forgot about my promise to you."
The woman turned around again and got down on bended knee in front of Sayo. "I'm not fit to protect you anymore. I've failed you."
A tear rolled down her face and Sayo swiped it off with her finger. "But NiSayo, you don't have to be my protector anymore. We've both changed, don't you see?"
The woman blinked.
"So what if that old promise is broken? That just means we can make a new one."
Sayo flung herself at the woman and hugged her. "Promise me you'll become a great exorcist and make a good life for yourself. Live out your freedom to the fullest."
The girl felt the woman's body tremble as she struggled to hold back her flood of tears that had been brought forth. She stood and nodded, kissing Sayo's forehead and going back to the window.
"Oh yeah! One more thing. What should I call you now?"
"…My name is Sayaka."
Part One: Induction
"Sayaka Mizune…" Chief Inspector Komui read the information aloud as he interviewed the new exorcist, "So it seems you have a pretty good handle on your Innocence's power?"
Sayaka nodded. "Yes, sir."
"Good, that's a bonus. We usually have to train up our new exorcists, but you seem to be ahead of the game."
Section Leader Reever looked over Komui's shoulder at the information. "Wait a minute, Chief, are we sure she's classified as a parasite-type accommodator? Look at her weapons," he indicated Sayaka's sword and the kunai she had holstered around each thigh, "that seems tool-type to me."
Komui nodded. "I thought so too, but you see, her innocence allows her to make any weapon she chooses her anti-akuma weapon. The Innocence is in her hands."
Sayaka slipped a kunai out of her holster and held it up. Shutting her eyes, she activated her Innocence. The kunai began to glow with a pale green aura. Reever gaped at her.
"That's amazing."
Komui smiled. "Yes, and a unique innocence, to boot. Alright, Sayaka, your information will be added to our files. Lenalee will take you to see Hebraska and then show you to a room."
Lenalee smiled as she approached Sayaka. "Welcome to the Black Order."
Sayaka smiled back. "Thank you."
As the two girls walked out of Komui's office, Sayaka noticed that someone had been listening outside. Or rather…three someones.
Kanda, Sayo and Hoshino stood outside against the wall. Sayo was beaming.
"Hooray!" she shouted, running up and hugging Sayaka.
Hoshino gave her a small, somewhat sheepish smile. "Congrats."
"Thanks, you little suck up." Sayaka replied, using her favorite nickname for him.
Kanda said nothing, merely looked at her, arms crossed over his chest. Sayaka ignored him, and she followed Lenalee down another corridor. Once they were gone, Sayo kicked him.
"Why didn't you at least say 'congratulations'?" she demanded, putting her hands on her hips.
"I didn't feel like it." Kanda replied shortly, "So don't kick me."
Hoshino sighed, pulling his sister towards him. "Come on, Sayo, don't get so upset. Sayaka didn't exactly acknowledge his presence either, so let it go."
Kanda stood up. "Besides, I'm not exactly happy about her becoming an exorcist. I can't believe the Order would let her after all the trouble she's caused."
Sayo was about to say something, but thought better of it. Instead, she looked away sadly and twiddled her thumbs like she usually did when she was either nervous or keeping something to herself. Hoshino looked at her. For once, he actually didn't agree with Kanda on this one.
For the most part, Kanda didn't even see much of Sayaka after that day. He went on his assigned missions and she went on hers. If he ever did see her, he didn't acknowledge her, and she did the same. Things continued this way for a while, until one day, when Kanda was walking outside the castle…
"Hey, Kanda!"
He looked over his shoulder to see Sayaka coming towards him.
"What?"
"Did you do something to Sayo?"
"What are you talking about?"
She stopped a foot from him. "When she was leaving, she looked about ready to cry. Now tell me, what did you do?"
The dark haired exorcist turned all the way around to face her. "And what makes you think it was me that did anything? Why am I your first suspect?"
"Because it's usually you."
Kanda's eyes slanted. "She's just mad at me because I didn't congratulate you. I clearly expressed my thoughts on the matter, that's all. It's not my fault that she got upset over them."
Sayaka folded her arms across her chest. Her eyebrow rose. "'Clearly expressed your thoughts on the matter', huh? By 'the matter', you mean me becoming an exorcist, right?"
He nodded.
"Well then, why don't you tell me said thoughts?"
"Fine, if you're so eager to know," he replied, "Frankly…I don't know what the Order was thinking, making you a soldier of life. When they first got wind of you and the group you were with, they thought of you as big of a threat to us and everything we stand for as the akuma. Then as soon as they realize that your body had an Innocence fragment buried in it, they change their minds and think you're the biggest thing since sliced bread. I think that this is the stupidest decision the Order has made ever since I first joined. If it had been up to me, I would've never let you through the front gates of the castle."
Sayaka's fists clenched, but she made no move. "And you told Sayo all of this?"
"I did. And I think she's a fool for trusting you."
That did it. She pointed her finger at him as she spoke, trying to stay calm despite the bubbling anger inside of her, "Okay, look pal. You can bash me all you want, you can think of me as a mistake or anything that makes you feel big, but don't you dare take it out on Sayo."
Kanda didn't reply right away, just stared at her. Then he smirked. "Are you still trying to protect her?"
"…"
"I seem to recall you saying that you weren't her fairy anymore. Doesn't that mean that protecting her is no longer your job?"
"That's not the issue. You're making Sayo sad, and I don't like it. I owe her a lot, and I'm not gonna let some punk like you dampen that. I promised her."
"That's rich, a woman like you indebted to a young girl like her. What a fool you are—"
SWAK
Momentarily, Kanda's eyes lost focus as his head snapped violently to the side, pain in the reddening left side of his face.
"You're lucky my Innocence wasn't invoked," he heard Sayaka growl, "Otherwise, I would've made you into my own weapon. Don't you ever call me a fool again, you bastard!"
She stomped off towards the castle before Kanda could recompose himself. His hand lightly touched the reddened flesh. Should he be angry? No one had ever even tried to strike him before. Instead of reacting, instead of running after her, he just watched until she faded into the approaching fog.
Normally, Kanda was rather neutral with girls, compared to how he was around other people. Some would even venture to say that he was quite kind with them. But after what had just taken place…
Meanwhile, Sayaka had already reached her room and was now standing in front of her mirror, having a staring contest with her reflection. Why had she gotten so angry? It was understandable, Sayo was upset and she'd only tried to alleviate that…but to hit him like that?
"No," she whispered, "he was insulting me and Sayo both. He deserved it."
Pushing the frustrating situation out of her mind for a moment, she reached up and touched her hair, which had been put back into their puffy knots, tightly woven on the back of her head. She remembered when she'd first gotten them in.
Thrax had done it after he'd put her inside her body, the body he'd grown especially for her. It was almost like he was a child playing with a toy…
"What are you, a hairstylist?" Sayaka groaned.
"Hold still, I've almost got it."
One of the other men held a mirror up in front of her face. Thrax was standing behind her, his gnarly hands on her shoulders. She watched his lipless mouth twist itself into a smile.
"They're cute…that makes you beautiful and dangerous all in one package."
He lowered his face so that it was right next to hers. "Don't you agree?"
Sayaka said nothing.
She had never said anything to that comment, no matter how many times he repeated it. Thrax would always refer to her as "cute" and "beautiful", as if it was making him feel better, rather than her. Usually it did. She hadn't understood it until that moment, but every time he'd done it, it made Sayaka feel wretched. She felt like she was being used by Thrax and his group of thugs. All the time, go get the Innocence and bring it here, as if she were one of the akuma she'd been destroying. And every time she brought one back to him, Thrax would smile that smile at her and say,
"Thank you, beautiful."
Now, she clenched her fists, bit her lip, and held back her urge to scream in rage. Instead, she yanked her hair out of their two knots, pulled a kunai out of her holster, and began attacking her hair, chopping off great lengths, all the time biting her lip until it turned red.
When her body had been grown, her hair had reached waist length, therefore it had to be dolled up like that, otherwise it got in her way. Finally, Sayaka gently lay the kunai down on the table and looked up at her handiwork. Her hair was now just above her shoulders.
"Looks like I'm not beautiful anymore, huh?" she sneered at her reflection.
"Combo C is ready!" Jerry called gaily from the window, pushing a tray of soba, tempura and water out to be received.
Kanda took it silently, without looking at the Order's cook, and proceeded to a table in the dining hall. As he walked past other tables, whispers from finders and other exorcists reached his ears. He took no notice of this, pretending they either weren't there or getting blasted to death by an akuma. Then he sat down across from Lavi.
"Hey Yuu, you've got something on your face," the redhead pointed at him, indicating the left side of his face.
Kanda's steely eyes looked at him. "No I don't."
"Yeah, you do." Lavi leaned across the table to get closer, "That red spot on your left cheek. What happened, someone throw a rock at you or something?"
"Did anyone die recently?" Kanda asked.
"What? No…"
"Then no."
Lavi sat back down, stuffing a biscuit into his mouth, shrugging. "Okay," he said after swallowing, "then how'd it get there?"
"That's not your business."
About to continue to prod the answer out of him, the redhead was caught off guard by someone coming into the hall. His face lit up. "Whoa, look at that gorgeous piece of work!" he crooned.
Kanda casually looked over his shoulder to see what his fellow exorcist was referring to. His eyes widened, then slanted again in annoyance. "Oh, her."
"Isn't she that new recruit?"
"Yeah, though I can't imagine how."
Sayaka stood in front of Jerry's window, having just requested her food. Her back was facing them, but she could feel the people in the hall staring at her. She looked over her shoulder. Uneasiness settled in her stomach.
Great, she thought, now they're all staring. I hate that.
"Here you go, new recruit!"
"Oh, thank you very much."
She turned on her heel, tray in her hands, and started looking for an available place to sit. Every table was full of wide eyes from what she could see. The floor seemed more appealing.
Suddenly, shouting reached her. "Hey! Hey, over here!"
Lavi was standing on his seat, waving his arms back and forth like he was trying to fly. "Come over here, there's an empty space right here!"
Sayaka was about to take him up on the offer, seeing him as less of an embarrassment (despite what he was doing), but stopped when she saw who he was already sitting with. The redheaded exorcist came over to her.
"Come on, we won't bite." He smiled kindly at her.
"I'm not so sure," she replied.
Kanda was looking at her from the corner of his eye, a bored expression on his face. Lavi looked from him to Sayaka.
"Oh, you mean Yuu? He looks dangerous, but he won't do anything, believe me. He's not like that."
Sayaka looked puzzled. "Yuu?"
"Dammit Lavi, quit calling me that!" Kanda hissed, now looking directly at them.
Various people in the hall scurried to a table further away. They all knew that if someone said Kanda's first name, they were practically knocking on death's door.
But Lavi knew that Kanda wouldn't do anything around or to a girl, so he led Sayaka to their table and then sat back down in front of his food. Sayaka took a seat beside him, trying to hide a smile.
"I'm Lavi, by the way," he stuck out his hand.
"I'm Sayaka." She shook it.
"And this, as you might have guessed, is Yu—"
"Lavi…!"
"Alright, alright, this is Kanda."
Sayaka picked up her fork. "We're well met."
Kanda shoveled a heap of soba noodles into his mouth. Lavi looked surprised.
"Oh, really? How so?"
"Through Sayo."
"Ah…did you know her or something?"
Kanda smirked. "Yes, Sayaka, why don't you tell Lavi how you know Sayo? I'm sure he'd be interested to know."
She glared at him. Then she tossed some of her hair over one shoulder. "Only if he wants to know."
Lavi shrugged. "Doesn't matter. I'm assuming you're her friend? She always talked about a friend she knew at home."
Sayaka's cheeks went pink. Sayo had talked about her? She shot a brief glance at Kanda, who was smiling in a mocking sort of way, as if to say in a very subtle way, "You only know the half of it".
A few minutes later, Allen and Krory joined the table. Kanda rolled his eyes as Sayaka got excited that there were two other parasite-type accommodators and engaged in a conversation with them. Lavi moved over so he was sitting across from Kanda.
"What, you don't like her or something?" he asked.
Kanda said nothing.
"Come on, she's not that bad. What's with you? You're usually pretty easy on girls."
Still nothing. Suddenly, there was a loud shout from behind them.
"KANDA!!"
Before he had time to react, Kanda had Sayo's skinny arms wrapped around his waist, hugging him tightly. His eyebrow twitched. Lavi laughed at him as Hoshino came up to the table.
"Sayo, I think you've hugged him enough for today," he said, sitting next to Kanda.
Kanda looked at her, or tried to, since her face was kind of squished into his back, "Your fairy's here, why don't you go suffocate her?"
Immediately, Sayo let him go. "Sayaka's here? Oh boy!"
As she jumped on Sayaka from behind, Lavi looked on, slightly puzzled. "Fairy? What's that mean?"
As she was already surprised from being jumped on, Sayaka didn't have time to make up an excuse as Sayo gushed, "Oh, she used to be my fairy! Remember? I told you about her!"
Kanda watched as everyone at the table turned their eyes to her. Hoshino sighed heavily, putting a hand over the side of his face. "Ne chan…"
Sayaka's face went bright red. Sayo looked from her to the others.
"What? No one knew…? I thought you'd told them."
Since Sayaka was still unable to speak, Allen decided to interject. "Of course she did. It's just that you said that a little loudly, Sayo." He smiled kindly.
"I did? Oops…"
Krory looked at Allen, then nodded, seeing what he was doing. "That's right. Sayaka told us the other day."
"Huh? Then why didn't you tell me?" Lavi asked, still looking a tad confused.
"We were going to, but you were on a mission…"
"Oh. Well, it's no big deal, right? Hey…you okay?" he poked Sayaka's shoulder.
"Yeah…I'm fine."
Later on, after Sayo and Hoshino had finished training with him, Kanda was heading back up to the castle, when he heard voices coming from one of the clearings in the woods that dotted the cliff.
"I'm sorry, Sayaka…I didn't think you wanted me to tell Allen-kun and the others, so I didn't…" it was Lenalee.
The other voice, who was Sayaka herself, replied, "No, no, it's okay. I just didn't expect Sayo to shout it out like that."
Lenalee sat down on a bench in front of her. "I see. Did you tell them?"
She shook her head. "It's a little too much to explain. Although, Allen and Krory kind of saved me back there, acted like they already knew. I didn't want to lie to Sayo, but I also didn't want to make her feel bad."
"I understand. The truth might have been better, though."
"The truth…that would've gotten them drawn into this thing with me and…you know who."
"You know who"? Kanda's eyebrow rose in slight curiosity.
The pigtailed girl leaned forward towards the former fairy. "Is it that serious?"
"No…it shouldn't be, anyway. I mean, it's not like he knows where this place is, right?"
"Right. But seriously, maybe if you just told them the truth while leaving that other part out."
There was a long pause. Kanda strained to listen. He didn't know why he was so curious, especially after Sayaka had slapped him silly yesterday. Suddenly, he jumped to the right as a streak of metal came shooting towards him.
THUNK
Kanda looked at the shiriken that was now embedded in the tree behind him. He looked back at the clearing to see Sayaka's arm outstretched after having thrown the weapon and Lenalee staring at him.
"What do you think you're doing, eavesdropping?" Sayaka shouted at him, starting to approach him.
Lenalee followed closely, to keep them from getting into a fight. Kanda pulled the shiriken out of the tree trunk and held it in his hand. There was no green aura around it. Her Innocence hadn't been activated. His eyebrow rose in slight interest. That had been an expert offensive move just now, he admitted to himself.
"Well?"
Kanda looked up, seeing her hand extended towards him. He dropped the throwing star in it casually.
"It's not like I heard anything I didn't already know." He replied.
"That doesn't give you the right to eavesdrop when I clearly wasn't talking to you." Sayaka said.
Lenalee got inbetween them. "Stop it, both of you. Save it for the akuma."
She would've said more, but her wireless golem flew in front of her face and Reever's voice emerged from the speaker.
"Lenalee, Chief Komui's got a mission for you. Come back to the castle."
"Oh, alright. Be right there."
The golem disappeared. Lenalee looked from Kanda to Sayaka once more. "I'm not going to have to take one of you back to the castle with me, am I?"
Kanda looked away, saying nothing. Sayaka's face flushed again.
"Sorry, Lenalee…" she felt like she was a little kid.
"Okay. Then I'm off."
Another long silence ensued once Lenalee had gone back to the castle. Kanda and Sayaka just stood there, not speaking to each other. Sayaka slipped the shiriken back into her holster and turned to leave.
"You cut your hair."
She stopped and looked over her shoulder. Kanda was looking at her. "What?"
He pointed at her head. "Your hair. I just noticed."
Her hand reached up and touched it. "Yeah…what of it?"
Kanda shrugged. "Nothing. I just noticed it, like I said."
She raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "Oh really?"
Kanda started to walk past her. "Yeah. Really."
She followed him.
"Why are you following me?"
"The castle's that way, isn't it? How else am I supposed to get there?"
"You don't have to follow me."
"Well, tough. I'm following you. Deal with it."
Kanda scowled, but tried to ignore her. There was nothing else he could do. Arguing would be pointless against someone like her. A long silence followed them up to the front gates. The Gatekeeper shuddered, seeing Kanda approaching and opened immediately without hesitation. Sayaka watched it open.
"What's that thing's problem?" she asked as they walked through the front gate.
"I dunno, he always does that." Kanda replied.
Another silence. This was getting even more annoying to Kanda than talking, so, weighing the options, he decided to start a conversation.
"So why'd you cut it?"
He felt Sayaka's eyes fall on him again, though he did not look back at her. She didn't respond right away.
"Um…I just…" should she tell him what precisely was running through her mind while she was hacking away at her hair the night before? "…just felt like changing it. That's all…why do you ask?"
"No reason in particular."
"Ah…"
The two exorcists came to a long hallway on the fourth level, where the individual rooms were. Kanda's was to the right, while Sayaka's was far down the left. Kanda started to go his own way.
"W…W-Wait, Kanda!" Sayaka blurted out.
Kanda stopped and looked at her over his shoulder. "What? Quit yelling."
"I…look, I'm…sorry."
He hesitated. "For what?"
"Hitting you."
Kanda just stood there. He hadn't seen that coming.
"Well," Sayaka started to back up in the opposite direction, "There. I said it. I don't care if you accept it or not, I apologized."
Kanda's dark grey eyes watched her until she disappeared out of sight. Now he was confused. What was with her? Before, she seemed to think of him exactly as he thought of her, but now she was apologizing to him? He shook his head a couple of times and started walking, but then, almost without realizing it, he had turned and started to follow after her. What was he doing?!
"Hey, wait a minute," he said, slowing down as he approached her (he had to run).
She stopped and looked at him. "What?"
"Why did you really hit me the other day? It wasn't just about what I said to Sayo, was it?"
For a moment, he thought he saw her eyes tremble. Then she looked away and he couldn't tell anymore.
"Well?"
"…You wouldn't get it. You'd call me foolish."
"I'd call anyone foolish for not being honest."
Sayaka's cheeks went red. "The way you looked…it pissed me off. You just started to remind me of him, they way you were smirking at me. I was afraid that if I didn't hit you to shut you up, you'd go on to call me cute or something."
His eyebrow rose quizzically as he replied, "Cute? Why the hell would I call you cute? You're nothing special."
Kanda half expected Sayaka to punch him or something, or get mad in some way, shape or form. But no, she blushed. Then she smiled at him!
"Thanks, Yuu."
He rolled his eyes, "Whatever…hey, wait a minute."
She started laughing. "Ha, took you long enough!"
Gritting his teeth, he pointed at her. "Don't call me that."
"Why not?"
"Just don't. Anyway, why the hell did you thank me?"
"For not calling me cute and for being bluntly honest with me." She replied, "It let me know that you're not some egotistical jerk that likes teasing people like that."
"Oh no? Then what am I, if not that?"
Sayaka shrugged. "An egotistical jerk that's always angry."
Kanda tsked her and started walking away.