Disclaimer: I don't own D Gray Man.

Author's note: I probably got some facts wrong and I guess that the manga will end differently (if it'll ever end). So you can read this as kind of canon-compliant alternate universe or something.

All the titles are quotes from "Stolen season", a song by The 69 Eyes.

Celebration of the evening

General Tiedoll had arrived the day before and so Yu was hiding. A General, Yu had been told, was somebody important and impressive, somebody whom "exorcists", such as himself, were supposed to obey. Noise Marie had told him that General Tiedoll was his master and mentor and that he would try to convince the General to take Yu as an apprentice as well, but Yu didn't want to call anybody "Master". He had told that to Marie, but the blind man just smiled in a way that suggested he wasn't exactly paying attention. Yu hated it when grown-ups looked at him in that way, but he didn't say anything, just went to hide.

With any luck, the General would leave without finding him, he thought, curling up in the corner of a room he had never been to before. It happened often these days, now that he was out of the Sixth Laboratory, that he would find a place he hadn't seen before. It seemed like world outside the lab was endless and it was scaring him more than he cared to admit.

His stomach growled, which he had learnt was a sign that he was hungry, so he decided to abandon his hiding place, hoping to make it to the canteen without meeting the General or Marie. Canteen was one of the places he had seen before although never with quite as many people as recently. He didn't like the crowds, he had realised that very quickly. They were loud and people would bump into him sometimes. However, he didn't really know how to avoid them yet, since slicing through everybody with his Innocence, which had anyway been taken away, was not a good idea.

However, he only made it a couple of steps before a foreign voice called out.

'Oi, you,' the voice said rudely and Yu stiffened before turning to face the voice's owner. The boy standing in front of him grinned. 'Are you the new apprentice of that weird, old man?' the boy asked, confusing Yu greatly. What was that boy talking about? 'My name is Daisya, and yours?' the boy asked another question, seemingly undeterred by the lack of response, extending his hand. Yu looked at it doubtfully, not sure what he was supposed to do.

'Kanda,' he muttered with only a slight hesitation. He had chosen this as a name to complement "Yu", because apparently "Yu" was not enough for the Black Order. Funnily enough, it seemed to be enough before, but he didn't complain. If he could make everybody call him "Kanda", nobody would say "Yu" anymore and he wouldn't be hearing Alma's voice echoing in his head. He wouldn't be remembering his one and only friend, whom he had killed viciously, and not just once and twice. He had killed Alma countless times, hacking him into pieces over and over again, until he had stopped regenerating and Yu was left alone, bathed in their blood, chocking on his desperate sobs.

'Nice to meet you Kanda,' the boy called Daisya said with a grin, withdrawing his hand and snapping Yu out of his miserable thoughts. Was it some sort of a wave? He wondered if he should do the same kind of motion with extending and withdrawing his hand. 'Do you like football?' Daisya asked. Yu blinked at him slowly.

'What is football?' he asked, feeling stupid. He realised that he didn't like to feel stupid, so he scowled at the boy in front of him, especially when Daisya dared to looked surprised. Not everybody needed to know "football", Yu thought angrily, surely Daisya didn't know what it meant to "synchronise" or that human-like things could spring from holes in the floor.

'You don't know what football is?' Daisya asked. Yu scowled some more. 'I guess I'll have to teach you if you also become an apprentice of Tiedoll,' he added. Did that boy mean that he was an apprentice as well? But he didn't call the General "master". Yu just watched him, earning a frown.

'Don't look at me like that, Kanda,' Daisya said finally, his smile fading a bit. 'Tell me something about yourself. I was born in Bodrum, in Turkey, on the 5th of April, eleven years ago. What about you?' he asked. Yu stared at him, trying to process the situation. Was he supposed to say that he was born in the lab now? Would everybody he was going to expect to hear that from him? He didn't want everybody to know that he wasn't human. 'Let's try it easy, when is your birthday?' Daisya asked.

Yu really hated feeling stupid. He didn't understand the question, yet the way Daisya had spoken suggested that the answer should be obvious. How could he know the answer when he didn't understand the question? He was about to lash out at the boy, beat him up like he would beat Alma up when the other boy had annoyed him. However, hands resting on his shoulders gently made him stiffen, forgetting all about Daisya as he fought down the irrational fear that woke in him every time somebody touched him.

'His birthday is today,' said Bak and Yu allowed himself to relax. The new Branch Chief, Bak Chang was always gentle and soft and would not hurt him. It took him a moment to process the sentence. What was a birthday? He vaguely remembered Alma saying that word once. 'In fact, we're all looking for you two boys, because the General insists on having a little birthday party for you,' Back added. Daisya brightened up, asking Yu whether he didn't say anything to start with. I didn't know, Yu thought, letting Bak guide him out of the room.

'How old are you?' Daisya asked as they walked. Another question Yu didn't fully understand. He only started to realise that the world he and Alma had been shown wasn't even a fraction of the real world and it hurt. If he hadn't gone crazy because of the memories, would he and Alma still not know about "football" and Generals? Would they even be let out of the Sixth Lab at all?

Marie didn't think that it was "fair" keeping him locked up and managed to convince everybody that Yu wasn't going to go on a murderous rampage, so he had been let out of the small room, in which he was held after killing Alma. It had been three days earlier and had started the new adventure of discovering just how little he knew.

'He's eleven, just like you,' Bak answered smoothly. Yu memorised that, along with the date that, he had been told earlier that day, was June the 6th. The cook had told him that it meant it was the 6th day of June, but he didn't explain what "June" was.

Daisya looked like he wanted to say something more, but they had arrived to the canteen and a loud "Happy birthday, Yu" stopped whatever words were on the tip of his tongue. He grinned, while Yu looked at the gathered people, trying to figure out what was going on. They were all grinning at him, even though he only recognised a couple of the faces.

He noticed the man standing next to Marie and decided that it be the General Tiedoll, even though he didn't look impressive. He wasn't even as tall as Marie, Yu noted, scoffing slightly. However, before he could delve into those thoughts, the cook, Zu, and Fou, the "ghost" who had cheered Alma up, brought something big and fluffy, with eleven sticks sticking out, each with a small flame.

'Make a wish, Yu,' Fou said with a grin. She didn't look at all like the woman Yu had seen and anyway, he knew now that Fou was no ghost. She was the protective spirit of the Asian Branch. Yu frowned in confusion and looked at Bak, who was still standing behind him. He had only one wish really, Alma's wish, and he had already told Bak everything and the Branch Chief agreed to stop the Second Exorcist project completely.

The Branch Chief looked back at him and then his face adopted that expression Yu had seen on him before and couldn't understand at all. He knew a couple of expressions – he could understand anger, pain and sadness. Confusion was something he was becoming increasingly familiar with as well, but the expression on Bak's face was a mystery. Now that he thought of it, he had seen a similar expression on Doctor Edgar's face, however, he tried his best to not think about the dead doctor.

It didn't help that Bak was somehow very similar to Doctor Edgar.

'A happy kind of wish, Yu,' Bak muttered finally. 'You think a wish that you would like to come true and you blow the candles, uh, those lit up sticks. You blow on them so that the fire goes away,' he explained awkwardly. Yu still hated feeling stupid, but at least Daisya had been called by the General and wasn't there to hear the explanation. Zu and Fou knew everything anyway.

He looked at the Branch Chief and then at the thing Fou and Zu were holding. Bak muttered that it was a cake for him and that Old Man Zu put loads of effort into it. Not seeing any other option, Yu took a deep breath and blew out the candles, jumping up in fright as everybody cheered when he managed to get all of them off at once. Zu went about cutting the "cake", while Marie came over with the General and introduced Yu to the man, also officially introducing Daisya as Tiedoll's apprentice.

'What did you wish for?' Daisya asked cheerfully, only to be scolded by Tiedoll that Yu was not supposed to tell. It was for the better, because Yu hadn't bothered with the wish, not seeing the point. Plates with pieces of the "cake" were given out to everybody and Yu discovered that he didn't like "cake". It had a weird taste that, Bak told him when he asked, was called "sweet".

'Ah, before I forget,' Bak exclaimed, putting away his plate and picking up a big, wrapped box that was near him, on the floor. Inexplicably, Daisya clapped his hands. 'It's a gift from us in the Asian Branch,' he explained, giving the box to Yu, who took it gingerly.

'A gift?' he repeated. How many words were there that he hadn't known yet? The expression was back on Bak's face for a moment, before the Branch Chief explained that a gift was something offered to somebody. It could be given on an occasion, like birthday. Nodding, even though he didn't understand the purpose of the gift, Yu unwrapped the box and opened it to reveal a beautiful katana. He gasped in awe.

'Old Man Zu made it,' Bak said, grinning. 'It's your Innocence and it's called Mugen,' he added as Yu delicately picked the katana up and unsheathed it as though he had been doing it for years. Somehow the motion seemed natural to him and completely understandable, unlike this new world around him.

'Mugen,' he repeated, sliding his finger along the blade, making it gleam. Bak told him that he had just successfully activated the weapon, but there was something strained in his voice. Yu ignored him, looking at the blade with appreciation. 'Thank you,' he said finally, glad that he could use a word he had learnt recently.

'Any time, Yu, any time,' Bak replied with a small, warm smile. 'When you grow, Zu will make you another one, to fit you again,' he informed him. 'Now I'll let you talk with your new master,' he added. With those words, Bak, Zu and Fou disappeared into the crowd and Yu looked at the General with wide eyes. The man smiled gently.

'Marie said you don't want to call me "master",' the General said. 'I'm sure we're going to find a way out of that situation. Apprentices are like children, so you can call me "father" if you prefer,' he added. Yu looked at him with wide eyes, trying to process the words.

'But,' he mumbled. 'But Doctor Edgar was father,' he said. The General's eyes widened and then narrowed slightly. Marie seemed shocked and Daisya just blinked at him. Yu realised that he said something stupid and he felt irritation well up in him. He had seriously had enough of feeling stupid for one day.

'Father is a man who has a child,' the General said patiently, after a moment, but his gentle tone only served to irritate Yu further. 'Like mother is a woman, who has a child,' the man added and Yu almost growled. If it had been Alma, he would have already lashed out, but he couldn't attack the General.

'Yu, are you-' Bak started worriedly, but never got to finish, because Yu finally exploded.

'My name is Kanda,' he yelled at the top of his lungs. 'Get that into your thick heads and don't call me that anymore,' he added, slightly quieter, clutching Mugen's hilt so tightly that it hurt. He was never giving those people the chance to make him feel stupid, ever again. With that thought firmly in his head, he stormed out of the canteen.