Don't own D.Gray Man. If I did … the zombies would never have happened.
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"Deep," he finally concluded, when he felt the distant vibration of Ozuchi Kozuchi striking the spring floor. "Any other ideas?"
Kanda's eyes slid to his face without blinking, in an enquiring manner only he could pull off, and Lavi shrugged, retracting his Innocence. It was at least a hundred feet, though he was just guessing and could be off by as much as twenty. And in his opinion, twenty feet of boiling water was too much.
There was no way they were diving into that.
Both stood on the slate rock floor, staring at a pool of seething water roughly fifteen feet wide and thirty feet long. It was the opening of a natural spring that fed the attached spa, though of course it was no longer in service; cooking your clientele was a good way to go out of business. They'd made a bid to cool the rising temperatures with the river water intake, which was splashing a healthy amount of water into the pool just before it ran along a stone canal to the bathhouse, but once spring had come and gone, and the river was no longer glacier cold, it hadn't been enough.
And truth be known, as suspect as the timing of this sudden temperature increase sounded, it wasn't outside of the realm of possibilities that it wasn't actually being caused by Innocence. Thermal vents opened and closed all the time. If not for the fact that a thermal vent would have opened the day after an Indian princess's treasured hairpin had fallen into the spring, they would have thanked the innkeeper for her time and continued on without a backward glance.
And to be honest, the story had piqued his interest not because of the sudden change of the spring or the hairpin, but the fact that the reason the hairpin ended up in the spring was because the princess ended up in the spring, as she was unhappy with the water temperature in the bathhouse and needed something warmer to skinnydip in . . .
The samurai tched in irritation, twitching his head to move a steam-sticky lock of hair off his face, and Lavi dragged his mind back to the situation at hand. It was uncomfortably hot in the spring house; Lavi was considering shucking his jacket and his companion was already sweating. Sticking his head under the riverwater spout sounded delicious but he decided against it, shaking droplets of water from Ozuchi Kozuchi before replacing the hammer on his belt.
"I guess we'll have to wait for Reever and the group. They'll think of something."
Not that there was really time for that; the spa was going to be torn down and a giant rock rolled onto the spring. It turned out the land was unusually fertile, all of a sudden, and all the trees in the bordering orchards were producing fruit that tasted unlike anything they'd ever experienced. That rumor was what had drawn them to the town, and Komui had wisely decided not to send Allen with them; if he had, they would still be eating pie.
But that rumor brought with it tourists, thus money. Anyone that was threatening this new miracle, Exorcist or not, was unwelcome. It was the reason they'd had to sneak into the building in the dead of night rather than earlier that day, and the reason the town would not be particularly willing to wait a week while some scientists from England came down with a robot that was capable of swimming in a hundred foot deep cauldron of boiling water.
And if the Finders had had time to hear the rumor, it meant the Earl would not be far behind. Luckily for them, any Akuma dispatched would not have had the opportunity to overhear what they had heard, about the subsequent shutting down of the spa, and would still be looking among the trees for the Innocence, rather than here.
Which brought him right back to the immediate problem. They had some time, but not enough time to wait for Reever. Akuma were one thing, but a giant boulder covering the spring - and increasing the pressure, which could sweep away the Innocence - was another altogether.
Kanda was giving him a sour look, having internally come to the same conclusion, and Lavi shrugged at him. "Look, Innocence or not, I'm not getting in there." There was always the chance it was nothing. New volcanic activity in the area could explain increased nitrogen in the soil, thus the plant growth.
Though a naked Indian princess sounded more fun.
"I'll convince them to wait." It had such a bitter eagerness to it, and the samurai fingered Mugen's hilt lightly.
It was Lavi's turn to glare. "You'd have to kill half the town. This improvement is too important to them. And I already asked," he added, nodding to his golem, which was fluttering high above them near the vent that allowed the steam to escape. "We can't get enough funds telegraphed here in time to buy the property. They won't sell it for any price."
Yuu had probably been serious about intimidating the locals, but it was largely pointless; most of the town wanted the useless spa and spring gone so they could plant blueberry bushes for late summer harvest. There was no way the two of them could hold off that many people without causing at least a few of them serious harm. And while Mugen was an excellent tool for putting fear into the hearts of children and Akuma everywhere, none of Kanda's illusions could get that Innocence off the bottom. And Lavi didn't think a fire seal, even a large one, could boil the water as fast as the spring was feeding it. Easily four hundred gallons a minute were moving into the bathhouses, which were massive, and that wasn't counting the river water coming in.
Although . . .
It was probably a bad idea, but he could probably swirl all the water out of the spring, at least temporarily, with wind. It wouldn't be evaporating it, just moving it, but if he lost his concentration they'd be doused in really, really hot water. But it would certainly lessen the amount of water Kanda would have to slog through-
Except he'd also have to figure out how to get in and then out of a hundred foot hole while boiling water was swirling on the wall of it. He wasn't honestly sure he could hold the seal and still have Ozuchi Kozuchi extend and retract. Still, it was better than letting the opportunity pass by.
"How much water would you estimate is coming in from the river?"
Lavi glanced at the large, round pipe. Water filled only the bottom eighth before pouring into the spring, and while the canal that linked the spring to the bathhouses was more than half full, it could move quite a bit more water. Even if it overflowed, there was still the single door, to Lavi's left, that they could open in a pinch.
"Not enough?" He gave the other a grin, and Kanda rolled his eyes and unzipped his jacket. A well-aimed knock from Ozuchi Kozuchi spun the valve beside the river pipe, and a substantial amount of river water came roaring into the spring room. Steam shot into the air as the cooler water met the hotter, and Lavi brought up his arm to protect himself from splashback as Kanda removed his boots.
As the scent of fish came in with the steam, Lavi realized why the spa owners hadn't thought of doing that. Mixing more cold water with the hot to bring the temperature down. Opening the pipe meant letting in more of the rest of the river, and fish didn't go well with lavender and rose oil.
"Once you hit bottom I'll give you ten seconds to find it and get back to the handle."
Kanda just nodded, securing Mugen on his back, and Lavi extended his Innocence into the spring, about seventy feet. Once it had grown to the appropriate size, he started to roll the handle between his hands, making the end a giant agitator. Mixing the hot with the cold, cooling the spring near the source. It wouldn't get it cold enough to be comfortable, but it might prevent Yuu from getting too badly scalded.
Once he had a fairly decent whirlpool going he retracted his Innocence, shrugging out of his own jacket quickly as the temperature skyrocketed with the steam. The special fabric would protect them from heat, but not from scalding any better than their shirts would. Kanda came forward, grabbing the handle near the head of the hammer, and Lavi gave him another look. "You sure about this?"
"Che. Hurry up."
The samurai got a decent grip; for someone that hadn't often ridden his Innocence, he obviously understood the physics of suddenly being shoved into the eye of a whirlpool. All it was doing was continuing the agitation of cooler and warmer water and it would slow quickly. He'd have to spin it back up as soon as Kanda let go to search for the Innocence.
"Ten seconds," he repeated, and Kanda took several deep breaths in a row. He gave a barely perceptible nod, and Lavi took his own preparatory breath.
"Extend."
Ozuchi Kozuchi responded beautifully, as it always did with new riders, and the last thing he saw were bare feet disappearing into the steam and water. He extended the hammer as fast as he dared, twisting it with the current he'd created to give Kanda a break, and when he'd gotten exactly as far as he had before, he felt the hammer hit bottom. He gave Kanda a scant second to let go before he pulled the hammer up, about six feet, and began rolling it between his hands again.
"One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand . . . " Who decided it took the average English-speaking person a second to say one-thousand anyway? He could keep time in his head as easily without it, but things seemed a bit more muffled with all the steam, and his voice sounded very close. There was no drag on the hammer, so Kanda really had let go of it, and there wasn't so much as an ounce of extra fat on him. He would stay close to if not on the bottom with very little work. The problem was that the hottest water was down there, and the Innocence itself could be far hotter than that.
Hadn't Kanda been unbuttoning one of his cuffs? His shirt fabric was thin but would do th-
The door never opened. It was in his peripheral vision the entire time, and it never opened. He clung to that memory like a lifeline, using it to deny the pain as his eyes impartially recorded the handle of his Innocence disappearing into the water. He had let go, his arm was limp at his side, tingling from impact and ever-increasing pain, and the angle of it meant his elbow was dislocated if not shattered entirely-
That analysis was more than enough for his nervous system, which simplified it, and Lavi gasped, choking on steam and blinking away stars. The breath escaped as a shout of pain, and he turned to his right, there was nothing there but a solid stone wall, what the hell-
There was a figure in the steam. Someone standing right there in the room with him. Not three feet away.
Shit. Shit!
"Extend!"
He made a dive for the spring, not caring if his skin was scalded right off. His Innocence was still close enough, still active, it would respond to his voice and what good was a right or left-handed Bookman, he was ambidextrous. One broken arm wouldn't stop him-
His jaw was struck by what felt like the wall and he landed hard on his left shoulder, skidding across the steam-slicked floors and directly into the spring.
It was hot. Not boiling, but much warmer than bathwater, and the outer ring of his whirlpool had him instantly. He flailed in the water, screaming as his right arm was bent by the current, and water flooded into his mouth. His feet caught on a corner, something, smooth and solid - the floor of the canal - and he kicked hard, shooting back to the surface. The current had already dragged him into the first of the bathhouses, too far from his Innocence-
"Exten-"
His hair was caught in a vise and he was hauled half out of the water by it, his left hand passing right through the force holding him but catching on nothing. His bandana had slipped in the water, but not so far that he couldn't see what had hold of him.
Who had hold of him.
"It's Mr. Eyepatch again," the smooth voice noted. Then he threw him headfirst into the nearest wall.
His ears were ringing and his mouth tasted of old copper pipe, and everything seemed distant. His arm burned right through it, though, and he was still spluttering from the water. Wasn't out long then, maybe a few seconds. His eye was open, he could feel it blinking but sight was a long time coming, and in that time he knew the Noah was approaching.
The only Noah he knew of that could walk through walls. Tyki Mikk.
The bastard that had almost killed Allen Walker. That had almost killed him as well.
But Kanda could handle him, Kanda-
Kanda was never going to make it out of that spring in time, not one hundred feet. The whirlpool would lose momentum quickly, it wouldn't be cooling the water that deep anymore-
The front of his shirt was grabbed and he was hauled to his feet, banging his right arm against the wall, and he screamed through his teeth, left hand still uselessly struggling to hang on to the Noah. It was pointless; there was a brief flash of yellow light as his hand passed through the Noah's arm, leaving behind only an odd, hexagonal cell-like pattern on the Noah's skin and clothes. Almost as if the Noah were made of a beehive.
He left the same pattern on his target when he reached through them. Which he would probably be doing shortly.
"Ne, ne, why are you struggling?" As polite as always, when he wasn't sporting tentacles and pointy teeth. "You're Bookman Junior, aren't you? I thought your kind had better memories than that."
He shoved him against the wall again, almost as if to reposition them for his own comfort, and Lavi managed to bottle his pain into a low whine. God, it hurt, he'd broken it in the worst possible place. His fingers and wrist still worked but the break had to support the weight of his lower arm and couldn't even be tucked against his side for safekeeping.
"I would have thought the arm would bring everything back. It was damaged the last time we met, no?"
"The lack of tentacles . . . is an improvement," he grated, and the fist in his shirt pressed a bit harder towards his throat. "I guess General Cross really did beat them out of you."
There was very little light; the only torch they'd dared ignite was in the springhouse, and very little of that yellow flame penetrated the canal opening. Here, at least, there were high windows, and cold white moonlight gave him only the faintest outline of the Noah. Impeccably dressed as usual, with his dark, curly hair swept back beneath a dapper black hat. He looked no different than he had the night he tried to kill Allen.
No different than that night in Edo, before Allen had tried to kill the Noah in him.
Obviously whatever the Sword of Exorcism had done, it had not been sufficient to purge the influence of the Noah from the human Tyki Mikk. And the idea that he could take that form again, stand up to the attack of a general, even for a short time-
"And how is the good general faring? I heard rumor he was killed by his own."
Lavi clenched his jaw and said nothing, and the Noah laughed.
"You're shaking pretty badly, Mr. Eyepatch. Was the water that cold?" Tyki leaned closer, pinning him now with a forearm across his throat, and again, his clawed left hand passed through it like it wasn't there. "Don't tell me a Bookman, even a junior Bookman, is afraid."
The Noah was so close their knees were touching, he could feel it, it meant the Noah wanted to touch his knees, so his knees could touch back. He had no angle, they were too close together, but he clung to the idea, desperate for an opportunity to use it. "It's a chilly night, but the water's fine. You should give it a try."
Tyki laughed delightedly. "Are you suggesting I go soak my head?" He said it almost fondly. "But I will try the waters, when I gather the Innocence at the bottom of that spring. Even if it was only rumor, at the very least I shall get yours and your companion's." The Noah's unoccupied left arm brushed down his own right, applying the slightest pressure to the break, and Lavi couldn't help the yelp that escaped. "That arm seems to be giving you some trouble. Would you like me to set it?" The touch became a bit more firm, working a stifled moan out of him, and Tyki's dark-hooded eyes seemed to brighten, just slightly.
That's right; they lightened, depending on how much or little of the Noah's powers he was using. Or did it depend on mood? How much was the Noah, and how much was the human?
"Perhaps I could remove the offending bone altogether."
And then probably beat him to death with it. Lavi struggled for a steady breath. "I thought hearts were your specialty." Or livers, stomachs, kidneys - the list of what had been taken from Yeegar was long.
"They are," he agreed silkily, still running a teasing finger up and down his right arm. "But Bookmen have no hearts, isn't that true?"
Lavi was expecting it and still jumped when the Noah's hand closed around his arm, squeezing only lightly, but enough. He tried to breathe through it, hating every admittance, and Tyki's face was suddenly much closer, his breath warm on his right ear.
"Rhode is very dear to me. She is more than a friend, she is my family. What you did to her did not please me."
Is. Present tense. Lavi felt his eye widen, frozen in place but for his panting. She was still alive? They'd watched her disintegrate, there was no way-
And he'd seen Allen exorcise the Noah from Tyki Mikk, or at least he thought he had.
Was it even possible to kill Noah, then . . .?
"Oh yes," Tyki purred, correctly interpreting his shock. "She is alive and well, though her sights are still set upon Allen Walker. However, as her uncle," and his fingers tightened again, "I am a bit less distracted, and I do not approve of the way you treated her."
Lavi fought for his voice. Tyki was going to kill him, there was no way around that now, the knowledge was useless and yet he wanted it anyway. "H-how-"
He heard the Noah's lips sliding over his teeth, his mouth was so close. "You didn't think she would risk her life in a game, did you?"
But . . . she had, he was certain of it, he had injured her with her own dream, it was her Noah powers that had inflicted that damage, not his Innocence. Was she only injured? But then why did he see her disintegrate? Was that truly not her real body?
"But she will be very angry with me if I don't give you the same option she did." The realization seemed to startle the Noah, and Tyki pulled back, releasing his arm. The relief was almost as sharp as the bones grating together had been. Lavi blinked away the odd white blobs that threatened to overtake his vision, gasping for breath, making out only a dark face with a friendly white smile. "So let's play a game, shall we, Bookman junior?"
The Noah said nothing else, apparently waiting for his response, and Lavi tried to catch his breath. The arm was still at his throat, and his legs were shaking badly enough he wasn't sure he'd be standing without the help. Surely the Noah wasn't waiting for him to agree . . . ?
"If you win, I'll let you go," Tyki offered, the grin never slipping. "I won't leave you your Innocence, of course, but . . . you are a Bookman in training, are you not? There is something of nearly equal value I could give you."
Lavi gave him a wary look, but he had no choice. Accept the game or die. He was probably going to die anyway, but at least this bought him time, opportunity-
There was no sound from the springhouse but the quickly flowing water. No sign that Kanda had actually made it out before he was scalded to death. His opportunities were limited to the fact that he could hit the Noah's knees with his own.
"I'm listening."
Tyki's eyes seemed to grow lighter still, or perhaps his own eyesight was clearing. "I'm counting on it." Again he leaned in, and this time Lavi felt contact everywhere. The Noah was literally pinning him with his body, his knee slipping between Lavi's to lean against the wall behind him. Giving him the opportunity to fight back . . ?
Again, warm breath against his ear. Like any human. His brain recorded the words, refusing to allow his emotion to cloud the memory of what he was hearing, and when the Noah was done, he pulled back only enough that Lavi could see him out of the corner of his left eye.
Lavi remained motionless against the wall. That . . . that was . . .
"Now, wouldn't that be useful for a Bookman to know? Or the Exorcists, if you are sharing your information with them freely." His voice oozed molten sugar. "Isn't that worth surviving for?"
Lavi took a few more open-mouthed breaths, then licked his lips. "So what's the game?"
Tyki didn't move a muscle. "What I just told you is a truth known to none but us Noah and the Millennium Earl. It should be communicated to your clan by a fully fledged Bookman, not his lowly apprentice. Prove that you're a Bookman." The Noah was smiling again, and even in the dim lighting Lavi could see it wasn't a human expression. "Prove to me there is no heart within you for me to take."
Kanda. He'd go and get Kanda, if he was still alive, and use him. The other teen healed quickly, and Tyki probably didn't know that. There was a chance, a small chance-
"Don't tell me you're . . . still angry about the mole comment."
The Noah threw back his head and laughed, loud and long. "My, my, you're telling me that was just a show, put on for the Exorcists? To put them at ease, believe you are a comrade? You truly feel no anger towards me for what happened to Cheating Boy A?"
Lavi tried to relax under the Noah's grip, tried to regain a little of his composure. "You saw Bookman doing the same."
Tyki cocked his head to the side, listening to something far off that Lavi couldn't hear. "Maybe I did see some emotion from the Bookman," he pondered. "It would be hard to record from one side or the other without gaining the trust of your subjects. Very well, Bookman junior, we'll play another way."
Go and get him. There's not much time left. Go!
"Your companion is surely drowned, and there is none here but you and me. Show me your lack of emotion. Show me how little you feel."
Hiding his hatred of the Noah was doable, and Lavi tilted his chin up just slightly, even though it gave the Noah clearer access to his throat. Was that the test? Using up the time Kanda had left? Forcing him not to suggest that he go check, forcing him not to beg for the other's life? "And how exactly do you want me to do that?"
Forcing him to weigh the life of an Exorcist against the information he had just gotten?
"You obviously feel pain, like any human." Tyki made his point by crushing him into the wall until he gasped. "But you claim not to be afraid of me. Bookmen can suppress their fears entirely, record things impartially. All you have to do is record this encounter. Do that, and I will agree you have no heart."
Lavi's stomach sank into ice despite the steam in the room.
"It's a bit warm in here, don't you think?" Tyki raised his free left hand, and with a wet slurp a large, striped butterfly blistered out of his bare wrist. "Tease, open that window, would you?"
It was certainly a golem; its back bore an Akuma-like skull that chattered at the Noah in indecipherable language, then fluttered on a steam current toward the window. He knew they ate people, but glass was news-
And then his soaked bandana was blown off his face entirely by displaced air as thousands of Tease left the Noah's body. Their wings were as sharp as razors, they sliced his cheekbone and jaw as they poured forth, and the cuts were so clean he didn't feel the first droplet of blood leave his body until the last mechanical butterfly had passed through the ruins of the window and the windowframe, opening a huge hole in the wall. He could actually see the moon now.
And he could see the Noah far better, as if he had stepped into a spotlight. Tyki gave him a pleasant smile. "Much better. Though in hindsight perhaps I should have just taken us outside. Now that the Tease are awake it would be cruel of me to deny them their supper."
It took everything in him not to show anything. The villagers. That many Tease would wipe out the entire town.
Was what he knew now worth their lives?
But Bookman's voice grated in his head, too many times he'd had that thought, and too many times he'd gotten his answer. Would the Noah actually call them back if he asked? The image of Suman disintegrating into Tease flashed through his mental eye, and Lavi had his answer.
The game had already started, and the Noah never promised him anything if he lost.
Tyki shifted slightly away, as if to get a better look at his face. "You will let them all be consumed? But let's see how you do when you hear their reaction to your decision." Tyki sighed, languidly rooting around in his coat for a cigarette, which he placed between his lips. Once there, he began an unhurried search for a match, all the while his eyes - they were almost golden, with a round black pupil - never left Lavi's face.
And Lavi schooled his breathing and stared steadily back.
Once the match was lit and the Noah had his first breath of smoke, he let it out with an amused hmph. "It will take them some time to cover the distance. Perhaps some conversation, Bookman junior? Are there some questions you have for me?"
Of course. Give him every opportunity to give his emotions away. Lavi thought back to Rhode, to Deak, and let his lips twist with apathy. "Thousands. Are there any you would answer?"
At that the Noah grinned broadly. "I have given you a great deal already, haven't I? But you have given me the same. Two pieces of Innocence and the life of an Exorcist, even if you should win." He glanced back at the springhouse in mock regret. "Your fellow's death was quite unpleasant. I wonder if the sounds he made were anything like a lobster in the cooking pot."
Lavi didn't even twitch. "You know that sound is actually air escaping their shell, right?"
"Are you suggesting it's not disagreeable for them?"
Lavi shrugged, as best he was able, and confirmed that he could indeed touch every part of the Noah that was touching him. He was one arm down and the Noah were known for their superhuman strength - which Tyki had already demonstrated, and now that he thought about it his scalp was smarting like mad - but it was still something. He could probably get one hit in before the Noah didn't want to touch him, then he could dart through him, maybe the Noah would even let him make it to the hole-
But then what? He had no Innocence. He couldn't even hit this Noah more than once without it, and he would never survive the dive to get Ozuchi Kozuchi. He couldn't help Kanda. There was no escape here but whatever the Noah would grant him.
"I don't actually cook or eat them. Shellfish allergy." A lie, but perhaps Tyki would try to torture him with shrimp, and since he wasn't Allen Walker, that would be bearable.
"Ah," Tyki said, with a hint of real regret in his voice. "You're missing out, young Bookman. Some of the most delicious meals I've eaten contain our friends from the sea. In Spain there is a truly excellent little fonda, family owned for a century. Agueda Delavega makes the most delicate shellfish paella with fregola . . ." He trailed off, actually licking his bottom lip at the memory. "You did eat this evening, did you not? As this is a spa, perhaps there is something suitable for a quick evening meal here on site."
Polite dinner conversation. "I'm not hungry," he said levelly.
"Ah yes, the arm. How could I have forgotten." Tyki shifted, keeping him pinned more by way of his leg and chest than his arm, and he took another drag from the cigarette. "Pain turns my stomach as well. It was a long time after the Earl put an end to Cross Marian's attack that I felt able to eat."
Pleasant conversation with a Noah was bound to end sooner or later, and Lavi gave him a bland look. Tyki's lips quirked around the cigarette.
"Let me ask you a question, Bookman junior. Do you know why I take my enemy's heart?"
"You miss the one you used to have?"
Tyki gave him the expected laugh. It sounded surprisingly sincere, as if he truly was enjoying their conversation. Then again, he was the Noah of Pleasure. Pleasure could be found in almost anything; vices such as cigarettes and alcohol, a job well done, companionship - he made a distinction between friends and family, so perhaps there was some leverage there - and obviously food. It was no surprise he would be enjoying this, both the conversation and the 'game.'
"I still have a heart, Bookman junior. Can you not feel it?" He moved the arm pinning his captive's throat, so that his wrist lay warm and smooth against Lavi's jaw, and sure enough, he could feel the other's pulse, slow and steady. It also bent his head just a bit higher, exposing just a bit more of his throat. Putting him in a more submissive position.
He'd give him credit. The Noah seemed to know as much about human psychology as Bookmen. Both of them were masters of manipulating it, which cut his chances of successfully fooling the Noah.
And that was clearly the point Tyki was making.
"I think I feel yours as well," the Noah continued, cocking his head now to the other side. "Haven't you wondered what I do with them? The hearts that I take?"
With his head tilted further against the wall, any swallowing would be very loud, so he didn't. "I assume you feed them to the Tease." They had certainly never found Daiysa Barry's, or any of the others' Tyki killed that night in Barcelona. And he hadn't taken Allen's, though he'd threatened to-
Tyki's goldenrod eyes bored into his. "In a way, you're correct. Once I've sated my own appetite, I give them what remains."
This time Lavi wasn't able to hide his surprise, and he actually saw the Noah's eyes change, right before his own. Suddenly the thing looking at him wasn't quite as human as it had been a moment ago.
"You . . . eat them?"
"Hardly, boy. Why would I put such impurities into my own body?" His teeth flashed in the moonlight. "Perhaps you're too young to follow. Have you yet had a woman, little Bookman?"
Trying to shock him with sex? He scoffed. "Isn't Lulubell the Noah of Lust?"
"Lust comes in many forms. In Lulubell's case, she has insatiable desire for power, for stature, for the Earl's respect, even for a decent manicurist. For her the pleasure is in taking and having. For me, the pleasure itself is everything."
So he was saying-
"All the organs in the human body remain responsive even after they've been removed, did you know? Kidneys still try to filter, even when they take in only air. Your lungs continue to try to breathe when they have no body to feed oxygen. It takes them a while to realize what has happened. Not unlike the people they once belonged to." Tyki's grin became fixed and unnatural. "Do you know what your heart does when it's removed?"
Trying to shock him and succeeding. It was a heart, the heart of an Exorcist, for God's sake! And he was- was-
"Ah, I can tell from your expression you do not approve." He took another pull on the cigarette, expelling the smoke with his words. "The feeling is exquisite, though very short-lasting, as you can guess. But the best part for me is the tissue between the chamber walls. I'm really not certain how openly sexuality is discussed behind cloistered walls, but you're a worldly Bookman, are you not? Surely you must know something about the opposite sex."
Lavi worked very hard to keep his breathing even. Deak would not care. Deak would only note the physiological aspects and agree that a hymen and the septum of a heart would have something in common, though obviously the septum would be more robust, which would not be a problem for someone of a Noah's strength-
Deak would not be upset at all by this line of conversation. So why the hell was Lavi?
Because he knew those hearts. Deak had never been asked to know someone's heart, and Lavi had. He knew Daiysa Barry. He knew Suman and the other five Tyki killed that day, he ate with them and worked with them and spoke with them and recorded them. He knew those hearts. And Tyki had not just taken them, he had sullied them. Destroyed them utterly.
"Enough to understand your inference," Lavi murmured, letting his eye relax back to its normal size and taking care to slip back into the role of Deak, just a little. "Though deriving pleasure from taking a woman's virginity seems largely a cultural phenomenon. You were born in southern Europe, right? I'd guess Spain or Portugal based on your coloring when you're marauding as a human."
It wasn't a guess; the clan knew where each and every human that had become a Noah came from, as it was usually something the Earl couldn't hide, no matter how many witnesses he made disappear. They tracked them carefully, since there must be a pattern to where new Noah spawned, and it must mean that eventually the humans the Noah previously infested died somehow-
Tyki leaned back, and for the first time there was little enough pressure on him that he could escape. He had scored his first win on the Noah, who looked more than a little surprised.
"Who am I speaking with now?" he wondered aloud, grabbing Lavi's chin so quickly he hadn't even seen the Noah move. "It seems you have changed before my eyes and I have not noticed."
Lavi quirked an eyebrow. "You wanted me to prove I'm a Bookman, didn't you? Yet how can I do that to someone who is so obviously ignorant of what that means?"
Tyki's thoughtful frown smoothed into something else, and he was more human again. "I had no idea they conditioned their own so completely at such a young age. You surprise me, Bookman junior. Perhaps I shouldn't go easy on you after all."
A faint sound carried through the hole in the wall, along with the first breath of cooler air, and the Noah paused, stroking Lavi's chin as thoughtfully as if it were his own. "It appears the Tease have arrived," he observed unnecessarily.
There was nothing to say to that so Lavi said nothing, and he hated his ears for straining towards the sounds. Recording them, how long it took the village to be emptied based on the two thousand, nine hundred and twenty-two Tease that had left the Noah and descended on them.
Their Finder was in town, he would call for help. If Allen had ever been here, he would use the Ark. There was a chance, a small chance some of them would be saved. Either way, there was nothing he could do about it. Not without his Innocence.
There was nothing he could do.
"Your composure is to be commended," Tyki murmured, still stroking his chin. "I assume you have also been conditioned to withstand pain, no?"
He knew it was coming but it still hurt. Tyki reached right through him, impossibly, twisting his right arm behind his back and shoving his body against it. He screamed so hard he choked, so hard he couldn't breathe. But he could bear it. He'd had worse. He'd been burning in the fire of his own seal and had had the discipline to keep himself there, keep the seal activated. This wouldn't kill him.
His body couldn't handle it as gracefully as his mind, though, and he barely had the awareness to lean forward before he vomited. It did not make him feel better, and he was certain it hadn't landed on the Noah.
"Dear me, that must have hurt quite a bit," Tyki purred, holding his shaking frame absolutely still. If the Noah wasn't supporting him he would have dropped like a stone. "Perhaps it's just as well you skipped dinner. I do hate wasting food. There is too much hunger in the world."
Lavi kept panting, eventually catching his breath enough to spit. He hated puking up bile, it burned his throat worse than any indigestion.
"Do be a bit more quiet if you can, Bookman junior. We can't hear them dying if you don't."
Lavi blinked several times, surprised to find his head was still fallen forward, resting against the Noah's chest. The fine silk felt quite hot against his skin, and Lavi picked himself up slowly, trying to support himself. Heaven only knew when the Noah would drop him, and every little shift was agony to his arm. He never knew it could hurt so badly. It would be better if the Noah had just ripped it off entirely, at least then he'd been in shock-
Lavi smiled at himself as he imagined Deak's snort. He was shaking, couldn't breathe, couldn't see, couldn't think. He was already in shock. Best way to ruin his composure.
The Noah let him pull away, until he was standing straight again despite the added angle on his arm, until he was looking at his face again. He swallowed hard, forcing his lungs to cooperate, and kept eye contact.
And waited.
He received a faint smirk. "Very impressive, little Bookman. Tell me, how much don't you feel, exactly?" He removed his support, as Lavi knew he would, leaving only a thigh between his own and his hand around his right wrist through his chest, keeping his arm against the wall. Pinned very well, actually; he couldn't even think about moving without wanting to puke again.
And then the Noah's other hand was in his stomach, the faintest impression, like a wisp of the smoke that was lazily leaving his cigarette. "You see, there are many different types of pain. What you feel now is only moderately intense compared to what your nerves are capable of carrying. Shall I demonstrate the range for you?"
Giving him an out.
Lavi shook his head, taking short, shallow breaths in an effort to get enough air to speak. "That's up t-to you."
"You're right," Tyki agreed, his voice oddly husky, and then Lavi realized that his arm was insignificant to his torso. What was an extremity when your core could feel like this. If he hadn't completely trusted that the Noah would keep his word and not fatally damage him, he would have thought he was dying.
Tyki's voice was far away, and he wasn't sure if the distortion was his losing consciousness or that he couldn't hear over his own cries. "This is equivalent to a fatal bout of colic in a large pack animal. I have twisted your intestines, which cut off the blood flow among other things. If I were to remove my hand, without immediate surgery, you would die. It's quite unpleasant, is it not?"
His body was writhing quite without him, he felt it every time he ground against his own arm, and he realized that he was an idiot. There was no way he could withstand this, not even for a moment. If this was just a taste, if he had to wait for all the minutes it would take the villagers to die-
No.
He was stronger than this. He was a Bookman. If he gave in now, he had all the pain and those people, Kanda, would have died for nothing.
"Now perhaps you will sympathize with the beasts when they roll in their stalls, seeking relief as you do now." Tyki's voice was even further away. "This pain would eventually fade, becoming an ache that would eat the base of your spine. It brings with it convulsions as well . . . I wonder if there is a way for me to help you experience that without actually killing you. Shall we search for it together, little Bookman?"
He waited patiently for an answer, but Lavi could not speak. The pain didn't abate, just grew slowly worse and he knew what was happening, lack of oxygen to the tissues, this was damage, not yet fatal but he couldn't afford it. He nodded, only realizing he was crying when he felt the tears smeared on his cheek by the Noah's lapels.
"A Bookman would want to know," Tyki agreed easily, and the sharpness faded to the point that Lavi was aware of the rest of himself again, all but sitting on the Noah's thigh, his legs shaking so badly he had no hope of standing on his own again. He was completely at the Noah's mercy and there was no hiding it.
And maybe five minutes had passed. Lavi groaned at his observational skills and pressed his face harder into the coat in front of him, figuring he might as well enjoy the support while he had it.
"Let's see . . ." Tyki made a show of rooting around in his abdomen, and Lavi refused to watch. Even with his face buried in the other's chest, listening to his steady, slow heart, he could hear beyond. He could hear the riverwater splashing into the spring, he could hear something even over that, almost like a whistling teakettle.
Please, Toma. Put them in a talisman field. Protect them.
"Ah, yes. This should do nicely," Tyki purred, and Lavi's spine stiffened involuntarily, causing him to jerk straight though he would have sworn he didn't have the strength to do it a scant second ago. He crushed his arm against the wall again and this time he was sure he tore a vocal chord. His spine was spasming uncontrollably, and his legs were jelly. Every tremor shifted his arm, and his groin burned as his balls were flattened painfully between his body's and the Noah's.
"Were you conditioned against all forms of torture, little Bookman?"
Suddenly that uneasy tingling pain became clear and he recognized it for what it was. Knew exactly where the Noah's hand was, and what it was doing.
"We could try something different if you tire of this one."
A finger traced the base of his spine, literally the corded nerves themselves, and his body responded in the only way it knew how, bashing the back of his head against the wall as his spine arched. Muscles throughout his body strained and tore themselves in his contortions, and he nearly blacked out from the strike alone, there was far too much data inundating his stunned brain. The Noah repeated the gesture and Lavi heard himself shudder out a whimper, incapable of doing anything more. Every sensation in his body was intensified beyond bearing. His arm might as well have been stabbed with a million nails. The wall was digging valleys into his flesh. His clothes were chafing off his skin. The heat of the Noah's thigh between his legs was burning him, his testicles were being torn off his body.
"Dear me, what a violent reaction," the Noah observed, his voice deafening, nearly bursting his eardrums. "Perhaps I've taken things a bit too far. But please don't think you can leave that easily."
His face was taken between the Noah's hands, for the first time no longer pinned down in any way, and he could do nothing but slump against the wall, fully supported by one leg and two gentle hands on his face.
"If you stop responding, I will have to assume you've grown bored of this game and given up."
He just kept gasping, the feeling oddly muted, and his face was shaken, so gently he almost didn't feel it.
"Look at me, little Bookman."
Opening his eye, that he could do. Tyki smiled at him, a reward for good behavior, and wiped his cheek. "I've made you cry, little Bookman. And I've made you scream. But tell me, have I made you feel?"
What was he looking for? Hate? Fear? Lavi couldn't even pretend to have ahold of himself, yet whatever weakness it was the Noah wanted, he clearly didn't see. "It hurts quite a bit, doesn't it."
And then he threw him back against the wall.
Lavi felt his mouth stretching open, but it didn't seem like he had the breath for screaming anymore, and again, whatever the Noah was looking for, he didn't get it.
"Can you no longer speak? Have I hurt you too badly?"
Lavi kept blinking, well aware that he was dangerously close to fainting, between the first headstrike and the second he was surely concussed. Wouldn't it be his luck to not remember, when all this was said and done. Survive and let them die and not remember why he'd done it.
"What a lovely smile, little Bookman."
And then some of the pain simply-
Simply vanished.
"There's another extreme to torture, that few people use. Few people are as good at it as I am. Would you like to experience that as well, little Bookman?"
No. It probably had to do with bone pain, which pretty much no one could do as well as he could. And his arm, god his arm-
"Are you still playing, little Bookman?"
No. No more playing. Anything else would kill him, or else he'd pass out and that was the same thing.
"Are you awake, boy?"
His pelvis jerked forward on its own, and he felt his eye open wide as the feeling was immediately drowned by his arm. Surely that wasn't what he'd thought, surely-
"There you are. For a moment I thought you'd given up."
Lavi continued to blink in an effort to keep his eye open. He had to. Had to.
"You aren't going to break just yet, are you, little Bookman?"
And then it happened again. Sensation that was certainly not pain raced up his spine, already sensitized from its previous treatment, and he screamed soundlessly, his throat unable to make more than a squeak.
"I get that reaction quite a bit," the Noah chuckled, pressing against him, keeping him upright. "This is a more pleasant way to spend the time, don't you agree?"
Lavi shoved his head against the wall lest his body do it for him, pinning his arm now on purpose in an effort to feel that pain. He needed to focus on something and that was the sharpest thing around, besides what Tyki was doing now. If he felt it, he would be overwhelmed. He would pass out. It wasn't even a violation of Tyki's rules, he had to record the encounter and he couldn't do that unconscious. But surely this would be as bad as strangling him-
"There are practices all over the world that do what I am doing to you now," Tyki told him, his eyes a very bright yellow as his fingers brushed against something Lavi could only guess was his prostate. "But due to my . . . rather unique abilities, I discovered something. Would you like to know what?"
No. No, he certainly did not.
"If everyone could do what I can do, they would know there's something even nicer."
Much like everything else Tyki had done to him, there was no ignoring it. There was no distraction. He could feel the broken ends of his forearm grinding together and the sensation felt wonderful. His clothes brushed maddeningly, teasingly against his skin and he wanted more. He was writhing against both the wall and the Noah, who had placed the most perfect leg between his own and granted him such an exquisite pressure and place to generate friction, all at the same time-
"Do you feel that, little Bookman?" He could feel Tyki's own arousal pressed hard against his left thigh, enjoying his squirming, and while the aloof part of his brain knew exactly what was going on, and why, and what it meant, the rest of him was helpless.
"Unfortunately, I cannot experience it myself, so I am hoping you can summarize the experience for me," the Noah continued, almost lazily. He hadn't even lost his cigarette, Lavi's eye could only take in the moonlight and the glowing end of the tobacco, only half-spent. All this time had probably been less than ten minutes. "Can you do that?"
Lavi felt his eye rolling back, and crushing his back against his arm only increased his pleasure, only ground his erection against the Noah, who was returning the favor. Somehow everything was backwards, it should be the agony he felt before but it wasn't-
"No?"
Distantly Lavi realized he must have shaken his head in his effort to stay conscious, but it was over now, it didn't matter. He was going to come and he was going to lose consciousness and his heart. He knew exactly why the Noah was pleased, and how he intended to get his.
And he didn't care, as long as the Noah didn't stop.
So he did.
As quickly as his body had confused pain with pleasure, it rightened itself again, and everything the Noah had done to him, and he had done to himself, came back three times worse. He hadn't thought he had another one in him but he screamed, guttural and low and the same sound he'd heard a thousand times on the battlefield. The last sound so many men ever made. Sensation, even agonizing sensation, was too much for his body and he came painfully hard, an orgasm with no pleasure, thrusting into the Noah's thigh and crushing himself against his arm, that felt as if shards of the bone were protruding through the skin.
He was reasonably sure he lost consciousness and was brought back by the pain without the Noah even noticing, as he was pinned again with an arm across his throat, just as they had started, and the Noah was looking at him with a freshly lit cigarette between his lips. Only something uncomfortably hard pressed into the top of his left thigh told him that it had really happened. Otherwise the Noah had recreated everything perfectly.
Perfectly. The moon had barely moved.
He couldn't hear over the pounding of blood in his ears, a pounding he was sure the Noah could detect with no trouble. But still he tried to focus, tried, because he was still alive, he remembered all of it-
"So what did you feel, little Bookman?"
Lavi had no answer, the answer was obvious, just gave him as steady a look as he could manage. Tyki seemed content to let him think things over, and when his blood pressure died back to something a little more normal, when he stopped gasping so hard, he found he could still hear it, that far-off teakettle boiling over.
"It doesn't seem like the Tease are finished," the Noah observed, swallowing some smoke and clearly enjoying it before he released it into the strange mix of steam and fresh air. "And you don't seem to want to converse anymore, little Bookman. Shall we go for another round?"
He knew the Noah would wait for his affirmation, wait as they listened to the dying, and Lavi concentrated on staying conscious, taking the opportunity of a respite no matter how brief. It took him a while to notice; he didn't even think about it until Tyki glanced at the pocketwatch in his left hand and replaced it in his vest, bringing his cigarette back to his lips with the other. Lavi's first thought was confirmation that Tyki was right-handed, and then the arm pinning his throat spread a bit, warm and fluid. Even when he saw it he didn't comprehend what he was looking at until it took his chin, which was swollen from the punch and nearly crawled off his face at the odd sensation of Tyki's touch-
Just the tip, as black as any shadow in the room, swept over his eyepatch, and a second tentacle peeked at him over Tyki's right shoulder. "I could make it more interesting, if you like," the Noah offered, prompting him for a response. His eyes were gold but he still looked far more human-
Then everything changed. The shape of his eyes, the way they bulged at him above an impossible grin, his teeth, even the grey of his skin. Suddenly he was absolutely not a human, and Lavi fully understood what Tyki meant when he said he had a white side.
This wasn't it.
Lavi just stared at him, trying to suppress everything that he could when the tentacle pinning his throat, winding up the side of his face, started to idly toy with the cord of his eyepatch, snapping it against the skin of his ear. Tyki could do this all night, could do worse than he'd done. No one would find them, not if the town was wiped out. He could do it for as long as it took to win-
Which was his plan all along. Rhode had actually played a game because she knew they would be killed by the Ark's destruction no matter the outcome. Tyki had never intended to give him an opportunity.
This wasn't a game at all. This was punishment for hurting Rhode. This was nothing more than a way to encourage him to bear more pain before he died.
"There it is," the Noah crooned, stroking his chin in a parody of what he had done with his hands. The hands that were now below his field of vision, running dangerously sharp nails across his chest, down his side, searching. Abruptly something white-hot bore into left hip, stealing all his breath, and his gasp brought with it the smell of the cigarette and his own burned flesh. Tyki - or perhaps truly the Noah - laughed, gripping his jaw hard enough to hurt, and Lavi could not hide his flinch.
"You remember that day?" Even his voice was not the same. "I do, Bookman." He grinned toothily, dragging his talons up to his chest again, and Lavi pushed as far back from those fingers as he could, even when they passed into his chest harmlessly. The bones in his forearm rasped together again and he clenched his teeth, trying to keep from acknowledging the pain. The tentacle around his chin squeezed it in response, forcing his mouth open. Forcing him to cry out or have his jaw ripped right off.
"Now will you say that you're not afraid?" the Noah murmured, cocking his head, and then his features were suddenly far more human again, frighteningly so, or maybe it was his eyesight getting worse.
This was it.
He'd never get to tell Bookman. The village had been wiped out for nothing.
Tyki's face came closer, his teeth flashing white in the moonlight. "Though it's not your fear I was waiting for. Your master would have lasted hours, you know. But then again, he would never have hoped from the beginning."
Lavi recorded every nuance of his eyes, his face, the way the corners of his mouth softened when the wisps in his own chest tightened.
"I'm going to enjoy this heart of yours, Exorcist."
And then the Noah tore himself away, almost taking his face with him, and something inside pulled, and there was no leg supporting him anymore.
Lavi fell.
He fell so long he was honestly wondering if he was already dead, had died before he hit the ground and so he'd never actually stop. But he did, with a sudden violent jerk that was not a landing as much as a falling in a new direction, and then he was enveloped with an unwelcome warmth that crawled into his nose and mouth and ears, so heavy that it made him weightless.
And then Tyki's arm was around his throat once more.
Lavi jerked in shock, he was too hot and his arm, it was floating away from his body, it was moving, was being moved. Warm liquid crept into his mouth each time he tried to gasp, and this time he didn't even try to stop himself from heaving. His heart was pounding in his chest, but it was still there, in his chest, he was still breathing and seeing and hearing and remembering. And choking.
He was still alive.
His left arm still worked; he brought it up, grasping at the steel around his neck, ever tugging him upward, he could never catch up to that pressure and there was nothing but a roar in his ears.
"-avi, stop-!"
Water. It was water.
Lavi blinked repeatedly, still seeing nothing but darkness and the briefest blinks of light. The roof of the bathhouses. The pools were overflowing into their connecting canals because so much of the river had been diverted into them. It was the current, carrying them through far faster than he would have thought possible-
And suddenly it was the starry night sky he saw, the moon.
His arm hit something, it felt like a branch or a root and it was unbearable. He shook his head for all he was worth, seeking any kind of escape from whoever was holding him, and the previous words filtered into his pain-hazed brain.
Lavi.
Tyki had called him many things, but Lavi wasn't one of them.
. . . but no, that was impossible-
"Shit!" It was hoarse and winded, and the annoyed quality was distinctive. Distinctively not the smooth, polished banter of a gentleman. "Lavi-"
He paused, stopping the process of digging his fingernails through the arm that he now realized was keeping his face above water. Kanda had to have been half-cooked if not worse.
As crabby as a lobster would have been.
He laughed, suddenly and pitifully, until there were more tears in his eyes than water, but he tried to speak just the same. "Tyki-"
The banks that allowed the spring water back to the river were a bit wider than the canal, so this water wasn't as deep, and as soon as Kanda could stop them he did, Lavi felt it when he was swept into the other's body. He couldn't feel much through his own still-shaking frame, but the steel arm around his collarbone, now, didn't seem to be in much better shape than he was.
"I only wounded him. Can you move?"
And then something was being pressed against the top of his left hand, still hanging onto Kanda for support.
Lavi glanced down, unable to believe what he was seeing. It wasn't possible. "How-"
"Che. Can you move or not?"
"Run if you like," a voice called, and very shortly its owner strode through the wall beside the channel, looking none the worse for wear. "Just don't look behind you."
The second the Noah had spoken, Kanda had submerged Ozuchi Kozuchi, and Lavi got the message, taking his Innocence from the other teen underwater. Tyki didn't realize he had it back.
Kanda didn't realize he was too bad off to use it. He also didn't realize why Tyki had told him not to look back.
"Tease," he breathed, swallowing and suddenly not the least bit hysterical. "Too many. Can you hold on?"
The other Exorcist seemed to be holding his breath. "Can you?"
Fantastic. Neither one of them were up for this. But then again, they would surely die if they tried to fight. "Not really. You ready?"
"Tease! Just in time for dessert."
He actually felt the wind of them before he heard them, and Lavi closed his eye and felt Kanda's boot brace just beneath his own. His plan was to hang from the hammer by one arm and one leg, and it seemed like Yuu was thinking the same thing.
"Extend."
His dangling right wrist hit the bank due to the angle of their sudden flight and Lavi pressed his forehead into the hammer's handle, willing himself not to faint. Again, the Tease were so sharp the cuts didn't really hurt, they were catchings on his skin that would bleed later, and long. Ozuchi Kozuchi always seemed to respond faster when he bled on his Innocence, an observation he had not shared with Gramps, particularly not after the crystallizing Innocence discussion, and that made it harder to control. He opened his eye only when he knew they were through the cloud of Tease, immediately bringing them back down to the woods about half a mile from their starting location.
"Lavi-"
He dumped them unceremoniously into a tree, hefting the handle and recalling the head of the hammer as fast as he could, though he could no longer properly see. To travel far at all with his Innocence so close to a Noah was just plain stupid. The head of the hammer had to remain stationary while they rode. Tyki would surely destroy it and easily catch up.
He might easily catch up anyway.
The hammer retracted so quickly it slammed into their tree, and Kanda's arm snaked out and grabbed his dangling wrist as they started to fall. Lavi let the heaviest part of the hammer naturally drop toward the ground, hardly able to make the command audible. His voice was getting worse, not better; Tyki might as well have taken his voicebox for all the volume he got out of it.
"Extend."
He let them go a mile before he repeated the dismount, and realized that he wasn't going to manage another one. Kanda changed his own position until he was sitting astride rather than hanging below, and Lavi reluctantly agreed that it was that or fall off. Yuu put his arm down in his lap so it was not flapping freely but it was not still, nothing could hold it still in the cold wind, cutting through his clothes and traveling into every nerve via his spine. His right leg seemed permanently entangled with the hammer's handle, though, no threat of falling, and Lavi kept only one thought in his head.
Extend.
"Lights."
It could have been a minute or an hour, and when Lavi opened his eye he picked it out instantly, an oasis in the dark. A large town, possibly a small city. He had to work hard to rotate the head of the hammer, usually done with nothing more than a swing of his leg, but his legs were uncooperative. Rather than be subtle and land on the outskirts of town, he brought them down on a roof far closer to the center, arresting their motion so that Yuu could slide nervelessly off the handle, and he lowered himself further, until his legs naturally folded beneath him.
He would never be warm again.
Yuu was surprisingly still as they waited for the hammer to retract, and Lavi realized they'd gone quite a long distance. Far from their Finder, far from anyone that might be looking for them.
Kanda hadn't batted an eye about them abandoning the place to Tyki. Hadn't batted an eye at running.
He didn't bother to turn his head, and he rasped air over his tongue so he could be heard. "You find the Innocence?"
Kanda was as exhausted as he was, if not worse. He didn't even scoff at the question. "Yes."
Once Ozuchi Kozuchi was toy-sized again, Lavi decided it was too much effort to actually stop sitting on it. Or to stand. There was nothing wrong with his legs, except that they were attached to his spine, which was not working properly. They were stiff and getting worse, and moving reminded him that he'd pulled almost every muscle he had.
Including his heart, which was still pounding away numbly under his breast, under a coating of cold sweat. Tyki had touched it, even if he hadn't actually taken it. There was something wrong with it. Wrong with him.
"C'mon, Yuu."
They must have looked the pair, stumbling to the side of the roof and sliding to the street using his Innocence. Landing jarred his arm no matter how careful he was, there was just no good way to wrap it, not with what they had, and he paused by the wall to expel the pain through his mouth. Pain, as it turned out, was a frothy white, unsubstantial and rank, and he was glad there was no blood.
"Lavi."
He remained as he was, temple pressed to the rough brick, waiting for the dizziness to pass. He had a feeling it wasn't going to, now that he had stopped concentrating on the single task of keeping his Innocence activated and was focused on walking and breathing and seeing and hearing and decided where the nearest hospital was, his brain had just about had it.
"Don't s'ppose you're in any condition to help?"
And Kanda probably wasn't, but he still had too many clothes on to see anything but a blotchy face, and hair that had lost its corded tie, and Mugen still attached to his back, an intricate hairpin bulging in the pack on the back of his belt. They leaned into each other, as one capable of walking. Once they got their rhythm down, Lavi was pretty sure they could have gone on til morning with inertia alone, but a rather concerned-looking vagabond cradling a four day old loaf of moldy bread was able to give them directions to one of the most formidable-looking buildings Lavi had ever seen.
He and Kanda stared at it numbly, and Lavi swallowed several deep breaths. "Feeling better suddenly. Let's not-"
"Che."
Despite the façade, a thick grey limestone with roughly-hewn Corinthian columns and endless stairs, they had only struggled up the first dozen or so before staff came pouring out to help them. He supposed it wasn't that odd, that two young men would come staggering up to their front door in the middle of the night, but when they realized the extent of their injuries, realized they weren't simply drunk, everything changed.
Questions. Wheelchairs, a welcome change, and a pillow for his lap and his arm. Lavi nearly passed out when the head nurse, Gwendolyn rather than Gwen or Donnie or Lynn or Grendle, started to roll up his shirt sleeve.
"Please, do you have a telephone?"
"Of course, dear, we'll notify your family immediately. Where does it hurt?"
He shook his head, gently pushing her away from his arm. If she touched it even once more, he was going to scream. "I need to make a phone call. Is there one in the patient rooms?"
Lavi had to refuse treatment and nearly reverted to Deak before he could make them understand that he was going to use the phone, and despite their best efforts he found, as he was wheeled reluctantly into another room, that they had had little success with Kanda, either. He was walking, of all things, still fully clothed and damp and cold and still scratched from the Tease, and he looked dead on his feet.
And Lavi was certain that if an Akuma appeared it would be destroyed before he could even reach for his own Innocence.
"I'm very sorry, but can you leave the room for a moment?" The rasp added an edge he didn't intend.
"If you agree to let us keep you overnight," came the throaty reply, and Lavi felt himself smile for the first time in what felt like years. Bargaining with him. "Your dark-haired friend as well."
Kanda didn't react at all, his face stony and so blotched he looked almost piebald. Lavi didn't want to even consider how those burns must feel. "Thank you."
He waited until their curious hard-heeled footsteps had finally faded before he lurched from the wheelchair to the stationary chair beside the phone, and he heard Kanda hiss as he turned to open one of his pouches.
"I don't need a golem." Where was his? Last he'd seen the poor thing was the bathhouse, he might have accidentally left it behind. No matter; it would find him soon enough.
In fact, it could lead the Tease right to them, if Tyki was persistent enough.
Lavi dialed the numbers by heart, knowing the phone wasn't secure, and he let his head fall against the wall, pinning the headset to his shoulder so he didn't have to hold it up.
"Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor."
Lavi let his eye drift closed. "But even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it."
Whoever had thought up this acknowledge response quote needed to get out once in a while.
"Identify."
Lavi heard Kanda shift against the door, still in the room, but he didn't care. The samurai had no idea what he was saying, and the language was too complicated for him to recall or repeat. "The graceful tower rises high, a negative in the face of the dawn sky."
He was slurring badly and he knew it. The extra effort he was putting into trying to speak was coming out of something else, and the wall was deliciously comfortable against his matted hair.
There was no other acknowledgement but there didn't need to be one. He gave the date, the time, and exactly what Tyki Mikk had told him. The slurring was hell on his accent, so he repeated it.
"And there Noah built an altar and made an off-"
"-offering to God, and when God smelled the offering he was displeased . . . excellent memory, little Bookman."
Lavi's eye flew open even as the lights were suddenly extinguished.