Author's Note:

This is written in first person and I usually don't write in first person, so the voice or tone of the writing might feel a bit off sometimes. Also, I've got typo issues and stuff. I know this already, so please do not nitpick. I'll go through eventually and fix all of those. I just forget to or I lose them. Sorry! I hope I've done all of the characters justice and I really hope you enjoy the story. Reviews and plot suggestions are always loved and will be taken into consideration, always

My name is Emiko Gabriella Lazzarani and I'm seventeen years old. I recently found out that I have this connection, so to speak, with something called Innocence. That means that I, and people like me, are destined to travel the world and save souls that have been held captive by demons known as akuma. I am an exorcist and I work for an organization known as the Black Order. My friends call me Emi.

That's as short as my introduction really gets, though. I bet you're wondering how a seventeen year-old girl gets into a profession like exorcizing demons. To figure all that out, I have to go back into my history a little farther. I know, I know! It's so boring listening to someone tell their life story, so I'll try to make it really quick, I promise!

My dad was an Italian military man and my mother was a very traditional Japanese woman. He met her while stationed at an island near Japan, since no one really actually lived in the eastern country for several years. They fell in love instantly. My dad was stunned by the exotic foreign woman and my mom was impressed by my father's uniform. It's really a very classic story of opposites attract. Dad was always very straight-laced and my mother was always much more gentle and free-spirited.

For the first half of my life, I had a brother who was two years older than me. His name was Ren, and he looked after me like any older brother should. He was the greatest, even if he did tease me for being a cry baby all the time. We didn't really grow up in a traditional household, as our father thought it was ideal to train us in all sorts of fighting styles as soon as we learned to walk. We had some of the best teachers from around the world come and train us. By the time I was ten, I was trained in five different martial arts styles and was on the verge of mastering over twenty classes of weaponry.

When I was about eight years-old, Ren got very sick. No one could do anything for him, and he soon passed away. No one took Ren's death harder than my mother. She fell into a deep depression and ended up staggering about the house for months in the fashion of a zombie before she finally didn't have the strength to get out of bed anymore. With Dad always gone on military business that left me to fend for myself and take care of my mute mother. She wouldn't talk to feed herself. She just stayed in bed, all the time, with that mournful expression on her face. This lasted for almost a decade. A few months ago, a boy showed up in my village in southern Italy, and he changed my life forever.

Mom had a bad day that day. Dad had been gone for several weeks and hadn't sent any letters home. Whenever that happened, it meant that my mom would have a mental breakdown. She'd come out of her usual silence to scream and thrash around. When that happened, I couldn't do much but try to restrain her until her body ran out of energy. Lucky for me, the woman never really had much energy built up, so her fits didn't last long. It was the responsibility of taking care of my mother that prevented me from having friends. Not to mention, after Ren died, all of our friends just reminded me of him, so I ended up isolating myself that way, too. So, basically, when Mom had a bad day, I had a bad day.

It isn't right for anyone to ever feel as lonely as I did when I was growing up. When bad days happened, I usually spent them on the beach training my frustrations away. My favorite method of training was always to tie weights around my wrists as well as put heavy brass knuckles on. Training with these things on made for a harder work out. Then, when I took them off, my speed would naturally be faster.

That particular evening, after Mom's bad day, I was training harder than I usually did. That was one thing that I inherited from my father: determination. I guess you could say that my determination was on the verge of being considered stubbornness and stupidity, because I was always very unaware of my own limitations. I often didn't realize when I would get fatigued during those days training and would just fall asleep on the spot, unable to make it back to my house. My blindness towards myself wasn't just about fatigue, though. I always had a very hard time realizing my own emotions. Ren had always teased me about being a crybaby, so, after his death I refused to ever cry again. Then again, who can really run from their emotions for very long?

I had just completed a form, after doing countless ones before it, when I turned to look out at the horizon. I wished Dad would come home and take care of Mom for a few days. I think that, at that point in time, he forgot how to love her, or why he ever loved her to begin with. He wasn't very kind, but I couldn't handle it all on my own. I was just a kid, after all, and had been for years, but all that weight was on my shoulders. My brow was beaded with sweat and I panted hard. The sky was a bright pink color because the sun was half-hiding behind the sea that rested before me. The sound of the water crashing on the sand resonated in my ears. I panted a few more times and then my eyes started to sting. It was a forgotten feeling, actually, that happened before I would cry. I didn't realize I was about to cry, though. Instead, I just knew that my eyes burned and that I was getting very annoyed. I was so annoyed, in fact, that I hadn't heard the footsteps wander up behind me.

"Excuse me, do you think you could- uuuh," the voice began with an odd accent, but as I turned suddenly with a surprised scowl on my face, the owner of the voice looked alarmed and trailed off. He was a boy about my age with oddly red hair and an eye patch. Considering that I'm about five and a half feet in height, he was maybe four or five inches taller than me. Anyways, his look of surprise seemed to melt away rather quickly as he gawked at me, which only made my scowl harder.

"Wha...? Why are you crying?" he asked with his one visible green eye wide with concern. Instantly, I felt my brow scrunch up as my fists clenched at my sides.

"I'm not crying!" I snapped rather loudly. The boy flinched again, but let out a nervous laugh as he moved his hands around in a gesture that read, 'Okay, okay!'

"Well, then, do you think that you might be able to help me? I'm looking for the town in this area that's been having a lot of missing person's reports lately. Sound familiar?"

I blinked at him with a rather dull look on my face. My village certainly didn't have a problem with people going missing, but I didn't get out of my house often so I didn't really hear a lot of the news that came in from surrounding towns.

"Sorry, but I can't help you," I said with a shrug. I think my face must have softened up at that point. I've never been the type of girl to snap at people. In fact, I've always been told that I'm such a polite and humble by nature type of person. I say this because the boy seemed to relax a little.

"That's alright, I guess. Do you know anyone around here who would be able to answer my questions then?" he continued to prod. My light brown eyes looked upward toward my hairline as I thought. Unlike most of the other girls in my village, I didn't have bangs to cover my forehead. I had a birthmark on top of my head that caused my hair to grow a very light blonde color despite the fact that the majority of the hair on my head was a dark brown color. My hair was also a wavy mess. Anyways, I had always been self-conscious about my big forehead when I was little, and my father decided that, to overcome my own "fear" that I should face it head on. That meant I was never allowed to have bangs to cover my face, and, as I got older, I just got used to my out-of-control wavy hair being pulled back into a low hair-tie.

"I think the farmer on the northern side of town deals with most of the trade for this village. I can take you to his house, if you'd like," I offered as a sort of apology for snapping at him before. My offer seemed to make him completely overjoyed. I thought for a moment that he was going to thrust a fist into the air in excitement, but he contained himself.

"That would be AMAZING!" he said, his voice just as much relieved as it was happy. I did all I could to stifle the giggle that I felt roaring in the bottom of my throat, but he caught the smile on my face and beamed at me. "I'm Lavi, by the way," he said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Emi," I said, finally letting the small laugh escape my throat. It was that moment that I seemed to leave my bad day behind me. What an odd and completely adorable strange boy, I thought to myself. "Let's get going. I can't really be away from home much longer," I said, my mind briefly panning over to think of my mother. No doubt she was fast asleep in her bed and would likely stay that way for hours, but you never really knew. It would be dark in a few moments and it was always best to find refuge inside your house after dark.

Moments later we found ourselves sitting inside the farmer's house at his table. He prepared tea for us and Lavi began to ask questions.

"So, you've heard about the missing people?" he asked. The farmer nodded.

"In a town about three hours north of here," he said. "But I wouldn't be out so late after dark, if I were you. Strange things happen out there at night," he cautioned. Lavi nodded.

"Thanks for your help," he said, getting up to leave. I followed him outside. For some reason, I wasn't ready for this strange boy to disappear from my life quite yet.

"Lavi, you can't be much older than me," I began once the door was securely closed behind us. "Why are you so concerned with missing people?" I asked. Lavi looked at me for a moment and then just grinned and rubbed the back of his head again. I gave him a rather not-amused look before he sighed in defeat. I didn't know this at the time, but Lavi's weakness was girls, cute girls, which he considered me to be one of.

"Well, I'm an exorcist," he said simply. I'd heard rumors of exorcists before, but I didn't think they really existed, so I thought he was pulling my leg. "No, really!" he said defensively as my not-amused face intensified. "The missing people could be victims of an akuma rumored to be in this area. Some people from my organization came out to scout the area, but we lost contact with them a few days ago," he said. It was then that I noticed how tired he looked. I hesitated for a moment and thought about my mom. Maybe she'd just stay asleep all night... Hopefully, with what I was about to say, anyway.

"Hey, Lavi? Why don't you stay in the spare room at my house tonight? The farmer was telling the truth when he said that it's just not safe around here at night. I don't want to worry myself to death with you disappearing into the night, since I probably won't ever see you again, anyway. I don't need that on my conscience," I said, crossing my arms. He seemed to think it over for a moment, and then nodded and gave me a thumbs up.

"You got it!" he said.

I don't know what time it was when I woke up, but it was really dark outside. At least, I thought it was really dark outside. It took me a moment before I realized that my room was actually full of thick black smoke. Once that realization sunk in, I sat upright with lightning speed. Hurling out of bed, I flung my bedroom door open to look out into the hall. My room, and Lavi's room, was on the second floor of the house. My mother's room was on the bottom level. It was then that I looked over the railing into the den area below to see my mother standing there in the middle of the smoke-filled room. All around her, flames were roaring.

"MOM!" I screamed in alarm. She hadn't gotten out of bed by herself in years! I couldn't figure out how she'd gotten out of bed and started a fire of all things! In that moment of fear, all those years of training seemed to have fled from my mind. "LAVI!" I screamed, not knowing what else to do. Even before I screamed for him, Lavi was hurrying out of his room. His red hair was a mess from having been asleep, but it wasn't until later when I reflected on the situation did I realize that I found him to be pretty attractive like that.

Before I could say or do anything, Lavi put his hand on the banister and lifted his body over it before landing in a crouching position on the wooden floor of the main level of the house. Then he dashed over to my mother and wrapped his arms around her. The flames roared higher and, before I knew what was happening, I was suddenly surrounded by heat and my ears were ringing. Everything went black for a moment and my body ached all over the place. I found myself lying on damp grass. As sirens went of fin my head, my blurred vision slowly began to focus.

The entire top half of my house was gone and the flames were reaching for the heavens. My house had exploded somehow, but I couldn't think of how. All I knew was that Lavi had suddenly fallen from the sky, landing next to me with unusual grace. It took a moment for his words to break through the bells in my head.

"Emi! Are you alright? Emi!" His face swirled in and out of focus for a moment before reality finally returned to me at full force.

"Where's my mom!" I immediately inquired, grabbing onto Lavi's sleeve as I pulled myself up. Lavi just looked up toward the sky with an intense frown on his face. I followed his gaze to see something large, round, and gray up in the sky. It was coming at us fast, and that's when I noticed that it looked like a giant landmine with a human head on it. The face resembled that of my mother.

"Emi, your mother is an akuma!" Lavi said. His words were direct and stung, but he couldn't have put it anymore delicately. "EXTEND!" he yelled suddenly. The small hammer that he carried with him then grew very long and he went hurling in the akuma's direction. My eyes widened my at least four inches as he then flung the hammer up into the air, the handle coming back in so that the giant mallet swung upward and then came back down on the akuma's head.

There was a huge explosion as the akuma shot bullets of purple light at the hammer to stop it from connecting. Lavi flew through the air and landed hard on the ground several yards away from me.

"LAVI!" I screamed in a panic. I thought for sure that he was done for, but a moment later, he stumbled out of the smoke from his crash landing and was at it again. He jumped and swung the hammer at the akuma again, this time connecting with it. The giant demon then came flying through the air in my direction.

I think I screamed, but I can't really remember. Somewhere I heard Lavi's voice calling my name as I had done with his name only moments before. All I knew was that I instinctually balled my hand into a fist and thrust it forward in my defense. I don't really know where my brass knuckles came from, but when I opened my eyes, they were glowing green and rocks and dust were falling all around me. The akuma was no where to be found. When I looked up, I saw a glowing ghostly form of my brother the way he looked before he died. He smiled at me and his distant voice reached my ears.

"Stay strong, little sis," he said. Then, the ghost turned into a beam of light that shot straight up into a sky. Again, that annoying burn stung my eyes. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I felt a hand land on my shoulder. This time, though, the surprised look on my face was timid instead of angry. I looked up to see a sympathetic smile on Lavi's face.

"You set him free, Emi. You mom and brother can rest in peace now thanks to you. What would you say if I asked you to come back to the Order with me?" he asked. I blinked the burning sensation out of my eyes. I couldn't tell if any tears escaped or not because my face was hot and covered in sweat. I hoped none did, but I wouldn't doubt it if they had.

"You mean...?" I trailed off.

"That's right. The akuma was here killing off people in other towns. It didn't kill anyone here because the innocence was so close to it that it couldn't. It was dormant here for years, but I think when my innocence showed up, the akuma couldn't stand it anymore," he explained. I looked back at my house. It was completely engulfed in flames. My home was gone. My family was gone. I had nothing left.

I looked up at Lavi for a moment before my head drooped so that I was staring at the ground. I really had nothing- no reason to stay in my village. Before I could say anything, I felt hands on my shoulders again. They gave me a light tug and I involuntarily stepped forward. My face crashed gently into Lavi's shoulder and he gave me a light hug. I felt my heart skip a beat, which was an entirely new feeling for me. Then that annoying burn came back to my eyes, but I wouldn't allow myself to cry. I did, however, give in and bury my face into his chest. My hands found their way to his back where I balled his shirt into my fists. I felt my body shake all over.

"Everything will be alright," Lavi said as he held me in his arms. "You just gotta trust me, okay?" I didn't say anything. I left my face buried in the nook between his shoulder and neck, but I just nodded a little bit.

The next morning I found myself sitting across from Lavi on a train headed back towards his headquarters. He had a big grin on his face and was obviously excited. He could hardly sit still, and, little did I know, I was in for a long session of storytelling. I didn't mind it much though. Lavi talked a lot, but at least it kept my mind off of everything happening to me. If it weren't for his distractions, I think I probably would have snapped. Lavi was the first friend I'd had since I was a child, and it would only be a matter of time before he was much more than that to me.