Chapter Two - The Ambush and a certain egg fetish of which we will (not) remain unaware of for the rest of our lives.
Finnigan had a marvelous idea. Instead of splitting up to search like they would have normally done, why didn't they all go and buy eggs, and the kidnapper would take them to it.
Only, it was agreed that Finnigan would stay at the inn they were sleeping at while they implemented this plan - so he wouldn't fall to harm, Lenalee reasoned. Kanda didn't care one jot about what happened to said Finder.
Allen plonked himself down on the bed nearest the window in the room that he and Lavi and Finnigan were sharing. Kanda refused to share with anyone (Howard Link didn't count because Komui had threatened Kanda that Jerry wouldn't make anymore soba. Kanda had grudgingly given in), and Lenalee had her own for reasons such as Komui and opposite gender and awkwardness.
Unfortunately, there were only two beds in each room, which meant that someone would have to sleep on the floor. "You can have my bed, Finnigan," Allen offered as Lavi plonked himself down on the free bed, by the door.
Finnigan mumbled something incoherently under his breath. "I'm sorry?" Allen queried. Lavi lay down on the bed and pulled his band from his hair over his eyes as if it was a sleeping mask.
"I couldn't," Finnigan mumbled a little louder, though Allen had to focus hard to make out the words.
"Sure you can. I'm good. I'm used to sleeping on the floor when I was with my Master."
Finnigan bit his lip indecisively, "I can't." His voice trembled upwards, and Allen could tell that he really wanted a bed after not having a bed for a while when Finders had to sleep outside while they were investigating rumours.
"No," Allen said a bit more forcefully but still in a kind tone. "Take it."
Lavi suddenly butted in, lying backwards with his hands underneath his head, "I agree with him, Finni-chan. Take it. Don't worry about Allen, he'll sleep with me." Lavi's eye appeared from underneath the 'sleeping mask' as he pushed it up his forehead. "Just don't let me wake up tomorrow to discover your feet in my face, eh, moyashi," Lavi jeered.
After that, they were ready to leave. "See you later Finni-chan," he grinned as they left with a grumpy Kanda, a joyfully refreshed Lenalee and an emotionless Howard Link.
"I wonder if it's another Innocence Accommodator," Lenalee mused aloud.
Kanda released a trademark 'Tch' and stomped after them in the cobbled street.
Around an hour or two later, after much getting lost, Allen walked into the green-grocer's store with a descending cloud of doom weighing down on his shoulders. They had decided that it would be Allen who was the bait - Kanda would kill anyone who even hinted that it should be him, Komui would be mad if Lenalee got hurt, and Howard Link was nowhere to be found (a.k.a. had not gotten lost while the others had followed Allen), along with Lavi.
Kanda snorted behind him, and Lenalee tilted her head, wondering if anything was wrong, "Tch, don't stand in the doorway, moyashi."
"Eeh... Ehh?!" Allen jumped, startled. "Err, oh, yes," he remembered, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. He went up to the green-grocer and asked if they sold eggs at a green-grocer or the butcher - no one was quite too sure. After the kind man had given directions to the right place, he warned them of the mysterious monster they had been briefed on. Allen thanked him, and they were on their way - but Kanda took the lead because "the moyashi would just get hopelessly lost, and us with him" he said.
"Has anyone seen Lavi recently?" Lenalee fretted. "It's not like him to just disappear."
Allen shrugged. "Maybe he went to the pub- Akuma!" he cried as his left eye activated, and so did his left arm. Kanda drew Mugen, and ran his two fingers along the blade, activating it, while Lenalee activated her Dark Boots.
"This way!" Allen called sprinting away into the outskirts of Tirane, and the others followed him. "Um." he said as he reached the point where street and shops met the forest trees. "It's in this general area... Should we split up and I'll go right while you and Kanda go left?" he suggested.
"That way!" Kanda scowled, pointing to his left, where a certain hammer-wielding Lavi was gripped in a tentacle of white hair, that lead into the thick forest.
The street started rapidly emptying of people, and mothers ushered their children into houses, "It's happening again! Get to safety!"
Some didn't, before they turned into dust from the dark pentagrams that emitted from the Akuma's Dark Matter Rays.
"Lavi!" Lenalee cried. "What were you thinking, going off alone?"
"Tch, you bastard, baka-usagi."
They ran towards Lavi and ignored Allen when he tripped over something like a glass wine bottle - except it wasn't hollow - that uncomfortably reminded him of his Master Cross.
Lavi squirmed in the Akuma hair's grip, "Could you guys just help me and shout later?"
Allen pushed himself up, and peered around at the small solid object he'd tripped over. He stood up, brushed all the dust off, and picked it up by its handle between his thumb and forefinger, peering at it so closely he almost went cross-eyed. "Lavi!"
"What?" Lavi sighed, still struggling to get free, which was now apparent that he wouldn't, until the Akuma had been killed.
"Your hammer!" Allen held it up and waved it at him.
Lavi rolled his eyes, "I know, why else hasn't this Akuma died yet? Gotcha!" he cried triumphantly as Allen threw it to him.
The forest rustled, then shivered, as the Akuma dislodged itself from bushes and brambles and troublesome tree branches.
It was a giant chicken. Well, it looked like one, albeit a chicken with a white horse's mane as long as who-knows, that it used like an hairy arm, and it didn't have any feet at all, it floated in the air like so many other Akuma. Its monstrous body had no beak either, it had a strange dark mouth-shaped hole in its face that seemed to swallow light.
"Oh. It's a hen. That's why it was fond of eggs," Lavi commented. "Hmm, maybe I can make a joke about it sometime. To Gramps, of course. The 'panda' thing is getting a little old..."
"Mugen, Kaichū: Ichigen!" Kanda yelled as giant ghostlike creatures exploded from his blade toward the Akuma. A metal clanking sound emitted from it at the impact, but it didn't die. It glowed purple instead, like an old porch light flickering momentarily on the half-rotten wooden porch.
The Akuma cackled wheezily, a bit like a cross between Darth Vader and Satan when he was possessing someone, "I'm a Level 2, can't you see? My special ability is my Dark Matter armor. I can withstand several Innocence attacks. My defense is about the same as a Level 3, stupid exorcists!"
With a closer look, the mouthpiece was actually a straining board of wire-thin bone that glinted sharply in the purple-tinted light.
Lenalee leapt into the sky and floated above its head, while dodging several strands of hair that were trying to capture her, "I bet it can't withstand several attacks at once!"
"Got it!" Allen said, as he used Kurosu Gureibu, and Lavi used Hi Ban: Gouka Kaijin and the various techniques created a bright flash of light that made their heads spin dizzily, and the Akuma too.
The sudden Akuma explosion sent Lavi flying him into a wall, the impact making him drop his hammer again.
"Ugh," he groaned, his back against the wall. "At least that's over."
"Yeah," Lenalee agreed as Kanda sheathed Mugen and Allen picked up Lavi's hammer, handing it back to him.
"My beautiful Ōzuchi Kozuchi!" Lavi gave his hammer a hug (its head was about the same size as a person's torso now) and then shrank it down in a matter of a couple of seconds and sheathed it.
Link suddenly stumbled out of a small side-alley looking very dazed, the world spinning and swirling in his eyes like a dewy spiderweb hidden in the mists of a heavy fog.
"Link!" Allen cried, and hurried over to support him before he collapsed. "What happened? No one could beat you up like that, could they?"
Kanda 'tch'ed disapprovingly and supported Link under his other arm.
"We should get back to the hotel," Lenalee said, worryingly feeling Link's forehead as his head lolled backwards as Kanda and Allen dragged him back to the hotel. "He's feverish. Which way is it to the hotel, Allen?"
"Err, Lavi, you can lead us this time... I forgot where we came from," Allen scratched his head nervously, a sweat-drop rolling down his forehead until it dripped off his chin.
"Good thing I have an eidetic memory, sa?" Lavi brushed his hair out of his eye and grinned like a cheeky monkey. "That way!" he pointed and did a pretend march that turned into a jumpy skip. "Hurry," he groaned at Allen and Kanda as they stumped along the cobbled streets.
"Give them a break, Lavi, I'm sure Link's just really heavy, what with eating all those pies," Lenalee smiled softly. "I just hope he's alri-"
"NO! He's not that heavy!" Allen and Kanda chorused indignantly, Kanda adding a much unneeded 'baka' at the end. When they said this, they broke into a sprint to prove this, two minds unintentionally working together.
"Wait, you're going the wrong way, moyashi and Yuu-chan!" Lavi called after them.
After a while, of Lenalee and Lavi chasing after them and Allen and Kanda speeding away, they finally got to the hotel, Lavi triumphantly knocking on the door under the twilight sky as he held the imaginary dog leads attached to Allen and Kanda's necks. Lavi, following Komui's example, had told Allen he wouldn't be allowed to order any Mitarashi Dango, and would have to eat a normal sized portion, and Kanda wasn't allowed any Japanese food at all if they didn't stop. Of course, that had only worked when Lavi and Lenalee had got close enough to be heard over Allen and Kanda arguing and pulling the unconscious Link this way and that.
Once they were inside, after the hostess had told them off for returning so late, Kanda took Link from Allen, slung him over his shoulder unceremoniously, and stomped up the stairs to their room. Allen, Lavi and Lenalee followed tentatively, and greeted Finnigan at the landing.
"What happened?" Finnigan fretted over Link's unconscious body. "How did this happen? Is he okay?"
Allen shrugged and Lenalee answered for everyone, "We don't know. After we defeated the Akuma, he stumbled out of an alley the way he is now."
Kanda dumped the body on a bed untidily, and Link's torso slipped off the bed and hung sideways upside-down, his limp arms trailing on the floor.
"Kanda!" Lenalee scolded as Finnigan heaved Link onto the bed properly, and arranged his limbs correctly. "Be more gentle with him."
"Tch. Not my fault if he was ambushed," Kanda grumbled.
Finnigan fetched a bucket of water and a damp cloth and lay it on Link's feverish forehead. "His temperature is too high, we need to bring it down immediately," he said, taking charge the moment it was definite that Link needed a doctor, or at least a medical trainee.
"Finni-chan, are you a doctor?" Lavi questioned.
"I've been trained, because Finders are always alone, and we almost always have to treat our own wounds, colds and fevers. Here, keep wetting the cloth every five minutes or so," Finnigan handed over to Lavi. "Lenalee, could you use your Dark Boots to create a small breeze or whirlwind to keep him cool? Allen," he hesitated as his eyes fell upon an empty space where Allen used to be, and where Timcanpy now hovered. "Um..."
"He went to eat. Mitarashi Dango presumably," Lavi piped up. "And it's no use asking Kanda because he'll just impale Link with Mugen instead."
Kanda sat on his bed meditating quietly, "Shut up or I'll kill you."
They shut up, not doubting Kanda for a moment.
Allen came up an hour or two later, his mouth full of some unidentified food, holding a big sandwich in one hand which was chomped up by Timcanpy who had suddenly sprouted a mouth and sharp jagged teeth.
Allen yelled something that sounded a little like 'Timcanpy' and tried unsuccessfully to catch Timcanpy with his hands before his sandwich was swallowed.
"Allen," Finnigan whispered with tired eyes, as Link and Kanda were now asleep, and Lavi was leaning against Link's bed resting his eyes. Lenalee had gone to sleep in her room long ago. "Please take care of Link tonight, I don't think I can keep my eyes open much longer. His temperature isn't as bad now, but you still need to wet his forehead every hour or so."
"Yup!" Allen chirped, renewed with energy after a feast.
"Thankss," Finnigan slurred. "You can wake up Lavi and send him to bed if you want too... Night..." he stumbled off to their room.
Allen sat down next to Lavi for a while, counting how much money they had left on his fingers, a habit he'd picked up from his apprenticeship with Master Cross, though usually Allen was left counting in the red back then. He wet the cloth again after he'd counted four times, and then picked up the sleeping Lavi and carried him next door quietly, gently putting him down on his bed, and pulled the covers halfway over him.
Allen sloped back next-door, feeling quite energetic. The night was his element, when no one else was awake. Finnigan had trusted him to look after Link. It's my duty, Allen thought proudly.
Several hours later, he wasn't feeling nearly as energetic as he did. He would blink slowly, only to not open them for several seconds or minutes, before startling awake and settling into the cycle all over again.
His eyes closed and his head nodded to the side. He didn't open them for half an hour. Just resting my eyes... I'll open them just now...
His eyes jolted open as a hand followed by an arm, and then a body phased through the floor, "Oi, shounen."
A/N:
界蟲「一幻」= Kaichū: Ichigen = First Illusion: Netherworld Insects
火判 劫火灰燼 = Hi Ban: Gouka Kaijin = Fire Stamp: Hellfire and Ash
クロス・グレイヴ = Kurosu Gureibu = Cross Grave
大槌小槌 = Ōzuchi Kozuchi = Big Hammer, Little Hammer
Above is the reason I like subs. It sounds more awesome than English XD
Allen never actually said that Lavi went to a pub (though it isn't OoC if you read the manga XD). What he meant to say was 'public library' (because they have all sorts of records, sa?) but an Akuma interrupted him.
Satan, eh. Anyone like Blue Exorcist here? Just listen to the dub and you'll see what I mean :D
How did Link get ambushed? Don't ask me. That can be a story for next chapter :)
And I just abbreviated the name of the story and I got 'The MoNST'... Wow, creepy... Ooh, now that gives me ideas... Who should be the monster, people? Suggest someone. Just not my favourites. (Kanda, Road, Tyki, Lavi etc.). Though Allen is technically my favourite and this story is about him... Ehehe. Did I just scare you? Good. That abbreviation gave me new ideas. Mwa ha ha ha ha.
It would be nice if people reviewed this chapter :)
