First off, thanks for all the reviews! ^.^ I'm glad you like this story, and that you want me to keep going with it. I've just wrapped up another story I was working on, which means I can update this a little faster. I have to admit, I was shocked that so many people who read Revelations came over to this one.

Anyway, Shadow's here to bring you another chapter. I'm sorry for the late updates at the moment, but I'm trying to rush and finish my NaNoWriMo novel so that I can get my free manuscript copy. Once I'm done with that, I can take a lot more time to write this stuff.

Disclaimer: D. Gray-Man is the property of Hoshino Katsura. If it was mine Komui would have killed Hitler man about five seconds into his introduction.

Rating: T for some mild swearing.

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Allen looked up to see the most gorgeous . . . well, creature he had ever seen in his life. Not that it had been a long life so far, but still. The man—he supposed it was a man, though with hair that long you never could tell—was obviously Asian, probably Japanese. His cobalt blue eyes were narrowed angrily at him, but Allen disregarded that glare for the moment, choosing instead to focus on the stranger's appearance. He was wearing one of the uniforms Allen had seen on some of the skeletons he'd passed. There was a sword sheathed at the man's side, and from the shape of it, it was a katana. The man himself had jet black hair that fell down well past his shoulders, part of it held in a high ponytail. He was of average height, but it was still substantially bigger than Allen's scrawny length.

And suddenly, Allen realized what the man had just asked, and he straightened up, eyes going wide. "Ah, no! No, I'm not an Akuma."

"So you're a Noah," the man reasoned. "An injured one, at that. So it shouldn't take long to kill you—"

"No, no, wait!" he yelled as the katana came out of its sheath. It looked very . . . sharp. But Allen sensed something more in that sword. Something unnatural . . .

"Is that . . . Innocence?" he breathed, just as the man was about to separate his head from his shoulders. "Agh!"

The katana stopped just a hair from his skin as the man stared at him, wide eyed. "How do you know about the Innocence?" he demanded. "You have to be a Noah. No one else knows about it. I'm going to kill you."

"Wait! Sheesh, would you please listen to me for a minute! Are you an . . . an Exorcist?"

"Yes . . ." he said guardedly.

Allen slowly raised his left hand to his mouth, staring at this man in a state of awe. Was it true? Had he finally found someone that was . . . like him? After a moment, Allen extended his hand, all too cautious of the sword pressed against his neck. Carefully, he pulled off the glove, revealing larger than normal claws, with a cross embedded into his hand. "My Innocence," he explained quietly.

The man just stared at the hand with slight disgust, nose crinkled up against his face. "Che," he finally muttered. The katana lowered, and he turned around, ponytail whirling out behind him, before he started to walk away.

"Wait!" Allen said yet again, this time desperately. "I have questions I want to ask, I . . . I want to know who you are! Please, please let me—"

"Shut up, brat," came the stern reply. The man didn't even turn around. "Leave as soon as the storm is over."

"But . . . please!" And against his will, Allen felt tears prickling in the corners of his eyes. He didn't want to cry, but . . . damn it, he'd finally found what he was looking for, and there was no way he was going to let this chance just walk away from him all high and mighty! "I've looked all over the place for another Exorcist! I've been to all the Branches, I thought this one had been cleaned out. I can't . . . we can't keep going like this, not if we're the only ones left. We can't fight separately! We have . . . we have to defeat the Earl, even if it's hopeless . . ."

"You're crying." The man stopped walking, turning his head over his shoulder to stare disdainfully down at the smaller Exorcist. "That just goes to show you're nothing but a little kid. There's no way I'd let someone as wimpy as you fight with me."

Allen just gritted his teeth and pulled his body upright, ignoring the protesting ankle in return for a glare that equally matched the Asian man's. "Well, if you're going to let the only help you can get go, then that shows you're not really that committed to the cause. How could you own a piece of Innocence if you're so selfish?"

That stopped the man in his tracks. He turned back around, a devilish smirk marring the beautiful features. "Well said," he admitted. "It appears you're up to par with arguing with me, at least. Fine, you might as well come in . . . Moyashi."

By now, Allen had been to Japan enough times to know exactly what the word "moyashi" meant. And he took personal offense. "Moyashi? My name is Allen, you idiot."

"Like I care," the Japanese uttered. "I don't need to know names. You'll be dead soon enough anyway. They all are."

"Ha. They're all dead . . . I know that. I've been fighting the Earl for three years. Don't you dare call me incapable of defending myself."

"Whatever."

"Are you not even going to tell me your name?" Allen demanded. He took a step towards the Asian, only to forget that his ankle was, indeed, broken. With a soft gasp, he fell forward, face hitting the floor with a soft thump. Immediately he squirmed, both hands moving down to grasp at the broken limb. "Ow . . ." he muttered.

"Injured? You really won't last that long."

To Allen's complete surprise, the icy man knelt down next to him and, though not too gently, pulled him back to his feet. The arm that wrapped around his shoulders was muscled but thin, showing a great strength that could be hidden by a small-looking man. Allen slung his own pitiful looking right arm over the taller man's shoulders to steady himself, not really caring if he was rejected. Obviously he couldn't walk without balance.

"Kanda Yu," the man said suddenly.

"Huh?"

"You asked for my name. It's Kanda Yu. But if you call me anything other than Kanda I'll kill you." He pulled another mean face and began to walk, Allen limping along lopsidedly.

Allen nodded and grinned to himself. 'Bakanda' he thought, reminding himself of the Japanese language once again. It's perfect.

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The room the Exorcist Kanda took him to was small, with a mattress on the floor and a cracked window to stare out of. Allen grimaced at the horrible accommodations, but decided that he would just have to deal with it.

"It's the only bedroom left that doesn't look like it was ransacked," the Japanese Exorcist explained. "Right. If you're going to stay here, you will follow my rules. Do you hear me? This is my territory."

"You don't have to make it sound like you're a dog," Allen muttered to himself. However, he quickly shut up when he caught the fierce cobalt glare. "Sure, sure. So what are the rules?"

"One: don't leave this building."

"But that doesn't make sense. I mean, we're Exorcists; what if we get wind of a Noah attack?"

"We don't come to them. They come to us. Therefore no leaving the tower." With an annoyed frown, Kanda sat down in front of Allen and took off the boot he had put back over his foot.

"Alright," Allen sighed. But there was no way he was going to stay here. He'd see to that. This kind of person was self-centered, only doing what he wanted to do. But Allen knew how to push buttons here; it was one of his specialties. This guy would be bending to his will before too long. "Any other rules?"

"Right. If you don't pull your weight around in the next few days I'm kicking you out, and I don't care if you're the only other Exorcist alive or not. There are only two people living here besides you, and both of us have plenty to do. If you don't work your ass off, there's no reason for you to be here." Kanda yanked on Allen's sock, none too gently.

"Ow! Wait, who's . . . there's another person here?"

"You won't see him much. Name's Jerry, he works in the kitchens. We have to eat sometime . . . and as it appears you're a parasitic type, you're going to pig out."

"Parasitic?"

"Che. You're an Exorcist, but obviously you don't know much about what the Order was like."

Allen shrugged, watching as Kanda's hands circled around the break in his ankle. "I said I've been fighting the Earl for three years. But I was born with my Innocence. I don't really know anything about it."

"I shouldn't be explaining these things to a Moyashi like you," the Asian man sighed. "Your Innocence is a Parasitic type; it means it's part of your body. It's the rarest form of Innocence. I have an Equipment type. You eat a lot, don't you?"

"If I can." Allen sighed. "It's not like I'm made of money. Usually I just eat what I find."

"No wonder you're so skinny." Kanda momentarily let go of the injured foot. "Parasitic types require energy from their own body to activate and fight, so they balance it with eating a lot. But if I see you in the kitchen eating Jerry's food every time I look for you, that counts as being lazy and I'll get rid of you."

"I got it, I got it. If I do anything resembling being a lazy ass you'll throw me back out to the cold. Sheesh, I'm not a stray cat."

Kanda threw a scrap of fabric at the smaller Exorcist. "Stick that in your mouth. I don't want to hear your girly scream."

"How come you know so much about the Order?" he dared to ask before shoving the less than sanitary scrap under his tongue. He only did it to please Kanda. He'd had worse injuries; nothing of this caliber could make him scream.

"Because I was ten when the Noah started destroying all the branches. I've been an Exorcist a lot longer than you, stupid Moyashi."

"Mmph" was the only reply Kanda got. The pet name was getting quite annoying; perhaps Allen would use the nickname he had spontaneously thought up for the Japanese.

Kanda grabbed the swollen ankle with both hands, causing Allen to wince slightly in pain. He knew the Exorcist wasn't going to be gentle, but obviously he couldn't complain at the moment. Instead, he just sucked in a heavy breath through his nose and waited.

The bone popped back into its relative place with a loud snap. Allen moaned quietly, but even without the gag he wouldn't have made an exceedingly loud noise. He spat the fabric out of his mouth to gasp in air, both hands trembling at his sides. That had hurt worse than he'd thought. "Ow . . ."

"Wimp," Kanda smirked.

"It's not like you were trying to be gentle," Allen shot back, still panting just a little bit. He glanced down at the broken ankle, feeling just a little better when he saw that, though the pain was worse, it looked more or less like a normal foot again. As Kanda pushed a brace up against the leg, he continued the conversation he had started a moment ago. "If they started destroying the Branches while you were alive, then why are you still here? I thought they killed everyone."

"They made a mistake." Kanda jerkily wrapped strips of what might have been a shirt around the brace, securing it to Allen's limb. "I was on a long term mission at the time—and yes, I was a little kid. That didn't matter. They forgot about the Japanese Exorcist. Stupid Noah aren't too bright, after all."

"Did you know some of their allies fight with our Innocence?"

"Che. It makes no difference whether they're using Innocence or not. They're still our enemies."

"Mm." Allen pulled his pant leg back down over the makeshift brace. He didn't thank the man for treating his injury; it wouldn't have made a difference. Instead he lowered his eyes to his left hand, focusing on the cross in the center. "Look, I . . . I don't know what I was expecting to find when I came back to London. Dead people, definitely. A Noah attack. This place overtaken by Akuma. But odd as you are, I found an ally . . . something I thought no longer existed here. So I don't care if you hate my guts, but I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving until I take down the Noah and the Earl. Okay?"

"Just so we're clear," came the cold reply. "I do hate your guts."

"Well," Allen replied, smirking devilishly up at the older Exorcist. "It's the least I would have expected."

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This chapter flowed really well for me. Maybe it was because I love writing about our two favorite Exorcists arguing to the best of their abilities. And yes, I know Kanda seems a little nicer than he probably should be, but hey. He can't help feeling a little sensitive when his little Moyashi is hurt. XD

I'm thinking next chapter I'll swing the story a little bit to the Noah's point of view, just so you can see what kind of interaction there is between our familiar good guys and our lovable bad guys.

I hope you enjoyed it! Please review and let me know what you think! Also, I'm taking requests if you have an idea for the plot line. Haha, I've already gotten an insistence to there being Lucky in this fic.

~Shadow