YOS.2

Thanks for all the favorites and follows. It's appreciated. :D

This one is based on a picture I saw somewhere on Pintrest. Allen was crying on Kanda, who's shirt was ripped open to reveal that his tattoo had grown even farther. I think Lenalee was standing in the picture too, but I might be wrong. If anyone has seen this picture, please send me the link!

I hope you enjoy this installment too. After this chapter, things will be shorter, and less serious. XD

Chapter: Furikaette miruto

Normal POV

He wasn't really sure why he had let himself be pushed so far over the edge. The Noah, Tykki Mikk, just seemed to do that to him every time they exchanged blows. He was beyond infuriating, constantly teasing him and going into insane laughter.

It made his toes curl and a vein pop in his forehead.

Kanda opened his eyes from the serene calm of his meditation session, his thoughts now breaking his concentration. The room was in tip top shape, if you didn't count the mirror that was broken a few months ago. In fact, he was able to open up the shoji doors to the garden he took care of himself. It allowed fresh air to sweep through the room and calmed his nerves.

The spring air helped cleanse his already soiled soul.

The blunette put a hand over his left shoulder, where he knew his...mark, for lack of better word, had stretched even further. Half a year ago, he hadn't minded throwing on his muscle shirt and the mark peeking out just a bit, but now he knew that people would just be fucking annoying and bitch at him about it.

The black tattoo had spiraled down his arm and across his left rib cage, even going to lick across his back like flames, stopping at his spinal cord. It covered his left side.

Komui had made a racket when he returned with that.

"It was Tykki Mikk and another, tall man in a top hat," He said that day. "They were trying to take our party down because of all of the Innocence we had."

Somehow, a jackpot of Innocence had remained hidden in a sacred temple in a small, remote village. The townsfolk had spent many centuries praying to the temple and sacrificing animals for prosperity and wealth.

The village had flourished under the power of the Innocence.

However, the deities of the temple had come to life, taking human children from their homes and sacrificing them on the steps of the temple.

Kanda and his team had been sent out to recover the Innocence, which they believed was no more than two pieces. However, just as the Innocence was removed from within the deity statues, Tykki Mikk and another Noah had appeared with a group of akuma, ready to ambush them and the six pieces of Innocence recovered.

The blunette loved beating the shit out of Komui later on for missing such a massive amount.

Needless to say, Kanda had fought tooth and nail to defend the Innocence. As a result, most of the Finders on his team were killed, but the Innocence was kept safe. He had unlocked Ascending Flower (Shouka) and Forbidden Spell: Triple Illusion (Sangenshiki), which drew power from his life force. Fortunately, he had managed to severely wound Mikk so that...Shitty, or whatever his name is, was the only Noah left. However, fighting the Noah proved to be difficult since he had no idea what exactly the man's ability was.

When he had finally discerned it, he was already in the middle of Fourth Illusion Style (Yongenshiki), which helped him also severely wound Shitty too.

If it weren't for Road, who had quickly rescued her family with her dimensional abilities, the two would be chopped up and in the laboratory for inspection. Probably in test tubes.

Kanda assumed that he wouldn't be hearing about those Noah on the field for a while yet.

When the samurai woke up next from the battle, he discovered that he had collapsed and that Lenalee, who had been sent for back up quite late, had found him. He was already in the infirmary, awakening as he felt the burning sensation he dreaded so crawl over his skin.

The blunette had shot up, surprising Komui who was watching over him. He began grasping at his mark, watching in mild horror as the black lines slowly contracted, crawled, and then stretched over his skin.

"Kanda..." Komui began, reaching a hand out to touch the teen with a worried expression. "Y-You didn't...!"

Stormy slate colored eyes avoided violet ones.

Then Komui sucked the story out of him, and Kanda demanded that his mark be kept a secret from the others. Reluctantly, the man agreed.

Kanda lied down on his side, propping his head up with his arm and closing his eyes in thought.

He never took baths with others anymore (not that he really did that anyway... people would have to be there before him). Never wore sleeves longer than his elbow (because he had something else to cover his forearms), no matter the temperature. He avoided all questions and gave no answers.

He had completely secluded himself all over again, just as he was beginning to open up to others.

Suddenly, footsteps stopped in front of his door, and he cracked open an eye to see what the problem was. "...What are you doing here, Moyashi?"

"It's Allen, BaKanda," The silverette answered automatically. He shifted his weight, bringing attention to the long glass he had in his hands. "I'm repairing the mirror today, since there's nothing better to do."

Kanda sat up as Allen closed the shoji doors, watching as the silverette glided over to the spider web like mirror. He stared at it for a long, long time, eyes stormy and unclear.

"Has..." Kanda began quietly, gently catching Allen's attention. "Has he made another appearance recently?"

The silverette refused to meet his gaze in the mirror, appearing to wonder whether or not to talk about his topic with him. He cast a nervous glance to the thin shoji doors behind him.

"Has he appeared recently?" Kanda asked again, this time in Japanese to assure some privacy.

Allen's eyes widened with something akin to surprise and relief. The teen began to slowly take down the mirror on the wall, thinking of a way to answer his question. "When Tykki almost killed me and destroyed my Innocence," he began, surprising Kanda. "I found myself in an In Between." Chromium eyes locked with slate through glass. "That is, a place between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead."

Kanda turned to face the teen, his expression of mild fascination and interest. "The sky was blue, and a giant crescent moon was there. And there was a pond too, but when I looked into the water, the sky was scarlet, and the moon black. There were ruins of a building... or maybe multiple. Lenalee sat on one of them, crying, and an Exorcist was resting his head in her lap. Maybe they were dead, I'm not sure, but I knew I had to find out why Lenalee was crying." Allen took in a deep breath almost nervously. "So I went into the pond."

Kanda felt a vein pop. "Baka Moyashi, that's like a scene in a horror movie right before the monster comes out with a chainsaw and kills the person. When everyone's screaming, 'don't go in there!' and all that shit."

Allen chuckled bitterly. "A horror movie scene... that about describes what it turned out to be." He swallowed before starting on removing the plastic layer in the mirror that held the mirror together. "Just as I was about to enter the water, he stopped me in that strange guise."

"Guise?" Kanda questioned.

"Like he was a scribbled in cartoon." Allen nodded. "His face was completely black except for a shark tooth grin and white circles for eyes." He described. "He came out of the water, and spoke to me just as the lake began to freeze over. Then he pushed me away, locking himself and Lenalee under the ice." Allen frowned.

"That was the first time I met Neah."

"And?" Kanda prompted.

"He appeared to me again in the Ark, this time in the room of the Fourteenth, as my reflection. He explained how to move the Ark, and that I was the only one who could do it. That was the second time we met."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I never told you what happened in here." He answered. "I owe you an explanation since this is your training room."

Kanda pursed his lips, remaining silent. Allen took that as a prompt to keep explaining.

"The day Lavi dragged me in here to meditate with you, Neah showed up in the mirror. In fact, he was there the second I stepped into the room. It was the strangest thing. He was there in the mirror, but if I looked around in the room, he wasn't physically there." Allen frowned deeply. "It was like a scene right out of a horror story." He joked. Kanda gave him a look. "He told me that when I get weaker, he grows stronger, so I shouldn't starve myself and not sleep like I was doing."

"Neah used to only show up in reflections for a very brief amount of time. They were few and far in between. I'd see him about... maybe once a month or so...?" Allen stripped the rest of the mirror off the wall, revealing an unpainted section of it. "Cheap." He commented before beginning to set the new one in its place. "Anyways, at that time, Neah had appeared to me twice in one week: once for only a second when lightning flashed in my window, and the second time in that mirror." Allen pointed to the shattered glass lying on a sheet of flimsy plastic to protect the floor from glass shards and for easy clean up.

"So why'd you punch the goddamn mirror?" Kanda raised an elegant brow, which mismatched his rough Japanese.

Allen had the grace to look guilty for a moment. "That was the first time he talked to me outside the Ark and in a reflection like that. I was beyond surprised. He began provoking me, and I told him to fuck off because he says this body is 'ours.'" Allen spat out the word like it was poison. "Then I told him that I'd kill myself before he got a chance to take my body from me, and that maybe that way we'd both get to see Mana again."

Allen swallowed thickly and took a long moment to start speaking again. "The bastard started rubbing it in my face that Mana had gone insane because he was killed, and mistook me for his dog. He asked how Mana could ever love someone like me, and..." Allen sat down, leaning his head against the mirrors and tiredly closing his eyes. "I didn't have an answer." He admitted quietly with a sigh.

Kanda gave him a moment of peace. "And after that?" He prompted, his speech a bit more gentle.

"Neah has started showing up everywhere." The teen ran a hand through his hair exasperatedly. "At the end of dark halls, around corners, in my dreams... hell, he even showed up in my soup once!"

Kanda blinked. "Was that the day you dumped your soup on Usagi?"

Allen flushed. "I was surprised, okay?!" he nearly yelled, clearly embarrassed. "I just looked down into my soup and there he was, so I threw it. Lavi just somehow managed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Which was under your soup bowl as it went flying in the air?" Kanda asked dryly.

Allen ignored him. "The guy's acting crazy! He knows I hate it when he appears before me in that scribble-ly form, but he does it just to rile me up and then goes and apologizes. 'Oh, I forgot,' he says." Allen made a pitying face and threw his tenor toned voice down a couple pitches. "'This form is just easier to walk around in' he says. Well then, don't fucking show up in the first place!" Allen hammered a nail into the wall with a decisive bang.

Kanda couldn't help the smirk that stretched over his features. "Anger issues much, Baka Moyashi?"

"It's Allen, BaKanda!" Allen bit back. "And don't act like you're one to talk. Besides, you should try harboring another person inside of you."

Kanda's smirk became razor sharp. "Women do it all the time, don't they? It's called pregnancy."

Allen flushed scarlet. "I'm not pregnant, Kanda! I'm a male, thank you very much!"

"Oh really?" The samurai began. "With your short height and wimpy attitude, I wasn't sure."

"Then I guess that proves how much of an idiot you are, BaKanda!"

"Or maybe it proves how similar you are to a bean sprout? So much that I couldn't tell what you were?" Kanda remained calm, unlike Allen who was beginning to get angrier and angrier.

The silverette suddenly froze, staring blankly into the mirrors. He stood erect and ramrod straight, as though he had been electrocuted. His eyes narrowed and became stormy as he slowly allowed his tense body to unwind. Silently, he went back to putting up the other mirror.

"Moyashi," Kanda questioned softly, his unheard question clear to them.

"He's standing in the mirror," Allen replied calmly, as though he was discussing the weather with Kanda. The whitette finally finished with the mirror and sat down next to the samurai. "And grinning like a maniac."

"Which one," Kanda growled out softly.

Allen shot him a surprised and questioning glance. "He's in the second to last one on the left...?"

Kanda swiftly stood and strode to the mirror, crossing his arms and seemingly glaring at his own reflection. "Get out." He snarled, his voice a low growl. "This is a sacred room. Cursed ones do not belong here."

Allen pursed his lips, his eyes traveling from Neah and then to Kanda. Neah winked at him before morphing into his true form. "Wow, he's certainly one to talk. I can smell his curse from here."

The whitette relayed the comment.

Kanda frowned deeply. "That has nothing to do with you. Now get your ghosty ass out. You're trespassing."

Allen frowned. "He says, 'How does it feel, knowing that you're getting closer and closer to dying every time you fight?'" The silverette rubbed his forehead in thought. He remembered fighting Alma Karma and learning about Kanda's past. However, he knew nothing about how far the "curse" has progressed.

He was oblivious.

Kanda smirked. "That's a stupid question. I wouldn't know since everyone here is prepared to die every time they fight anyway. You're assuming that I think I'll survive every battle that comes to me."

Neah made a pitying face and Allen immediately stepped forward with a growl; he hated that expression. "Yes, but your time is running out, isn't it? The same way my nephew's is." He smiled. "And I bet you're still seeing those lotus flowers everywhere around you. Say, do they ever show up on people?"

At this, Allen felt his eyes widen. "Wha-What are you talking about...?" Suddenly, dread crashed down to the pit of his stomach, churning and jumping around until it settled like led. He felt goose bumps trail up and down his arms and the hair on the back of his neck stand straight.

"Oh, didn't you know?" Neah turned to him and grinned, enjoying the fact that he was about to drop a bomb on his young nephew. "I guess not." He pretended to be concerned and disappointed. "Kanda here has been using his life force to fight again." He sent the samurai a pitying look. After all, he could only hear one side of the conversation. "I can see his curse has spread down his arm and across his chest. He doesn't have much longer now." Neah crossed his arms. "Might not even last the rest of this war." The man leaned forward, looking Kanda up and down. "And those lotus flowers are a part of his curse. He hallucinates about them. Sees them the same way you see me." Neah grinned maliciously. "They haunt him." He said in a low, dark voice.

Allen felt the blood in his veins slow until it was just at a crawl and then freeze over. His mercury orbs grew to the size of saucers and the color washed out of his face. He clenched his fists at his side, his body becoming so numb that he couldn't even feel his nails digging into his palms and spilling blood.

"What...?" He whispered hoarsely, his eyes slowly traveling to the solemn samurai. It appeared that he knew exactly what had been said to the whitette. "K-Kanda... y-you didn't."

The samurai watched him with calculating eyes as he nodded once slowly. "There were two Noah and six pieces of Innocence. There was no other way."

Allen felt the world around him stop spinning and crash down as he took a step towards the man who turned his head away. With a quick breath, he ran forward, gripping at the samurai's shirt and bringing him to the ground. Kanda did not fight back, even as Allen straddled his hips. "Is that why all you've been wearing is long sleeves recently? And the cuffs covering your forearms?"

Kanda looked up in shock at the silverette. "You...noticed...?"

The silverette slammed gripped the cloth on his chest and used it to slam the samurai into the floor roughly. "Of course I noticed, you dumbass!" He bit out angrily. "Despite the fact that we fight all the time, I consider you one of my best friends! Now I know you couldn't trust me enough to tell me what's going on."

Allen began to shake. "No, it's not just me. None of us know. Isn't that right?!"

Kanda sighed, nodding once slowly. "Only Komui..." he murmured.

Allen slammed a fist into the ground next to Kanda's down body, the hardwood floor cracking and allowing his hand to create a hole. "What about Lavi? Or Lenalee? We're your friends, aren't we?" His bangs shadowed his eyes as he spoke with calm anger. "Lenalee, who loves her friends more than this world, would be devastated."

Kanda snapped his head around to face Allen instead of looking away. "That's exactly why I didn't say anything! Why the hell would I want to cause her or Usagi or anyone else for that matter, any more pain?! Because I fucking care, that's why! I care more than I ever should!" He snapped.

He felt more than saw Allen's body tense and shudder as he took in a deep breath. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe hiding it from us would hurt more than telling us in the first place?! Did it ever occur to you that maybe we care more than we should too?!" He screamed, his eyes becoming a furious silver glint and his pupils dilating as he glared at the samurai beneath him.

"This is a war, goddammit!" Kanda yelled back, feeling his vocal cords straining against his neck. "No one should be caring for anyone else! We're only hurting ourselves more, so why?! Why are we doing it?!"

Allen went limp against him, his eyes showing hurt and betrayal. "Because it's in our nature, Kanda. We can't help but care for you. We only have each other; that's what Lenalee and Lavi and you all taught me last Christmas. So why aren't you accepting us more? Why don't you trust us? We're all you have now. You should just talk to us more."

Kanda swallowed thickly, avoiding Allen's gaze. It made him feel like a piece of shit. Guilt was never his strong point. "I-I..." He began, sitting up. His sleeve suddenly got caught in the splintered wood of the floor, tearing open as he sat up.

Allen stared in horror at the jagged black mark streaking across beautiful and otherwise flawless skin. "Oh my God." He let out thickly. "Oh my God!" He went nearly choked, swallowing as he took shaky hands to the material. He tore it open further, batting away Kanda's attempts to stop him.

Allen felt his heart scream in his ears as he began hyperventilating, his breaths shallow, quick, and irregular. He felt his eyes water as he traced the marks around his arms, tearing the shirt further to follow the marks to his back. Tears began falling away from his eyes and unto Kanda's cold skin.

How could something that seemed so harmless become foreshadowing to a terrible event?

Allen collapsed against the samurai's chest, his breathing becoming even shorter and faster as reality closed in on his thoughts and he began to sob.

Kanda... Kanda... Kanda... Kanda... Kanda... He chanted like a mantra, as though it could eliminate the grief he felt constricting his chest and erase the marks.

"Why?!" Allen demanded. "Why is it always someone else?!" Instead of me? Was the unsaid question. "Why does it have to be Kanda?!" He nearly screamed as his memories of the teenager closed in.

Kanda was the bravest man he had ever known. He knew how to walk forward, even when his world became one of agony. He had courage that only came with seeing many deaths and fighting for his life on the battle field.

He bravely took the steps that would lead to certain doom, and came back smirking. If there was one person full of nobility and pride, it was Kanda.

He would never give up.

"Moyashi." Kanda shook his shoulder. "For Kami's sake, stop crying! You're treating me like I'm already dead!"

Allen snapped back in realization, suddenly stilling and becoming deathly pale. "Kanda." He suddenly murmured quietly, his eyes fixated on the shoji doors. "The doors."

The blunette whirled around. "Fuck!" He exclaimed, jumping up and slamming open the wooden frame.

There stood Lenalee, sobbing into her hands quietly.

They had both been so busy with Neah, and then with themselves that they hadn't sensed her presence.

"Le-Lenalee..." Allen let out softly.

The girl slowly raised her head, her shoulder-length hair framing her face. Her expression was the epitome of agony.

Kanda suddenly gathered the girl into his arms, his shirt falling away and hanging unto the other, unmarked side of his body.

"I take it you heard everything?" He murmured quietly, gently.

Lenalee nodded her head. "I heard Allen yelling and I came to see what was up since I was training with Lavi and Marie-san." She hiccupped, her shoulders shuddering with the movement. "Marie-san ran off before I could say anything, and then I heard what you were saying and I... I-"

"Shh..." Kanda patted the girl's back awkwardly. He barely had any experience with comforting, but he remembered doing it for Lenalee as a child when she came crying to him about that Adolf Hitler bastard. "It's fine, Lenalee."

Lenalee shook her head. "No, it's not Kanda. You're like my other brother here. I can't lose you now." She murmured, her voice quivering.

Kanda sighed, reluctantly telling Lenalee his feelings. "Embarrassingly enough, you're like my little sister, too. But don't tell that Mr. Sister-Complex or I'll be chased down by a Komurin or even experimented on in my sleep."

Allen watched, his eyes still letting out tears. But he smiled. Smiled for the relationships Kanda managed to build, even though he tried so hard to push everyone away and isolate himself.

No matter what Kanda said, they really did only have each other.

Later that night, Lenalee sat with Allen in front of a fireplace. They comforted each other and cried together until Lavi walked by the room on his way to the library.

The pair let him in and told the redhead about their discovery. The three of them, sniffling and crying their eyes out, tired themselves out. Eventually, they all fell asleep against the couch; Lenalee leaning on Allen, and Lavi resting his head in Lenalee's warm lap.

And one agonized samurai threw a blanket over the three of them, smiling bitterly and wiping away the tears they shed in their sleep. All because of him.

It was moments like these that made him wonder why he even bothered with it all. Making friends and having comrades... it only brought along pain.

But it was the moments when they were all together and happy that made him feel like it wasn't too bad. That it was easier.

And so he resolved to bravely keep fighting. Fighting the Earl and the Noah and the Innocence. Fighting the Order. Fighting with his friends at his side.

"I won't give up." He swore. "For my family."

With that, the samurai leaned against the couch near Lavi's feet, closing his eyes to get some rest.

It had to end for the better. Or he'd make it.

End Chapter: Looking Back

Urghhh... I feel like this had SO much more potential. There are other things I can go into too, but I decided I'd do that in another, much shorter one shot eventually. I really didn't mean for this to be something of a continuation of last chapter... it kinda just happened. I guess that's because I'm not really used to writing one shots.

Another thing, I'm sorry this was so fast paced and that the transitions between events were so sloppy. I might go back and fix that up eventually, but for right now, I have no ideas for doing it. XD Don't worry though. I'll come up with some eventually.

Thanks for reading! Leave a review please?

Next chapter: Yorokobi; They didn't really mean to do it, but it just kinda happened. It was childish, they knew, but it was fun. Besides, who ever said you couldn't make faces with your lunch?

Ja ne~!

~Crescent T.