Hello all! I just want to thank you guys for all the wonderful reviews that I have received so far. I got 8! This is my first multi-chapter fic in which I have received so many reviews within the first chapter! So, thank you all again.
I would especially like to thank TeamEdo4ever and Lalala for leaving long-ish reviews. Thanks guys!
My idea for this story is a kind of post-war fic (with all the Noah and the Earl dead and all). You all will probably understand more the more you read.
Disclaimer: D. Gray-Man and its characters do not belong to me.
Warning: gratuitous blood
Here is Chapter 2- "I'm Sorry"! Enjoy!
Chapter: 2- "I'm Sorry"
Out of the many finders, scientists, and few exorcists that resided in the Black Order, not a single one of them had died in the attack. Many were injured of course, but none died. To say that Komui was thankful was an understatement. He decided that once everyone had healed up, everyone—and he meant everyone—would gather in the dining hall and celebrate. No one would be left out.
That included Allen, Lenalee, Lavi, and Kanda.
The four of them had been hit with a strange purple beam of energy from an Akuma that rendered them unconscious and left their Innocence in their deactivated states. Komui had racked his mind for any possible answers that would solve the problem at hand: what happened to his exorcists?
He currently had Reever and the other scientists examining the remains of the Akuma that shot off the beam. They took the task he had given them in stride, working on it straight away and not complaining once. When Komui had asked them why their normally complaining selves were not making so much as a grumble, they had replied simply that Allen, Lenalee, Lavi, and even the stoic Kanda were their friends. Komui had smiled at their devotion and apologized for interrupting their work.
It was now nine o'clock in the evening. The full moon that could be seen from the large windows bathed the long hallways of the Black Order in an ethereal light. The sound of hurried footsteps that clacked from slippers echoed throughout the otherwise quiet hallway. Komui had one destination in mind as he strode down said hallway: the infirmary. He was extremely worried for his exorcists and he wanted to see them. After a few minutes of walking the long hallway (why in the world were these hallways so long?) he finally reached the end. He turned the corner and stood at the door of the infirmary. It was cracked slightly and no noise emitted from inside. Komui opened the door gingerly.
The infirmary was a large room with rows of beds lined up along the walls. He knew that there were other rooms that spanned off from the infirmary. There were private rooms for one person, if the person needed special care or needed privacy. There were also rooms that held up to four patients at a time. These kinds of rooms were also used for special care and/or privacy. When the four teen exorcists had been taken away for medical treatment, Komui had personally asked the Head Nurse if they could have the four-person room away from the commotion of the rest of the infirmary; he thought that they would be able to lean on the company of one another. The Head Nurse had agreed without hesitation.
As Komui stepped further into the infirmary, he was greeted by several finders and scientists in various degrees of injury.
"Supervisor!"
"Supervisor Komui!"
"Hello, Supervisor!"
The Chinese man greeted each of them with a smile a few kind words. He could not stay for long, though. He had to find the Head Nurse (1). Not a few moments later, the Head Nurse appeared from one of the sectioned off rooms. She had a metal tray of bandages, rubbing alcohol bottle, and gauze in her arms. "Oh, Komui," she blinked, "I didn't expect to see you here so soon. How are you?"
"I'm as best as can be expected," he replied tiredly. "Thank you for asking."
The Head Nurse put down her tray on a table and turned to him. "I assume you are here to see the four teens, yes?"
He nodded. "Yes. How are they doing? Have they woken up yet?" He was eager to know their condition.
She sighed and rubbed her forehead. Uh oh, that's never a good sign, Komui thought anxiously. "I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I have patched them up and their wounds are all healing well. They should be out of here within a few days."
Komui furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Then…what's the bad news?"
"The bad news is that they have not woken up yet—not comas, though, thankfully—and they all have caught high fevers, temperatures of 102º Fahrenheit—all of them. They are definitely not from their injuries, I can assure you that. However, I do not know where the fevers came from. I am utterly baffled."
Komui's eyebrows shot up to his hairline. The Head Nurse baffled by something? Unheard of! This made worry shoot through Komui. He now more than ever wanted to see the teens. "May I see them now, Head Nurse?" The woman nodded. "Of course, they are right through the door you just saw me come through."
"Thank you."
Komui walked by the Head Nurse and to the exorcists' room. He paused at the closed door and gathered his thoughts. They're going to be okay, Komui, he assured himself as he swallowed hard. They're strong kids. They have to be, after all they been through. He clenched the metal door knob hard. They shouldn't have to be, though! Komui thought crossly. After a few moments, he collected himself and unclenched the knob slightly, turned it, and opened the door. He stepped inside and shut the door gingerly behind him with a soft click.
The room was fairly large. It was painted a warm beige color, unlike the dreary grey of walls of the main section of the infirmary outside. Instead of having the beds lined up right next to each other, there was a bed in each corner of the room. The wall right across from the door Komui that had walked through had a window right in the middle of it. Allen's bed was on the left of the window while Lavi's was on the right. Lenalee was to the left of the door, across from Lavi, and Kanda was to the right of the door, across from Allen. There was a chair and small table next to each of the beds. Each teen was connected to an I.V. and heart monitor, with Allen having the additional blood bag. (2)
Komui felt sorrow for all of the teens as he saw the condition they were all in. His heart went out to all of them.
The man went over to Lenalee first, sitting down in the chair and scooting closer to her. "Hey there, little sis. I'm here now." He knew she could not hear him, but he pretended that she could, though. He absentmindedly brushed stray wisps of dark olive-green hair away from her face with one hand while he held her petite hand with his other. Her hair is growing a bit longer, he thought idly. I bet she hasn't even noticed it in all this chaos. I'll tell her when she wakes up. Her forehead felt warm underneath his fingertips. He looked at her face. Her cheeks were flushed pink with fever and beads of sweat dripped down her face. Her lips were parted and he could hear the tired breaths that escaped them. If it was not for the flushed face and the beads of sweat, Komui would have thought that his sister was just sleeping off a long day.
Lenalee's left arm—the same arm that had hung limp and useless in her fight—was bandaged and in a sling that folded against her chest. I guess it was a dislocated shoulder after all, Komui mused sadly. He was so tired of seeing his little sister getting hurt. If it were possible, he would take her place in a heartbeat, just to save her anymore pain.
He glimpsed further down at her blanket covered legs and saw the bumps of her Innocence anklets. They were in their deactivated state—forcibly deactivated.
Dark Boots.
Was it wrong to hate them?
Well, maybe hate was a strong word. 'Greatly dislike' would work a tad better.
They allowed Lenalee to defend herself when need be, but…they were also the thing that caused her to suffer the almost entirety of her life; they caused her to be taken away from him. This caused a sad look to pass over the Chinese man's usually happy face.
He squeezed her hand gently before standing and making his way over to Kanda. He took a seat in the wooden chair next to Kanda's bed.
Beside Komui, leaning against the small table next to Kanda's bed, was Mugen. The katana was sheathed. Like Dark Boots, Mugen had been forcibly deactivated. As Komui looked at Mugen, he felt as though it had a cold feeling to it, if that was possible. Mugen also looked…fragile, as if it would break if anyone touched it. Komui was confused and worried by this. This did not look like the Mighty Mugen that Kanda proudly wielded.
Unlike Lenalee, who was lying flat in her bed, Kanda was propped up against a bolster of pillows. Komui could tell it was because of broken ribs, if the bandages wrapped tightly around his chest were anything to go by. He did not worry too much, though. Kanda healed faster than normal humans did.
Kanda's long raven-blue hair was out of its normal, neat ponytail and was splayed in a mess of tangles across the pillows. No doubt Kanda would be pissed about that when he woke up.
On his chest, peeking out from the bandages was Kanda's intricate tattoo. Komui frowned when he saw that; he absolutely hated that tattoo. While it did save Kanda's life in battle which Komui was thankful for, it also was the thing that shortened his life span; the more he used it, the more it would drain his life—the lotus blossom in his room just being an indicator of how long the young man had to live. Hopefully now that the Earl and the Noah were dead, there would be no need for Kanda to ever need that tattoo again.
The bandages also had some spots of blood on them, so Komui suspected that they were also covering several injuries that he did not know that Kanda had gotten previously. From the torso up, there were no other injuries on Kanda's bodies. Kanda's body from the waist down was covered by a blanket.
"Well, Kanda," Komui started quietly, "it seems that your pride as a samurai stays strong with you, as always. Defeating your enemy with little to no injuries…nothing but the best, huh? When I saw your battle against the Akuma I was worried about you. Then I saw you with no visible injuries, sliding Mugen back into its sheath; I was relieved." Komui shook his head as a fond thought ran through his mind. He could practically hear Kanda yelling, Oi, Sister Complex! Why the hell are you acting like a sissy for? Worrying about me like some girl. Tch! Komui lips quirked upward in an amused smile.
Komui looked at Kanda's face. Unlike the Japanese teen's usual stoic demeanor, his face had a pinched look about it; most likely pain. His eyes were shut tighter than normal, his nose was scrunched a bit, and his lips were pressed in a thin line. His face was also flushed because of his fever. He, however, looked worse than Lenalee. While Lenalee's face was slightly pink, Kanda's was red. Komui suspected the fever added to the tight look to Kanda's face.
The Chinese scientist reached out and grabbed Kanda's hand. "Don't worry, Kanda. You'll be up and arguing with Allen and Lavi in no time." With that last comment, Komui stood from the chair that creaked in protest of the sudden movement and went over to Lavi.
Again as he did with Lenalee and Kanda, Komui sat in the provided chair next to the pseudo-bookman's bed. Lavi was in a worse condition than Lenalee but about the same condition as Kanda. The teen had bandages running the length of both of his arms, from the knuckles to the shoulders. Leaning a bit closer, the man could see angry red burns peeking out from under the bandages by the knuckles. So, Lavi won't be able to use his arms for a bit.
That is both a good thing and a bad thing in and of itself. The bad thing is that Lavi is hurt, of course. That's always bad. The good thing is that I don't have to worry about any pranks in my office surprising me and almost giving me a heart attack.
Actually, right now, Komui would not have minded a prank by Lavi. He would have been happy to see the normally exuberant rabbit causing mischief if it meant seeing him well again.
Komui glanced at small table next to Lavi. Lying on the table top was a small hammer; Tettsui, more commonly known as Ozuchi Kozuchi. Gone was the strong solid look the war hammer usually carried. Even in its deactivated state, Ozuchi Kozuchi normally looked strong and sturdy. Right now in its current forced state, Komui thought that, like Mugen, Ozuchi Kozuchi looked like it would fall to pieces. It looked frail, weak.
Haggard breaths that escaped Lavi's lips, indicated by the slightly unsteady rise and fall of his chest showed that the teen was very weak and strained from the wounds he received. It also indicated slight damaged to the lungs, probably from getting hit too hard or being thrown into a wall too hard. There were multiple bruises on his chest, shoulders (the parts he could see), and a particularly large one on the underside of his jaw. It was a horrible yellow-purple combination of a color; it looked like it would take a while to heal.
The teen's crimson-red hair was free of his normal green headband and now hung loosely, framing his face. His trademark black eye patch was still ever-present on his face. Lavi's face was pale and flushed at the same time. Rivulets of sweat rolled down his face, matting the wisps of hair that happened to get in his face. His eyebrows were furrowed and Komui could see his eye moving quickly behind the closed eyelid. He was mouthing words, but as Komui looked at his lips to try and read them, he could not make out any of the words that Lavi was mumbling. He could, however, make out that Lavi was saying the same few words over and over again.
Lavi was dreaming, apparently, and not a nice dream either.
Komui could not hold the redhead's hand as it was injured, so he put a hand on his shoulder—the part that was not injured. "Lavi," he said comfortingly, "it's going to be okay. Whatever is going on in that head of yours, it's not real. What's real is out here with all of us—Allen, Kanda, Lenalee, and I." The physical contact and the soft, comforting words seemed to ease Lavi's mental state, but only slightly. His eyebrows eased from their furrowed state and his eye slowed down its movement behind its eyelid. Lavi's mouth, however, did not stop the silent mumbling it was doing previously.
This made Komui feel a bit better. He was glad he could give a bit of ease to the teen.
He sat with Lavi for a few more moments before standing and moving over to the last injured exorcist in the room, Allen.
The scientist sat in the chair next to Allen's bed with a tired sigh and paused for a moment as he looked over white-haired teen. "Allen, what a fine mess it seems we've all gotten into, hmm?"
Allen was easily in the worst condition of all of the exorcists. The gouges and scratches from Road's candles were stitched up and bandaged. There were splotches of blood that seeped through some parts of the bandages, nonetheless. The deep bites that he received from Tyki's Teaze were covered by cotton patches. Those cotton patches covered his neck, human arm, and chest. The I.V. and blood bad were both attached to his right arm.
The teen exorcist looked like death warmed over. His already pale skin was even paler now, almost translucent; a very clear sign of extreme blood loss. The Brit had lost copious amounts of the red liquid in the attack on the Black Order that had occurred only hours ago. Allen's white hair, combined with his pallor complexion, made him look not unlike a ghost.
The Destroyer of Time, the Musician, the Fourteenth's host, General…this boy has so many titles, Komui thought sardonically as he brushed his hand through the teen's white hair, yet no one realizes that behind all those titles, this boy is just that—a boy.
Komui's dark eyes landed on Allen's red curse mark; it stood out starkly, even more than usual, against the teen's paler than normal skin. This made him think of what he saw earlier. Allen had looked at the Akuma and then had shuddered violently. Komui did not understand what made Allen give such a violent reaction. His gaze drifted to the rest of Allen's face. His face was flushed a bright red from fever, much brighter than the other teens had been. Sweat rolled down his face and neck, matting his hair and soaking the pillow he rested his head on. Allen's face, like Kanda, had a pinched pained look about it.
Komui looked at Allen's Innocence arm. Like the other teens' Innocence, Crown Clown had been forcibly deactivated as well. If an arm could have a sickly look about it, then Allen's arm certainly did. The normally black arm looked a few shades lighter, like a light charcoal black. Komui guessed that was the shade it turned when it "paled" like the rest of Allen's body. The cross on the back of Allen's hand normally glowed a bright, vibrant green. At the current moment, the cross glowed dimly; the color was a sickly, dull green. Why does it look like that?
The British teen's head shook from side to side faintly. Komui was startled slightly from this sudden movement. Was Allen waking up? Allen's white eyelashes fanned his cheeks as his eyes fluttered open. Tired mercury eyes looked around the room slowly.
"Allen? Allen, can you hear me?" Komui asked gently.
Allen did not reply for a moment. His mouth moved as he rasped something Komui did not understand. "I'm sorry, Allen. I didn't hear you. Could you repeat that, please?"
"C-Crown…Clown," he rasped out again.
Komui blinked in surprise. Crown Clown? "Allen, what about Crown Clown? What happened?"
Allen just kept murmuring his Innocence's name. "Crown Clown, Crown Clown…Crown Clown…"
What is going on here? Komui's eyed narrowed a bit in confusion. As he looked at Allen's eyes, his own eyes widened in revelation. "He's delirious." Yes, Allen's eyes had an unfocused look about them and kept drifting around, not staying in once place.
"…Crown Clown, I-I can't…hear you, Crown C-Clown. W-Where are you?" Allen sounded miserable at this point. He began breathing a bit more rapidly now, and his head was still shifting from side to side in a pained manor.
Allen's comment caught Komui's attention. There it is again. The 'I can't hear' phrase. This was the second time that Allen said that he could not hear Crown Clown. The first time was back in the atrium after he got hit with the purple energy beam. Komui remembered that Allen's comment had prompted a strong reaction from Lavi, Kanda, and Lenalee. He especially remembered their shocked faces. What does it mean that Allen can't hear Crown Clown? Does it have something to do with him specifically, or does it have to do with all the exorcists? Komui wanted to lean more toward the latter speculation, since all of the exorcists had reacted so strongly.
Komui was pulled from his musings by the miserable sounds coming from Allen. At this point, Allen was crying softly. Tears streamed from his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. "Where are you, Crown Clown? I…c-can't hear you. W-Why can't…I hear y-you, Crown Clown?"
Komui did not quite understand what was going on, but whatever was happening to Allen and Crown Clown, it absolutely saddened him. Allen sounded so miserable, so grief-stricken. It made Komui's heart clench. The older man stood and hugged Allen as gently as he could due to the exorcist's injuries and whispered soothing words in the teen's ear.
"Allen, it's okay. Crown Clown is still with you." Komui was not sure if he was saying the right thing in reference to the Innocence, but he hoped it would help, if only a bit. "It's okay. It'll all be alright, now. Calm down, Allen." Slowly, but surely, Allen stopped crying and quietly hiccuped. After a minute or so, Allen became silent.
The scientist waited a moment before releasing Allen. He looked at Allen and saw that he had fallen back asleep. Komui pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the tears from Allen's face. "Rest now, Allen."
Komui turned and started to walk out of the room. Before he could make even five steps, he heard choked shouts coming behind him. The shrieking of four heart monitors pierced the air. He spun around in surprise and took a sharp intake of breath at what he saw. All four of the previously unconscious exorcists were currently upright in their beds, writhing in pain. The Chinese man immediately bolted from the room and to the main part of the infirmary.
"Head Nurse! Head Nurse, we have a problem!" Komui yelled frantically.
The Head Nurse hurried from whatever room she was in previously and stopped when she saw Komui. "Komui? What happened?"
"Please, hurry!" he exclaimed as he ran back to the room, the woman trailing behind him. "They were all unconscious before, but they suddenly starting writhing around and shouting. I don't know what's going on!"
They got back into the room and the Head Nurse went to Lenalee while Komui went to Lavi. Just moments behind the Head Nurse and Komui came Johnny and Reever bursting through the door.
"Komui! What happened? What's going on?" Reever asked as he moved to hold down Kanda as carefully as he could due to his injuries.
Johnny quickly ran toward Allen to hold him down as well. "We were walking by and heard screaming. What's happening to them?"
"I don't know! Just hold them down!" Komui shouted back.
They turned their attention to Lenalee when she threw her head back with a pained shriek as she curled into a ball and clutched her ankles. Her left arm slipped from its sling and Komui could see the shoulder had heavy bruising around it. She was sobbing in agony, tears pouring from her eyes and streaming down her face. She was bleeding heavily from the stigmata on the fronts of her ankles. Lenalee clutched her ankles again and she heaved a great sob.
"D-Dark B-Boots!" she cried. Her red anklets audibly cracked. When they gave a second, deeper crack, Lenalee gave another scream of agony. A few seconds later, the anklets finally shattered, several red pieces falling onto the bed. Lenalee gave a last strangled yell before collapsing in her bed in a shuddering heap.
All of them looked on wide-eyed at what just happened to her.
"What the…?" Komui trailed off. He turned to the Head Nurse. "Head Nurse!"
"Already on it, Komui," she said as she tended to Lenalee's wounds, old and new.
Komui himself was having trouble holding down Lavi. The redhead was writhing around, throwing his head back and forth. His teeth were gritted so tightly that Komui was worried that one (or all) of them would crack.
Lavi was grabbing at his chest, desperately looking for some sort of relief from whatever pain he was in. A loud crack rang throughout the room and they all looked at Lavi's hammer lying on the table. A large horizontal fissure ran the length of the hammer. Lavi arched up and gave an excruciating scream. "Lavi, calm down!" Komui was straining to hold the exorcist down. How could he possibly be this strong when he was this injured?
Lavi struggled again, and ground out painfully through clenched teeth, "O-Ozuchi K-Kozuch-chi!" The tiny war hammer cracked a last time before finally shattering into large metal chunks on the table. The reaction was instantaneous; Lavi arched up at an impossible looking angle and then let out an ear piercing scream of pain that made everyone flinch. He finally stilled and fell back in the bed, panting. So, the more the Innocence is damaged, the more the exorcist is hurt, Komui concluded dejectedly.
He could see spots of blood growing larger on the bandages covering Lavi's burned arms. "Dammit," Komui muttered. "Head Nurse!"
"I'll be there in a moment, Komui!"
Komui turned from Lavi to Reever, who was holding down Kanda. "Reever, hold him down as best you can, but be careful! He has several broken ribs," he said. "I'm going to check on Mugen. The same thing will happen to it as what has happened to both Dark Boots and Ozuchi Kozuchi."
Reever only gave a grunt of affirmation. Komui could tell that most of his focus, attention, and energy were going toward making sure Kanda did not harm himself any further.
Komui quickly stepped toward the small table next to Kanda's bed, and he bent down on one knee next to Mugen. He picked up the katana and swiftly, but carefully, unsheathed it, revealing the cold metal. Komui could see the fractures and splinters already on the long red-tinted blade. Right before his eyes, a very long crack ran the entire length of the katana. Komui's eyes widened and he quickly turned his head to look at Kanda.
Instantaneously, Kanda curled into himself—while sitting upright since he was still being held by Reever—and clutched at his arms. His stigmata, which were on the inside of his forearms, started gushing blood at an alarming rate. They rapidly stained the bed sheets and Reever's arms and clothes. Kanda seemed to be trying to hold in as much noise as he could, but it was futile. A strained scream managed to escape past his gritted teeth.
Hairline fractures began to form on Mugen, spreading toward the larger fractures and making them even larger than before. The effect—Kanda twisted under Reever, shrieking in a manner that was so very unlike him. Both Komui and the others were surprised when they saw a few tears spring from the Japanese teen's tightly clenched eyes. Kanda never cried. Ever. So for him to be reduced to tears now, Komui knew that Kanda had to be in extreme pain.
"M-Mugen!" Kanda again twisted painfully under Reever strong hold.
Komui got the feeling that Mugen was holding together as best as it could. Sadly, it seemed that it could no longer do so. With a shrill noise, Mugen pitifully cracked and shattered into large, long metal shards in Komui's own hands. The only thing that was intact was the hilt, and even that seemed that it would fall apart.
"Gah!" Kanda shot up against Reever, stronger than the scientist could hold him. He sat stock-still, eyes wide as he clutched his now red arms to his chest. If it were not for the visible shaking of his frame and the expansion and contraction of his (now probably very injured) ribs, Komui would have thought that Kanda died upright or something. After a moment, Kanda's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he passed out, falling to his pained with an exhausted grunt.
"Three down, one to go," thought Komui cynically.
The Head Nurse had just finished with Lavi so she was able to tend to Kanda next.
"Guys, I really need some help over here!" Johnny exclaimed.
Reever immediately stepped away from Kanda and went over to help. Komui took just a few seconds to place the broken remains of the once intact Mugen on Kanda's bedside table. Then he went over to help with Allen.
If Komui thought Lenalee, Lavi, and Kanda were in pain then he was mistaken. The noises that Allen was emitting sounded like he was being tortured! Komui had to consciously restrain himself from covering his ears as he and everyone else flinched. Johnny moved to hold down Allen's right arm while Reever held down his left, Innocence arm. Komui stood next to Reever so he could see what was going on to Allen's Innocence. He was very worried about what would happen to Allen. His Innocence was a parasitic type; it was attached to his body. What would happen once the Innocence was gone like the others?
"Jeeze," Reever grunted, "this kid is harder to hold down than Kanda was! How is that possible?"
Allen's Innocence arm looked like it was rapidly paling from the already light charcoal black color to a dark grey. Within another few seconds the color changed again, this time from the dark grey to a lighter grey. It looked very sickly at this point; it was twitching sporadically and veins were starting to show very prominently against the unhealthily tinged skin. The British exorcist was outright sobbing—tears flowed from his wide, pain-filled mercury eyes and flew onto the other men's skin as the teen rapidly shook his head back and forth.
The teen threw his head back against the pillow and screamed. It was a long agonized, heart wrenching scream that made one want to cover their ears and hide in a corner. It was double-pitched, as if there were two voices screaming at once.
"AAAHHHHHHHHH!"
"Komui!"
"I see it!"
Allen's Innocence arm was disintegrating. Starting from the black nails, the arm just seemed to slowly disintegrate and disappear. And there was nothing they could do about it. Within moments, there was nothing from below the elbow. They had to stand there and watch helplessly as the rest of their friend's arm disintegrated, now around the shoulder. However, instead of continuing to disintegrate the rest of his body, the Innocence stopped where the spike-like tattoos were and formed a black cap on his shoulder with a cross emblem on it. Komui had seen this cap on his should before when Allen pulled his arm to form his Sword of Exorcism.
Good. Well, at least he would not bleed out to death.
"Gah! C-Crown Clown!"
Allen twisted sharply on his side as he made a disturbingly painful hacking cough. What flew out of his mouth was a large mouthful of red blood. It seems Komui spoke too soon.
"Oh damn! Does he have internal bleeding or something?" Reever asked as he jumped out the way just in time for Allen to spew out even more blood.
"His Innocence! When the Noah, Tyki Mikk, had destroyed Allen's Innocence the first time, he also lodged a Teaze in his chest. The Teaze ate a hole in his heart, but he survived because his of his Innocence! His Innocence covered the whole in his heart. But now that it's gone…" Johnny trailed off with tearfully.
"No time for that!" Komui did not want to think of the worst case scenario. He had no idea of what that hell was happening to his kids, but he was damned well sure he was going to make sure they lived.
Komui mental train of thought came to a screeching halt for a second. Did he just say his kids? He shook his head. He would think about that when all of them were not in danger of dying (again).
"Head Nurse!"
Komui tiredly stood in the hallway, heavily leaning against the cold stone wall outside his office. His mostly white outfit was stained mostly red (turning to a dark brown as it dried), now, with blood. Their blood, he thought with a shudder as he adjusted his glasses. It had taken over two hours to get all four of the teens stabilized. They had to have their new wounds patched up (except Lavi because he did not receive any) and their old ones taken care of again. It seemed Allen got lucky and that patch over his heart stayed, keeping him receiving more internal bleeding; it was weakened, but intact. What surprised Komui even more was the fact that none of their I.V.'s, heart monitor lines, and Allen's blood bag had ripped out with all the jarring movement and writhing. Small blessings
All of their Innocence—gone.
Dark Boots—gone; only cracked, red pieces of anklets remained.
Ozuchi Kozuchi—gone; reduced to chunks of metal and a delicate handle.
Mugen—gone; turned into brittle shards of scrap metal and a fragile hilt.
Crown Clown—gone; disintegrated before their very eyes right from its accommodator's suffering body.
Each of the powerful Innocence had been forcibly deactivated, and now seemingly destroyed. They were not completely destroyed, though. If they were, then they would have been turned to dust. If Crown Clown was destroyed, for example, then Allen would have been left with a bloody stump of a shoulder and a heart with a hole in it.
He remembered that he had called the teens 'his kids'. Now that he thought about it…yes, they were his kids. Just not in the sense a parent would think of their kids. Allen, Lavi, and Kanda had become his little brothers just like Lenalee was his little sister. They were his family (albeit a very dysfunctional one).
Thinking about them made his chest hurt, his heart ache. He remembered their looks of pain, of agony, back in the infirmary. He remembered their screams—Komui did not think he would ever forget those. What did they do to deserve this? The answer was simple.
Nothing.
They did nothing to deserve this fate.
"God, why have you condemned these children to this wretched fate?" he asked mournfully.
He remembered all the times in his years in the Black Order that he saw those children suffer. He remembered Lenalee, bound to her bed, eyes glazed with pain as she begged that she 'just wanted to go home'. He remembered looking at Kanda when he was younger, being so painfully socially awkward. Komui remembered the look of loneliness he saw in Kanda that was hidden underneath layers of bitterness. He remembered Lavi, fingering his eye patch when he thought no one was looking. Komui knew that injury was very traumatic for Lavi. Lastly, Komui remembered nights when he walked the halls and heard Allen, sobbing dismally in his room for his deceased father, Mana. He had done nothing to comfort him because he did not want to embarrass Allen by letting him know he was there.
The dark-haired man slid down the stone wall and onto his rear. He held his face in his pale hands and sobbed miserably.
He cried for the lost innocence (3) of his family.
And he cried for not being able to help them.
"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry…"
Published: 6/30/12; Edited: 8/19/15
Check out my D . Gray-Man blog! It's ms - musicl0vertheexorcist . tumblr . com
(1) I don't know what the nurse lady is actually addressed by, so I'm just going to call her Head Nurse.
(2) Edit: I didn't give them heart monitors or I.V,'s (or a blood bag) before, but I reconsidered and gave them to the teens. If Komui (and the science division) can come up with robots and giant screens to monitor people, than I feel like the Order easily had advanced medical technology,definitely more advanced than the rest of the world had during this time (19th century, about 1860+).
(3) Notice how it's 'innocence' and not 'Innocence'. There is a difference. Komui is sad that the teens basically had no childhoods. They were never really innocent in the same sense a normal child is. Lavi was a bookman from an early age, witnessing war after war. Lenalee was brought to the Black Order when she was very young. Kanda was born as a Second Exorcist. Allen was thrown into the streets due to his arm, turned his father into an Akuma, was cursed, and is a half-Noah. So, yeah…there's a lot to be sad over.
A/N: Hey, I hope you all liked that. Sorry for taking so long to update. I hit a major writer's block, and I also didn't have a lot of inspiration at the time. No one writes a lot of Komui fics (not the ones I need to read, anyway).
A/N 2: What happened to our favorite exorcists? Will they be okay? Well, you guys will find out in the next chapter—or the one after, I'm not sure. I don't know if you guys could tell, but I don't really outline my chapters. I'm a more go-with-the-flow writer.
