Warmth suddenly flooded my chest, wiping out the fear that had taken hold of me at the sight of what my teacher had become. Nonetheless I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for death to take me into his welcomed embrace. After what felt like an eternity of stillness I decided to open my eyes, wondering if this was some kind of weird dream, with my eyes opening to the bare ceiling of our 'room'. Or I could just already be dead...I really hope it's the former. What met my gaze was neither, and my mouth fell open at what I saw. Mr. Hunter had been trapped in a cube of brilliant light, and I could see what must be bullets ricocheting harmless about the multicolored walls.
"Got it." Said a voice from behind me.
Looking behind us, I saw a mean wearing a beige overcoat. His light red hair was sticking up in a manner similar to Harry's, and while his face seemed kind, his brown eyes were focused on our teacher and dead serious. He held his hands out before him, and I noticed a weird device that seemed to be emanating the same light that was trapping Mr. Hunter.
Coming up behind him was another man, brown hair covering his eyes, the black jacket he wore stood out in the afternoon light, a silver cross on the left side of his chest that shone brightly in the light given off from whatever the other was holding.
The man in the black coat then came up in front of us and pulled an object out of his pocket. Looking closely I saw that it was a little gun, similar to the one that Dudley had often pretended to shoot us with when we were younger.
Looking away from a bright flash of green light that seemed to be coming from the gun, I turned to Harry not knowing what to do at this point. That was when I noticed the little gun grow huge and deadly. I was frozen for a moment, until I noticed what the man was aiming at when I burst into motion. "No! You can't! That's my teacher!" I was almost to the black coated man when I felt myself being lifted up.
The other man had dropped his machine to grab me and I heard the other yell out a curse as he jumped back –taking Harry with him– narrowly avoiding a blast that sent Weird Device Guy and myself flying backwards (how in the world did it miss us?).
Acting quickly Man Wearing Black Coat took aim, fired, hit and destroyed Mr. Hunter.
I went limp at that, even as Weird Device Guy set me down and Harry rushed to my side, and Man Wearing Black Coat strode over angrily, I remained unmoving. "What the hell were you thinking? You could have killed us all!"
Tear began to stream down my face at that, and Harry looked at Man Wearing Black Coat angrily as he put an arm around my shoulders protectively. "What was she thinking? What were you thinking! You were the one who–"
".."
"What?" Harry said softly turning me to face him. Still crying I repeated myself a little louder, "He was my teacher."
Man Wearing Black Coat turned at that, walking a short distance away as his companion came closer and began talking.
'Mr. Hunter is dead. Mr. Hunter is dead.' It was a horrible mantra in my head and even as I fought to make it stop new questions began to pop up. Trapped in my thoughts I almost didn't hear Harry and Weird Device Guy talking, only snapping out of it when Harry gave my shoulders a gentle squeeze.
"-is Arcane, my twin. It's...nice to meet you Alex." The now dubbed Alex had a grin on his face as he was talking to Harry.
"So where do you two live?" Alex asked.
"Why do you ask?" Harry answered with narrowed eyes. Now fully free from the cage my mind had become I wiped my eyes elbowed him in the ribs. Hard.
"We need to talk to your parents." Alex replied with a smile.
"Our parents are dead." despite my clipped reply Alex's smile remained.
"Ok, your guardians then."
"We live about 5 minutes away from here with our Aunt, Uncle and Cousin." At the mention of my other family, I tensed. This was considered weird, abnormal, impossible, in other words not Dursleyish. Clenching my hand into a fist I knew we were in trouble. Whatever the two guys talked to them about –even if they didn't mention this (which was highly unlikely) – we were going to get a 'punishment' for bringing strangers into their home. Harry must have been thinking the same thing for he grabbed my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
We began walking to our uncles' house, Alex and the Man Wearing Black Coat (wonder if he has a name...) followed behind in silence looking around at their surroundings; checking my watch I noticed that it was only 4 o'clock! How the hell did that happen, I could have sworn it was maybe 6 at the least? Guess time doesn't move when you're put in a life-threatening situation. Go figure. Then I remembered something.
"You know, don't you? What happened to Mr. Hunter?" A lump was in my throat as I said his name, but I managed to keep my composure.
"That wasn't your teacher," Alexander said gently, " It was what we call an akuma. We'll tell you about it when we talk with your guardians. Promise." Nodding when I heard his last word, I turned forward again, my gaze falling to my shoes.
During our small conversation we had arrived on the little street named Privet Dive and to the little gate that leads to the door of our Uncles' house. Harry and I stopped; we didn't know what to do, luckily or unluckily (depends on your point of view) Dudley saw us thought the living room window and had informed our aunt because she came out screaming "Where the hell have you been? You were supposed to be here-." She stopped when she noticed the two men standing beside us. One with a wide grin the other looking quite bored.
Turning red Aunt Petunia ushered the visitors into the house. Following up the rear aunt Petunia gave a sweet smile which always looked nice to others, and told of a beating to us. We followed Alex and the other man into the kitchen where they sat at the dining table, gesturing to the other chairs everyone sat down, and silence ensued.
Uncle Vernon was the first too break it, "Who are you?"
"Oh I'm sorry, we haven't introduced ourselves even after you let us into your home, my name is Alexander, but call me Alex and this is Ben." Alex gestured to the man (now dubbed Ben) in the corner, bowing his head in both acknowledgment and hello, "We're from the Black Order."
"What's the Black Order?" Dudley asked.
"It's an organization created by the Pope 100 years ago," at this I could tell Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon where flabbergasted, the Pope's men themselves, here, in their house! "The Black Order was made to fight a man by the name of the Millennium Earl. The Millennium Earl is the creator of creatures called akuma. Those whose souls have been brought back to the dead make an akuma, which, essentially, are weapons programmed to kill.
"The person who brought the soul back from the dead is then killed by that same soul that they brought back, the akuma 'wearing' that person's skin as its own. They are formidable opponents since there are very few who are able to destroy them. In the past 100 years the Earl has made armies of these creatures." Alexander explained to the now flabbergasted family
"So the thing in the alley was an akuma?" Harry cut in.
"Exactly."
"What alley?" Aunt Petunia cut in.
"I'm very sorry to say Mrs. Dursley but these two here,""Alexander gestured to the end of the table, where Harry and I had pulled our chairs together (and away from everyone else) "met an akuma not an hour ago."
"So you're one of the few he said can destroy it? But you don't look any different than me." Harry said looking at the Man in the Blac– I mean Ben.
"The ones able to destroy the akuma, like Ben, are called exorcists. Exorcists are those who were chosen by God to wield a powerful substance known as innocence, or God's matter. It is the only known substance that is able to destroy an akuma. Innocence has many forms, and can be forged into a weapon that an exorcist can use, called anti-akuma weapons. Ben's is in the form of the gun," Ben then abstracted the toy gun (wasn't it huge a few minutes ago?) and displayed it before returning it back to its original place in his pocket. "Those who wield innocence in this way are called equipment type exorcists.
"Then there are exorcists like Suman Dark, his innocence is in his right arm and can mold itself into a weapon. He's a parasitic type, which means the innocence has taken rout inside his body. There are in total 109 pieces of innocence The Black Order was made both to find the accommodators of the innocence, and to gather the innocence itself. It is the Black Order's goal to amass an army to destroy the Earl. With the Earl himself trying to destroy the already found and trained exorcists and the innocence yet to be found. I'm not one myself, I'm a finder who aids exorcists on their missions and so I don't posses any innocence, finders locate and collect innocence, keeping it safe until an exorcist is able to take possession of it to bring back to the Black Order. " Alex explained for his comrade.
By the end of the explanation Dudley had already left the room, seeing as how it didn't concern him, to watch a show on TV, Ben had a bored expression as he surveyed the room, while Harry and I were trying to take all this information in. But Aunt Petunia had become as white as a sheet, and Uncle Vernon was displaying a new shade of red, yet to be discovered, on his face through his anger.
"THIS IS NONSENSE! The Pope would have nothing to do with this, this… abnormality. Why are you even telling us this?" uncle Vernon ranted.
"Because, your niece or nephew is an exorcist." Alexander explained.
The room was silent for all of one second. "WHAT!" Harry screeched, the two of us standing up so quickly the chairs fell to the floor with a clatter.
"T-there's no way I can be an exorcist, I –I don't even have a weapon!" I stammered, not really understanding the whole situation. Harry nodding vigorously beside me.
Talking for the first time since he entered this house Ben spoke with a kind voice that didn't match his appearance or his status and was certainly very different that what we hear in the alley– he must have calmed down on the way here, "When we found you two in the alley you were surrounded by what looked like large beads that blocked the attack of the akuma long enough for Alex to trap it. The beads then shrunk and seemingly disappeared."
"Then how do you know its one of us?" Harry asked completely blown away.
"We were the only two in the alley except them," I muttered, my face white, "Y – you said you saw beads right? Did," I swallowed before extracting a necklace from my pocket, "they look like this?" The beads in the necklace were two tones of purple, and if you looked closely (as I often did) you would see that the beads were not actually round, but small circles made up of two beads each forming the circular yin and yang symbol. I had found them on the ground after Dudley and his friends shoved us into the dirt on mine and Harry's birthday.
"Exactly like that," Ben said, smiling sadly.
"So, what now?" I asked faintly, a little scared.
"You'll come with us to the Black Order where you'll be trained as an exorcist." Ben supplied for me.
Silence ensued at that comment. I picked up the chairs and set them straight my legs felt weak and I thought I would fall unless I sat down, the silence remained, I broke it with "I'm not going."
"I'm sorry but you don't have a choice." Alex said, again with a sad smile. "You are destined to fight in this war."
"I don't want to, I may not like it very much, but I have a life here. I don't want to leave my brother. This war has been going on for 100 years, it's not like I would make a difference." Harry gripped my hand tightly and I willed myself not to cry again.
With hard eyes Ben said in a deathly calm and serious voice "If you don't fight, you won't have a life or a brother left. You're an accommodator, it's only a matter of time before the Earl finds out and kills the whole neighborhood to make sure there is one less soldier standing against him. Are you willing to put that on your conscious? That if you had come with us you could have prevented the deaths of all those innocent lives, what about the life of your brother? Do you want his death to be because of your selfishness?"
Standing up Ben said "We'll give you tonight to pack and say your goodbyes to your family, be ready to leave tomorrow at 5 o'clock." And with that Ben and Alex walked out of the kitchen and then the front door.
A couple of moment's later uncle Vernon said "Cupboard. Now. No dinner."
That night Harry and I talked about everything and anything, packing what little I had into a plastic bag we had swiped from the kitchen after our Aunt and Uncle went to sleep. We joked about how this could be some weird cruel joke. But alas the night passed and morning came found Alex and Ben outside our Aunt and Uncle's gate waiting patiently for me to say last minute goodbyes to my twin (the Dursleys could care less and were still asleep).
"Goodbye Harry."
"Do you really have to go? Can't you just... tell them no, and stay here?"
"Don't I wish, but what if he's right? I- I don't like this place, but I can't just let everyone die because I didn't want to leave."
"If you're going then...then I'm going too!"
"Oh Harry," I said pulling him into a hug, he gripped me tightly, and in those few seconds I realized how lonely it was going to be without him. I couldn't remember a time when we were apart for more than a few hours...but I also realized that he had to stay here, as miserable as here was. "You k –know t – tha – ," I sighed taking a moment to recollect myself, Harry may have a bit of a stuttering problem sometimes, but it was nothing compared to mine. Confident that he would understand me now, I let him go and began again. "Y-you know I would love that, b –but he called it a –a war Harry." Curse my stuttering! Oh well at least he understood me (I could tell by the way he clenched his teeth).
"I don't care! I don't care if there are 100 wars going on you're still my sister and I would still follow you!"
"P –people die in wars, Harry." I said looking him in the eye. I had thought about this last night, while I was supposed to be sleeping. 'Can Harry come with me?' 'Can't he be a finder too?' And while Harry slept next to me, I had watched him and come to a decision. Harry must stay. Alex had said it, finders could not use innocence, they were defenseless. I knew I would not always be there to protect my brother, and I did not want anything to happen to him.
"But I – "
"No Harry. Y –you have to stay." Harry looked into my eyes again to see that I wasn't going to give in, and tears began to roll down his face. I may be a pushover sometimes, but when I decide to do something, I do it. He then pressed something into my hand, a pocket watch. "Your birthday present," he said, wiping his eyes. That's right, we were turning 11 in a few days weren't we? Digging in my pocket, I found a small roll of film and put it gently in the hand that had been limp at his side. "Happy birthday, brother."
Giving him one more hug, even as I felt tears begin to rush down my cheeks as well, we parted ways. I went over to Alex and Ben who grinned and nodded when I was beside them, and started walking off down the street. We made it to the corner where I looked behind me and waved to my crying twin who managed a sad smile and a pathetic wave of his hand, I put on a brave front as I turned back around, hoping to reassure him. I then turned the corner and followed my new companions to my new home:
The Black Order.
Wolf: Wow its late, not only the update but the time (nearly 3:30am!)
Kanda: Che. Stop complaining, you're the one who kept goofing off.
Wolf: :O I had stuff to do! And you haven't even made your appearance yet! Get backstage before I dress you up in a tutu!
Kanda: You don't have the nerve!
Wolf: (Reaches for pencil)
Kanda: ...Che. (Goes behind curtain)
Wolf: Well now that I've settled that, thanks to all who reviewed last chapter (Meco45 and Yuky16 I apologize for not responding personally, but as you didn't really have any quesionts or comments, I didn't have anything to say really. But even though it was just a few words, I really appreciate that you took the time to review!)
And to -Pon your Yullen omake will be in the next chapter, as that is when they are both introduced into the story.
Review everyone! It helps to distract me from the horror of the end of summer vacation... (btw I don't own Harry Potter or D Grey-Man! So ha!)