Me: Annnnd, we're back!~
Richie: Really, who are you supposed to be talking to, Hanashi?
Kanda: Che. Don't ask.
Allen: Well, I'm personally happy.
Lavi: Oh, right! You make an appearance, short stack!
Allen: IT'S ALLEN!
Lenalee: Boys will be boys...
Me: And Richie will always be Richie. -shrugs-
Richie: What was that?
Me: Nothing!~ Oh, by the way, this chapter is rated 'T'.
Kanda: Something about cursing, and nearly slicing the 'sprout in half...
Lavi: Oh! By the way, Han-chan it's Katsura Hoshino, and has no rights owning D. Gray-man, or anyone from the series.
Richie: She can only take credit for me, and apparently my Golem, Escuro. So, just read already.
Second Chapter: The Black Order's New Recruit
It had been almost two years since then. I had just gotten back from a mission, and was currently heading towards my room when I suddenly heard the Gatekeeper screaming. Not usually curious, I rushed to the Science Division, where I saw Komui and the others. Lenalee was standing over the hologram watching someone via Golem.
"Hey, don't we have any Exorcists available?" I heard Reever ask.
"What am I, chop liver?" I muttered, still staring at the image before Lenalee and I.
"Don't worry, Kanda's already on it!" Lenalee informed everyone. Sure enough, the said ravenette made his appearance on the top of the wall.
"Damn asshole." I sighed. Brushing my bangs out of my face, briefly revealing my right eye. The one I always kept covered with said bangs. "Always making a spectacle of things."
"You must be either really brave, or have a death wish coming here." I heard Kanda's voice say. From there the white-haired boy, who I realized was the cause of the commotion, was trying to explain himself. Kanda being the thick-headed moron that he is, wouldn't listen. He attacked the boy, and I watched as the kid's arm changed into this huge white claw thing. Mugen had officially destroyed his arm. I mentally shuttered, knowing what fate would await for him in the really close future.
"Y'know, I don't think he's an Akuma." I pointed out.
"What the hell is with that arm?" We heard Kanda ask. Now he realizes this?
"This is an anti-Akuma weapon." The boy explained, "I'm an Exorcist."
"GATEKEEPER!" This was one of those moments where Mr. stoic-and-in-control would snap to do his temper.
"B-but well, if I'm unable to determine his insides, then how do we know for sure! What if he really is an Akuma?" I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling a migraine coming on.
"I'm surrounded by morons." I said under my breath.
"Richie?"
"Nothing, Lena." I watched as the white-haired boy started explaining himself, knocking his fists on the Gatekeeper's chin, who was freaking out.
"Che. Whatever." Kanda said, readying Mugen once more. "So if I were to check your insides, then we'll know for sure. I will slice you open with Mugen."
"You idiot." I sighed. "He's not the enemy."
"Wait! Really, wait! I'm not your enemy!" The boy said, repeating my words unknowingly. "you should've gotten a letter of recommendation from Master Cross!" Kanda's sword stopped not even inches from the boy's face.
"A letter of recommendation...from the General?" He asked suspiciously.
"Y-y-yes, a l-l-letter!" I looked at the boy more, curious for the first time in my whole life. "It was addressed to a person named Komui!" At the mention of our supervisor's name, everyone, and I mean everyone, stared at him.
"You there!" He pointed to a random scientist. "Go find that letter! It's on my desk!"
"Hey, Supervisor..." "*Irmão..." "Brother..." Three separate voices said at once. The first was Reever, second was me, and finally was Lenalee's.
"I'll go help~!" I sighed, as did everyone else in the room. Sometimes I thought that man was worse than...okay he was worse that that asshole.
"I found it!" The poor scientist exclaimed, holding up a beat up letter. "The letter from General Cross!"
"Read it!"
"Uh, right, 'To Komui: soon, I will be sending a kid named Allen over there. Thanks, from Cross.'"
"Wow. He is alive then." I said impressed. "I guess that means Lavi owes me now." My aura around me turning dark. This didn't go unnoticed by the people around me.
"Ahem, so it's true. Squad leader Reever, please stop Kanda."
"Would you at least clean your desk in a while?" Reever exclaimed, veins throbbing in his temple. How do we put up with him? "Gaah! Kanda! Stop your attack!"
"Oh, Lenalee, Richie, if you would be so kind, to help me set up?"
"You want us to welcome our newest member? I guessed. "We'll have to stop Kanda from killing the poor boy though." Lenalee nodded in agreement.
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"Hey! Put that away before you poke someone's eye out!" I practically shouted in the samurai's ear. He kept his composure, but I knew him well enough that he had flinched.
"What's going on, Linhagem?" He asked me.
"Lay down your arms now, Kanda." I threatened him. "If you want to fight, then I'm the one you're fighting with, damn she-man."
"What was that?"
"Since when the hell were deaf?" I rhetorically asked.
"Che. Komui, what the hell is going on here?" He still didn't withdraw Mugen.
"I'm sorry!~ Simply put this child is General Cross's pupil. Now, Reever, say sorry. Go on, go on!" Komui's voice sounded.
"YOU MAKE IT SOUND LIKE IT WAS MY FAULT!" I heard Reever say over the Golem.
"Besides, Timcanpy is with him, and that's proof." Komui further explained, "He's on our side." Apparently, Kanda didn't seem convinced. About to let out another retort, I felt the full impact of that damn clipboard Lenalee sometimes had.
"Okay, enough both of you!" Lenalee exclaimed, also hitting Kanda with the same clipboard. "Gosh, Kanda, you were told to stop! If none of you get in now, I'm closing the gate." She warned us. "Now, enter!"
"What ever you say, sis." I shrugged, walking back into headquarters. Kanda, Lenalee and new kid behind me.
"By the way, I'm Lenalee, the supervisor's assistant. I'll just take you to him now."
"Oh, uh, nice to meet you." The boy said. "Uh, Kanda?" Said teen glared in the younger's direction. "That...was your name, right...? Um, nice to meet you." He held out his hand, ready to shake, but...
"Who the hell would want to shake hands with a cursed person?" Harsh. That was really harsh, even for Kanda's standards.
"I'm sorry," Lenalee said, trying to cheer the kid up, "he just came back from a mission, so he's a little on edge." Actually, Kanda came back from said mission yesterday. He was gone for two weeks. I should know. I was there. The three of us started walking away, all the while I heard some of the guards talking about the kid.
"I thought he was an old man...what's with his hair?" One guard asked.
"I heard he's cursed..."
"Come to think of it, isn't that Linhagem with them?"
"I forgot he also had unnatural hair too..." I slightly twitched after hearing that one. I'd been here for nearly two years!
"Well either way, there's no age requirement for Innocence."
"Oh, I don't think I introduced myself," The boy said, quickly stopping in his tracks, to face me. "I'm Allen Walker." The white-haired boy said. "Uh, Kanda called you Linhagem, right?"
"That's my last name." I admitted. "If you don't mind, call me by my first name, which is Richie."
"Richie, got it. Nice to meet you." He said holding his hand out to me. I took a good look at him. Definitely fifteen. He wasn't much taller than me and Lenalee, but I was sure he'd grow. "I...don't mean to sound rude or anything, but are you...?" He let the question trail off, but I knew what he was asking. I allowed a small smile to grace my features, before welcoming Allen to the Order.
"Welcome to the Black Order." I said, shaking his offered hand. "I think you may want to get your arm fixed." I added, recalling the damage from Kanda's attack. "I'll leave you to Lenalee, I'm beat, so I'll go to my room and sleep a bit. I'll let you figure out what I am on your own. That said, see you later, Lenalee, Shortcake!" With that I left them, all the while hearing Lenalee laugh. I was fairly sure I heard Allen shouting back at me.
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It was a little while later before I made it to my room. I stood in front of the door for a bit, before finally deciding on heading in. There wasn't much in here. On your right coming in is a twin bed that was up against the wall. There was an enlarged window on the wall next to the 'bed's' wall, allowing dim sunlight to enter the rather gloomy space. I was on the west side of the tower, thus I'd get the sun's final rays. There was a dresser and mirror on the wall opposite of the bed, and that was where I headed. I stared at my reflection, still having trouble acknowledging that the girl there was me.
If someone who remembered me from back then, met me now, they wouldn't know it was me. Up until the incident that happened nearly two years ago, I was a normal every day girl.
Once upon a time the girl who showed herself in the mirror now, used to have long flowing auburn hair to which reached the middle of her back. She had eyes so black, they could be the darkness itself, and skin that used to be flawless. That's how I used to look when I first came to the Order.
Alas now my appearance is different. My hair, though not entirely white like Allen's, was a little darker than his. Perhaps two shades darker. My right eye was different now too. While the my left eye remained normal, my right eye had a green iris, but instead of the sclera being white, like a normal eye, it was pitch black. I could still see fine out of it, honestly, it worked just like my left eye...it's just I keep it hidden behind my bangs. Lavi suggested an eye patch once, but one pirate Exorcist is more than enough in this Branch.
Then there's the matter for my left arm...I didn't want to get started on such. The skin was as black as my eye, though it had hardened and become rather rough and almost scaly looking...all the way to the middle of my forearm, and there were shards embedded on the back of my hand, resembling a cross. The cause? The fragment of Innocence I was compatible with had split in half, one shard replacing my entire right eye, while the other half became my left arm.
I used to have long hair, but a few months after I recovered I got into a fight with Kanda, and long hair being the bitch that it is for me in that situation, was sliced away. I still owe Lenalee for fixing my hair. It didn't even go past my shoulders anymore. But the new looks suited me much better than it did when it was long. Although I did get to exact my revenge on Kanda the following week. That is a story for another time.
"Not even a full two years, and I still don't know anything about my past." I said to myself. For some reason, I felt as though something was missing...the answer hit me, literally. "Ouch! What the...hey, *Escuro! Where have you been hiding?"
Escuro is a special Golem. When he was still mindless, like the other Golems here, he'd somehow managed to get something spilled on him. It was one of Komui's potions. Now my Golem is a living, breathing being. My Golem in particular had a pentagram on his back, a little something I engraved so that I knew he was mine. He had an eye on the upper half of the rounded head, and below it, though you couldn't see it, was his mouth. He didn't have one before the potion, but now he does. Scary, right? He's as alive as I am now.
A knock on my door pulled me out of my thoughts. "Richie? Brother wants to speak to you!" Lenalee's voice said through the door.
"Alright, let me get my coat then." I told her. I heard her foot steps walk away, just as I opened the wardrobe that stood beside the dresser. It wasn't anything fancy, like the rest of this dark and depressing room, but hey, at least I had something to put my clothes in. I pulled out the overcoat that I needed. It was black with white linings surrounding the Rose Cross, around the bottom base of both sleeves, and the trimming of the bottom of my coat. It was standardized for most males, but I had Johnny make a somewhat more feminine version of what guys wore.
Though it didn't stop people from mistaking me for a boy.
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"Sleeping? Again?" I asked seeing the supervisor sleeping on his paperwork again. I rolled my eyes, and gave Lenalee an apologetic look. She understood, and I leaned in to whisper something to Komui; "Hey, Lenalee's eloping with her boyfriend."
"LEEEEENAAAAAALEEEEEEE!" Komui exclaimed, now clinging to his beloved sister. Damn sister complex.
"Komui, Lenalee doesn't have a boyfriend. She's not eloping." I deadpanned. That seemed to calm him down.
"She's not?"
"No, I'm not, brother." Lenalee sighed, patting her brother's back. "Can you let go now? You need to brief Richie on her mission."
"Right, of course." Komui said. "I want you to head to Poland, and take care of a minor Akuma problem."
"And?" I asked, wanting him to go on. "What else is there?"
"I'm hoping that when you're done, you can go on a co-op mission."
"Co-op?" Komui nodded, "This is serious stuff, Komui. You sure you want me to do this?"
"As sure as the sun rises in the east, Richelle. Don't intervene, unless it's necessary. Other than that, stay hidden, and keep tabs on him." Only when he would use my real name would he mean he's serious. "He and Kanda will be sent on this mission some time next week, and yours should be done by then. Understand?"
"Understood, supervisor." That being said and done, I decided to take my leave.
"The train leaves in an hour, by the way! I managed a first class reserved cabin for you." I didn't look back, but waved my hand at him, telling him I heard him.
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"That's the last of them." I said, just as my arm deactivated. "Hey, Sam, did Komui tell you where—hmm?" I looked around but couldn't find the Finder anywhere. Where'd he run off to? I found my answer when I found the really light tan, though almost white uniform, minus one Finder named Sam.
I sighed, and knelt near the remains, putting my hand on the cloth. With my other, I tapped my eye, and activated it. Showing me his final moments. A lone tear escape that eye, but I knew it was the emotion the poor man felt as the Akuma shot him. Scared, defenseless, a feeling of uselessness not being able to help me more. "You did your job well, Sam. You helped me best you could, and I thank you for that. May you rest in peace." My right eye can see events that had yet happen, as well as events that passed. I didn't have to touch anyone, or even think, in most cases it just happens whether I want it to or not. I also managed to receive where I was to head to next.
I checked my surroundings for any more Akuma, and seeing none, I headed to my next mission. Mater. I wondered myself how things would pan out, with Allen being around.
* Irmão = brother. Richie considers Komui her brother figure.
* Escuro = dark. It's the name of her Golem.
A/N: I forgot to mention something in the first chapter...Richelle's name is pronounced something like: 'Ree-shell', thus the name she goes by, 'Richie' would be pronounced 'Ree-chee'. I want to apologize for not explaining that, btw...^^;
So, was this worth the wait? I'm actually liking the 'update every two weeks' deal...I already have twice the amount of chapters than what I normally would get!~ So I'm sticking with this one for this story, and Bands of War (as you're aware).
Also, as you're aware, this seems to be a fanfic that follows the story line. But not fully...you'll get what I'm saying when you get to chapter six. They'll be a few chapters like that one so...just wait and see, okay?
ANYWAY! Please R&R (No, this one doesn't mean 'rest & relaxation) click that review button! hurry! hurry! It HAS COOKIES!