Chapter 2: Innocence

It was a long and grueling seven months for the young Japanese girl. On top of needing all that time for my ankle to heal, I was expected to learn to speak, read, and above all else, comprehend this new language. Most of my time was always spent in that clinic. But I guess was thankful for seeing Lenalee on her visits. And it was thanks to her, that my English was improving.

"Hey there, Yume." Lenalee said to me one day, "I've got good news."

"Good news?" I asked, curious to what she has to say, though already getting the feeling I knew what it was.

"I spoke with the head nurse and she says you'll be up and at 'em in no time! She says probably by next week."

"Next week? I've spent months in this place, and all I've seen is this room! Please, I want to see the rest of this place! Please, please, please?"

"Next week, Yume." Lenalee promised. "I'll personally give you the tour of this place. As soon as you get the O-K from the head nurse."

"Fine." I pouted. God, I hated being stuck in this room. Every now and then I would bear witness to others coming and going. Some of wounded ranged from the minor injuries such as scrapes and bruises to things more dangerous like a loss of blood, or in one case, a missing limb. I shuttered at the memory.

/*/*|*\*\

"Alright Miss Hanazawa." The head nurse said, looking at my charts. "You're fever's gone, the ankle made a remarkable recovery, I'd say you're just about ready to see the rest of this facility.

"Thank you so much, ma'am." I said, bowing. Upon leaving the infirmary, I ended up bumping into someone. I bowed quickly, apologizing for bumping into who ever I'd bumped into, and ran in the other direction. There were too many turns in this place…and let's just put it at this: saying I was lost…would be the biggest understatement of the year!

"Crap…" I said, looking left and right, "I'm totally lost now, aren't I?" My stomach gurgled, and I put a hand over it. I knew I had smelled food a while ago, but this place was so freaking huge!

"Hey, aren't you that girl who bumped into me earlier?" Shocked, I looked up to see someone who didn't look much older than I was…perhaps a three year difference? Wait, then what was with his hair? Was that its natural color, or was it dyed? And what was with that scar on his face? It had an upside-down pentacle above his left eye, and it seemed to go down his cheek, stopping just above his chin. I saw his clothes were the similar to Kanda's and Lenalee's.

"You're the one…I bumped into?" I asked, staring at him further. On top of strange snow-white hair, and the scar, one other thing I noticed were his eyes. They were gray, and matched his hair nicely…the way they looked at me, somehow made me think of someone else who had the same kind of eyes…ones that have seen hardship, but try to hide the negative things. I guess I might've gotten lost in them for a little while, because the boy interrupted what thoughts I was going through.

"Hmm…I don't think I've seen you here before…" He says, "Oh! You're Yume Hanazawa, aren't you?"

"Well, yeah. That's the name I was given at birth." I said, staring at the boy in front of me. "But who are you?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm Allen Walker. Nice to meet you." He held out his hand, and we shook in greeting. "I heard you were in infirmary. I meant to stop by and introduce myself, but I was kind of busy with my missions. Sorry about that."

"No need to worry, Allen." I chuckled. "Um, if you don't mind me asking, but could you escort me to the cafeteria? I'm so hungry it feels like my stomach will start to devour itself!" I complained. Allen laughed, at my remark.

"I was on my way there. Come on, we can go together, okay?" Allen told me. I smiled a thank you, and followed him like the lost pup I was. Allen was by far one of the nicest people I'd ever met.

"Allen, for the seven months I've been in that infirmary, I've seen two different kinds of uniforms. Ones like yours, and then I saw some that were light tan…and I guess almost white, maybe."

"The people who have these light tan uniforms are called Finders." Allen answered. "They're job is to explore areas where unnatural phenomena where something called Innocence might have a role in."

"I've heard of Innocence before…but what is it, Allen?"

"It's…let's see, how do I put this? Innocence is this strange thing that's always evolving…and they're the main cause in abnormal activities…such as keeping a man alive for well over a thousand years…keeping a doll animated for five-hundred years…constantly changing the weather…or even causing the same date to repeat itself for weeks on end…and so forth." Wait, were these experiences he himself encountered? All that seemed pretty farfetched. "Innocence also seems to have a mind of its own. It chooses its Accommodator, which brings us to the ones dressed in black. We're called Exorcists."

"Exorcists? You mean like people who get rid of evil spirits, right?"

"No. We don't do that. The job of an Exorcist is to find other fragments of Innocence, and bring them back here, to the Black Order. They are looked after until an Accommodator comes along and then that Innocence is used to create a special weapon for fighting akuma."

"Akuma?" I inquired, "I'm guessing the akuma I'm thinking of, isn't the same as what you're referring to then."

"Right. Akuma are machines. Within them resides a soul that fuels it. That soul within it, has no control over any of its actions, and is forced to watch in agony as they're actions kill more and more people."

"How would you know that?" I inquired. "You going to say you can actually see those souls or something?"

"Actually, yes. I can." Allen said, a smirk on his face, but sadness in his eyes. I decided that I would drop that subject, seeing it seemed to make him upset. Allen Walker, what had happened to you?

/*/*|*\*\

"So much food!" I exclaimed, seeing Allen virtually inhaling what was in front of him. Where does he put it all? No one else in the room seemed surprised by Allen's eating habits. So I guess it was something to get used to.

"This?" Allen asked, confused, "This is just a snack."

"How much do you eat?" I asked him sarcastically. Allen only shrugged, before scoffing down his umpteenth bowl of ramen. "And yet you're not fat."

"I'm a parasitic type." Allen explained to me. "We use up a lot of energy, so we eat more than the average person would."

"Y-you don't say." I said. I stared down at my food, suddenly feeling not as hungry as I was before.

"There you are!" I heard the familiar voice of Lenalee call out. "Oh, I see you've met Allen."

"Yeah. Is there something you need, Lenalee?"

"Yes, I need to take you to Hevlaska, so that we can see if you really are an Accommodator for Innocence."

"Huh?"

"It's nothing to be afraid of, Yume." Allen reassured me. "I'll tag along for support, okay?"

"Thanks." I smiled.

/*/*|*\*\

"Oh, so this is Yume Hanazawa? Nice to meet you, I'm Komui Lee." I was introduced to a man who wore a white lab coat, and a beret on his head. I realized he, like Lenalee were Chinese. "I'm head of the science department here at the Order."

"Don't scare her, brother." Lenalee sighed. "This is my brother. He can be a handful, but he's a good person when you get to know him. He's only nearly destroyed a few things five times or so now." That didn't make me feel any better.

"So," Komui said, clearing his throat, "she might be an Accommodator?"

"Yes." Lenalee said without hesitation. "Yume, if you don't mind, but would you please remove your jacket?" My faced flushed scarlet and I held the jacket close. I shook my head no. "If you do, we'll get you anything you want. Okay?"

I gulped, and reluctantly, removed the jacket I was wearing. My chest was bandaged, but despite that, it still felt as though people were looking right through them. If it were possible, I probably had more red in my face than what a tomato could only dream of having…assuming that made sense.

"What happened to your arm?" Komui asked, staring at my bandaged limb. I didn't actually want to answer that. I just instinctively grasped my strange arm, shamefully looking down to the floor. It honestly wasn't injured. It was just strange. I had my arm bandaged so that I could hide what it was I was born with.

"It's…not normal." I whimpered. Allen seemed to have understood why I was feeling this way.

"Let me try something," Allen offered. Without so much as hesitating, he undid the buttons on his jacket, removing it, and then started to remove the shirt he wore under it. I stared at him, before my eyes rested on his left his fingers to about halfway passed his elbow was black. Above that there were matching stripes that seemed encircle his arm until it got to where the shoulder and arm connected. Around the base of his shoulder were markings which seemed to resemble odd-looking arrows. It was black, but it looked almost like how the tattoo-like thing was on my arm…just much different. "This was how I was born. Innocence imbedded in my left arm. Your Innocence, according to what I've heard, is also embedded within you. We would like to see for ourselves, okay?" I continued staring at Allen's arm…he was the same as me? I looked to Lenalee and Komui, who gave me an encouraging nod. I started to undo the bandages around my right arm. My arm wasn't really that abnormal, but I only bandaged it to cover the markings that were on it. On the back of my hand was this strange cross, although it was pretty similar to Allen's, mine was this strange crystal that I had actually been a part of my hand for as long as I was able to remember.

"She might be parasitic." Komui observed, "Though it seems to me, this Innocence has never once been activated." By then Allen had put his shirt and coat back on, hiding his arm from the world once more.

"We should take her to Hevlaska." Lenalee said, replacing the jacket over my shoulders. Komui led the way as we traveled to the lower levels of the Order.

"Who's Hevlaska?" I asked.

"An exorcist. She's worked for the order for a hundred years now." Komui shrugged, as if it were nothing interesting. We were now on this strange elevator that didn't really seem to be connected to anything though…this place kept amusing me by the minute. My awe turned into terror as I was suddenly lifted up from the platform.

"Do not fear me, young one." The being before me said, "I am not you're enemy." I started feeling a probing sensation going throughout my body. But I didn't squirm…or at least I tried not to. The large white being put her forehead(?) to mine, and started counting up. "1%…5%…10%…you're synchro-rate is at 15%."

"Only fifteen?" Komui seemed interested for some reason. His glasses seemed to glisten despite the darkness that surrounded us. I was placed down on the platform, looking from them to her.

"Yume, this is Hevlaska. Any Innocence that is collected, but has yet to find an Accommodator will rest within her, until someone can be called by them. So in a sense, she's also the storage for the waiting Innocence." Lenalee explained to me. "Hey, Hevlaska, what does her Innocence say towards her destiny?"

"While one will destroy the other will create." Hevlaska said. "Yume Hanazawa, your Innocence claims you to be a Creator…"


*Phew!* Well, there's chapter two for those who are itching to read! Soo...what are you waiting for? R&R, pweeze? Let me know what you think!