/ A/N: More update of February 5th: Continuing with the divider lines... Dx /
3. Otô-san
I haaaaaate him!
Indeed, that was what he had said, screamed, really. It was just him panicking, though – he had had no time to think anything through. For the people present to have been Lavi and Lenalee of all people was both a good and a bad thing. Sure, Lavi was a good guy, a trustworthy friend and yes, Lenalee was so very much the same as she used to with her brilliance and love…but there was that problem Allen had trouble eliminating – the two of them were both observers and very good at it, could he trust them not to make him suffer? They both had the skill to pierce through roles and dig up the truth from any creature. (…Okay, Cross might be an exception? But wasn't he always?)
To be honest, Allen wasn't sure of his feelings at all. Yeah sure, he had loved him, once, but he had also hated him, Kanda being that him, of course. Right now, all he had ever been able to gather from the thumping thing in his chest and all the other agonies of a living body, was that he was a little afraid of the Japanese. Someone you fear rarely turns into someone you love, isn't that so?
Just tell me I'm not really ending up the same I already once did! Allen almost cursed in his thoughts. But oh boy, how good the fact was, that Lenalee Lee had a spare room and Cross's number and he could stay over. His body was still living the after effects of the…accident yesterday.
Problem? Lenalee Lee was a sharp girl and Allen was not quite as brilliant. AND she had a mad brother, who had better not learn that he was there for a stay over.
"Lavi's gone, you can talk freely now, Allen", she started the feared interrogation immediately after Allen had taken a shower. He felt like he should be shivering from fear: not only because Lenalee's power-of-interrogation worked on him but also because he wasn't quite sure of the answer himself.
"I don't think I can, really", he answered finally, cutting the silence. He let his orb-like eyes reach the green ones of the girl beside him. She was a beautiful young woman, had always been, yet it was her nature that really made her shine. Allen had always liked her strong and sensual way of life.
"Why not? Allen, even if it's something embarrassing or horrible, don't you think you should at least try to tell? I know you trust me as much I trust you."
"Please, Lenalee. I promise I'll tell you what I know when I know it, but as of now, I'm probably more out of it than you are."
Lenalee pouted, her eyes had the look of an unsatisfied cat. Try to say no twice to a dissatisfied cat.
"Okay, I'll tell you the little I know, but you must promise not to take any precautions of your own or start imagining something weird. I have to somehow make this clear to myself first…"
"Yes yes, take your time. Kanda never was the easiest to figure out…"
Allen sighs at the mention of the dreadful name and falls into silence for a while, then starts to tell the Chinese about the happenings yesterday. As he remembers pieces from here and there, it's her job to put the pieces in their time and place, because such trivialities don't interest the confused albino right now.
After skillfully having been taken away from the scene of accident, Allen was woken up with a punch to the chest and somehow the two of them ended up fighting about the ways to wake up those who are unconscious. Even at the moment, Allen still somehow felt like a clown. Like he was doing this for the laughs. Well, it wasn't the thing, it just so happened the man he disliked in a lot of ways had made him wake up in an uncomfortable way. And his hand was still hurting.
Then Kanda probably had enough of barking at the boy as well, as he grabbed Allen by the labels and rumbled:
"The hell, Moyashi? I saved you pitiful ass back there so have some respect and stop complaining like a little girl", his voice was low and harsh, like a katana slashing the air in two. Allen blinked away the memories of the previous life as fast as he could. This Kanda wasn't the same one. This Kanda, though seemingly more skilled with people than the last Yu Kanda, was even worse. This Kanda had ten sticks up his ass, this Kanda turned his head and his back on Allen when not interested – which was most of the time of course.
They were at a river bend. Allen wasn't sure which one of the two rivers that had given the city life centuries ago, but the water was clearer than where they reached the sea, seven kilometers from his home. So this place was somewhere upriver from the city…
Somehow, he eventually let the samurai wash his wounds, which were luckily only large in numbers. The left hand was the only exception: it had a black stab-wound. It didn't hurt now that his hand was… …what…? What had that white thing been? It couldn't possibly have been Innocence. But it sure had looked like the first form it had ever taken. This Allen didn't mention to Lenalee, though.
Afterwards, he remembered having a fight-colored trip around a forest in order to find a "shack" Kanda knew. When he was finally pushed on the lonely bed in that fisherman's shack, he only fell asleep right away, not sparing a thought on anything at all.
"…All in all, I think it was a random day at best. I'm not sure much of what I remember has even really happened, because…well…I've been sleeping and I still feel sleepy and hungry..." he finished, shrugging. Lenalee giggled behind her hand. Allen smiled a bit.
"I understand now what Lavi meant when he said you are a trouble magnet. I mean sure, that accident wasn't your fault, but to be saved by the one and only famous asshole of the school…"
It took a while for Allen to get what she was saying. Lenalee had never been the type to call people names. Except maybe Lavi, who had many times found out his name was dope or something alike. But it didn't surprise him much. Lenalee had some first-hand experience on the Japanese, because the teachers had thought they came from the same country and made them do many things together.
"Yeah, seems like it. But I still owe that asshole now", Allen had to destroy the chance of having some fun on the samurai's behalf. His sense of justice was strong no matter the bad influence of Master Cross.
"…To be honest, Allen, he's not that bad. Just a little hard by nature. But he's actually kind…"
"What are you talking about? Kanda isn't nice. He never was and he probably never will be."
"Oh, you know him better?" the girl snapped and the boy quivered at his own stupidity. What kind of secret keeping was this? He didn't want to be labeled mad because of what really was his past. He couldn't trust his lonely secret to anyone, especially not Lenalee Lee, who suffered so greatly in the war.
"Doesn't everyone? You know, he's always snappy and bitchy: in TV and at school and everywhere. He's famous of that. Not anyone could hide kindness under that kind of mask for the whole of his life!"
How dare I insult him? I'm the worst.
"Lenalee…you know, I'm tired of this subject. Do you have something special you'd like to talk to me about or would you let me sleep?"
She looked into the silvery eyes for many seconds before nodding with a small pout:
"Very well then, I don't want to argue with you. If you need something just go get it, you know where everything is… Good night, Allen", she smiled before clicking the lights off from beside the door. Allen smiled back in the darkness:
"Yes. Good night, Lenalee."
The following morning Allen and Lenalee both avoided last night's subject of what happened to Allen and anything about Kanda. They watched the news report on the Thunder Breakdown, as the media had dubbed the event: the police avoided giving any details that mattered to the reporters and the few comments from eyewitnesses were relayed over and over. Lavi was one of those poor people whose faces had been chosen to endless replay. Not that his comment had any depth to it at all."I can't say what happened, I didn't see", the Lavi in TV told the reporter and the TV made him tell to everyone who happened to be watching. Which was probably a vast amount of people. Of course, the small comment was overanalyzed to mean that either the young man was so shocked he had forgotten or had something to hide.
"I think Lavi did see something," Lenalee sighed beside Allen, drinking her morning coffee, "and so did I. It was no power failure or anything like that. It was a huge man…not that I know how he did what he did but it seemed like he made thunder hit the power lines…"
"…But of course you couldn't tell that to the reporters. I understand. It'd me huge mess if the media got to know…I hope none of the survivors starts telling the truth. I didn't see anything but it was very confusing…"
"…Oh. It's time to get going. We have PE together, no?"
"Really? …Oh! It's already Thursday? You're right then. Shall we…"
After Allen had gotten all the information he could from the Thunder Breakdown during the last few days. He of course would've loved to at least take Sunday free of research, but his damned "caretaker" didn't agree to it. Not that Allen really complained this time – the redhead was actually working. Working head and toes. Cross Marian was known to be…well, quite lazy… but Allen knew it wasn't the whole truth about him.
Cross Marian, history teacher at the moment, was also a researcher. His name was big in the circles, after all, he had invented all kinds of interesting but non-profiting things and also found some sort of weird ruin in Italy. If that's not enough to make someone wonder, he also had stepped out of the smoking remains of the DI (Desert Institution) after its brutal explosive destruction, as the sole survivor. A fact was also, that he had taken the genius twin's little ward, a petite boy, into his protection. That petite boy was of course Allen Walker, the boy with weird, unsymmetrical features.
Allen knew all the aforementioned and also something else. He did remember something about the genius twins, about what they done and taught him. He remembered the other of the men better, because he had been nicer to the boy and the one who had picked him from the streets of London and brought him back to life. Allen had gotten his first name from his brother, who had one day started unconsciously to call him Allen, and his surname was that of the twins' alias. Walker.
Mana Walker.
If someone was to be his father, Allen preferred to think it was Mana.
He knew it had to be destiny. Just like any 21st Century youth, Allen Walker didn't like the thought of destiny leading him onwards, but he had to bow his head now. Because he remembered. Remembered the Innocence, weapon of God, wielding it had never once been anything but fate for the Exorcists. Also, he remembered many faces and stories alongside his own…what he had known back then was truly coming back to him. He remembered Mana. Mana and his "Keep walking". He had never said that in this life, though, at least not when Allen was around.
And the light-haired youth had his Innocence. Again. Or maybe still. After sleeping long and tight in the fisherman's shack Kanda had brought him into, he had found himself slowly seeing a bigger picture of this. The Walker geniuses had thought him how to banish evil spirits…exorcism of the modern day. He had had been able to do it quite well with his deformed hand, not needing the equipment many other exorcists had needed…until now, he had thought it was just maybe a small gift from God, like a keepsake for the last life. Oh, but it was so much more…an actual Innocence.
Cross played a major role in this mess somehow, Allen sensed it from the way the man threw himself into it. The once-General had been working with the Walker twins for some time, Allen knew it…just not how long or what they had been doing together. On Thursday afternoon, he had picked Allen straight from school and they had soon started the investigation. Cross was suddenly talkative, telling Allen about similar happenings around the globe, rarely in as populated areas as this but of many aspects the very same… He was leading Allen into a deep and complicated web the boy found himself calmly facing.
Having been an Exorcist, the promised one at that, and now having regained much of those memories…Allen felt like he was being reborn. The world had slowed it's rotation at the DI's destruction, then taken a slow but steady pace onwards. Now the pace was slowly but surely speeding up around him.
Or maybe it has done that for a longer time, the scarred youth mused to himself, Since these things like the Thunder Breakdown have been going on for longer than I have lived. And it seemed to not only activate my Innocence, but also it sort of brought Kanda to me. I called for help, like I did at that moment and he came… I wonder if he's had similar experiences… Still, I can't tell Cross about it, he took the old and wrinkled newspaper from the said man, It doesn't seem much like he remembers the past. It would be a mess if he found out I have an arm that changes shape.
Consciously, Allen straightened the fabric of his white glove, though he knew Cross didn't mind the red arm at all.
I just have to work this out on my own. There's no guarantee anyone knows about the past but me. I have to protect them from this.
I have to protect them from the return of the Noah.
Thus, as the days of research and information load turned into weeks of it, science team –like coffee intake started to affect everything the two of them did. Cross could hold his liquor well, but coffee something else. The teacher went downhill as did his ward, which, eventually, made the school worried. So they got into a serious talk with the secretary and the vice principal, somehow survived that, slept for a few hours in bundles huddled in and around their research, and then continued like they hadn't been warned at all.
"Allen, I want you to help me figure the meaning behind these things. We have to use the data we have to find out more and draw a bigger, better picture… This involves so many lives yet the governments all around the globe don't even sniff at it. They blame terrorists in US and China and Russia see it as an act against them. Africa tries to recover from all the similar things that have happened there without help and Europe pretends it's all in their heads. And our Atlantic Union is in between the lot of them…"
"But Master, we are just two human beings. All of this is…just grand scale! We won't be able to do much, just the two of us…"
"Don't be childish now. Remember all the great names of the history. They have all started from a scratch with maybe even less man power than we have right now. Besides, we have no time. This happened way sooner than I expected, which means everything else is going to happen without me knowing beforehand. Allen, I need you to help, right now and here. Will you do it?"
"…Yes. I will do it."
Master had been serious that Saturday. When Cross Marian was serious, in meant he knew what he was talking about a 100 %. And he was asking for Allen's help. Asking. The albino could still feel his senses tickle.
Then one day, they got a call from Komui Lee.
After putting down the phone, Cross had suddenly turned…what, was this sadness? Then he had stacked together the most important parts of their research, knocked Allen unconscious with the way too familiar kind of hammer, and taken him with him to this place Allen was now in.
Everything was indeed speeding up.
