Lavi stepped out into the bright sunshine and right into a fist. He was thrown back through the saloon doors, flat on his back with his nose bleeding like a faucet. He blinked blearily, hearing the sounds of a scuffle. He quickly got up, wiping his nose on his sleeve and hanging off the doorjamb as he watched Esperanza get beat up, three to one. He easily ended the fight by smashing his hammer into a few of them, breaking a couple windows in the process and sending the rest of them scurrying back. Esperanza sat up in the dust, wiping her mouth belligerently. Her eyes drilled holes into the rest of the men that had come to attack them. Another man lay cowering the dust not far away, and Lavi recognized his garb as that of a doctor. He had a torn eyebrow, several forming bruises and part of his cheek under his eye was swollen.
Lavi helped him stand, and he asked well spoken Spanish, "Estas bien?" He saw blood on the man's dark coat, and the man stuttered in heavily English-pronounced Spanish, "N-n-no, no estoy herido. Estoy bien, senor, muchos gracias. Pero... mis botellas de sangre..." Lavi looked down, and he realized that the man had been carrying various bottles of blood with him, letters and notes attached to them. They were broken, and the blood had leaked everywhere on the ground. Suddenly, someone grabbed Lavi by his hair and jerked him backwards, and he saw the brief flash of a knife before it was suddenly shot out of the man's hand.
A different group of men were headed towards the first group, and the latter scattered before the former. Lavi was released, and he was held up by two of the men who'd arrived. Two of the men wore shiny badges on their vests, and they all wore the Argentinian chaps on their legs, but they were small and close to their hard-worn clothing.
"Miguel," Esperanza said, helped up by another man. This one had a large bushy mustache as well as a well trimmed beard. Most of them were dusty, in their middle to late thirties, and a little worn. However, despite their grimy exteriors, Lavi could see that they kept themselves as well groomed as they could with what they had. There were perhaps ten in all. Almost every one wore a hat, wore gloves, and had the telltale tan of a man who wore a hat too long in the day and only cooked on one part of their face. Lavi quickly made the assumption they were ranch hands riding into town for a drink when they'd come across a group of people being beaten up in the street. It also seemed that Esperanza was pretty comfy-cozy with this particular bunch.
"You know them?" he asked, and Esperanza nodded. She introduced him to the man with the mustache and beard as well as a star on his wide-brimmed hat. He had a gun slung across his back and a pistol in a holster.
"Este es Miguel. He is a sheriff here in town, but he has been away at his other job, as a jefe on a ranch. Two are deputies," she said, pointing to the others. They had already filed into the bar. Suddenly, Miguel and Esperanza entered into a fervent conversation, and Lavi watched as they talked animatedly between themselves, almost seeming unaware of Lavi's presence. It looked as if they were old friends. Suddenly, Esperanza stopped, and she said, "You need to tell him." She pointed to the redhead. Lavi frowned. Something was going on that he didn't like...
"The cows, they die. We are not to know why. We want you look for us," the man said in broken English, but Lavi understood.
"Comprendo, senor. Lo hare ahora," he stated in near flawless Spanish, and Esperanza stared at him with blatant suspicion. Miguel smiled wide, showing two missing teeth, though it did nothing to detract from his happy smile.
"Bueno, bueno, senor, me has haces mucho alegre. Quiza podemos salvar los ganados," he said, slapping Lavi on the shoulder. He mounted his horse, and he tipped his hat to Esperanza. He said something to her, and then he disappeared down the street.
"A fellow vaquero?" he asked. Esperanza only nodded. She was still pale in the sunlight, and the doctor was gathering his scattered things.
"Who were the guys that attacked us and him?" Lavi asked, and Esperanza looked lazily over her shoulder to the doctor. She shrugged, spitting blood on the ground.
"Probably some of the local drug lord's thugs. They are not like him. He at least has a shred of honor left to him. They abandon all integrity. They must've heard of our insolence and wished to make examples of us," she stated. Lavi nodded, and he looked back at the doctor. He was a white-skinned man, possibly American, a European, or a half-European man with more white showing than the other half. He motioned for Esperanza to follow him.
"You need a blood transfusion," he stated, and Esperanza almost pouted in a very not-happy-about-it way. Lavi suppressed a smile. Seeing her almost-pout was actually slightly amusing. They followed the doctor into the bar where the early drinkers were having their fill, and the vaqueros were getting started on their first rounds of the morning. The doctor looked behind him in slight fear, and he looked forwards again. He sat down nervously, fiddling with his bag. Lavi and Esperanza sat on either side of him, and they startled the poor man so much that he dropped his bag between his feet, reached down to get it, and banged his head on the table. Finally, Lavi helped him by setting his bag on the table and looking the man in the eye.
He was scrawny, perhaps six foot one, and he had large hands with long fingers and large feet. He almost seemed to big for his body, in fact, a gentle giant given his profession. He gulped nervously, and he asked, "Yes? What is it you want? I can't give a blood transfusion like the barkeep said because the blood bottles are broken and -"
"That's easily fixed. Use my blood. I've got plenty," Lavi stated, and Esperanza glared. She hissed, "I will not accept your blood. It would be inhospitable, and I have enough to worry about already." Lavi frowned at her vehemence.
"Why not?" he asked, almost sounding disappointed. Esperanza's eyes narrowed, and the good doctor coughed into his hand.
"I would go along with the young lady if I were you. They, uh... they're pretty superstitious around here, especially about things involving blood, water, that sort of thing. A white man's blood is considered a curse or at the least a sort of social stigma. If you haven't noticed, they're not fond of us," the man said. Lavi raised an eyebrow, and he asked, "Is anyone else willing to give up a pint or two for you, then?" Esperanza got up, talked to a man across the room, and they both walked over.
"Get it done," she said, her tone somewhat less vehement now as she cooled down. Lavi sat there watching as he viewed the transfusion with a clinical detachment, filing away each detail. Lavi finally got up, deciding there was nothing more he could do here, and he walked towards the telephone at the far end of the bar next to the bathrooms. He quickly dug his golem out of his pocket, and it fluttered happily in his hand as it realized it was about to be put to some use. He put in the code on the back, and he began dialing. Finally, someone picked up.
"Hello? This is the Dispatch Center of the Black Order; how may I help you?" a cool female voice said, and Lavi sighed in disappointment. He hated getting rerouted to the Dispatch Center. It took forever and a day to get anywhere with them.
"I need to contact Bookman. I'm his apprentice, Lavi," he said, and the woman only said, "Hold for a moment." Elevator music played in his ear for about ten to twenty minutes, and by then Esperanza was looking a little impatient with him. He didn't blame her. He was getting close to hanging up.
Finally, it quit as an elderly voice rasped, "Hello? What do you want? I'm busy." Lavi could've kissed the receiver. Bookman obviously was not in the best of moods, but better he was there and grumpy than not at all. After all, this was practically lightspeed with the Dispatch Center. Lavi remembered one time he literally waited three days to talk to Kanda...
"Bookman, we have a problem," Lavi said, tapping his foot.
"Did you forget your underwear again?" Lavi reddened. He spluttered, "No! That's not it." Bookman 'hmphed' and asked, "Then what is it that is so important you must interrupt my bath?" Lavi winced at the ensuing mental image, and he shoved it out of his current frame of mind.
"All my memories... they're leaking into each other," he said quietly, almost guiltily. It sounded like an attack on Bookman's training methods to suggest that Lavi was becoming defective. Bookman was quiet.
"When did it start?" he asked, as if it were a symptom of some disease. Lavi thought back and said, "Probably the minute I got here." There was the sound of the cord rustling as Bookman switched it over to a different hand. He was silent for a moment before saying, "Lavi, you must start rebuilding the memory palace I taught you. I believe as time has gone on, you have neglected to meditate enough to keep the memories separate. This is a very large problem, and you know it. I want you to take the time tonight to meditate on keeping the memories apart. If you do not..."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Deep madness, going insane, too much to keep up with, yada yada yada," Lavi stated glumly. Bookman could always be such gloom and doom, though not without reason. They had a short conversation before Lavi asked, "Bookman, you think you could -"
"Lavi, part of the agreement I made with Komui was that I would let you do this mission without my help. I will not be around forever." Lavi winced. If that wasn't the truth. Bookman was getting on in years, but that didn't mean Lavi liked being reminded that his tenure as a Bookman apprentice might be cut unexpectedly short.
"I know that. Um, I should go. You know, Akuma to kill, rivers to investigate, that sort of thing," Lavi said sarcastically, and Bookman only 'hmphed' again before hanging up. Lavi hung up himself, though hesitantly.
"What do you mean, 'your memories leak together'?" Lavi nearly jumped out of his skin as Esperanza stood right next to him with her arms folded and one hip cocked. She'd snuck up on him. No wonder she'd survived this long without any sort of formal training. At the least she'd know how to run away without drawing attention to herself in a firefight with Akuma (though her scars said otherwise).
"I-I'm a Bookman's apprentice. We record history, and we stay unbiased. We have... ways of keeping ourselves that way," he said hesitantly. He didn't want to go telling her all about a Bookman's methods, not to mention they were supposed to be secret. She looked skeptical again, but she seemed to let it go with a shrug of her shoulders.
"I have talked to the doctor. He examined the body of the little girl who died on the mountain. He said that there were no marks on her whatsoever. The burial plot is an hour's ride from here," she stated coolly. Lavi eyed her, wondering what exactly she was feeling and if she still felt hostile towards him for offering his own blood in order to help her.
"All right. Then what are we waiting for?" Lavi asked, and they walked out. As they mounted, though, Lavi asked, "Why were you so angry at me for...?" He pointed to his arm, and Esperanza sighed long-sufferingly. She looked away from him, out towards the other houses and small alleyways. She pointed far down the road, and she said, "Do you see that? That white building? Do you know what it is?" Lavi picked apart her Spanish lilt for any trace of emotion other than weariness. Nothing.
"It's a clinic," Lavi answered with equal blankness. Esperanza nodded. They continued riding, and Esperanza pointed to another building.
"Y este?" Lavi smirked as he answered in Spanish, "Es un refugio de las personas sin techo." Esperanza only lifted one eyebrow in slight amusement before they kept going. She pointed to yet another building.
"Un iglesia," Lavi stated, and Esperanza nodded.
"All of these, built by white men. All of them abandoned by white men, as well. We did not know them, they did not know us - and poof. No help. Just buidings that las personas sin techo live in. The homeless reap many benefits from it. You make us lazy by building us things, and then you abandon us when you lose interest and move on. And when you come to live here, it becomes worse. You support the drug lords quietly as if we did not already know that you take the laudanum they make, and you hire us for too little pay for too long hours. There is a reason why we call you diablos blancos. I did not accept merely for the fact that you would forget you gave at all," she said, and Lavi looked away. White men were notorious for pushing out the local culture in order to substitute their own, but -
"Am I like that, then? The other white men?" Lavi asked, glancing at Esperanza. She cautiously stared him in the eye, and she shifted her weight on her horse.
"No, you are not like that. At least, I hope to mi Dio that you are not. I have observed you, and I am not sure yet. Otherwise, you will have proven everything I have said correct. You come, you leave, you forget," she said. They rode the rest of the way in silence.
They found the burial plot easily. A woman was already at the grave, crying and moaning.
"How long ago did she die?" Lavi asked quietly as he dismounted, and Esperanza said, "Only a few days ago. Her funeral was the day before the one that has already passed." It took Lavi a bit to realize she meant 'day before yesterday'. He nodded, realizing this might be harder than he'd thought. That woman was probably the little girl's mother. Lavi felt his heart begin breaking as the woman wailed loudly, flowers in her hands. She was shaking visibly from sobbing, and Lavi carefully took a deep breath, creating a crust over his heart in order to protect himself. There were some things one had to do, and he couldn't let a little thing like empathy get in the way. Besides, it was only too likely that the woman was an Akuma.
He walked into the graveyard and said, "Ma'am... Senora, por favor, necesitamos ver la sepultura de tu hija... Senora, es muy importante..." The woman looked up, and she eyed the cross emblem on his chest. Her face was thin and haggard, her eyebrows knitted together. She started to say, "No...no, no, no, no puedo, no puedo, es mi hija, es mi hija..." Esperanza walked up to the woman and began to carefully drag her away from the grave, and the woman began to wail loudly. Esperanza was trying hard to keep a hold of her as she strained towards the grave, her mourning shawl swinging -
This had happened before in another life, with a woman wailing at a grave, unable to leave, wasting away. Isaac watched as she beat her chest and wailed to the sky, screeching to the heavens as he looked on impassively, writing in a large notebook with a newly cut pen, his strokes precise and careful. He did not pay attention to the woman and her pain. All he saw was a female making loud noises at a grave, and he did not care as he walked over to her and drug her away towards a few black cloaked men while several others grabbed shovels and-
Lavi fell to his knees in front of the grave, digging his hands into the newly turned dirt as he shouted, "Let her go!" Esperanza's voice was one full of question.
"Senor-?"
"Just... just let her go. Please," Lavi said, rubbing his forehead. He took off his green headband, feeling tired and worn out. Too much death... too much pain... He'd seen-
What was he doing?
A Bookman was unbiased. They did whatever needed to be done in order to find the truth and document it. They never, ever had sentiment for anyone, only keeping to their little bubble of unconcerned, quiet observation. He wasn't supposed to feel, or hurt, or care. He was only there to watch...only to watch... only to watch...
The woman sat beside him as he chanted this mantra to himself. Only to watch. The woman stared with puffy red eyes as she looked back to the woman who had restrained her, that fearsome character with her chicken-scratch scars over her eye and the little nicks and cuts over her cheeks and nose. Not at all attractive, but not ugly either. The woman touched the gravestone with shaking fingers, and she spoke quietly. Between the both of them, redheaded man muttering to himself the same thing over and over with the woman who was quietly crying and rocking back and forth, they sounded crazy enough for any asylum. Esperanza only watched as the woman mourned for several more minutes. The sun climbed to its zenith, and Esperanza began to sweat. The two continued to sit there, lost in their thoughts, while the young Argentinian watched.
Finally, the woman got up and left. Lavi continued to sit there in front of the grave. Esperanza watched the woman leave through the gates, making sure she truly left, before she approached Lavi. He sat up straight as he realized she was nearby, and she asked, "Are you ready?" He only nodded, his eyes dull as he stared at the headstone. The name etched on it was simple, short, and painful.
Rosa Garcia. 1 Mayo 1852 - 5 Junio 1856.
"I'm ready. Go get the shovel."
Within minutes, they were ready to dig. Esperanza and Lavi were both glad for the shade provided by a half-dead tree standing near the grave site, and they began to chip away at the freshly dug dirt. It wasn't long before they hit the coffin itself, and Lavi had already begun to notice the dark stink that accompanied Akuma blood. Esperanza made a disgusted noise as she drew her bandanna over her mouth and nose. Lavi himself used his headband in much the same manner.
"The doctor did not find anything wrong with her, so why...?" Esperanza asked, and Lavi shook his head. He pointed to the coffin, and she flipped it open. The body inside was a broken statue, almost, though there were bits of flesh in the places where it had crumpled. It smelled like death. The body was almost unrecognizable by this point, though the face was still peaceful as if in sleep. It was that of a small, unlucky Hispanic girl.
"What does this mean, Lavi? Was she, too, an Akuma?" Esperanza asked, and Lavi shook his head. He pointed to the parts of her that had crumbled.
"There would be the metal skeleton, right here. She was infected by the blood. Your doctor didn't notice because he wasn't looking for the right things," Lavi stated. He sighed deeply, and he climbed into the grave. The smell hit him full in the face, and he had to resist the urge to gag. Esperanza herself seemed to be on the verge of puking.
"This smells worse than a dead cow under the sun for seven days," she stated drily as Lavi investigated the body thoroughly, being sure to use his gloves. The virus could jump from body to body through contact easily. He remembered when he and Allen had discovered those bodies at the castle where they'd found Crowley. The bodies had been those of Akuma, however, not of a human victim infected with the virus. This meant that the girl had somehow come in contact with the blood of an Akuma, whether from digestion or skin contact. Lavi coughed as the smell intensified, and he climbed back out.
"She was definitely killed by the Akuma blood virus. It breaks down bodies after a period of days if it isn't treated or the poison eradicated. There was nothing you guys could've done beforehand. What about the guy who killed her? Where is he buried?" Lavi asked. Esperanza shook her head, and she flipped the coffin lid over and filled in the hole.
"Left in the desert to be picked clean. We do not take child-murdering well," she stated. Lavi almost laughed at her dry, morbid humor. He began filling in the hole as well until it was well filled up. By then, though, the both of them were sweating an ocean and thirstier than jackals in the desert. They mounted their horses again after leaving the shovels by the shed of the grave yard, and Esperanza asked, "To Miguel's ganados?" Lavi nodded wearily.
"Actually, first, can we get a drink? I'm about to die."
"I had thought we made it clear that we wanted you to discourage people from going to the spring," Lulu said, cool as the glass of water she had in her hand. Dominguez swallowed nervously, sweat running down his sides under his crisply pressed shirt as he stated, "We have been, senorita, as best as we can. No one has tried to go to the spring, and no one has any interest as well. We blockade the city at night and put on a curfew. Anyone out past curfew must pay a fine to us." Lulu nodded, and she swirled the water in the glass. This action caused more beads of sweat to grow across Dominguez's forehead as she put it down, running a finger around the lip of the glass.
"You like to talk big, though. It seems that sometimes, your talk is bigger than your walk," she said, looking up at the five Level Three Akuma standing behind Dominguez, looking for all the world like suits of armor. She shrugged and stated, "However, we have another task to add to your list, though I know you are increasingly busy. We have a few nuisances in town we'd like you to get rid of. They are actually threatening your business... and the chance you have of getting to the spring in the first place." Dominguez's fear seemed to evaporate in light of this.
"Who are they?" he asked seriously. The country house was sweltering in the heat, another cause for sweating, but Lulu didn't seem to perspire at all. One of the Level Threes put a hand on Dominguez's shoulder, and he stiffened. With a look from Lulu, however, the Akuma put his hand down again, and she stated, "They are Exorcists from the Black Order of the Church of the True Faith. I am sure you will find no difficulty in locating them and dispatching of them. After all, you know this town well."
"But... clergymen? I can not kill members of the Church of the True Faith, it is... it is against moral fiber, and the people of the town only tolerate me because -" Lulu's look shut him up. She shrugged, and she stated, "I guess that just means you'll have to make it look like an accident. I don't think anyone will mind the white man being taken care of. If you have to, kill him and him only. He's the only real threat, I believe. The other is a young woman who's only been fighting for the past three years. You'll know them when your men see them."
Dominguez nodded, his mind suddenly full. He looked behind him warily at the scary living suits of armor around him.
"Take a few of them with you. I'm sure the Earl won't mind, as it is in for a good cause. They know how to blend in," Lulu said with a faint smile. She got up from her white wicker chair, and she promptly seemed to disappear. Dominguez sat there sweating. He finally stood up, looked out over the porch of his house at the blooming, poisonous poppy crop only a few yards down his driveway, and he shook his head. He led the Akuma into his house. He had work to do.
"Ugh! This is disgusting!" Lavi kicked a cow's carcass, and his foot promptly stuck in its rib cage. Lavi pinwheeled as he tried to remove his foot from the cow's innards, only to land on his butt on the dust covered ground. The cow was covered in pentacles and already going through the stages of petrification and decomposition in death. Lavi stood up, brushing himself off. He looked behind him at Esperanza, and she rolled her eyes.
"Ugh, mi Dio, nos vera sobre. Senor, that is very uncleanly. Please, do not do that," Esperanza said, ever polite, as Lavi rubbed his grimy boot over the cow's hide.
The entire field was filled with dead cattle. Their stinking carcasses seemed to waft their scent in visible waves under the sun, and the two Exorcists were forced to place bandanas and scarves over their noses. Lavi had forgone his jacket due to the heat, and his neck was already beginning to turn red underneath the sun. Esperanza had kept her coat on, given the fact that she had already suffered from sunburn before and would gladly take the heat rather than suffer days and days of healing burns. Lavi would learn soon enough.
"How many, you think?" Lavi asked, squinting his one eye. His face was dirty, and his hairband was askew over his hair. The red strands stuck in all directions like a haystack, probably held in place by the salt of his sweat and the dust of the earth. Esperanza herself couldn't wait to take a shower soon. She shrugged and guessed, "Thirty head, perhaps forty. I believe they've been drinking the water for the past two weeks or so. That is what Miguel told me outside the bar. This is muy malo, Senor. So many dead..." Lavi frowned, and he looked towards the sound of the torrent which had become the Rio Seco.
"I think the water's poisoned," Lavi said. Esperanza stared, and she asked, "Are you absolutely sure? Many people have begun to see this as blessing instead of curse. How are you sure?" Lavi looked at the cows. Almost all were dead save two or three which were laying down or hobbling along listlessly among their brethren. He walked towards a particularly fresh carcass. It had yet to begin decomposing or petrifying. He gestured for a knife, and Esperanza pulled a long one out of her boot. He stared at her for a few moments, and she shrugged again.
"This is Argentina, senor. Everyone has a knife," she merely stated, and Lavi left it at that. He cut open the dead cow, careful to keep his breathing shallow. Blood poured out of the cow, and the smell of decaying meat flooded over Lavi. It wasn't that fresh. He gagged, and he motioned for Esperanza to cut into it instead.
"You were the vaquera. I bet you can do this better than I can," he said, and Esperanza gave him a blank look before sighing in a very 'why me' fashion. She began to split open the carcass, and she asked, "What part?"
"Stomach." Before long, she'd revealed one of the four stomachs the cow housed, and Lavi took the final slash. Half-eaten contents spilled out - along with a good amount of stomach lining colored with pentacles. This cow had drank the water from the river, and it'd died of poisoning. Suddenly, things were beginning to take shape.
"The river is poisoned. It must've died from drinking the water from the river for too long. There must be traces of the virus floating around in the water. I don't know what Akuma blood is doing in the river, but I'm going to find it. There is one way I can be sure. If there's Dark Matter in the river, it'll probably react to Innocence, though I'm not sure how," Lavi said, eying the river and its deadly contents. He gestured for Esperanza to follow, and that she did.
They stood next to the river, and he took his hammer.
"Extend," he ordered, and the handle lengthened into a nearly three meter long staff. He pushed it into the river, and the water bubbled slightly. Suddenly, Lavi could see bursts of Akuma blood begin to race towards the hammer and race up the handle before dissipating into nothing. A Noah's Dark Matter could withstand and even destroy Innocence, but in this case, Innocence trumped the traces of blood.
"We'll have to go up the mountain and see what's going on up stream. I don't know what made the water flow again, but Akuma are probably involved if the water's got traces of its blood in it," Lavi said. Suddenly, there was the sound of guns being cocked behind them, and they turned slowly.
"Aw, sh-"
The shooting started.
A/N: Thank you, again, for all the wonderful reviews I've been getting!
Thank you to my newest reviewer, quillop, for her input. It gives me great chucks, as my friend Tory would say, to see what you wrote.
Thank you to my alerters as well (because alerters need love, too). quillop again (who should get a cyber cookie or something for allerting AND reviewing), Solicide (W00t! LYLAS. Hope to see you around on Skype), and St. Iggy The Pyro.
Thank you also to Iggy and Soli for favoriting the story, cuz that means I know someone loves it. Then again, anyone who does any of the three love the story anyways...
I hope I can crank out enough chapters that some sort of conclusion is near by the time Lavi's birthday rolls around. If not, there'll probably be a short filler chapter along with the usual chapter as a sort of birthday type special.
Hope to see you guys around!
