AN: Thank you so much for your support! I hope you enjoy this chapter! Reviews are welcome and you are more that free to choose whether you want to or not ^w^
Enjoy!
~An Unfortunate Reunion~
"Kanda, are you awake?"
Kanda opened his eyes blearily to see Zhu looking over him. He groaned as he sat up. He was sore everywhere and his head was throbbing. He was also freezing and, consequently, started shivering violently.
"Here," Reni draped a coat over his shoulders, "Fou brought you here and said you had a fever. Are you alright?"
Kanda gritted his teeth to stop them chattering, nodding stiffly, "Mo-Moyashi," he said, "H-he…I-I…"
"It's alright, Yu," Zhu said, putting his hand on Kanda's shoulder, "It's alright, it's not your fault."
"Calm down, Kanda, the kid lived just fine," Kanda looked up to see the last person he expected the be there come around the rubble.
"K-Kai?" he gasped, his voice shuddering from his fever. She nodded curtly, then turned away, but Kanda could tell.
"A-are you angry?" he said, still shivering.
"No shit," Kai said, tossing something into his lap, "You dropped that."
Kanda looked down to see the bracelet she had given him so long ago. He flushed, "T-Thanks," he said, slipping it onto his wrist, "You were right, you know, it did help." He'd learned from experience that, at least in the case of Lenalee and General Claude's formerly-all-female group, it was best to make-up to and compliment women when they were upset. Tiedoll had told him that on numerous occasions as well.
"Don't worry about the fever, it's just a side-effect of over-using your regenerative abilities," Alma also poked his head from around the debris. He smiled at him apologetically, "Hi, Yu."
"You're not an akuma anymore…" Kanda said, "What happened?"
"It's complicated," he started evasively, "y'see…"
"That guy," Kai interjected sharply, impatience rife upon her words, "Said something about a deal his 'host' or something had made with the earl. I can sense it. All the akuma have withdrawn and those weird things have, I will assume returned, to being human once more. They left afterward."
"What?" Epstein cried, "He left? Just like that? With the Noah and the earl?"
Kai nodded, "By Noah, I'll assume you mean those super-human bastards," she said, "And don't worry," she added sardonically, bringing a hand to her back and withdrawing it again, displaying the blood that was still oozing from the half-closed injuries, "he left a lovely parting gift."
All except Alma, who had witnessed the attack, gaped in amazement, "Kai, he was an exorcist!" Epstein said, "Why didn't you stop him?"
"Excuse me for being immobile at the time thanks to his attack," she snapped, "besides, your lives seemed a bit more important at the time."
Zhu placed an hand on her shoulder, "Calm down Reni," he said, "This was a lost cause from the beginning."
"Hey," Alma looked pointedly at Epstein, "aside from the fact that that guy's gone, I have to ask, what are you going to do with me from now on? I attacked you yes, but I'll tell you honestly that all that desire to let out my anger is gone, so I guess it was the dark matter's influence. Anyway, are you going to drag me back to experimentation?"
"They better fucking not," Kanda growled. Alma looked down at him in shock.
"Yu…" he said.
Kanda averted his gaze, "I won't fucking let them," he said, emphatically enough that he collapsed into a fit of coughing. He jerked his head up again to see Kai stalking off, "Where are you…?"
"Where else, moron?" she said icily, "To find Reever and Johnny and the other people who are still alive!"
Within about an hour, everyone, including a blond guy with a half-braid and a girl with wavy blonde hair, was gathered in the same place as Zhu, Epstein, Fou, Kanda, and Alma. They all sat around, catching their breath and attempting to cope with the situation while Kai leaned up against the ruined wall that shielded them from the wind that had picked up, glaring out over the mountains of debris and carnage.
"Well, the one bright side to all this," Reever said, "Is that Kai is back with us," she looked over at him, her expression relaxing to one of neutrality, and nodded, "and it seems like you're powers have strengthened."
She nodded, "It's like it evolved," she said, bringing a hand up to her covered eye, "Can the innocence really do that?"
"Yes, it's happened two times already," the man called Rouvelier said, "The first was with Allen Walker, who it seems has deserted us. The other was with Lenalee Lee."
"Inspector," Bak reproached, "Allen himself did not desert us. From the sound of it, the fourteenth's personality came out and took him over."
"Like it matters," the inspector began, but Kai interrupted him.
"This Allen kid sounds like a pretty decent and loyal person," she said flatly, "From what I've heard everyone say about him, it doesn't seem like he'd abandon you all willingly. Plus, the personality description was certainly different from the one I witnessed from this guy. If my opinion is worth anything to you, inspector, it would be that I am in full agreement with branch head Bak."
The inspector glared at her, "Where I will admit you have a point, Miss Kirihara," he said, "I would like to remind you that an exorcist's job is to fight for the order and to protect and collect innocence fragments. It is not, on the other hand, your duty to participate in affairs that are not related to you."
Kai literally bit her tongue to stall the retort she longed to give, she contented herself with sharply looking way, whispering a venomous, "Asshole." She knew better than to tempt fate and get into trouble before even setting foot back in headquarters, so she kept silent and did NOT beat the bastard into a bloody pulp. Besides, she'd been brought up better than that.
"How can you say that?" Alma demanded angrily, "She stood up for a comrade she didn't even know! Heck, if this is how you treat your legitimate accommodators, I'm GLAD I didn't become an exorcist!"
"Alma, as much as it pains me to tell you you're wrong," Zhu said, "You were using the innocence in your fight with Yu. With a little training, you'll be out fighting in the field soon enough. Look, it even looks like you're an equipment type too."
Sure enough, on Alma's wrists hung two black metal bands, glinting in the way only innocence would. He flushed, "Still," he said, "it's wrong to treat your subordinates like tools. I mean-"
"That's enough, Alma," Kai said, "I don't need your help."
"What?" Alma asked, confused and unable to understand her, "What language is that?"
"Japanese," Kanda said, "Kai tends to flip back to her native tongue when she's really pissed. I'll tell you now, Alma, that when she starts speaking that way, she's at her most dangerous, so it's always best to run."
"Damare, konoyarou," Kai snapped at him, "I'm pissed at you too."
Kanda swallowed thickly. Fuck.
Kanda wasn't particularly afraid of anything. Whenever Komui went on a violent, over-protective tirade or whenever Lenalee got pissed or even whenever he began to lose a battle, he didn't get scared, no, fear was something for the weak. No, Kanda got pissed off, which generally led to Komui suffering bodily harm, generally ignoring Lenalee, and generally him actually making a comeback and winning the fight. Yes, it was safe to say that fear was not a motion Kanda really felt.
That was unless he faced a certain woman's wrath.
Kai had spent the first seven years of her childhood in Japan. She hadn't been poor, no, certainly not that. Her father was a military strategist who had been forced to retire when he'd been blinded in one eye by a stray bullet during a training session. Still, because he'd worked directly under the emperor as one of his best strategists, Kai's family was among those better off than most of the inhabitants of Japan. Still, that didn't change the fact that she'd been born into a place where akuma waited around every turn. Add the fact that she'd been born in the capital, and you also got robbers and beggars desperate enough that they would kill for the slightest promise of food.
Because she had been brought up in this environment, Kai had become an excellent fighter. She was extremely flexible and, before she'd acquired her innocence, she'd been taught to disarm or even kill her opponents by taking them down from the inside. She was a master of using the body's pressure points to her advantage.
Kanda had experienced this first hand and had ended up in more pain from it than he'd ever have liked to admit. Kai had often sought him out of as a punching-bag for her anger and frustrations (generally because he was the one who tended to shove her over the edge) and this was the precise reason he did not listen to Kai's comment unfazed.
Kill me.
"Anyway," Reever said, attempting to break the tension. He too knew it was a bad idea to cross Kai, "We can't trust the Ark at this point," he said, "and we need to get back to headquarters. We can't afford to get treated at a local hospital since we need to inform Chief Komui and the Vatican about all this, so we'll have travel with our injuries." He turned to Kanda, "Are you okay to move?" he asked.
He nodded, standing shakily, "I agree that we need to get back," he looked over at Kai, who glared back, "We need to get Kai and Alma to the Order as quickly as possible. The more people we have to fight, the better."
Rather short, but I promise next one will be longer ^_^
