They stood in silence on the platform awaiting their train. Kanda hadn't spoken a word to her since they left headquarters. Every time Mei tried Kanda would seem to pick up on it and glower at her. Yeah, this was totally the definition of camaraderie. The little square golem that sat on her shoulder crackled to life as it flew above her head, the two stared at it until Lavi's voice blared through.

"Oyyyyy! Good afternoon you two!" he hollered. Mei cringed and Kanda made a scoffing noise, she tried to make a grab at her golem to turn it off but it flew out of her reach as Lavi's voice continued to evade their space. The golem lowered itself to Mei's eye level, "How's our precious Kanda treating ya, Mei?" she could feel the grin behind that statement and tried to hold in the laughter, "Well anyways, Allen and I were also sent out and we thought we'd see how you two were doing," there was a shuffle and some muffled laughter before Allen's voice came on.

"Sorry about that, good luck on your mission and play nice, Kanda," Allen's voice sounded almost menacing towards the end. Kanda glowered at her. Mei finally grabbed the golem and stuffed it inside her jacket and sighed. There was a loud blaring horn from afar, their ride was here.

"Jump," Kanda instructed. Mei did a double take a him before she understood what he meant. In another second Kanda was gone from her side. Mei had to run a few steps to catch the train and lunged landing haphazardly on top of the fast moving vehicle. They unlatched a roofing door and slid into a very nice compartment lined with deep burgundy velvet walls and golden laced cushions. Two large men stood guard over a particular door, Kanda stepped through and opened the door to a smaller compartment also decked out in velvet and gold, Mei glanced up at the big burly men before stepping through.

Kanda sat down and brought out his file, Mei sat down silently and brought hers out. She watched him from the edge of her manila folder every now and then she would see his eyes move from one section of the paper to another. She had a hard time paying attention to the words in front of her until he startled her with his words, "Stop staring at me,"

Mei's face burned furiously and she was fortunate enough that she had the folder in front of her, the girl sank lower into her seat in embarrassment. She finally got to reading on the file in front of her. Her brows arched in interest as she read over the tiny printed words, she's never been to Venice before but she had heard that the city was sinking. Did it have to do with anything with the sudden sightings of akumas? Her eyes scanned the rest of the paper before she put them down and reread them carefully. There was a possible indication that an Innocence was found. The Demon Deck.

"'Moguika', that's what we're looking for?" Kanda muttered, Mei could hear the irritation in his tone before her eyes went back to the papers. She reread it again for the third time when it struck her.

"Oh, shit," she uttered, her abrupt interruption had Kanda looking up from his folder and glancing at her with an uninterested expression. Mei tapped her chin, "It can't be that easy, but I think I understand," she said triumphantly. Kanda didn't answer her, only continued to stare.

After a minute or so Kanda began to frown, "Care to share?" he finally asked his dark eyes telling her that it better be good. His lack of patience was impressive, Mei dug into her bag and retrieved a deck of poker cards. Mei kept it with her in bag in case her trips ever got long, at least she would have something to do to past the time.

"Really. A deck of cards is what you came up with?" his voice monotonous and dry.

Mei rolled her eyes at him and pointed to the deck of cards, "Mo gui ka," she repeated making Kanda frown.

"That's what I just said," he said through gritted teeth, his hands on Mugen. His irritation with Mei was beginning to border on the edge of spilling over. Mei's eyes narrowed at him for being so short tempered.

"Before you go dicing me to pieces, I think that's the Innocence we're looking for, a deck of cards. It's pronounced in three characters not one. It's in a Chinese dialect from East Asia. '魔鬼卡', Renee told me once about it. I heard it's a deck of cards that has the ability to detect akumas from afar and attack its target relentlessly until its foe is no more. It also acts as a defense system by covering the holder of the card when being attacked. The cards can be formed into anything the holder wishes it to be, granting its wielder unlimited power to his or her imagination," the lengthy explanation left Mei breathless. She jotted the three characters down on the corner of a piece of paper while Kanda actually took interest and leaned in.

Mei's fluent handwriting flicked at the last dot of the character before she stopped, "It's usually under the guise of 'Demon Deck' in English or 'Mahoune Kado' in Japanese," she looked up at him with a wry grin, "Aren't you supposed to know this? You are Japanese, the Kanji should be a piece of cake for someone of your caliber," Kanda sat back and looked out the window without another word. Mei hesitated, "You do know how to speak your native language, don't you?" his silence only confirmed her answer. Kanda didn't know how to speak Japanese in fact she had a feeling that he wasn't even born in Japan. The silence dropped down like a heavy ax as the topic was cut off resulting in Mei feeling awful for bringing it up.

As she was dwelling in her own misery knocks at the door resounded into their compartment, Kanda gave permission for the door to be opened and an average height man stood by the doorway. He bowed, "Good afternoon, exorcists. I am Kagara, I will be your guide to Venice from here on out," he greeted.

"I'm Mei and this is Kanda, Yu," Mei motioned at the man across from her, their Finder acknowledged both exorcists before closing the door again.

"I guess you're not useless after all," Kanda muttered under his breath to which Mei scoffed at.

Kanda intertwined his hands together above his lips, she could see the gears in his head at work, "The only reason I can think of having an Innocence all the way out there in Venice from the East was that the holder probably fled," he pulled out a stack of papers from the files and scoured through them again.

"Don't be so presumptuous, the person could've moved, or maybe it was unintentionally given away in its unactivated state. There could be multiple reasons as to why it's in Venice. Let's just do our best to find it," Mei said tiredly, Kanda just grunted in agreement.

Mei honestly just wanted to find the Innocence and go back to the Order. For some reason she felt awfully tired already, Mei stared out her window watching the trees whiz pass her and before she knew it her eyes had closed drifting her into a deep slumber.

The room was steamy with swirls of mist coming from holes in the ground. A little boy with short hair and stubby eyebrows was crouched over one of those holes staring intently into it. She felt her own lips move, but no sound came out. Again, her lips moved this time the little boy raised his head at her, obscured by the mist Mei couldn't make out his face except that he smiled. The hole next to him started to bubble and Mei felt herself being pulled away, she reached out and only darkness replied. She jolted awake with Kanda above her, his hand gripping tightly on her arm. She blinked at the sunlight that poured in and gasped for air, Kanda was saying something but she felt hazy. His voice began to seep in more clearly.

"What did you just say?" he demanded practically shaking her.

She winced, his fingers were digging into her skin, "Stop it, Kanda! You're hurting me!" She hissed angrily whilst pushing him off, "And what the fuck are you talking about? I didn't say anything," he sat back down on his side continuing to glare at her, his eyes ablaze with some sort of fiery anger. She rubbed her arms and gave Kanda a perplexed look. She had no idea what he was talking about.

There was a soft knock on their door and Kagara's voice came through, "Is everything all right?"

"We're fine, thanks for asking, Kagara," Mei replied hastily sitting up.

They stared at each other for a minute before Kanda spoke again, "Were you dreaming?" Mei furrowed her brows. What a peculiar question, albeit the correct one to ask. Was she talking in her sleep perhaps? But Kanda was the last person she wanted to open up to.

"Not that I can recall," she said softly. It wasn't necessarily lying to him rather she would see it as withholding information. Plus it wasn't like she strictly remember what she dreamt about except that it was dark, misty and warm. He turned away from her, folding his arms tightly together. Well seems like that was the end of that conversation. Mei contemplated on what just happened and tried to think back on her dream, she remembered feeling very nostalgic yet sad at the same time. But try as she might, she couldn't remember details of the dream. The train slowed to a crawl as it chugged the last few feet before stopping, Mei and Kanda packed their belongings and followed Kagara out. The weather seemed terrific with a slight breeze, the sun was shining warmly above them and Mei breathed in the air while stretching out her arms and legs. The scent of ocean water and flowers greeted her nose. Maybe it wasn't going to be too bad after all.

Kanda made his way to the top of a building nearby followed by Kusu and Mei. A little ways off they could see a dark cloud hovering over a city. Mei squinted her eyes against the sunlight and bit her lips. The wind picked up and there was just a hint of sulfur in the air. Akumas.

"How far is the journey to the city?" she asked turning to Kagara.

"Two hours by foot. We should head off soon," the Finder replied looking at a map.

Without another word Kanda leaped off the building and landed softly on the ground heading towards the direction of Venice. Kagara raised his brows and Mei could only give him an apologetic shrug, "I guess we're heading off."

They traveled through thick forestry and passed through some smaller villages. They took breaks every 45 minutes to replenish their water supply and stopped at a nearby tavern for food. The closer they reached their destination the cooler the weather became. The sun disappeared behind a veil of angry clouds that showered down hazy mist-like rain. Mei shivered and pulled over the hood of her jacket as did Kanda. They were encroaching upon a large gate-like entrance that surrounded the city. Beyond the gates they could make out tendrils of fog seeping through. There was a haze- like substance that clouded the entirety of the small town that reached an unseemingly high altitude.

"What is this?" Kanda asked Kagara, his eyes narrowing at the small man beside him. Kanda didn't like surprises. Kagara bowed his head in apology, "It's been here for a few weeks now, we've had it contained to just the city so that it wouldn't spread," Mei could just barely make out the glint of a shield put up by other Finders when the three of them approached the city gates, "We'll have to release the shield for you two to get in, but you must hurry, akumas like to take this chance and try and slip out," Kagara advised. Kanda placed a hand on his sword and motioned Kagara to let them in.

Kagara called in to the other fellow Finders that surrounded the city perimeter, a few minutes later there was a powering down noise, "You must go now!" Kanda and Mei ran towards the gates as it opened. A loud roar escaped like a large mouth exhaling a breath held in for too long. Mei glanced back and saw the shield being placed back up, there was no turning back now. The musty gray mist devoured them as Kagara watched from the outside, he said a small prayer for them for the sake of their safety that God watched over them.

It felt like they had been running for a while through the thick mist when Mei's body tingled, "Seems like we have company," Mei noted. Kanda already had his hands on Mugen when they finally popped through and landed inside the city. Several men and women greeted them with empty eyes, they began to stagger towards Kanda and Mei, "Vile creatures," Mei frowned leaning down, she cracked her fingers and gave Kanda a nod. "Innocence Invocation!"

Kanda's black sheath disappeared and Mugen was glinting in its place. He leaped into the air when the human forms ripped off replaced by grotesque features that took form and attacked. He struck and took one down that had gone airborne when a fiery whip flew past him, inches away from his face. It had latched onto a level one akuma and imploded it with a fiery blast. Kanda's head whipped behind him to see the ends of the weapon materializing from his partner's hands. Her whip was made entirely of fire that ran up her arm, her other hand also lit up in flames. A parasitic Innocence like Beansprout's.

"Pay attention," Mei hissed flying past him, latching onto another akuma. Kanda, furious, was about to go after Mei when an octopus-like akuma beat him to it. It hooked onto Mei's ankle catching her off guard with it's multiple tentacles, "Shit!" with a jerk, she was sent plummeting to earth.

"Saiyaku Shourai!" Kanda called out slashing forward his sword. It released a cut that emitted dragon like monsters, "Ichigen!" His attack struck the beast in the head and exploded turning the akuma to ash releasing Mei midair. Kanda caught her and landed back on the ground angrily tossing her to the floor. He then pointed his sword at her.

Mei glowered at him on the other end, "What?" Mei threw her hands in the air in frustration, why did everything she said or did piss him off so much? In an instant she turned and caught another one with her whip destroying it in the process before turning back to Kanda.

He stepped up to her with a heavy frown, "Don't you EVER do that again," he threatened in a low voice. They stared daggers at each other for a brief second before he stomped off.

Mei wanted to roll her eyes at him, but thought better of it, "A 'thank you' would've sufficed," she mumbled walking over rubble and broken buildings to follow behind him. They had rid of all the akumas so far, but little did they know that their paths were about to collide with familiar faces.