Sorry for the late update. Plus, a colossal thank you to: Nusku, Zenbon zakura, MitarashiiDango, Erendyce, Knux33, Kawaii no jutsu, SilentKiller1, MidnightEmber, and Marufu-chan.
Your reviews always make my day. Thus, here is chapter 3 of Untamed.
Enjoy.
--
When Lenalee had dialed the call to Allen, Lavi felt his heart stop beating.
What was he supposed to say?
It had been quite a while since he and Lenalee had spoken with the boy. It was already sad enough that neither him, Lenalee, nor anyone else was allowed to see him off when he had transferred to the North American Branch.
But Lenalee didn't know this fact. He took a secretive glance at the girl, who was eagerly waiting for the call to get through to the golem with increasing delight.
He wished more than anything to tell her and everyone else the truth, but he was not allowed to speak a word of the matter to anyone. Besides him and Bookman, Supervisor Komui, the Inspectors, Central, and the transferee himself, no one else was to be informed about the young exorcist's unexpected transfer.
They were only told of a 'permanent' mission that the boy was undertaking in an unknown location in 'Siberia'.
Just what exactly was Central planning?
"Hello? Who is this?" he suddenly heard the recipient ask. The call had finally come through. Lavi literally jumped off his feet and dashed to the golem's speaker. He gulped nervously. "Allen? Is that you?" Lavi replied, his emerald eye glistening with sheen. Lenalee was just as eager as the red head and bent forward to hear the voice more clearly.
"Allen," she said, "Can you hear us? Are you okay? Are you cold? I hear it's really cold in Siberia. Hello? Allen?"
Her only reply was silence, accompanied with a jolting static screeching from the golem's speaker.
There was no voice to reply to her many unanswered questions.
--
∞ Chapter 3 ∞
(Unsettling)
He inserted his fork into the corner of the brightly embellished cake and cut out a precise portion with a knife in his other hand and popped the pastry into his mouth. His scarlet eyes continuously meandered left and right, and up and down on the pages of his black book resting on the surface of the cafeteria table.
"Link, the atmosphere is a bit heavy, don't you think?" a voice across from him asked. The blonde raised his eyes to look in front of him. The boy, Walker, was staring back at him—looking somewhat disturbed. Link shifted his gaze towards the greater area of the North American Branch cafeteria, only to meet with the many other pair of eyes glancing at the two, but quickly turned away when they saw the Inspector looking at them. He turned again to the white-haired boy and his golden golem, narrowing his eyelids in indifference.
"Heavy, you say?"
"Yeah, just a bit," Allen replied, while munching on a chicken leg. The Inspector looked on with scorn. "It feels like people are staring at us."
Link turned his head, and indeed, people were staring at them. The people in the cafeteria—realizing that they were caught in the act, started to laugh awkwardly and talk enthusiastically with the people next to them. Others ate the food in front of them with gusto… even though there was absolutely no food on their plate.
Allen sighed. "It's probably because of my white hair, isn't it?" he said, tugging on one of his ivory side bangs. The other begged to differ.
"From my point of view," Link stated, "these people are quite intrigued with your… diverse choice of foods." He glanced at the mountains of food surrounding the young teen. "… Although, diverse, isn't quite the right word for it."
"Eh? You really think it's that much?" Allen looked up at his food, eyeing a delicious-looking mango pudding swaying dangerously at the summit of the victual mountain. "Actually, I ordered less than I usually do."
Link didn't know what to say. That landfill of meat (and nothing but meat, and some delicacies) was less than usual? He was surprised that the boy didn't grow obese yet.
"Truthfully," Allen admitted, "the head chef over here is a good cook, but he only knows how to make American food and some European entrées, not Asian cuisine." The boy chewed slowly after biting an over-sized hamburger. "He's never even heard of mitarashi dango before. When I asked him for some, he asked me if that was some kind of animal feces."
Link thought that was extremely obscene. Especially for a conversation during a mealtime.
The Exorcist looked down at his bowl of clam chowder and stirred around the pieces of boiled potatoes with his spoon. Timcanpy paused from his munching of steak to encouragingly tap his wing on his master's head.
"I really miss Jerry's cooking."
Allen looked up at Link.
"You do too, don't you?"
Never turning his eyes from his book, the blonde popped another portion of cake into his mouth. After carefully chewing and swallowing, he turned the page. "What makes you say that, Walker?"
"… Nothing much," the boy said. "Other than the fact that you used your authority to your advantage and commandeered the kitchen to your will and baked your own cakes, am I right?"
"…"
"Right?" Allen persisted. Timcanpy flapped his wings in agreement and grinned at the Inspector with his pearly whites. Link pretended to ignore the two and flipped to another page.
"Walker, you are contradicting yourself," he stated.
"Eh? Contradicting myself? What's that supposed to mean?" the boy wondered.
Link cleared his throat. "You say that the cook does not know how to cook any Asian food, yes?"
"Yeah? So?"
"Then why do you have a plate of soba in front of you?" he said while motioning towards a plate of buckwheat noodles and a bowl of soba tsuyu on the table." Is that not considered an Asian food?"
"…"
"Pray tell me how an American chef who does not know how to cook Asian cuisines happen to conjure an Asian entrée such as soba?"
"…"
"Well, Walker?"
Allen strained his eyes at the Inspector. "Link?"
The Inspector raised his eyes from his book. "What?"
"Don't push it."
--
"Give me the usual," he said to the head chef, his side leaning against the countertop. The other gave out a shout of affirmation and soon brought the man his plate—a neat collection of buckwheat noodles in the middle, accompanied by a few pieces of tempura shrimp, a small bowl of soba tsuyu, and a cup of green tea. Kanda said his thanks and was about to grab his tray, but was interrupted by Jerry, for the chef was in the mood for some small talk with the ever frowning Exorcist.
"Kanda, you should really eat some more; put more meat on your bones," Jerry exclaimed. He waved his soup ladle around and pointed it at Kanda's chest. "How about some chicken while you're at it, hm?"
"No thanks. I don't like greasy," was the simple answer from the Exorcist.
Jerry didn't want to take no as an answer. "Are you sure? Okay, then. How about ham? Or turkey?"
"A no is a no," Kanda said while frowning.
"Beef? Pork? Lamb? Mutton?" Jerry exhaled in exasperation. "Venison?" he said in an almost pleading like voice.
"No." Kanda raised his eyebrow. What was with all the meat?
Jerry sighed. "Well, a soba lover will always be a soba lover," he said. "But why does nobody want meat today? Usually he's the one that eats my meat recipes but since he's gone, now there won't be anyone who'll eat so much meat in one sitting. Even though me and my men woke up extra early this morning to cook so much meat for the meals today." Kanda took a glance behind the kitchen counter and felt his eyes widen in astounding alarm as he beheld the sight of the many mounds, consisting of any meat imaginable, each and every one of them sitting in their own plate or bowl, stacked up in a neat and an organized fashion. It was animal protein galore.
Jerry sighed again. "What am I to do with all this meat?"
Seeing that the chef was preoccupied in his thoughts, Kanda grabbed his tray and walked towards one of the unoccupied cafeteria tables. "There was no one who ate like him. I'm going to miss that cute boy," Kanda heard Jerry say as he set himself down in the seat. The Exorcist frowned and grabbed for his chopsticks. After dunking a few noodle strands into the tsuyu, Kanda was about to put it in his mouth until—
"Hey, did you hear?"
Kanda grimaced. The Finders sitting at the table behind his was gossiping, like Finders always did.
"Yea, Allen Walker, right?"
"I heard that boy was sent on a mission—"
"Siberia, I hear—"
"Serves him right, he's the enemy after all—"
"Central made a good decision—"
"He might kill us all—"
"Sh—stop. Kanda's behind you."
"He's glaring at us."
One of the Finders turned around and frowned in disgust as the whole Finder posse saw Kanda—the dreaded Exorcist, sitting behind them, his head turned and his dark eyes glaring at them with murderous intent.
"When will you wimps ever shut up?" he growled.
Kanda hated them. He despised gossiping and useless chatter. But what he hated most was all the talk about that brat. No one ever seemed to shut up.
Allen Walker this. Allen Walker that. Just shut up about him already.
When will everyone stop talking about him?
"How pathetic," he continued. "Instead of insulting other people, why don't you all look at yourselves? You're not so great yourself, you bastards. And meal times are meant for eating, not for chattering your mouths away. One more word out of you people and I'll cut off your tongues. You won't be able to eat another bite then, will you?"
The Finders stood up from their seats and clenched their fists. "What was that?! How can you talk to us that way!"
"Ha? So you want a fight now?" Kanda said, and also stood up. "Bring it. I'll kick your asses."
Then, a cluttering noise echoed from behind the Finders and everyone who was witnessing Kanda's and the Finders' almost-fight scene turned their heads to see one lone Finder nervously picking up a fallen tray with spilled food, while at the same time professing his apologies over and over. Kanda eyed the clumsy man cleaning up his mess and something within him clicked as soon as he saw that face and extremely frail body, accompanied with a splatter of clumsiness.
Kanda miraculously remembered, for reasons unknown to him. That Finder was the very same Finder he bumped into when he had entered Komui's office earlier that day. Kanda looked down, only to meet with that Finder's gaze. The Finder was glaring at him, just like last time.
The frail man finally picked up his mess and scrambled towards the kitchen. Kanda saw that along the way, the Finder kept on taking glances back at him but would quickly turn away when he noticed the Exorcist looking back at him.
Another Kanda-hater Finder. Oh, how it scares the bejesus out of Kanda.
Kanda took one last sip of his tea and lifted his empty tray—planning on bringing it back to Jerry. He ignored the yells and gripes of the Finders and walked out of the cafeteria as soon as he gave back his empty plate.
Finders… now that Kanda thought about it, for some strange reason—
All of them, every single one of them, looked exactly the same.
--
"Alright, Walker it's time to go to the room," Link ordered to Allen as they exited the cafeteria.
"Huh? I thought I was going to go train after eating," Allen replied, trying to catch up to the fast-walking Link.
"There's no time for that. We must finish paperwork at once."
Allen grimaced. "More paperwork? What's it for this time?"
"Your transfer papers. It must be made official and sent to Central immediately."
"What? I thought we did that back at the Order?" the boy stated.
"That was the papers for 'leaving the Headquarters'. This time it's for 'entering' the North American Branch."
Allen could tell that this night would be a long night ahead of him. "What? That's ridiculous! I've never heard of such a thing!" he shouted. Timcanpy, once again, patted his master's head in comfort. Although, Allen could swear that the golem was snickering at him.
"Rules are rules," Link said.
The boy now wished he could faint out of nowhere, to get out of this mess. Why does his transfer have to be so difficult?
"But first things first, Walker," Link said, his voice noticeably lower than usual. "Did you notice?" he whispered.
Allen glanced back at the Inspector and slightly nodded at him. "… Yeah."
The sound of an extra pair of footsteps echoed through the vast hallway from behind the two.
--
I'm sorry that Kanda fights with the Finders too much. The scene where the Finders are gossiping about Allen being a traitor in the series is deeply engraved in my head and heart. You could say it's a grudge.