Chapter Four
Oh Hi There
Story Title: Pure White Feelings
"So...why are you kidnapping me?"
"Brat. We're not kidnapping you," the frustrated samurai said as he was walking in front of the other exorcists with the thieving girl tossed over his shoulder. He had his hand placed on her back so she wouldn't fall, even though he'd like nothing more for her to fall into an abyss and never return.
"Then what are you doing? I'm thrown over your shoulder like a sack of flour. I find this demeaning and an attemp to deprive my from my rights as a human to walk on my own two feet."
"I doubt you're fully human," Kanda muttered under his breath, but she still heard him. Her anger rising, she grabbed Kanda's sword from its place on his belt and pulled it out.
"Oi, moyashi!"
She kneed Kanda in the chest who, in turn, grunted and dropped her as he wasn't expecting that action. When he got back into standing position, he noticed how Mugen's tip was right in front of his face.
"...Oi...Drop the sword..."
"Why?" Kanda's eyebrow twitched.
"Idiot. You're a dumb kid, you're going to fucking hurt yourself with that."
"Are you scared that I'll hurt you?"
"I'm never scared of anything."
Suddenly, she started laughing. "Right, right."
"Look, whoever you are, whatever your name is, drop his sword before you really do hurt yourself. We already know that you have innocence and that you can turn into a horse." Her eyes widened slightly, but Lavi kept talking. "We don't want to fight you-"
"Then don't."
"-but we will if you can't drop his sword and come with us."
She groaned. "Ugh. You guys are so complicated! I'll give you two choices. I keep his sword as mine forever, and I'll come with you willingly. Or, I can return his sword and I can go home. You choose." She said with a smile.
"NEITHER," Kanda said loudly. "Give. Me. My. Sword. Now."
"I'll use this, you know," she said eerily.
"Then I'll use this," Lavi said, activating his innocence.
"Use it. I dare you," he taunted happily, waiting to see the results of her sassy answer.
The redhead hesitately greatly, debating whether or not to actually use it on her. He didn't know if she could fight, and if he hurt her when she didn't know defense then Komui would definitely murder him. He looked at Lenalee who was supposed to be at his side. Unfortunately, the Chinese exorcist was in front of the girl with Kanda's sword.
"Can you please give him his sword? We really don't have time for this. It's his, not yours."
"But it's in my grasp, is it not?"
"That doesn't make it yours."
"No, but it makes it my current possession that's in my hand."
"Still," Lenalee said, cornered from her own arguement.
"I really don't want to fight you guys, but I gave you choices. Honestly, I did. I've waited and I haven't received an answer," she said with an honest face. "Can you guys just choose one of the options?"
"I SAID, NEITHER. NOW GIVE ME MY SWORD!" Kanda shouted irritably, jumping at her and trying to grab his sword from her hand. She yelped when he attacked her unkowingly but then recovered herself from her squeak. Getting up and getting in defense stance, she looked at Kanda who was ready to kill something. Her eyes dared him to make a move. So, he did. Grabbing a large stick on the sidelines, he used it as a sword.
They started going at each other, yet they never landed a single hit on the other that they were fighting. Kanda was mostly attacking, and the young girl was mostly defending. It switched after some time so that Kanda was defending and Allen was attacking. Kanda would have kicked her ass by now if he had a real sword but all he had was a stick that was sure to break any time soon. And sure enough, it did. Allen launched his sword toward him, but Kanda blocked the blow with the stick in his hand and the sword stabbed it. Much to his bad luck and dismay, the blow sent the top half of the stick flying across their heads. And to make matters worse, the stick was too short to use to fight.
The others watched from the sidelines. Miranda had nervously asked a few times if somebody should go in the fight and stop it before it went too far, but they just let the fight go on. Kanda seemed to have met his match.
"Where the hell did you learn to use a sword? You don't even have a sword on you!"
She paused, thinking for a moment before answering. "I really don't know. It's something natural, I suppose."
"But why are you using one hand?" Lavi asked the young girl, aware that she had only been using her right hand with the sword. She'd hardly lifted her left at all, except a few times for balance.
"Hmm...never thought about that. I don't really know that answer either. I just find it something natural to just use my right. Something inside says that my left will be useless, that I should use my right, so I did. And I do."
"That's...strange."
"I guess," the girl answered, unconcerned about the swordsman staring her down.
"Say...you can turn into a horse, right? So, that's innocence. But what's your ability?"
"Ability?" She laughed. "I don't have any abilities. I can just turn into a horse and that's it. Of course, I do have...skills...per say."
"..."
"Cards, tricks, anything entertaining just about."
"Never would have guessed that," Kanda said, sarcasm dropping off his voice like bombs from a plane; every word had a sarcastic tone.
"Well Mr. I'm-a-cool-guy, what skills do you have besides innocence needs? That includes swords, exercising, meditating, training, all those things that innocence requires."
"..."
"That's what I thought, you troll."
"...Troll..." Kanda repeated, a little dumbstruck at the new word that was flung at his face.
"Yes, troll. You don't smile, you're grumpy, all you do is scowl and glare, you send off an evil aura, all those things! Isn't that the semi-definition of a troll?"
"...Troll..." he repeated again, still not getting over the new nickname he'd recieved. Never in his life had he been called a troll. Never.
"...Yes...A troll...That's what I said..."
Kanda didn't say anything in reply. Miranda nervously and cautiously went up to him.
"M-Mr. Kanda...?"
"...She called me a troll. A fucking troll! I am NOTHING like a troll!"
"Says you! I doubt you've even asked anyone what they think of you. I'm sure that 90% would say troll. Or ogre. Well, not ogre because ogres are ugly, and you're not exactly ugly-"
"Not exactly ugly...? And what exactly is that implying?!"
She gave him a look. "Calm down, Jackie Chan. Gosh, you're a little rude."
"I'm rude? I was just called a troll and ogre by some brat!"
"I have a name."
"Like I care. Just give me Mugen back."
"...Mugen?"
Lenalee stepped up to the smaller girl. "Mugen is his sword, and it's his innocence." Everyone watched for her reaction but her expression went blank. She just stood there, staring at Kanda. Her eyes were wider than normal, and she was looking straight into his eyes that were looking back. She said one thing.
"Mugen."
Everything was silent. Nobody moved or said anything. And suddenly, the girl started laughing so hard that she had to hold her stomach after just a few seconds of laughing, which meant that she dropped his sword (he gladly picked it up during her laugh attack). Kanda suddenly realized what the girl was laughing at, and he wasn't exactly happy. Not that he ever was but if he was far from it before, then he must have been in another universe from it by now.
It was about five minutes later when she calmed down and was giggling every so often, but not laughing. Still, nobody said anything until Lavi spoke.
"Can we go back to HQ? I'm starving."
"So, what is this HQ? Is this where you take people with innocence and turn them into servants who die to collect innocence pieces for those who are just as bad as the Noah?"
Everyone in the group froze, even Kanda for once.
"Wait, how do you know about the Noah?"
She laughed a little before looking at the road as they continued walking. "I'm not stupid, you know. I pick things up here and there about exorcists and the Black Order. This supposedly 'holy war' seems to be quite a mess with all these exorcists forced to fight for something that pushed them into it in the first place. I think it's a little messed up, but that's just me. Me and my opinions."
"They're your opinions alright," Lenalee said, clenching her teeth.
"Yes, they are. But I have a question. Since I have no abilities whatsoever, and I'm completely useless here, can I just leave? I'll even apologize to the troll and be on my way. I won't speak of you guys or anything."
Kanda also clenched his teeth. "We can't let a little thief back into that town, now can we? Especially since you could be working for the Earl with an akuma star on your forehead like that."
Her smile instantly turned to a frown. "That's personal, you have no right to be speaking of it."
"And this innocene that you spoke so badly of is personal to each of us, and you have no right to be speaking of that."
"But I have innocence, so I have every right to be speaking of it. Sure, I'm useless and have nothing to give but I still have innocence, despite the lack of abilities," the young girl pointed out easily. Lenalee sighed in defeat.
"Let's just go to HQ. Komui will figure out what to do with you," Lavi commented, trying to hurry the group so Lenalee would stop getting agitated.
Once the small group of exorcists and one to-be exorcist arrived at the gate, the gatekeeper did the usual check just in case. He stopped at the younger girl who had the akuma star. The gatekeeper spotted it and instantly went into motion, screaming and giving off warning alarms that an akuma was apparent.
"AKUMAAAAAAAAAAAA! SHE'S WORKING FOR THE EARL! HER STAR! IT'S THE STAR OF AN AKUMA!"
"How insulting," the girl said, her mouth open in shock. "I am most certainly not an akuma. If I was, I would have killed these people by now!"
"AKUMAAAAAAAA!"
"God, would you shut up!? I'm not an akuma! I have innocence! Akuma clearly can't have innocence you idiot!"
The gatekeeper shut up and looked at the young girl. "SHOW ME YOUR INNOCENCE. I DON'T BELIEVE YOU."
"I WILL!" she shouted before a green and white light shined for a split second and instead of the girl, a horse was standing there. It had the same star and everything. The gatekeeper looked her over, scanning her and making sure that she really wasn't an akuma. When he finally decided that she wasn't an akuma, he opened the door and the girl turned back into her human form.
Before they went inside, Lenalee stopped the girl.
"Wait, we never caught your name."
"Oh?"
"What is it?"
"...Allen. Allen Walker."
