I just got my laptop back a few days ago! I really should be doing my project for school since I go back tomorrow, but here you go! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own D. Gray-Man.

Warning: Language—just from Cross, though.

Edit (1/30/16): While Komui was looking at Allen's closet, I had forgotten that fact that he was supposed to look inside said closet when I had first written this. So, I had him look inside where he found lots of broken glass. The importance of this will be explained in later chapters.


Chapter: 4—Let's Go On a Scavenger Hunt

"Komui, I don't think this is such a good idea."

"Yeah, this is a huge invasion of privacy!"

"If they found out we did this, we would be slaughtered! And that's putting it nicely!"

"Are you sure there isn't some other way?"

On the way to the teens' rooms, Komui was beginning to get a wee bit irritated by his two fellow scientists. He had given them a perfectly good reason why they were doing this and the manner of how they were doing this. They had been perfectly okay with it when he had first suggested it, yet now they were having doubts.

Oh my poor science department! Komui lamented to himself. I do believe a need to whip them back into shape when I get the chance…


"Journals…?" Johnny asked. "What journals?"

"Like Cross said, they are the journals that every exorcist is given upon walking through the doors of the Black Order," Komui said. "I stated this practice when I became Supervisor of this branch. Other than the exorcists themselves, I am the only one who knows about them~!" The comment was laced with deviousness

Just like Komui to do something like that—without telling anyone.

Reever raised an eyebrow at the Supervisor and asked in a dry voice, "So, what's the big deal with these journals? Are they like diaries or something?" The Australian looked like he was having a hard time believing that the Supervisor was handing out diaries.

The Chinese man nodded and clapped his hands. "Almost right, Reever. I tell the exorcists these journals," he specifically emphasized the word, "are a way of recording what happens to them in the Black Order. They are for recording what might happen to their Innocence or anything that might be important that can benefit them and us. I tell them that the journals are meant for their eyes only, and that they could reveal information to us only if they wanted to. However, if something called for desperate enough measures, we would be given (reluctant) permission to read the journals. Meaning…"

Johnny caught on very quickly. "Meaning that what they wrote in those journals might be able to help us help them!"

"Exactly!" Komui exclaimed. "However, there is a drawback to this plan."

"What is it?" the Australian man asked. "I can't think of any, Komui. This plan sounds pretty solid to me."

"The drawback…is that we would have to go into each of their rooms and search for the journals."

And…silence reigned among the three men.

It was known to everyone in the Order that exorcists liked their privacy, no matter how kind they may be. Now, it was widely known these particular four exorcists were especially private people. The only one of them who might be more…inviting than the others might be Lenalee, but that was only because she was used to sharing a lot of things with her brother—and he was the only one she allowed in her room. She did not even allow Miranda into her room. Allen might be the only other one, but that was because of his gentleman-like manners pretty much forced him to do so. Usually he did not like people going through his personal space. However, due to his recent…personality change, anyone caught trying to sneak into his room would usually need to spend about two weeks in the infirmary—due to both physical and psychological damage. Kanda…well that was easy. One step into his room and you would be cut to tiny little pieces by Mugen. Lavi absolutely did not allow anyone in his room. Bookman had been the only exception when the older man still lived in the Order—and that was only for their Bookman duties. Strangely enough, the only people that were allowed into their rooms freely were each other.

So, now they were about to go against the Number One Rule (also known as the N.O.R.) in the Order that preserved all of its members' lives: Do not under any circumstances, unless given special permission by these four exorcists themselves, enter the rooms of Lenalee Lee, Allen Walker, Kanda Yuu, or Lavi Bookman.

Ever.

And now they were about to do just that.

Komui's body gave a funny little twitch.

Dear God, help them all…


Komui stopped walking and rounded on his heel to Reever and Johnny. His mouth pulled in a frown and he put a hand on his hip and pointed a finger at them. "Quit your whining! I told the two of you the plan and you were perfectly alright with it. Why are you having second thoughts now?!"

Reever and Johnny cringed a bit, and Komui could tell they were both reluctant to answer. Now, Komui was not that stern to make his fellow workers cringe to get on his bad side was he? Apparently, he was.

As he felt his inner self do a little happy dance with a wicked smile, he let that thought blow up his head (read: ego).

And yet his face remained stern and serious on the outside.

Johnny was the first to speak up, surprisingly. "…Well, yeah. We did think it was a good idea at first. But, look what we are about to do, Komui! We're gonna go against the N.O.R.!" he wailed.

Komui paused before he answered the distraught American. "I…am perfectly aware of that. However, we have a duty to these four kids to do whatever we can to help them. And, if that means we go against the N.O.R., then so be it! We just have to completely keep the fact that we snuck into their rooms and invaded their privacy from them~. See! Easy!"

Reever dutifully face-palmed. "So what room are we going to first?" Komui picked up the tone behind the question. It was somewhere between: I am walking to my doom. Why haven't I written my will yet?—and—Dear Lord, help me!

"The easiest is just whoever's room is closer, and that happens to be Lenalee's." Komui's serious/wicked expression graced his featured once again. "The only reason I am allowing you to accompany me into my darling Lenalee's room is because this is necessary. And because when she goes to kill me, I can drag you two along with me."

Really, that was the only reason they were all going into the individual rooms together as a group and not splitting up to search multiple rooms at once.

Plus, searching a lady's room was quite improper. Like Komui said, if Lenalee was going to kill him, he was taking down Reever and Johnny with him.

Well, now their lovely scavenger hunt was about to begin.

May God take pity on them all.


The first room they came across was Lenalee's room. Reever and Johnny were tense as they remembered what Komui had told them earlier. From the look on their faces, there was no doubt in Komui's mind as to what they were thinking: If anything gets messed up in Lenalee's room, Komui will sic a special-edition Komurin on us.

Oh how the truth hurt.

As they reached the door, Komui was the first one who tried to enter. Emphasis on the word tried. When he grabbed the doorknob and turned t it while trying to push the door open, the door did not open and his nose had a nice meet and greet with the door.

Nice? Oops, painful was the intended word.

Reever and Johnny desperately tried to silence their snickers—only because their self-preservation instinct said that laughing at their higher up was the easiest and fastest was to be tortured by said higher up's (evil) little creations.

"Gah!" Komui rubbed his smarting nose as he backed away from the door. Then he adjusted his glasses back to their proper place. "Locked. This makes our jobs harder, then."

"Leave it to me, Komui!" Johnny proclaimed as he stepped in front of the two other men. From one of the many pockets of his pants, he pulled out two sticks and held them for Komui and Reever to see. One was a bit larger and longer than the other. The other was thin and only a few centimeters shorter than the first stick. "I can pick the lock!"

Once again, there was silence. However, Komui and Reever were both silent for different reasons.

"Johnny," Reever began to say in a surprised voice, "where…on earth did you learn how to lock-pick?"

"I learned it when I was still in America!" he said proudly. "I would always end of forgetting the keys to my house and I would end up locking myself out by accident. One of my friends was tired of me calling him to help me enter my house again, so he taught me how to lock-pick!"

Reever nodded slowly, still coming to terms with the new knowledge.

Komui broke his silence and asked, "I hope that you won't be using this skill to break into my little sister's room ever again, will you?" The threat was perfectly clear as it laced his words.

"N-No! No siree! Not at all! I wouldn't dream of it!" Note that Johnny was very quick to spill out these words.

"Perfect!" Komui chirped as he clapped his hands together delightfully and smiled. "Now open the door."

"…R-right." Johnny bent down on one knee as he lifted his utensils to the key hole. Komui was fascinated by something he did not know how to do, so he paid special attention and watched closely. First, Johnny put the larger metal stick into the hole and began to slowly turn it to the left. He must have found what he was looking for because he stopped. He froze the hand that was holding the large stick—still in the key hole, and raised his right hand to put the smaller, thinner metal stick in. He turned this slowly to the right and after a few minutes he stopped again. In sync, Johnny jiggled the rods up and down for a few short seconds, and a loud click was heard. (1)

"Hah! There we go!" he said with a triumphant grin.

Johnny opened the door, but allowed Komui to step in first. It was his sister's room, after all.

The room was not very large—none of the rooms in the Order were (except for the generals' rooms). However, Lenalee looked like she made due with whatever she had to make her room look nice. Her walls were plain, but had personal touches to them—photos of exorcists, finders, scientists, and others of the Order decorated her walls. Her window was covered with light lavender curtains that had frills on the bottoms. Her bed was covered with white sheets and a thick purple quilt. The three frilly white pillows she had on her bed were lined neatly against the head board of the bed.

In the corner of room was a large bamboo plant, about four feet tall. Tall as it was, it only had a few shoots growing from the pot. Under the single shelf attached to the wall was a large dresser for storing clothes; a mirror was attached to the dresser. A standard-issued desk and chair were set up right under her window. On the desk was a few blank pieces of paper piled in a neat stack, and strangely enough, on the corner of her desk there was a small potted cactus. Komui let a small smile grace his lips as he remembered how Lenalee said she came into possession of the plant. She had told him that Lavi had given it to her as a gift when he was on a mission to one of the American deserts—he didn't say which desert, though. He had said that it could be her roommate and to call it 'Fernando Bobby Jr.'. Bob for short.

(Neither Lenalee nor Komui have yet to hear what happened to Fernando Bobby Sr.)

Speaking of gifts, from the corner of his eye, Komui spotted two little stuffed animals on a shelf that was attached to the wall. Komui fondly remembered that these were the two little stuffed animals he had given Lenalee when he first came to the Order. One of them was a little bunny in a hat had a white coat and glasses. The second was a little girl with long yarn hair and a pretty pink dress. She had button eyes, but that did not make her appeal go away. What drew Komui to this particular doll were the beautiful butterfly wings that adorned the back of the doll. Komui remembered that he had gotten that particular doll because it reminded him of his dear Lenalee.

When he had come to the Order and presented the gifts to his little sister, she gathered them in her arms and squeezed them close to her chest. Then with a beaming smile, she had told him that she would name the rabbit Komui II because it looked like him, and that the girl doll's name was Lena because the doll had long hair like her and butterfly wings—and butterflies were Lenalee's favorite creature of nature.

Komui was jarred out of his thoughts when he heard Reever speaking to him. "I'm sorry, Reever. Could you repeat that? My mind was somewhere else, I'm afraid."

"Yeah, what would the journal look like?" Reever asked again.

"It would be a simple black journal, with the word 'JOURNAL' printed on the cover and spine. I gave them simple ones so they could add any personal touches that they wanted to them."

"Well I guess we just start looking." Johnny commented.

And look they did. Komui searched through Lenalee's more personal areas of her room like her bed and dresser, while he left Reever and Johnny to search her desk, shelf, etc. In the middle of his searching, Komui thought for a moment. Where would be the most likely place Lenalee would keep her journal? He already checked underneath the mattress and it was not there. Komui knew it had to be somewhere in the area of her bed—he was fairly sure that girls put important things around their beds. If it was not under her mattress, where could it be?

That's when Komui was struck with a moment of divine revelation.

The man snapped his fingers as he dived for one of her frilly covered pillows. He felt the first one—nothing out of the ordinary. Then he felt the second one—same as the first. Then the third one—"Ah hah!" In the back of the pillow, Komui felt a hard rectangular object that was definitely not part of the pillow. He took off the pillow case and, lo and behold, out fell the journal.

"Reever! Johnny! I got the journal!"

Reever turned from the shelf where he was looking in between several cookbooks, and Johnny looked up from where he was on his knees by the bamboo plant. "You seriously got it?" Reever asked.

"Yes! Now fix everything the way it was so we can leave!"


The next room on the list was Kanda's.

After Johnny picked the lock and they entered the room, Komui hurriedly—but quietly—shut the door and locked it. He cast a serious gaze on the two men. "Other than Allen's room, this is probably going to be the most dangerous room. We must make sure everything is in the exact place it was before. Not even a centimeter off! If he catches us, he will flay us within an inch of our li—no, he won't even do that. He will cut us up into tiny, painful little scientist pieces! Then he'll cut those scientists pieces into even smaller scientist pieces! Understand?!"

Johnny and Reever nodded, eyes wide on their now clammy and white faces.

And Komui successfully scared Johnny and Reever even more.

With that threat-warning-whatever spoken, Komui was able to calm himself ever so slightly and look around the room, examining it.

Like Lenalee's room, Kanda's room was small. But unlike Lenalee's room, Kanda's room only had the bare minimum, quite Spartan. The only furniture that was in there was what the Order puts in every room: a small bed and a desk and one shelf that was attached to the wall. It made Komui sad to see that Kanda did not personalize his room very much. Komui knew that Kanda did not even own very many things—only what they Order provided him. That fact made Komui even sadder.

However, what did make Komui feel a bit better was to see Kanda did add just a few personal touches. The biggest one was the window. Instead of regular glass, the window was a beautifully ornate stain-glass window. There were no curtains on the window, but Komui guessed that would have taken away from the beauty of the stain-glass.

Kanda's bed was covered in plain gray sheets and had a simple white pillow on it. At the foot of his bed was a large chest, which Komui knew was for storing clothes. Looking at the chest, his attention was drawn to the floor. Cold, harsh concrete.

There was nothing on the shelf on the wall, only dust. Kanda's desk was under the window—Komui suspected that pretty much everyone in the Order put their desks under their windows for better light; the rooms were pretty much dark when the sun went down—poor lighting. On his desk were scattered papers and pens. Komui suspected that Kanda had probably hastily written a mission report before this…situation occurred.

From his peripheral vision, an hourglass caught Komui's eye from Kanda's brown wooden bedside table. Komui took a few steps before he was standing in front of the hourglass. Floating in the hourglass was one pink lotus blossom. There were several petals at the bottom of the hourglass, but the lotus blossom still had plenty of petals on it. Komui felt a frown pull at his lips slightly. There were not many things that Komui disliked in this world—or even hated. But, this hourglass fit into one of the things that he hated. This lotus mocked Kanda's life. It was a measure of how long he had to live—this little dainty flower was the hindrance to the fierce Kanda Yuu. And, it all tied into the curse tattooed on his chest.

So, yes. Komui hated the damn lotus flower-hourglass-thing.

But, Komui shook his head, clearing away all those negative thoughts. No, I mustn't think like that. Negative thoughts will do me no good. Focus on the positive—focus on finding Kanda's journal, Komui.

Leaving his negative thoughts behind, Komui wondered where Kanda would keep his journal. Really, there were not many places the teen could hide it; the room was almost Spartan in a way. There were no books on the bookshelf, Reever and Johnny already searched his bed, and Komui knew Kanda was not the person to keep his journal with in his clothes chest.

So where would it be?

"Reever, Johnny…I can't think where Kanda would keep his journal. We looked everywhere!" Komui said, annoyed at himself.

Reever and Johnny exchanged a look before looking at Komui. "Did you look under the bedside table, Chief?"

"Under the-?" Komui blinked. Why would he? All there was under that little table was the concrete floor. "Of course not, Reever. All that's there is the concrete floor."

"I meant actually right under the table, Chief. Maybe he taped it under there or something."

"Taped it under-? That's preposterous, Section Leader!" Komui dipped down to his knees to check anyway. "Kanda couldn't be that predictable to—"

And there taped on the underside of the brown little bedside table was one little black journal.

"…I guess he can be that predictable. Reever, Johnny, when this is all over and done with, we are teaching Kanda how to play hide-and-go-seek. Even though it's a game for people, maybe he'll learn how to hide things better…"


Komui checked his watch, black metal hands letting him know that it was four-thirty in the afternoon. Two rooms down and two to go. It should have been easy, right? Wrong. They left Kanda's room and headed to Lavi's since their rooms were on the same floor. Unfortunately, they forgot that while Kanda's and Lavi's rooms were on the same floor, Timothy's room was also on that exact floor.

So naturally they ran into the one and only Timothy Hearst.

The continuous click-clack sound of speedy wheels on stone alerted them to their new visitor. Komui panicked. They could not get caught now, even by a small child! They were so close. But, there was nowhere to hide! The three men looked desperately around for somewhere they could go: a room, another corridor, a window even. But Lady Fate decided not to smile upon them today and instead decided to keep them in this hallway that had no way of escape—no windows, no doors, no adjacent hallways—nothing.

Within their few minutes of distracted panicking, Timothy was able to catch up with them. He rolled up and around to the front of their motley little group. A cheshire grin was plastered on his face. "Sooo," he dragged out, "what'cha doin'?" Komui could tell from the unholy grin on his face that although the little blue-haired boy did know exactly what they were doing, he did know that it was something important. "Something, Timothy." Komui answered. "And we need to hurry. So you must move, please."

"I saw you leave Girly-Man's room. Ooooh~! When he finds out, you guys are gonna be in soooo much trouble!"

"Timothy! You can't tell anyone that we are here!"Johnny said.

The young Innocence user cocked his head to the side, grin still on his face. "Why not? You guys are breakin' the N.O.R."

Komui supposed that right now, honesty was the best policy. "We're looking for something that could help Allen, Lavi, Kanda, and Lenalee."

Timothy straightened his form from its formerly relaxed posture, grin disappearing from his face and he blinked. "Clown-bro?"

Komui nodded. "Yes, I suppose you've heard what happened to them, yes?"

Timothy nodded and a sad look marred his normally happy, young face. He scrunched up his eyebrows and crossed his arms in a self-conscious manner. "Y-yeah…I heard. I wanted to see Clown-bro—and the others, too—but the Nurse lady won't let any visitors in!" He stomped his foot, the wheels of his roller-skate clacking loudly. "It's not fair!"

The group looked on silently as they watched Timothy sniffle and desperately try to prevent any tears from falling out of his overly bright eyes. The child itched his eyes and sniffed some more.

Komui's face softened. He felt bad for Timothy. One, he knew that Timothy hated to cry—especially in front of other people. Secondly, Timothy was not allowed to see his friends. The only ones who knew the true condition of the four exorcists were their masters, the Head Nurse, and Komui, Johnny, and Reever. No one else knew exactly what happened to them. All that they knew was that they were badly injured. Because of the sensitive nature of the situation, the only people who could visit Allen, Kanda, Lenalee, and Lavi were the ones who knew the true nature of the situation. No one else was allowed to visit, unfortunately.

The dark haired man walked forward and gently set a hand on the child's messy blue hair. Timothy blinked and the frustrated and sad look melted from his childish face, replaced by a slightly surprised one. Still with one hand on Timothy's head, Komui sank down to one knee and made eye contact with the young Hearst, using his free hand to wipe the tears from the French boy's damp eyes. Komui's eyes were kind and his smile was gentle. In a soothing voice he told the boy, "Don't worry, Timothy. They wouldn't want you to cry over them, especially Allen. They're just resting up so that they'll be at one hundred percent strength to visit you! Yes, they got hurt, but the Head Nurse is taking care of them. I'm sure when he's all rested up, your Clown-bro will be very happy to see you. So, why don't you hang out with the other scientists? Maybe they can help you make something for Allen. You know how much he likes your little gifts, right?"

Timothy rubbed his eyes and bobbed his head in a little nod, giving Komui a small smile. "Y-yeah. 'Kay. Thanks, Komui."

Komui watched still bent down as Timothy skated away from the group and probably on his way to the science department. Komui stood up and dusted off his white pants as he turned to Johnny and Reever. "Well, let's get going!"

All they just did was stare at him.

"…What?"

They stared some more.

"…Komui," Johnny spoke with wide eyes, "since when is Timothy ever that complacent? To anyone?!"

"And since when is he so cooperative with you?! He's like the second coming of Lavi. Most of the time, all he just does is prank you!" Reever exclaimed as they started walking again toward Lavi's room.

Komui shook his head with a fond smile. These guys were used to working more with machines than children. Sure, they were okay with teenagers (for most part), but Komui had more experience than them when it came to children. He had raised Lenalee since their parents had been killed by an Akuma. He was used to tears, sniffles, angry outbursts—the works. Komui knew that Timothy missed his friends dearly, and it was really frustrating him that he could not see them. When Timothy had started to cry in front of them, Komui knew they had been tears of frustration and sadness—and a bit of embarrassment. Timothy had a strong sense of pride and thus hated to cry in front of others. So, Komui knew what to do: he comforted Timothy's unease about of his incapacitated friends. Soft words and a kind smile were the best approach to ease a child's mind—even a child as crass as Timothy Hearst.

Komui responded their questions. "All I'm going to say is if you had raised a kid, you would understand."

Before they knew it they were in front of the red-haired pseudo-bookman's door. "You know the deal, Johnny."

Johnny picked the lock in under a minute. Really" Komui mused half impressed and half amused as he stepped through the door, he's quite good at this.

What hit Komui first was the sharp smell of ink and the musk of parchment (and they typical teenage boy smell). "Holy crap!" Reever shouted behind him. Holy crap, indeed. If Kanda's room was the bare minimum, then Lavi's room was a mess. And that was an understatement.

His room was a little larger than Kanda's room, but Komui seemed that Lavi must have guessed that meant more room for all his mess. Lavi had large wooden bookshelves that were as tall as the ceiling, all filled with multitudes of different books. His stone walls were all covered with different newspaper clippings and maps. Closer inspection of the maps showed them to be very detailed maps of Africa, Europe, the Americas, Russia, the poles, and the Orient. Throughout his room, there were tall stacks of papers—as tall as the bookshelves—that looked to be random, but Komui could not have known for sure. They looked precariously balanced, like they were about to fall down at the slightest touch. (2)

His bed and desk were the only semi organized spots in the teen's room. The desk was, like the other rooms, under the window—which had been drawn with mahogany colored curtains. As Komui carefully stepped toward the desk he could see that there were scattered mission reports that Lavi still had not turned in. Komui sniffed. Well, he guessed he could not really be the one to reprimand Lavi when he himself still had not done his paperwork that still littered the floor of his office. Komui turned to Lavi's bed and saw a few open, large books spread across the cream sheets. There was a particularly large one that was propped up against a big green pillow.

"You know, considering Lavi's been a Bookman and still kinda is, I'd a thought that his room would be neater than this," Johnny commented.

"How…how in the hell are we supposed to search this mess?!" Reever shouted as he looked at the room dismally.

"Only one way to find out, Reever," Komui said as he adjusted his glasses as a determined look came upon his face. "We just have to start."

And start they did. Komui felt like they had been searching for at least an hour now. It took Komui half an hour to search between all the books in only one of Lavi's bookshelves, and the other half hour he had spent searching in the books. Komui's head swam with all the different titles and things he read from Lavi's shelf. Lavi had a wide range of subjects—Arithmetic; Geometry; French, Russian, English, Italian, and Spanish literature; history of the Fine Arts; folktales from the Middle East and the Oriental counties; even books on engineering! There were many more subjects, but they were too many to list.

"Ugh…" Komui removed his glasses and wearily rubbed his dark eyes.

Komui now thought he agreed with Reever's earlier question. How in the hell would they find the journal in this mess? "Ah!" A loud shout from behind him pulled Komui out of his thoughts. He spun sharply on his heel and turned to see poor Johnny buried under a large pile of papers and magazines that had fallen on him. Reever was trying—and failing—to dig him out.

"Johnny!" The Chinese scientist shouted. He turned to the Australian. "What happened?!"

Reever paused in his struggle to save his friend from death by paper suffocation. "We were just about to search through this huge stack of papers and magazines, and just as Johnny took one paper out, the whole damn thing fell on top of him!"

Johnny's muffled voice came through the multitudes of papers. Komui and Reever looked at each other. "What?" Reever asked. Komui shrugged his shoulders as he and Reever started to dig through the messy pile. Within five minutes, the managed to free Johnny. The American sat up sharply and took in a large breath of air. His thick glasses were knocked askew and he had a lopsided grin on his face. "Heh, heh heh! Thanks, guys. I thought I was gonna be trapped in there forever!"

"Not a problem, Johnny." Reever grinned back.

"And, hey! Look what I found!" In his held up hand was the exact object they were looking for: Lavi's journal.

Komui paused and blinked owlishly as he stared at the journal in Johnny's hand. "How…"

Johnny gave a small laugh. "When the pile fell on me, the journal kinda fell on my face."

Reever was the one who spoke this time. "Wow," he said as he pulled Johnny up from the mess of papers and magazines. "I'll be damned. I don't think we have been this lucky in a while."

"Yeah!" Johnny said with a huff as he adjusted himself. "But let's get out of here. This place is such a mess that Lavi will probably think that the tower of papers fell down on its own."

Now that Komui looked around the room for a second time, Komui took back his earlier statement about Lavi's room. Yes, the bedroom was a mess, but it was an organized mess. Lavi seemed to have his own little system for 'organizing' all the books and papers and magazines in his rooms. It was organized chaos.

And that was just like Lavi was as a person—a mass of chaos that could be kept under control. It was a paradox, but it made sense.

"Yes," Komui said. "One more room to go."

Yeah, one room to go—the hardest room; the room that would come with the most repercussions if they were caught.

The room of one Allen Walker.


Allen's room was not on the same floor as Lavi and Kanda. When Allen became a general, he had been moved out of his room and into the generals' wing. Of course, he had refused at first, and it had taken Kanda, Lavi, and Link to drag him to his new quarters. A general's room was much larger and grandiose than a normal exorcist's room. The British teen had said that it did not make sense for him to get better living arrangements than his friends just because he was of a higher rank. He had put up a fight between the four of them, and it took a while for Link to slap some seals on him. Even with the seals on him, the two exorcists and one (ex) Crow had a tough time getting him to his new room.

It was mostly Neah's fault.

Anyway, since they had to sneak through the generals' wing, it was going to be very difficult. If they were caught by them, all of their hard work would be down the toilet. Komui was very, very much hoping that they would not run into any of the generals. Cross and Tiedoll would understand; they were the ones who suggested about the journals (well, Cross did).

Their fast-paced steps echoed throughout the stone corridors. They had to hurry before they ran into anyone. Within a few minutes, they could see the French double doors of Allen's room just up ahead which was at the end of this hallway. Yes! They were almost there! And just as they were a few steps from Allen's room, a gruff, deep voice resonated throughout the corridor. "Hello, retards."

Reever spewed a colorful string of profanities in surprise and Johnny let out a startled shriek as they both spun around. Komui flinched at the unexpected voice but remained calm. He turned slightly to the right and faced the voice that resonated from a hallway that conjoined with the one they were in. Obscured partially by the shadows, leaning on the wall was none other than General Cross. The red-haired man had his long tresses tied back and was not wearing his exorcist coat. A cigarette rested in his mouth and Komui watched as lazy smoke clouds drifted from the thing. The general had a glass of some sort of amber liquid close to his mouth in his left hand, and his right hand supported his elbow. Under closer inspection, Komui could take a pretty good guess and say that it was either some sort of brandy or scotch. (3)

"Hello, Cross," Komui said politely.

He nodded his head to the man, "Komui." Then he nodded at Reever and Johnny, "Retards." Komui had a strong feeling that the only reason Johnny and Reever did not want to say something back to the (rude) womanizing general was because they did not want to be killed be him.

Smart men.

Cross took an idle sip from his glass. "So, what are you science people doing up here in the generals' wing?" he muttered from behind the rim of his glass.

Again, Komui decided that honesty would be the best policy. "You told us to look for the journals. We already found three of the teens' journals. All we need to find is Allen's. So, we are searching Allen's room for his journal.

Now that he thought about it, Cross's reaction was quite comical. The red-haired man's still lit cigarette fell out of his mouth and he choked on his sip of alcohol. He pounded his chest a few times, coughed again, and cleared his throat. Cross looked at him with a wide red eye from behind his glasses, and with a slightly scratchier voice than his normal gruff one, he said, "You're going in the idiot's room?! Are you crazy?" He said that as if they were about to do something incomprehensible.

Komui was surprised by the general's reaction. He was the one who suggested the whole thing! Why was he so surprised?

"Why so shocked? You were the one who suggested we go look for the journals!"

Cross still looked wide-eyed. "Yeah, I did. But, I didn't think you would actually go into the idiot's room! I thought the kid hid his journal somewhere in the Ark or with Tim or something. Jesus fuckin' Christ, I don't even go into my apprentice's room! I don't even try to go into my apprentice's room without his permission. If even I don't go into my idiot's room, what does that tell you? Sounds like pussyfoot move, but the N.O.R. is in the Order for a reason! You think an angry Allen is bad? Try having an angry Allen with an angry Neah to back him up—with full Innocence and Noah powers. I tried going into that room when the idiot wasn't here and I got caught. All I'm gonna say is that it wasn't pretty and I still have scars I got for him-them-whatever."

Komui, Reever, and Johnny looked at the red-haired general with faces as pale as chalk and eyes as wide as dinner plates. Allen gave Cross scars? And General Cross is afraid to go into his apprentice's room? That in and of itself seemed so backwards, and it made them even more worried for what they were about to do.

Cross started to speak again. "So there is no way in hell I'm gonna be anywhere near here when you guys are ransacking through my idiot's room. I'm just going to say this one thing…" He paused.

"Good luck not dying when you're caught." And with that he turned around swiftly walked down the hallway he had been leaning on, away from the group of gaping scientists.

Silence reigned amongst the three men for several minutes before any of them spoke. "Komui…," Reever asked in a quiet voice quite uncharacteristic of the Australian man.

"…Yes, Section Leader?"

"…What the hell have we gotten ourselves into…?"

"…"

"…"

"…I don't think I know anymore."

"…"

"Johnny, just…just pick the lock so we can get this over with."

"S-Sure thing, Komui."

In no time at all, Johnny picked the locks to the double French doors of Allen's room. He took a step back and they all looked at the doors for a second or two, pretty much mentally preparing themselves for what they were about to do. Komui took a deep breath, stepped forward, and pushed the doors in. They quickly stepped inside, closed the doors, and locked them. Then they stood on a large and circular wine-red rug in the middle of Allen's room, gaping at Allen's room.

Sure, they knew that a general's room was glamorous, but Allen's room was simply beautiful. It was a balance of light and dark. It had a calming feeling to it, yet there was also an eerie air present in the room as well. (4)

The walls were painted a creamy white and the trims were a deep black. Some of the walls were a plain cream while others had patterns painted on them—checkered, thatched, or long swirls—they were painted delicately in gleaming raven-black. A little ways in front of them was a large canopy bed, large enough to fit three people comfortably, four people semi-comfortably. The sheets were black silk and the pillows were large and silver. The thick curtains that spilled in waves around the canopy were a deep russet color that to Komui, looked jarringly like dried blood. On each side of the bed was a small table with a lamp on each side. At the end of the bed was what looked to be a ball one would normally see at a circus, strangely enough; it was about the size of a human child. It was a deep purple with silver and gold stars on it. Next to the circus ball was a chest, one normally used to hold clothing.

A large semicircle bloated the room's walls outwards on the left side. What lined these walls were a bookshelf and large floor-to-ceiling windows, the borders trimmed in a tasteful black. The curtains of these windows were the russet-blood color like the curtains of the canopy bed were. In this area, Allen had a large pillowed chair that sat next to a wooden round table. Around the –table were two smaller wooden chairs. On the table were an open book and an empty porcelain cup. Next to the large pillowed chair was a fireplace that was currently dead, no flames and embers warming the room and dispersing it with its pleasant smell. Above the fireplace was a framed eerie poster of…well, Komui was not sure. It looked to be of a creepy shackled clown that was being led somewhere. It was holding a large coffin on its back and had unnatural features. Since it was framed and looked to be kept in good condition—it was polished and gleaming in the light—it must have had some significant meaning to Allen. That meaning, however, was lost to Komui.

On the right side of the room, the floor leveled down as steps led to a large piano. The wall on this side was an entire glossy and gleaming mirror, reflecting the figures of Komui, Johnny, and Reever right back at them. The piano was not a large one, certainly not as large as a baby grand piano, but it was still a decent size. The piano looked to be well cared for; it was a glossy silver—a sign of being well polished. There was no dust on the piano, and honestly, it looked like it was brand new. But, Komui had the feeling it was not.

Sitting against to the mirror wall, being supported by black metal stands, were a large cello and a good-looking violin. Komui guessed that Allen had really taken a liking to the art of music since his merge with his Noah genes. Before he came to the Order, Allen had told Komui that he did not have the ability to even play an instrument. Komui heard Allen play his piano once, and that was through a communicator when the white-haired teen was on the Ark.

Now that I think about it, it is kind of strange that Allen hasn't played for us. I haven't heard any kind of music from him since the Ark incident. Was Allen embarrassed to play in front of them? Komui did not know.

Continuing his examination of the room, Komui saw a door in the one of the corners of the large room. The tall man suspected that is was probably a closet, and looking inside he was right. It was almost bare, just a few of Allen's heavier winter wear and his one good tuxedo hanging. What was quite perplexing was the large pile of broken glass that looked to be thrown at the back of the closet. Why on earth would this be here? Why not dispose of it? He decided not to dwell on it for too long as there was more searching to do. Perhaps the reason would be stated in Allen's jounral. There was also another door, this one being open, and Komui could see that the room the door opened to was a private bathroom.

"…Allen's room is…" Reever trailed off.

"Wow," Johnny supplied.

"Yeah, wow."

Shaking himself out of his daze, Komui turned to his two companions. "Even though Allen's room is large, it is a lot neater than Lavi's room was. However, there are a lot of places in this room where he could have hid his journal in this room. Also, need I remind you that we must put everything back in its exact place?"

"No," came the collective answer.

"Good. Why don't we each just start with a section of the room, hmm?" Komui suggested.

"I'll take the bookshelf area since I know Johnny wouldn't want to go near any books for a while," Reever said.

"Thanks, Reever," Johnny said half sarcastically and half actually meaning it. "I'll look around the piano and the other instruments."

Komui nodded. "Then I will take his bed, bedside tables, and the chest. Hopefully we'll all find something soon. Then we won't need to spend any more time in here than we have to."

So began the search. Komui could hear Reever flitting through the books, and from the corner of his eye, he could see Johnny carefully searching around the instruments. Komui could see why he was being careful; if any harm came to any of the instruments, Allen—and probably Neah as well—would have their heads. Turning his attention back to his own search, Komui looked through the silk sheets and fluffy pillows of the large bed. He found nothing. He even looked under the bed, and he found nothing (except dust bunnies). Then he looked around and under both of the bedside tables. Again, he found nothing.

Taking a few steps around the bed, he found himself standing in front of the wooden chest at the foot of the bed. His attention flickered to the colorful circus ball and then back to the chest. Komui dipped to the floor and knelt on his knees in front of the chest. To his surprise, the chest was unlocked! With careful hands, the man slowly lifted the chest's lid.

"This feels like an awful invasion of privacy," Komui muttered under his breath, guilt making his stomach turn. "Sorry, Allen."

There were clothes in the chest, but they were not clothes that Komui expected. He had expected travelling cloaks or something of the like. Instead, he surprisingly found clown clothes. He gingerly lifted up one article of clothing. It was child-sized and it was a white full clown suit. It had a large, frilled collar and two large red buttons on the torso of the clown suit. The sleeves were orange and poofy, and the legs were poofy as well, but they were blue. After a moment of looking at the child-sized clown suit, Komui set it pack in the chest. In the chest he could see two pairs of pointy slippers, one pair was child-sized and the other looked to be Allen's current shoe size. The child-sized shoes were brown and the normal sized ones were a dark grey with purple accents. Komui saw another clown suit in the chest and he lifted it up. This one looked to be Allen's size. This clown suit's main color was white, like the child's suit had been. The large frilled collar was a deep purple as were the large frilled cuffs at the arms. The oversized buttons were a deep mahogany-red and so were the arms of the suit. The pants of the suit were just a plain white but they had deep purple stars on them which eerily reminded Komui of the Akuma pentacles he often saw; the legs ended a little past where the knees would be. In the chest, Komui saw stockings that were a striped black-and-red pattern. Also in the chest were little jars of colorful paint—Komui guessed it was face paint—and a small hand mirror.

As Komui set down the large clown suit, a thought occurred to him suddenly. All this stuff must be from Allen's time in the circus. The child-sized clown suit would make sense, but why would Allen need one that is his size now? Did he ever use it recently? Komui chided himself. He should not be so nosy! That was Allen's business, not his. Plus, the clown items were during Allen's time with Mana, his precious person. So, this stuff had a lot of meaning to Allen. Suddenly, Komui's mouth tasted like dirt. He felt like he was desecrating Allen's precious things! He started fixing everything in the chest back to the state it had been before. As he was doing so, his hand bumped into something. He fished around and felt for the object his hand had bumped into, and he pulled it out.

Held in his hand in front of his face was the journal of one Allen Walker.

It took Komui about a minute to comprehend what he had in his hand.

And after the minute passed…

"Johnny, Reever!" he exclaimed ecstatically. "I found Allen's journal!"

"You did?"

"Where was it?!"

"It was in this chest! Let's hurry up so we can leave."

Komui made sure everything was in order in the chest before he closed it gently. He dusted off his knees and turned toward the doors. Before he took a step, he took another glance at the colorful circus ball.

He smiled.


Published: 1/6/13; Edited: 1/30/16

A/N: I honestly tried to make this chapter short, but it seems like I couldn't do so. Thanks to you guys who reviewed the previous chapter! (My internet is being all wonky and it's not letting me access my review list, so I can't put you guys' names on here) My favorite part is the part with Timothy, the run-in with Cross, and Allen's room~! :)

What's your favorite part?

A/N 2: Oh yeah! Please let me know if anyone seems OC! I really have trouble writing Johnny and Reever, so tell me how I did. Also, I was going to put what the teens actually wrote in their journals, but it was getting too long. Sorry! That'll be in the next chapter!

(1) I, in no way know how to lock pick. I actually took this little process from Assassin's Creed III. That's how they lock-pick in the game. I don't know if that's how you would even lock-pick in real life…

(2) I based Lavi's mess of a room off of the phrase "an organized mess". I got the vision of the old-timey newspaper rooms where there would be super tall stacks of paper everywhere. Each stack of papers is a different subject. Plus, he is/was a Bookman, so he kind of lives on "organized chaos".

(3) I have no idea if it's possible to smoke and drink at the same time.

(4) I think you guys can tell I favor Allen over all the other exorcists. However I do try to treat them all equally. (But Allen is Allen, and he's a general, so his room is so much more fun to describe!)