The market was still crowded despite the time, although some vendors were beginning to pack up. There were mothers shopping with gaggles of children, elderly couples walking hand-in-hand, husbands and wives squabbling over what a fair price for flour was. Kanda half-expected Allen to come bounding up to him, bag of food in one hand, mission paperwork in the other, with an apple tucked in his mouth. Kanda had somehow grown accustomed to the incoherent attempts at conversation Moyashi made while eating. For being a gentlemanly British boy, Allen had terrible manners when it came to food.
A scream ripped through the market, and the crowd churned as people searched for the source. Kanda, pulled back to the present and out of his memories, slipped through the crowd and honed in on the source of the commotion.
A few yards away a young woman sat on the ground, sobbing about how she'd been tricked and her wallet had been stolen. A man—presumably her fiancé, although Kanda avoided assuming such things—scolded her for trusting a nasty street urchin. Street urchin?
"What did he look like?" Kanda asked. His voice was harsh and the fiancé noticed.
The woman choked back a sob and hobbled to her feet. "He was just a poor scrawny little thing," she said, "I usually don't indulge them, but he was just so small and his arm was so hideous I couldn't help but—"
"Where'd he go?" Kanda interrupted. The woman pointed up the street.
"I saw him turn into one of those alleys. Are you going to get my wallet back?"
Kanda adjusted Mugen's strap and simply said, "No."
He began sprinting down the road and glancing into every alley and side street, pausing to analyze any and all movement until finally, finally, he found a scrawny child crouched behind a rubbish bin, sifting through a small purse.
"Oi, Moyashi!" Kanda shouted. The child stood and turned to face Kanda.
His hair was reddish-brown and tied back in a messy ponytail, his face was dirty, and he was underfed and scrawny. He had an oversized mitten tied around his left hand.
"You a dollymop? The bloody hell you want?" the boy spat.
This couldn't be Allen Walker.
"What the fuck is a dollymop?" Kanda asked before he could stop himself.
He looked nothing like the Allen Kanda knew. But his eyes… they were definitely Allen's eyes. Despite a heavy layer of rage and distrust, his eyes were that familiar defiant silver.
"A judy. A ladybird. You daft or sommat?"
"A ladybird? You think I'm a woman?" Komui was right. Allen didn't remember Kanda.
The boy scoffed and folded his arms, carefully tucking his mitten-covered hand into his armpit.
"Hair like that, you look it. What're you then? A nobbler? A mandrake?" The boy took a step back and bared his teeth. "I won't let you dab me!"
Kanda dug his nails into Mugen's hilt and pressed the palm of his hand to his forehead.
"Would you speak English, Moy—" The rest of the name stuck to Kanda's tongue and refused to be said. Calling Allen Moyashi while he was in this condition was… Kanda couldn't do it, for some reason.
"I am speaking the Queen's English. What're you, a Chinaman? You still haven't answered my question: the bloody hell you want with me?"
The wallet Allen had been rummaging through had mysteriously vanished, although the bulge in Allen's sleeve hinted that he wasn't as good at making things disappear as he would be once he was a sixteen-year-old cardshark.
"Will you just shut up and come with me?"
The boy stepped away until his back was against the dirty brick wall and he bared his teeth again. A front tooth was missing, leaving a gaping hole that certainly made him appear less menacing than he intended.
"No. The hell I will."
Kanda gritted his teeth and reached out to grasp Allen's arm. "No, you're fucking coming with me right now, and that's—"
Allen pushed himself away from the wall and barreled into Kanda's stomach, shoving him down onto the ground and knocking the wind out of him. A swift kick to the ribs nearly had Kanda choking and then—Allen was gone.
Kanda fought to catch his breath and stared up at the cloudy sky. Without even realizing it, he had let his fucking guard down in front of this child. For a split second, shame burned across his face.
It was only once he sat up that he realized Mugen was gone as well.