I feel someone gently poke me in an attempt to wake me. "Please, five more minutes." I mumble. Then I feel someone shove me out of my seat. I shriek. "Okay, okay, I'm awake!" I exclaim, now fully awake. I glare at Kanda from where I am on the floor.
"Che. You didn't wake up when Allen tried." Kanda tells me, obviously annoyed. I roll my eyes.
"Fine then, let's go!" I snap back.
"We'll be there in five minutes." States Kanda as he leans back into his seat.
"But that's all I wanted! Five more minutes! I'm ready to go when ever!" I cross my arms as I finish. Kanda offers nothing in response, he just turns to look out the train window. I sigh with frustration. This guy has a way of getting on your nerves. I mean when we got on the train he wouldn't tell me or Allen anything about the mission. He just ignored us! So we found out from the finder that we're on a mission to recover innocence. So after about an hour or so I decided to go to sleep. So I got like 2 hours, before mister angry teddy bear decided to wake me.
I run my fingers through my hair, then say apologetically, "I'm sorry Kanda. I didn't mean to get so annoyed with you. It's just I don't like being woken up like that."
No response. I sigh again and look at Allen. But instead of Allen I see a guy with a long blonde ponytail. I let out a little scream of surprise. "Who the heck is that?" I exclaim and question anyone who's willing to answer.
"Sorry, Miaka!" Comes Allen's voice from behind me. I quickly turn to look at him as he continues, "That's Howard Link. You'll see a lot of him."
"Why?" I ask, still slightly shaky from all these surprises.
"Because his job is to shadow me to make sure that I'm not the fourteenth." Allen explains somewhat casually. Then he realizes that I'm still staring at him looking clueless. "Uh, well the fourteenth is a Noah and I have is memories, but please don't judge me because of it!" Allen pleads desperately.
I just grin at him and say somewhat mysteriously, "Trust me, we all have something slightly strange about us, something we might even want to hide. I know I'm not an exception."
Allen looks at me curiously. Why'd I just say that? I feel the train come to a stop and to my relief Kanda gets up and hauls me off the ground while saying, "Come on let's get this over with."
Allen's* Point * of * View
The cool summer evening breeze whispers over my face as I look at the town below. The wind seems to be saying the town is calm and peaceful. But I refuse to buy into this lie. Usually, where there is innocence there is chaos. Akuma will probably be swarming around. We'll be lucky to find a single human, for my eye has already started to react to the town even from this distance.
I glance at Miaka who is crouching down while gazing at the town with the wind blowing her hair away from her face. She seems to be acting slightly different. And by different, I mean strange. Sure I haven't known her all that long, but she seems like she…. I don't even know. Ever since she said the whole thing about being different and maybe even having something to hide she's been acting… Distant. Like she really might have something to hide.
"We should split up to look for the innocence." Kanda says, breaking me out of my reverie.
"Who should go with who?" I ask.
"Well, I don't want to be stuck with either of you so, Bean sprout, you and Miaka can go off and look." He replies, seeming annoyed as always.
"What about you?" Miaka asks as she stands.
"Che." Kanda says and walks off. "Just don't do anything stupid you two." He adds.
"He'll be going alone." I say then add, "Well, we should probably go look to."
"Okay." Miaka agrees, still seeming distant. I look at her questioningly, but she either doesn't realize it or just ignores it and begins walking down the hill towards the town. I sigh. What is going on with this new exorcist?
We walk down in silence. When we reach the edge of town, Miaka breaks the silence by asking, "Does it hurt?"
"What?" I ask, unsure of what she means.
"Your eye. There must be a lot of Akuma." She tells me with out looking at me, just staring off into the town.
"Um, well sort of and yes. I can already sense quite a few souls." I say as I hear footsteps behind me. I turn around and see Link following us a little distance behind. I turn around and see Miaka already heading into the town. I sigh and follow after her.
The town is so dark. The beaten dirt path barely visible. The houses look rather run down. But something ahead of me catches my attention. There seems to be a glowing, electric blue light right in front of Miaka. I run to catch up with her to see what it is.
"Miaka, do you see that light?" I ask, making sure it's not just my imagination. She turns to look at me and I reel back in shock. The eerie blue light is coming from her half closed eyes.
"It's so close." Miaka mumbles, looking at me, but it seemed as if she wasn't seeing me. As if she was seeing something off in the distance.
"Miaka are you-" Before I can finish I feel a sharp pain in my left eye. An Akuma! Before I can turn around I feel something stab me in the arm. I let out a cry of pain. I grit my teeth and look behind me, and sure enough it's a level three. I feel the virus beginning to spread through my left arm. I reach down to rip the bullet out of my arm.
"What's wrong exorcists?" Comes the Akuma's voice.
"Innocence, activate!" I shout. As my innocence activates I can feel my blood being cleansed, but there is still a large gash where the bullet hit.
Suddenly, the Akuma flies past me to Miaka and says, "There seems to be something wrong with her. And I've never been one to try to fix what's been broken. I like to destroy things that are broken!" The Akuma laughs as it lifts its claw over Miaka's head, who still seems to be in that strange daze.
I lunge towards the Akuma and stop its attack on Miaka. "Crown Clown Belt!" I shout. The Akuma begins to laugh.
"That's all you've got!" It exclaims. "You're dead."
I smirk at him then say, "Cross Grave." Immediately a cross forms over the Akuma and it explodes. I fall to the ground and run over to Miaka. I put one of my hands on her shoulder and ask, "Miaka, can you hear me? Miaka?" Suddenly, her head jerks up and she darts around to my back. I feel my hand slipping away from her shoulder. Only a second after she's behind my back, I hear the sound of flesh being pierced. I jump to the side and turn around quickly. I see Miaka falling to the ground with blood gushing from her body. As she falls I see her arm throw an arrow at something. I glance up and see the arrow hit a level two Akuma and the Akuma explode.
I hear her body fall to the ground with a thump. I look back at her and start towards her, but more Akuma appear. They all appear to be level one. I jump up towards one and slice it in half with my claw. I move from Akuma to Akuma trying to move as fast as possible so if possible, I can stop Miaka's bleeding.
"Crown Clown Belt!" I say as I finish the last Akuma off. I fall onto the ground out of breath. I reach towards my injured arm, which is still bleeding. I grimace as I pull myself off the ground and stumble towards Miaka.
"Miaka." I pant as I crouch down next to her. She looks up at me, her face ashen white. I see tears forming in her bright blue eyes that are no longer glowing.
"I'm sorry." She gasps in between breaths. "It's my fault."
"No, it's not. Look, you're not aloud to die on the first mission!" I exclaim. Tears begin to slide down her cheeks. Not from pain it seems, but from something more like sorrow.
"I couldn't let you-" She begins to cough violently. When the cough stops I see a trickle of blood on her lips. "die now." She manages to finish. More tears stream down her face. I feel my eyes begin to water.
"Stop! Don't talk!" I can't let her die! Something inside of me tells me to protect her. It's different from the feeling I get when Lenalee's in danger. It's more like one might feel towards a sibling ,I think. I scoop Miaka up in my arms. I hold her close in a hug, feeling both her tears and her blood beginning to soak my clothes.
I know I can't carry her to get help, because of my injured arm. And I can't just leave her. The Akuma would come. Where's Link? I look over Miaka shoulder with tears on my cheeks to see if the blond exorcist was any where nearby. No. This might be it for her. I don't know how I can help. If Link were around he could at least stop the bleeding that's coming from her torso and shoulder.
"One day, tell him I'm sorry and I love him." I hear Miaka whisper. Was this her death wish? Who is he? Could it really be the end for her?
"How sweet!" I look up from Miaka's shoulder and see a level two Akuma with it's gun arm pointed straight at us. Maybe it's the end of the both of us.