Tainted Innocence

Chapter #5

"What a useless akuma." Overlooking the crater filled flower field in an area that wouldn't cast shadow, sat a petite girl on a flying umbrella.

"I agree, Lero." The flying umbrella was able to talk from its pumpkin like head.

"I had higher hopes for it than that." The girl sighed. She then stood up on the umbrella, placing her hands on her hips. "That exorcist…"

"Which exorcist, Lero?"

The girl said nothing, staring at the flowers with a blank expression.

Where have I seen her before?

"Good job on completing your first mission, Sin." Komui smiled, placing the 'MISSION ACCOMPLISHED' papers on his mysteriously clean desk.

Reever…Sin and Lenalee thought, almost proudly, of the Science Division leader. They imagined him flying off with a tired but happy expression, a halo above his head, whilst waving goodbye. You did well.

"Now you'll need to complete the mission report. Since it's your first time doing it, Lenalee will help you." The Chief nodded towards his sister.

Sin nodded, a light smile on her lips. She was happy that she completed her mission successfully, but she felt sad for the fate of those taken by the offers of the Millennium Earl.

"Let's go fill it out now." Lenalee sat Sin down on the comfortable chairs in the room, showing her the ropes of how to do this and that.

Komui watched them with a smile on his face. While they were gone on their mission, Reever had been kind enough to clean out his whole office for him, pulling an all-nighter to do so. He even made his favourite Blue Mountain coffee for him in the morning when he was pleasantly surprised by how clean his office was.

'You suck', he said…naw, he loves me enough to do this for me, Komui thought with a grin.

On a side note…The Chief thought back to when he had visited Hevlaska during the week that the two females were gone. Hevlaska had called him down to tell him something, but when he did reach the bottom levels of the building, she didn't say much or tell him the actual reason she wanted him there.

It was like she was afraid of telling me something. Just what did she want to tell me? Komui thought with a serious expression. 'Komui, that person...watch them closely', is what she said. She didn't even mention who it was that she was talking about. Hm…she could be talking about anyone, really.

While busy in his own thoughts, Komui sat there with a concentrated expression fixated on the desk and his coffee mug.

Lenalee and Sin were finishing up the report, and were almost done. It was a tedious but simple task after missions, but it had to be done.

"We're done!" Sin grinned and looked through the papers once again for confirmation, then placed them on Komui's desk.

"Ah, good work." Komui snapped out of his thoughts and smiled. "You can take the rest of the day off."

"But it's evening…" Lenalee sweat dropped.

"Oh, I mean you can take the rest of the night off, then."

Sin ended up alone after finishing the report with Lenalee. She had stayed with her brother, and thus didn't come with her to chill.

What am I going to do now…the library? Training? I don't really want to do either…maybe I should talk to Jerry. Nah, I guess I'll just go to sleep or something.

She sighed to herself and went back to her room, gathering up the things that she needed for a bath.

Once she was in the large bathing area, she slipped in and just sat there, staring at the steam that lifted off the water.

…what am I doing? She sighed to herself, leaning her back against a rock.

I managed to finish my first mission…successfully. Does that mean I'll be going on more missions from now on?

I'm not even good at combat. I'll just be in the way. To be honest, I hope Kanda helps me out a little more. Even though he's kind of edgy and just angry all the time. Maybe I should get the Finders to help me? They should know some basic martial arts among other skills…

I wonder what the others would think…that I'm doing this kind of stuff. They probably wouldn't even know I was doing something like this! Sin chuckled and a smile graced her lips.

Now that I think about it…I don't think I've ever seen an akuma near us when I was travelling with them…does that mean that they'll continue to be safe?

Sin shook her head, trying to get rid of the possibility that they would get hurt, No! Don't think that! They're going to be fine!

I wonder if Eeez is fine…his illness shouldn't be too hard to handle, would it? I'm no court doctor though, so I don't know how to treat it…I wonder if he's been like that his whole life…I hope the others don't overexert him.

"Ah." Sin had a sudden thought.

Maybe I should go to the library after this to see if there is anything I can learn from the medical section. It might even help him, and possibly some other people. And—

Sin's thought got broken halfway when the look of many familiar people's faces flashed into her mind. They were villagers, but they were happy. She remembered them fondly.

—I hope that I can help them if I ever get that knowledge.

"What are you doing, Tyki?" A petite girl with spiky dark purple hair and matching eyes, poked the taller male with her pumpkin headed umbrella.

She looked like a little kid, wearing a dress that was from middle-class or higher. It almost matched the umbrella's design.

"Ow! That hurts, Lero!" The pumpkin headed umbrella complained with a crying face. However, the girl ignored him, to only continue it at a faster pace.

"Road, cut it out." Tyki sighed, turning around to face his niece. "What is it?"

Tyki was a tall man that had wavy dark hair, which a little longer than short. He had light skin and a mole under his left eye, and wore a suit that he seemed to be changing out of.

Road stopped poking him, "Are you going out with those human friends of yours again?"

"Let me change in peace." The male tried to shoo her out but she was insistent on getting an answer.

"Tell me already!" The girl frowned and hit her uncle on the back repeatedly.

What's it to you anyway? He thought with a strange expression. Normally Road didn't ask questions like these because she already knew, so why was she asking now? He decided to go along with it anyway, or else she'd get even more annoying.

"Yeah, yeah, I am. Now stop hitting me." He placed a hand on her head and pushed her back so that her arms didn't reach him.

Road stopped and stared at him for a brief moment.

Hm? Tyki matched his niece's gaze, wondering why she wasn't saying anything. If anything, she'd say anything and everything if it didn't implicate her currently.

"What is it?" He let go of her head.

"That human group…" Road started. She paused, thinking of a way to word her thoughts.

Tyki just stood there, his vest draped over his arm.

"There are 5 of you, right?" The girl tilted her head, trying to remember. She was a little unsure since she never did see his drifter group often.

"Well, we used to be 5 but now it's just 4, including me." Tyki responded.

"Used to be 5?" Road questioned.

"Yeah. There was another…one with us, but they had to go for another job." The man remembered them perfectly. In a sense, he did miss them.

But they're a little different from what I thought they were, Tyki thought with a bland look on his face. What kind of job are they doing anyway?

"Are you lonely?"

That questioned caught Tyki off guard as he stared at Road with wide eyes, flabbergasted. "What?!"

Road just smiled.

Tyki paused and backed up a little bit, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just kidding!" Road giggled and turned on her heel, skipping out of the room and closing the door behind her.

"Hah?" Tyki raised a brow, confused.

Was she trying to say something? He thought. Nah, maybe not.

But—

"Tyki, you haven't been to a circus, before, right? Let's go! Eeez, Momo, Clark! Let's all go!"

Tyki sighed through his nose and placed the vest on the side, heading outside to the balcony of the mansion he was currently at. He placed a cigarette between his lips but didn't light it, hearing a certain someone's voice at the back of his head.

"No! No smoking!"

He chuckled to himself and leaned on the rails, staring up at the night sky.

—maybe a little.

"A new exorcist?" Sin blinked a few times, seeing a white haired boy, younger than herself, standing in front of her.

He smiled and waved, a gloved hand coming out for a handshake. "Hello! It's nice to meet you, I'm Allen Walker."

"It's nice to meet you, Allen. I'm Sin Diae. I hope we get along!" Sin bowed her head a little and shook his hand, smiling.

Allen had come to the Order earlier that night, the same night that Lenalee and Sin had finished their report together. According to Lenalee, he was nearly cut into pieces by Kanda after a case of mistaken identity due to the gatekeeper. However, he made it out alive, and was found to be Cross Marian's pupil that was sent to the Order.

Lenalee was showing Allen around now, and they had stopped by the library since it was pretty big. Sin was in there reading some medicine related books, so she was one of the first to greet him.

So this is a pupil of the infamous exorcist General Cross Marian, hm? Sin thought with interest. She had learnt a bit from Komui and Lenalee about the exorcist Generals and how the Order generally works.

"Anyway, we'll see you later, Sin. I need to continue the tour. Goodnight!" Lenalee waved bye and headed off, showing the new boy the ropes.

Allen…Walker…Sin thought with a tilt of the head. He looks so young, though.

Over the course of a few more weeks, Sin adapted to the training routines that she had to do to increase her combat prowess, as well as going on missions and the like. She mainly went with Lenalee and Allen, and only went on one with Kanda, which was the scariest thing she had ever done, apart from his training lessons from hell.

She and the new exorcist, Allen, got along well, which was a refreshing sight within the Order. She treated him like a little brother. However, to Allen, Sin was a mysterious existence.

Maybe I'll find out more later, the boy thought. But she doesn't seem to be the type to just tell me.

Maybe I shouldn't ask.

"Johnny? It's nice to see you're taking a breath of fresh air from the science area." Sin set down her tray of food across from Johnny.

He was sitting alone and seemed to be reading a newspaper article from a small pile of documents that were marked to tell one apart from the other.

"Oh! Sin, long time no see." Johnny looked up and adjusted his glasses, grinning. He looked as happy as always, which was always satisfying to Sin.

"You seem hard at work, even at a time like this." Sin leaned over a little to see what he was reading.

"I'm looking through cases that have never been solved. Some of them do involve akuma, some of them don't. It's interesting to read them!" Johnny nodded fervently.

"Cases that have never been solved?" Allen slid into the seat next to Johnny, peering over his shoulder. He adjusted the pile of documents neatly so that it didn't get in his way.

"Allen!" Johnny greeted.

"What's so interesting?" Lenalee came up to them, a smile on her face as she glanced at everyone sitting on the table. She slid in beside Sin. Johnny greeted her happily.

"Cases that haven't been solved." Sin responded.

"Oh, that sounds interesting! I was going to take a look at them myself but things kept popping up." Lenalee laughed and leaned forward, "Tell us about the cases, Johnny!"

"If you insist!" The scientist adjusted his glasses again and he looked at the documents in his hands, "This one's a cold case from America 10 years ago, revolving around the disappearance of a group of people in the city. For some reason, nobody ever saw them enter, even though the soldiers that were there at the gates had confirmed of their entrance, even giving evidence for their entrance documents."

"Wow…it's kind of like they're ghosts, actually." Sin pressed her hand to her lip.

"That would be hard to solve. If nobody saw them then what exactly did the soldiers see? That's confusing." Lenalee said.

"Hm…" Allen hummed.

"The next one," Johnny replaced the one he had with the next document. He skimmed through it, "This one's about murders that happened in England. There were several prostitutes that were murdered and sectioned off, and it seemed that they were by the works of one person. They never caught this person, though."

"Could it have been an akuma?" Allen questioned.

"Possibly. In the reports it says that those who came to the crime scene first saw parts of the body covered in stars, then the body parts became ash." The scientist explained. "The Black Order was actually called in to see what the situation was, but not even an akuma was apprehended. So I don't know what happened there."

"That's strange." Sin tapped the table, "So it looked like it was done by a human, but it also looked like it was done by an akuma…are akuma cooperative with humans at all, especially with stuff like that?"

"Not really." Lenalee explained, "Though it might be something that happened on a blue moon. It's hard to know what akuma are thinking."

"That sounds horrible…" Allen's expression had paled.

"Should I stop?" Johnny turned to Allen with worry.

"No, no, it's okay." Allen tittered nervously.

"Hm…I'll do just one more, then." The scientist put away the sheets for the case before, and removed most of the pile into another space, taking the bottom layer. He held it in his hands and looked through it. It was a bigger file than the rest of them.

"Why's this pile so big? Is it a huge case?" Allen asked curiously.

"Well, at that time the case was pretty big. It was only about 5 years ago, anyway, but it remains unsolved." Johnny reorganised the papers he was flipping through. He turned to Lenalee and Sin, "You two might have heard of this, actually. It's a case from China."

"China?" Sin tilted her head slightly. Her blue eyes slightly narrowed, "What kind of cold case?"

Lenalee blinked, "I'm not sure, maybe."

"It's about a noble that went missing after a big party to celebrate her engagement to another noble." Johnny scratched his head, "It's not as bad as the other ones but it does get really confusing."

"Go on," Allen urged.

"Well, the first noble I was talking about was actually distantly related to the imperial family of China. I think that's also what makes this a big case. She was about 14, and the other noble was about 21, who wasn't as high of a status as she was." Johnny looked through the documents again, "Apparently they were to wed, but before they announced the engagement, she had completely disappeared from the venue. They only knew that the window to one of the many rooms at that venue was open. People suspected she jumped from the window, but there was no corpse found. It was like she disappeared into thin air. The man she was supposed to marry was the first one who found out about her disappearance, and it's said he was incredibly upset over the news."

"Was she killed by an akuma?" Allen asked. "That could explain why her body wasn't found."

"Apparently there was nothing like that at the scene. No ashes or destroyed furniture was found." Johnny made a thoughtful expression, "Anyway, after this ordeal happened, everyone in China heard the news, and it even spread to other countries in Europe, and even as far as America. They even released a drawn picture of her in hopes to finding her, but she wasn't found." He paused, "She seemed to be very important and well loved, so it's a mystery as to why she disappeared. The fiancé had sent out several search parties to find her, but they weren't able to find her at all. We don't know if she's dead or alive."

"If they released a picture wouldn't it be a lot easier to find her?" Lenalee inquired. She had actually heard of this case before, it made huge headlines when she had gone to China during that period of time for a mission. However, she didn't know the full details until now.

"But she was 14 then, wasn't she?" Sin pointed to her face as an example, "Wouldn't her face have changed a bit from that time? She would've looked a bit different from the picture."

"Ah…that's true." Allen thought for a moment, "Drawings do have inconsistencies though so it does make sense. Maybe they got the picture wrong?"

"Maybe." Johnny shrugged, "I did hear from somewhere that there were pictures of the noble, but the pictures weren't close enough to correctly see her features. They were all group pictures and somewhat far away." He added, "There weren't even any paintings, just caricatures. Nothing that depicted what she actually looked like."

"Wouldn't there be people who knew what she looked like?" Lenalee questioned.

"Well…they were asked as part of the investigation but it seemed like they only described her personality and beauty. It didn't really help their investigation at all." Johnny rubbed his neck, then turned to the last page, "As I was saying, the fiancé sent out search parties, and they continued that for about 2 years, but then they gave up, because she still hadn't been found. She's been declared dead…for now, anyway."

"For now?" Sin questioned him. "Do you think she's still alive? Even in an impossible situation like that?"

"Well, to be honest I don't really know." Johnny placed the documents back onto the pile and placed them to the side so it didn't bother any of them at the table, "But there have been no signs of her being dead either, so it's kind of a 50-50 chance right now."

"I guess that's true." Sin thought for a moment.

"Wouldn't it be hard for her to travel around if those search troops and her face are plastered all around the place?" Allen quizzed, "It's almost like running from the mafia."

Running from the mafia…? Allen, what have you been doing…? Sin cracked a smile, but she felt like Allen really meant it.

"That fiancé must have loved her a lot if he spent so long trying to find her." Johnny commented, nodding a little. Allen nodded in agreeance.

Lenalee stared at her tray of food, "Probably. She would have been pretty restricted. Anyway, these are cold cases. It'll be hard to solve them at all, so why don't we eat? Our food's getting cold."

"Ah, you're right." The other three looked down at their meals and began to eat, having forgotten that they were hungry.

That cold case that shocked the people of China…so it's been 5 years, huh. Since her disappearance. I don't think she'll ever return to that world she was previously in, Sin thought dimly.

She pressed her lips together, the story given out to the public was half made up, anyway. It's surprising how many people believed it.

She sighed, taking out her hairpin. She stared at it, twirling it around between her fingers, if she was killed by an akuma it would have made things a lot better for her situation.

But—it might have been better for her to live. So that she can come out and say the truth.

Though, I don't think she can yet.

The stage hasn't been set.