Okiniiri

~Kokoro o oni ni suru~

A/N: This chapter's title, 'Kokoro o oni ni suru' means 'make one's heart a demon'. Basically, to take a hard-hearted attitude towards someone precisely because you care.

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Both Ellie and Allen sat in the back of Kanda's black Mercedes, wearing their Guilford Young uniforms, and with the small amount of books in their laps. Allen was jiggling slightly in his seat, out of both excitement and anxiety, while Ellie merely looked bored at the prospect of going back to school.

As soon as Kanda had pulled up behind the college, and told them bluntly to get the hell out of his car, both teens let out a rather long yawn, scrambling to open the doors while balancing exercise books in their arms.

Allen watched the car turn a corner and disappear down the very steep, very tall, hill with a frown on his face. "Where's that guy off to in a hurry?" He asked nobody in particular. "And why did he drop us off so early?"

Ellie yawned again. "Well, he's gotta be an early bird to get to the pigpen on time." She commented.

Allen looked at her in confusion. "Pigpen?" He asked.

"Police station." She explained. "He's a copper."

She motioned for him to follow her, and turned down the corner towards the main gate of the school.

Allen took a few flighty steps after her in order to catch up. "Why didn't you tell me 'till now? And how come he got the holidays off if he's a cop?" He asked.

"Guess it just slipped my mind. And he had holidays off so you could get used to him and his house properly, and because he hasn't had a proper holiday like that since Zöe and Warren were shoved under his care." She explained, smirking. "And because after his few days off for Christmas, he couldn't be bothered dragging his lazy arse up there again, so he got some paid leave."

Allen rolled his eyes, and shifted the bag on his back.

"Now." Ellie said, shifting into business mode. "We have gotten everything arranged so that you don't have to leave my side if you don't want to. If the stares and overwhelming crowds get too much for you, because I know they did for me, you can cling onto my jumper or something until you're okay again. You're in my homeroom, and luckily you chose to be in all my classes as well, so it shouldn't be too hard to alert me if something's wrong. It's your choice whether you want to sit next to me or have your locker next to mine, though. We're not trying to babysit you, we're just being cautious. Especially since your record said that you have mild claustrophobia." She said with a slight twist of her mouth.

Allen nodded. "I don't think it will be necessary, but I'm grateful that you guys set this all up for me. Though it is just a little bit too much."

Ellie smiled goodnaturedly. "That's good. I like my jumper the shape it is." She said, pulling aforesaid dark grey jumper down a bit.

There was silence for a moment, as they both leaned against the tall wire fence that surrounded the sports court.

Allen furrowed his brow. "What college did Lavi and Kanda go to?" He asked.

Ellie looked surprised for a moment, then smirked. "Hutchins." She said. "Very prestigious school, much more so for the boarders. It's an all-boys protestant private school, so they had to get the very top marks to be at such a high level."

Allen nodded. "Sounds like them." He noticed Ellie breaking into a fit of giggles. "What's so funny?" He asked.

"The Hutchins uniform..." She began, stifling short bursts of laughter. "...is black and pink." she finished, giggling uncontrollably.

Allen imagined Kanda in a black and pink college uniform - which for some reason had very small shorts and a very tight shirt - and snorted.

---

Detective Inspector Yuu Kanda sat at his desk, eyes not focused on the paper work in front of him, tapping his pen rhythmically on the paper, while his foot tapped the same rhythm on the floor.

One of his coworkers, Ben Fleming if he wasn't mistaken, glided over on his office chair.

"Something wrong?" He asked in a concerned yet casual way.

Kanda barely even glanced at him, continuing his rhythm. "Something's not right..." He admitted after a few moments of silence.

Ben rebounded off a wall, and came to a stop next to his friend. "What's not right?" He prompted.

Kanda's gaze flicked upward towards the curious brunette for a moment, registering the confusion and concern on the younger man's face.

"...Lunch" He finally yielded.

Ben nodded. "Ah. You usually get a packed lunch, right?" He said.

Kanda nodded. "Yes. I never realized how much a lack of packed lunch could potentially screw up my day."

Ben reminded Kanda of Lenalee and Ellie a lot. The guy was very righteous, pretty much selfless, and was extremely kind and optimistic. He was more of a friend and aide than a coworker, really. He was rarely ever sent out with someone besides Kanda.

He rolled his eyes as a grin appeared on Ben's face. "Want me to get it for ya, boss? I'm practically your slave anyway." He reasoned.

Kanda turned back to his work. "Sure. Do it." He said boredly.

Ben gave a short, flashy, mock-salute before pushing himself away from Kanda's desk.

---

Ellie slid down the red brick wall. "Thank fuck it's over." She said.

Allen rolled his eyes. "Thankyou, fuck." He said sarcastically, leaning on the wall beside her. "It wasn't that bad, Ellie."

His friend stared at him. "Are you bloody serious?! Mr Fullman is a sick bastard with a short fetish! If he wasn't so busy making me take five class sets of books to the library, he would've raped me by now!!"

Allen laughed. She looked a bit cute when she was freaked out. "Don't overreact so much. Besides, having someone want to rape you is no different from normal, right?" He asked jokingly.

Ellie hissed under a breath. "What are you saying?!" She near screeched.

"I was only joking. C'mon, let's get some of that super strong coffee you mentioned earlier." He said, tugging on her jumper.

Not long afterward, Allen and his friend plonked themselves at an outside table, and the white-haired teen watched as Ellie practically inhaled the disgusting stuff.

There was something that refused to go unnoticed, though. It kept nagging at the back of Allen's mind. So many people were stealing glances at him, both male and female alike. They didn't seem to be stares, more like lustful gazes, and eyes green with jealousy at the sight of Ellie sitting with him. He had half a mind to stand up and scream 'WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?!' but something told him it'd be better not to.

But he did, however, ask Ellie about it.

"Hm?" She replied. "What do you mean 'why'? It's because you're so cute, Allen. You could even be sexy, with a stretch of the imagination, but either way, you're hot and people want you. You look so innocent, and you're pretty like a cute girl, not to mention short and slender. Not even skinny or thin, but slender. That word is in a whole different league to the other words that could describe you." She explained.

Allen stared at her. "...What?" He asked "Are you telling me that college students think in the same way those sick bastards who owned us do?"

Ellie barely had to think about it. "Pretty much, yeah. And these are the 'players', so to speak. They'd love you as their trophy." She rolled her eyes.

"Something tells me that even the outside world is pretty bad..." Allen said thoughtfully.

Ellie nodded. "I'd say that everything's the same, outside world or otherwise, but it's not. The outside people have similar thoughts to the people we used to interact with, though. They're just more polite and have proper self-control." She explained.

There was a drawn-out silence for a little while, and they could feel the tension in the air.

"Erm, anyway!" Ellie said nervously "We shouldn't be so gloomy and cynical! We've got music after this, so we can at least be amiable about that!"

---

Kanda's eyes slowly slid open as his partner entered the office. He yawned, and glared at the suspicious lack of packed lunch in Ben's hands. "Where is it?" He asked, growling slightly.

The slightly younger brunette averted his gaze nervously and chuckled. "Ellie said that she did it on purpose, because you're twenty-eight years old and should be able to make your own food." He said, promptly sitting down.

The long-haired Asian man grumbled incomprehensibly, and scowled at his brunette friend. "Away with you, slave. You should be hard at work doing breathtakingly boring slave things, like grinding wheat and setting up the altar for human sacrifice." He joked.

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A/N: Okay, I'm sorry that this was so awe-inspiringly short, but if you give it time it'll get taller. Very slowly.

Yes...and this chapter had no purpose. None. It's filler. I'm sorry. I must be punished.

And by the next chapter, a couple of weeks might've gone by, because nothing happens during your first three weeks of school. I should know, I just experienced them.

And there may be content in the next chapter which causes me to rethink the rating for this story. Specifically, wet dreams. I'm looking forward to it :3