Chapter 7

I face her, confused by her suddenly serious tone."Good or bad?" I ask, sitting up. She looks down at Lau Jimin, petting him slowly. "That all depends. I was back in America for a while, searching for new apostles. During my stay, I came across an accommodator quite similar to you. He was a young boy, a parasitic type. His innocence was very similar to yours, but instead of completely changing into another creature, he was only able to take up the characteristics of certain creatures."

"Well that's great, where is he?" I ask, interested.

"He's dead." She says, looking back up at me. I flinch.

"What happened?"

"You are aware that parasitic types have short lives, but for that boy in particular it seemed that his innocence was just too strong for him. I only had him for a few weeks before his innocence drained his life force completely. He became weaker and weaker every time he activated his innocence." She explains.

"Hey wait a second. We've been activating her innocence constantly the past two days." Lavi says, looking over at Kanda, worried.

My master looks me over, eyeing the glowing innocence on my chest. She looks a little concerned, but she sighs and smiles. "It's alright, I think she'll be fine. The boy was a rare case, I just thought I'd inform you." I sigh in relief, but her words don't ease Lavi or Kanda's worry. A ping of guilt spreads onto Kanda's face.

"Is there anything we should do? Anything we need to watch out for?" Lavi asks.

"I'm going to talk with Komui later, but I don't think you have to worry." She assures him.

"Well how do we know that the boy was a fluke?" He continues.

"Lavi, if we find something, I promise you will be the first to know."

"But should we stop the training? I mean is it dangerous?"

"Lavi. It's alright, I'm not fragile, I'm not going to break." I laugh lightly, patting Lavi's leg.

He nods, calming down a bit, but his face never loses the pained look. I look over at Kanda who still sits like a statue next to Tiedoll. Klaud smiles at me, trying to lighten the mood. "Aside from all that, I just want to tell you that things will be changing for you, because the Noah have become very active lately. We can hardly afford to spread our exorcists any thinner, but you will have to travel in groups in order to prevent any losses. You will all need to be very careful." She explains.

"Perfect." Kanda mumbles.

"Everything will be fine." Klaud says, standing up. "The generals need to talk alone now if you wouldn't mind."

"Of course not. Kanda, Lavi, come on." I say, getting up and walking over to the door.

I pause to wait for Kanda and Lavi. Kanda says goodbye to Tiedoll and catches up to me. "I'll meet you at the training room." I tell him. He nods and walks past me, out the door and down the hall. I look back towards the couches to see Lavi standing in front of General Nine. My ears perk up a bit so that I can hear what they're whispering about.

"General, please. She has nightmares, it's like her innocence is working against her." Lavi says.

"I know, she's always had them, but it isn't something to worry about." Klaud tells him.

"General Nine."

"At ease soldier. You're rather passionate for a future bookman. As far as we can tell, she is at no more risk than General Cross's apprentice. I don't know what else to tell you." She insists.

"Yes ma'am." Lavi sighs, finally giving up and walking over to me.

The whole way down to the training room, Lavi is silent, deep in thought. His face is troubled and he doesn't notice where we are going. When we arrive at the training room, Kanda is standing against the door. Lavi looks up and stops short, grabbing my arm in protest.

"You can't be serious right now! What did General Nine just say!?" Lavi yells, frustrated.

"She said not to worry and that everything would be fine." I tell him, surprised by his outburst.

"She just explained to us how a 'very similar' exorcist died from his innocence and how he got weaker and weaker every time he activated." He continues.

"That doesn't mean anything to me!" I yell, getting defensive.

"Yes it does! Now you want to go and activate over and over again until you end up the same!?"

"Lavi! If I can't activate my innocence then what's the point in being an exorcist!?" I feel bad yelling at him, but I can't take him treating me like a child.

The look on his face makes my heart drop. He looks like he's all torn up inside, like I've finally struck a nerve in him. I want to apologize, but I'm too agitated. "I'm not wrong." I tell him, my voice gentle, in an attempt to calm him down. He exhales loudly, rubbing the back of his head. "I'll kill you if are." He jokes. I smile at him, relieved by his change of attitude. "Come on Kanda." I say, grabbing Kanda's sleeve and leading him into the training room. He huffs but doesn't resist, probably amused by my passive yet pushy tendencies.


We lay sprawled out in a common area, exhausted from hours of training. A week has passed since the generals arrived at the order and the excitement has died down. Even though we have been training intensely, I haven't had a nightmare all week. Every night, Lavi stays with me, holding me until the early hours of the morning. Lavi and Kanda's suspicion about my innocence has finally subsided, even though they still insist that I take it easy with the activations.

I lay stretched out on a couch with my legs draped over Kanda's lap. Lavi sits on the floor with his back to the couch, his arms outstretched and his head against my hip. The warm and muggy air drains the energy out of us as we laze around.

"I hate this weather." I complain.

"What, you don't like the heat?" Lavi teases, looking up at me with playful eyes.

"Not this kind." I mumble, messing up his hair with my hand.

"Hey!" He laughs, fixing his bandana.

We look up lazily as Komui enters the common area. He has a perplexed look on his face as he focuses on a book in his hands. Oblivious to our presence, he walks past the couch, nearly walking over Lavi. He stops for a moment before backing up so that he is right in front of us. Looking up from his papers, he looks us over carefully.

"Kanda…Lavi….Sage. Why aren't you on your mission?" He asks suspiciously.

"Our...mission?" Lavi asks confused.

"We don't have a mission." Kanda growls.

"Yes you do, you're suppose to be halfway to China by now!" Komui insists.

"Komui you never told us about any missions." I tell him, confused as all hell.

"Why yes I did but-Oh!" He pauses, his eyes gleaming in remembrance. "Ah yes, it must have slipped my mind!"

"You've got to be joking." Kanda growls, growing more and more irritated.

"China! Multiple akuma sightings, possible innocence involvement...well? Get going!" Komui yells with a triumphant finger in the air.

"You're kidding." I complain, throwing my head back in protest.

Komui continues on past us, his head buried back into his papers. I sigh, unwilling to move in this terrible heat. We all lay there for a moment, in complete silence, waiting for someone to make the first move. Then I can feel Kanda moving under my legs, standing himself up, allowing my legs to slide onto the floor.

"Come on, we should get going." He sighs. I stay in that uncomfortable position for a minute, procrastinating as long as I can. Finally, I sigh in defeat and sit up.

"But China is so far." I say, forcing myself off of the couch.

Kanda smirks, rolling his eyes at my unusual behavior. I tug on Lavi's coat, pulling him upwards. He breathes heavily, clearly not wanting to move, but he gets up and follows Kanda and I as we walk out of the common area.

We don't bother gathering up any items for the trip, instead we just head straight for the train station. Komui left us with hardly any information on the mission, so once we board the train, Kanda uses his golem to contact headquarters for details. Meanwhile, Lavi opens the windows in our cabin, attempting to ease the intense summer heat. By the time the train starts moving, Kanda finishes his call with HQ.

"There will be a finder waiting for us once we arrive and luckily, he has transportation and money arrangements already in order for us." Kanda informs us.

"That's a relief, I don't think any of us brought money." Lavi says, checking his pockets.

"There is a catch to this trip." Kanda continues, looking over at me.

"What?" I ask, concerned by his amused look.

"In the area we're going, the townspeople are very paranoid about females due to a new found superstition."

"Oh? So what does that mean for me?" I ask.

"They're only expecting two male exorcists to investigate the town. Well...two male exorcists and…"

"And what? Spit it out Kanda!"

"And a rather large guard dog. You know, to help sniff out the akuma." He tells me, an evil grin spreading across his face.

My heart drops as I realize that I'm going to be spending the entire trip as a glorified dog. Lavi and Kanda make no attempt to hide their amusement at my ordeal. Lavi laughs loudly, rolling in his seat. Kanda watches my displeased expression with an annoyingly good mood.

"It's not that funny!" I yell, flicking Lavi on his forehead.

"Kanda! Kanda! We need to get this girl a pet name!" He laughs.

"Oh my god, no you don't!" I scold.

"Hmmm...how about Fifi or Rover?" He jokes.

"Ugh you both suck. It's too hot for this anyway." I hiss, turning away from them and staring out the cabin window.

Lavi jokes on a bit longer before Kanda finally gets annoyed and smacks him on the back of his head. The redhead rubs his wound and mopes, leaning away from Kanda while the agitated swordsman turns to the window, tuning out his surroundings.

"What about Spot?" Lavi asks with a mischievous tone. My eye twitches with frustration and I can feel my hair prick. I take a deep breath before turning to him. He lifts an eyebrow, daring me to combat him. In one swift movement I unzip my boot, quickly pulling it off and throwing it at Lavi. He throws his hands up, catching my boot and letting out a little laughter. I turn back to the window, a satisfied grin on my face. "Shut up rabbit."

Ok guys so this might be the last chapter for a week or so, as I am going to be in CHINA (whoot whoot) and I might not have access to a computer. If I can find a way to write, I will. Please leave a comment or PM me to let me know how you like the story and if there is anything you think I could do to make the story better. Thanks for reading ^.^