/ A/N: Hello again~ :3 It's 59 days since I posted chapter 6 - this chapter is a little longer and man, something actually happens here that is a part of the plot, wow. xD As promised, this thing takes place in Paris, France. I wouldn't use the place if I hadn't been there, so no worries, French people. ;D

- There's some "Japanese" in there, of which some might be written wrong. I haven't studied the language and only understand some things said. But believe me, I'm going to cut the use of it in this fic into minimum, even though Kanda is Japanese here as well. Only basic phrases here and there.

Please enjoy~ /

Make no mistake – my answer is clear

Fou's Innocence was, all in all, very disturbing. The eye charmed anyone by flashing pure sexual appeal when activated, and then she would use the part in her tongue and lick the enemy with acid. That is to say, it was the most disturbing thing Allen had ever seen and his master was the damned lady killer Cross, so he had quite a bit of experience. He didn't know which was worse about this, though: the fact that Fou the innocent-looking woman luring men and women into their fall, or the fact that people who appeared to have lost all human emotion actually could fall into her clutches.

Krory handled a few level 1s with speed that was already clearly better than it had used to be. This was only his second mission ever and this was way more serious than the last one had been. Allen felt a little bit of pride, which was weird of him. Krory was quite a bit older than he was and a comrade in the type of Innocence, but not in this life or the one before had Allen been someone to especially teach him.

As for how Allen himself was doing, well, all just seemed maybe a little bit too easy. They were at Hôtel du Ville, dealing with the small army of mental akuma or whatever you wanted to call them. He had hardly earned even one scratch on him after dealing with probably more than a dozen enemies. Not that that was a bad thing, since he was already in scrapes and blues under his Xion uniform – navy blue tuxedo-like overcoat with two lines of silver buttons, white, silky shirt, a red bow, black, skintight trousers and white- and navy-blue almost knee-high boots.

The uniform thing one a bit funny part of being a modern Exorcist: just like in the old days, every Innocence-holder's uniform was unique and they were updated now and then, from what he had heard. As his coat was tuxedo-like, Krory's was more like a sailor's, and as he had gloves and a bow, Krory had a sailor-styled hat and a black necktie. The older man also had shiny shoes that mimicked the highest fashion in tuxedoes. And Fou had a short coat that had very long sleeves, a bit like in the past, bit instead of hat a headband to hold back her long hair. Her shirt was long enough and cut in a way that looked like a dress, the hem flew beautifully behind her when she ran. She had a pair of black leggings and navy-blue ballerinas. They really looked more like some cosplayers than serious soldiers of mysterious powers.

But I guess that's kind of the point – in modern world, it's easier to hide in the open than the shadows Black Order used to cover itself in, Allen mused as he sorrowfully watched the three last souls turn into ash.

More flowers have turned red like blood…

"Allen, come here!" Fou called from where the old man she had dealt with had disappeared.

He turned around and took a few running strides to his friends. On the ground lay another thoroughly black letter with the insignia of Black Order. They had found one from the previous area at the outskirts of the city, too. Yes, it was Black Order's Rose Cross – a perfect replica. It seemed like the Noah were using it now. They filmed opening the letter and scanned it all over, sending the data to Link, as they had done with the one before. With their field equipment, nothing better could be done anyway.

He instinctively went to scan the area with his eye, but stopped in the middle of it. It had become a little hard to keep himself in the now, when the past was so strongly within him. His eye was of no help with the new akuma – cursed or not. It was yet to be found out whether it had any abilities at all. He sighed and dug his hand into the pocket, pulling out the metro ticket. As he headed down the stairs, Fou gave the letter to Krory who hid it in his jacket and they soon followed after him, acting as if nothing special had happened. Allen didn't look back at them. His mental eye had had the strong image of a Japanese man in a long, black coat, a katana it it's scabbard, seethed under some fabric held in his hand. A man with a constant frown on his face and a small, black golem hovering next to the high ponytail…

Kanda's hair was gone now, he had to remind himself.

Consciously, as he sat next to Fou in one of the newer metros (one in which you could see the whole inside from the last to the first cart) Allen brushed his own hair with his fingers. It was getting a bit too long. He could probably already braid it like it had been that time when the hair-growing solution had spilled on him. Actually, right now, he had about the same length of hair Kanda did…

The metro stopped for a minute or two, letting the doors open here and there as people pushed the green buttons next to them. They had already come a few stops from Hôtel du Ville, but he could trust his companions to keep watch of the right one in his stead. Suddenly he blinked and gasped as the warning sound of the doors closing sounded. He almost jumped to the door, only stopped by some instinct. He was sure he had seen a familiar pair of eyes from under a hood, maybe just a meter or two away behind the glass. But the metro was already moving and besides…if it really was who he had though, that person probably had some work to do here of their own.

Still, his eyes hastily checked all the next stations for clues.

Having changed to normal clothing and escaped from the hotel, Allen felt cheerier than he had for quite a while. He felt free to roam the "City of Lights" in the daytime, when it was a whole lot safer. He made use of the 5-day metro ticket and went all around via the fast underground trains. Such things hadn't existed back in the Exorcist days and he found them pretty useful for an accidental tourist like himself.

Sightseeing was fun but so was getting lost in the tight alleys and wide parks. Well okay, maybe it wasn't really fun to get lost, but being lost turned out fun, when he had to turn to strangers for help. He used the DI's Visa to his heart's content, eating when he felt like it and pulling out a 20 euro bill for the excellent street performers at Montmartre. He went up to the first level of Eiffel tower and quickly came back, when he felt nauseous at the heights. He refused the people that tried to sell mini replicas of the same tower, though, feeling sorry for them, he gave a few some of his cotton candy or whatever he had at hand at the moment.

Eventually Allen ended up at some catholic church in the middle of somewhere, very lost, again, but not feeling worried about that at all after all the happiness and luck that had followed him today. The church was very empty though the afternoon light made it look so beautiful. He went in, slowly opening the heavy wooden door and peeking in before stepping on the cold, stone floor. He sat down on a bench and heaved a content, calm sigh. Having been "God's weapon" for a lifetime once, he had always enjoyed the calm and presence of eternity in churches, even in this life.

He closed his eyes and went deep into thought.

Basically everything has changed, huh?

…

Ah, it seems I still just want to think about him. God, forgive me for committing a sin… Umm… it still is a sin right? To think about someone of the same gender like this…?

There was a white-haired young man sitting in the church, blushing and praying at the same time, his thoughts pretty much showed the way his face twitched.

…But you know I've always been like this, ever since I saw him on TV the first time…

That had been when Allen was 13: he was sick and absent from school one Thursday, there had been nothing better to do than kick Cross' old TV to life and watch whatever channel it showed best. That had been a super boring looking broadcast about some "big budokai tournament", not that Allen had even known "budokai" meant martial arts and such. But karate turned out very interesting to the young boy in his early teens, so he watched the whole show, already feeling better after seeing so many men and women triumph. In the last part they had showed fencing and as per usual Allen was fascinated. Then a young man they announced to be "the infamous viper", Yu Kanda from Japan, took stance and looking back, Allen was sure he was swept away immediately. He had felt himself fly beside that man behind the protecting mask.

Today Allen knew better of course – he knew he had gotten such a strong reaction because of the past, because of all the times ever since the singing doll incident they had been fighting together. Back to back, shoulder to shoulder, sober yet drunk from the blood-loss and the Akuma oil and the sadness and the anger and…

"Hey, God… I seem to be having a bit harder time with him this time than last. It can't be that he's been through anything worse, can it? I mean all that which happened before he came to HQ, you know, could there be anything worse in the modern era? I feel a bit bad, having to hide all I know and thus feel for him. But telling him would be even worse, wouldn't it? To remember being born in such a way…"

"Oh boy, here he goes, praying in a weird way and out loud, too. Humph", an eerie voice sounded from behind him. Allen's head whipped around and his forehead met the barrel of a gun. It wasn't even cold and from this close proximity, he smelled gunpowder. This gun had been used just a few minutes ago.

"If you smell gunpowder from a gun pointed at you, buy time to analyze whether it could've been fired at your friend", Cross' teaching hovered into his thoughts and he acted on instinct, laughing nervously:

"Umm…yea, I like to talk to God like He was my friend… But if it offends you then…" the grey eyes took in the sight under the black-leather hand holding the gun to his forehead, and what he saw was beautiful, wavy blond hair, a black hoodie with some silver ornaments, and behind, on the walkway between benches, another person with two guns. One pointed at the blond, one at Allen. That man had black hair, nothing like the blonde one, but his sneer was saner.

Too bad it was a murderous sneer.

"Hey, we really thought you hadn't remembered a thing, judging by the way you were acting –"

"-before, but now we know, heehee, you really remember a lot", the blonde continued the other's talk from the middle. Eerie really suited these two.

They were the twin Noah or more like two parts of one Noah, Jasdero and David, Jasdevi. Allen's smile became a bit crooked. He remembered the fight within the Ark and what he had later heard from Krory about their true form and powers, he remembered the mess they had made later… Still…

"Who are you?" he asked, voice trembling just a little to add to the effect. His ear started ringing and that registered faster than the noise that had caused the painful ring: David's gun had fired. The bullet had just missed his ear and gone through his messy white hair, cutting off some strands as it went.

It appears my hair will be even more like Kanda's before long, he sighed in his thoughts, slowly letting his arm activate. Both twins stayed put until the white arm had grown out, but when he lashed at the nearby one, Jasdero jumped away.

"I hate Innocence, hee!" he claimed as he landed down beside his brother. The whole time he had been pointing his other gun at David as well.

"You haven't changed at all", Allen commented, feeling a bit sick. Coming across the Noah wasn't part of the plan. Though who would be mad enough to plan meeting them in a city as densely populated as Paris?

"Innocence is the weapon of God bestowed upon some people. Why do you stand on Holy land if you still hate his creations so much?"

They probably know I'm buying time talking already, so why do they let me do it?

"To say the lands of churches are Holy, how pretentious, Bro'", David uttered slowly, a smile spreading on his lips, "Enough talking, you aren't gonna get what we've been doing like this. We'll show you what we have learned in the afterlife!"

And thus a battle ensued.

It was no different from what was expected. The twins never said a sane word after that one little clue on what was going on ("to have learned something in the afterlife") and didn't really put out anything special. Allen's arm took in a lot of bullets made of dark matter, but the battle was mainly more like a brawl, they stayed inside the church, only trashing some benches and icons, never making any serious damage on anyone or anything. It was all very similar to the fights with the akuma…

…Up until about half an hour later, when Allen was thrown out of a window and happened to look around the street.

Elementary school aged kids; there was a pile of about 15,

Teenagers, at least few dozen in number,

Men women of varying ages, more than a hundred,

Some babies,

Old people,

Dogs and cats, rats, birds,

The trees and streets, cars and bikes, were black and red,

Everything was bathing in Death,

Even the air was heavy of it,

And the smell of it all was…

The scene was of such level of horror Allen found himself helplessly crying and throwing up in a matter of minutes. How could he not have noticed? All these people, they were simply shot to death. While he was happily sitting in the church, mumbling on about Kanda, all these people were…all these people were murdered, brutally, and not just people, but their pets and the little nature there was in the city…

"Poor boy, poor boy, heehee, only now has he realized just how stupid he is…"

"Shh, let him enjoy the abundance of his own sin – the ignorance."

"Yah, you talk big words today! But where do we go then?"

"We go find the others. This was our mission so we're done here."

"Hee, right, let us go, let us go! "

A little later, when Allen had fallen unconscious trying to close the eyes of those with faces up at least and praying for each one, a familiar figure walked to the scene. The gaze covered everything briefly then locked on the church's door – there was a black envelope with a rose crest. A hand snatched it and opened it. Eyes followed the curvy, classic handwriting and brains memorized the contents. The letter was crumbled and then straightened again as eyes rested on the figure of a white-haired youth. Letter stuck into a pocket, the person surveyed the area once more, before pulling a golden ball out of nowhere and throwing it into flight. Then the figure disappeared into the young night.

"Oi, wake up, you little fuck - its way past sunrise already."

Why did that person always have to be such a prick?

"I'm not…a fuck… I have a name you know…"

"Whatever, but you're fucking on top of me!"

"Just move me then… I'm not that heavy…"

A silence ensued.

"Moyashi."

"Hmm?"

"Where is your blanket?"

"Don't have one…"

"The HELL? …Can't be helped, then…you do better job as a blanket than whatever else it is you do."

Allen smiled into the bare chest under his cheek. The prick was such a softie sometimes.

"Just admit it; I'm better than a blanket."

"That would be a lie. Just sleep you idiot."

"Try to decide already, do you want me awake or asleep?"

"Whatever I last said."

"Which is…?"
"S-L-E-E-P, baka moyashi…"

"Okay okay…"

"Oi Moyashi, wake up already."

…

"I said, wake up", the voice came again.

I…don't want to.

"You piece of trash, if you aren't gonna open your damn baby eyes I'll fucking throw you down from the freaking balcony."

Sounds…painful. This person sure knows how to lengthen the speech with extra orals.

"I know you heard that, don't go pretending that frown was an accident. Now wake up, stupid, I can't stand your loud stomach any longer."

My…stomach? …Oh yeah…it is kind of loud if I don't eat properly.

"Moyashi…matteiru yo."

What…what was that? I know "moyashi", it means bean sprout. But what was that jumble of speech afterwards?

"Kikoe nai? Che…"

"You…you're talking Japanese…right?"

"Of course I'm talking Japanese, its way easier than this, you Brit."
"That's not true…I don't understand so it can't be easier."
"Oh yeah, you must be right – you're such an idiot you'd only understand the simplest languages", the sentence was followed by a grumbling jump of noise, which he knew was a small laugh, "Now open those freaking eyes, I hate having to repeat myself."

"Repeat…yourself…? Oh!" the white-haired young man suddenly jumped up in the warm and comfy bed; immediately regretting it for all the dizzy, hazy, swirling things he felt. A harsh hand pushed him back down.

"I said open your eyes, not get up, Moyashi."

Soon Allen was sucking in all things visible from within the huge comforter and heavy, thick blankets. He saw a blue and brown coated room, a low ceiling, furniture tucked away in the corners and by the walls, covered by white, dust-covered sheets. Two big mirrors of which the other was delicately decorated with carvings, spirals of paint and quietly shimmering stones, and the other seemed to be just a huge, misshaped mass of glass. The mirrors and a few decoration items and lamps were the only things that didn't have any cover on them.

Except, standing just next to his bed – which, he noticed, was still partly covered by a sheet just like the other furniture – a small night table and a wooden stool that didn't match any other figures of stools in the room, and the man sitting on it busying himself with slow movements around the tea-making…tutorial.

"What is this, you giving me a tea ceremony, Yu?" Allen couldn't help himself, the disbelieving and teasing words ran from his mouth without him noticing. A very quick motion set the deep-blue eyes on him, suddenly very sharp and alert, maybe with a hint of sadness and longing, before getting fired up in anger.

"I know well enough not to give you any green tea right when you've woken up, stupid. Even though you find this place ah-so-interesting, I don't find it to be that way, so whatever the fuck I can do other than what you're doing is better."

"Ha ha, and I'm told to be bitchy in the morning."

"Well this isn't morning, moyashi, but late afternoon."

"Oh…so I'm being served afternoon tea in bed, how luxurious!"

Kanda stared at his bright face quietly for a minute before he handed Allen the blue-painted porcelain mug.

Over the edge of the cup the younger one noticed the bags under Kanda's eyes had grown bigger and darker, it seemed like more than bad nutrition from the soba-only diet and sleep deprive from overworking in practice sessions. In short, he seemed worn down in a more to-the-core way. For a while as he sipped the tea, Allen gave himself some time to take a closer look at the Japanese. He seemed a little unfocused, which should probably ring many warning bells within Allen, his hair wasn't quite as shiny as usual, his lips seemed dry and there were those eyes, too. And his posture, which of course would've seemed tip top to almost any eye, messaged Allen that Kanda Yu here was dead tired, judged by the eyes and his overall lack of Kanda-alertness, the problem was mainly something mental.

Though, Allen reminded himself, for something psychological to leak into that man's outer appearance, it must be something hugely traumatic. Kanda is a little like me, hiding in a shell of his choosing instead of facing everything free of bounds.

"Don't call me Yu, IDIOT", the dark voice suddenly rose only to fall silent again after one furious glare.

Yeah, Allen seemed to have a good reason to worry. Such a slow reaction to something that happened ten minutes ago… Suddenly the soft-hearted Xion forgot all about his own worries and traumas about the fight and the murdered people. He couldn't afford to let that man break ever, ever again.

But how could he possibly do anything?

Even in the last life, Kanda had been difficult, and as Allen had come to realize training under him for those precious two weeks, he was even harder a person now. He seemed more open, throwing his insults more often and easily, but that actually was the new wall: he openly threw shit on people, exploited their weak points and jabbed them to the back until people just broke down or started avoiding him. It was in a way amazing, really, since it seemed like he had no empathy whatsoever, yet he was able to so efficiently spread hurt. Only Allen and Alma had seemed to like hanging around him in Mygdi.

I don't even remember how I USED TO console him, for God's sake. Life would be so much easier if I didn't care about him like this.

But life would be very different and – he believed – empty, too. Of course, his life right now was built on the one before it. Allen was a Xion, a modern Exorcist, who used the Innocence, though it had changed a little, and also technology and memories of the past. He had told his Master that he wanted to correct at least some of the mistakes he made in the previous life this time; that he wanted to do things right for himself as well. Did that including loving a person of the same gender, he couldn't be sure. It was sin by the word of the church, but nowadays it had become more accepted. Was just delusion leading the homosexual rights defenders?

Even if it was, as some anti-homosexual people said, a lie, or even if it was a disease after all… Allen had simply not found any woman who would pull him in like Kanda always did. That man, even though it was tough to admit, was someone Allen could be totally, honestly himself with. He had always disliked how people acted different than they wanted or thought, even if he was one of those people. Kanda just…didn't care. He did spill horrible comments about…well, basically everything, but even if people disagreed with him, he didn't leave them behind. He didn't really ever kill anyone. He never stopped lecturing, but it was kind of just him trying to bring sense to everything. Kanda judged people as whole and made it clear from the get-go that you were no different to him than anyone else.

His darkness was a lure Allen couldn't ignore. It was like a vast ocean of new knowledge, new things to find and new places to visit, a view of the world so different from his own it made him want to get physical. Smack his very self into a new level of understanding. Nothing made him feel same Kanda did; nothing.

"Your tea is getting cold", the sudden comment was whipped into the air and in a flash Allen was back to here and now, back in this mysterious room in a mysterious time, back with the man he loved, but had decided to keep his ugly fingers away from this time. This time he allowed himself to be in love – but he didn't allow himself to pull Kanda into it, at least as long as the man appeared "innocent".

"Oops…"

"Idiot Moyashi", the samurai mumbled and rose to his feet, all in a swift and controlled movement. He had hidden the things Allen had seen before, his eyes were dark and hard again, his posture flawless, his lips a tight line pointing a bit downwards from the sides. He looked like he was mad, though it was just his usual scowl.

"Are you going somewhere?" Allen swallowed his tea in own gulp after the hasty question. Kanda moved his hand to his hair, tousled like someone had messed with it, and let his fingers straighten the short locks of black.

"The town. You stay here – that's an order, student", was the answer and soon his form was gone.

You bitch of a man. I'll kill you.

Well, after I eat what you bring, because I'm sure you're going grocery shopping.

Ah, but I'm dependent on him as to where I am and what's been going on.

Life sure is hard.

/ A/N: (When I write A/N, I read it as "eien" in my mind, kind of like the Japanse word you know. xD)

So... (the manga) is getting to a point where I should probably draw a line with this fic - decide until where the plot has been the same in this AU etc. Chapter 203 just came out a few days earlier... *sigh* Man, there's marticulation examinations coming soon in real life... xDD

If you have any questions, feel free to poke me any way you can. :D I know I'm making life hard for you readers, but that's just the way I am. :) /