Chapter 9, in which truths are revealed.

A/N: I've finally finished school, so from now on I will be updating more often.

Allen, and all other -man characters, ideas and themes belong to Katsura Hoshino and all other characters, ideas and themes belong to me.


A door slammed and Sheryl jumped up from the game of chess he was playing with Fiddler. The Earl stormed into the study hall, eyes wide and face red with anger.

"Oh! Uhm..Earl..good evening", said Sheryl, briefly wondering if his secret had been discovered. He didn't have to wonder for long because the Earl suddenly grabbed him by the collar and lifted him six inches off the ground. Sheryl knew what a strong man the Earl was, and coupled with the flash of anger in the older man's eyes, Sheryl could see he was as good as dead unless a miracle was to occur. The chess pieces had been knocked over in the process, and Fiddler was now standing a few feet away, placing the furniture between him and the scene occurring in front of him.

"Hi?! That's what you have to say, you Jerk?! How DARE you! How dare you act behind my back? Bringing a human into the Ark without my knowledge! An exorcist, no less! Are you so warped in your cynical little world that you've forgotten who's in charge here?!," The Earl yelled at Sheryl and let go of the others collar, allowing him to slump down to the floor.

Sheryl had started to shake at this point, after all, if the Earl so wished, all the Noah would cease to exist without him so much as batting an eyelash.

The Earl was seething with anger. He'd known that Sheryl had a disobedient streak in him – much like the 14th – but he never expected he'd do something like capture an exorcist without at least informing the millennium Earl. The Noah may be strong, but they had always and will always exist to act upon the wishes of the Millennium Earl.

He stormed out of the study, passing by Tykki at the doorway.

Sheryl was a lucky man – Tykki had expected the Earl to vaporize him on the spot.


Jess awakened to find the sun shining into her eyes. She squinted and looked around her, it was a small shabby room. There were two twin size beds on opposite sides of the wall. A small closet, open and empty was in the left corner of the room.

In between the two beds, a small radio sat on a nightstand, seemingly the only medium of entertainment in the room. What looked like a rather rusty sink protruded from the wall, right outside a door which Jess assumed was the bathroom. She sat up in bed, thirsty for some water.

At that moment, the little bathroom door opened and Allen walked out. It took him a moment to notice Jess sitting upright and when he did, he immediately rushed over to her.

"Hey! How are you feeling?" his brows furrowed together as he sat on the edge of the bed.

It had been a few hours since Tykki left them at the riverbank. Allen had carried Jess on his back to a nearby motel, where they found cheap rates to stay a night or two. Tykki may have had something to do with the money used in order to book the room.

Jess rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, noting her dirtied clothing. She peered at Allen with wide eyes, faintly remembering being at another motel and seeing something, something worrisome. Jess's body tensed up, her palms became sweaty and her attention started to fade as she recalled the events she'd seen. It was dark and they were sleeping.

There had been a loud noise, a figure standing over Allen, her screaming, a white monster throwing her against the wall –

"Oh my God! Allen, something's after you! Where is it? It'll find us! That..that MONSTER!", tears welled up in Jess' eyes and she curled up on the bed, Allen desperately trying to calm her down.

A few minutes passed in silence, nothing but the sound of the weeping girl and the faint sounds of a lively town outside their little room. Allen sat beside her, wondering what he could do to make things better.

He knew bringing her along was a mistake, a ridiculous idea. She was just a human, a girl who grew up in a peaceful town. And even though she'd had a hard life, she didn't know of akuma, or exorcists..or the apocryphos.

As he watched her wipe her tears feverishly, he wished he could take back the last few days altogether. But he knew that wasn't an option. Remembering Mana's words, he spoke.

"Jess, I'm sorry. I really should have prepared you better for all of this..."

Jess looked up through her tears. She saw Allen, an alarmed look of concern on his face, an expression so regretful and sad, she couldn't help but reach out and place her hand on his shoulder. She wiped her tears away with her other hand and sat up straight on the bed. Taking a deep breath, she spoke.

"No, I don't want you to blame yourself. I just..I was just..uhm, caught off guard i think. I just didn't expect that kind of thing to exist...

You did warn me that there'd be scary things and blood..."

"That's no reason for me to have thought this was even remotely safe for you. Jess, if you want to go back, I can very easily get you back to the town. I mean it." Allen offered to send Jess home, but her eyes immediately shone with a defiant fire.

"No! I made the decision to leave, going back now would be giving up on myself. I can't do that. I won't. I'd be going backwards...the point is to move forward is it not?"

Jess' words hit home. Never stop moving forward. Allen took a deep breath. He could potentially continue to argue with her and maybe even take her home despite her protests, but he couldn't change her mind. Looking at her now, he noticed a big difference between this girl with the fiery eyes, locked on his face as if daring him to refuse, and the girl who was curled up, crying and scared just a few minutes ago. This Jess was in control. This Jess knew better now, knew to not let fear take over. But was that going to be enough, he wondered? Would this brave Jess with those eyes be able to keep the same expression if the apocryphos shows up again? Or the Noah?

Allen decided the best thing he can do for her is not let her be surprised again. He would have to tell her everything, to make sure she was prepared. He brushed his messy white hair back from his face with his long fingers, took up a more comfortable position on the bed, facing Jess.

"I think it's best if I tell you the truth...", he stated, a statement that made Jess' face light up with a grin.

"Yes! I want to know. Tell."

"Okay, here's how it began...


Lavi's eye was slowly getting used to the light. He was being led by his shirt cuffs, following the sound of footsteps. It had been a few hours since he'd last seen the violent Noah. And now another one had shown up, simply opening the door, and beckoning lavi to exit the small filthy cell.

His legs could barely carry him. He was thirsty, tired and in pain, but worst of all, he was extremely confused. He had no idea where he was going or what was going on, something rather unusual for a junior bookman. His mind occasionally drifted back to the old sickly man, but Lavi forced the thoughts out of his mind.

That's right...senior was probably gone by now.

The red-head looked up to the pair of feet walking in front of him. White sandals and white clothes, it was another Noah. But he wasn't sure which one, the lights in the hallway were too bright for his eye. Still, he kept alert, taking him out of the little cell wasn't necessarily a good thing.

They took a turn to the left, and suddenly the lights got calmer, and the cold ceramic floor turned into a lavish oriental carpet. Thanks to the lights being dimmer Lavi slowly looked up. He was in a fancy hallway, it almost looked like a large home, except it was too large. It still had a very dark feeling, but Lavi suspected that anywhere the Noah hung around would feel the same.

Lavi looked up at the person who was leading him through the hallway. It was a tall man with long dark hair. Lavi almost stopped walking. But it wasn't Sheryl, it couldn't be. If it was, he'd have gotten hit a few more times by now.

He tried to think back. It was hard to focus through his exhausted mind, but no sooner had he recognized the individual that they stopped in front of a large door. Tykki turned around to face the bookman.

The young red-head looked emaciated, and seemed to be focusing all his efforts on staying upright. He looked like he wanted to talk, but Tykki doubted any words would come out of his parched throat. Pushing the door open, he guided the exorcist into a large study. There was a set of couches by the fireplace, on which there was a change of clothes and a blanket. On the table in front of the couches, there was a tray with some food.

Without uttering a word, Lavi was made to sit down on the couch, and the tall Noah turned and made his way to the door.

"You've got about half an hour to yourself. Get yourself looking presentable and have some food. The Earl is going to show up soon and you'd better not try to get away before that", he said as he walked out and closed the door.

Tykki was angry at having to 'help' the exorcist. But after what Sheryl did, the Earl didn't seem to care much for which side did what. He was trying to achieve a certain goal, and apparently, a hurt exorcist was damaging to his plans. Tykki clenched his fists tight as he walked away from the room. It took all his control to not turn around and slash at the guy, just for fun. He could recall having some good fights with the red-head some time ago, but the young man looked very different now. That damned Sheryl! Forcing him to have to serve an exorcist. Tykki shuddered. He was above them. But playing with them was fun, and so he distracted himself by thinking of how the next fight would possibly go.

Back in the study, Lavi sat there looking at the fire with a blank expression on his face. He tried to sort out his thoughts to no avail. Some Noah were hurting him, others were providing him with warmth, clothes and food.

What on earth is going on here?

Reluctantly, Lavi decided remaining the way he was wouldn't change anything. He remembered Tykki telling him he only had about half an hour before the Earl showed up, and since running away was not an option in his current state, the bookman decided it wouldn't hurt to accept the help being offered, even if it wasn't sincere.

He slowly changed out of his moist wardrobe into a white shirt and pair of black slacks. Despite being next to the fire, Lavi still felt chilled, and so he wrapped the blanket around his shoulders, and looked at the table. There was a teapot, with a mug beside it, and some slices of cheese and biscuits. A plate of colourful fruits presented itself to a redhead who was suddenly quite aware of his hunger.

He briefly wondered what the possibilities were that the food was poisoned, but instinct took over, and he started to eat.

I wonder what the Millennium Earl wants me for. Damn, how the heck did all of this happen? Am I ever going to get away from these people...?

Soon, a glow had returned to the redhead's face. He was still alert, and he thanked the heavens for the seemingly unpoisoned food. Pondering his possible next moves, Lavi jumped up at the sound of a loud click, and his heart started to race as the door slowly opened again..

The Millennium Earl!


The sun was now mid-sky, and the streets regained their silence as families went home for lunch time. Jess leaned back against her pillow and let out a sigh. It was a lot to handle. But it certainly explained a lot. She looked back at her white haired companion,

"So, basically, you were born with an arm made of "innocence", and decided to use it to fight these monsters called Akuma. And these Akuma are made by the Millennium Earl, who's this evil Noah person and has another 12 or 13 followers, one of which might be in you. And you were kicked out of the Order place who are the good guys, because you might be one of the bad guys, but you don't want to join the bad guys, and that's when you ended up in my town...did I miss anything?", she asked, pensively.

Allen chuckled at her efforts to summarize it, "Yeah, that's the gist of it."

"And you're not sure what you want to do now?", she asked.

"Well, there's really not much I CAN do at the moment, I just want to figure out what really happened. I mean, ideally, I'd have wanted to ask Mana directly about everything...", Allen replied, his voice trailing off as he remembered his adoptive father.

Another option would have been to ask the man who'd raised him all those years, but Cross Marian was also most likely dead.

"Oh well", Allen said, standing up. "There's not much we can change now, and I'm sure you're just as hungry as I am. What say you we go cook up something?", he suggested.

Jess immediately replied, "Oh yes I'm so hungry! Let's make soup, we've got some vegetables left over!"

And with that, the two put behind the current troubles. Jess was rather glad that Allen finally told her the truth. She felt bad for him, at such a young age he had already seen more than most. She believed he wasn't evil, he didn't seem like it at all. And as she helped cut the vegetables, she wondered what she could possibly do to help him in the future. First on her list: keep an eye out for the Apocryphos. She would not let that thing get a hold of Allen again.


What did you think?

Also, big thank you to reviewer scoyblue for helping point out some errors in the story. Since you're anonymous I couldn't reply but I hope you could see this. Thank you for the structured criticism, I do agree with your points. Correction: Jess is a street urchin. But I don't think I'll go back and fix it, what's done is done. Here's to hoping you all like my future chapters better!