Sorry for being late! I was a bit busy with some things, but here I am! I would like to apologize for a mistake I made last chapter. If you guys noticed, I had Lavi call Arron, 'Allen' in front of the others, and that was not intended. It should be Arron, so sorry for the confusion it may have caused.
"Welcome back, Allen. How are you doing?" Komui asked, standing behind his desk. He was drinking coffee from his blue mug with a rabbit on it. As usual, the office was messy, with papers stacked here and there, and some of them just thrown in dirty piles.
"I'm doing quite fine," Allen answered. "Despite my looks." he added. Saying he was alright while in a wheelchair wasn't very convincing, proof being the doubt showing on Komui's face.
"As we discussed through the golems, my innocence took a new form, and I need it checked by Hevlaska." Allen said.
"Yes, Link gave me the whole story. But he didn't mention your condition. Care to explain?" the supervisor questioned.
"Yes. You know the akuma's ability to destroy molecular structure, and I was shot by that. My innocence changed, but Bookman, according to Lavi, said that my body was stressed because of strain of the new innocence healing my body's structure. My body functions perfectly, but my legs have gone numb. It shouldn't take long for them to work again." Allen explained. Komui nodded. He placed his mug onto the desk, and walked over to take a look himself.
"And," Allen activated his innocence, and let the fabric wrap around his legs. Once they were in place, he stood up on his own. "with the innocence activated, it heals it faster, and I'm able to walk just fine."
"So this is your new innocence. Even your arm changed, I see. Have there been any troubles using it?" Komui asked. Allen simply shook his head.
"Okay, let's go ahead and get Hevlaska to check it out. You can deactivate it now."
"Actually, I was planning to keep it on. Now that I don't need to keep my innocence away, I want to walk around a bit. Being in a chair all day is boring."
"No." Komui said firmly, a serious expression on his face.
"Why? I'm fine Komui. I don't need the wheelchair!" Allen protested.
"I will absolutely not have it. You will stay in that chair until you can stand without your innocence. What would you do if that just caused even more stress? I don't need a crippled exorcist. You need to take care of yourself. Or do you want to be sent to the infirmary?" Komui said in a threatening tone. This made the boy go silent. He deactivated his innocence, dropping himself back on the wheelchair, huffing in irritation.
"Aww, don't worry. You said it yourself, it's only for a day or two, right? You can wait until then." Lavi said, smiling.
"Whatever." Allen said with a sigh.
"Now, let's go. We've kept Hevlaska waiting enough. Along with an impatient inspector." Komui said, going back to his usual cheerful self. Allen groaned. He was not in the mood to see someone like Lvellie. 'This is going to be great.' he thought sarcastically.
They eventually made it down to where Hevlaska was located. As Komui had said, Lvellie was there, Link behind him. To the far right, Bookman was standing, and Lavi went to join him.
"Do you have a reason for the delay? You should have been here five minutes ago." Lvellie said, eyes glaring from Komui to Allen. Link didn't seem surprised; Ray had probably told Inspector Lvellie, and he must have heard.
"Sorry, there was a need for a few explanations before we came. Now that we're here, let's get started. If you would please, Hevlaska." Komui said. Hevlaska's great tentacles came down to wrap around Allen, picking him up. She places her forehead against his face, and began counting.
"2%, 16%, 35%, 60%, 74%, 87%, 91%. Your synchronization rate is at 91%. In the darkness of the war, you shall become the destroyer of time." Hevlaska said before setting him down. Everyone was intrigued by her prophecy. Lavi and Bookman were mumbling back and forth to each other, Komui seemed to be in deep thought, and Lvellie was giving Allen a glare as if he had just been named a traitor. Or maybe that's just how he always looked.
"Well that was interesting, though I don't know what it means. Hevlaska's prophecies are usually correct. Now that we're done, if you would come with me to the Science department to run a few tests." Komui said.
Link took Lavi's place in helping Allen because the Bookman and he had work to do. After they left, Link followed Komui into the elevator and wait till it got to the top.
They walked through the hallways of the order, and finally stopped after taking a turn to a certain hallway. It had a door with a large window next to it, showing you the inside of the room. In front of the window, there was a long table with computers and monitors. Behind the glass, the room held a table covered by a white cloth. Surrounding that was other medical technology, along with a tangle of wires.
Reever, one of the scientists, helped Allen onto the table and hooked up, putting a few wires onto Allen's left arm. Once he turned the machines on, he left the room to join Komui and Link outside. Five minutes passed before they finished collecting data.
Allen and Link left the two scientists to examine the data, and went to the training room at Allen's request. He could train because of Komui, so he decided to at least learn more about the new form.
He activated his innocence, and used his thoughts to bring the fabric in front of him. It was glowing white, making the silver mask at the top, with markings and designs engraved in it, glimmer. As Allen looked at his innocence, he thought it looked alive; like it could move on its own.
Allen moved it around to see how he could control it. After a while, he let the cape settle over his shoulder and began examining his arm. It was still as black as it was without the activation. His fingers had become sharp blades that extended as long as his arm. Although he lost the abilities his other arm could use, Allen could feel that this form was a lot more powerful; very convenient as well.
Suddenly, a loud rumbling sound filled the room. Link looked at Allen, brows raised in question.
"Sorry, I guess I'm getting hungry." the boy said. "Can we go to the cafeteria?" Link nodded. He must've been hungry too, since he couldn't leave Allen's side as an observer. When they got to the cafeteria, Allen ordered large amounts of food as usual, and Link got cake and other pastries that Allen didn't bother asking about. Jerry, the chef, was always happy having people who enjoyed his food.
The two found empty seats, and began eating. No one talked until Allen finished eating, which didn't take long.
"Do I have to meet with Lvellie after this? You'd think he'd be questioning me right now." Allen said.
"Right now, he needs to see the data before anything. Once he looks at the results, he'll decide what to do." Link replied
"At least with my new form of innocence, we can do missions around in this area more." he said.
"How so?" Link asked.
"I avoided going on missions around this area because my identity would found out as soon as the newspapers hit. But now I can use my mask to stay unknown even if they see me." Allen explained.
"What are you, some kind of thief? To use your innocence like that-" Link ranted continuously about the purpose of innocence and the responsibility we have as people granted with such power. Allen zoned his voice out, listening to anything else.
"Are you listening, Walker?"
"With the help of the mask, I'll stop asking for missions so far away, and we don't have to move around so much. You can't complain to that, can you?" Link mumbled something to himself, but he seemed convinced.
Allen stretched out his hands into the air. "Can we get back home now? I want to get some sleep." he said through a yawn. The CROW nodded, gathering the empty plates and took them to be cleaned. Then he went back to roll the wheelchair out of the cafeteria.
They left through the same way they came in: the underground canal. When they had first came here with Lavi, he hadn't bothered telling Allen that there was such a way in. He found out about it when he left the same day.
Link helped the boy into the car before going in himself. He started the car, driving down the path in the forest. Allen slept through half of the trip. When he woke up, he turned on the radio. He flipped through music, weather forecast, and other things before stopping at the news report.
"...citizens of all ages going missing, mostly during the night. Rumors have named 'floating machine monsters' to be the culprits behind these incidents. While no one knows what these things are and where they came from, there have been many witnesses of the damage done not only in this city, but also around the continent. It is suggested that you avoid leaving your homes during the night. Thank you."
"The akuma have been increasing lately. What is the Earl planning? Is he making his move?" Allen said, talking to himself with a frown.
When he first saw his new innocence, he had come up with an idea. To avoid people becoming victims of the akuma during the night, he would patrol the city to stop any attempted attacks. And hearing the report now convinced him more to do this.
Of course, he didn't tell neither Komui nor Link. Komui would definitely refuse to allow him to do it, more so with his current physical state. If he told Link, Inspector Lvellie would refuse, thinking that Allen was planning something. There may be consequences of him going out without permission, but he'd just say he felt akuma, and it'd be solved. And he wasn't going to delay his plans; he was starting tonight.
Allen woke up to the ringing of his phone. He had set an alarm to wake himself at 8:00p.m. He was able to get a few hours of sleep, and still get up in the early night. He pushed his legs over the bedside, and activated his innocence. He repeated the process he had done at Komui's office, wrapping the fabric from his knees to the ankles.
Getting out of bed, he got himself dressed into casual clothing: a pair of dark jeans, a black shirt, and tennis shoes (he had to be careful when putting the shirt on, or it would've been ripped by his claws/blades.) Allen picked out darker clothing so he wouldn't attract attention. With his innocence activated, the akuma would get attracted him, and he could fight them off easily without interruption from any civilians.
Allen left his apartment and silently went up the stairs. Why up instead of down? Simple. His way of traveling involved jumping on the rooftops of buildings. Most exorcists did this when moving within towns, unless they needed to gather information, or were planning to find a place to stay for the night. But Allen was doing neither, so now he was jumping swiftly on the roofs of people's homes.
Throughout his patrol he defeated many level ones and a few level twos. Level threes are more interested in collecting innocence rather than killing humans (not that they didn't do it; they definitely did), so they didn't show up.
During a part of his patrol, Allen noticed a CROW observing him from the shadows. If it had been Link, he would've immediately questioned Allen's actions. But no such thing happened, so he guessed it was the others he hadn't been introduced to yet. He wasn't doing anything bad (other than ignoring Komui's orders), so he didn't bother to explain himself. They didn't ask for one either, so there was no trouble.
Everything was going smooth enough, but as usual, fate seemed to hate Allen for an unknown reason. As he was patrolling around the markets, he saw someone familiar walking down the dim lit street. Lenalee was walking down the street, holding bags of what looked like grocery. 'Who goes shopping at 10:00p.m.!? Why is she here!?' Allen thought, slightly panicking inside.
"Please let her get home without any trouble. Please, please, please!" Allen whispered to himself as he watched her. But no, fate (or was it luck?) was not on his side these days. A man approached her, one that Allen recognized as an akuma. But Allen had to wait until the akuma revealed itself, otherwise it'd look like he murdered a human, except they'd turn to dust. He also wanted, if possible, to keep Lenalee as far as possible from the battle. So he waited, but this didn't last long. Lenalee was smart enough to know that the 'man' was suspicious.
When she declined the help the 'man' offered, it grew impatient and turned into its metallic ball form, causing poor Lenalee to scream at the top of her lungs. She dropped all her bags and started stepping away slowly.
That's when Allen came jumping down, with the mask already on his face. Landing on top of the akuma, he slashed at it with his left hand. A large, white cross was engraved into the akuma (later known as "Cross Grave"), and Allen jumped away before it exploded. Lenalee watched the whole time, speechless.
"You should get home. There are probably more of them on the way." Allen said, not facing her. He tried to make his voice sound a bit different, but he wasn't sure if it worked or not. Allen just hoped he didn't sound silly.
He grabbed the grocery bags Lenalee had dropped, and walked to where she was standing as he gestured for her to take them. She blinked a few times before she was out of her trance, and took the bags gently.
"T-thank you." Lenalee said quietly.
"You're welcome. Try not to stay out this late again." Allen said with a small smile. Lenalee nodded, then ran off in the direction she was facing. Allen waited for her to be out of view and sighed. 'That didn't turn out too badly.' he thought to himself. He turned to leave, oblivious that a phone directed towards him had just snapped a picture.