Ch. 9: The Heart of Innocence

Lavi took his amusement where he could. In the middle of a war, facing a very realistic possibility of failure, there were not many moments of joy or jokes, but watching the Head Nurse try and keep the Seconds in the hospital sure was one of them. It did not help her that they had long since healed before they had actually reached the headquarters, but she was a stubborn woman and she wanted to monitor their health. Lavi almost felt sorry for her, until Kanda hissed that she just wanted to put data into their progress files so she could just cut the crap and say it, rather than pretending to care. Lavi blinked and looked at the Head Nurse.

'How dare you,' she started weakly and Lavi did not miss the fact that Kanda must have been correct in his statement. Usually she reacted much more violently to their insistence at being alright or not wanting to be treated, because she took her job very seriously. 'Would you like me to ask Komui to order you to stay put or are you going to listen when I ask nicely?' she asked after a pause that filled the room with uncomfortable silence.

'We're going to listen,' Alma assured her with a forced, fake smile and she left without a word. Lavi watched as Alma pulled on Kanda's sleeve and whispered something that he couldn't hear. Mentally, he went back to the personal records of the Second Exorcists and flipped to the last page of Alma's file, surprised to see it contained a relatively recent record, containing detailed, medical information. Were they being monitored continuously?

'You're awful, Kanda,' Allen muttered from the bed next to Lavi, but the samurai didn't seem to hear him, because he was having a whispered argument with Alma. The obsessively curious side of Lavi wished that he could hear it, but he contented himself with grinning at Allen for the moment.

'I still think it's amazing you guys took as much as we did,' he said, keeping his tone cheerful and mocking, in character of his current persona. It was a sign of problem that he had to remind himself that he was friendly with them only because "Lavi" was a friendly guy.

'Well, we did not get first class trains, correlated with carriages to bring us back to the headquarters as fast as possible,' Daisya shot back with irritation. Lavi sniggered. He knew that Allen and Daisya had spent days in slow carriages, as to not jar their injuries too much. Normally they would have stayed in a local hospital, but the attack on the Seconds and the appearances of Road Kamelot and Tykki Mikk at many locations freaked the Central out so much that they had decided to call back all Exorcists without delay.

The Head Nurse came back and asked Sora to follow her to the examination room. Lavi watched them go and, as the doors closed, looked around the room. They were alone, Mei and Kaori being in a separate room, destined for girls. It was the chance to have an important conversation that he was going to keep off-record, Lavi thought guiltily. He should not even consider keeping anything about that war off-record and yet there he was.

'Now about that call,' he started, getting the attention of everybody. Alma and Kanda went up to them and sat on Lavi's bed, while Allen and Daisya pushed themselves into sitting positions. 'We haven't said anything to anybody yet, not that they asked,' he amended, knowing that neither did Daisya and Allen, since they had been unconscious or barely conscious most of their trip.

'Sora, Mei and Kaori didn't hear what you said either,' Alma added and Lavi noted the obvious relief on Daisya's face and the conflicted expression Allen was wearing. Kanda looked away from them all, crossing his arms, but Lavi knew that he was listening. He didn't even flinch when Alma asked how Allen knew there should have been four Noah. Allen sighed.

'Our Finders were killed by the Noah,' he said quietly. 'Road Kamelot or Tykki Mikk,' he added and sighed again before restarting in a firmer tone. 'They were looking for confirmation that all the Seconds were sent out together, because the Millennium Earl had sent two Noah after them. They wanted to join the Noah because they thought two against five was a lost fight.'

'It wasn't an easy one,' Alma commented. Allen acknowledged the statement with a nod.

'Then they knocked us out and left,' Daisya added. 'We woke up some time the following day and found that a "request for recovery" had been sent from my golem. We contacted you and waited for the recovery.'

'She really likes you, doesn't she?' Lavi asked, looking at Allen carefully. Wasn't there a record saying that Road Kamelot had a relationship with another Noah? Could the Bookman have been wrong when he had recorded that? It happened, but Bookman weren't often wrong. The teenager in question blushed and said that he didn't know what Lavi was talking about.

'They were late for the fight,' Alma said, changing the topic subtly. 'Lavi said that Tykki Mikk and Road Kamelot are supposed to be one of the strongest Noah, so I guess we were lucky, even if nobody really understands why they didn't try to finish what the other two had started. Afterwards they apparently appeared at various locations, scaring the hell out of Marie and Suman, for example, but they never made any contact with the Exorcists.'

'Somebody in the Central seems to think that it's a scouting mission, to assess the numbers and powers of the Black Order and then to attack,' Lavi added. Privately, in the light of the new information, which he had half-suspected, he wondered if Road was not simply providing a cover that would take suspicion off Allen. He had seen the fight between the Seconds and the two Noah and he knew that an Exorcist that stayed dead was not a threat to them, the Earl could probably crush the Order without even using the demons, only with the help of his Noah. Or, he amended, crush all the humans and then probably somehow contain the five Seconds for long enough to figure out how to kill them.

'A scouting mission,' Daisya repeated doubtfully. 'By the way, can you tell us what you guys had been doing in the Asian Branch?' he asked. Lavi saw Kanda tense, while Alma looked at his hands. He bit his lip when Allen and Daisya turned to him and shook his head: he wasn't the one who should share that information.

'We were terminating the Second Exorcist Project,' Kanda said, surprising Lavi and, by the looks of them, everybody else. Then Alma laughed humourlessly and said that it could be put in that way and that Allen and Daisya were better off not knowing the details, because it was a horrible mission. The two Exorcists looked confused, but nodded.

'So all the Exorcists are in the headquarters now?' Daisya asked, resting against the pillows with a sigh.

'They had all been directed to the closest base,' Lavi corrected, even though it wasn't entirely true, because then he and the Seconds should have gone back to the Asian Branch. However, it seemed like nobody wanted the Seconds to stay in the proximity of the premises in which they had been created. 'I think all of them are now accounted for, except for General Cross,' he added, watching how Allen winced. Did Daisya tell him about Cross?

The Head Nurse chose that moment to arrive with Sora and say that she wanted either Alma or Kanda to follow her next, effectively finishing their conversation. They could not risk elaborating on the topic of Noah and Cross in front of her and they could not yet be sure of Sora.

Before either of the brothers, and Lavi slapped himself for mentally referring to Alma and Kanda as "brothers" rather than "Seconds", had the time to react to the nurse's request, Komui entered the room. He was followed by Mei and Kaori and said that he needed a word with the Second Exorcists. With the corner of his eye, Lavi saw Allen grimace and wondered about the cause.

'We can stay here,' Komui added when Kanda and Alma got up from Lavi's bed, ready to leave. 'It's not a secret in any way, but I thought I can tell you all at once and answer any questions you might have,' he added.

'Is there a problem?' Alma asked. Komui did look somewhat troubled, now that Lavi paid closer attention to the man. He scolded himself for not noticing that immediately. Was he starting to be affected by his relationships with his temporary comrades? Was that what the Bookman always warned him about? Komui sighed and Lavi forced himself to focus on the present moment, grateful that Bookman hadn't been there in the room.

'Not a problem, no,' Komui replied, sounding like he was stalling for time. 'I have just talked with the Central. They congratulate you on removing two of the Noah. They also said that it is inexcusable to have all Exorcists cease operation, no matter the suspicions of the Earl having the Noah remove the Exorcists one by one,' he added. Allen looked ready to say something, but a glare from Daisya stopped him. Komui didn't seem to notice, but Lavi did. He made a mental note to ask Daisya and Allen about the details of their encounter with Road and Tykki.

'Why are you telling that to us especially?' Alma asked. Lavi wondered if he didn't suspect the reason or if he was just trying to prompt Komui, who didn't seem enthusiastic about whatever he had to say.

'The Central decided that each mission will now include one Second Exorcist, whose task will be to remove the Noah, should they appear,' the supervisor said, looking at nobody in particular and keeping his tone emotionless. If he was honest with himself, Lavi had to admit that he was surprised the Central acknowledged, in any way, the fact that Exorcists needed to be protected. Usually, they seemed to consider Exorcists their little toy soldiers to be exploited to the maximum and discarded when used up. Or recycled, he thought, remembering the notes about the Second Exorcist Project. He supposed that this concern was a step in the right direction, even though there were some obvious problems with that solution.

'That limits us to five missions in total,' Daisya protested, pointing out one of the problems Lavi could think of. 'It means we'll never going to have a moment of rest if we're to follow up on all the rumours that are semi-confirmed by the Finders,' he added. The Seconds won't, Lavi corrected him mentally, we will exchange between each other.

'We were five against two,' Alma shouted at the same time. This was, in Lavi's opinion, the main flaw of the Central's solution.

Lavi had no doubt that any of the Seconds could hold his ground against a Noah, coming back to life time after time and learning how to kill the opponent. After all, that was what the Seconds had done with Skinn Bolic and Jasdevi. However, in the finite time the Second needed to regenerate himself, the Noah was free to attack somebody else, possibly even enough time to kill. Besides, who guaranteed that the Earl wasn't learning and would not send a larger task force next time?

'Four against two,' Kaori corrected him coldly. 'You had me stand down,' she added. Komui looked at Alma in surprise.

'I had you shield Lavi and I was right to do it,' Alma shot back before Komui could question his decisions. 'Were you not forced to act in order to protect him from the attacks?' he asked. Kaori glared at him, but said nothing. 'Maybe it wasn't much but we were still fighting four against two and they had enough freedom to try and attack you and Lavi,' he pointed out. The implications of his words were obvious, but he didn't seem willing to voice them.

'I will address that problem with the Central,' Komui promised. 'In any case, we have a moment to sort out the practical side of things. I'll make it a general announcement, but I guess I can tell you guys already that the scientists in the North American Branch had managed to establish that the host of the Heart is active,' he announced.

Lavi sat up straighter. The Heart of Innocence was the ultimate piece, searched for extensively by both the Black Order and the Earl. It was said to be a particularly powerful Innocence and the Order hoped it would grant its wielder the power to destroy the Millennium Earl once and for all. On the other hand, destroying the Heart would cause the destruction of all the Innocence in the world, dormant or active, which was why both sides strived desperately to have it.

'Who-' he started, but Komui shook his head. Of course, Lavi thought, it would have been too easy if they could just point to a person and say "he/she will now be kept in a golden cage". He didn't doubt that the host of the Heart would not be allowed out of the headquarters once it was located.

'It should be a particularly powerful Innocence, thus the Generals are the ones most likely to have it, but of course it could be anybody and they could have simply not reached their maximum power yet,' he said, looking meaningfully at all of them in turn. Kanda scoffed at the implication. Lavi wondered what the Bookman would do if either of them were discovered to be the host of the Heart. 'All the scientists now have a high priority task of trying to figure out a test to identify the host of the Heart and the Central agreed to freeze all other operations, except retrieval of new hosts, for a week, in order to let everybody focus,' Komui added with a sigh.

'So we're on holidays?' Daisya asked with a wicked grin, making Komui roll his eyes. Allen and Alma snickered. 'Well you did say we're not supposed to go out on missions for a week, so,' he trailed off. Komui shook his head in resignation and said that they were on off when it concerned field work but he still expected their reports to be done.

'Spoilsport,' Daisya muttered as the supervisor excused himself and left. As soon as the door behind him closed, the Head Nurse told Mei and Kaori that they should follow her and the three of them left. There was a moment of silence, which Lavi took to organise the new information in his head. Just the thought of all the logs he was going to have to write was making his head hurt. At the very least, he sincerely hoped that he wouldn't be discovered to have the Heart. He almost wished it would be Kanda, just to see the fireworks that would ensue. Then again, he thought, it was a serious matter, possibly the most serious of them all. What if it was Cross and he really was a traitor?

'The Earl is targeting the Seconds,' Allen said out of the blue and suddenly the host of the Heart was not the only very serious matter at hand. They all looked at him. 'Road said that the Earl is annoyed because the Seconds are made to look Japanese and that he wants to erase them,' he explained. Lavi risked a glance at Kanda and Alma, but they either were not bothered by Allen's words or they were hiding it pretty well.

'If that is the truth then-' Alma trailed off and looked Allen in the eyes for a long moment. Allen nodded.

'We have to figure out a way to say that to Komui or else every Exorcist sent on a mission will be a potential target,' he said. They needed to find a way to say it to Komui without putting suspicion on Allen and Daisya, Lavi amended in his head. Remind me again why I bother, he asked himself, pressing his fingers against his temples and squeezing his eyes shut.