Note: There's a surprise at the bottom of this chapter~~~~~~~
CHAPTER 8 : PARADOX TOWN II
The barkeep stopped polishing at Daisuke's declaration. His hands shook, setting down the glass as they wrung the dingy dishrag. "Say that again?"
"That painting is at least a hundred years old," Daisuke repeated, looking thoughtful.
"Daisuke...," Allen cautioned.
"Boy that woman was my life," the barkeep said quietly. "You'd do good to stop fooling with her memory."
"But I am entirely serious," Daisuke persisted. The Niwa studied the portrait more before explaining "If you look closely at the strokes and compare it to the weathering of the—"
Allen grabbed the ex-thief's arm, pulled him back and shot him a warning look that very clearly meant 'shut up'. Looking over at the door, Allen could see that the bouncer was sending them a murderous glare. "Excuse my friend sir. He likes to think of himself as an art expert."
The red head grumbled as he tried unsuccessfully to talk around Allen's barrage of apologies. Seeing no way to get a word in, Daisuke was forced to wait, silenced, while the old man stared holes into him.
"You shouldn't go around disrespecting the dead," he chastised. Looking up at them with tired eyes he added, "Now get out of here before I let Bruno over there have his way with you."
"My apologies once again sir," Allen said as he dragged Daisuke out, hand still firmly clamped over the latter's mouth.
The moment the two were out of earshot and back out on the streets, the bartender let out a sigh, calling his bouncer over. The heavyset man ambled closer and leaned down to his employer's eye level. "Are we going to tell him Boss?"
"We don't have to Bruno," the old man rasped. He spat, as if the words left a horrible taste in his mouth. "The mayor has eyes everywhere; he probably already knows."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXX
Allen stared disapprovingly at his companion as they walked the streets of Riverport. Even if the bartender didn't have any information they still could have prodded the other customers. After what Daisuke said about the old man's wife, they probably wouldn't be able to get back in for another week. Allen had planned to stay in the pub for a good chunk of the afternoon, and then go out onto the streets at sunset when the shadier characters would be out. Now they had no choice but to wander around town until they found something interesting.
"Daisuke," Allen started. "What exactly were you trying to do back there?"
The ex-thief had a thoughtful look on his face as he answered, "I was trying to get a reaction from him."
"A reaction?"
"Yes," Daisuke nodded. "He did not seem very bothered by the painting's age."
"I don't really think he believed you Daisuke," Allen pointed out.
"I am not sure of that," Daisuke mumbled. He stopped walking and turned to face the other exorcist. "I think he knew already."
"Knew about what?"
"About the things happening," Daisuke said. He frowned before adding, "It's very hard to explain but the painting felt like it was over a hundred years old. So I am very sure it is. But the man did not call me crazy...maybe he's just cautious...but why would he...demo boku wa..."
The Niwa turned away from Allen and made his way to a bench on the side of the street, mumbling Japanese at himself as he went. Allen sighed and followed his new apprentice, guessing that Daisuke was having a conversation with the voice in his head. In the two weeks that Daisuke had been with the Order, he had never lapsed back into his first language. But according to Timothy, Daisuke thought/spoke to Dark in Japanese; it was the reason they had all gotten into so much conflict when the kid-exorcist had invaded the Niwa's mind.
They sat there for a while, Daisuke quietly conversing to himself and Allen silently observing passerby. The white-haired exorcist sighed and wondered whether or not this town really had any akuma in it. His eye hadn't activated yet and they had pretty much covered the entire area in his range during their walk. So the only place left for the devils to hide would be the outskirts, yet according to the town records the only people who lived there were the richer families.
Allen let out a frustrated groan and palmed his face, running his fingers through his hair. This wasn't for him; figuring these things out was supposed to be Lavi's job.
"OH ALLEEEEEEEEEEEN~!"
Smiling to himself, Allen stood and waved at the bookman before he shouted out anything particularly embarrassing. "Hello Lavi, Miranda. How did your search go?"
"It went GREAT!" Lavi exclaimed, proudly holding up a smooth, oddly shaped black object. "We managed to get this baby."
The object vaguely resembled a gun, though it wasn't nearly as big as Master Cross's. It could only be classified as a gun by its shape, because it had no barrel, no safety, and was too thin to even hold any bullets. It did have a trigger though, which Lavi's finger rested dangerously on. Thankfully, the not-gun was pointed at the ground.
"What exactly is that?" Allen asked.
"We're actually not so sure," Miranda confessed. "But the boy we got it from said it was one of the many strange 'toys' that the neighbourhood kids have been collecting."
"Toys?" Allen repeated. "You mean there are more of these?"
Lavi bit his lip and thought a bit. "Well not of these per se, but Allen, you should have seen their clock tower. It shone green!"
"Green?" Daisuke croaked, snapping out of his one-man conversation. "What shade of green?"
Rolling his eyes at the sudden random question Lavi replied, "A bright shade, brighter than anything I've ever seen. And hello to you too Daisuke."
"Do you have any idea what the 'toy' is?" Allen questioned, shifting the conversation back to the not-gun.
"None whatsoever," Lavi declared, holding the not-gun up at arm level and pointing it at the wood of the bench. Nobody noticed Daisuke's strangled gasp as the bookman's finger tightened over the trigger. "It doesn't even shoot well."
Suddenly, Daisuke lunged forward and slapped the not-gun out of Lavi's hand, snatching it out of the air as it fell. The Niwa pointed it at the ground as he fumbled with the not-gun's grip.
"Geez Daisuke," Lavi whined. "I told you the thing wouldn't shoot."
"It's not supposed to shoot," Daisuke said, still fiddling with it. "Not bullets anyway."
"What else would it shoot?" Allen asked.
Daisuke's hands stopped working for a while as he thought. "Lodes," he answered as he continued picking at the not-gun. A few seconds later, the not-gun popped open, ejecting two tubes of something. He visibly relaxed as the two somethings clanked against the cobblestone path. Handing the not-gun back to Lavi he announced, "Ok, it is safe now."
Miranda spoke up and broke the awkward silence that followed. "Safe from what?"
"Safe from that," Daisuke said, pointing at the not-gun. At everyone's questioning stares, he elaborated: "It shoots electricity. It's called a taser."
Lavi examined the taser and turned it around a few times in his hands. "And those things that fell out of it?"
"They are batteries," Daisuke answered. "They give energy. Without them, the taser cannot work."
Allen gave his apprentice an odd look and let out a sigh (it seemed like he'd been doing that a lot since Daisuke came along). "We'll have to talk more about this later when we settle in an inn for the night. There's one last place I want to check and I'd prefer it if we all went together."
Everyone conceded and falling on the old dependable safety-in-numbers rule, they made their way towards the town outskirts.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXX
Allen's eye activated just as the group left the city boundaries. They tensed, moving into a loose formation while they walked. The eye's whirring intensified the further they went from the town. The road the exorcists plodded along on cut straight through the forest in a direct path to the mayor's home.
"How many are there?" Lavi asked quietly. He shivered; a winter chill was sweeping by as the sun sank under the horizon.
"I can't be sure with their power levels," Allen replied. "They could be anywhere from 50-100. There's no chance of turning back now that they know we're here."
Four against fifty at best and four against a hundred at worst...Daisuke did not like these odds.
Lavi turned to the Niwa and smiled, "Look sharp Kaitou-chan and good luck!"
And then all hell broke loose.
Akuma poured in from every direction. They hid in the shadows, flickering through the twilight. They rushed at the foursome, claws and weapons unsheathed. And they fell, one by one to the exorcists' holy innocence.
Allen had his Crown Clown's sword out and was running around, bouncing off trees, rocks, and anything in the immediate vicinity, slashing at anything that came his way. Lavi stood anchored next to Miranda, swinging his mallet around in wide, deadly arcs. The dreary female exorcist was kneeling down, her Time Record glowing to life.
Daisuke knew that this formation allowed for maximum akuma extermination while still keeping Miranda and her invaluable innocence protected. Allen had briefed him on strategies before coming on the trip. But since the white-haired exorcist had gotten lost on his way to the ex-thief's room, that briefing turned into a 5-minute cram session. From the overall deer-in-the-headlights reaction he was experiencing, Daisuke could confidently say that the cram session was not helping the situation at all.
Something slammed into him, heaving him off the ground and knocking the wind out of him. Daisuke didn't go far; luckily a very helpful (and pointy) tree stopped him from falling into the forest. From his perch on a branch, he saw Lavi's hammer retreating back and an akuma where he'd been a moment ago. The Bookman had a serious expression on his face. His eye focused on Daisuke before he hollered, "No spacing out, activate your innocence!"
The ex-thief jumped, sending a thought to his inner curse. Dark remember, the less we interact with each other, the more the innocence works. So you need to lay low alright? A general sense of agreement washed over Daisuke's consciousness. Not knowing if Dark was still in tantrum mode or if he was already minimizing contact, the redhead dove into the sea of dark matter below.
He plummeted, popping his wings out and streamlining himself to maximize speed. Daisuke knew that he wouldn't be much help in the battle. They'd all discovered the ex-thief's limit during training; Daisuke could only keep his innocence activated for six minutes at most before the synch rate dropped too low. Those six minutes had to count.
Daisuke heard a sonorous crack as he landed on an akuma's head, bending its back into a ridiculous angle. The ex-thief locked his legs around the monster's head and wrenched his body clockwise, right wing pumping powerfully. More clicks sounded while Daisuke leapt away. Crouching into a fighting stance, the Niwa looked around, knowing that Allen and Lavi had probably already decimated a good chunk of the enemy. The glowering demon eyes that surrounded him seemed to say otherwise.
"HAHAHAHA!"
Familiar eerie laughter echoed as the broken-necked akuma cackled. Its skeletal head hung limply to the side as the mouth shook with glee. Not even bothering to reposition its head, it pointed a whirring mechanical finger at the Niwa. The smooth surface of its raised arm undulated, sloshing like molten bone. Moments later a canon was where its arm was, aimed straight at Daisuke's head. Light pooled in its hollow interior as the akuma screamed. "You're going to have to do a LOT more than that exorcist!"
Daisuke barely managed to dodge the compressed sphere of miasma that shot towards him. As soon as his feet touched the ground again, he saw another shot coming out of the corner of his eye. He twisted out of the way, only to have something barrel into his left wing. Daisuke clenched his teeth while sickening pain seeped from the impact point. He turned to where the hit had come from. Floating several feet above the tight ring of akuma was a corroded ball of metal. The pentacle on its shrivelled head visible as silver spokes jutted out of it. One of the spokes was pointed at him and smoking.
Thunderous laughter exploded from the ring of demons.
"A level 1!" a raspy voice exclaimed. "The exorcist is about to get done in by a level 1!"
Slowly, the ex-thief stretched his poisoned wing in front of himself, checking the damage while the akuma were busy laughing at his weakness. The signature stars of the akuma poison were already blackening half the wing. The black terrified him. It wasn't the same black of Dark's glossy raven wings. It was a dull black, a putrid black, a killing black.
Suddenly, Daisuke felt that strange spark again, tingling in his chest. He recognized this feeling. Memories of Krad's shiny new akuma form and Timothy's crumbling borrowed body flashed through Daisuke's mind. He knew what this feeling was. It was innocence.
The new energy surged through him, purging his body of the deadly poison. His wings snapped up, flaring with evanescent brilliance. He stood there for a while, basking in the crimson light of his wings as the akuma closest to him shrivelled up.
The laughter stopped abruptly, replaced with raucous cries of bloodlust.
Daisuke charged forward in a random direction, bringing his gleaming wings up in front of him as a make shift shield. He felt the akuma's bodies batter them and heard them hiss as if they had been stung. Steeling his nervousness, the ex-thief plucked a few good sized feathers off the inside of his wings and unfurled them. The akuma that had crowded around were pushed back, burns evident where they had touched Daisuke's innocence. The Niwa held the feathers between fingers, using them as close range weapons.
Fighting was something Daisuke took great pains to avoid. Even with all the heists he'd pulled, the Niwa could still count the number of fights he'd been in on one hand. It was always hit and run; he'd never killed anyone in his life. And here he was trying to destroy an army of deceased souls.
Everything in my life has changed so much since I left Azumano..., Daisuke thought as the feathers between his fingers shone with power. I can't go back...I can never go back.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXX
Allen watched the newest exorcist hack his way through the level 1's and 2's swamping him. Daisuke didn't have any fighting style. He just dodged every hit that came his way and slashed at anything that came close. His wings still charged with innocence and curved around his body, forcing akuma away from his back and sides. Occasionally, Daisuke would flail his wings, spreading innocence infused feathers and battering akuma that got too close.
"Is your mind wandering exorcist?"
Snapping his attention back to the trio of level 3's heckling him, Allen raised his sword, "Just looking out for a friend."
"He doesn't seem to be doing that well," level 3.1 commented, dodging Allen's swipe.
"No, not well at all," level 3.2 agreed. It rushed at Allen, catching him off-balance as the exorcist was carried by the momentum of his previous attack. Twisting his legs to an angle, Allen deflected the attack with a well-timed kick.
"In fact," 3.3 mumbled to a still airborne Allen. It held a hand above its eyes in an over-exaggerated gesture and continued. "It looks like that level 4's having a great time with him."
Landing hard on the ground, Allen swung his sword in a full circle, clearing the immediate vicinity of akuma. Once he was sure he'd have a minute of relative safety Allen looked over at where he'd last seen his apprentice and felt the bile rise in his throat.
Of course a level 4 had to be here. It fit right in with the rest of the rotten luck that seemed to surround Daisuke.
As he waded/hacked his way through the horde of demons Allen could see that Daisuke was just as messed up by the level 4 as he was. The Niwa was shaking, his wings rusting in their fading luminescence. Head bowed down in exhaustion, Daisuke fought against the enormous level 2 that forced him to kneel to the faux angelic demon walking towards him. The level 2 had a finger pushing against Daisuke's spine, right in between his wings. The rest of its hand was wrapped around the redhead's torso, squeezing him half to death from the look of the weakening struggles.
When Allen finally reached Daisuke, the redhead's innocence had completely sputtered out as he hung limply in the oversized devils hand. Grumbling, the level two repositioned its fingers around the now harmless wings, crushing them. The level 4 was examining the ex-thief's crimson wings with eerie rapture before Crown Clown forced him away. It stumbled back drunkenly, chattering to itself. "What a straaaaange human that is! He's like an angel!"
Choosing to ignore the level 4's senseless ramblings for the time being, Allen made quick work of the level 2, annihilating it. Daisuke slunk to the ground barely conscious and bleeding. Allen could see poison spreading where the ex-thief had been held by the level 2.
"Daisuke," Allen called, shaking his apprentice. "You need to activate again. The poison's still lethal to you if you don't purge it out with innocence."
Daisuke groaned as his wings flashed a weak pinkish glow.
Allen watched, unsurprised as the crimson feathers darkened to black. "Can you move?"
"I can," Dark replied, gingerly prodding a few cuts he'd gotten from the fight. "But Daisuke's not gonna be waking up anytime soon and his body can't take much more of this strain."
"That's good enough," Allen said. He studied the purple bruising around Dark/Daisuke's ribs and added, "Can you get to Miranda?"
"I can get to her, but what about that?" Dark asked, jerking his head to the level 4. He shuddered. "That's gotta be one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen."
"I'll take care of it," Allen assured. "Just get to Miranda. As soon as she heals you up head back to town and try and call for back-up."
"I'm not running away from these freaks," Dark argued. "There's no way you and the one-eyed wonder can fight your way through all of this."
"You won't be any help," Allen reminded. "Your magic hasn't been tested on them yet and now's not the best time to be experimenting. We'll just surrender; they'll probably take us to the mayor, which was where we meant to go anyway."
"Daisuke wouldn't want me to abandon his new comrades," Dark mumbled.
Allen was a bit shocked at the statement. "Don't worry, Lavi and I have gotten into a lot worse than this."
Dark's amethyst eyes bored into the senior exorcist's clockwork eye. After a few more moments of scrutinizing, the thief sighed. "I guess I'm going to have to trust you exorcist."
And with that he was gone, lost in the chaos of battle.
"Awwwww, you let him go!"
Turning his attention back to the level 4 Allen grit his teeth and asked. "What are you planning to do with us?"
"Well take you to the manor of course! The master was very excited to meet you all," the level 4 answered gleefully. Rubbing its chin and donning a thoughtful expression it added. "Though he was most excited to meet the angel exorcist, it can't be helped. He was weak anyways. Does this mean you and hammer guy are surrendering?"
Allen looked skyward to see a shadow pass by, too big to be a bird and too small to be an akuma, glinting with Time Record's power.
"I guess it does," Allen murmured.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXX
"These dungeons are coooooooold," Lavi announced.
"That's generally how dungeons work," voiced their cellmate.
"Why does this manor have a dungeon anyway...," the bookman grumbled. "Hey Allen, your plan's going swell by the way."
"We still got in though," Allen stated. "And with fewer injuries than if we had to fight our way through."
Apparently, the level 4 had thought it best for the exorcists to cool down for a bit in the completely hospitable underground dungeons. Allen and Lavi had been thrown into the only cell. It was cavernous and only held one other occupant other than themselves.
"So what're you in for?" Lavi asked the blue-haired bespectacled youth sitting in the corner of their prison.
"I'm in here for being the only sane person in this backwards town," he replied.
"Do tell," Lavi prodded.
Sighing, the boy elaborated. "I'm the puppet mayor of Riverport."
"Oh? You seem a bit young to be mayor," Allen commented to the teen.
"The only reason they chose me was because I know how to operate the technology they keep bringing back," Blue explained. "They keep me locked up so I don't tell anyone about the monsters that really run the town."
"That makes sense...," Lavi said thoughtfully.
"Don't worry Mr. Mayor. We'll get the town back to normal," Allen guaranteed. Holding a hand out, he introduced himself. "My name is Allen Walker and this is Lavi Bookman. We're exorcists."
Blue regarded the hand a bit sceptically before pushing his glasses up and shaking it. "My name is Satoshi Hikari, pleased to make your acquaintance."