D. Gray-man: Alternate Universe? Try Time Travel!:
Chapter 10: Talking with Jan: THE EPIC I
Author's notes: Hey guys, I'm pretty sure may have noticed already but I actually made this chapter extra-long because I wanted to thank you guys for actually voting. Plus, I didn't know where to stop so I went with stopping where I did.
Disclaimer: They said I could become anything, those sons of b*tches. I wanted to own D. Gray-man and yet I don't. *Evil grin* Yet.
With my babbling out of the way, on with the story...
The clacking of my conjured firearm broke the silence.
"Start talking. Are you a broker? Yes or no?" I said.
"A broker?" Allen asked.
"Master Cross told me about them, basically they're people that purposely create people in grief in exchange for cash so that the Millennium Earl can create more Akuma. Albeit, Brokers are a dime a dozen, so why go through the trouble of saving this one?" I lied. As a matter of fact Cross hadn't told me about them, I already knew beforehand about Brokers, the disgusting creatures.
His face widened in shock, "There are people that would actually do that? For money?" His fist tightened in anger.
"Allen, Master Cross?" I said simply.
"Oh right." He sweat dropped, and shivered at the same time.
"START TALKING!" I yelled harshly, Moor yelping back in surprise.
"I-I-I-I, don't know what you're talking abou-"She stuttered.
"LIAR!" I shouted, interrupting her.
I saw tears well up in her eyes, but something about the tears felt, familiar. Just where have I seen those kinds of tears before?
A hand gripped my arm, "That's enough. She doesn't know anything, so just calm down and lets leave, we have to get to the Black Order anyway." Allen said.
I lowered my gun, why did those tears look familiar?
"I'm sorry for the trouble miss. I guess I was just wrong, my deepest apologies." I said formally.
As we left the house, a sudden epiphany struck me like a lightning bolt.
I knew those tears because I once used them, those were the crocodile tears. I used them to secretly pick-pocket people when I made up a phony story about my mother abandoning me.
I was running back inside before I could even react, and I saw a glimpse of what I could only describe as a chequered door just as it vanished. A thought popped into my head, Rhode's door!
Technically speaking, that isn't your thought, nor is it your memory that you remember that door from. It is in fact MY memory-
Yeah, just shut up for once, alright? I'm thinking why she would save that one particular girl.
Rhode loves her family just as much as I do. You figure it out.
If she loves her family, and her family are the Noah…..
Yes, you're on the right track, come on, hurry up and figure it out.
….And she helped someone, that must mean they are part of her family. Wait, Moor's a Noah!
It appears so.
Allen ran up behind me and patted me on the shoulder, "Hey, Adam, why'd you go running off like that? And where's Moore?" He said whilst looking around.
"I." Looking around the place and coming up empty, I continued "Don't know. And I ran off because I realised something".
"What did you realise?" Allen asked.
"At first, I thought that her tears were familiar. And now I know why. They were false tears. She was pulling our chain again, Allen, and now she's escaped because of it to god knows where." I sighed slightly in frustration.
I picked myself up (Figuratively I mean, I didn't actually fall over – Adam) and put on a cheery smile, "Oh well, what a shame that we didn't catch her. Come on Allen, we have places to go, people to meet." I said innocently.
Under his breath, I could hear Allen say "And people say I have mood swings". A cat strode on it through the place, and just as I caught it a familiar looking golden bird-thingy flew straight out of the cat's mouth. "Tim campy!" Allen cried out in joy.
An hour later, on the back of a carriage (Thingy, I don't know what it's called okay?)…..
"Tim Campy, don't fly around too much. I and Adam have had enough chasing cats around for one day." Allen sighed.
"Yeah, next time you get mauled by a cat I ain't coming to save you, Tim." I said, pretending to be an innocent person pretending to be menacing.
Ack, such a mouthful. That's what she said.
"What-? You were mauled by a cat? I'm surprised you're safe." Said a voice from behind both me and Allen.
The voice belonged to one of the people that actually owned the cart, carriage, whatever it was that we were hitchhiking on.
He (Might have been a she, even) was wearing a rather stupid looking suit. His head was wider than his body in the suit, and he had a Akuma-like mask (It was happy instead of in agony as is the case with Akuma's), with a tutu (Or whatever the darn things called) around his neck, a gown (Again, whatever you call it) went from his neck down to his toes, it had a polka-dot pattern on it.
"Did you come here to do sightseeing, travellers?" A female voice said, in the direction of behind us.
"Ah, no, not really. We're on our way to the Black Orders HQ, the European branch, the Headquarters of Exorcists like us." I said, smiling.
"Now, Adam, we aren't officially Exorcists yet, remember that, no matter how much we feel like we've earned it." Allen said, sending my blimp of braggart-ness down in flames.
"Alright, mom." I said mockingly.
"Anyways, we should catch some shuteye. It's going to be a long time before we need to get off." I added, reminding him.
"Oh, right." He yawned. "I need a good nap anyway."
The yawning was contagious, as I yawned after Allen, "Yeah, I guess I could use a quick nap myself."
Before I even realised it, I had drifted off to sleep.
"Adam. Adam. Wake up, you're dreaming."
I groggily opened my heavy eye-lids, how could I even sleep in a dream was my question.
"Oh, Baron, it's you. Where are we?" I asked, looking around the strange place.
It was a small room with a chequered pattern on it, effectively making it equal parts black and white.
The couch I was on, case and point, was black leather with white cushions.
I sat up; Baron was sitting adjacent from me, in his chair that creaked under his size.
He was wearing a formal suit; he wasn't wearing the preposterous costume that was his normal attire as the Millennium Earl. No, this time round he was wearing what he would wear at a formal gathering.
"It's where I stay inside of your mind. My own personal room, if you will. It's actually quite convenient that you choose to sleep now, as I was meaning to ask you a question that ascertains to our, unique situation, is what you could call it." He said calmly.
I shrugged, "No reason not to ask now. Go ahead, shoot." I said.
"Alright, good. This question is more of a "What would you do if X happened" than anything else. Now, Adam, I will eventually without a doubt destroy the world. Do you understand that?" He asked.
"I DO know in the end that you will destroy the world, yes. Why are you asking?" I said.
"My plan involves me killing those at the modern day Black Order. Would you be okay with that? I'm asking, because I for a time also believed forcing people's opinions upon each other was wrong. It's the very simple fact that since you're my host, I need your full cooperation in battle otherwise I won't be at my strongest." He said.
"No, I would never forgive you if you killed anyone that I know. Period. I do find it repugnant to force your opinion on someone else." I paused, took in a breath before continuing, "What changed?" I said.
"What do you mean what changed?" He said.
"I mean, why is it that you decided to destroy the world when you once believed the same as I currently do?" I asked.
He gripped his forehead and took off his top hat, before putting it back on, regaining his composure as he did.
"My belief in my philosophy grew, that's what. Every day, I saw humans killing each other because of selfishness or greed or difference of opinion. I saw it as so ghastly that I decided to take action, after all, it would take time that humanity doesn't have to reach a point where everyone understood each other. Humanity will destroy itself eventually that much is certain. And I know that countless times over it has been said that a world without flaws is a stagnant, hellish place. So why bother leaving anyone alive if they would eventually experience hell?" He said.
I sighed, he had sound reasoning but morally, it was wrong. Or was I just saying that because he was forcing his opinion on others?
"I can understand the dilemma you see about this world. If I was someone that had as much experience with humanity as you do, then maybe I would act just as you are now. Maybe, I would be a Noah because I want to. But, I have chosen my side in this war, I am an Exorcist first, and a Noah last. I don't want this world to end, but maybe that's just me being selfish enough to want to live over the expense of others suffering. If anything, that makes me just as bad as a Broker." I said.
"If you see eye to eye with me, then why not join me? Help the other Noah win this war, and destroy this planet. Why shouldn't people of similar beliefs rally behind the same banner? Hm?" He asked.
It was my turn to laugh, "What's so funny?" The Baron asked.
"Nothing really, just how sad the situation is. Were you not a Noah, or were I not an Exorcist, I would gladly follow rank and file behind this supposed banner of yours." I got up off the couch and headed towards the exit. I spun on my heel and faced the Baron once more, "Tell you what, if I, at any time, decide to help the Noah over the Black Order, you'll be the first to know that I've done so, deal?" I said with a smirk.
He leaned back into his chair and poured himself a cup of tea, gradually adding a few too many sugars to it. "Deal."
I placed one foot in front of the other fell face first into a mop.
"Oh right, forgot to tell you that's the janitors closet that I store all the tools I use to keep this place spotless. The exit is actually over there." Out of the corner of my now in pain eye, I saw him point towards the window that I hadn't noticed before.
With a groan, I got up on my own two legs and walked towards it. "So, what? I just jump out the window to get out of here?" I asked.
"This is your mind first and foremost. Your sense of theatrics, that are actually stupendously superfluous by the way, caused the exit to be through the window. Normally, I'd ask why to just about anyone else, but given that you are more or less me, I can tell just what the answer is." His smirk widened.
I took a few steps back away from the window, "Yeah, why not?" I said.
A sprinted, jumping right before impact. The sound of glass shattering actually hurt my ears, but that could be attributed to the glass cutting my whole body as well.
"-Am, wake up Adam. Wake up, we're almost there." Allen was shaking me awake, speaking to me, but something didn't feel right.
It was the feeling that you get when someone is about to kill you or you're about to die or someone you know is about to die, you know, the bad omen-ish feeling that feels like footsteps over your grave? Well, that washed over me, and boy did it wash over thickly.
I visibly shook until I stopped myself, why was I paranoid that something was going to happen?
"IT'S AN AKUMA!" A childish voice screamed from a ways away.
"Allen." I looked at him, no need to tell him twice. He nodded. "Thanks for the lift!" I and Allen said in unison.
We took our cases of stuff that we had stored in safe locations beforehand to prevent us from losing them when we chased the cat with us. We probably weren't going to find this carriage/cart ever again.
"IT'S AN AKUMA! YOU'RE GONNA GET KILLED-"The voice was muffled by something. I presumed by the Akuma killing him at the time.
We ran as fast as our legs could carry us through the streets until we happened upon a group of men and a small child.
"The Akuma? Where is it? Is everyone ok?" Allen said as we came around the corner.
I had already invoked my Innocence in preparation and made my pistol. Better to activate level 2 and be safe than sorry.
I un-invoked my innocence, false alarm. Though, I didn't drop my guard. Something was off here. But I couldn't put my finger on it, quite.
"There's no Akuma here." Both me and Allen sweat dropped at that.
"See Jan; just because you said you were gonna get killed." Thwack! The adult hit the kid over the head with his fist.
"Sorry, it was this guy's fault." The said pointing at the child. This just heightened my suspicions. But I still couldn't put my finger on what was troubling me about the situation.
"He was screaming about an Akuma, and messing with the adults." The said man adjacent to the one that thwacked the kid.
The kid rubbed the back of his head, "I'm not just playing around, idiot! There really is an Akuma!" I glazed over the group and noticed something suspicious. Why was it out of everyone there, that the homeless looking man was nervous? Surely, if he was anyone reasonable than that meant he wouldn't believe in a child stories about Akuma, would he?
Then it hit me, what had been bothering me. Out of all the kinds of monsters to say is attacking you, why an Akuma? Akuma aren't even that well known, besides Japan of course, in Japan Akuma means 'Demon'. Why wouldn't he say that the 'Boogie-man' or 'A Werewolf' or even a 'Vampire' was attacking him? A broad term such as a monster would have been a child's instinctual reaction to seeing something freaky. The average non-Japanese person probably didn't even know of Akuma's existing.
The child wasn't lying, but in the time that I hadn't been paying attention the child had been ranting.
"…Me like a kid!" I zoned out on the conversations once more. Invoking my innocence, I was going to do one test to make sure that I was either right or wrong.
I walked straight up to the homeless man, and said "Top of the evening." My eyes narrowed down to mere slits, "Akuma."
I pointed my gun at him just as he took the kid hostage.
"Too easy." BANG! The bullet went straight into his forehead, blowing his mechanism parts out the back of his head.
I practically threw the kid away from the explosion. I un-invoked my innocence and turned around to see the expression of half a dozen stunned people, Allen included, and one child that looked as if he had just gotten an Xbox (Xbox for life, PS3 SUX! – Anonymous/Adam) for Christmas.
"W-what on earth was that?" The bald man wearing suspenders said. All the other adults were shaking in their boots, so to speak.
"That was an Akuma. And that Exorcist there just destroyed it." The child said smugly. "SEE! TOLD YA SO!" The child shouted.
Allen sweat dropped, "How did you know that he was an Akuma? You don't have a cursed eye like me last time I checked." Allen said, puzzled.
I smirked, "Out of everyone here, he was the only one that was nervous about the child's Akuma accusations. Why would any rational adult believe a child unless he knew that they existed? As a test, just to make sure, I went straight up to it and said "Top of the evening. Akuma" and when he took the child hostage, I knew that he was the Akuma, as indicated by the fact he exploded." I said. Bragging wasn't my thing but it sure was fun.
The child, whose name I just remembered was Jan given that was what the other adults called him, tackled me to the ground.
"An Exorcist! (In the background I could hear Allen saying "But I'm an Exorcist too…") Wow, it's the first time I've ever seen one! Was that the Anti-Akuma weapon? Can I see?"
I was stunned for a second before I recovered, "Uh, sure. Can you get off of me first though?" I said.
He practically teleported off of me he was so hyperactive.
After dusting myself off, I rolled up the sleeve on my right arm to show him my entirely black forearm. But something was different. It was longer, it had spread further up my arm, reaching my shoulder blade.
Putting a poker face when all I wanted to do was stand there and stare, I demonstrated my ability by conjuring up a ball of fire and throwing in into the air.
Jan turned his head to side, like a dog would when they didn't understand what was happening, "But, you used a gun to shoot the Akuma, why can you make a fireball as well?"
"My Innocence allows me to conjure physical stuff out of flames see." As I spoke I summoned my pistol. "This gun is only basic, what me to show you something really cool?"
Jan's eyes instantly light up like a Christmas tree at that.
I concentrated, better to try out my idea in theory to see if it works at all first, right?
Whoosh! A fully automatic G18 with 50 Cal. Rounds appeared magically in my hands.
"Now stand back, 'cuz this is the first time I've tried this out." I said.
"Uh, are you sure it's safe?" Allen asked nervously.
"Don't be such a killjoy shortstack!" Jan said.
"Shortstack?" Allen said, before becoming depressed.
I aimed it straight at the sky, and fired dozens of rounds into the sky.
It was a massive amount of firework-like explosions that showered sparks and created overall a presentation that Jan probably wouldn't be forgetting for a long time. At this point, and Adults had run in fear from me.
"So cool!" Jan said, almost sounding like a schoolgirl.
A few minutes after the awesome-tastic presentation of power I showed Jan, Allen started chatting up Jan about how he knew about Akuma. We walked as we talked.
"My dad is a scientist for the Vatican. But he's never home, due to work. I was bored so I started to read his science notes, and that's where I learned about Akuma!" Jan said, skating whilst talking.
"Why would they allow him to do that?" I asked.
"What'dya mean?" Jan asked.
"I mean, why would they allow him to send confidential information, such as science notes, to an unsecured location? They undoubtedly know that he has a son, you, Jan, so why would they send information that is need to know and such when there is prying eyes about?" I said.
Jan shrugged, "I dunno, maybe they're just so dumb that they didn't think of it like that. Maybe they should hire you as a scientist as well so that they can add a few more IQ points to the higher-ups!" Jan said giddily.
"It's just suspicious is all." I said with a sigh.
"Adam, you do raise a good point. If Central is anything like Master describes them, then they wouldn't make a folly like that for no good reason." Allen interjected.
"That's what I'm saying!" I said with a small amount of relief.
"Anyway, as I was saying." Jan started before purposely coughing loud enough to get our attention. "I hope that one day I'll also become one of the best scientists in the world, so I can make a weapon that will instantly remove an Akuma!" Jan said happily.
Jan's eyes narrowed at both me and Allen, "Anyways…"
"What?" Both I and Allen said in unison.
"I didn't know Exorcists could be so physically weak." I could practically hear Allen's anxiety hit him over the head with a rock.
"My image of an Exorcist was a macho man. You're completely the opposite, Allen, and, hey wait, what IS your name?" Jan asked.
"Two things." I raised two of my fingers. We all stopped walking.
"One…" I picked up Jan with my pinkie finger and tossed him into the air, catching him with my left hand.
"….Looks can be deceiving." I put Jan down as he patted himself down to get the dust off of him. "Akuma are very much testament to that. Two, my name is Adam Phoenix Millennium-" I saw Jan's eyes widen in retaliation to my last name, "-and yes it is awkward to be an Exorcist with the last name Millennium. Actually, me and Allen aren't really Exorcists yet, we've trained under one of the five generals, General Marian Cross – he is a man by the way, thought I'd just let you know that – who is the guy that I got the idea of a gun based weapon from. He has a freakin' HUGE revolver the size of his head that fires bullets faster than you can blink. He draws it out just as fast by the way, and now we're heading over to the European branch to officially join." I said.
"He's also a womaniser, an alcoholic, a gambler, and a demon. You should just see the size of the debts he left for us!" The devil horns were poking out of Allen's head again, which could only mean thing; stay out of his way.
"Ok Allen, just calm down." I raised my hand reassuringly, and leaned in close to Jan's ear, "One suggestion Jan, don't ever mention Cross to Allen. He distinctly remembers training worse than I do." I whispered.
"Oh really? What'd Cross do to you two?" The horns expanded two fold at that.
"For one." Allen said furiously. I gulped; this was going south rather quickly. "He made us work to the bone just to pay off his debts!"
"Yeah, but because we are Parasite-type accommodators we ended up being in just as much debt as we started with. We went from place to place; both I and Allen finally agreed on the fact that we were going to die because Cross was going to work us to the bone. Thinking back on it now, it seems really silly; I actually enjoyed my training because of all the different places and things we did. In fact that one time, in the mines….." I slowly trailed off my voice just as Allen looked as if he was going to explode.
"Ok ok, let's just forget about Cross for a second, ok Allen? Just breathe in through your nose." I breathed in deeply, gesturing for Allen to do the same, "And out with your mouth." I breathed out from my mouth.
I elbowed Jan, "Do it as well, or Allen's going to kill us for mentioning Cross." I said in a harsh whisper.
Jan didn't even respond verbally, he just nodded and breathed in and out as I did to calm Allen down.
"Breath in through your nose." I breathed in through my nose for what felt like the thousandth time, "And out through your mouth." And I breathed out for what felt like the thousandth time.
Jan was doing the same as me to help, and it was working. Eventually, we got Allen under control. He stopped fuming, but I made a note to buy some kind of Chill Pill (Or rather get the science department to make one) for Allen when he gets like that.
We continued walking, Jan talking to us again as we did so.
"How many Akuma have you destroyed so far?" Jan asked.
"I'm guessing, somewhere close to, do you mean life time or as in during Cross training?" I asked.
"Life time, I guess." Jan said.
"Life time would be…." I trailed off thinking it over.
Alright, add up the Akuma I killed at the motel (Which blew up by the way if you remember) and you'd get two, plus all the Akuma that I killed during Cross's training, and you'd roughly get 17. Now, take all the Akuma I've killed before going back into the past and that becomes uncountable. Or rather, I stopped counting after five-hundred Akuma.
"17." I lied.
"Really? That attack that you used to shooting all those bullets into the sky looked pretty strong." Jan said.
"As I said, looks can be deceiving. That thing was actually pretty weak. I doubt it would even hurt anything beyond a level 1 Akuma. And only with repeated shots could it have killed one." I wasn't lying actually. I still lacked complete self-control; I could still only go quarter or full power, so I used half power.
In actuality, if I had used full power it would kill a level 2 in repeated shots. I wouldn't even dent a Level 3 though, as it wasn't refined enough (By that I mean that I didn't put so much energy into every single shot, it's just a way to clear out large groups of level 1's and possibly 2's) to get through their thick armour.
"So does that mean you are actually pretty weak for an Exorcist?" Jan asked.
I sweat dropped, that wasn't how I thought he would interpret it.
"Not necessarily. I poured my energy into hundreds of bullets and such, so mathematically I'm pretty strong." I said.
"Oh. Ok, never mind that, how did you get your Anti-Akuma weapon?" Jan asked.
I stopped.
Author's notes: DUN DUN DUUUUUUN! How will Adam explain it to the kid that he killed his parents because of his Innocence?
I hope you people liked Adam's super-sleuthing 'cuz it'll be showing up time and time again. And for those that think that the whole G18 demonstration is OOC for Adam, let me elaborate:
Adam is acting out a persona, his persona that he acts out is one that can be super serious at one moment and showboating the next. He doesn't act he just is smart. The sometimes-changing-the-past-isn't-a-good-thing will come up soon. Maybe next chapter? Maybe next year? Who knows? I certainly don't, I just make up dis shiz as I go along.
A quick reminder that I update once every two days for those that didn't know as well.
With that, 'cho I'm out.