D. Gray-man manga set to resume publication in about April. Hells yeah.

Back and forth, back and forth, a rocker creaks in the middle of a room. In the rocker, is the icon of the destruction of mankind; the end of love and the sheer death of humanity: the Millennium Earl. Beside him is his trusted associate and the bearer of his sword, Lero. The umbrella-like object turned its pumpkin head on it's master, and seemingly spurted out a choked sentence. "Master Earl, I have to ask Leroro; it's been a month since the Noah family was… was…"

The Earl kept rocking, and knitting what seems to be an outfit. "Ah, yes, yes, Lero." The Earl chuckled, and pearled a loop. However, he stopped chuckling and sighed in sadness. "My poor, poor family… Jasdevi, Skinn… all taken from me; and what remains of our family? Just myself and a few of the children. Not to mention… the Egg. Destroyed by the cursed Black Order."

Lero perked, and leaned forward. "Yes, mi lord! We are beginning to run low on Akuma Leroro! Even with calamity in the world, you cannot do as you do best and offer your deals Leroro! What- ?"

The Earl raised his hand. "Please, Lero. Let me continue." He leaned back, and allowed himself to rock again. "Now… if a prop in a play is ever broken, my dear Lero… it has to be fixed. The show must go on, as they say!" He raised the needle for dramatic effect. "If an actor is suddenly fallen ill during the play, we must find an understudy. If one actor is to gain advantage over another, then we must see that they do not ruin the ending."

Lero leaned forward. "So, even with the Crowned Clown form of Allen Walker…?"

The Earl laughed. "Ah, my dear Lero… with such inactivity and our blatant maneuvers to trick the Black Order at every turn, we are stalling for time. As well as to wear on their nerves, as well as to put them in a common-sense of complacency but as well as a reminder that I am still around… we are stalling for time…" He looked up, nerves around his eyes bulging. "…to repair an important prop, and… to welcome new members... of the cast."

"As you say, mi lord Leroro..." The umbrella bowed and resumed floating by the Earl's side.

In and out...

Slowly, consciousness returned to Yoshimata Hakitawa. He awoken from his pain-induced slumber once to seeing a man with a blurring black object dancing with another blur. The blurs were glowing, it seemed. Losing consciousness again during their dance, he awoken for again only a few seconds, this time he saw houses pass him as he leaned on something white and fast. He smelled sea-water, and soon his pain overtook him and he slumbered. But now, he woke up completely. Slowly, albeit, but he still awoken. He was laying in a futon in a slowly rocking room. He tried to get up, but one arm was tied up. Ah... a cast? I... must of broken it. But... why am I on a boat? Where is everyone? He used his good, unbroken arm to prop himself up on the floor, looking around. His robes were laying by his feet, dirty and containing a few circles of red. Yoshimata was dazed and confused, that was for sure. Outside, he heard a woman's voice faintly talking away from the room, but the distance between the voice and him was closing. He tried to listen, but he couldn't hear the conversation. But one thing was for sure; the voice didn't belong to anyone he knew. He began to try and crawl out of the bed, but his body was too weak. Damn...

The door opened, and in came a woman. She was carrying a towel and some food; she gave a start when she saw Yoshimata. "Ah! You're awake!" She turned around, and called outside. "He's awake!" There was shuffling outside, and in came several people he did not know, but after a boy with red-hair there came Dairu, Joseph, Sami and Yoko, but she looked back slightly for a moment but continued in. If Yoshimata was confused before, now he was simply lost. He rubbed his head slightly, and felt a bandage going around his forehead. He knew to quit fiddling with it, and looked to whom seemed the older of all of them.

"Um, pardon my ignorance, but... whom are you?"

The man with the chin hairs answered. "We're members of the Black Order. We found you and your friends inside a forest in North America; do you remember anything?"

Yoshimata blinked, and rubbed his head. "I remember... waking up in my tent, my whole arm was in pain... something sharp, something... large was stabbing my tent over and over. I heard Yoko yelling something, and outside my tent I could see Dairu and Joseph running. Something slammed hard into my tent, and... that's all I can remember." Yoshimata began to gain some confidence, and looked from each stranger to another. The woman who came in, now he saw, was actually very cute; she had long-ish hair that was tied in two ponytails. The man whom asked him of any memory of one night's event was older then everyone, it seemed; he carried the bearings of an adult, but was at the same time drinking what seems to be a soda. Things just kept getting weirder; he turned his gaze, and met the eyes, well, eye of a boy with red hair, a strange head-band and an eye patch. Next to him was a boy with long white hair, a tattoo, a strangely red-black arm, a lightly tanned skin-tone, and on his shoulder was, as Yoshimata could see, a flying golden ball with teeth. To top all of this strangeness off the older man, the red-head and the cute girl were all in strange uniforms. "Again, please pardon me, but... what is the 'Black Order'?"

The man sat back. "We are an organization made to fight the Akuma and to stop a man called the Millennium Earl. He is the creator of the Akuma, and he is trying to destroy the world due to prophecy. I am part of the Science Branch, which creates and invents to help our forces. Our forces include two main branches: Finders, part of the Intelligence Branch, and the Exorcists, the main forces of the battlefield. Here, we have four exorcists on this boat. We have Allen Walker," he moved his hand to him, "Lenalee Lee," he moved his hand once more. "And Lavi." He again moved his hand. "The fourth exorcist on this boat, Yu Kanda, is piloting the ship for me temporarily. Try not to get on his nerves; he's very blood thirsty when provoked. Oh, and I'm Reever Wenham by the way. Director of the Science Department at the Black Order's Headquarters."

Yoshimata nodded, and bowed slightly. "I see. Hello. I haven't introduced myself yet, have I? I am Yoshimata Hakitawa." Reever extended his hand, and Yoshimata shook it warmly. He also shook hands with Allen, Lenalee and Lavi when they offered their hands. Yoshimata breathed in, and asked a new question. "Why am I on this boat, per say? Is there something we can help you with?"

Reever sat on a chair next to Yoshimata, leaning forward. "We believe that you are capable to becoming Exorcists of the Black Order. Three of you carry Innocence's on your person," He looked to Yoko, who showed her armband. He also looked to Joseph, who showed a dagger with a rusty blade but a glowing hilt, and also Dairu, who moved his hair back to show a glowing ball-earring. "Now she," Reever turned the attention to Sami, "Came across her own Innocence, it seems, inside of a drawing book. What's strange about it is that the book never seems to run out of definable pages to be used." He rubs his chin, slightly, trying to explain. "However, you can flip to the back of the book whenever you want." He scratched his head. "Well, it's kind of hard for me to explain, but you do understand where I'm going with this, right?"

Yoshimata nodded. "Yeah, I think I understand it." He blinked slightly, his head moving downwards. He blinked again. "I haven't come across anything like theirs, yet... yet strange things have always been happening, even before this group met together." He winced at his good arm, his hand tightening. Reever, Allen and Lavi leaned forward, interested. "Whenever I was threatened... whenever I was ever nearly killed, my left hand would... glow. It felt scorching hot at one moment, but after a few seconds, it felt like just a regular heat. Whenever this happened, things would burn if my hand touched them... what does... what does it mean?" Yoshimata looked up, clearly troubled.

Lavi rubbed his chin, and pointed his finger up. "That sounds awfully like a parasite-type, doesn't it?" Allen nodded in agreement.

Joseph muttered into Dairu's ear, speaking in Italian. Dairu paused in one place for a moment in time, listening to Joseph's every word. He nodded when Joseph finished, and he turned to the group. "Joseph wants to know what is a 'parasite-type', and as well, I am also interested; what does it mean?"

Reever looked to Lenalee, giving her the job of explaining. Lenalee nodded, and Reever sat back and drank his soda. "There are, officially, two types of Innocences formed into anti-Akuma weapons: First is equipment-type. Equipment types are Innocences that have found an Accomodator who synchronizes with it, but aren't part of the person's genetic makeup. Since they aren't part of the body, they are harder to use if the Exorcist doesn't have a high synch-rate. It is extremely rare that an Innocence is already in a form for an anti-Akuma weapon, so at the Black Order Headquarters, we activate the Innocence to begin synching with you, so that it will become the weapon it's supposed to be." Lavi held up his weapon in example, his hammer. Sami smiled, holding the book close with pride at the words 'extremely rare' for her to have a pre-formed Innocence. Joseph stuck his tongue out in either jealousy or respite; Dairu, Yoko and Yoshimata nodded in some understanding. "Allen's anti-Akuma is his left-arm." She raised her hand to prove example, and Allen raised his arm to show.

"My entire left arm is the weapon; it may not seem much right now, but when I activate it, it becomes it's true form. Anyways, because it's part of me, the weapon and I are much more deadly when we have a high synch rate. However, because it's part of my body and uses the food I eat as much as I do for energy, I have to eat much more then a normal person."

Yoshimata nodded, his eyes wide open. "I always did have a strange appetite..." He mumbled, rubbing his chin in wonderment. He flex his hand, staring at it.

"We'll bring you to Hevlaska, our Guardian of Innocence's, once we land. We're about twenty minutes away from the shore." Reever stood up, stretching. "Well, I guess I should get back to piloting the ship. Kanda'll probably get angry at being left with the job." He walked out of the room.

The ship made port at London, however in a secluded area given to them by the Vatican. They all departed at once, eager to get off the rocking ship that entered choppy waters of the English Channel. "Good timing, I just ran out of soda..." Reever muttered, shaking the cup around. "We'll need to walk through this forest to get to the Black Order Headquarters, so just follow us." They began walking up into the forest, stepping on a stony path going up a hill.

Sami was walking behind Lavi, and poked him. "Huh?" Lavi asked, turning his head around.

"Um, Lavi... what does 'Headquarters' look like?" Sami inquired.

Lavi rubbed his head. "It looks..." He was trying to look for a word to describe it. "Um... Oh, yeah! Like an old Gothic Cathedral. It's just above this hill, so you'll see it soon."

"Oh... okay." Sami whispered. She looked at a tree, and saw a beautiful bird nesting inside of it. "Oh, so pretty!" She squeeled, and she took out her notebook. She unclipped her pen, and began to trace. She kept looking at the bird, drawing the bird free-handed but not missing a single edge or mark. Yoko noticed that her friend wasn't with the group, and looked back to see Sami standing still and looking up at the tree, her hand moving swiftly.

Yoko sighed, and walked over to Sami's side. She put her hand on her shoulder, trying to get her attention. "Sami?"

Sami jumped in surprise, and turned happily to Yoko. "Yoko! Look, a birdie!" She exclaimed, holding up an almost exact copy of the bird.

Yoko blinked twice. Man, she's still good at drawing... She shook her head, and brought herself back. "Cmon, Sami. We're falling behind from the group, y'know? Gotta stay together."

Sami blinked, and nodded. "Right!" They sprinted to get back into pace with the group, whom was almost out of the forest. When the group reached the top, the Exorcists and Wenham kept on walking towards the Headquarters. Yoshimata and Dairu slowed down a bit, and Yoko, Sami and Joseph stopped completely in their tracks. "Wo-ooow... Lavi-kun wasn't lying..." Sami slipped an honorific in the sentence.

"It's impressive. Not exactly like Notre Dame, but beautiful nonetheless." Dairu said; he turned his head to his friend. "Right, Yoshimata?"

Yoshimata nodded in agreement. "Yeah... beautiful."

Reever stopped in front of the gate, and looked up. "Gatekeeper, please give us permission to enter. We have all four Exorcists as we left, but we have five new members with us."

The giant head looked down. "New finders?"

Reever shook his head. "Nope. New Exorcists."

Aaaand we'll stop there, and we'll resume in the next chapter with my best guess at how they form anti-Akuma weapons.