Ch.011 – The coincidence of consequences
Kanda Yuu never acted thoughtlessly or on a whim while on missions. His decisions were always thoroughly planned and most effective to his work, even if made in a split of a second. That was how his actions always were. Until now. Because now he was running up the stairs at his best speed, heedless to what he might find around the corner. Mugen held firmly in his hand, ready to swipe away at anything that might stand in his way. And he couldn't care less what it would be – he only wanted to get to Alma as fast as possible. Regardless of the consequences.
He reached the top of the flight and all but burst into the open floor. A quick glance around assured him he was absolutely alone and so he headed straight for the only doors there. On his way he took one of the bricks, lying around useless, and hit the lock over and over again until it started to break. He threw away the remains of the brick and kicked the doors open.
Inside it was as little light as anywhere else in the building and so Kanda's eyes could see perfectly. In a split of a second he saw a figure curled up in the corner. Almost in the same moment the person moved his head up slowly and his eyes widened a fraction in surprise. Then, they lit up with an outright happiness and their owner spoke up.
'I knew Yuu would find me,' he said in a hoarse but eerily cheerful voice and it was all that Kanda needed to break down. He basically fell to his knees next to his brother, whispering his name in relief. With slightly shaking hands and his katana he worked his way through the ropes restraining the ankles and wrists while the other watched him carefully, staying perfectly still throughout the actions.
'I'm so sorry it took so long,' Kanda whispered in a strained voice, not looking up at his brother. 'We did all we could,' he added and pursed his lips. The explanations were needless: they sure took their sweet time while they could simply hack the damn city to pieces and find a faster way! They should have tried harder to have it done faster.
'I know, Yuu, I know you did your best,' Alma whispered warmly. 'I shouldn't have let my guard down in the first place and the situation would not get out of hand. But I was so close to finding it, I almost had it when they showed up and it surprised me too much. I'm sorry for worrying you so much.' Kanda looked up suddenly, staring at him startled.
'What are you talking about?' he asked with a frown.
'I know where the item is. We could go get it even now –'
'Like hell we're going anywhere!' Yuu cut him off sharply. 'We have to patch you up first. Are you hurt?' he asked sharply, cursing his own stupidity – he completely forgot it should be the first thing to check! He frowned angrily at his brother when he giggled slightly at his distress.
'It's not really bad,' he admitted. 'I'm bruised here and there a bit but it's nothing serious,' he said lightly and Kanda looked him up and down with a disbelieving frown, only now really registering the bruises and cuts on his face. He asked his brother if he could move and, when he got only a sad smile in reply, he let a string of curses flow freely. He'd kill them! He'd kill everyone who put a hand into bringing Alma to this state! He'd make sure they would pay for laying a finger on him! He was seething with anger and only the more pressing matter of taking Alma away seemed to ease his rage enough to think properly once again.
'I'll carry you,' he said firmly, when he finally calmed down, cutting off any protest with a single glare. He turned around to let his brother climb his back and, extremely gently, pulled his arms over his shoulders. He stopped when he heard a hiss of pain but Alma almost immediately urged him to move on. When the arms were loosely wrapped around his neck he got up slowly, listening to the labored breathing of the other. He pursed his lips to block another flow of curses and, without further hesitation, he made his way back to Lavi.
Soon enough, three faces turned towards him when he was nearing the bottom of the staircase. He saw the idiot rabbit gaze at him worriedly at first but, as soon as their eyes met, he knew the situation was under control. The redhead smiled ever so slightly but he wiped off the silly expression and turned to the boy at who he was aiming. Kanda frowned at the sight. Did something happen for him to be forced to take out the gun? Or was he simply making them more obedient?
'Now then, since our business here is settled we will be taking our leave,' Lavi started without a trace of humor left and the two teenagers looked at him with wide eyes. 'After we clean up the mess of our presence, that is.'
'What do you mean by that?' their guide boy asked and Kanda would have snorted if he wasn't so focused on not letting Alma slide from his back.
'It's obvious, isn't it?' the other snapped shooting covert glances at the two of them and Yuu did not like that. He glared warningly at him letting him know he should not even plan anything. 'Look around you, Kida, they'll do he same to us,' he finished bitingly and it seemed the other was about to talk back but they both went silent when Alma spoke up.
'Mikado,' he said barely louder then a whisper and efficiently drew everybody's attention. Was it the boy's name? How did he know?
Kanda saw the boy Alma called look at him with a scowl while the other was gazing between one and the other surprised. The idiot redhead gazed curiously in his own irritating way.
'Lead us to that girl or call her here,' Alma said calmly but surprisingly imposingly for his state. His kind eyes, carrying a trace of commandment, were fixed on the boy who flinched ever so slightly under the gaze. However, he still shook his head violently.
'No, I already told you,' he protested heatedly. 'You will never touch her! Never! I won't let you or anyone get near her!'
'You might not have the chance to fulfill that resolve,' Lavi butted in, holding his gun firmly, probably understanding that the said girl could have something to do with the item they were looking for. 'And when we find her ourselves we might not be so understanding,' he threatened.
'How dare you,' the boy hissed clenching his fists, he looked ready to jump, the barrel aimed at his forehead the only thing keeping him still. The other kid looked torn between helping his friend and saving his own life by staying put.
'Try me,' the redhead said daringly with a mocking smirk. This was counterproductive, Kanda thought with an irritated frown and a mental sigh. 'Or call for her now.'
'There's no need for that,' came a faint voice of a female from somewhere by the staircase. They all glanced there and saw a girl in black short dress looking at them all through her glasses, terrified but determined.
'I told you to go home and not come here!' Mikado cried desperately at the girl and would have probably run ho her if not for the gun still aimed at his head.
'I know,' she said with a sad half-smile. 'But I thought everything through and I don't want you to be hurt because of me. The man there promised that if I do it willingly they will leave you all be and disappear from here, never to come back. And I made my decision,' she said and both boys gave her terrified, disbelieving gazes. Their guide looked greatly confused on top of that but then the clear understanding appeared in his eyes and Kanda thought, with rising irritation, that he, in fact, knew of another thing that they were after. Damn this! Having the walking solution to their problems at hand and not knowing it!
'Don't believe them, Anri!' Mikado pleaded angrily. 'Don't believe a single word –' he was cut short when Lavi came up to him and, using the full attention he was giving to the girl, hit him unconscious. The boy would fall to the ground if the other boy didn't catch it midway and lie him down gently. It seemed only at this moment the girl noticed him and for a moment she watched him with a confused frown.
'Saika,' Alma called out quietly and the girl turned to him right away. 'Are you coming with us?' She shook her head.
'No, I'm giving her away,' she said and there was a moment of ringing silence in which Yuu argued quietly with his brother about being set down to the ground. The swordsman lost, of course, to his older brother and soon enough he helped him kneel on the floor, visibly barely able to keep up straight. Alma looked with his calm and kind eyes at the girl, nodding at her to take a place in front of him. She followed the wordless order and the next moment her eyes shone red and she was pulling a katana out of her open palm.
Kanda watched it shocked speechless but even in this state he kept his reflexes and moved slightly to put himself between the blade and his brother. Alma stopped him midway with a stern gaze that looked a bit forced on his tired face, however, he still obliged.
The girl let the katana stand on the tip of its blade in between the two.
'Can you tell me what will happen with Saika?' the girl asked quietly and extremely calmly.
'There is someone more fitting to the role that will take complete control of the blade,' Alma explained in an almost kind voice that carried only a small strain to it. 'Now, don't worry. It will not hurt,' he assured her and reached for the hilt stiffly, with a trembling hand and a hiss of pain on his lips. Once again he had to glare at Kanda to stay back.
The girl gasped and swayed as he took the katana, her eyes still fixed of the blade. She edged sideways but was not allowed to fall down as their little guide grabbed her and let her lie against his shoulder. The boy gave them an angry glare that held a very worried shade but Kanda couldn't really care less. What did bother him instead was the fact that his brother placed the tip of the blade against his open palm and started pushing in forward.
In the same moment he and Lavi jumped at him and shouted their protests against the action. However, before they managed to reach him, they noticed that no blood gushed out of his hand but the katana started disappearing inch by inch. That however did not improve their near panic and they both grabbed the other's hands.
Alma looked up at them with slightly clouded gaze. He tried to say something but only a quiet whine escaped his lips. He squeezed his eyes shut and pursed his lips to block out the pain he was showing and he shook his head ever so slightly. Terrified but unreasonably obedient, they let go of his arms and let him continue.
As soon as the blade vanished completely the girl caught her breath and, before she lost consciousness, her eyes turned back to normal. Alma's eyes, on the other hand, turned red for the briefest moment but then he blinked away the gleam. He was breathing heavily now and Kanda had to hold him firmly to not let him fall down. He exchanged a heated glare with Lavi and it was obvious they agreed on one thing – whoever put a finger to the whole thing had to pay for it.
The redhead turned his dangerous gaze at the two kids kneeling in front of them and raised the gun up, aiming straight at the girl. The guide's eyes widened minutely and he shifted their positions slightly to cover her.
'The hell you're doing?!' he cried out, anger and disbelief mixed in his voice. 'She gave it away freely, for fuck's sake, and now you wanna kill her?!' Lavi smirked in his best devilish way.
'She's seen our faces and talked, it seems, a lot to one of us and we leave no witnesses,' he explained almost lightly.
'The fuck's wrong with you!' the boy continued ranting desperately trying to hide her further away, seemingly ignoring the fact that the gun was now aimed straight at him. 'Do you think she'll go hunting for you defenseless?! She's seen what you're capable off and she's not suicidal!'
'No,' Alma breathed out weakly, cutting off the argument. 'The girl, she gave it away freely. She won't go chasing after it. I know,' he said and he went silent again, breathing deeply. To Kanda he seemed even weaker now and so he held him more tightly cursing away the fact that, as things were now, he could not go hack away the annoying kids. How could his brother pity or spare them?
'What about the revengeful lover?' Lavi whispered, turning a bit with the gun now aimed at "Mikado" as he continued his Russian roulette. Their guide let the girl lie down peacefully and, in the same moment, the other boy came back to. He took the scene in with wide eyes and then his face twisted into a vengeful, almost animalistic glare. He chose his victim and charged at the idiot redhead, already aiming at him with a smirk. This was getting messy, Kanda thought putting Mugen in a defending position in front of him and Alma.
Lavi has already started pulling the trigger when Mikado was thrown off his trajectory by their guide boy. The idiot redhead withdrew immediately and raised the gun up, turning to look at the kids as they started tussling on the ground some steps away. Their guide was visibly more experienced and he managed with a few light blows and then pinned the other firmly to the ground. He shouted at the other to not throw his life away so easily while his friend replied with something about naïveté and betrayal.
Kanda got irritated with their pointless brawl and Lavi's lenient amusement. He wanted to get up and finish the scene off with two clean cuts but a gentle squeeze on his arm stopped him. He gazed with a frown at his brother and saw him looking at the kids with a scolding glare.
'Stop this,' Alma said forcefully enough to be heard over their quarrel and they all, together with Lavi, turned to him surprised. His brother took a deep breath.
'I don't want anything to happen to Mikado,' he stated and there was a moment of stunned silence. 'I suppose that, after all, he was the one who ordered me kidnapped but I know he was just worried about the girl. And the boy was really kind to me when I was held hostage. He didn't have to but he brought me food and he kept me company a lot. He's not a threat,' he paused again and shook his head to clear it out. 'He needs to help the girl now,' he finished in a whisper and went quiet once again, breathing heavily from exertion. And Kanda had to hold him to prevent him from falling over.
Both boys got up from the floor and it looked like Mikado wanted to still argue but the other hit him out of his consciousness. He caught him mid-fall and dragged him to let him lie next to the girl. Then, he got up and glared at them daringly.
'You messed big time with us, Kida Masaomi,' Lavi started lightly but with a threatening timbre to his voice. 'You knew the one who kidnapped our friend and, I bet, you knew of the girl and her special abilities. It would help us greatly if you told us that the moment we met.'
'You never asked for that,' the kid replied smugly and the redhead narrowed his eye at him curiously. He raised his gun yet again that night and aimed at the heart.
'Now I'm asking you straight out,' he started imposingly. 'Do you want to die?'
'No.'
'Why do you want to live if you've probably just lost your best friends?'
'I haven't lost them yet. And I want to live for myself and my girlfriend.'
The two of them eyed each other daringly and Kanda grew more and more impatient. If not for the weight in his arms he would cut the idiot's game nice and short and they would be on their way now. They needed to move fast, he thought panicked when he felt Alma slide down a bit again.
And then his brother broke the silence, as if reading his mind.
'Let's get going, I can't hold off Saika for long,' he sighted out tiredly and Lavi immediately locked and tucked his gun away with the widest and creepiest grin he could do. He helped place the barely conscious man on Yuu's back and, when they were set to go, the redhead turned to their little guide once again.
'We'll surely repay you for your service,' he said with a smirk and by the frown he received in reply, the boy was clearly torn between understanding it as a promise or a threat. He nodded at them nevertheless and soon enough they blended into the shadows of a deserted and dilapidated housing district.
AN: Thanks for the reviews, favs and follows. They're all much appreciated ^^
