Lenalee stood outside the front door with Lavi and let Kanda handle the girl's body. Lavi was good with people, and she knew she didn't want to be alone telling the poor girl's parents what had happened.

"Lavi... What should we say?" she asked, sitting down on the front steps of the house. "They're daughter's dead because we weren't able to protect her... What can we say?"

Lavi glanced down at the motionless girl in Kanda's arms. "Well... we can't really tell them about the Noah... But if we don't say something relating to all this, someone's bound to be turned into an Akuma, and we can't have that either."

Lavi crossed his arms and closed his eyes in thought. After a few moments of thinking, Lavi suggested, "I think we should at least sit the parents down and calmly, but seriously, tell them about the Innocence and the Earl. That way, if we warn them ahead of time, they'll try their very best not to go into complete depression and become one of the Earl's victims."

Lavi reopened his eyes and looked back up at Kanda and Lenalee. He knew that they shouldn't speak of this sort of thing to innocent people, but Lavi couldn't see how they would be able to get around this problem any other way. "Can you think of anything better, Lenalee?" Lavi wasn't going to ask Kanda about this sort of thing.

"I... think we should tell them about the Akuma and that their daughter's death was related to them..." Lenalee said, chewing on her lip. "We shouldn't tell them about the Earl, since that will put them in danger... Maybe... Maybe we can say we were chasing after an Akuma and Tyra here was caught in the cross-fire." She sighed. That was a lame excuse at best. "Still, we need to warn them that they can't wish her back and explain about the Akuma." Lenalee shook her head. That was about all they could.

Kanda just stared at Lavi in silence, not really sure about what they would say himself. Of course, Kanda would be straightforward and leave it at that, but he understood Lavi's reasoning as well, even though he himself would never put that much thought or care into it.

He looked down at the lifeless body in his arms blankly. He frowned when he noticed that the girl's eyes were still opened, rather widely in fact. Kanda fixed his hold on the girl as he let go of the girl with his right hand and gently closed the girl's eyelids shut. Quickly, he then put his arm in its original position. Whether Kanda liked people or not, he still had some respect for the dead.

Kanda then heard the fluttering of wings near them. He lifted his head, only to see Timcanpy flying around above Lavi and Lenalee's heads. "Oye, isn't that the Moyashi's golem?"

Lenalee blinked and looked up at the gold golem fluttering urgently above their heads. "Timcanpy!" she said, surprised. "I thought you were with Allen!" Tim landed on her head and tapped her cheek. "We can't leave now, Tim. We need to tell this girl's parents what happened."

Timcanpy shook his whole body like a human would shake their head as if to say, "We need to go now!" He gripped a lock of Lenalee's hair in his teeth and tugged lightly, trying to get her to move.

"Tim... We have to stay. I'm sorry, but..." She looked helplessly at Lavi.

Lavi sighed as the panicked Timcanpy tried to drag them away. He figured that Timcanpy was worried about Allen. As much as Lenalee and he wanted to follow Timcanpy, they had to take care of the girl first. "We're sorry, Tim, but we have to settle this matter first..." Lavi said, glancing down at the girl.

Timcanpy seemed to understand, from what Lavi could tell, but that didn't settle him down too much. This worried Lavi. He had an idea for why Timcanpy was so restless at the moment, but he would have to deal with that possibility later.

Lavi then turned away from Timcanpy, and faced Lenalee as he said, "Lenalee, I know you want to follow him and see what's up. So do I, but we need to stay here and wait for the girl's family. That also means we can't have Tim going crazy like this. Help me settle him down some, please? Apparently our reason for not going with him now didn't help any." Of course, Lavi didn't bother asking Kanda for help. If anything, he would probably make matters worse.

Lenalee reached up and somehow got Tim to let go of her hair. "Please Tim, just be patient," she said, holding him tightly in her hands. "We'll look for Allen right after we finish this." She leaned back against the stair behind her and felt something poke her. She picked up what seemed to be a sketchbook and pencil. The open page was an unfinished drawing of the garden. Lenalee closed the book and set it next to her. Tyra's parents would probably want it.


Child Allen opened his eyes. The Noah version of himself was nowhere to be seen, though. "Noah? Where are you?" he asked. Something didn't feel right. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

"Up here."

Child Allen looked up.

Noah Allen was sitting up in the branches, frowning at him. "Why didn't you kill her?" he asked.

"W-what?"

"That accommodater. Why didn't you kill her? You wanted to." The Noah's frown grew. "Was it because of the redhead?"

Child Allen glared. "I couldn't kill her because she was human! I don't want to hurt any humans!"

Noah Allen jumped down from his perch. He seemed so much taller up close, and much more dangerous. "I was trying to be nice and let you have your way as a Noah," he grumbled. All the kindness he'd shown the child was gone. "Looks like I can't let you be you anymore, kid."

"W-what do you mean?" Child Allen tried to stand, tried to back away from the Noah, but his body wouldn't move. "W-we're the same, aren't we?"

"No, we aren't," the Noah said, still coming closer. "We're hardly the same." He laughed when Child Allen stared up at him with frightened eyes. "You're a weak little nobody who's neither Noah nor Apostle. I, on the other hand, know where my loyalties lie." He wrapped his fingers around Allen's throat. "I have no use for you."

Child Allen let out a gasping sob, but couldn't fight back. Road! Please! Help me! He wasn't sure if she could hear him, but it was his only chance.


Road sat on the side of the bed and watched over Allen. She reached over for his book and was about to read it when she thought, I'm sure Allen wants to read this to me at some time. I wouldn't want to spoil the story for myself if he's gonna do that for me. Road then settled for just staring at the book's cover and analyzing the artistic talent of the cover's illustration.

Road glanced from the cover of the book and down at Allen, whose eyelids were twitching as he slept. "He must be dreaming," Road said as she laid the book down and watched over Allen. She was then surprised as she watched how Allen's scars returned and the dark skin started to creep up from his shirt collar. That's odd, she thought to herself as she continued to watch Allen's body. We're only usually able to do that consciously... How is he managing this while he's unconscious?

After his transformation was complete, Allen's head started to loll from side to side as he rasped in his sleep, "Road... Please... Help me..." A little afraid of what he was dreaming about, Road shook Allen gently and said, almost shouting, "Allen-kun, Allen-kun. Wake up, Allen-kun."

Allen opened his gold eyes slowly. "Is it time for dinner already?" he asked, all traces of his earlier depression gone. "I must've been out for a while." He stretched and glanced at his clock--it wasn't even close to dinnertime. "Aw, Road, why'd you wake me up?" He frowned at the smaller Noah. "Were you getting bored or something?"

Road looked at Allen a little baffled as he sat up and he sounded a little different and a lot happier than when he did before he fell asleep. M-Maybe a little sleep was all he really needed.

Road smiled as she assumed Allen was feeling better. She shook her head slightly and said, "No, It looked like you were having a nightmare so I woke you up." Road cocked her head to the side and averted Allen's gaze and said, "Although, I guess I was getting a smidgen bored while you were asleep." She looked back up at Allen with a sly smile. "Are you feeling up to doing something?"

Allen picked up the book and flipped through it to where they'd last left off. "Sure," he said brightly. "How about we read?" He shifted the book so that it was sitting on both their laps. "Same as last time?" he asked, referring to how they'd read it. Road had enjoyed doing all the fairies, after all.

Road nodded her head happily as Allen suggested reading and sat next to her. Road scooted closer to Allen so it was easier for both of them to read and also to just be nearer to Allen in general. The two of them took turns reading each of their parts, Allen reading the main character and Road took the part of the fairies. Road was enjoying her time with Allen like this and was glad that Allen was feeling better or at least was making a strong effort to do so.

Come suppertime, Tyki finished up a round of cards with some of his card-playing level three Akuma and raked up all the chips on the table to his corner. He looked up at the clock and he said, "All right Akuma, it's time for me to eat. Out with the lot of you." The Akuma grumbled to themselves as they left Tyki's room, still wanting to play a few more hands. Tyki shook his head at them, slipped his tux coat on and made his way over to Allen's room.

Tyki was about to knock when he heard the cheerful voices of Allen and Road saying something about fairies. A little curious as to what was going on, he knocked twice at the door and then poked his head in to find the two of them sitting together, reading a book. "Well, you certainly look a lot better," Tyki said as he noted Allen's smiling face. Tyki pointed behind him with his thumb and said, "It's time to eat. Let's get going." Tyki then left the two of them to make their own way down to the dinning room as Tyki walked down there himself.

Allen folded the top corner of the page they were on and shut the book. "Well? Shall we?" Allen followed Road to the dining hall, memorizing the path they took so he wouldn't get lost on his own.

When the reached the dining hall, Allen pulled Road's chair out for her to sit, then took the seat next to her. He noticed with a little apprehension the Earl hadn't arrived yet. Allen knew he still had to be punished for screwing up earlier, and he had a feeling the Earl would make his punishment clear when he arrived.

The Earl walked in after everyone was seated. After taking his seat at the head of the table, dinner started. The Earl turned his gaze to Allen and smiled. He'd picked out the perfect victims for Allen's punishment. He just had to hope that the girl's family would fall into depression. He decided to wait a bit before telling Allen the news. He started to eat when he decided to start some small talk with his children. "So how was the rest of your day?"

The conversation paused as the Akuma maids filed in and placed three large platters of sushi in the middle of the table along with fried rice and grilled vegetables. After the maids retreated into the darkness, Tyki started grabbing a few pieces of sushi with his chop sticks and putting them on his plate "After we got Allen situated, my afternoon was very relaxing and much needed." Tyki had taken a quick nap on his very comfortable bed and then called for the Akuma to play cards for him.

Jasdero and David pouted grumpily as they started scooping some rice onto their plates and then said in unison, "Ours wasn't." After the meeting, the twins had gone to their room and tried to juggle three apples again. However, it didn't seem like they had enough skill yet to keep the apples going. It was very frustrating for them, and they ended up fighting with each other since they made fun of each other's failures.

Road smiled as she reminisced on her time with Allen after he cheered up that afternoon as she pick out some of the pieces of nigiri that was just a piece of shrimp and a ball of rice. "Allen-kun's and mine was good." Road spoke for the two of them as she offered him some fried rice. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes. Sorry about falling asleep on you," Allen replied. He accepted the bowl of fried rice from Road and took at least one of everything. That would be enough for the moment and would give the rest of the family a chance to take seconds if they wanted. "How was yours, Earl?" Allen asked politely.

The Earl looked up from his plate. "It was nice. I had a very good day." He looked around the table. When to tell Allen Walker? When? the Earl thought

The rest of dinner was rather enjoyable with little conversation going on between one another. When dessert finally came out, all the Noah made the cross on their foreheads and Jasdero and David made the small prayer to Skin once again. Tonight the maids had prepared New York style cheese cake with black berry jam drizzled atop with a dollop of whip cream. The twins dug right in.

Tyki forked at the cake slightly tense. Not only did he not want to ruin dessert again somehow, but he also had a gut feeling the Earl might say something about Allen's punishment, which would ruin Allen's night. Tyki savored his cake as he looked shiftily between Allen and the Earl next to him.

Road ate the first piece of her cheesecake with much delight as she savored its flavor. "Mmmm..." she hummed as she sucked on her fork. "This is really sweet. Don't you agree Allen-kun?"

"Yes, it's very good," Allen said. He finished the slice of cake and put down his fork. He glanced over at the Earl, who seemed to be thinking about something or another, probably about how to break to him what his punishment would be. It wasn't like he couldn't take it, whatever it was, so Allen asked, "Is there something on your mind, Earl?"

The Earl chewed his fork a moment. "Just thinking of how to tell you your punishment." He set down his fork. "Tomorrow, you're to create an Akuma. I have already found you a victim. Sleep well for tomorrow. I'll give you the details then. Enjoy your cheesecake." The Earl stood up and exited the room.

Allen wasn't too surprised by the Earl's decided punishment. After all, it would make him have to prove his loyalty by helping the Earl out. Besides, Allen looked a little less intimidating than the Earl did. He'd probably be good at getting someone to create an Akuma.

Allen turned to one of the Akuma. "Could I have some more cheesecake?" he asked it. The Akuma nodded and cut Allen another slice.

The fact that Allen had blatantly waved off the fact that he had to make an Akuma like it was nothing left all the other Noah in a slight daze of confusion and bafflement. The twins both stared slack-jawed at Allen and then asked as they cocked their heads to the side, "Oto-kun? You all right?" Jasdero and David both knew Allen was opposed to the whole idea of Akuma in the first place because of his former days as an exorcists and were almost positive he still was since he couldn't bring himself to just kill a human.

Tyki put his fork down after he finished his last bite of cheesecake and said in a concerned voice, "You know Allen," he picked up his napkin and wiped his mouth, "it's admirable for you to take your punishment like a man. However, you don't have to cover up your feelings for us." Tyki eyed Allen suspicious as he tried to figure out what was really going on in his head. Something's no right here, Tyki thought. There's no way Allen could take that punishment so lightly.

Road looked at Allen curiously as she sucked on her fork after she finished her cheesecake. I wonder if that nightmare he was having earlier had something to do with this, she thought to herself. Allen had seemed different ever since he woke up and was changing by the minute; Road couldn't help but worry. She didn't want to Alarm the others with her passing thought so she just remained quiet.

"I'm fine," Allen said. He took another rather large bite of cheesecake. "In fact, I've never been better." He finished his cake, still smiling brightly. He looked from face to face a moment. "What? Is something wrong? Did you get sour blackberries?"

He knew why they were shocked. "Allen" would've reacted to the Earl's telling him to create an Akuma. "Allen" would have been upset by it. "Allen" would have asked for any punishment but that. But he wasn't that "Allen." He was a different "Allen," one that was willing to do as the Earl asked.

The Noah looked at each other curiously as they tried to figure out how to respond. The twins felt that if their brother was feeling fine then there was no need to try and spoil it. Both Jasdero and David were curious as to what caused his change of heart; they had a gut feeling that Road and Allen did something "fun" together. They stood up together and pointed their guns at each other as they stretched and said, "Well, we're off. Ja ne, Oto-kun."

As Tyki sipped at his cup of coffee that the Akuma maid had given him to finish off his dessert, he tried to figure out a way he could get Allen to loosen up a bit and possibly tell him where his new attitude came from. He was obviously hiding some fact from them since his new act was laid on a bit thick. An idea struck Tyki and he smirked devilishly as he set down his empty mug.

Tyki leaned his one elbow on the table as he turned to look at Allen. "Oye Allen, we never got to have our little wager yet. You wanna come on over to my room and play a few hands?"

Wager? Road eyed Tyki suspiciously. They made bet? Road tried to remember a time when they could have done something like that when she left them alone and Allen was in good health. Oh, she thought as the memory came back to her, they must have made that back when I stormed out of Allen's room two days ago. Now curious as to what the wager actually was, Road sweetly asked, "Came I come too Tickie?"

"Only if Allen wants to play," Tyki replied as he waited for Allen to make up his mind.

"I'd love to play," Allen said, once again setting down his fork. "And Road can come, if she'd like. It might get a little boring, though, depending what and how we play." He followed Tyki to his room.

"Well? What shall we play?" His eyes glimmered briefly. "Shall I wipe the floor with you at strip poker again?" He knew Tyki wouldn't allow him to win again, not in front of Road, at least.

"We might get into that later," Tyki said, waving away the idea. Tyki of course wanted revenge but didn't want to degrade himself that quickly if by some chance he'd loose. "We'll start off with a game Road can play, like Rummy."

Tyki lead the two of them to his door, which he phased through and unlocked from the inside. "Take your shoes off guys," Tyki said as he opened the door and made room for them to enter, already in a pair of black slippers.

Road had been blushing the whole time that they walked to Tyki's room. Once Allen mentioned the idea of them playing strip poker was just running through her head the entire time. She of course wasn't really looking forward to seeing her "uncle" naked, but just the thought of Allen shirtless was making her head spin with excitement and pleasure.

When Tyki opened the door to his room. Road immediately kicked her shoes off which went flying into his room. She belly flopped onto the bed and then began bouncing on it while she giggled gleefully to herself. Tyki's bed was the nicest and the softest of all the Noah's, so Road naturally had the tendency to steal his bed whenever she got the chance.

"Road! Get off of there!" Tyki scolded Road as she jumped on his bed. Once the giggling girl finally dismounted his bed and sat down at the card table, Tyki took off his tux coat and gloves and sat them down at his chair. He then went over to the mini bar and pulled out a new deck of normal cards.

"Eto, Allen..." Tyki said as he reached into the mini bar once again and pulled out two tall, skinny glasses, one short, stout glass and a metallic drink mixer. "You don't mind if I drink do you?" Tyki asked as he pulled out a bottle of vodka and a pitcher of lemonade. Tyki knew that Allen didn't like the smell of alcohol, so, if he objected to him drinking, Tyki would know that nothing was wrong and that he was just hiding his emotions. If he didn't oppose of the idea, however, then something was up, and Tyki would have to move on to the second part of his plan.

Allen shrugged. "As long as I don't have to drink it and it doesn't smell too strong," he said. He pulled off his shoes as well and sat across from where he assumed Tyki would sit. "You wouldn't happen to have anything that isn't alcoholic, would you?" Allen didn't want to be a killjoy with the alcoholic beverages, but he hated the stuff. Noah or not, he'd still been traumatized by Cross, and trauma from Cross stuck around for a long time.

"I'll take a cherry cola!" Road said eagerly as she raised her hand from the table.

Tyki poured his alcohol and juice into the mixer and shook it up to mix the two liquids. Tyki reached into the icebox and pulled out three ice cubes and dropped one into each glass. He then poured the contents of the mixer into the short glass and then set the mixer off to the side so he could go for a refill later.

Then he went back into the mini bar and rummaged through the icebox for what kinds of juice he had and also for Road's cola. "Hope you like lemonade," Tyki said as he pulled out a glass bottle of cherry cola, "It's all I really got..." Tyki then found a container of iced tea and said to Allen, "No wait I got some tea. How about lemon ice tea?"

Tyki popped off the cap and poured it into one of the tall glasses. He then reached back into the icebox and pulled out the bottle of iced tea but also stealthily pulled out a small bottle of liquor in the same hand as the tea. Tyki poured the tea a third of the way full, and then emptied out a shot's worth of liquor into Allen's glass as well. Tyki then filled the rest of the glass up with the iced tea and then stirred Allen's drink with a long spoon.

Tyki brought the three drinks over on a waiter's platter and gave Road and Allen their drinks. Tyki took a swig of his drink before going back to the mini bar to set the platter down. "Hey Shounen," Tyki said as he refilled his glass slightly, "Why don't we add a twist to our wager right now while we have full glasses? Let's play a drinking game. Every time you lose at a hand you have to take a drink. The one with the most in their glass at the end of the game is the winner and the loser has to follow through on our wager. What do you say, Allen?"

The game seemed harmless enough. He'd been talking to Road and hadn't noticed Tyki mess with his drink. "Sure, that sounds fair. You wanna play too, Road?" he asked. He figured that since she had a drink too, she might as well be involved in the game. Then Allen turned back to Tyki. "So what're we playing? Poker?"

Road held her hand up to Allen as she sipped at her drink. Once she finished her sip she said to Allen, "This is a bet between the two of you. I'll just stay out and watch." Road had a feeling this bet was about her to some degree, but she also wanted to just be a spectator if by some chance Tyki and Allen got into strip poker. Either way, Road just liked watching things play out, like how she enjoyed watching Akuma kill people.

Tyki smirked as his plan worked out and went into the minibar again pulled out his decorative, black and gray cards. "We'll just play normal poker for now." Tyki sat down at his chair and pulled off his gloves and rolled up his sleeves. "Remember Allen, no sleeves or gloves." Tyki didn't care either way because his method of cheating didn't consist of sticking cards up his sleeves. Tyki was a master of sleight of hand and could shuffle the deck to his liking, as long as he got a glimpse of the deck before working with the cards.

Tyki unlocked the wooden box and fanned the cards out and flipped them over to show Allen again the complexity of the cards once Allen's sleeves were rolled up. Tyki stole a glance at where all the high cards were and he then pulled the cards together into one pile and began shuffling it. Tyki smiled a little as he shuffled and then dealt five cards each. Tyki looked at his cards with a blank poker face as he observed his hand of two eights, two jacks, and an ace. "You first Allen," Tyki said as he waited for Allen to draw.

Allen frowned. His hand was horrible, but he had a feeling Tyki had cheated him somehow. He'd let Tyki win a few hands to lull the Noah into a false sense of security, then cheat him. Allen didn't need sleeves to cheat either. He'd shuffle a few times and wipe the floor with Tyki in much the same way as the Noah was cheating him now.

He drew his cards, frowned, then threw his cards down. Nothing would save that hand. "I lose," he said. He picked up his glass and sipped some of the sweet, lemony tea. There was a hint of something in it, some taste that was faintly familiar to Allen but too small to name, but he figured that it was just a kind of tea he'd had a while before while traveling.

Tyki smirked as he won with two pairs and took the cards back and fanned the cards again as a taunt and looked for the high cards again. Tyki went through his fancy shuffling and dealt five cards again. Tyki looked at his hand of three queens and two scrap cards. After Allen drew and discarded, Tyki discarded his two scrap cards and picked up another number and the last queen. They showed each other their hands and Tyki announced, "Four Queens." Tyki wasn't sure how much it would take Allen to get drunk but he was hoping it would be sooner rather than later so he could finally ask what was wrong with him.

As Road took a sip of her soda, she watched Allen lose again. She set her glass back down, crossed her legs on her chair and then said, "Allen, I thought you were good at this game."

"I'm just having an off-night, I guess," he said, taking another sip of his drink.

They played a few more rounds, each time with Allen losing. He was starting to get fed up with the stupid game, especially since it didn't seem like Tyki was going to let him shuffle anytime soon and just keep cheating him.

"You know what, I'm sick of this," Allen said angrily, his speech a little slurred but still understandable. He tossed down his hand, tried to stand up, but his legs wobbled and made him fall back into his chair. Irritated, he tried again, this time managing a few steps before tripping over his own feet and falling on the ground. He held his head. He was starting to feel ill. He didn't know why, though.

"Allen!" Road cried as she watched Allen fall flat on his face. Road went over to his side and helped him up. "Allen are you all right?" she asked as she struggled to prop him back up into his chair. As she struggled to Allen sit in his chair, her nose passed over Allen's glass. She automatically caught the faint smell of alcohol wafting from his glass. Alcohol? she thought as she identified the smell from Allen's glass and looked over at Tyki who took a sip of his own drink, You son of a...You slipped Allen alcohol didn't you Tyki?

Tyki stood up and reached for Allen when he fell over, but Road tended to Allen first. Tyki sat back down knowing that he was in good hands and took a victory swig of his own drink. After Allen was back in his seat he said, "Let's just play rummy for now." Tyki shuffled the deck normally and dealt out seven cards to Allen, Road and himself and flipped the top card over to start the game.

As their game went on, Tyki started loosening up himself with his own drink and finally stirred up conversation. "So how do you like it here so far?" Tyki asked Allen as he waited for Road to finish her turn. "You must be content here to some degree if you don't mind your punishment all that much."

It took Allen a moment to realize Tyki was talking to him. He felt really off for some reason. "I like it here," he muttered. "It jus' took some gettin' used to." Road finished her turn, so he waited for Tyki to go. "The punishment's not that bad. Woulda been b'fore, but not anymore." He grinned drowsily. "Got ridda that Allen, so there won't be anymore problems..." His head drooped. "No more problems at all." He slumped in his chair, out cold from the alcohol. It didn't take much to make Allen drunk.

After Allen's head hit the table, Road shook his shoulders gently to see if he would wake back up, but Allen was down for the count. The first thing Road did after she was sure Allen was out was punch Tyki in the arm. "Baka! How much alcohol did you give him?" Road was mad not only because Tyki was irresponsible and gave him alcohol but also she was really hoping they'd get into strip poker.

Tyki rubbed his arm. "Only a shot's worth. He must not be able to hold his liquor." Tyki took a swig of his own drink as Allen's words replayed in his head: The punishment's not that bad. Woulda been b'fore, but not anymore. Got ridda that Allen, so there won't be anymore problems... No more problems at all. "Oye Road," Tyki asked seriously as he set his drink back down, "what do you think Allen meant when he said that he "got rid of Allen?" He is Allen, right?"

Allen's words replayed in Roads mind as well, but she had a better idea of what he was talking about. Did Allen's Noah dream-self do something to his other half? She looked at Allen as he quietly snored to himself. "I'm not sure myself Tyki," Road lied as she took a last sip of her soda. She set the unfinished glass down and said, "I'm gonna go bug the Earl for now. Don't give him anything else you..." She held back her insult and summoned her door. She slipped her shoes on, glanced at Allen one more time and then exited through her door.

Tyki sighed and finished the rest of his drink in one gulp. Tyki cleaned up and then lifted Allen into his arms and carried him to his own room. Once they got there, Tyki laid Allen down on his side at the edge of his bed on the off chance he would compulsively vomit so he wouldn't choke to death on it. Tyki then sat down at Allen's desk and began building a card tower with the two decks he brought with him and kept an eye on Allen, still wondering if what Allen said had some meaning or if it was just drunken rambling.


Tyra's parents went to the supermarket and took their youngest daughter Myra to one of her friends. Both of them weren't really fond of this friend, but unlike Tyra, they thought that Myra would manage. They walked into the garden and saw some weird people hanging around their home.

"Who are you?" Tyra's mom asked. Tyra wasn't supposed to have people over when they weren't home and she knew that!

Lavi looked up at the two people standing in front of them sorrowfully and then stood as he took a deep breath, attempting to calm his nerves. It didn't work. Looking directly at the two people, who appeared to be the girl's parents, Lavi said, "I don't know if either of you have heard of it, but the three of us are Exorcists from the Black Order. We live to fight Akuma, who are enemies of this world..."

Lavi glanced down at Lenalee, hoping that she would help him out with explaining all of this to the two parents. But he couldn't wait for long. Lavi took another deep breath and continued. "Well... your daughter had something that the Akuma wanted. We tried the best we could, but we were too late..." Lavi closed his eye and hung his head as he moved out of the parents' way so they could see the lifeless corpse of their daughter laying in Kanda's arms.

The two listened to Lavi's story about the Black Order, Akuma, and Exorcists, but they didn't really believe it. Monsters didn't exist; everyone knew that.

"I'm sorry but that's..." Tyra's mother started. She wasn't able to finish when she saw her beloved daughter's corpse. "T-T-Tyra... What...? No... What did you...?"

Tyra's father wasn't really listening until he saw the body, and his expression changed. "You expect us to believe that?! What happened to our daughter?!"

Lavi avoided looking at the married couple in the eyes. "W-we're so sorry... There wasn't much we could do by the time we got here..." Still avoiding their eyes, Lavi thought, Okay... I'm lying, but not completely... Hopefully they won't catch on. I mean, we're not really supposed to talk about this at all with people outside of the Order...

Lavi turned to Lenalee, hoping she had something in mind in order to calm the two parents down. But she looked just as helpless as Lavi. He slowly turned his head to face the girl's parents and said, "S-she was killed... We tried our best, but time just wasn't on our side. We're all very sorry about this." Lavi glanced at Kanda slightly when he said "all".

In the midst of the married couple's slight panic, Lavi suggested, "Perhaps we should talk about this inside, if that's all right? I'm sure you two have a lot of questions, some of which we'll hopefully have answers for..."

The girl's parents allowed them inside, but it was probably more from shock than reason, Lenalee realized. They nodded mechanically every time Lenalee and Lavi told them something, like they didn't quite believe what was happening was real. Lenalee felt bad for them, but there wasn't much that could be done. The girl was dead, and there was no real cure for death.

After Lavi and Lenalee finished their explanation, Lenalee said, "Please, don't wish her back. The monsters that killed your daughter... they were souls wished back from the dead." She was lying a bit. The Noah had killed their daughter, but they didn't have to know that detail. In the end, it was the same result. "Your daughter..." Lenalee shook her head. "If you wish her back, her soul would be trapped in this world and forced to kill. Please, don't wish for her back."

When it seemed like the husband and wife understood, Lenalee stood. "We have to get going," Lenalee said. "Again, we're sorry for your loss." She didn't want to leave them, not yet, but they couldn't help it. Timcanpy wanted to continue looking for Allen. And so, they left and headed for the train station.

"Kanda..." she said in barely a whisper as they walked, "are you going to help us look for Allen?"

Kanda glanced at Lenalee for a moment, then looked away from her. He didn't really want to want to look for Allen, but he couldn't really go back to Headquarters empty-handed. He was sent to bring Lenalee and Lavi back with him, after all. Unless he was assigned another mission, he would stick around. Besides, after fighting with the Noah, Kanda was involved in all this as well.

Only eyeing Lenalee from the side without turning his head towards her at all, Kanda replied, "Until I get assigned to a new mission." Shortly after, the three exorcists boarded their train.


Comments from Sailorstar165:

Woot. Chapter. Okay, we're are really caught up with the role-play now and I won't be posting another chapter for a while.

The drunk idea was entirely Twilight's idea. I went with it for kicks. :)

As always, questions, comments, concerns, and random outbursts are welcome. Oh, and please check out xTwilightxAngelx's (our Noah) format of Back at the Order while you wait for me to get the next chapter of this together. Or you can join Your-Role and mess around there by clicking the homepage link on the profile.

We have lots of fun, so check us out!