HA HA! Next chapter is up! Enjoy!~~~~
They soon came in on the back docks of the Black Order, and hurried off with luggage in their hands they walked about the dock, looking all around their new surroundings. Cara only carried a small backpack of personal belongings and Zack carried her luggage for her. However, they found had been ready for their arrival, and had several people on hand to meet them once the boat had docked. Several came to take luggage, but Cara was reluctant to let the backpack go, at first.
" Go on, Cara," Luke encouraged her, as she seemed a bit timid, " give your bag to him. They'll give it back just the way it came, right?" he directed the question tot he man whom had asked Cara for the bag. He smiled kindly and nodded to her for reassurance.
" Absolutely." he said to her. Cara, taking one glance back and forth between Luke and the man, timidly handed the man her bag. He took it gently from her to show that he meant what he'd said to her before.
" Careful with it." she told him. " It's important to me." The man knelt down and smiled at her.
" I'll handel it personally and with the ut-most care." he answered her and Cara's face lights up right away.
" Thank you!" she says, honestly and the man flushed slightly, unused to such praise from such a young child. She was such a sweet little one . . .
" Only two rooms were set up." one said noticing that there were four guests instead of the expected two.
" Put the blue and black cases in one room and the brown and little case in the other." Zack instructed, though it was a bit out of place at the current time because he wasn't exactly an authority figure like he was in normal society within the Black Order. Well, not yet anyways. He was sure to have his way once the rest of the Order saw his position on these things. There was always a way to teach them, even if they were unwilling to learn. . .
Besides, Zack had many cases where Connell and himself were confided to one small, cramped room together for long hours of surveillance and the such. This would be easy in comparison. That and it kept Luka and Cara's involvement in the case at a controllable minimum for their stay with the order. Although, Zack didn't know how things were run here, so things could change. For now, though, this would do the best.
Meanwhile, Kanda, Marie, and Daisya were leaving them.
" Your guide will be here any minute. We have our own rooms to stay in." Kanda said, plain as day. Zack couldn't help thinking that the boy was such a sour person. Then again, he corrected himself, he'd been pretty sour when he was that age too. Really, he had no right to think such a thing as that.
Cara saw them leaving and hurried after them before they got too far away.
" Hey! Wait a minute, Mister!" she called, running up to them. Marie and Daisya stopped, both glancing back at her to see which "mister" she wanted to stop and wait for her. Kanda kept right on going, but a tug at the back of his uniform made him halt in his footsteps. "Mister, wait a second please."
Marie and Daisya both shrugged to each other and went on leaving again, seeing as Cara didn't want to speak to either of them. Kanda was getting rather tired of this " Mister" bit from the little girl.
" I'm Kanda." he said, and when she tiltied her head at him in befuddlement he repeated himself. " Y-u K-a-n-d-a is my name." Realization swelled in her eyes and she nodded that she took note of this fact. Delighted for some reason, she clapped her hands.
" You're Japanese, right?" she asked him, suddenly, getting Kanda staring at her for a few moments. "was I right? YAY!" she smiled sweetly now as she explained herself. " There's a girl in my class that has a name that sounded weird to me like that and she told me it was cause it was Japanese."
Frowning at her, Kanda had gotten Cara giggling from his facial expression. He didn't like that way she said his name " sounded weird", but he wasn't going to let a child ruffle him either. Cara seemed to realize how this sounded.
" Opps, sorry. I didn't mean anything by it-" she stopped herself abruptly and shook her head, as if to clear it. " Anyways," she got back on topic," come play with me sometime, please?" she asked him. All he could do was stare at her, truth be told. he wasn't a people person to begin with, children were way out of his range of understanding.
" It'll be fun! We can talk and stuff too!" she said then turned and waved before he could give her an answer. Kanda watched as she rejoined her group, wondering just what sort of unusual case this girl could have been in.
Staying there, he continued watching when thier tour guide, Lenalee, arrived and greeted them all.
Cara stared, mystified, at Lenalee with a wide shameless smile drawn across her sweet little child featured face.
" Wow," she said in an amazed, all eyes falling on her," you're so pretty." Lenalee smiled at Cara's compliment as it got the three adult men laughing at her up front comment. Cara stuck out her hand, ready to give a hand shake to Lenalee. "I'm Cara, nice to meet you."
It took Leanlee a moment to figure out what Cara's outstretched hand meant, but when she did figure it out, she took the little girl's hand for a good, more firm then she was expecting hand shake.
" My name's Lenalee Lee. I'll be your guide around today." she said, glancing up at the three men with the little girl. Zack and Connell flipped their badges to her, while Luke held up a business card for the female exorcist to see.
" Zack DeRoy," Zack shook hands with Lenalee too now," this is my college, James Connell, and personal friend, Luke Darrow." He sent a warning glare at Connell to be sure his employee behaved himself. It was rather unnerving to Zack just how much Connell took to chasing younger women. Lenalee was sure to be a target for him, but Zack wanted Connell at his beck and call at all times in case things went wrong.
" A pleasure to meet you." Connell said, grinning at Lenalee. Zack stomped on his foot, and Connell cringed and yelped, glaring at his boss for a short time. Lenalee, confused, smiled, and shook hands with Luke now.
" Don't mind them. They're always like this." he told her, giving what reassurance he could manage to her. " Nice to meet you, Lenalee."
" Nice to meet you all too. Follow me and I'll show you around." she directed them around the place. From here to there, dorm rooms, dining hall, this place had everything.
What made this all unnerving, however, was that people everywhere were pointing and staring, whispering to each other. It was obvious what the topic of choice was. Zack's thoughts of acting like a normal new inhabitant of the order was shot into the dust after crumbling to pieces. Blending in would've worked so nicely for this situation too . . .
Once more, Zack also took note to the different clothes he saw the people wearing. Some wore uniforms similar to Daisya, Marie, and Kanda. However, these ones seemed to be far less then the other clothes worn. The vast majority wore hooded, light colored clothes that had perfect symmetry if folded length wise. People that had neither of these uniforms had lab coats or wore regular clothes. The people whom occupied those clothes were all unique and different. All of them, however, seemed to be taking in the party of four that entered as much as Zack and his party were taking in the lot of them.
" Feel like an alien yet, Chief?" Connell asked, leaning to speak into his boss' ear. Zack snickered a bit.
" I do." Luke put it softly to the two of them. " It's like they've never seen the average joe before." Glancing around uneasily he added. " Or a little girl before, for that matter."
Cara, who was totally at ease around all of these people, ran about, looking at this or that thing or person in some cases. Meanwhile, the crowds around them took particular notice and interest in Cara as she hustled about the rooms. Lenalee looked at the men, incredulously.
" Shouldn't you all be looking after her?" she asked, stern faced. The three men blinked at her, almost as if they thought she was kidding or stupid in some way. Why would they let her run around by herself like that? Her maternal instincts told her this just wasn't right. However, all three let out a laugh at this question of her's.
" The wind can not be restrained so easily, milady." Connell said, getting a smack in the back of the head from Zack.
" We are looking after her," Zack said, simply now, as if his previous action hadn't actually occurred, " she's not a baby. Let her quell her curiosity by exploring. No harm, no fowl, as the saying goes." Lenalee frowned, obviously disagreeing with the statement. Just then, Cara came running back over to them. She smiled and skipped along between Luke and Zack, taking hold of both of their hands.
" Well, look who decided to join us." Luke said, smiling as Cara giggled. " Making any friends while your out, Cara?" She nodded enthusiastically at him.
" Being careful, I hope, little one?" Zack inquired, and Cara's head swung to look at him. She nodded, meaningfully in return. Zack then nodded to her as she grew a smile and continued to skip along between the two of them.
Finally, Lenalee showed them to their rooms. The Black Order had been nice enough to put them all in rooms beside each other. Zack was glad for that. He could keep track of Cara and Luke easily this way. That and he could talk to them if he needed to at any time.
Luke and Cara were ushered into their room on the right first. Opening the door, Cara rushed in and grabbed up her backpack. Instantly she opened it up, looking through it quickly. She sighed and smiled. Luke went and patted her head, sitting down next to her. Zack smiled, almost sadly at them. Coming in, he knelt down to look Cara in her big, curious eyes.
"I'm right next door if you need me." he said, pointing at the wall. Cara smiled.
" I'll remember that, Zack." she said. Laughing once, Zack ruffled her hair and straightened, walking out the door with a little wave. Then the door shut gently behind them.
" You know, it's annoying knowing someone has something to say to you, but they just won't say it." Zack snapped softly at Lenalee. Lenalee stared at him, lost.
" I agree." Connell said, shoving his hands into his pockets," it's hard to try and have a good time with your friends when there's a shadow on you shoulder, so to speak." They turned towards Lenalee. " What is it you want to say to us that you couldn't say in front of Luke and Cara?" Lenalee glanced between the tow investigators for a long time.
" We're alone, Lenalee, just say it." Zack's crisp reply was more then just a bit intimidating. What was scary was that he was well aware of how intimidating he could be. It was good to know how to use this ability with others, especially with tricky investigations.
In most cases, Connell was the good cop and Zack was the bad cop. Cliche as it seems, this method actually worked for them. Connell smirked slightly, advancing on Lenalee. Obviously, Lenalee takes a step back, hitting the wall. Sticking his arm out, Connell prevented her from getting anywhere.
" It was obvious," he whispered in a ghastly tone of voice, leaning to speak into her ear, " by the way you acted when you first saw us. You looked at Chief and I before Luke and Cara." he chuckled a sinister sort of laugh. Lenalee's skin began to crawl horribly feeling the way he breathed against her shoulder while he spoke.
" Why? We were in the back. By all reason, you should have seen them first. You got our descriptions from someone and knew which people you needed to talk to before we even introduced ourselves-" He halted mid way through his sentence when Zack clasped his shoulder with a hard grip.
" I've already told you to behave. Don't you ever listen?" Zack spoke, giving Connell's arm a hard squeeze so that the other man's expression turned downwards. Smiling and laughing, Connell straightened up, shaking Zack's hand off his shoulder.
" Chief, you're no fun!" he exclaimed, pouting. " I was just playing. Don't be such a stick in the mud."
" That's fun?" Zack asked, cocking a quizzical eyebrow at him. Giggling, Connell nodded to Zack who shook his head. Then their focus returned to Lenalee, who had backed away from them, unnerved by the two of them.
" Who are you people?" she asked with a deep breath to calm herself.
" We could certainly ask the same of you." Zack replied rather unhelpfully to her. Connell started chuckling at his Chief. Indefinitely, this was just he way his boss was, there was simply no helping.
" Lenalee, we are investigators. Who are you?" he asked, cautiously but careful with his words. Tapping his head thoughtfully, Connell smiled, now kindly, to her.
" That's what we've come to find out. So, come on, what is it you want the two of us for?" Despite the kind sound of his voice, Connell still seemed to demand the answer rather then suggest she give him an answer. Lenalee hesitated a moment. Then she turned and made a gesture to them.
" Follow me." she said, feeling that somehow she'd failed in some way. Though, in what way failed, she couldn't even begin to guess. With that she led the way for the two of them. Glancing at each other a moment, Zack gave the smallest nod of his head at Connell, who was looking eager as always.
" So, Lenalee," he began in a sort of carefree tone of voice," do all of the female exorcists wear short skirts, or is that just a personal preference?" The abruptness and content of the question made Lenalee flush bright red fast. The two men held back their laughing as much as they could manage to. Zack managed to hold it within him, but Connell just couldn't help it and laughed aloud. Lenalee turned disgusted eyes on him, looking ready to slap him. As for Zack, he settled for looking more then just pleasantly amused.
" He was kidding, Lenalee." Zack said, grinning at her. Lenalee wheeled her eyes to look at Connell who was shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head.
" Duh." he replied, laughing again. " Believe it or not, I've been able to stay with my current girlfriend for about five years now. Since college, now that I think about it." Lenalee nodded her head, her face grim looking.
" You're right, I don't believe it." she told Connell outright.
" Ouch!" Connell exclaimed dramatically as always while Zack let himself to laugh right out loud at this.
" Owned, dumb ass!" he said, his hands shoved into his pockets as they had been since Cara had let go of his hand earlier. Zack kept laughing and Connell joined right in with him after a his few moments of play drama. It was such a strange thing to Lenalee, that men whom were with the police seemed so normal. Like the everyday person in so many ways.
" Your badge means you're both with the police?" Lenalee asked the two of them now, almost suddenly. Both glanced up at her with innocent looking faces, then Zack sighed and a smile played lightly across his face in reply. Connell grew a smile too at this.
" Yes, we are." Connell told her, shoving his hands into his pockets now as well. The girl's eyes narrow suspiciously at the two of them, but they stood more then open and honest before her. Still, she was weary with them.
" What branch of the police did you come from, may I ask?" she inquired of them.
True, this was a question that the two men should have thought of talking about earlier. The two planned to have as few people as possible know that this was a homicide investigation. It was simply best for everyone that way, and for some reason, Kanda and his two exorcist friends had insisted that none know that this un-named exorcist lady was dead.
" Missing persons." Zack answered without a hint of hesitation in his voice or sign of the blunt lie he gave to her. Connell made sure nothing about his person seemed out of place or uneasy at this bluff. Behavior was critical to this profession at times like this, undercover, and about to be caught. So, Connell forced a languid shrug of his shoulders.
" Really?" Lenalee persisted, not sounding like she believed them right now. Zack, however, had been undercover too many times to be fooled by such a thing as this. He gave a firm nod of his head.
" She was reported missing a few days ago, and after a long chain of events we found a link to her and the Black Order within our evidence. Finding your fellow exorcists was a matter of chance, truth be told." Zack added, thoughtfully, and obviously, this comment made Lenalee curious.
" How's that?" she asked them and Connell jumped back into the conversation very casually at that point.
" Well, we passed by this crime scene on the way to one of the other departments of the police in town. We always visit the other departments to see if they've found anything that could be of use to us in some way, and the akuma started an attack. Your fellow exorcists and the both of us just happened to be close by at the time." Connell explained with a sigh and a shake of his head.
This was the time where they could make it or break it. Though they had been doing well thus far, it was luck that had saved them. Next time they would need to make sure their stories were staight before doing something like this.
" Really?" Lenalee spoke thoughtfully, but both Zack and Connell looked very sure. If this was a lie, they were good at playing lies for the truth.
" Yes," Zack replied, stomping Connell on the foot for no real reason so that the man let out a small yelp, " we were very lucky that everything turned out okay in the end. Now we can continue this case as well." Lenalee still seemed unsure of these things Zack and Connell were telling her.
" Who's the informant that reported her missing?" Lenalee asked, them, and yet again, this seemed to be an obvious question to ask to someone from missing persons that hadn't been discussed prior to entering into such a situation.
" That's classified." Zack immediately replied, as if this hadn't taken him any thought at all. Lenalee frowned, not satisfied with this answer that she was given. Not telling her just made this seem even more like a lie then before.
" Don't be confused," Connell now added in onto this answer that Zack gave her, "it's not because we don't want to tell you, it's the policy with missing persons. We aren't allowed to give out the name of our informants to protect them from potential killers that we may encounter along the way."
" Not to mention that this one specifically asked to remain anonymous." Zack put in also to her. " That was made quite clear to us when we met the person in question. It's odd having been actually requested for this case, don't you think, Connell?" Connell let out an easy going laugh, as always, nodding.
" Hey, our reputation preceeds us, Chief." he kept on nodding.
" When you're good, you're good as the saying goes." Zack replied to him in return.
Lenalee looked between the two men, seeking out some sort of hole or behavior that would give this away as the full out lie she felt that this all was. All of them were aware of the lie, even Lenalee, it was obvious. However, she had no way to argue the point. All of this was by the book, as far as she was aware, and with these developments in the lie, there was no way for her to force the lie out of them at this point.
" We really are sorry about this, but it's how things are run in our department." Connell said to her, earnestly apologizing to her. " Please try to understand that this is for the best of our client and everyone involved. If possible we'd like to keep this down to only one missing person rather then two. Can you understand that?"
" Oh, it's all right. No problem." Well, when he said it like that, how else was she supposed to respond to him then that? It bothered her greatly not to be able to pull the lie out of the two of them, but there was simply no helping it, she guessed. Connell gave an disarming smile at to her.
" Thank you." just then they came up on another person. Zack sized up this person very quickly, as he was used to doing. It took only a second to take in the appearance of this man.
He was in his mid-20s, about 25 if Zack had to guess by sight. The hat he wore was rather out of place compared to the while lab coat like uniform that hung about his shoulders. Glasses, he appeared like a scientist if ever Zack set eyes on one. Although, he seemed an unusual sort of person, seeing the strange mug, slippers, and as Zack had noticed before, the odd hat he wore around.
" Brother, you came in person?" Lenalee asked, hurrying up to him. That made Zack and Connell's jaws drop.
SIBLINGS? WHAT?
The man smiled at Lenalee, who frowned at him. "Don't you have work to do? You're not avoiding you're work and leaving it all for Reever to do by himself are you?" It was so obvious that Lenalee had hit the nail on the head that it was hard for Zack and Connell to hold their composure for this situation. He's stiffened visibly and began to stutter when he spoke next.
" N-N-NO! Of c-coarse not! Meeting with new exorcists in part of my job!" he insisted to her and she placed her hand on her hip, unconvinced for the time being. Meanwhile, he'd turned the attention back onto Zack and Connell being exorcist.
" I already gave Kanda the answer to that question when he said that we were exorcists too." Zack snorted at this man now, and Connell nodded darkly in agreement. " He did tell you my answer with my EXACT words, right?" Zack inquired, and the man lightly laughed at this.
" No, I don't think he gave me you're exact words," he replied to Zack, who scowled harshly, cursing Kanda a great deal under his breath, " but I got the basic idea of what your answers were . . ." he would've inserted a name, if he knew which one of them was Connell and which one was Zack, or that was Zack's assumption at the time.
" Zack DeRoy." he introduced himself in the most brief way possible.
" . . .Mr. DeRoy." he finished his previous sentence with that, which got Zack frowning at the formal term.
" I'm with the police, formality is wasted on men that deal with the scum of the earth." Zack told Lenalee's brother. " I'd prefer if you to call me just Zack." The brother nodded his understanding to this fact.
" That makes this-" he turned to Connell who grinned and stuck out his hand for a hand shake.
" James Connell. Most people just call me Connell, though." he replied, exchanging a warm handshake with this Black Order scientist.
Almost instantly, Zack was sure that he would have to avoid leaving these two to their own devices together. Already, he was getting this sinking feeling in his gut that these two together would be total chaos being around one another too much.
" Of coarse." Lenalee's brother answered back. They both grinned, and that was when Zack knew that he was right. " I'm Komui Lee. Head of this branch of the Black Order." Connell brightened considerably at hearing this from Komui.
" Really? Head of this branch?" he inquired, both curious but excited about what sounded to be a ranking system among the exorcists. So, there was a method to the madness, even in this place. That was good to know at least. Komui gave a bashful laugh and scratched his head.
" Well, yes." he replied, and Connell seemed to get more excited at this.
" Sounds awesome! Though, that's a lot of hard work, isn't it?" he asked now and Komui laughed like absolute crazy. Zack and Connell glanced at each other. Clearly, they had missed something. Where was the punch line in all of that?
" You have NO idea." he answered, and turned to Lenalee at this point. " I'll take over from here, Lenalee." Lenalee tilted her head. This wasn't how things were planned out for all of this, or that's how it appeared to Zack and Connell. " Allen just arrived back a short while ago." Komui's explaination was short and to the point. This convinced Lenalee right away, and after saying a brief farewell to her brother and the two investigators, she hurried off.
" Allen, huh?" Connell asked, curiously, turning to Komui. " A friend of Lenalee's?"
" Sometimes a brother must sacrifice himself for his younger siblings!" Komui exclaimed rather dramatically at that point. That got Connell laughing right along with Komui.
" I completely understand!" he called just as dramatically back to the branch chief. Each turned and met the others hands with their own as Connell continued the joke. " Believe it or not, but I, too, have a younger sister!"
" No!"
" Yes!" Connell replied excitedly as ever. " Don't you just get so excited when you see how well they grow up! Trying to act all tough and everything?" Komui let out an over played gasp of joy, as the theatrics continued.
" Finally! Someone how understands what it's like!" he squealed like a girl, and Connell and Komui proceeded to both let out girlish squeaks and gossip in low voices, obviously leaving Zack out at this point. Finally, Connell glanced over at his boss.
" Chief, you feeling alright?" he asked, and Zack seemed suddenly to appear very ill.
" No. I think I'm gonna go find somewhere to hurl." Zack replied, getting Komui and Connell laughing again. Yeah, those two together wasn't good. Not at all.
" Anyways," Komui said, and began to lead them along the path Lenalee had been showing them previously, " are you sure about the answer to us before?"
The mood instantly darkened at this point. This was a very touchy subject, and Zack was more then just a little unwilling to go along with this. It wasn't that the offer didn't have a great deal to offer to him. It did, but there was too much to lose.
" No," he said, shaking his head with a firmness of certainty, " my answer will not change. I have a family to consider in all of this." Komui found this rather curious, apparently.
" A family? How old are you both exactly?" he asked them. They both blinked back rather lostly at him at this point.
" 25." Connell answer, and Zack's reply came after his.
" 22, why?"
" A family at 22? And a good job?" Komui might have died of shock at that one. Zack was younger then Connell, but Zack was Connell's boss? Something seemed very off about that entire situation with the two of them. Connell figured that out first, going to explain to him.
" Chief here is what we like to call too smart for his own damn good. I prefer the word over achiever." this earned Connell a glare from Zack, who was silent for now.
" Though my Chief may be lacking in some common sense areas, he actually graduated and joined the force back to back when he was only 20. After about a year he showed such promise that they gave him his own team at age 21. It's really only been a year, hasn't it though, Chief?" Zack's face had turned slightly red out of shyness to his own accomplishments, and he gave a semi-bashful nod to Connell.
" A year and a half next month." he informed Connell, who let out a whistle.
" Damn, time flies, doesn't it, Chief?" Connell kept on talking. Zack only grunted and shrugged his shoulders to answer his employee. Komui still seemed inquisitive.
" But a family?" he persisted, and, after glancing at each other for a moment, Zack and Connell smiled and laughed a little to each other. This, obviously, confused Komui.
" Trust me, that's a long story that can later for another time." Zack evaded this intrusion into his life for now, as he glanced up. " Is this where we're headed?"~~~~~
Alright then! All done! More DGM characters are going to be coming into play now, so be prepared! That and the next stage of the investigation is about to begin! WOOT! More fun to come. PLEASE REVIEW! Thanks for reading!