Chapter 13
Why Tock now Officially Hates Italy
Tock sat perched on Kanda's shoulder as they watched the bounty hunters storm into the ruined coliseum. She had been at her partner's side for the past two days while he slept, recovering his strength after a three day clash with the mysterious, innocence bearing swordsman Vittorio.
"You want I should go take care of the Akuma?" she asked him.
"No, I think those idiot hunters need to be taught a lesson." Kanda grumbled.
Tock was about to say something along the lines of 'not being able to learn a lesson if you're dead' she heard familiar shout.
"Ah wick, don' tell me Komui sent that little eejit to come an' fetch us." she growled.
There was another shout and she felt Kanda tense.
"Lenalee's here too." he said.
"Okay now we have to move out." Tock said.
"No, it's just a bunch of level ones, if the sprout can't get them Lenalee can. Let's just wait for Vittorio to show up." Kanda assured her.
Tock huffed, letting loose a cloud of steam, and sat back, waiting. She watched as a group of men pushed a Gatling Gun into the arena.
"Ha, now that's somethin'. A Gatling Gun. Oh this'll be a riot." she chuckled.
Although it made quite the racket, the gun did nothing to damage the invading Akuma. When the smoke cleared Tock and Kanda saw that Vittorio had finally emerged from wherever he was hiding.
"There 'e is." she said, hopping off of Kanda's shoulders, "Go get 'em. I'll be watchin' yer back."
Kanda strode out of the arcade and saw Allen was about to go after Vittorio.
"No," he said, "you're not strong enough. This fighter is my prey."
"So don' get in the way boyo!" Tock growled as she leered out from under an archway, fully transformed and ready to leap into action.
She watched as her friend began what had become the daily ritual of fighting with the mysterious Vittorio. Lenalee's cry of 'Pedro!' signaled that their finder had arrived but she couldn't take her eyes off the two swordsmen, she trusted that Pedro would explain everything to the newcomers.
"Why isn't Kanda using his innocence?" Lenalee asked.
"I believe that's a matter of pride between two swordsmen." Pedro replied.
Tock snorted, "Go way outta that cheese fer brains!" she snapped, not once adverting her gaze from the battle, "Vittorio only activates his innocence when Kanda does. That's why the caffler sprout is even more useless than normal!"
Although she didn't need to sleep, the past two nights of staying up with Kanda had worn her wires thin. She tensed and unfurled her wings as the two locked swords. Then, the lock broke and there was a spray of blood, Tock almost leapt down into the pit below when she saw that it was Kanda who had wounded Vittorio.
"That's the ticket!" she cheered.
But her joy was cut short as Vittorio's body flashed and his wounds vanished.
"The innocence is healing him!" Lenalee gasped.
In a split second Vittorio had recovered and countered with his own sword, spearing Kanda right through his gut. Tock screeched and dove into the pit, spitting fire and steam. But Vittorio caught her by the throat and threw her into a nearby wall.
"I don't fight women!" he said.
"I ain't a woman I'm a dragon you wanker! Now git over here so I can give ya a prunin' wit me teeth!" Tock roared, attempting to right herself.
"Tock!" Lenalee called, jumping in after her and rushing to Kanda's side.
"Damn the rust I'll tramp all through this puddle just to sink me claws n' jaws into that feckin bastard! I'll flay his skin from 'is body! Ya hear me? Go dtachta an diabhal tu!1" Tock swore.
"Tock…stop it…" Kanda groaned.
Tock calmed almost immediately.
"Oh thank the lord yer alive." Tock said in a hushed tone.
"You know I don't die easily, giataku2."
Tock nodded, smiling.
"Ya, ma cree, that I do. But I still worry."
Allen had successfully distracted Vittorio from them, and Tock made a mental note to apologize for calling him useless.
"Sprout's holding up against Vittorio but the bastard's a biggun. Anti-Akuma weapons can only take so much damage." she observed.
"Vittorio's innocence is contained within his sword." Pedro said.
"How'd he get that sword in the first place? Isn't there some way we can get it away from him?" Lenalee asked.
"No," Kanda gasped, "That won't work…He's been…enslaved by the innocence."
"Hush, don't be talking right now. Cor yer bleedin' like a stuck pig." she muttered.
"Pfft, thanks…for the…sentiment…" Kanda growled.
Tock watched as Allen and Vittorio did some sort of perverse version of a cat and mouse chase.
"He can't…beat him…" Kanda said.
Before Tock could even react he tried to stand up and collapsed, Tock stopped him from hitting the ground just in time.
"Lie still ma cree, really this time." she said so softly and tenderly Lenalee could hardly believe that just moments ago she had been a fire breathing monstrosity out for blood.
Up above Allen was on his last legs. Seeing this, Lenalee leapt in to save him. Tock gathered Kanda up in her paws as she saw Lenalee get knocked away by a barrier of light Vittorio created from his sword. She took off with their finder just barely clinging to a spike on her back and landed between the two exorcists and the swordsman.
"Climb on!" she shouted.
Lenalee grabbed Allen's hand and the scrambled onto her back. Tock took off with several flaps of her wings just as Vittorio took a swing, missing them entirely and burying his sword in the stone floor. As she circled to gain altitude she saw a young woman emerge from the arcade.
"That's Claudia!" Allen shouted.
"We'll come back for her when me boyfriend's not bleedin' out!" Tock hollered.
The old woman they had been staying with was very flustered when Tock landed in her front yard with a bleeding Kanda and two scuffed up exorcists. She immediately set to fetching bandages and mixing up ointments as Lenalee helped Tock bandage the fallen samurai.
"He's feverish…" Lenalee said quietly, trying not to disturb Kanda as he rested.
"Yah," Tock whispered, as she entered the room with a bowl of water and a few cloths, "it's a side effect of his healing factor." She placed a wet cloth on his brow. "There we go, nice an' easy."
Then there was a knock on the door. It was the old woman they were staying with and she had a bowl of some herbal salve.
"I cannot promise this will cure him, but you may apply it to his wounds in any case." she said.
"Thank-you." Pedro said, "And later, would you tell them the story?"
"Yes of course." the woman said.
Tock took the paste from Pedro who began informing Lenalee about Allen's condition before she followed him out for the old woman's story. Tock carefully applied the paste to Kanda's wounds with the back of her paw. Her cool metal flesh must have felt good on his overheated skin because he stirred.
"Easy now." Tock cautioned as the exorcist attempted to sit up, not an easy thing to do when one's been sliced in the gut.
Kanda surveyed his wounds before letting his head drop back on the pillow. Then, to Tock's surprise, he smirked.
"Greece." he said.
Tock smiled and nodded. "Greece." she affirmed.
Kanda soon fell asleep with Tock curled up next to him. Awhile later Lenalee came back in to see how they were doing.
"So…" she said.
"What?" Tock replied, not liking where this was going.
"Back in the arena, when we were escaping, you called Kanda your boyfriend."
"I…I did not!" Tock protested.
"Yes you did." Lenalee replied.
If Tock could blush, she would have been beet red by now.
"Just…just don't tell him I let that one slip okay? He'd cut me up or worse!" she pleaded.
"But why do you guys keep this hidden? It's not like the entire Order doesn't already know."
"Eh it's mostly him." Tock said, gesturing at her partner, "I don't think he wants to admit it until I've gotten me body back; even if it's already painfully obvious to everyone we fancy each other."
Lenalee smiled, satisfied with their answer, and bid them good night.
The Next Morning….
"Are you crazy? Your wounds haven't even healed!" Allen protested.
"They're healed." Kanda deadpanned, removing his bandages.
"Look at that," Allen marveled as Tock poked her snout at the last of the bruise marks, "They're almost gone."
Kanda got off the bed and began to get dressed.
"Oi! An' where do you think yer goin' mister?" Tock said, planting herself on top of his shirt.
"I'm going to defeat Vittorio, collect the innocence and then we can be on our way. Now get off of my shirt." Kanda snarled.
"Absolutely not! Ye still 'ave a bruise Kanda!" Tock said, poking him none too gently in the stomach; and not liking the way he winced as she did so.
"How do you plan to defeat him anyhow?" Lenalee asked, "Every time you cut him with Mugen he regenerates."
"I'll figure something out." Kanda said as he attempted to wrestle his shirt away from Tock who had it clamped in her jaws.
Then, Pedro ran in; the husky finder was slightly out of breath.
"I have troubling news! Multiple Akuma were just spotted ambushing the ruins again! They're fighting with Vittorio!"
Tock gasped, letting go of the shirt and before she could react Kanda had it, his exorcist's coat and Mugen on. He smirked at her. She stuck out her tongue. That's when Lenalee took over.
"Stop it Kanda you haven't completely recovered!" she said. "Why don't you rest for a day and then go back tomorrow!"
"You know I can't. You want them to steal the innocence while I'm here taking a nap?" Kanda growled.
"Iffin it means you keepin' yer guts in one place I'm fine wi't that!" Tock called.
"We can hold them back." Allen said.
"Oh that's reassuring." Kanda retorted.
"'Ey now! The lad was pretty darn good in the field yesterday!" Tock defended.
Kanda shot her a glare that suggested she had somehow betrayed him.
"Just believe in us; Lenalee, myself, and Vittorio." Allen said.
Kanda just glared. "Vittorio?" he sneered.
"He won't make it easy for the Akuma. He can't afford to." Allen said, "That's why the innocence will stay in his possession."
"Boyo's got a point." Tock said.
"If enough Akuma overwhelm him Claudia will be in danger. Lenalee and I can be there in a matter of seconds to protect her. So please just stay here and rest, just try thinking of a way to collect the innocence inside Vittorio's sword."
"Try thinking?" Kanda said, rounding on the smaller exorcist, "are you giving me orders now?"
Allen's reaction was to activate his innocence and use it to push Kanda down onto the bed.
"Oww…" Tock groaned as she extricated herself out from under Kanda, "What is this? Third time now?"
"I hate your spikes…" Kanda muttered.
"Sorry Kanda, but right now your brain is your best asset so just use that." Allen said.
And with that he and Lenalee turned to leave.
"Get back here!" Kanda shouted.
"Ah save yer breath." Tock sighed.
Kanda stared at the door for a few moments before resigning himself to the fact that they were not coming back. So he sat on the edge of the bed, and thought.
He and Eva were in middle-of-nowhere Prussia trying to track down a relic the Order thought contained innocence. They had stopped for lunch in a field of wild-flowers, on Eva's insistence of course. And since no Akuma had been spotted anywhere near the vicinity of the town Eva insisted they take a break and just enjoy the sunshine. Kanda was sitting with his back against an old birch tree, watching Eva fiddle with a golem. He recognized that golem, it was the cat, she called it 'Lashtail', that had almost run him over on their first meeting. But it was so much smaller now.
"That's Lashtail right?" he asked.
Eva looked up from the bolt she was tightening.
"Ya." she said.
"I could've sworn he was bigger than that." he replied.
"'e is, when I activate him." she indicated the necklace she wore tight around her neck, off the end of which dangled her innocence. "I slide this 'ere innocence into a slot on his back and then he becomes an anti-Akuma weapon."
"It's only when they're touching." Kanda said.
"Eh?" Tock mumbled from where she had been dozing.
But Kanda was already up and headed for the door.
"Oi! Wait for me ya dope!" she cried, bounding after him.
In the Coliseum…
Vittorio grabbed Allen by the hair and threw him to the ground. He raised his sword for a finishing blow when there was a loud whistling of air.
"Incoming Spartacus!" Tock hollered as she swooped out of her free-fall.
Kanda leapt off of her back, sword in hand, and rushed Vittorio with a battle cry.
"This is what I mean when I say you're too soft Beansprout!" he shouted as he swiped at Vittorio who jumped out of the way.
"I welcome your challenge!" Vittorio said.
Kanda rushed him again, but this time with a plan. Tock landed and picked Allen up but dropped him again in shock. Kanda had Vittorio's sword buried in his shoulder.
"Kanda!" she cried.
But Kanda shot her a look that told her to stay put, he had a plan. Tock made a mental note to lay it into him once this was over.
Kanda smirked and, with a shout, sliced Vittorio's sword arm clean off his body. Vittorio screamed and staggered back. Tock immediately leapt over Allen and to Kanda's side.
"Eyah! Do I pull it out or leave it in? Do I pull it out or leave it in?" she bawled.
"He refused to give up his sword…so I had to improvise." Kanda said before collapsing.
Tock let out a shriek that caused the entire complex to vibrate. Allen picked himself up and ran over. Before they could even touch the enormous sword, it, and the arm holding it, shattered into dust. Tock deactivated and held Kanda steady as he tried to sit up.
"What were you thinking you eejit!" she snapped, frazzled to the core.
"I'll…be fine…" Kanda breathed, holding his shoulder.
"All me hard work patchin' you up yesterday, a waste!" Tock wailed.
Allen took Tock's overacting to mean that Kanda wasn't in any serious danger aside from bloodloss.
Vittorio, meanwhile, was dying. Without the innocence to keep him alive he was aging rapidly. Tock, Kanda and Allen could only look on as Claudia mourned the loss of her beloved swordsman.
Kanda looked up at the sky, it had turned a beautiful blue and the sun had begun to shine.
"It's just like that day…" he mused, not caring if Allen overheard.
"What day?" Tock asked.
"In Prussia, when I asked you about Lashtail. I remembered that your golems only worked when you slid the innocence into them. Without the innocence, they were just toys. That's what gave me the idea of how to get Vittorio's sword away from him."
Tock snorted, "Aye, but did ye have to take one in the shoulder for it?"
Kanda only chuckled.
Three days later, Kanda had healed and he and Tock were off to Norway, and Claudia had packed up her things, leaving only a note saying she was going to live her own life.
1 May the devil choke you.
2 A combination of the Japanese 'Gia' meaning 'Gear' and 'otaku' meaning 'Geek'; essentially it means 'gear-head'.
You can find a picture of Lashtail and his friends as well as human Eva on my Deviant Art site, which is my homepage on my profile here. So Norway is next but don't worry, you'll hear the story of the infamous Greece mission soon enough. ;)