a/n: Oh my. It's been... almost three months. I swear, we are not trying to punish you! It was just complete accident that neither of us had any time to write anything for you wonderful people. Someone, probably one of our loony congressmen, decided we have to attend school for 6-9 hours a day. Ridiculous, no? We're going to try to post several soon because of this long and unexpected hiatus. Sorry! I won't spend any time more writing this author's note, because you care less about the excuses and more about the plot. And the crazy stuffed bunny, of course. Also, my seventeen Kanda shimejis say hi.

Three miles inland off the coast of the Sea of Japan, the five Exorcists and very creepy bunny were making their way further into any sort of trouble they could manage. Their ship, quickly running out of supplies, was turning around to go back to China. The group walking into danger couldn't have cared less that they were leaving.

Kanda glanced up at something in the sky. "What the hell is that?"

Tiedoll flicked his gaze upward briefly. "Akuma. Don't kill it. I thought one would be coming, but I was expecting it earlier."

Despite having been told not to, Kanda drew his sword and Daisya set his soccer ball down on the ground in front of him. "Greeting party?" the latter asked.

"Yes."

"Damn Millenium-"

"From Cross."

He waved at the akuma, ignoring his surprised apprentices. The akuma landed about thirty yards away, clearly sensing the death aura around the two hot-headed Exorcists in the group. It waited for a few moments to see if they were just planning to attack before opening its mouth and speaking. "Cross says if you're just going to get in the way, go home."

Kanda growled, "That bastard-"

Tiedoll shook his head. "He has good reason. He's spent a lot of time working on this."

"He's also spent a lot of time acquiring debts, debt sharks, and girls," Marie muttered under his breath.

Tiedoll shrugged. "What can I say? The man has a full docket."

"Are you going to continue?"

The exorcists looked back to the akuma. "You going to try and stop us?" Daisya demanded.

"I'll show you the way if you're going to continue." Tiedoll nodded, and the akuma turned and walked away, leading them further into Japan. The two exorcists kept their weapons out, and Marie seemed to be ready to draw his. Tiedoll was obviously thinking more about where his painting easel was and what colors he would have used for the trees. Baka was simply taking a stroll through the park.

"How long have you been like this?" Tiedoll asked the akuma.

"Cross turned me four months ago. Another one of us is leading the other team to the center of it."

Kanda frowned. "Turned you?"

"Cross found a way to turn off their bloodlust," Tiedoll explained. "They're not against humanity like this." Back to the akuma, he asked, "How far inland is Cross's team, do you know?"

"They're a few miles ahead of us and coming from a few degrees more south. You landed in different places. They've slowed down because they've been attack multiple times, but none of them have been injured so severely that they've stopped. I observed them while I was waiting for you to get here." They started up an incline along the wooded path they were taking. Marie started to prepare his innocence, but the akuma shook its head at him. "Not necessary. The akuma aren't going to come to attack you too."

"You're sure about that?" Kanda replied shortly.

The akuma nodded. "Haven't you noticed that you're protected?"

Tiedoll frowned. "Protected?"

"I had trouble finding you because you're shielded in shadow, and your scent is covered up by akuma. Someone's doing a good job at hiding you."

"How are they supplying the akuma scent?" Marie asked no one in particular. None of the others had an answer. As they reached the top of the incline and started coming down, they had a larger view of the spread of forest in front of them. A small clearing nearby caught Baka's attention.

"It doesn't mean you're safe," the akuma continued. "They'll still come after you. Some of the lesser akuma have been eaten by stronger ones recently because of the small population of humans here. There's not enough to supply all the akuma."

"So we might still have akuma trying to eat us."

"Yes, and there are level threes around here."

"Oh joy."

As if to prove the point, a looming figure appeared in the sky a mile overhead, dark and threatening. The group continued on without stopping to fight it, as that would simply gather unwanted attention. The level three started drifting down closer and closer for a few minutes. Kanda ran two fingers over his katana, letting it light up, but he didn't attack yet. They all avoided looking right at the akuma. It let out a screech above, but didn't move any quicker towards them. Marie and Tiedoll began preparing their innocence as well.

A sound, somewhere between a wolf's howl and a lion's roar, rose hauntingly out of the woods nearby. The akuma overhead paused, and so did the one on the ground, looking for the direction of the sound. Baka kept her eyes riveted on the clearing. Kanda glanced down at her and followed her gaze.

A large animal, too far away to be seen clearly, stood in the clearing, staring at the akuma above it. Even from half a mile away, the stance of the creature couldn't be mistaken as anything but threatening. The creature must have been at least three feet tall at the shoulder, all black, and with the angular head and massive tail of a wolf and the lanky, muscular body of a large cat. It let out a predatory growl, warning off the akuma. The smaller akuma, in turn, began backing up a few meters at a time. Then it turned sharply and flew quickly in the opposite direction. The creature stayed where it was, turning its head to watch it go. Then it tilted its head down, looking back at the exorcists and other akuma. Without another sound, it turned and walked off into the woods, large paws silently padding across the wooded ground.

Kanda looked down at Baka again. "Why do you have to attract so many damn animals?"

A half hour later found them looking over a cliff edge onto a town that wasn't really a town anymore. The buildings were being quickly demolished by falling bodies and swinging weapons, and any architectural layout of the town was covered up by debris. A large creature was ungainly and absurdly thin for something that size, with a black star on its forehead. A structure nearby it collapsed, seemingly out of nowhere, and if one watched, a redhead fell out of the sky and through a wall of a different structure.

"Baka, stay h-" Kanda glared at the spot where Baka should have been. "Where did that damn child run off to?"

Tiedoll pointed. "See that small figure all the way down there?"

Kanda, Daisya, and Marie looked over the cliff edge towards a small speck making her way quickly towards the town. Marie laughed. "I think you've met your match, Kanda."

Kanda glared at him, and then jumped, disappearing after his apprentice. Tiedoll smiled, turning to face Marie and Daisya, who were already looking at him. "Go help the others who were already here. They're injured and are going to need reinforcements."

"Should Baka stay out of this?" Daisya asked. "I mean, she's pretty young for this kind of fight. We won't be able to watch after her the entire time either if things start to get messy."

"I think the rabbit should keep her safe enough, but I'd prefer she stay out of it. Regardless, she's safe with Kanda at the moment."

The two younger exorcists shot off to join the fighters in the remains of the city.

Bookman and Lavi looked over from where they were standing in the building the latter had crashed into moments earlier as Kanda gruffly entered the room. He immediately glared at Lavi. "You."

"No, that's your name. Nice to see you again, Yuu! It's just been too long, hasn't it?"

"I ought to string you up by your heels and-"

"Alright, children, let's handle this like mature adults. Kanda, who's with you?"

"Who else would be with me?"

"Just wondering if anything had happened to them while you were out in the world." Bookman glanced up through the hole in the ceiling Lavi had made. "I guess it was good timing on your part. Miranda's getting tired, and everyone's injured and running on their last bursts of strength."

"Hey, I haven't seen you doing all that much!"

"Shut up, stupid apprentice, I'm old!"

"Both of you, shut up!" Kanda snapped. "Do not let Baka run off somewhere, and if she does, try to make sure she doesn't get killed."

Baka tilted her head slightly, raising an eyebrow at Kanda. Lavi grinned cheerfully. "Aw, Kanda, feeling a bit protective today, are we? You should totally adopt her. The two of you would make such a charming father-daughter pair..." A significant glare cut him off.

"Do you have a death wish or something?" He directed his gaze toward Baka. "You."

"Yes?"

"You are not doing any fighting."

"Why not?"

"Because if you get your ass ripped apart by an akuma, I'll be the one everyone blames! Sit out of the fight and don't do anything. Just talk with that creepy ass bunny of yours or something." He whipped around, stalking quickly out of the room. The others ignored his departure, instead focusing back to the large shape in the sky as it made a loud, mournful sound.

"That thing's going to keep causing trouble if we can't take care of it," Lavi commented to Bookman.

"Not a whole lot we can do about it at the moment. Go help the others. I'll watch Baka." Bookman shifted his gaze to where Baka was standing under the hole, peering up at the large akuma. The rabbit was perched on a broken beam in the hole, also looking up at it. "What is it?"

"It's just a bunch of akuma all gathered together. I suppose that makes it easier to kill them all off, in a sense."

"Say that while you're trying to get near the thing," Lavi said, somewhere between a scoff and a snort. "That's not fun, I'm here to tell you."

A loud crash came from nearby. All three looked sharply in that direction, and Bookman gestured quickly to his apprentice. "Better hurry. Something seems to be going badly, and I doubt it's on the akuma's end." Lavi ran off before the second sentence was even finished. A loud explosion followed his exit quickly. Bookman walked over to Baka and looked up at the big akuma. "Do you have an idea about how to get rid of it?"

"A few. Not sure how well they'll work, though." She crossed her arms, continuing to frown at the akuma, as if that would bore a hole in it and cause it to explode. "Who's here right now?"

"Lavi, Linali, three from the crew of our ship, Miranda, and Krory. You won't know the last two. Miranda has innocence that allows her to control time, and Krory's makes him like a vampire that sucks out akuma blood. I'm guessing Kanda sent the crew of your ship back with a single glare."

"They were running out of supplies, and it seemed like they didn't want to sit around to see the whole place get destroyed. Why three from the crew?"

"Everyone else died in an akuma attack while we were crossing the ocean."

Outside, following the explosion, Lavi stepped back towards Kanda and Linali. Tyki grinned in front of them, waving at the newcomer. "So strange to see you all reacting so protectively of one another. Don't you know that'll slow you down in the long run?"

"Like we're going to take advice from you," Lavi snapped back.

Tyki opened his mouth to reply, but then the grin faded from his expression and he turned slowly to look off in another direction. "Wait…" He frowned, puzzled. "I guess I need to be going… That's strange…"

Lavi frowned. "What?"

Kanda gave a snarl of irritation. "Oh, the hell you will-!" He jumped after Tyki as the Noah sunk into the roof they were standing on and vanished. Kanda gave a growl of irritation but gave up the pursuit. He stopped at the edge of the roof, looking at the ground just in case the grey fellow showed up along what had been the streets.

"That's one less person to worry about for now, at least," Lavi commented. He let his hammer drop down to his side, looking out over the destroyed area with a feeling of exhaustion. He quickly let the emotion pass from his expression, brightening up and turning to Linali to make sure she was alright.

"Damn bastard thinks he can just ditch a fight and run away with his tail between his legs!"

"I think you've got your priorities all out of order, Yuu…" Lavi said, sighing. Kanda jabbed Mugen at him, causing Lavi to jump aside or get impaled. "Not nice! Did you see that, Linali? Not nice!"

Linali started hurrying back over to where she had been standing before, where her friend was collapsed on the ground. "Miranda is unconscious. Her body's been too strained over the last few days, and she can't handle this." She was still breathing harshly, curled up on the ground in exhaustion.

"Then she should get off the field before she causes any trouble," Kanda said shortly, before being given two reprimanding looks, both of which went ignored. He turned his gaze to the hulking figure above them. "Haven't any of you bothered to do something about that abomination?"

Lavi gave a small, nervous laugh. "Yeah, that didn't go too well… Feel free to give it a shot, but I don't think we're going to manage to hit it with anything short of a combined attack-" The last syllable of his word was cut off by the sound of the huge creature sweeping its hand across the ground, knocking over buildings like they were a mere blockade of pebbles. "Aren't Marie and Tiedoll over there?"

"Unless they moved," Kanda replied, ignoring the danger of two of his comrades and focusing on the akuma.

The akuma started to sweep its hand down again, and a loud roar stopped all movement. The akuma paused, startled by the loudness of it. It let out a moan of confusion. The animal made a sound again, the start of a roar that rose and fell in frequency twice before rising again and changing sharply into a hunting howl of a wolf close on the scent.

"What the hell is that?" Lavi asked, peering off towards the direction of the sound.

Kanda didn't reply, shooting off in the direction of the noise. Lavi made sure the other two were going to be fine, and then extended his hammer and went after the older exorcist. The akuma was staring down at whatever the creature was, and slapped a palm down at it. Three entire houses were flattened by the hand, but the creature dodged the blow and leaped up, a large dark shadow against an even larger and darker figure. Kanda could recognize it as a significantly bigger version, a bit larger than three combined houses, of the dog-like animal that had followed them through the woods and warned off the level three akuma.

The creature had a long, lashing tail that looked like it could destroy an entire house. The tail was almost as long as the rest of the body, giving it a cat-like appearance. A mountain chain ran down the creature's back, the ridge running from the neck to the end of the tail. The face was angular but broad, a mix between a wolf and a cat. It had two sharp features on its head that were either horns or sharply curved ears. The body itself was strong and athletic, muscles rippling as it moved, and gave off a distinctly canine appearance. The skin had a leathery look to it, not possessing a scrap of fur anywhere. The entire animal seemed to be a mix between a canine and feline, with a few dashes of something entirely more sinister. The first word that came to mind was demon. The akuma had their own frightful quirks and behaviors, but they weren't servants of the devil. This one could have walked straight from the pits into the mortal world.

The demon lashed out, raking claws across the arm leaning against the ground. The akuma slowly moved backwards, not having agility to do so quickly. With a snarl, the demon jumped at it again, grabbing hold of the arm with one claw and pulling itself up. It ran up the rest of the arm, surprisingly quickly for an animal moving at that slope. The akuma tried to bat it off with the other arm, but the demon jumped onto the other arm, and then from there to the head. The akuma bent under the weight, restrained slightly by the demon. The black creature dug its claws and teeth into the back of the akuma's neck, distracting it from anything else.

Kanda came to a stop a few houses away from it, looking up at the strange fight above. Lavi dropped down out of the sky on his hammer next to him. "Don't get any ideas," he said seriously. "Looks like these two would do better to just duke it out thems-"

Kanda, having not even been listening to him in the first place, jumped up, lunging for the head. He moved from arm to arm, and then swept the katana through its head in a powerful gesture, slicing it clean open. The albino head split in two, and the body fell to the ground. The demon sprinted down the back, jumping off to the side as the body fell to the ground. It stood on a building that was still standing, looking down curiously at the dead akuma. It then looked over at Kanda, who glared back at it.

Lavi wisely kept his mouth shut, figuring something unpleasant would happen to him if he said anything.

Kanda was ignoring him anyway, glaring daggers at someone who he had just told "Stay where you are". Could his damn apprentice not listen to anything? Baka wasn't paying attention, instead busying himself with looking at the demon with a frown on her face. She finally noticed the glaring, somehow having not noticed it before, and waved at Kanda. He just glared even more. How the hell had she gotten over there so fast anyway? He hadn't exactly been slow, and even Lavi had kept up a fast pace for once in his life. That was one kid with too many mysteries.

Nearby, a figure leaned against one of the structures still standing, looking at the demon. Tyki had reappeared, glancing curiously at the figure. He began to move closer to it, and as he did so, several other grey people came into view. The animal growled at them, baring its teeth in snarl. It turned away and started bounding off. The Noah quickly started pursuit, running after the dangerous black animal.

A black hole appeared by the looming tower in the center of all the destruction. The Millennium appeared, and he was not in a happy mood. The exorcists forgot about the demon and the Noah in favor of looking at the more immediate threat.

"You destroyed my akuma," he snarled, the large smile on his face eerily contrasting his grating voice.

"Well, what did you think we were going to do with it? Play hide-and-go-seek? Sorry, but he would've sucked at that." Lavi bit back any further statements as the Millennium glared down at them from above.

"You think this is funny? Just a bunch of games to you, isn't it, Bookman's apprentice? Everyone's lives just go down on paper for you. The course of events will happen as it will, and it won't make any difference to you," the Millennium shot back in response. Lavi's jaw clenched along with his grip on his hammer.

Marie, standing close enough to Lavi to have heard both sides of the exchange rather clearly, shouted down to him, "He's just trying to rile you up!"

"Or am I just being truthful?" The Millennium decided to ignore any further comment in favor of drawing his umbrella and slashing it downwards in an aggressive gesture. A wave of blackness flew out of it, demolishing everything in its path within seconds. With a curse, Kanda leaped down off the building and jumped in front of Baka, pushing him behind her and holding Mugen in front of them. He closed his eyes and waited for the repercussion to hit.