Chapter 21
~Ashley~
I watched as Dallas and Allen departed for their mission. Once they had disappeared from my line of vision I turned my attention back to the table, of which seemed to be completely covered in shock, and a few other emotions. Lavi, grinning that stupid smile of his, looked smug and satisfied, while Lenalee, Krory, and Miranda all had different expressions of shock on their faces, Kanda looked disgusted, and Raikou seemed to have a look of mingled shock, disgust, and irritation on her face. I too was still recovering from the shock of watching Lavi boldly clean the powdered sugar from Dallas's mouth with his tongue.
An awkward silence had settled itself over the table. It was a heavy silence that weighed down on me to the point that I could hardly finish my breakfast. It seemed like no one really knew how to move on from what we had just witnessed.
"Soooo….." Lenalee began in an attempt to change the subject, "the weather looks nice. It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day."
"It does look nice," agreed Krory.
I turned my head to face Raikou and asked her if she was done eating and would like to walk around the order with me. She said sure and without another word we excused ourselves from the awkwardness of the table. As we walked away from the table I faintly heard Miranda ask, "So your birthday's coming up, right Lenalee?"
'Hmm, that's interesting' I thought as we walked out of the cafeteria doors and into the hall.
As soon as I was out of the cafeteria I let out a deep breath that I had unconsciously been holding throughout the entire morning. "Well that was awkward," I said as we began to walk aimlessly around the Black Order. Raikou nodded in agreement.
"I can't believe he did that! I mean I can because it's Lavi, but I would have never thought he'd be so….so bold!" I said as I shook my head in a mixture of disbelief and astonishment.
"I can," she said, and I noted there was an edge to her voice.
I tilted my head in confusion before saying, "Raikou, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," She snapped, her voice sharp with irritation.
It was then that I realized what was wrong. Raikou liked Lavi and was ticked because he had kissed Dallas. But before I could say anything about it Reever suddenly appeared and interrupted me. "Ashley, there you are! Komui has a mission for you and Lenalee."
"Oh okay, I'll see you later Raikou." I said as I waved goodbye to her before following Reever to Komui's train wreck of an office. It looked like Raikou would be in a bad mood for a while. I hoped she'd be okay.
When I walked into his office I saw that Lenalee was already there. Komui's office was as messy as always which meant I had to carefully navigate my way around all the junk on the floor in order to sit on the couch next to Lenalee. Behind Komui's desk was a map of Russia.
"Hey Lenalee, hey Kamaoi." I smiled as I said Kamaoi. Komui smiled at the use of his nickname and Lenalee laughed.
They both returned the greeting before Komui began our mission briefing.
"We've recently discovered innocence in Yekaterinburg, Russia." he pointed to a spot on the map of Russia that hung behind his desk. "Your jobs are to retrieve the innocence before an akuma can get it, and to destroy any akuma you come across. I've arranged for a train to take you to a city just outside of Yekaterinburg, but you'll have to walk the rest of the way. We don't have much time so you'll have to leave at once. For a more detailed description of your mission, read the packets you're about to receive. Meet at the underground canal as soon as you're done packing. Good luck."
"Ummm…brother aren't you forgetting something?" Lenalee asked as Komui handed us our packets.
"Hmmm, and what's that?" Komui asked innocently.
"Ashley's Golem? Don't tell me you forgot to give Dallas her Golem again too!" She said, annoyed.
"Oh right!" Komui said before disappearing under his desk. After much rummaging through papers, Komui reappeared with a black brief case. "Sorry about the wait, it seems Reever kept on forgetting to give you and Dallas your golems."
"Hey! Don't blame this on me!" Reever said, suddenly appearing into Komui's messy office. In his hands were a stack of papers.
"Reever what are you doing here?" Komui asked, unabashed.
"I need you to sign these papers. By the way why do you always blame all of your mistakes on me?" Reever said, irritation clear in his voice.
"Okay," Komui sighed heavily as he eyed the massive stack of papers Reever held, "I'll sign them once I've given Ashley her golem." Komui said, completely ignoring Reever's question. Komui opened the briefcase to reveal a shiny back sphere with black pointy ears on top and a pair of long black bat wings. The front of the sphere was covered in a circle of glass. Centered in the glass was a small solid black circle, and around this circle was a large black ring. The shiny black golem also had a long forked black tail. "This is your golem. Golems are used to communicate with other exorcists and headquarters. It's pretty much the same as the other golems, the only difference is that it has a tail that you can use to connect to telephones in case you need to contact headquarters. Lenalee can show you how to use it." He shut the briefcase and handed it to me. "Well, that's it. Good luck on your mission."
"Thanks Komaoi," I said, smiling as Lenalee and I left to go and pack for our mission.
Once I had finished packing I met Lenalee down in the underground canals and together we left for the train station in one of the gondolas. It was silent for a little while. The only sound being that of the pole breaking through the water as Lenalee moved the gondola along the canal.
"So, are you ready for another mission?" Lenalee asked, breaking the silence.
"I think so. I'm still getting used to the missions though." I replied.
"That's understandable," she said, smiling. Lenalee then stopped the gondola and stepped out and onto the sidewalk. I did the same and together we walked out of the underground canals and into a crowd of rushing people. I squinted as my eyes adjusted to the bright light of the sun. Lenalee and I had to fight our way through the crowd of people in order to catch our train, and after showing the conductor the crest on our uniforms we were given first class cabins.
Lenalee and I sat down opposite of each other. A few minutes later the train whistle blew and then started to move down the track. Slow at first and then faster and faster until the scenery outside my window was nothing more than a blur of color.
"So have you ever been to Russia before?" Lenalee asked, drawing my attention away from the window and to her.
"No I haven't. I've been practically everywhere in Europe, and I've lived in India for a little while, but I've never been to Russia. What about you?"
"Wow, it seems like you've traveled a lot. I haven't been to Russia before either."
"Well than this will be an adventure for the both of us." I said, smiling.
"Yes it will. So why is it you've traveled so much?" Lenalee asked, curious.
Caught off guard by Lenalee's question and unprepared to tell her about my past, I hesitated a moment before telling her my story. "Oh, well you see when I was seven my parents were killed by akuma, and on the day of their funeral I was told that I would be living with some relatives, so I ran away. I basically spent the rest of my life moving around from place to place, because akuma were always attacking me. It was in a museum in Germany that I found my innocence. It was sitting out on display and when I saw it I had a sudden impulse to take it. I would never have stolen something that I didn't need like clothes or food, and so I was absolutely disgusted with myself for stealing my dagger. I was so disgusted that I left Germany for India. It was there that Kanda found me and took me to the Order." I let out a heavy sigh.
"Oh I'm sorry. That must have been hard on you, being on your own at such a young age." Lenalee said sympathetically.
"Yeah, but it wasn't that bad. I got to see so much of the world that it kind of makes up for it," I said as I gave a faint smile, "If you don't mind me asking, I was wondering what your life was like before the order."
"Oh I don't mind. I don't really remember what my life was like before the order. I've been at the order for as long as I can remember. My parents, too, were killed by akuma and when the order found out that I was an accommodator to the dark boots I was taken to the Black Order by myself. I was separated from my one and only remaining family member, my brother. They wouldn't even let me out freely and to be honest I felt like a prisoner. My brother worked hard to become the science department's head officer for me, and three years later we were reunited." When Lenalee finished her story I was finally able to understand why Komui acted the way he did and why Lenalee was able to handle it.
"That's amazing that Komui did that for you. It explains so much." I commented.
"Yeah, my brother can be crazy sometimes." Lenalee smiled.
"So I heard your birthday was coming up." I said, recalling what Miranda had asked Lenalee earlier that day.
"Yeah, my birthday's next week. I hope my brother doesn't do anything too extreme for it." She mumbled.
I laughed before saying, "From what I've seen of Komui, he probably will."
Lenalee laughed, "Yeah I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with him." A bright golden glow filled the darkening cabin as the sun begun to sink, illuminating the clouds with a vibrant pink, purple, and orange glow. "Oh I almost forgot! I need to show you how to use your golem."
"Oh right," I said as I pulled out my suit case from under my seat and took out my Golem. Admiring it, I held it loosely in my hand, palm up. I was surprised when it suddenly came to life. Flapping its long black bat wings, it hovered in the air as Lenalee began to explain how to use my Golem.
"It's pretty simple. Everything is pretty much voice activated, so if you need to send a message to someone just say 'send message to' and then the name of that person, and then say the message. You can also connect your Golem to other people's Golems so that, for example, if you need to split up to fight akuma but you still need to stay in contact, then you can connect your golem to their's and stay in contact while fighting the akuma. The only problem is that you have to be within a six mile radius of the other exorcist's golem. To do that you basically just have to say 'connect to' and then the name of the exorcist and then Golem. Now if you need to contact to headquarters you'll have to hook up your Golem to a phone by using its tail as a cord."
"Oh okay. That's seems easy enough. The Order has some very interesting technology." I said as I snatched my Golem out of the air. Just as I was about to put it away it jumped out of my hands, startling me, and hovered in front of my face.
I then heard a voice that sounded very much like Dallas's whisper, "Pssst Nom says hi."
I stared at my Golem and blinked twice in astonishment. "What the heck!" I exclaimed, utterly confused. "Who the heck is Nom?" I looked over at Lenalee who looked just as confused as I did.
"Was that Dallas?" Lenalee asked.
"I think so. It sounded very much like h—"
I abruptly stopped talking as Lenalee's Golem appeared out of nowhere, and repeated the same message that I had just received.
"Okay, now I'm even more confused than before!" I exclaimed.
"Dallas must have recently received her Golem which would explain why she was able to contact our Golems, but I have no idea who Nom is." Lenalee said in an attempt to make sense of the situation.
I then burst out laughing at the randomness of the situation. It was just too random and weird that it would make anyone laugh. Lenalee soon joined in on my laughter.
"Only Dallas, only Dallas," I said in between fits of giggles as I shook my head in bewilderment.
"I wonder if she sent that to everyone." Lenalee said once our laughter began to die down.
"Who knows," I smiled, "Knowing Dallas she probably did. I can't wait to get back to the Order and ask her about Nom."
Lenalee smiled and nodded her head in agreement, before she let out a large yawn which made me yawn too. "I'm so tired. What about you?"
"I'm tired too." I said as I glanced out the window. The sun had already set, leaving behind a dark black sky strewn with twinkling stars. The full moon cast an eerie glow in the train cabin that was both surreal and familiar. This glow was beginning to make both me and Lenalee sleepy, and it wasn't too long until we both ended up drifting off to sleep.
The next two days, surprisingly, went by very quickly. I think that was mainly due to the fact that for the duration of the train ride Lenalee and I, after reading the packet Komui had given us, talked about anything and everything there was to talk about. We really got to know each other better thanks to this train trip to Russia, which was really cool, for I liked Lenalee and that was, after all, what I was hoping to do during this mission with her.
By the time we reached our destination in Perm, Russia it was already dark. As we walked off the train and onto the platform of Perm's train station I was greeted by a strong gust of freezing cold wind.
"Oh my God," I gasped as the icy cold air seeped into my clothes, knocking the breath out of me. I wrapped my arms around myself in order to try and stay warm. I silently thanked God that my exorcist uniform had long sleeves instead of short ones like Dallas's, although the slit in my skirt didn't help the situation at all. Lenalee, too, had her arms wrapped tightly around herself due to the vicious winds. "I can't believe we're going to have to walk 250 miles to Yekaterinburg in this weather! It's freezing! What the heck was Komui thinking? We're bound to get trapped in a blizzard!"
"Well the weather's not going to let up anytime soon so we might as well get going now before it gets worse." Lenalee said as she started to walk in the direction of our destination. I sighed in exasperation before following her into the city of Perm.