*punches the air because after a few days of non-stop work, I'm finished*
Hello, you awesome people. Ah, I was going to update my story in September, but lo and behold, my old computer decided to crash completely and utterly, not allowing me to get anything off of my hard drive before it died, including graduation pictures, all of my music files, previous Sai files, and, you guessed it, ALL OF MY FAN-FICTION FILES. So yeah. is the only reason I'm really able to update at all. Also, because money doesn't grow on trees, it took me a while to actually get Microsoft Word to save my stuff. I also am currently a college student and that's a new level of stress. Despite all of this, I really REALLY wanted to update at some point…yeah.
Anyway, before you read the next chapter, I remember getting a request for an overview of Chapter 20, Wisely Wisely Hates Humans because I think they didn't want to read it, which is understandable. I wrote the whole thing twice, then forgot to save it both times, so it's probably not as descriptive as I'd like. Anyway, here you go:
Wisely is out for what seems to be a routine killing. Due to his laziness and unwillingness to act, The Millennium Earl has given him a quota on the amount of humans that he must kill in order to stay outside of the training room. Wisely does so grudgingly.
He notices a drugged woman headed down the street while followed by three nefarious men. Reading their thoughts, he finds that she is a sex-worker to get money for mother's illness, that two of the men are brothers and overall just goons, and that the real evil is the middle man, who is dressed quite well and has a mildly thick mustache cut in friendly muttonchops fashion. This man, Augustene, is whose mind Wisely decides to reveal via his powers.
For a moment, Augustene stops in his tracks and holds his head as if being possessed. When one of the brothers (the one wearing a hat) tries to ask what is wrong with him, Augustene stabs his hand, causing the hatted man to fall down and cry out. When the other brother comes into the scene, he is slashed across the neck. He stumbles back into an alley between the houses, and Augustene follows, calling him by the name of one of the sex-workers he raped and killed a while back. Because he is in a deluded state, he doesn't realize that he's killing anyone he hasn't killed before. The brother with the hat (hat-bro from here on) is lying on the ground, having thrown up after seeing what his boss was doing to his brother's body. Looking out of the alley, he sees a few lights on and notices a woman looking at the scene in shock. When he mouths at her to call the police, she leaves immediately, and Augustene, who is done with the now mutilated brother, takes notice of hat-bro.
He calls to hat-bro as if he is a different sex-worker he raped and killed, and hat-bro panics, fleeing the alley while trying to get him to come to his senses. This is to no avail though, and Augustene shoots him in the leg while approaching him. The street is alive now, and there are men on their porches with weapons. One man in particular, a father named Harold, is standing with his rifle facing Augustene, his wife calling to him from inside.
As Augustene expresses anger over the sex-worker coming back to life, not realizing it's hat-bro, he raises his gun to shoot him. Harold, realizing the danger that hat-bro was in, decides to shoot him in the shoulder before quickly dragging hat-bro up to his porch and keeping the man behind him. Augustene is still in a daze and thinks that the rotting corpse of another sex-worker he raped and killed is biting him, and he stabs himself in the shoulder, thinking he's stabbing her head.
In Augustene's imagination, he is surrounded by the corpses of the innocent sex-workers he brutalized. He expresses his innate misogyny vehemently while "stabbing" them and cursing at them, blaming them for their own deaths because they didn't satisfy him. There is a little girl he doesn't notice, though, who is no older than eleven with very short brown hair that is slowly making her dripping wet way up to his face over the corpses. Her dead amber eyes were wide open and staring as she crawled. When she gets up to him, she gets his attention by calling him by his nickname, August, which he has not allowed anyone to use since her death.
The instant he sees her, he begins to express his love for her, revealing her to be his late younger sister Chell. He caresses her body as he tells their story, where August had been a young boy interested in the sexual activities he'd seen his parents participate in. Rather than ask questions about it, he decided to ask Chell to do the same activities with him. She agrees (which technically isn't consent since she's a minor) and on the night of a full moon, he tries to romantically have sex with her. He doesn't pay attention to her satisfaction, though, as she is crying during the procedure. In an effort to keep anyone from coming out to see what the noise was about, he pushes her head under the water of the lake he was near while raping her, and since he mistakes her panic of drowning as something pleasurable, he doesn't let her up in time for air and she drowns.
After realizing that she is dead, he lets her body float out to the lake since she used to like swimming. He allows the blame of her rape and murder to fall upon a molester who touched—not raped—little girls (not that that makes him much better, but yeah). The man is hung and Augustene goes off scot-free. His first experience became the basic layout for all of his other sexual escapades, leading to many dead sex-workers who were murdered after not being able to satisfy his unconventional and frankly ridiculous tastes.
As he begins to sing Chell's praises again, she begins to choke him and tells him that he is full of himself and that she is sick and tired of being his perfect fantasy. In the midst of this, he is punching her in an attempt to get her off of him while she chokes him, but all he does is break his fists. When his fists are broken, the corpses seem to come back to life again and pull on him. He staggers around, choking. When Chell calls him Augustene, he is angered and in a renewed strength calls her a slut, just like all the other girls he raped and murdered.
Before he can finish this sentence, Harold shoots him in the head. As it turns out, he'd been saying everything out loud, when he was stabbing the women he was stabbing himself, and when he was punching Chell he was actually punching the brick of someone's house.
The crowd that had gathered to protect themselves listened on, growing more and more disgusted whilst hat-bro sobs out of stress. Even when the police arrived, they didn't move as the listened and wrote down his "confession".
When Harold shoots him, he turns to the police chief and asks if there was a problem with his actions. The chief, who wears a monocle, removes it, cleans it, then places it back on as he claims to have poor eyesight. When he asks if Augustene was coming toward his house, another policeman immediately confirms the statement, and the rest of the crowd joins in on what is technically a lie. The chief claims Harold's actions to be that of self-defense, and as such no charges would be made against him. The police proceed to get witness accounts as they congratulate Harold and take a willing hat-bro into custody. The scene closes.
Wisely, who witnessed everything, including Augustene's sick imagery, is near ill after realizing the evils that the then thirteen-year-old had committed all the way up till his death. What especially has him sick is the splitting headache raging through him, the mutilated women triggering a memory within him. The headache blurs his vision, and lights begin to look like fire.
Upon remembering the woman he'd been inside, there is a loud screech and a clawing sensation in his mind. He reveals that he remembers even his time as a fetus, that he always has a headache of an unknown source, and that fire always made his head hurt. He doesn't think his triggers make sense because he can only read minds, not see into the past. As he tries to think about this, his headache grows exponentially to the point he decides to forget everything he just thought of.
After a while, his headache is just a throbbing and he decides to head back. He expresses his misanthropy because of his belief that their minds are the worst of all things. He hates having to kill them, but hates their minds more, and hates being in the room if he doesn't kill them. He proceeds to write on his report paper that two extra people ended up dead where one may end up becoming an AKUMA.
In the end, because of humanity's dirty minds, all humans are trash.
So yeah. That's that.
I didn't put this up earlier because I didn't really want to have a separate chapter for a summary of a previous one. I apologize that it took me so long to update. I'm still a little upset over this chapter because I was 70% done with it on September 23rd when it crashed, so now I'm almost certain that things have changed and are probably a bit rushed because I wanted to get this chapter out eventually. I rewrote this chapter again and got to 40% before this computer accidentally shut off because I forgot to plug it up, and when Office asked if I wanted my new or old file, I picked the old one, thinking I saved…and I hadn't. So this is technically the third rewrite (SAVE YOUR STUFF GUYS). I also lost the files to my other fan-fiction, so I was really pissed beyond all imagination, but I've gotten over it somewhat.
Well, I was able to afford a back-up external hard drive, and I'll be updating the hard drive to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.
Ah, notes to keep in mind (in order):
1. I've decided to change the spelling of Linali's name to Lenalee. The adjustments will be made to the other chapters later.
2. Gēgē – Chinese for older brother
3. There's a reference to another one of my favorite anime in this chapter fairly early on. See if you can find it and know where it comes from.
4. Mochi is rice cake made of mochigome, a short-grain japonica glutinous rice (Wikipedia)
5. There's a reference to Japanese folklore about the Moon
6. There's an excerpt from Ode to Earth by Adam Mickiewicz
7. I read a thing that said that people can hear a person 20 m. (65.6168 ft.) away at normal talking volume. Whether they can understand them at that distance? I'm not quite sure.
8. There's a different excerpt here from Endymion by John Keats
This work is, and continues to be, unbeta'd, so if there are some spelling or syntax errors, please let me know if I don't catch it soon enough. This is a really long chapter—the longest content-wise so far, actually—so I don't know if I will.
Also, I'll be making a few adjustments to the past chapters as time goes on. For example, I've decided that I liked Allen with a weird left arm after all, so her arm is now black, smoothed over crystal, sort of like the crystal-type innocence, but different. She can bend her fingers and elbows without needing to have notches in her skin for the joints.
Sometimes our 'flaws' make us even more beautiful, y'know? There's a constant need in this world to look 'normal', but…well, fuck that, I guess.
I've made those changes in the past chapters. I've also changed how I describe her eyes when activated as well. The original AKUMA eye concept was cooler, gears included. I've made those changes in the past chapters, too. If I missed it somewhere, please let me know if I don't catch it beforehand.
I wanted to update on Christmas, but I fell asleep after working on it and a few other chapters for a few hours. I've been making small changes to the past chapters for the last few days, so if something seems to have suddenly changed in the newer ones, it's because I went back and said, "Whoops, nevermind, let me change that."
I appreciate constructive criticism, so please feel free to send some my way. If you don't feel like doing that, that's okay. Whenever you asked me to update was nice, too, I guess. Thank you all for your encouragement and thank you so much for your patience.
Merry Belated Christmas to everyone and Happy Belated Birthday to Allen and anyone else with a Christmas B-Day. My gift to you as this year closes is this chapter.
-JD
DISCLAIMER: Hahhahaha, I made some concepts, but I don't own DGM. Not tryin' to get sued, fuck that.
"Good evening."
The finders closest to the entrance of the cafeteria glanced over to it and smiled at the greeting, giving their own in return. Clad in her usual wear, Allen entered the area, sleep still clouding her eyes, though it was slowly dissipating with the smell of food. She yawned a bit as she headed over to Jerry, the man already cooing over how cute she looked, making her turn a little red.
Honestly, she was just happy that they still liked her.
"Allen! Allen, come on already! We're waiting for you!" Lavi called, his head the only thing poking through the Ark's door.
Allen hid within the Ark right near the door, her arms crossed, abstaining with the shake of her head. Lavi sighed before turning back to talk to the guys outside.
"Why not," Lenalee called from the outside, "We're all waiting for you out here!"
"I just…I'll come out later, okay? I think I forgot something back in the piano room!"
Lavi poked his head back in, "No you didn't! We checked before we left!
"It doesn't hurt to check again!"
"Allen…"
"And…I've lied to them. They ought to know that now, right? They ought to know…so I'll come out later! I come out when they're not…not around…"
She jolted a little at the feeling of hands on her shoulders. Looking up, Kanda glared down at her. Oh right, he hadn't left yet either. Good, he gave her another excuse to stay in, but…
"Wh-what do you want, Kanda? Let go of me!" she squirmed.
Though his vein popped out a little, he replied, "Who doesn't hold back some things about them? You're not all that special, Moyashi."
Her face became a little redder with anger, "Hey, my name is Allen, Bakanda! And what do you mea-aaaAH!"
Suddenly, the girl found herself in Lavi's arms outside of the Ark. She froze, cursing Kanda to the high heavens for pushing her out. Lavi simply grinned at her as he helped her stand up straight and face the crowd.
"Ah…um…"
She didn't have to finish.
Within seconds, she was being nearly suffocated by Miranda and Krory, the two crying in joy about her safety as they had for the others. The scientists and other exorcists that were still around cheered for her and came closer, happy to see her back. Allen stared back at them as they approached before glancing over to Lavi. The boy grinned back at her.
"Yo, didn't we say we're family?"
Her eyes widened a little at that.
'Ah…yeah, that's right,' she thought.
She moved her arms around Krory's and Miranda's bodies, hugging them closer to her as she felt her heart swell. This place…the Black Order was her home. The members were her family. They lived together, fought the good fight together, and would sometimes die together. They fought against Komurins together. They ate together. They enjoyed life together.
'How could I have forgotten that?' she smiled..
"Yeah, I'm home."
'It had been a very nice reunion,' she reminisced, placing another one of her breakfast plates back onto the cart, the thing technically already full. Stretching, she felt almost completely rejuvenated, just a little more and she'd be ready for the day. She hadn't talked with the usual group for a day just so she could sleep for a while—the tiredness came and went as of recent—so she was looking forward to talking with them today.
Speaking of talking, she hadn't heard from Neah in a while.
'Hmm…I'll try to talk to her once I'm back in my room,' she thought, pulling her last plate over to her.
Just as Allen prepared herself to begin the last of her mitarashi dango, an excited Lenalee speed-walked her way over to her table, a light gleaming in her eyes.
"Allen! Allen, come to the lower level training ro—oh, you're eating." Her excitement dulled a little, and that honestly made the girl feel a little bad.
"Ah, well, I'm almost done," Allen reassured, eating another of the dango quickly, "What's going on?"
The girl instantly got her bounce back, "Oh! Lavi is going to activate his innocence in one of the training rooms! Gēgē said that we could watch, so I was sent to get you since…well, you get lost sometimes still."
"Valid point."
"Mmm hmm, so hurry up! You said you're almost done right?"
"Yeah, well, I just need to finish this last—"
Before she finished, Lenalee was already dragging her out of the cafeteria, "You can finish it on the way!"
"It's a good thing dango is so versatile," she mumbled.
Though Lenalee was practically vibrating with how excited she was, Kanda seemed to counteract her excitement just to balance the room out. He wasn't particularly glaring at anything, but his entire being seemed to exude 'angry fox-bear' or something. Allen sighed a little. She kind of hated how he was always so uptight…
"Ah, hey Kanda."
"Hm."
"Dragged here, too?"
"Mm."
"Today's a one syllable kind of day, isn't it?"
"Shut up."
"Ah, two. A new record."
His face hardened a little more, but Allen somehow knew better, since his shoulders and hands had relaxed a little at the common banter.
"I said shut up."
"Never in a million years."
Lenalee and Lavi looked at them before looking at each other, jiggling their eyebrows.
Komui, who'd covered his affectionate smile with a mischievous grin instead, decided that amount of cuteness was enough for that moment, "Well now, if you two are done flirting, we'll start inspecting Lavi's Innocence!"
He pointedly ignored the arguments against his statement as he turned to Lavi, "Well then, try to activate it!" then his voice softened, "We're all here for you."
Lavi was grateful for that reassurance. Sure, he was no longer polluted with Dark Matter, but he was still nervous. In activating his Innocence, he would be denying the Bookman line an heir. If he activated it, he would be defining himself as an exorcist and an important member in the war, an important member in history, something a Bookman could never be. He knew that Bookman was probably somewhere hidden in the room, watching as carefully as always to see his decision.
"Sorry gramps…" he thought, closing his eyes.
He rose his right hand into the air, breathing slowly to calm his heart. The scientists, Komui, Lenalee, Kanda, Allen…they were all there for him. He'd made his decision back at the Asian branch, and he wasn't going to back out of it.
"Innocence, invocate!"
The wristbands cracked then splattered out in midair. Then, as if a wind built up, the liquid began to swirl around his body, almost completely covering him. Lenalee's hands clenched tighter as she watched, irrational fear building in her. She felt another hand on hers, though, and opened it in surprise. Looking over, Allen had moved to her left side and intertwined her fingers with her left hand, a small and understanding smile on her face. On her other side, she felt Kanda nudge her, which was about as affectionate as he could get unless caught off guard. She felt herself calm at both gestures and looked forward to watch Lavi.
Lavi made sure his mind and body were set the entire time the transformation took form, even though his body twinged and two points on his skull throbbed. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he kept focus. He would make sure his first invocation was successful, that the Innocence felt his resolution.
Finally, the red liquid sloshed its way up to his extended hand, forming the head of the hammer. Around it, a circular bar formed to hold it. The bottom of it extended out to be the long handle while the top of the circle formed a pyramidal spike. Lavi took hold of the handle, spinning it around a bit as the wind settled until he stopped in a kind of cool pose, the handle diagonal behind his back, stance wide, a smirk on his face.
"So, how does it look?"
He heard Allen snicker behind him. The scientists behind Komui were beginning to snicker a little, too. One was even holding his stomach. What? Had something happened? And why did they sound so loud?
He heard a muted giggle and mumble behind him and he turned to face his—in secret—girlfriend, "Hmm? What? What's cute?" The Chinese girl looked a little surprised that he heard her, turning away from Allen, who wasn't even paying attention anymore, a hand held over her mouth. Kanda was refusing to look at him, too. He heard a few mumbles behind him as something moved on his head, the voices becoming clearer.
"Ah, that makes sense."
"Yeah, bigger ears, better hearing."
He swiveled around to them, sweat developing at the edge of his hairline, reaching his free hand up to feel the side of his head, "Bigger ears? What? What are you…my ears are the same size as always, what are you guys on about?"
Honestly, he was getting a little panicked, maybe even slightly irritated. What were they talking about? Why was Allen looking down with both of her hands over her mouth? Why were Komui's glasses gleaming?! What was going on?! Then he heard footsteps headed toward him. Turning back to her, he watched as Lenalee approached him. Once she was in front of him she reached up, and he could hear the fabric around her arms shift before he couldn't hear as well anymore. Before he could ask what happened, she pulled two appendages down in front of his eye, her smile barely holding back a laugh, tears at the corners of her eyes.
There were two smooth, red things in her hands.
He took hold of one of them for himself as she backed away, and strangely could feel his fingers on it. It was warm, too, and if he looked closely enough at the parts that were a little translucent, he thought he could see veins in it. Thinking about all of the things that had happened, with the supposedly better hearing and the whole "bigger ears" comment, he froze, his face blanking out.
"Are…are these like…"
Komui replied, "Rabbit ears? Yes!"
As if to confirm his answer, the unattended ear twitched, turning toward Komui. He could hear the instant difference that it made, and he wasn't quite sure how to feel about it.
Allen could no longer hold herself back, though, "We-well—hehe…it looks like—pfft…all those rabbit comments—hehehe…paid off!" Lavi stared at her.
Then he snorted.
They all burst out laughing, except Kanda, who crossed his arms and huffed, though his shoulders were shaking suspiciously. The scientists even paused writing because they couldn't hold back their laughter anymore. Komui had to place a hand on his stomach, his other one making sure his glasses didn't slip. Lenalee leaned backward a bit, laughter tears at the corners of her eyes. Allen held her cheeks, complaining through her joy that they were beginning to hurt.
Kanda closed his eyes before putting his glare on again, "What the hell? You gonna make mochi or something?"
Everyone froze, even Lavi. Well, not for long.
"Oh my God, stop the presses! I think Kanda made a joke!" Lavi squealed, his new ears tightly folded against his head, horrified but overjoyed at the same time.
Lenalee put the back of her hand on her head, falling back jokingly before Allen caught her, trying hard not to cry from laughing, "No! Lenalee! Don't go into the light!"
Kanda felt his eyebrows rise as he watched them, somehow unable to keep the glare on his face even as his eyes remained somewhat narrowed.
"Tch, whatever."
It took a bit after that, but Komui was able to get control of himself.
"Alright, in all seriousness, we do need to collect new data on this Innocence," Komui commanded, the tips of his mouth still twitching.
The others got the message and began to calm themselves, breathing heavily. Lenalee and Allen straightened themselves, infinitely happy that everyone was able to share a laugh, including themselves. Kanda had stopped glaring, simply looking a bit bored and interested. It took Lavi a little longer than the rest of them to get himself together, since he kept on coming up with jokes inside of his head.
"Oh—khehe…oh okay…okay. I'm ready. I'm good. Let's start."
Komui's glasses glimmered, looking back to Reever as he stepped forward from the crowd of scientists. The man grimaced a little at the look, but started regardless, "Alright, first off we're going to see how well you can hear with those ears. I noticed you heard Lenalee say something earlier?"
His ears stood up a little more, "Ah, yeah, she called them cute—youknowlikeallfurryanimalsareit'snotthingparticulartowardmeoranything!"
He breathed out when he felt "the Look" subside, no longer on Komui's radar.
"Ah, but you guys are still kind of close to each other. Anyway, where does it sound like I'm standing?"
"Eeeh…I guess you sound like where you are, like, I can tell where the sound is. It just sounds louder."
"How much so?"
"Not too much, honestly."
He wrote a little down, "Alright, good. I'll have Derrik over there walk further away. He'll say some stuff off of a piece of paper. You recite to me what the paper says, k?"
"Eeeeyup."
Said scientist got into position and began to speak. Lavi's ears twitched a little before facing the man's way.
"Eeeh…no heart, no spirit…Lo! Cadaverous crowds! O Youth! Pass me thy wings, and let me o'er the dead earth soar."
Reever looked up at him, a bit of surprise on his face, "Oh, nice. Got it all perfectly."
"Nice," he replied, watching as two other scientists measured the distance between him and Derrik. It didn't take them long—they're strangely efficient with measuring things—so they called the distance out, "21 meters!"
"Okay, now, go back another 19 meters or so! Hey, Lavi, they'll read off another passage, you tell us the words, k?"
"Mmhmm, gotcha."
The same process began again.
"Okay…A thing of beauty is a joy forever. Its loveliness increases. It will never pass into nothingness, but will still keep a bower quiet for us, and a sleep full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing," he did his best to not glance over at Lenalee.
Reever wrote down a little more, "Okay, so you can hear 40 meters at normal speaking levels…easily?"
"Yup."
"Well shit, we could be at this for a while," he muttered, scrubbing at his head, "Hey, how about you try telling me what's the furthest thing you can hear?"
Lavi didn't reply, looking forward with a slight frown as he swiveled his ears around a little, searching for the smallest whisper, the smallest squeak, the tiniest…
Oh. That's interesting.
"Ah, well, this isn't the farthest I can hear, but about five stories up in the storage room down the leftmost hall, two finders are making out. It's only kissing, but it's noisy kissing."
Everyone stared at him, not sure what to do with that information.
One of the scientists looked at Reever, "Uh…do…do we check that?"
"I…suppose we…hmm…how about something—"
"I'll be back," Kanda grumbled, leaving the room. He needed to do something rather than just watch, since he technically wanted to train instead.
"Ah, you don't...he's gone."
Lavi was checking if he could still access his old hammer seals when Kanda came back.
The group looked over and shuddered a bit. The aura around him was dark and shifting dangerously. It was as if anyone too close would get sucked in and destroyed.
"So…uh…guess they were there," Lavi said, holding his hammer close.
"Their tongues were down their fucking throats. And some idiot followed me here for you, Komui," he growled back, said idiot not even complaining at the name since they just wanted to be safe.
A few of the room occupants turned a little red, Allen beginning to rant a little about how he shouldn't talk about stuff like that so blatantly, but Komui replied anyway, "Ah. Well. Thank you."
"Ehhh, anyway, you can still access your seals, you can apparently hear through walls…let's test your physical finesse. I want you to run from that side of the room to the other as quickly as possible. Got it?" Reever asked, trying to ignore the awkwardness, and the fact that Allen and Kanda were about to face off again, Lenalee watching from the side.
"Mmm hmm!" the rabbit replied as he skipped over to one side of the room. It was a few meters longer than 100, so there was an area marked off on the floor for a 100 meter dash to occur. It really helped when trying to work out how an exorcist improved upon activation or based on their own strength. While the exorcists didn't have a hard time running the distance in a matter of seconds, innocence often made an even greater difference. That being said, no one could ever beat Lenalee's time.
"Hey, feel comfortable to move however feels natural, k?" Reever yelled over from the other end.
"Gotcha! You don't have to yell, you know!" he called back, placing himself into prime running position.
"Oh, that's right…I'm never gonna get used to that. Ready?"
"Yup!"
"Start!"
With the click of the timer, and a slight cracking sound from the ground under Lavi, he jutted forward.
Funny thing was, both of his feet left the ground before he realized. Rather that starting to run like usual, he…well, he basically hopped forward. Both of his legs bent up a bit as he watched the ground pass by under him. As he noticed himself get closer to the ground, he stuck out a foot, putting his weight on it as he propelled forward once again. It happened two more times before he had to stop himself from denting the opposing wall. He kicked up quite a bit of dust, but skid to a stop fast enough to keep himself and others safe.
"How fast was that?" he asked, his ears straight up in interest as he dusted himself off.
Reever stared at his stopwatch wide-eyed, "Well, your usual time is about 8 seconds. You cut that time in half. You'd probably go even faster if you bounced off of a few more things, you know, add more steps to your hop."
"Whoa! I didn't even really notice I was going that fast! Hey, Lenalee! I'm catching up t'ya!" he called back jokingly as Lenalee and Allen waved over at him.
"Ah, that's great, Lavi!"
He and the others looked over to Komui, who was standing a little behind the door for some reason, "It'll be very useful on the next mission, I'm sure! Come to my office in a few minutes, okay? All four of you!"
He then quickly shut the door.
Allen sighed, but the sooner they got rid of them the better. She glanced over to Lenalee, who nodded at her in a bit of a muted manner. She was a little nervous at facing AKUMA again after the last panic, but she wasn't going to run away. Kanda was mumbling a bit, something about meditation, but was already headed to the door.
"Hold up, I'm coming!" Lavi called out, his still active innocence making the trip just that much faster. Trying to not kick up so much dust, he used several small jumps to slow his momentum until he could stop just as normal.
"That's going to take a little practice," Lenalee commented, a relieved smile on her face, the girl silently happy that he was still feeling so well and that the activation had gone without a hitch.
"Yeah, I think I can practice on an AKUMA's face, don't you think?" he joked back, grinning as they waved back at the scientists.
"That'll be perfect, sweetie," she cooed back, chuckling at the blush that began to glow on his cheeks, even as he deactivated his innocence.
"And you called me talking to Kanda 'flirting'? I think you guys are the true flirts here."
Kanda, who waited in a lightly impatient manner by the door, clicked his tongue.
The group kept talking even after they closed the door to the training area.
Reever stopped waving once they were through, a worried expression coming across his face. After what happened last time, he really hoped he'd be seeing them again after the next assignment, preferably by their own power. Being out in the actual war area really did alter his perspective even more. He already knew how dangerous it was, especially since the Level 4's attack on HQ, but being on the road like that made him worry about their safety even more.
He shook his head lightly. They'd come back, he knew that. With that, he got back to work.
"That's not the point, Moyashi!"
"Again with the 'moyashi' mess! It's Allen, Bakanda! Do I need to spell that for you? It's A-L-L—"
"C'mon guys, you don't have to fight!" Lavi said, hands up in a calming gesture.
Lenalee sighed, "Why do we even still try?"
"Lavi."
Lavi stiffened. Lenalee froze as well, and Allen and Kanda stopped before they attacked each other. The corridor they were walking down had many hallways that crossed through it. At the one closest to them, Bookman stood, his hands hidden in his sleeves, eyes closed before he opened them to peer at the group. Lavi felt sweat roll down the side of his face, the air growing very tense.
So it was time, huh.
He looked at Lenalee, nodding his head in a gesture to have her keep moving. She stared at him for a moment before she bit down a little on her bottom lip, nodding in understanding. Allen looked between Bookman and Lavi, not sure what was happening. Before she could speak up, though, Kanda nudged her, shaking his head and walking forward to keep going down the corridor. Allen kept standing there, though, a frown on her face as she looked at Lavi.
He smiled, "I'll be fine, Allen. You go ahead."
She looked like she wanted to protest, but sighed and began moving forward as well. The three said nothing to Bookman as they passed, though they gave him a meaningful look. They weren't sure what was going on, but it had to be serious, and if Lavi got hurt from their talk, then they'd have to have a talk with him. Bookman smiled a little in understanding, but let it drop as he watched Lavi approach to stand in front of him. Once they were further down the corridor, Lavi opened his mouth.
"You activated it again," Bookman interrupted.
Lavi remained silent.
Bookman rubbed the sides of the bridge of his nose, "You not only upgraded to a crystal-type Innocence, but you activated it for the sake of learning about it. Had you not activated it, refused to, you probably would've been able to continue your training as a Bookman."
"I know."
"Then why—"
"Because I'm an exorcist."
Bookman's eyes opened wide. They narrowed to normal size as he looked up to Lavi, who looked back at him with a determined expression.
"I'm an exorcist. I tried to deny it for a while, but I can't let them go. I couldn't let go of my feelings for them no matter how hard I tried," he sighed, "It's weird, really. They are members of a Catholic organization, yet they bewitched me."
"…And yet you don't seem to mind."
Lavi grinned, "Not in the slightest, Panda-jiji!"
Bookman couldn't hold back his smile as he huffed. He shook his head.
Then hit Lavi upside his.
He gave him an angry look while the boy rubbed his head, whining in pain, "I told you to not call me that, stupid former apprentice! And how dare you make me waste all those years on you! You think I have all the time in the world?! Good grief, boy!"
Lavi looked up to him, smiling sheepishly, "Sorry 'bout that."
He huffed in return, "Whatever. From here on, you'll be an exorcist of the Black Order. You're relieved of your post. There's plenty of other apprentices still out there being trained by others. Don't think you were so important!"
"Where will you be?"
"Like I said, child, don't think you were so important! I'll still be here to record the events surrounding the Destroyer of Time. I'll have to add a stupid rabbit into my documents from here on, it seems."
Lavi laughed, "Not you too!"
After a moment, the two became silent, thinking to themselves. Lavi breathed out in relief. Everything had gone easier than he thought. Yeah, the panda was a bit angry, but the two were still friends…in that weird way they had been since he began following the man. Now that he thought about it, he wasn't sure why he thought the man would get extremely angry anyway. He'd always had a low-key sense of irritation about himself in regards to him, but it never got to a bad point. Yeah, that's why he was a panda, just a big angry softie.
Bookman kept his eyes closed. He sort of felt from the beginning, even when he just picked the boy up from the streets, that Lavi wasn't cut out for the job. There was always this subtle little tick about the boy. He had a hard time separating his feelings from people when he began, but once he got older, he got much better at it. The Black Order changed that back again, especially his love for Lenalee. Heh, the boy was still a novice if he thought he didn't notice how the two would sneak off into the night to be with each other away from prying eyes. Absolutely. The boy was not good for the job. And that was fine. If he wanted to be with his friends till the end, he would let him.
"Do you want to know it?"
Lavi looked up at him, confused, "Hmm?"
"You've forgotten it, haven't you? Do you want to know it? Your real name."
Lavi considered it for a moment, then he smiled up at the man.
"Nope! I'm good as Lavi."
"Figures."
"Besides," he began, standing to his feet, "Don't you think Lavi Lee has a nice ring to it? It has the alliteration thing going for it, it's perfect! All I have to do is win Komui over! Yeah…win him over…"
"Good luck with that, stupid boy."
"Thanks. I love the confidence you have in me," he laughed.
Bookman glared lightly at the boy before looking down the corridor, "You have a meeting to get to. You better go."
"Yeah…" he paused, placing his left hand on his shoulder, patting it, "Thanks for all this time, Bookman."
Before the man could say anything in reply, he turned and quickly ran down the hall to the office. He watched as the boy disappeared in the distance before he turned away and walked down a different hallway.
"Tch, kids."
Lavi entered the office, grinning at the concern on their faces—even Kanda's, though he'd never admit it. He gave them a thumbs up, and they settled down, giving him room to sit on the couch. Komui smiled, handing him a file to look through before he walked back to his desk and began.
"You all headed to Middlesex, England. While I do understand that that covers a rather broad area, the finders in the area have pinpointed the strange problems to be in cities nearest to London, which, as you can easily tell, would be extremely problematic if they actual reach the main city."
"What sort of strange problems?" Lenalee asked.
"It seems that any AKUMA within that general area remembers who they were in their past and act based on that personality, which may be a sign that there is an Innocence causing this sort of reaction from them. Once exposed to the effect, it does not wear off, and it perhaps won't until we come in possession of the Innocence. I know an AKUMA truly thinking and behaving like a human wouldn't be too much of a problem, but there are large amounts of them accumulating in the area, and enough of them have no problem with murder. Even while not following the Earl's personal orders to kill, they are creating many AKUMA by going by their own agenda. Those are the most problematic, since if they decide to extend their killing spree to London…well, you have a general idea of how that would go."
"There'd be a lot of dead people from such a crowded area, and potentially a lot of new AKUMA," Lavi replied grimly.
"Exactly. It won't be too far away from us, and we really don't need another attack on Headquarters. We need to avoid that if at all possible."
"Why send so many of us?" Lenalee asked, adjusting her papers.
"We're, unfortunately, very low on exorcists, and the amount of AKUMA in circulation seems to have doubled. In order to keep more of you all alive, we need as few individual missions as possible, because the potential of being ambushed by swarms of AKUMA is extremely high as of recent. Even the generals will be grouped with other exorcists. We won't be able to do as many missions as before, but we hope that by having groups, having more manpower, you'll be able to keep each other safe," he adjusted his glasses as he gave them a firm look, "I have no intention of cremating any of you."
They all nodded back at him, understanding.
Komui smiled then, "Well, now that that's settled, the Science department has made new uniforms for you! You'll head out with a finder named Saige later to catch the train. He won't be staying with you, since there are several finders in the area already, but he will lead you there. You're dismissed."
William looked around as he passed through the train car to 1st class compartment cars, hoping that the passengers were already asleep so early in the morning. It was the end of his first week on the job as a compartment attendant. Yeah, he was still getting used to some of the personalities he met on the train, but he was doing well. His co-workers were also relatively pleasant to deal with. The pay seemed to be pretty good, and he was able to see the sights whenever he was on break, which, admittedly, wasn't many times. Even so, he couldn't think of a better job.
Suddenly there were several bangs on the roof of the train car he was walking through.
It gave him a rather horrible jolt, startling him out of his thoughts. He looked up, worry painting his features. Who…what? What was going on? Did rocks drop onto the top? He was quickly answered, though, when the escape door was opened and feet poked through it. He opened his mouth to say something, sweat forming rapidly at his brow. Was this…was this a train robbery?! He didn't know how to deal with this! Should he call the chief of on-board services to deal with it?
The first person to drop through was an average-sized young man in a tan jacket with a rather large, brown messenger bag on, a huge button-like shield with a cross symbol attached to the bag. Was that…was that to steal things? It was rather weird, though, as it seemed the bag was full of things. Had the man already stolen things?! William tried to say something, but when the young man stood up, he was maybe a few centimeters over him, and he wasn't a short man by any means. He swallowed his words quickly as another pair of feet dropped in, this time wearing red heels with baby blue socks.
This time, it was a young Asian woman with short, black hair. She sighed as she settled on her feet, her cloak ruffling about her ankles. Cloaks?! They must've come from stealing somewhere! He had to tell the chief, alert someone, anyone! The next pair of feet came in, though. This person had black boots on, and wore their cloak's hood, so he couldn't get any defining features off of the person. The only weird thing about them was the little golden creature clinging to their shoulder. The way they moved aside let him know that there were more to come.
The next person was a red-head with an eye patch over his right eye. Most of his untamed hair was held back with a black bandana that had a golden 'X' shape on it and wore a deep blue hoop earring in his left ear, his deep red scarf fluttering from the wind outside. Basically, the boy must be a delinquent of some sort. The last person to drop through nearly landed on the red head, claiming with a deep voice that he had needed to move out of the way. The tall Asian man had his long black hair tied in a high ponytail, and his cloak did not hide the thing strapped to his side…a staff? A sword?! Absolutely not! Not today! Not on THIS train!
"Umm, excuse me! Y-you can't be on this train! You have to pay fair! Oh, uh…y-you can—"
A man in a tan jacket turned to look at him, silencing him. It wasn't that he was afraid of the man—oh who was he kidding, he was terrified! It wasn't that the guy was scary, though. He had short, messy brown hair and equally big brown eyes, and seemed to have no intention of causing harm. There was something familiar about that jacket, too…the way it had the zipper in its tall collar along with the two beaded strings. The symbol on the shield looked familiar, too. The way they dropped onto the train, though…h-he wouldn't be fooled!
Instead of yelling at him like he subtly expected the man to, he simply straightened himself up, blinking, "Oh, I'm sorry sir. You're new, aren't you?"
William frowned a bit, "Well, yes!" Who was this guy, calling him a newbie! He was, but…but that wasn't the point! William spoke up again before the other man could insult him, "Sir, I'm afraid you have to pay fair to board this train! I'll be forced to aler—"
"Eeeh, so he's that kind of new guy!" the red-head joked, grinning at him as he began to remove his cloak. The others, except for the tall one, looked at him, amused, as they too followed suit. As they removed their cloaks, they revealed that they were all wearing the same sort of outfit for the most part.
Their tops all had tall collars that nearly completely covered their necks, the black fabric lined with thick red. The collar split straight down the middle of their necks before the red lining went off to the right side of their chests, where it continued traveling down until it reached where their thighs began. There was a little zipper on their left breasts that had a small red line travel down to the end as well. Most of them wore a small, red-lined belt from which a red-lined strap laid idle on their sides. The red-head had is under his uniform top. They were adorned with red-lined shoulder straps, which had golden chains that went from their right shoulder to a ruby red gem near the left side of their chests from which there were three little silver octahedrons dangling from the ruby's casing. Beside that was a name tag, below it a patch with some sort of fancy silver cross on it.
They stopped being so similar after that. The red-head had light pants interrupted by darker ones with red lines on it that led to his dark brown folded-over boots. The Asian girl had on a short, pink ruffle skirt with baby blue tall socks and red heels with red anklets. The tall Asian man's jacket was longer than the others, his not ending till it was about the middle of his calves. He had on black pants tucked into his shorter folded-over boots. The last person had their black pants tucked into tall, black folded-over boots. They all seemed to have on fingerless gloves, but the red-head had red bracelets that matched the girl's anklets, and the tall man and the other person wore white gloves over them.
Speaking of the other person, what was up with them?! Not only did the person turn out to be a young woman, but she had white hair! And what was with that scar going down the left side of her face? What was with the golden earring clamped to her left ear? Who were these people?!
"I…uh…what?"
The one in tan smiled, "Let me explain. The symbol they have on their uniform is the Rose Cross. They are—"
The Rose Cross? THE Rose Cross?! That's where he'd seen it! By God, they were with the church! Were they army men?! Why was that one girl dressed in such a short skirt then? What was even going on?!
"—our missions come up rather suddenly, so we have to catch the train like this. It's an inconvenience but—"
Oh, so that explained it. This always happens? He hadn't heard of it happening before, not even once! But that Rose Cross…no, they couldn't be denying it. It looked like it was pure silver, too. Damn, how much were those uniforms even worth?! He could buy himself something nice if he had that kind of money! And what did he mean by mission? What sort of mission? There was no war going on! Unless…they're with the church so…what would that mean?
"—so I do apologize…sir? Sir, are you listening? Sir—"
This had to be one of the craziest days in his life. This was something to write in the diar—er notebook! Five weird-looking people from the church hitch a ride on the train because it's something they can do! Oh, that title made him a little jealous. So they can hop on any train, willy nill—
"William!"
Said man jolted to attention, calling out a 'Yes sir!' as the chief of on-board services walked up from behind him.
"I had gotten a report that there was a banging sound coming from near your area, and you failed to report back! You should let me know those kinds of things to keep up efficiency if you are safe! Is that understood, William?"
"Yes sir!" he said loudly, though in all honesty he was feeling rather sheepish.
"Please excuse him. As you already know, he's quite new," the chief said, bowing his head and taking off his hat.
"Oh, that's quite alright. We just need to know where our compartment is."
Compartment?! They just hopped their bloody way onto the—
"Right this way, sir," the chief replied, his hand smoothly pointing down to the 1st class compartment area before he turned to open the car door for them.
Wh…what?
Completely confused, William decided to at least be out of the way and moved himself to the side. The group chattered as they passed, though the red-head grinned impishly at him. The tall man glared at him, clicking his tongue as he passed. When the white-haired woman passed, she looked at him a little sideways, only slightly facing him with a small smile on her face. She bowed her head a little with a "sorry" as she passed, silvery blue eyes catching the light before she looked away.
William remained standing there.
…He just may quit.
"Thank you very much, sir!" Allen said, smiling lightly.
"No problem, ma'am. And thank you," the chief replied, bowing his head lightly as he closed the door.
Allen then plopped down onto her seat, seeming a bit tired as Timcanpy rubbed against her hair, "Ugh, I don't ever think I'll be used to hopping on these trains. It's just so awkward."
"Nah, it's only that way if the people on it don't know what they're doing, like that guy. What was his name?" Lavi asked.
"It doesn't matter," Kanda replied curtly.
"Yeah, guess it doesn't. He might quit by the time we get to our stop. That's what happened this one other time when I was—"
"Oh, come on, you two! Stop picking on the poor man!" Lenalee admonished, though the small smile she had on her face sort of ruined it.
"Oh, alright. If you want me to," he made a pouty face for a moment before he brightened again, "Either way, I still need to tell you about this one time when—"
Lavi kept on with his story while Lenalee listened closely. Kanda absently looked out the window, though his eyes kept traveling down to his file. Allen had already opened hers and was looking through it when…
"Huh."
"Hmm? What is it Allen?" Lavi asked, interrupting himself midsentence.
"I…I think I know this place."
That got everyone's attention.
"What place? Which one?" Lenalee asked quickly, opening her file to search.
"Uh, this diner. The one from London. Anderson's Eatery."
They all opened their files as they looked at it. It was a fairly aged looking building. Well, not aged, not quite. The paint of the sign looked very new as well as the windows, but the building itself looked sort of broken down and leaky. There were many young children running around in the photo, their clothes looking pretty worn for wear. The same could be said for the older people, who sat near each other close to the alley way. The subtitle by the photo said 'location of interest for one who claims to be an AKUMA'. Reading the document revealed that an AKUMA ate there constantly out of human habit.
"What about this place do you remember?" Lenalee asked, deeply interested, finally able to hear something about her.
"Ah, the alley way."
They looked at her a little confused.
"I…ah…I lived there for a while. Before Mana came. The owner of the place would throw some pieces of turkey out for us, and…" her eyes squinted a bit at the photo, a memory just barely at the edge of her brain.
"Oh damn!" the boy cried, stomping his foot into a puddle, "The Hand Witch touched it! Why'd ya have t'aim for 'er, ya hag? Now it's cursed!"
"Oi, Moyashi."
Said girl blinked out of the memory, "…It's nothing."
Just like that, Allen stopped focusing on the photo, looking around at other ones to read their subtitles and descriptions. Lenalee wanted to push. Oh, she wanted to push so hard at that thought, especially since she didn't even respond to Kanda's jab at her! Before she could ask about it, though, Lavi put his hand on her shoulder, pulling her in closer to him.
"One step at a time, Lili. One baby step at a time."
He smiled as she turned to him, the girl huffing. He was right, though she didn't want to admit it.
"Hey, it says here that there's a ball planned in a few days in a place not too far away. Somewhere near Walthamstow," Allen said, alerting them all of the problem.
Kanda flipped a few pages, "Tch, damn people."
"Seems like it's gonna be rich, too," Lavi muttered, looking at the beautifully calligraphed invitation letter to the Matthews' ball and its fancy envelope.
Lenalee sighed, "If there were that many people all in one place, the AKUMA would definitely show up."
Even though their focus was largely on the documents, they kept watching her, noticing how her eyes would widen a little at certain photos. It was strange and concerning. If she remembered so many of those photos from her childhood, then maybe that 'family' of hers used to live around there. Maybe they lived off in those slums and simply gave up taking care of her. Maybe they moved away and left her behind. Maybe Allen misunderstood them, and she wasn't abandoned just for her arm like she thought she was. It didn't make the family much better, but it was more easily understandable.
After a few more minutes, they all nodded off to sleep, their minds wondering about the future.
They were at their destination later that morning, once the sun was higher in the sky. They placed their cloaks back on before they exited, thanking the chief for accommodating them.
"It's so damn crowded here," Kanda growled, looking around at the masses of people rushing around him.
"Hehe, and we're not even in London or anything. The train wouldn't reach that far," Lavi laughed, stretching his muscles after getting stiff from the train ride.
"I'll help you over to an inn over in a town nearby. From there, other finders will assist you," the finder, Saige, said, stepping off of the train after the ladies.
"Ah, that'll be great. Thanks, Saige," Allen smiled as she flipped her hood on, both eyes closed, "Ah, do you have an eye patch?"
The group stopped at that. "Yes, I do," he replied, getting one out of his bag, "Why do you ask?"
She opened only her right eye, the smile waning just a bit as Timcanpy adjusted himself on her shoulder, "There's five AKUMA in this area alone. But, if the effects of the Innocence are what Komui said…"
"They probably won't attack," Lenalee finished, looking around but unable to tell who they were.
They couldn't help but wonder...what would happen if they obtained the Innocence? They would stop feeling human, wouldn't they? Then they'd just attack where they were, wouldn't they? Despite the conflicting thoughts and their suspicion of the people around them, they moved along to the place they'd be staying near the main city of London.
They kept themselves in a rather closed bunch as they traveled together, watching as carriages, both fancy and old, passed them by. The town already had a London feel, with people bustling about and doing their business, and with the slowly dissipating fog that hung a little heavy higher up. There were women and men dressed in all sorts of clothes passing around, some with fancy hats and bright clothes that they kept away from the ground, others with old, faded dresses and soot-covered sleeves. All around, there were children with their parents or just running around playing, a few young boys asking if a person wanted a paper. Kanda bought one quickly as the boy rushed off, a bit scared of the much taller man.
Lenalee heard him hum irritatedly, so she leaned closer to him, "What is it?"
"There's been a few murders inching its way closer toward here."
Lavi pulled his arm to look at the paper, "Tsk, all of them were women."
"Did anyone get a visual of the murderer?" Allen asked, looking up from their backs a little.
Lavi looked back at her, "No, 'fraid not. They just always found the poor gals torn up."
Allen hummed again, listening as Kanda nearly hit Lavi with his elbow as he shifted the paper to fold it. The place looked so nostalgic. The way people pushing their way past others, some with seemingly better clothes instinctively being given more space, like they were, the kids that played in the streets, moving out of the way quickly whenever a carriage came by…she herself unconsciously moved to the side without needing to as a particularly nice one passed a little beside her, looking up at its window…it felt like she'd been there before. She didn't see Anderson's anywhere, but maybe it was closer than she thought.
Behind her, she could hear a carriage stop as someone yelled, but decidedly paid it no mind. The group kept on, Allen not noticing how the others kept glancing back at her.
As they kept on, they got a feeling. It was nudging at them from the back of their mind. Kanda became more irritated, Lavi's smile more strained. Lenalee looked around a little more, Saige's hand holding his bag a little more tightly. Allen had given off no indication that she noticed, but Timcanpy was growling lowly in her ear. After a while of walking, occasionally pushing their way past people, they knew they weren't mistaking it and could not ignore it.
"Oi, Allen. I don't think it's my imagination, but correct me if I'm wrong," Lavi whispered, his face revealing nothing.
"No, it's not just you. We're being followed."
"Is it an AKUMA?" Kanda asked, his hand not quite casually sitting on Mugen's hilt.
"No, it's a human. We shouldn't worry about them."
"Hmh."
They didn't worry too much about their stalker; it was more irritating than anything. But even as they moved deeper in the crowd on their journey, they didn't lose the person. Nevertheless, they decided that whoever it was that followed them wasn't to be taken quite so seriously. Even as he got slightly closer, they were able to identify mildly light tenor of his voice as he requested that the crowd excuse him. It seemed that he was with someone, since he kept talking with someone more tenor than he was. They couldn't quite hear what they were talking about since the whole area was a noise fest, but the one with the deeper voice seemed to be trying to convince the other to stop following them.
"He's kind of noisy, isn't he?" Lenalee joked, hearing the boy behind them excuse himself as he passed another person.
"Yeah, that's kind of reassuring. At least he doesn't know what he's doing," Lavi laughed, "He'd be easy to take down."
"Hopefully, it won't come to that," Saige sighed, looking up at a sign that said Gable's Dine-Inn, "This place should be satisfactory. There are two finders staying here," he finished, standing beside the stairs as the exorcists began walking up them.
"Ah, that's great! I don't know how much longer I can—"
Suddenly, Allen felt her left hand get grabbed in a mildly tight grasp. From the slight droop that came to her arm before she stopped pulling forward, she could tell that the person who held her teeter forward toward her. To an extent, since she knew they were being followed, she kind of expected it, but the gasp that came out of her at the touch was still genuine. She was really not used to having someone grasp her left wrist, and the concern that her arm would be revealed shook her.
Kanda was the first to react, his hand clenching on the Mugen's hilt as he prepared to slice through whoever had dared to take hold of Allen. Lenalee felt her anklets tingle with her suddenly rather dangerous emotions, her eyes hardening to stone as she turned to face their assailant. Lavi reached for the hilt of his hammer before remembering that it wasn't there anymore. Instead he settled with giving whoever it was a sideways glance as his wrists began to heat. Timcanpy turned around on her shoulder and outright showed the person his teeth as Saige stepped forward, his hand taking hold of his anti-AKUMA shield. It took them all a moment to remember that Allen said it wasn't an AKUMA.
And they all froze upon seeing the person's face.
Allen blinked at their confused expression and turned to look at the person herself. The boy who held onto Allen's wrist was rather richly dressed. He had on a fairly nice, black top hat. His white shirt collar was high on his neck, a striped black and brown cravat tied and folded around it. His forest green plaid vest was slightly visible under his buttoned brown jacket. His pants were a lighter brown shade, leading down to and almost completely covering his shiny black shoes
But that wasn't what really made them stop.
He held the most uncanny resemblance to Allen. Though his eyes were a dark moss green and his hair a russet brown and much shorter, cut in a common style of proper English society with slightly long sideburns and a wavy top style, his nose a little more angled, eyelashes shorter, jaw a little stronger, shoulders a little wider, and his face very lightly freckled, he looked almost just like Allen. The shape of his eyes, ears and lips were just like her. Even the way he stared startled at Timcanpy made them think of the Allen they met when she first joined the Order and was faced with Kanda's sword. Upon seeing her face, he looked just as shocked as she did, but he shook it off, exhilaration and joy overcoming anything else he felt. He removed the hat from his head as he spoke.
"Excuse me for being so sudden, but I simply must know! Is your name Birdy? Are you a woman? You are, right? Allow me to see your hand!" he exclaimed excitedly, the people around him looking at him in surprise at his noisiness, before their surprise grew at his face as well.
The group just stared at him right where they stood, mouths open slightly in awe.
Road tossed and turned in her bed, the sheets thrown around and flopped off to the floor. She kept her teeth snapped shut, attempting to not cry out at the strange headache spell.
Walker…
She'd been reading her mother's letter to Tricia when it hit suddenly. Now it was clenched in her fist as she writhed with the pain that struck her.
Walker…
It wasn't an uncommon occurrence anymore, not the headaches nor the occasional fatigue that would also plague her. She stayed shut off in her room now, and hadn't seen anyone in the last two days.
Walker.
With a particularly hard hit at the front of her head, she nearly cried out. It was like her brain was being squeezed and destroyed within her skull…
Walker.
That big hit was the last for now, though, and right after it she began to feel a cool calmness fall over her. She still felt disjointed and shivered from the echoes of pain, but her body was finally beginning to relax.
I need…to…
She remained lying there, a little miffed at the sticky feeling that her sweat gave her. She knew she had to conjure a door to the shower room eventually, but she just wasn't in the mood. She was just so tired…
I…need to…find…
She let herself fall asleep, her glowing yellow eyes closing in relief.