Chapter 25

The matron in charge of the hospital wing was not an exorcist. She was neither a scientist nor a finder… and yet Lulubell could no nothing more than to wince at the glare the woman was currently giving her.

"Aww come on, I have been lying in this bed for almost two days. I am bored, please for the love of god let me go."

"You are not going anywhere until I know that you are healthy… given the fact that you still wince in pain every time someone gets near the scar over your heart, I don't see that happening any time soon. So lay back and relax Miss Noah, because you are not moving from that bed for quite some time."

A small chuckle made Lulubell turn around, seeing a tall woman, looking like she was nearing thirty smiling a small don't mess with me look.

"You are Lulubell Noah right?"

"Yes, that would be me," Lulubell said.

"I am Emilia, I am a tutor for one of the younger Exorcists here named Timothy… I have heard the rumors that you just recently started to learn how to read."

"Yeah… I grew up poor and had no chance of getting an education."

"Well I thought I could help you." Emilia smiled gently and held out a few books, placing them on the night table next to Lulubell. "These are a few classical books that I would recommend for everyone to read. These editions are re written with the intent of new readers… with bigger size on the words and less complicated words… if you are stuck here anyways, you might as well get some reading done."

Lulubell raised an eyebrow, taking up the first book, glancing over it. "So I just read?"

Emilia smiled. "I have found that the best way to learn to read is… well reading books. The more you read, the more you will recognize words, which will give you a bigger vocabulary and a thirst for more books."

Lulubell nodded. "All right… thank you."

"No problem Lulubell… if you need more books feel free to let me know."

And with that Emilia disappeared, Lulubell taking the top book from the pile, looking at the cover, shrugging and starting to read.

About an hour or two later, Kitty came walking into the hospital wing, not seeing Lulubell's face because it was obscured by the book she was reading.

"Having fun?" Kitty asked, smiling despite still having some cracked ribs.

Her smile disappeared as Lulubell didn't answer.

Kitty walked next to her, seeing Lulubell's eyes roll over the page. Kitty lifted an eyebrow amused, and gently tapped Lulubell's shoulder.

Lulubell got startled, and responded by throwing her hands up into the air, screaming out a surprised "SANCTUARY."

Kitty blinked. 'Sanctuary?' She took up the book that had fallen to the ground, looking at its cover.

"The hunchback of Notre Dame… that's some pretty heavy reading there Lulubell."

Lulubell sighed, relaxing as she realized that she wasn't going to be attacked, and took the book back from Kitty.

"Yeah… I got the children's version though, until my reading get's better… a woman came by with a lot of books to help me study on my reading, so that I had something to do while in here."

Kitty looked over to the pile of books, looking them over.

"Oliver Twist, Moby Dick, Treasure Island… wow this is quite the collection of works."

Lulubell smiled, finding her page in the hunchback of Notre dame, getting comfortable again. "Yeah… but I doubt that they are as good as this one."

"What makes you say that?" Kitty asked, sitting down on a chair.

Lulubell smiled. "A story about a man that needs to hide because his guardian tells him that he is different, a wish that he could be normal, a man he trust whispering lies to him and using him to get his own needs satisfied… this is like a Noah's biography."

Lulubell marked her page and closed the book, looking over at Kitty. Looking her new lover over, she sighed at bruises and bandages, seeing that Kitty was careful to not breathe deep.

"I am so sorry" Lulubell said, Kitty smiling gently.

"Not your fault… Lust was the one who did this, not you."

"I suppose so" Lulubell said sighing, laying her book on her night table, motioning for Kitty to join her on the bedside, Kitty sitting down, accepting the light hug Lulubell gave her.

"You can hug me tighter" Kitty said gently. "I'm not that fragile."

"You are to me" Lulubell said, kissing Kitty's cheek, the young blonde blushing.

The two stayed in each other's embrace for a while before Kitty rose. "Well I should leave you with your book… do you want me to get you something from the cafeteria?"

"Yes please" Lulubell said grunting.

She was starting to feel pretty famished. Kitty giggled and walked out of the hospital wing, Lulubell smiling at Kitty's retreating form before she reached for her book once again.

It was almost two weeks before Lulubell was allowed out of the hospital, as her chest stopped to hurt every time someone got near it. The scar was still there, but it didn't matter to Lulubell, she took it as a reminder of what she had once been. Lulubell huffed gently as she walked out of the hospital wing, meeting Cloud Nyne.

"Morning Lulubell, congratulations on the recovery."

"Gee thanks" Lulubell said, smiling gently as Lau Shimin jumped over to her head and started digging in her hair.

"Well, things have happened fast" Lulubell said, turning to her sensei. "And I need to do my part… I need a couple of blackboards if it can be arranged, as quickly as possible."

Cloud Nyne nodded, understanding what Lulubell had in mind. "Of course… need anything else?"

"Not at the moment… but once I am done writing I will go over the details with as many as possible, exorcists and finders overall, the more people are aware of what each Noah can do the better their chances are."

"Yes I agree" Cloud Nyne said nodding, walking with Lulubell down the hall.

"Hey out of curiosity… how much do you remember from when Lust tried to take over?"

Lulubell frowned, thinking back. "Not much really… I remember a fake earl in Utah… and one hell of a headache, but that's it."

Cloud Nyne nodded, understanding. "Then I should probably tell you… Lust told Allen that a Noah by the name of Road had raped him and removed his memories of the encounter."

Lulubell stopped and blinked, before she groaned and hid her face in her hand.

"It's true then?"

"Unfortunate for Allen, yes."

"Then you should go and talk to him when you have the time… I think he is trying to act like he don't care but…"

"yeah, I understand. Thanks sensei."

"No problem. Now I shall go and get someone to put up some blackboards in the meeting room, I hope that is enough for you."

"Yes, that'll work, thank you."

Cloud Nyne smiled and patted Lulubell on the shoulder, before she and Lau Shimin turned and walked down a corridor, Lulubell rushing down the other way towards the mess hall. Once there she looked around and found Allen sitting and munching on a huge chicken.

Lulubell walked calmly over and sat down next to him.

"Morning" she said as he turned to her.

"Oh, hi Lulubell, finally out of the hospital then?"

"Yes… hey Allen I talked with Cloud… apparently Lust said some things to you that I don't really remember… about some things that Road did to you in the rewinding town."

Allen stopped eating, looking up at Lulubell. He didn't say anything, but looked over at her.

Lulubell sighed, looking anywhere except at Allen. "I'm… so sorry."

Allen laid down the chicken leg that he had raised to his mouth down on his plate, sighing.

"So it is true huh… I was kind of hoping that Lust only said it to make me mad."

"It was probably part of it" Lulubell said, taking a chicken leg for herself, ignoring Allen's unimpressed look.

"Listen, if you need to talk to someone, you know where to find me, ok?"

"Yeah, thank you."

"No worries" Lulubell said rising. "Now if you will excuse me, I have some work to do."

Lulubell patted Allen gently on the head and rushed out of the mess hall, uncomfortable with the situation.

For the remainder of the day Lulubell stayed in the meeting room, putting in info on each Noah and their abilities as well as some distinctive features. She had been working for almost 3 hours when she noticed that she had company.

Turning she smiled as she saw Kitty and Aiki, walking up to her, looking at the board.

"Hi Lulubell" Aiki said grinning. "Sorry we couldn't be here before, we have been pretty busy."

"No problem, I know how things are in this place."

Lulubell sighed, motioning to the board. "So, meet my former family."

Kitty walked up to the board. On one side of the board, Lulubell had written in pretty good detail about how each Noah looked. Some people had less information than the others, but that was to be expected, considering that some of the Noah's hadn't been around for a long time.

In the same column of the details of the Noah's, Lulubell had written about each Noah's power, and a small weakness that each member had.

"Not bad" Kitty said, reading with fascination along the board. "Your calligraphy is going better too."

"Thank you" Lulubell said smiling.

"Why are there a few empty spots?" Aiki asked curiously, pointing to a rather big hold between two names.

"Well I arranged the Noah by which number they are… that hole there was mine. The one further up is for Wrath, and he won't be a problem until he comes back in a decade or so."

Lulubell sighed and laid down her chalk. "But that's enough of my family, how are you two doing?"

"Oh pretty good" Aiki said smiling. "I think me and Lavi are getting close to actually dating."

"You mean that you haven't been dating?" Kitty asked.

"We have been very good friends hanging out, nothing more."

Lulubell shook her head. "I don't get you and I don't wish to understand you either."

Lulubell looked over at Kitty as she suddenly realized something. "Hey… didn't you have a brother who is a finder here? Why haven't I met him yet?"

Kitty's face, who had been all smiles, turned somber.

Aiki on the other hand looked surprised. "She doesn't know?"

Kitty looked at the floor in shame.

"I thought you two were dating, why haven't you talked about this?"

Kitty sighed. "I didn't want things to be awkward between us."

Lulubell blinked. "I feel like I am missing something here, what's going on?"

Aiki turned to Lulubell, then back to Kitty before she sighed.

"Kitty you got to tell her, if you don't I will."

Kitty sighed, but nodded, turning gently to Lulubell, the woman shocked to see that Kitty's eyes were tearing up.

"Lenalee didn't know about it when you two first met me, because there are so many finders, and the exorcists never talk a lot with many finders because it is always a chance that the finders will… anyways she didn't know."

"Know what?" Lulubell asked.

Kitty swallowed, her gaze going to the floor. "Christopher and Tucker… they were two of the finders who died when y… when Lust invaded the last order with the level 3 Akuma."

Lulubell blinked. Then she sat down in a chair and took a few deep breaths. Then she looked up at Kitty, who were shaking gently. Lulubell motioned for the girl to come closer, and as Kitty walked up to her, Lulubell forced the young blonde onto her lap, where the two held each other in a hard embrace, as Kitty's waterworks started gently.

Lulubell looked up to see Aiki silently walking towards the exit, the girl signalizing that she would leave the two alone for some time. As the door closed, Lulubell spoke.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

Kitty just sniffed. "The worst part is that we never really saw eye to eye. Other than the mask he sent me once we never had much contact… in fact the mask was a small gift to apologize for leaving me behind, only because he felt obligated to do something."

Kitty sniffed but rose from her seat. "But we don't have time for this do we, you have a bunch of people to talk to right?"

Kitty pointed towards the blackboard, Lulubell nodding gently.

"Yeah, let's do this shall we?"

No more than an hour later, Lulubell stood in front of every exorcist in Europe, different branch leaders and a bunch of finders, telling everyone what she could about the Noah family. As she finished up her speech she looked out onto the people she talked too.

"Any questions?"

Lavi raised his hand gently. "Yes Lavi?"

"Just a small comment really, Allen, Krory, Lenalee, Yuu and I have fought a few of your family members and we made it out alive… any reason for this?"

"Pure luck" Lulubell said gently. "After what I gathered, in the ark you all would have died if not for Allen's spectacular piano playing."

Lulubell smiled. "Now Kanda did manage to kill Wrath, but as I have said before, Wrath will be back, sometime in the next twenty or so years. Krory did a good job with the twins, if he had lasted a bit longer and managed to stand up long enough to see that he hadn't killed the boys the odds would have been a bit better."

"You surprised Tykki on more than one occasion, and lately he has been in excruciating pain because of Allen's lovely sword. As for Road… well it boils down into two facts. Fact one, she is a curious child, she would give you a small sense of hope to see what you would do before she would crush both your hope and you. Fact two, she likes Allen and will come up with strange excuses to keep him around."

"Oh joy" Allen grumped where he sat, apparently still having problems dealing with Road's actions.

"However there is one thing I have left out" Lulubell said. "In terms of danger Road is only in third place… the first is of course the earl himself, but there is one Noah that is more dangerous than Road… her stepfather Cyril Kamelot. Basically he twiddles his fingers and your body ends up as a marionette."

Everyone gulped at this.

"The problem with Cyril is this" Lulubell said. "Even if we tie him up, as long as he can use his fingers he can use his powers."

"So what do you suppose that we do?" Krory was the one asking.

Lulubell shook her head. "I see no other way than to kill him… wait for the Noah of Desire to come back and kill it when it's weak."

"But how do we do that if he can stop us with simply raising a hand?" This time the question came from Miranda Lotto.

"I will let you know if I figure something out" Lulubell said. "In the meantime I suggest we all watch our backs if we are in Portugal, that's where he lives… together with his daughter."

Allen shuddered gently, as Tiedol rose from his seat, smiling at Lulubell.

"Thank you Miss Lulubell, you have been a great help."

Lulubell bowed with a smile. "You are most welcome."

Everyone rose from their seats, a few going up to read the boards better, some smiling gently to Lulubell, as if to apologize for thinking that she was still evil and plotting against them. Lulubell didn't mind, she just walked past all the people to the back where Cloud Nyne, Aiki and Kitty stood.

"Nicely done Lulubell" Cloud said smiling.

"Thank you" Lulubell said smiling. "Now sorry to sound rude, but I need some alone time."

"Sure Lulubell… let us know if you need us."

Lulubell nodded to her sensei and scratched Lau Shimin under his cheek before she left for her room.