Chomesuke bit her knuckle to muffle another scream.
Lavi was by her side, holding her other hand in a show of comfort. Her black eyes and the pentacle on her forehead were frighteningly familiar. Allen said she would no longer explode, but…
After a brief lapse in the pain, Chomesuke took her hand out of her mouth - red teeth marks on the back of it - and gave him a pained grin. "It hurts, but my bloodlust is no longer rising with the Earl's commands, cho. I'll be fi- ARGH-mufph!" She bit down on her knuckle again.
Several of the sailors looked over at the odd couple, several still remembering her Akuma form, yet the one who knew of Exorcists and Akuma explained that so long as the one in the black coat was there, they were safe. They kept to themselves.
Chomesuke's eyes were closed as she dealt with the pain, Lavi able to do nothing but mutter comforting words. Soon, blood began dripping down her hand from the teeth finally puncturing the skin. Lavi kept his face neutral when he saw that, but didn't stop his soft muttering. His only comfort was that she held his hand tightly, showing that it was having some effect.
Then, Chomesuke's eyes flew open as she sprung to her feet, unintentionally pulling Lavi with her. "Incoming!" she shouted, black eyes latched into the distance, towards the mainland of China.
Lavi, the soldier, responded on instinct, drawing his hammer and moving to the bow of the boat. It took a few moments, but then he was able to pick out the black cloud of approaching Akuma. With his worry for Chomesuke, he was able to resist the urge to grin. His time under Marshal Winters had changed him.
Reassignment, they had called it.
Lavi let out another sigh as he made his way out of the train station. He was twenty years old now, Allen eighteen and dating that babe of a Marshal, and he was finally making his move on Lenalee. Bookman was called away on business (Lavi suspected "Third Faction" stuff), while Crowley, Lenalee, and Yu were called to their own Marshals. He was currently in Portugal.
Reassignment, Central had called it, but 'separation of Allen and his friends' was the definition. 'The Musician' was becoming dangerous, too strong alone and even stronger with his friends. Lavi alone knew of the results of this. Allen was to be sent out on suicide missions, now that he was without his friends. Crucial to the war, of course, but stuff labeled too difficult for even the Marshals. Noah involvement, mainly.
Lavi knew this, hated it, but could do nothing. He prayed that Allen somehow managed to pull through, to come out even stronger.
Lavi sighed again as he saw the Marshal was not at the rendezvous. Figures. Knowing what he did about the man, however… There! He spotted a flier on one of the poles, and after an instant of memorizing it he was on his way. There was a scheduled execution.
Lenalee, Crowley, and Miranda had been assigned to Marshal Cloud Nine, Yu and Marie to Tiedoll, and himself to Winters. The other Exorcists, Timothy and Chaoji, were still apprentices to their respective Marshals. That left Allen and the Thirds, an unpleasant combination with Allen's cursed eye. He sincerely hoped Allen would be alright.
Lavi came across a large crowd in the town square, and lifting himself just a foot higher with his hammer allowed him to discretely take in the whole crowd. Bookman training kicked in, and he spotted the Marshal immediately. So with small apologies, he shoved his way through the crowd until he was right next to the man.
When Sokaro saw him, it wasn't obvious. Simply, the moment Lavi was next to him, the large man said in his accent, "About time you got here, brat."
We were supposed to meet at the train station… Lavi masked his rolling eyes by yawning and placing his hands behind his head. In Spanish, Lavi replied, "What's this about?"
If the Marshal was surprised, his leather mask covered it. Also in Spanish - his mother-tongue - he said, "Convicted murderer, killed eighteen last week, about to be hung for his crimes." Lavi was silent, watching as a man with a black bag over his head was lead to a noose. After a moment, the Marshal continued, "It brings back memories, of how close I was to this. If Torment hadn't reacted to me when I was in prison, I would have been dropped three days later."
Lavi knew of this already, being who he was, so he said nothing. So this is a nostalgic thing, he thought to himself.
The man's rights were read aloud in Portuguese - Lavi understood it - and the lever was pulled. Everyone gave a cheer as there was a loud snap.
Lavi only noticed the Marshal begin to move. His massive arms unfolded, and he lifted himself from the wooden fence he was sitting on. The man spoke, "I'm a killer, brat. That's what we are as Exorcists. My last group of loser dogs didn't understand that, and they died. I don't expect any better of you." The man suddenly clapped his hands together, and the cheering mob of people reacted as the two spiked rings on his shoulders slid down in that fiery light.
"And what we do as killers, brat, is kill. We rend, slaughter, murder, and everything thing else you can think of!" Spanish's similarities to Portuguese allowed people to pick out a select few words from his bellow, and the whole mass turned fearful. The double bladed weapon in his hands didn't help.
Of course, Lavi was torn between sighing, sweat-dropping, and pulling out his own weapon as the hanging 'corpse' suddenly shifted in itself. In moments, a Level One Akuma was there, and just as fast Marshal Winters disposed of it. With the ball-like body sticking from the end of his weapon like some grotesque cotton-candy, the man had one final thing to say, "And if we enjoy or job as killers, if we enjoy the slaughter, well, who's to say that's wrong? Kukukuku!" Lavi could hear the insane grin on the Marshal's face as the Akuma exploded.
People began scattering, but as many began their own shifting as more and more Akuma appeared. Enjoy the killing… of Akuma. Lavi didn't know what to think of that. Although… Allen… Wasn't that how Allen saw it? He enjoyed the freeing of souls? He enjoyed the destruction of the Earl's weapons? Allen enjoyed… the killing?
With one hand on his hammer and the other on his hair, Lavi sighed. That whole concept seemed messed up somehow.
But then, after the many months Lavi was with the man, it had rubbed off. That mad joy, the euphoria. Bookman had warned him that it was dangerous, but Lavi couldn't bring himself to agree. Not anymore. Like his once master, he enjoyed killing. As an Exorcist, he almost lived for it. But not quite. No, other things held priority.
"Nintey-six percent," Hevlaska intoned to those gathered.
But enough of that, Lavi had to protect Chomesuke. "Fire! Heaven! Combination seal: Strong Thunder of the Heavens!" And with that, this newest battle had begun. The monstrous snake tore into the sky, and a mass explosion of Akuma followed. Many more filled in the places of those lost.
Just how Lavi liked it.
"Still alive, brat?"
Lavi groaned, upside down and implanted in the side of a building. I really wish he'd stop calling me that. I'm twenty! He managed to roll forward, and landed on the ground on his feet. All around them were bits and fragments of Akuma. Sokaro was truly frightening while fighting, laughing as he demolished the Akuma that had gathered. For the life of him, Lavi couldn't see why. There was nothing funny.
"Shin!" Lavi took off towards the sky, towards the Akuma. The barrage of Akuma bullets began. Still propelling forward, Lavi retracted the base of his hammer so that it was firmly in his hands, and then swung just as he and the Akuma met.
Torment impaled into the ground, and the Marshal landed on the ground in a heap, breathing hard. Next to him was Lavi, also breathing hard. Multiple Level Fours - what remained of them - lay around them. Winters, without his mask, tilted his blood smeared face back to stare at the sky with his white eyes and a grin. Then, he laughed.
Lavi, exhausted as he knew the Marshal had to be, looked at him in shock for a moment. They had almost died! Then, after a moment - and he really couldn't help it! - he laughed too. There was just something about barely making it out of that that made it so relieving that he had to laugh, as if to prove he was alive.
To prove he was… "Alive!" Lavi shouted with a grin, landing on another Level Two and ramming the base of his hammer through its head. "Shin!" The pole impale the Akuma before it propelled Lavi back into the heart of Akuma yet again.
"Say, brat, what do you think about this?" Sokaro asked, shouldering Torment.
Lavi was equally casual as he eyed the hundreds of Level Threes (sprinkled with a couple of Level Fours) surrounding them. "That you get the hundred and four to the left and I'll get the hundred and five to the right."
"Kukukuku! That's what I thought!" They both leapt into the fray.
It took several passes before Lavi noticed the flashing gold. When he did, however, he tracked the object down and saw Chomesuke also fighting. He remembered that she couldn't help much in Edo because the difference between a Level Two and a Level Three is like the difference… between a Level Two and a Level One.
Lavi grinned as she tore through the Level Ones, crushing them beneath her large fists, and dodged around her fellow Level Twos. After a moment of admiring her, Lavi moved back into the fight himself, this time targeting her rival Level Twos.
"What's that dumbass grin doing on your face, brat?" Sokaro asked mildly as he cleaned Torment off on one of the many Akuma's corpses.
It took Lavi a moment to realize what he was asking, and when he did he wiped the look fast. Swallowing, with only a small bit of anxiety in his stomach, Lavi reluctantly realized something. "I think… I think I'm beginning to enjoy this." Once it was out of his mouth, it became fact.
But it was different than he thought. It wasn't just enjoying killing, as Sokaro described it. No, he enjoyed destroying the Ear's toys. He enjoyed killing Akuma. He enjoyed protecting the people he saw peeking through buildings, the little girl he had barely saved - now covered in Akuma blood. He really was… enjoying this.
The Marshal stared at him for a moment, then nodded once. "Good."
The two, modified Akuma and modified human, were making good work of the opposing army, and it had obviously thinned out. So far as Lavi could tell, the boat they were traveling on was still safe, the crew all on deck watching them. Every time he watched Chomesuke destroy another Level One, he couldn't help but smile. But when she was hit from behind from a Level Two, his eyes widened for a moment before lowering in rage.
Lavi watched, stunned, as several Akuma bullets hit the Marshal when his back was turned. The man cried out, dropping to one knee as the black pentacles began appearing along his body. Any moment now and he should turn to dust. Instead, as any Marshal would, his Innocence flashed a white light and then the graying of his skin receded, although the man did appear tired.
Lavi turned his head to see where that last Level Four had come from, and he saw the Skulls that had masked it with a spell. Well, that meant more toys to destroy.
Chomesuke's reign of destruction ended short as two Level Two's appeared before her, and another wrapped around her from behind. The third one had the body of a snake, and easily kept her limbs bound. The two before readied themselves, one having a variety of guns protruding while the other had a pinkish energy blade. She glared at them.
Fiddler, Wrathra, and Mightra. The injured Marshal glared at them, and Lavi did too. This wasn't a battleground anymore. It was an execution.
Level Three's, Fours, particular Level Twos, and now Noah. Someone was meant to die here, and Lavi knew who. "Earth! Fire! Heaven! Combo seal: H-" Lavi stopped when Marshal Winters gripped his arm. Tightly.
"Get outta here, brat!"
"What have we here?" Lavi asked, sitting on top of the snake-Akuma's head, near eye-level to Chomesuke. His eyes glinted dangerously, and his grin made it even more threatening.
"Lavi! Get out of here, cho!"
"Fuck that!" Lavi shouted. "Direct fire seal!" He slammed his hammer on Wrathra's head, but cursed as the Noah blocked it and threw him back. His body shook from Wrathra's special ability.
Fiddle laughed to himself, and Lavi only glared at the sound. "You should have listened to him, boy." Several more Level Fours appeared as Mightra began using his ability.
As one could have guessed, this had a positive ending. Lavi blocked the first barrage of Akuma bullets with his hammer, then by growing it crushed the two Akuma before destroying the snake-Akuma binding Chomesuke. She caught him before he fell, and together they moved back into the fight.
This did not. Right before Lavi could engage them, a large hand clasped his leg, and a massive force took his feet out from under him. But before Lavi hit the ground, the force continued and he was sent hurling through the air. Lavi barely registered the feel of passing through Allen's Ark's gate before he hit the ground hard and tumbled into the railing at Headquarters, nearly knocking himself out.
Dazed and slowed, Lavi turn and stumbled back towards the gate. Just before he could reach it, a massive blade - Torment - cleaved through the gate and the two halves lost their white light and slammed into the ground heavily. Gate 13 had been destroyed.
Straining to remain standing, the grinning Marshal faced his opponents. He had escaped his death the day that man appeared in his cell with an offer. He told himself he had died that day, and every day after that was not his. He had a purpose, and he fulfilled it. Who could blame him for having fun along the way?
Now, that execution had caught up to him, and it was his time. In his mind, he was already dead, so he had nothing to fear. But, if he had his choice, he would slaughter every - last - one of these… "Loser dooooooogs!"
He lunged forward, Torment drawn.
Fiddler grinned.
Once everything was said and done, Lavi and human-form Chomesuke were back on the boat, shaken crew deathly silent. Miranda had awakened from her nap (actually, the crew had woken her during the attack) and after chiding Lavi for going off so recklessly, gave him and Chomesuke some space again. He was sure there was a reason for that, but he could see why… And why did she keep sending sly smiles his way?
Chomesuke stole glances at Lavi as they continued towards China. He had saved her, then. Twice, actually. She blushed as he again caught her staring, but she smiled when she noticed the pink tingeing his cheeks as well.
The question was why did he care so much. Sure, in the time he had come from she had helped him and his friends out, but that's because she was ordered to. She was just a machine. That's what machines did: they followed orders. It was beginning to bother her. Not his attentions, in truth she was flattered by his drive to protect her, but the puzzle behind the why still itched away at her mind.
Eventually, the boat reached China and the harbor safely, and the crew was quick to dump off their three strange passengers. Miranda, with another sly smile, said that she'd go on ahead, and that they'd meet at Anita's brothel. Lavi, curious by her behavior, gave a little wave and bid her goodbye. Miranda actually giggled as she left.
Shaking his head, Lavi turned to Chomesuke. He suddenly felt a little awkward, and the cuteness of her returning curious look nearly had him stuttering. He had fulfilled his promise now, seen to her safety and prolonged existence, but he was extremely reluctant to see her go. Extremely reluctant.
He'd much rather she stay with him, and together they could go to some retreat and live togeth- He shut that thought down fast, blushing. So maybe Allen was right… Coughing to cover himself, Lavi said, "Well, since you are now free of the Earl, you are free to go make a life of your own if you want." Lavi had originally planned on leaving it like that, purely her decision, but a strange urge suddenly took him. "Chomesuke, I…" he trailed off suddenly as his one eye caught sight of something beyond the girl in front of him.
A thick column of smoke was rising further down the harbor. Quickly glancing around, Lavi assessed the situation almost immediately. By that kind of smoke, and with the location, he assumed a ship had caught fire, and the fires were out. By the lack of panic or uproar among the dockworkers (only a few glancing towards the smoke and shaking their heads) it had happened some time ago. The eerie silence besides the lapping waters told him there were deaths. A more detailed look at the people told him there were a lot of deaths.
Back in soldier mode, Lavi gently grabbed Chomesuke and began moving with her before she could respond. They weren't out of the woods just yet.
Arriving at the sight of the fire, Lavi's breath left him. "No…"
"…Lavi!" a voice shouted from the distance. Lavi whirled in a flash, and he saw Miranda running towards him. "Lavi!" The woman reached him and bent over, panting. She lifted her head to tell him whatever it was that had her so panicked, but then she saw the burnt boat behind him and her already wide eyes went even wider. "Oh no!"
Asking around filled in the gaps, and soon a shaken Lavi, Miranda, and confused Chomesuke were seated at a table in one of the random diners.
"…attacked by strange beasts!"
"I swear he just turned to dust! Dust I tell you!"
"After we put out the fires, all we could find were holes on the deck and… er, dusty clothes, whatever that means."
"Only three survivors. Two of em were my good friends Qie and Maose…"
"Thank god Chaoji survived; poor lad was just a deckhand."
"…whole inn, burned to the ground."
"No survivors found…"
"…strange dust…"
Lavi filled her in. "Chomesuke, that boat we saw… that was the one Miranda and I had taken in the past to reach Edo, the one that was destroyed along with its crew. The only survivors were… Chaoji, Maose, and Qie."
Chomesuke's eyes widened. "That's who the sailors said survived the Akuma attacked this morning, cho!" Then, she tilted her head. "But what about the brothel that Miranda said was also destroyed?"
Lavi's hand clenched the table for a moment before loosening. "That was Anita's brothel… She was the owner of the boat, and she was among those killed in the past."
"So…" Chomesuke started, "everyone who died in your past… died this time… except me?"
Lavi opened his mouth and closed it, unsure of how to respond. He looked towards Miranda, and she seemed just as lost as him. Then, "Yes," the sound seemed choked out of his mouth.
Chomesuke nodded and looked down at the table, drawn into herself. Lavi could easily see the 'am I next?' look about her. "Chomesuke!" he blurted before he could stop himself. When she looked up at him, looking again for some form of comfort, he almost didn't respond. He hadn't meant to say anything. But he wouldn't stop there. With a smile, he said, "I'm sure nothing will happen to you. I promised I would protect you…" He blushed suddenly, and looked away. "Er, if you want me around you. It's your choice. You are free to do as you wish, you know."
Chomesuke smiled at that, and Lavi flinched when something touched his hands. He realized it was her and relaxed. Chomesuke spoke, "Back at the dock, you didn't let me answer you, cho." She smiled, and squeezed his hand. "I want to stay with you, cho."
AN: And that's Lavi's end of things, eh? Not much to say, so... Hope you enjoyed. :D