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Chapter 25: Pain

(Days left: 26)

The red haired exorcist with the eyepatch on his right eye skidded on the grassy carpet as the sun that was peeking on them finally gave up and let his moon to take over the sky. He used to fight his master but it's not like the way it was before. A gradual change in the three exorcists' occured such as the veins that were show off on their necks, arms and on the lower chin. Their innocence glow a dark violet color whenever they use them.

Trying to shake them off their madness, Lavi tried and shouted at them but nothing is happening. It seems like the akuma seed had completely taken over their comrades. Everything was unexpected. How could God forsake the three exorcists. He didn't want to know what's God's reason is. Lavi needed to save them for her. He knew she would be sad when something happens to any of her considered family. It would pain him if that happens to her again like before. Anything that would hurt her would hurt him as well.

(Flashback 5 years ago: Lavi's memory)

Brushing his coat from the snow, Lavi entered a shop to buy something. It was christmas eve already and he didn't want to spend it without bringing a gift for his friends. He kept the old bookman unaware of this because he didn't want to hear his homilies again. He shouldn't get attached with the people around him because all of those people are mere pieces of history he needed to record. Somehow, he hated that bookman rule eventhough he is a bookman.

Picking the gifts which seems to fit his friends, he was only missing one gift for that person or should I say he made that person the last one because that person is somehow special to him. Roaming across the room, the bookman laid his eyes on every possible gift that would be likened by that person. Anything would do because he knew that person would like it anyway. He was having a hard time.

"C'mon, Doug. How did you find a nice gift like that for Colette? Please help me." Lavi whispered as he remembered his friend, a finder, who became an akuma because of wishing for Colette to return. It happened before he and the bookman went to the Rewinding Town.

His eyes was caught by a nice white object on one of the shelves. He grinned and took the object out to pay for it along with the other he chosen earlier. He couldn't wait to get back to the order and see their faces specially the smile of that person.

(At the Order)

He walked while smiling sheepishly at everyone who meets him along the way. Carrying his gifts, he placed it under the tree and named every single one with his friends' names. He never indicated that it was from him to be safe. Then, he walked away from that tree while keeping one last present in one of his pockets. He blushed while doing that. He was somehow overjoyed and walked carelessly along the corridor.

"Exorcists! Please proceed to the hall on the 3rd floor! We have a situation down there!"

He sighed and run to the stairs. Of all the seasons, why does it bother him. He hoped nothing was wrong. Christmas is only a few hours away. Panting, he was the first exorcist to reach the room. There were staffs there and some finders as well. They were all wearing their blank faces as they all look at the ceiling. Noticing their faces, he gazed up and he felt pain on what he saw.

Blood was flowing down like raindrops from the ceiling as he eyed that person's right shoulder being pierced by demonic claws. The golden eyes of the boy with the claws eyed him with pleasure as his white clown belt were used for support. Then he remembered what the missing general said to the boy with the white hair while he was recording the event a couple of months ago.

"What if I tell you that you will kill the one you love when you become the Fourteenth?"

That is what he recorded. Lavi was a spectator at that time along with the bookman. Now he understood General Cross told Allen. It hurts him as well. Having enough of the view, he activated his innocence and charged at his friend. The boy wasn't Allen at that time. He was possessed by the Noah within.

Leaping, Lavi gave the boy a powerful swing from his hammer that send him flying sideward causing Lenalee to fall to the ground. The bookman anticipated that and went on to the rescue before she crashes. In the nick of time, he saved her. The white haired exorcist crashed on the other wall because of the powerful swing. It seems like he knocked him out somehow.

"Lenalee! Lenalee!" Lavi shouted as she rested on him. She began to open her eyes and tears fell like the blood that she sprinkled on the floor.

"A. Al. Allen-kun." She said not realizing that it was Lavi. "Lavi?"

"What happened Lenalee? Are you alright?!"

"Where is Allen-kun? He needs me, Lavi!" She said looking like she's dozing off.

"Answer me Lenalee!"

She somehow ignored his words and went up while holding her wounded shoulder. In her eyes, she needed to go to the white haired boy. Lavi shouted that it's to dangerous to go near Allen but she ignored it. She went to Allen's direction and wrapped the unconscious boy under her skin. When someone was approaching them to help, she would shout telling them to leave Allen alone. Then, their innocence glowed like they were talking to each other. Lenalee's wounded shoulder began to stop bleeding and somehow it was like being healed.

Lavi eyed at them with pain in his eyes. He recorded the incidence and felt sad about it. He knew he was not to intervened with the two. He didn't have the right. Finally, Lenalee was out cold while still embracing the white haired exorcists. The medical staff came rushing in to help the two. Surprised, they weren't injured at all but still took them both to the infirmary.

Lavi went outside to breathe some fresh air. He walked towards the cliff and said his greetings to the yellowish moon in the sky. Sighing, he took out the gift that he chosen for Lenalee. Tears began to fall from his eyes as he tossed the small white box the sea.

"I won't be needing that anymore."

(end of flashback)

Miranda used her time record to heal them for a while. She didn't want to use her time rings against any of the three exorcists. Hana used her shadow curtain to cover her master who was spacing out. Then she gave Lavi a kick to get him back to earth.

"Don't space out usagi-shishou!" She said as she reforms her shadow claws into a larger lenght while veiling Miranda. She uses her innocence efficiently like another part of her body or should I say shadow. Her innocence was like the one of Agatha but the only difference is the book remained its form while attached to her back like a body bag.

"I get it! It's just that I don't know how to deal with them." Lavi shouted as he commanded his mallet to grow more. Swinging it around, he didn't even manage to land a clean hit on the Bookman eventhough the bookman's eyes remain shut all the way as well as Chaoji.

"Don't attach yourself too much with the one's you are with." Hana uttered as she restrained Marie and Chaoji by binding her shadow with theirs. "That's what you told me in the future."

Lavi's eyes widened. Indeed, she was somehow right. That's what the old Bookman told him as well. He may have told her same thing, the horrible fact of being a bookman, the disattachment from the world. He felt it somehow that she was also doubting what she just said. Her eyes were somewhat not that clear.

"I am doubting that as well." She added as she charges on Chaoji evading his punches and landing a swift slash on the Chinese's chest ripping his exorcist uniform. "I thought that being a bookman would be so nice, recording history, being in different place and meeting nice people but I guess I'm a little wrong about it."

Warding off the old bookman's pin missles, Lavi invoked and summoned a fiery serpent to charge the three exorcists. The snake somehow made them fall back. Its glow was like a torch in the dark night.

"To be a good Bookman, one shouldn't have a heart, an emotion or sympathy to the people which we refer as little fragments of history." The girl said as she covers herself with her shadow cloak again just like when she arrived and halted Lavi and Kanda's demise. The only part of her face being revealed was her mouth and chin and a little portion of her neck. "Being a bookman for me is like being a shadow. It's kinda ironic because my innocence is a book and I call myself an aspiring bookman."

She chuckled as she prepares to unleash what so ever that was under her sleeve. Among the four exorcists that came back to the past, she had the greatest burden which was hinted by her cold green eyes. Then she invoked and commanded her innocence while being covered.

"Shadow Shackles!"

A vine of shadows began to act restraining the legs, arms and bodies of the three silent exorcist in front of them. Marie tried to cut himself loose but he was restrained that he can hardly move. The horrible figure of the three before is being double by the pain they felt from her power. It was to late to escape now.

"Great Hana-san! How can we return them back to the way they are before?" Lavi asked as he went near the shadow lady.

"Please help them Hana-chan!" Miranda added while panting because of using her innocence. All she did was watching and restoring the injuries of Lavi mostly.

"What will we do Hana-san?" Lavi asked again looking more desperate while waiting for her reply. She thrown a new question back. She was trying to avoid their question somehow.

"Bookmans have no hearts right? They didn't need emotions for their work so please tell me usagi-shishou." Hana asked as she forms a saber like blade that was floating in the air. "What is this thing that is beating inside of me? Did I fail on becoming a bookman?"

The red haired bookman was shocked on what she said while she was nervously grasping the shadow saber. He smiled sheepishly as he placed his hand over her head caressing her hair. He wanted to answer her with the best that he has.

"Because bookmans are still human beings and all human beings have hearts."

"Just like what you said in the future." She smirked. "I'm happy that you gave me the same answer usagi-shishou."

Their short chat halted as the three exorcists began to shout in pain. Their face began to crack like ice being broken down to pieces. The girl bookman expected it to happened. It must be their time to be consumed by the akuma seed. She just couldn't tell her two companion earlier because she knew the pain they will bear once they learned it. It's war and their enemy just invented as very painful arsenal against them.

"It's starting." She commented as she removed her restrictions as well as her shadow cloak. Her gloomy eyes resurfaced greeting the eyes of her two companions hinting them about was is about to happen.

"What the hell are you talking about?!" The red haired bookman shouted as he seems like he is restraining his tears that were about to fall down. Due to his shouting, Hana turned away avoiding his eyes and making Miranda cry and falling on her knees.

"The weapons will be unleashed." Hana said as she measures the two who might react against what she said. "The akuma seeds need hosts that possess innocence to fulfill their functions. Akumas are weapons and so as Akuma seeds."

Smoke devoured the three tainted exorcist hiding their awful distorted transformations from them. Their eyes began to weep blood and were begging for salvation. It was the opposite of being a fallen one. It was much painful eventhough being a fallen one is painful enough. Hana knew that the souls that were bounded by akuma seed can never be save even by the aid of innocence. Their souls will suffer in Mu, nothingness.

"We can still save them right?" Miranda's eyes were hinting that she wanted a yes for an answer. She couldn't bear if something bad would happen to any of them.

The girl bookman didn't reply to their questions. She knew that it is already too late for their souls will become the power of the akumas that will be born. Somehow, she recorded events like these in the future but it happened too early. She thought that their arrival here was the cause of these speeding up events.

As the smoke resides, horrors are unleashed. The akuma seeds' functions have been fulfilled. The faces of the tainted exorcists gaze up at the night sky looking like they are seeing the God that had forsaken them. The anguish in their faces were evident along with distorted limbs. It was much horrible than being a third exorcist. Making a creepy howling sound, their eyes turned black while they bled.

Lavi and his companions could not take the sight of their fallen comrades. Tears began to fall as they hear their cries beggin for help. It was over for them. The Earl made beautiful akumas in the skins of his enemies. He would loved to see this tragic event and feed on their disappointed looks.

No words were coming out from them. They just simply stood there gazing at the night sky. Then, it began. The tainted Chaoji began to speed up and strikes at the three exorcists who were almost off their guards. He created another huge crater along with the ones he created along earlier. The tainted bookman and the tainted Marie began their assaults once again but this time there is a lot power in their attacks.

Lavi was lost in words for he couldn't believe that his comrades became tainted ones and are all out against him. He dodge every possible attacks that they brought out but somehow his new enemies are hitting him. A powerful punch was delivered by Chaoji to Lavi's belly sending him backward. The red haired bookman began to vomit and was feeling dizzy because of the insane punch he received.

Hana, on the other hand, carried Miranda using her shadow like innocence near where Lavi is and began to switching on defensive. She used her shadow curtain to block powerful attacks from the outside. Sweating, she held the pain of guarding while defending the two exorcist with her. Then, she sat closely at her master with an insulting look on her eyes.

"Honto ni anata ga baka ne?" Hana said to Lavi in nihonggo meaning you're really a fool. "That must have hurt a lot."

"Yeah right." Lavi grunted while slowly being healed by Time Record. "I never thought that Chaoji could punch the hell out of me. I sparred with him alot and receive alot of punches but not like this one."

"He isn't Chaoji anymore."

"What the fuck do you mean?" Lavi shouted in denial.

"Those things outside are akumas now. It can't be help. This is war." Hana paused for Lavi raised his hands against her like she was about to get hit. She ignored it and his trembling eyes. "Do it."

Lavi hesitated.

"If it's the only way to get rid of your pain then do it." Hana said looking directly in his eyes. "If it's the only way to help."

He stood up and placed his hand over her head. She stood up as well and now she can see the determination in his eyes.

"If we kill them their souls will be saved right?" Lavi asked.

"Ye-yes." She lied.

"Then let's do this." Lavi said as he prepares to head out. Before he goes fighting against their former comrades, he smiled saying:

"You're really a great bookman, Hana-chan."

She smiled while whispering. "I still have one question that I am hesitant to ask you, usagi-shishou."

The night will be long for the three of them.

xXx

Komui sat on his chair waiting for the exorcists arrival. He was dead worried about the situation and all he could do is wait. He has to be firm at times like this for this war needs strong leaders. Sighing up and down, he rolled his eyes all over the places and his mind was no longer intact with his body. His thoughts were coming every now and then until a knock on the door alerted his senses.

"Come in." He said trying to bind with his body again. The worried face of Reever meet Komui's eyes as he entered the office. Standing up, he fired two questions at the Australian. "What is it, Reever? Did any of them return?"

"No supervisor." Reever replied back. "I came here to assist him here."

The man entered the door and greeted Komui's frowning face with disgust on his eyes. Momentarily, he stood near the supervisor and reach for his hand. Komui hesitantly shook it. He didn't expect to see him for what happened 5 years ago. He couldn't forget what the man infront of him has done in the past.

"Supervisor." The man said grinning and hinting the Chinese's eyes that he has returned.

"And who the hell is that guy popping out of no where." Gray Note said after yawning and finishing the chapter. "Sheez. I wish Tyki and Cyril would show up. I wonder where they have been. Oh well, I'm off to work."

(Note: Sorry for the super late update. I'm currently working now so I'm a bit busy. Please review. I'd like to hear your comments.) (xXx = change of scene)