Allen covered his eyes as he exited the steam-ship the RMS Excalibur. He had been sleeping for the entire trip back on the ship, which was thankfully on a trip from the German port of Hamburg. The mission had been a long and trying one, with Lenalee guessing that they were several days behind the others. With both of his compatriots in tow, Allen led the way up to the Headquarters building in a sort of daze. The world never seemed as beautiful as it did now with every single dew-laden grass blade reflecting the sun's rays. The morning humid-air simply reminded Allen of where he was now: on a rolling British hill, steadily climbing up the forested path with his friends as they were half-asleep. He kept point and continued to secretly gaze back at them to keep them from falling back into slumber upon the path. The British boy noticed that every time he turned to check on the two behind him, his eyes always turned towards Lenalee. With every turn back, the image of her practically waltzing back and forth with her eyelids fluttering with the sensual rhythm of a butterfly's wings and her smooth skin glowing with the authenticity of a perfected marble sculpture simply implanted itself more and more within the corner of his mind. The visualized and highly confusing picture would not leave him alone, no matter how he tried to examine the meaning behind it. The path to the Headquarters' is beautiful in the sun's light, yet only the image of Lenalee remains primary? Just keep walking, Allen, and you'll be home soon.
Barely a minute after this repetitively returning quandary absolved itself temporarily once more, the group found itself upon the steps of their destination. The structure was imposing in height and width, especially due to the fact that it was wrapped in full ambiance by Gothic architecture. Allen barely paid attention to it as he readied Timcanpy to be placed inside of a slot near the doorway. This sort of mechanism worked like a turn-and-lock key, with the golem's being the key. The golems, unbeknownst to the world and even to many of the Order itself, are crafted specifically to fit individually based on the designs in the locks. Timcanpy was overlooked in the original design of this system, and it stalled the construction of the new Headquarters as a whole to accommodate Allen. With that said, Timcanpy was sucked clearly into an unknown socket connected to the outside by a secreted compartment to insert the golems for barely ten seconds. Humongous locks were heard unhinging by a domino effect and promptly opened the door to their gargantuan home.
The church's atrium was designed with open-balconies, leading to many Order personnel traveling through the building with a view of the various other floors connected with the atrium. Lenalee and Yoshimata had significantly woken up enough to notice their fellows walking about to do their various work. Reever Wenham was on the ground-floor and was the first besides the ceremonial guardsmen to notice the colossal doors had opened. When he saw who had entered, he quickly finished up a business-only conversation with another scientist and hurried over to greet the returning Exorcists. "Welcome back, Allen, Lenalee and Yoshimata." He gave a wily grin, "You certainly did take your sweet time coming back from halfway across Europe." The group returned the smiles and the greeting, while he had noticed that Yoshimata was carrying a few packages in his hands.
Being asked what they were for, the Japanese boy cleared his throat and replied, "One is what was thought to be the Innocence. The others, however, are just gifts for everyone else." He extended his hand and delivered the package that was carried all the way across the seas and lands between Saint Petersburg and the British Isles.
The piece of shoddy paper, obviously a parcel of the natural world and not as refined as the materials the Order works with, felt very weighted in Reever's hand. It was obviously not an Innocence, since the casing used to transport those were too large to fit in an envelope of this size. I wonder what it could be? Regardless, he gave a nod of thanks, "I'm sure that the scientists will be enthralled with this. We eat these kinds of scientific oddities like candy," and promptly turned to a serious tone. "So, the report of an Innocence was a false alarm?"
Allen nodded in confirmation, being a little too exhausted to give a simple 'yes'. "We were ambushed in the Kazan Cathedral, where it was located." He was reporting this directly to Wenham because Lenalee told him on the trip back that Komui would most likely be absent in the Headquarters due to some kind of secret meeting of the Black Order Directors in Italy. Since Reever was far more lax in his reporting requirements, Exorcists could practically just waltz right in and give a straight-forward report if there was little to no trouble at all. "Yoshimata protected our lawful escort of a local constable, then retrieved the Innocence while Lenalee and I distracted them." A sort of embarrassing grin took hold of the British boy as he rubbed the back of his head, "Unfortunately, the Cathedral itself was damaged during the fighting." Allen could see Reever frown in the corner of his mouth, subtly trying to hide his disappointment in the news.
The Australian breathed in deeply, and gave a stout response. "Don't worry about it, Allen and Lenalee; it was all in the line-of-duty, so I'm sure we'll be able to work a deal out with the Russian government to handle the damages." In reality, that's easier said than done. The fact that Roman Catholic-centered Exorcists had been in an Orthodox cathedral was bad enough, but to have actually fought inside it? Reever was praying desperately that the secrecy of the Order would not be infringed upon by the current Tsar, whose family line has been infamous to the Popes for those very efforts with records going all the way back to the very first Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich of the Rurik Dynasty, whom established his rule in 1547. The man was, although a mental-lunatic and depressed for most of his reign, a cunning and perceiving ruler on his best moments and was able to figure out the patterns of the 'Christian missionaries' that always seemed to follow violence, terror and slaughter. The Tsar nearly revealed their entire operations and subverted the authority of the Holy See altogether to a virtually powerless enigma if it had not been for the skillful politics of the Leverier family. To this day, although the man was a pain in the arse and a spoiled brat on the inside, Reever had to admit he owed the existence of his job to his family's efforts. Other than that, Reever had bigger issues to attend to than think about foreign history. He gave a nod of approving dismissal to the three Exorcists and walked off to attend to some paperwork.
Allen and the group were walking along through the atrium proper, greeting their fellows as they want. However, Allen then noticed prompt movements at the corner of his eye, and then turned to see Yoshimata checking a pocket-watch. Confused, he asked "What's the matter?"
In short motions of exasperation and anticipation, the Japanese put the pocket-watch away and straightened himself and mouthed a count-down. "Three, two…" He closed his eyes as his lips enunciated the last word. Right on time, too, for he was joyfully tackled by Sami Hana with enough force to throw him directly off his feet. The wind was knocked out of him as he was hugged with such friendly force, so he could not beg for her to calm down and explain her Parisian adventure slowly.
From where she came followed Dairu and Joseph, the former of whom was laughing cheerfully while the latter was monotonously looking upon the confusing acts of greeting. "Nice to see you're back, Yoshi. We arrived just two days ago, while Sami returned just a day before that." There were numerous small bandages around their faces that patched up cuts, bruises, and so on upon the Italian and Turk's faces. Both of them came back with makeshift bandages, as well as helping carry Krory into the Medical Section of the Headquarters to check him in. Sami, on the other hand, was perfectly fine as far as anyone could tell. In fact, Johnny foretold that Lavi was carrying several packages in his arms as his partner led him on to her room. Yoshimata's haul was not nearly as large, and that brought a dividing point to each other's missions. Obviously, there was joyous spirits about at the moment for all: every one of the new Exorcists survived, and returned with combat experience. Dairu could attest to that.
Finally removing the Undisputed Champion of Tackling from his person, Yoshimata looked up to Dairu with a look of query. "Has Yoko arrived yet?" As he said that, he shuffled the package he was carrying from one arm to another. The shake of his friend's head gave him his answer, so he raised himself and Sami to their feet. However, a peculiar smell caught his and soon enough everyone else's nose. It was… sweet?
From the door came the remaining two Exorcists. Firstly was Yoko who looked back outside the still-opened gate-doors with both laughter-filled giddiness and concern. She turned back and stood away from the door as it seemed the smell was growing closer and closer. Then, behind her came a lumbering form of chocolate. It was humanoid in shape, but monstrous in demeanor: its face was laced with enough femininity to suggest beauty, yet enough masculine malice to note the being's true gender, and it walked with solid and evenly organized steps with broad reaches to try and hurry into the building with as little interaction as possible.
Lavi, taken aghast by the sugary humanoid, gave a whispered suggestion as to who it could be: "A giant chocolate rabbit?" Alas, it was not the correct answer.
It, instead, was the one image to turn everyone to unhesitant guffaws and high-spirits was the very physical interpretation of comedy: Yu Kanda, covered from head-to-toe, including his previously black-and-red uniform, completely with chocolate. His skin and hair shone from the substance that was the same coating from every inch of his body. He strode quickly through the atrium with what probably was a blush under the chocolate he was covered in. Allen was definitely the first one to laugh hysterically at the reveal, while there was no particular order with everyone else. Even Lenalee and Yoko, the more official at the most serious of times of the group, gave off a giggle and chuckle respectively. In a dramatic turn, Kanda growled in challenge, "What're you all laughing at?" What an absent-minded question to ask.
Yoshimata could not answer, for he was looking the other way as he normally did, covering his mouth from laughing out loud. Sami was giggling openly with joy in her heart, Lenalee and Yoko doing as mentioned before, Dairu bursting with guffaws on the ground. That left only Allen to try and suppress his Limey-chuckles and give a straight answer. "You're covered in chocolate, that's what!" His eyebrow raised in humoured skepticism, he asked, "How in the world did that happen?"
Yoko began to calm herself to tell the tale, but Kanda managed to beat her to the punch. "I fell into a vat of this shit, and by the time I got out it was already solid beyond the point of being washed off by water. So, we went all around Brussels and tried to look for an answer before returning." If Kanda's teeth could grit any more, they would and shatter into a billion pieces of pearly-white pieces. "We did not find anything that could help me, so we decided to just come back and let the scientists do what they can." Suddenly, the young man perked in surprise and turned around with complete shock. There, he saw Sami and Joseph both biting down on pieces of his chocolate-covered hair and sucking on them like candy-canes. Lightning could've cracked the sky then and there and still not be nearly as fast as Kanda's hand when it snatched the hilt of Mugen to threaten both of the leeches of his chocolate-hair away. Intelligently, both complied. He turned from the dying-down laughter and festiveness and stormed off with his intimidating glare to stare down some scientists to get what he wanted.
Dairu's accent slipped into a thick Prusso-German quasi-Turkish one from his tamed, trying monotonous one that attempted to be as neutral as possible. "Oh, that was wunderbar. Truly a wonderful thing to behold, ja?" His left sleeve wiped away the tears that began to swell over in the uproar. Dairu was the last one to regain his strength to stand up, giving him the opportunity to see his friend, Yoshimata, conversing with Lenalee in private. The Japanese boy gave her a crudely wrapped package and an unhearable question-for-directions, which she answered with a smiled point towards the center of the Headquarters. This information came in handy for, over an hour later, Allen Walker had eventually come to him and asked where that very person was at the moment. Answering that question was easy.
With slight caution in his step, Allen entered the darkened halls of the Inner Church. Dairu had told him that Lenalee pointed him this way about an hour before or so, so he was bound to be around here somewhere. There was no immediate reasoning behind his search; it was just that his mind trailed back to the beginning of the mission, when he and Lenalee were whispering their indirect wonders of their compatriot's personal history. Those questions were never asked, thus never answered. It would've been sort of rude to give him a full-on interview right when it was his first mission for the Order ever. Now, however, was a more appropriate time. The tiles on the floor soon turned to smooth cobble-stones as the authenticity of the church was ramped up to the Nth-degree as he strode closer and closer to the chapel. He pushed the mahogany doors he reached with minimal effort, seeing as they were already more than a crack-way open, and saw that the entirety of the Holy Room was being kept at minimal artificial lightning. Small candles still lit the altar at the head of the room, while the main source of illumination came from the sun's rays that refracted through the stained glass images of Jesus Christ and his Apostles.
Within this scarce lighting was Yoshimata sitting attentively in one of the ten pews on the left side of the chapel. Allen approached with caution to not stir him, especially after seeing from about five metres away that he was holding a Bible, of all things! It was only after a minute of peeking over the shoulder that both Exorcists met eye-to-eye at last. An uncomfortable silence blanketed the line of fire between the Briton's gray eyes and the Japanese's blue, until the veteran amongst the two finally cracked a smile to lighten the mood. "I see you're reading a King James Bible, there. May I inquire why?"
To Allen's relief, his comrade gave him a genuine smile back despite the silence and the question. Or, was it because of them? "But, indeed it is. Pristine and directly fresh-from-the-shelf. This chapel's minister allowed me to take it out for me to read when I asked." He patted a spot right next to where he was situated on the pew as an offering. Allen accepted. When they were finally sitting at equal levels for once, side-by-side, Yoshimata answered the second part of his inquiry. "And I am reading it because it's, actually…" He seemed embarrassed to speak, a slight blush coming over his face in humoured fault, "The only English book I have ever read."
This took the Briton by surprise. "Well, that can't be true; I've seen you reading other books all the time!"
"Those books were written in Russian, Korean, or" The Japanese boy seemed to practically swallow his entire mouth in hesitation to continue. "Rarely, in Japanese." He looked up and down Allen as if he would find some sort of riddle of clue visible upon his person. It was sort of subtle in the morning-light that struggled through the stained glass, but it was evident all the same. "In my travels across Asia, I must have stumbled across into the United Kingdom's territories without my understanding. I checked into schools, day after day and eventually came to terms with the English lessons either by children's books or the Bible itself. However, the children's books were all in rags with errors as far as the eye could read in Japanese. They looked as if they had seen a climactic battle after a thunderous war, and were only scribbled down by a half-wit in the midst of a cataclysmic destruction." His smile had long since faded away. The blue eyes now looked downward at the back of the pew in front of them, almost as if he were confessing to sin. He looked up again with a half-done smile, "This type of Bible was the one thing that was maintained to perfection and kept in stock every place I went. I may not agree with its Christian ideology, but it would be ridiculous to not give it credit where credit is due."
Allen was speechless at first to respond. He had not expected such an eloquent response from him when he had entered the chapel. This caused a quick reprimand to himself, feeling ashamed to lower his expectations so quickly. What felt like a minute passing by did so before Allen could respond, "Well, I'm glad that you put the Text to good use." He placed his left hand on his shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about disagreeing on religion here. We're all in this together to fight the Earl, and he doesn't discern at all between which faiths you are."
The moment brought both of them a friendly warmth within their hearts. Thus, they silently agreed to let the moment drag on further as they settled in to continue on to read the book together. It was not to be, however, as Lavi soon entered in his own non-discreet way. "Hey, Allen! Are you in here?" His voice echoed like annoying thunder personified in the vocal callings of a redheaded Italian. How obnoxious. "We've got lunch in the dining hall!" And as quickly he entered, Lavi left with an accommodating clanging of heavy doors.
Now that, Allen and Yoshimata had to admit, was a conversation-killer. An assassin's blade with a smiling face on the hilt to the back of a solaced selection to a forming friendship is all that it can be described as, in the brightest terms. So, the British of the two shrugged away the Bookman trainee's rudeness and brought himself to his feet. "You had heard him, correct?" A teasing grin came forth. "Let's go get something to eat." The grin was transferred and replicated by Yoshimata, whom couldn't agree more. After all, what is there to eat on German trains or British passenger ships?
In short terms, the dining hall was absolutely astounding to be in. It may be a simplistic sort of room, but it was a hub of interactions for the Order's members. There was always something of conversation on the lips of the occupants, whether it be about science, religion, business, past lives before their current services, or even blackly humourous parables about death and life. The Exorcists never had a solid environmental strategy for sitting, despite what some may think about the entailment of the young, select few. Yu Kanda usually ate by himself, or was begrudgingly joined by his long-time squad-member Noise Marie, a dark-skinned man that was perhaps the oldest of all the non-General Exorcists, save definitely the Bookman. All the other Exorcists, before the arrival of the newer ones, simply ate in their own little circles around the room, usually having Allen eating with Lavi or Lenalee, Lavi eating with either the formers or the Bookman, Miranda by herself, Krory by himself or constantly hawked by Lavi, and so forth. However, now, practically every Exorcist on hand was united at one table. It was a remarkable sight, seeing children of different nations wearing the same sacred black uniforms, conversing like old chums over their food. In a way, it was a reflection of the Last Supper that many of them have come to know. The only problem was that there was no person to fill in the seat for Jesus Christ before Allen came into the picture. Yoshimata sat himself between Dairu and Yoko on one side of the table, and Allen sat between Lenalee and Lavi on the other side.
Yoko gave a small smirk to Sami as she described her extended off-time on the mission to Paris. Her friend's shopping for various trinkets in the stores rotating in place around the Eiffel Tower was definitely a fun story to listen to, especially considering that she forced, or coaxed, Lavi to carry the packages the whole way. What a fool. He's either a gentleman, or simply a trickster willing to go through anything to get close to her. She cracked a new, sort of brooding smile as she contemplated how excruciating a punishment it would be for a person laced with malcontent to try and fool her. Sami may be soft on the outside, cheerful and fluffy in demeanor, she actually revealed a comically evil side of her own when she was able to catch on to a ruse. Sadistic, ruthless and unforgiving.
Lavi reached across the table to pass her a piece of Streuselkuchen, the crumbs falling from the cake onto the table as it passed on. His wily smile was an enigmatic glossary of joking sensation and charisma as he said, "Try some of this, Sami; I'm sure you'll like it!" As the plate was in Sami's extended hand, he gave her a secret little wink. "I had Jerry make it special." Surprised by the sudden advance, all Sami could do was return a giggling and red-faced thanks to her own new-found friend.
From across the table, Noise Marie seemed to be eating his scrambled eggs in peace. The subtle movements of his hands to scratch his head disguised what could be described as 'snooping': he was readjusting his headphones to hone in his hearing on the ongoing conversations. He compiled a mental list of the names he heard, blinking his sightless eyes to the conversation's beginnings and ends in the voluptuous sea of the cafeteria's chats. Noise had never bothered anyone without reason before, so right now no one paid his movements or silence any mind out of the ordinary. He passively regretted doing this frankly confusing task in the back of his mind, but he had no choice in the matter; Kanda asked him to do this as a one-time favour, and since his close comrade had asked this of him, he had to do it no matter how confusing it was.
So, once he achieved his ulterior goal, he calmly stood up from the table and promptly put away his silverware. He knew where Kanda was during breakfast, and probably still was as Noise trailed his way through the halls. It took him several minutes of now-casually careful walking he has mastered after years of blindness, but he finally reached the Science Department. There, he heard a small and nervous jittering that was the sort of assigned-stereotypical sound of one of the younger scientists. Despite just entering the Department's main office and being welcomed to newer sounds of bickering, various work like page-turning and writing, the whimpering and fidgeting could have come from only one familiar source. "Hello, Johnny. Is Kanda still here?"
With a gasp of relief, Johnny grabbed Noise by the arm and tugged on him in a hurried motion. "Thank God you're here, Noise! You must come quickly!" The question sank in to his panic. "Oh, yes, he's here alright; that's why I need you to come with me. He has been refusing to allow us to take a routine before-and-after photograph to examine the effects of the chemicals on the chocolate he's covered in." Johnny's voice began to crack with fear as he continued, the pitch hurrying itself by several decibels, He's gone so far as to threaten to beat anyone who gets near him until you arrive, because apparently you have something to tell him."
What a self-contained sigh the Austrian gave. With a solemn shake of his head in exasperation, Noise had Johnny lead him all the way to the room where several scientists were standing against one of the brown-wooden walls, their hands propping them up, while Kanda glared from a metallic-paneled shower rig that contained him sitting on a chair. His eyes were like daggers, patiently waiting to slash and stab any who dared to get close. What a bother. "Please settle down, Kanda, I'm here now."
That seemed to placate the Chocolaty Exorcist, whose expression softened as he finally complied with the scientists' requests. He took off his sword's holding sash and tossed the now-blunt but still threatening implement over to a paled-faced Croatian-born chemist, whom placed it down on a table within the room next to a large amount of different chemical subsidies. Kanda took off the rest of his clothes, unbuttoning both his jacket and removing his pants. Meanwhile, he looked up apprehensively to Noise as he pulled his arms out of the sleeves and gave him a less boisterous and seemingly long-desired question, "What did you learn about those three I asked you to spy on?" His eyes looked up for a second with caution and perhaps embarrassment.
Noise answered despite how rude and threatening Kanda was to the scientists, holding them up just for this mediocre task to be carried out. T'is what friends are for. "Yoshimata Hakitawa is the only Japanese one of the group. Yoko Kyoukan, apparently, has absolutely no Japanese link besides her name." He gave a light-hearted shrug, continuing with a suggestion. "You do know that you would be able to get further information by talking to them directly, correct?"
To that insertion, Kanda returned with a grunt as his chocolaty-fudge pants fell to the floor and revealed his equally covered legs and briefs.
Still stubborn as a horse. "Well, Sami Hana is also not of Japanese descent. She is, instead, of Kinh-Dai Namese birth and French upraising, but seems to be taught the language by Yoshimata out of bilingual interests."
Looking up from the cringing scientist who was taking away the clothes to where Mugen was laying, the Exorcist muttered "Are you absolutely sure?" He was completely nude, bar his Order-issued, contemporary-shortened braeis. Still, the chocolate was coated all over his compact and structured muscles that were reserved due to the fact that he was just the age of eighteen, not yet physically adapted to the full confines of adulthood to have a more expansive or outrageous physique. The chocolate did not add any build but, rather, seemed to be like a dye that perfectly acted the role of the skin, whereas it detailed and outlined Kanda's body perfectly so that it was now a perfectly modeled, breathing and snorting chocolate Kanda. What a treat.
Again, Noise gave his answer. "You told me to listen in on their conversations and return to you as soon as possible. They were not, unfortunately, talking about their personal histories as you may have thought they would have. I was, however, fortunate to catch little snippets that I could retrieve." A sigh of contempt. "Why do you want to know about their Japanese ancestry so much, Kanda? You have not been the same since we came back from Edo, when we rescued Walker and the others from the Ark."
To this, the Japanese Exorcist turned his bare back upon Noise and silently made his way into the tank's knee-high entrance. His expression was contemplative, almost distracted upon something else. There was a metallic-echoed set of splashes that followed, and just before closing the door, Kanda turned around and looked his friend straight in the eye. "I have my reasons." And the door was shut with a loud slam, and thus the scientists went to work.