I am sooo sorry for the chapter delay! I've been busy! Classes are almost out and then I'll be updating more frequently.

Kisho: Don't listen to her, she's had plenty of time to be a chicken in that new game she bought….The Calling, wasn't it?

Me: Oh yes. I changed it to Japanese audio which is cool. But it's a scary game. When I'm scared I stay in one place and don't move. Doesn't make much progress in a game. Scary movies are okay because they move along on their own.

Kisho: See? Chicken. Well suck it up and find a way to help the ghosts.

Me: Right. I just need to find new flashlight batteries so I can properly see the vengeful spirits coming to get me. I don't own D. Gray Man, its characters, or themes, or outfits or Innocence. I just own my two original characters. Thanks for being patient. I hope you will enjoy the chapter! If not then I will give you your money back. ;)

Chapter 32 - Midway

"I understand," Kisho said steadily, then looked concerned about something. Bak stepped closer to him and gave him a concerned look.

"And if there's anything you want to know, just ask me. Alright?" Kisho looked up and looked like he was biting his tongue. "Whatever it is, go ahead."

"Okay. I want to know if the cook has a goldfish for a pet." Silence reigned through the room for several long moments as everyone stared at him. Great diversion tactic, genius…. "I'm serious. Does he?"

"What is the matter with you? Why do you want to know that?" Fo demanded, hands on her hips. "Bak didn't mean ask stupid questions! He's a busy guy!"

"It doesn't matter, Fo," Bak said, then turned back to Kisho. "He doesn't have a pet fish, at least not that I know of. Why?" The fourteen-year-old pointed at the reading table.

"When I was getting food he gave me a goldfish….I might have said the wrong word." Fo snorted, as if to say, You think? "I can't remember now." Sometimes Kisho said strange things in English since he was still clumsy with it. Kisho pointed at the table, where the goldfish was in the cup of water. "He's in there."

"The cook?" Likei asked, grinning, and everyone laughed.

"No," Kisho said after laughing, "I tried to give it back to him but he didn't hear me." Fo laughed and held up her arms.

"You're strange, but not the strangest person I've met," she said, still chuckling, and at this she looked at Bak who sighed. "By the way, what are you going to name your new fish?" She asked mischievously, then yawned. "I think it's safe to say you can keep him. I don't know where the cook found a goldfish, though. I'm going to turn in for tonight. And you look like you should too kid. One more thing: keep your germs away from me." Fo left, and Kisho half-smiled; he'd been feeling sick right when he got to The Asia Branch, but was feeling better now, though bet he was still contagious.

"I'm going to turn in, too," Allen yawned, but walked back to the reading table to pick up a piece of paper. Sliding it inside the pocket of his pants, he turned and waved at everyone, then walked out of the library. Lo Hua blushed and smiled.

"Good night," she said and Allen turned to smile at her, which made her blush more and look at her feet. Kisho picked the book up from the table and returned it to the shelf, but Bak got a glimpse of the sketch on the page and put a hand to his face in thought, suddenly looking serious.

"You were reading that?" He asked, and Kisho turned and gave a half shrug.

"Well….I took it but I can't really read it. I was just a little bored and thought it looked interesting," he answered, and Bak gave an understanding nod.

"I see. Well, have a good rest. I think that you'll be able to go back to the Main Branch early next week, depending on how you're both recovering. And don't overdo it, or else you'll get worse, and you'll have to wait here until you're completely better."

"Alright," Kisho replied, hoping he wouldn't get back to the Main Branch too late. "Well, goodnight, everyone."

"Night," Likei and Shifu responded as he left. Lo Hua waved as he exited the library and then looked back at the table where Kisho had been reading.

"Wait!" She cried, running to the table and taking the cup of water with the goldfish in it, and Kisho turned towards her and held his hands out. "You forgot your goldfish," she said, smiling at the swimming fish, but glaring at Likei and Shifu when they snickered.

"Goodnight, guys, and goodnight Mr. Goldfish." Still laughing quietly to themselves they left the library and headed down the hall. "I can get some food for him if you want."

"Oh, yeah...that's a good idea. I don't want to starve him. Thanks." Lo Hua nodded and walked with Kisho to the cafeteria where they found it empty, but unlocked, so they went into the back storage room and got some pieces of bread. Kisho sighed as they left, wondering if Lo Hua was going to call him a kleptomaniac again even they'd both decided to raid the kitchen. Kisho and Lo Hua headed back to the infirmary in silence, but Lo Hua would giggle every now and then when she put tiny bread crumbs in the cup of water and watched the goldfish swallow them.

"He's so cute," she remarked. "You could name him Allen," she said cheerfully, then put both hands over her mouth as Kisho looked up quickly. "Uh, I mean, I was just kidding. Name him whatever you want."

"Uh-huh...." Kisho said, a half-smile across his face. "Allen it is," he said, teasing, and Lo Hua frowned at him angrily.

"Don't you dare call him Allen!" Kisho held one hand up calmingly.

"Alright, I won't, I won't, I swear," he said seriously, trying to keep his face straight so he wouldn't start laughing. "We could name him after Timcampy since he's gold." Lo Hua smiled.

"That might be a little weird too.....but…Well, anyway, I'll let you go to bed. See you and Allen tomorrow."

"Yeah, goodnight." Kisho was turning to open the door of the infirmary when Lo Hua clutched his arm and stopped him.

"Hey....thank you...thank you for helping Allen. It'd have been terrible if he...h-hadn't come back. So, thank you!" Kisho rubbed his head.

"Well...you know..." he muttered, not sure what to say. He didn't feel like just saying 'you're welcome'. If he'd gotten her a present, maybe saying that would have been fine. "I knew what I could do and I did it. That's all." Lo Hua tilted her head and gave him a curious look.

"That's all?" She asked. Looking at Lo Hua Kisho felt his face burning and noticed his heart was thumping faster; did she know she was being that cute, or was she just cute without even trying?

"I'd try and help anyone if I could, even BaKanda," Kisho laughed, remembering the name Allen used when he was annoyed at the older exorcist…which was all the time, pretty much. He finally managed to say and Lo Hua, hoping she hadn't noticed his face. Suddenly she reached up and lightly touched the side of his face, and frowned.

"You're really hot. You should go to bed and get a good rest so you'll recover." Kisho, slightly at a loss for words, nodded once.

"Okay." He looked at the cup of water in his hand. "Goodnight," he said. Lo Hua nodded, turned, and walked down the hall. Sighing in relief Kisho opened the infirmary door, shut it quickly and quietly behind him, turned around and bumped right into Allen. The cup flew into the air, the water and fish splashed out of the cup. Allen grabbed it and held it so that the water and goldfish just fell back into the cup. Kisho took it as the exorcist handed it to him and mumbled, "Thanks." Gingerly looking up the fourteen-year-old saw a slight grin (or frown, he couldn't tell in the room's dim light) on Allen's face.

"Do you like Lo Hua? You sounded like a mess," he observed, and Kisho glared at him.

"She's nice, if that's what you mean. And, let's face it, she's a cute girl....but that doesn't mean I like her...like that, at least."

"Right..."

"I think she's got more of a crush on you, if you ask me. She was worried about you." Allen's eyes widened a little and he didn't say anything and Kisho scoffed, irritated. "I'm going to sleep now. Goodnight." Brushing crossly past Allen, for like most people when Kisho was tired he became irritable, the teenager set the cup of water onto the stand beside the bed he was using and burrowed under the covers. Allen closed the door quietly and headed for his bed and saw that Timcampy was curled up on the bedside table next to the lamp.

"Hey," Allen said after a while, and Kisho mumbled sleepily.

"What? I'm tired...can't this wait?" He asked groggily, and tugged the covers tighter around him.

"Thanks. Being here now was more than I hoped for." Kisho sat up and rubbed his eyes, yawning.

"Don't worry about it," Kisho mumbled, still tired, "and not to be rude or anything, but I really want to go to sleep." The teenager huddled back under the covers but Allen threw a pillow at him which made him sit straight up in bed, clutching the pillow angrily.

"You didn't really want to be an exorcist, did you." Kisho's arm, positioned to throw the pillow at Allen, froze. "When my Anti-Akuma Weapon was destroyed, I made sure I got it back, because I didn't want to be doing something different than what my friends were doing—not just so I could blindly follow some trend, but because I wanted to be fighting with them and keep helping Akuma be freed. Later I wanted to do that and get to know my friends better. But you…well, to be honest, it seemed like you easily threw being an exorcist away." Kisho felt a little pulse of guilt.

"I didn't know any of that would happen. I don't regret that it did—I mean, I'm still alive, which is more than I hoped for." Allen narrowed his eyes at Kisho but didn't say anything. "I don't…think of exorcists any less now. I know what they go through. But you're right, my heart wasn't really into being an exorcist…and now I know I wasn't cut out for the job, for a lot of reasons." Kisho thought for a moment, then at the look Allen gave him said hastily, "It sounded different for you; there was a chance that you could get your Anti-Akuma Weapon back and you fought for it—you took it. I knew there was no chance for me because Hevlaska and the Innocence told me that it didn't belong to me anymore, and that I had to take it to you. Staying an exorcist was your way and being a Finder must be mine. I think everyone knew if you didn't make it back those Noah would have made you betray The Black Order and then killed you." Kisho stared up at the ceiling. "It's not because of you or anyone that I'm not an exorcist anymore." Allen just stared at him, feeling a mixture of annoyance and realization. "I think that I felt, from the beginning, that I wasn't really cut out to be an exorcist. I know that Finders and exorcists thought that I was too weak to be an exorcist and they weren't far off." Here Kisho looked down at his hands, which were clenched together. "I knew deep down that I didn't have it in me to kill anything."

"Even an Akuma?" Allen asked.

"Even an Akuma, even to set its soul free. Even if it was one of my family. I was a coward." Allen raised an eyebrow.

"Was?" Kisho looked startled and ashamed, but then gave a halfhearted laugh and rubbed his head.

"Good one….I acted like being an exorcist didn't bother me but it did. I just wanted to be with Shiori, at first….even if I hadn't seen her for a long time that was still selfish of me."

Kisho looked away and Allen half wanted to agree with him. "The Level Three on the last mission was the only one I've destroyed, and that was because Lavi was there. And…I don't exactly remember destroying it even if he said I did."

"So," Allen began, warily, "when your home was attacked your Innocence didn't activate?" He received a nod in response.

"That's right." Kisho paused for a moment, biting his lip, then continued. "I couldn't use my Innocence the first time I got it, which is probably why everyone in the town died and the whole place was wiped out." Allen's eyes flashed and Kisho swallowed, then kept going. "After that I still had a hard time getting it to activate. Hevlaska checked me and my Anti-Akuma Weapon a lot to make sure my Synchronization rate wasn't dropping and it never did, but even though I kept training it just stopped at fifty percent." He looked at Allen, and the guilt in his eyes was covered momentarily by curiosity. "That doesn't happen to other Equip types, even if their Sync rate doesn't get as high as Parasite types, right?"

"Usually not," the older person said, grimly. "If it does, then it means their Innocence probably will start decreasing, drop, and if it gets below zero the exorcist becomes a Fallen One." That stopped the conversation for a few minutes until Allen started speaking again to break the silence. "Lenalee's Innocence isn't Parasite—" Or Equip, either, Allen thought before finishing his sentence, "and her Synchronization rate is pretty high."

"That makes sense," Kisho admitted, feeling a pulse of admiration for Lenalee. He'd trained with her and knew how strong and agile she was. "I was never as strong an exorcist as you guys. I'm not trying to sound like I have an inferiority complex, but I never worked with my Anti-Akuma Weapon as well as most exorcists. Komui and Hevlaska were ready to take my Innocence back in case the Sync rate started dropping. But….I'm relieved that it didn't, because I was expecting it to….and heard that it might." Absently, Kisho traced patterns with his pointer finger in the white bed sheet. "Like I said I was too afraid to kill Akuma. When I wanted to be an exorcist just because I could be in the same place as Shiori….even if I would have to deal with fighting Akuma someday, I became one." Allen thought about Chaoji and suddenly understood more about how Innocence worked.

"It didn't reject you because although you went with what you felt and knew you couldn't destroy Akuma," Allen said, then kept the thought, Though I don't think much of you for that, to himself. I don't like having to destroy them either but it's the only way.

"I never destroyed any because I never really got a chance, though. The first mission I went on was kind of my last," Kisho said, and Allen gave him a look.

"Be quiet and listen. You destroyed the one attacking you and Lavi, which is what exorcists are supposed to do. Even if you were scared you still did something that made your Innocence reacted to your feelings, even if it wasn't Parasite." Kisho gave him a puzzled look. "Innocence wouldn't choose someone who was lying about how they felt. Exorcists who betray themselves or others become Fallen Ones."

"What are you talking about?" Kisho asked, somewhat quickly, as if he wanted to give a guilty confession. "I was lying. I acted like I wasn't scared about being an exorcist, but I was. I realized that after I came here….then knew, even more when I fought Akuma beside Lavi, that I wasn't the right person to be an exorcist."

"That's when you realized the way you really felt," Allen said, trying to make the kid understand, because he was also tired and starting to get pretty fed up. "Somehow, maybe your Innocence knew you'd realize that you shouldn't be an exorcist. Bak told me I could be something else other than an exorcist, but I knew that I wanted to be one more than anything—to protect people and save Akuma—and my Innocence responded to that. You know Chaoji, right? He and I didn't—or don't—really get along." Kisho was surprised. "Well, I get along with him better than I do with Kanda, but anyway…." Allen almost laughed but quickly got back on track. "Tykki, that Noah, has killed exorcists, Finders, Generals, and destroyed who knows how many Innocence. He almost killed me, and Noah were responsible for the death of lots of Chaoji's friends. But even so, when it came down to it, I wanted to save him." Kisho couldn't help feeling confused, though he was intrigued.

"Save him?" He asked, then said, "Points for you. I'd want to keep as much distance between him and me as possible," he said darkly, shuddering at the thought of his encounter with Tykki.

"I don't know. I guess that's just how I am. I don't like seeing the worst outcome of things so I went back to get him. I understood why Chaoji didn't like that I wanted to help an enemy. He couldn't forgive me that I wanted to help the one that had killed his friends. He didn't change his mind....I don't know if he has forgiven me even now, to be honest....but when I was in trouble later he still helped me even if he didn't understand or even like me. And he became an Accommodator after that. I think that there'd be no chance that Innocence would synchronize with someone who had false feelings...meaning, someone that was lying to themselves." Allen looked Kisho squarely in the eyes. "Do you get what I'm saying? No matter what the reason, and no matter who disagrees, Innocence works for its Accommodator because they do what they believe in without shutting out their true feelings and they do what they can to help people." Allen paused, knowing that wasn't true in a few cases, like with Suman. Kisho frowned uncomfortably and thought for a moment. "Although you were putting on a façade at one point, you realized that you couldn't keep doing that."

"Finders…." Allen shook his head, knowing what Kisho was going to say.

"That's not why Finders can't use Innocence; sometimes people just aren't compatible with Innocence. It's dangerous to try and force them to be....although some have been forced to synchronize with Innocence....and it either worked or destroyed them." Kisho didn't say anything for a moment.

"I thought I was pathetic for not being able to save anyone when my town was attacked. My Innocence didn't activate so to be honest, until I talked to Hevlaska recently I was scared that I'd become a Fallen One. But then Hevlaska told me that even though I wasn't an Accommodator anymore, my Innocence still accepted me…" Kisho trailed off. "Maybe my Synchronization rate never started dropping because I had to stick around to help you out." This took Allen aback. Could Innocence be sentient like that? Then he realized that they could, and he'd experienced it—his Anti-Akuma Weapon reacted to his feelings, so why not? "I don't know," Kisho was saying, "but whatever the reason, I'm glad. I was afraid I was going to die back there and never see Shiori again. Now that I seem to have been given more than one second chance…" This made Allen curious.

"What do you mean?" Kisho nodded slowly, a look of remorse on his face.

"I waited this long because I was scared, and wondering how to tell her." There was a pause. "Shiori knows that our mom is dead, but it didn't happen how she thought. She wasn't killed when Akuma attacked our town...." Allen tensed but nodded as he understood.

"She got turned into an Akuma...." he muttered, then gave Kisho a look that was half accusing, half realization. "Was it because of you? And because Cloud Nyne was there, she was able to save you?"

"No, actually, though if things had been just a little different, I wonder if it would have been that way." Kisho replied slowly and Allen blinked in surprise. "Our town was attacked by Akuma. I was asleep, and would have just slept through the attack and died since our house collapsed, but Cloud Nyne must found me and she woke me up. Neither of us knew the Earl was there—I didn't even know who he was—but when we looked through the town for survivors, we found my mom....and he was with her. Shiori and I watched out for her after our dad died but I think she was still grieving. It had been years since he'd died so, even though or maybe because I was little, I thought that had been enough time to move on. I didn't remember him much, but our mom did."

"And she wanted him back," Allen said tersely causing Kisho to nod, his fists clenched so the nails dug into his palms.

"I didn't really get to know him because he died when I was around five years old—so it was easier for me to get over it after a while. I wasn't happy about what had happened, I think Maybe I didn't understand yet what it was really like to miss someone that way, even though after Shiori left I missed her a lot. When the Earl came, everything happened really fast. Akuma suddenly appeared and attacked anyone they saw. I would have been killed too if Cloud Nyne hadn't found me and made me come with her." I wonder why she did, Allen thought. I know that Generals find people of interest to be exorcists, but….

"I don't remember a lot after that, except that after Cloud Nyne realized I was compatible, I tried to active my Innocence. I had a sickle for farming and it merged into that. I wanted to stop the Akuma from hurting her, but I was too late, and not nearly strong enough to do anything. The Innocence almost activated but the sickle was old and only specialized weapons can handle it….right?" Allen nodded. "The Innocence left the sickle just before it broke, and I grabbed it before the Akuma could get it, but then it attacked me. It wasn't with bullets, obviously, but I still got some scars to remember. I passed out thinking I was going to die but I woke up later and Cloud Nyne told me that we were on a ship going to China, to a place called The Asia Branch. She said that the Earl had lately been targeting families of exorcists. At first….well, she said it seemed random, but he might be finding their families and friends somehow."

"He is," Allen said, grinding his teeth; what the Earl was up to was now widely known. "But he's stupid to think that we'd suddenly fall for it so we've been trying to figure out what he really wants to do. So far we think he's just trying to break them so they won't fight anymore. All of the Branches have been sending teams to protect exorcists' family members. It's been a strain on everyone. That's why we need to beat him." Kisho nodded and swallowed.

"I have to tell Shiori....she needs and deserves to know exactly what happened." Allen nodded his head once.

"Rather than she find out from someone else. It might take a while for her to understand," Allen said. "But I think she'll be fine," he said slowly. "And she knows not to bring her back—even if she could. Like I said, even if that's what the Earl wants, no one around here is that naïve anymore. Shiori might be angry with you for a while, though." Kisho didn't answer right away, but soon he nodded once.

"I know. I kept it for her for a long time." Kisho laughed, but it sounded anxious. "We've always fought with each other. This fight just…might be a little more intense." Kisho rubbed his head, smiling in a worried manner. "I really am going to sleep now. Goodnight," Kisho said, then got back under the covers and closed his eyes.

"Goodnight," Allen responded, and did the same. A short time later both were sleeping soundly.

Author's Note: Oof well there it is. I am really sorry I took so long to update and then just gave you a bunch of explaining stuff! It will get more interesting later. I'm trying to get the details out now. I realize I focused on Kisho a lot in this chapter but I hope I've been focusing equally on all characters and not just my own. To be honest the reason I wanted to make these OC's was for the purpose of focusing on Allen even if it might not seem that way now. At the very beginning that's how it was but now I'm more deeply developing their background.

Kisho: And this is the best you can….

Shiori: We are just plot devices, is that it?

Me: Um…..er…..,well….it might be like that. But I really do like you guys!

Kisho: Yeah…

Me: Hey, come back!