Hi everyone, though that may not be many! Daisya and Kanda may be a bit late this week, but they're getting closer to their destination. Hope you enjoy, let me know if anything is unclear!

In the end, they did go by the eel stall, and Kanda didn't take his braid out.

"It'll take too long," he'd said. Daisya had pestered him about why he'd even made that claim in the first place, if he didn't want to follow up, but then Lenalee jumped in with an "I think it looks nice" before Kanda had to come up with an answer. It was nice of her to say so, even if it spoiled the fun.

The day broke over them like an egg as Daisya tore into his grilled eel sticks. With breakfast taken care of, he almost felt awake. It was weird, you didn't notice it when it was happening, but being tired changed your mind. There was less of a space between what you did and what you wanted to. It was harder to tell what was a good idea and what wasn't, too.

Well, that didn't really matter now. They were on a mission. And so he'd raced Lenalee down the street, and he'd shouted at Kanda to come on.

Now the four of them stood up on the deck of a passenger ship and leaned against the rusted railing, bags at their feet. Fare was cheaper if you didn't buy a seat. It was standing or the floor until they reached shore. At least they were up high, watching the play of light on the clouds in the west as the sun rose higher. The sky was already filled with smoke and steam from the mills and factories that studded the fields, giving them all a beautiful smear of bloody red as they took in the air.

This was the earliest ship they could find. No need for tickets, Kanda just dashed up the mooring rope to the top deck and they all followed, with more or less help from ropes and hands. Now the real passengers were coming aboard, filtering through the lower decks until the ones with no money and good enough health came out from the stairwell, bundled up and shivering.

"So, when are we leaving?" Daisya tapped his hands on the railing, testing out different beats. "Soon, right?"

"It's half an hour until the ship is scheduled to leave," answered Marie.

"Yeah, and they're never on time," Daisya said.

Lenalee and Kanda had sat down on the deck by the railing, backs straight and legs crossed, eyes closed for meditation. What was the point? Daisya was going to be thinking whether he was standing or sitting. If he shut his eyes, his brain was just going to be moving faster to make up for it.

"Should we amuse ourselves?" asked Marie.

Daisya squinted at him, picking out the ever-so-slight smile. "What are you thinking?"

"Is it too early to have an open-air concert, do you think?"

Genius! Daisya had been going through the usual list of sketch, talk at Kanda, talk at Lena, see how many times he could kick the Bell straight up in the air without dropping it, talk at Marie, and whistling. He didn't even think that in the open air like this, they could really get a tune going without blasting out the ears of everyone else on this ship.

"Hell no! What are we playing?"

Now, where'd he put the Bell? This mission was supposed to be secret, so it wasn't on the end of his hood like always, it was…in the bag, yeah, must be somewhere.

"Nothing too heavy," Marie said.

"Oh, fine."

It was no secret that Daisya liked the Russian romantics better, since they were so big and exciting and Antonina had played them ringing down from the rafters when she was alive. It was also no secret that Marie was pretty attached to baroque style and maybe just a bit of classical, if he was feeling really excited. Fine. Daisya could deal with some Bach if it meant getting out of his head while the ship idled here.

He crouched down, opening his bag and reaching into it for the Bell.

"It is a good morning for Grieg, I think."

Looking up, he saw Marie give him a grin. Thanks, Marie!

Grieg was a good compromise. It had enough meat in it to keep Daisya entertained, but it still had enough delicate sing-y pieces for Marie. Plus, it was morning. That helped out.

"Hey, yeah! What're we doing?"

"Suite 1 of Peer Gynt. But, we're transitioning to Beethoven's Pastoral before we reach In the Hall of the Mountain King."

"Sure, fine," he said, meaning it this time.

Ah, found it. Daisya pulled out the Bell, tossed it high in the air, then fastened the bag and stood straight up in time to catch it on his knee. Just for fun, he let it slide down his calf, tossing it from foot to foot as Marie cracked his knuckles and spun the Organum out of thin air. Of course, they couldn't be too direct about the Innocence, so he had it take the shape of a flat, harp-looking thing which he said was an import from America. Whatever. Daisya didn't keep up with the news, but one day he'd asked Sokalo about it and gotten absolutely nothing useful in the way of a reply. Guy was Mexican, so what did he know?

As for the Bell, he didn't know how, but somehow it just looked like a real bell. It was something in the instinct. One day, you were just out kicking akuma, the next day, you could make your Innocence seem different.

They set themselves up facing out, looking over the stern railing to the town. Marie sat cross-legged and Daisya stood, which put them pretty much at the same height.

"How recently have you checked your tuning?" asked Marie.

"A while back. I haven't really been doing the sheet music, since I know the tunes already."

"Still, it's useful to practice. Here. A."

A bright, clear note sounded from the harp with a small movement from Marie's finger. Anyone watching would see that the contraption and the sound didn't match up, not that anyone watched that closely when they were ogling the blind giant playing fancy music on the street.

For his part, Daisya grabbed the Bell and rapped it against the railing. Yeowch. It was colder out than it seemed.

With the ringing started off, Daisya was able to manipulate it. Marie and Tiedoll had been real hardasses about getting him to learn control, and now finally he could shape the feeling of the noise and not just the sound. Using his hands as a guide, he modulated the tone, going from a brittle clang to a thin ringing noise that sounded more like strings than the chime it was. He matched the note to Marie's, quieting the sound so that the strings could really take the lead.

"Okay, got it."

Light opened up on the buildings by the dock as, behind them, the sun sneaked up over another band of cloud.

"One, two, three, four..."

The Bell fell silent as Marie started the piece, moving through a verse of the melody before Daisya—hah—chimed in with a chord. Those had been tricky as hell to learn. It wobbled a bit, eventually falling into resonance with itself as Marie moved on to the second section.

From that rough start, they got into sync before too long. Out of the corner of his ear, Daisya could hear footsteps and voices moving towards them, people checking out the curiosity. He just hoped Lena was quick enough to put her cap out for collection. Not that these people would have the cash to spare, but, well, you never knew.

Besides, he thought, he'd already had to use his spending money on snacks.

Right on schedule, there was the thwap of a wool cap hitting the deck—thanks, Lena. Before long, he heard the clink of a coin or two. Precisely two. Lena would have thrown those in there as bait.

Marie led Daisya on to the next piece. The sky was fading, getting closer to the normal dull white but still with a bit of the old colour left in it. If he had to make a comparison, he'd say it looked like a blushing sheep.

"Hey," he whispered, "Can we do a song-song after we're done the pastoral?"

Marie hummed consideration. "You're sure you can play that long?"

"Who do you think trained me?" he teased. "Anyway, I was thinking these guys might like something you can actually sing along to."

"Very well. If you're comfortable, I'll let you choose a piece."

"Thanks, Marie."

Time went by so quickly that Daisya barely even noticed they were pulling off until the ship's horn sounded, echoing down the coast line and making him jump. He just barely managed to keep a hold of his sync rate, quickly switching to the next chord. Funny thing, though, Marie was the one to drop off. As Daisya was trying to figure out the next step, he realized that there was no sound from beside him as they drifted out to see.

"Hey, big guy, you having trouble, there?"

"Only for a moment. Hold that chord, will you?"

Daisya wasn't a total jerk, so he did. Marie hopped back on quickly enough, repeating the last few measures to get them back in gear.

"How long are we going to be on here?"

"Our schedule hasn't changed since the briefing."

"Okay, yeah, but I want it to be faster."

They made it through the next piece intact, Daisya's foot starting to tap on the deck in time, and then the next, until finally they got to the end of what Marie suggested. That was good, fun, fine enough.

Time for Daisya to break out some of the songs he liked, real songs, not just paper music.

The chimes took a backseat in this one to the beat he made by stamping his steel-tipped boots against the deck and clapping his hands together. Around the second repetition, he broke out into the song. It was an old one, so he knew he'd be able to sing it, even if his voice was still thin and scratchy from getting up early, being out in the cold, and being stuck halfway through puberty. Geez, at least it wasn't cracking any more.

Marie played along just nicely, somehow getting a jaunty fiddle sound out of the Organum. Daisya never knew how he could have so many styles and still stick with the basic, boring old chords he usually liked. Oh well.

What really surprised him was, after the second verse, another voice joined in. It was clearer than his, higher, but richer. Marie told him he was a tenor now, so then this voice must be an alto. Lena got a bit nervous about singing, so why would she…?

Ah, who was he kidding. He knew who it was.

Kanda was matching him word for word on his favourite marching song, singing the melody clearly and, if Daisya was being honest, a lot better than him. After a chorus together, Daisya dropped into harmony, dancing just below Kanda's voice as they sang together. Funny, that Kanda knew the words to the verses. Then again, Daisya did sing it a lot, and most of the time when Daisya was there, so was Kanda.

He was a little surprised that Marie hadn't joined in. He had the best voice of all of them by a long shot—Daisya was just naturally untalented, Kanda never bothered, and Lenalee still had trouble tapping into her pipes—but he and Lena both stayed quiet as the two of them sang. Maybe he just didn't remember the words, never mind that Marie remembered most everything that happened.

The song went on for longer than he thought it would. That was fine. It gave him more time to think of something else that Kanda might know, since he wasn't about to stop now that he'd got his attention.

It was fully day, now. No lengthwise shafts of light ran across the widening strip of sea between them and the shore, just a bit of mist and some wet grey light. Nothing special.

Damn. Some part of Daisya really wanted to turn around, but not to make this the performance that it wasn't. It'd just be interesting to see his face. Of course, it was probably deadpan as per usual, but wouldn't it just be the best thing for his eyes to be narrowed in just a little bit of a smile. Or, maybe they'd be calm and dull, with the wisps of hair that escaped from his braid blowing up around him like smoke. Daisya barely looked human; that's why he painted his face up and wrapped bandages over his body, so that it would look like something else entirely, that you couldn't judge by human standards. Kanda, though…

But, no. It wasn't like that. Kanda looked like Kanda felt. Kanda looked like fascination, frustration, freedom, kindness, and—other things, and right now Daisya wanted to see what was in him when he was singing the song he must have heard so many times and never joined in on.

He kept his gaze fixed on the town dock, which was almost past the horizon now. Kanda got embarrassed pretty easily. He wasn't about to force that on him when they were in the middle of performance, after all!

They kept singing together without a hitch, until Daisya switched songs again and Lenalee joined in, thin and reedy but as chipper as ever, followed by Marie's rich bass. It was fun to lead them all through the words together, listening to the little mistakes they each made. Somehow, it call came out better than just a good singer. You could tell how each part fit together with the next. These were voices that knew each other's and all chimed together like so many notes in the chord. Daisya could feel his mind clearing out just to let him soak in the sound.

It wasn't the same, though.

…

Something was up. Daisya knew it the moment his eyes focused.

Their ship plodded on through the occasional wave so slowly they might as well be staying still.

The performance had lasted them another hour or so, but eventually the passengers got bored and Marie's fingers got cold. Since then, they'd spent the time running through exercises at the stern. Or, at least, that's what they were supposed to be doing. Daisya did some lunge laps around the deck just to change up the scenery. Maybe he got stares. So what? He got to stare back. There were all sorts on here. Old biddies, young kiddies, sick-looking men and merchants or aspiring bosses in shabby clothes that were maybe four or five owners away from the original fine tailoring.

Anyhow, here he was jogging through the thick, smoky sea fog when—bam!—there was all of a sudden something other than the horizon.

The grey sea still ran into the grey fog and faded into the grey sky, but there were dots here and there of something darker. It took another lap for the blobs for resolve into ships, and then a bunch of talking with Lenalee and some cooldown stretches for the outline of the land to sit down and form a border between here and there.

Still, the boat moved so slowly that it was nightfall by the time they worked their way down the river and into the port. There were lights down in the cabin below, he could see them reflecting off the water and glinting through the windows of the bridge. Nothing up here, though. Anyone on the top deck was lucky to have a ride, and they'd have to put up with the sapping wind and this sticky darkness to get away without a full fare. He was cold as all hell. Marie had made them put on all their long johns and extra cloaks way at the beginning, before he even got actually chilly, so it was pretty much okay. Still, he was having to stick his fingers under his arms as he did squats just to keep them from going all white.

They were warm, where everyone else was cold and huddled together, and they had light, too. Nothing that would give them away, just a candle in a dish. A few of the other families brought them along, but they guttered and dripped and didn't burn with the clean, bright flame that was within the paper lantern. Funny. Lenalee said they were easy to make, but no one else had thought of it to keep their lights safe. Some of the candles streamed out with every half-hearted push from the breeze. The rest were in glass.

So it was mostly dark when he saw stars on the water. The sky was black with clouds, so they must have been lights. He didn't need Marie's permission to run on forward to the bow and watch. He'd waited for the view to resolve itself, crystallizing into a few sharp lights here and there but—it was wrong. Nothing was moving. Everything was still except for their own boat oozing along.

Weird.

He'd waited for a while longer, listening to people moan and grouse about the cold, then ran back to to the stern. Kanda, the showoff, was still doing push-ups and Marie was reading. The lucky bastard, he didn't have to squint at chicken scratch by the dim red lantern light, he could just run his fingers over the books and do it. Like that. Maybe he should start learning that language, too.

"Daisya! I didn't know where you went," said Lenalee. "I was going to go with you."

"Well, you can come along, then. I think we need some more eyes. There's something going on." He grinned. "Probably bad."

"Are we within sight of the city?" asked Marie.

"Yeah. There are lights on the shore. Either it's a whole bunch of passenger boats, or it's Bremen."

Shifting his weight from one foot to the other, he tried to keep the blood flowing in his veins while Marie got around to the question he had to ask.

"How can you be sure there's anything odd about it? We can't be close. I'm sure you wouldn't have kept it to yourself this long if you'd spotted it earlier," Marie added.

He heard a laugh from Lenalee and something that could have been a snort from Kanda, but he was breathing heavy anyway. Maybe he just needed the air.

"There's nothing moving! And there aren't a lot of lights, anyway. It looks like there are some boats, but they're moored far out. No gangplanks, no tenders, no parties, no nothing. If it's a trading town, they should have some gas lighting, yeah? Looks like it's dead. The only lights are on the boats and at this one kind of area, thing. I think it's the docks."

Lenalee leaned in and started speaking quietly, looking back and forth at some of the closer passengers. "I don't think Komui said there was anything wrong. Except for the Noah. Maybe if there was an invasion, but we haven't seen one of those since General Nine got to 100%. Marie, have you heard anything?"

"No. We should stay quiet. When we reach port, we'll stay back. I can contact Gertrud to see if she's still alive. You didn't see any light traps, did you, Daisya?"

"Nope," he said. "It's still pretty far away."

There was a sound—no, there was a total nothingness that should have been a sound—when Kanda stood up. He'd been heaving like a bellows two seconds ago, but the moment he pushed off the deck and landed on his feet, he was quiet as an unexpected akuma.

"I'll look," he said. "I can see further than you."

"At least let Lenalee go with," Daisya argued for the sake of it, "Maybe you can see far, but you don't always notice stuff, if you know what I mean."

He felt a surge of smugness when he managed to catch Kanda's swung elbow on instinct, taking the opportunity to link their arms together like kids.

"Let's all go," said Lenalee. "More eyes are better."

"If there is something wrong with the town, I'll need you to watch out as we come in," Marie added.

"Yeah, sure," said Daisya. "You listen too, old guy."