"Hey Red! Look at the new circus act. The Wiccan Wonder! Sees all and knows all!" Mr Small said.
He was a mean man, and he ran the circus. He often took deformed or strange people and used them as props in his production.
Red approached the barred carriage. I stared out at him. The pain of all the people subsided. This boy was...happy.
He was wearing a clown outfit and he had clown make up on. His hair was reddish-brown and his left hand was in what appeared to be an oven mitt.
I realized I must look a mess. My long curly brown hair cascaded in a messy tangle down my back and over my face and eyes. I was dressed in a long draping purple dress to add to the mystique. My face was painted and so was wearing plastic beads.
"Red..." I whispered. "You should go by Allen. That was his name right? The dog you loved? You should do that...to honor him."
The pain returned as the boy retreated in fear. Just as they all did.
"See? She's a real freak! Better than you Red!" Mr Small said.
"The name's Allen!" He stuck his tongue out and ran back to the bars and picked the lock. "Come with me and Mana. We're gonna get outta here, Witch!"
I took one step and crumpled to the floor. "I-I can't. The feelings..."
"Oh? Then you can just feel me ok?" Allen said.
The pain subsided. I stood up. "My name is Kuri, Allen-wa."
"Ok! Kuri-la!"
Xxx
"W-what?" I snapped to attention.
It was eight in the morning on a Saturday and I was preparing for work, in my uniform with the cinemark logo on the front and the big green Grinch on the back and my black dress pants and worn out black tennis shoes. My iPhone was in my back pocket, my Apple Watch on my wrist. I yawned. Usually I didn't answer the door especially not this early but...he'd said something.
"What did you say?" I repeated.
The man raised his voice an octave. His accent was British, but there was a careful way that he spoke, almost formal. "I said, my name is Allen Walker. I'm here to rent the guest room."
I paused, frozen. Allen Walker from D Gray-man? From my dream? Was I dreaming now?
I pinched myself. Nope. Awake.
I sucked in a breath—and opened the door.
There he stood, Allen Walker, in full 3D human form. Like a really good cosplay.
Let's just say I was less shocked than I should have been, considering how often I'd dreamed of things like this. It was like I was back there, in that place...Ageha.
Allen looked to be around my age of late twenties. He was a good three inches taller than my 5'4" height, maybe more. I felt like a chubby American next to his lean, muscular physique, though I did not envy his scars.
His hair by now was as long as mine which hit below my shoulders. My hair was brown, almost black, tight pin curls; His was straight and pure white, not dyed, as his eyebrows and eyelashes matched in color.
I had clear skin with very few marks or blemishes, pale and clear; I was iron deficient, making the skin nearly translucent. I looked at Allen's face and saw the unusual scar on the left side of his face that was now a pentagram on his forehead, trailing down in a line that severs his eyebrow and mars his eyelid, and hooked slightly at his cheekbone and followed his cheek down close to his chin. It also had an extra line of scar tissue that runs parallel to his lower eyelid. This scar was given to him by Mana Walker, after Allen turned him into an Akuma. The scar is also the source of his Cursed Eye, which allowed him to detect Akuma and see the human souls bound to their bodies.
I noticed it was back to its first evolution back at the beginning, as was his arm—no Crown Clown. I only assumed—his arm was hidden under a glove and he was wearing a long sleeved dress shirt and vest with a bow tie and dress pants. I was jealous; I'd rather dress in those sweltering but nice looking clothes than my hideous uniform.
"I'm sorry. I was staring." I said quickly. "I'm Kurisuta Hikawa. You can have the room. You'll have to do the paperwork with my dad."
Silver eyes met my mismatched—left green, right blue—eyes. Sincere honesty was in his voice.
"Thank you so much, Kuri! I thought I was going to be lost forever!" Allen said.
It was only then that I noticed the shattered remains of an Ark gate on the sidewalk.
Xxx
Dad and Allen worked on the paperwork in the study while I finished my makeup, prepared my popcorn bucket and avengers cup, and got the keys.
When I was all ready I crossed the living room and headed to my dad's car.
Time for work. I could put all of this crazy insane living anime stuff out of my mind for eight hours.
Or so I thought.
Xxx
I arrived at the movie theater where I work and untangled the chords to the podium. I plugged in the WiFi Ethernet cable and then the power chord. I then turned on the console and put a trash bag in the ticket counter drawer. Then I took out the checklist and began filling it out up to the hour. Finally I updated the board that shows the showtimes and when the theater is ready for patrons.
All was normal. I was reading D Gray-Man Reverse when it happened. It was a small child.
She had dark skin, hair done two pigtails with jingling hair ties. She wore a shirt with a jack o lantern on it, and long jean shorts. Her tennis shoes were orange like her shirt and she had one of those cat ear headbands that's so popular among kids these days.
Ugh listen to me, I sound like an old lady.
She ran up to me. "I can't find my mommy! Where is my mommy?"
I smiled; in my line of work this happens a lot. "How bout this; you wait right here and I'll get a nice manager to help you find your mommy."
"No! I want you!" The child was insistent.
I was startled; usually children calm down when I offer to call the manager.
"I want you to tell me...where is he? Where is the fourteenth?" A gun had formed out of her head; it was resting on my temple.
I panicked. Could no one see her? I looked around. It was quiet. All the people were passed out on the floor. Were they dead? No, on closer inspection, though they looked pale, they weren't dead.
"Tell me where he is, and I will remove my poison from their bodies." The Akuma said, realizing I didn't care if she shot me.
My life would come to an end soon enough. I'm diabetic and I ingest double the sweets of the average person. So I would die soon enough. But these people were innocent.
Some were my friends, some were strangers. It didn't matter. They were in pain; I could feel it. I had to stop it!
I clenched my teeth against the intense pain. "I don't know where Allen Walker is."
"I never said we were looking for Allen Walker." The akuma replied and spun it's barrel, aiming for the young cashier.
"N-No!" I screamed, throwing out a hand. There was a flash of light. The akuma screamed and evaporated. A thin mist filled the building and everyone began to wake up.
I got up from the floor to be met face to face with Allen Walker.
"H-How...?" I stammered.
"It has to be innocence." He said, mostly to himself. "How did an akuma get here? What did it want?"
"Allen. The akuma wanted the fourteenth." I said, heading to the break room and clocking out.
"How do you know about that?" Allen said. "Wherever this is, there isn't supposed to be akuma and innocence here."
"How do I explain..." I sat in the chair. I can't tell him that he's a fictional character.
"I'm waiting Kuri." Allen said.
I settled for the amount of the truth that I believed he could accept.
"Allen, we've met before, many times. I just thought it was a dream." I said. "Cmon let's get home and I'll explain more to you."
Xxx
Allen sat on my bed, stuffing his face with a trail mix of cheezits and wasabi peas. Every few minutes he would make a funny face and gulp down a glass of water. He had twelve glasses sitting there for this purpose.
I chuckled a little and then began. "It all started on Tuesday, the 21st of December, 2010. The darkest day in 500 years. On that day, I died."
"You...died." Allen stopped chewing.
"Yes I did." I nodded. "After I died I didn't go to heaven or hell. I went to a place where people I had believed to be fictional, from stories, existed in a frozen state. When I arrived, time began to move forward again. In that place, I was not Kuri, I was Miko. I had a special power to purify evil and heal people. It was a wonderful afterlife...or so I thought."
"So your saying you died and became a superhero?" Allen asked skeptically.
"Yes. I am. But then the world—Ageha—didn't need me anymore. Everyone was fine, waking up in their own worlds, with no memory of me. And as I was forgotten, I slowly began to wake up. Before I knew it I was in a hospital bed. I had been in a coma for six months. None of it was real." I said
"What does that have to do with the akuma today? With all of this?" Allen said.
"Allen...you were in the dream. You have been in all my dreams since. At the beginning we were both small, and it progressed." I said.
"You do look familiar." Allen said. "But I..."
"That's how I know about all of it, Allen. When I'm awake...I'm just a normal human. When I'm asleep, I'm different." I said.
"What about your powers?" Allen said. "How do you explain...?"
"I can't. Those are Miko's powers." I said. "Purification, Sacred Arrows, Pentacle Sealing, Sight."
I groaned, the pain hitting me again. Sorrow. Fear. Love. Allen's emotions. I concentrated on the love, even as his worry intensified and he pulled me into his arms, trying to comfort me.
"Try to focus on just me." Allen said.
I stared at him. Those words... "You do remember...Allen-wa."
His cheeks flushed red. "I thought someone like you could only be a dream, Kuri-la."