They just can't catch a break! Thank you so much to all my readers, hope you've had a warm and wonderful May! As for me, it's snowed several times this month ;u;
It was still too bright here, hard to see as he squinted into the sun. His heart stuttered trying to account for the switch back to total stillness, hard enough that he put a hand on it just to damp it down.
Shrapnel was still drifting toward the ground, there were no more black spots in the sky, but no green lights either. Just stripes and shadow, gold and black.
Come on…come on…
He scanned again, dipping into every pool of shadow to make sure he didn't miss anything. It was a cool morning. That was why he noticed when his body started to shake and sweat in waves. He bit down on his tongue to keep from getting nauseous.
He couldn't see Lenalee. She wasn't there. Nothing else was, but that didn't mean anything. Had one of the akuma got her? Was it there right now, waiting for him?
There was a breeze against the sides of his face. Anyone would have thought it was natural. But just the way it felt, one breath and then nothing, he didn't think so. Something was moving behind him.
Slowly, he turned.
He didn't make a sound. Not a cone crunched, not a joint cracked, not a scrap of fabric shuffled as he looked right into his blind spot.
And there was Lenalee, tiptoeing back towards him with her finger on her lips and a frown.
He could have laughed! Serves him right for worrying. He stayed where he was and cocked his head to the side, raising an eyebrow at her. She hurried closer across the needle-covered ground.
"D'you think there's more out there?" he whispered once she joined him.
It was pretty quiet. No birds, though that was probably because of the racket they'd just made.
"One of them came later than the others," she said. "I think there might be more, but that doesn't explain why I can't see any. I flew to the top for a look."
Ah. So that was where she'd been. Could have told him first, but screw him. Daisya looked around again.
"Okay, well," he hesitated. Who thought it was a good idea to make him the babysitter? "We can maybe drag our stuff there, you know, the big tree, and start packing under cover. Do you think that'd work?"
"Yes." Lenalee nodded, straightening her coat. "Stay close to me."
"Hey, don't worry about me."
"Please, Daisya."
"I will, I will," he muttered. Sheesh, he wasn't a schoolkid.
She didn't rub it in, just started off for what was left of their camp. Most of their supplies were still intact.
Daisya couldn't help rolling his eyes once her back was turned, though. God save him from kids who thought they were older than him.
The sun rose slowly at this time of year, up in the north. It was less bright but still golden when they folded up their extra clothes and stored their tin mugs and kettle down in the bottom of the packs, beneath the branches of the big spruce.
While he stamped down on a bundle of supplies and pulled the bag's drawstring closed, Lenalee was inspecting the parts of the trunk where the shots had landed. The tree was probably going to die after this. He should be saying his prayers, since it could've been him today.
He didn't feel particularly grateful as he tried to strap down the bulging pack.
Oh wait—
Daisya shot up until he whacked his head on a branch.
"Golem! Uh." He decided to explain in the face of Lena's concerned look. "We should call Kanda. And Marie. We should probably tell them there were still akuma here," he added.
"Oh no!" Lenalee's looked more worried now, not less. "I forgot, they're probably wondering where we are. I think I put the golem away, where is it…"
Daisya stretched a little while she looked for the golem, trying to ease the kinks in his back that were building up one on the other, like some giant tangle of yarn. Aagh. Soon one of the knots was going to turn into a cramp, and then he'd have to roll around on the ground in agony until it went away. Why couldn't they have just gone back into town, instead of camping?
He watched Lenalee get the golem out of her jacket, petting it gently to wake it up. The eye blinked open slowly as it stood in her hand.
"Uh, Marie? Marie, are you there?" she asked it.
"They're probably just getting up," he said. "It's what, eight? Nine?"
"Seven-thirty," said Lena.
It was probably too late for it to have any impact, but Daisya still groaned when he realized he'd missed the sleep he should have gotten. A watch rotation with two people was hard, so they usually gave themselves time to sleep longer. An Exorcist wasn't useful when they were dead on their feet. Which he was about to be.
"That sucks. I'm having a nap later."
After another minute of stretching, Marie still hadn't answered. Lenalee was starting to pace.
"Should we yell?" he asked. "He usually wakes up if you breathe near him in the morning, maybe he's in another room."
"I know, I'll try. Marie," Lenalee said more firmly, "It's Lenalee. We found and destroyed five akuma. I think they might be in different groups."
They waited as the golem flapped around the base of the tree, trying to find its friend. Sometimes communication could be harder over long distances. This wasn't very long.
"Maybe they forgot their golem? They could be having some nice breakfast somewhere."
Lena shot him a look, but right when she opened her mouth to try again, the golem started.
"…got our own akuma…"
It was Kanda's voice yelling out between static. Daisya looked at Lenalee, and Lenalee looked back at him.
"…out of here. Don't die. …you later. We…Innocence."
They both knew what must have happened. The akuma that had attacked them had been sent out last night to find Exorcists, never mind why they knew to look in the first place, and Marie was too busy keeping them under control to answer.
That's how he and Kanda worked, one to paralyze, one to kill. There had to be more than five Level Ones after them, maybe a few Level Twos.
"Let's go," Lenalee said sharply. "We'll go back to the town."
"Yeah." Daisya wasn't up to much thinking right now. His body moved for him, getting him up and lifting a pack.
He was about to leap out of their hiding spot when Lena grabbed him by the back of the cloak, stopping him flat.
"Shh," she said, creeping past him. "We should check first. I'll climb the tree, since it's easier to see them up high."
Who was she, giving orders like she was the senior here? She was right, though, so Daisya just nodded.
"Be safe," she said.
Sheesh, it wasn't like they were even leaving the tree.
He waited the two minutes for her to pick her way up the branches and back down, readjusting his bandages after a bad night's sleep. They did chafe, just not enough to be worth changing.
Anyway, it was full morning now. He took his eyes off Lenalee just to look around, waking up fully for the first time. It was hard to come to terms with the world when your brain was getting flooded with blood and adrenaline. Now he was actually aware.
The light was strong enough to cut through the tree, now, speckling the bare dirt underneath with patches of white. God, Kanda and Marie had better keep up. He was not about to rush back just in time to find some corpses.
But what was he worrying about? He never felt this sick when one of them was on an away mission. It was something about being this close. Seeing Kanda yesterday, and now feeling like maybe that could've been the last time. God. He had to thank Lenalee properly for spotting these akuma in time. They'd been caught off guard.
Speaking of—
Lenalee barely made a noise when she dropped to the forest floor, flashing green light and shocking Daisya out of his skin.
"Quiet!" she hissed. He didn't argue.
Damn, she didn't look good. The light from her boots was reflecting off a sweaty face. Daisya felt the energy from the fight leaving him even as he realized what they'd have to do.
"They're here," she said. "I couldn't count how many. I think they're trying to wipe us out."
"And you're going to fight them? We'll get necked! Dusted! Killed! They haven't found us yet, so why don't we hide out until they leave?" he asked.
Lena shook her head. "I don't think they're going to leave. More just keep coming."
"Then we wait a day," Daisya snapped. "We still have some food, and we refilled the canteens. I'm the one who makes stupid decisions here, not you."
"Yes, you do. The Charity Bell has enough range to affect all the akuma that get close enough to shoot, and I can fly us away faster than they can chase us. Right here, we'll be dead if they find us," she said vehemently. "They'll have the advantage. If we run, we can regroup with Marie and Kanda, and fight them all together. If you stay here, we are going to die."
Neither option sounded like the one he wanted to take. But then, when did he care?
He knew the answer.
"Okay," he said. "Okay."
"Come on, then!"
Lenalee fired her boots once, sending up a puff of dust and needles from the ground, but Daisya held a hand up and stared her down. He raised a finger.
"Step one, we run out there," he said. "Step two, I activate the Bell, and you get the ones close enough to shoot me. Step three, you grab me and fly straight for town. If Kanda and Marie are still there, then we'll find them. Fine. But can you carry me that far? Can you outrun the akuma with all this dead weight, going for that long? Don't joke around."
"I'm not." Lenalee shook her head violently. "I'll get you out of here."
"Thanks. But don't forget, I'm the older kid. I'm supposed to be watching out for you," he said.
"You're still a kid too," she said right back. "I'll count to three. One—"
Daisya cinched the straps of his pack tight around his shoulders.
"Two—"
He stepped one foot up on to a low branch, bracing one hand against the tree trunk.
"Three—"
He plunged a hand into his pocket, closing tight around the still-active Bell.
"Go."
They burst out of cover, and bullets started flying.
Daisya pushed down on the branch with all his strength, bringing his other foot up as he tossed the Charity Bell. The force of the jump let him land the kick at high speed, just barely getting it off before he flew through the branches and landed heavily on the forest floor. He was running when he hit, not watching the Bell flew up into the crowd of akuma that blocked out the sky. They would have blocked out the sun, too, but that was still streaming in sideways, turning everything hot and bright. Lenalee's acceleration was kicking up dust and even knocking down trees, taking out any damaged or weak trunks like a windstorm.
A trail of bullets bit at his ankles, just barely missing when he zigzagged out of its way.
With the explosions and the golden light and the splintering trees, it was like the forest was on fire.
His legs screamed, but he still pushed them. It took everything just to ignore what his body was telling his mind and what his mind was telling back. Everything was highlighted in pure black shadow and as Daisya ran like hell between the trunks. The Bell was starting to take effect, damping down the chaos with each pulse, but even that wasn't enough. There were still more ahead of him.
God, what was the point? Even if they survived this, who knew if Lena could keep them going long enough to find Kanda and Marie? He was too tired to fight an army. He didn't even want to fight just one. This was getting old—
Oh.
Suddenly, feeling started up again in his pain-numbed legs. When had he let himself get bored? Here he was, fighting a holy war against an unbeatable enemy, dodging gunfire and tearing apart living metal with a power that was all his, only his, and he was bored?
He tore over the ground, following the glow of Lenalee's power toward the town.
No one else could survive this but him. No one else could save them both, and no one else was ever going to tell Kanda about how he alone took out more akuma than they'd seen since their first mission. He'd always been this good.
Concentrating, Daisya tried as best he could to slow down the flow of sound and spread it out even further as he zig-zagged between the trees to keep out of the akuma's sights. The burn of pain was only just coming back as the pack's weight came down on him, veering off the way the walking path went.
"Lena!" he called, speeding up as much as he could without tripping.
There was a crash behind him, another one, and then a hum like a thrown stone as she swooped down behind him, snagging him by the waist and soaring upwards, upwards, towards the canopy as the ground fell away and—
"Brace yourself," she said.
They hit the layer of branches that formed a roof over the forest, cracking them easily with the force at Lenalee's heels. It didn't feel so easy, though, when she was using your body as a battering ram.
At last, though, they broke through the top and Daisya felt the cold, cold wind on his face as she raced them back. He could see the single, writhing grey mass of akuma try to follow, pushing awkwardly through the tops of the trees with pale nightmare faces. Not just the ones they were running away from, but new ones, coming up right under them.
"You can probably kill them now," said Lena.
"Oh, right!"
He let go of the building tension with a deafening clang, watching as akuma burst to pieces behind them. Not enough. Lenalee shifted her grip as he tried to move, swinging around to kick the Charity Bell again as it flew back to them.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"I mean it's cold, but I can hang on."
"Good. I'll speed up."
Ah, shit.
The scraps of whatever akuma were made from drifted down limply on to the trees, but they cleared the sky for Daisya to see what they hid. His eyes were streaming with tears just from the wind. As he blinked them away, he counted, lips moving silently.
After a few seconds, he gave up.
"Is that all right?" Lenalee called. Daisya ignored her.
As if this wasn't bad enough, one spot against the pale sky was moving faster than the others, accelerating toward them with a vaguely human shape.
"Daisya?"
"We're fucked," he said.
"Sorry, I wasn't able to hear you!"
"We're fucked!"
Daisya lashed out and kicked the Charity Bell as it came back in, sending it out into the lines on lines of Level Ones in the background, advancing behind a Level Two and one figure he couldn't quite make out. It looked like a smudge on the sky, only the head poking out marked it as a person.
"Then take care of it!"
Well, he guessed he didn't have much of a choice. Kanda couldn't save them this time.
…
"I'm sorry, Lady Road. The Exorcists have escaped."
The Level Two squad leader saluted even in its monstrous form, following Road on to the carnage of the battlefield. Branches were still falling on to the ground from the hole the Exorcists punched in the canopy, running away just when she'd arrived. So rude.
"Chase them," Road said shortly. "Don't mess up again, okay? I miiiight have to kill you."
"Yes, Lady Road."
The Level Two took to the air again, directing a Level One back to get reinforcements with a snarl. Road followed her at an easy pace, aiming Lero for the same opening the Exorcists had used.
"You know, I think I saw that Exorcist, once."
"Really, Miss Road? We didn't meet any of them that we allowed to live, except that old man and that redhead—"
"I know, idiot."
Road sighed, breathing in the fresh piney scent of the damaged forest.
"Never mind that, why'd they send a couple of kids here? I saw that girl, she wasn't any taller than me! I don't want to be babysitting, I'm here to kill someone who matters."
"Miss Road, it is possible that the Black Order sent those Exorcists to investigate the Finders, lero! Maybe they didn't hear about us in time, and thought it was just a normal mission, lero!"
"Really? That's so mean!"
She sighed, pouring more power into the umbrella to speed ahead of the akuma, trying to get close enough to get another good look at the boy exorcist with the marks on his eyes. There was something about him…
"Lero," she declared, "Good work! You're a good friend, you know that? I don't know what I'd do without you."
"Th-th-thank you, Miss Road!"
It wasn't that she'd met that Exorcist before, she'd just seen him in the old man's dream. That's why she'd recognized his corpse, when she was chasing down circuses for the Earl off east of the Alps. She'd passed by the old Abbey just to check on the Innocence that was supposed to be there, but she only found the body.
It was weird that these kids were here instead of an Exorcist General, but an Exorcist was an Exorcist. She supposed she'd just kill them and make a clean slate of it. But first, she had to find out how a dead boy got better.
"Lero, fly down into the trees, okay?"
"Of course, Miss Road!"
Minor continuity note bc even I have a hard time keeping track: Road has shown up a couple of times before. She fought Tiedoll, she made the illusory trap that Daisya got caught in that Kanda had to get him out of, and she ran into Daisya after he got crushed to bits at the old Abbey and was still only just clinging to life. Understandably, she's a little curious...