Prima Materia
Seven.| The Weeping Bell
|Six years ago. Black Order Headquarters, Training Ground.|
The noisy clacking of wood hitting wood resounded in the rather large and empty training area as two children sparred in the open.
The ones making such a ruckus were Kanda and Celia striking at each other left and right, the former with a bokken and the latter with a wooden polearm. A young Lenalee, despite having also been training with a wooden dummy, had halted hers for the day and sat by Marie who was supervising their training for the day. However, that was a rather broad statement, really. The two older kids could go at it for hours if left alone and his supervision was primarily so that they would end in a timely manner and not run long as they tended to do.
The young Chinese stared in awe as the two fought fervently against one another, their movements swift and precise with their respective weapons. Beside her, Marie chuckled, somewhat amused at what he heard as both continued spectating the sparring session.
Grunting, Celia skidded back from Kanda's latest forefront attack. Breath ragged, her eyes darted for an opening—any opening—but trying to find one in Kanda's stance was like trying to find a crack in a well-built wall. Gritting her teeth, she dashed forward and jumped, twirling her polearm above her before coming down with the momentum of her fall. The older boy read her intentions before she even left the ground and took the opportunity to step forward and move behind her as she landed her attack.
A hard whack came to her right shoulder and she yelped before spinning around to scowl back at Kanda. Meanwhile, he simply kept an impassive expression that was starting to border on annoyance.
"You're leaving yourself wide open, idiot," he chided.
"I can't exactly guard my openings with a two-handed weapon, jerk!"
He hmphed and took his stance again. "What a poor excuse." Before she could shoot another retort back, Kanda darted forward and took the offensive with unbelievable speed. Celia, unable to readily see his movements, took the brunt of each hit of his bokken against her polearm. It was really all she could do. With that kind of speed, there wasn't any time for her to think about else except to block. Each hit that came drove her further back, the force of each strike powerful enough even with a simple wooden sword. Furious at being driven into a corner, Celia took a chance in between hits and stepped forward to try and sneak in a counterassault.
Crack!
A yelp escaped her the instant her polearm snapped in half from Kanda's frontal strike, hands aching from the force of it and bones rattling from the immense force it took to do so. Splintering at the point of impact but not completely breaking apart like hers had, Kanda twisted the grip on his bokken and struck her with a swift stab to the chest. With a grunt, Celia fell back and barely caught herself as she did, gaining scratches on her palms that broke her fall as she toppled to the ground. Trying to stand up proved useless as well when Kanda held the end of his bokken against her chest yet again to keep her down.
His ever-present scowl deepened and he audibly clicked his tongue before saying, "Wide open," and at last withdrawing the wooden sword.
"Damn it!" she yelled, sprinting forward intent on fighting him hand-to-hand if she had to, but was stopped short by Marie who had by then reached her where she was and tucked her under his arm to keep her from raging at Kanda.
"Now, let's not be sore losers, Celia. Big breathes, big breathes."
It took a minute but Marie managed to somehow defuse the ticking bomb that had been her mounting rage. Though that in itself was questionable as he could sort of hear her fuming still from her overwhelming defeat.
"How many is that?" Lenalee asked Kanda, holding onto his sleeve as he tossed the broken bokken away with an audible 'tch, trash'.
"How would I know? I'm not keeping count," he replied.
"78." All heads turned to Celia, cheeks flushed from embarrassment and indignation at begrudgingly admitting such a thing. "Yuu's beaten me 78 times and I haven't gotten him once," she repeated through gritted teeth.
"Don't call me that," he shouted, losing his temper rather easily but returning to a mild version of himself and frowning back at her. "Besides, you wouldn't suck at this so much if you actually put some thought into how you fight. But I guess there's no point putting in something that you don't have."
Celia exploded into a rage almost instantly and thrashed in Marie's hold, her threat surging forward and echoing throughout the Order as Kanda promptly left them behind.
"Come back here, you asshole! I'm going to kill you!"
|Present Day; One month later. Tarragona, Spain.|
"Yet I wish I could share my heart with you once again,
So now I'll try sending the remnants of those ties if I can—"
The wind carried the soft tone of her voice as the words turned to a soft hum until they returned once more to mutter the little tune under her breath.
"But like rain, gently falling down to earth on the wind, they're
Fluttering and fluttering away…"
Celia released a long sigh as the refrain died with her voice. The running waters of a river below her rushed by as she sat on the railings of a wooden bridge, blaring over her quiet voice. Midday was rather lukewarm in these parts of Europe, but she wasn't complaining. Compared to Egypt, this place was heaven. Above her, Navi's tinkling kept on ringing softly as the breeze that blew by them had her working as a to-go wind chime.
All in all, it should've been a peaceful respite.
It should have and yet…
Stretching her arms overhead to release some of the pent-up tension in her shoulders didn't seem to do anything as she mulled over her reason for being there.
After her communication with Komui the month prior about the groups formed to protect the Generals from the Earl's manhunt—or Heart-hunt would be more accurate, she supposed—the dread from having to join the team assigned to her hadn't subsided in the least. In fact, the closer she had gotten to Spain, the more it'd mounted in her, leaving her with a sick feeling in her stomach that impeded her from eating well ever since she arrived. That itself was saying something already. But there wasn't any helping it, either.
Tiedoll's group consisted of three others aside from her. Marie was a great person and she was certainly happy to be able to meet him again ever since her return to the Order. Daisya Barry was someone she didn't know; apparently, he had joined the Order a few years after she had already left. The prospective of meeting someone new had her somewhat looking forward to it; by a very fractional margin, anyway.
And of course, the one she dreaded most of all.
The thought of Kanda came with a sweet-sour feeling. Their latest meeting hadn't been the 'best' by any stretch of the word. Now having to work alongside him to find General Tiedoll would be either a nightmare or mildly uncomfortable. Whichever it ended up being would greatly depend on his mood.
Don't lie.
Okay, fine. Maybe she was still rather peeved about how he treated her back in Mater and had intended to give him the cold shoulder as much as he would her. But if that was how they were going to be, then this would be a rather ineffective team-up. Not to mention awkward for the other two.
Just find a way to get through this Celia. Mend the bridge. Mend it.
Psyching herself up for the encounter with that attitude in mind only lasted for a few minutes before Navi's tinkling became a bit more erratic and brought her attention back to the white golem. Facing the way it faced, Celia watched from a distance as three dark figures approached her. A lump grew in her throat and she gulped it down the best she could before climbing back onto the bridge. Celia tapped her cheeks a couple of times to ready herself and took a deep breath before plastering on a smile and running up to meet them.
Marie was the first to notice her, of course, having heard her from afar.
"Is that really you, Celia?"
Grinning broadly, she bounced in place to make herself known before throwing herself at the large man to give him a giant hug. "Marie, I'm so glad to see you again! It's been a while."
The tallest of them scoffed but offered her a smile all the same. "Too long," he said and placed a hand on her head to ruffle her hair. "Welcome back."
Thanking him for the warm welcome, her amethyst eyes turned to the one person that was entirely new to her and stretched out her hand to him. "Hello. We haven't had the pleasure to meet before. I'm Celia, Celia Valentine."
"Wow, Marie never mentioned you were this cute." He snickered at the way her hand faltered at the unexpected commentary. "Just a joke. The Marie part, not the cute part. The name's Daisya Barry, by the way. Nice to meet ya too, Celia-chan." With that said, Daisya shook her hand and showed a bright grin. Joke aside, Celia could tell he'd be easy to get along with.
Score for her.
Lastly, her gaze fell to meet a dark cobalt pair that stared impassively back at her. At first showing him a blasé expression, Celia turned the switch and smiled sweetly at him as if intending to make peace with that. Her plan backfired however when instead Kanda simply scowled back before continuing on ahead towards the way they were already heading.
Much like before, her chest pained her at being so blatantly ignored but when Marie chastised him, she asked for it to be let go for now with a smile that didn't really reach her eyes.
"We should get a move on. Catching up to General Tiedoll isn't gonna be easy, after all."
Celia gave a curt 'thank you' to the old lady running her food stand as she was given her groceries in a large brown bag. Skipping to where Daisya waited for her, arms as full as hers, the two began their trek back to where Kanda and Marie waited in the outskirts of the town to continue on their way.
Because of the General's rather flippant way of conducting himself out in the field, it was almost certain that he had already moved on from the last location that he had transmitted to Headquarters. They had all silently agreed upon that fact while discussing where to head next. A fair assumption, in her opinion. General Tiedoll had been very laissez-faire back when she was a child under his tutelage and although he could certainly be stern when the need arose, the old man was first and foremost a very go-with-the-flow kind of person. Nevertheless, Marie was right. They couldn't discard any possible location, no matter how slim the chance of him being there really was.
Hence why Barcelona, the old man's last known location from a couple of weeks ago, was their next stop.
It'd be a rather long trek from Tarragona but if they went on ahead with only the necessary time to sleep and eat in-between, they would be able to considerably cut their travel time. At least she hoped so. There was no way she'd be losing sleep and what's worse, skipping meals, for nothing.
"So." Snapping her out of her train of thought, Daisya gave her a side-eye before a mischievous grin came over his features. "What's got you on Kanda's bad side?"
Ugh.
"Is it that obvious?" she questioned, her shoulders dropping instantly at Daisya's snicker. "I'm assuming he's already given you guys his reason as to why he's not overly ecstatic about me joining your team."
"Him? Mr. Socialite? Pft." Daisya guffawed at the idea, throwing his head back at doing so and letting the bell on the tip of his hood—his Innocence—ring as he did so. Now that he was laughing so openly about it, Celia finally noticed the absurdity of her words and frowned. Wiping away the tears that formed at the corner of his eyes, Daisya turned to her with a smirk. "Hardly. Marie told me what was up. Also told me of your little five-year-long escapade."
"Wasn't exactly a vacation," she muttered.
"Wanna know my guess?" He continued on, not really waiting for her affirmation. "If I didn't know better, I'd guess that he's angry at you for leaving. But I do know him well enough to say that that doesn't sound much like a Kanda thing for him to do."
He wasn't completely wrong.
Though maybe it was because they had completely different notions of him because of when they met Kanda that Celia couldn't readily agree with him. If it weren't for the fact that she had spent over a year with him when they were kids, she, too, would have just brushed his attitude off as just another quirk of his oh-so-charming personality. But she did spend over a year with him when they were kids. She did know him better.
And Celia knew that this wasn't just him being his pissy self.
Unconsciously, her fingers brushed against the dark blue beads of the bracelet that wrapped around her right wrist.
"But if that is the reason and you're as remorseful about it as you look, then you should just tell him that and say you're sorry. After all, if he's worried enough to be angry, then that certainly means he still cares, right?"
She couldn't help the scoff that escaped her at his simple-minded response. That would work for anybody else, she mused, but not Kanda. Certainly not.
…right?
"Say, Daisya, where are you from?"
"Huh? Who me?"
Assenting with a hum, Celia diverted the topic of the conversion to something else entirely. Thankfully, Daisya played along and began telling him about himself, allowing their idle prattle on their way back to flow more naturally.
It was interesting to listen to others' life stories. It gave her a sense of the world and how vast it was when compared to her nonexistent one. In Daisya's case, it broadened it to the coasts of Turkey to a little coastal city named Bodrum where his merchant family lived, and where his siblings resided with his parents to this day. Celia listened intently to the stories he told her, laughing at the anecdotes of mischief he pulled and smiling at the tender way he described his younger siblings whom he used to regularly look after.
The chime of Charity Bell on his hood came through as he laughed particularly hard after retelling yet another mischief of his while training with General Tiedoll. A slight spark came to the fingertips of her left hand which she dispelled mindlessly by gripping the paper bag tighter.
"What about you, Celia-chan?"
"Mm?" Her hum came out without a thought before her mind caught up and sweated a little at the question. "Compared to yours, mine's nothing special."
"Oh, come on," he jested, playfully shoving his shoulder against hers. "You gotta share too. It's no fun when I'm the only one spilling out here."
True. It'd be the right thing to do. Quid-pro-quo as they said. Still, talking about this was something she seldom liked mentioning since, like she truthfully said, her story was nothing special. His insistent ass kept bugging her about it, though, so she opted for telling him the short version of the truth.
"My guardian was the mistress of a brothel in China. After an Akuma attack wiped it out, General Cross found me and took me in before sending me to Headquarters." Celia gave a nonchalant shrug, her eyes dull while a thin line came to her lips. "Nothing special."
Celia hadn't meant for the rather pleasant mood to dip because of her. Though she supposed it was inevitable from the question she herself brought up. Brought this upon myself. Heaving a long sigh, her gaze wandered briefly in search of something to dispel the awkwardness but stopped at a particular store when she saw the image forged onto the metal sign displayed above its door.
"Go ahead of me, Daisya." Her hand tapped his shoulder as she turned towards the confectionary. "I'm gonna go buy some sweets for the trip."
"I can just come with."
To this, she swiftly shook her head and smiled back sweetly. "No need. Since I'll just be in and out, it'd be a waste of time. Don't want Kanda anymore pissed off than he already is at me, anyway. I promise I'll be quick."
"Well, alright then. I'll go on ahead."
Once he was a few steps away, Celia gave another glance up at the metal sign swinging above the door that displayed the confectionary's name over a very distinctive laurel of purple begonias. The bell rang above her head as she entered and went to the nearest display of candies. A group of young children dawdled about, getting their pick of sweets before paying and leaving the store. Picking a handful herself she brought it up to the cashier, a man coming up on his years with salt-and-pepper colored hair and dark green eyes that warmly glanced at her as he rang up her order.
As he counted her total, Celia gave a glance around at the rest of the store with the hint of a smile. "Quite the place you have here, mister. Rare to see around these parts."
"It's tough to upkeep because of it," he chuckled, his friendliness clearly for the sake of customer service. "The children enjoy it though which makes it greatly worth it in my opinion."
"I bet," she said with a short laugh. Quickly enough, he bagged her handful of candies while she busied herself with paying up before he passed it on to her.
"Here you go, miss." He smiled at her as he said, "Thank you for your patronage."
As she took the bag, her eyes caught sight of what she'd been looking for. Stamped on the inner part of his wrist was a rather simple tattoo. A single-lined circle with the plain outline of a purple begonia bloom and a few leaves on the border of the circle facing him. It was small, no larger than maybe a couple of fingers, but it was easily distinguishable if one knew what it looked like.
"Thanks to you, too, mister. Oh, and by the way…" Her sentence drew on until she finally caught his attention. Once on her, Celia smiled as she brushed a few strands of hair behind her right ear where an identical tattoo, hers no bigger than her own thumb, was printed right behind her ear just above her earlobe. "Scientia est immortalis."
Dark green eyes widened a bit in recognition and recited back, "Sicut domina nostra in cinere." It was then that he showed her the tattoo she had a peek of before bowing his head solemnly. "I welcome you, traveler. You look weary from your journey. Might it be lodging you seek today?"
Celia shook her head with a smile. "Not planning on staying long, but thanks. I'm actually been asking around the ring about any information on a certain someone."
"Of course," he responded without hesitation. "If my side of the network possesses it, you are more than welcome to it. Whom may this person be exactly?"
It was with this that Celia laughed rather nervously as she rubbed the back of her neck. "That's kind of the thing. I don't have a name, just a description. A blonde man with blue eyes who travels with a sickly-looking girl."
Something about that simple description seemed to bring a light of recognition to the old man's eyes. He stepped back and placed his chin in his hand pensively until the realization struck him.
"You must be the young lady that the archbishop sent to search for his niece." Flattered at being so widely known, Celia couldn't help the half-smirk that lifted a side of her lips as she gave a casual shrug. "Word of you has reached every border of the ring, young traveler. I regret to inform you, however, that no word of such young man has reached this side."
Damn.
It was worth the shot.
"Pity. Thank you all the same, mister." She grabbed the paper bag he'd rung up for her and grinned. "Thanks for the sweets, too!"
He nodded, "May our lady's knowledge aid you in your search."
Celia gave him a backhanded wave as she went to open the door, but before she even pulled it, another thought came to her. One that brought a question with it that perhaps could be easier to find an answer to.
"Say, has the ring heard of any sightings of a priest named Cross Marian?"
After a moment, the man lifted his gaze to her and nodded. "A courier from the east told of a possible sighting of a redheaded man going by that name near the eastern ports of China. The information is a few weeks old however so its validity could be questionable now."
"Mm, I see. Thanks, mister!"
The bell above her head rang as she exited and started making her way toward the others. Not paying much attention to where she was going, Celia simply followed Navi's direction back to the others while skipping along the sidewalk.
China, huh?
Must be where Allen and his team were headed. China was a huge country but surely Tim would guide them in the right direction. Much more accurately than the ring could, anyway. Doing her best to unwrap one of the sweets to pop it in her mouth while juggling the brown bag she'd been carrying, her thoughts wandered to the white-haired boy, a soft smile appearing on her features at doing so.
Hope all is well on your end, Al.
|That night.|
"So…close… Take…them…"
Eyes shot wide open as Celia awoke in a cold sweat only to find the vast dark void that was the starry night sky above through the canopy of trees. A wicked headache throbbed at her temple as she sat up from where she slept on the grass, her hand coming up to rub at the side of her head in an attempt to ease it.
Grass? …right.
They had stopped for the night after leaving the city to camp out. A quick stop, Marie said, since they weren't sure how far gone General Tiedoll could wander, they needed to manage their time well if they wanted to catch up to him. All in all, they were on the back end. Celia wouldn't function well with only a few hours of sleep, but rather than let whatever nightmares plagued her take it from her, she decided to do it herself.
Rising from the ground, she walked further into the forest and found a small clearing where the light of the moon traveled through the thick canopy, illuminating it. It was spacious and quite a bit away from their encampment. A thought suddenly came to her.
If I can't sleep, I might as well do something productive.
Her fingers took the hairpin from the messy bun over her head and summoned her glaive with only a small flash of light. Bringing it to its most barebones form, Celia twirled it around in her arms a few times before facing a particularly sturdy-looking tree and began running her usual training drills. They were mindless ministrations at this point. All the same, she made sure to practice them when she could, knowing well that rusted skills could be the be-all-end-all in their line of work. Obviously, these worked better with a partner but through the years of traveling alone, she had grown more than used to practicing on her own.
The single blade struck the tough bark over and over as she spun the polearm and herself in the intricate steps of her exercises. It was akin to dancing, she found. The way her feet meticulously had to be placed at certain angles and certain positions in order for her to take the most advantage of her own strength and precision; how every swing had to be placed precisely so as to counterbalance the weight of her blades and use that momentum to its utmost; the way her sight could never be lost on the target despite the twists and turns she took to grow said momentum.
It all needed to be exact.
Scrupulous.
Flawless.
"Perfect."
"What in the hell are you doing?"
Stumbling, Celia stepped forth a little too forcefully and stabbed the blade right into the tree trunk, embedding the blade a little too deeply into the bark. Unable to wrestle it out at first, she sighed and looked over her shoulder to meet the dark cobalt eyes that threw a glare at her from not that far away in the shade of the trees.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" she grunted, at last wrenching the thing out by putting her whole back into it and even stumbling a bit back from the excess. Brandishing it out as she faced him, Celia tried matching his ever-present frown.
"You're going to attract Akuma to us."
That's really all you have to say to me?
Celia scoffed and wore a rather blasé expression on her face instead. "No, I won't." Without preamble, she gave him her back, twirling her glaive as she went about it. "Just go back to sleep and leave me be. I'll see you in the morning."
Going back to her exercises and simply ignoring his presence as he had hers wasn't a strategy she thought would work. And before the first quiet minutes could prove her wrong, Kanda's voice rose over the sound of her strikes.
"You're being stupid, baiting out danger to us like this."
"I'm not—baiting—anything!" Every grunt she gave was combined with a strike, each landing with even more power as her feigned calmness began showing its cracks.
It was then that a rather quiet hmph reached her ears. That alone tipped her mood over the edge. Putting a little too much energy into it, the edges of her blades sharpened considerably and splintered the trunk into far smaller pieces that made little to no noise as they fell onto the ground.
Anger having festered for long enough, Celia turned to Kanda, ears tinted the slightest hue of red. "If you're just going to be a nuisance, leave!"
"I should be the one saying that," he commented straightforwardly. His hand fell on the hilt of his Innocence as his frown deepened. "It's all you've been since you returned."
That's it.
Screech.
There hadn't been an ounce of hesitation. Not from her when she spun on her heels and struck him with her Innocence fully activated and not from him when he blocked her attack with just the scabbard of his. The mere fact that he managed to stop her without even unsheathing it had her seething even more. Celia took a step forward to bring them closer as she leaned her whole weight on her glaive and hissed through gritted teeth.
"Well, fucking forgive me for coming back!"
It was his unresponsiveness that then pushed her further over the edge and had her stepping back to once again strike back at him. Each light step was soundless but forceful all the same as she struck, spun on her heels, struck, and spun again. Methodically, Celia's strikes forced him back, one step then another, until finally, Kanda's back found a tree that impeded his retreat any further.
C'mon. C'mon. C'mon!
"Fight back, you damn coward!"
Crack.
Amethyst eyes grew wide at the sudden move that took no more than the blink of an eye to happen.
The bright sheen of Mugen's blade was all she saw before the tension that held her glaive together slacken as the blade cut it clean in half. Dark cobalt eyes narrowed at her as he made to strike her and finish this child's play. Kanda stepped forward. Just as he was about to rush at her, however, the distinctive rattling of chains forced him back in time to avoid the blade that rushed past him from behind.
Celia caught the broken half of her glaive as it retracted towards her, the other held tightly in her right as an energy chain connected the two halves. A deep exhale left her after catching it, her shoulders tensing only for a moment at the weight of what she made happen. It was ridiculous to have to unleash her Innocence's second level when she was just sparring but Kanda was really starting to get on her nerves by that point. Her level two wasn't something very outstanding in her eyes. Using the main base of Hand of God as a guidepost and by utilizing more stamina, it enabled her to alter the shape of her weapon without it having to completely be broken apart. Despite the considerable amount of energy it took to change it, it was miles better than what it took from her when it completely broke.
Too caught up in the moment to care, Celia charged forward, throwing one of her blades at Kanda who swiftly evaded it before catching the brunt of the other that she struck down at him with. Cobalt eyes focused on the minuscule movements that suddenly happened one after another. A step forth, another back. A flick of her wrist, the rattling of chains. All suddenly telltale signs of her thought process as her fighting style somehow changed.
Hearing the blade returning, he side-stepped it as it shot past on his other side, but by doing so, ended up entangling himself within the grasp of the phantom chain.
Seeing her opening, Celia elongated its length as she caught the missing blade in her free hand and made to strike down with both. Another bright flash, however, stopped her blades in midair as she struggled against something that completely gridlocked her attack. It took her a moment to realize what the flash had been and what it meant; that and finally recognizing what had blocked her blades.
A pair of swords; Mugen and its mirrored-half.
Double Illusion Sword.
The crack of a grin appeared at the sight of the two swords parrying her blades despite the constriction of her chains.
I forced it out. I forced him to use his Second Illusion.
A boisterous laugh escaped her at the same time that her grip slackened seconds before her invocation suddenly dispelled itself. The two halves disappeared into a bubble of green energy, the chains disappearing without a trace, and all that was left was the hairpin that remained whole and intact in her left hand. Staggering back as she held her stomach, her laughter grew louder and louder until her eyes teemed with tears at the corners. Kanda, all the while, couldn't help the irritation growing in him from her nonsensical mockery until at last, he exploded.
"Enough! What the hell are you laughing at!?"
His outburst only made it all the funnier. Finally, she stumbled onto a tree and couldn't do much else except slide down to a seat as her laughter eventually subsided. Wiping the tears from her eyes, a familiar glint came to them as she smiled at him.
"Y-You really haven't changed in the least. You still take things way too seriously. Even sparring!"
This time only a bout of chuckles spilled out of her. Though it irritated him all the same, seeing all that did was goad her on, he undid his invocation with a sharp 'tch' and a dark scowl instead.
"And you're still too damn laidback to take anything seriously."
"T-Touché," she said as her giddiness finally died down.
Amidst this new silence that they allowed to settle between them, Celia came to find that it didn't weigh on her like it had before. He was talking to her. At least addressing her with something more than grunts and monosyllabic responses. That allowed for the pain in her chest to lessen ever the slightest. But if what she wanted was for it to leave in its entirety, Celia knew exactly what had to be done.
" After all, if he's worried enough to be angry, then that certainly means he still cares, right?"
"I'm sorry."
"What are you talking about now?"
Celia released a long sigh, unable to believe he could just force these things out of her with his dumb questions, but her lips turned upwards at the corners all the same. He was really going to make her spell it out, wasn't he? Daisya was right, though. He was there, worrying in his very unique way about her, and wasn't giving her the cold shoulder like before. Kanda was there because he cared, even if a little because otherwise he wouldn't even bother wasting the energy it'd take to be upset with her.
Rubbing a hand down her face, she let her hand fall over her eyes so she wouldn't have to see his pretty mug while she said what she needed to. That and so that he wouldn't see the warmth that she felt crawling up her neck towards her face.
"I'm sorry about leaving for all those years without saying anything. I didn't mean to worry any of you. I know that I did though, and I'm…I'm sorry for that."
The words rapidly escaped through her lips and she heaved a sigh after saying them. Wow. That took a lot more to say than she imagined it would. Knocking her head back against the tree, Celia closed her eyes and let the relief of having admitted that to the one person that needed to hear it wash over her and finally lift the heaviness and pain that bore into her chest.
Leaves crunched under light footsteps that stopped in front of her as shuffling came to her ears not long before something apparently settled beside her. Opening her eyes, she glimpsed Kanda sitting beside her with a bit of space between them as he used the same tree to lean up against.
"What the hell was so goddamn important anyway?" he asked.
Huh, he wants to talk about it? That was new. He never was one to poke his nose in other people's business. Then again this wasn't unwelcomed, because, of course, it was something to tease him about.
"Aw, were you worried about me?" Celia cooed with a mischievous grin threatening to come over her features.
That only caused Kanda's ire to grow, a vein popping on his temple as he growled back. "Because of your little stunt, I had to deal with Lenalee bothering me for years about you."
A soft chuckle escaped her at the thought of a younger him grumbling at a rather overbearing Lena yet never actually pushing her away. "Thanks for watching over her while I was gone," she finally said with a giggle as a tender smile replaced her grin.
Leaning forward, her hand cupped her cheek as she stared straight ahead at nothing in particular, pondering about the question he had posed before. Her other hand played with the chain of the thing that would explain everything for a long moment before she reached back with both hands to bring it over and off her head. Carefully, Celia held it by the chain and let it dangle in front of his face until he finally took it in his hand.
"What is this?" he asked, not really bothering to even glance at it.
"A clue about my family." That itself had him inspecting the coin in his hands at last. Not like he was going to find much that Cross hadn't already told her though. His brief inspection at least gave her the chance to tell him about it. "Cross gave it to me shortly before I left him and Allen behind. The bastard had had an inkling before about where I came from—y'know…before Madame Red. He just didn't think it was necessary for me to know, or something like that. But I wanted to know—I still do. He gave that to me when he finally agreed to be helpful for once after I told him that the reason why I wanted to find them was because I wanted to know where I came from."
"A dumb reason," he interjected.
His bluntness didn't strike her as offensive despite how used to it she was. If anything, it had her laughing a bit under her breath because of how true his words were in reality.
"Isn't it?" A crooked smile came to her lips as her eyes lowered to her hands where her fingers intertwined with one another and her thumbs fiddled with each other. "It kind of does sound like a flimsy reason whenever I say it out loud. Especially since because of it I lost so much time with you guys. Still…" Her thumbs stopped and the grip holding her hands together grew stronger. "It was my choice to leave. I went because I wanted—because I want to find them. Because someone out there knows me and things about me. They could even care about me, too. Miss me even."
Heaving a long sigh, she let her eyes linger on her conjoined hands. "I'm something to someone out there—I'm their family and they're mine. One I forgot about. One I want to get back if there's a chance to."
No matter how slim it is.
The glint of gold caught her eye as the coin dangled from its chain a few inches from her face.
"Doesn't make it any less of an idiotic endeavor."
Celia took the coin into her right palm but left her fist hanging there for a brief moment. Because of this, when Kanda went to lower his hand, the beaded bracelet resting on his wrist—an identical one to hers—bumped against hers, making a distinct clacking resound between them. He didn't bother acknowledging the mistake and instead crossed his arms over his chest. Celia, however, stared at the dark blue beads of the bracelet she had never once removed since she left the Order all those years ago.
One of the few things that had remained constant through the years of traveling on her own was that little piece of jewelry. Through the long days and frightening nights alone, it became sort of like an anchor, her safe harbor to which she could tell anything. Her fears, her desires, her promises. A place she knew would keep them safe because it came from the person that made her feel safe.
In some way, it's like you were with me for those five long years.
Gently, Celia let her head fall against his shoulder and could only chuckle at the disgruntled click of his tongue that he gave her.
"Don't you worry your pretty little head over it, Yuu. You and Lena will always be my favorites!"
He bristled at the name-calling and gave off his expected 'don't call me that' that never failed to get a laugh out of her. "And get off me, already!"
"But you're being so cute~" she cooed in response. "I can see how you and Al can get along so well together when the two of you are so adorable when embarrassed."
"Don't compare me to that damn moyashi?! And don't call me cute, either!"
Taking advantage of his outburst to slip her arm through his, Celia held tight onto him with both of her arms before burying her face against his arm. Kanda never once stopped complaining and that gave her enough leeway to mumble what she really meant to say without outright being overheard.
"Even if I find them…you all will always be the ones I love the most."
Kanda stopped his tantrum but Celia paid it no mind. Not even as he shuffled in place yet not once pushing her away as she scooted closer and snuggled against his shoulder better to take a deep breath and with it breathe in the faint yet sweet scent of flowers.
"...idiot."
A small smile pulled at the corner of her lips as she let her breath even out to the point that she didn't even notice herself falling asleep.
|The Next Morning.|
Both Marie and Daisya halted at one end of the clearing as a rather odd sight came into view for one of them.
"Ooh, boy." A taunting smirk formed on Daisya's lips as his expression turned mischievous. "I'm never going to let him live this one down."
Marie could do nothing but smile at his comrade's childishness. Despite it, he let himself listen carefully to what had guided them there.
Soft breathes. They were close together. Calm and peaceful. They were accompanied by the gentle beating of two hearts as Kanda and Celia slumbered away into the break of dawn.
"Come," Marie whispered, rapping Daisya behind the head and earning a scowl from the man. "Let us pack up."
"What about the sleeping beauties over there?" he asked with a thumb signaling behind them as he followed behind their elder back to where their encampment was. "Shouldn't we wake them up?"
"Later. Let them rest for now."
Despite having been unable to see it, Marie could vividly recall another time when the two who were at constant odds with each other since they were children had been like this. The same peacefulness in their soft breaths. The soothing beating of their hearts as they beat in tandem as they made peace.
All after a similar spat like the one he happened to overhear last night.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you. And cursed at you. And said that I'd kill you. I didn't mean it, Yuu."
"Whatever. Just quit calling me that."
The man snickered to himself at the memory.
"It's been a long time since they last made up. It was long overdue."
|Two weeks later. Past midnight. Barcelona, Spain.|
What in the hell—Just what in the fucking hell did we stumble into!?
Celia yearned to scream.
Scream and let out all her frustrations that were mounting up since they arrived in this godforsaken city. But she couldn't. Not if she wanted to avoid attracting the Akuma horde's attention. Frankly, after hours of fighting, duking this out the inefficient way wasn't something she wanted at the moment.
Still…having to run around like a damn mouse to avoid several cats in their lair was starting to get old.
Ragged pants escaped her as she slipped into a nearby house whose door had been blown wide open from the ambush. The assault on the city had been totally out of left field. Especially because of the sheer number of Akuma that appeared. No matter the angle she looked at it, this wasn't just some random attack. This had been planned somehow. Finding out how and by whom, however, was the least of their troubles right now.
Because of its suddenness, there wasn't any helping the absurd amount of casualties that came in its wake. With little warning came little time to evacuate civilians, after all. Celia came to experience that firsthand through the disaster she encountered within the house she sought refuge in. Everything seemed eerily out of place with clothes and dust scattered about inside the bullet-hole-ridden edifice.
It allowed for a brief reprieve, at least, if she didn't stop to think too hard about the implications of how it became so empty.
Peeking out the doorway, Celia quickly retracted her head and snatched something inside before the Akuma that passed by the house could see her. Navi wriggled in her grasp but all Celia had to do to grab her attention was tug her tail hard and push her head down to keep her from flying and making noise that could possibly attract the Akuma roaming around.
"Would you quit it?!" she hissed back at the golem who shrunk into itself and snuck onto the crook of her neck where her coat would dampen the noise of her wings. Suddenly, the star on its face blinked as a transmission came through.
"Bzzkzt—over place—"
"For fuck's sake!" Celia covered Navi further with the lapel of her cape despite how badly her ears hurt from the blaring static that came through. Irritated as is, this did nothing but escalate it further. "Daisya! What the hell, man?!"
"You sound terrible, Daisya," Marie's voice called, echoing her sentiment in a rather more tactful way.
"So—bzzkt." It cleared a bit, at least enough for a good few sentences to slip through. "My communications golem's been acting up lately."
"Where are you guys?" Kanda asked, setting that matter aside.
Huh, he sounded tired. All of them did, in fact. Good to know she wasn't the only one having a hard time there. Well, good and bad, she figured with a slight grimace.
Daisya through static gave his location as 2 miles east of a big central tower. Marie, about 3 to the west. Kanda, to the south and so specification.
Typical.
"Uhh…" Celia's words trailed behind her as she gambled a peek out the door. In the distance, she could spot the tower they were talking about and gave it an estimate. "Two miles north, I think? I'm on the slope so maybe 3 and a half."
"Bzzkt—Looks like it's going to be a long night."
"No kidding," she added before huddling back into the house at the sign of yet more Akuma roaming about. Navi tinkled from inside her coat and Celia did her best to soothe the golem with a gentle pat. "The surrounding area is teeming with them."
"I can hear the Akuma all over the place, as well. Looks like we've run into a nest of them."
Yeah, no kidding. Whoever said it'd be a good idea to hit Barcelona was gonna get a personal ass-kicking from her after all this was over.
"Let's regroup," Kanda quickly interjected. "We can track each other by our golems within a six-mile radius." Eyeing Navi real quick, the golem gave her an affirmative blink of a green star to assure her that yes, she was in fact also capable of that.
"Then let's head out to Old Man Marie's location, Kanda, Celia-chan."
"Sounds fine to me." Her mutter was low as she slowly got up and kept a crouched position as she faced the open doorway. "What's the time limit?"
Kanda's voice rang through Navi, his deep baritone tone clear as could be with his direction.
"Dawn."
"Stay close, Navs."
Only a single tinkle came through before Celia sprinted out towards the city streets and into the cat's lair. Twirling her glaive, Celia focused on getting to their location instead of fighting outright. There would be no end to them if she did that.
Striking them down as they got in her way, she rushed past tall edifices that lined either side of the street she ran down. A couple more Level 1s appeared in her way there. Skirting them and kicking off from one of the edifices, she struck one down with the propulsion of her jump before swinging her glaive back to slash at the other behind her. Landing with a heavy thud due to her iron soles, amethyst eyes gave a short glance back in an attempt to get her bearings back.
"West, west, west." Suddenly at a loss, her tongue clicked. Damn her and her nonexistent sense of direction. Groaning at her own ineptitude, she called out to Navi who instantly flew out from her hiding spot. "Get me heading west. Hurry before more Akuma get a whiff of us—"
A big enough explosion to surely blow an eardrum or two sounded off a few feet beside her and she reactively covered her head from how close by it came from. The edifice crumbled beside her almost entirely as something from the other side blew through it then. Halting in her tracks, Celia gawked and held her breath. Had the Akuma found her? The likeliest possibility, really, and it had her clutching her glaive with clammy hands. Whatever the case and however many, it'd be a matter of plowing through them just like she'd done for the past few hours.
Just another bunch of machines.
Just as she was about to preemptively strike, however, a decidedly human figure stepped back and her eyes widened at recognizing them.
"Daisya?"
Frantically, his eyes found her. It was then that she noted how badly hurt he was. Bruises and blood covered what she could see of his face and his uniform wasn't in any better form. There wasn't any time for her to get near him though, not when he shouted back at her the instant his eyes landed on her.
"Get away!?"
The sheer volume and deep-seated panic in his voice ran a shiver down her spine that held her in place just long enough to see the flurry of black butterflies that swarmed towards Daisya. A worried cry lodged in her throat as he attempted to dispel them with Charity Bell, her feet moving forward ready to step up and help him when something else came into view from the makeshift hole.
"What do we have here—huh? You're a girl! Wait, are you another Exorcist? Well, that's definitely a first."
Her amethyst gaze fell upon the deep sultry voice that came from the tall tuxedoed man standing a few feet away from her. Celia's first thought was a civilian, but that couldn't be. Not with the shape the whole city was in. No person in their right mind would stay here if they managed to survive the initial onslaught. No matter how much she may have hoped, there was simply no way this man was a civilian.
His appearance made it even less likely as she took it in.
Ashen skin. Golden eyes. Stigmata.
Who—
Ba-dump.
Her hand clutched at her coat at the absurdly forceful heartbeat that suddenly hit against her chest and thrummed loudly against her eardrums.
Ba-dump.
What's…going on?
It didn't hurt. On the contrary, it felt…invigorating? Whatever it'd been, it had her blood boiling within her as it ran through her veins. What's more, every time it beat, she could feel her senses getting sharper and duller at the same time. Sharper to her vigorous heartbeat and duller to everything else. All at once, it felt like everything slowed down as her heart continued to beat wildly in her chest.
It was then that she heard it.
"So…they have finally decided to show themselves."
"W-Who…?"
It was difficult to say whether she had actually spoken the word aloud or not, but nothing escaped that voice in her head.
"The Clan of Noah."
Static screeched in her head so loudly that it brought her to her knees. The hand holding her glaive released it letting it clatter to the floor as she brought it to her head to press against her pained temple. The other, meanwhile, slammed against the floor in an attempt to hold herself up through the immense pressure coursing through her. Both hands crackled with the emerald energy that escaped through her fingertips and wildly flailed about her.
A deep chuckle reached beyond the muffled noise through her ears as solid footsteps approached.
"What's the matter, Missy Exorcist? Is the battlefield too much for you to handle?"
The energy crackled again in response, furiously clawing at the asphalt beneath the palm of her hand.
It was him—this man's presence was riling it up.
Ba-dump.
Another heartbeat came blurring her vision. Then another. And another.
Every heartbeat that pounded against her chest pushed her blood faster through her until she couldn't be bothered by it anymore. Until it became a lull that hummed at her with a yearning she had never before felt.
An unimaginable thought forming in her mind brought the unknowing ghost of a smirk to her lips. The sparks grew in fervor but could do little to dissuade her from the high that hurriedly began rushing through her.
I want to—
"Your opponent is me, you freak!"
Charity Bell's toll pounded some sense into her as the bell rushed between her and the Noah that had been practically a step away from attacking her. Snapping out of her stupor as Daisya reached her, Celia shook her head despite how the wild beating of her heart continued. A rough hand pulled her to her feet, bringing her back to the now as she stared dumbfounded at Daisya's back.
"Get to Kanda and Marie."
His warning was loud and clear despite the hiss it came out as.
"But—"
Charity Bell returned to him and he caught it swiftly beneath his foot as he glared over his shoulder at her. "There's something off about this guy, Celia. Get away now—"
"What do you mean 'get away'?" The deep voice reverberated through the empty streets as both turned to face the Noah who sported a taunting grin that sent more shills throughout her body. "I've never encountered a woman Exorcist before! It'll be interesting to see how she writes!"
"Dream on!"
Daisya didn't lose a second to shoot Charity Bell at him. It was stupidly easy for the man to avoid but the reverberations of its toll caused even more debris to fall onto him… only for him to appear unscathed on the other side.
What in the hell?
Her fingers twitched as they gripped her polearm at the sight of him unharmed, her hands starting to sweat as her knuckles whitened from the tightened grip.
Ba-dump.
What was this?
Fear? Anxiety? Desperation?
No, something else.
There wasn't any time for her to contemplate on it any longer than the split second she got. Black butterflies appeared once more, this time as whirlwinds that aimed right for them. Daisya aimed and kicked Charity Bell at his target before avoiding the attack altogether. Following suit, Celia jumped out of the way ending on opposite sides as her companion. The hellish smirk suddenly plastered on the Noah's features, however, froze her once more as her heart hit against her ribcage once more.
Hands trembling, swirls of emerald discharged towards the Noah that charged at her, catching him mid-stride in a net that she hadn't even noticed became as large as it had until he jumped back to avoid the thorn-like whips of electricity that dispersed with his distance.
"Pesky thing you got there, Missy—" His taunts were cut short at the tolls from Charity Bell that further separated him from her. A disturbing smirk spread across his face. "Speaking of pesky…"
"Celia, go! Get to them and—"
He didn't get to finish.
Celia didn't know how—her eyes didn't even catch the attack from how quick it had been—but it ended in the blink of an eye. The Noah had struck Daisya with what looked to be like Dark Matter and rendered him to his knees not that far from her.
Ba-dump.
Piercingly loud footsteps resounded in her ears as the Noah stood beside Daisya. Celia's throat ran dry at the sight, fearing something that she couldn't quite pinpoint until a butterfly arose from the palm of his hand as he rested it upon Daisya's chest.
"Eat his heart, Teeze."
His what?!
"Daisya!"
But it was too late. Celia's hesitation cost him everything as not even rushing to attack him bought her sufficient time to stop whatever the Noah had done to him. All the same, she struck down with one of her blades, the pent-up energy from her hands surging outward and piercing across the asphalt with a vibrant emerald slash, making the Noah retreat away from them.
Spinning on her heels, the name escaped her as her brow furrowed with concern.
"Dai—"
Blood spurted from his mouth, eyes wide and frantic as fear clutched him before rolling to the back of his head as he fell back with a heavy thud.
Her pupils narrowed at the sight, vision becoming blurry as she watched Daisya suffocate in his own blood for what was seconds but felt like an eternity. He took one last breath before the gurgling stopped entirely. With a chime, Charity Bell rolled away, its glint barely visible in the dead of night as it rolled away only to find its stop right at the man's feet.
Gloved hands reached down to the metal bell in his hands as a malicious glint came to those pools of gold.
Her heart dropped instantly to her stomach.
"Now we can finally have some peace to talk, Missy Exorcist. So tell me…"
Ba-dump.
Ah…that's it.
The trembling of her hands stopped. Her rapid breathing slowed to a crawl as her shoulders released the pent-up tension and fell. Her palms dried as her hold on her glaive slackened ever the slightest before tightening.
A wicked sneer came to the man's face, golden eyes narrowing on her and overflowing with killing intent as his grasp grew more forceful against the piece of Innocence. The sound of faint weeping reached her ears.
"What is your name?"
Ba-dump.
I know what this feeling is now.
A velvety giggle echoed in her head, pleased.
Pupils constricted, her vision clearing as the amethyst of her irises overtook her eyes, fracturing into prisms and taking the likeness of a gem's crown.
I want to kill him.
|Dawn.|
A warm glow washed over the tattered city of Barcelona. What had been the noisiest of nights in the city's history ended with the rise of the sun from the east. At the end of it, only Marie and Kanda stood silent at the rendezvous point where all they found to greet them was Daisya's golem and a gruesome sight.
Daisya, crucified invertedly in the middle of the town square, dead, and Charity Bell gone.
With a grimace contorting his once serene expression, Maire pressed his fingers against his earphones and listened intently for a minute.
"I can hear Navi not far from here."
His voice was strained though, and Kanda could imagine the reason. If this is how they found Daisya—
Don't.
Thinking about it would only make it worse.
Ignoring the strangling feeling inside him, Kanda asked Marie to guide them to it and before long both found themselves entering a long alleyway. Because it faced east, the sun didn't quite illuminate the end, not until they reached it and could see upfront what awaited them there.
Celia's body dangled from the wall several feet from the ground. Iron spikes pierced her palms, pinning them over her head slightly parted, and bore into the brick wall that somehow withstood the onslaught of the night. Dark blood smeared what was left of her tattered uniform, coat ripped while the white of her blouse was stained the same dark maroon of dried blood. The soft tinkling of Navi's guided the eye to her face as it snuggled itself against the crook of her neck. Matted dark hair blew free and loose in the soft breeze and obscured her face from view.
What lay on the ground scattered below her feet told the rest.
Pieces of a broken hairpin, and a lotus pendant shattered.
Cobalt eyes narrowed but lowered almost instantly, his hair obscuring his view of the horrid sight. A hand gently rested on his shoulder as Marie grimaced hearing nothing but silence from her body.
"We need to contact Headquarters and let Komui know. The Finders need to come and retrieve the bodies, after all."
"..."
Kanda's head suddenly snapped upward at the strange noise. As if also hearing it, Marie grew silent alongside him, hands pressed to his earphones, as both waited with bated breaths.
"…u…"
His eyes grew slightly before sprinting forward and calling Marie over. The latter hurriedly stumbled closer and helped in bringing the petite body down from its place. Holding her upper body upright and letting her head fall against his shoulder, Kanda swept back the hair that hid away her face.
It was then that he saw it, the slight flutter of her lashes as bleary eyes struggled to focus on him through a half-hooded gaze.
"...Yuu…?"
Her voice was hoarse and faint, much like her heartbeat. But it was there. She was still there.
Controlling the exhale of a rattled breath, Kanda looked down at her and pressed his hand to the back of her head where blood matted her head, checking for the wound that caused it. Celia winced slightly at his touch, her eyes searching about as if lost before returning to him.
"Is it…dawn…already?"
"Yeah," he muttered. "You missed the deadline, idiot."
The corners of her lips lifted a little at the insult. "...sorry…"
Marie crouched beside him, his hand on his earphones as he listened for her vital signs. "Her heartbeat's incredibly weak as is her breathing. Kanda, she needs medical attention. Quickly."
With a nod, Marie helped him get Celia's dead weight on his back and carried her like that towards the town outskirts, passing by the town's square. Neither of them looked in its direction, and neither would have she for that matter, had it not been for Navi. The golem noisily hovered in that direction until it forced Celia to weakly turn her head towards her.
There was no mistaking the way she tensed so abruptly, her broken voice muttering over and over in an attempt to say Daisya's name before choking on her own tears and burying her face against his back. The tinkling of beating wings then stopped as the golem settled on top of her head and its wings cradled her head from above.
His jaw locked as the tears fell on his back and easily seeped through while, all the way to the nearest medic, Celia hoarsely wept at the loss they had suffered.
|A week and a half later.|
I think… is that him?
Tinkling!
Pulling down on Navi's tail, Celia recalled her golem from where she flew above her overlooking the terrain and their travel through the arid place. Gingerly, Navi hovered down to rest on the crook of her neck to shelter itself from the dry air around them blinking a few times as if seemingly having heard the question in her head.
Glancing over her shoulder to Kanda and Marie, she pointed ahead for one and called out for the other to hear. "I think we see him up ahead."
"Yes," Marie solemnly replied with a nod. "I hear him as well."
It didn't take them much longer to reach the General who had stopped in the middle of the droughty landscape to draw on his sketchbook. As if sensing their presence, General Tiedoll turned to look over at them, his cheerful demeanor clashing a bit with the solemnity they carried on their shoulders still.
"Ho! It's been a long time!"
Celia had intended to greet him with a smile—she really had—but the result of showing him a feigned one as they reached him was only a question.
"What's with the long faces?"
A grimace took over then. God, she really didn't have the heart to tell him. Somehow Marie didn't seem to either. So in the end, it fell upon Kanda to inform him of what had occurred in Barcelona and about Daisya's passing. His grief took but a silent moment to manifest as tears sprung from his eyes and streamed down his face.
Gently, Celia sat beside him, rubbing circles on his back as the old man removed his glasses to palm away tears that wouldn't stop running.
"Then…Daisya's gone. It's so sad." Pulling out a handkerchief and passing it to him did little to help but it was something, she supposed. It tugged at her heartstrings to hear him speak of Daisya and his days under his tutelage as the old man reminisced of their lost comrade. "He was such a good child."
"His body was sent to the Order yesterday," Marie readily informed him.
"But his Charity Bell was taken."
The hand rubbing circles on the General's back abruptly stopped at Kanda's words, but only for a moment before he spoke again asking Tiedoll to return with them to the Order. They needed to return to keep him safe from the Millenium Earl, after all.
But…I doubt he'll accept going back. Especially after what happened.
"Daisya was from Bodrum, wasn't he?" The General's sudden question caught them all off guard and in the end, Marie affirmed his query. "That's a beautiful city on the Aegean Sea."
Glancing over his shoulder, Celia watched closely as those adept hands began to sketch away on a blank page. She had never been to those parts of the world despite her many travels with Cross, so watching this city that she had only heard of from Daisya briefly brought along a bout of melancholy that she hated.
"General, the enemy is after you and the Innocence you carry."
Kanda's remark went unheard as the General continued the hasty drawing. "I'm drawing this from memory, so it may not be perfect."
Though she wasn't quite sure what he meant to do with it, Celia pointed out at what could only be the shore of that seaside city.
"He told me you could see whales pass by sometimes. Said it was something really amazing to see, especially when they got super close to the jetty."
Celia barely glanced up from the drawing before she stopped short at the tender look of Tiedoll's that met hers when he briefly stopped. Her chest hurt and her throat tightened shut at the sorrowful smile that he gave her then, her finger retracting as he turned back to the sketchbook.
"Whales, huh. I'm sure he and his siblings would watch them all the time as they passed by then."
All she could do to reply was give him a simple nod as he drew the faint silhouette of said mammals into his rendering of the city. Once done, he ripped the large paper from his sketchbook and began patting his pockets for something until he pulled out a matchbook. At opening it though, all were gone. Hurriedly, Celia patted herself down until she dug into her back pocket and offered him a brand new one. Those sad droopy eyes of his stayed on her for a brief moment as if asking her the reason for having them. She simply shrugged her shoulders with a poor attempt at a half-smile.
"When you live with him, you get used to carrying some around just in case."
Tiedoll gives a short snort before offering her a soft smile as he took the matchbook.
"Daisya, I'm sorry it's just a drawing, but I'll send your home up to you. Rest in peace."
Her amethyst eyes gazed skyward as the ashes of the beautiful seaside city flew into the sky and disappeared with the air. Somewhere in the back of her head, Celia heard the soft cries of what sounded like a small child—their voice slightly falsetto and utterly heartbroken.
"I'm not going back."
And…there it is.
Celia released a long sigh as her anticipation died down, her shoulders falling as the General gave them his reason. They were at war and his mission as a general still stood as one of utmost importance.
"Furthermore, I need to find new Exorcists. If God hasn't forsaken us, he will send us new apostles."
A big 'if', in her opinion. All the same, she couldn't deny that despite the length of time apart, this was still the same kind, old man that had taken care of her during her years in Headquarters.
Some people truly never change.
"Then we'll come with you, General Tiedoll."
A unanimous decision by all three of them.
With a new mission set, it was time for them to depart with the General this time as their guide. Celia dusted herself off from the seat she'd taken, not minding that they were starting to get ahead of her when suddenly a pain struck her right hand. Instinctively, she winced from the sharp stab that came and subsided quickly enough, leaving behind a rather obnoxious itch.
She was ready to dismiss—ready to feign that maybe it had just been a latent ache from the spikes—but it wasn't. The disgusting sensation of something crawling under her skin told her as much. Eyeing her right palm with a slight grimace, she only closed it into a tight fist and dug her nails into it, willing the sensation to go away. As it did, the high-pitched sobbing receded to the back of her mind along with all the other voices that resided in her head.
"Cel-kun?"
Feigning a smile, Celia sprinted to catch up to them, being mindful of keeping her distance from them as she fell in stride alongside them.
A/N:
Can't believe this is the third one in like 2 months already. Holy crap, I'm on a roll here!
I think this might be the last one for a little bit. I gotta focus on some exams coming up, the earliest of which is tomorrow (-w-u). Anyway, this chapter in particular was hard because of how much I wanted to put out in such a short chapter (yes, I consider this somewhat short xD). Because I think I got it all out there. This was a retcon of an old chapter as will be the next one which I already have the outline for.
Next chapter and the ones that follow it are gonna be a doozy, especially for those who read the original story b/c of how it's gonna divert from that point onward. Play spot the differences if you guys like! They're gonna be plenty ;3
Anyway, I gotta go study so I'll leave you guys with this last one for the time being. Thank you everybody who's been liking this story! I appreciate you all and hope that you're enjoying it as much as I'm enjoying writing it :D
So for now, hope you enjoyed and stayed tuned for the next update!
Sorely tired of exams but excited about finishing the semester,
Evie.