Chapter 33: Challenges
Still in the Ark, Allen, Alice, Lenalee, Lavi, Krory, Chaozi, and Lero are walking/flying down the hallway to the next room. The Dark Boots user stops before she looks back causing both Allen and Alice look at her.
"Lenalee, what's the matter?" Allen asks.
"Kanda told us he'd catch up when he finished." Lenalee tells.
"He was probably beaten by Skinn-lero!" Lero says and the dark-haired girl looks at the golem.
"He is certainly running late." Krory points out.
"I-I'll head back to check on him." Chaozi tells them.
He starts to walk back to the first room where Kanda and the Noah, Skinn, are, but Lavi grabs his wrist to stop him.
"Yu's just fine." Lavi assures.
"You're telling me that punk killed Skinn-lero?" Lero questions. "Not a chance-rero! The Noah Clan are immortal-lero!"
"It's true that they haven't died so far. But isn't that just because they've never faced opponents stronger than themselves?"
"Th-that may be so, but once the new Ark's done downloading its data, the room he's in will be destroyed-lero!"
"We'll definitely find the door before that happens." Allen tells Lero.
"All we can do right now is believe in Kanda and press forward." Alice says.
"Allen-kun... Alice..." Lenalee calls. "That's right."
"We'll keep going forward." Krory says.
"Yeah." Chaozi agrees.
"Man, Allen, Alice, it's almost like you two have become really strong." Lavi points out.
"When Kanda comes back I won't let him call me Beansprout anymore." Allen tells them and continues to walk down.
"Look how much it bothers him." Lavi whispers.
"He really hated being called a Beansprout, huh?" Krory whispers back.
"Allen hates being called short." Alice informs.
"Let's go." Lenalee tells them and they go down the hallway.
~Later~
"This hallway's so freakin' long! I wonder when we'll find the next door." Lavi complains.
Then they see glass bottles rolling toward them.
"What are those?" Chaozi asks.
"Alcohol bottles?" Lavi says.
"Why are things like that...?" Allen trails off.
"A bomb's hiding among these bottles!" A man's voice says. "I wonder where it could be!"
"Eh!" Allen exclaims.
"If you don't find and deactivate it, you'll all go 'boom'!"
Once all the bottles stop rolling and they hear something ticking, everyone except Allen and Alice starts searching for the bottles. Then both of them recognize the brand of the bottles.
"Allen, these brands..." Alice trails off.
"Yeah..." Allen replies and Lenalee looks back at the two. "They're definitely all brands of alcohol I brought for Alice's and my Master."
"For General Cross?" Lenalee asks.
"And they're all on the bars' tabs too..." Alice adds.
Fire envelops Allen and goes down before he talks about all the trouble getting the alcohol drinks. He then grabs the most expensive alcohol there are, Shumatsu. Alice then sees the bomb in the bottle and points to it.
"There's a bomb in there!" Alice hurriedly points at it and Allen turns back to normal.
"Deactivate it!" Krory exclaims.
"Hurry!" Lavi shouts.
"How?!" Lenalee questions.
"The time inside's gonna run out!" Chaozi points out.
"Hurry-lero! It's gonna blow-lero!" Lero shouts.
Allen sees the bomb and the time and starts to panic.
"Hey, Allen!" Lavi calls. "Pitch!"
"S-sure!" The boy replies and throws it toward Lavi as his Iron Hammer grows and uses it as a baseball bat, hitting the bottle for away down the hallway and it explodes.
"Thank goodness." Chaozi says in relief.
"That was magnificent, Lavi." Krory complements.
"It was nothin'." Lavi says as he gives him a thumb up.
"Why was Master's favorite alcohol here?" Alice asks and Allen starts to get nervous.
"By some chance, could Master be in this Ark?" He questions.
"He could well be, Allen-kun." Lenalee says.
"Your Master would set a bomb for his students?" Chaozi asks.
"He never does something like that to girls and woman." Alice bluntly says and Allen hangs his head.
"Well, in any case, let's keep movin'." Lavi say before he shrinks his Iron Hammer and puts into the holster.
They continue walking down the hallway. Suddenly a cage walls surrounds them and spiked ceiling appears above them.
"We're about to get skewered!" Krory exclaims.
Then card falls down to the floor.
"Cards?" Allen says.
"You have to make the hand we tell you to within three seconds." The second man's voice says.
"If you can't, you'll become shish kebabs!" The first man's voice adds. "Three of a kind!"
Allen quickly grabs the card and shows three of spades, six of hearts, and three aces of clubs, hearts and spade. "Here."
"Correct. Next a full house!" The second voice demands.
Allen again grabs the cards and shows a jack of heart, spades, and seven of heart, spades, and diamond. "Here."
"Correct."
"Th-that was fast." Krory points out.
"Nothin' less from you, huh..." Lavi says.
"Royal straight flush!"
Allen already holds a ten, jack, queen, king, and ace of spades. "Here."
"Amazing, Allen-kun." Lenalee complements.
"This is child's play." He plainly states.
"You might've won, but we're still gonna crush ya!" The man says and the ceiling suddenly drops.
"How cruel!" Krory shouts.
"Ah! Skewered!" Chaozi shouts.
Lavi quickly activates his Iron Hammer to hold the ceiling. "Now's our chance."
Allen crawls toward to the other side of the metal cage and forces it to open. Once everyone gets out, Lavi quickly moves his Iron Hammer and rolls away before the ceiling drops to the floor.
"Let's go." Krory says and they continue down the hallway.
"Alcohol followed by cards..." Allen lists.
"They're all the items centered around General Cross, huh?" Lenalee says.
"Yeah." Alice confirms.
Then they see a roulette table in front of them.
"Now it's roulette?" Lavi says.
"Allen, let's not bother facing them, and move on." Alice tells him.
"Yeah, I agree." Allen says and she starts to move.
"Hold it right there! If you don't take the challenge, then it's 'boom' for you." The voice says.
"Your lives are the chips." The second voice adds. "Gonna pick black? How 'bout red?"
"O-our lives are the chips?" Krory says.
"If you choose the wrong one, you're through!" The voice says.
"I don't want to become to shreds-lero!" Lero exclaims.
Allen then laughs darkly. "Well, life itself is a gamble."
"A-Allen-kun?" Lenalee nervously calls at his laugh.
"No matter which we choose, there's a 50% chance we'll die!" Chaozi says.
"No helping that." Allen says. "So we'll accept their challenge?"
"Right, we'll leave this to Allen." Lavi tells them. "He's better gambler than the rest of us."
"We're counting on you, Allen." Krory says.
"Got it." Allen says and breathes. "Everyone on red."
They all move to the red space.
"Okay. Start the roulette!" The voice says.
The roulette starts spinning and the ball is drop to the roulette. When the roulette slowly stops spinning, the ball lands of black two. Allen then smirks and taps the bottom of the table, causing the ball jump to red twenty-two.
"You cheated!" The voice accuses.
"Do you have any proof?" Allen asks.
"You're leg bumped the table! It bumped it!" The second voice says.
"Oh? Did it really?" Allen asks again.
"He got some courage." Krory points out.
"It's a matter of experience, experience." Lavi says.
"That's unfair!" Both voices shout.
"Despite who won't even show themselves have the right to dictate what's fair." Allen says.
"Fine then. We'll show ourselves to you." The first voice says. "Keep going straight down. We'll be at the end of the hall."
"If you can get there that is." The second voice adds.
Allen then looks back.
"What's wrong, Allen?" Krory asks.
"Somehow I think there was a noise behind us just now..."
"Noise? What kind?"
"Like something cracking."
The floor starts to have cracks under them and they look down and the floor rumbles and collapses.
"WAA, WHAT!?" Chaozi shouts.
"THE FLOOR—" Allen pauses.
"IS COLLAPSING!" Alice finishes.
They start to run away from the collapsing floor.
"It's coming, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming!" Just how far will this hallway go on!" Lavi exclaims.
Ugh!" Chaozi grunts after he trips over.
"Chaozi!" Allen shouts. "Crown Belt!" Web-like cloths fly toward Chaozi and tie around his wrist before dragging him.
"Lenalee, there should be small bottles of blood I got from Chomesuke is my pocket! Can you hand me one?" Krory asks.
"Let me see..." Lenalee starts searching for the bottle and shows it to Krory. "This?"
After Krory drank Chomesuke's blood, he grabs, Allen, Alice, and Lavi.
"Let's cut through it. Hand on tight brats!" Krory then flies quickly through the hallway.
"Hyuu~ As expected from Kuro-chan!" Lavi complements.
"Hey, why did you get on board too!" Chaozi questions Lero.
"Don't be stingy-lero."
"Ah, looks over there!" Allen points at the exit of the hallway. "The hallway ends!"
Krory goes through the end and he lands on the floor. He then drops Allen, Lavi, and Chaozi as Alice gets of Krory and they look around. They see they are in an archive room.
"This place..."Alice says.
"This room hasn't been downloading to the Ark yet." Allen says.
"Looks like archives..." Lavi points out.
"Yo, Exorcists." The voice says and they look up to the monument and see two Noahs on it and they point their guns at each other.
One of the Noahs has black hair and wears heavy makeup around his eyes. He also wears a wife beater, tight leather pants with corset stitching, with the left pant leg ending at his thigh, and a fur-lined leather jacket. He also has bandages wrapped around his neck. Another Noah, who is closely resembles a rag doll due to his wide eyes and stitches across his mouth, has long blonde hair and his clothes are of the same style as the first man, though his belt is reversed, he does not wear an undershirt or underwear, he has a vest rather than a jacket, and both of his pant legs are full-length. Instead, he wears thick bandages over his forearms and hands, which resemble casts. In addition, he wears what appears to be an adornment made of ribbons on his head that ends in a lantern ball.
"I am Devit." The black-haired Noah introduces.
"I'm Jasdero." The blonde-haired Noah introduces. "Together we're Jasdevi, hee hee!"
Dj... Djas...?" Krory says.
"Funky looking guy came out again..." Lavi trails off.
"Jasdevi-tama!?" Lero calls. "Huh? What about your job-lero?"
"Shut up!" Jasdevi shouts.
"Right now, we can't help being pissed off. Allen Walker!" Devit calls and he and Jasdero point their guns at him. "We don't have any against you!"
"But Cross pissed of Jesdevi so we'll make his student pay!" Jadero exclaims.
"DIVINE PUNISHMENT!" Jasdevi shout and they fire bullets at Allen.
"WAH!" Allen yells.
"Allen-kun!/Allen!" Leenalee and Alice shout.
"Wait!" Allen exclaims. "What did you say about my Master?"
Devit and Jasdero are either side of Allen.
"The student shout pay the Master's bills!" Devit exclaims. "Loading Blue Bomb."
Jasdevi fires their bullet, freezing Allen in ice.
"The power of the gun change!?" Lavi exclaims.
"Allen-san!" Chaozi shouts.
"It's not the gun." Devit says. "The bullet changed."
The cloak from Allen's Crown Clown breaks the ice that Allen was encased.
"You guys are the Noahs chasing after our Master?" Allen questions. "From the way you come to me instead and not at Alice, I guess that man is fine. Crown Belt!" The cloth webs shoot toward Jasdevi.
"OUCH!" Devit shouts.
"UHEE!" Jasdero screams.
The both of them crash into the bookshelves as Allen lands on the floor.
"Allen!" Krory calls.
"What's this? You're targeted by these guys?" Lavi asks.
"I guess so..." Allen says. "Putting that aside, please be careful. These two shots... They weren't mere bullets." On Allen's arm, ice starts to form. "They have some ability."
Jasdevi set off the bookshelf and land on the floor along with some books.
"Hee! There is still one thing I want to ask, though." Jasdero says. "If we take you hostage, will that make Cross come out?"
"No way." Allen says bluntly.
"Allen..." Lavi calls. "Those eyes never believe in anything."
"GYAHA! Such a quick reply! He has no faith in Cross, hee hee! Then..."
"Jasdevi will participate in this game~" Devit says. "We'll have you entertain us, stu~dent."
