I try to post once a week but it looks like I've been falling behind. I'll try to be a little more consistent since I do have chapters finished. -Velvet
But lunch was exactly what Star and Allen needed, though some of the Finders obviously disagreed. Salivating, they dragged themselves over, cracked open a bento box apiece, and started chowing down as fast as they could.
"Just need to get my strength back," Star said around a mouthful.
"Good, so good! Jeryy is a godsend!" Allen said tearfully as he scarfed at the rice in his box.
"Hey, you, Finders!" Kanda ordered. "Get these people out of here!"
Akuma still swarmed the area like a cloud of flies. Star paused in her eating to avoid choking, "Go into those ruins and Miranda go with them," she said.
"I can keep it up a little longer!" Miranda said. She held her Innocence steady but the strain was starting to show as she began shaking from exertion.
"We'll cover you, Miranda," Lavi said.
"We'll help," Allen said, still eating at the speed of light.
"Take the supplies and go," Kanda said coolly. He cut down an Akuma that was charging at him. "Short Stack is useless if he's working on an empty stomach anyway. Looks like Krory and Johannes are cut from the same cloth. You three go with them."
Star stammered but she was hurting so bad from the hunger that she couldn't muster a reply to Kanda's jabs so she just kept eating. Allen didn't even bite back at getting called "short stack".
"You might be right, Kanda, but I'll be fine," Krory said though he looked at the stacks of bento boxes longingly. "Akuma blood is all I need for the moment, I can keep fighting." With that, he launched himself back into the fight, grabbing an Akuma and sinking his fangs into the nearest vulnerable spot.
Allen had gotten just enough strength back to argue by now.
"We're not going to sit over there eating while everyone else is fighting this many—"
"I said you're useless like this, stupid Short Stack!" Kanda snapped. "So get full and get back here fast!"
The fighting was getting heavier and Miranda couldn't hold her shield up for much longer so they stopped arguing. The moment Miranda dropped her Time Out, they got going. Eating frantically the whole way, Allen and Star raced in a desperate scramble with Miranda, some of the Finders, Komlin-110, and the townspeople through the trees at the edge of the field and into the Myre ruins.
As they made their way inside, the sounds of the fight softened a little. Star stuffed teriyaki chicken into her mouth with a pair of chop sticks and studied the damaged buildings. Some of the damage was consistent with large weapon blasts.
"Obviously the villagers never tried to build here again or repair the damage. Do you think this place was attacked by Akuma at some point?" Allen mused as they walked further inside.
"Humans could've caused this damage themselves," someone said.
"That's true."
They found the most sheltered, undamaged structure and settled down inside. As the people who had gone missing from Myre and Hayden became conscious again, Allen and Star reassured them, offering them food and water, while Miranda rested. Afterward, the two Exorcists finished off over half of Komlin's emergency supplies, regaining some of their strength, and briefly resting in a nearby room. Allen sat on a collapsed frame across the moth-eaten bed Star had claimed first.
Outside, nightfall arrived. Moonlight shone in through the broken windows of the building.
Something crawled across Star's hand. Something crawled across her right foot and she tensed. The light buggy scratching of insects piqued her ears. I'd know that sound anywhere… it's roaches! Angry and disgusted, she went berserk and started stomping and slapping until she was sure that whatever had trespassed on her person was dead or incapacitated.
"Hey, calm down, Star. It's just a bug," Allen said. She had the feeling that though she hadn't noticed he'd had to repeat himself.
Star straightened her uniform and wiped her hands repeatedly on her skirt.
"Sorry... That must've been unladylike. "
"I wouldn't say that. It startled me at the very least," he said kindly.
"I don't like bugs in my personal space." She added, embarrassed, "I lived in kind of a roach motel growing up." Star shook herself, saying quickly, "Sorry, I'm oversharing—"
But Allen stopped her.
"Not at all. Trust me, I know a thing or two about bugs and unpleasant living spaces. I've dealt with plenty traveling with Mana and during my training with Master Cross. Mana was my foster father, by the way."
Star smiled a little. I know, she thought. He hasn't led a charmed life either, has he.
Allen started to smile too.
"What?"
"Nothing," she shook her head. Having flown off in a startled flapping when Star began her crazed extermination, Gaia returned from her orbit near the cracked ceiling and settled back down on top of Star's head.
"Star," Allen said. "Your Innocence…you see the souls of Akuma, too, don't you."
"Yes. But not like you. I can see them at will. Your left eye doesn't give you a choice. Like an alarm someone else programmed. I take my glasses off and the world is all rosy again. As rosy as it gets anyway."
"You already knew about the Blank Town's Innocence. Why do the three of you already know?" Allen asked.
Star sighed.
"Didn't you think it was strange how Jump and Mahoja were able to go inside of the Blank Town? They weren't effected like the missing townspeople even though they're not Exorcists."
Allen nodded. "I did. In the Rewinding Town, only a Noah and other Accommodators could enter the space effected by Miranda's Innocence. That should hold true for the Blank Town, too, but Mahoja walked right in like it was nothing. And Jump was obviously unaffected by it."
"They aren't…like other Finders. They're different Allen…and so am I."
"What are you saying, Star?"
"The Innocence inside the Blank Town…it's mine—"
Gaia's radio crackled.
"The Akuma are closing in on the abandoned area-Allen, Star!"
Kanda said, "Short Stack, Johannes-finish stuffing your faces and get your asses out here! We're on."
After taking the frightened townspeople deeper in to the building with a few Finders and telling them to stay there until someone came to get them, they joined the other Exorcists outside. The cluster of Finders hung back, their shielding devices at the ready, defending the building with Komlin-110. Mahoja and Jump, however, stuck close to Star.
While the Exorcists furiously battled the remaining Akuma that had closed in on the area, several shadowed figures appeared. Then announced themselves.
"It's Allen!" Road Kamelot in her doll form piped from the shoulder of the Millennium Earl, waving.
"Noah," Allen said, activating Crown Clown.
Author's Note:
I'm writing as much of the story in hyperbolic anime style and imagery as possible. It's been fun.
The Wikia for D. Gray-Man spells Jerry like "Jeryy". I kind of like it that way even if it's meant to be spelled the other way (and may in fact a typo on the Wikia or a mistranslation) so I used that spelling in the story.