Chapter 9

First mission

Allen looked himself as he fixed his new uniform, with a displeased grimace upon his face.

He looked utterly ridiculous, and he felt he might puke if he kept looking at the symbol etched onto his chest. The black order insignia stood there proudly, glinting from the light ever so slightly. The new uniform he wore was black, with red etchings upon it as well as red buttons and a golden chain pinned to the other side of the uniform. His pants were black and he wore almost knee-high boots that had red lines on the seams, and a belt with a loop on it that was probably meant for a sword he didn't have adorned his waist. Overall he didn't think the uniform was that awful, but it was the fact that he'd killed so many exorcists wearing it, and seeing himself wear that same uniform it made him want to puke.

Once more he grimaced and fixed his white gloves, not happy that he had to wear them but he didn't really have a choice. That was the uniform regulation, and even though he saw a few people break that rule -like Lenalee for one, with her skirt- he couldn't really break regulations on his first day as an exorcist now could he? Of course, he honestly didn't care what the exorcists thought of him, but at the same time he did promise he'd pretend to be the perfect image of an exorcist, and that he'd pretend to be Cross's apprentice, even though he was still mad about that.

His eyes shifted up and met his own grey eyes on the mirror in anger.

He hated this entire plan, he hated that he had to pretend to be an exorcist, and he hated being in this place and the people in the order weren't making it any better.

Barely after stepping into the order, he had already been treated like an outsider which was fine with him, he came here to find the heart and then kill everyone, not to make friends. However, what he wasn't counting on was them believing him to be an enemy due to his pentagram like scar on his forehead. It was, of course, kind of his fault for not thinking that would be an issue, but who could blame him? He'd had that scar for so long that he barely even realized he had it anymore, so he'd been shocked when they called him up on it and it was thanks to Cross for taking him out of that dilemma because he wouldn't have known what to say… not that he would ever admit to it. In the end, Cross convinced them by telling them that only a human can be cursed and wield an innocence shard, which is something Komui instantly agreed on. However, that explanation wasn't enough to get him out of the whole innocence dilemma.

Komui -the brother of Lenalee, and a man he didn't understand how he was chief- explained to him that every exorcist that comes to the Black order had to be inspected by Hevlaska who is some sort of innocence protector that has countless shards of innocence under her watch. Now, if he wasn't undercover he would definitely have paid it a visit and destroyed every single shard it kept, and even though he knew he couldn't it was tempting. The only reason he didn't march his way there was that either way, he'll get his chance to destroy it eventually, he just needed to be patient and gain everyone's trust and find the hearts location. Then and only then could he dispose of this horrid place that made his skin crawl with disgust. But regardless of what he thought, he had been nervous of having his innocence checked, knowing full well that they'll be able to see that he isn't one of them right away. Thankfully though Cross got him out of that situation by telling Komui that he's already a full-fledged member of the Order and therefore didn't need to be examined. He didn't at all think they would buy that, but fortunately, they did and so he didn't have to go through the examination

Lowering his arms, he looked at himself one last time and made his way to the door. Last night after he'd been shown around the headquarters by Lenalee and after Cross had reminded of the rules, Komui had told him that he'd get a night of sleep and that the next day he'll get to go straight into a new mission. Usually, new exorcists had to wait some time before they got their first assignment, but seeing as he was already taught by Cross he didn't need any more training so he was ready to get to work. In reality, of course, he had no idea how to be an exorcist, but on the other hand, he did have experience with killing them so he guessed that counted for something.

Allen walked out of the door and closed it behind him softly.

"Ready?" Asked a familiar female voice.

Allen turned around and Looked at Lenalee who was standing before him.

With her soft looking skin, and her oval face and wide eyes, as well as the pigtails he thought she was actually attractive -for an exorcist that is. Though, he had to admit that she was a bit of a drag. She was appointed as sort of guide for him, something she took with great honour as she showed him around the headquarters with a bright smile, meanwhile, he tried really hard not to glare at everything he saw.

"Er- Yea Komui sama asked me to go see him, he said he had a new mission? But I don't know where exactly his office's located" He asked, faking unsureness and a shy smile which seemed to work.

Lenalee tilted her head to one side and smiled in return. "That's alright, I figure you wouldn't remember exactly where everything is so I came here to take you to him."

Lenalee smiles brightly, and Allen chuckled and stroke the back of his neck pretending to be nervous. And though he honestly wanted to wretch, he knew he needed to act the part or else, and he was glad to see that it was working for now.

Not saying anything else, Lenalee turned on the spot and walked down the halls, turning her head to make sure that Allen was following her which he was.

They were more or less silent as they walked down the halls, Lenalee only ever speaking when scientists or an exorcist she seemed to know passed by then with a simple hello.

By the number of times she had to say hi, he knew that she was obviously well known. So due to her popularity, she spent most of their walk greeting people which Allen thought was incredibly exhausting. He couldn't imagine taking a leisure stroll down the ark and having to have to say hi to everyone that crosses his path, he barely even greeted to the clan when he passed them by let alone greeting strangers or friends. The very concept that someone would sacrifice their own time for others confused him but he didn't question her or asked. He simply followed her silently.

Both of them kept walking down a large spiralling staircase until they finally reached their destination and Allen finally recognized where they were. They were in front of Komui's office, and judging by the scandal going on inside he was probably behaving like a complete twat. He didn't know much about the man, but from what he saw the previous day he wasn't impressed, but then again what could he expect from the Black Order?

Letting out a deep sigh Lenalee smiled and opened the large double doors, instantly exposing them to the racket going on inside.

"Lenalee!" Komui screamed from a crossed the room, and as soon as the door was wide open he lunged and practically tackled her to the ground with a hug.

"Onii-chan!" Lenalee exclaimed mortified, but Komui paid her very little attention as he kept hugging her much to Lenalee's embarrassment.

"Komui, get back here!" Someone screamed from the other side of the room.

The three of them, Allen, Lenalee and Komui turned their heads to look at the cause of the compassion.

A large robot with a hat on top of its head was running after a group of scientist he met yesterday. One of the said scientists was a bespectacled curly haired boy, who he thinks is named Johnny? And then the other one he remembered is the section chief. Reever was running from the robot like all of his fellow scientists, not at all caring that he had an image to uphold.

The three of them simply stood by the door as they watched the robot beeping, and chasing after the poor scientist who clearly never had to run in their lives.

From beside them, Lenalee stumped her foot down in anger, and both Komui and Allen turned their heads to look at the angry girl.

"Did you drop coffee on it again? You know if you keep this up Kanda's main job in the order is going to have to change from exorcist to robot executioner." She huffed, and Komui finally let go of her as if afraid she might actually kick him.

"So mean Lenalee! I didn't drop any coffee on it, it just started malfunctioning!" Komui whined comically, and Allen gave out a fake chuckled that was a bit louder than he intended.

Suddenly the room became very quiet, and he wondered if he did something wrong? But then he realized that he must have caught the robot's attention.

slowly, alongside Komui, and Lenalee they turned their heads to look at the direction of where the robot stood.

By a destroyed desk, the large robot was no longer chasing after the scientist, hence the sudden silence, but rather was now looking at the three of them intently which seemed to scare Lenalee and Komui, but annoyed him. Honestly, what could a robot really do to him?

Almost as if the robot could hear his thoughts, it's glinting red eye narrowed and zeroed in on him, as if inspecting him until suddenly it took a few tentative steps towards him. Allen stood his ground, not at all worried, and the robot didn't seem hostile towards him- yet.

Both robot and man looked at each other until suddenly a red light shot out of its eyes and scanned him from feet to head, causing him to squint from the light.

The robot made a few wiring sounds and Allen just stood there confused.

"Allen Walker, parasite type…" the robot stopped suddenly, it 's beam of light now concentrated to his head. "Exorcist…" once more it stopped.

The room remained quiet as the robot kept analyzing him until suddenly the beam of light disappeared and the robot's eye turned bright red almost as if out of anger.

"Enemy of the Black order!" It practically shouted.

Simultaneously everyone in the room gasped in disbelief, meanwhile, Allen couldn't believe his cover was blown by some damn robot! Or was it?

Feigning innocence, his mouth fell open and he looked at the robot utterly confused. He didn't know if the others really believed a malfunctioning robot, so he had to play the card that maybe they didn't believe it.

Allen raised his hands and shook them. "Wait, wait, I'm not an en-"

Before he could end his sentence, the robot lunged with the intent to kill as it raised it's a large arm to squash him in half, and that was it for him. Undercover or not, he just wasn't going to stand around and let himself be beaten by some robot.

His eyes narrowed, as the robot got closer and closer, and before it reached him Allen leaped into the air. While airborne, he twisted his body so that he was facing the robot and grasped his left hand with his right and swiftly called upon his sword.

"No! My Komlin!" Komui shouted in despair as Allen brought his sword down, and like a knife to butter split the robot cleanly in half.

Allen landed on the balls of his feet and returned his sword to its natural state and turned around to look at the robot as it short-circuited and exploded in his face, much to his displeasure.

Remnants of the robot hit him, and the smoke that emanated from it covered him in a heavy black cloud. As if this day couldn't get any worse with having to have to go on an exorcist mission, now he also had to spend his first day with soot-covered uniform as well, just perfect.

When the cloud dissipated and finally revealing him to the scientists, as well as to Komui and Lenalee he looked at them with an embarrassed expression. Not that he was actually embarrassed, just that -once more- he had to act the part.

"My Komlin" Komui said softly, sounding genuinely sad about the robots passing, meanwhile everyone just sighed in exasperation, but Komui didn't pay any attention to them.

The foolish man walked up to the robot's head that was on the floor emitting black clouds, as well as dangerous sparks.

Komui knelt before the head, took it in his arms and cradled it like a baby. "It's not to bad I could pro-"

"Onii-chan!" Lenalee scolded, and Komui kept weeping at the loss of his robot, not at all listening to them.

"Well he's in a terrible mood now, so you aren't likely to hear anything from him," Reever said as he walked towards them.

"But what about our mission?" asked Allen unsure, and Reever turned to look at him and gave him a reassuring smile.

"Toma, the finder that was assigned to this mission already knows the logistics of your mission. So I recommend you go find him since you'll probably have more luck with him than with Komui at the moment." he sighed, turning his head to look at the wailing Komui.

Honestly were people in Black cross really this stupid, or was it just Komui?

"Alright Reever, we'll go search for Toma." Lenalee thanked, and Reever smiled back reassuringly.

And so with that, both of them made their way out of the office.

Allen walked down the streets, looking around appearing slightly nervous, and jittery to those around him, but really he was just utterly bored.

They were sent to this city to look for an innocence. Toma had told them that without a doubt this was the place, even though they haven't found anything yet.

The finder -Toma- is heavily experienced in his job, no mean feat, seeing as most finders died quickly. But regardless of his skills, Toma still insisted that the innocence is in this town, seeing as Akuma activity has oddly increased in the last few weeks. So yes they knew the innocence was here, but where exactly was it? Even he couldn't know.

As a noah he was able to sense innocence in a way humans, and even exorcists cannot, but that ability still doesn't make finding the damn things any easier. Of course, he had gone on the hunt for innocence before, but that usually ended with the death of somebody and the destruction of said innocence. Those hunts were way more fun than simply walking around, hoping that the innocence will somehow show itself and then having to take it and bring it to the wretched order for safe keeping.

His lips curled, in a disgusted frown. Just the very idea that he had to protect the innocence made him want to puke, or worse, made him want to simply forget his task and destroy the the damn thing.

'Yea right.' He told himself.

He knew he couldn't destroy the innocence, and he knew he couldn't even make it so the innocence gets destroy by accident or Cross will know. That damn cocky exorcist was more perceptive than even he, so if the innocence gets destroyed he can bet that Cross will blame him for it.

In frustration, Allen let out a soft sigh, and Toma instantly turned his head to look at him. Not wanting the man to notice that he was on edge, or lose his cover, Allen simply smiled as if telling him everything was fine.

For a little while, Toma simply stared at him, but then nodded and turned to look ahead of himself. Meanwhile, Allen's smile fell and glared viciously at the back of the finder's head.

For a simple human, without any powers or even the ability to destroy the weakest of akumas, Toma was certainly very perceptive. He didn't know if Cross had told the finder something, or if he ordered him to keep an extra watch on him, but one thing was certain; for whatever reason, he didn't know why, Toma didn't trust him. This distrust was obvious by how he kept close proximity to him, as well as the way his eyes kept jerking back to his every time he so much as breathed too loudly. He didn't really mind as long as he didn't get any ideas, not to mention that there was no possible way he could really know his true identity. He managed to fool the entirety of the Black order -or rather Cross did- so one puny finder couldn't possibly figure out his secret, and he knew that. But regardless if he knew or not, he didn't like the finder and besides. Cross said he himself couldn't kill anyone in the order, but that didn't mean he couldn't invertible get them killed didn't it?

As if knowing his inner thoughts, the golem flying beside him fluttered his wings rapidly, as if in warning.

Allen's eyes snapped up and looked at the golden golem. Tim -as Cross would call him- wasn't really a nuisance, and he didn't get in his way or anything, he simply watched and reported to Cross. So despite him actually liking the thing, he found it extremely annoying at times.

"Something wrong Allen?" Asked Lenalee, and Allen's eyes snapped down to her and gave her and a reassuring smile.

"Yea, just a little hungry is all. We've been searching for the innocence for quite some time." He said, stroking the back of his neck once more.

Lenalee sighed and nodded in agreement.

"That's true if only my brother had given us instructions it wouldn't be this difficult. I supposed we can stop and eat though." She suggested, and Allen nodded excitedly.

He really was hungry, that wasn't a lie at all. Since he has a parasitic innocence -as converted as it maybe- he still got extremely hungry, and since they only had a small meal before heading out he felt like he was starving to death. These damn exorcist, and their plan to starve him to death.

Lenalee's lips quirked up in amusement.

"Alright then." She said simply and led them to one of the few restaurants in the town. The red lion it was called.

Before going in Toma stopped walking, and both Lenalee and Allen turned to look at him with concern.

"I'll stay out here, patrolling the area Lenalee sama." He declared with a bow to her, not at all acknowledging him and that worried him.

The finder definitely knew something he didn't, and he needed to find a way to get rid of him.

"Sure thing Toma, but don't exert yourself too much ok?" Lenalee beamed, and Toma simply smiled under the wrappings that covered his mouth and nodded, and with that, he left them to enter the restaurant.

Both he and Lenalee turned and made their way inside and as they walked through the doors and got seated near the windows Allen felt the odd sensation of being watched, not to mention that he sensed Akumas nearby.

"What will you be ordering sir." Asked the waiter, snapping Allen out of his thoughts as he looked up at the bearded waiter.

"Yea, sorry." He apologized, and the waiter simply gave him a curt nod.

"Well, I'll have..."

As usual for him, Allen gave the waiter a long list of foods to bring him. A list that went on and on, and which had the waiter shocked, as he had his mouth open in awe.

When he finally finished, the waiter kept staring at him for a few seconds until he realized that he was being rude and cleared his throat awkwardly and began writing the order.

"My Allen that's quite the amount of food." She exclaimed shocked.

Turning his attention away from the waiter he looked back at Lenalee and shrugged, and chuckled nervously.

"I gotta eat because of my innocence." He explained as the shocked waiter left the table leaving them both alone in an awkward silence.

Both of their eyes were on each other, neither of them not knowing what to talk about, something that rarely happened to him. With his cocky disposition, and having been brought up in an aristocratic society he was well versed in topics of discussion, due to his high-end education. He knew a bit about everything, seeing as the Earl, Lulu, Wisely, and Sheril didn't want him to remain uneducated. So yes, he knew a bit about politics, science, philosophy, literature, arts, history, and basic general culture and academics really, so he had quite a few topics of conversation, but none of them he thought would interest her. And despite his vast knowledge, he didn't know much about exorcists.

The awkward silence continued, and Allen scratched his head awkwardly not really pretending to mask how uncomfortable he really was.

It was nearly three minutes later that Lenalee decided to break the silence.

"So when did you first meet General Cross?" she asked curiously, but really she was just desperately looking for a topic of conversation.

Allen put his hand down and smiled. One would think he would be fearful of discussing his fake history with Cross, and he would be had he not discussed it with Cross in lengths before they arrived at headquarters. so -even though it was a lie- he was confident and knew exactly what to say.

"I was twelve when I first met him, he sort of picked me up and took me in as his apprentice when he noticed I had an innocence." He declared, and Lenalee nodded.

"So you've had your innocence since you were twelve?" She asked taking a sip of her water.

"Well not really. My arm's been like this since I can remember." He explained and Lenalee's eyes widened slightly from shock, and Allen's self-confidence wavered. Was he not supposed to say that?

"Since you can remember?" She asked shocked.

"Yup, since I can remember." He repeated and frowned.

"Is there something wrong with that?"

Lenalee continued to stare at him in disbelief, but then seemed to regather herself as she shook her head and offered him a fake smile.

"No, no nothing wrong with it. It's just that it's odd is all. Most exorcists receive their innocence later on in life, I myself got mine when I was four and I'm probably one of the youngest known cases. But having an innocence all your life, well I've never heard of that. I wonder if my brother knows of others?" she wondered as she looked out the window.

Their conversation didn't continue after that, and as the waiter brought a trolley full of food, Allen had no need to keep conversing with her. Instead, he lunged at his food like a starved man, even though he still remembered his manners and ate as pristine as a starving gentleman.

The girl in front of him gave out an amused chuckle, and for the first time Allen's eyes looked up from his plate.

"My, you really were starving." she chuckled, and Allen simply nodded and kept eating away.

Once Allen had eaten all his food, which didn't take him long, Lenalee paid with what she assured him was the order's money, and so they both said their goodbyes to the waiter and exited the restaurant.

As he expected Toma was waiting outside, under the small canopy of the restaurant so as to not be exposed to the sun. It wasn't exactly summer, but still, the sun was out and it was quite hot as well.

"Ms. Lenalee san." greeted Toma, and only gave Allen a curt nod that was starting to get under his skin.

He really didn't care what exorcist thought of him, but boy this finder was really starting to make an exception. He had killed humans for much less, and yet he had to stay his hand and simply smile like a fool, or did he?

"Hey Lenalee, how about we split up?" he asked, his hands on his waist in a relaxed pose.

Lenalee turned her gaze away from Toma, who was looking at him wearily behind her back.

For the first time, Lenalee's smile fell and looked at him worriedly.

"I don't know, this is your first mission with us and I don't want to leave you on your own. Not that I don't believe in your skills Allen, of course not it's just that-" she stopped and sighed, and Allen instead of interrupting her as he'd usually would, he kept quiet and let her continue.

"Well we don't know much about this town, and I keep getting this feeling that somebody's watching us, and I'm just worried." she sighed and he nodded his understanding.

It was hard to argue with her on that, not to mention that he was technically her subordinate seeing as she had more time with the order, so whatever she said goes. Not to mention that he also, felt like someone was watching them but unlike her, he knew it was akumas watching. He felt their cursed and trapped souls, and he could feel their concern and confusion as to why a noah was with an exorcist, which he guessed was why they haven't attacked them yet. No akuma would ever attack a noah after all, unless the Earl specifically ordered, something he guessed he must have forgotten to do.

For the second time that day Allen sighed. "You're right, I also feel like someone's watching, so I think you're right. We should stick together, at least until we can at least find out who's been following us." he conceded.

With that Lenalee nodded, turned around and continued to walk aimlessly down the road.

The three of them walked and walked, sometimes stopping to ask the locals if there was anything strange happening recently in town. Any attacks, strange disappearances, strange unexplainable things? The list went on and on, yet not many said anything, they simply said everything was as usual in town, and that nothing out of the ordinary was going on. There were, however, a few people telling them that things haven't been as normal the past couple of days, mainly because the town has seen a large surge of strange people coming into town for no real reason or purpose. Naturally, he knew those strange people they spoke of were akumas that had come seeking the innocence and from Lenalee's face, she also suspected the same thing.

After an hour had gone by they still didn't know anything regarding the innocence location, and he was at this point mentaly exhausted. He was good at finding information and making people tell him what he needed to know, but that tended to be a lot easier when he could torture them for it. Of course he couldn't do that now, and instead had to remain quiet as they made their way inside pubs, and stores requesting information, and though they were all pretty tired, Lenalee always smiled every time she approached someone.

When Lenalee spoke to the twentieth person that day, Allen couldn't help but look at her. She really was dedicated to her job and took it quite seriously, but it went further than that. He could easily tell that she clearly cared for the safety of those around her, not just of people in the order but of the safety of the town's people as well. It was noticeable in the genuine way she looked at people with concern, and how she told them to stay indoors for now and stay safe, and every time he heard her he wanted to scoff at her. Such innocence and preoccupation for others don't belong in this world, much less in their world.

The human world is a dog eat dog world. With the way they selfishly sell out their own kind, torture, kill, and harm each other he wondered how Lenalee -an exorcist- managed to remain so pure of heart, and so concerned for her fellow humans.

'Naivety.' he scoffed at himself.

It had to be her naivety, there was no way an exorcist with experience would ever care so much for their fellow humans. After years of seeing their fellow exorcist slaughtered by akumas and noahs, no exorcist could remain so selfless, it was just impossible. Cross being the main example. He just sold out the entire human race to the noahs, and why? So he could complete some unknown task of his, and despite not knowing what it was, no task could be so great that it was worth chucking their fellow humans to certain death. But then again, Cross had more experience than Lenalee, so at this point, he probably doesn't care about people dying.

"Ah, let's take a seat for a little while." She called out, as she slumped down on a water fountain's bench.

"Yea I'm getting tired too," he exclaimed exhausted and he too slumped down on the bench beside her.

He wasn't actually tired, but he again he had to act the role and pretend to be a human, so that meant getting tired of nothing.

"Not setting Toma?" she asked, pushing her pigtails back so that the small amount of wind would hit her neck.

Toma shook his head and gripped the straps of his backpack. "I'll go check our perimeters, and see if I can find anything." he declared, and gave Lenalee a small nod and with that, he left.

Once he was out of earshot Allen gave out a long sigh.

"He doesn't seem to like me much," he grumbled like a disappointed child who couldn't make friends with another kid in the park.

Lenalee turned to look at him and smiled reassuringly. "Most finders are a bit skeptical of newcomers. Unfortunately, their lives tend to be short because they don't have innocence like we do, so they're very careful as to who they trust so don't take it personally." she beamed, and Allen nodded and smiled shyly.

He knew that she spoke the truth to some extent, but he knew Toma was far too skeptical of him to be normal. He had to know something, and for that reason, he had to get rid of him and he knew exactly how to do that.

Staying quiet, as Lenalee rested on the bench as she looked at her surroundings with a smile plastered on her lips, he took a silent breath and focused and submerged himself in the realm of his mind just like Wisely taught him. What he was attempting to do was difficult -at least to him it was- and sometimes he didn't manage to achieve it, but he was confident he could do it this time.

Allen closed his eyes and focused until finally, he managed to break through. He was inside the realm of his mind -or rather some sort of subconscious telekinesis realm, he still didn't quite understand. He did, however, know that it felt weird, almost as if he was disconnected from his body, and was floating aimlessly in this strange realm. He personally hated doing this, and he seriously didn't understand how Wisely could put himself through it every day, but then again for him, it was as natural as breathing so it felt normal.

Putting his discomfort aside he focused until he found what he was looking for.

Without having to look very far, he found them easily. Scattered throughout the town were five akumas, and instantly without thinking about it he touched the minds of all five akumas. The reaction was instant.

Thoughts of wonder and awe overflowed his mind as all akumas exclaimed in unisons.

'noah sama!"

'A noah!"

'Lord noah!'

They all exclaimed in awe and Allen rolled his eyes. He didn't understand why akumas held such high views of them since they were the ones that were enslaving them, and forced them to kill their loved ones.

'Beasts will be beasts' he thought to himself, his thoughts kept to himself.

'Listen up.' He exclaimed, and simultaneously all the akumas quieted and listened intently, and Allen didn't take his time to continue talking.

'I don't know what lord Millenium has ordered you to do here, but for now, I order you to put those orders to the side.' He ordered and felt the akumas instantly tensed up, telling an akuma to not follow their initial orders from the Earl was incomprehensible but he knew that he could make them do what he said, and so he continued.

'Currently, there's a female exorcist and a finder in this town and they're after the innocence shard you were no doubt ordered to obtain. What I want you to do is simple. Kill the exorcist and the finder. Whoever achieves this will have the privilege to take the innocence back to the Earl on my behalf.' He ordered, and at the mention of taking the innocence, the akumas rejoiced.

'So kind noah sama!'

'So thoughtful!' they all said cheerfully, and once more Allen rolled his eyes. Akumas were so easy to convince, and order around it was disgusting.

'Quiet.' he grumbled and once more they quieted.

'Apart from killing the exorcist, I want you to treat me as an enemy exorcist. Also, I don't want you to call me noah or treat me like you know me. I'm an exorcist of the Black order, and I can't have you blowing my cover.'

That seemed to be an order they clearly did not like. Akumas are supposed to follow a noah's every order and never harm them so telling them that they had to forget that, it was basically telling them to go against their own nature. It was a little cruel yes, but what did that matter? In the end, they're just beasts cursed to do their viding until they either died or were no longer needed. Their lives don't matter.

The akumas didn't know what to say as they all stayed silent until one of them spoke up.

'But Noah sama-'

'That is an order, and whoever does not follow will be destroyed. Understand?' he growled, and he felt the akumas tense up.

'Yes!' they all practically shouted in unison.

Going against their own nature was difficult for them, but not following a direct order was impossible for them. After all, they'll never be anything but slaves to their cause, and he supposed in a way so was he.

'You are free to go.' he grumbled, and instantly he felt the minds of the akumas leave one by one except for one who stayed behind.

'What?" he asked it annoyed, and the akuma tensed up but didn't make any motion of leaving.

'W-w-well noah sama it's just that lord Tyki Mikk is on his way here to retrieve the innocence, what shall we do?' the akumas stammered.

His eyes almost snapped open at that. Tyki was here? That was odd. Usually, Tyki wasn't sent to retrieve such trifle innocence, he was much too powerful to do such things. He was usually sent out to more important missions, and for that reason, he always had a lot of free time. Missions like these were usually left to Road, Jasdevi, Skinn or pretty much anyone else that wasn't Tyki, Wisely or Tryde. Wisely because he isn't a fighter, and Tyki and Tryde because they're usually given more important missions. So to hear that Tyki was here was concerning. Either this innocence was much more important than he thought, or there was more than met the eye in this town. But regardless of what that was, facing Tyki right now was much too soon.

Allen hummed in his head, deep in thought.

'Let him know I'm here, and that I have to do something regarding my mission. He'll understand and leave, but if he doesn't tell him that I'm asking it of him.' He ordered the akuma who didn't say anything further and simply left, probably to go seek Tyki.

For a little while, he remained in the silence of his mind, deep in thoughts. He didn't want to fight Tyki, not because he was afraid, but because it would just complicate things at the moment. His position in the order isn't at all cemented, and he rather not set himself back by drawing unwanted attention to himself something that will surely happen if he fights any members of his clan.

His eyes opened slowly and looked at the clouded sky.

He wasn't sure if Tyki would listen to him, but one thing was for certain. There was something going on in this town, and he was going to find out what that was.

Far away on the mountains overseeing the town, Tyki was leaning on a tree, his expression one of amusement as he looked down at the small town as if the people inhabiting it were ants under his feet. He wasn't alone though. Behind him stood an akuma awaiting his orders, the very same akuma that brought him the great news.

So Allen is currently in this town on his first mission? Well, that was certainly interesting. He had always wanted to fight the boy due to the fact that their powers are the exact opposite of each other, but he never really had the chance. But even though Allen did ask him to stay away, how could he? He now had the chance he always wanted, and even though Allen isn't allowed to use his real powers he wanted to see what he was capable of.

Tyki grinned and tipped his hat down.

"Well Shounen, the game's set."

Hey so sorry it took me some time to finish this chapter, but I really had to plan out this section of the story. this will be a three-part sort of story arc so i had to make sure that everything was well thought out.

So anyways, as always thanks for reading!