Memory of Flowers: "Do not fear that which you do not know or understand, everything will be made clear through you, as you are the light to burn all which resides in the dark labyrinth. Be brave Remy Alick, for you are the flower of growth in a time of great culmination."

Rating: Rated M for adult content, adult language, violence, blood, and overall D. Gray-ness.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own D. Gray-Man.

Author's Note: Here is chapter 5! I've really been thinking about this story a lot lately and I know where I want this to go (as far as everything we know from the Manga thus far) I just need to find time and write it all down. There just never seems to be enough time to write. Oh well, please enjoy this chapter and leave a review if you like. This "arc" should only take one more chapter hopefully then we'll have a few more chapters before we start getting to the cannon stuff. Enjoy~!

Italics are thoughts.

Word Count: 2,441

Chapter Five: Of Partners and Missions: Part 4

"Lake monster?" A loud, jovial voice echoed on the busy market street from a short but rather rotund man with a large red beard, bald head and an apron covered in flour and sugar, "Misters, you've been paying far too much attention to children's stories. Three pieces of Yellowman Miss?"

"Yes please" Remy answered, having immediately spotted the display of the strange sweet and ordered some, despite the ire of her partner who was glaring at her and Emem from behind them. The Finder was the one who had stopped the small group to ask the townspeople about the rumors that had lead them to the reason they were in Dunmore. "That'll be 15 pounds."

"I've got it Miss Remy" Emem handed the man the money while the man handed Remy the small paper bag containing her sweets. "Are you sure? There have been strange stories claiming that a glowing light has been seen flying around the lake at night. And there have been rumors of people disappearing as well."

The man just laughed, huge stomach rolling, "Like I've said kids, you should stop listening to children stories. There is a tale about how the lake is haunted by a witch who cursed her family by turning them into swans, but that's just a story to tell children when they are misbehaving. And as for the disappearances," He leaned against his cart and laid heavy eyes on the three before him, "Several people have up and left town, sure, but I wouldn't call them missing. People come and go all the time this time of year."

"Now don't you go lying to them Riley!" A high, hoarse voice croaked suddenly that caused the sweet-maker to jump as a tall, thin older woman with long, wavy gray hair barged over from her table, "People come and go in Dunmore, sure! But they don't leave the clothes they were wearing behind and walk away stark naked as the day they were born, do they?"

"Oh, don't start you old crony-" The man argued, cheeks beginning to flush the same color as his beard.

"You said their clothes were left behind?" Emem interrupted them, not wanting the conversation to get distracted from his groups purpose. The two civilians might not be able to feel the murderous intent from the male exorcist behind him, but he could.

"Yes!" The woman stated firmly, "Everyone in this town just thinks it was done as an accident, that maybe the people leaving dropped some luggage on the way out. But Mary O'Brian would never leave Dunmore and she certainly wouldn't leave behind the ring her husband gave her lying about in the streets!"

"Have there been any others?" Emem continued.

"Of course, there has! Nothing goes on in Dunmore that I don't know about. There was Geoffroy O'Connell and Liza Flynn just two nights ago. They just vanished and left nothing behind except their clothes. And while some like to think the two young kids just ran away to elope, Liza wouldn't do that to her poor father just after the death of her mother. Then there was Cha-"

"Do you know anything about the lights appearing?"

The older woman huffed, narrowing her beady eyes at Emem when he interrupted her in the middle of her tales, crossing her bangle covered arms, "I know about the legends surrounding the lake, if that's what you mean boy. But those tales, however much it pains me to admit that this overgrown slob is right," The sweet maker gestured rudely to the older woman in retaliation, "are just stories told children to make sure they come back before it gets dark."

"Can you please tell them to me anyway?" Emem asked. Remy had decided to start eating the Yellowman, her stomach growling loudly despite having just eaten a rather large breakfast barely at hour before at the inn. Her eyes widened in delight as she bit into the first piece of the honeycomb and she paid no further attention to Emem or the people in front of her. Kanda was still glaring from behind the girl and Finder, one hand gripping Mugen tightly.

"Fine. But don't interrupt me again Boy," The woman began, "Legend says that the King and ruler of the sea was married to a beautiful woman who gave him 4 healthy and strong children. However, his much beloved wife perished while giving birth to their final two children, a set of twins. The king, to ease his broken heart and grief decided to marry his late wife's sister, Aoife, in hopes that she would mend his heart and help take care of his children. However, because of his love for his first wife and his children was greater than his love for her, Aoife grew jealous of all the time he spent with them instead of her and felt isolated because of that love. In her fit of jealously, she decided to get rid of the King's children however, she knew that she could not kill them for they would come back and haunt her if she did. Instead, she took them to a lake near their castle and turned them into swans to live under a curse that would last for hundreds of years. After, Aoife returned to the castle and told her husband and King what had happened to his children, telling him that they had drowned in the lake. In his grief, the King went to the lake to see where his children had died and the swans, his children, were still there. Aoife's magic was not as strong as she had believed, and they still maintained the ability to talk. The told their father what she had done to them. The King banished Aoife and spent the rest of his life at the lake with his children, for the curse could not be undone until the tolling of a bell was heard to signal the arrival of a new god."

The small group had gained a larger audience as the woman told the tale of the lake, children out shopping with their parents and playing with their friends had stopped to listen with wide eyes at the familiar and favorite tale their parents often spun for them at bedtime. "The Children of Lir!" A young girl with curly blond hair and a smile that was missing a few teeth exclaimed.

"Yes child," The older woman smiled, softening the hard edges and lines on her face momentarily before she set her beady eyes back on Emem and his companions. "Does that answer your question Finder?"

Emem and Kanda's eyes widen, they had not told her who Emem was. Remy watched the old woman with unblinking eyes, eating the last of her treat. "Don't act so shocked, I've been around for a long time. I recognize a member of the Church when I see them. Who was it that you think sent for you? It certainly wasn't this idiot." Again, the bearded man made a rude gesture that caused the slowly dwindling crowd of kids, seeing that story time was over, to giggle and nearby parents to scowl. "I am Aileen O'Brian. Come, we can talk while I show you the path towards the lake."

"How old are you?" Remy asked, curious about the stern looking woman. "And if you knew who we were, why did you not say so in the beginning?"

"Don't ever ask a woman her age child," The woman replied, eyeing the short girl in the exorcist's uniform. One strong wind looked like it could send the girl flying. "And I didn't tell you because I didn't feel like it, simple as that. I was in the middle of a sale when you three started talking to Riley anyway, and I need my money."

"Thank you for telling us that story" Emem spoke, walking beside the older woman "The children called the tale the Children of Lir?"

"Yes, it is a story that's been told in these parts for hundreds of years now. And ever since that light showed up and the disappearances started, people have begun to associate that tale to our lake, despite that fact that is originated in another part of our country." She said leading them down a street, Remy and Kanda following just behind the woman and the finder. Remy was looking around at the village in the light of day and without the rain, it was bigger than she anticipated, while also keeping an ear of what Emem and Aileen were talking about. Kanda was eyeing the village as they walked as well, but for a completely different reason. "I started keeping an ear out when news of the light first reached my ears. However, when the disappearances started I contacted the Order because I knew that both were connected somehow. I know what happens when the Akuma leave a body behind."

"Che. How can you know that it's akuma?" Kanda spoke for the first time, eyes locking onto the older woman who looked at him over her shoulder, her beady eyes narrowing even further.

"Because, Boy, Liza Flynn's mother died just a week before her disappearance. The same thing happened to two others of those that vanished; A widowed father and his two children are gone as well as a little boy who lost his sister. The Earl has been busy in this town it seems."

"And Mary O'Brian?" Remy asked, her eyes also locked on Aileen, not having forgotten the woman she had mentioned earlier and connected the two to have the same name, "What happened to her?"

"Mary was my sister-in-law" Aileen and the group stopped at the end of a row of houses, a dirt road led off into a forest in the distance, where the lake resided. "My brother died a month ago. I was too busy trying to help his grieving children and grandchildren…Mary knew the dangers of grief, my family has helped the Church for generations…" Aileen shook her head, a frown on her face as she dropped that topic.

"I am sorry" Remy replied.

"Anyway," Aileen continued, "I sent word to the Order once everything started escalating. I don't know if it is innocence or whatnot, I just know that when the rumors of the light appeared is when everything started. The lake is about a mile into the forest, just follow this path."

"Thank you, Miss O'Brian," Emem thanked the older lady, "The Order will take it from here."

"You damn well better!" The woman grouched, arms crossed over her chest as she glared at the group as they began to walk down the path, leaving her behind. Kanda led the way as he wanted to hurry and get this over with. "I'm getting too old for this! I came to back to this town to retire, not find more work! So take care of those damn Akuma!"

"Deal with us you say?" A high pitched, mechanical voice echoed from behind the group who quickly spun back around to see five round figures, level one akuma with dozens of barrels protruding from their round bodies with faces stuck in a mask of perpetual agony, were floating in the air behind a captured Aileen O'Brian whose neck was grasped in the clutches of a level two akuma. The level two was vastly different from its un-evolved brethren, it had shed its round metal form and taken the appearance similar to that of an ape, albeit with four arms in instead of two. It had a rather large, oval shaped head with small square eyes with a large, pointed grin that stretched over more than half its face. Huge, round ears protruded from atop its head where a long spiked, metal chain that was like human hair fell. The level two had four, long arms with its elbows had huge spikes that were matched by sharp, bladed hands and feet. The Akuma's legs were also disjointed, like that of a dog's hind legs where the caps of the backwards legs also contained large spikes.

"Miss Aileen!" Emem called, Kanda was already moving with Mugen in hand.

"How can two puny little excorsists deal with us?" The level two giggled sickly, hand tightening on Aileen's neck as the woman's face began to turn purple and she released gargling sounds, salvia dripping down her distorted mouth the same time tears fell down her cheeks as she struggled for breath, old wrinkled hands tore uselessly at the akuma's hold. "I've evolved! No one can defeat me!"

"Grow" Remy's voice spoke calmly above the high-pitched level two as she came to stand in front of Emem to protect the finder, who was in the path of the level one's, in case the akuma decided to suddenly start firing, "Anneaux de Fleurs!" Emem watched the rough, green bands on Remy's wrists and ankles glow brightly after her words before the light began expanding, crawling up her arms and legs for a few moments. Once the bright light had died down to a faint, pulsing glow that seemed to echo in time with her very breath, Emem's eyes widened in surprise at the girl's innocence. Gone were the bands wrapped around her limbs, instead dark green markings, like that of the vines, was etched into her skin. The markings stopped at her elbows and upper thighs, however her hands and feet contained more than just the vines etched into her skin. The innocence contained within her body had completely enveloped her feet and hands, turning them the same color as the innocence, almost like she was wearing green socks and gloves. However, the innocence had elongated Remy's nails into sharp, deadly points.

"Rapide Fleurir!" Remy blinked out of existence and appeared in front of the level two in the blink of an eye, the innocence of her legs glowing brighter than before. She slashed at the hand holding Aileen before the Akuma could dodge. The Akuma's hand sliced clean off and Remy managed to catch Aileen before the woman could hit the ground, once more blinking out of sight before appearing with the older woman back in front of Emem.

"You bitch!" The monkey-like Akuma screamed in rage as explosions began to erupt from everywhere. Kanda had sliced through the five level one Akuma easily, causing them to begin to blow up, but those weren't the only explosions taking place. Screams soon followed as more level ones began to rise above the town's buildings from all over, the town's people beginning to scream in fear as chaos took root. "Kill them! Kill them! I'll gut you exorcists!"

Translations:

Anneaux de Fleurs - Flower's Rings, Ring of Flowers

Rapide fleurir - Swift Flouish

Once more, translations are taken from google Translate so if anyone actually speaks French and wants to help me if their wrong, please do! I'm trying to make this story as authentic in some details as possible~!

Side Note:

The Children of Lir: This was a story I found when looking up folklore from Ireland and I decided to include it instead of making it up on my own. Some things are probably wrong or at least embellished and it is missing some stuff that I feel the need to include, but apparently, it's still a story told today.

Yellowman: Produced in Northern Ireland, yellowman is a unique type of hard honeycomb famously sold at County Antrim's Ould Lammas Fair.

Bonus: I wonder if anyone can guess where I got the inspiration for the appearance of Remy's innocence? Hehe~

Please review?