It took me a few moments to reorient myself. Being dropped from twenty feet tends to cause some minor difficulties in the mental department.
I'd crashed through several layers of reed roofing, landing in a hut. The broken ribs in my side grated, and it might have been my imagination, but I think they were emitting small screams. Of course, that could've been me. I wasn't exactly in my happy place.
He'd dropped me off at my hut. I could tell from just how neat it was - at least, from the parts I could see. The undamaged portions of the hut were orderly, but the trashed part was, well, obviously, trashed. I'd hit a wicker couch, and it had broken in half on impact. I winced as I rolled off of it, hitting the floor and sending up a puff of wood dust. I coughed in pain, curling up before getting to my knees. The sounds of battle echoed outside, and I realized that at this moment I was on a battlefield alone.
My heart started a marathon race it wasn't going to finish. Sweat drenched me like rain, and I had the urge to crawl underneath the ruins of the couch and stay there until the fight was over. I wanted to hide like the little coward I was. I didn't want to die. I also didn't want to be injured any further. I just wanted to be out of here. I was hardly cut out for a job as a fighter in God's Army. I had nerves of wet noodle, muscles like jam, and bones as brittle as stale bread. It was a feat that I wasn't dead yet.
That wasn't an option, though. My family was somewhere out here. My selfish little mind contemplated staying put all the same and letting them go off on their own, but the maternal monster within ate that part of me wholesale. I shuddered and stood up, brushing off bits of shrapnel stiffly. I was covered in a ton of scratches, but otherwise I was fine besides the wounds I'd already had. After checking myself over, I walked to a window and looked out into the mayhem.
Smoke wafted over most everything, and I frowned. Akuma roamed, most of them Level Ones, and fires had broken out. It looked like all of the inhabitants of the resort were gone, so that left just us.
This time I wasn't going to have Kanda save me at the last minute. Lavi wasn't going to pop around some corner to bash an Akuma's head in. Violet was nowhere in sight to speed me to safety if I got hurt. I was completely on my own. There was a good chance I'd die. If I didn't die, I'd be injured. If I didn't get injured, I'd be the luckiest civilian/soldier on the planet. I rubbed my temples, trying to ease my raging mind, but it only seemed to make my head sore.
I realized that Lavi had dropped me into my hut for a reason. I hadn't taken my Innocence with me. What a clever little git. I winced as Kanda's words rung around in my head. Maybe if I'd taken it with me, I wouldn't be in so much pain. That stupid redhead wouldn't have had to drop me off in the most literal way possible. I searched through the rubble as quietly as I could manage, keeping an ear out for the telltale 'whoosh' of a passing Akuma. Level Ones were easy - they tended to stay still whenever they fired, unless the target was moving. Otherwise, it was like smashing eggs with a giant mallet. Level Twos were craftier, and I needed help trying to take those down and not end up horribly maimed. My scrapes were exhibit A of that occurrence.
I found my Innocence near what was left of my baggage. I sighed, glad that I only took a couple of days' worth of clothes with me. It wasn't a great loss, though my Swedish romance novels were demolished. I quickly changed into my uniform, shoving on a jacket over my wet clothes. I picked up a few more things, mostly trinkets, before standing in front of the door of my hut. Here was the moment of truth. Was I in or was I out?
I didn't get a chance to decide. An Akuma decided to come crashing through the house for no apparent reason other than for the joy of tearing something apart. Just my luck that it was my hut, but I needed to get out of here anyways. I considered it a good reason to turn tail and run.
"Don't kill me, don't kill me, don't kill me," I muttered as I ducked out of the collapsing hut, the Level One silently firing at the small structure with what I thought was probably quiet glee.
Level Ones didn't make too much noise, thank goodness, besides their Gatling gun ratatatatatata. As I ran, it seemed like the distance between me and my destination, a crumbling wall, was getting longer and longer.
After what seemed like an eternity and a day, I managed to skid behind it, uncoiling my whip and wondering if I'd forgotten anything. Oddly enough, it nagged on me more that I might forget something in that hut than finding sufficient cover.
My brain had odd priorities.
I looked around carefully, taking in surroundings. I could see the main building was nothing but a pile of pebbles, most of the huts were either Swiss cheese or a stack of pick-up sticks, and the shoreline was behind a long stand of trees. I had no idea where the rest of my teammates were, and I started to panic again.
I stuck my head between my knees, trying to calm down. I couldn't just crumble apart like bad mortar every time I ended up alone on the battlefield. I needed a goal to keep me oriented, or else I was going to kill myself with sheer nervousness. And my family being out here, possibly by themselves... My stomach attempted to eat itself, and I felt the urge to throw up. It was too easy to get killed out here.
"Fee, fi, fo, fum, hahahahahahahaaa."
I went stiff. That was most definitely not human. Sweat dripped off my nose and onto the ground, and I started to shake. I'd never fought something by myself. I'd never even tried to fight something by myself. I bit my lip, attempting control. Blood dribbled down my chin as my teeth cut through the skin, and it fell on my leg, mingling with more blood from some wound I'd reopened. My eyes pricked with tears as I curled up into a ball.
"Where oh where you be, little Exorcist? I remember seeing you fall from the sky like an angel. A little angel, hmhmhm. You know, I hear angels taste delicious. You just rip them apart piece by piece until you get to the really juicy parts..."
I could feel fetid breath at my arm, and I almost whimpered. I covered my mouth with my hand, gripping my whip with the other. I couldn't hit it at close range. All that would do is give me a gash on my face from flailing it against myself instead of my target.
"Come out, come out, where ever you are..."
Everything happened like lightning running through molasses. I knew it must be going by in seconds, but everything moved so slowly in my head that it was like someone had stuck us in some sort of syrupy medium. I ran, putting space between me and the Level Two, a massive hunk with a pair of metal jaws the size of an automobile. I swung back my whip, getting in a ready stance, and I jerked it forwards. Instinct did the rest as my brain fought to keep up with my adrenaline-drunk body, and the whip circled around the muzzle of the Akuma before I yanked backwards, snapping it shut.
After that, the syrupy medium we were in abruptly ceased to exist, and everything went back to normal. I felt oddly empowered as well as terrified. I'd actually done something. That was a first.
Sweat dripped down my back and my sides as my ribs screamed in pain, and my other assorted cuts and bruises shouted protests in the form of overloading nerves. I tried to keep a hold on the Akuma trying to break my hold on its mouth, and it whipped its muzzle back and forth, trying to shake the whip loose like a dog getting off a leash. I yanked backwards, feeling my arm suddenly give out, and I screamed as my remaining arm was almost jerked out of its socket.
"Oh no you don't," I grumbled. "I'm not dying today."
"I bet you aren't."
My eyes widened as several somethings whizzed past me. Smoke bombs went off, and I coughed, unable to wave it away with my other arm while the one holding the whip was occupied. My eyes stung, and I felt like I was breathing in glass. Suddenly, I was knocked off my feet, and my head spun as I tried to put together what had happened.
I blacked out from the pain for all of a second, a blissful second I will admit, but I came back just as fast and immediately started screaming as my ribs clashed. My brown hair dangled in my face as an Akuma that looked like a demonic version of a tapeworm crawled up to me, the jawed Akuma sauntering over. I tried to get up, but it slammed itself down on the ground like a hammer, raising up dust and debris. I coughed as I scrambled to get away, knowing I was going to be crushed to death if I didn't, and the jawed Akuma tried to clamp its massive mandibles around my ankle. I whipped it in the face from my position on the ground, and it yelped. The Demonic Tapeworm merely swayed as it considered its next move.
I didn't give it a chance to think. I got up and ran. I had no reason to stay. My mother had told me that running away was always an option.
That should've been telling to me, but I didn't have time to dwell on it.
I slid behind a tree, leaning against it as I wheezed. I hadn't run so much in my life. Wait... that was a lie. Kanda made me run that 10 kilometers. I had run this much in my life. I just hadn't ever had to run this fast.
I peered around the tree. The Akuma were seconds away from my hiding place, and I cursed. I started running again, dodging through the trees as the Akuma crashed through them instead. Their size made it harder for them to get through the forest of pines, and for that I was grateful. In the distance, I could see a person, and my heart jumped.
I'd know that white hair anywhere.
Suddenly invigorated with hope, I sprinted as fast as my body would allow, and Allen caught sight of me. He suddenly started to wave his hands, and I waved back in reply. Funnily enough, he started waving them even harder, and he was trying to say something to me, but I had no idea what it was. The breakers behind him were amazingly loud. Perhaps he was glad to see me -?
Just as I got past the tree line, I was blindsided by somebody, and I groaned in pain. The Akuma that had been trailing me suddenly burst through the trees, and their inertia must have kept them going. They headed straight for the white-haired Exorcist trying to meet them head on as fast as he could, and -
A massive roar filled the air. I was suddenly showered with sand, body parts, and blood. I shook like a leaf as I realized what had just happened. Allen looked just as shocked, thrown back several feet by the wave of energy emitted by the landmine. Everything seemed to be running on mute before I realized that I couldn't hear a single thing. I was deaf as a post.
Erastus swam into my line of sight, and he tried to talk to me. I frowned, shaking my head as I pointed to my ears. He stopped, and I guess he realized that, even if I had spoken, he was deaf, too. We both tried to stand, but the world kept tilting. Allen didn't seem nearly as bad, searching the sand for more mines as he headed towards us.
Eventually, my hearing came back, and I stood up with Allen's help. Erastus used me as his crutch, and he said, "Are you stupid or something? Didn't you see Allen waving his arms like a maniac? Geez, Mag, you're thick."
I shook my head, hardly having time to be annoyed.
"Sorry. I was preoccupied with saving my life," I grumbled.
I checked myself over mentally. Head? Check. Legs? Check. Arms? Uh, half-check. Torso? Check. I was all in one piece. That was always something to celebrate about.
"You couldn't have fought the Akuma behind you?" Allen asked irately, and I snapped my head to look at him, suddenly a bit miffed.
However, the look on his face suddenly brought back a rather important tidbit of info.
"I see the souls of the Akuma. It's what allows me to distinguish who's human and who isn't. It's actually quite handy, but... at times it is very inconvenient." My sour reaction dulled down as I started to realize what had happened. Akuma who were killed by anything other than Innocence had their souls destroyed with the body. The two that had just died from the landmine...
"Oh... I, uh, I pulled something in this arm. I couldn't move it and I panicked," I said, quickly trying to recover.
I pointed to the injured arm. I tried to raise it, but all it did was jerk and spasm before I gave up on it. Allen turned it over quickly in his hands, the monocle over his cursed eye spinning as it started recalibrating. I'd seen it in action, and once I'd come too near. I just about lost my lunch. The world had suddenly turned black and white, and my head started spinning after a while. Allen's world was a freakshow of monsters, and I was already paranoid as it was. That hadn't helped me any.
"You must've pulled or overworked a muscle. Seeing as you're not crying, I don't think you pulled anything. It should be fine in a little while," Allen said, obviously distracted.
His young face looked drawn, and pity ate away at my heart. Someone so young shouldn't have to know about all this.
"We'd better get to the docks. We're supposed to be meeting everyone down there," Erastus said, working his jaw with a single hand.
He cricked his neck, and I winced at the popping noises.
"Stop that. That's disgusting," I whined.
Erastus stuck out his tongue as he followed behind Allen. I rolled my eyes in response, and I brought up the rear.
We hit a few hot spots of activity on our way to the docks. Several were just pockets of Level Ones harassing the surviving refugees, and they were easy to take out. A few were Level Twos, but Allen had a handle on that. He was so good at what he did, I could've sworn that he had a brain inside of that arm of his. The eye probably made it a lot easier to attack with certainty. Midway through our trek, we caught up with Lavi, who was carrying a rather dazed Lily.
"Oh Lord," I gasped as I skidded to a stop in front of the redhead.
I managed to be so worried, I'd completely forgotten that he'd practically killed me. That was probably a good thing for him, seeing as I'd been entertaining thoughts of his demise while we were walking.
"Don't worry. She just got a bump on the head about ten minutes ago. She's completely fine; she just has some balance issues," Lavi said, chuckling.
I sighed in relief, and the aforementioned thoughts of torture sprang back to the front of the priority line. I stared at Lavi with narrowed eyes, and he smiled, guilty as a thief with his hand in the cookie jar.
"She has balance issues when her head is un-bumped. She's used to it," I growled as I watched Lily crack open an eye to look at me before closing it and trying to feign sleep.
I poked her under the armpit, and she squealed before laughing.
"Maggie, that's not fair! I'm ticklish!" Lily burst out.
She gasped as she realized that she'd blown her cover, and she drooped suddenly.
I stared at her blankly before I commanded in a flat tone, "Drop her."
That got her moving. Miraculously, she was able to walk again, quickly going towards Allen and making chit-chat. I shook my head and looked heavenward, probably to ask God how he managed to make such a trying girl. Lavi scratched the back of his head with an appraising look, and I shot him a glare. We began walking again, our party just that much bigger.
We'd only gone a couple hundred feet when Lavi glanced at me surreptitiously. I barely caught it out of the corner of my eye, but I decided to ignore it for now. I'd let him stew for a bit longer. In the meantime, I'd act like he didn't exist. That was a better alternative than gripping him by the neck and trying to throttle the daylight out of him.
"Erastus, where's Bastian?" I asked, suddenly realizing that his twin was nowhere in sight.
My stomach cramped at the look on Erastus' face. Rusty tended to get that look whenever someone asked a question he didn't really have an answer for, and I squeaked, "You lost him!"
He grimaced.
"N-not exactly. We split up, because, uh... because Vi snapped her wrist," Erastus said, speeding through the latter part of his sentence.
Luckily, I had a tape recorder locked away in my brain, and I played it back at half-speed. Usually when Erastus spoke like a chipmunk, it's because something bad has happe –
snapped her wrist.
Blood drained out of my face, and everything started to go fuzzy. Nightmare scenarios, each one more unrealistic and gory than the last, sped through my mind on a camera reel. Hands clamped around my arms, and I was slowly shaken out of my thoughts. Erastus looked at me with a concerned stare.
"Hey, hey, hey, she's fine, I swear. She just went to get fixed up at the docks. It might only be sprained, anyways. Allen said that we should gather there, and he can just poof us back to Bangkok. He didn't open an Ark gate before because he'd never been here, but he can go back now," Erastus explained, and I felt my stomach start to release dominion of the rest of my organs.
Okay... okay, good. That meant she was probably safe, and that we were going to make it out of here alive.
"Mr. Fluffins... oh, Mr. Fluffins! Meow, meow! Where are you, Mr. Snuffi-Luffi-Fluffins? Meow, meow, meow! Come on, Mama's right here. Oh no... oh no, I can't find him! Where is he? What if we leave him behind? OHMIGOSH. "
I palmed my forehead as Lily suddenly started cooing in search of her cat. The little mangy ball of irate fur was probably hiding in the jungle. No doubt, he'd been following us for the past half-mile, and he refused to come out until he was absolutely sure that the smoke had blown over. Dogs and cats had a unique ability to sense when danger was coming or going. If Tip and Fluffers head for the hills, you can almost bet that I'm right on their tails behind them.
"Lily, it's no use. You might as well be calling for a log to come up to you," I shouted in response to her meowing for her cat.
Erastus snickered as Lily just about tripped over a piece of driftwood. I elbowed him with a slight grin, and he shrugged.
"Take humor where you can find it. That stuff's not cheap," he said.
I scoffed in agreement. If that wasn't the truth. These days, humor was scarce as hen's teeth hidden in gold hair stuck in an ivory tower unless it came in the gallows version.
"Guys, heads up! Akuma at ten o' clock!" Allen shouted, and my brain was a bit on the slow side with a response.
Hold the phone, ten o' clock - where was my ten o' clock? I mean, noon was in front of me, so that meant that ten o' clock was to my right.
Oh.
A gun pointed in my face before a hammer smashed straight through it. I snapped out of it as I flung my whip with a scream. The wire sliced through the gun attachment on the Level Two's shoulder, and the gun spray went wide. Erastus, calm as a beach on a sunny day, slammed Censer on its head, and a dent appeared as a foul, green smoke enveloped the thing.
It screamed as it writhed inside the green fog, and Erastus shouted, "Keep back! It's acidic!"
Everyone immediately dodged the cloud of gas. I hastily backpedaled as a breeze gusted some of the foul concoction towards me, and I tripped over the same driftwood branch that Lily had just avoided, and I went down. I covered my mouth with my good hand as I rolled over, already knowing it'd be too late to try and scramble away.
"Mag! Aw, really? You have to be kidding me," I heard Allen grumble before footsteps crunched the ground towards me.
"Keep your hand over your mouth, please, Mag. I don't think it would be good for you to breathe in this stuff. It already tastes foul as it is. Blech! Sour," Allen complained as he picked me up.
I could already feel the acid stinging my nose and my eyes, though not enough that it felt like it was eating my skin. I could feel a peculiar tingling on my scalp, though, and that was starting to worry me. Momentarily, I was amazed at just how strong Allen was for being so young - I was probably a good twenty pounds heavier than he was. He seemed to carry me without too much effort, and I suddenly felt disheartened. How the heck was I supposed to shape up?
The air turned clear, and I opened my eyes. All of our assorted tagalongs stared at the two of us with raised eyebrows, and I suddenly wondered if the acid had eaten our skin.
Suddenly, they burst out into laughter. I frowned as I looked at Allen, and immediately, I squeaked.
Our hair was a frazzled, burned mess. His, at least, was already short as it was - it wasn't so drastic on his part. Allen grimaced as he looked down at me, and I knew it was bad.
"Well... it'll always grow back, right?" Allen said, and I squirmed out of his grasp.
I felt my hair with my good hand, and my fingers did not bode good news. A good chunk of my hair was gone, most of it a crumbled, black dust, and it was uneven in a lot of places.
"Y-you can t-t-try out for the p-part of a clown! Ahahaha! You'd be a shoo-in!" Erastus guffawed, and I narrowed my eyes.
Magically, Erastus somehow ended up on the ground curled into a ball. I wonder how he could've ended up like that. Huh.
The boys inched away from me as I stomped off towards the docks. I'd had enough abuse for one day. First my arm, now my hair, next the rest of my dignity. My day wasn't going to get much worse at this point. We continued towards the dock, and I took the lead for once. I was determined to leave as soon as possible. I didn't want to stay here for longer than necessary. Phuket hadn't given me good memories.
At the dock Kanda, Violet, Ava, and Sebastian were already at the dock. I sagged with relief upon seeing three of my siblings. Erastus immediately ran for his brother, and the two did a complicated man-handshake. Kanda scoffed as I walked up to Violet, who was looking guilty. I ignored the sheepish look and hugged her tight. She hugged back and then gagged.
"Ugh, gross! Mag, you smell disgusting! And... what happened to your hair? It looks like you took a weed whacker to it. Look at that! Did someone get you with a flamethrower or something?"
I deadpanned, staring over her shoulder with a twitching eye. I held her out at arm's length. She looked none the worse for wear. Her hair was in disarray, though that wasn't anything new, and she had a few splotches of ash on her face. I licked a finger and started rubbing at them almost unconsciously, and she reacted accordingly (she screamed and protested like a cat in the tub). Her clothes were damaged, but there wasn't anything that Erastus couldn't fix with a needle and thread.
That was Erastus' dirty little secret. He was a seamstress. It's the only reason we could still use thirteen year old hand-me-downs.
"Maaaaaaaaaag! Stop it! That's so nasty when you do that! Spit is not a good cleaning fluid!" Violet complained as I wiped off the last smudge.
"How'd you snap your wrist?" I asked, looking back to Allen and the twins, who were talking among themselves. Violet glanced off towards the ocean over my shoulder, and she looked hesitant. Oh boy. This was going to be good.
"Um... Well, you see... I was fighting, you know? And I was doin' my whole... whole skating thing..."
She lifted her skates with her good hand, and I nodded.
"And... there was this smokin' guy, and -"
I rolled my eyes, already knowing where this was going. Violet could be a little bit man-crazy. Of all the times to be cataloging potential dates... Violet threw up her hands at my reaction.
"See! This is why I didn't want to tell you! Besides, I think it's just sprained. I didn't hurt it that bad," she said, holding up the damaged wrist.
I turned it over in my own hands, pressing and prodding. I frowned as she winced, biting my lip. It was most definitely swollen, but I'd have to take her to a doctor to make sure that it was truly sprained rather than broken. Joint breaks were very difficult to recover from, and untreated breaks could get messy. More than one Finder found that out the hard way.
"Hey, Mag, it's time to go!" Allen shouted, and I looked down towards the end of the dock.
He had an Ark gate open, and I felt the little hairs on my arms raise in apprehension. I hated these things. They always gave me this bad feeling in my gut, but then again, the Ark was Noah technology. I wasn't exactly fond of the Noah to begin with, and my paranoia didn't help matters. Already, several of my family members went through the gate, and I sighed to myself as I began to follow behind. As if out of thin air, my dog, my cat, and my parrot zoomed past me as fast as they could run, flap, or lope towards the gate. Well, they had the right idea. I was dragging my feet. After actually stopping I wasn't too keen on shuffling my feet. I was already sore as it was.
"Kanda, heads up!"
I turned in surprise as Lavi shouted from the gate. Kanda was all the way back near the tree line, probably checking something out, when something distinctly leonine burst out of the forest and straight into him. The sound they made hitting each other reminded me of a body smacking into a boulder. I grimaced at the noise, shivers running up my spine.
Kanda, however, seemed perfectly fine as he calmly stood up and dusted himself off. He removed his sword, activated it, and began the fight with the Level Two. I groaned as I unclipped Wire from my belt, and I shuffled over.
"Mag, go back home. You'll just be in the way," Kanda said off-handedly as he drew a slash at the Akuma. It leaped out of reach, and it chuckled.
"Yes, little Exorcist. Run home with your tail between your legs."
My eye twitched. I was beginning to get annoyed with the fact everyone thought I was incompetent. Even this dead cat-thing was telling me I wasn't worth fighting. It was getting old. I'd already taken out several Akuma by myself in the past few days - I think I had the ability to take just one more.
"Oh, whatever," I grumbled as I slung Wire over the Akuma's head and snapped it.
The resounding noise broke its concentration on Kanda, and he charged into the opening with sword at the ready. He stabbed it in the shoulder, but the Akuma was faster than anticipated. It somehow managed to get behind me, and I was standing a good fifteen yards away on the pier. I shrieked as I dodged a paw swipe to the waist, and I gave it a strike to the hip - and accidentally caught a running Kanda in the leg. I winced at my mistake as he suddenly stumbled on the pier, a little bit shocked.
"Sorry," I said as I backed away from the Akuma that was swiping at me with its paws. Every now and again, it seemed to teleport to a new location around us, and we were having difficulty pinning it down.
"This is getting annoying. And I'm getting sand in my cut. You idiot, I told you to go home!" Kanda griped from behind me, and I glared at him.
"Hey! That was an honest mistake - WHOA!"
Claws snapped the air just in front of my face before the Akuma disappeared again. It was slowly corralling us onto the pier, and I sighed. I hated being cornered. At least we had a getaway on the other end. Abruptly, I noticed that the Ark gate was gone, and Allen was nowhere in sight. Even Lavi had left us. My eye twitched.
"Those little - they abandoned us!" I grumbled under my breath as I took on my frustration on the nuisance plaguing us.
I knew that Akuma were supposed to be big, scary, fearmongering machines, but this one was getting on my nerves. It seemed no matter what we did, we couldn't get a bead on it, and I was getting pretty tired as it was. I swung my whip again, and I hit a tree. It fell over as Wire passed through it.
"Yeah. They were probably scared off by your impromptu haircut. You do that yourself?" Kanda jabbed, and I elbowed him from behind.
Unfortunately, the Akuma took that exact moment to take a bite at Kanda, and he almost didn't have time to block it with his sword. I screamed as I reached around and tried to whip it in the face, but all I did was put a cut in the boards of the pier.
"Kanda! Careful!" a voice called, and I looked around, distracted, as Allen's voice resounded somewhere.
The Akuma teleported again, and this time he did hit something. I said some rather choice, very not-family-friendly words as claws raked my thigh. I whipped it across the back before it could disappear, and Kanda stabbed it in the foot with his sword. Ha! It yanked at the sword pinning it to the pier, and I didn't lose time whipping it to death. It took me a good three or four minutes, but I managed to cut straight through it.
Kanda looked at me with a rather blank stare.
"You're pathetic."
I took a deep breath and tried to replace all those thoughts of strangling the man next to me with images of puppies, flowers, and cute grannies. It wasn't worth it to get into a fight with him. He yanked his sword out of the pier, and suddenly there was a groaning noise. I frowned as the noise got louder, and I realized it was coming from underneath us. I looked over to Kanda's feet, and my eyes widened.
"Uh oh."
When I'd whipped the Akuma to death, I'd missed plenty of times, and it had... sort of... eaten through the wide board we were standing on. That creaking noise must be the wood beneath our feet snapping.
Oh.
SPLASH.
"Have I mentioned that you're pathetic?" Kanda struggled as he floundered in the water.
I spat out sea water, and I tried to tread, but my arms and legs were already tired as it was.
"Not my fault! You never taught me to aim!" I said, trying to pin the blame on someone else.
Okay, so maybe I am a bit pathetic. It wasn't my intention to send us into the water! Kanda suddenly went under, and I let out a sharp scream as I grabbed for him. He clung to me like a wet cat and spluttered. I made a face as seawater got into my face, and I complained, "Quit that! I don't need your spit all over me."
He flailed as I let go, and I realized something.
He'd never gone swimming with me in the pool. He'd never once stepped foot in water while we were at the beach. Heck, I don't even know if he took baths. He couldn't swim. He must have the buoyancy of a lead cube. He must've realized I'd figured that little tidbit out, because he managed to scoff and flail at the same time.
"You have got to be kidding me," I groaned as I gripped his clothes.
Keep me afloat was one thing. Keeping me and a two hundred pound samurai afloat was a completely different animal. Above, I could hear footsteps. It was cold underneath the dock, and I was beginning to shiver. Allen's head poked over the hole where we'd fallen through.
"You guys alright?" he shouted, and I answered, "Sort of! Can you get us out of here?"
Allen nodded and disappeared again. I felt panic begin to settle in my chest, and the general 'bad vibe' feeling began to spike as Kanda clung to me. I was beginning to feel very uncomfortable about being this close. Then again, it was either suck it up and let him cling or protect my dignity and let him drown.
I have to admit, letting him drown was looking mighty attractive.
We tread water for probably another thirty minutes before a rope was slung down to us. Allen shouted the all-clear, and Kanda started up the rope first. He didn't even ask. Then again, I was the thing keeping him afloat, so there was probably a practical aspect, but he could at least go through the motions of being polite. I grumbled on my way back up the rope, but I was having lots of difficulties seeing as I could only climb with one arm.
"Alleeeen. I need help!" I shouted piteously.
I was close to tears. My leg could've passed for a candy cane. My hair looked like a blind man with a machete had taken a whack at it. I smelled like sea water, blood, and nauseating acid. I had sand in places I didn't even want to think about. I wanted to go home. Allen ended up climbing down and lifting me out on his back, and I was again surprised at just how strong the little guy was. He was no slouch, that was for sure.
It only took us another five minutes to end up at our hotel, much to the surprise of the poor bystanders. It's not every day you get to see a multi-dimensional portal pull up in the hotel to drop off three Exorcists, one dry and the other two running like faucets.
"You did good today, Mag," Allen said, patting my shoulder with a bright smile, and I raised my eyebrows in genuine astonishment.
"Really?" I breathed, stumbling every now and again as I limped, holding my injured arm to me with my good arm.
I had two limbs down. That was a record.
"Yeah. I think you're going to do well, especially with Lavi and Kanda teaching you. And don't take anything Kanda says to heart - he's like that to everyone," Allen said, smiling kindly.
I smiled back, his grin a bit infectious. Allen had this way about him that seemed to cling like a happy cloud of optimism, touching people as he passed by and making their day just a bit brighter. That was a pretty dark contrast to my storm cloud of paranoid pessimism, which, luckily, wasn't as contagious.
"Yeah. He's a real grouchface," I muttered, and Allen's grin grew just a bit wider.
"Grouchface?"
Crap, I did it again. I bit my lip to keep me from saying anything else incriminating.
Allen only laughed as we walked into the hotel.
A/N: Hey, it's moi. I'm sure those who actually read this are wanting to draw-and-quarter me. I have to apologize for my inactivity. I've been rather busy with an assortment of things grabbing my attention like little puppies dragging a poor rag doll. Still, those who are reading - thank you, thank you, thank you! I understand that fics with OCs can be very overbearing and awfully tiring, but maybe this will change your mind a little bit and hopefully be one of the few good OC-centric stories out there. As a hint, I plan on Mag being more of the Ishmael for this story, rather than a true main. That might relieve some of the OC-centricism.
Big thanks to sammi117 for reviewing! I absolutely love input, any sort of input. I especially enjoy input that's constructive as well as critical, so don't be afraid to point out mistakes, note irregularities, and in general nitpick the thing to pieces, but only so long as you add what's good as well. The best gift to a writer is a well-rounded review after all.
I don't have any new subscribers or favoriteers. Well, poo.
Now, I do include discussion questions, and I hope that they give you an idea of what to review on or if you just want to answer them anyways. Do you like the OCs? Are the canon characters truly in character? Out of the entire cast thus far, which are your favorites? Is the prose for the story interesting? Do you have to skip over paragraphs because they're too detailed? Are things not detailed enough? Are you getting confused? Have you noticed any holes in the story? Most importantly, are you enjoying yourself as you read?
Hopefully, you'll enjoy the rest of this story. If not, I do hope you do find a story you enjoy elsewhere on the site. Keep those reading eyes sharp!
God bless, and happy reading.
