White Demon, Red Scribe, Black Nightmare
A D Gray-Man and Assassins Creed Revelations Crossover
Lavi was more ready than perhaps he led on, leaping back from the first swipe with only a couple of inches to spare, but perhaps not entirely on accident. Close or not, a miss was still a miss.
He didn't waste his energy trying to back up without tripping on the steps behind him, nor on whirling around, instead dodging around Kanda's side the opposite direction of the blade and then sprinting for the steps on the other side, bounding up until he was on the third one and turning back again.
"I see social etiquette isn't the only kind you have to work on! Not very nice to start a duel without even giving your opponent any warning, you know." He was aware that the abruptness of the attack was probably fully to the point, but he couldn't quite seem to help himself with the teases even now, despite that Kanda was probably looking for a fully serious fight, not smart-mouthed banter.
Kanda didn't reply, instead speeding up, trying to outrun Lavi in climbing the steps to gain even ground. He would not let the rabbit have the upper hand. He was once again glad for his long legs that made it possible for him to jump the higher steps without any problem.
Another slash of the blade, again missing. The redhead sure was agile.
He caught a movement from the corner of his eye, on the other side of the hippodrome - the assassins. He knew they followed them but he didn't think they would keep up for so long. Kanda mentally scoffed. Looks like he was going to be rewarding some more men with extra missions and patrols.
Lavi only grinned as he leapt away from another swing, Kanda not far behind him. Kanda was an adept fighter. Even this early into it, and from the few other flashes he'd seen of Kanda brandishing his weapon, he could tell easily simply by the way the man carried himself.
Lavi, though, while not the best offensive-type fighter, was a master at evasion above all else in a fight, mainly for the fact that being a record-keeper of bloody conflicts was rather useless if one ended up dead. He could afford to taunt people like Kanda into lashing out because, despite that he gave off the impression of having a very poor sense of self-preservation for doing so, he knew how to avoid the backlash with an entire lifetime of practice under his belt.
"Going to have to be quicker than that, Yuu!" he laughed, running around the flat of the step and nimbly leaping over the small gap passageway in the center of it.
Surprisingly enough, Kanda did not react to the nickname as Lavi would have expected. Such a shame.
Kanda jumped a step higher to gain the better ground before he followed the suit and leaped over the gap, easily landing on the other side and yet again being thankful for the length and strength of his legs.
He was now higher than Lavi and he used it to push the redhead down with several sharps thrusts of his sword which the redhead yet again dodged.
Kanda was running out of patience slowly, seeing that the rabbit still didn't take the fight seriously. Time to change that.
Lavi laughed as he dodged one way or the other out of Kanda's swings, noticing as he did so that each one made Kanda's fuse grow a little shorter. He also noticed Kanda trying to get the advantage of height, bearing down on him from the higher steps.
When he saw a chance, he darted to the side along the steps, leaping down off the edge where there was a small tree, and pulled a branch along with him to let it smack back abruptly as the man was pursuing him.
That little fucking bugger still didn't take it seriously and Kanda almost couldn't hold back the yell of murder as the branch hit his face.
Lavi couldn't help but snicker as he cast a glance back over his shoulder and ducked into the shadow of the obelisk and out of sight, fully utilizing that brief moment of shock he'd let smack Kanda in the face - quite literally - to pull his spear out of his bag and snap it together into a solid piece. The entire time as he did so, he was watching the shadows on the ground, one in particular, to see which direction Kanda would take to circle around the obelisk and attack, deciding he would move the opposite way and come up behind him.
When he did, he'd also have his weapon this time, and hopefully the element of surprise since he'd deliberately hit to where the other man wouldn't see him pull it out.
Kanda had had enough of it, deciding it was time to end the games. He jumped down from the steps, taking out two little blades. As silently as he could, he moved slightly to the left, his eye trained on the handle of Lavi's weapon. Kanda threw the first blade and as soon as he heard the clang of the metals he ran the other way around the obelisk, throwing his other blade as soon as he sighted the silhouette in the shade.
Lavi automatically ducked to the other side, but Kanda had anticipated that he'd do that, and he hissed as the small blade managed to catch flesh. It wasn't bad, but it still hurt, the redhead dancing back and holding his weapon pointed toward Kanda in preparation, dislodging the small knife from his shoulder.
"Jesus, you don't play around, huh?" he mused, an easygoing tone still present in his voice, but noticeably less joking than before, a little more seriously focused.
Kanda readied his sword again, taking a more professional stance.
"You play around too much. Joking is over. Show me what you've got."
Lavi only wore a thin, knowing smile. There was more method to his 'playfulness' than simply trying to take the fight as a joke, but he chose not to inform Kanda of this, instead simply focusing.
If the man wanted something more serious, he'd give it to him.
They both waited, their weapons brandished and bodies tense. The trigger of the real duel was a hawk's cry in the distance.
Kanda charged, aiming for Lavi's left side again with a thrust of his sword. The bookman had a longer weapon than him, but that didn't neccessarily put him into advantage. Kanda decided to get as close as possible to keep the point behind him rather than in the front. After all, it's not like he could backstab him like that.
He tried to attack the middle but Lavi blocked it, forcing Kanda to twist away from his blade.
The bookman danced back at the same moment Kanda twisted away, putting a little more distance between them, before lunging forward, jabbing toward the man with one swift motion and then drawing it back again close, just like a snake lashing and then drawing back into its own coils, staying light on the balls of his feet so he could leap away from another attack when it came.
Kanda charged again, thrusting his sword at Lavi's left and then slashing downwards, missing the target but leaving a crease in the ground instead.
They danced around, both trying to disarm the other, and every second suddenly felt like a long minute. Kanda then paused, and readjusted his hold on the sword so that he held it on his left like Lavi did. A second later, he attacked again, only this time aiming for the javelin's joints.
Lavi noticed what Kanda was doing and angled his weapon slightly at the same moment that the man's katana hit, so that the force of the blow slid instead of cut solidly, the joint snapping, though entirely as it was supposed to. He deliberately let the chain go slack and absorb most of the impact, smirking as he suddenly yanked the limp chain taut and bounced the blade back up, the links audibly snapping, and used the same moment to kick out at Kanda's gut.
Kanda backed away, a smirk plastered on his lips.
"Not bad." He spat on the ground. Returning to the basic stance again, he charged, this time raining slashes on the redhead to see how fast he could block. He was pleasantly surprised to see that the man could keep up.
They pushed back and forth, still tied, until Kanda noticed the clouds nearing in on the moon and jumped back, lowering his sword so that the shine of the moonlight didn't reach the blade.
"Impressive," Kanda said as he slowly backed away into the darkness until he completely submerged into it, waiting until the clouds completely hid the moon. The last hint of Kanda's whereabouts Lavi received before the night completely swallowed the place was a brief glitter of light that bounced off Kanda's sword.
Lavi's single eye flicked about the darkness, but normal sight was entirely useless to pierce the shadows, save for only the faintest hint of movement that wasn't enough to give away the full figure.
"Not bad yourself," he tossed, taking a few careful steps to circle, knowing that Kanda wasn't staying stationary and yet he was moving with precision and silence, well-practiced at his art of stealth. Of course, one should expect nothing less, of an Assassin. How he was able to see to move so effectively, Lavi could quickly guess, his own special eye becoming honed to pierce the darkness and see the man lunging towards him, raising his weapon to block the attempted blow, metal screeching on metal. "But not quite enough to catch me off-guard."
To say Kanda was surprised was an understatement.
He immediately drew back, his body reflexively stopping in a defensive pose, his sword firmly in front of him. Despite his hearing sense subdued in the favor of his sight, he could still clearly hear Lavi's remark.
"Aren't you full of surprises?" Kanda said, his tone betraying his slight agitation. He'd let himself underestimate the rabbit, and for some reason, he imagined Allen laughing at him for the mistake.
So the advantage the darkness provided turned out to be useless. Nothing but a fight head-on remained.
"As you put it: A strategist indeed." And a strategist never revealed every card until he was backed into using them. Kanda may have thought his Eagle Vision gave him an advantage, and usually he would be right, but not this time.
Because Lavi had known about it, but Kanda hadn't known about his.
Kanda smirked, charging right afterwards. So it seems this will be a battle of endurance.
Another dance of blades followed, their music being the cries of the metals as they clashed. Kanda kept aiming at the joints most of the time, making an exception of thrusting his sword outwards, right at Lavi's right side. They turned several times, neither pushing back the other one until Kanda finally managed to nick the right side of Lavi's face with his blade.
Lavi instinctively ducked back when the blade tip caught his 'blind' side, dancing several steps back and raising an arm to press the back of his hand toward the wound.
It was directly after that he realized one of the strings of his patch was severed, and that it was no longer covering, that he swore profusely under his breath, still covering it with the one hand, so that when Kanda attacked him again, his defense was less effective and it knocked his weapon aside, leaving him open for just a split second.
He cursed again let the weapon slide through his palm until he grabbed the chain on the far end, kicking the far point of the spear-head and giving it momentum to swing in front of him in a wide, high arc toward Kanda's own face when he went charging in again, hoping to get him to back off.
The assassin leaned back, away from the spear's tip and then forward, attacking Lavi from below.
Kanda managed to push him backwards a good distance while the redhead recovered from the loss of his eye patch. Kanda kept thrusting and slashing from every side trying to make use of Lavi's distraction as much as possible but the redhead was quick to recover and soon enough, they were even again in dealing hits.
Lavi didn't end up getting much choice other than to lower his hand away from his eye if he hoped to defend or fight back at all. Other than having it closed, it looked normal, not injured or anything.
He managed to recover and keep pace again for a while, though he was still somewhat distracted and kept shaking his head both abruptly and briefly, like an impulsive, agitated tick of some kind that was progressively making him lose focus and his edge in the fight.
Finally it just got to be too much of a distraction, the redhead holding up a halting hand after he put a little bit of distance between them.
"Yuu, hold on, let's pause for a moment."
But Kanda didn't listen. He quickly minimalized the space between them and kept delivering blows that Lavi indeed blocked but now with evident difficulties.
Lavi grit his teeth in frustration. Bloody Hell was this guy tenacious. Or maybe that wasn't the word for it, but he couldn't think of one more suitable at the moment, having to pour all of his focus into just parrying and blocking attempted blows.
Geez, was the guy legitimately trying to kill him, or what?
Kanda felt the rush of adrenalin in his veins quicken with the vision of victory and he would have taken it, if it wasn't for the voice that suddenly interrupted them.
"Kanda! Kanda!" An assassin yelled as he ran towards them. The raven haired man stopped in his advance against Lavi and glanced to the side at the one who dared to intervene. "Bad news!" the man said between breaths.
Lavi couldn't have been happier to have their fight interrupted, making it a point to put a few steps between them when Kanda finally stopped, not completely dropping his guard but relaxing somewhat and covering his eye again with the back of his hand silently.
"What is it?" Kanda asked in a low growl.
The assassin stumbled before he came to a stop in front of them and took three seconds to catch his breath before he spoke again.
"Another body was found. Exactly like the last one but only with a cross carved into it. We think it might be the Hunter again."
"Where?" Kanda asked sharply, promptly sheathing his sword.
"Forum Bovis." The man pointed to the general direction of the place.
Kanda then turned on his heel and walked a few feet back, bending over and picking something from the ground before throwing it back at Lavi.
"Here," he said, then dashed off, wasting no time to see whether anyone was following.
Lavi caught it easily and muttered a slightly reluctant thanks before following more at his own pace. It wasn't as if he didn't know where they were going anyway, so why bother rushing? All the same, it was probably unwise to stay entirely on his own if such were true.
Forum Bovis was very close to where they were, and the kill was probably fresh, since they had passed it earlier without knowing about it, which meant the killer might not be far.
He kept his weapon out up until he caught up with them, only stowing it away once he had the assassins around him again and wouldn't have to worry about potentially being attacked.
His single eye briefly flitted over the body and the others standing by, but his attention was uncharacteristically short-lasting as he instead examined the strings of his patch and tried to tie them back together, at least until he'd be able to replace it later, still occasionally shaking his head or raising a hand to his eye as if it bothered him.
Kanda stood close to the body, glaring at it as if it could come back to life if he did it hard enough. He clenched his fists so hard he was sure his nails are going to leave a permanent marks on his palm.
"What was everyone doing while this happened?" He asked with a voice that was a calm before the storm. The assassins stayed silent, few of them even backing away slightly. "WHAT WERE YOU DOING?!"
"Following us, probably," Lavi hummed distractedly as he was tying the severed ends of his patch strings back together, though not so out of touch from what Kanda was saying - as if anyone could miss the man's shouting. Ever. - that he couldn't still contribute to what was being said, since it didn't seem like anyone else was brave enough to admit it. "A lot of them have been tailing us since this morning, for whatever reason. Probably interested to see what you had in mind for dealing with me, since I'm guessing you didn't order it."
Lavi was stating the obvious and it was only adding fuel to the fire that Kanda felt flare inside him, but he let it go without comment, since he was more pissed about the evident lack of cautiousness of his men.
They have been told to be careful. They have been told to go in groups. He had warned them, ORDERED them to watch each others' backs and they disobeyed.
And here was the result - a body of a young man, younger than Allen maybe, laying on the ground, cut open and mutilated. It was one of the local youngsters, not his squad, but still under his command.
A though briefly flashed though his mind. Did Allen know him?
He raged and yelled, not caring if he woke up the entire city and didn't stop until he lectured each of the assassins that followed him and the redhead instead of patrolling the city. His mind was slowly filled with all the what ifs and could have beens - not a good thing. Lavi was silent through Kanda's tirade, fixing up his patch, at least as good as it was going to get for now, and watched the men get word-whipped quite thoroughly until Kanda had probably managed to rouse every person on this side of the straight.
He could only imagine that Apollo was probably hiding somewhere just close enough to be laughing victoriously over it too.
Kanda stopped then, leaving the place in utter silence and ordered the men to take the body away and prepare the burning. Lavi wasn't far behind, this time neither of them having a following, even though every single member of the guild probably wasn't required to tend to the body. The man sure knew how to scare others off when he wanted to.
For a while he was silent, letting Kanda simmer to himself for a while, before he deemed it an appropriate time to open his mouth again.
"Y'know I realize you're pissed, but you could probably take the time to try tactics that don't involve yelling at or threatening people for once," he suggested idly, not sounding particularly like he cared much but offering up the words none the less. "Though I imagine you'll probably blow off that bit of advice anyway."
Kanda whipped his head around, focusing on Lavi.
"You think we could have caught him?" he asked in a furious whisper that gradually escalated into barely repressed shouting. "You think I don't know him? I have cleaned bodies after him for more than five, fucking, YEARS! I know how he works! He doesn't kill unless he's sure he has enough time to mutilate the victim and vanish! FUCK!" he cursed, turning around and marching a few steps away, trying to calm his head and sort his thoughts out.
He saw many of Apollo's victims. And he hated the fact that the majority of them were Allen's former students.
HOW did this happen? He had the city secured! There were patrols and spies all around! Even the dumb Byzantine guards knew about him and they still couldn't do a thing.
"How old could he have been? Twenty?" He kicked a stray stone on the ground and sighed, turning his face towards the sky. "We need to get back to the den." And by that he meant they should tell the sprout about it.
"That's not really what I was saying," Lavi said after some lapse of deliberate silence, eye focused on Kanda's back as the man walked ahead of him. He paused again, before asking a rather abrupt question that he was sure would probably catch Kanda off-guard. "Let me ask you something. When was the last time you did the opposite of yelling at or just ordering your men around, honestly? Like praising or thanking them for something, for instance."
"Thank them?" Kanda asked, raising his eyebrows sarcastically. "They get their thanks every time they have the chance to return to the den still drawing breath!" He took a step closer. "I have given them the chance to change their miserable lives when I recruited them and trained them. Each and every one of these men were deserters, drunkards, and ordinary thugs when I met them! They are supposed to be the best of the best, and now they have failed to protect one of their own, and you want me to say my thanks?! We are assassins. We do not thank each other for a mission well-accomplished. We thank another when he eases our suffering while we stand on the brink of death."
With that he spun around and headed towards the den. Lavi only shrugged, following along just a few paces behind. Really, it was no wonder to him why they had gotten sloppy enough that it had ended in someone's death, despite that it was obviously some sort of glaring mystery to Kanda.
"And that's exactly why they don't follow what you tell them," he hummed, unaffected by Kanda's anger. "A skilled fighter, maybe, but calling your leadership skills sub-par would probably be generous." Maybe not the wisest statement to make, but an honest one, as far as he was concerned, and Kanda's attempts to scare him like he did everyone else weren't nearly as effective as the man obviously intended. If the man's temper flared, then so be it.
Kanda was seething, but he let the comment slide. He knew that Lavi was right.
He wasn't the best leader - he's never going to be one. But the men chose him, leaving him no choice than to accept and bear with it. He didn't ask much of them and they knew it. He taught them the same thing Tiedoll did - the creed - the only rule they had: Nothing is real. Everything is permitted.
Well, not everything, per se. Kanda forbade one thing - betrayal. The only thing he asked for is loyality, nothing else. His men are free to do what they want, the only thing they can't do is betray. Whether it is him, the creed, or each other.
This night they broke a part of the rule. They turned their backs on one of their own, seeking entertainment and allowing themselves to get caught off guard.
And now it is up to him to tell Allen about it. It was better that way but he hated it the same. He took him to Constantinople so he could finally have his rest after everything that's happened in Italy, but instead of finding peace, all Allen found was more tragedy.
So Kanda stands in his room now and watches how Allen's shoulders sag even lower and his eyes gain another dark shade.
Lavi left Allen to Kanda's attention for a short while after returning, instead tending to is own few, small wounds in the meantime, partially to wash the already-dry blood off, especially from his face. Facial wounds always bled so much for even some of the most shallow cuts, after all, and Kanda sure had left a nice, long laceration just shy of his eye.
It was after that that he went to go see Allen, whom he was sure Kanda had probably broken the news to already, and just a quick glance confirmed his suspicions. Probably a good thing then that he'd shown himself, both to assure the white-haired man that he was fine and also that he could try and offer some comfort, even if that came in the form of simply putting on a cheerful voice and tossing his arms around the man's neck affectionately, though still being careful about not putting too much weight on him, mindful of the other's still-healing wounds.
"Allen~!" He rested his head on shoulder and groaned complaint in his breath. "Three hours of sleep is not enough to have to put up with such a sour-puss all day. How ya feelin' since this morning?"
"Oh, Lavi," Allen said, not even pretending to be alright this time. His voice told Lavi exactly how he felt to hear about another murder. "I am fi - what is wrong with your face?" he asked suddenly, a little livelier than a second ago. The younger assassin seized him with his eyes from top to bottom and then glared at Kanda. "What the hell did you do?" he demanded with a frown.
Kanda shrugged nonchalantly, avoiding the other's eyes. "Nothing, really."
Nothing, indeed! Especially when Lavi had just tried calling for a quick break, not even just calling it quits entirely.
"Yuu was being mean and picking on me!" Lavi whined, playing the part of the innocent, victimized child in this perhaps a little too well as he rolled slightly to the side, flopping over to let his head rest on Allen's thigh as a cushion. "Y'see what he did to me? My perfect looks, gone! Ruined forever! It ain't my fault he was jealous that I was so good lookin'!" Honestly, such a drama queen. "Now I'll never be the same! Cuz Yuu is a jerk."
While the redhead made himself comfortable on Allen´s leg and whined about his non-existent beauty, Kanda glared at him as if the man had killed his entire family and ate his dinner to the boot.
The nerve...!
"Kanda!" Allen scolded, snapping the assassin out of his morbid thoughts about how to get rid of the damn, good-for-nothing bookman. "You said you only wanted to talk!"
"We talked alright," Kanda growled. "-and I think we're going to talk very soon again."
Lavi couldn't help but smirk slightly, not moving despite that he was aware of Kanda glaring death and swords down on him with his eyes.
"Oh, I'm sure he has plenty to say," he yawned, quite content to stay where he was for the moment. Kanda was going to get Allen all to himself the entire rest of the night. He could spare giving up the white-haired man's company for all of five or ten minutes. "Opening his ears and listening to anything other than his own hot air though, that's another story entirely. I'd say he owes me a new eye patch too, but I already know he's not going to do it."
Allen huffed unhappily. "You guys, why can't you just stop messing around with each other?" he asked, brushing off a stray wisp of hair on Lavi's forehead.
Whether he pretended not to notice, or was genuinely unaware of the bouts of deadly air Kanda was radiating at that moment, nobody knew.
Lavi leaned his head into the touch like a cat into a petting, more than happy for the small act of affection.
Kanda's temper be damned, he was allowed to enjoy some time with Allen and Allen was allowed to choose giving it. It wasn't as if he was threatening to stand in the way of their relationship, and Allen would never let him do that even if he'd wanted to try. Which he didn't.
And he was sure Allen knew without it needing to be said that he would never cross that boundary of trying to tempt the other into unfaithfulness, which was why he was even allowed to get so close.
"I think you should hurry home," Kanda said, his voice perfectly betraying how much he has to strain himself not to murder the redhead on the spot, "before something bad happens..."
"Hey, don't look at me. I didn't start it this time," he shrugged, first at Allen, before finally rebuking towards Kanda, "and maybe you should go maul a defenseless pillow or something and leave reasonable people to talk for all of two seconds." It was as much a valid suggestion for venting on his part as it was a biting quip.
Kanda looked as if he wanted to say something, or better yet, scream it, but he resolved to give Allen a look that was a mix of wistfulness and anger to which Allen replied with a wave of his hand.
"Maybe Lavi is right," he hummed nonchalantly. The face Kanda made when he heard that was priceless. "I'm sure you're hungry. Make something for me as well, will you?" He smiled, but Lavi could clearly see some temper underneath that pretty and gentle facáde.
Kanda gaped for a second before storming downstairs.
When Allen was sure he was not going to hear them, he gave a piece of his mind to the redhead as well. "Leave reasonable people to talk?" he scolded, hitting Lavi on his head. "You are everything BUT reasonable! What did you two do this time?"
Lavi only grinned under the cruzing, despite that it probably wasn't what Allen was going for, flinching under the smack to his head.
"Hey, I was just trying to get rid of him for a while, and it worked." His strategy didn't end at battlefields, after all. Insighting Allen's temper meant that he spared himself Kanda's for the moment. "And I did try to give the man sincere advice earlier that wasn't sarcastic, but he's like an angry snapping turtle floundering on its back. You try to put him right-side-up and instead he bites the hand that tries to help."
He paused to stretch for a moment before glancing up through one eye from where his head was resting on Allen's lap, yawning again. After minimal sleep and the day he'd contended with, he was definitely going to rest deeply tonight.
"Anyway, at first all we really did was talk. He wanted to test my worth as a strategist himself while we patrolled the city. Then he wanted to spar, but as I probably don't have to tell you, he takes it way too seriously and doesn't give any leeway once he starts. Maybe it was just to see how I'd react to being pushed toward a corner, but if he didn't plan on at least giving me a scar to remember him by," or outright kill him, though he left that part unspoken. "-he did a real good job of pretending it wasn't just a sparring match."
"Usually when I want to put him the ´right-side-up´ he doesn't lash out. You just need to know how to approach him," Allen tutored, holding up a finger to make his point. "And I know. He told me the night before but I didn't think he would go this far. I don't know what has gotten into him. He seems snappier than usual."
He bit his lower lip, glancing at the door where Kanda disappeared a while ago.
"Say Lavi," he started, suddenly sounding unsure, "was the man, I mean - the one you found - did you think he suffered much?"
"I don't know," Lavi answered honestly, tone carefully gentle. "I wasn't there. A lot of wounds that aren't instantly fatal render people unconscious quickly though, from the sudden blood loss, so maybe he didn't feel much of anything after the first strike." It was the best he could offer, but it was better than nothing. "Anyway, it doesn't matter anymore. Whatever he felt then, he's no longer in pain now, so you no longer need worry over him, okay? Nothing can hurt him anymore."
Allen nodded mutely, staring into distance.
"I think you should go. I need to talk to Kanda now. He seemed unhappy." He stared at the door again. "Be careful on your way home, please."
"About that," Lavi hummed, sitting up. "There's really no easy or entirely gentle way to say this, but that temper of his could be what's going to get more of his people killed." He was entirely serious, dropping playfulness and joking by the wayside. "His men probably aren't getting sloppy all of a sudden just for the sake of being sloppy. They're demoralized and unwilling to take orders as seriously as they should because of it. Maybe making them fear him more than Apollo is just Kanda's way of doing things, but it's already carrying heavy consequences. I should probably talk to him about that, but I know this isn't the right time, and even when it is, I hazard a guess he isn't going to like what I have to say, even though it needs saying."
He leaned to the side to give Allen a one-armed hug in parting, resting his head sideways against Allen's.
"Anyway, you take care too. I'll see you come morning, 'bring you a nice breakfast again. Until then, this rabbit needs his sleep," he laughed, letting go and standing. "Good night."