CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
I was in shock. Kanda was lying on the ground, and blood was seeping from the wound on his stomach. His breaths were ragged. My only consolation was that I knew, somehow, he would heal. This fact of his being still perturbed me, and I still was worried about him, even though his recovery was inevitable. But the wound was horrible. I felt my heart tearing in two, and I wanted to cry. I would have run to his side, but Lulu Bell had now stepped in front of him, and was blocking my way.
She looked at me curiously and smiled a little. Her eyes were blank and it was a smile that conveyed no emotion. "I am slightly confused by your love towards this boy," she said. I wanted to look at Kanda, but I didn't dare take my eyes off of the Noah before me. My past experiences with the Noah taught me that they didn't play fair, and I would be a fool to expect otherwise.
"Are you?" I said angrily. I clenched my fists.
She nodded. "Tyki said that he was very cold, almost cruel to people. How could anyone love someone who could be so heartless?"
"You don't know the first thing about Kanda, and you don't know the first thing about love."
She laughed a little at this. "And I suppose, darling, that you think you know about love?"
"Yes. Are you not the Noah of Lust? Lust and love are not interchangeable concepts. How then, could you have even the vaguest understanding of what it is to love someone, not only with you're whole heart, but with your soul and every fiber of your being? I've loved more than you ever could."
This statement seemed to make Lulu Bell angry. Her face paled and her eyes narrowed to slits. Her mouth twisted into a cross between a smirk and a scowl, and it distorted the planes of her face. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came. I had stunned her into silence. Finally, she regained her composure.
"Well, that may or may not be so, but I am the one with the upper hand here. You won't be able to do a thing while I kill your little friend here."
"You will not!" I cried, anger bursting from every inch of me. I barely hesitated, and when she shot a long limb toward me, her hand once again like a spearhead, I was ready. I turned slightly to the side, letting the arm brush by me and with my dagger already in my hand, sliced downward, leaving a deep gash in her arm. She cried out in pain, and the other arm shot forward. I was not as quick this time, and the point cut through my uniform and across the top layer of my skin. The cut stung, but I could barely feel it.
I reached behind me, as she launched another attack, and had my bow and arrow ready in a second. The arrow flew forward, missing her by only a fraction of an inch. She seemed stunned.
"Tyki said you were the weak one!" she cried. I dodged her attack again and sliced wildly with my dagger, succeeding only in tearing her clothing.
"He doesn't know me," I said. "I would do anything for Kanda; I will fight to the death to protect him. I will fight to keep the Innocence safe and keep you and the Earl from ever sending this world to its demise."
That's when it happened. I was not ready for the attack, and it seemed that Lulu Bell had the advantage. Her arm was going to pierce me, right over my heart. And then somehow, it didn't. I heard her scream in pain. Kanda was standing, slumped against the wall, Mugen in his hand and dripping blood. On the ground was a gray spearhead, which was slowly shifting back into a delicate hand. Lulu Bell was on the ground, cradling her arm, which was missing a hand.
My eyes widened, but I didn't have much time to contemplate what was happening, because Kanda called out to me.
"Val! Your Innocence!" he said, pointing toward where my bow was laying on the ground. I turned my head to look at it, and saw that it was emitting a golden light.
"What's happening?" I asked.
"I don't know," he said, clutching his stomach, where the wound was still bleeding.
We watched in awe, as the simple shape of my bow started to bend. It stretched longer, the wood curling into spirals at the top, a white light tracing shapes onto the wood. It glowed brightly for a moment, before the light went out. Suddenly, I knew what was happening.
"It's evolved," I said. I picked up the bow, looking at the black design of cherry blossoms and vines crawling up the bow. I grabbed an arrow, and saw that the feathers had turned red, and the same cherry blossoms and vines were crawling up the shaft. The arrow head had become smaller, and more refined. It looked to be made of a black rock, and the points were sharp, lethal.
"The Innocence can evolve?" I heard Lulu say. I readied my bow and aimed it at her. She looked scared for the first time.
"You and the rest of the Noah are destroying my friends. You are destroying this world. I should kill you now, and save someone else the trouble later."
I thought that she would tremble in fear. But she just smiled widely. "You won't kill me," she said. "I'm human too. How would your conscience take it, knowing that you had killed another human being, had set their soul to be in eternal torment?"
My hand shook. The arrow lowered. Lulu Bell grinned triumphantly.
"Val!" Kanda yelled. "Don't listen to her!"
But it was too late. She shifted her arm into a spear, and I felt the limb pierce my chest. I looked down in shock as blood spurted from the wound. I crashed to the ground and the world went black.
It was dark. I couldn't see anything. My chest was on fire, and my mouth was dry. I desperately wanted to drink something, anything. My stomach was in knots. I tried to open my eyes, but my eyelids were too heavy, and they wouldn't budge. I heard the sound of a machine beeping, then the sound of a chair scraping against the ground.
"Nurse!" cried a frantic voice I recognized. "Nurse! She's awake!"
There were the sounds of people running around, and then I felt something being shoved into my mouth. Vile liquid coursed towards my throat, and I almost threw up.
"Swallow!" commanded a voice. I swallowed. Immediately, the fire in my chest cooled, and my eyes were less heavy. I opened my eyes slowly, letting them adjust slowly to the light.
I was in the Infirmary of the Black Order. Nurse was standing over me, holding a glass of clear liquid that looked like water.
"Are you thirsty?" she asked. I opened my mouth to answer, by my throat was so dry that words were impossible. I nodded my head vigorously until I noticed that doing so caused a throbbing pain. She handed me the glass and I drank it all in two large gulps.
"More," I managed to croak. She nodded and went to fill the glass. I closed my eyes. When she returned, I drank more slowly, feeling a little nauseous from drinking so quickly the first time.
"Where's Kanda?" I asked.
"Right here," came his voice. I turned, and there he was, sitting by my side. He was wearing black pants and a robe, his torso bare except for the bandages around his stomach.
"How are you? What happened?"
"I'm alright. Nurse won't let me take off the bandages yet, even though I've told her that I'm fine."
"Why are we at the Order? We never found the General!"
"Relax," he said, pushing me lightly back down so that I was no longer sitting up. "We found him. Mari managed to find him. He was in Barcelona, like we thought. He had heard that the Noah were there, and was tracking them. He found Tyki Mikk, and was fighting with him when Mari was able to hear him through his headphones. Mikk retreated, and Mari and Tiedoll came back to the hotel."
I nodded. "What about Lulu Bell?"
"She's dead."
"She is? I didn't…"
"No. It wasn't you," he said, understanding what I was getting at. "I did."
"Oh, Kanda," I said.
"She had hurt you, and I was so overcome with rage. And so I took up where you left off and I just…" He trailed off, not finishing his sentence.
"Tiedoll and Mari showed up, after it happened. Mari had to literally hold me back. I blamed Tiedoll for what happened to you. I was cursing at him and tried to go at him with Mugen. He didn't even get angry or fight back."
I reached out and held his hand. I hadn't heard him talk so much in a while, and not like this. It was like he was pouring out his soul to me.
"And then," he continued, seemingly unable to stop, "we took you to a hospital and the people bandaged you up, but they couldn't really do much. So Tiedoll decided that we needed to return to the Order. The whole way here, you were sleeping. At times it was like…it was like…" and here he broke off. He turned his face away from me, and I wondered if he wasn't crying, but when he turned around, his eyes were clear.
"It was like you were dead. Your breathing was really shallow, and sometimes it seemed like you weren't breathing at all."
"But what about your wound?" I asked.
"It had sealed a little bit, but when I was fighting Lulu Bell, it reopened. And Mari didn't realize I was wounded until he was holding me back, and felt it on my stomach. But it's almost completely healed now."
"Okay," I said, feeling a little overwhelmed and tired.
"Do you need to sleep? Nurse can bring you something to help you sleep better," Kanda said. I could tell that he was trying to keep his stony composure, but I was able to see through the mask. He was worried about me, and that knowledge made me happy.
I was about to reach out and hold his hand, when the doors to the Infirmary burst open. A huge commotion ensued, as Lavi rushed over to my bed, knocking aside tables and trays on his was to get over. He rushed into Kanda, sending him falling to the ground.
"Val! You're awake!" he cried.
"I am," I said.
"You don't know how dull it's been, having only Yu-Kun to talk to. He's not much for conversation, that one," he said, gesturing toward Kanda, who was glaring indignantly at Lavi. I grinned.
"It's good to see you, Lavi."
"It's good to see you," he replied, squeezing my hand. "I'm so glad you're awake."
I smiled at my friend. He grinned back, while Kanda stood off to the side, looking murderous. Lavi leaned forward, and hugged me gently, careful of my wound. Regardless of my injury, I felt incredibly happy at that moment, with the people I loved by my side.
This is a terrible chapter. I'm sorry. I honestly have no idea where I am going from this point, so leave a review with a suggestion if you'd like. Also, I'm sorry it took so long to post, I was busy with school. My semester is over now, though, so hopefully I will be able to post again soon.
Please review!