-Chapter start-
Truth is only a matter of perception.
Red stained White bird
Chapter 5: When the world moves on
"AH!" a high-pitched scream echoed through the halls after a shot was heard.
"LAVI!" the short-haired Lenalee Lee cried in alarm as she took a peek at her companion from her cover place, only to take a glimpse of a red splatter on the red-head's shirt.
She still had time to help him, 20 seconds to be precise but she can't make it there in time, could she? Trying her luck, the seventeenth leader of the Black Order family inhaled and swiftly ran towards Lavi. Not even a second later, shots were heard and the teen dodged them but by doing so, she was actually getting further away from Lavi.
Meanwhile, grey orbs observed the scene from some other hidden place.
"Quite a good move, aiming to shoot her in places that if she dodges will make her further away from the intended target…" muttered an adolescent voice, "If this goes on we might really lose Lavi…" the figure paused as he took a look at his watch, "13 seconds more and we are done for…" Casting another glance at Lenalee who had not been able to make any progress getting nearer to the forty-ninth bookman, the white-haired teen bit his lip uncertainly. He should help Lavi but then, their team would be in a larger crisis… "What should I do?"
Well, fortunately for Allen Walker that day, he need not make any decisions as a tall dark figure seemed to appear from above. As quickly as he appeared and landed on the floor, the samurai didn't spare a moment as he headed for the red-head.
But just like Lenalee's attempt, shots were aimed at the samurai but instead of dodging it, the dark-haired teen deflected all the shots using a sword. Taking the momentary pause of surprise from the enemy, the third heir of the Third Lotus family, made an extremely quick sprint towards where the shots were coming from. There, three students were crouching in position with guns in hand.
"What the! How the hell did you get here-?" one of them cursed as he aimed at the Japanese male.
Thonk. With that, all three collapsed before either could get a good aim.
The owner of those dark blue orbs swung the sword back in position as he gave his trade-mark, 'che'. Then crouched down to pick up a heart shaped pendant that fell out of one of the student's jackets when they hit the floor.
"Kanda!" with that urgent call from Lenalee, Kanda glanced back to see the Chinese girl fighting with two other students and based from their outfits, they are form another team than the ones Kanda just knocked out. "7 seconds! Hurry!"
The samurai then glanced at where the red-head was lying, red fluid still fresh on his clothes and quickly spreading on the floor. However, that was not what Kanda was paying attention to, he was looking at the other guy with the same green outfit as the ones fighting Lenalee, quickly advancing towards the red-head.
As the young man of the opposing team reached Lavi and was about to put his hands inside of Lavi's shirt with a victorious smirk, Kanda arrived and gave a hard kick at the boy sending him flying away and unconscious on the floor as his head hit a head-on with the same floor.
"Kanda! " shouted Lenalee for the second time that day, and again Kanda glanced back to see what was so fucking wrong, yes, unfortunately, Kanda has a short temper. "There's no more time!" The short-haired lady had already finished beating the crap out of the enemy and was running towards the two males with urgency in her eyes.
Kanda being the nearest to Lavi was the only one who was able to save the team for now. Turning around, the samurai kneeled near the red-head, his trousers were now stained with the crimson fluid on the floor. Reluctantly, the heir for the Third Lotus Family put his hand under the red-head's shirt, his hands stained red in the process. Grasping the intended object, Kanda pulled it out, and as easy it looks, the string of the pendent snapped as Kanda held the diamond shaped pendant in his palm.
"AND THAT IS IT!" a shout was heard as bells rang indicating that the 30 minutes four team battle was over, "The Spade team passed beating all the three teams –Diamond, Hearts and Club! Just in the naked time too!"
"That was close," Lenalee sighed beside Kanda, "If you were to be late even a second later, we would have failed, nice work Kanda!" and she smiled brightly at Kanda.
"Che," the tall teen flung away the now useless pendant, only to have the pendant hit a certain snow-haired male who was heading towards them.
"Kanda! That hurts!" Allen complained as he threw the pendant back towards Kanda but the samurai easily avoided it, instead the pendant landed right on top of Lavi's face.
"OI!" the red-head sat down from his lying position as he pouted at his team members, "You guys could at least have respect for the hero who died in battle you know!"
"Hero? You cried like a girl when that last shot hit you."Allen commented, "If only you could have run faster, then-"
"That shot was unexpected!" the red-head protested as he stood up, "Besides you calculated the plan wrongly! You said they wouldn't see me running if I use this path!"
"I did, but I expected you to run fast enough for them not to see you, don't blame the master planner…" the snow-haired adolescent shrugged nonchalantly.
"You could have said that sooner! You know how hard it is to wash this red paint on me?" the red-head pointed at the blotch of red on his shirt.
"But that crimson splatter looks great on you Lavi." Lenalee spoke up. "It is not bad for a style."
All three guys stared at the only female in their group that seems to have a dark taste in style.
"Anyways," Allen decided to speak up as he stretched his arms out, "I need to go, I have yesterday's reports to do,"
Lavi blinked at that statement, "Didn't you finish the report yesterday with us?" It was true, they had a small study session before dinner last night and the Bookman heir was certain that Allen had already finished the report with them.
"I never said I was doing mine," was the only reply the red-head got as Allen left the practice hall to change out of the combat training uniform.
"Uh, was I the only one who found that weird?" the Bookman successor directed his question at his two remaining comrades but when only silence greeted him, he turned to face them only to find empty spaces behind him. "Eh- guys…?"
-That evening-
"I am back," Lavi's voice echoed throughout the hallway of their temporary base.
"You returned awfully late… Lavi," a stern voice replied.
Not expecting a response since it was already around midnight, the red-head merely blinked as a blonde man went out from the kitchen whilst holding a plate of cookies.
"Link? Any reason you are still up?"
Making a disgruntled face, the senior student answered, "Walker. His insistent endless typing on those keyboards of his never ceases to make me awake." Here, he offered some of the cookies, not in any hurry to sleep, Lavi graciously accepted. "Apparently he tends to get carried away with those things, forgoing sleep most days even,"
The junior Bookman nodded his head in acknowledgement as he processed this information. Link's room was next to Allen, he must have really sensitive hearing and also be a light sleeper if he were to be bothered this easily. Not only that these cookies he baked were delicious! Getting side-tracked, the red-head reprimanded himself mentally before shooting off a question that has been bothering him.
"You must have known Allen for a while, huh?" the younger one asked as he moved to grab another cookie.
"Not by choice I assure you," This answer initiated another blink from the red-head which prompted Howard to continue, "Walker was not always an office sorts of an agent, he used to be a field agent," This got Lavi's full attention. Perhaps this might be a deciding factor in making sure if the fourteenth Noah was really Allen or not, "Allen Walker. Specialized in head on attacks, infiltrate and destroy operations and also battle ambushes. I am not certain on the details but the school informed me that an accident happened which caused severe physical ailments to said student when he was out for an independent job run. Due to that situation, I was assigned to monitor him for any sudden… relapse that may occur,"
Lavi let out a whistle, "Never knew little Allen had such a history," the plate of cookies were now empty, the junior bookman having eaten all of it whilst listening to Link.
"As such, I would like to ask you to stop harassing him at school as I do not wish to see Walker collapse due to any sudden stress on his body," at this point, Link gave Lavi a hard stare.
The red-head responded with a weak chuckle, "You heard about that, huh?"
"I am quite well-informed of Walker's daily activities."
'….That does not sound like a stalker at all,' Lavi thought.
"Well, thanks for the cookies! And also the history lesson on Allen- I am gonna hit the hay now, nights!" with a carefree smile, the bookman successor bid Link farewell and went up the stairs as silently as he can in order to prevent himself from disturbing anyone who might be sleeping.
Link merely stared at the red-head until he went out of sight before he proceeded to go back to the kitchen to take out his next batch of cookies from the oven. As he left the hallway, he muttered a "You are welcome, Fourty Ninth Bookman," to the empty air.
- -Next Morning-
That morning, one certain Yuu Kanda woke up without any feelings of irritation at all. That was a rare moment in itself but the said Japanese male merely acknowledged his good mood before starting his usual training regime. He was really starting to accept that perhaps today will not be a bad day at all when all of his training routine finished without any interruptions but alas, a certain annoying rabbit greeted him with too much enthusiasm as soon as he entered the kitchen for his breakfast.
"Morning Yu- ACK," Of course, Kanda would immediately strike down the said interruption to his good mood which is no more sadly. Honestly, the Japanese youth knew the good mood had lasted long enough.
Ignoring the idiot who was nursing his bruised body, the long haired male looked for the teapot to brew his morning tea. What he found was an already made tea on the kitchen table with a short-haired Asian girl sipping on a cup of tea.
"I made tea, if you would like some Kanda," she prompted.
Responding only with a nod of thanks, he took a seat opposite of the girl whilst pouring out the tea into his own cup.
"Link and Allen already ate breakfast earlier," Lenalee stated, "They left a while ago, both looked tired though. Any idea why?"
Kanda mentally frowned at that statement. He definitely did not notice the two leaving from the front door when he was practicing outside. He needed to fix that habit of losing focus of the outside world when training- he was too used to training without bothering about anyone else back in the dojo he owned in Japan.
"Link was up late last night cause he can't stand Allen's endless typing apparently," Lavi answered as he took a seat. Kanda noted that he positioned himself as far away from the Japanese male as possible seeing the kitchen table was only a six-seated table, it was not that far though. "What Allen was typing till late night, I haven't got a clue,"
"About that," Here, the dark-haired youth noted how the Bookman's successor attention shifted to Lenalee as she continued, "I went to his room around dinner to give him the cake that Link baked and I saw him doing the report we were supposed to hand in later,"
"Like I said yesterday, did he not finish and already submitted that report online with us?" the red-head cut-off.
"He was not doing his own report, he was hacking the other student's report…"
That sentence made both remaining mafia heirs in the rooms raised their eyebrows.
"So let me get this straight… Allen was hacking other people's work as they submitted their files online throughout the night," Lavi clarified to himself a spark of thought could be seen in his eyes as he mulled over that sentence.
"Do you still suspect him of being the Musician?" Kanda decided to enter the conversation.
After a few seconds of thought, the red-headed responded with a shake of his head, "I am not sure anymore. I kinda found out that he used to be a field agent like us, a really good one too but then one thing led to another and he was forced to leave the field." Kanda was not surprised at how Lavi had encountered the information; the red-head just has a knack for those things as he had found out during the Bookman's stay in Japan. "Besides, I do not think it matters much if he is or not right?"
'Of course the naïve rabbit would think it will not matter,' Here Kanda managed to notice that Lenalee also had a small smile when she heard the red-head's last sentence and the yakuza had to suppress a growl at how he was surrounded by naïve people.
"OF course it matters," the Lotus family heir scowled, "I don't give a shit if he is a Noah or not but I do give a damn if that beansprout is an enemy spy or just a stupid fucking bystander that might compromise our identities if he one day get curious or by hell even bored enough, to hack our data."
The ensuing silence did not make the Japanese male feel any less irritated than he was.
"I thought we should give him the benefit of the doubt, he might be harmless and trustworth-" Here the red-head was cut off by the sudden appearance of a sharp blade in front of his remaining good eye.
"Trust is something we cannot give easily, if you care to even remember, our organization is currently fucked up as it is right now cause of a damn mole who decided to screw trust into some fucking hole of a whor-"
"Stop it," the only female in the room interrupted. A silent determined gaze from her effectively stopped any protest the samurai may have wanted to make. "Both of you have a point but we are living under the same roof with two strangers that we do not know about. I think Kanda is right in that we can't just trust them, so we will have to watch our backs on that," here the red head wanted to say something but Lenalee continued on, "but Lavi also has a point. We do not know if Allen is an enemy or a foe for sure but we have to work with him especially since he is assigned into our team by the school."
"Fine," both male relented after a moment.
"Good."
-Unknown location-
A mechanical click echoed throughout the alley, as a body fell lifelessly on the cold hard concrete, blood seeped out from five deep holes originating in its chest. Another thud was heard as another body was pressed down onto the concrete next to the corpse but this one was still alive.
The man's wide frightened eyes frantically looked away from the dead body next to him but his assaulter did not allow his head to move much as he applied more pressure towards the man's skull. Tears caused by pain flowed down his face but he refused to die here, he will not go down without a fight. At that thought, the man mustered his energy and gave a loud grunt as he twisted his body. Not expecting the sudden force, his captor lost his ground for a while, allowing the man a free movement for a moment and he used that chance to strike at the other.
His punch connected but instead of sending his assaulter back in pain, it was his fist that burnt with the pain of hitting the hard limb. Thinking that the other had quite the muscular arm compared to his own lanky body, he used his other arm to draw out the knife he hid under his jacket and used the weapon against the limb earlier only to be met with a resulting metallic sound that echoed throughout the alley.
"The fuck…?" The lanky man's eye widened as he saw the long sleeve of his captor torn by the knife but something metallic had stopped the knife descent further.
Before the man can think about it any further, he was punched back harshly by the limb he just tried to attack. The attack connected with his sternum, making him reel back. As he tried to take gulp in much needed air to compose himself, a few clicks could be heard from his attacker. Slowly he raised his head to try and have a clear look at the agent who was sent to kill the both of them.
"A fucking child," the man spat out, "To think I would be killed by a kid after years in this damn business." A self-depreciating smile made a way to his face, "Tch, these days, they sure make the best killers young huh,"
His to be killer merely offered him a smile, not a condescending one but merely a polite smile which irked the man more.
"This was not my fault. The fault is entirely yours for making me do this." The other said as he lifted his left arm with the torn sleeve.
The limb though was not a normal human arm, and the man realized this. No wonder the knife did not go through. The fingers at the end of the left limb seemed to retract, replacing the dark fingers with thin barrels that will not look out of place on a gun. A shot was heard as five consecutive bullets fly towards the man who was still staring in shock. By the time his body crashed to the concrete, there was no longer any life in his eyes.
The only living person standing in the alley moved towards the man he just killed while he returned his left hand back to normal. Well, as normal as a mechanical arm can get. Mismatched hands of black left fingers and white covered fingers in glove searched through the man's body until he found the object he was looking for. He wiped the hard drive he found with the corpse's jacket, effectively cleaning it from the blood before proceeding to leave the scene.
-Later that evening-
Lenalee Lee was used to her brother's overprotectiveness. She tolerates the random very frequent calls she receive from her brother every day because she knows that he was only worried for her. So when she answered the call on her way back from school, she was prepared to say all the soothing sentences she always told her brother and also a short recount on what happened in the time he last called, which was usually only four to six hours before.
"Lenalee," the voice was stern and serious. The younger Lee sibling knew that her brother can be quite serious time to time but what surprised her was not how serious the voice sounded but also the fact that it was not her brother's voice.
She took the phone away from her eyes for a moment to glance at the caller ID and the unmistakable number of her brother with his overtly annoying face was displayed on the phone screen. Worry started to seep in as the younger Lee sibling listened to the call again.
"Lenalee, are you there?" She was not sure if she should answer or not, who could have used her brother's phone? Why was her brother not at the other end of the line? "Lenalee. It is Reever." At the mention of the name, the Black Order heir's worry elevated a bit. It was only brother's second in command but that still did not explain why Reever was using Komui's phone to call her.
"Y-Yes?" she stuttered a bit in her response due to the slight panic and worry she held. Huh, maybe that sister complex did was not a one way thing, the younger Lee sibling thought to herself in an effort to calm herself down.
"Listen carefully," Reever continued and a large explosive sound could be heard in the background. As soon as she heard that sound, she was suddenly aware of the gunshots and sound of crackling fire in the background with the occasional yells of people.
"Reever? Where are you? Are you on a mission or something?" she inquired confusedly, why was he talking to her during a mission?
"Listen, okay," with those two words, he disregarded her questions, "Our new HQ was discovered, It is under attack as we speak," Lenalee let out a gasp but Reever continued on, "The Noahs are here for back up but somehow, the enemy have a device or weapon that is able to go on par with the Noahs. I heard half of them were either killed or capture already." Another boom could be heard at the background and Lenalee can hear Reever curse over the phone, "Shit, I don't have much time. The three of you be careful. Their aim is not only to kill the family leaders! They are after the family heirlooms we-"
Another resounding explosion was heard followed by sounds of crumbling concrete before the line died.
"Reever?" she could only manage to mumble his name as the information sunk in and what just happened finally crushed down to her. "I need to update the others on this," she muttered to herself.
As the heir of the Black Order moved closer to her destination, she desperately tried to ignore the small voice in her head that was asking the question to worries her the most. The fact that Reever was using her brother's phone and it was Reever and not her overbearingly protective brother that called her. Her emotions swirled in response to the conclusion she came up with but she refused to think about it. She was still the Black Order's heir. Just the heir. Not anything more than a successor. Definitely.
-End of chapter five-
-Alice speaks-
Whoa. What is this nonsensical event? Did I just… updated? *looks around* I am actually in the author section of fanfiction again. Whelp, gonna go back to reader mode now. *poofs*
On a serious note, this story is officially no longer on hiatus.
