First off, THANK YOU SO MUCH to those who reviewed, followed and faved this story~ I was a bit surprised that a reader from the very first chapter still remembers this story… Special Thanks for still reading! :D You made me guilty enough to dish out this chapter asap. *laughs* …it helped a little.
-Chapter start-
Isn't all this happening a bit too fast?
Red stained White bird
Chapter 6: When life turned bleak
When Lavi came back that night, he was already on high alert. The reason for that was definitely not because he caught the news of the Black Order HQ getting attacked though. No. He did not know about that yet. See, for the past few nights, he was in the library. Yea, yea, call him a nerd geek or whatever but that place is a haven of information especially when you are using a library of a distinguished academy known for its production of fighters. Today, he found something odd while he was researching about the random things that piqued his interests.
In this academy, the students were placed in groups for their assignments. They are placed base on their field preferences and ability. Not only that, they are grouped in accordance to the time they entered the academy. Lavi was curious about how the three of them ended up in the same group, he thought perhaps their families pulled some strings in order to make it so but that was not the apparent case. It was merely because they were transferred to the school at the same time and since they transferred in the end of the first semester, not many new students would be available so it is natural to group the conveniently transferred three students together. Now the thing is… Allen was already attending the academy far longer than they had. So why was he placed in their group? Even if he decided to change from fighting in the front lines to doing technical strategy work, he could have stayed with his previous group still. It was common for a group to have more than two strategists, like their current group for example. Lavi himself had register to be a strategist or information gatherer for their group, not that he minded fighting but he was told to do so by bookman in order to endure the three of them ended up in the same group as every group needs at least one non-fighter member.
So Lavi was curious about it and he proceeded to uncover some more information. He did not find anything much at first but then he found the list of members of the group Allen was in before he left the field. Four of them aside from Allen, two strategists and two fighters. He went and checked their names against the database and the result that came out was not what he expected. All four of them died on a group mission they had accepted from the academy board. This was not long after Allen left the group. The mission involved delivering a package to a government sector and the difficulty was not rated high but all four of them did not return from the mission. A week passed and the academy sent a group of teachers to investigate only to find their bodies in a nearby forest.
It was officially stated that the four students were ambushed on the way back to the academy. It was not stated by what or whom they were ambushed or any details regarding their deaths. Lavi had to admit, it might just be an unfortunate coincidence that the group died as soon as Allen left, perhaps they were not used to having one less fighter and a pack of wild animals might have ambushed them while they were fatigue or something similar to that.
Lavi would have agreed with his own theory of that but then he not so legally, decided to check on the details of the four students' death circumstances because hey, he was curious. He did not regret hacking into the school database, speaking of which, he really thinks the academy should up their security if he and Allen can easily hack through the database as conveniently as this. Their cause of death was simple enough, blood loss. The cause of blood loss was not so simple, apparently they were clawed to death but the claw marks did not belong to any known animals. Post-mortem investigation showed a metal residue in the wound, indicating that it was not a natural claw but a claw-like weapon that might have inflicted the damage. So the students were attacked by possible humans, perhaps a rival group but the academy did nothing to investigate the fact. Instead, they sent one Howard Link to watch over a certain Allen Walker with the guise of making sure the white-head did not undergo any relapse due to his physical condition but perhaps, now that Lavi knew the history of Allen's previous group members, Link was sent to protect Allen just in case the same people decided to go after Allen.
"If Allen is in constant danger and he is in our group currently, then we are exposed to the same danger," Lavi softly said to himself as he opens the door to his room.
Strangely, tonight it was quiet. Allen must have slept early, allowing Link to have his much needed sleep then. As soon as he entered his room, Lavi closed the door lightly, remembering that the blonde was a very light sleeper and proceeded to turn on his lights when he felt a sudden movement from his left which he detected because of his alert level was at its peak but sadly his reaction time was too slow. Before he could comprehend anything, he was lying on the floor, face down and his two arms were twisted painfully behind his back.
"Bookman," the voice definitely sounded male.
At that moment, Lavi's heart started speeding up as he tried to think of ways to get out this situation.
"What the fuck are you doing?" another voice countered the first one and Lavi could not be any happier to hear the sound of that familiar harsh voice.
"I am merely disengaging him, in the case that he might be an imposter," the earlier voice answered.
Getting a bit disgruntled that he could not see his attacker face, the red head risked looking up and was met with the familiar silhouette of the long haired male.
"Yuu… I was not aware you used my room as a place for you and your boyfriend to get down-" Another harsh jab which Lavi associated with the hilt of Kanda's beloved Mugen, on the red-head's back causes the male to wheeze before he can finish his sentence.
"Kanda!" Lavi can hear Lenalee's alarmed voice from somewhere in his room, initiating the question of what are they doing in his room in the first place? …They were not doing a threesome right? Of course not. He quickly banished that thought, he had to admit, his mind can get really funky at times.
"Let the stupid rabbit go," the Japanese youth said, a way of telling the one pinning Lavi down that the red head under him was not an imposter.
Nursing his much abused arms, Lavi slowly stood up and immediately eyed the man in front of him. Instantly, he recognized the tall Portuguese male.
"Pleasure…" Lavi muttered the Noah's code name with unguarded scepticism.
The Noah looked worse for the wear, last time Lavi saw him was at the meeting and he looked quite pristine and was the epitome of a gentleman look. Now though, he was no longer in the suit that Lavi last saw him, perhaps, before whatever ordeal he went through, he did wear the suit but now what was left of it were torn ragged slacks and a bloodied inner shirt that was once an off white colour. His curly hair which was usually tied and styled neatly behind his head was currently unkempt and let loose. Though a cigarette stick was still poking out of his mouth.
"Oh, you still remember who I am boy?" the dubbed Pleasure gave a lazy smirk.
Lavi gave a pointed look at the Noah's state before shifting his gaze towards Kanda who was standing near the door and then Lenalee who was fiddling with her hair near his window, her gaze never leaving the window. Then the junior Bookman let out a huge sigh which captured the girl's attention for a moment before she proceeded to look back out of the window.
In that one moment where Lenalee made eye contact with the red-head, Lavi already saw everything he needed to. Her pools of green orbs were full of worry and uncertainty, adding to the fact that a Noah, a battle-worn one on top of that, was in his room, the smart Bookman junior can easily come up with a few presumptions that he was sure was right.
"Are we expecting an attack here anytime soon?" he directed the question to the Noah, assuming that he would know the most about the situation.
"No need to worry about that," at that weak assurance that they were safe for the moment, Lavi merely raised an eyebrow as if to say, 'so you think the enemy did not trail you here?'. The Noah of Pleasure gave a weak chuckle at that expression before proceeding to explain, "I came here by unconventional means for other humans, so you do not have to worry about me being followed. For now, care to make yourselves comfortable?"
Lavi was unsure whether he should trust the Noah's words of assurance but seeing that had no other option he merely followed the suggestion and sat on his bed whilst Kanda and Lenalee remained standing where they were.
"The new Black Order HQ was attacked," the Noah began and Lavi did not miss the subtle flinch Lenalee made at that statement, she did not look up or show any surprised expression though, this led the Bookman to believe that the girl knew about it before the proclamation, "The HQ did not survive." Oh wow, Lavi blinked, this guy definitely goes straight to the point. "Even with eight Noahs as reinforcements, half of that number of Noahs were killed while two were subdued and captured. I managed to get away when the Black Order leader decided to activate a self-destruct sequence on the HQ itself. It is highly likely the initiator of that self-destruct procedure did not survive. I came directly here to inform you three about the change of plans and also," here he shifted his gaze to Lenalee who still refuse to look away from the window, Lavi had a sinking feeling in his stomach and the bad feeling was confirmed when the Noah finished his sentence, "Lenalee Lee of the Black Order Family, you are hereby the current leader of the distinguished European Branch of the Black Order. In accordance to the code that unifies us, we have three witnesses here to confirm this change in leadership."
The statement left a thick air of uneasiness in the room as the newly appointed leader's body trembled softly. Lavi was not sure what to do and instead averted his eyes towards Kanda who merely stare ahead unflinchingly at the Chinese girl.
"In addition to that, you are to hold on to the Black Order's family original heirloom. The previous head asked me to personally make sure this was delivered safely to you with a message of: I know you will make me proud little sister,"
At the mention of her older brother's words, Lenalee choked out a sob as she finally turned away from the window. Her tear-stained face and glassy eyes wrenched Lavi's heart but he could only offer a comforting smile. Lavi knew the world he was pulled in was full of deaths but it did not make it any easier to handle, he would know from just watching the panda. The old geezer had lost twenty successors before the red-head was chosen. The last one Deke, Lavi managed to meet him on his death bed, when the mere fifteen year old with a similar tuft of hair colour as Lavi was struggling with the poison inside him. The current junior Bookman was only able to get to know the other for two weeks before the poison fully took effect and ended Deke's life.
Ridding himself of the much unneeded memory especially at this time, Lavi shifted back his attention to the real world where the Noah was pulling out a black decorative looking pen from his bloody shirt, speaking of which Lavi noticed that the Noah did not have any visible cuts that would produce such amount of blood. The red-head would like to be disturbed by that fact but his disturbance was placed at another weird oddity. There were no pockets or any place where the Noah could have placed that ancient fountain pen on his shirt. The shirt itself was plain with the occasional bloodstains, not to mention the random holes here and there.
Unable to suppress his curiosity, the red-head screwed the concept of appropriate timing as he eagerly asked, "Where did you put that heirloom?"
The red head can feel the glare coming from the Japanese youth from his side and also the blank gaze from Lenalee as she tried to comprehend the out of blue question. However what was done, could not be undone and the Bookman successor's curiosity was too strong to be defeated by such things as emotions of embarrassment or dignity.
"You had enough of a mind to notice that huh," Pleasure drawl out lazily as he passed the heirloom towards the rightful owner, "Thought you'd be too shock or have the decency to ask another time under the current circumstances,"
Lavi knew that was meant to be a jab at his insensitivity towards Lenalee current emotional stress but seriously, the red-head could not help it and as heartless as it sounds, she would eventually have to move on. Besides, this change in topic might distract her a bit.
"But I guess I'll oblige and answer your question, in return for a comfortable shirt and pair of slacks if you are so kind," Pleasure continued and with a distracted 'sure, whatever' response from the red-head, the Noah gave a playful mischievous smile.
The tall man moved towards Lavi until he stood directly in front of the red-head. Thinking the other wanted him to check his current shirt as if indicating he had a hidden pocket or something, Lavi proceeded to scrutinize the man before him.
"Liking what you see boy?" the man teased as he grabbed a hold of Lavi's shoulder.
Lavi was about to protest but as soon as the Noah grabbed hold of him, he withdrew his arm away from the red-head. As soon as he did, the Bookman felt oddly cold. A suspicious sounding snort could be heard from the other remaining male in the room while the Black Order newly proclaimed leader looked away with a light blush that she will hastily deny if asked. The Bookman successor then noticed that the Portuguese man in front of him was holding something he was definitely not holding before, a piece of red clothing that Lavi was sure was his shirt. He looked down at himself and sure enough he was half naked. His top was gone and he did not even notice it.
"What- how?" he stuttered as he looked back at the Noah, "How did you do that?" His eyes were sparkling more with curiosity rather than embarrassment and this amused the Noah.
"Every Noah has a side effect," the man stated as he proceeded to discard his bloodied shirt the way he did with Lavi's.
He merely touched the material of the battle worn cloth before pulling it away from his body. In front of the three pairs of disbelieving and awed eyes, the cloth simply passes through the Noah's body like it was not even there. The three did not shift their eyes away from the now second half naked man in the room, instead they continued to stare at where the shirt seemingly phased through, trying to see the trick on how it was done, even Lenalee was shamelessly staring. They only stopped staring when the Noah pulled over the shirt he stole from Lavi onto his body, covering his exposed top half once more and effectively pulling the three non-Noahs in the room out of their trance.
"Fortunately mine is quite useful and handy unlike Skinn's. I get to retain my handsome body, don't you agree?" Again with the teasing. Lavi is starting to understand what kind of person this particular Noah is. Well at least Pleasure did not seem as crazy as Musician. Seeing no one react to his attempt at flustering them, the other let out a disappointed sigh before continuing, "I can shift particles, something along those lines, the Earl explained to me the specifics but I was not really paying much attention at the jumbled theory," He dismissively ended his weak explanation, then his teasing smirk was back, "Would you like another demonstration with your trousers?"
"Sorry but I think these trousers are already tight enough on me, you can't possibly breath in them," Lavi replied casually as he took a pair of loose jeans that he just washed but did not bother to fold and put away properly. "You can have this one."
As the Noah changed in the background, the three teens grouped together near window.
"We will go through this together, okay Lenalee?" Lavi decided to just go straight to the point, "This must feel hard. I know I won't understand much of what you might be going through but our family had an alliance, I will support you and I am pretty sure Yuu here will too even though he does not want to admit it," Lavi added the last part with a joking smile, hoping to lighten the mood.
The Asian girl took a deep breath as she hardened her gaze. "As a leader, I will try to be strong. Thank you Lavi," Her determination shone through but the red-head can detect some sadness in her eyes which was to be expected.
"Enough of this sappy talk," Kanda effectively destroyed the mood, "I want to know who we are dealing with. The government can't possibly have known about the new HQ so soon, the traitor was killed before the Black Order even planned the move."
"That is because the person that was accused as a traitor was framed," the only Noah in the room answered, "We are dealing with an expert group of agents deployed by the government. A unique group that was established to counter the Earl's plan back then, it is now confirmed to be fully functional." Pleasure then made a disconcerting face, "I think it was called the Inn unit…? or something,"
"Innocence unit,." Lavi corrected and he instantly got the attention in the room.
"Junior Bookman, might you know what this unit entails? It'd be nice to know how their attacks can even repel my Noah side effects," the curly haired man inquired, "and also be able to actually kill my family," the second part was said with a sharp tone as his golden eyes took on a feral hungry look.
Filing the murderous reaction the Noah showed for a later date, the red-head began to unload the information he knew, "The government started bioengineering weapons that were able to act directly on the genes the Earl had disrupted in the human body. They managed to make such a weapon but they can only be wielded by people who can withstand the genes itself as the weapon uses the human body as a conductor and template to find the similar genes in the Noah's body. I am not too sure on how it works but I believe there are two ways of destroying the genes, by using the bioengineered weapon to act upon the genes and destroy them in the Noah body itself or by using the weapon to absorb the Noah genes and the genes would merely disintegrate without any link to its host."
From the faces of the three people in the room, Lavi concluded that his explanation barely made much sense to them, "In short, you Noah need to avoid the weapons. Separate the bioengineered weapon from the person wielding it and you should be fine,"
As simple as it sounds though, all four in the room knew that trying to avoid the weapon in battle at all times is an impossible practicality even more so if the wielder is highly skilled.
"There were only four people that I saw capable of going against us. I hate to admit it but we let our guards down because of our Noah status, we did not think that the government would have a counter unit against us yet. That was the primary reason why the most of the Noahs were defeated," Pleasure explained a bit too calmly, "I will make sure that mistake won't happen again."
Lavi merely nodded in acknowledgement, not knowing what else to say. It was not only the Black Order that suffered casualty; the Noah family's forces are cut down too. Not a comforting thought.
"Well enough chit chat, I think we all deserve a good night rest, now don't you agree Miss Lee?"
The aforementioned girl nodded in response before giving them a small smile in an effort to show that she will be okay. Not that the smile fooled the junior Bookman. Lenalee left the room and Kanda swiftly followed without any prompts, the Japanese youth must have had enough socialization for the day was what lanky red-head thought.
"When are you taking her away?" the red head asked as soon as he heard Lenalee enter her room. "If she is now the leader, I do not think you came here merely to pass on a trinket and tell us the news. She needs to be protected and this academy is no longer safe for her. I do not think it is safe for us either if the government can easily find the new Black Order HQ."
Lavi stared at the Noah.
"Easy there now, we can talk about that another day," Before the red-head can protest, Pleasure sent him a hard look, "Besides, don't you think Miss Lee should be given time to cool off before I tell her what has been planned?"
How he can forget? Lavi mentally scold himself. He always did this. In order to retrieve information, he usually forgot to take into account the situation in hand and other's people feelings. Senior Bookman knew about it but he said it was fine, emotions can be a hindrance in a mission but the red-head did not want it turn out that way. He did not want be impassive and use other people just to get information just so he can have a better understanding of what is going on. He can wait. He will wait. Lenalee's feelings comes first , she lost her blood-related family and also her Black Order family in a night after all. Not only that, even the Noah in front of him must be feeling exhausted and require some rest, not forgetting that he also lost a few members of his family. Again, Lavi wanted to hit himself for his insensitivity.
"Don't be too hard on yourself boy," Pleasure's voice brought Lavi out of his internal self-loathing, "We will sort this out later, I'll be back. Thanks for the clothes." He added the last part as an afterthought.
Confusedly, Lavi just stared as the Noah walked not towards his door but towards a section of the wall. That confusion turned into a bit of awe as Pleasure passed through the wall like it just an illusion, the junior Bookman decided that he needed to get a hang of accepting that odd side-effect. All the science facts he had learned essentially was crumbling down in his head, these Noahs are breaking a lot of scientific facts. Thinking about it made him recall about the Musician Noah, he wondered if Musician has side-effect that gave him aerial abilities, perhaps he was not lying when he said he can fly…
Lavi paused at that thought. He was really abandoning logic to even consider such possibilities. A weak chuckle escaped his lips, then another thought popped up. Musician might not even be alive if he was one of the ones in the Black Order. Then again, Allen lived here with them but the red-head has not confirmed if Allen was even the Musician. Just this evening, the likelihood of Allen being the Musician has dropped significantly after Lavi found out about his records. Unless Allen was undercover from the very start in order to throw off the government. Speaking of which, he wondered what the government's next move is. Pleasure said that the traitor was still around, did that mean, the traitor may still be in their midst?
All this thinking made Lavi's head spin. It was too much information to be sorted out and solved for the moment.
"The Noah was right, this can be sorted out tomorrow," the red-head mumbled as he collapse onto his bed.
- .- . - . - . -. - .
Little did they know that in another room, a certain person was awake. A certain light-sleeper who has an exceptional hearing capabilities as correctly assumed by a certain Junior Bookman. That night he was awake not because of Walker's senseless keyboard smashing but instead because of a conversation. A very interesting conversation. Howard Link frowned as he absorbed the information he just heard.
His job has just gotten harder.
-End of chapter five-
-Alice speaks-
I was not sure how you spell Deke… Deek…? Deak? Beak? …Yea, that last one was my poor attempt at humor. Leave me alone, I can't make a good joke to save my life. Anyways, moving onwards~ We finally see Tyki! yay!
*silence*
What…? no yay for Tyki? Fine. I'll save that Yay when Allen comes in to kick ass. pshh. and gasp! Do I sense a LenaLavi moment in there somewhere…? I am trying to make this fic gen with the splash of moments here and there. But my plans never work out so we shall see~ Hope ya enjoyed this overload of information of a chapter. Using Lavi's pov makes everything more info heavy especially when something like this happens. I think I am goin for a Lenalee pov next chappie but then that'd be emotion heavy instead. Kanda… ugh, the amount of cursing I have to type… AHH decisions. decisions.
