The Devil's Symphony
Disclaimer: If I owned D. Gray -Man, Allen would have black hair, Lavi would wear his hair down all the time, and Yuu would play the violin. Characters are Hoshino's.
Chapter 4: Haunting Darkness (Part 2)
Allen picked up his violin case.
"Lenalee, we'll talk about this later. For now, I need you to help me."
He pointed outside with his free hand.
"We're in a tunnel. And if we stay in this tunnel, another train will come and we'll all die."
There was a whimper from the corner.
Allen spun around to see who had made the terrified noise.
A girl shrunk back into the shadows, afraid.
Allen was surprised that anyone other than themselves had actually avoided a fall when the train had skidded to a halt.
He lowered his voice at the girl's terrified expression.
"We need to get to the driver of this train, and see why he even stopped the train in the first place," he whispered.
Lenalee nodded.
"You gather some help and evacuate the train. Get everyone to walk by the sides of the tunnel and keep away from the track. Then, with any able-bodied people you can find, head to the driver's cabin. I have a feeling something bad is going to happen."
Lenalee kept quiet again, replying with another head gesture.
He released her, and turned to face the little girl.
"Hey, what's your name? I'm Allen," he said, his tone gentle.
"A-Amamiya Sh-Shouko…"
He smiled warmly at her and her large emerald eyes widened, a faint blush creeping across her cheeks.
"Everything's going to be alright, Shouko-chan. Onii-chan will make it all better, alright? So until Onii-chan comes back, will you take care of this for me?"
He handed her the violin case.
Its weight pulled her petite arms down, and she seemed slightly overwhelmed.
But the moment passed and she hugged it close to her chest in a tight embrace.
"O-Okay, Onii-chan."
He smiled at her again.
"Stay with that Onee-chan over there. Her name is Lenalee. She'll help you and your Mama get out safe alright?"
He put a hand on her head and stroked her hair gently.
Shouko nodded shyly, and she rushed over to Lenalee, who smiled warmly at her, the same comfort emanating from her as it had from Allen.
The fifteen year-old waved lightly when Lenalee glanced at him over her shoulder before heading off in the opposite direction as she moved to help the people who had collapsed around them.
-
Komui sipped at his pre-brewed coffee, staring at the television screen intently. They were screening a violin duet of one of the hardest pieces that ever existed. He continued to watch intently, just as the song was about to end. He had heard that the ending would be recognizable from the string of powerful notes towards the end.
Just then, much to the twenty-nine year-old's dismay, the television program was interrupted by a news flash.
Komui scowled. He'd definitely missed the extravagant ending of the song.
But something the newscaster said caught his attention.
"…a train has stopped in a tunnel, seeming to have broken down. Investigations are being carried out as to how this could have happened, but a security camera inside said tunnel has caught some footage of people moving around in the immobilized train…"
A short video flashed on the screen, muted, and froze at a particular scene where a few faces were visible.
The camera zoomed in and the supervisor could make out two familiar faces amongst the visible ones.
His mug landed with a loud crash on the wood-panelled floor as he stood, mortified, staring at the face of his Lenalee on the television screen, running in the opposite direction of the also visible Allen Walker, a little girl hugging a violin case in her arms.
The words of the newscaster were silenced, a faint murmur in the distance, as Komui's heart pounded painfully in his chest, anxiety building up inside him.
His sister was in the train that had broken down in the tunnel.
-
Allen forced the door to the driver's cabin open, a loud creak shattering the eerie silence that had settled around him. There were no more passengers here; he'd asked them all to evacuate first and let him rescue the train driver.
The only thing wedged between him and the driver's cabin now was the half-opened door, and Allen strained against its stubborn position, using all his strength to pull the door away.
Pain throbbed in his left arm increasingly, but he did not falter. Instead he doubled his efforts.
Finally the door came free.
Allen's gaze wandered around the driver's cabin frantically, searching for the driver, but he found no one, and astonished, he stood motionless, confused.
A screaming pain hit him, but he did not budge as a voice cried out for help and a gruesome sight came into view.
The world on his left was black and white again, and he could see the mourning soul, crying out in torment and suffering before him.
-
Lenalee had gotten most of the people out. It wasn't a very big train, so it had not taken her very long to get everyone out. Shouko had evacuated the area with Allen's borrowed violin in her arms, making the ebony-haired girl pinky promise to come out safely with the Onii-chan.
There had been people wanting to help them out as well, but she couldn't bring herself to bring them along to where Allen was.
Allen…
She hoped he was alright.
She raced through the cabins in the dim light, carefully avoiding bumps and dents in the metal plated floors until she had Allen's seemingly motionless form in her sights.
Why was he standing so stock still?
Lenalee did not understand what was happening to her friend, but she could tell by the way he trembled that it wasn't pleasant.
"Allen-kun, Allen-kun!" she called, but he didn't hear her.
Fearing the worst, she rushed towards him, anxious to find out what had petrified him so.
But what she saw, she had definitely not expected.
A gasp escaped her lips when she saw the blood trailing out of Allen's eye for the second time, the iris once again the horrifying colour of blood blended in with a coal black. However, what he was staring at intrigued her further.
"What is that?"
"Akuma," Allen stated bluntly, dispassionately.
His tone frightened Lenalee, alerting her that Allen wasn't exactly in the right state of mind.
He sounded dazed.
And besides, how on earth did he know what that thing was?
"Allen-"
She was harshly cut off as a loud tearing noise filled the silence and blood splattered on her face.
She tasted the iron in her mouth and started.
Looking at Allen, she was terrified to find that his arm was abnormally proportioned and was plated with metallic silver pieces, with claw-like fingers. His shoulder emitted a green glow that flowed in waves, like a flame. The thing that had replaced Allen's left arm was disorienting.
It had practically torn through the flesh of his left arm, spattering blood on her face.
But Allen did not budge.
He simply stared ahead at the monster before them. It looked as shocked to see them as she was to see it.
The monstrosity before them was gruesome.
Lenalee cringed, flinching at the sight of it.
It had a dozen or so large cannon barrels attached to its hefty metallic silver body and wiring stuck out of the end of the little cylinder attached to the bottom of it.
But it was the face of the disgusting creature that unnerved Lenalee so much her insides squirmed.
It had a simple oval-shaped face, but it had an agonized expression carved on.
Its mouth was held in an eternal scream, and it looked to be bleeding from the eyes with black blood.
Allen chose to move then.
It snapped out of its stupor in sync with Allen's movement, and soon, the barrels of over fifteen large cannons were pointedly targeting Lenalee.
The girl had no idea how it was possible for the cannons to face her entirely, contorting this way and that.
Fear engulfed her.
"A-Allen-kun…"
The boy looked down with cold, cruel eyes. His face was expressionless and like hers, splattered with blood; the same blood that was trickling down the metallic arm, his arm.
Lenalee felt a tingling sensation coming from her feet, like a new heavy weight on her ankles.
Confused, the ebony-haired looked down at her feet to discover something remarkable.
Her feet were glowing with a greenish light.
Or rather, her shoes were.
"What is this?"
-
A certain red-headed boy stared dazedly at the sparkling ocean before him.
It was noon time, and the old panda had gotten him to run an errand.
But he couldn't remember what that was.
He'd gone looking for Yuu instead, but the samurai was nowhere to be seen.
Lavi sighed.
It was about time he got back to the old man. Otherwise, there'd be a lot of squabbling, including some punches, kicks and bitch-slaps.
Just then, the hammer strapped to his right thigh began to glow.
It was weird for him to carry around a hammer, yes, but when did one know when to have a weapon handy?
It wasn't exactly a hammer. It was more of a mallet.
His keen senses immediately sensed it, and he subconsciously pulled the little weapon out of its holster.
"What the hell?"
-
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Three down, two to go.
In three quick slashes, the remaining heads were sliced right off their shoulders.
"Che. How boring."
He settled his midnight blue katana on his shoulder and sighed irritably.
The practice had been so stupidly simple that the ebony-haired eighteen-year-old hadn't even broken a sweat.
Compared to cutting the head of a moving object, like that stupid rabbit for example, this was no better than child's play.
He had left his violin practicing momentarily to gain further peace of mind in his training, however, taking out such easy targets disgusted him and he had grown even more restless.
Sighing again, Kanda crossed his legs and sat down as he put his sheathed blade down on the ground next to him. He folded his arms, his eyebrows knotted in irritation. How hard was it to get a suitable fighting partner?!
The samurai grunted in irritation.
Suddenly, a soft blue light emanated from the katana by his side, sparkling from the edge of the sheath.
Alarmed, the Japanese teen quickly uncovered his blade, and was struck with awe in an instant.
It was glowing with a strange blue light.
-
She watched as Allen darted about in the darkness, the only illumination being the dim tunnel lights and the green glow from his shoulder.
Her feet grew restless as the green light brightened with each passing moment.
Lenalee looked down at her feet, her eyebrows slanting downwards in the middle.
What the hell was going on?
Nothing made any sense.
Her feet were glowing, a monstrous creature had appeared before them, and in place of Allen's left arm was a dreadful beast with a terribly conspicuous killing intent.
Finally, she felt it.
There was a pulsing coming from her feet, a strange sensation that willed for her to lunge at the beast Allen had referred to as 'Akuma' or demon.
But why?
The ebony-haired girl tried to understand, but failed to comprehend.
What were these 'Akuma'?
Why were Allen's left arm and left eye in such forms?
And the question that pained her heart the most; why was Allen acting so cold?
Again, the pulsing from her feet caught her attention.
They wanted her to jump.
And what was worse, they wanted her to jump at the akuma.
-
Lavi had no idea what had gotten into his hammer.
Non-living beings were not supposed to be pulsing in this odd manner.
The hammer pulsed continuously, and he could feel it pulling at the very heart of his existence in the direction of the train station five minutes' walk away from where he now stood.
But why did it want him to go there?
This was all so confusing.
First it had begun glowing for no apparent reason, just as he'd started to think about heading back.
And now, it was pulling him, with some unknown force, to the train station.
-
Kanda had immediately stood up the moment the blade began to emit a vengeful killing intent.
And now, with Mugen in his hands, he was walking briskly in a random direction to a random place.
Of all the randomness, something else was strange.
He could sense them, the two or three other similar forces.
And these forces emitted similar killing intents.
The only one among them that drew his attention had a power that could raise the goose-bumps on his skin.
And that wasn't easy.
We are talking about Kanda Yuu, after all.
Distracted, he charged right into another person and cussed loudly.
He continued his blank stare in the direction the unknown force pulled him to, and started fast-paced walking again.
"Yuu?"
At the call of his given name, the samurai had his sword pointed at the redhead's throat.
"Whoa, jeez."
Kanda suddenly realized something. The sword was still glowing.
Quickly, he sheathed it.
Continuing to march with large strides, the raven-haired sword-wielder said, "Do not call me that, Baka Usagi."
-
The dim light sources in the tunnel exploded with the sheer force of her kicks as she danced on the air, spinning in circles as more and more of the monstrous creatures poured into the darkness. Where they came from, Lenalee could care less.
She angled herself easily, slamming down on akuma one after the other easily. There was a beautiful grace of her movements as she glided and jumped, whirling around.
Allen continued to pursue the masses of the beasts on foot, darting swiftly this way and that, nimble and agile on his feet.
His over-sized silver plated arm did nothing to hinder him.
Helpfully, it lunged out at an akuma at each of the instances Allen glanced at them.
His eyes, already the complex grey of storm clouds, were cold and icy.
He had not earned any bruises at all during his and Lenalee's onslaught against the akuma, save for the constant line of blood running down from his eye.
His left arm contributed greatly to the massive blood loss he faced as well.
Lenalee whirled and spun between the beasts the air a podium where she danced.
Like a butterfly she slipped between them, smashing into them with the brute force of her legs.
But this couldn't go on forever.
And the akuma were continuously pouring in.
From the corner of her eye, she could see a faint shade of white darting in between the creatures and a shimmer of metallic silver amidst the smoke that was the death of them.
But Lenalee was tiring quickly, and she was sure Allen wouldn't be able to keep up like this for too long either.
The ebony-haired girl darted out of the way and gyrated into the darkness as a large black hammer flew out from the endless darkness of the tunnel and hit an akuma that had been right behind her. Her fatigue had almost spelled her death, allowing her miss the foe sneaking up behind her.
There was some shouting from the shadows that followed, something Lenalee could not make out. Much to her surprise, ghost-like insects, all rather large, darted from an ephemeral glint of silver-blue metal, colliding with the akuma, destroying several at once.
This invisible force continued to penetrate the group of akuma and Lenalee stood to the side, staring in shock.
Flames erupted from wherever the hammer head stamped, and the blurred figure of the one wielding it wove through the crowd of akuma as quickly as Allen did, the sixteen-year-old observed.
The other figure darted about swiftly, blue katana in hand and didn't seem to mind diving head first into the blood that sprayed out from the mangled bodies of the defeated akuma. He made it look easy.
Now rested, Lenalee sprang back into action with full force, and the number of akuma dwindled down to nothing.
She stood to one side, knees shaking with exhaustion before they buckled under her and she collapsed in a tired heap on the ground next to the train tracks.
"Whew…"
There was a tired sigh beside her as someone slumped down to the ground, settling in a lazy sitting position.
There was a tiny glint of green before the eye of the one who had saved her with the hammer closed, and immediately, Lenalee recognized his voice.
"L-Lavi?!"
"Yo, Lena-chan."
She could make out a light cream colour in the darkness in the shape of a peace sign.
"Yuu-chan…"
The name was a long drawl in the darkness and echoed about them, bouncing off the walls.
"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that before I slice you to ribbons?"
A katana was pointedly positioned to the Bookman apprentice's neck, dangerously close to his Adam's apple.
"Ah, Yuu-chan… There you are!"
At the daring comment, the sword poked the bump lightly, and the hand around its hilt tightened, knuckles white as if restraining some form of brute force.
Lenalee looked on, sighing to herself.
"Kanda, Lavi, stop bickering. There's still one of us in this tunnel, and we need to find him."
She looked away from the two and squinted in the darkness, trying in vain to see the contorted train passenger cars sprawled all over the tracks, and possibly pin point the location of her white-haired comrade.
But he was no-where to be found.
"Allen-kun, Allen-kun!" she called, her hands raised, cupping her mouth.
But the only reply from within the dark gloom of the tunnel was the echo of her own voice.
Lenalee's shoulders dropped, and she looked out forlornly into the darkness.
But there was still no reply.
"Maybe he went back inside the train…" she trailed off.
Turning to look at the two bickering by the sidelines, she announced, "I'm going to go look for him. You guys get out first."
Lavi immediately turned to face her, his mouth hanging open.
"What? We can't let a girl go by herself! Right, Yuu-chan?"
"BAKA USAGI! I'M GOING TO CUT YOUR HEAD OFF AND DICE YOU TO BITS!"
And the comical running around began.
Lenalee smacked her forehead with her palm, shaking her head.
She then proceeded to look for Allen among the damaged passenger cars.
-
He staggered lightly against the walls, cradling his left shoulder with his right hand.
His breath came out in puffs of white in the darkness of the tunnel as the blood continued to pour out from his side.
"What… the… hell… just happened…?" he whispered.
The fact that he didn't have any idea where he was was one thing. Another thing was that he'd lost sight of Lenalee in the darkness. However another matter entirely…
What were those things?
"Allen-kun, Allen-kun!"
He looked up tiredly, his neck muscles as exhausted as all the other muscles were.
Lenalee was calling him.
He wanted to answer her, but his attempt at calling to her ended in a strangled cough. He couldn't find his voice even if he wanted to shout back.
He staggered against the wall, clinging to it for support, his fingers grabbing desperately at the bricked structure, scraping his fingers against the concrete.
Finally, he slumped to the ground in a tired heap.
Footsteps echoed around him in the darkness.
Allen couldn't make out who or what was making the noise but he hoped it was Lenalee.
He readied himself for a possible attack from those things again.
"Che."
-
The swordsman was a bit surprised at the blood at his feet.
It soaked slowly into the gravel under him.
Then he sensed a movement in the darkness.
There was a loud tearing noise and a flash of silver with a soft green glow as he drew his katana.
Metal clashed against metal and a small spark lit in the darkness as he caught sight of a bloodied face.
He pushed harder against the invisible force but it retaliated and a large metallic hand tried to quick-slash him in the side.
He caught it with Mugen's hilt and spun around, taking his opponent by surprise.
But the opponent was fast to react and adapted to his defences.
He kicked his leg under the samurai and forced him to the ground, pointing a sharp silver finger at his throat.
The assailant stepped into the dim light and Kanda caught sight of his dazed silver-grey eyes.
"Who…are…you…?" a cold voice questioned.
Just then, the eyes rolled backwards, the arm shrunk back to its original form and the blue-haired eighteen-year-old looked on as his attacker fell backwards.
Blood began to crawl slowly across the gravel once more as Kanda got up and dusted himself off.
He could see the silver-haired boy now.
He tried to recall the descriptions of the one he and the stupid rabbit had been told to find.
"Silver hair, Silver eyes, quite short… Fits the descriptions."
He turned around to call behind him.
"Oi, Lenalee, Rabbit. I've found the bean sprout."
Chapter Four, END.
A/N: YAY! Hello! I hope you liked this chapter! :D And to all who reviewed, you have my greatest thanks, and a basket of cookie for each of you~! I update early because where I am, it's already sunday! so, yeahh. here's your chapter.
And to those who leave anonymus reviews, do leave your email address! I would like to reply, but you don't leave your email addresses, so I have no idea how to reply to your lovely reviews. thanks. :D