The very first place to which Cameron dragged the three was the music store. Allen thought this was awfully odd - after all, from his understanding they were going to be buying clothes, necessary toiletries, and the like. He even made a note of that as Cam purposefully strode down the long, open, and airy hallway of shops full of bright products, and her answer had been awfully ambiguous.

"Ah, we can get that stuff later. Besides, Kanda'll get in trouble with another salesman and we'll get kicked out before I get to update my music library. 'Course, now that I have Live Wire I don't really have to worry about that, but, y'know, gotta support your artists and everything..." None of that had made sense to him, whatsoever. All he knew was that they were trying to keep the dour faced Exorcist out of trouble's company, and it looked like Lavi was doing a good job of distracting his attention, even if it was by annoying the living daylights out of the man. Allen snickered as Lavi made kissy faces at Kanda and pretended to hold his hand as they passed an entourage of girls. Kanda just about had it right then and there, and Allen stepped in momentarily to keep Lavi's face in one piece and keep Kanda from getting them all ejected forcefully from this marvelous marketplace.

Allen could honestly say that he liked to shop. It wasn't even a feminine thing - there was something about new, shiny objects waiting to be bought that appealed to both sides of the gender coin. Allen, very much a people-watcher as a people-listener, could see that in the gleam of a man's eye as he strode past a new, pressed suit or a woman stole a glance at a beautiful, handcrafted brooch on a table. Here, he could see the same thing, that general stroke of light which seemed to pass over the eye when a person sees something they like. The white-haired Exorcist was actually very happy to be where he was, now that his stomach was placated (they'd stopped at a restaurant that catered to cars, imagine that, and picked up some food that had come out within minutes - absolute genius, these people!) and his curious mind left unsatisfied by all the glittering new items around him.

Most of those, however, had functions that escaped him. They'd passed by a store with a bizarre assortment of little handheld devices, the same type that Allen had seen Miles use. With a curious, hovering stance he'd tried to examine them quickly and thoroughly, realizing they were the small 'immobile golems' he'd identified before. Entranced, he picked one up only to find it stuck to a cord. He yanked hard, and the cord suddenly snapped taut and pulled the little, hard plastic thing back into its cradle haphazardly, making a loud smacking noise. Noticing that everyone was staring, to his chagrin, he carefully rearranged the device into its correct position as he strove to hide the burn on his face and ears. Oh dear! How mortifying!

"Ne, Alleeeeeen! If you don't catch up, you'll be lost again!" Lavi called, and Allen looked back. Draining of color, he made a choking noise in the back of his throat. They were almost all the way at the end of the hallway! There were so many crowds between him and them - he'd lose them, and then he'd be stuck here forever. His sense of direction was atrocious. He could find a way to get lost in a paper bag. His mind suddenly started to ramble -

"- And then I'll never find my way back home and I'll be homeless again and then I'll have to cheat for money and I'll rack up all those bills and- no, no, no, Allen, think positive thoughts," Allen muttered to himself as he tried to catch up. He knew this song and dance a little too well. He'd lost Master Cross in a crowd, once. It took him an entire fortnight to find that man again. He'd be loathe to do the same thing over, especially in this new, different environment.

Suddenly, Allen fell over, realizing that while he'd been glowering in his thoughts over that horrible, horrible man and his scheming, carefree ways, he'd accidentally smashed into somebody.

"Oof! Oh, dear, I'm so sorry, I hadn't meant... to..." From his spot on the ground, Allen looked up with an expression that slowly grew more and more incredulous as he stared at the wall of muscle and tattoos glowering over him. A thick man of African descent stared down with hostility, two tear drops at the corner of his eye. He wore bright red shorts and some sort of thin rag around the top of his head with a tank top of indeterminate material.

"Uh... bump into you," Allen finished, ever polite. He stood up bouncily and brushed off the man as if he were the one who'd been knocked to the ground rather than Allen. Behind the tall, thick man stood several more fellows, mostly skinny though wearing the same class of garb, if not the exact same as their companion. Allen realized he might've accidentally said something offensive, and he scrambled in his head to find a way- to remedy the situation.

"Do you need anything? I am honestly sorry to have knocked into you, uh, I was... lost in my thoughts. I think... I think I'll just go now," Allen said, beginning to walk around the thick man when a large hand descended on his shoulder.

"I think an apology's gonna be a little inadequate for what I require in terms of compensation," the large man stated imposingly, his diction oddly pronounced. A quick look at the man's companions showed confused faces and blank stares, though Allen could tell that this was the man in charge and he was a little bit more sophisticated than Allen'd first taken him for. The white-haired teenager should've known better - looks were awfully deceiving. He looked back behind him with a slight smile and a sheepish air.

"Well... can't we settle this like gentlemen? After all, it's late in the afternoon and wouldn't it be such a waste to get into fisticuffs? If there's any way I can pay you in kind..." Allen offered, though in his mind he begged, Not the face, please not the face, the face always hurts ... but if you tell me I have to do dishes, I'll take the punch to the face. Dishes were the bane of his existence. If Allen never saw another plate in his life, so be it as long as he didn't have to do dishes. All those hours scrubbing away Master's debt...

"Oi, Cognac, let him off for once. He doesn't know you're just a big softie," a familiar voice said, and Allen visibly deflated with a bit of relief. It wasn't that he couldn't take this guy on - it just wasn't in Allen to mash his fist into another person's face until they'd swung at him first, and he'd rather avoid that if he could, especially here. He looked around for Cameron, finding her walking towards them through the rows of toughs. Lavi and Kanda were farther down the hallway, outside of a bookstore looking at the wares on racks sitting just outside the entrance.

"Ay, Cam-cam, what brings you here to this fine establishment?" Cognac asked, suddenly much cheerier. He reached for a hug, and the small girl complied heartily. Cameron practically disappeared in the wake of his girth, but Allen could tell that Cameron had the greater presence. He was closely attuned to people, and for the most part it helped him keep out of trouble. He could almost sense Cognac going from defensive and bristling to calm and friendly. It was the strangest transition, as if a thunderstorm had just left and all the pressure had lifted. The hand on Allen's shoulder was removed as Cognac grasped hands with Cam in a rather odd gesture that Allen wasn't quite sure he could follow with his eyes. He'd seen some fairly odd handshakes (and boy did street urchins create some interesting hand shakes), but these were of a different breed.

"Just checkin' out the music division of the store, you know. Gotta keep contemporary, know what I mean?" Cam asked, obviously in her element. Allen discreetly stood by her and smiled, waving politely to the men around Cognac who seemed less pleased with Cam's sudden appearance. Internally, Allen sighed. It seemed that society had really gone downhill since the late 1800s. These days it felt like everybody gave off this seemingly ever present feeling of distrust and disinterest. Of course, Allen had only been here two days, so he really wasn't anyone to judge, and he reminded himself of this as well. These could be perfectly nice people! After all, just because Kanda's face looked angry didn't mean he actually was angry... No, that was a lie. Kanda was always angry. That was a horrible analogy.

"Allen. Allen, Connie just asked you something. Helloooo~?" Allen snapped out of his reverie, and he quickly slapped on a smile.

"Ah, yes! I apologize. I was thinking about something," Allen said, all too apparent that his accent was much more pronounced around such American company. Usually, he wouldn't mind so much, but he felt that it seemed to distance him a little bit from the fellows, some who were looking at him a little bit too hungrily...

"I just wanted to inquire of your name, little man," Connie said, extended a single, massive paw. A smile pulled at the corner of his mouth, transforming the thuggish face into a rather pleasant expression of congeniality. Allen nodded as he grasped the hand firmly in his own, not the least bit daunted now. Though he tended to act alarmed, Allen was never truly, deeply bothered by anything - well, besides the obvious debts and such, but those were more of a running gag in his life anyhow than an actual worry, especially now that -

Something just occurred to him. In this world... there were no debts for him to pay off. There was no Master to harass. There were no women to beat him over the head with frying pans when they come calling for their money. He was a free man! In this new world he could be anything he wanted: completely debt free!

"Th-the name's Allen," the white-haired boy stated graciously, recovering from his epiphany rather quickly. "I'm new here, um, obviously." Cognac grunted rather affirmatively. The large black man spoke to Cam for a time, and Allen finally took a good look at the other sour-faced, rather skinny men behind Connie. They couldn't be more than twenty years old, all of them rail-hard with muscle and just as thin. They wore strange caps, and they had those rubber shoes on their feet. One tapped on Cognac's shoulder, saying something low in his ear, glancing fervently at Allen. Connie broke off to speak with them, and there was a small, subtle argument.

"How do you know...?" Allen asked, gesturing to the large black man negotiating with his comrades over some such thing. Cam shrugged.

"Miles used to run in the same circles Cognac did, but the guy's mostly reformed from the gang scene, like she is. Those guys behind him are die hards that can't kick the habit, though. I'm not happy to see him with them, but sometimes that's what happens. For a ganger, there're only three places you go - prison, hospital, and grave. Getting out is... difficult," Cam stated rather nonchalantly. Allen nodded. They'd had a rough equivalent where he came from, though they were certainly better dressed than this crowd.

"Why do you call him Cognac?" Cam sniggered behind one overly long jacket sleeve. She leaned towards him conspiratorially, and she explained, "It used to be that my sister would bribe him with vintage cognac after finding out he had a taste for it. She figured that out after he'd sucked down an entire bottle Dad gave to her for her twentieth birthday. It wasn't like she drank anyways, though - she just didn't have the heart to turn Dad down." Cognac finished his little disagreement with his fellow mallgoers (an incredibly mild term to describe such a bunch, in Allen's opinion), and he walked over to Cam.

"My... compatriots and I have some business to finish up here. I suggest you stay away from Sears - it won't be pretty. Don't worry, no shootin'. We just have a belligerent little mole to harass," Cognac stated, crunching his knuckles between the fingers of the other hand, and doing the same to the other side. Allen tried to keep his eyes from twitching as he listened to the joints pop. It was a pet peeve of his - Kanda did it often enough to cause Allen to suggest cutting off each of his fingers at the knuckles. The usual conflict had ensued...

"I'll see you later, then, Connie. Give some sugah to yo momma," Cam said, playing off the last sentence with an odd, obviously exaggerated accent. Allen smiled a little, forgetting his former annoyance. Connie gave a salute, walking off with a swagger in his step. Allen shook his head, bemused to have met such an interesting person. The others who had come with him followed behind him like a wake about him, each on either side but never directly behind. As Cameron began to walk off, Allen looked back to find one of the stragglers, the same who'd started the disagreement with Cognac, staring at him rather intently. Allen felt shivers down his spine as the man jogged off to catch up with his companions.

"What was that all about?" Kanda grumbled, flipping through a novel. Disinterested by the content, he chucked it back on to the cart of books, which was already horribly disorganized, probably furthered by Kanda's irresponsible slinging. Allen felt his eye twitch.

"Nothing you should concern yourself about. Other than the fact that someone has to straighten out those books," Allen sighed, starting to put them in a more orderly state. Kanda glare, and he said, "Well, they're paid to do it. Might as well help the store get their money's worth."

"They wouldn't need to if you'd put the books back in order."

"I don't need to. Besides, these are all crap. If anything, they deserve to be in a heap."

"I guess that means you and your sort should be in a heap, then, if that's what crap deserves."

"You want to keep all your fingers, beansprout?"

"I could separate your hands from your wrists before you had time to even say beansprout."

"Ladies, ladies, let's move on before we start flinging around other people's metacarpals, okay?" Cam said, stepping in as an intermediary as the ensuing antagonism between Allen and Kanda seemed to cause climate change all by itself. Lavi, so engrossed in the books, hardly even noticed, seeing as he was already used to those two going at each other's throats. Finally, he looked up, blinking at the pair who were glaring at each other enough to cause one man in uniform look a little nervous not fifteen feet away.

"What's going on?" Lavi asked, and Cam slapped her forehead.

Allen kept his composure, suddenly becoming cheery again with a rather smooth transition.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Ready to go?" Allen asked, attempting politeness once more. My, he was embarrassing himself right and left. He couldn't let Kanda ruffle his feathers - after all, attitude was all about reactions! He had to keep positive. Just... just keep positive...

Abruptly Allen felt a downpour of despair as he walked behind Cameron, looking around at the new world he'd landed himself in. He hadn't let himself think about the ramifications of being so far from home. It had dawned on him once or twice that he may never go back - all his friends would be separated from him for the rest of his life, and he'd have to adapt to this place, make new friends, form new connections.

And if he formed those new connections, and it turned out he could go back... The thought made him sick to his stomach. So many different friendships and hearts he'd have to break, including his own.

You're an interesting one, I'll hand you that. Friends... such an odd concept.

The nebulous thought came from nowhere, and Allen almost tripped as the misty thought filtered into his mind slowly. Was... was that...? He was still here? He had followed through that gap in time and space?

Of course. Neah's memories were still implanted in his head. The possibility of becoming a Noah was still open, and that meant he could still be a danger.

Panic gripped his stomach at the implications of such an event, and he staved it off. He couldn't let fear rule him. He wouldn't let fear rule him. He had to stay positive -

"Here we are. The music store," Cam said suddenly, and Allen almost smacked into her as he looked up. He hadn't even noticed that he'd been blindly following her as he'd wrapped himself in his thoughts. Kanda and Lavi didn't look too impressed, though Lavi immediately began fiddling with the nearest devices. Allen could see several clear cases with pictures inside, and he marveled at just how unique and clear the images within were. They were each a little piece of art, just waiting to be found.

"Those are CDs. Most people don't use them any more, but if you wanna go vintage, they're good choice. Besides, if your computer crashes, you can always rely on the CD to keep your music as a hard copy," Cam explained, popping open one of the cases on a rack that said 'clearance' by breaking the seal on the side. Inside, a disk about as big as Allen's palm shone with iridescent light.

"Hey! You gonna buy that?" a person from the counter shouted, and Cam waved with a cheeky smile. Allen raised his eyebrows at the impudence in her stare as she replaced the case on the rack. The person at the counter didn't say anything else as they went back to shelving some other fantastic device. Allen looked around the store at the brightly colored posters and different CDs. They were everywhere on racks, lined up neatly like buildings made of clear, hard plastic. Allen had only ever seen plastic once or twice - it had been a very, very new thing. Here, it was a commodity. People even threw it away! He'd watched them as they'd chucked plastic silverware and boxes for food and cups made of the stuff.

"Whoa, look at this! Ha, this is fun," Lavi said gleefully, playing with yet another machine. Allen was hardly surprised. Lavi got into everything. That wasn't always such a bad thing, but it could be awfully annoying when one's bag ended up riffled through by an overzealous Bookman Apprentice. What was scarier was that Lavi had gotten so good at it that sometimes Allen couldn't even tell he'd been there. Allen let out a whooshing breath as he and Kanda got into another argument over something trivial, and Allen went off on his own.

As he flipped through the CDs, he noticed that he was being watched. He was used to that - Akuma were always on the prowl, waiting. This stare, however, was less intense. Allen turned to see some girls standing farther away, talking to each other with bright eyes. They were whispering behind their hands, looking at Allen fervently as he caught sight of them out of the corner of his eye. One of them waved as they met Allen's gaze, and Allen, perplexed, waved back. The girls giggled, and Allen's face began to burn as blood rushed to his head. Stiffly, he walked away, hoping to get away from their searching looks.

"Um, Cam? Cam? Cam?" Allen asked, yanking on Cameron's jacket. The younger girl nodded with a distracted tone.

"What? I'm busy," she said brusquely, and Allen whispered, "There are girls staring at me. Is that... is that normal?" Cam looked up, suddenly interested, and she followed Allen's line of sight. There were more girls now. The pack had grown that much larger. They thought they were being sneaky, but they were about as obvious as an elephant. Cam laughed to herself as she slung an arm over his shoulders, and she shouted to the girls, "Sorry! He's taken!" The girls looked shocked at this proclamation, and several of them gave annoyed sighs as they trotted off, talking among themselves.

"There. Problem solved," Cam said, and Allen shook his head.

They spent several more minutes in the music store, listening to the CDs. Lavi liked alternative (whatever that meant), Allen was fond of fifties jazz and pop music, and Kanda of all people like classical compositions. That had definitely been a shocker, until Allen realized that Kanda was listening to a rather roaring battle tune called Flight of the Valkyrie by some man named Wagner.

"What? Got a problem?" Kanda growled as Allen looked over his shoulder at the music selection he had in his hand. Allen only glared as the man 'tched' before going back to listening to more tracks.

Suddenly, Allen noticed that Lavi was missing.

"Hey... hey, where's Lavi," Allen asked absent-mindedly, looking around for the redheaded chronicler. It wasn't like him to wander off, though he was a big boy and he could take care of himself. Lavi, like Allen, was a people person, though he'd never admit it. Being alone didn't suit him.

"Chasing skirts, probably," Kanda muttered under his breath, putting a CD back into its case before replacing it on the rack. Allen sighed, intuition slinging his mind into immediate panic. Something wasn't right here. Lavi did have a reputation for being a skirt-chaser, but he also had his head about him. Never the less, Allen couldn't help but wonder where he might've gone. He didn't have a golem with him, so they couldn't call him. He wasn't even in the general vicinity. Allen would've heard him by now.

"Hey, why the long face?" Cam asked, noticing Allen's apparent distress. The young man tried to tamp down his panic. Perhaps he was over thinking this. Lavi could take care of himself. Better yet, he was probably the most aware of all the Exorcists about the world around him. However, Lavi was also curious, and everyone knew what happened to that poor, curious cat...

"Lavi's missing somewhere," Allen said quietly. Kanda had already walked off on his own, and Allen could see him headed towards another store with fake Chinese script above the door. If Kanda was wandering off on his own, surely that redhead was doing the same and keeping himself out of trouble...

"Aw, don't worry about him. He's probably just in the bathrooms. Hey, let's go in to the back section. There's actually some books and anime stuff I want to see," Cam said, pulling on Allen's shirtsleeve. Reluctantly, Allen looked behind him towards the open doorway that Kanda and presumably Lavi had just exited.

"All right. Wait... what's anime?"


Most people didn't realize this upon meeting Lavi for the first time, but his brain worked in much the same ways a computer did. Lavi could come up with entire scenarios in his head within seconds, and he could identify patterns like no one else. He was always aware of the world around him - it was an occupational hazard for anyone from the Bookman clan. Bookman was much the same way. The two of them could be near omniscient given enough information. In hand-to-hand combat, Lavi could take down a regular man within seconds just from studying him for only a few moments beforehand.

So when things caught Lavi's attention, something must be going on. The altercation between Allen and Cognac had not gone unnoticed. Lavi had been carefully keeping an eye on it while scanning the surrounding area. There had been more members of that thug gang Cam had met with in the mall, and all of them had been watching like coyotes on a groundhog. Granted, this groundhog had a hand that could cut through steel and a punch good enough to sock a hole through a rock, but he was still a groundhog, and they were still after his hide. Cam's presence had caused a shift in their demeanor when she'd showed up, though, and that was... interesting.

Lavi had also noticed a rather large amount of heavily made-up girls flocking around. Some of them were flirting - Lavi could attest to that, seeing as he'd had some wink and others smile and yet others become bold enough as to even come up and talk to him. However, there were others that had hungrier tones to their glances, and most of them had been directed at Allen, the most visually striking of their group. Lavi had the ability to blend in, and Kanda knew how to keep quiet, but Allen stuck out a mile with his white hair and pressed, clean appearance.

To compound all this, the heavily-made up young women and the thuggish, hungry men had been talking to each other throughout the store, negotiating things and communicating. Something was going on, and Lavi wanted to know what it was. Above all, Lavi was an investigator - he liked to stick his nose where it did not belong, and he had a hunch his nose was going to get stuck somewhere it was not wanted.

These three tidbits of information would mean absolutely nothing, though, if not for the fact that Lavi was fiercely protective of Allen. The kid was his friend, practically a brother. They'd fought together, joked together, traveled together, heck, they'd even slept in the same bed when they'd gotten in a tight spot and run out of money without any connection to the Order for a confirmation at the hotel. Boy, that'd been awkward, especially seeing as they'd had to share with Jiji. If anyone was going to get hurt out of this whole thing, it was going to be Allen. The kid could take care of himself, and he'd shown that more than once, but his drive to save humanity at every turn could be a hindrance when it came to actual humans meaning to hurt him. He was too kind. It was Lavi's self-appointed job to protect Allen from the human threat, while the white-haired Exorcist protected himself from the undead threat.

He followed one of the thin, mangy looking thugs that had come after Allen earlier. The man was packing heat, but so far no one had said anything. It must be commonplace here. The thug turned a corner to a door that said employees only, and Lavi followed about twenty yards behind. It'd be no good to tip them off now.

Lavi headed straight for a store as the guy looked behind him, and he immediately stuck a hat from a rack on his head. He posed in front of the mirror, keeping an eye out for the guy he was tailing. Out of nowhere, another guy, this one wearing a checked scarf around his neck and a pair of orange sunglasses, sidled up to him and he said in a slightly nervous voice, "Hi there. You look nice in that hat."

Lavi stared at him with raised eyebrows. "Uh... Thanks." The other guy winked from behind his sunglasses, and Lavi felt a twitch gather in his eye.

"Um... Say, do you know where the bathrooms are?" Lavi asked, realizing he was losing his quarry. This would give him a reason to leave. The other man seemed pleased at this question, which was awfully odd, and he said enthusiastically, "Down the atrium, to the left, and through the food court. You can't miss it."

"Thanks a lot," Lavi said brightly, and he started to walk away, but not before feeling something slip into his back pocket. Slightly perturbed, Lavi looked back to see the other man speaking with a gaggle of girls excitedly, and Lavi felt in his back back pocket as he tailed his original goal. He pulled out a slip of paper with a bunch of numbers on it, and he frowned.

The heck? Why would anyone stick a bunch of numbers in his pocket?

Suddenly, a girl headed towards him, shy-looking and coy. In his head, Lavi groaned.

Don't come this way. Come on, find another guy to hit on. Once is enough. Don't do this to me.

In complete contrast to his mental commands, the girl walked up to Lavi and twiddled her fingers. She glanced at the ground, cocking her head to the side as Lavi continued to walk. She kept pace with him, and Lavi felt a strange pressure in his head. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, wondering why the air pressure was changing around him.

"I-I just... just wanted to ask you a question," the girl said, and the pressure continued to build. Lavi was beginning to feel light-headed. Out of nowhere, he could smell the faint odor of whiskey, hominy, and arsenic. Underneath all those smells was an underlying aroma Lavi couldn't place but definitely remembered.

Crap.

"Yeah, sure, what is it?" Lavi asked. The pressure followed him, and he was beginning to have difficulty breathing. He had to think, quick. Someone was trying to throw him off the trail. He'd been noticed. The thug he'd been following had disappeared, and this girl was looking less and less shy. If anything, she looked -

He was such an idiot. He was standing next to a witch. That shy look and the guarded gaze had been combined with the twiddling fingers to hide her hand gestures she must be using to cast a spell or something along those lines. If he could get those hands to stop moving...

"You know what happens to people who have their lungs crushed under pressure?" she asked quietly, as if she were inquiring about directions. Her hair was pulled back and the color of mud. Her eyes were thickly lined with eye liner, and she had on too much blush. She looked young, but her demeanor had changed from coy, little girl to confident, experienced woman. She slowly smiled, and Lavi was beginning to see spots in his vision. He glanced at her hands, noticing that she was still doing the little twirl of the fingers. The people around him were completely oblivious to what was going on. He was passing shop after shop, and every person seemed to be looking the wrong direction. It wasn't like they could see what was going on, anyways. It was all invisible.

Lavi shook his head, knowing he was trapped. The cloud of pressure would follow him where ever he went. He could still move, but breathing was like trying to suck in and exhale water. The air in his body was compressing as more and more pressure was being put on him, so he had to keep taking deep breaths. He knew enough from deep diving to keep himself from fainting or collapsing. Still, if this continued he'd end up incapacitated. He couldn't just hit her here and now. That would be incriminating, not to mention her word against his. But... he could make it look like an accident. However, if he wasn't careful, he'd end up depressurizing, and all that air would expand...

"Well, the nitrogen and the oxygen in the air becomes toxic, and your body absorbs all that toxic waste. Once I let go, well... bye bye body. I hope you like the bends. I hear it's a rather nasty way to die," the girl said, smiling pleasantly at Lavi as the redhead fought to stave off the increased pressure on his body.

"Thanks for the lecture. You wanna let me go now?" Lavi said, cracking his own, pained smile. The tip of his hammer, a rather long spike, jammed into the center of her back, and the girl walked a bit slower after that. Lavi knew that it would take him only seconds to ram the tip of the spike into her spine, possibly paralyzing her for life, before she could build up enough pressure to kill him. She'd been slowly increasing the pressure around him, and he'd wondered why. At first, he'd thought it was to gloat. Now he realized that she'd been buying time, killing two birds with one stone by throwing him off the trail and killing him simultaneously. Now the question begging to be answered happened to be this: why would she want to kill him rather than just distract him? Sick pleasure? Some other motive?

The pressure around him began to lessen slowly. The girl looked slightly panicked now as she glanced around, and Lavi said, "No use calling for help from your gal pals. By the time they get anything going, you're going to be a paraplegic." To the general populace, it looked like they were having a nice conversation with Lavi's hand at her back, the picture of the dating couple. Lavi could easily play off anything that came his way. He could create entire alternate universes in seconds if he needed to. He was that good.

"Let's take this outside, shall we?" Lavi asked. It wasn't long before he led her outside and into an alley way. Lavi grasped both the girl's hands, and the pressure abruptly ceased. He blacked out for a moment, but the moment wasn't long enough to keep him from breaking his hold on the witch in front of him.

"What's the reason behind murder, eh? Did I call you ugly in a past life or something?" Lavi asked, half-joking. His smile was downright creepy, and it was meant to be. Fear was a great instrument, if one knew how to employ it right. The witch struggled as he pressed her to the wall.

"Get off of me!" she gasped, squirming. Lavi could hear footsteps, and he knew he didn't have much time. He dug his fingernails into her wrist, and she let out a small screech. He stepped on her foot and rammed her against the wall. She sagged against the wall, terrified.

"She wants you! She wants all of you dead! You've got a bounty on your head! Iris'll give twenty grand for each of you! Don't kill me, I didn't -!" the girl squealed, and Lavi pressed a small point on her neck. Her eyes rolled into her head, and she fell sideways as he let her collapse. She'd wake up in about two hours with an incredibly sore neck and a bruise on her wrist, but Lavi could've done much worse. She was young and had time to think about life for a while. He wouldn't have been so kind to an older lady.

By the time the three other girls arrived at the alley, Lavi was already back in the mall, whistling to himself and feeling awfully good about himself, despite being lightheaded.

He had no idea what trouble he'd just gotten himself into.


"Could you tell me how this magic works?" Bookman asked, leaning back in his chair while chewing on the end of his pipe. He'd borrowed some money to buy a notebook and pencil, and he had the two items in his lap as he stared attentively at Miles. She'd filled him in on most of the world events for this dimension, and quite a bit of it mirrored his own home world. He'd suspected this already. Lavi would be greatly pleased to know this as well. It would be less work for the both of them. Presumably quite a bit of the underground influences behind those events were also the same as those that were at work from whence they'd come. Now, he wanted to know exactly what he was up against. His curiosity had yet to be sated.

Miles chewed on the end of a stirring stick. They were sitting in a wonderful little cafe called Starbucks. Several people around them were on different devices while drinking some rather high end, expensive drinks. Bookman himself had tried the tea, and though it was lacking in general originality, it was still of fair quality and palatable enough. He picked up his cup of tea and sipped as Miles started her exposition on magic.

"All magic is some form of energy, in one way or another. Kinetic, thermal, electric - all of it can be employed for magical usage. It's what drives magic. You can't just make something from nothing. Energy changes from one form to the next effortlessly, and all magic does is control that transition from one sort to another. The fancier lights and sparks stuff is practically useless of course, and most of that is charlatan tomfoolery all around, because actual magic tends to be completely invisible. I can make candles go out, the lights flicker on and off, and turn the room cold with a couple of well-placed spells, but things like moving people around and transferring objects takes real work," Miles explained in a voice just low enough to be low-key but loud enough not to cause suspicion. A lot of people didn't realize that a whisper could be just as telling as a shout.

Bookman nodded. He'd figured this for himself.

"Do you use your own bodily energy to do magical feats?" he asked, and Miles scoffed. She shook her head.

"Takes too much out of you. It's a lot easier just to take the energy of a flame or an outlet and direct it somewhere else. The real trick to magic is being creative with energy flow. I can pop a guy's tires by rubbing my hands together and making them hot by transferring the sound energy my hands make to heat along with the friction already in my hands and laying them both on the tires, but it'd burn my hand as well as the rubber. There are special wards and stuff you can put around you to keep that sort of thing from happening, but those take energy too, albeit in a more concentrated form," Miles said, taking a drink off her own latte. Bookman nodded, scribbling down everything she said in shorthand.

"What are those containers, then? The things you use to run wards?" he asked. He noticed that there were people staring at him. He was used to that. He must look strange, with his question mark ponytail and kohl-lined eyes. In this day and age, even more so. What worried him, though, was the fact that several of those people were young, thin, dark-skinned men who looked less than congenial. He kept this to himself.

Miles had picked up on it, too, though. She was in police mode, automatically looking up and scanning the area around her, constantly on surveillance. Bookman was amazed that someone so young had already learned that skill, but given her background it wasn't quite a surprise.

"We usually use regular batteries, like the stuff you get from the grocery store. They work fine. Electrical sockets will, too, but they sap your electricity bill like no other. For the really old witches, they grow their own crystals, and those hold energy well because of the way they're made. Crystals have a what'sitcalled... uh, a matrix, y'know, out of all the atoms and stuff. Makes holding energy really efficient, if you can figure out how to do it. They can leak, though, and that makes them dangerous," Miles explained. "They tend to be explosive. Otherwise they just fall apart and end up useless." Suddenly, Miles went taut as a piano string, and Bookman could sense danger behind him.

"There's a guy at your six o' clock who doesn't look too happy. Just sit tight and I'll see what's going on," Miles said, getting up. Bookman watched her go with a bit of a scoff. If she thought he was going to sit here and wait to be ambushed, she was stupider than he gave her credit for. The little old man got out of his chair, and he shuffled off to watch from a distance. Already, he could see her tall frame weave in and out of the crowd towards the source of the problem, a skinny man with his hair in black, small braids close to his head. There was a short talk between the two of them before the littler man reached for a weapon.

Bookman acted as fast as he was able. Two needles, both hair-thin and nigh invisible, lodged themselves into points on the man's neck, and he dropped to the ground as Miles cocked back a fist. Several people shouted in surprise at the downed ganger, though Miles didn't seem too surprised. As Bookman came closer, she muttered, "Nice shot." The old man shrugged modestly as he removed the needles, leaving two neat holes in the man's neck.

"He'll be fine in a few hours. He's just paralyzed. I believe he has a weapon on him," Bookman said, raising non-existent eyebrows. Miles lifted the man's shirt, and sure enough there was a gun in his waistband.

"I bet my last fifty bucks he's not carrying a concealment permit," she muttered before a cop came by to check out the hubbub. They gave their account of the events, and the cop nodded, looking jaded and somewhat weary.

"These kid don't know when to quit," he muttered after calling back up. Almost immediately after, Lavi ran up to Bookman, and he spilled, "There's a price on our heads, twenty grand a pop. I just had a girl try to crush my head in like a melon using air, and I'm not exactly happy about that." Bookman's face turned dark. That wasn't good at all. He closed his eyes and nodded.

"We'll have to leave. Ms. Miles, I do believe we should be gathering our fellow shoppers," Bookman said. Miles had already whipped out a phone and was calling her sister. By the time she'd finished, her face was white.

"Cam just told me that Kanda's gone missing, and there's a crowd down near Sears. She checked up on the radio waves with a pair of headphones from the music store, and the guy's description matches him. Allen's gone, too," Miles said gravely. Lavi's expression betrayed his worry, but he was quick to gloss over it.

"Let's split up. We'll be faster that way."


A/N: Yet another chapter. Man, I'm on a roll today. So far, that's two. Maybe I might actually get everything updated all at once! Huh, if that wouldn't be nice... This story is rolling along quite smoothly, and so far it's only been four chapters. That's a pretty good head of steam for an AU-ish story, eh?

Well, on to the recognition section! Big thanks to my reviewers. I love input of any sort (and even flames have a note of truth to them somewhere). I loved the detail you guys put into the reviews, especially with answering the discussion questions. Muchos kudos to Uniasus, karina001, UsuixMasakilover, toadstoolteaparty, Zodiark Savior, PrevalentMasters, and IncredibleIdiosyncrasies. Wow, that's a lot of people! Always remember, you don't always have to answer the discussion questions (obviously, they're optional) and feel free to expand on anyone question as far as you want. If you have any other questions, just PM me.

I have a single, new favoriteer, and that is kagehi! Ah, such a simple, yet elegant, name.

And oh boy oh boy, I have my subscribers list going, too. Thank you, thank you, thank you... -adjusts glasses- ... BUT I AM ALREADY IN MY PYJAMAS? Wow, what a loud name. I love the caps, though. And of course, Drivenbysound and kahegi. Oh how sweetly my heart sings when my subscribe list grows and grows. But, it's not the quantity, it's the quality! As long as there are readers, I'm happy.

And now, for the favorite part of the story: Discussion! What sort of 'trouble' has Lavi gotten himself into now? What exactly do you think happened to Allen and Kanda? Are the Exorcists in any real danger? Are you enjoying the characterization? Allen is the character I truly have trouble writing for - do you think the prose is in line with his character? Do you like the villains so far? Who are your favorite characters and why? What are your favorite moments thus far in the story and why? What quotes do you like out of the story? What sort of things do you think could be added to the story to make it better?

Do leave me a word or two if you feel so inclined, and don't forget to keep on reading. Stories are the path to imagination, and you can never have too much.

God bless you, and happy reading!