marufu-chan- I'm glad you think so!
.jutsu.- I'm glad you like it! And I agree, long hair is a pain, but needs must after all! And stay hidden? Where would the fun be in that?
CrimsonKitsune333- *eats cookies before little sisters can steal them* I shall reward your cookie sending skills with more awesomeness!
XxMissyRandomxX- interesting- yep, that's one word for it! I'm so happy that you like my story!
ramenluv- Ah, I did think of that, but there were several things which made me rethink it. One of which will be revealed very soon!!!
Micael-sama- Well, we wouldn't want Allen's life getting too easy, would we?
glon morski- Dammit, don't you just hate it when all your plot gets guessed before you even wrote it?!
Erendyce- No review is useless! And I didn't put a warning up with this story, but my computer has a habit of sneaking 'x's into words that have no business having 'x's in them. Usually I'm pretty good at catching them, but this one obviously got away!
a1y-puff- I love Link, and I'm glad I'm not the only one! And there may be more conversations between Kanda and Link soon, after all, Kanda's the only other one in the whole Order who actually knows what's going on! You should totally draw a William. I can't draw for toffee, so it would be interesting to see what others thought the newly brunette Allen looked like!
MitarashiiDango-Well, we can't have him being stupid ALL the time, can we? Though I'm sure he'll have a chance to show everyone show stupid he CAN be soon!
MidnightEmber- Well, I can only say, it'll get worse before it gets better…
Hanistar7- Your review made me so happy! I'm glad I could relieve you of schoolwork. Brain meltdowns are never good!
Kayday- Ah, I have chosen the worst possible time to start a new story, since I have no time to even fart during the summer. But hopefully the epicness will not be too long in the coming!
As you may have noticed, updates have slowed. This is because I have just started a new job that kind of landed in my lap all of a sudden and I couldn't turn it down. Therefore my free time has been dramatically reduced, and to be perfectly honest the last thing I want to do is start writing when I get home. So, though I'm NOT going to put Decline on hold, the chapters may slow down to fortnightly updates instead of weekly. Unfortunately, this has happened just when the plot actually decides to make a move forward!
No Kanda in this chapter… woe… On the plus side, it is longer than average. Really rushed too, so forgive any mistakes!
Allen sighed with false satisfaction and leaned back from the table. "That was really good Nelly, thank you."
The old woman's eyes twinkled with mirth as she gestured to the plate that Allen had all but licked clean. "I can tell you enjoyed it."
Allen didn't have the heart to tell the woman that he was so hungry he'd have eaten mud if it was placed in front of him, and it was lucky that she didn't notice the smile he gave her in response was a little strained. He putout a hand to stop her from clearing up, offering to do it instead, although he already knew there was no more food lurking on either of their dishes.
"You're such a good boy" she told him fondly, ruffling the stray locks of hair that he couldn't quite tie back from his face and making him cringe. 'Boy' honestly! He hadn't felt like a mere 'boy' in years, never since he'd joined the Order and even less so now that he'd left. She must have noticed the grimace on his face because she chuckled and pinched his cheek, already tanning thanks to the last week of working outside, in the patronising way that old people sometimes have when talking to those younger than they are and said "I'm an old woman dear, everyone is like a child compared to me." She let go of his cheek and he rubbed the reddening skin, grateful she'd chosen to abuse his right one and not his left. Komui's concealer was good- it even darkened with exposure to the sun like natural skin, and, when he'd removed it the night before, he'd been pleasantly surprised to discover that it was not causing a white mark to form on his own skin beneath it, although the tan did make his scar look decidedly odd. He didn't know when, or if, he'd be able to go without the makeup, but he hoped that when he did (if he did the fourteenth reminded him helpfully) his face would still be all one colour. However, he wasn't completely sure the stuff was old-lady-proof, for all of Komui's genius, and he most certainly didn't want to find out first hand.
He tried not to glower at her and busied himself with clearing off the table, pausing every now and then to suck up a few stray crumbs while Nelly moved into the sitting room and took up residence in her favourite over-stuffed sagging armchair.
In the privacy of the kitchen Allen's stomach decided to voice its displeasure at yet again being under filled. His mood had not improved with his meal- he couldn't remember ever being so hungry.
As he stacked the last earthenware crockery on the scrubbed pine dresser, he knew he was going to have to do something to start bringing more food into the house, and more importantly, his stomach, before he actually starved to death.
He wondered if he'd be able to activate his innocence if he had to. Checking the doorway for snooping old ladies, he deemed it safe to try and invocate. It took a little longer than usual, and felt heavier and slower when he moved it, but his arm did transform. He flexed his claw-like fingers experimentally, the usually smooth motion jarring slightly.
"Damn" he whispered, frowning when he grasped his left wrist in his right hand to draw his Sword of Exorcism and nothing happened. His synchronisation rate appeared to have taken quite a hit. Though for now he thought he was probably safe, eventually he would have to move on, and he knew as soon as he came close to any large, densely populated area, his innocence would start attracting attention, and none of it good. This was going to be dangerous. Though the nearby town was by no means large, it wasn't small either, and it was risky going near so many people, but unless he did he wasn't going to be fed enough to invocate when he did run into trouble which he suspected he would, sooner rather than later.
"William? Are you okay in there?" Nelly called from the other ground floor room. From the sound of her voice she was preparing herself for her daily afternoon nap, something she now had time for thanks to Allen's help. She was probably wondering what was taking him so long to clear up.
"I'm fine!" he called back, sounding far more cheerful than he actually felt. It had been a long time since he was unable to defend himself, and the last thing he wanted was to go back to having no innocence, whether his arm was still attached or not. "I think I'm going to go into town for a bit."
"Really?" She sounded rather surprised at his announcement. He supposed that it was a bit unusual- he'd never expressed a wish to go near the town before, not even when Nelly had invited him to accompany her on one of her shopping trips. He went to stand in the doorway. Sure enough, the elderly lady was settled in her armchair ready to take a nap. "I figure its time I showed my face in town. There's supposed to be a storm coming in and I don't want you out in the rain. We need more bread."
"Such a good boy" she said again, thankfully to far away to touch his hair, closing her eyes with a sigh. "Don't be too long now, there's not much to you after all, I'd hate for you to catch a cold. Who would help me out then?"
Trying hard to ignore the fact that Nelly had just suggested, in however vague a manner, that he was small and delicate and therefore likely to succumb to illness if out in the rain- something which reminded him rather forcefully of his Kanda-given nickname that he had once detested but now found he rather missed, he grit his teeth and smiled. "Sure, I won't be long."
0o0o0o0o0
It had been a week since Allen had first stepped foot in the small town, and in that time his situation had not improved at all. As a whole the tow was in no better state of wealth than Nelly, and he found that the only way to get any extra income or food was to take on yet more odd jobs, and so he spent any time not helping Nelly around her smallholding doing small tasks for the townsfolk, and when not doing that he was more often than not to be found collapsed from exhaustion on some flat surface or another. In fact, he was almost expending as much energy trying to get food as he was consuming when he finally had it.
The good thing about all the physical labour was that his rather scrawny frame was filling out more despite the lack of food. Although he'd always taken care of his body and done daily exercise an regular training, he would never have been described as brawny, but now his muscles bulged when he moved his arms. That, coupled with the extra inch of height he'd gained lately (something Nelly attributed to plenty of fresh air) was all adding to the new persona he'd created for himself, and each little change was a step further away from Allen Walker. He wasn't sure he liked all these changes, but apparently a couple of the local girls did, if the giggling, whispering and subtle pointing was anything to go by. Not that Allen, King of Obliviousness had noticed.
"Are you alright William?" Nelly asked when he sighed again.
He jerked visibly from his reverie. "Oh I'm fine" he reassured her, shifting his grip on the shovel he had been using to prop himself upright with. "I was just thinking."
"About those disappearances?" she asked, and then shook her head regretfully. "Terrible that, just terrible."
Allen's interest was piqued, though he wasn't surprised not to have heard the gossip despite spending so much time in town- he usually concentrated on the job at hand, blocking out any and all distractions so he could move on to the next job. "I haven't heard anything about it" he said. "What's been going on?"
"People have just disappeared" Nelly explained, her eyes gleaming as she fell into gossip mode. "Vanished, with hardly any trace at all. Sometimes clothes are found, and the odd pile of dust, but that's it." She leaned on her pitchfork and grinned. "Very strange, no?"
Allen tried to stop his face from showing his true emotions, merely allowing his eyes to widen a little in genuine surprise. "That is strange" he agreed, his mind racing. Akuma, here? He was sure he was right in thinking that his innocence was luring them out. "And no-one's seen anything?"
"If they have, they aren't telling" Nelly said, shifting some straw with a heaving motion belonging to someone half her age.
0o0o0o0o0
With a sigh Allen shifted the basket he was holding to his other hand, surreptitiously glancing at the crowd gathered in the busy marketplace. His eye wasn't reacting to anything yet, but he wasn't about to let his guard down in such a place. Since his conversation with Nelly about the disappearances three days ago, he'd been keeping and eye and ear out for any more news, but the old woman was right- if any of the townspeople knew anything, they weren't sharing their information, which only made Allen more suspicious.
The basket jerked as Nelly piled a bundle of carrots into it, and he berated himself for drifting off when he should have been on the lookout for danger.
He was scanning the crowd once more when something caught his eye. He hoped to God he hadn't really just seen what he thought he had. He lay the wicker basket down at Nelly's feet and moved stealthily through the square, keeping his sights firmly set on the two people he had just spotted.
Up ahead, the broader of the two paused and looked around with unseeing eyes and a frown upon his face.
His tall slim companion turned to him, confused by the sudden halt. "Is everything okay Marie?"
Noise Marie turned around fully, and Allen froze to the spot for an instant before ducking away into the crowd to avoid being spotted, forgetting that at first glance nobody would recognise him.
Eventually Marie started walking again, though his puzzled expression still worried Crowley. "I just thought I heard" then he shook his head. "Never mind Alistair, let's continue with the investigation."
Allen watched as the exorcists disappeared into the crowd. If an exorcist team had been sent out then the Akuma problem must be worse than he thought. And now the exorcists were here, it would be hard to explain what happened to the Akuma if Allen destroyed them. Not for the first time, Allen cursed Komui. Whatever the supervisor had promised, it was going to be very difficult for Allen to keep his whereabouts a secret from the Order if he kept attracting attention from the Earl's forces in this way. He was lucky that he hadn't run into any Noah yet- dealing with one was quite enough.
Satisfied that he was probably safe from detection for a while longer he made his way back to Nelly, who was still haggling the price of parsnips where he had left her. She didn't appear to have noticed his absence at all.
"Nearly done?" he asked her as he collected the basket from the ground ready to receive the vegetables.
"Nearly" she replied as she gave him the parsnips. "I just need to get some bread."
Allen winced internally. The bakery was on the other side of the square- in the direction that his former comrades had been walking in. He really wished he could let Nelly go alone so he could stay in hiding, but he knew that the old lady wouldn't be able to manage the several loaves she would be buying in order to feed him and her cane as well without help so instead he smiled brightly and hefted the basket further up his arm, gesturing with his free hand. "After you" he said politely, though his expression was mocking, knowing how much Nelly detested his overly formal mannerisms.
She smacked him across the back of his knees with her walking stick as she passed, chuckling at the pained expression on his face that he failed to stifle. "Behave yourself" she scolded lightly. "It's not nice to make fun of defenceless old ladies."
He laughed as he followed behind her. "You're hardly defenceless" he told her.
She turned and whacked him with her cane again. "You were supposed to say I'm not that old" she informed him.
Allen just grinned at her in reply. He'd grown rather fond of Nelly in the few short weeks that he'd been living with her, and was dreading the time when he'd have to move on, which, he realised, would be sooner that he'd planned thanks to the arrival of the two exorcists.
He might not be instantly recognisable, but his innocence was, and if an Akuma attacked he'd have no choice but to fight.
He waited patiently while Nelly chose the bread, piling the still-warm loaves into the already overflowing basket as she handed them to him. That done, the old Frenchwoman decided it was time to head home, something that Allen agreed with enthusiastically since the smell of freshly baked bread was making him hungry, and the threat of being discovered by the exorcists was lurking at the forefront of his mind.
They had only gone half a mile when unease began to prickle the hairs on the back of Allen's neck. He paused, looking around worriedly, but could see nothing out of the ordinary. Nelly had continued walking and he hurried to catch up with her, still glancing around distractedly.
When the attack came, it was neither from the left nor the right. The Akuma drove upwards through the hard packed earth of the track they were walking, showering both Allen and Nelly with rock and dirt. Allen dropped the basket as he leapt backwards to avoid the attack, but he wasn't quite quick enough, and heard Nelly's cry of dismay when he was hit, the virus spreading rapidly through his body. He wasn't worried about that- his innocence would purify it before it could kill him, but Nelly was still standing stock still in the middle of the path, looking on in horror as his skin was covered in black pentacle markings. When the Akuma turned on her, apparently satisfied with infecting Allen, sure he was about to die, her feet became unstuck and she backed away unsteadily, dropping her cane in her haste. She too had apparently written Allen off, as she turned and began to stumble away, not once looking back. Allen didn't begrudge her survival instincts, he would have told her to run and leave him if she hadn't already done so, but on the other hand, he knew he wasn't going to die, and she didn't, so she really was just leaving him for dead.
It was to no avail though, even as Allen's innocence purified his own virus, the old woman disintegrated into a pile of dusty ash that whirled in an eddy of wind before blowing away.
Allen's moment of stunned disbelief distracted him long enough for the Akuma to move in for a second attack. Without conscious thought, Allen's gloved hand rose in front of the Akuma's face, the monocle over his left eye vanishing. "Stop."
The Akuma paused, unable to defy the order, but it looked confused, puzzlement written across its ugly face. "Lord Noah?" it asked, its eyes flicking to the hand held up before it- Allen's left hand.
The Noah smiled pleasantly. "That's right. Now leave this place."
The Akuma blinked stupidly at the innocence held up before it, as though the draw of it was too strong to ignore and the urge to have it overrode the Noah's orders. "I-"
The Noah's eyes flashed dangerously, a hint of gold breaking through the liquid brown. He pushed his tousled dark hair back from his face and heaved a regretful sounding sigh. "Then I am sorry."
The thin strings cut through the Akuma's body as though it was butter, and then it was gone with nothing but a whispering sigh of something like gratitude.
"Are you alright?" a familiar voice asked from behind him.
Crowley studied the boy who looked remarkably unphased by what he'd just seen, though his knees soon gave out and he gave a small whimper, clutching his head, his eyes screwed shut as though in pain. Then he blinked and the Romanian saw several emotions chase each other behind the dark eyes- fear, pain, sorrow and something that the tall man couldn't quite place.
"Did you get hurt?" Crowley tried again, laying a hand on the youths trembling shoulder.
His reply was a shake of the head as the boy visibly pulled himself together. "What was that thing? What happened to my grandmother? What's going on? Who are you?" he asked in rapid French.
Crowley blinked confusedly. "Sorry I- uh don't speak French" he apologised, although he realised how ridiculous that statement was, and called Marie over. The Austrian had been keeping watch a little way away and now headed over to the pair.
Allen repeated his questions, praying that the foreign language disguised his voice enough to make it unrecognisable to Marie, who relied so much on his ears.
The expression that Marie wore was oddly blank as he answered Allen's questions in fluent French. "I'm sorry for your loss" he added.
Allen sniffed, finding that the sorrow was genuine. "Thank you. And thank you for saving my life."
"It's our job" Marie said simply with a small shrug and a smaller, almost sad, smile. "We must be leaving now Mr.-?"
"Pallas. William Pallas" Allen said with a little mental smirk. He knew that his name would be in the report to Komui and if the supervisor read it he would make the connection between it and the true identity of the person it belonged to. At least Allen hoped so- Komui was a genius ad all, but he was also, well, crazy. And everything depended on him doing his work. A slim to none chance then, Allen thought with an eye roll. His only hope was that he was mentioned in the verbal report.
He suddenly noticed that Crowley was giving him a funny look. He subtly checked his reflection in the silver buttons on Marie's coat- no, his scar wasn't showing- so he figured he had been making faces as he thought. Only the expression on Marie's face didn't quite fit- he was frowning at Allen, a look of confusion and- God, Allen hoped he was wrong- recognition on his face.
Allen had to think quickly, remembering the reactions of the people who had been saved from Akuma in the past. Their responses had been varied but the pone thing they all had in common was the urge to get away as soon as possible.
He picked up the abandoned basket of groceries, casting a sad look at the dismal pile of clothes that were all that remained of Nelly, before backing away down the road. "Well, thanks again" he muttered. His urgency to get away wasn't all an act- his head was pounding and his arm throbbed, and he desperately needed to sit down and begin to plan his next move.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Crowley asked worriedly. "You aren't hurt at all?" He made lots of gestures with his hands, apparently still believing that Allen did not speak English. Allen shook his head, but all that really did was to make his headache worse. He subtly moved the basket to hide the bleeding gash just below his ribs- if Crowley spotted the wound he'd immediately be able to see there was more to William Pallas than the exorcists were being told- an Akuma inflicted wound that bore no sign of the virus would certainly raise some questions.
It appeared that the Romanian took his word for it, because he smiled in a friendly way and moved to Marie's side, murmuring quietly to the other exorcist, though Allen could still hear every word. "All these disappearances are unlikely to be all down to one level two Akuma. Perhaps we should hang around a little longer?"
Marie nodded and gave Allen an appraising look, seeing far more that he would have even if he could use his eyes.
Allen felt his heart beat faster, and suspected that Marie had noticed, if the slight raising of a brow and intrigued look he was giving the ex-exorcist.
They are staying longer?! Allen knew right then that he'd have to get out of there tonight. "If you don't need me any more…" he began nervously "I must be going. I will go and stay with relatives in Paris."
Crowley smiled again, obviously not understanding a word of what was just said, and Marie nodded slowly. "Goodbye then" he paused, his blind eyes running over Allen's figure once more before settling, Allen realised with mounting dread, on his left arm. "William Pallas."