Chapter 3: And They All Fall Down
Last chapter: Less than a second later, the white-haired boy slammed down into the open boat, setting it rocking. Kanda glared at him; his precipitous entrance had caused the side of the boat to dip low enough for water to splash inside. Allen, for his part, sighed with relief. "You're late," Kanda informed him in a caustic tone. Allen simply slumped down on the nearest seat panting heavily. At that moment, the strong current caught the prow of the little boat, whisking it and its cargo off into the black tunnel ahead.
It was dark within the tunnel. Very dark. So dark, actually, that Kanda's high-gloss, super-shiny hair wasn't reflecting light the way it usually did, streaming instead over the swordsman's shoulders like an inky veil. Allen gazed at the fall of the raven-dark strands, entranced by the subtle play of black on black each time one of Kanda's movements made the thick mane slide across his broad shoulders. The only sound was the faint lapping of waves caused by the current against the small boat's hull and the occasional grunt of exertion from Kanda, who, with the aid of a long, stout pole, was preventing their vessel from throwing itself to its death against the barely-visible and dangerously rocky sides of the stone passage. Allen couldn't see much else from his position, sprawled out on a hard, low wooden bench, but he found this didn't really disturb him; secretly admiring Kanda's skill at maneuvering in the dark was enough to keep him content. The little exorcist soon found it more and more difficult to remain focused on the other man as the boat's passage, never very smooth to begin with, became rougher and rougher as the current grew swifter and the rocks more frequent. He was jostled heavily from side to side, but through it all, his eyes stayed fixed on Kanda. The swords master stood with one foot braced on each side of the narrow boat, plying the long pole with apparent ease and steering the little vessel around each obstacle. Allen's ears pricked up then, having caught the sound of Kanda's first words since his angry remonstration nearly ten minutes earlier, when Allen had first entered the boat.
"This place is lunatic," the swords master muttered furiously. "We have enough money for that madman to build all of his foolish machines and for all the generals to travel wherever they please, but everyone has to risk injury and death because the Order is so damn cheap that they won't even clear the rocks out of their stream." Allen listened wide-eyed; Kanda would have to be very stressed and most unhappy to one: be swearing, and two: to even be rambling on out loud. Allen was so concentrated on Kanda's behavior that the swordsman's next sharp-spoken words made the white-haired teen at which they were directed jump like a startled deer.
"Bean Sprout!" Kanda growled, his voice made more menacing by the echoes in the tunnel and the fact that he was currently towering over the small boy laying on the bench. "Are you going to get out the lantern, or are you going to wait for us to crash first? Because at the rate we're going, we're going to end up on a rock." Allen obligingly began to fumble around the bottom of the boat in search of the lantern that, according to the stand-offish young man at the front of the boat, should reside somewhere on the deck below the seats that crossed the stern of the boat. The younger boy rummaged under the luggage piled in the back of the vessel, feeling for the cool, hard shape of the requested item. Allen was beginning to feel a little frustrated as his diligent quest found nothing that even resembled a lantern.
"Ano, Kanda?" Allen spoke up, slightly hesitant as he was unsure of how well the other exorcist would take the news. The boat lurched sickeningly to the left and Allen could hear a rock scraping against the hull. Kanda stabbed one end of his pole into the water and punted them sharply to the right. A high, jagged rock passed quickly on the port side of the vessel.
"What is it, Bean Sprout?" Kanda snapped, his fragile patience strained by the difficulty of navigation through rock-infested waters in midnight conditions. Allen swallowed hard and attempted to make himself look smaller by curling up in the stern, this won't go over well...
"I can't find the lantern."
There was a long, slow uptake of breath by the Japanese man in the bow of the boat and Allen could almost feel the thick cloud of frustration condense, covering the vessel in a metaphorical dark cloud. 10...9...8... Allen began the mental countdown to Kanda's explosion of temper. 7...6...5... The white-haired teen could hear the other boy's teeth grinding together. 4...3... The younger exorcist never made it to one.
"Look. For. The. Damn. Lantern." Kanda's words were harsh and jerky with rage. Allen was glad that it was too dark in the tunnel for him to see Kanda's face because he was sure that the swordsman's expression was enough to cause a thousand akuma to spontaneously combust with fear, let alone enough to give the smaller boy nightmares. There was more silence for a while as Kanda turned his attention back to the dangerous river and Allen examined the problem with which he was now faced. The younger boy cringed.
"Ano, Kanda?" Allen spoke tremulously as he repeated his earlier words.
"Nnm?" Kanda grunted in reply. Allen braced himself mentally before taking the plunge.
"I'm going to have to crawl through your legs to get to the bow."
The Japanese man stiffened. "You will do no such thing." His voice grated in a passable imitation of the noise Mugen made while clearing its sheath.
"Then you're going to have to steer the boat in the dark," Allen replied in exasperation. There was a lull in the conversation while Kanda considered his options. Come on, you idiot, Allen thought at the swordsman. You can go along with the plan or you can drown. Is it really such a hard decision? The swords master's response was clipped.
"Go around."
"That's not possible. You braced your feet on each side of the boat and I'd fall off if I tried to go around." Allen could see Kanda, who was visible as a dark silhouette against the slightly lighter, if darkness can be lighter, blackness of the tunnel. The swordsman looked tense. At that moment, the boat slammed into a particularly large boulder with a sickening crunch before grinding its way over the stone surface, the wooden planking of the hull groaning and shrieking with the strain. The vessel tipped off the rock with a sudden lurch and, having splashed once more into the water, they continued down the underground river.
"Do it," Kanda said finally, his voice flat but somehow still managing to be laced with disgust. Allen nodded, forgetting that Kanda, who had his back turned towards him, couldn't see him. The white-haired exorcist crawled along the deck toward the hull, grateful that he had at least enough light to see Kanda's vague outline and the edges of the boat. He paused when he reached Kanda. Oh, damn, the cursed boy thought. I forgot that Kanda's uniform jacket is so long. Allen hesitated for a few seconds, then stretched out his red-skinned, cursed hand and grasped the bottom hem of the other teen's coat. He gulped, his nervous hand clenching the fabric so tightly that it was a wonder that even its reinforced material didn't tear, and lifted the black jacket slowly. Pale gray eyes widened.
Allen had thought that Lavi's boot were modern, but even those six-strapped wonders had nothing on the black leather footgear before his very startled eyes. Slick leather smoothed up Kanda's legs and, though Allen couldn't see them well in the dark, he was sure that they would shine in the light. The buckles on the boots, and there were really too many to count, gleamed dully at him from the many straps binding the thick leather to the exorcist's legs. What seemed oddest to Allen was that he couldn't see the tops of those boots. Curious, Allen hoisted the edge of the swordsman's uniform jacket up to reveal the backs of Kanda's knees. Sleek leather met his interested eyes. How high do these boots go? Allen wondered.
"What are you doing, Bean Sprout?" Kanda's voice carried a sharp warning. Allen froze guiltily, much like a small child caught with their hand in the cookie jar. The cursed boy found himself thankful for the obscuring darkness once more as it concealed the rush of blood to the exorcist's pale cheeks.
"I-I'm looking for... the... lantern?" Allen mentally kicked himself. There's no way Kanda will believe that. I don't even sound like I believe that. I sound more like I'm hoping that he will believe that I believe that, which is ironic because that's kind of what I'm hoping for right about now. Fortunately, Kanda was distracted by the timely appearance of several enormous boulders and, as the boat bobbed and jolted through the resulting cataracts like a drunken rubber duck in a rambunctious child's bath, the swordsman only had time for one short command.
"The lantern. Now."
Following Kanda's instruction, Allen focused once more on the task at hand: crawling through/over/around all obstacles to reach the bow of the boat. He managed, with some difficulty, to wrench his eyes from the elder man's boots, and began to scramble forward awkwardly, gaining distance inch by inch. As soon as his head was under the uniform coat, Allen found he had to release the hem in order to make further progress. He did so and trembled slightly as the heavy material stroked across the back of his neck and shoulders. Focus, Allen chided himself, his eyes fixed on the ankle of Kanda's left boot. The white-haired teen discovered that his head was turning of its own volition and his pale gray gaze swept up over Kanda's ankle, over the buckles liberally coating his calf, across the thick leather at his knee, up to mid-thigh--No, no! Allen hurriedly dropped his gaze to the uncaring deck below his hands and knees. He crawled stiffly, every muscle tense, Kanda's coat trailing teasingly over his back. There was a moment of consternation when Allen found his broad shoulders trapped between Kanda's parted knees, but the younger boy wiggled bravely onward until he was halfway done with his low-to-the-ground journey between the swords master's legs. Almost there, he thought with relief.
Allen glanced up just as Kanda glanced down. Even in the dark, Kanda's deep blue stare was unnerving in its ability to pierce to the soul. Time slowed to a crawl as Allen turned his body halfway to meet the gimlet gaze directly. The cursed boy felt naked there in the pitch black tunnel; he felt as though all of his defenses, all of his thoughts, all of his control had been stripped away, leaving behind only tangled emotions trapped in a fleshy prison. Their eyes never shifted away and Allen could feel confusion and fear and nervous tension building inside of him in a potent and heady combination. He cleared his parched throat in order to tell the older exorcist to go back to work, to do anything that would break the ephemeral connection between them, but he found that his voice caught and all he managed to croak was a single word, "Kanda--," and his search for the lantern, Allen's last, tenuous grip on reality was lost.
It was as though some omnipotent force, neither good nor ill, but both at the same time, was manipulating the cursed exorcist as the younger boy completed his journey through Kanda's legs and rose to his knees in front of the elder boy, never breaking eye-contact. A tortured, red-skinned hand fluttered up to rest on the swordsman's black-clad hip and still pale gray could not pull away from the terrifying attraction of bottomless blue. Allen's breath died in his lungs.
So this is what it's like to drown, he thought as his vision began to blacked and blur. Allen's body drooped slightly and began to fall, but his collapse was arrested by a sudden, jerking force. Kanda's calloused hand was twisted in the loose fabric of the collar of Allen's uniform, holding the limp exorcist up.
"What--?" was all Allen could manage to say, incoherent as it was. His confused eyes dropped to examine the protecting hand, then lifted wearily to search Kanda's face. One pale, trembling hand stretched out like a plea for salvation as some vast painful chasm made itself known in the depths of Allen's heart and--
Kanda staggered as the small vessel smashed into an unseen rock. The planking of the deck gave a terrible scream and long splinters lifted itself out of its once-smooth surface. The boulder grated under the boats hull as the tiny craft, propelled ever onward by the powerful current, shot across before slewing wildly sideways as the stone was left behind. Frigid water splashed in as the bow dipped, soaking the white-haired boy. Kanda, who Allen had never seen do anything that could truly be called ungraceful, stumbled again. His booted feet tangled in the carry-strap of one of the many pieces of luggage dislodged from their original positions to slide about the deck. The rushing current hurled the boat over another rock in what was apparently a series of rapids and Kanda's feet slid out from underneath him, sending the elder exorcist sprawling to pile heavily down onto Allen.
The swordsman attempted to regain his footing and the little vessel impacted with another rock with jarring force. Kanda collapsed onto the white-haired boy once more and pain ripped through him like white-hot lightning as his elbow met the deck just left of Allen's head and Mugen's hilt jabbed into his lower chest. There was a wet, meaty crunch.
Allen struggled with the sudden weight covering his body until it uttered and odd sort of half-scream and went limp over him. The cursed exorcist could feel something warm and liquid dripping down onto his face, and the tip of his pink tongue slipped out to taste the substance that stained his lips. The salty-sweet tang of copper and iron filled his mouth and Allen panicked. Blood.
Allen thrashed about until his hand connected solidly with a sturdy square shape. Well, that's ironic, an inner voice, still remarkably calm given the circumstances, bitched. Isn't it funny that we find what we want when it's too late for it to be useful? The boat thumped and jostled over several more stones accompanied by the piercing squeal of stressed timbers before the water flattened out and became calm. The battered vessel's progress was suddenly smooth and serene, the roaring of the rapids slowly diminishing as the driving force of the river shunted them along further and further away from the wild cataracts. With worried hands Allen shifted Kanda's boneless weight off his chest and lit the now-located lantern. Pale golden light stretched ethereal fingers out over the little boat, bringing touches of color to the sheer rock walls and the shimmering water. The cursed exorcist turned back from the lantern to gaze fretfully at the crumpled body of the raven-haired swordsman, readying himself for a cruel and awful realization. His expectations were met, to say the least.
Frothy bubbled dyed crimson and foamy-pink dribbled from Kanda's slightly-parted lips with each of his ragged, wheezing breaths. The fallen exorcist's right arm lay bent at an unnatural angle and there was no doubt in Allen's mind that it was broken in at least one place. Kanda gasped, his back arching off the deck and his harsh pants rattling in his throat, and Allen's eyes were drawn from Kanda's mangled limb to his torso. All of Allen's breath whooshed out of him in disbelief. The swordsman's stomach was even flatter than normal, giving it a collapsed look that can only be achieved by shattering at least a few ribs. The white-haired teen ran a hand tentatively across the other's chest in an attempt to asses the extent of the damage to his rib-cage and was horrified when several ribs shifted and grated under the weight of his feather-light touch. Kanda groaned and coughed, thick flecks of blood splattering his chin.
Allen felt the bottom fall out of his stomach and the ache just under his heart returned. With he lantern swinging wildly in one hand, the frightened boy dug desperately through his suitcase for something that could be used as a bandage. Unnoticed by him, the current, always strong and swift, grew even more intense, hurtling itself headlong toward its destination at the foot of the mountain. Soft rumbling sounded in the poorly lit gloom in front of the vessel, growing louder as the boat was carried downstream. Distracted by the other teen's plight, Allen remained oblivious to the mounting danger until it was too late. The far-off noise of the river was suddenly a shuddering, palpable force that throbbed in Allen's ears and with one last heaving buck, the small boat tipped over the edge of the here-to-fore unseen falls.
The bow of the boat plunged downward as the little vessel shot out into empty space. Allen shrieked like a little girl as the luggage broke free from its constraints, lifting away from the planking of the deck as the boat dropped out from underneath them. Kanda's limp form also flopped up off the deck, a fine trail of blood tracing a line of ruby droplets from the wounded exorcist's lips. Allen found himself tumbling head-first as the boat rolled over in midair.
Oh, shit, was the last thought that flitted through the mind of the smaller boy before he struck the icy cold, subterranean water with the same crushing impact of a wreaking ball hitting a building, sending him deep into the water in a cloud of bubbles. He was joined in his cold bath soon after by the overturned boat, which finally splintered beyond all repair, ending chunks of wood flying out over the surface of the water. The luggage plopped down like a flock of ducks and in the middle of it all, the prone body of the black-haired exorcist splashed down.
Allen thrashed about madly, clawing his way to the surface. Dank cave air poured into his starved lungs as he sucked breath greedily. The larger remains of the boat bobbed up some yards away, followed by the luggage, which swirled in the eddies at the base of the falls, meandering like lost sheep. The white-haired boy leaned back in the water, floating to conserve his precious energy. The frigid water leeched the heat from his bones and chilled him to the core. Pale grey eyes gazed blearily out across the water.
Something's missing, the younger exorcist thought muzzily, still dazed from his precipitous dive into the underground lake.
"Allen-san!" a voice floated out over the lake. Allen struggled around to face in the direction of the voice. His now-clear eyes settled on the Finder standing on a familiar harbor. "Allen-san," the Finder repeated. "Kanda-san hasn't come up yet!"
Fear sent adrenaline rushing through Allen's veins once more. He searched the surface frantically for any sign of the ill-tempered swordsman, for the merest glimpse of raven hair or pale skin. Nothing. There was nothing, not even a lingering ripple where he had submerged. Finally, ignoring the painful knot of fear that balled low in his chest and disregarding the increasingly worried shouts of the Finder, Allen rolled over and dove, arrowing down into the chill embrace of the deep water. The cursed boy turned his head this way and that as his pale gray eyes strove to pierce the gloom that lay heavy in the water. And still there was nothing, only terribly empty space, broken in but one place where a faint flickering gathered at the edge of his vision. Allen pushed on through the silken weight of pure river water, feeling his limbs grow stiff and clumsy with cold, searching-- Wait. Flickering? He whirled in a stream of tiny silver bubbles. There it is again! Something silver and small--no bigger than the palm of one of his hands--was settling slowly to the murky bottom. Its path was straight and unwavering, an odd phenomena in the troubled and turbulent waters of the harbor at the base of the falls. Then the silver plate caught the light of an errant beam of light, likely from the Finder's lantern, and flared to vivid, glorious fire, appearing like a radiant star in the dark lake.
A cross. A Black Order insignia. But it's falling so heavily... Allen jerked and released several large bubbles of his precious air in surprise when he realized why the badge moved the way it did. It's still attached to Kanda. Sure enough, when he looked closer there was, indeed, a darker shadow in the cloudy water.
The cursed exorcist swan toward the shimmering silver light in eccentric arcs, buffeted this way and that by the capricious currents. As he drew closer, the white-haired teen could see the slow rippling of Kanda's long coat, the other boy's pale face with his eyes closed as if asleep, and the snake-like undulations of the inky tendrils of hair that had pulled free from the swordsman's pony-tail to flutter around his motionless visage. The black-haired boy fell through the restless waters like liquid mercury, heavy and fluid, one limp hand trailing up to the surface more than ten feet above. A fine line of bloodied water stood out lividly against the dark blue, marking his descent.
Allen could feel his lungs burning with the desire to breathe, could hear his own heart pounding in his chest, could see the darkness of oxygen deprivation encroaching on the edges of his failing vision, but he pushed all of these nagging concerns from his mind. With one last eel-like wriggle, the white-haired exorcist occupied the space only an arm's length from the other boy's limp form. A cursed, red-skinned hand reached out, snagging the hem of the swords master's uniform and arresting the body's fall. A powerful kick from Allen sent them rocketing up in a stream of bubbles that was the last of Allen's lungful of air. They broke the surface in a rush of cold water and Allen rolled to float on his back once more, this time pillowing Kanda's dark head on his shoulder as he towed the unresponsive teen toward the dock and the Finder.
What seemed like ages later, Allen and his limp charge fetched up against the pier and the Finder's strong hands hoisted both boys out of the water. Allen lay Kanda down carefully on the wide wooden planking of the dock, brushing sodden raven hair away from the blank face. The Finder settled two fingers on Kanda's neck just below his jaw. There was a pregnant pause as the Finder bent to lay his ear on the swordsman's broad chest.
"Nothing. He's not breathing," came the Finder's strained voice.
"No!" Allen shouted, shoving the Finder out of the way so that he could check for himself, to prove once and for all that it was some horrible joke. No reassuring pulse met his questing fingers; no breath rose and fell under his desperate hands. "No!" he exclaimed again, his words sounding like the agonized moans of a widow denying the loss of her husband. Hot tears welled up in his clear gray eyes as his clenched fists slammed down on the other boy.
"Allen-san!" choked the surprised Finder.
Allen ignored him, pressing instead his hands down over Kanda's heart and pumping rhythmically. The Finder gripped his shoulders tightly and tried to pull him away, but the distraught exorcist batted away his hands.
"There's no use--," the Finder began, but Allen cut him off quickly.
"HE'S NOT DEAD!" the white-haired exorcist howled, a little foam pooling at one corner of his lips and all sanity gone from his eyes. "This bastard can't die from something stupid like that!" The Finder recoiled as if struck, repelled by the madness in the slender exorcist's expression. Allen resumed pounding on Kanda's chest with single-minded determination. The cursed teen paused to listen for any breath and when none came he acted without thinking, pinching the swordsman's nose shut and sealing his lips over the other boy's. Allen felt Kanda's chest rise under his hands with the force of the breath driven into his lungs and he drew back to push at the still body once more. Seconds ticked by as the scene played itself out over and over again; the Finder watching in mute despair and Allen working like a madman to breathe for Kanda and to restart his motionless heart. Seven, eight, nine times Allen met Kanda's lips with his own. Then, scant minutes after they had emerged from the harbor's clutches, Allen leaned down and gave Kanda his breath for the tenth time.
Hands like iron bands clamped down on the white-haired teen's upper arms and shoved him away. Allen, now sprawled on the dock, looked up just as bottomless blue-grey eyes opened. Their eyes met for the briefest of seconds before Kanda rolled onto his belly and poured out the contents of his stomach. Shakily, Allen crawled to his side and, kneeling, held back the soaked, inky strands of hair from the swordsman's face. There was silence as Kanda retched and heaved, vomiting up bloody water. The elder exorcist's body shuddered and trembled like a newborn kitten's and Allen waited quietly, supporting the uncharacteristically weak teen until the throes subsided. Having calmed, Kanda allowed himself to rest against the cursed teen's body, to be held up by another's arms, if only for a moment. Finally, Kanda made as if to raise himself to his feet, but fell back into Allen's embrace quaking and clutching his right arm to his wounded chest.
"Help!" Allen snapped at the Finder who watched some distance away. The man nodded dumbly and withdrew a medical kit from the large pack strapped to his back. Allen gently divested Kanda of the upper half of his uniform, beginning with the broad white belt that encircled the boy's narrow waist. Once removed, Mugen was set gently and reverently aside and Allen's nimble fingers stripped the long coat from Kanda's battered frame. The younger exorcist and the Finder both stared in shocked horror. A bruise easily the size of two spread hands bloomed deep purple on the fair skin covering the left hand of Kanda's ribcage. Smaller, slightly paler bruises mottled the rest of his flesh, except for just below Kanda's right elbow where a band of broken blood vessels had created a hematoma just as dark and ugly as the one over his ribs. Even as they watched, though, the minor bruises faded and Kanda's breathing eased. Allen's eyes were drawn to the thick black rune over Kanda's heart, its black ink stark against both the pale skin at his shoulder and the bruised flesh just below. Unconsciously, the red-skinned hand with the cross deeply embedded in its back reached up to touch the center of the strange tattoo. Kanda's left hand closed painfully around Allen's curious appendage and the white-haired teen withdrew it hastily, swiftly choosing to occupy himself with binding Kanda's rapidly healing chest. The Finder wrapped and splinted the swordsman's broken arm after resetting the fractured bone, drawing a hissed curse from Kanda. When the swordsman was bandaged appropriately, the three sat without speaking until Allen gave voice to the question that had been bothering him for some time now.
"What happened?" he asked the Finder. "We ended up in the same place we usually do, but the river and the passage wasn't the same."
"There was a miscommunication," the Finder explained, sounding almost guilty. "Komui ordered us to close the normal passage for maintenance because he didn't know Linali had dispatched you two. We didn't know either. The channel you came down was never meant to be navigated; it's just an overflow channel to keep the upper harbor, your departure point, from flooding when the normal one is blocked. Both passages end up at the base of the Black Order's mountain and in this harbor, but, as you saw, the overflow channel ends in a waterfall." The Finder grimaced slightly.
Allen's aura pulsed darkly and his hands crooked into claws. "I'm going to kill that bastard," he ground out through clenched teeth, rising with the cherished intent of marching up to the science department to find and strangle Komui.
"Yes...well..." the Finder muttered awkwardly and hesitantly, as though he was considering how best to break some unpleasant news without getting himself injured or killed by the rather emotional exorcist. "Komui called," he indicated the phone attached to his bulky pack. "He said that another Finder vanished and, when the other Finders went looking for him, they found all of the missing men. They were dead. We can't reestablish contact with them for some reason; their golem is probably broken. He, Komui that is, also said that you two are the only two exorcists currently available since he assigned another mission to Lavi and Linali. You two have to go no matter what happens...er...happened. Those are his words, not mine," he added hastily.
Allen stared at him with his jaw agape in disbelief. "You want us to go on a mission with Kanda injured, our supplies ruined, and everything else we packed soaking wet?" The Finder looked sheepish and uncomfortable and Allen prepared to crucify him on the cross of reason with the aid of his Innocence when Kanda spoke for the first time since the beginning of the ordeal.
"The mission is our greatest priority right now. You," he commanded, pointing one long finger at the Finder while draping his still-wet uniform coat over his broad shoulders. "Gather the luggage."
"What?" Allen yelled, goggling at the other teen. Kanda gazed at him over one shoulder as the Finder moved to retrieve the bobbing luggage. The swordsman half-turned to face him and the shoulder he was looking over dropped aggressively.
"Our mission is the most important issue at the moment," the raven-haired exorcist stated slowly and calmly in the same way one would speak to a rather slow child, clearly annoyed at having to repeat his earlier words.
"But you're hurt!" Allen argued, certain that this irrefutable logic would at least slow the mighty and dutiful machine that was Kanda. This was obviously the wrong thing to say because the swords master, if possible, became even more aggressive, having been forced into a conversational defensive.
"Are you saying that I am incapable of completing this mission?" came the older exorcist's voice, his tones as dulcet and sweet as honey poured over a sword's blade.
"No!" garbled Allen in a rush.
"Then you're saying we should give up this mission simply because our luggage is wet" With those words dangling in the air between them like a thousand wasps, Allen became acutely aware of the impossibility of winning the argument. The Finder watched the two exorcists out of the corners of his eyes with interest. Sighing, the white-haired boy lowered his head and conceded defeat.
"I suppose we'd better hurry if we don't want to miss the train." Kanda's only response to this statement was a sneer so scathing it could have peeled not only paint from the walls, but the very fabric of wall-ness itself from its earthly confines, leaving behind only the ghost of a not-wall. Allen felt like slapping him.
The Finder approached them slowly, laden with dripping equipment. Kanda took a single bag and slung it over his shoulder, taking care not to bump his healing arm. Pale grey eyes noted the swordsman's slight flinch as the bag bumped gently against his bandaged ribs. So it still hurts, doesn't it, you bastard? came Allen's uncontrollable thought, his inner self jigging wildly with wicked and purely sadistic glee. The smaller boy grabbed a rather large amount of luggage and, having distributed its weight as equally as possible about his person, trotted after Kanda, who had immediately after replacing Mugen on his hip with his white belt. The finder trailed along behind.
Several moments passed of steady loping and Allen entered the city that sprawled roughly a mile from the harbor at the base of the Black Order headquarters. He caught sight of Kanda some blocks ahead and sped up. The Finder swore softly and followed. Side-by-side the white-haired and black-hared exorcists leapt onto the rooftops, hopping from building to building with easy grace. The shape of the train overpass began to resolve itself in the darkness until, with one final jump, the Black Order trio landed on top of it. A passenger train was hurtling by underneath.
Kanda turned and, shooting on last unbearably arrogant smirk in Allen's direction, walked off the edge of the overpass to fall into the night air. Booted feet thudded down onto the top of the passenger car and several of the passengers screamed.
Allen twitched with indignation at the fact that, by a gross and unexpected twist of fate, it was he, not Lavi, partnered with Kanda for this mission. It was then, as the white-haired exorcist and Finder plunged toward the train that Allen realized, I still don't really know what this mission is about.
Hi, everybody! I'm really sorry that it took so long for me to get this chapter out and I'm well aware that I lied to at least one person about how soon I would post it. I semi-humbly ask your forgiveness. A lot of things happened that I wasn't really expecting. Anyway, the next chapter is already halfway done. I'm not making any promises about when I'll post it though because I invariably end up lying.
On a more important note: I have decided that for the purposes of this story, Allen will be 17 and Kanda 19. You'll see why later (get your mind out of the gutter. I know what you're thinking, and it's not like that. Kinda).
Until Later.