I quickly uploaded this chapter for Erendyce-san. Sorry for the short chapter last time. Hopefully this chapter will satisfy you guys.
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"I'm sorry" was all Komui could say when he had met up with Allen after his meeting with Leverrier. Allen was standing before his desk, as silent as could be. But afterwards he said, with a slight smile, "It was not your decision, Komui. You did all you could."
Komui looked at the boy with remorse. "… Allen."
"And… I also agree with Central's decision," he added.
Startled, Komui's hands twitched. "Allen…you agree? What do you mean by this?"
Allen's bright blue eyes started to droop. "What I mean, is that it will be better this way, although it's not the right one. I feel if I stay here any longer, the people I care about will get hurt."
The Supervisor stood right out his chair and placed his hands on his desk. "Allen, if you think you are a bother, you are not—"
"Komui," Allen said firmly, "This is my decision, and no one forced it upon me. It's fine with me as long as I can still continue on being an Exorcist—continue on exorcising the Akuma." He looked straight into Komui's dark eyes. "You became a Supervisor to protect everyone in the Order didn't you? Well, I also became an Exorcist, so I can protect the people in front of me. You have to trust me, Supervisor Komui."
Komui sat back down and sighed heavily. After a moments worth of thinking, he finally said, "Are you sure about this, Allen?"
The white haired boy smiled once again. "I am, Komui. Although… I really am going to miss everyone."
This conversation between Komui and Allen took place less than fourteen hours and twenty-seven minutes ago.
It was now one hour and nineteen minutes since Allen transferred to North America.
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∞ CHAPTER 2 ∞
(Understand) ing
"Welcome back to the Black Order, sir," a guard said while saluting. "Your identification number, please."
Kanda wrote his number with his finger on the guard's hand. He then looked around with a frown on his face and turned his head behind him and yelled out through the luminous doorway. "Gozu! You're going to get locked out if you don't hurry up."
After a stumble and many heavy footsteps, the Finder ran through the gate and bent over while panting, putting his hands on his knees. "I… I made it. I made it."
The Japanese exorcist then turned his attention towards the guard. "Hey, was there a glitch in the system? I had to wait more than twenty minutes for the gate to activate in the Spanish cathedral."
"My upmost apologies, sir," the guard said. "There was a very important transmission that was scheduled for the Ark about an hour ago. The staff is very sorry for the inconvenience."
The guard saluted again as Kanda, leaving Gozu behind, walked down the hallway and up some stairs until he reached his destination that was Komui's office. After seeing Komui, the samurai was planning on taking a bath and finally getting his hands on Jerry's soba for brunch. He turned the door knob and entered the office, only to bump into another man, a seemingly frail person who was just about to leave in a hurry. Some papers he was carrying fell the ground in a flutter.
Considering the white robe, the man was obviously a Finder. Another clumsy one, no doubt. Kanda watched as the man frantically picked up his papers and asked, "Hey, is the Supervisor here?"
"N-No, no. The Supervisor's not here," the Finder stuttered. "He's in another meeting with the Inspector and the Generals." After picking up all his papers, he glanced at Kanda for a split second and sped out of the room.
Kanda frowned. Did that Finder just glare at him?
Pushing the thought out of his head, he walked out of the office deciding to give his mission report to Komui later and headed straight for the baths. When Kanda got there, he took off his torn uniform and boots, set Mugen down and tied a towel over his waist. Unraveling the red tassel off his hair, he stepped into the pool of steamy water. Hot water felt relaxing for him, especially after coming back from a stressful mission. But what was best of all was that there was no one else in the baths with him. It was just him, and him alone.
"Hey, did you hear the recent news?"
Kanda furrowed his eyebrows. He was alone for five seconds, at least.
Two men entered the baths and plunged into the water on the other side, causing some waves of searing water and scorching steam to head his way, splashing his head and hair unexpectedly. Kanda was about ready to bloody murder these two buffoons.
"Yeah, I heard," the other replied. "The third-exorcists, right?"
"Well, there's that too, but I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about Allen Walker, the cursed exorcist."
Kanda really wanted to skewer these babbling idiots with Mugen, but stayed quiet.
"Oh, come on, that kid again?"
Kanda's sentiments exactly.
"But this time, I think Central really wants to do away with this brat."
"What? Why?"
"They sent him on a really long mission somewhere in the East. I hear that he's on a permanent mission in Siberia or something like that."
"Ha. It clearly shows that those old men don't really like that kid. They probably want him dead."
"Yeah, especially since he's a traitor and all—"
"Shut up, you imbeciles. You're ruining my bath."
The two ceased conversation at the sudden interruption to look at Kanda—who was all the way over at the other side of the bath, glaring at them with murderous intent.
"Babbling on and on like housewives," the Japanese exorcist continued with spite. "How despicable. Your stupid gossiping is fouling up my air."
Both men frowned at the grumpy teen and drudged out of the baths muttering amongst themselves, saying, "Oh, it's Kanda." "Let's get out of here."
When they left, Kanda leaned against the pool wall and set his arms on the marble top. While unwinding himself, he spotted in the corner of his eye, a long mutilated scar and many punctures at the edge of the wall and the marble. He started to smirk to himself, thinking about how infuriated Komui was at damage that was done to the baths and the cost that was going to take to fix it. And since the damage was still here, Komui had probably forgotten all about it by now.
But Kanda never forgot. The day he and the Beansprout came to the baths coincidentally at the same time and started brawling over something trivial would always be engraved in his mind.
Regrettably, any scene with that white-haired boy would always circulate through his mind and probably will never cease as long as Kanda was alive.
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"Allen Walker, yes?"
Allen greeted the exquisitely big-boned woman in reply.
She smiled at the boy and offered her hand in greeting. "My name is Renee Epstein, Head of the North American Branch. Nice to meet you Allen Walker." The boy took her hand and gave her the warmest smile possible.
As the two started walking along the Branch hallways, Renee showed Allen her office, the cafeteria, and many other essential rooms that Allen needed to know about. Along the way, Link started to take notes in his black book.
"And this," she gestured to a door, "is your room."
A bit nervous, Allen walked up to the door and turned the knob. He entered the room, and he couldn't believe what was in it. His room was extravagantly decorated with velvet curtains and bed canopy. A large fireplace set with utensils—tongs and pokers and the like, all fully embellished with a luster of gold. But what stood out the most was the window. It was colossal, it's arch-like pane decorated with many shattered shiny colored glass pieces. It was so shiny that he could see his own reflection all the way from the door way. And the ominous figure behind him also.
He turned towards the Branch Head and was speechless. "Wha—"
"Is it to your liking?" she said. "You were transferred so suddenly that I thought you might get homesick so we designed this whole room—especially the window, Victorian style, just like the one in the Black Headquarters."
Allen really didn't know what to say. He was grateful for this, but…
"It's… nice," he said.
Renee smiled. "Consider it a welcome 'home' gift." A man whispered to her and she nodded in silence. "Allen," she said turned towards the boy, "It's seems that I have a meeting to go to. My men will check up on you later on to make sure you're comfortable. Have a nice stay here."
When she closed the door, the boy sat down on the mattress, but before he knew it, sank into a deep abyss almost knee deep. Timcanpy also sank into the mattress and frantically tried to fly out. Link looked on with disapproval.
"Walker, I'm sleeping on the floor like usual."
"What? But there's another bed just like this one," Allen stated.
"I prefer the floor," he replied.
Allen looked around the room once more, the lavish surroundings burning his blue eyes. To Allen, this room, sort of reminded him of his Master's tastes. Unfortunately.
"… Um, Link?"
"What is it?"
"… Can I sleep on the floor too?"
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He started pacing around slowly at first, but after less than thirty seconds he paced around the lounge faster and faster, his eyes strained and his head in a whirl. Lenalee sighed at his antic.
"Let's just call him, Lavi."
Lavi cocked his head at the girl, his mouth distorted in anger? Nervousness? Which was it?
"I-Is that okay?" he asked.
"Eh?"
"It's okay to call, right? The higher ups won't bite our heads off, right?"
"I guess. My brother said it was okay," assured Lenalee.
The Bookman Junior wrapped his head with his hands in stress. "Ah! What do we do! To call or not to call!" Then his green eye spotted a dark figure passing by the lounge and he started to grin and wave. "Yu! Over here!" he called out to the Japanese exorcist. "Let's call Allen together! The more the merrier!"
"I refuse," was the straight answer and Kanda walked away.
"But Yu…" He then froze as he heard a static noise emitting from behind him. He turned around and started to scream. "Lenalee! What did you do?!"
She held her golem in her hands and smiled. "Why I called of course."
"Ah! But you did it without me!—"
"Hello? Who is this?" a voice said.
Lenalee motioned Lavi to stay silent with her finger and the both of them inched closer to the golem.
"A-Allen, is that you?" Lavi asked.
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A phone rang throughout the room amongst countless numbers of other phone—all of them uncannily alike. There was no reply as the phone consistently rang and rang for moments upon time until the door swung open and a large figure jumped into the room.
"Yes, yes. I am coming!"
The hand picked up the phone and started to greet the caller. "Yes? This is the Earl of Millennium speaking."
A bit of silence and some muffling occurred. The Earl nodded his head.
"Oh? Yes, yes. I see. Thank you for the information. Yes, I will wire the money to you right away. Yes, yes. Try to find out more now, dear. Yes, goodbye."
The Earl set the phone down and he started to sigh. A pink umbrella quickly flew to his side.
"Master Earl, you really run fast, rero," Lero said while panting. "Eh? What is wrong, rero?
The Earl grinned. "Oh, nothing much my sweet Lero."
"Really, Master Earl?"
"Yes. It's just a black and white sheep straying from its established pasture. Nothing more, nothing less."
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So…you guys. What did you think of this chapter? Think I rushed a bit?
By the way, Allen might seem comfortable in North America now, but is he really?