A special chapter that takes place during the time before Allen and Kanda eat lunch in the earlier chapters.

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∞ Chapter 6 - Special Chapter ∞

(Unforgettable) Memorabilia

"You stupid old man, this better be worth my time."

The middle-aged general smiled his ever warming smile and turned the handle to his door. "Why of course it is, Yu my boy. A father and son time is never a wasteful moment."

Kanda crossed his arms and clicked his tongue. "I'm not your son." Tiedoll merely chuckled and entered his room.

"Oh dear," he said while looking around. "Where is that lamp? It's too dark to see." The Japanese exorcist restrained himself from punching the man. He couldn't believe this person's obliviousness. It almost boiled him as much as associating with that other brat did.

"You damn geezer! Clean your damn room for once!" he yelled. Almost like a chain reaction, a tall tower of papers toppled on his head. Shaking it off of him, he kicked some items around, trying to create a path for him to walk on.

The floor was barely visible—covered in papers, pencils, acrylic paints, pencil shavings, photographs (of the damn "family"), mannequins, and whatever the hell existed in the General's room. His head throbbed at the sight. It was a catastrophe that could even rival Komui's pig sty of an office.

"Hm… I know I put it here somewhere," Tiedoll wondered to himself. After a bit of shuffling and rearranging, the room lit up as he turned a switch.

Kanda raised an eyebrow. "Well? What do you want?"

The old man coughed. "Yes, you are right. I must clean my room. It is getting harder day by day to find the drawing utensils I need."

"Tch, obviously."

"Yes, which is why I wanted to organize my things, but I ended up finding items that I almost forgotten I had." He lifted out a life-sized mannequin from a pile of papers. "Like this Art de Kanda for instance," he said with a proud grin. Kanda found himself staring at himself, a perfect replica of him wearing a crisp white button up and black slacks. Except it wasn't as perfect as claimed. Art de Kanda was smiling back at him, forming a peace sign with his hand. His hands warily reached for the hilt of Mugen.

"Put that away," he growled dangerously, "or I will slice that... thing to bits."

"Oh, but it'd be a shame if you did," Tiedoll said. "I worked so hard on the tiny details with my Innocence."

The black-haired teen felt a headache forming under his skull. "Look, if you're just going to waste my time here, I'm going to eat."

"No wait," the General said. "What I really brought you for, was this." He gently took a framed item off his bed sheets and handed it to Kanda. The Exorcist eyed it with suspicion.

"Let me guess," he said with chagrin. "Another family portrait," he choked out. Ever since Chaoji joined their group, Tiedoll had been more eager to take family photos and paint portraits of them, in order to "create happy family memories", he called it.

The man just laughed. "Oh no, it's not, but if you want one—"

"No thanks," Kanda blurted out. He eyed the frame and the image that it held inside.

It was a realism painting. Even he had to be impressed, for the color and texture of the background seemed to suck him in, almost like he was actually standing there. But what stood out even more than the realistic setting, were the people posing for it.

Or, more like squabbling. Seemed like the two brats in the painting didn't even notice Tiedoll was sketching them.

Kanda's eyes widened as realization struck. Tiedoll in contrast, was gazing at the painting with warm brown eyes.

"Do you recognize that little boy, Yu? The one with black hair with shoulder length throwing dirt at the other? You were so adorable back then."

His grip tightened on the frame.

"We were traveling together when you were twelve, all over the world," the man continued. "And we met many people haven't we? Like that boy with the checkered jacket." He chuckled as he sucked in the display of the checkered-jacket boy wrestling with a younger Kanda in the mud. "Right after you two met, both of you kept fighting and wouldn't stop, until a policeman had to come and stop you from disturbing the other people."

"Hmph."

The General looked up. "Yu my boy? Where are you going?" he said to the boy walking out the door.

"To eat," the Exorcist said without looking back. "And don't expect me to keep this trash, understand?" he said while waving the painting in the air.

Tiedoll smiled, deep grooves forming around his mouth. "Understood." His eyes then lit as his brain configured a wonderful idea.

"Why don't we eat together," he happily mentioned.

Kanda tucked the nostalgic painting under his arm. "Go play 'family' somewhere else, you damn geezer!"

--

Link narrowed his red eyes. "Walker. I am a neat and orderly fashioned person. I do not tolerate any mess and not even—"

"-the tiniest speck of dust," Allen said while rolling his blue eyes. "I know," he said, almost as if in routine. He was unpacking his suitcase and already, the Inspector had something to criticize the boy about. Just because he packed along some food, didn't mean he was going to make a mess. Probably.

"Those snacks," Link said, eyeing the food stuffed in the young Exorcist's mammoth suitcase. "It is not healthy for an Exorcist's body. It will slow you down and make one obese."

"So I've heard, Link," Allen replied. "But don't worry; I don't gain a single pound."

"That is not what I was implying—"

Timcanpy flew up from inside the suitcase, pulling along a clothing article carefully with his teeth. Allen's eyes glazed over as he recognized that familiar bright checkered pattern. The Inspector stopped working on his paperwork to stare at the curious spectacle.

"… Walker… isn't that jacket too small for you?"

The white haired boy chuckled. He grabbed the jacket by its sleeves and held it up in the air, the sunlight from the arch window reflecting on the quilted squares. "It sure is," he said with a bright smile on his face. "Mana actually made it for me. I wore it when I was about nine or ten years old." He thought as he paused. "It's a special memorabilia."

"And you plan on wearing it now?" the other asked.

Allen froze at the thought. "I don't think it will fit me anymore… It shouldn't." He stared it. And he looked away. "No, it won't fit."

Link realized that Allen Walker still retained a bit of his childish spirit in him. He sat in his chair, wondering about this strange boy, his oval shaped glasses slipping to the tip of his nose.

This boy was difficult to comprehend: a complex cross-word puzzle that was unsolvable, no matter how many words you run through your mind.

Allen's smile never ceased to grow bigger as he continued to look at his old jacket. But as he looked at it even more, he noticed something, and that something made his smile falter.

"I forgot about that."

Was that statement directed at Link? He stayed quiet as the young Exorcist laid the jacket down on the floor and frowned. Allen sighed and dug out a bar of soap from his suitcase.

"That bloody mud stain is still there," he said in frustration. "I better start scrubbing."