Wow. The lab looks busy." Sarra noted as the group walked into the lab, coming from breakfast. The potion had worn off during their sleep and now that all remained was the memory of the mishap.
Komui looked over from a jumble of papers, two phones on his desk ringing simultaneously. "Ah! There you guys are! Were just receiving word from a couple of the search groups that have found their generals, also, the Akuma are starting to act up again." Komui added solemnly.
"Does that mean?" Seraphina gasped, "Kanda's group?"
"Yes, he's found General Tiedoll. Cloud nine and winters Zokalo." Komui finished. Seraphina smiled, suddenly. "So are they on their way back? When will they be here?"
Komui shook his head. "I'm sorry, but Froi Tiedoll is currently on a mission right now, and his squad has decided to support him. They could still be gone for a while." Seraphina frowned, angered by the news.
"Where's Lavi and Krowley?" Mizuki asked. "I was going to bug them, but they weren't in the cafeteria."
"I sent them after Allen and Lenalee, along with bookman. I thought they might need help with their search for Cross, he'll be a hard one to track down." Komui shook his head in disapproval. "Like we can afford handing out our exorcists like that!"
"Then what are we doing here for?" Alexandreina pressed. "We are still here, along with Miranda! Why aren't we out killing Akuma?"
"Actually, Miranda's getting ready to depart. She's going to join up with the others ones she's ready." Komui corrected her.
"Great! So it's just us then! What are we, the Alternate squad of exorcists? They always get the good missions! I want a good mission!" Alexandreina continued her rant.
Komui sighed. "Yes, well the reason I've held you all back is because I have a special mission that will take all of you, at the very least. It will be extremely dangerous, just to you're liking."
Alexandreina squealed with joy while Seraphina held back tears. "Tell us! What are we going to do?"
Komui took out a large folder from his desk and flipped through it, stopping at a random page. "As you might already know, Japan is now not a place for humans. It is a place solely made of Akuma. This is where we believe the Earl to be nesting. I believe this is where Tiedoll is heading, and from the course Allen and the others are taking, it looks like Cross is there to. I want you guys to meet up with Tiedoll and his team and assist them in any way possible."
Seraphina's eyes lit up at the possibilities of the new mission. Even if she had to go, she'd be seeing Kanda again, and it would take her mind off of her family. Obviously Alexandreina cheered. She had just been offered a brand new-semi dangerous mission, and she wasn't going to let that go. Vasilisa sighed, knowing she would be dragged along.
"What about me?" Eas piped up. "I don't even know how to use my innocence yet!"
Komui nodded. "You won't have to depart for a day or two, so until then you are free to train with the others in the arena." Eas nodded.
"This will be a big one." Mizuki prophesized as they headed out the door.
"You have to really give it your all!" Mizuki ordered. They where in the Arena, warmed up and ready to practice. Eas was attempting to activate her innocence, but continued to fail at it.
"I think its Teddy's fault! He's not trying hard enough!" Eas set the blame on the stuffed animal she was strangling with her arm.
"It wasn't this hard to get mine to activate! What's your synchro rate?"
Eas thought hard, back to when she had been introduced to Hevalaska. "Umm, 81% I think."
"So there's nothing wrong with your synchronization rate…" Mizuki thought. "You haven't activated your innocence, though, have you?" Eas shook her hear. "There! There's you're problem! You just need to synchronize with you're innocence once, and then it will be easy from then on. But how to do that?"
A whip suddenly appeared around Eas's neck, strangling her. "Wha?" She gasped, grabbing at the ropes. "That's easy." Seraphina smiled. "Just put her in a life threatening situation, and she should make it out alive. Why don't we just wait until something comes up on the way to Tiedoll, instead of wasting out time here."
Mizuki frowned. "We won't have time to teach her how to wield it, and besides, if you wanted to wait, why did you attack her with your whip?"
"Hmm, I was just wondering what she would do." Seraphina answered simply. They looked over to where Eas should have been standing; instead, her body was sprawled against the ground, twitching. A large pool of drool was collecting near her mouth.
"You might want to let her go now." Mizuki pointed out. "She might die."
"That may be just what she needs!" Seraphina grinned evilly.
"Yo, I'm pretty sure you can't activate you're innocence when you're passed out." Mizuki reminded her.
"Fine. Ruin all my fun!" Seraphina pouted, retracting her whip. "It is the right way to go though, exorcists usually learn better while under pressure."
They sipped at some juice as they waited for Eas to wake up. Teddy had long since abandoned them and was currently stalking Cloud Nine. When Eas opened her eyes, lying in the same place she had fainted in, she was pissed.
"Who the hell owns the whip?" She screamed. Seraphina held up her hand, unconcerned.
"I'm going to destroy you! You could have killed me!"
"But I didn't so it's ok, right?"
Eas looked around the room, angered. "Where's Teddy? I need something hard to throw!"
"Yeah, he went off to pry into General Cloud Nines room. I'd go fetch him if I were you. Her monkey isn't very fond of peeping toms." Seraphina smiled, ruthful. Eas scowled and ran after Teddy.
"She's going to hate you after this." Mizuki chuckled.
"Yup." Seraphina smiled, pulling on her whip.
Minutes later, Eas came back running, Teddy in hand. Her face was all red, and Teddy looked badly beaten. "Damnit, Teddy! That was horrible! She looked so scary as well, and that giant thing, it wasn't a monkey! I really hope that hurts!" She rubbed her head and exhaled. "Ok, let's start again. I'll have to get this right sooner of later."
Mizuki nodded. "Actually, where going to try a new tactic that may bring it out sooner." Both Seraphina and Mizuki stood up, assuming battle positions. Mizuki took out her bow and arrows while Seraphina unwound her whip. "Please don't hate us for this, were just trying to find a way to invoke your innocence." Mizuki pleaded.
"What, what are you guys doing?" Eas asked, on edge.
"We're going to show you what our innocence can do!" Seraphina smiled wickedly. "Innocence activate! Fouet cramoisy, lash out!" Her whip innocence assumed control of itself, growing to an uncharted length. She swung her arm back, then foreword, causing it to strike at Eas. She dodged out of the way, hitting the floor.
"What are you doing?" She screamed.
"Where doing whatever it takes to activate your innocence!" Mizuki answered, stringing a bow to her arrow and pointing it to Eas's direction.
"By killing me?" She asked, hysterical.
"If that's what it takes." Seraphina answered with a smile. She swung her arm back again, the Whip answering with a loud snapping sound as it lunged at Eas again. She scrambled to her feet, running from the whip. "Running wont help you!" Seraphina yelled at her. "Stand and fight!"
"I can't!" Eas cried out, ducking around a pillar as the whip struck at her again.
"Yes you can!" Mizuki sent an arrow flying, which plunged straight through the pillar Eas was hiding behind. It fell to pieces, leaving Eas unguarded. Mizuki strung another arrow and Seraphina recalled her whip for another attack.
"If you won't fight, we're going to kill you!" Seraphina yelled.
Eas shook her head. "Please! I don't think this is helping! I can't activate!" An arrow pierced her right cuff. "Please!" Eas screamed.
Mizuki strung her bow once more. "You'd better activate, or say goodbye to this world."
She let go of her arrow, aimed straight for Eas. Seraphina lashed her whip at the same time.
"Innocence, activate!" Eas screamed through her tears. She scrunched up her eyes, ready for the blow. She waited, cringing in fear, until finally she opened one of her eyes. Instead of impending doom, an army of toy soldiers blocked her view. A hole was seared through three of them just above where her heart would be. "Eh?"
"Alright!" Mizuki cheered. Seraphina exhaled in relief. "What kind of an innocence is that? You summoned toy soldiers? Their like 5 inches tall!"
Eas fell to the floor with a heave of relief. "Thank you all! You save me!" The remaining soldiers demounted from their toy shield and walked over to her, lining up in four straight lines. They saluted to her in unison, and then dissolved into the air, leaving Eas confused. Teddy crawled up to her, a face of sheer horror on his face. "They came out. They came right out of me!"
Eas turned to him, her confusion remaining. "What came out of you?"
"Those soldiers! They walked right out of me! It was the creepiest and most unsettling thing I have ever witnessed in my life!"
Eas giggled. "That's probably because you're my innocence. So it looks like I can command toys. That's a little strange, but I'm glad I have it."
"Ok! No time to rest! We must sharpen those techniques!" Mizuki shouted over to her. Eas groaned. "Can't we just take a break?" She asked, pooped.
"No way! We're leaving in two days; we have no time to waste!"
"Well, it looks like you can handle this, Mizuki." Seraphina waved. "I'm going to find the others, and get prepared for the mission." Mizuki nodded as she walked off.
"What's up?" Seraphina asked, walking over to the twins.
"Something's going on." Vasilisa replied.
"Komui said we shouldn't go down stairs." Alexandreina added, her head bowed.
"Why not? What's up?" Seraphina repeated, surprised by their solemn expressions.
"They've returned." Vasilisa sniffed, hiding her face behind a book.
"Who's returned?" Seraphina pressed.
"The ones who perished in the recent Akuma attacks. There's just so many!" Alexandreina finally looked Seraphina in the eye, her own eyes glistening with tears. "If only Komui had let us go, we could have done something, could have saved some of them."
Vasilisa rubbed her eyes from behind the book. "There are even exorcists there."
Alexandreina looked down again. "I'm sorry, you hung out with that squad so much, because of Kanda."
"What? What does that mean?" Seraphina felt agitated. This was not what she wanted to hear. She wanted to hide in a corner, open to none of this death.
"Who." She whispered, her own eyes glistening.
"Daisya." Sarra answered, appearing in the doorway. "Daisya Barry."
Seraphina whipped around to face Sarra, to make sure she wasn't lying. "No." The shimmering pool around her eyes discharged onto her white cheeks. Memories flushed through her head of the group and their adventures. Daisya was the jokester and loved to get in trouble. Still, he made it lively.
"No." Seraphina repeated, her mind rejecting the blatant truth.
"Yeah, one hundred forty deaths in total." Sarra's face was red and her cheeks were damp. "So many deaths in such little time."
"This is it." Vasilisa had set down her book, tears flowing in a constant stream down her face. "This is the Earls prologue."
"We're off!" The six girls waved to Komui as they boarded the gondola.
"Be safe!" Komui sniffed, waving a white handkerchief.
Seraphina sighed. "We're going off to war, how safe can he expect us to be?" She grumbled.
"He really cares for us, though." Sarra reminded her. "He's a good man."
They made their way via train until they reached china, where they checked in with Komui.
Mizuki had made the call. "Yeah, were at china's borders now, it should only take another day or two, where are the others?" She listened intently to the new information. "Suman? He became a what? Yes, I know what that is, but how? He was an exorcist! Oh, I understand, that's horrible! What was that? No way! Is he ok? The Asian branch? Should we stop by on out way there to check on him? Oh, ok. Yeah, I know. Alright. So we'll find another way of transportation I guess. What? You'll supply us with something? Ok, thanks. Yeah, I'll call you again once were ready to depart to Japan." She hung up the phone and turned back to the waiting girls as they lounged on a couch in the main entrance of a hotel they'd found.
"Ok, I've got lots of news, so we'd better get a room." Mizuki led the others to the receptionist. "Can we get to rooms?" She asked in the broken Chinese bookman had taught her on his spare time. The lady gave her two keys and pointed upstairs. The girls herded into one of the rooms, locking the door behind them. They all took positions on the two double beds, ready for Mizuki to elaborate.
"First of all, we need to hurry. The others have already begun their departure to Japan, though, not without casualties."
"What?" The girls gaped in shock.
"Well, apparently one of the exorcists, Suman, he was a friend of Johnny's I think, anyways, somehow how he got turned into a togaochi, one that forces a synchronization with little or no compatibility, I'm not really sure how to explain it, I've never witnessed one before. Anyways, apparently Allen tried to save him from what he was becoming; apparently his innocence was killing him, that's what happens to togaochi's. They use up all their energy destroying things, and then they die. Regardless, Allen was determined to save him, and he almost managed too, but Tyki got to him, and almost killed Allen."
Sarra let out a small squeak and covered her mouth with her hands, her eyes as wide as a deer's.
"Don't worry! He's being taken care of at the Asian branch, though his innocence is really messed up. Komui didn't give me the full details, but the main thing is that Allen's fine. Also, when we get to the sea between China and Japan, Komui's arranging an alternate way of transportation that will get us there quicker. I have no idea what that's going to be, so we'll have to wait until then to find out. Besides that, we're going to rest up here for the night and then finish our trek through china in the morning." She tossed Alexandreina the other key. She fumbled with it as the information sank in. "You, Vasilisa and Seraphina take the other room; us three will have this room. Be ready to depart before the sun rises tomorrow, ok?" The three nodded and slipped into their room. "Tomorrows going to be a long day." Mizuki sighed as she unfolded the covers of one bed. Eas and Sarra nodded.
"Goodnight."