Morning had finally arrived at the Xu mansion. Many of the groundskeepers had died to protect their master; only one groundskeeper was left with the knowledge of projecting the barrier once again. A task that would have took a whole week if it weren't for the help of Allen.
Ever since the events of last night, he had regained some more new memories and proceeded to tell Xuilan about it. This didn't mean that he had recovered all of his memories though.
After a short talk about what Allen plans to do, Xuilan knew that Allen planned to use the light that was still located at her garden to reach Edo.
Before that however, Allen and the remaining groundskeeper had to rebuild the barrier and certain parts of the house. So using magic, the remaining groundskeeper and Allen managed to repair about a third of the mansion. The rest, Xuilan insisted, would be repaired by repairmen later on.
It was already about lunch time when Xuilan and Allen decided to have their last conversation before he headed towards the ark.
"Are you going to be OK without me?" Allen asked his voice filled with concern. "As I understand it, I'm your only bodyguard. And many groundskeeper has...died"
Xuilan shook her head. "I'll be alright. Though it would be odd to not have you around me all the time, I'll be fine. As for the groundskeepers, we'll have to look for someone with comparable skills to those that had passed away. We'll also be sending messages to the family of the groundskeepers that had passed away."
Silence once again permeated the air.
"So your planning to go to Edo using that... device?" Xuilan said as she motioned towards the ark.
"Yes..."
Xuilan remained quiet for a while. She had really gotten attached to Allen. This was after all, the first time she had such a relationship with a person before.
Allen, sensing her distraught, approached her and pulled her into a hug.
Xuilan was taken surprised at first, but immediately returned the hug.
They stood there in comfortable silence. Until...
"WALKER!"
Allen tensed and started sweating bullets. Turning his head slowly towards the source of the voice, his body immediately froze and ceased to function. The only thought in his mind, was that he was in deep trouble.
Xuilan, however was taking none of it and placed herself in between her father and Allen.
"Father! STOP!" She screamed at her very irate father.
"MOVE OUT OF THE WAY XUILAN! I TOLD HIM IF HE PUSHED IT, HE WOULD SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!" Fong yelled as he brought out various torture devices from his regal robes. Most of which made Allen wonder how it had fitted within those robes, let alone why he brought those things along.
Xuilan remained firm, and calmly explained the situation, "Allen is going to leave soon... he's just trying to comfort me... I'm going to really miss him..."
This brought Fong up short and immediately stopped his bad mood earlier. When he heard news of the attack on the mansion, he was a nervous wreck as he made a rush towards the mansion. Seeing that after a traumatic event, Xuilan's adoptive brother leaving was something he never thought would affect Xuilan severely.
"I'm sorry, Xuilan..." Fong then began to think of ways so they can hopefully maintain some sort of connection before he left. Suddenly getting an idea, he called out to one of the servants and whispered something to the servant's ear.
Fong then addressed Allen, "Before you leave, son, I want you to have something from me. So can you please wait until then?"
Despite the fact that Allen really wanted to head over to Edo already, he felt that he couldn't deny this request. "Of course sir."
Fong took a deep breath after which he corrected Allen, "Not sir son, call me father. I may not know who your true father is, but Xuilan has considered you a brother. So at the very least I will also consider you as my own son – not a son-in-law mind you – but as a sibling of Xuilan."
Allen's eyes moistened and he could only nod and respond with a shaky smile. He never thought he would be able to call someone with the title of father when Mana died. So he was genuinely happy with the changes within his life that had happened ever since his traumatic experience which lead to him losing a huge amount of memories.
"Very well, I shall work on your farewell gift to have it finished as soon as possible." Fong then made a turn towards the mansion.
"Father..." Xuilan was also touched by his father's acceptance of Allen.
Xuilan and Allen stood there in comfortable silence. After a while they sat down into one of the debris and watched the scenery around them being rebuilt through the of the groundskeeper. They merely sat at the destroyed garden basking at the morning wind. They didn't know how much time had past, but the next thing that they realized was that they fell asleep at each others shoulder and it was already noon.
Stretching for a bit, she noticed that Allen had also woke up.
"I guess I should have one more bath before I head on over to Edo." Allen said as he too stretched his stiff limbs from the impromptu napping.
Xuilan suddenly remembered something that she had been preparing since she started looking for clues regarding Allen's past.
"Wait there Allen." Xuilan said stopping him at his tracks towards the mansion's bathroom. "I'm going to give you something..."
Allen didn't know what Xuilan was planning but decided to wait for her.
A few seconds later, Xuilan arrived with her hands behind her back.
"Your previous exorcist gear was heavily damaged by whatever fight you went through before I found you. So..." Xuilan then revealed what she had at her hand, "I made you a custom style exorcist clothing!"
Smiling at Xuilan's thoughtfulness, Allen happily accepted the clothing and headed to take a bath so he can put it on.
A few minutes later, Allen came out with his new exorcist clothing. Allen wore a Martial-arts master black t-shirt. The main difference was that the left side had an extremely long sleeve that Allen supposed would cover his whole Innocence, while the right side was a short sleeve. It had an elegant yet simple design, the exorcist badge was pinned as the belt of his pants. The pants in question was a simple white hakama, belted on with a black sash. All in all, it was very form fitting and extremely flexible.
"This... is really great nee-san! Thank you!" Allen said enthusiastically.
"I'm glad you liked it Allen. I made it extra strong with the help of Reed so it would protect you also. The clothing was also one of the last things that Reed enchanted with protective layers. So use it well." Xuilan then began walking towards the dining room – one of the few places that was immediately repaired through magic. "Let's head on over to the dining room, it's lunch after all."
After having a hefty lunch (in Allen's case, rather average) since they forgot to eat breakfast, Allen began to gather his things – which was rather small – to prepare for his journey towards Edo. Xuilan stood by his side the whole time. She was staying with him since he was going to be away for a very long time.
As soon, as it was afternoon, Allen was in front of the Ark saying his last farewells.
"Well... this is it." Allen said solemnly as he placed his ransack at his back.
"Allen..." Xuilan knew he had to go, but she was still conflicted.
Allen and Xuilan stood there staring at each other's eyes.
In an instant they were hugging each other tightly, for the last time for a long time. The physical reassurance was needed now as they were going to be separated for the first time since they met. Allen knew that they would meet again, but Xuilan was worried for his well-being. An exorcists life is full of peril and she knew she was powerless to help him.
As they stood there hugging, a third figure joined there hugging.
Looking up, it was Fong Xu – Xuilan's father and Allen's, now, adoptive father.
The maids and the lone groundskeeper kept silent at the tear-jerking scene before them. Not making a move or a sound, just watching patiently with a heavy heart.
Once the touching moment ended, Fong handed Allen and Xuilan what looked like an emerald colored ear clasp.
"This accessory, acts as a radio transmitter towards a similar pair that I have given to Xuilan." Fong explained. "This can reach you even if you're all the way at Europe."
Allen and Xuilan quickly placed their respective ear clasps to their ear.
"Testing... can you hear me Allen?" Xuilan whispered, making sure the sound only reached the ear ring.
Allen made a visible nod, "Loud and clear Xuilan."
Allen then faced Fong Xu, "Thank you father."
Fong smiled in return, "Good luck on your journey. Make sure to introduce us to this Lenalee ok?"
Allen blushed and nodded.
Walking towards the light, he looked one last time toward the gathered people wishing him a farewell.
"Goodbye everyone!"
With that, Allen stepped into the Ark.
Once Allen opened his eyes once again, he found himself in a very quiet and clean villa like location.
'Is this the ark?' Allen thought. He then looked back and found himself facing a door with the number 13 marked onto it. 'Is this the door I came from?'
While Allen was thinking over where he could possibly be, he heard a sound come from his ear clasps.
"Allen!" The voice was of Xuilan's, "Can you hear me?"
Quickly responding, "Yeah I hear you!"
"Thank goodness..." In the other side Allen could loudly hear Xuilan's sigh of relief. "So, are you at Edo yet?"
Allen took a quick glance at his current location, he was sure that he left the mansion at the afternoon, yet this place looked as if it was still morning. Oddly enough he's been having a feeling of nostalgia since he arrived.
"Hey... nee-san, what time is it?" Allen asked.
"Time? It's 6:25PM." Xuilan responded sounding confused with his question, "What's wrong?"
"Well I can honestly say I'm not in Edo unless China is at the opposite side of the globe from Japan..." Allen said.
"What do you mean?" Xuilan asked.
"It's currently morning here..." Allen then started walking. As he kept walking, he suddenly had an idea as to where he was. "...the reason that it's still morning here is because I'm still in the Ark."
"You're still in the ark?"
"I don't know why, but I'm having some feeling of familiarity regarding this place."
"Maybe you've entered it once before you lost your memories." Xuilan mentioned, "You haven't regained it all right?"
"Yeah. Maybe you're right." Allen said sounding unsure. For some reason he felt uneasy with this sense of familiarity. It was way too defined. "There are many doors here, but I'm pretty sure I'll find the one that would lead me to Edo."
Author's Notes:
That's the end of Chapter 4. A pretty short chapter, with little going on. The next chapter would probably take a while to write as my high school life is coming to a close and my college life quickly coming out into the open.
The lack of reviews are really taking a toll in my motivation and the speed of my updates. So I'm sorry if the next update would be much later.
Anyway, reviews are always welcome!