Chapter 15

How It All Begun…

"Get out!" a woman screamed shrilly, attracting attentions from everywhere on the streets of Lumar. It was 7000 years ago, and Laia, who's name is Leiya that time, is only 16 years old…

"Mommy…" Leiya said sadly, calling her mother sweetly and sadly. "Mommy, please…"

"Don't you call me that, you evil witch!" the woman said shrilly. Everyone stood far away from the girl, and refuses to look at her in the eye. Leiya cried sadly.

"Mommy, please… don't kick me out… I'm your daughter…" Leiya said, and watches as her mother slammed the door in her face.

"I don't have a daughter! She is dead!" the woman exclaims, and soon, there are no sounds from the house door anymore.

Neah stood near the girl, watching the scene unfolding in front of him. His hands are folded in front of him, and he watches with a sad expression on his face. His long white outfit stood out so much in the crowd that no one gets close to him. With that, he walks towards the little girl.

"Hello there," Neah said to her gently. She looks up at him with tears in his eyes. He is a handsome man, young and beautiful and fair. His eyes are clear and wide with curiosity and sadness for the girl, and it felt as if he is a kind person.

Leiya is a very beautiful girl, with large green eyes looking at him innocently. "Would you like to come away with me and stay with me at my home? I have many rooms, and I knew you could make a few delicious desserts. Could you make some for me?"

The little girl sobbed. She stood up and gave him a low bow.

"I would be glad to. Sire, please, let me stay at your home. I have nowhere else to go now. Please, I can do anything…" Leiya said, sobbing slightly from time to time. Neah pulls her gently into his embrace and hugged her tightly.

"Don't be, my dear. Call me Nii-sama. I will take care of you like my own sister from now on…" Neah said, and gently stirs her from the crowd and into his home.

For those long months, Leiya lives with him happily. He showers her with gifts, and loves and adores her like a big brother does. Jyodo, his other brother, fell in love with her, but did not dare to say it out loud. He fears that she would leave him if he does confess to her, and he did not want that to happen.

Then come the Earl. In the dead of night, he carried Leiya to his experiment lab and gave her all sorts of test. She became powerful, with telekinesis powers from birth, and it became even more powerful, sometimes she would have dreams and bouts of the future, and yet not remembering it upon waking up. She saw the earth collapses in watery graves, and only the Noahs survive. Then she saw Kanda Yuu, gently making love with her, confessing to her that he has waited for her arrival for forever. She saw the war coming, and she herself is the Heart Apostle.

Then she woke up, like she has been doing all these years.

"Leiya!" the 14th came rushing at her, his face an expression of bewilderment and he quickly sweeps her into his arms. She squeaked at the close contact and the gravity of the condition.

"Nii-sama!" she exclaims, holding onto his neck. Jyodo came soon afterwards, and they went into a small cave with a large tree in it.

"Go!" the 14th threw her into the tree, and she screams in fear at being hurled into the air so suddenly. Then as she lands inside the tree magically, the tree wounds its wood and twigs around her, and she is comfortably secured inside the tree itself.

"Nii-sama!" she screams, struggling to free herself from the clutches of the tree.

"Stay there and you shall be safe. The Gods are punishing humanity, and only the Noahs are supposed to survive. You shall be safe here, my dear sister. The apostles from the Black Order shall save you, for I will create it just for you… you shall be safe there, safe from all harms…" the 14th said, leaving her in the tree and watches from afar as she is succumbed to her eternal sleep.

That was 7000 years ago…

When she woke up for the first time after 7000 years, her hair has grown to a ridiculous length, and it surrounds her in long silky locks. Her clothes are rotten, and she is tired and hungry from being in slumber for so long.

Then she notices… there is a man. A beautiful man staring down at her from above. She gasped, and the spell is broken.

She is free, and for once, she breaths in deeply the fresh air from the outside. The man introduces himself as Kanda Yuu, the apostle from the Black Order.

"Black Order…?" she repeated the word, staring at the Black Rose Cross on the apostle's jacket. He is a beautiful man, and when she palms the Black Rose Cross on his jacket, she closes her eyes in deep meditation.

"Bring me there… please…bring me Home…" she pleaded with him, and he scoops her up into his arms with a small 'che' and strides out of the place, the new innocence glowing on her wrists and a new apostle in his arms.

Then, when everything is settles and Laia's powers are known in the Black Order, she went into his room and grabs his hourglass.

"Hey!" Kanda exclaims angrily. "Leave it alone!"

Suddenly, she seems to shine with the hourglass. It glows and glows, and he watches with his own eyes the flower petals started to resumes together to form a whole flower again. Then her powers cease to glow.

"Here you go!" Laia said to him happily, giving him back the hourglass. He grabs it and stares with disbelief at the sight of the beautiful flower floating in the hourglass.

"How did you do it?" he asks her, his eyes wide with surprise and shock. Never before he had dreamed that the flower would once again be whole and glowing, and he felt so energized that he, for a moment, thought of a monstrous word to say to her.

"I used my powers. I'm stronger now, so I can help you, Yuu-Kun…"

Kanda stares at her and stumbles back. When Laia went up ahead to help him, he brushes her off roughly and said the word…

"You monster…" he said.

Immediately, he regretted using the word. Laia's eyes brimmed with shock and tears, and with that, she ran out of his room.

That is the last time Laia spoke to him…

From then on, Laia becomes a person colder than ice. She doesn't smile, she doesn't look at you, and she just stares ahead of you. If you happen to be standing in front of her, then she would stare at you until you move away. The most fearsome thing is when her pupils dilate. When they are dilated, it means that her mind powers are activated. You could bleed internally just by one glance of her eyes, and you could possibly die.

No one stood by her side but Lenalee and Allen. The rest was cautious of her, including Kanda himself. He regretted saying the word, but it was out and he is casted out of her mind because of it. He wanted to apologize, but she never looks at him or stays long in a room with him inside it. She avoids him because she is disappointed in his reaction.

True, he should have thanked her for saving his dwindling life. But who can blame him when someone just magically recreates the flower that serves as his timebomb? Who can blame him when she just powered up so drastically and becomes more powerful than any General alive? Who can blame him when she becomes monstrously powerful? Who can?

How it all begun that he started to love her so much he did not know. But he knew that she is the source of his life now, seeing as she herself has imbued some of her powers inside the lotus, and he could live longer because of her. He had the strangest idea that when she imbues her powers inside his lotus, she also grants him eternal life, a life akin to an immortal. But what about her?

Her innocence is great. Two of it as well. And they are parasitic, the most powerful Innocence ever to grace the earth with its presence and its powers. She alone wields it with her will and her strength to live and die for the Black Order and all the innocent humans outside the world who never even knew the existence of an Akuma and the Earl of Millennium. They never knew, and possibly never would have known about it as well. So, for now, he would obey her and kept his distance with her, watching and guarding her from afar and atone for his mistakes that he had done to her accidentally.

Knowing she is mostly hungry due to her Innocences, he would always drop something like food and fruits by the places that she would have gone by. Like what he had predicted, she would gobble them up without another thought, and would search for more if there are. He smiles whenever he saw her gobble the food up like a thoroughly starved person, and he knew, she is suffering because of her Innocence.

But there is nothing he could do about it. The Innocence fights for mankind, and it stays in the host for a reason. Maybe she is one with the Innocence, and maybe the Innocence needs her, or likes her enough to stay with her. Two of it as well…

He couldn't help her. The most he could do is give her food, and stuff something edible for her wherever she goes. That reminds him of the happy times, when he would stuff his bags full of food and fruits just so that she wouldn't go to Daisya's place and have fun. He didn't like it when she is close with Daisya. He could still feel the feelings when she rummages through his bag for food items those days. He would smirk, and he would hold himself in check just so that he would scare her away and turns around and swing his Mugen at her.

Many a times, he thought that she would die for him. He knew without a doubt that she would willingly die for him, and at the same time, he knew the Innocences that she wields does not wish for her death so soon. They would save her regardless of her injuries, and since seeing her blood intertwined with the Innocence so closely had his assumptions correct. She is one with the Innocence, and nothing can separate them now. Not even Hevlaska.

Not even Hevlaska.

Hevlaska, after she is healed, she checked Laia's Innocence. She had told her that the Innocence is so in one with her that she could do nothing to her if the war has end. Once the war ends, the Innocence's powers would be gone. The Heart would use the Innocence's powers to make all Innocence becomes one whole cube again and use it against the Earl, destroying him forever and ever and ever.

Then, the Innocence would disappear with the Earl.

So does the Heart.

His heart wrenches at the thought of never seeing her again. She knew about it, and yet one time after another, she injures herself gravely in the war, and heals so miraculously fast that he knew, the Innocences she wields is at work. He believes her when she said that she could speak with the Innocence, and that the Innocences took care of her well. He knew all about it. He could do anything.

He couldn't do anything.

Nothing.

He could only watch by the sides as she fights, and helps her when he could. He is powerless against her. She is so much more powerful than he is, and nobody, as in nobody, could help her.

Or save her.

He couldn't even salvage her soul. Her soul has been sold to the Innocences, and she couldn't live again even though she wants to. She would disappear with the Earl, as fated by Fate.

She would die. For everyone, for the Black Order, and for him, the one person she ever loves so much as to give her virginity to him.