Recap from the last chapter:
I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, so I ended up colliding with someone. I rocked back, almost falling until a hand grabbed my shoulder, steadying me. Peering through my fringe I found myself looking up at a cheerful red-headed boy with a single brilliant green eye.
Chapter 8 start:
"Hey gorgeous." He smiled, winking at me, making me blush.
"Hey." He took his hand off my shoulder and held it out to me.
"I haven't seen you around. I'm Lavi." I shook his hand, still blushing madly.
"My name's Jasmine. I'm new around here." He wasn't in any hurry to let go of my hand. Footsteps echoed through the hallway, making me tense as I tried to determine what direction they were coming from. The footsteps appeared to be coming from behind Lavi and I relaxed slightly, knowing it wasn't Allen or Lenalee.
"Lavi, what are you doing hanging around out here?" I cringed, recognising the voice as that crazy sister-complex Komui guy. "Oh, Jasmine, is that you? I was just coming to find you." I pulled away from Lavi, hiding my blazing cheeks.
"Hey chief. I was just talking a breather while gramps looked something up in the library." Komui glanced at him then moved forward so that he was standing directly in front of me before holding out his arm. Sitting in his hand was a katana similar to the one Kanda had been carrying. "Hey that looks like Yu's sword. What are you doing giving it to Jas?"
"Who's Yu?" I asked Lavi as Komui sighed impatiently.
"Never mind that. Jasmine, this is for you to use until your innocence makes itself accessible. You can't kill Akuma with normal weapons, so this katana has an innocence fragment worked into it." My eyes widened in amazement, reaching out and taking the sword in my hands.
"You can do that? That sounds really complicated, but wow. Man, I can only imagine the look on Miss Henderson's face if I came to school carrying a katana! She'd probably have a heart attack." Lavi laughed, leaning on my shoulder as I stared at the katana. Komui frowned slightly at my dreary sense of humour and then walked off back down to his lab. A shadowy figure materialised behind Lavi and I cursed, annoyed. "Sebastian, don't do that! It scares the crap out of me." I complained, causing Lavi to turn, wondering who I was talking to.
"Hey, you're new too! Just how many new exorcists arrived while I was gone?" Sebastian's eyes flashed angrily, offended at being mistaken for an exorcist. I was about to explain the situation when I felt stabbing pains coming from my right arm and the back of my neck.
"Sebastian…" I grabbed his wrist, a dull purple glow emanating from the sleeve of my right arm. Dropping the katana on the floor I cried out. It almost felt like something was travelling up my arm towards my neck. My knees buckled and Lavi and Sebastian both made to support me. Sebastian narrowed his eyes but the red haired exorcist refused to back down.
"We should take her to the infirmary." Lavi started guiding me down the hall, leaving Sebastian no choice but to follow. Sebastian reached down to pick up my forgotten katana, flinching slightly when the innocence reacted to his demonic presence.
"Sebastian…" I called weakly, reaching out to him. He smirked and gently removed me from Lavi's grip, causing the red haired boy to tense up.
"Where are we going then?" Sebastian questioned, picking me up in his arms. Lavi blinked, snapping back to reality. He ran down the hall, taking a left and a right, ending up outside a large door labelled 'Infirmary'.
"Take her in there." He pointed at the door. Just as he was reaching for the door handle the door swung open from the inside, revealing a timid looking woman with black hair.
"O-oh, Lavi." She stammered, getting out of the way.
"Now's not a good time Miranda." Lavi pointed out as Sebastian breezed past them. Doctors surrounded us as Sebastian set me down on one of the beds.
"What's wrong with her?" One of them asked, earning himself a furious glare from the demon. I sat up against the wall and stared desperately into Sebastian's glowing red eyes. My arm quivered, drawing the attention of the doctors. The one who spoke before tried to roll up my sleeve to get a better look and I pulled it away, holding my arm close to my chest. My dark clothed butler had a worried expression in his eyes, a look I had never before seen on him. Lavi watched on worriedly from the opposite wall.
"Miss, we can't help you if you won't cooperate." Turning my pained violet eyes on them I gave the coldest glare I could manage. They all backed off, leaving me and Sebastian by ourselves. He stood up and pulled the curtains shut around the bed.
"Show me your arm." He commanded. I reluctantly stretched out my arm towards him. He rolled up my sleeve, eyes widening in shock. With every minute that passed the pentagram residing on my right arm grew fainter and fainter.
"Sebastian, what's going on?" he shook his head, having no experience in this sort of thing. He pulled the white glove off his hand with his teeth, dropping it when he saw that the pentagram on his own hand was also fading.
"I've never seen anything like this before." He muttered, more to himself than to inform me. I whimpered as I felt the demonic energy from the contract running up my arm and disappearing somewhere near the base of my neck.
"You have to do something!" I cried, fear taking over. He frowned, deep in thought. Shutting up I stayed quiet, waiting nervously for him to have a brain flash. He looked up, pupils slit to the point of near invisibility.
"Hold your arm still mistress, I have an idea." I complied, biting my tongue to stop myself from whimpering. Holding my wrist with one hand he held his other hand up to his mouth and bit his finger, drawing blood.
"What the hell are you doing?" I demanded; shivering as I saw the substance I hated the most in the world. Ignoring my reaction he held his finger over my arm, letting the blood drip down onto my fading pentagram. "Gross." I murmured, turning away. I heard him sigh in relief, and the strange power drain I had been feeling dropped away into nothingness. Braving a glance at my arm I couldn't find a trace of the demon's blood, meaning that whatever he had tried must have worked. "Thank goodness." Hugging my knees to my chest I breathed deeply, eyelids closing in a sudden wave of exhaustion. Lavi pushed off the wall to hover nervously at the end of my bed.
"Jas, are you okay now?" Wearily opening one eye I glanced up at him.
"Sleepy…" I murmured, closing my eye again. The door swung open, making Lavi jump nearly a foot in the air.
"So this is where you ran off to." Commented a rather short old man, who was wearing black makeup around his eyes.
"Panda! I thought you-" Lavi was interrupted by a flying kick to the head. Sitting up straight I tried to get a better look at the old man. He didn't appear to be particularly strong, but the dent in the wall suggested otherwise. "What did you do that for Gramps?" Lavi whined, rubbing his head. The old man stood over him as he sat on the floor, recovering.
"I found something in the library." Lavi looked up, interested by the sudden development.
"What is it Gramps, what did you find?" he asked, climbing back to his feet.
"We need to go New Zealand." All the colour drained from my face at the old man's announcement. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, suddenly extremely interested in the small hole in the sheets.
"Wasn't Allen just in New Zealand? Don't you think it will be a waste of time to go straight back there?" Carefully I climbed to my feet while Lavi was distracted talking to the old man. Picking up my katana Sebastian followed my lead. "Hang on. Jasmine, did you come over here with Allen?" He asked, turning to my bed only to see I wasn't there anymore. I cringed, scrapping stealth for speed. It would have worked perfectly, if a certain someone hadn't shown up right at that moment.
"Jasmine? What are you doing in the infirmary?" Allen asked, clueless, as he blocked my one and only exit. Looking at the floor I backed up, since it was the only option I had left. He stayed where he was, leaning against the doorframe.
"Allen!" Lavi cried happily, running over to the white haired exorcist and giving him a bone-crushing hug.
"Get off me Lavi!" He complained, squirming uncomfortably. "Bookman, Komui told me you had decided where you were going to head off to next." The old man nodded from across the room. "Are you going to go with them Jasmine?" Lying down on the bed I stared, frustrated, at the ceiling. He just had to say that didn't he.
"Yeah I guess I should. I'm not sure how convincing Erika is when she lies, since I can always see through them. The school's probably starting to get suspicious." I sighed heavily, realising the implications involved in going back to school.
"I contacted the pilot, we'll be leaving tonight." Lavi gaped at Bookman.
"That soon? I'm not ready!" He ran frantically out into the hall and disappeared out of sight. Allen watched him go with an amused expression on his face. Bookman frowned then followed after Lavi, somehow knowing where to go. The teenager stared into space for a minute before blinking his large grey eyes and coming back to reality.
"Are you alright Allen?" I asked, sitting up once more. He looked blankly at me before shaking his head and walking over to a cupboard.
"You need a uniform." He called as he rummaged through the cupboard, looking for something. I frowned at his announcement, not appreciating that they had automatically decided I would be working for them. Allen made a triumphant noise and pulled out a black t-shirt, jacket and pants.
"What, no skirt?" I asked teasingly, remembering Lenalee's incredibly short skirt she had been wearing earlier in the day. He blushed slightly, turning back to the cupboard.
"I thought you'd prefer pants, my mistake." I laughed at the poor boys confusion and snatched up the clothes he had already taken out, holding them up to check out the sizes.
"Don't worry about it, I was kidding." Walking over to the infirmary's bathroom I put them on and checked out the clothes in the mirror. "This is actually a pretty retro uniform. I like it." When I came back out I found a pair of boots sitting at the edge of my bed, with Allen no-where to be seen. "Silver and black combat boots!" I cried happily, black jacket flying as I ran over to them. My socks slid along the tiled infirmary floor, making me zoom past them, arms pin-wheeling to try and keep my balance. Sebastian caught me before I slid out the door and put me on the bed, bringing the boots over to me.
"You shouldn't be so reckless mistress; you're still injured after all." I blushed with embarrassment at being scolded by the black clad demon. Picking the boots up I put them on. They went almost up to my knees, which surprised me since I'd never had any boots that tall. The boots fit perfectly. In fact, everything fit perfectly. Cocking my head to one side I tried to figure out how on earth Allen had been able to do that, correctly guessing the right sizes. In the end though it didn't really matter, so I marched off towards the main entrance, leaving Sebastian to deal with the clothes I'd left behind.
A/N: For some reason this chapter took me ages to write. Not to mention the fact I probably should have been spending the time studying, but what can I say? Writing's more interesting than studying for a maths exam :P
Okay so her little spaz attack in this chapter doesn't appear to have any relevance, and it won't, not for a while. Eventually though, once I get that far, it's significance will be revealed.
Emma: "Shouldn't she be more careful? She has a gaping wound in her side."
Me: "True, true. I guess she's just stubborn? It's still there at any rate, it hasn't miraculously healed (YET)" ^.^
Sebastian: "What are you getting at?"
Me: "Calm down Sebas-chan, it's a secret." Turns to the readers "I'm waiting for your reviews everyone"