Another Requiem

III: Parrots and Hedge Clippers

Once again, around 2 months ago…

"Ah..."

The general and his newest disciple stared after the eagle that had just swooped down and stolen the stick of charcoal that Tiedoll had been drawing with. They watched the bird land by its nest, which was perched high above them on the ledge of a rocky cliff.

"That was odd," Eva commented, turning her gaze towards her general- who was eyeing his unfinished sketch sadly. Somehow, she could sense what was coming. He gave her a wistful, rather pitiful look.

"You're suggesting that I go up there?" she asked, frowning slightly. General Tiedoll simply smiled. Eva grimaced.

"Why should I climb all the way up this cliff just for a stick of charcoal that that eagle obviously mistook for food to feed its young- meaning that the baby eagles will soon be poisoned by consuming the aforementioned object, thus leading to their untimely deaths and causing a sudden drop in the population of Alpine eagles which means that, by the end of the century, they may be extinct." Her eyes widened in horror.

"I'll do it!"

Fueled by her made-up, ominous prediction, the young woman threw herself at the stone wall and began to scramble her way up the near-vertical slope. General Tiedoll watched her for a while before pulling out another stick of charcoal and finishing his drawing happily.

"I've got it! I've-AAAIIEEE!"

The sound of metal against rock. A thud. And Eva was back on the ground, a long gash visible on the rock wall above her where her halberd had kept her from the full impact of the fall. Ignoring the pain that had not been fully avoided, she held up the stick of charcoal triumphantly.

Tiedoll thanked her as she picked herself up and approached him with the retrieved object- only to see that this obviously wasn't the only stick of charcoal he had in store, rendering the many bruises forming on her back utterly unnecessary.

"General!"

He smiled sheepishly.

"That was some good training, don't you think?"

The present

Eva sighed at the memory of her past two months of 'training'. She had been fooled into climbing cliffs, rolling down hills, carrying several goats, running along for miles, and other unnecessary things, though she had to admit that it was all worthwhile in the end. She was, after all, now a lot more useful with her halberd, the use of which not only required stamina but also a very prominent amount of speed and flexibility.

Sometimes she dreamed about how easy it would be to fight akuma with some sort of firearm, but considering her terrible aim, the weapon she had now was probably more effective.

Kanda, of course, was concentrating on completing this mission, but the size of this forest they were wandering in really wasn't helping. It seemed to be getting darker by the minute, too. Needless to say, the sword-wielding exorcist was anything but pleased. If he could only get his hands on that level two that was bound to be hiding somewhere…

He paused, realizing that he couldn't hear the other exorcist's footsteps behind him. Sure enough, she was nowhere to be seen. Kanda's eye twitched in frustration. He was just about to call out when-

"Over here!"

He gave a huff and proceeded to follow the sound of her voice.

Eva snapped out of her reverie when she nearly walked into a tree. Shaking her head slightly, she turned to Kanda- who was gone. She really should have listened to Daisya when he had told her about the young exorcist's tendency to abandon people. She thought about holding onto the boy's long ponytail next time so she wouldn't be left behind.

Yeah, because that wasn't going to get her killed.

"Hello?" she called into the dark, dark forest, hoping that her companion was still nearby.

There was no answer. Only then did she notice that it was eerily quiet. It seemed as though an akuma was nearby- an akuma capable of scheming and hiding, no doubt. She gulped, invocating her innocence and getting ready to defend her dear life.

"I know you're out there," the young woman muttered, backing into a tree and nervously scanning her surroundings.

The alarms in her head were going haywire- she knew she was being watched, and yet she still couldn't see anything moving. Turning around, she came face to face with the tree she had been leaning against.

"Oh great-"

Kanda stopped in his tracks. He had just heard some kind of crash, though it sounded like it was pretty far back. Something dawned upon him.

"Come on, this way!"

He heard Eva's voice again, but this time, refused to follow.

"Why did you stop? Let's go!"

He narrowed his eyes, his hand on Mugen's hilt.

"What's wrong?"

As soon as he heard the voice again, he charged in its direction. His sword came in contact with something solid- an akuma shaped like a deformed parrot. He only managed to cut off one of its arms (or wings), however.

"Hee hee hee! How'd you figure it out? I mimicked your little friend's voice perfectly!" it squawked in a completely different and akuma-like voice, fluttering away from the exorcist.

"You never said my name," Kanda answered coolly, though he did feel a bit foolish for not noticing earlier. He had been following the disembodied voice for quite some time, after all.

"Stupid exorcist- I still managed to separate you! The pretty lady is doomed," the akuma spoke in Kanda's voice this time, sounding awfully confident.

"Che," was the last thing it heard before being sliced in two and exploding into nonexistence. Compared to its extraordinary ability, it certainly didn't put up much of a fight.

He could only assume that there was another level two out there, targeting that woman. The thought didn't particularly brighten his mood- he would now have to go back and take care of that one as well.

Stupid woman, he thought scornfully as he quickly retraced his steps, ignoring the fact that he was the one who had practically abandoned her.

It was a tree alright- a scary, bloodthirsty akuma tree. Though it wasn't much taller than her, it happened to have what looked like huge hedge clippers as arms.

Eva groaned, picking herself up from where she had been thrown. Her enemy was definitely stronger than she was- after all, she was still just a woman. All the training she had gone through seemed so insignificant now…

"Scared, missy?" the akuma taunted her with glee, snipping its hedge clippers threateningly, "How would you like me to kill you?"

"How about not at all?" she muttered before taking a deep breath. Perhaps if she could think clearly, she could come up with a plan- but the akuma gave her no time for that.

"I would love to play with you, but I have to kill you quickly!" it roared, lunging at her with its giant scissor-like arms.

Eva ducked just in time, and quickly thrust her weapon into the monster from under its grasp before rolling away. To her horror, there was no explosion.

"Heh, you think you can kill me with this stick?" the akuma growled, ripping the so-called 'stick' from its body and discarding it on the ground carelessly.

"It's a halberd!" Eva stated defensively, throwing caution to the wind. Now that her Siegfried was out of reach, she was pretty much doomed anyway. In her defense, a gaping hole in the middle was usually enough to destroy most akuma.

"An exorcist without a weapon is just a pathetic human," the level two jeered, which somehow reminded her of Kanda.

Yes of course, Kanda! Eva thought with a sudden flash of hope. He wouldn't really leave her to die, would he? Then again…She thought back to how he had eyed her so disdainfully.

Never mind, she was doomed.

"Do you prefer to be decapitated or cut into little pieces?" the akuma asked nastily, backing the young woman into a rock wall that she hadn't noticed before. They had a short staring contest before she answered.

"Well, if you insist," Eva began, straightening up and putting on a business-like manner, "here's what you do."

And with that she began to list off a very specific and rather gory set of instructions for her killer-to-be. The akuma was obviously a bit taken aback by her unexpected reaction.

"-and then you can go ahead and cut off some of my hair if you'd like, though it does look perfectly fine right now. Then you gather all the pieces in one bloody heap and set it on fire. Or you could eat it- I don't want my cut up body on display all over the forest."

This was the end of her three-minute speech, which she concluded with a twisted smile. She had evidently read far too many gruesome horror stories.

"You-! You mock me!" the akuma sputtered, unnerved by the creepy change on the saintly face of the exorcist. Of course, its simple solution to this strange case was- "Die!"

Eva yelped, suddenly not so confident anymore, but her body had already jerked aside, narrowly avoiding the hedge clippers of doom. She dropped to the ground and rolled out of the way once more, having caught a glimpse of a long, black ponytail.

"Wha-! AARGH!"

Kanda had arrived on the scene unnoticed, just as Eva was wrapping up her ominous how-I'd-like-to-be-killed speech. The samurai had wrinkled his nose in disgust at what he heard, suddenly a bit unsure of his hearing. Then he had spotted her weapon deserted off to the side.

How pathetic.

Then again she was, at least, still alive.

Just as the akuma began to attack the unarmed exorcist, Kanda had charged, immediately slicing the tree-like monster in half. It exploded with a frustrated roar, once again proving that being sliced in half really didn't affect one's voice.

He quickly looked around for Eva, who seemed to have disappeared- but there she was, kneeling on the ground and affectionately clutching her weapon.

"Oh Siegfried, I'll never let go of you like that ever again!" she cried dramatically, holding her face against the flat part of the blades. Before she could accidentally cut herself, the weapon turned back into a locket. Kanda gave her a nasty look.

"Idiot," he muttered, just loud enough for her to hear. She looked up at him gratefully. Aside from the scratches and dusty cloak, she seemed unharmed.

"Oh but Yuu-kun, you came for me!" the young woman pointed out happily, a sudden rush of gratitude and trust warming her heart. "I'm touched," she added, her eyes sparkling merrily. Kanda's eye twitched.

"I told you not to rely on me," he snarled, giving her his best glare. She did not seem to mind very much, obviously still overwhelmingly grateful for his timely appearance.

"Well, I didn't," she told him pleasantly, dusting off her cloak, "but you saved me anyway!"

"Che."

Right. He really couldn't argue with that, so he just started walking off. Eva followed closely.

"At least now I know that I have to train a whole lot more," she said thoughtfully, "is there some sort of training area at headquarters?"

Kanda didn't answer right away- something had just occurred to him.

"You've never been to headquarters?" he asked, shooting her a slightly incredulous, mostly cool glance.

"Nope. I was with General Tiedoll for over a month, and then I went on some missions here and in France," the young woman replied amiably.

That explained why she was clad in a simple cotton dress and traveler's cloak instead of a uniform. Well, even though she was infuriatingly careless and a bit pathetic, he had to admit that wanting to train was a good idea on her part.

"Yes," he said, "there is a training area."

"Good," was her satisfied response, "And Yuu-kun?"

"Don't call me that."

"Can I hold onto your hair so I don't get lost again?"

"NO."

It was already quite late when they finally emerged from the dark, dark forest onto the supposedly haunted pasture. Even at night the scenery was glorious as the moon shone brightly on the grass. Just then Eva remembered something.

"Hold on, the Finders!" she exclaimed, having completely forgotten about them until now. Kanda shook his head.

"Oh. I guess you're right," she mumbled, knowing that if they hadn't come across them by now, it must mean that they were already…

"Let's go."

Kanda's words got her moving again, though she gave the forest one last wistful look. They had been walking for a while when they suddenly heard someone- their weapons were drawn instantly.

"Exorcists!"

"We found you!"

Two men appeared from a side path, obviously very happy to see them. Though they looked a bit exhausted, there was no mistaking those white robes. The exorcists put away their weapons.

"Finders!" Eva called, welcoming them with a warm smile, "But wait, we heard you two had gone off to investigate-"

"Yeah," one of the Finders- a young man with a square chin- began sheepishly, "we were going to, but we got a bit lost."

"Or completely lost," the other added, this one a bit older and bearded, "we ended up in another town, but we tried to get back as soon as we could!"

"Che."

It turned out that the two Finders had misread a crudely drawn map that an old lady in Stans had offered them. They introduced themselves as Karl and Elias, though Kanda didn't seem the least bit interested. Eva was happy to make up for his lack of sociality as they got back to Stans together.

"I wonder if Daisya and Marie are done with their mission," she mused over a late night snack.

She and Kanda were now seated at a table in an old inn while the Finders had already excused themselves to their room. The friendly innkeeper had provided the exorcists with some food, ignoring the fact that it was already quite late. Kanda didn't answer her, wanting to leave her and go to his own room as soon as possible.

So he simply got up and left when he had finished his food. Eva did not follow, planning to take care of the dishes before going to her room.

"Sleep well, Yuu-kun!" she called, causing a vein to pop out on the young man's temple. Her tone had sounded uncannily like that of Tiedoll's just then.

Next time, he was so letting her get killed.

-to be continued-

A/N: Many, many thanks to FMAandWolf'sRain and Blooberii for reviewing! Reviews make me very happy, and I'm glad you two like my story so far! Hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.

Please, please review if you like how this is going!