I do not own D. Gray- Man. It belongs to Hoshino Katsura.
Chapter 59:
"Your father did not particularly like the fact that Kanda was Japanese."
"He was just put off by the fact that you gave Kanda a painting of me. He's very protective."
"Like a father ought to be."
We were walking up the mountain and about 10 minutes away from the cave. I'd led us there. The moment I'd heard the name of the cave I knew exactly what they were talking about.
Why hadn't I thought of it earlier?
The cave was an old cave that was rumored to have treasure hidden in it- though how the treasure got there, who knew. Some outsiders that believed that believed the stories would come and try to get it, but we would never see them again.
The people in town didn't believe there was treasure at all, rather that the place was cursed. They only said there was treasure to get people to come to town. They believed that there was really a witch in the cave.
A witch that would eat all the travellers that came for what they thought was treasure.
Why a witch?
Who else could control the weather?
There was constant fog around the mountain making it dangerous to walk there. Even now the General and I had tied a rope to each other in case one of us fell and so that neither of us would lose the other one.
Was there really a witch? Was it innocence? Was it a natural phenomenon? We were going to check it out.
The mountains were dangerous and if you didn't know them you could fall to your death, get eaten or get lost and die. So you really couldn't rule out that it could simply be a natural phenomenon and stupid travelers.
I led the General up the steep slope, going at a pace he could manage, and finally we got to the entrance of the cave.
"My getting down we'll have to be more careful." The General sighed then looked at the view. "But what a glorious place!"
Yes there were certainly times when you thought you lived in paradise. Seeing the sunset stain the green mountains in a blood red, faint stars on the horizon, mist at the roots of the mountains. It was glorious.
An owl hooted and flew from one branch to a lower one.
"Come on, let's go." I turned to the cave entrance, "Really think someone's in there?"
"Who knows. Are you not afraid?"
"Nope."
We lit a torch and entered the cave. All we had to do was round a corner and we got to a circular cave that had no other entrance except the one we came from.
"Not much of a cave." I commented.
"No one's here. Let's take a look around."
We started looking around and found a bed made of twigs by the entrance, a small table of stone next to it and a shelf with the bible and a half burned candle. I looked over in the corner and saw a pile of clothes crumpled over what looked like bones.
"Whoever lived here died a long time ago." I stated. "Do you sense any innocence in these mountains except ours?"
"No. There is nothing here." The General said heavily. "There is no innocence except for ours."
"So it's just a natural phenomenon." I sighed, what a waste of time.
We walked out of the cave and looked at the village.
The sun had just set and had turned the sky into a blood red color. The light reflected off the clouds making them look like cotton balls. The wind blew in the trees calm and cool. The mist was rising slowly up the mountain. By midnight the mountain would be completely covered and unrecognizable.
"Perhaps we should stay the night?" The General asked.
"Yeah, sounds-" I stopped as something on the eastern sky caught my eye. It was 20 black dots, all different sizes coming toward the village. I looked more closely; none of the dots were flapping their wings- they were-
"Akuma!" The General and I said the word simultaneously.
I didn't wait for him to say anything more. I activated my innocence, grabbed him and started sprinting down the mountain toward my home.
I knew I had to hurry because that many Akuma coming to a village this size only meant one thing- annihilation.