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Title: Secrets and Sacrifices
Author: DnKS-giRLs
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Kanda-Allen
Disclaimers: Ah well, we own them in our dreams…
Warning: Post M-Preg, OOC all the way, AU, angst, and lame action scene
Note: This is the sequel to our story titled 'Shattered Innocence' so we suggest you read that first since none of this will make any sense without understanding what event formerly took place. Oh, and this story is AU based on the manga…
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Chapter 4 – Findings
Allen blinked back his shock at seeing Lucy, and tried not to panic. It was a battlefield and her safety exceeded the value of everything else. "What are you doing here?!" he shouted. "It's dangerous! Come back to the other Finders!"
Lucy did not answer, seemingly still in shock of knowing the news. The Finder who accompanied her answered in rush for her stead, "I'm very sorry, Sir. She suddenly ran out when he saw your partner was wounded, and she grabbed some of our equipments. We'll—"
At that time, Lucy suddenly opened her mouth and shouted out, "Look out!"
Allen turned to see a beam was being directed to them. Hastily, he utilized his innocence to deflect the attack. It worked, but the Akuma didn't stop. Accompanied with a sinister laughter, it howled, "I'll get you back for your attack!"
Frankly, Allen did not know how much longer he could hold on at the incoming attacks that bombarded him. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Lucy and the Finder building a barrier to protect themselves and Kanda. He saw his daughter calmly did the procedure and felt proud at her, but also remorse. What kind of training had she had, he wondered, so that she could do all the procedures calmly like it was nothing, even with all the pressure around her? What did they do to her?
He banished his thoughts, and said to himself that it could wait. Every explanations, questions, and revelations could wait for a while. For now, they had to try to survive.
The Akuma seemed to notice what they were going to do, and it suddenly stopped its attack. It then approached Allen with a speed that he could hardly follow and then attack him with a slash that almost cost him one of his limbs. Allen dodged the Akuma and tried to counterattack but his own speed couldn't match it. The Akuma then managed to steal a moment where he was caught off-guard and slashed his torso.
The slash was shallow, as Allen could somehow avoid the fatal attack, but his staggers after the hit gave the Akuma an opening to beam at the half-built barrier.
The Finder noticed that and protected Lucy. He did manage to save Lucy from imminent threat, but the attack grazed Lucy's arm. Allen felt a tug in his heart when he saw blood spilled from his daughter's arm, and cursed as the Akuma prepared to give another attack to them. Fortunately, he could manage to extend his clown belt and deflect the beam so it didn't hit his companions head-on, but it was close.
Allen shouted, "Cross Grave!" as he pounded back the Akuma to give a distance between it and the people he had to protect. The attack connected wonderfully, and the Akuma was thrown aback to the ground some meters away from them. The Akuma gave a yowl of pain, but to Allen's frustration, the attack didn't destroy it.
He prepared himself to give the Akuma a more fatal attack but a shriek of pain, Lucy's shriek of pain, reached his ears. A struck of fear caught him and even though he knew he was in the battlefield, he pulled off his attack to check on his daughter.
"Lucy!" he shouted in panic as he ran to her side. He searched for something that might hurt the girl to make her yell like that, but he didn't found anything else than the wound in her arm. He felt something gripping his chest when he thought that maybe the wound was poisoned with Akuma's virus, but he couldn't find any pentacles that sign the infection. The attack might not contaminate Lucy with any virus, but seeing her reactions, he didn't know what to think of the situation. "Are you alright? Where does it hurt?" he asked in panic.
Before he could have an answer, he sensed the Akuma had stood up again, looking even more dangerous than ever. It seemed angry, and it said, "That… hurts. I guess I have to be more serious then."
Allen cursed as the Akuma slammed its body to him, forcing him to be separated from Lucy. He hissed in pain when it knocked him to the nearest building and bombarded him with beams as soon as it could have a distance with him. His body ached all over with the impact, yet he somehow managed to pull a defense from the beams with his innocence. He wanted to counterattack like before, but the increased strength of the beam made it hard to do so. And it's hard to concentrate when he could still hear Lucy's pain-filled cry in the distance.
He took a deep breath and pulled all the courage that he still had inside. He had to save his beloved companions. There's no room for panic or second thoughts, he would give it his all, and sacrificed himself if needed. He then braced himself to move forward with his innocence cloaking him as defense.
However, before he could do it, Lucy's cry of pain stopped. Allen blinked in surprise, his concentration breaking, and the Akuma didn't stop attacking him. He defended himself to the attack just in time, but the four-level building near him didn't survive it and crumbled atop of him.
He managed to avoid being severely injured, but Allen hissed in pain as he felt something in his body cracked when it happened. But he didn't care about himself at that time. With a force that he could come up with only in time of crisis, he wiped out the remains of the building off him with his innocence. He frantically searched for the presence of the Akuma, just to find it in front of the now crumbled barrier. Its hand positioned too close from his daughter's forehead.
He dashed to the direction where Lucy was standing, and thought hard on how to separate Lucy from the imminent danger in front of her. The finder that was protected Lucy before couldn't seem to snap out of his panic, and he couldn't possibly built a new full fledged barrier with the close proximity between the Akuma and Lucy.
It was up to him now, but when Allen extended his clown belt to knock back the Akuma, it seemed too slower than it should be. He was still so far, too far, and before he could connect his attack to the Akuma, Allen saw it smirked.
And then, it happened so quickly in front of his eyes.
Lucy suddenly wiped the blood from her injured arm, and put it to the Akuma's offending wrist. Allen did not know what happened, but just with that, the Akuma howled in pain. He didn't waste time in following up the incident, not minding at all how it happened. Not right now.
He slashed the Akuma with his clown belt, sending it flying, but it managed to stop itself from striking the nearest building. The Akuma growled at them, and Allen saw that the hand that almost endangered Lucy before was not there anymore. There was only a blackened stub on the place which had a moment before been the Akuma's hand. It wsalmost as if an innocence had destroyed a part of the Akume's body.
With that, realization dawned on him. Allen allowed a small gasp of surprise and turned to look at his daughter.
"Your blood… is your innocence?" he asked in a daze.
Instead of answering his question, Lucy said, "It's coming."
Allen snapped back to face the now furious Akuma. He noticed that it had managed to re-grow its hand and now slashing them with it. They both jumped back to avoid it, minding the Finder that still clumsily worked with the barrier device and his spouse that was yet to be conscious. Allen lured the Akuma to attack him quite far from them, but keeping sure that he could still saw them. From the corner of his eyes, he saw that Lucy took his lead.
Hoping that Lucy could catch on his cue, he raised his chin and tilted his head a little to the direction of the Akuma's back. The girl nodded, and Allen couldn't help to smile a bit at her before he focused again to the task at hand. He defended himself with his innocence, and as the Akuma raised his hand again to attack, he found an opening and counterattacked it with a slash. When the Akuma staggered, Lucy dashed to the back of the Akuma, and wiped her blood there.
The Akuma howled in pain, and Allen used that opportunity to slash it into two with his anti-evil sword. The attack worked perfectly, and the Akuma was torn into two parts. However, before Allen could feel any relief, the parts meshed again into one. The Akuma laughed and said, "Try again, exorcists!"
Allen cursed and avoided the attacks that the Akuma gave, and saw Lucy did the same. As he did it, he thought hard about how to kill the Akuma. It seemed that the ability of the Akuma was to repair itself again after being attacked, even with his sword, so he had to think of a way that could destroy it completely. But he didn't know what to do, since he had to admit he didn't have that much man power at hand, and he also didn't know the extent of Lucy's ability.
He glanced to Lucy, and saw that his daughter looked distressed as she barely avoided the attacks of the Akuma. It was not uncommon for a first battle with an Akuma; on the contrary, Allen would wonder what Lucy had experienced if she remained calm until the end of the battle. The way that Lucy could handle her first battle now had already made him worry about what she had faced.
Throwing that thought to the back of his mind, Allen pulled a more important train of thought. About what should he do right now. He knew that if this went on, they wouldn't win, and reinforcements might not come at time. He had to think something quickly, and he started to sort out his own experience battling with Akuma as he tried to counterattack again but still failed to destroy the Akuma. It was his first time battling something like this, but there must be something—
His thoughts were interrupted when an attack from the Akuma finally connected to Lucy. "Lucy!" he shouted, as he saw his daughter thrown aback from the impact of the attack. He slashed at the Akuma into a few parts with his sword for that, only to see it easily recovered again. The Akuma laughed at his desperation, and he gritted his teeth before launching another set of attacks to it. It seemed a bit surprised at his sudden aggressiveness, and that moment of surprise was used by Allen to throw it to a ruin of a building nearby with his clown belt.
Before the Akuma could catch up to him again, he checked Lucy's condition. The girl seemed to be in pain, but when he reached her, she already stood on her feet, though a bit unsteadily. Blood pooled from her back and forehead, and she cradled her bloodied arm, yet she did not tremble a bit when she said, "What do we do now? Our attacks seemed not working."
Allen couldn't hold back a small wry smile and said, "I honestly don't know." He sighed and continued quickly, "I need to know how your innocence works first."
Lucy lowered her face and bit her lip. Her voice cracked slightly and it let Allen knew that even though Lucy seemed strong on the outside, there still lurked some hidden fear within her. "I… don't know. This is my first time activating my innocence…"
"Try to search within you," Allen advised quickly, his eyes were busy scanning the area if the Akuma suddenly decided to strike again. "We, exorcists, are connected to the innocence we wield. Your innocence would show you."
Lucy went silent for a moment and afterward she said, "My mind told me that everything that my blood touches would be harmful for the Akuma. And I might work out a blood spell."
Allen blinked in surprise at that, and then he remembered a battle that Kanda had told him before. He smiled triumphantly, desperation backed out from his mind, but before he could relay his plans to Lucy, the Akuma finally broke out from the building ruins. It yelled in rage, "I'll kill you, exorcists!!!"
As he defended himself and Lucy from the bombarded beams that was shot by the incoming Akuma, he said to her, "I'll try to pin him down, please distract it."
Lucy nodded, and she picked up some light stones in the ground. She stained it with her blood, before dashing to the side. She threw the stones to the Akuma afterward, and it yelled in pain then looked at Lucy with anger. Allen used that moment to pin the Akuma to the ground using his clown belt. "Make it drink your blood!" Allen shouted to Lucy.
His daughter didn't waste any time to do it, and Allen saw the Akuma writhing in pain as Lucy poured her blood to its mouth. It struggled beneath his innocence, but Allen managed to hold on barely, before finally, the Akuma howled a shriek and disintegrated.
Allen almost gave a sigh in relief with that, but his sense told him that something was still not right. When he heard the sound of a clapping and looked at the source, he knew what was wrong. The Earl of the Millennium was still there.
"Interesting," The Millennium Earl said. "You have such a talent, child. And now… I really want to destroy you…"
Allen reflexively stood in front of Lucy, and took a glance at the direction where the barrier that protected Kanda had now stood. His spouse didn't look like he was going to get up soon, which was quite odd, but Allen figured that all of Kanda's paranoid protection to him must have taken its toll right now. At least, the Finder that was so panicked before had built a stern barrier to protect Kanda.
He focused again at the Millennium Earl and saw that he was calling a large number of Akuma. A quick assessment using his cursed eyes told him that most of them were level two, while the rest were level one. He wanted to get Lucy out of danger and told her to stay with Kanda and the finder, but the enormous amount of Akuma that the Earl had called erased the thought from Allen's mind. If they wanted to survive, he had to ask for his daughter's aid.
"Can you still fight?" he asked Lucy.
"I can. I want to destroy them," she answered.
"I understand, but don't get careless. I don't want to lose you."
Instead of answering, Lucy pulled out two knives that she had hidden in her shoes, coated the blade with her blood, her eyes never leaving the horde of Akuma that started to come their way. Allen sighed wearily inwardly, but he followed Lucy's example and alerted himself for the incoming battle.
Allen felt that his heart almost stopped when Lucy dashed to attack the nearest Akuma before he could say anything else, but he marveled the way that Lucy easily moved to destroy them. He got no chance to stare at his daughter's proficiency in battle for long though, since he saw some level two Akuma targeted Lucy. He slashed some of them with his clown belt, and in the corner of his eyes, he saw Lucy drawing a symbol of some sort in the ground with her blood. Allen smiled proudly when he saw red bullets erupting from the symbol and blasted the level two Akuma, and he did a follow-up to finish them with his belt.
Kanda must be jealous if he knew this, Allen thought as he stationed himself to guard Lucy's back, well, it was his fault to overexert himself in the first place.
He slashed another Akuma with his clown belt, and heard clink of knives at his back, indicating Lucy used it to attack some Akuma. He saw Lucy slashed a level two Akuma into destruction with his peripheral vision, and he couldn't help admiring the strength that she possessed, a part of it possibly coming from the hellish training that she had endured.
He gripped his sword tighter and leashed his frustration to the Akuma.
The Akuma still seemingly endless in number, and it might be good for Allen to exorcise so many Akuma, because with every swing, he could pour out anger at the higher-ups at that Headquarter who had made Lucy went through such training that seemed to be traumatic for her. It would also good for him because he could finally find some bond with his daughter, as they battled together. And knowing that he could still feel the bond as comrades with her, eased his anxiety a bit upon the possibility that Lucy might reject him and Kanda as her parents.
But at the back of his mind, he knew that no matter what kind of Spartan training that Lucy had gone through and no matter how in sync she was with the innocence, she must have had some limit considering it was her first time activating her innocence. It was amazing enough that she apparently possessed that kind of level to destroy those Akuma so easily, much less the endurance to keep fighting this long. The labored breaths that he heard coming from Lucy indicated that she was teetering on the edge of her limit. And her face contorted with something that told Allen that she was in pain, maybe from battling herself to not let the strain from using the innocence get her.
Allen could still fight, but he doubted that Lucy could hold on much longer. Considering the stubbornness that Lucy showed when they fight the level three one, she would not back down from the fight. So, he had to hurry to finish this.
Allen jumped into a horde of Akuma, and slain a massive amount of them, before jumping to another one in quick succession. He destroyed a vast amount of Akuma with that method, all the while keeping his eyes on his daughter. However, it still could not prevent Lucy from collapsing not long after that.
"Lucy!" Allen shouted as he grabbed Lucy with his clown belt. He held her close to his chest, and felt her rapid breathing. He let his innocence cloaked him as a perfect defense to destroy the Akuma, and not for the first time, grateful that he could use that technique. But still, he thought, the condition was bad.
"Allen!"
Allen looked at the source of the voice, almost face palming at what he saw if not for the need to slash another Akuma. Kanda had finally decided to wake up and was making his way to him. The amount of blood that dripping from Kanda's body didn't assure Allen at all of his condition, and just made him feel that the condition would be worse if his partner refused to back down from fight.
Allen stepped to Kanda's side to aid him, gently shifting the hyper-ventilating Lucy in his embrace. "Just go to the back row to protect our daughter, Yuu," he said to his partner, while slashing the Akuma with his free left hand. "You're in no condition to fight with your wound like that. You're just going to be unconscious again. That's what you get from playing hero and not letting me help you in the previous mission."
Kanda grumbled. "No," he said. "You are the one who should go to the back row."
Allen sighed again. "And let you die in the front? No way. I don't want to fight with you again, moreover since Lucy's here, but seriously, did you forget what I said to you last time?" He slashed some Akuma before continuing, "We're equals, Yuu. Especially when there's our daughter that we should protect." He glanced to Lucy who seemingly in verge of unconsciousness.
Kanda continued to destroy a batch of Akuma, but he glanced at Allen afterward. "Fine," he said after a growl. They took a shelter from the attacks behind the ruins of a building, where Kanda gently took Lucy in his arms. He then whispered to Allen, "You better be alive. Lucy needs you."
He smiled at him and whispered back, "She needs us."
Kanda nodded and smiled back at him before carrying Lucy to the barrier that was now stood sternly. Allen focused to his battle again after Kanda had left, slashing here and there before an idea struck him. The Millennium Earl controlled all of the Akuma, right? So then, if he attacks the Earl, then there was a possibility that he couldn't call any other Akuma reinforcements. The Earl might be too strong for him, but he had to try. There was no way he could manage fighting all day long like this.
With a new goal in mind, Allen searched for the fat Earl. The Akuma that was attacking him distracted him a bit though, and the Earl couldn't be seen anywhere in plain sight. Feeling quite desperate in his search, Allen then thought that he would use his left eye to try pinpointing the Earl's location. His left eye wouldn't help him much, since the Earl was not Akuma itself, but Allen thought that it wouldn't hurt to try. He took a deep breath and concentrate to activate another level of his eye. A familiar vision was seen as he did it, and he saw that a large number of Akuma were seemingly circling around a building.
Allen turned himself to that direction, and found a sinister presence also eyed him from a window in the building. He smirked, satisfied that he finally found his target, and prepared to leap to the building.
However, he was stopped by sounds of yelling.
Allen turned in horror, and almost fell victim to an attack if not for his innocence that cloaked him. He hastily went back to the place where an expressionless Lucy was now stood, her lithe fingers incessantly drew some complex symbols in the air. Her body shook, and blood spilled from her wounds like a stream, but she didn't stop conjuring it, even though Kanda and the Finder were yelling at her to stop. Allen gritted his teeth as he saw that she even tried to attack Kanda when the man tried to shake the girl to her senses. Something was wrong.
The girl had wiped out the Akuma that surrounded her, so it was fairly easy for Allen to approach the area. Kanda was calling at her daughter with her name a few times when Allen reached them, but it seemed to be fruitless.
"What had happened here?" he asked. No matter how badly he wanted to stop the girl, he must know the condition first. Seeing her daughter's condition, it would be best if they proceeded with caution.
"She tried to get up, sir, saying that she didn't want to feel useless any more," the Finder said. "So I said to her to leave the extermination of Akuma to you both, as she seemed not in any condition to fight anymore. And then she snapped, and told me that she could still do it, even though she was clearly in pain. I beg her to stop thinking about that, but then she knelt, with her hand on her chest. And suddenly, she stopped gasping for breath and started to draw the symbols like now, sir."
"I saw that and tried to stop her," Kanda cut in. "But she didn't seem to listen to any of my words, and she looked like she's in a trance. I'd tried to stop her but she attacked me when I grabbed her wrist. Just now, like you must've seen, she didn't even answer to me calling her name."
More Akuma met their demise under Lucy's attack and Allen could only stare, hopeless, at his daughter's seemingly expressionless face. She seemed unaware of the wounds covering her body. She seemed not minding about her surrounding. She seemed so ethereal somehow, almost as if she was not a being of the earth. It was almost as if…
"It's the innocence," Allen whispered in desperation mixed with awe. "It's the innocence taking over her… oh God…"
"Is that thing possible… I never heard any exorcist to fall under the innocence's control until this extent…" the finder tried but Allen cut him off.
"Lucy is not merely an exorcist!" he said. And when his eyes met Kanda's, he saw the dawning comprehension on his spouse's face. Yes, he thought as he bit his lower lip, Lucy was no mere exorcist who wielded mere innocence. She was an exorcist and she was an innocence. "Lucy, are you there?"
There was no response. Allen grew even more panicked and almost dashed forward to grab his daughter, not minding even if she decided to attack him, but Kanda's hand landed on his shoulder and his deep voice addressed their girl.
"Innocence," he said calmly and finally, there was a reaction coming from their Lucy.
"Exorcists," a voice that sounded like their daughter, yet too monotonous to be her said. The face was turned to their direction, finally seeing them even though she did not even once stopped her action, delivering her attacks to ward those Akuma off. And even though Allen was thankful that those spells managed to keep them away from those Akuma, he knew his daughter's body would not be able to take the strain for much longer.
"Stop, please… you are hurting Lucy," he said.
"That is not of your concern, exorcist," the same monotonous voice said.
"It's our daughter's body, damn it!"
"Innocence has the duty to exterminate Akuma. Exorcists have the duty to wield innocence and eliminate the darkness. You should give your assistance in vanquishing the demons instead of questioning the conduct."
"We can't concentrate with Lucy's condition like this. So could you please stop and just leave it to us?" Allen tried, feeling a bit stupid for trying to strike up a conversation with an innocence going rampant.
"There is no reason for that," She drawn another symbol, and continued, "You, exorcists, are given the trust to handle innocence. You, exorcists, betrayed the trust. You, exorcists, are giving up the innocence. You, exorcists, are giving up this girl, failing to protect what you have to protect."
Kanda and Allen's eyes met, and Allen held the other man's hand. "We are very sorry for that," Allen said. "We are wrong to think that giving her time to feel normal would be the best for her. We don't know that you chose us with that reason. So please, trust us on this."
"If the situation proves to be beyond our ability and there is the need to protect Lucy, we would not hold you back from coming back to keep her safe," Kanda added.
Lucy, or perhaps more accurately, the innocence fell silent for a while. After a heartbeat, it said, "Innocence has the duty to exterminate Akuma, but only in the hands of exorcists shall the innocence be utilized. You are given the absolution and you shall once again receive the trust, exorcists, be grateful of that," she turned to see Kanda and Allen, and continued, "Mercy would not come easily for the second time, exorcists."
And with that, she collapsed.
Allen caught her and let out a relieved sigh, which made Kanda snorted. "It's too early for that, bean sprout," he said, his chin pointed at the horde of Akuma that were not so subtle in showing that they wanted to crush them. Lucy had managed to halt their attacks before, but now that she was unconscious it was left to them.
"But Yuu," Allen said with a smile, his clown edge was already readied for battle. "Isn't this nostalgic? It almost seemed like that particular day."
Kanda glanced at the black clouds that were still overcastting them and said, "And it looks like storm promises to come again. Do you think we could make another child again after this?"
Allen laughed. He watched a number of Akuma coming to them, and ignoring them, he retorted, "Maybe not," then he continued with a seducing smile, "But we could always try."
Kanda smirked and said, "I'll hold on to your tempting words, bean sprout. So don't die on me."
With his eyes fixed to the incoming enemies and hand poised to slash them, Allen said, "You too."
However, before he could launched his attack, a yell could be heard, "Go ka kai jin! Fire seal!"
In a surprise, Allen dropped his battle stance. He turned his head to look at the person who just helped them destroy the Akuma in front of him. "Lavi!" he called with joy.
"Yo!" His friend answered. But Lavi's cheerful expression changed to a pained one when a sword hilt was thrown to his head.
"That's for coming in too late and barging in at a good point," a seethed Kanda said.
Lavi grumbled at the unfair behavior, but his voice was drown out when Rinali stepped beside him and said, "We're sorry!"
Allen chuckled as Kanda looked like he wanted to say another sarcastic remark, but he stopped and narrowed his eyes when he heard a sing-song voice floating in the air,
"Well, well. Looks like you got reinforcements," the overly cheerful tone of voice that could only belong to The Millennium Earl said. Even thought the voice was close, Allen couldn't pinpoint where the source was. "This is no good… no good at all. Too bad, I thought we could play all day but your friends just have to ruin our lovely private chit chat. We just have to continue this some other time, I guess… farewell, exorcists, be sure that I look forward to our next meeting, and your demise."
At that, Allen growled in frustration and heard his spouse did the same. But oh well, he thought, as he activated his left eye. "There are probably about twenty Akuma left, most of them are level twos," he said, sharing his analysis to his friends.
"Good," Kanda said. "Then we'll leave it to you."
Allen raised an eyebrow. "We?" he said. "You stay here, and I help them."
"No," Kanda said defiantly, while yanking Allen to the ground with him. "You're staying here with me."
"Aww…" Lavi chimed in. "Look at the lovey-dovey couple."
"Shut up, Lavi," Allen said with a grumble. He then peered at Kanda who was now looking too pale to be good. "Fine. I'll stay here, I leave the rest to you."
Rinali smiled. "Sure thing, Allen," she said, before taking off with Lavi to do their jobs annihilating the rest of Akuma.
Allen watched them leave, but then he felt a head dropped at his shoulder. "Geez, Yuu," he grumbled. "What make you behave like a spoilt child?"
There was no answer from his spouse.
"Yuu?" Allen asked. He frowned and hit at Kanda's head gently, before pinching his cheek quite hard. Still no response. Panicking, Allen checked his spouse's breaths and pulse. He sighed in relief when he heard both were still there, albeit a little weak. It seemed that Kanda was unconscious.
"Idiot," Allen said with a fond tone. "I'll lecture you to take a better care of yourself after this." He glanced at their daughter then continued, "After all, we have to be a good role model for our child, right?"
-end chapter 4-
(A/N: we… simply have no reason for this. It seemed we have created a Mary Sue character with Lucy, she fits all the criteria. She is an original female character, she has close relationship with canon characters, she has special ability, she has dark past, she is beautiful. Oh gosh… we thought we're way past our time writing Sue fic. Anyway, please let us know your comment, whether it's good or bad, about this chapter. Thank you for sparing your time reading this story. We hope you had good reading and if you did not, we offer our apology. Farewell for now, and surely we hope to see you again next chapter.)