Gracias para los reviews! (Thank you for the reviews!) Especially to Mesonoxian and shia1kazuto3. Thanks so much to all of my readers who have given me the support to keep going! :)
A sigh came from behind me, "Another war, more tragedy to fuel the fires." I looked around to see a man in his thirties watching the army march out. His red hair glinted in the bright sun, though his one visible green eye was weary and slightly sonic, the other remained hidden under a mop of red bangs. From his accent he didn't sound French. A long and tattered scarf hung around his neck: it was a pale cream and had probably been a rich orange at one point. There was a smile on his face that reminded me of someone that I knew long ago. Then it all just seemed to click.
"U-uncle...Lavi?"
He simply looked at me for a moment as I gaped at him like a fish out of water. Then the mischievous glimmer erupted like green fire in his showing iris, and he picked me up and spun me as he had done when I was just a toddler. That same old ear-to-ear grin was plastered against his pale face as he looked down at me with a small smile, I couldn't help but grin back and return his hug with enthusiasm.
Truth be told, Uncle Lavi or Bookman as I used to call him was my favorite extended family member, right after Uncle Link that is. He used to come to our house all the time when I was little, and would always bring me something back: a gift or book of sorts from the places that he had been. I had absolutely adored him. Though, I felt my face fall that the thought, for the night that he had left would still burn in my mind. It was the only time that I had ever seen my mom really cry by the time that I was five or so years.
They had thought that I was in bed, and Uncle Lavi had just finished reading me my last bedtime story, when he walked outside, careful not to unsettle me. For a few minutes all was quiet as he had gone to talk to my parents, and then there was my mom's voice, rising slightly. I knew the tone that she was using: it was the tone that she used whenever someone talked about my father: a slightly raised and steely voice.
Uncle Link's voice soon joined in and I began to hear screaming. I clutched my stuffed rabbit, a gift from Uncle Lavi from his recent trip to America.
"You can't hide it from her forever Lenalee!" Uncle Lavi's voice was angered, for one of the first time I had ever known.
"I can't just go and tell her everything either Lavi." My mother's voice was tired, and very stressed, she was answered angrily, "Why not? Allen would~"
"That is enough Bookman." Uncle Link cut in, his voice as cold as ice, and I could literally feel the way that his blue eyes were glaring at my favorite family friend. Quietly, I slipped out of bed as I heard the front door slam and I remember looking out the glass window of my bed room on my tiptoes, watching Uncle Bookman's form disappear into the night.
I heard my mother crying, and slowly opened my door, and walked down the cream-colored hallway that Uncle Link and she had worked so hard on that previous summer. I just watched as she continued sobbing and as Uncle Link stood there as stiff as a board, looking at the door his sharp features twisted in a mask of cold marble.
That was the night in which I promised myself that I would show my mom that I didn't need a father to be happy, all that I needed was for her to smile and be content.
I was snapped out of the flashback as I heard my friends calling my name and I looked on as one-by-one they all came running to see if I was alright.
~.~.~0~.~.~
Minnie ran to where Elena was standing, without even bothering to look at the stranger before she made sure that the girl was alright. She wasn't the first to reach her though, for both the French girl, Chéri, and the boy... Alma were already beside her. It slightly irked her that they seemed to care so much about a girl that they supposedly knew so little about, though she quickly shook off the feeling. Alma seemed to be kind enough, and Chéri was friends with him was she not? Though... there was just something off about the older girl that she couldn't quite place her finger on. She didn't like not knowing things, they ended up bugging her and making things worse in the end. Whatever, they didn't seem like much of a problem at the moment.
Though, whenever Chéri would turn away to look at something, her friend would in turn gaze at her with slight worry before also turning to watch in the direction that she was facing.
The red haired man looked up from Elena, and gave the adults a wide smile, with a bit of a sheepish air surrounding him. He walked up to Ms. Lenalee and after scratching the back of his head in slight embarrassment, he looked down.
"Sorry Lenalee-chan, about what I said. I was still mad about the old man's death and all of it. I shouldn't have taken it out on ya." With that he turned to the blond haired man beside her, who was gazing at him coolly and without much of a warning poked in in the dead center of the blond man's head, "Besides, it's better to stay in a group, isn't it, Two-Speck?" Mr. Link's eyes, at that, got impossibly cooler, and without a single thought brought his right fist across the other's left cheekbone.
"Don't test me." he muttered darkly, and all that he was responded with was a childish whine and a, "Wahh! Two-Speck's gotten even meaner since I've been gone." Green eye brightened for a moment, and there was a dramatic intake of breath, "I bet that since you have taken Yuu-chan's place as the 'Angry Grouch' then that mean that Yuu-chan's finally calmed do~"
He wasn't even able to finish the sentence when a long, very sharp katana pointed itself right in his face and he looked some-what scared into emotionless steel eyes, "Shut the hell up Rabbit, and don't call me by my first name."
The red haired man simply smirked and taking two fingers pushed the blade away from his neck with a small chuckle, "You don't have to be so hard about it Yuu..."
The two continued to bicker, and the other adults laughed, though when the Asian got fed up with the other man, he took out his Mugan one again, yelled, "Die Rabbit!" and proceeded to chase the other man around the perimeter of the group circle.
Minnie stopped laughing, for out of the corner of her eyes she noticed both of Japanese man's charges had stopped talking to each other, and were both gazing off into the distance. After a moment of watching the two she realized what Chéri was staring so intently at in the far off distance, "Is that a cloud?" She asked, and she noticed that Alma's hands were flicking to the pack of cards in his back pocket, and that the adults too were looking in to the sun-set distance.
A black cloud, no not a cloud, but a swarm,a swarm of those demons and they were coming closer by the second.
"Tarjetas Santas: Reina de Corazones." Minnie turned after hearing Alma's voice reach a scarce whisper, and he took off, pointing at Chéri to continue to stay there. They weren't going to tell. It was to make the rest not worry when there was no need to in their minds. After all it is better to have a moment of with smiles than one with panic.
Still, even Al was beginning to notice that something was wrong, as he was able to nearly sense the solemness in the air. Turning he, readied his hand on the violin case that was strapped to his back, his dark eyes scanning the looks on his firends' faces.
Soon even the adults had gone silent, and they too looked to the east. Then the shooting started, as the Akuma bullets rained down.
~.~.~0~.~.~
I raced foreword as the villagers began to scream and the soldiers, who had broken away from their ranks in the panic opened fire. I raced foreword as the voice in my head, called out, "Attack the lowest, then go for the higher levels." As much as I hate to say this, I have learned to trust the voice as an adviser, seeing as if I hadn't I probably would have died a long time ago. It tells me how to effectively bring down the most of the Akuma without harming myself.
Though as I attack the squads of the enemy, they only replaced one another when one went down. Anger began to fill me, for how many could there be? How many people had sold their souls to the devil? Why would they wish to? What was so effective to the human emotions that a person would give themselves up in order to have it obtained?
The voice gave a small sigh in the back of my head, and I mentally glared at it, and muttered, "What are you sighing about?"
"The fact that they have not told you about what makes an Akuma annoys me, slightly." it said, and I rolled my eyes as I stabbed at a Level Three, who disintegrated the moment that my sword touch the inside of it's armor.
"Well then why don't you tell me?" I asked lightly, trying my hardest not to look like I was insane seeing as I was talking to myself. The voice only sighed once again which annoyed me even worse, "Look if you aren't going to tell me, then don't hint at it." I muttered under my breath, slicing a Level Two in half, having blood splatter on my face and clothes.
The voice for once, chuckled, and in the corner of my mind I saw a flash of white, almost like the blanket of thin snow that we get in the front of our house every winter.
"If I was to tell you what I know and you believed me, then they would go against you as they nearly did with me." I rolled my eyes: yet another adult telling me that I was too young to understand something, "I don't care, tell me anyway." I murmured, "Why did I alone feel pity for the Akuma that attacked my home, when I should have felt outrage?"
"You felt that because the Akuma was calling out to you to save it, even if you could not hear it: it is in your blood to vanquish the demons; not because they are the ones that the church tells you to defeat, but because you are one of the few that notice their inner being: their soul."
Well, my mind went blank and I attempted to decipher what he had just said, while trying not to be killed.
The voice, gave a small, good-hearted laugh at my confusion, and after a moment's thought said, "Why don't I just show you?" White shrouded my vision, and I seemed to fall back as white shrouded me and the areas around my body.
Squinting, I managed to open my eyes so that they would get used to the blindness of the neutral that surrounded me. I quickly registered the fact that the battle was still rushing around me, and tightening my grip on the sword, I looked up. Though I nearly fell back when I did, for what I saw would give me memories that would haunt in my mind forever.
~.~.~0~.~.~
Al looked around as he began to once again play a tune that he barely knew, and watched as the lower level demons fell around him at his feet. He moved the wisps of his black bangs out of his eyes, as his calloused fingers played at the melody desperately. He watched as his little sister helped out his mother in trying to get the fleeing citizens out of the area, he looked on as his best friend clashed metal with metal in her fight with the Akuma. He listened to the tune that he found himself playing, a song that his mother used to sing whenever Minerva or he had a nightmare.
A slow calloused tune. With a wry grin he wondered what would happen if he tried to bring the speed up a notch. So, after a slight moment's hesitation that nearly killed him, he began to play a much faster, more up-beat dance song that his father had taught him to play a few years back when he had finally began to play with seriousness. Playing music was one of the few things that his father (who was a professional musician, even with his blindness) and he seemed to have in common in his eyes, though to everyone else they seem to be carbon copies of one another.
That was why for a time, he had nearly stopped playing. He had never wanted to be the boy in his father's shadow, he didn't really want to be the perfect boy that no one ever noticed because he didn't do anything.
Though he remembered the one person that had given him enough hope to continue. Truth be told, for a time in his life, actually for most of his life Elena had really only been a sister's friend, she never really crossed his mind. That was until one day, (When he had locked himself up in his room after saying to both his parents that he was not going to go to the performance that he had been placed in.) when she had come in to his room, without even knocking, mind you, and said, "You could do better on the high notes."
Well, at first, he had not only thrown her out, but also locked and barricaded the door so that he was sure that she would not be able to come in and disturb him in his pout.
Though soon something sparked within him and he allowed her in for some odd reason, and told her to sit and listen for any mistakes that he could have made else where. It was soon a routine practice and so far she was the only one that he had ever let in to the disaster zone that was his room besides his parents. That was how thier friendship had started, and soon he was attempting to not only prove himself to her, but also to the people who considered him a 'nobody'. He was willing to show them that he wasn't just a boy trapped in the shadows of perfection. Hell no.
A smirk crossed his lips as he muttered, "Shadow's Reel." and he stood playing with the back ground tempo of the Akuma screaming while their bodies were devoured by threstrals of shadows ran around him.
Though after a moment, he stopped as a jolt of power rushed past his left and he immediately turned to see what was going on.
~.~.~0~.~.~
Lavi looked around the area that he was fighting as the Akuma began to slowly thin and nearly retreat before meeting either Yuu-chan's or his swings of power. He looked down to see the other one still hacking down demon after demon with unnerving accuracy. The way that the Japanese man crouched was like a snake ready to stirke... no not a snake, a black panther, was unremarkable. A Black Panther? Yeah, that was it, he and Jiji... no wait, Jiji and he, (Correct grammar was always important to a Bookman, for they could never make mistakes in their documents, for that would make them look ignorant and illegible. And he wasn't one for that, thank yooou.)
Instinctivly he took a swing with Ōzuchi Kozuchi at something as it moved out of the corner of his vision, and lo and behold, he found a very pissed off Kanda Yuu glaring at him. It seemed as though the little Akuma he had just attempted to kill was Yuu-chan's long, black tress. Thank god he hadn't used one of the Fire Seals, cause if Yuu-chan's hair just so happened to get singed, he would be a speared and stewed rabbit.
Though within a moment his attentive eye caught a hold of something in the distance, and after squinting to make sure that what he saw wasn't a mirage. For there before his very eyes was Crown Clown, it's white cape billowing in an un-noticed wind, the silver mask twinkling in the pale light, and looking at them.
The plate of metal turned upward slightly, as if smiling as a young female scream of shock and terror entered the air.
Raise your hand if you love Lavi! (Raises hand) He is one of the funniest and best characters in the whole series! Kanda is awesome in his dark, slightly scary way, but Lavi is just hilarious at times, and to me it is that quality that makes the moments that he goes serious so in-depth. ;P
I am sorry for the slight delay, one of my dear brothers decided that it would be funny to see my reaction when he not only went into my bedroom and found my passwords sheet that I keep in my journal, but also delete half the things in my inventory, like two stories that I had been working on for almost two GOD DAMNING YEARS!!
Character Charts:
Name: Minerva Marie also known as Minnie
Birthday: April 23
Age: 16
Place of Birth: Britain
Description: She as been Elena's best friend for as long as either of the two can remember. She is the younger of the two children that Noise and Miranda had when they decided to settle down and live a normal life after the fall of the Exorcists. She is highly energetic with a slight shy streak. Being a very loyal friend she will stick to her companions like a mother hen, even when there are some in the group that she would rather not be around. She will have gut feelings about a person and go by those feelings, even if they tell her not to trust a person. After she thinks that you are not trust-worthy it is nearly impossible to regain that trust. She also will hold horrible grudges, and she will not let go of them, even if they were made when she was a toddler. She is one of the only children in the second generation that does not have a Innocence and feels slightly envious of Chéri due to the fact that the older girl has become so close to Elena in such little time and is such a good fighter. She seems to be interested in Alma. All-in-all she is a very good friend, even with the slightly bad habits.
Likes: Reading, running, listening to her brother's music, singing, and Elena.
Dislikes: Loud noises, blood, people who hurt her family or friends.
Translations:
"Tarjetas Santas: Reina de Corazones," Holy Cards, Queen of Hearts, Spanish
'Ōzuchi Kozuchi' Little Hammer, Big Hammer, Japanese
'Jiji' Grandpa-informal Japanese
Please Read and Review!! :)
Marine