Beloved
A -man story
ch. 8 Accommodation

The morning came way too slow in Yuu's opinion. He woke up around five in the morning and found he was unable to fall back asleep. After lying a few minutes in bed he gave up and got dressed. As he headed out the door, his reflex was to grab his katana, only to realize he gave it to Roy the day before. He mentally slapped himself and darted down the hall in the general direction of the cafeteria, silently hoping the cooks were awake.

He arrived at the Order three days ago and was given a basic tour of the place. Right now, the only rooms he remembered precisely how to reach were his room, the cafeteria, the supervisor's office and the bathrooms. He was slowly learning the way to the training rooms, the lounge, the library and the science division, where he was supposed to go later in the day.

Tiedoll had also took it upon himself to present him to the other exorcists. Reed and Andrew were…ok, if a bit annoying, what with their oh-so-happy attitude. He made a note to ignore them as much as possible. He was a bit taken aback when meeting Dan who turned out to be a mute. He honestly didn't know how to communicate with him and started inwardly panicking, obviously not showing it though. But then the other made words appear in the air. His master laughed his ass off at his expression but he barely noticed, still staring at the words. Apparently, it had something to do with the other's innocence. There were two more people who were in the hospital wing, where he still refused to go, so he decided he'd meet them when they got out.

When he reached the cafeteria, he stopped just outside the door, his attention being grabbed by loud noises coming from a floor below. Curious, he moved to the railing and peeked down. There were a total of five nurses tending to one blonde woman and a light-blue haired man. The latter seemed fine, except maybe a scratch or two, but the woman was covered in bandages. When the nurses seemed satisfied with their work on the man, they all quickly moved to take the blonde to what may have been the direction of the hospital wing.

"Who're you?" He snapped his head back to the man to see him staring up at him, one eyebrow raised. "You new kid?" Yuu immediately felt a frown appear on his face "Don't call me that" he snarled in response and turned to go and eat. The other seemed to find his reaction quite amusing, as he heard him giggle. He turned around to yell back only to have the shock of his life when he found the man just three feet away from him "What the-!? How the hell did you get here so fast!?"

The man smirked, walking past him and ruffling his hair "I'm just that good" His frown darkened as he started rearranging his hair. "Come on kid, or are you planning to stay in the hall the whole day?" For some reason, he followed, muttering under his breath. They made their way towards the open window where the chef, Saan was waiting for orders.

Yuu took this moment to eye this new individual. He was tall, had short messy blue-ish hair and eyes. He was dressed with the same kind of uniform his master wore, just personalized differently. For one, it had short sleeves and he was wearing some long gloves running all the way above the elbows. His jacket was also shorter than Tiedoll's, ending at his knees, the symbol of the Rose Cross plastered in the middle of his back. He vaguely remembered Froi telling him it was so exposed so they would attract the akuma. They were moving targets.

"Your turn" He looked up, noticing the man had taken his food and was politely waiting for him to do the same. His food came fast and he followed the elder to an empty table. Now, if you were to ask him why he was doing whatever this stranger was telling him to do, he wouldn't be able to answer. There was just something about this man that made him follow his words unconditionally.

"So" the elder began "What's your name? And who, if you had one, was your master? Or, is, however you wanna take it" What's that supposed to mean "Yuu…Kanda" That name still was weird to pronounce, especially knowing it was now his. And he still couldn't figure how it suited him. "Tiedoll's my master. And who are you?" His response was a smirk "The name's Axel. Axel Deli"

That sounded somewhat familiar, but it still didn't ring any bells. Yuu started thinking back to what people Tiedoll had mentioned in the past, trying to figure out who this guy was. Obviously an exorcist, he had an intimidating aura, not to mention the finders were pretty much avoiding him at all cost, he also had this weird vibe about h-

Any and all thought froze the second Axel took off his gloves to start eating. His left hand was ok, nothing weird about it except a hugeass tattoo of Death and crows and some Aztec or Maya patterns. However his right hand, well, he didn't really have one. From just under the elbow, it was a robotic arm, simple, dark silver with some white patterns and a greenish cross in the middle of the back of the palm.

Deli obviously noticed the stare he, or more precisely, his hand was receiving and held it up "Pretty cool right?" Kanda looked at it with amazement and a frown, feeling the Innocence radiate from within. "What happened to your arm?"

Axel rested his head on his left hand and also started staring at his hand "What was it now… About three, maybe four years ago, I was on a mission and I had a little surprise to run in a bit more akuma than intended; around a hundred actually. I didn't pay attention, and a few level threes managed to sneak behind me and cut my arm off. They were after the Innocence. Back then, it was split in two gloves, but now they made it like this. Quite ingenious, actually."

Then he remembered. Way back when Tiedoll managed to make him agree to become an exorcist, he talked about this guy. "You're a general?" His answer came in the form of a nod. "So, that woman was what? Your apprentice?" "Nope; teammate. I just met her a few weeks ago Not a very good first date if you ask me" he ended with a smirk.

"Yuu!" He turned around and saw his master standing in the door, waving him over. He didn't hesitate to get up and run towards him. While he was doing that, the general seemed to notice who he was talking to and waved "Axel, I didn't know you were here!" "Not for long! Leaving in a few hours!" "Oh? Well, we can leave together then" This slightly alarmed the younger exorcist "What!? You're leaving?"

Tiedoll looked down and smiled while leaving the room, Kanda right beside him "Yes, precisely. That's why I need to talk to you. First of all, I know you don't want to, but you need to go to the hospital wing, today. I'll come with you so there's no need to worry. Secondly, you are here so as soon as you will receive uh…Mugen was it, back, you will probably be sent on missions. It's highly unlikely you'll be left on your own; you'll probably be paired with another exorcist and finders. Please try not to kill them. Now, regarding Mugen. Roy has informed me they found someone to shape it. The problem about that is that he's at the Asia Branch which I'm assuming is not a place you would like to go to, but the higher-ups don't really care. It's already bad enough they lost you to the exorcists. So, after we finish with the nurses, we'll be going down at Roy"

Kanda was, by now, really stressing to register everything the other was saying. Way too much information in way too little time.

It took them five minutes to get to the medical ward. The matron lost no time to move him on one of the bed and start examining him, all the while complaining that it took him so long to come by. He, however, wasn't paying much attention. Half of him was trying to force himself still, looking around the room for something that would keep him distracted from whatever the nurse was doing. And he found it in the form of none other than Lenalee, when she beamed out his name "Kanda! Are you hurt?" "…No. It's just a checkup" And though he sounded calm, he was anything but. It took a lot of force just to make sure his hand wouldn't jerk away or start shaking.

She seemed to relax, turning her gaze back at the nurse who finished taking off the bandages from one of her legs. To his shock, he recognized each and every one of those scars. Innocence. Were they forcing her to synchronize!? A sudden dark aura surrounded him. "Please take off your shirt" He did so with no second thought, still glaring at the girl's feet, not entirely registering what the woman besides him was even doing.

The matron raised a brow at the small tattoo on the boy's chest, but didn't comment on it, just shaking her head. She finished all of her points and stood up. "That was it. You're free to get dressed and go."

He didn't wait to be told again. As he passed Lenalee's bed, he couldn't help but look at her again. She caught his eyes and smiled, waving at him "I'll see you later, Kanda" He frowned and didn't answer, going right past Tiedoll and heading to the science division way faster than actually necessary. He heard his master behind him and slowed down to be right next to him "What's with her legs?"

The general seemed to be taken aback by the sudden question and glanced back at the hospital wing "Uh…she's compatible with Innocence but, because she was more-or-less forced to come here, she's restraining herself from fully synchronizing with it. Central…doesn't approve and keeps trying to force her to take the next step."

Kanda didn't push the matter more; however he became even angrier. She wasn't like him. To him, it didn't kill him to lose a leg, but her; even just those scratches should hurt very badly. Not to mention, the God damn pain that came when being forced to sync with the Innocence.

By the time the two arrived are the science division, the smaller exorcist was emitting such a dark aura, one could slice it.

Roy was a bit reluctant to go over, but, nonetheless, he did. Thankfully, Yuu didn't choose to release his anger on him. Thank God. "So, Kanda, we found someone to model your katana. He's name is Zu Mei Chang"

A/N: Pam Pam Pam! I'm getting back in the groove! I feel the story! Woo! Cliffhangers are cool. Now, next chapter, hmm… I'm going to send Kanda to the Asia Branch! Look forward to the drama people! Thank you for reading! Please, review or comment if you feel so inclined. I'll be seeing you next chapter.