AN: A double chapter release! (So don't miss ch.3.) Enjoy!
Darkest Before the Dawn
This was unpleasant; the feeling of someone probing through his internal organs, searching for something. It was starting to remind him of his personal psychopath, and the way his hands would glide along the surface of his skin, then slip beneath it on a whim.
The draconian woman was murmuring something about changes, but neither she nor Komui had pinpointed the exact difference in his Innocence.
"Breathe, exorcist." Hevlaska continued her monitoring of his Innocence, as the information was relayed to the various screens below, where the useless scientist watched.
Kanda took deep breaths, attempting to relax a bit, despite recent associations with this particular sensation, but he began to reject the feeling, attempting to expel it from his skin.
Tyki...
Speak of the devil. The golden-eyed Noah stepped from the wall, joining the party. He didn't even say anything, he just walked to the railing, and leaned forward, watching Hevlaska examine his object of fascination.
"Innocence," she intoned. As useful as that was, Kanda ignored her. He was far too busy glaring at Tyki, who gave a cheerful little wave in response.
"He's responding," Komui observed.
'To me?' Tyki mimed to Kanda, pointing to himself, while the exorcist, who was suspended much higher in the air above the bridge, unable to do anything more than wish for his visitor's immediate demise.
That playful attitude was a good reason for him to die. If anything, the exorcist was currently wishing that he shared the ability to reject anything he wished, and specifically, that he could reject the Noah's existence. Or at least his presence. He turned away so he wouldn't have to see Tyki's obvious amusement as he floated in the air, getting his innards felt up by the monotonous keeper of Innocence.
"It's intensifying. I think it has something to do with the Noah's arrival." Komui gave a nod towards Tyki, just to be polite, since he wasn't causing any trouble. "Kanda, could you please focus on Mr. Mikk for a moment? And it's okay if you activate your Innocence now."
Okay? He'd like nothing better. He brushed his right palm against the hilt of his sword, and mentally activated Mugen without unsheathing.
The various screens showed Kanda's silhouette glowing against the background, less than half as bright as his Innocence and the other pieces around him, but still more than any other object, or Hevlaska. The various displays reflected off Komui's glasses, but he was still the only one who could see the information. "If anything, I'd say that Innocence is beginning to permeate throughout his body. It's low-level, but given his thoughts recently, I'd say that it's responding to his desire to protect himself."
Protect my ass. Kanda snorted. Of course, he'd wished that he could stop Tyki just about ten times every day, especially when the bastard was busy sinking his hands into his flesh. He really had a twisted idea of fun. But if the Innocence was really listening to him, he would already have the first weapon specially formulated to kill Noah rather than Akuma. Perhaps his body would become that weapon: he envisioned an Innocence driven fist striking into Tyki's gut, until Komui interrupted that idyllic fantasy.
"I don't think it's going to do anything offensively, since it only seems to extend outward to the surface of your skin, so there's no force field capability. However, the defensive aspect should be quite useful, but we need to test it. Hevlaska, do you mind setting him down?"
Kanda watched apprehensively as he drew nearer to the bridge, Hevlaska complying with Komui's request. The mere sight of Tyki, looking as he always did, impeccably garbed in well fitting trousers and an artistically draped open shirt, was enough to fill him with irritation. Couldn't that damn Noah even stalk someone without looking like the hero of a romance novel? It was sickening and demeaning. He rested his hand on Mugen's hilt, ready to draw the second his feet touched the ground.
He could feel Tyki's gaze slithering up his pants, lingering on his hips as Hevlaska delivered him onto a solid surface. Now. Steel rang out in the silence, and satisfaction coursed through his veins as he knew that his challenge would be answered when the Noah stepped from the railing, shifting his weight and quirking his brow.
"Now hold on, Kanda!" Komui yelped, certain there would be blood spilled on his precious equipment any moment. "Didn't you hear me? We have to get you tested first!"
"Just what have you been doing, Kanda-kun." Tyki muttered, not really asking.
Kanda glared instead of replying with the obvious. Just contact with that filth merited being tested, in his opinion. Trying to hurry this along, he acceded with ill grace. "Fine. What do I do?"
"All right. I think the easiest way to test the limits of the Innocence that's filtering through your body is to do a little experiment." He considered Tyki. "Mr. Mikk, would you be so kind as to assist us today?"
Tyki, ever the gentlemen, was only too happy to help, and Kanda knew it.
"Anything for my Kanda," he purred.
Komui was all business. "Well, then, if you wouldn't mind, try to phase through Kanda. If I'm correct, you shouldn't be able to."
The mere idea that he could stop the Noah from phasing into him was enough to make him giddy. Not that he would admit it to being happy about anything in such shitty company. Tyki came closer; Kanda recoiled. This was a terrible experiment, he decided. There was no way he was going to volunteer to have his stalker put a hand through him. He backed away slowly.
"Don't you want to find out now, rather than later tonight?" Komui called from behind his gadgets.
"There will be no later tonight." But the section leader had a point. He raised a hand, stopping Tyki's advance, then extended it towards the freak. "Here."
Tyki looked at the proffered palm in consternation. His Kanda was offering him a point of contact? He reached, hovering above until his fingertips grazed against his palm, and then he tried to sink them into the muscles of the hand.
It wasn't working. Kanda couldn't have been more ecstatic if they told him his next mission was a solo one. He stared intensely at the contact that went no deeper than the skin, immensely glad. That is, until he realized that the warm hand against his belonged to the asshole who fucked up his dreams last night, and had shown up here uninvited. And that they were still pretty much holding hands in perfect balance. He snapped his eyes up to see Tyki already staring at him.
Tyki smirked. "If you'd wanted to touch me this badly, you should've said so."
Kanda jerked his hand back as though he could erase the contact. How long had they been frozen like that? Maybe he could just kill everyone in the room to save himself the embarrassment of this whole damn situation. His face felt rather warm, and he only hoped it didn't show. He turned away testily.
"Hey, don't be shy," Tyki stepped towards him. "I've already seen -"
Mugen's blade stood between them as Kanda whirled around, not intending to let him any closer.
"Um, you two can touch or fight each other all you want, but do you mind taking it outside? This really isn't the place."
The sister-complex was treating this whole thing like couples therapy or something. It was completely inappropriate, and Kanda was going to make him pay. As soon as he didn't need him anymore.
"Thank you for your help, Mikk, but do you mind if I speak to Kanda alone for a while?"
Kanda sputtered a bit. "He doesn't - he can't give you permission. I'm not -"
"Of course, it won't be a problem." Tyki left, using a door, for once. "I'll be outside waiting for you, my dear." He winked, just to infuriate the swordsman, before allowing the door to swing closed behind him.
"-with him." Kanda growled warningly. "Komui..." He wasn't really that eager to go out into the hallway and join his stalker, but that didn't make him like the scientist any more than before. The dislike range of his emotions just kept growing with further contact with these people.
"I think I might have something for you," Komui confided, in an exaggerated whisper. Not getting any reaction from the samurai, he tried again.
"Watch this." He turned to one of the machines, rummaged in one of the rolling station's drawers, and tossed in something black that clinked as it landed. A lot of whooshing and spinning ensued inside the mysterious device, as Komui gave what he thought was a useful explanation.
"Based on how your Innocence extended its influence into your body, I managed to work out a way to replicate the same sort of infusion technique using the various Innocence stored here."
Great. Kanda wondered if he was going to get a superhero suit of Innocence or something. Of course, it wouldn't help, since they could still be removed the normal way.
Something clattered at the base of the machine, like a prize at an arcade. Komui fished it out. "There! I think this will do very nicely! Here you go." Thrusting the object at Kanda, he swiveled back around, looking extremely occupied as he began tapping buttons and clicking dials.
Kanda opened his hands to examine his prize. It was furry and cold. His thumbs caught the ends of two loops. He stared at the connected circles uncomprehendingly.
"You're giving me black fuzzy handcuffs." Kanda had to state it, just to be sure.
"They're Innocence infused, man! He won't be able to escape them, so go on and try them out. It should fix some of the problems you've been having."
Kanda decided to speak slowly, since the sister complex was obviously a product of incest. "I, am not, and never will be, with that creep. We are not some couple with bedroom issues. So what. is. this. crap?"
His level gaze was beginning to creep Komui out. "Ah yes, you can't walk out of here like that! Let's box it up so that you can surprise him later, hm?" He rapidly stuffed it into a box, and pushed Kanda out the door before he remembered he had a sword.
Tyki looked up at the sound of the door closing behind Kanda. That was one stunned looking exorcist.
"I was about to come check on you, Kanda dear. What took so long?" He peered at the new object at Kanda's side. "What's in the box?"
"Nothing." Blue hair trailed in the wake of the exorcist who was rapidly moving down the hallway.
"Is it for me? A token of your affection, maybe," Tyki teased, catching up.
A gleam filled those cold blue eyes, as visions of a specific Noah at his mercy filled his mind. "You know what? If you're good, maybe I'll show you later." Maybe freedom wouldn't be so unattainable after all. And maybe, Komui wouldn't have to die.
"Brother, don't you think that was a bit... wrong?" Lenalee asked, as she set her tray of coffee down. "You know that Kanda has never willingly gone with Tyki before, and you're not protecting him?"
Komui sighed. "The truth is, we can't protect him. We're actually lucky that Tyki isn't kiling off our residents, or stealing all the Innocence. Even in a fight, it's not entirely certain who would win, and with our forces still recovering, it's not something that I want to push unless I have to."
"But Tyki..."
"It's true that he appears to be a sadistic sociopath, but right now, he's fixated on Kanda. And if Kanda can neutralize him, that would be worth a lot - and it would go a long way towards leveling our playing field against the Earl." He adjusted his glasses, obscuring his eyes momentarily. "If giving Kanda to Tyki will remove or distract the Noah of Pleasure from the fight without causing a new one to be reborn, then it would be in the best interest of the Order."
Lenalee wanted to protest, but nothing came out.
"At the very least, he has the best chance of taming the Noah, and it's obvious that Tyki will never eliminate him. So we'll help them and hope that when it's all sorted out, they end up on our side." With that, he tossed in a few more objects into his new Innocence-infuser to give to Kanda later.