Chapter Two
Kanda crossed his arms and his legs, managing to look unconcerned and relaxed in the presence of the prowling inspector and the members of the elite Crow that surrounded him. Behind him, Link was ostensibly making sure that Kanda stayed put and didn't make any sudden moves, but in reality he was making sure that the Crow didn't jump to conclusions and attempt to take Kanda into custody. He didn't think that that confrontation would end well.
Leverrier paused in his pacing and glared at Kanda with beady black eyes. "Go over the event of that night once more" he ordered in a tone that brooked no argument- this was not a questioning, it was a full-scale interrogation.
Kanda raised an eyebrow at the inspector, not saying anything. He's already been though this twice that night and didn't really think that anything had changed between one telling and the next. However, he was supposed to be posing as the perfect soldier- the bureaucrats had had little to complain about from him before after all, and it would be beneficial to those in the Order if Kanda continued this charade. He took a calming breath, not looking up at the tall man stalking the room.
"I had been out training that morning in the grounds. It was around lunchtime when I decided to head inside, but was interrupted by the sound of the emergency alarm. I immediately changed direction and headed to my post, but was intercepted by Allen Walker" damn no matter how many times he went over this same story, it still felt strange to say Allen's name "who ran into me, literally, on one of the lower floor corridors, not far from what was the Ark room." Here he allowed some of the annoyance he had felt that night show through- after all, it was a well known fact that he and Allen didn't get on- he'd be forgiven, perhaps even expected, to feel something like anger towards the other exorcist.
"He told me that he was going to seal the Ark, as was his job when the alarm sounds, so I let him go. I did not see anything wrong with either my own actions, or his, at the time."
"And you did not notice that Inspector Link was not with him?" Leverrier sneered, in exactly the same way as he had done every other time that they had had this conversation.
"Of course" Kanda said, repeating his earlier response once more. "But I am merely an exorcist, and as such I am not privy to the orders of others. It was not my place to question the whereabouts of the inspector, and even if I had confronted Walker about it, surely sealing the Ark and stopping an attack would take precedence over waiting for him?"
"You're right, it isn't your place!" Leverrier snapped, ignoring Kanda's question entirely. Kanda smirked to himself. Leverrier was getting frustrated now, and soon he'd either give up his fruitless interrogation, or he'd reveal the true reason he had called Kanda to him.
Leverrier regarded him with gimlet eyes for a moment before making a small motion with his hand and the assembled Crow filed out silently. Link moved to stand in front of the door, arms folded and looking every part of a loyal guard. Kanda had trouble believing that this was the same man who had helped orchestrate and cover up Allen's escape.
Leverrier sat down on a chair that he had dragged across the room , put his elbows on his knees with his hands clasped between them and gave Kanda a frank look. "I like you, Kanda" he said.
The out of the blue statement threw the exorcist for a moment.
"You're my kind of exorcist" the man went on. "You're loyal to the Order as an organisation, not he people in it. You follow orders and you always get the job done. This war would be going a lot better if we had more exorcists like you." He leaned back in his chair, looking very satisfied. "Yes, I like you."
Kanda glanced at Link, who gave a tiny shrug behind Leverrier's back. Obviously the other man had no idea where this was headed either.
"There is something troubling that has recently been brought to my attention. I suspect that there may be more traitors hiding within Headquarters. You know as well as I do that Walker does not possess the intelligence to orchestrate this escape alone." He glanced over his shoulder at Link for a moment. "Howard here told Supervisor Lee about our plans to take Walker into custody. Perhaps that was a mistake," and Kanda saw the lines around Leverrier's eyes tighten for a moment. It seemed like the man was far from impressed with Link's actions, but Kanda would be very surprised if Leverrier suspected his most trusted toady. Men as arrogant as the Inspector rarely expected the people closest to them, their devoted followers, to stab them in the back. "But what is done is done. Walker is out there somewhere and the longer he is, there more likely it is that the Fourteenth Noah will become dominant and we will have a problem on our hands that could have easily been avoided."
Kanda's face remained blank, but his mind was having trouble wrapping around the word "dominant" and applying it to the Fourteenth, who of course was in Allen's body. It was a strange thought.
"So I have a mission for you" Leverrier continued, jerking Kanda out of his thoughts abruptly. He made a motion that the inspector should continue.
"I need to flush the traitors out of the Order," Leverrier told him bluntly. "And I need people I can trust to be on my side while I do it."
Kanda frowned slightly. "And you want me to do that?"
"No" Leverrier said with a small shake of his head. "Howard here will be taking on that responsibility. No, I have a far more important job in mind for you." He paused here, as though waiting for Kanda to say something else, but the Japanese exorcist remained typically silent, so with a small throat-clearing cough, Leverrier continued. "You are to take Allen Walker into custody."
Kanda stared at the older man in disbelief, though luckily the expression did not translate to his face. "You want me to do what?" he asked in a deceptively calm voice.
"Consider it a… promotion, if you will," Leverrier said with a snake-like smile. "You will have the freedom to travel wherever the search takes you, reporting only to me. No more mindless missions for you." He leaned forward conspiratorially. "I reward my loyal soldiers."
Kanda considered this carefully. He knew that he actually wasn't able to turn Leverrier down, but this was actually a fantastic opportunity. If the inspector trusted that Kanda was hunting Allen down, then he could keep Allen safer for longer.
"Very well" Kanda agreed, getting to his feet.
Leverrier handed him a document encased in a plain black folder with the words 'top secret' stamped in the corner in tiny writing. "I trust you can be discreet about what we have discussed here today. Dismissed." Leverrier turned away without another word and Kanda considered that he was free to go.
0o0o0o0o0
Allen sat down at the side of the road, wiping his sweat-slicked forehead on his ragged sleeve. It had been a week since he and Kanda parted ways on the outskirts of Paris, and it had turned into one of the hardest weeks of Allen's life.
Timcampy fluttered anxiously around his head, attempting to take up a perch in his hair as per usual, but he waved the golem off, annoyed that even this little machine was fretting over his well-being.
'That's because, unlike you, everyone else had accepted the inevitable' the Fourteenth informed him. Ever since Allen left Paris, the Noah in his head had become much more verbose, sliding snide little comments into the conversation (albeit a one-sided conversation) as often as he could.
Allen's ability to ignore him was reducing every time it happened.
With a sigh he stopped flapping his hands at the golem, allowing Tim to settle in his hair, which was still brown and untidy, though considerably shorter than it had been before when he had first donned the disguise. He had stopped putting in the drops to colour his eyes the night he had left Paris.
Tim patted his head in a way that the little machine probably thought was comforting but Allen found rather patronising.
"Stop it, Tim" he whined, nudging the golem with his fingertips. Tim immediately took up a mouthful of Allen's hair and began to munch on it. Allen sighed in defeat.
The sun hung low in the sky, the day drawing to a close, but he was still in the middle of nowhere. It looked like another night roughing it.
Pulling a misshapen lumpy piece of knitted wool from his bag, he jammed the hat onto his head, unseating the golem in the process, before pulling another shirt on over the one he was already wearing. The days might still be warm, but summer was nearly at an end and the nights were frigid.
He briefly considered donning the exorcist coat that Kanda had gifted him with, but decided against it. He'd not put it on since the first time that Kanda had insisted on him having it, though he had often pulled it from his nag to run his hands over it, breathing in the last vestiges of Kanda's scent that barely clung to the fabric.
This time he folded it up reverently and lay back with his head pillowed against it. The thought of what Kanda would say if he saw him once again using the coat as a pillow made his smile faintly.
With the vegetation at the side of the road providing cover, Allen closed his eyes despite the fact that the sun had not fully set yet.
The golden golem settled beside him, taking a lick of hair into its mouth as its master fell asleep. Timcampy stayed awake watching over Allen, not moving even when the fingers of his right hand began moving jerkily, and continued to do so all night.
0o0o0o0o0
Komui was waiting for Kanda outside the room. Leverrier had been using to question him in. As soon as the exorcist emerged through the doors, the supervisor grabbed his arm and dragged him down a narrow corridor, hoping to get away before they attracted Leverrier's attention. He stuck his head round the corner cautiously: it looked like they'd avoided detection.
It wasn't until he felt cold steel against his bare throat that he realised that dragging the Order's residential homicidal exorcist down into the bowels of headquarters without warning wasa stupid thing to do.
"Explain" Kanda growled at him, not removing Mugen from his neck.
"Kanda, Kanda, Kanda, put your sword away" Komui said, pretending he wasn't shaking all the way down to his slippered toes. "You know we can't be seen together without levrier getting suspicious, and I know my office is bugged. This was the safest way to get you alone – if we were seen, all anyone can say is I forced you to come along with me.!
"Hn" Kanda removed his sword, sheathing it and glaring expectantly at the Supervisor, who it turned out was less of an idiot than previously reckoned who knew? "Well?"
Komui began pacing the small space between them, wringing his hands in agitation.
"What did he want from you Kanda?" he asked "How deep are we in it here?"
To the Chinese man's surprise, the exorcist smirked. "You" and he pointed at Komui just in case the Supervisor was confused to whom he was referring. "are fucked."
Komui gaped at Kanda's apparently amused tone.
"Leverrier knows it was you. He doesn't suspect anyone else, except Link is in the shit for telling you."
Komui gulped but nodded. "That was what we hoped would happen."
"You always meant to be the one under suspicion? Bet Moyashi loved that." Kanda scoffed.
"It was the only way to get him out safely" Komui countered "We've all had to make sacrifices, Allen more than any of us."
Kanda couldn't not agree with that, so stayed silent.
"So what did dear Malcolm want from you?" Komui asked again.
"To promote me" Kanda said with customary bluntness.
Komui stumbled as he turned to pace back across the corridor. "Pardon?"
"Honourary promotion, General status" Kanda smrked, looking entirely too pleased with himself. "I get to travel the world as I see fit in order to track down Allen Walker, who is wanted on charges of heresy."
Komui stared at Kanda for over a minute before actually jumping up and down and clapping his hands like an excited school girl. "This is perfect!" he squealed "Wonderful wonderful! By putting you in charge of looking for Allen, Leverrier has handed us the perfect weapon!"
Kanda took a half step back just in case the Supervisor tried to hug him.
"Of course, as a general you'll need a new coat... by the way, what happened to your other one? Don't tell me, you let Allen have it, didn't you? You're far too sentimental for your own good, though why you'd..." here Komui paused turning wide eyed onto Kanda who was now five paces down the corridor, sword in hand. "You let Allen have it!" Komui squeaked, leaving an accusatory finger at the exorcist. "You deflowered our little Allen!"
Kanda gave an awkward shuffle, glaring at the supervisor, whose eyes widened further, if possible and he waved a fist in the air, satisfied they were completely alone before shouting, rather loudly "Curse you Allen! You deflowered our Kanda!" and he gave said exorcist a crooked grin.
Kanda made those five steps disappear as he chased the supervisor through the corridors.
0o0o0o0o0
When Tyki returned to the hotel room he was armed with a massive bouquet of flowers, and a cat.
Jo gushed over the flowers, admiring the species and colours, but when she tried to pet the cat, it gave her an astoundingly frosty look and stalked away, situating itself on her bed and alternating between glaring at her with cold yellow eyes and cleaning itself with long leisurely licks.
Jo proceeded to ignore the cat, more interested in the man who had just removed his hat and gloves and was draping his dinner jacket artfully over the chaise-lounge by the window.
"Josephine, my dear girl. How are you this evening?" he asked, bowing over hand and gently kissing her knuckles.
She curtsied in return "I am well, thank you. And thank you for the flowers, they are lovely." She didn't mention the cat.
"Nothing but the best for my favourite lady" Tyki said graciously. Over on the bed, Lulubell paused in her wash and hissed "I do no think that being treated properly is something they are used to."
Jo touched a petal with the tip of one finger. "Well, not really, although Allen once –" She stopped suddenly with a gasp, darting frightened hazel eyes to the man watching her from the other side of the room. Tyki smiled gently and crossed the intervening space, taking her street roughened hands in his own tanned smooth ones and capturing her averted gaze with ernest eyes. "Don't shut out those memories. Obviously your time with those men is a big part of your life – it will do you no harm to remember it, as long as you also remember the truth."
Jo nodded, reassured. At first Tyki's reaction whenever she mentioned the exorcists made her believe she should refrain from doing so – he always seemed...well, angry wasn'nt the right word, though there was definitely an element of anger in there – it was more – excited, hungry. Like he wanted to know everything she did about them and was just barely holding back from shaking her silly and demanding answers.
She realised that this reaction was due to the fervour with which Tyki held his mission. Obviously trying to rid the world of evil was important to him, so it was understandable that he would be eager for any news that would prove aventageous to his cause. But he hadn't pushed her, even though it was clear he wanted to, and for that reason she thought it only fair that she talk to him about her time with the exorcists.
"Well, I've pretended to be a boy for so long now, being treated like this is hard to get used to" she gave herself a small self-depreciating smile. "But the...exorcists never treated me badly, even when Allen still thought I was a boy. Though..." she trailed off thoughtfully, then shrugged. "I guess he liked me better as a boy."
Tyki tried not to smirk at that. "And the other exorcist? How did he treat you?"
"He was horrible!" Jo exploded, waving her arms overexcitedly and stomping her foot in a very unladylike manner. "He treated me like dirt, even when he found out I was a girl!" She exclaimed, now pacing the room, too wound up to sit still. "And he watched me all the time! Whenever I got close to Allen, he'd be there, staring at me!" She stopped pacing anf crossed her arms, her eyes narrowed. "If he'd never turned up, then Allen would never have..." She shuddered "This is all that damn exorcists fault – he took Allen away from me!"
Tyki hid his smirk – the girl was so damn bitter, it was beautiful. "Do not worry my child, soon we will make the exorcists pay."
She looked up at him, hazel eyes wide and sparkling. "Really? I can help you?" The thought of becoming involved in the hidden war excited her, it would give her empty life a sense of purpose. For too long now she had been merely existing, going from day to day without meaning. If she could help rif the world of the exorcist menace, then she would have something to live for.
"of course you will help!" Tyki said, as though it was a simple statement of fact. "I will need your help" he added earnestly. Jo beamed, turning once more to the flowers to hide her embarrassment.
On the bed, the cat began to purr.
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