Chapter 57- Two More Exorcists- Kanda

I sat under the shade of a tree, my head in my hands. Johnny sat next to me, crying.

"I should have done something!" He sobbed for the hundredth time.

I turned on him. "You couldn't do anything because there was nothing to do for him! No one could do anything because the Fourteenth was already taking him over from the moment he was born! It was bound to happen sometime, and nothing we could have done would have stopped it! So just shut the hell up!"
Johnny starred at me for a moment. Then, he hugged his knees to his chest, and started to cry again.

I stood up, and stomped away. I didn't want to listen to him cry. My mind went back to the memory from that morning.

Earlier, I had woken up to find a blade to my throat. Allen held that blade. However, his white hair was black, and his skin was gray. His eyes shone with a dark glow that sent me on edge.

"So, you've decided to come out, eh, Fourteenth?" I had asked.

Allen only smiled and was about to say something, when Johnny interrupted.

"Allen, what's going on?" He asked.

Allen looked at him. He kept the blade to my throat. "Call me Nea," He said.

Outside, we all heard the noise of the Akuma. "Nea" cursed, and ran out a window. Johnny tried to follow, but I held him back. We were surrounded by akuma.

I punched a tree, and immediately regretted it. I could feel pain shoot up from my knuckles all the way up my arm. That was just another sign that my body was getting weaker.

I started to shake my hand, trying to get rid of the pain.

"That was pathetic," Link muttered in the shadows.

"SHUT UP!" I snapped.

"I didn't say anything!" Johnny exclaimed.

"Not you," I said. I grabbed Link by the shirt, and pinned him against the tree. "Him!"
I heard Johnny gasp, and stand. A few seconds later, he was standing next to me.

"H-how?" He asked.

"He faked his death," I said. "And he ran away."

Link just smiled. "I was not expecting you to be so mad, Kanda. You must have really like that kid to be this mad."

I punched him. "I did not like that kid, get that? I only tried to help him because he helped Alma and me. Trying to help him is the only way I can die in peace!"

"What do you mean?" Johnny asked. "Why did you say that you're going to die in peace? Why are you saying you're going to die?"
I punched him too. "Be quiet, Johnny." I glared at Link. "Why are you following us instead of the Fourteenth?"

"I lost track of him," Link said. "He's strong and powerful, and he's not even at his full strength. We're going to have a much greater enemy on our hands soon."

I let him go, and walked away. "That's why I'm going to get to him before he gets all his strength back. I think that there's still a chance to save the Beansprout. However, we'll have to work fast."

"I think you need to return to the Black Order, Kanda," Link said. "You're in enough trouble, and if you don't get back, I'm sure that Lenalee's going to pay for your mistakes."

I stopped walking, and looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"Everyone knows that she's lying about not knowing where you are. Leverrier's going to try an extract the information out of her anytime soon, and knowing the Inspector, he's going to hurt her. It'll be just like when she was a kid. He'll hurt her worst now that he knows she can survive even the strongest attack against a Level Three akuma alone."

I clutched Mugen with my hand. He was right; Lenalee was going to pay for my being away.

I groaned. "I'm going back, but only to help her. You guys can do whatever it is you want to do."

"What did you mean by Leverrier hurting Lenalee like he did when she was a kid?" Johnny asked.

"Johnny, shut up," Link and I said together. We started to glare at each other.

Johnny screamed, "Look out!" Suddenly, two strange beams came from his glasses, heading my way. I ducked just before they hit me. I heard an explosion behind me, and turned to look at the swarm of akuma.

"How did you do that?" I heard Link asked. I unsheathed Mugen, and started to hack at akuma. I didn't hear the rest of the conversation.

I could see more beams hitting more akuma, and then daggers flying through the air. Ever time one of the beams or daggers hit an akuma, the creatures exploded. In no time, the battle was over.

I leaned against a tree, breathing hard. "What the hell's going on?"

"I think… I think we have innocence," Link said.

"Well that's a very smart thing for someone with such a small brain to come up with," I muttered. "But why is it just now activating?"

"Probably because we're all upset," Johnny said. I stared at him. "When I had first joined the Order, I was put to work on discovering what makes the innocence stronger. I found that in order for it to be really strong, the wielder has to have strong emotions the moment they activate it. When you guys came back from the Ark and told us what happened, I continued that study. You all were in very emotional situations, and that allowed you to use as much power as you did. Then during the attack on the Order, Lenalee was angry, sad, and scared. It allowed her to wield the innocence."

"So because of the Beansprout being taken over, you two discovered your innocence?" I asked.

"I think mine came because I was sad about Allen, and really confused about what you two were talking about," Johnny said. "However, I think that Link was just plain mad at you."

I sighed. "Surprisingly, that makes sense. Well, I guess that you two should come with me to the Order."

"Why do you say that?" Link asked.

"Because the Order and the Noahs will be hunting you now. You'll be safer at the Order than anywhere else until you learn how to master your innocence," I explained. I started to walk. "Are you coming?"

"How are we going to get there?" Link asked.

"I know some people that'll help," I said.

I looked out into the distance; only a little aware of the conversation that was taking place.

"It was really nice of that man to lend us his boat," Johnny said.

"I have another question; how will we be able to dock at the island, if they're going to shoot us?" Link asked. "They don't like boats that they don't know about."

We had been in the little boat for about an hour now, and it wasn't fun. I never liked the water, but being on a little boat with no room to move around was hell for me. I remembered that Zhu had said that almost every exorcist had what he called ADHD. I still wasn't sure what that was, but I figured that it meant that we didn't like to stay still.

About half way through the boat ride, I took hold of Link's daggers, and started to spin around. Johnny and Link had argued that it was dangerous, but I didn't listen to them. I didn't hurt anything, so it was alright.

I sighed, and closed my eyes, still twirling the dagger around. Lenalee's face popped into my mind. However, it wasn't the pretty smiling face that I was used to. Instead, she was young and scared. She was crying and she looked hurt.

My eyes flung open, and I let out a little gasp.

"You all right?" Link asked.

I nodded. "Just a bad memory." I let out a little yelp as I cut my hand with the dagger. Link took it away from me.

"That is why we said not to do that," He muttered. He started to bandage my hand, but I yanked free.

"Don't touch me," I said. I took the bandages, and wrapped them around my hand.

Johnny stopped rowing. "I'm stopping here because I do not want to get blown up.'

I turned to see that we were a little way away from the Order. I smiled. "Anyone want to go for a swim?"

I flailed onto the shore, and started to cough up water. Why the hell had I decided to swim?

Link chuckled. "You're not great at everything, huh?"

"Shut up," I gasped. I lay on my back.

"I forgot that you're afraid of water," Johnny said.

"I'm not afraid of it, I just hate it. I hate being wet," I said.

"So what do we do now?" Link asked.

"Let me think for a moment," I said. I closed my eyes, and started to think of a plan. We couldn't walk through the front door- that would get us killed in split seconds. Most of the gates were closed, so that wouldn't work. I needed a secret tunnel.

"Do either of you know where we could sneak in?" I asked. "I haven't had time to look for a secret tunnel."

"I know just what you're looking for," Link said.

We all stood, and followed the ex CROW. He led us to a giant tree. He started to dig a dagger into the trunk, and a secret door opened.

"It's a slide at first," Link said. "You need to be quiet unless you want to be found."

"You sound like you're not coming with us," I said.

"I am, but you two should go first. I need to close the door."

I shrugged, and climbed into the trunk. Just as Link had said, there was a slide. It went at a steep diagonal. I felt sick from the drop. I was glad when I hit the bottom because the drop was over, but my ankle turned as I landed. I fell to a sitting position, and started to scoot away from the entrance of the drop. The movement sent pain shooting through my ankle.

Johnny came next. He landed on his feet, and looked at me. "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine," I said. Johnny moved out of the way just as Link came down. He landed on foot, and fell face first onto the ground.

"How is it that the two who have had practice and training get hurt when going down a chute like that, but the one person who hasn't done any of this before is fine?" I asked.

Johnny shrugged. "I just have good balance."

"This is the first time I've ever seen you with good balance, Johnny," I said.

He just shrugged again, and bent down. "Did you twist your ankle?"

"Yeah," I muttered.

"I think I broke me nose," Link said. Blood was gushing from his nose.

Johnny sighed, and handed a kerchief to Link.

"Once we get there, well bring you two to the nurse," He said. He helped both of us up.

I had to have Johnny help me because it hurt too much to walk on my own. I felt weak because of this fact.

After a while, I heard yelling, and knelt down to look through the little vent opening in the wall. Leverrier was yelling at Lenalee who was sitting on a chair. She looked scared, and was staring at the ground.

I slowly took the grate off, and slid it inside. I snuck through the opening, and stood up. No one in the room noticed me.

Leverrier raised his hand to slap Lenalee, and grabbed it. "That would be a bad idea on your part, Inspector."

Both the inspector's and Lenalee's eyes widened. Lenalee stood, staring at me.

"How… WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Leverrier asked.

I let his arm go, and stepped back. I crossed my arms over my chest. "I've been a lot of places. The most important thing is that I'm back now."

The inspector opened his mouth, but no sound came out. His gaze traveled to behind me, and I turned around to see Johnny helping Link out of the vent. Leverrier past me, and stormed up to them. He shoved Johnny away.

"I thought I told you to only reveal yourself to the Fourteenth," He said.

Link shrugged. His nose had stopped bleeding but his face was still covered in his blood. "I was trying to keep a low profile, but Kanda found me. The only reason why I'm here is because I apparently have innocence."

I spoke before any one else could. "It's true. Both Link and Johnny have some innocence."

"Also, the Fourteenth's taken Walker over," Link said.

Leverrier turned to me. "So you were helping Walker even though he's our enemy?"

"No," I lied. "I went to go talk to Johnny. I needed to ask him a few questions regarding my golem. It's been acting up. That's why it was off. It turned itself off, and then on, and then off again. I barely touched it. I went to ask Johnny to fix it because he was the one who created it."
"Is this true?" Leverrier asked, turning to Johnny.

"Yes," Johnny said. "We were attacked be akuma, and Allen came to help us. However, the Fourteenth took him over in the middle of the battle. He ran off before anyone could attack."

Leverrier was silent for a moment. Finally, he sighed. "Lenalee, go tell the others about this."

"Yes, Sir," Lenalee said. She gave a little bow, looked at me, smiled, and ran out of the room.

"What made you come back?" Leverrier asked, looking at all of us.

"It is our job to fight akuma with our fellow exorcists," Link said.

I noticed the inspector seemed distracted. The bags under his eyes told me that he hadn't been getting a lot of sleep. It was a look that I've grown up with because of the Science Department. They were always tiered and distracted. However, seeing that on the inspector's face made me wonder just what had happened within the last few months.

I was just about to ask, when Leverrier said, "Get going. We don't need everyone waiting for you three."

Link, Johnny and I all left the room. When we rounded the corner, I said, "Something's happened."

"How can you tell?" Johnny asked.

"Leverrier wasn't being himself," Link said. "He seemed distracted."

"Not to mention tiered," I noted. "Something's been keeping him up."
"I guess we'll find out soon," Link muttered. "The others should know something."

We rounded the corner, and I heard people yell our names. General Tiedol, Marie, and Lenalee all hugged me. I groaned, but didn't push them away. The entire place filled with laughter and talking

When they finally released me, and when everyone had finally quieted down, I noticed that the number of exorcists had increased by at three.

There was a little girl in a blue dress standing next to General Klaud, a middle aged man standing next to Lenalee, and a girl with long, chestnut hair tied back standing next to Timothy. I recognized her as the strange girl from Liverpool.

I didn't notice the boy leaning against the wall until he shifted. It was almost as if the shadows had been concealing him until that moment.

I felt my heart leap as the boy looked at me. He was about a year older than me, with short, messy, black hair, dark eyes, and tan skin. He had a strange purple stripe along his nose. He smiled.

"Alma?" I asked.

Alma pushed himself off the wall, and walked towards me.

"Hi, Yuu," He said.

I couldn't help myself. I threw my arms around his neck.

Alma chuckled, and hugged me back. "I'm happy we're friends again."

He stepped back, and put his hand on Lenalee's head. "Thank her for all of this."

I cocked my head and looked at Lenalee. "What happened while I was gone? All of the exorcists laughed.

"A lot has happened," Lenalee said. She hugged Johnny then Link, then me. "Welcome home, you guys."