Alright, we now have the stage mostly set. Cross is now officially a member of the Black Order, Neah is with the Clan of Noah, and Mana… well he's being Mana. Anyhow, I'd like to thank ilikedan for the favorite and the review.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in the realm of D. Gray-man.
Part Eleven: Sing a Song of Sixpence
"Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds,
Baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened,
The birds began to sing;
Wasn't that a dainty dish,
To set before the king?"
Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book
Mana Walker was truly glad to have left the dark crowded city of Berlin. Sure, Venice was crowded and full of snobby tourists from the north, but the landscape was very beautiful. The canals cutting through streets of white stone buildings carved with rounded arches brought a kind of peace to him. It really was too bad that he had missed Carnevale. Many of his fellow performers said that he would feel like a native if he saw it- the crazy clothes, the painted masks, the party atmosphere… Just thinking about it brought a smile to Mana's face. That, in itself, was a very good thing. He always tried his best to smile whenever possible. This was especially true when he performed with a circus.
Mana had come across Cirque d'Gravois two years ago while travelling through Switzerland. The manager's daughter had become lost when the initial parade came through the city. He had not only brought her home safe, but even made her laugh all the way. After that Mana had travelled with them for five months before parting with them in Sarajevo. The troupe had tried everything to make him stay, but Mana insisted that he had other plans- mostly meeting a friend (his only friend) in the city. He supposed it would be nice to have a permanent troupe to travel and perform with, but he was a free spirit. Mana Walker was determined to see the entire world.
Plus there was always the issue of certain places and people… He avoided England like it was the plague and was always peaky when touring Austria. Ever since Christmas Day when Neah told him he had awoken, Mana was always worried that he might be next. It was a silly thought really. He couldn't even use any of the Noah abilities he had possessed before (he had been so proud the first time he caught a cold).
Luckily, he had met the Cirque d'Gravois again before coming to Berlin just in time to make arrangements for their latest tour through Greece and Italy. For the past few months his life had been fair weather and sunny days. In some ways Mana almost missed the rain that almost always accompanied northern Europe. It was one of those things you didn't realize until you didn't have it anymore. Perhaps he would travel north to Amsterdam or even Oslo next, he thought while flipping through the pages of an Italian newspaper on a street bench. Mana couldn't read the damn thing, but he could at least look at the pictures. Languages had never been his strong suit.
A picture of what looked like a fire ravaged town sat on the front page. He was pretty certain that it was too early for wildfires. It was, after all, only April.
"Mana!" called out one of his fellow acrobats, Nico. Mana smiled and wazed at Nico, gesturing for him to join him on the bench. Nico handed him a pastry. "Thought I might return the favor from the other day."
"Thanks, Nico," said Mana. He took the pastry and bit into it. "This is delicious! What's it called?"
"Zeppole," replied Nico. The acrobat took a glance at the newspaper Mana held in his other hand and tutted. "It's really a shame about what happened."
"What? The fire?" asked Mana while his mouth was full of pastry. "It is a shame. Hopefully everyone is alright."
"If only things had turned out that well," sighed Nico. "Not only did it get the whole town, but it got an entire circus, too."
Mana felt his smile falter at this mention. "How did a fire get all the way out there?" he inquired.
Nico looked around to see if anyone was listening. "Some people are saying it wasn't a normal fire," he whispered. "Normally I'm not one to believe such rubbish, but a friend of mine told me that the Black Order was involved somehow. Could have been a demon or something."
Mana almost choked on his last bite of pastry. "The Black Order?" he questioned. He had thought that they were a secret organization. Mana supposed that if you tried to keep something a secret for so long- let's say almost 7000 years- it was bound to come out eventually. Apparently almost everyone knew something about the Black Order. "Well I suppose it must not have been normal then."
"Indeed," agreed Nico. "Well, the only good thing is that we don't have to compete with Ziegler's anymore. They were supposed to travel up this way for a bit before ending their European tour."
"Ziegler's?" exclaimed Mana. He leaned forward towards Nico on the bench, golden eyes now very wide. "Did you say Ziegler's Circus?"
"The one and only," responded Nico gravely. "Why does that have your panties in a knot, though?"
"I have a friend who has been touring with Ziegler's for the last seven years," explained Mana hurriedly. He shoved the newspaper into Nico's face. "Can you read this for me and tell me if anyone from Ziegler's survived?"
"I already told you what it said," stated Nico while pushing the newspaper out of his face. He gave Mana a worried look. "I could see if anyone in town knows anything."
"Thanks," replied Mana. "I would really appreciate it."
"Anytime, Mana," said the acrobat. He stood up and walked away.
Mana picked up the newspaper again to look at the front page. The scene did not look good, and if his suspicions about akuma were correct, then the chances of Cross- Gitano… his only friend- being alive were pretty slim. And here he was sitting on a park street bench in the middle of beautiful Venice enjoying his life while Git might be a tiny pile of ashes among other piles of ashes. He felt like he should do something, but he could do very little because of the language barrier.
Mana didn't know anyone in Sicily that he could contact to check the Git to see if he was still alive. His contract with Cirque d'Gravois wouldn't end for another two weeks. He wouldn't be able to focus for two weeks if he didn't know what happened to his friend. If only… no. No matter what, he could not contact his brother. He especially could not ask for favors like having him check on Gitano or take him to Sicily. Their family would surely find out. Mana thought about it a bit more. Those Bookmen, on the other hand, were free agents. Perhaps if he contacted them- maybe offered up a little money- they would go to Sicily. Neah probably wouldn't ask why- they wouldn't tell him anyways- so the Bookmen could get to Sicily…
He didn't know their telegraph number. The Git had been the one to call them to arrange the meeting outside Berlin. If only he had paid more attention, then he might have known the number such an occasion…
He was going to have to do something… Maybe if he told the Black Order all he knew… They'd probably kill him afterwards, though. But perhaps this was what friendship was truly about: being willing to do anything for your friends. His betraying his family to the Black Order, however, wouldn't be about Gitano. It was about not being alone.
Mana knew he was down to two options: going to Sicily or actively searching for the Bookmen. He was about to go find the manager when he heard someone speak out from behind a tree. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," the voice said. He whipped around and saw Bookman Junior come out from behind the tree and lean against it. "Losing four months pay would be quite a dozy."
Mana let his eyes narrow at Junior. He didn't care at the moment if he came off as a complete ass. Here he was worried about not being able to find the guy or his master, and he shows up spying on him! "What do you care?" he snapped. "And how the hell do you know how long I've been with this troupe?"
Bookman Junior raised a lazy eyebrow, his eyes becoming slightly less droopy. "Hmm… let's see… I saw Cirque d'Gravois' advertisement in EMPROS."
"What the hell is EMPROS?" asked Mana.
"A Greek newspaper," replied Junior. He looked up at the leaves of the tree above him. "I believe I was talking to a certain auburn-haired git when I was reading-"
"You spoke Git?" inquired Mana. "When was it?"
Bookman Junior stared at him for a moment. "You know, I thought you were joking when you called him 'Git' back in Berlin. You really call him that?" questioned Junior. "You should really call him by his stage name- Cross- if you want to remain hidden."
Mana could care less about the technicalities right now. "When did you speak with him, Junior?" he demanded.
"Cross and you are both so bad at this," sighed Bookman Junior. He pulled on one of the lapels of the navy jacket he wore today. "Just call me Sanjiv. 'Junior' makes me feel like I actually have to care about the old geezer."
"Fine, Sanjiv, when did you speak with him?" inquired Mana for the third time. He didn't bother to be polite. Mana Walker was very pissed off at the moment, so he would be as grumpy and difficult as he wanted to be.
"Seven days, four hours, and thirty-two seconds ago," responded Sanjiv without even looking at a pocket watch. Any other day Mana would have been impressed, but the fact that it had been seven days ago instead of six…
"That was before the attack," grumbled Mana. He sat back down on the bench and put his head in his hands.
"You want to know what happened to Cross, don't you?" inquired Sanjiv.
"It would be nice, but you don't strike me as a nice guy," replied Mana.
"True," said Sanjiv. "I'm just neutral. I can, however, be persuaded…"
"With what? Money? Information?" seethed Mana. Maybe if it were the old geezer he'd bow over to whatever his wish was, but a guy who couldn't have been more than twenty? Mana might be willing to wait two weeks at that point.
"And I thought you wanted to know," stated Sanjiv, turning away from Mana. "I was only going to ask a little favor."
Mana could tell the guy was contemplating leaving by the way he stood with his right foot swinging out in front of him. "What kind of a favor?" he huffed. He would let his curiosity win today.
Sanjiv turned back around to face Mana. "I'm working on creating my own log, so I'd like to observe what you do," responded Sanjiv.
It sounded very simple for a favor… and also really creepy. "You just want to follow me around?" inquire Mana blankly. "Write oddly specific things about me down in a notebook somewhere."
"That's pretty much it," replied Sanjiv. "So…"
"Fine," growled Mana. He didn't have any other options at the moment, and that fact made him furious. "What happened to G- Cross?"
"Well, after he inadvertently told me where you were, he went back to Ziegler's," began Sanjiv. He came around the bench and sat down next to Mana. "Unfortunately, the Black Order was in town investigating some Innocence that was found there, and, you know, Innocence-"
"Attracts akuma," finished Mana. He knew that all too well from Uncle Adam's later inventions. "Go on."
"The exorcist investigating the case made Cross help him for a while, but seemed to get fed up with him," continued Sanjiv. "They were looking at some monkeys for a while before the akuma attacked. When the akuma came, one of the monkeys became giant and started fighting the akuma."
"The monkey?"
"The monkey," repeated Sanjiv. "Cross went to go catch it and almost ended up in the fight, but he used some technology force field called a Talisman to keep the akuma away. He was the only one from the troupe to survive."
Mana breathed a sigh of relief. Although it was terrible that his former troupe- well, he'd only been the errand boy- was dead, his friend was still alive. "Where is he now?" questioned Mana.
"I saw him get on a boat headed for the mainland," said Sanjiv. "That's the last time I saw him. I headed here right afterwards."
Mana sat there silent for a moment, glad that Cross was okay and getting away from the site of the akuma attack. Now his only problem was Sanjiv… if only he could make Sanjiv go away…
He then got a better idea. Mana had not gotten to see Sanjiv's face when he kissed Sophia on the cheek. Now he had the chance to see some sort of reaction from the apprentice of the great Bookman. "So I guess you're just watching me now," stated Mana.
"Yes," replied Sanjiv.
Mana timed the silence so that it would be just long enough to be awkward. He stood up immediately after a couple minutes. "Well, thanks for the great story. I'm going to head back to the circus," said Mana.
He walked away quickly, but made sure to take a path where he could see his reflection in the waterways. Sanjiv ran to catch up with him. "You're going back to the circus," said Sanjiv. "Just like that? Aren't you a little too visible in a circus? Cross may have been the only magician, but he wore a mask and his name is different. You're completely visible as Mana."
Mana turned and jabbed Sanjiv in the chest with his pointer finger. "No," he responded. "You're just afraid that people might actually pay attention to you. If you really want to observe me, then you'll have to see me in my natural habitat."
"And to think you were a lord at one point," muttered Sanjiv. Nonetheless, the young Bookman followed. Mana was going to have way too much fun with this.
oOo
They spotted Nico when crossing through the main square. The acrobat ran up to Mana waving wildly. That's when Mana noticed the other acrobats from the troupe standing around talking to passersby. Perfect.
"Mana! We've been at it for the past hour, but the people here don't know anything about Ziegler's," reported Nico, his tan face slightly flushed from the excitement.
"We could send a runner down south," said a Russian acrobat named Sergey. "That fellow over there says there's a circus about 20 kilometers south of here.
"It's fine!" replied Mana, holding his hands up in protest and smiling. "My friend here just came from the south. He saw the other guy get on a boat for the mainland."
The troupe breathed a collective sigh of relief. "That's wonderful!" exclaimed Nico, patting Mana and Sanjiv on the back. To Mana's pleasure Sanjiv almost looked startled, but his face never betrayed his apathetic façade. "What is your friend called?"
"Oh, this is Sanjiv," remarked Mana. "He's a traveler just like me, aren't you?"
"Yes," responded Sanjiv in a clipped tone.
Mana looked Nico directly in the eye and thankfully the Italian tumbler received the message. "Gentlemen!" he called out to the other acrobats. "This calls for a celebration!"
Without another word Sergey launched into several flips and tumbles. Nico began to walk on his hands while the other tumblers started their own improvised routines. "What are you doing?" Sanjiv asked emotionlessly. He stared at the crowd beginning to form. "You're drawing an awful lot of attention."
"This is what we do," replied Mana with a shrug. "We live to draw attention. Now if you'll excuse me." Mana threw himself into several back hand-springs followed by a round off. The show didn't last very long, but by the end he was grinning wildly as he climbed onto Sergey's shoulders to help build a human pyramid. The crowd was very appreciative in cheers and tips, so Mana knew exactly what would happen next.
A couple of the tumblers grabbed Sanjiv and began hauling him off to the nearest bar, singing praises of the herald of good news. "Where are we going?" inquired Sanjiv, who unfortunately did not look disturbed like Mana had hoped.
"To the bar," said Mana. "We received good tips for the street performance, plus we're all in an exceptionally good mood now, thanks to you."
Sanjiv almost looked like he regretted telling him about Cross. Mana was just going to have to push his buttons more- if he could find his buttons.
oOo
Thankfully there was no performance today due to some sort of state holiday, so the fact that the entire team of acrobats was slightly tipsy didn't matter in the least. Somehow the damned Bookman Junior was really good at holding his liquor. Sanjiv's face wasn't even flushed, and Mana was pretty sure he had drunk as much alcohol as everyone else.
"Mana! Mana! Mana!" called a child's voice. He knew immediately, although he was still tipsy, that it was the manager's daughter, Abigail.
Abigail had a team of other children following her, some he recognized as the children of performers and others h was sure had snuck away from their parents to explore the strange world called a circus. "Hello there, Abby!" exclaimed Mana, bending down so he could look her right in the face.
"I want you to play with us!" chirped the little brown-haired girl.
Mana chuckled and waggled a finger. "It's not nice to make demands like that, Abby," he chastised. "Now what do you say?"
"Will you please play with us?" begged Abby. "Please!"
"She says you know juggling tricks!" exclaimed a bright-eyed child.
"And that you can fly!" cried out another.
"I didn't know that I could fly," remarked Mana. The children giggled. He looked over at Sanjiv, but like always he appeared stony faced. Mana thought there must be something wrong with the guy. Even a Bookman should not be able to resist smiling around such fun little kids.
"I think they mean your acrobatic tricks," said Sanjiv. "And will you stop staring at me?"
Mana looked away. At least he had finally bothered the guy, if only a little bit. "Okay," he sighed. "I guess I can play with you…"
The children cheered and ran up to grab his arms. "However, Sanjiv has to play, too," continued Mana to make his intentions clear. Sanjiv didn't move, but Mana couldn't tell whether he was frozen to the spot in shock or not because he had his damn Bookman poker face on still.
"The grumpy guy?" inquired the bright-eyed boy.
"That's the one," replied Mana. Some of the kids ran up to Sanjiv and tried to pull him along. Sanjiv, however, just began walking himself. The kids holding onto him dug their heels into the ground and laughed as the Bookman dragged them along. "Although I don't think he'll appreciate it if he hears you call him grumpy."
"Will you teach us how to do tumbling tricks?" asked another little girl.
Mana broke away from them. "Only if you can catch me!" he shouted before running off. A stampede of little children chased after him, causing quite a ruckus in the narrow lanes between tents and trailers. Some of the adults began to shout, but stopped when seeing the kids laughing as they ran to catch up with the visiting performer. They smiled and turned back to whatever they had been doing before. Sanjiv followed along at a leisurely pace, just fast enough to keep Mana in sight.
oOo
Mana had tried surprising Sanjiv out of his wits with the impromptu street performance and dragging him off to the bar, but the boy had not panicked. He'd forced the guy to play tag and hide-and-seek with the kids for two hours, but the boy had not smiled. Mana even tried the oldest tricks in the book: giving the guy a can full of spring worms and leaving the cutest, tiniest child asleep in Sanjiv's lap, but the Bookman had not shown any expression at all besides boredom.
That left only one option.
Mana knew from years of watching the clown portion of the performance that people had about two reactions to clowns. The first was laughter because who didn't want to laugh at a guy hurting himself intentionally. The second was fear. There were some people out there who just didn't like clowns. They were the kind of people who either left the circus during that portion cussing under their breath or the people that cried and/or turned away. All of this because they'd wet their beds at night if they dreamed about clowns.
He didn't have a clown suit- his specialty was plain juggling and acrobatics- but he found some greasepaint to borrow. Abby hung a sheet on a clothes line between two trees and stood like a little ring master in front of the 'curtain.' The other children sat in front eagerly waiting for the performance. Sanjiv was in the back still holding the sleeping child in his lap.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" called out Abby in her most manly voice. "Boys and girls! I now give to you Mana the Amazing Clown!"
The kids cheered as Abby pulled the 'curtain' open. Mana walked pigeon-toed onto their makeshift stage. The children began to shriek with laughter. He silently pulled out three colored juggling balls from his pockets and waved them around for a bit so that everyone could see them. Then he began to juggle, causing the kids to clap. After a couple minutes of the basic form he began to throw in a couple tricks like juggling behind his back, throwing a ball under his leg, juggling them off the ground with a bounce, and even adding a fourth ball. Mana them moved onto doing some goofy tumbles. The kids seemed to think the overly tucked in cart-wheels were funny, so he did several in a row before falling dramatically onto the ground.
Sanjiv just stared at him as if this were something normal while surrounded by kids roaring with laughter. Mana was really hoping he wouldn't have to do this, but he reached for the big bouncy ball and the rotten tomatoes he'd found in his tent. He stood up on the ball and began haphazardly to juggle the tomatoes. Of course juggling fruit wasn't difficult, but he was intentionally making it look difficult. This earned several poorly concealed chuckles from the kids and one by one he began to drop the tomatoes on his face.
The kids laughed loudly and cheered as he took his bow, rotten tomato juice dripping all over his face and shirt. Sanjiv just sat there looking forward as if nothing had happened. The only sign that he was paying attention at all were three polite claps of his hands, the kind of claps Mana had been trained to give at concerts as a child. He had sadly failed his day's mission.
oOo
After he had cleaned off the grease paint and tomato juice and changed into a fresh shirt, Mana walked Sanjiv back into the city of Venice. Apparently Bookman was expecting him back today and had arranged for his lovely brother to pick his apprentice up in the old part of the city. Mana examined Sanjiv out of the corner of his eye while they walked through ankle-high water.
"I don't get it," Mana finally complained. Sanjiv only quirked an eyebrow at this comment. "No matter where you are, no matter who you are surrounded by, no matter what you see you always wear that stupid poker face. How do you live like that?"
"I'm a Bookman," said Sanjiv. "Bookmen only observe history so that we may record it. We are not to become involved for a Bookman does not have a heart."
Mana was a bit curious about this last part. "Like as in you literally don't have a heart, or in a metaphorical sense?"
"Metaphorical," replied Sanjiv. "Every human- every Noah for that matter- has a physical heart. You'd be dead without one."
"So you're just not allowed to feel," stated Mana, "but inside you really do."
"I'm not allowed, and I don't" responded Sanjiv stiffly. "You might think that it's important to feel, but feelings only bring about chaos. There isn't a conflict out there that wasn't started by feelings. I've simply chosen to cast them aside to live as unbiased a life as possible. I won't let anything stop me from walking down the path I have chosen for my life."
Mana supposed that this was Sanjiv's way of feeling- by pursuing this 'dream' though Mana would describe it as more of a nightmare. If this was how the guy wanted to live his life, he supposed that he couldn't stop him. "Alright," sighed Mana, doing his best to sound completely defeated. "I suppose we all have our preferences. You want to be on the sidelines and I want to live. I hoped today helped with whatever it is you're supposed to record."
Sanjiv shrugged. "It will do," he replied. "I may stop by now and then, but you don't have to acknowledge me. Today didn't really go by the Bookman credo."
Mana sighed dramatically, but knew Sanjiv was right. He'd have to let the guy function by his rules since he had given him the information on Cross. "I understand," he said, flashing a small smile.
They reached the main square, Piazza San Marco, and saw it was empty. Mana shook Sanjiv's hand and turned to leave. As soon as he did, though, he heard a splash and a muffled shriek. Mana hid behind the corner of a nearby building in order to peak out into the square. He felt that he was being a dirty spy just like Sanjiv.
The young Bookman, in the mean time, had run over to the edge of the square and was now helping someone stand in the now knee-high water. "Are you alright?" asked Sanjiv.
"Sanjiv!" cried out the new voice in relief. Mana could now recognize the voice as well as the dark curtain of curly black hair that accompanied it: Sophia. "Neah sent me to fetch you here- he just arrived home himself- but I think he forgot where exactly, so I've been wandering around looking for you. He didn't say anything about a flood."
"It's called Acqua Alta," stated Sanjiv. He took off the light coat he had been wearing and draped it over Sophia's shoulders. "During the spring and fall the tides and the winds work together to cause a slight flooding in Venice and nearby towns."
"Oh," said Sophia. The twelve-year old looked around the gas light-lit square. "I think I might like the city better this way. You do know a lot of things, Sanjiv."
"It comes with the job description," he replied. "Now which way is the gate?"
As he walked away Sophia called out to him. "You didn't have to give me your coat," she said, "but you did. Why is that?"
Sanjiv tensed up at this statement. Mana was stunned to see the young Bookman's body show anything so clearly. Junior was genuinely surprised. "I didn't need it," he responded, trying desperately to recover. "Please hold onto it for me."
Sophia smiled at him and walked up next to Sanjiv. "Thanks," she said. She reached out for his hand and gave it a squeeze. Mana was pretty certain that Sanjiv's cheeks turned pink in shock. Sophia didn't let go of his hand. Instead she began to lead him along the path. "The gate is this way. Come on!"
Mana gained a great deal of satisfaction from watching Sophia lead the pink-cheeked Sanjiv away. He etched the moment into his memory where he hoped it would last forever. If only the Git had been here for this. Mana was certain that he would have gotten a big kick out of the whole situation, too.
Finally, a chapter for Mana! I have to admit, this wasn't in the original chapter line-up, but after looking at my planning I realized I needed a bit more character development before moving on to the next big ark. Plus I really just wanted Mana to harass Sanjiv. Way too much fun. It inspired the song choice for this title. Sing a Song of Sixpense has a sort of whimsical feel about it, and Mana is truly a whimsical person.
So what do you think? Is Mana still evolving as a person? What will he say once he learns Cross' new affiliation? And does Sanjiv actually have… feelings? Please review!