TWP: Chapter seventeen! Oh shit, we're that far already?!
Disclaimer: I don't own DGM.
Lavi opened the window in the room on the ship the Exorcists were using and stared, amazed at how fast they were going.
"If you keep this pace up, won't you run out of energy, Chomesuke?" He called to the Akuma who was pushing the ship as fast as it could.
"Chomsuke?" The Akuma looked up and Ava stuck her head out. "Lavi's got a habit of nicknaming his friends." She grinned and it almost seemed like the Akuma blushed.
"There's no time, cho! We have to get as close to Edo as possible, cho." The Akuma said and sped up. Ava and Lavi turned to Lenalee when she spoke up and saw that Miranda was on the verge of fainting. Her breathing was heavy and she had a cool cloth over her face to help her feel better.
"Time Recovery did a lot of work under the attack. She's probably all out of strength."
"Are you alright, Miranda? I'm sorry I couldn't protect the ship better." Lavi apologized as he went back in. Ava closed the window and went over to them too, apologizing for not being able to take out the Akuma in the sky before the level 3 had defeated her. Miranda shook her head though and began to cry as she apologized because she knew that she wouldn't be able to hold the invocation until they got to Edo. She really was completely out of strength.
"Don't worry about it." Lavi said but Miranda shook her head and said that she wasn't apologizing for the ship.
"She's apologizing because once she deactivates her Innocence, everything will return to real time." Ava said silently and Lenalee gasped as she realized what they were talking about. She hugged the older woman and told her to not bear the burden alone.
"You're not the only Exorcist here. We all bear the burden." Lavi straightened up and Ava put her hand on his shoulder.
"Even you." She said in such a low voice that only he could hear her. "No matter what Bookman tells you."
Not even an hour later, they were called up on deck. Mahoja, Anita and three men from her crew were waiting for them with a boat ready.
"This is everyone…?" Ava said as it dawned upon her what was going on. "There's no one else?" Anita smiled sadly.
"I'm sorry. I told them they didn't need to see you go. They're currently having a feast below and I wanted them to spend their last moments enjoying themselves." The Exorcists looked down in sadness. Although there had been six of them, they couldn't save more than five lives. Anita comforted Miranda who was crying and blaming herself again and right after the voices of the crew could be heard all over deck.
"Exorcists! Protect our friends that survived!"
"We want them to live!"
"Even if it's just a little bit of peace, we want them to have it! PLEASE WIN, EXORCISTS" Ava smirked.
"A really brave and selfless crew you have here, Miss Anita." The woman nodded happily with a tiny smile as Chomesuke grabbed the boat and held it to the open side of the ship so that the others could board it.
"I'll take you to the closest port, Izu, since we're still a long way from Edo, cho." Chomesuke said. When Lenalee was about to help Anita on board the older woman reached out and patted her hair.
"You have such beautiful hair. Make sure to grow your hair out again." She said softly and the people on the boat widened their eyes as Lenalee began to cry.
"No… It can't be! It can't be!" Lenalee cried out as Miranda deactivated her Innocence and the people on board turned to ash. Ava hugged the girl.
"I know it's hard… but this is the harsh reality. It's even worse for Miranda." She said in hushed whispers although a few tears escaped her too. She had become very close with Mahoja and Anita too. Slowly the ship began to decay and sink as dust and ashes swirled around in the wind.
"We'll definitively… definitively win!" Lenalee promised and Ava nodded. "Definitively. So, we have to stay strong!" Lenalee nodded and Ava traced the tattoo under her eye.
'We have to stay strong.' She looked around but to her surprise she couldn't see 'Daisya' anywhere. She stood up and stared down at the place where the ship had sunk. Had he disappeared with the ship?
"Not likely." She jumped startled and fell over. "Wah, wah, waaaah!"
"You idiot!" Lavi yelled but Krory managed to grab her leg just in time. She sighed in relief and thanked Krory as he dragged her up. She glared at the ghost in front of her.
'Why the fuck can't you be normal?!' She thought and he gave an impish grin.
"Where's the fun in that?"
"Ava, what are you doing?" She looked up and saw that everyone was looking at her weirdly and she gave a nervous laugh and rubbed her neck. "N-nothing. Nothing at all."
"Crazy woman." She shot Daisya another glare.
'You're so dead.'
"Way ahead of ya."
"Welcome, to Japan, cho." Chomesuke said as they stared up at the grand entrance they stood in front of.
"Japan has refused trading for over 300 years. No one gets in and no one gets out. If you think about it, it's the best place for the Earl to hide. He's probably been living in the shadows here the last 300 years." Bookman said and a girl with long brown hair appeared in front of him.
"That's right." She said.
"W-who are you?" Krory asked and she pointed at herself. "What are you talking about, cho? It's me, cho!"
"You just said 'Cho'." Krory noted and Lavi got in front of him, pointing at the girl. "You're Chomesuke?"
"Right on, cho!" The girl grinned. Lavi looked her up and down for a moment before his eye turned into a heart and his hand fisted in front of him. Ava recognized that pose and like hell she would let him finish saying what she knew he was going to say.
"Striii-" He didn't manage to finish his sentence before she kicked him out of the way.
"Striii, cho?" Chomesuke repeated and Ava shook her head with a nervous smile. "It was nothing. He's just weird."
"I'm not!" Lavi yelled from where he lay on the ground and she shot him a glare. "Shut. Up."
"Y-yes ma'am." Chomesuke lit a lantern he, no she, had hidden beforehand and led them up the stairs as she at the same time explained the situation in Japan. It was indeed the Earl's base. Around 90 percent of the population was Akuma and the government was run by the Earl himself, so there was no one who stood up to him. Japan wasn't a place where humans could live easily but it wasn't easy for Akuma either. The group of humans didn't understand what she meant by that but suddenly she stopped.
"Something's here, cho!" At the top of the stairs a woman stood, looking like she had been waiting for them. "Sachiko." She said and Chomesuke squealed happily.
"Kawamura! Wait here a sec, cho!" Chomesuke said to the others as she handed Lavi the lantern who looked at her quizzically. "Sachiko?"
"That's my body's name, cho!" She said and added that Kawamura was also one of Cross' modified Akuma before she ran up the steps to Kawamura. Kawamura groaned before showing her real form and what was more terrifying was that she seemed to be caught in a giant spider's web.
"Hide!" Chomesuke cried out and pushed them all off the stairs and into hiding.
"What the hell is going on?" Chomesuke covered Ava's mouth and put out the light and pointed at Kawamura. At the top of the stairs, three level 3 came walking down. Chomesuke told them that Kawamura came to pick them up but the level 3s caught her before that happened. They wondered what she meant by that but suddenly the three Akuma began eating Kawamura.
"Here, it makes no difference if you're human or Akuma, cho. Here, it's the survival of the strongest, cho." One of the level 3 turned towards where they were hiding but saw nothing and continued to eat his fill of Kawamura. The group had managed to slip away but what met them later were the corpses of eaten Akuma.
"Okay, this is just sick." Ava gagged as she covered her mouth. Chomesuke was awfully silent and this the others noticed. Lavi asked her if something was wrong but she said that she was okay and that now she had to lead them to Edo, since Kawamura was dead.
"It seems like you're not feeling well." Ava pointed out as she noticed the veins around Chomesukes eyes. She took only a few steps forward before she gasped. Spider webs appeared behind her and she was stuck.
"Chomesuke!" Lavi called as she tried to wiggle free but more webs appeared and she was dragged away from them.
"Run away, cho!" She yelled and disappeared. "Chomesuke!" Lavi and Krory called as the level 3 that had noticed them before appeared, holding the webs in his hand.
"I never would have guessed I'd smell the scent of humans." It crowed happily. "What are you doing here? This is no place for humans, and why is an Akuma with humans?" He stomped down on Chomesuke who winced. Lavi activated his hammer, ready for battle.
"That's good. Looks like I'll have some fun." The level 3 chuckled darkly.
"And it looks like we get some trainin'." The Akuma froze as Ava's voice sounded behind him. "You're fast." The Akuma said and she snorted.
"Funny. The last level 3 we met said the same thing!" She turned around and tried to cut him up with her scythe blades but he was one step ahead and already up in the air. The only thing she accomplished was cutting the webs holding Chomesuke.
"How did you cut my web?" The Akuma asked and she got into a fighting stance. "Um, helloo? Blades protruding from my arms?" She raised an eyebrow, holding up her arms and the Akuma laughed darkly.
"Innocence, of course." He charged at them and Ava grabbed Chomesuke, getting her back to the group. The Akuma landed but was engulfed by Lavi's fire stamp although it had no effect. The Akuma then charged at Lavi who dodged but was caught in the thread made of Dark Matter and slammed into the corpses of the Akuma eaten previously. Krory charged but the same thing happened to him. He was pinned down to the corpses.
"Idiots! You're in no condition to fight close combat!" Ava yelled and allied herself with Bookman but suddenly the Akuma pulled Chomesuke in front of him as a shield. "When the hell did he-?" Ava swore.
"Shall I just go ahead and eat her?" He licked Chomesukes cheek and pinned her in his webs again. Lavi growled and was about to jump in but Bookman got in the way.
"Wait, Lavi! Look!" Lavi stared at Chomesuke and could see the hidden meaning in her eyes. She told them to run away while the level 3 was distracted with her.
"Withdraw!" Bookman ordered. "Gramps!" Bookman didn't turn his eyes away from the Akuma as he told his apprentice to calm down.
"I am calm! Right now, even if we run away, we'll just meet another Akuma. We need Chomesuke to guide us to and through Edo." Ava pushed Bookman into Lavi and took her stance.
"You guys run if you want to. I'm gonna stay here and fight. Maybe it'll create a distraction and cause Akuma to swarm this place. It'll at least make your path a bit safer."
"You are kidding me now right?" Lavi said and she glared at him. "Does it look like I'm joking? Let's save her, then you run away." She said and took her stance again.
"Now I know you're suicidal! You can't take a level 3 alone!" Lavi called as she took off and tried to hit the Akuma with her blades but he blocked them all. She turned them around and thus made his back open to the others. Her wings expanded and cut the threads holding Chomesuke up. With a squeal, the Akuma fell to the ground. Ava grabbed her and darted off while Lavi activated his Innocence again and went up to level 2.
"Fire Seal: Conflagration of Ash!" He shouted and a stronger fire-pillar shot out from the ground but it missed him and Ava stopped short, gaping.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
"Lavi, I was so scared, cho! So scared,cho!" Chomesuke hugged him and it aggravated his wounds a little bit.
"H-hey, let go. That hurts." Lavi stammered though it seemed like he didn't have anything against it. Ava felt veins appear on her forehead as annoyance grew in her. Before they could run away though, the Akuma created a dome from his thread and they were now caught. And then something else happened. The dome was cut up by the two other Level 3 that had been with the one they were battling with earlier.
"So they finally came, eh." Lavi grinned and Bookman realized what his apprentice had done.
"I see. That previous Fire Seal was just to lure the other two back here." Lavi nodded and Bookman felt pride surge in him for a moment. His apprentice was quite the tactician, but he knew that already.
"The Akuma said it himself. There was no one else around to butt in. I just told them nicely that there was a guy here trying to hog all the spoils." Although he explained it nicely Ava couldn't keep herself from hitting him upside the head and then grab his collar and bring him up close.
"And how do you suppose we're gonna deal with three fucking level 3 Akuma?" She hissed and he grinned nervously. "Well, you see, I was hoping they'd fight themselves. You know, if you had been kept out of something you think you'd enjoy… wouldn't you be angry?"
"And the chances of that happening are close to zero you little-" She began but then she could hear the Akuma arguing between each other. She stared at them slack-jawed in disbelief as they began to fight and eat each other.
"I can't believe it. You've got the devil's luck!"
"Hehe, by the way…. Could you let go of me now?" He laughed nervously and she turned back to him.
"What?" She noticed she still kept a tight grip on his collar. "I should kill you for this-"
"Hey, cho! While they've forgotten about us we can get away, cho. Hurry up, cho!" Chomesuke called silently and she let him go as they all ran after her, leaving the three to battle between themselves and destroy themselves too, if they were lucky.
On their way Chomesuke tried many times to persuade them to return back to HQ but they shook their heads. This was the very reason why they came to Japan in the first place.
"For everyone who died while we tried getting here, if we gave up now it would be insulting to their memory." Lenalee said while glancing at Ava who turned away in embarrassment. The girl hadn't forgotten the lecture she had given on board the ship. Chomesuke sighed but smiled nonetheless and continued to lead them to their destination, Edo.
TWP: And that's it for this chapter. REVIEW PEOPLE! It makes me happy and at the same time, I promise I won't sic Richard on you.