Hana: Welcome back to a new chapter!
Allen: Things are really going to get screwy, aren't they?
Hana: Did you see the story summary, Moyashi-chan? Yeah, things will get screwy...but y'all won't know where or when it'll come...actually, I don't either atm.
Kanda: Che.
Hana: Er...anyway...as you people know, neither myself nor XavierForest own D. Gray-man.
Allen: Happy readings?
... ... ... ...
+ - Chapter 14 - +
Allen shivered, as the coldest chill he'd ever felt wracked his form. "Are you feeling well, Allen?" Eliade asked the young male.
"Yeah...I think so. Last time we set this engagement, a crazed man tried to kill you. We didn't actually get around to talking about much."
"Right down to business then?" Eliade guessed. Allen nodded. "Very well then."
"I assume you already know that the people being killed are all ex-AKUMA..." She waited, and when Allen once again nodded, the woman leaned back in her chair, eyes on her clasped hands in her lap. "And you know what I am... just as I know what you are..."
"'Once were', Eliade. We're not those people anymore," he reminded her, expression solemn.
"You can keep telling yourself that, but we both know the memories will haunt us until our last breath." She pointed out, placing a hand on her stomach. "Listen, when it comes down to it, that man…he has some vendetta against something AKUMA or even the NOAH themselves have done to them. It's the only explanation I can think of."
"With so little information, we can't be too sure." Allen muttered, "In that aspect, it seems that's the only lead we can currently go by, huh? Unless...you have something more to share?"
The woman slowly shook her head. "Not really."
Allen sighed, and decided to take a sip of his Earl Grey, only to blink in confusion when there wasn't any there. Damn, he'd drank it all while conversing with Eliade already. "Well, if we don't have much else to go on, we'll have to start by looking into things."
"Indeed...I think I may know just the people to ask."
"Ask them to ask around?"
"Yes."
He hesitated for a moment, and then sighed. "Are they ex-AKUMA too?"
"SKULL, actually." Eliade clarified. "When the NOAH were still in charge, SKULL were by far more loyal than any us ex-AKUMA could ever be."
"I...never heard of them before." Allen said, and he hadn't. This was the first time he heard of a unit called SKULL.
"They were more of a science-type unit that reported directly to the Earl. Aside from Road Kamelot and Adam, the only other who knew of them was Wisely, and that was only because information was his specialty."
"Huh..." Allen said. "But can they be trusted with the Earl gone, though?"
"If I ask, they'll talk."
He wasn't really sure about this. A group only known by a select few of the NOAH didn't really sit well with well with Allen. "I am going to have to ask Wisely about this. I want his opinion too."
"Fine," Eliade agreed, feeling a bit put out. "But do you really want him knowing what we're doing?"
"I trust him."
. . - * - . .
Kanda groaned, already feeling a migraine coming. He had just heard from his private investigation team, as he dubbed them, and their lead wants solid proof of Crowned Clown's death. Wonderful. Fucking wonderful.
What was he supposed to do? Did this lead want pictures? Papers? And why the fuck would they care about whether Crowned Clown was alive or not?
With Komui being the leading ME of both the Crowned Clown and NOAH cases, he'd be sure to have something to verify their claims.
With this in mind, he abruptly stood up, and stormed directly to his destination. The morgue. In his wake were a few shocked FBI personnel he never bothered learning the names of.
Were there more of them lately? So annoying...
(* *)
Komui yawned at his desk, looking out to the morgue outside his space. He may have to work in a fridge, but that didn't mean he had to be forced to work on the paperwork out there. Which was exactly why he made a couple of renovations...he walled off an area large enough for his space, consisting of papers, his desk, chair, bookshelves...and the ever growing mess all over the tile floor.
His space, he could do what he wanted. He would argue. The point was, it was warm and toasty here, and freezing out there. Maybe...a nice little nap wouldn't hurt...
He sighed in content, head falling forward to rest on his desk with a 'thunk'. Yeah... a nap...
"KOMUI!" Shocked out of his sleepy state, the Chinese man glared towards the window where he heard the unmistakable sound of Kanda's voice.
Why couldn't he just sleeeeeep?
Pushing his glasses back up his nose from where they'd slipped, Komui reluctantly waited for the other.
He was rewarded five minutes later, when his door was slammed open. "Hello Kanda."
"Papers."
"Please be more specific." Komui sighed.
"Crowned Clown papers."
The Chinese man could feel a headache forming. "I have many papers relating to Allen; which ones do you want?"
Kanda shook his head. "I need Crowned Clown's biopsy shit and whatever else can prove he's dead."
Fatigue suddenly gone, Komui looked to the other male. "You've found a lead."
"It's not definite."
"Let me guess, 'need to know'?"
"For the most part. Just go find the documents I need." Kanda grumbled, as he quickly answered his cell. "What?"
"Who is it?" Komui asked, riffling through the stacks of papers littering the room. He knew they were here somewhere... maybe...
The Japanese male shot the other a glare, which went unnoticed as he was now looking in his filing cabinate. "Che. Just a...CROW, is all."
"Crow?" Link's voice sounded through the receiver. "What on earth?"
"Shuddup."
"Yu Kanda, why did you ju—"
"Shut it."
"On record," Komui stated, handing the documents to Kanda, "I have no idea how you managed to re-create Allen's disfigurement."
"I've had time to...study it." Kanda said. "Oi, I'm going to send you pictures of the documents. Be glad, ass wipe." Kanda growled, before swiping his phone, and ending the call. He didn't need any of Link's horseshit at the moment.
And hopefully their lead would stop asking annoying questions and just give them the information they wanted already.
"I'll set them up for you then." Komui sighed.
"Hurry it up then." The younger of the two men glowered. Komui merely waved him off as he lined up the papers.
"So, how have you and Allen been lately?"
"Fine."
"Have you figured out your wedding yet?"
Normally Yu Kanda was not the person to engage himself in small talk, but this was different; it was a topic he liked. He smirked. "Not yet."
"Try thinking of the wedding itself, before you decide to think of the wedding night." Komui half joked. "I mean, he said 'yes' after all, I doubt that means you have much to worry when pleasing the lad...in more ways than one."
"I would've otherwise taken you to be the man who would consider it shameful to speak of these things in a work environment."
"How many visitors do you think I get?"
Kanda paused, really thinking about it, and then shrugged. "Probably rarely any, considering how annoying you are."
"How rude! I'll have you know, I'm delightful to be around. How many morticians do you know that keep up a cheery front like yours truly?"
"Maybe for good reason."
"Well I think they're just dreary people that need to get out more often!" The Chinese man huffed obstinately.
"Whatever." Kanda grumbled.
"You know, I think that you should try expanding your vocabulary sometime," Komui mused.
"It's enough for idiots around me."
"Rude!"
"But entirely true," the younger shot back. Kanda grumbled under his breath, taking the pictures of the laid-out documents before him.
Why did everyone he know have to be so goddamn annoying? Surely there was a limit to how many of them there could be...
Or perhaps not, much to his annoyance. He had Allen...and the kid was friends with most of the annoyances...he'd tolerate them to the best of his abilities, he supposed.
Allen could be annoying too, at times, but then he was sure that he could be just as annoying right on back to the brat.
His phone alerted him of a text, and he quickly read it. "Looks like we're getting our lead after all."
Komui smiled. "Wonderful!"
"Too fuckin' cheerful," Kanda muttered with a roll of the eyes.
. . - * - . .
( ( Fifteen minutes ago ) )
Mimi sighed, sitting at her dining table. "You lot are horrible liars."
"Pardon?"
"Listen, I know for a fact Allen isn't dead." The three men felt their blood run cold. "Lulu Bell was the one to train him. To help mold him into the killer NOAH needed him to be."
"But you just said..."
"Did I ever say I never knew who he was?" Mimi pointed out, "I've been Lulu Bell's most trusted AKUMA for a good reason."
"Then why did you ask to see his corpse?"
"Listen, if you really want to know how much you trust someone, you have to know how far they'd go to protect whatever they need to keep secret."
"I see." Tyki mused. "Lulu has done things like this to new recruits. I suppose it makes sense you yourself would do the same."
"Does...that mean we pass then?" Link inquired.
"I suppose it does. But don't think I'm giving you the truth flat out. You didn't get an 'A', after all."
"And why didn't we?" The Portuguese male queried, eyebrows raised.
"Firstly," Mimi said, her tone bored, "I don't like you."
"Hey, that's rather rude."
Her glance turned to Wisely, "You're a traitor." She continued, before looking to Link, "And you're in the FBI."
"And interestingly enough, I find that fair enough." Link muttered.
"Good," she replied curtly, the corners of her lips twitching.
(* *)
( ( Present ) )
Link checked his phone the moment the images came back. "Well, here are the documents."
"Do we even need them?" Tyki grumbled.
"Men." Mimi sighed. "Lemme see this quote, unquote 'proof of death', and then I'll tell you what I think you deserve."
The German hesitantly handed over his phone, the documents already up and ready to be read.
"Not bad." Mimi said, looking through everything. "This way, if whoever needs this information asks, then you won't be lying when you said I really did look through them."
"Now, what can you tell us?" Wisely asked, keeping critical eyes on the female in the room.
"Depends on what you want. You now know the connection between the deceased, and we both know that Crowned Clown isn't really as dead as everyone says he is. However, what we also know is that there's no way Allen is the one behind these killings."
"What can you tell us of this Crowned Clown impersonator?" Tyki full out asked.
"Not much," Mimi admitted. "Whoever it is only targets AKUMA, which means they have knowledge on our identities; they could've been an AKUMA themselves, or somehow privy to that kind of information back when NOAH was still running."
"Do you think they could be trying to lure someone out?" Link implored.
"If you ask me, I doubt luring out anyone involves killing AKUMA. Catch their attention? Maybe. But out right lure them out?" Mimi merely shook her head.
"I don't know about that," Wisely mused. "Maybe...and I'm obviously only hypothesizing, perhaps they mean to catch the attention of two individuals."
"But what would their motives be?" Link asked, arms crossed. "Wait...you don't mean this person truly meant to lure Walker and Kanda out?"
"I feel we shouldn't speak of this to either of them." Tyki sighed, wishing for another cigarette.
Mimi seemed lost in her thoughts as she spoke again; "You'd be right...but I don't think it would be...he might be in on it then..."
"Why would you think Apocryphos might me in on this?" Wisely inquired. "You're giving us more information than you initially wanted to give us."
"Only some of what I know. Most of everything else you got yourselves."
"Fine then," the white-haired Brit dismissed. "Then why do you think Apocryphos would be in on it?"
"He's been coming around here, as you've already seen." Mimi pointed out "I wouldn't be surprised if he was searching for AKUMA to have them executed by the killer clown 'himself', or so they're lead to believe."
"But where is he getting the list of AKUMA from?"
"If I knew, don't you think I'd at least hint at it?" Her eyes widened, as she quickly turned to her door, "Listen, it's been fun. But I'm getting a feeling we're gonna have to get out of here. NOW."
Wisely frowned, and then his head whipped in the same direction the blue-haired woman's had, light eyes, too, widening.
. . - * - . .
Outside, four pairs of eyes stared at the floor that had burst into an all-out hellfire. "Any later," One said, "and we would've been dead."
The taller figures nodded, "Are these rags really necessary though?"
"Funny you of all people should mention 'rags', now isn't it?"
"We can't have him knowing we got out." Sirens sounded from around the corner, the firemen and women ready to fight the inferno threatening to devour the building. "As long as he thinks we were caught up in there, we'll be safe for a while."
"Right." The three men said, eying the building one last time, before following the only female in the group into the backways.
... ... ... ...
Whelp, that happened, now didn't? If you hadn't already, favorite and review, to show this story some love! R&R ain't for rest and relaxation, and seriously, check out XavierForest's stuff too. He co-authors this work, and had also done the same for Black over White. So please, go check out his own fics too :)
On another note, yeap, I totally updated early. Why, you ask? Well...because I wanna work on another story, a revision, in fact. I started writing it back in 2012, the last time I worked on it was literally like two years ago. In 2014...on Valentine's Day...yeah. That happened. So...I'm reworking it, and I'm gonna start posting it here alongside AO3 AFTER I've re-written out all 18 chapters. (17 and 18, as you may or may not know, were never posted here, however...because I wrote that after my two year hiatus, but the writing style of now just doesn't match from back then...) Once that's done, I'll probably do either a once a month or twice a month update for it, that way I won't catch up too quickly as I write out chapters I've yet to write out.
I guess that's all I have to say at the moment, so we'll see you amazing people next week for another chapter for Fade to Gray!