Lavi twitched his nose in irritation as light began to penetrate his eyelids. He felt awfully sore, and he wasn't sure why. He slowly opened his eyes, realizing it was daylight now, and he sighed. This meant that the day had started. He didn't want the day to start. He felt utterly exhausted. Finally realizing that something was amiss, he looked up at his hands and promptly stared in confusion.

Why were his hands tied to the bedpost with rope?

The events of last night came back to him, and he groaned. He'd went berserk after a nightmare, just another worry to add to a rather extensive list. Still, he remembered Esperanza crawling into bed with him and threatening to relieve him of certain body parts should he attempt any sort of affection. Was this her doing? Maybe he'd ask... except she wasn't there. He quickly attempted to sit up, which put him in an awkward position as he realized he couldn't turn over. This probably explained the horrible, rheumatism feeling in his joints, seeing as he'd probably been sleeping in the same position for nearly twelve hours. He leaned over to the bedside table, and he could see a note underneath the alarm clock which read eight o' clock.

My apologies. I had to tie you up just in case you started wandering around in your sleep while I am gone to Mass down the street. I didn't want you to fall out a window. That'd just be more of a mess for me to clean up whenever I get back. I'm sure you can figure out a way to untie yourself. I left a letter knife somewhere at the foot of the bed. Hopefully, you don't have to use the bathroom any time soon. I should be back around noon. If not, again, my dearest condolences. I will come back. Do not panic.

There was no name written underneath the note, but he could guess who'd written it. He leaned back and sighed, staring up at his tied hands. This was awfully annoying. He started to work his wrists back and forth, all the while looking down to where the aforementioned letter knife happened to sit a mere two inches away from his feet. He started to work his feet from the sheets, but in doing so the letter knife fell to the floor. Lavi groaned in frustration. For the love of- She could've figured out a better way to keep him restrained! This was ridiculous! How did he end up in these situations?

He started to work his way off the bed, stretching as far as his arms would let him towards the knife, and he felt his arms burn as the tendons stretched in a myriad of unnatural ways. Just as his toes were touching the tip of the letter knife, there was a knock on the door. Lavi's face lit up as he yelled, "Yes?"

"Um, I here to clean the room, sir," a young, female voice said, and Lavi nodded. She could help him! He thought about the young lass behind that door and his current position... STRIKE!

"Sure, sure! Go ahead and come in!" The door clicked as it was opened. Lavi began to pull himself back up on the bed, sitting up as well as he could with his hands tied as they were. He was beginning to get rope burn from trying to work it off his wrists. Man, where did she get this rope anyways? And how did she manage to tie it so tight?

Suddenly, the young voice was talking to an older woman's voice, both speaking rapid Portuguese. A portly, older woman walked in with her hair slicked back into a bun, and she smiled in a way that sent chills up Lavi's back. The older woman turned over her shoulder to yell something at the prettier, younger woman who'd poked her head in the room. She stared at Lavi for a moment in amazement and embarrassment, her face growing red, and the younger woman nodded frantically as she left. Lavi muttered, "No, no, no, no, no...!" The older woman looked back at him, and she smiled slowly.

Oh boy.

Lavi grumbled to himself as he pulled his uniform coat around him. The sun was shining, and the vendors were happily calling, but he was rather fed up at the moment. He'd just had to pay a maid practically a small fortune just to untie him and keep quiet about the whole 'tied up' thing. She would've been all too happy to blab, and blab the wrong things no less, and there was no way anyone would believe Lavi's 'I had a nightmare' story. It figured.

He was going to give Esperanza a piece of his mind! That was what he was going to do! He was going to sit her down firmly at some restaurant, talk about how rude it was to tie someone to a bedpost, and then tell her that there are other ways to deal with such things. She could've at least asked for handcuffs or something. Those had keys, and if there were no keys, she could've at least put a bobbie pin in his hair or something. Rope... Ha! He was still suffering rope burn! He rubbed his raw wrists, trying hard to keep his mind on a single track as he navigated the crowd that was slowly pouring out of the Catholic church.

The nerve of some people... He knew that she was just worried about his welfare (after all, he'd broken a window), but that was a little overkill. She was going to reimburse him, if nothing else. Did she never learn manners? Of course not - she'd lived a lot of her life out there on the Patagonian plain or some such other place isolated from all of society. He was still stewing and huffing as he watched and waited for Esperanza. She wasn't hard to miss, after all. Those scars were pretty indicative.

He saw her walking out in a long poncho over her gaucho clothes. He blinked in surprise, realizing that he'd finally gotten used to her wearing a skirt. She was wearing high-waisted pants with a thick belt, a blouse, a long blade at her side, and a wide-brimmed hat. She looked exactly like a man of the wilderness, and he was speechless for a moment. Other people looked at her, either in astonishment or in disdain. Women did not dress like that. It was... unfeminine.

That didn't mean it wasn't attractive.

With a practiced shove, he moved his mind off that path and returned to his stewing. He headed towards her at a rapid pace, walking at-pace with her on the other side of the street. He kept waiting for a break in the crowd to approach her, and he finally saw an opening.

He began crossing the street, each step a stomp as he huffed to himself and recited what he was going to say to her.

"Esperanza -!"

He didn't get much farther than that before the automobile he'd conveniently been too focused to notice bowled him over. Esperanza's eyes widened in shock as she realized that her work partner had just been hit by a car, and she hurried over as a veritable crowd began to form.

"Amigo, what are you doing -"

As if nothing had happened, Lavi spluttered, "I am giving you a piece of my mind, that's what! You left me! Left. Me. I had to pay a maid to get me out of there, you know that?" Esperanza heaved a massive sigh as she hauled him to his feet. She spoke to the crowd, saying in Spanish, "He's all right, he's all right, nothing to see. It was an accident. You can go now." Lavi gave a rather rude hand gesture to the driver, and Esperanza, in return, gave him a smack up the side of the head.

"Ow! What? He hit me."

"You walked in front of him."

"...He still hit me."

"UGH. You are- ...never mind. Go back to the hotel," Esperanza ordered, and Lavi felt sufficiently snubbed.

"After what you did to me? How about... hm, 'no'. I'm following you today. I'm not leaving you out of my sight. What are you doing out here anyways? You could be killed. You have no weapons, and you're-"

"Not in uniform, unlike you. You've just turned me into a walking target. Muy bien, Amigo, muy bien," Esperanza said rather calmly. She removed a cigarette from her pocket and proceeded to light it, but she was interrupted when Lavi nonchalantly grabbed it out of her mouth and threw it into the nearest gutter. He looked off as she stared at him incredulously. He was acting like a child. He had a point about the whole 'tying him up' gambit, but that still didn't constitute this sort of behavior.

"Amigo, you are acting like you are five," Esperanza stated calmly. Lavi suddenly felt as if their roles were switched. He was the one who was angry and huffy, and she was the calm one. It was both refreshing and annoying at the same time. He grumbled something about 'handcuffs with a key', and Esperanza laughed. He was struck by how easily it had come forth - a laugh was rare, very rare, from her.

"You would rather be handcuffed? You are strange," Esperanza said good-naturedly, a small smile at the edge of her lips. Lavi felt strange all of a moment. Something was... off about Esperanza. She was too... happy? That wasn't quite the word he was looking for. As he walked, though, he did notice things. It was in his nature to notice things after all. There was a bit of a bounce in her step. She stood taller. She looked more confident. She had that shadow-of-a-smile more often than not, and her eyes didn't look so tight. She was... relaxed. He suddenly wondered what she might be taking and if he could have some, if it'd improved her mood this much.

"You're... cheerier... today," Lavi stated hesitantly, feeling awkward. Now that he had nothing more to rant about, he felt like he had no reason to be there. There were, after all, several books in his hotel room waiting for him. Lavi could feel on the edge of his conscience that he shouldn't be having a stroll with this odd woman wearing pants in broad daylight amidst a city. It was too... personal? Lavi could feel panic begin to edge in, and he wondered briefly if he was about to enter a memory, but none of the telltale signs appeared. There was no smooth transition into a different place, and Esperanza, his focus point at the moment, didn't disappear. She shrugged.

"I went to Mass. It makes me feel better. I am lucky I was taught Latin, though, otherwise I doubt it would've had the same effect," Esperanza said, her pace easy and unhurried. Still, despite this casualness to her stride and demeanor, he could tell she was on a mission of some sort. It was sort of chilling to see such an offhand mix of nonchalance and intensity. Lavi himself never understood people's fixations with religion or the effects it had. He'd seen men go mad from their beliefs, and others twisted their beliefs in order to suit their own ends. To Lavi, religion seemed awfully selfish. It was like they were trying to blame all of their shortcomings on a higher being.

"Who'da thunk it," Lavi muttered under his breath. He suddenly noticed where they were walking.

"You have business to take care of?" Lavi asked as the Order HQ of South America loomed. Esperanza's response was delayed.

"You could say that." They stepped inside of the quiet halls. It was a Sunday, so most of the Finders were probably at Mass somewhere farther away. Esperanza's pace suddenly seemed to go quicker, her feet sounding less sure of themselves as she headed upstairs towards the upper floors. Lavi recognized this route. He'd taken the same route the first day they'd arrived, following a trail of white-coated doctors. She was headed towards the Infirmary, and Lavi frowned. Her next appointment wasn't for the next few days. Her bandages were clean, and her wounds were healing smoothly, though seeing the bandages beneath the white blouse still made Lavi's skin crawl with empathetic phantom pains.

She opened the door, and Lavi could feel his heart thud in his chest. He recognized one of the men sitting at the end of the Infirmary. He had a telltale black eye, bruised nose, and a mustache. He was young. He was also probably the target of Esperanza's ire.

"Esperanza... Esperanza!" Lavi called as he tried to catch up with the woman walking ahead of him. He remembered the knife on her belt, and he felt dread build up in the pit of his stomach. She wasn't going to... would she? He remembered her enraged stare. Yes, she might. It was all too possible. He grabbed her shoulder, and Esperanza looked back at him as she stopped. Her eyes were unreadable, but he didn't detect the malice or hate he thought he'd see. She gave him a soft, very small smile. She patted the hand that was gripping her.

Even after being so angry (well, irritated, really) with her and so out of his depth with her these past forty-eight hours, he still didn't want to see her come to harm or put in trouble. She was his partner and friend, after all, and he decided that perhaps it was finally time to own up to it. It was too late, anyways. That nightmare he had had convinced him, at the back of his mind, that he was past returning to his former state of observational detachment. He couldn't just stay out of her life and watch. More than that, he wanted to be an active participant, a will he'd just begun to notice in the lives of others he'd interacted with. No wonder he was so protective of Allen, Lenalee, even Kanda of all people. Even Bookman elicited this response, and he wondered if this want was subconsciously human.

"Lavi, don't worry," Esperanza said, her face completely calm. Her facial expression reminded him of a woman resigned to death or some other such fate, and he felt the dread in his stomach weigh him down rather than lighten at this command. She was about to do something, to overstep her bounds in some way. Perhaps not in anger - he couldn't see it in her face. Still, he knew her pride, and he knew her pride too well.

"Es-esperanza -" Lavi stuttered, and Esperanza shook her head. She peeled his fingers off her shoulder, and he stared at her. Already, the men were whispering about the two Exorcists just standing there, having some sort of quiet argument between them. Esperanza turned away from him, and he watched her walk up to the man with the black eye, gash in his head, and bruised nose. He stared at her sullenly.

"Come back for more?" he asked in poor Spanish. Esperanza ignored the challenge. Lavi watched as her body loosened, as if she were about to enter battle. He'd taught her that practice, to relax one's body before a known battle in order to better respond to an attack. What was she planning...

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for your friends. I'm sorry for your family. I'm sorry about any other people in your life I have hurt. I was angry, and I was blind. I didn't understand what I was doing or to what end. I know I can never make up for a grievous offense like I had, but I am trying hard to prevent any more deaths... Please, if you would, forgive me," Esperanza finally said. Her words almost sounded rehearsed, but not quite. Lavi could tell she'd been thinking about this, and he suddenly remembered what he'd said last night.

"Perhaps if you apologized...?" He took a deep breath, realizing what she was attempting. She wanted forgiveness. That was the basis of her God, wasn't it? Perhaps she thought that humans, given the opportunity, were the same... That she could be forgiven.

It was tense. Lavi could sense the apprehension and vulnerability that Esperanza was subject to. She was so eager for forgiveness, he could see it. She wanted to start over. The man in front of her sat there slack-faced in shock. The last thing he'd expected was an apology.

Esperanza thought she could see a flicker of something in the man's face, something that she couldn't place. Hope rose within her, and then...

...a globule of spit hit her square beneath the eye. She jolted in surprise as it began to slide down her cheek, smelly and disgusting. The man sitting in front of her gave her a solid glare.

"Forgiveness... A martyr wouldn't forgive you," the man spat out with a sardonic smile. "You're filth. You kill people. It's what you do. You kill monsters now, and that's a joke God has made for the rest of us to laugh at. A monster killing monsters." Esperanza stood there, stock still. It didn't even seem like she was breathing. Lavi watched her hands clench at her sides as she fought to stay still.

"You're a lowlife woman who's a floozy, who thinks she's so big. Look at you, wearing pants like you're a man, like you can own up to a man's responsibilities, just because you can swing a bandolier You think that you're on a higher level than us humans who care, who can feel, but you're not. You think you deserve forgiveness, just because you asked for it and you apologized and you think you earned it from fighting monsters that are just as bad if not worse than you. But your apology...? It doesn't mean anythingto me. You can put lipstick on a dog, but that doesn't change the fact she's still a dog."

Esperanza stood there, still as a statue, and the man sitting finally said," Get out of my sight. You're not even worth my time." Esperanza turned around slowly, walking away unhurriedly as if nothing had occurred. The man laughed suddenly, and he muttered, "See, I can even order her around if I want. She really is a dog." Some of the men around him laughed nervously, keeping an eye on her. She brushed past Lavi, and he was suddenly torn. He wanted to defend Esperanza and her honor. He had no doubt that her bid for forgiveness had been sincere, if horribly timed. Yet, at the same time, he needed to at least keep a modicum of detachment. This wasn't his affair... as much as he wish it were.

He followed behind Esperanza. He could deal with that Finder later.

"I should've known better," Esperanza said, her feet scuffing the sand. The wind blew it ahead of the two, and Lavi sighed.

"You were being honest. You did want to apologize," Lavi said. Esperanza was silent, just as she had been for the past hour or so. She wasn't so much sullen as slightly in shock and definitely disappointed. Lavi felt sorry for her, and he felt a pang. Human sympathy... it was the most unreliable thing. It was the reason he'd never put any faith in it. This instance just reinforced that idea.

Still, Lavi couldn't stand to see Esperanza so crushed. He'd wiped her face and led her towards the beach, planning on trying to make her feel better. So far, it hadn't succeeded, and he'd even resorted to nearly getting hit by a car... again. Right now she was in a funk deeper than the one she'd been in yesterday. He suddenly wondered when she'd gotten to be so emotional. Then again, from an outsider's point of view she didn't look emotional. She just looked like a woman with a blank facial expression walking next to a man who was chattering on about nothing. Perhaps he knew her better now, and those hidden nuances were better revealed to him.

Suddenly, he was struck by an idea. He looked around. There were... three carts at present. One of them was selling some sort of taco-type dish along with an assortment of other things. The second was giving out crepes. The third was... bingo! Ice cream. If that didn't cheer her up, nothing would.

He suddenly stopped her, standing in front of her. "Hang on, hang on, hang on." She sighed, knowing what he was about to do.

"Amigo, the action is nice, but -"

"No, no, just, stay here a minute. I'm going to go and get you some ice cream," Lavi said, digging for his wallet, and Esperanza frowned, a flash of interest in her eyes, the first sort of emotion he'd seen other than negativity and angst.

"...Ice... cream?" she asked, question marks practically floating around her head as she cocked her head to the side with a look akin to a puppy dog finding a perplexing new command. Lavi realized that she'd never even heard this word, much less anything else. He slowly smiled.

"Hohoho, you're in for a treat," Lavi said, running with a long pace to the cart with a sign 'Gelado' on the front.

"Could I have two scoops of tiramisu ice cream, please?" Lavi asked, pointing into the tub. The man nodded, and he promptly said, "Fifty real coins, please." Lavi frowned.

"Isn't that kinda steep?" he asked. His wallet was half-open, and, to his chagrin, had only twenty real in it rather than the required fifty.

Hey, that maid had taken a small fortune from him.

"No, not 'spensive. Fifty real, or no ice cream," the man said, shrugging. He held out a hand, twitching his fingers in a 'gimme' gesture. Lavi grimaced at his wallet, making a whining noise deep in his throat.

"How about twenty?"

"Fifty."

"Um... what about... fifteen?"

"Fifty."

"Oh, come on! Can't you see I'm trying to help out a distressed woman here?" The man selling ice cream rolled his eyes.

"One ice-cream for twenty five. No less," the man stated. Lavi sighed. This man drove a hard bargain... Lavi glanced back towards Esperanza, only to realize she was no longer standing there. His eye widened, and he scanned the surrounding area for the woman. Oh, she was... standing there on a pier. Odd, considering she couldn't swim. He humphed to himself, seeing Esperanza stand there rather dejectedly. He was going to get a scoop of ice cream, whether or not this man standing here liked it.

"Okay, what'll you take for two scoops of ice cream?" Lavi asked, running a hand through his red hair. His headband itched, and he readjusted it.

The man deliberated... and finally said, "Nice scarf. Very nice." Lavi looked down at the scarf around his neck. Dangit, he'd just bought this, too! He sighed, and he handed it over. The man, seeming contemplative, scooped him four scoops rather than two, and he handed them over. Lavi was surprised by the influx of charity.

"Go make woman happy," the man said, pointing with his scoop to Esperanza on the pier. Lavi smiled nervously before hurrying off with a couple of metal spoons.

"I'll be back with these!" he promised over his shoulder as he raced up the pier.

Esperanza stared at him with skepticism as he handed her two cups of ice cream. She cautiously sniffed each, noting the cold against her fingers.

"You've seen ice cream before, haven't you?" Lavi asked as he juggled his ice cream, spoon, and other assorted items. Esperanza shrugged.

"Didn't have enough money for something that sweet," Esperanza stated. She tentatively dug her spoon in the ice cream, pulling out a massive bite and taking a small lick. She stood there for a moment, staring at the scoop on her spoon... and then she quickly downed it.

"This is... is amazing!" she muttered quietly, her mood suddenly changed. Lavi cheered internally. Finally! A good reaction! He'd been hoping for something along those lines. Ice cream fixed everything... well, at least, in his opinion. The only case he know of which did not follow that pattern was Kanda and his hate for sweets. If there was nothing else that proved Kanda was grumpy and belligerent...

They stood there for a while, eating ice cream and enjoying the other's companionable silence. Every now and again Esperanza would speak, and Lavi would listen, or vice versa.

"Amigo...I had meant to apologize, but... I believe there is something wrong with me, at times," Esperanza said, looking out to the water. She was careful to stand in the middle of the pier. It wouldn't do to fall into the water and drown.

"Why's that?" Lavi asked through his last mouthful of ice cream. He was particularly glad that he hadn't had a memory meltdown today. Perhaps that dream had something to do with it. He'd have to ask Bookman tonight over his golem.

"Sometimes...I do not feel anything for killing those people," Esperanza said, completely deadpan. Lavi suddenly choked on his spoon, gagging and coughing as it came very close to becoming newly acquainted with the ice cream in his stomach.

"What?" he coughed. Not... guilty...?

"I know I killed them, and they continue to haunt me, but there are times when I feel nothing but hate for them. When I look at my family, yes, I feel that burden, but... I do not know. It is... something I worry about. They are dead now, and to feel guilty would not help me. Still, my mind rebels," Esperanza stated, shrugging. She looked down at the ground, and she looked over to Lavi.

"Is there... something wrong with me?" she asked, quietly. Lavi vacillated his answer, his mind racing.

Was there something wrong with her? Or perhaps... perhaps she was doing the right thing by letting go of her guilt? She felt no attachment to those people she had killed, and they were dead besides, but... Lavi couldn't truly tell her, because he himself had no real, true attachment. Despite his desire to be a part of his friends' lives, he could still feel that fear instilled in him by his Bookman training, like an instinct that nagged to flee. He could never truly enjoy attachment, and therefore he would never fully understand guilt either. He could not help her.

He opened his mouth, and the pier suddenly buckled. The two stood there, both in a semblance of shock. Lavi recovered first, accustomed to such strange happenings. He immediately removed his hammer, his face dead serious as he looked around for the source of the abnormal shaking.

"Akuma," Esperanza said, removing the long knife at her waist with a decisive flick of the wrist. Suddenly, a massive, spiked tentacle erupted from one end of the pier and slammed down. The two jumped back as splinters flew in the air, and another tentacle erupted out of the water. Below, the water churned as an Akuma thrashed underneath the pier.

"A kraken? Sheesh, the Earl's getting really unimaginative with his Akuma lately," Lavi joked as he beat off a tentacle that was flying in from the right. It was a steam-punk nightmare, made of gears and spikes. Not the most pleasant thing to see at dusk on a blustery afternoon on the pier.

"As long as they are easy to kill, I do not care," Esperanza stated tersely. She diverted another tentacle into the deck. It struck with such force that it was stuck in the wood, and she promptly hacked at it quite a few times over before it flailed off. They continued to beat back the tide of tentacles that assailed them. Lavi had had to save Esperanza quite a few times, as her reckless nature in fighting nearly had her thrown over the side quite a few times by a careless swipe of an appendage. She had no Innocence to help her now, and the pier was a good ten feet off the water.

"We'll never be able to kill this thing out here. We have to either drag it up or we find a way to kill it in the water," Lavi panted. He was growing tired of this game of 'dodge the tentacle'. He'd been cut across the forehead by a wayward spike that had flung off, and blood was dripping into his eyes. Suddenly a tentacle wrapped around his ankle, and it yanked sharply to the side. Lavi was stunned for a minute as his head hit the deck with a thud.

"Lavi!" Esperanza shouted, but she was suddenly distracted by another tentacle vying for her attention. She beat it off with the hilt of her knife, but it managed to clock her in the head. She managed to remain standing, though she staggered. He watched her begin to stumble towards him as he realized he was slipping off the pier. He scrabbled for something to hang on to, and Esperanza slid across the pier, jamming her knife between too boards hardly centimeters away from his fingers. Lavi was suddenly very glad that her emotional distress had nothing to do with her fighting and team work abilities. He grasped the hilt of the knife just as she grabbed his wrists with both hands, and he felt his shoulders begin to pop.

"Pull me in, PULL ME IN!" Lavi shouted as the spiked tentacle began to dig into his ankle. He looked back and began kicking at the tentacle, but it didn't take him long to find that there was no way that thing was coming free. Despite this, Esperanza continued to attempt to reel him in as he clutched the hilt of the knife, but she was also trying to fend off tentacles that were trying to flay them alive. She was already cut in several places across her back. Lavi looked up to the sky, and he fought to think through the pain. He had to use his mind. That was the only way they both were getting out of this... well, at least, one of them.

And that's when he had his idea.

He looked for his hammer. When he'd been dragged, he'd dropped it. It was no more than two feet from Esperanza's left foot, but any minute it could be knocked into the water, and then they'd be verily and horribly screwed.

"Esperanza! Grab my hammer!" Thankfully she didn't question it, slipping off her boot and gripping the handle of the hammer with her toes. She flung it towards the both of them, and he risked a hand to grab it.

"Now, when I say so, you have to let go of me!" Lavi shouted. Esperanza's eyes widened, but she looked away to beat off yet another tentacle with her foot. Blood splattered on the deck as a spike sliced into the ball of her foot. She let loose a small shout, but she kept her to stoic expression.

"Lavi, I am not letting go of you!" she shouted in response, and Lavi shook his head.

"Look, if you don't, you're going to end up with lots and lots of very unpleasant burns! Trust me when I say I hate hearing you complain! You have to let go of me! I'm going to electrocute this thing!" Lavi shouted. As if to emphasize the lack of time they had to discuss all of this, the tentacle yanked Lavi again, eliciting a scream of pain. Esperanza's eyes flickered between him and the ankle being torn to shreds out past the pier. Her knife wouldn't hold forever.

"Lavi..." Esperanza breathed with a darkening expression.

"Do you trust me?" he asked, his tone brooking no argument. She went still, shocked by his question. They stared for all of a few seconds before she nodded.

"Then let go of me on the count of three," Lavi commanded, his voice gravelly from pain. That tentacle was really beginning to bite. His arms were already shaking under the strain of keeping himself from going over the side. He felt like a fish being pulled in by its tail. He twirled the hammer into its right position, quickly invoked its Heaven Seal, and slammed it down. Clouds began to form overhead very quickly.

"One..." The tentacle jerked again, and Lavi could feel it edging close to bone.

"Two..." Sweat dripped into his eyes, and Esperanza looked pained as she ducked another tentacle. As if by instinct, Lavi knew that this was it. The lightning was going to strike... now.

"THREE!" Esperanza flew back, leaving Lavi to grasp the knife by himself. He shouted as one of his shoulders dislocated itself.

"CLOSE YOUR EYES! NOW!" Lavi shouted, suddenly realizing that if Esperanza continued to watch, she'd go blind from the lightning flash. Esperanza covered her head just as Lavi sensed the heightening climax above.

Lavi didn't see it when it came down, but he felt it. It was as if every single hair on his head had stood up, every pore of his skin was screaming, all nerves completely overtaken with an overload of pain. He felt the tentacle unlock from his ankle, and he was sent flying. He hit the deck, and he slid across it. It took him a moment to realize that he couldn't hear as he watched the smoking tentacles of the dead Akuma flail in its final throes. Esperanza was running towards him, shouting. He felt dull surprise as he realized that she hadn't been affected. He'd thought she'd at least have felt the shock. He struggled to stand up, but his legs wouldn't support him. His vision was going in and out, and he had no idea what she was saying. She was pushing him down, now, looking him over with that dark look of hers, and it took a moment to realize that a lot of his clothes had been either singed or burned off. Half his uniform was left, which thankfully included a good bit of his pants, one shoe, and probably about a third of his jacket and half his shirt.

He sat up, blinking. His body was more resilient than most people's, and the injuries he'd sustained were much less serious than any other person who would've been connected to something hit by lightning. Even now his hearing was coming back, and Esperanza's voice was fading into his ears.

"...re you alright? Lavi, talk to me, you idiot!" He coughed, and he could've sworn that a cloud of smoke had erupted from his mouth. And then, suddenly, he began to laugh. Esperanza stared as Lavi dissolved into a fit of giggles and mirth. Finally, he said, "Let's do that again. I haven't had a fight like that in a while. That was fun."

Esperanza shook her head as she walked away to her knife. She looked over her shoulder at the recovering Bookman Jr. Crazy white people.

A/N: Finally, a chapter! I've been lazy this holiday season, sheesh...

Big thanks to Ryo Hoshi (thanks for the tidbit on lobotomy - I hadn't known about the girl with epilepsy) and Santashelper834.

As for my favoriteers, it looks like we've got new blood. Santashelper834 again! I'm noticing a pattern here with reviews and favoriting...

And, unfortunately, still no new subscribers. Again, better luck next chapter.

I have no discussion questions for this chapter. I'll be honest - I'm lazy.

God bless, and happy holidays!