This is a D Gray Man Fanfiction only.
As we got in the boat I realized that this was not going to be a pleasant trip at all, we managed to find the Finder assigned to us as we got out of the boat and we walked through the city towards the train yard. The city that we walked through was rather large, and I have to admit that sometimes I kept looking around expecting to find a stray Akuma.
Large cities have particularly interested the Earl, my brother probably considers large cities a rather nice source of unfortunate souls to trick people and make more of his little creations. As we walked I saw two young men bickering and that made me remember the reason why I didn't get along with my brother.
He often used to say that if humanity has no loyalty towards the family that saved them, that we shouldn't show them any mercy, as a Noah people treat members of our family as demon possessed people at best or outright heretics or infidels at worst. I know that humans often tend to lash out at our family.
I often argued with him that it was just a matter of them not understanding and not knowing about us. I often argued that if we talked to them enough they would understand, and with the understanding being able to live with each other in peace was a definite possibility.
We used to argue all the time, and I think that was the reason he tried to kill me and still all my power. I get the feeling he felt that if I loved humans so much, that I shouldn't be allowed to exist as a Noah, or that I would get in his way of his genocidal plan to kill all humanity.
What a surprise the Order actually has a compartment on the train reserved for our us, I still don't see why the Finder had to stay outside, then again I don't want to spend that much time with Kanda myself, I better check what is the Finder doing.
I opened it and saw him playing with some cards. "What exactly are you doing?" The Finder looked up from his cards and smiled, "You know you are the first Exorcist whoever asked me that, I know it looks like I am playing, but actually I am doing some fortune telling to see if we need to prepare for something before we get to ruins."
I guess everyone has a hobby, "Mind if you tell me a little bit about the ruins we are going?" He kept touching his cards and laying in them in a rather nice pattern, I know I seen it once already.
"Sure I don't mind at all, the City of Matel was actually a very famous crafting city once, but something caused the city to slowly die out, the water went bad, then the crops began to fail, it is said that the residents decided to unite all their crafting skills and materials to create a never seen wonder, a singing doll. The doll would go around the city singing her beautiful song, and some think that it made their last days rather comfortable."
He just kept touching the cards and I guess he was worried about something, then again I wasn't that comfortable having to work with Mr. Antisocial Kanda myself. "So the people of the city died out, but it was said that travelers would sometimes get drawn to the ruins when they heard a song. I know what you are thinking, why didn't they leave the city if the conditions were causing them to die? I guess they simply loved their city so much they rather die than abandon it."
The last card he placed was for the position of what would happen, the thing that made me worry is the card he placed on that spot. Without thinking about it I picked it up and looked at it, funny this card reminds me of the deck Tiki used to own.
"If this is our future, then we are going to have one hell of an adventure. You placed the joker on the place for the future things to happen, I don't know why but somehow I don't think that is a good sign."
I gave him back his card, "And you would be correct in thinking that, when fortune telling the Joker on the deck means uncertainty, but also means that the enemy will not be easy to identify. Like the Joker it can change the value depending on which cards are in play. This would mean that our mission will have some changes and not all those changes, much like you said will be to our benefit."
I looked at him and I finally understood why he was trying to use a fortune telling technique like card reading, he is worried about the mission too. "You know something there are no easy missions, then again think about why we are doing this? There is a person out there somewhere who's goal is to kill all humans. He hates humanity so much that I think he would be willing to destroy the entire world if he had to do it to wipe out humanity."
He began to shuffle his deck and then looked at me, "Tell me Allen how do you know the Earl's goal is to kill off humanity? You could be wrong you know, maybe he wants to test humanity and cause us to improve."
After centuries of putting up with the abusive and insulting treatment we got from humans, I know better than anyone how much he hates them. I am probably the only Noah that knows the real reason humans behave this way with us. We are different from them, and they don't know us or understand us at all, this is the reason humans always mistreat my family.
I know for a fact that if the human race knew about us, and we came to understand each other, then this sort of situations would never happen. It's just that trying to understand something they fear is very difficult. That idiot brother of mine doing what he is doing is making the chances of humanity understand the Noah even more difficult.
Thanks to the actions of my eldest brother, I imagine humans will come to the conclusion that all members of my family are their enemy. "Trust me, the Millennium Earl hates humanity, we have to stop him and I know that it might be difficult, but I also know that we might lose something that could never be replaced, and something we should all treasure."
He looked at me and he looked a bit confused, "What do you think we will lose if the Earl wins Allen? What could possibly be worth risking your life for? Why are you an Exorcist Allen?"
I took the deck from his hand and cut it and gave it back to him. "A chance for a bright and happy future. I will take five." That is how I ended up playing poker with the guy till we reached the station. I have to say this guy really is good with that deck. I couldn't even tell when he was cheating, and that is saying something.
As the three of us got to the ruins of the city we saw something that was rather odd, the streets still looked like they been walked on, the place even had a few places where the garden plazas were taken care off. There was no litter or junk anywhere. The last thing I noticed was that there was supposed to be someone singing but there was no one doing that right now.
Our Finder finally decided to ask me something as we walked through the ruins, "Allen you seem like something is bothering you? What exactly do you think is wrong?"
I looked at the place and saw exactly what I was expecting, the signs were present. Thousands of years of experience as a Noah and I knew the signs all too well. The way the buildings were damaged, the scorch marks on the walls. There was no mistaking it, there had been heavy combat recently.
"You said that people who wonder this place were often greeted by someone signing, except the second we stepped in this place was as quiet as a graveyard. You must have noticed it too Kanda, there are clear signs of recent battle. We don't have time to take in the sights it seems, we need to find the finders that were sent to this place and fast."
Yu actually nodded his head and looked at the Finder working with us, "You have to have some means to determine where the other Finders are, so tell me where do you think they would go, how would they keep alive till the Exorcists arrive?"
He began touching the side of his head and looked at a holographic map from a terminal on his backpack. "If they are anything like me, they would pick a place with an easy vantage point, they wouldn't want to be caught by surprise. We need to find the place where they set the shield walls. I imagine they will use all their gear to form a shelter till backup arrives."
Easy vantage point I began to get an idea and as I began to climb the ruins to get a better look of an area, I saw a place that looked like someone made a small shelter with several shield units. "Kanda I found them, several hundred feet down our current road. It looks like they made a place down at what looks like to be a plaza."
Kanda saw me slide down towards them and he was sneering at me. "There was no need for you to act like a monkey bean sprout. I pretty much figured they would use the plaza, it's the place I would think most of the streets go there after all."
I really can't stand this idiot, I better put my personal feelings aside and focus on the mission. Failure here would end up helping my brother, and I didn't want that to happen. If it means that I have to put up with this idiot, well that is just another thing I have to sacrifice in order to keep the insane plan of my brother from succeeding.
Sure enough, we found ourselves staring at a bunker made with shielding units, it was an effective use I must say. In truth, it was quite a pleasant surprise that they came up with something like this apparently right before they died. It was the old saying that necessity is the mother of ingenuity all over again. I swear after this I will reserve my opinion of humans as being ignorant savages to a group of select individual, Yu Kanda is definitely getting added to that list.
The Finder found the controls of one and with the rather funny play on numbers, he managed to turn it off. We walked into a massive cave the finders made and we came face to face with a rather nice looking young lady, she was wearing this nice blue dress, and a hat to match.
Her companion was wearing rags and had a face that was as flat as a frying pan. "Well from the looks of it, we found the last survivor of Matel and the singer too. Now we only need to find the Innocence and get out of here before the thing that killed the finders comes back. Cause if he or she knows the field is off, he or she will return."
I had to agree with the Finder but I was getting sick and tired of thinking of him as just by his job designation. "Before we do anything else, Finder I need to know your name. Honestly, I can't stand calling you Finder any longer. I am liable to want to hit someone, and more than likely it would be Kanda getting hit. We don't want that to happen, I think he has a glass jaw."
The Finder for a second began to laugh, and I mean really laugh at what I told him. "You can call me Johnny, it's my name after all. Nice to finally be asked Allen."
As we finally got into the shelter formed from the shielding units I saw that the finder team were actually dead and only a young woman and a masked man were sitting in the middle of the makeshift shelter. I couldn't help but to smiled at the ploy they were using. It was rather funny to think about.
"So I gather that you two are the only survivors. I need to know who is the one they call the Ghost of Matel?" I couldn't help but to find what Kanda say funny. I felt like I would crack a rib from trying so hard not to laugh.
The masked man put up his hand, I see that it was that old ploy after all. "We need to get the innocence out of him and leave as soon as possible." That is when the young woman stood in front of him almost like shielding him from us. I must say that it was a rather nice gesture of solidarity if anything else, too bad I don't think it would have any effect on someone like Kanda.
"You can take the innocence after he runs out of energy, but please let me stay with him till that happens. He is the only person that has ever truly cared about me in my life. I want to at least be there for him in his last moments."
Johnny and I looked at her and we couldn't find a reason why to deny her request. "There is no reason why deny her request Kanda, we need to find and eliminate the Akuma that killed the finders. If this city had enough people, that could spell trouble for us."
Kanda looked at me with a clear look of anger and walked up towards me. "I didn't ask you for your opinion beansprout. The day I need the advice from a greenhorn like you, it will be a cold day in hell. We need to get the innocence and get out of here, that is the only reason we came here for, not to grant some sentimental request by two idiots that are going to die anyways."
I looked at Johnny and I couldn't help but to smile, "And this coming from a man that is supposed to be the great defenders of humanity? If this is how he treats the common folk, I can only say humanity is doomed."
Johnny began to nod his head and look at Kanda, "If you don't care about the people you are supposed to defend then it doesn't matter if we find the innocence. I agree with Master Allen, we need to find the Akuma that killed the finders and the people of this city. It is well known to us Finders that an Akuma becomes stronger the more people they kill."
As we began to hunt I could almost feel like a shadow was near me, I activated my eye and sure enough, I saw one Akuma, the thing was the soul inside was distorted which was a bad sign. This means that the Akuma had evolved. I decided to use more of my own strength and quicken my pace to find the place I was seeing this evolved Akuma.
As I reached the place I saw something that made me pause for an instance, a man who looked just like me except it was almost like looking at a mirror image of myself walking down the streets and he was clearly looking for someone or something.
"The ability to mirror the looks and abilities of others. You are one sneaky little Akuma, aren't you? I have to say the Millennium Earl really outdid himself when he made a monster like you. You even caused your very soul to deform to such an extent."
The Akuma tried to find me, but thanks to my eye I was able to keep well hidden. "Well, that is actually high praise coming from one of your kind Exorcist. You never even noticed when I was looking at you from afar. Here I was hoping you and your stupid friends guided me to the location of the Innocence in this city, the Earl wants it for some unknown reason."
I smiled as I heard him say that, I kept myself hidden as I had Timcanpy take everything that we said and taken a few images to back up what I had said. "Why don't you come out of hiding and face me, or are you too cowardly to face me like a man!"
My estimation of this thing's intelligence went down by a lot if he thinks something like that is going to influence me. I kept hidden and kept taking note of his supposed evolved abilities. He may know how I look, sound and move, but in reality, he had no real knowledge on how to use my weapon. I kept using my fingers to cut pieces of the building near him and causing them to fall on his head.
"Are you having fun? You know those pieces actually hurt when they hit me!" I smiled and kept on doing that if I kept him distracted Kanda would be able to see what Timcanpy recorded and he will find his way to where I been keeping the Akuma busy, I at least hope that is the case. Knowing Kanda he might delay just to give this thing more time to try and finish me off.
"You know you are one of the most sadistic humans I ever met. Do you enjoy causing me pain that much? Why I am almost tempted to say you aren't human at all." That is a bad move to say that to me, it was no secret among my fellow Noah that saying that I was not even human was considered a taboo when said about me.
"You just had to say that, didn't you? You question if I am human or not? Well, let's say I am very much like your precious creator. In fact, you are nothing more than a toy to him. You should watch what you say about me little puppet, or I might decide to cut your string. Now why don't I continue playing my melody on that empty coconut you call a skull, I never played a melody on a drum before, I usally prefer to play my music on a piano."
That made the Akuma both furious and for a second worried. It was no secret also that I was supposedly dead, killed by my eldest brother. I, however, was very much alive and as the darkness began to spread across my skin and the stigmata began to appear across my forehead. I felt more powerful by the second, if something made me stronger it is misery.
Negative emotions are second nature to the members of the Noah Clan, after all, we have been given ample experience feeling such emotions but very few times we actually felt positive emotions with anyone that was not one of us. If I had to count who ever made me feel this happy and positive feelings I could probably count them with the fingers in one hand.
I would never say it, but at times likes these I do miss Mana, I used the energy from my brief transformation to power my weapon a little further than even the Akuma expected, as part of a building fell down on top of him.
"So that is the Akuma, it really looks like you except in a sort of a reflection of you. Nice that you managed to keep it busy till I got here beansprout, let me handle things from here. You just watch and learn."
I turned and saw Kanda was ready and his weapon was already in his hand. I guess I didn't do such a good job hiding since Kanda found me. Good thing he found me after I reverted back to my human appearance, no need to tip off the Order what I really look like, at least not yet.
