Emotionless Red

Chapter 23

Red's POV:

The walk to the Black Order was fairly long and boring; it mostly consisted of Lenalee fussing over me and Lavi watching me carefully. Most of the time I talked to Neah about anything until a boy appeared on the road, his black hair ruffled and clothes that barely held to his form, it was best to call them rags then clothes. His eyes were coved by his hair and the sicking grin that spread across the boy's face made Lenalee grab my arm and Lavi put his hand on his hammer.

The boy began shake and shift into a level two akuma, its laughter was a sicking screeching sound; that almost sounded like the sound when you scrape a melt fork on a glass plate. The akuma looked like a black and grey marionette with strings hanging from its wrists that were crimson red. The marionette akuma grinned revealing two rows of sharp teeth, his figure tall and at least standing about six foot.

"WHo Do We HaVe HeRe? eXoRCiSts..." The akuma hissed out its words and its eyeless gaze landed on me then moved to the others.

Its grin widened as it snickered, its strings lashing out and shooting towards us as it laughed. "MaSTeR, WiLL Be HaPPY WiTH Me~! HeeHee, WoN'T He~!"

I frowned at the akuma; it was going to blow my cover. I growled quietly and was about to activate my innocence when Neah's voice was heard. 'Red, you need to stay in character, you mustn't know what are an akuma is or anything about the war. You don't know about innocence and you should pretend to fear these creatures.'

I sighed mentally and began to shake, my grey eyes wide as I looked at the thing in fear. "W-what is that?"

"It's an akuma, Neah. They're made from the souls of loved ones that called them back from the grave. This is a level two, it's stronger than a level one but we should be able to handle this with ease. Just stand back and only interfere if you have too." Lenalee smiled at me gently as my wide grey eyes slowly returned to normal. She activated her dark boots as Lavi had blocked the string that has been fired at us.

She joined the battle with the akuma as I watched with a scowl. 'Akuma, from this time on I'll be known as the enemy until I or another Noah says otherwise, understood?'

The akuma nodded its head as another akuma made its way to us, this one being a level three. The green armour and sharp teeth on the akuma gave off a strange feeling, my left hand twitched as I looked at it. 'Level three, tell the Earl to inform all the akuma to treat me like the enemy until either me or the Earl says so.'

The level three left unseen by the other two fighting, I took a step forward as Lenalee became tangled in the akuma's strings. It laughed as the red strings tightened around Lenalee's form, looks like I'll have to help out.

Activating my innocence and shooting Crown Belt at the strings to cut them from the akuma, it wrapping around Lenalee and pulling her away from the akuma. Lenalee's eyes were wide with surprise as she looked at me; I gave her a half smile before making my way closer to the creature.

'Attack the creature Crown Clown and let the soul rest for this one has suffered long enough.' I frowned slightly as Crown Belt shot through the chest of the akuma, it slowly crumbling away to nothing but a pile of ash.

I deactivate my innocence, turning to them with my head down, speaking ever so gently. "H-how did I do that?"

Both looked at me for a while, neither answering my simple question. Lenalee rested a hand on my shoulder as she spoke. "I reckon we should keep walking, HQ isn't that far from here."

An hour long journey later we were at the dark eerie Black Order. Hundreds of black bat like golems flapped there wings as they watch us enter the Order. I frowned slightly and moved closer to the Bookman Jr, he seemed the safest to stand next to and there clan was on our side for a while.

Walking down the halls and arriving at to dark wooden doors, Lenalee smiled gently at me and then looked at Lavi with a slight worried glance.

Entering the office to see an older guy that appeared to be in his fifties with slicked back brown hair and a tooth brush moustache, his face graced into a look of distain and disgust. His eyes were narrowed and made it hard to see his dark – nearly black – brown eyes. He wore purplish coloured clothing with small fractions of gold; this most likely represented what rank he was in the Order. He appeared to be sipping tea with his legs crossed his back straight as he looked at Komui. "Is this the child that supposably 'died' on the Ark?"

My gaze turned to a man that appeared in his early thirties, he had dark blue hair that curled at the end, framing his neck as a white beret covered the top of his head. White wire pentagonal glass sat upon his nose as he wore a light blue turtleneck sweater, white pants and a white coat that deemed him the head of the branch. His eyes scanned over me and then looked to Lavi and Lenalee, them nodding towards him. "Yes, this appears to be that child."

"Director Komui, I'm to place this child under surveillance. I will have Howard Link watch him and if he tries anything that looks suspicious, he will be dragged down to the dungeon and locked up. Is that understood, Komui?" The older looking man stood from his seat, smoothing out his suit then looking at the man now dubbed Komui.

"Yes, understood Malcolm." Komui frowned as he watched Malcom leave the room, most likely to go back to central. Komui's gaze shifted away from the door and over to me, his expression changing to one of joy as he lunged at Lenalee, I stepped back and peeked out from behind Lavi.

"OH, MY PRESCIOUS LENALEE! I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE BACK~!" Komui clung to Lenalee as she blushed slightly, she raised her first and punched him in the head causing Komui to let go. Komui straightened himself out and looked over at me with a smile; I shrunk behind Lavi because this man was insane.

'No, doubt about that Red. This guy is mental. Why would they put this guy as head of the branch?!' If I could see Neah he would be failing his arms around at the last sentence.

I stared at Komui, he looked at me and I didn't move from my place. "I'm Komui Lee, head of this branch. I wish to ask you a few questions, Red was it. That's what Lenalee called you."

"No, my names Neah, I don't know who this 'Red' is." Is slowly moved out from behind Lavi, standing with my hands folded behind my back as I looked at Komui with my head tilted to the side.

"Alright, Neah. How did you escape the Ark and how come your wounds didn't kill you?" Komui folded his hands in front of him as he sat back down behind his desk.

"I don't what this 'Ark' is and I woke up one the streets covered in blood, this nice lady treated my wounds and gave me some food. After I left the small home that the lady lived in I wondered the streets and these priests found me, they looked at my arm and then I don't remember much other than feeling really hot and pain flaring on my side..." Eye brows were scrunched in confusion as panic flashed past my eyes.

I remember that day, I was almost brunt alive, I made it out and I was grateful for a little while. That is until they saw me fleeing and chased me down. They tied me down and tried to chop my arm off.

I shook my head and looked down, not wanting to remember that memory. "Well, Neah your safe now. I heard that you innocence was in your left arm, we should take you down the Hevlaska to see how comparable you are with it."

Komui and I slowly made our way down to Hevlaska, where she would check my innocence. I was slightly nerves because this being – Hevlaska – is meant to be the keeper of innocence. The platform that we were on stopped and I looked around the dark room, trying to see if I could see it. A light blue slightly transparent tendril came from nowhere and slowly lifted me off the platform.

My breath caught in my throat as I stared at the being holding me, its gentle voice echoing around the room. "Show me your innocence."

The glowing tendrils wrapped around my left arm as something seemed to tug in my mind, Neah hissed slightly in pain as the innocence inspected my sync rate. Hevlaska place her forehead against mine as Neah just cussed in my head that it hurt having Hevlaska near him. "16%..... 25%.... 42%..... 78%..... 92%..... 100%. You sync rate with your innocence is 100%. Neah, you hold great destiny, you and your innocence will bring forth a destroy of time."

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