the last request

chapter 18

Weeks had gone by, and the night of the eclipse was drawing nearer and nearer. Lou Fa hadn't woken up, though. The science department had run dozens of tests on her and said that her life wasn't in danger, but that using her Innocence, in addition to the wounds, and the severe shock that she suffered all helped to leave her unable to awaken. With the scientific data that they stole from the Earl, they had managed to regenerate most of her wounds, and fix her arm extremely quickly. However, her eye was a different story. There was nothing in the data about regrowing mangled or lost body parts. All they could say was that Lou Fa would certainly be surprised when and if she woke up to see plenty of scars but no wounds, and to find that they had to remove her eye to prevent infection. Unfortunately, there was nothing that anyone could say to convince Lavi that it wasn't his fault this happened.

In fact, there wasn't a single thing that anyone could do to force Lavi to leave the infirmary.

"I'm going to be there when Lou Fa wakes up…" he would say. Fortunately for his health, he would eat if given food, and he was occasionally found sleeping, albeit still sitting in the same chair as he always did. Occasionally, Allen or Lenalee, and sometimes even Miranda would come in to sit with him for a while. But his icy demeanor made it hard to talk to him, and so, eventually, even they stopped.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Order had much to do. Given the newfound power of the Noah Family, all other HQs had been abandoned and they all moved into Main HQ. Although that did mean that Main HQ was almost at capacity, it was certainly much safer with all of the exorcists in one place, especially the generals, all of whom could probably defeat a Noah without undue trouble. Although Rouvelier didn't like that Allen and Lenalee had magical ability, especially since he had not initially been informed of it, he had ordered them to increase the magical protection around Main HQ, and so, Allen and Lenalee spent most of their free time, now, running around the building, looking for any way in. Given the information they now had about the Ark, and the fact that Allen possessed knowledge of Road's powers, they were also putting up barriers against trans-dimensional entry and teleportation magic. Since both Allen and Lenalee knew that no amount of magic could repel the combined efforts of the Noah Family and the Earl indefinitely, they also set up magical alarms that would alert the Order if there was any sign, however faint, of a break-in, or an attempt to do so, regardless of the method of doing so.

The Research and Development team, meanwhile, had discovered a way to at least stall Tyki Mikk in simply phasing through the walls of the Order. By harnessing the concentrated level of Innocence inside Hevlaska, they managed to set up an Innocence Aura all around the Order that not only made it painful and difficult for Noah to get through, but could also destroy up to a level 4 Akuma due to the sheer concentration of the Innocence. They had also done research on the weapons that Cross had given to Allen and Lenalee, and had modified them so that they could work in the hands of anyone, so now, all Finders were equipped with these guns, which fed off of the individual's life force and physical energy. While it was true that there were fewer Finder fatalities, the Finder's need to rest increased between missions, so in the end, the improvement there was only slight.

Komui was also getting very little sleep because he was continuously taking reports of strange events that would normally take a backseat to other more vital matters for the Exorcists. But now, at any one time, although they now had at least 20 Exorcists, there might only be 5 in Main HQ at once, always including at least 1 general, because the other 15 were out on missions to collect Innocence, find new accommodators, and destroy Akuma in general. Since the Exorcists never went out individually anymore, and they were also equipped with the special weapons, there had not been any deaths so far. However, it was only a matter of time before one got in over their head.