A Game of Poker, Chapter 32: Game, Set
Title: A Game of Poker
Author: Bookkbaby
Rating: Teen
Warnings: YAOI
Summary: LUCKY Pair. It started as a simple game of poker, but a little white lie from Lavi changes everything. ['If you lose... you spend the night here, with me, and let me do whatever I want with you.']
Warnings: YAOI, which means BOYS LOVING BOYS. If you dislike that, then the back button is easy enough to find. Please click that and leave. Limes are in the future, and lemons. Maybe some OOC, spoilers for the end of the anime later on.
Disclaimer: I don’t own these lovely characters, that honor belongs to Katsura Hoshino. (Though if Hoshino-sama ever has a sale, I call dibs on Tyki… what?) I don’t own anything but a copy of the anime series and all volumes of the manga in English. Anything you don’t recognize (like the plotline of ‘A Game of Poker’) does belong to me. Everything else… not so much. Please don’t sue.
Kudos to the awesome SisterWicked of AssHat Productions (a group I am now a proud member of), who got me started on Lucky and lets me use 'lovely'! Beta’d by N.H. Arawn and Misster Cackles! All remaining mistakes are mine.
Special Dedication to Silver Affection, since she is an awesome friend!
Last Time On ‘A Game Of Poker’:
The figure the Earl was walking slowly, almost jovially towards had red hair.
"Lavi... damnit..." Kanda croaked out, eyes slipping shut. He slid sideways, completely unconscious before his head hit the ground.
And Now, The Continuation
Chapter 32
Game, Set
Krory leapt forward, hoping to take Jasdevi by surprise. The blond noticed immediately and growled low in his throat. Jasdevi aimed a spear of his hair at the charging Exorcist, firing as soon as he had aimed. Krory didn't dodge. He felt the spear bite into his left arm, but thankfully it seemed like Jasdevi had been anticipating a dodge and hadn't aimed directly at the vampire's chest. If the blond had...
Krory gritted his teeth and lifted a hand in preparation to attack. He couldn't afford to die yet; he wasn't close enough to take the Noah with him.
Jasdevi's eyes widened, perhaps realizing that Krory's attack was less an attack than a suicidal charge. Krory heard Jasdevi curse and more hair came up as a hasty shield and arm's length away from the Noah's body. Seconds after the shield formed, Krory slammed into it with all the strength of his momentum and weight. The air was forced out of his lungs and he gasped raggedly, but he felt the shield buckle. Taking advantage of the precious second or two he had to attack, Krory dug his fingers into the thick golden strands that made up the shield and pulled. Jasdevi yelped as he was yanked forward.
Krory tightened his grip and brought his other hand up to strike. He aimed for the blond's head, putting all of his strength behind the blow. If he could just stun Jasdevi long enough to reach the Noah with his fangs...
Jasdevi blocked the strike, his arm coming up just underneath Krory's and forcing the punch up and over his head. Before Krory could jerk his hand back, Jasdevi grabbed Krory's wrist and brutally twisted. The Exorcist yelled out in pain as the bones in his forearm were stressed to the breaking point and beyond, snapping with an audible 'crack'. The blond kept his grip on Krory's wrist and pulled forward. Krory was sent sprawling forward. He struck the ground hard and the wind was knocked out of him for the second time in the past fives minutes. The Exorcist tried to take a deep breath, but he could hear his lungs wheeze. He ignored the burning in his chest as he tried to get to his feet, gasping for air as he scrambled to stand.
There was a near-silent 'whoosh' of air and then a sudden, sharp pain in his side. Krory cried out as he was flipped roughly onto his back, arms splayed out like the arms of a cross. He shouted in pain when four thin spears of the Noah's hair pinned him to the ground. Two spears impaled his palms and two spears went through his thighs just above his knees.
Krory struggled to free his trapped limbs, but each spear keeping him pinned was anchored firmly into the ground beneath him. Besides that, the fresh, tearing pain he felt each time he tried to yank his hands to legs free warned him that he was only making his injuries worse by struggling. He forced himself to stop moving, though his hands still twitched uncontrollably.
Krory breathed deeply and glared up at his enemy. Jasdevi was standing over him, a tired but triumphant smirk on the blond's face. The Noah stood straddling Krory's body, one foot on either side of the Exorcist's hips.
"You missed," Jasdevi said gleefully. Krory kept glaring, ignoring the urge to look away. He tested his limbs, pulling lightly against the spears to see if the hair had shifted at all. It hadn't. Jasdevi wasn't taking chances or allowing him any room to wriggle free.
This was it, then.
Krory's gamble may have failed, but at least he had managed to weaken Jasdevi. With any luck, Allen or one of the others would have no trouble taking out the Noah. Krory wouldn't be there to help them, but he refused to meet Death like a coward. He would keep his eyes wide open and watch until his eyes lost their sight. Assuming some miracle occurred, he might be able to weaken Jasdevi further or possibly even escape, but he would miss those chances if he shut his eyes.
He wasn't dead yet, but it seemed that he would die no matter what Jasdevi's eventual fate was.
"Are you done talking, brat?" he asked, voice stronger than he felt. He saw a muscle twitch at the corner of one of Jasdevi's eyes and smiled to himself.
"I've heard that the only way to kill a vampire-" Jasdevi spat out the word, emphasizing it because he knew how much that word annoyed Krory. True to form, Krory's smile disappeared and his eyes narrowed in displeasure. "-is to stake it through the heart."
Jasdevi's hair shifted, a huge mass of it rising over the Noah's head and forming into a sharp stake the thickness of Krory's head. The razor-sharp point was aimed directly at the Exorcist's chest.
Krory watched it with an odd kind of detached horror. He had heard stories of people dying and how those people saw their lives flash before their eyes, but his mind was completely blank. All he could see was the tip of the stake.
"I have no wood, but this should work just fine!" Jasdevi cackled. The stake drew back slightly and then shot forward.
Pain exploded in Krory's body and he tried to cry out, but his cry ended in a hacking cough that brought up blood. He could feel it dripping down his chin and taste it in his mouth. He could feel his chest on fire with his nerves screaming in agony, but he welcomed the pain.
Jasdevi's attack had missed. The stake aimed for his heart had buried itself slightly above and to the side. Still fatal, but not instantly fatal.
Krory shot a glance towards his opponent's face.
Jasdevi wasn't looking at him. The Noah seemed to have forgotten that Krory even existed, eyes wide and staring off towards the far end of the battlefield as tears streamed down his cheeks. As Krory watched, too stunned to react, Jasdevi lifted a hand to wipe at the tears.
The spears pinning Krory in place loosened. The slight shift brought Krory's attention back to more pressing matters. He gritted his teeth and tried to wrap the fingers of his left hand around the spear holding it in place. He could feel his hand slip and he had a bad grip on it, but it should be enough. With a deep breath to steel himself, Krory forced his hand up off the ground.
He gasped and pain shot up his arm as the action drove the spear further through the damaged tissue, but his hand was no longer pinned.
"Hey, what are you-"
Krory leaned his weight towards his still-pinned hand and bent the arm at the elbow, lifting himself up onto his side. In the same motion he reached for the highest bit of Jasdevi's coat he could and grabbed a handful of the material. He yanked, pulling the still-crying Noah down.
Jasdevi let out a cry of surprise as he was pulled to the ground. Krory hissed in pain as Jasdevi's struggles shoved the spear in his chest deeper, but he didn't let the Noah go. His other hand had come free when he had pulled Jasdevi down and he used that hand to capture one of the Noah's wrists.
The blond blindly shoved against Krory with his free hand, shouting curses. The Exorcist could feel the spears pinning him to the ground twist, trying to cause as much pain as possible, but Krory didn't release his death-grip on the Noah. Krory barely felt any pain, running on pure adrenaline and moving his left hand to the back of Jasdevi's head. He pulled the Noah's head back to expose the blond's throat. Jasdevi glared at him hatefully, though the effect was ruined by the tears still pouring from his eyes.
Krory ignored the expression, leaning forward and opening his mouth. He could feel Jasdevi's struggles increase, but it was too late. Krory bit into the blond's neck and began pumping his own blood through his teeth into Jasdevi's veins. He could feel his blood begin to mingle with the Noah's, poisoning the blond with Innocence.
"You damn vampire," Jasdevi growled, struggling even more fiercely to free himself from the Exorcist's grip. Krory did not let go. He held on and kept forcing his blood into Jasdevi's neck, even though he could feel his own heart slow as he lost more and more blood. If he didn't stop, he wouldn't have enough blood left to keep his heart pumping. Even now, he could feel the muscle grow slow and sluggish in his chest and his grip on the Noah was getting weaker and weaker.
Krory kept going.
Jasdevi was getting more difficult to hold on to. Krory wasn't sure if that was because he was weakening faster than the Noah or if the Innocence just wasn't hurting the blond. With a short cry of triumph, Jasdevi finally pushed Krory's mouth away from his neck and slammed the Exorcist's head into the hard ground. Stars swam in Krory's vision for a moment but he ignored his darkening vision, reaching weakly for the Noah again.
The blood he had managed to inject into the blond might not have been enough. Just a little more...
Jasdevi shoved Krory's hand aside and staggered to his feet. Krory tried to get up, but Jasdevi planted his foot in Krory's chest and kicked him down. Krory's head cracked loudly against the ground and he lay still, unable to concentrate on anything but breathing. His lungs wheezed as the air he inhaled stirred up the blood collecting within the delicate tissue. He could only vaguely feel pain as the spears in his legs and chest were withdrawn, his body slumping bonelessly against the ground as what blood he had left began to spread sluggishly from his body. Pain radiated from his multiple injuries, but even that sensation was fading.
He felt Jasdevi's foot make contact with his side and felt his body get rolled over onto his front. He could hear sounds, but they made no sense and even those nonsense sounds were fading.
Krory's eyes slid shut and he breathed out.
LINE BREAK
Jasdevi staggered along, one hand pressed to his neck where the Exorcist had bitten him. His other hand was near his eyes, wiping away the remains of tears from when the Noah had cried for the loss of his sister. Jasdevi could feel the Innocence-possessed blood inside his own veins, burning him and spreading to his extremities rapidly. He breathed heavily, moving as quickly as he could towards the Earl.
Last time Jasdevi had been poisoned by Innocence, the Earl had had a kind of antidote. If he could get that antidote, then he could still fight.
He had left the Exorcist lying in a pool of the remainder of his blood, slowly dying from his injuries. Jasdevi would have staked him through the heart, but that bastard didn't deserve a quick death. From what the blond had seen, the vampire would be dead in a matter of minutes anyway. Nothing could take that much punishment and live; the Exorcist didn't even have enough to make that blood-creature of his again, like he had last time they had fought.
Jasdevi growled angrily. This time, he was walking away with what felt like half of the Exorcist's blood poisoning him.
The Noah stumbled and fell, landing heavily on the ground. He clutched at his chest, mumbled curses of pain forcing their way past his lips. The Innocence was boiling in his veins, searing them.
He gritted his teeth, trying to push himself up to stand and failing, arms and legs shaking from the pain. He collapsed back onto the ground then rolled over, staring up at the sky.
Jasdevi swallowed heavily. This was too much for him to survive, but maybe if he divided the toxins...
He shut his eyes and allowed himself to split back into two.
"Jasdero..." Devitto said weakly, opening his eyes and looking towards the sky.
"Devitto..." Jasdero replied, just as weakly. Jasdero giggled quietly, but his giggle turned into a coughing fit. Devitto tried to glare, but he was too exhausted to make it an effective expression.
"We won," Devitto said, letting his eyes shut completely. His head slumped to the side, facing Jasdero, and the blonde Noah twin giggled softly in agreement before he too passed out.
LINE BREAK
The Earl hummed a small tune as he strolled along the battlefield, swinging his sword at his side as he headed towards the limp form of the redhead Tyki had left his family for. The other two Exorcists could wait until the Earl had taken his revenge. Besides, Allen Walker and the dark-haired Exorcist were probably both unconscious. They'd wait.
This would not.
The Maker could see signs of the redheaded Exorcist -- 'Lavi' was the boy's name, if he remembered properly -- stirring. The Earl's grin widened. He shifted one side of his jacket and reached for the special knife he had made. Each member of his wonderful family had one and though the Innocence mixed with the metal for the blade wouldn't hurt the Exorcist, the sharp edge would do the job all on its own. His sword was his pride and joy, but it was a bit difficult to make precise cuts with it. To inflict a maximum of pain, a knife was the best tool.
The Earl drew the Kinslayer as he finally drew next to the redhead. He set his sword down and crouched by Lavi's side, noting the signs of wakefulness. The Exorcist's forehead was furrowed as though in pain and his head was turning from side to side as though he was trying to wake up.
"I wonder how many cuts I could make before he wakes up..." the Earl murmured to himself, lifting his knife and running a finger along the flat. His smile took on a hard edge. "And I wonder how many cuts it will take before he dies."
There would never be a better time than the present to begin his experiment, but where to start? There was so much flesh to mangle and disfigure, things he could do with a blade that would make no one want to look at the Exorcist ever again.
The Earl looked back at Lavi's face. It was a rather lovely face. A pity it belonged to an Exorcist, but the redhead's various charms were of little interest to the Maker. He noted Lavi's eyepatch and lifted his knife. At least now he had an idea where to start.
In his experience, one of the easiest ways to reduce a human to nothing but a ball of instincts and terror was to take away its eyes.
The Earl moved the Kinslayer's point slowly over the redhead's neck and face, drawing a thin line of blood. The mostly-unconscious Exorcist squirmed under the knife, making the weapon's path a somewhat erratic one. The tip came to rest hovering over Lavi's closed eyelid, just above the ridge of bone that made up the redhead's cheek but still beneath the eyeball itself. There the Earl waited.
Lavi's eye fluttered open, gaze unfocused for a moment before snapping to realization at the sight of the knife. The Maker grinned when Lavi's fearful gaze flickered towards him, the Exorcist not moving for fear of being suddenly blinded. The Earl could see false bravado in the way the Exorcist clenched his jaw, but the redhead's single green eye was wide and terrified.
"I think I picked the right place to start," the Earl singsonged, lowering the knife. It made contact with Lavi's skin and the Earl felt a wave of pleasure at the Exorcist's sharp but shaky gasp. The eye would make a wonderful trophy, so he would need to cut it care-
A gray hand appeared out of nowhere and suddenly seized the knife by the blade. Taken by surprise, the Earl didn't tighten his grip quick enough to retain possession of it as the hand gripping the knife jerked it upwards and twisted it out of his hands before tossing the knife away. The Earl didn't see where it landed, his attention taken completely by the owner of the now bleeding gray hand.
"Tyki," he said, voice pleasant but for the core of malice. "How nice of you to join us. I was hoping I'd see you again."
"The pleasure is all mine, Earl," Tyki said dryly, wiping his bloody hand on his shirt. He regarded the Maker coldly.
The Earl picked up his sword as he stood, all but forgetting that the Exorcist was still there. He vaguely noted the redhead scrambling to his feet, but dismissed him as unimportant. His main target had arrived; he no longer needed to mangle the boy, though he might do it later for spite. The redhead was to blame for Tyki's betrayal, after all.
"I rather liked that knife," the Maker said almost conversationally. "But you just have to throw away everything precious to me, don't you, Tyki?"
The Earl saw Lavi take up a place next to Tyki, the Exorcist's Innocence invoked and glowing with holy energy. Tyki's gaze flicked to the Exorcist is what looked like pleased surprise, but the Earl didn't care about the subtle nuances. He lifted his sword and leveled the weapon's tip at the pair.
Tyki smirked in response, shifting into a battle ready stance as he gathered dark energy around his hands.
"Lulubell is dead," he said smugly. "I killed her with my own two hands. Your family has been reduced by one again."
The Earl stared, smile fading from his face. Though he ruled the Noah, he did not have the same connection to his Noah that those who inherited the memories shared. He hadn't felt it when she died.
His sword started to shake in his hands and it took the Earl a moment to realize that it was he who was shaking. His grip on Lero's handle went white-knuckled and his grin disappeared entirely.
"You killed..." he repeated slowly, anger rising rapidly inside him. His entire body shook with rage and he tried to put a lid on it, but it bubbled over and out of control. Black energy began to crackle in the air, darkening the area in a twenty foot radius from the Earl. "You've killed one of my Noah? One of my precious family members?"
Tyki stopped smiling as the energy around them thickened. The Pleasure seemed a bit uneasy with the amount of dark matter in the air, but his golden eyes were still determined. The Exorcist seemed wary of the energy as well, but his eye was more often on Tyki or the Earl than the sparking energy. The redhead seemed to be listening to their conversation, but was biting his lip in a refusal to speak.
"I sealed her in a vacuum and then ripped out her heart once she stopped breathing," Tyki said coolly. He lifted his hands, keeping his eyes on the Earl warily.
The Earl stood still, rage building into something toxic and wild. The dark energy condensed further, thickening the very air. The Earl glared hatefully at the former Noah and the Exorcist.
It was all their fault his family was splitting and it was especially Tyki's fault. The Earl would make him pay, make the little redhead pay, make every Exorcist and every Finder in the Black Order repent for what they had done.
With a wordless cry of rage, the Earl brought his sword up and swung.
LINE BREAK
Time was running out.
The Ark shuddered beneath her feet, but Lenalee had gotten used to the random lurches and kept her balance. She backed up half a step, creating enough distance between herself and Tapp Dopp. His stomach had been cut open and his organs were hanging out of the wound, blood and bits of intestine dropping to the floor as he staggered forward. She ducked under his reaching arms and nearly slipped on the gory floor when the Ark shuddered again. Her legs, hair, and arms were covered in blood and pieces of what had once been her friends.
The floor was in even worse shape. Very little of the original white marble floor could be seen beneath the carnage, but Lenalee didn't have time to be disgusted with it. Shortly after the Ark had begun falling apart, the illusions of her friends' corpses had begun decomposing. Now when she struck them, sometimes maggots and worms would fall from the bodies and each corpse was littered with tiny holes or visible colonies of maggots. The eyes were the worst, since the tissue was soft, and most of the eye sockets were now filled with wriggling insect bodies. Her friends' clothes were torn and tattered even worse than before and the skin was sunken where it hadn't been eaten away. The smell of rotting human flesh filled the air.
Lenalee's heart pounded in terror, ears alert for the sound of falling rocks as she kept her eyes on the gruesome sight of her friends. The corpses had become slower the more they decomposed, making it easier to dodge rather than attack. The last person she had struck had been Reever and his body hadn't been able to take the abuse. His upper body had detached from his lower body with a sickening sound. Lenalee hadn't been able to bring herself to hit anyone after that.
What scared her the most was that she hadn't found Road's body.
She had attacked every one of her friends, some more than others, but she had hurt each and every one of them. The illusion hadn't ended though, so she must not have found it.
And the Ark was still crumbling.
Lenalee took a deep breath, trying not to panic. Lavi had said that all it had taken for him to win Road's game was one strike. The same should apply here, but she had kicked everyone, absolutely everyone.
Chaoji lumbered towards her -- at least, she thought it was Chaoji, since his body was missing a head -- with his arms outstretched. Directly behind him was Cloud Nyne, her left side sagging away from the rest of her body from the deep cut that nearly separated her body diagonally. Her right arm was stretched out, reaching for Lenalee.
Gritting her teeth, Lenalee waited until Chaoji was in range before lifting her foot and striking. She planted her foot in the middle of his chest and pushed him back into the female General, wincing inwardly at the soft, decaying feel of Chaoji's body. The floor shuddered as she drew back her leg, nearly sending her stumbling after them.
The sound of crumbling rock was louder than it had been before and Lenalee looked over her shoulder towards the noise. Part of the far end of the tower had crumbled away.
Her eyes widened.
She had minutes, maybe less, to find Road's body. She looked hopelessly at the group of Exorcists and scientists shuffling slowly towards her, searching desperately for someone she had not yet hit.
Nothing. She could remember striking each and every person in that group.
It was hopeless.
She blinked back tears as the floor shuddered beneath her again. She couldn't win. Road's body wasn't-
A dark spot in the sky beyond the decaying group of illusions caught her eye. She blinked, focusing on that spot and realization hit her.
There had been one person she hadn't hit yet, one person in this place she hadn't gotten close enough to strike. She hadn't thought about him since he had been absent after his brief appearance in the beginning of this nightmare.
Lavi had speculated that Road had taken on Allen's shape because the Noah girl had a soft spot for the white-haired boy. As far as Lenalee knew, Road had no attachment to anyone else in the group, but Tyki Mikk was a fellow Noah, if nothing else. Even if he had betrayed the other Noah, couldn't Road still feel somewhat attached to him?
Lenalee stared through the crowd, only briefly noting that Chaoji and Cloud Nyne were getting up. Only the Ark shuddering beneath her feet spurred her to action. She steeled herself and looked towards the group of corpses between her and her target. She took a deep breath and sprinted forward into the crowd, making a beeline for the Noah floating just beyond easy reach of the tower.
She would have to jump off the tower to get close enough to strike and if she missed...
It was a long way down.
The illusions reacted too slowly to her dangerous rush. She passed the two of the dead scientists without either reacting, but as she passed Allen and Kanda the white haired boy reached for her arm. His nails scraped against her skin but only drew faint reddened marks. Miranda nearly grabbed Lenalee's arm, but the Exorcist wrenched herself free and kept running. Hands grabbed for her clothes and limbs, but she burst through the crowd of illusions with a triumphant cry.
There was nothing but air between her and Tyki. She narrowed her eyes and quickened her speed, nearly slipping on the blood covering the floor as the Ark trembled. She could feel the floor begin to crumble beneath her feet and her eyes widened.
The floor was falling beneath her and she was falling with it, the altitude she needed to reach the Noah quickly slipping away. With a last burst of strength, she coiled her legs and leapt away from the falling stone.
Lenalee caught a glimpse of the Noah's expression as she drew her leg back to kick. The shocked expression confirmed her suspicions and she whipped her leg out and around, striking a fierce blow squarely on Tyki's ear. The Noah reeled, head snapping sideways with an audible 'crack'.
Lenalee smiled victoriously, but the smile faded as gravity began to take hold. She fell away from the Noah, gaining speed as the ground rose up to meet her. She squinted against the wind as she fell, staring in horror as the bottom of the Ark grew larger and larger in her vision.
Then suddenly, time seemed to slow.
'Well done, Lenalee.'
Road's voice was speaking directly in her mind. The Exorcist would have jumped if she had been able.
"Road?" she said shakily.
'How did you figure out that I was Tyki?'
Lenalee swallowed.
"I didn't think you'd be Allen again. I had hit everyone else..."
A laugh.
'You've been talking with Lavi.'
"... and Tyki Mikk is still a Noah," Lenalee whispered. There was silence.
'He betrayed our family, but he is still a Noah,' Road replied, voice cold. Her tone softened. 'But I'll always remember when he was my uncle.'
Road's presence suddenly disappeared from Lenalee's mind and time sped up again. Lenalee opened her mouth to scream because the ground was suddenly right there-
Before she could scream, she hit the ground. It was like striking water. She could feel herself pass through it and then suddenly her consciousness was slamming back into her body. She fell backwards, utterly disoriented and too confused to catch herself. Her head struck the stony ground in front of the Order headquarters, knocking her unconscious.
Road lay in a similar state of oblivion less than ten feet away, a deep bruise forming on her face where Lenalee had struck her body in the dream.
LINE BREAK
Komui stared blankly out at the battlefield, stunned with equal amounts of horror, fear, worry, and pride.
He had gotten back to the field shortly after releasing Tyki Mikk from the manacles. As soon as he had arrived, Reever had turned to him with a stunned look and asked him what he had done.
For a moment, Komui had thought that his worst fears had come to pass, but then he had realized that Reever's voice wasn't fearful, just shocked. Komui had looked out over the battlefield and had noticed the drastic change in the layout.
With just one more soldier, the tide had turned. Half of the Akuma had been destroyed while Komui was gone and Cloud Nyne and Chaoji -- the only two Exorcists still conscious -- were fighting the last of the killing machines. Noise Marie and Bookman lay on the ground near them, either unconscious or dead. From this distance, Komui couldn't tell.
He hadn't been able to locate Lenalee since he had left. He had quietly asked Reever if the blond man had seen where she and Road had gone to, but Reever had been busy with the canons. Only three of the energy cells remained and were being held in reserve in case an Akuma, one of the Noah, or Heaven forbid, the Earl himself came close enough to threaten them.
Komui clenched his hands into fists and stared out across the battlefield. He watched as the last of the Akuma exploded into nothing and breathed a sigh of relief, though he knew it was too early to relax.
The fighting wasn't over yet. His gaze moved to the fight against the Earl, swallowing heavily when he noticed that Allen and Kanda were nowhere to be seen and Tyki Mikk and Lavi were now attacking the Maker. Komui scanned the surrounding area, eventually spotting two figures slumped against a pillar and recognizing them as Allen and Kanda only by the swordsman's distinctive hair and the unique appearance of Allen's Innocence. They were either unconscious or dead, probably thrown by the blast Komui had seen a few minutes ago.
Komui could feel his nails bite into his palms.
Helplessness was the worst feeling in the world.
What could he do? He was no fighter. All Komui knew how to do was sign papers, help invent better tools for Finders and Exorcists, and try to protect the Exorcists and especially Lenalee as best he could. Going out and trying to help would only get him killed.
All he could do was grit his teeth and watch, and so he did.
TBC…
A/N: That’s the end of that chapter! Chapter 33 should be up in a few weeks. Hope you all enjoyed.
Author: Bookkbaby
Rating: Teen
Warnings: YAOI
Summary: LUCKY Pair. It started as a simple game of poker, but a little white lie from Lavi changes everything. ['If you lose... you spend the night here, with me, and let me do whatever I want with you.']
Warnings: YAOI, which means BOYS LOVING BOYS. If you dislike that, then the back button is easy enough to find. Please click that and leave. Limes are in the future, and lemons. Maybe some OOC, spoilers for the end of the anime later on.
Disclaimer: I don’t own these lovely characters, that honor belongs to Katsura Hoshino. (Though if Hoshino-sama ever has a sale, I call dibs on Tyki… what?) I don’t own anything but a copy of the anime series and all volumes of the manga in English. Anything you don’t recognize (like the plotline of ‘A Game of Poker’) does belong to me. Everything else… not so much. Please don’t sue.
Kudos to the awesome SisterWicked of AssHat Productions (a group I am now a proud member of), who got me started on Lucky and lets me use 'lovely'! Beta’d by N.H. Arawn and Misster Cackles! All remaining mistakes are mine.
Special Dedication to Silver Affection, since she is an awesome friend!
Last Time On ‘A Game Of Poker’:
The figure the Earl was walking slowly, almost jovially towards had red hair.
"Lavi... damnit..." Kanda croaked out, eyes slipping shut. He slid sideways, completely unconscious before his head hit the ground.
And Now, The Continuation
Chapter 32
Game, Set
Krory leapt forward, hoping to take Jasdevi by surprise. The blond noticed immediately and growled low in his throat. Jasdevi aimed a spear of his hair at the charging Exorcist, firing as soon as he had aimed. Krory didn't dodge. He felt the spear bite into his left arm, but thankfully it seemed like Jasdevi had been anticipating a dodge and hadn't aimed directly at the vampire's chest. If the blond had...
Krory gritted his teeth and lifted a hand in preparation to attack. He couldn't afford to die yet; he wasn't close enough to take the Noah with him.
Jasdevi's eyes widened, perhaps realizing that Krory's attack was less an attack than a suicidal charge. Krory heard Jasdevi curse and more hair came up as a hasty shield and arm's length away from the Noah's body. Seconds after the shield formed, Krory slammed into it with all the strength of his momentum and weight. The air was forced out of his lungs and he gasped raggedly, but he felt the shield buckle. Taking advantage of the precious second or two he had to attack, Krory dug his fingers into the thick golden strands that made up the shield and pulled. Jasdevi yelped as he was yanked forward.
Krory tightened his grip and brought his other hand up to strike. He aimed for the blond's head, putting all of his strength behind the blow. If he could just stun Jasdevi long enough to reach the Noah with his fangs...
Jasdevi blocked the strike, his arm coming up just underneath Krory's and forcing the punch up and over his head. Before Krory could jerk his hand back, Jasdevi grabbed Krory's wrist and brutally twisted. The Exorcist yelled out in pain as the bones in his forearm were stressed to the breaking point and beyond, snapping with an audible 'crack'. The blond kept his grip on Krory's wrist and pulled forward. Krory was sent sprawling forward. He struck the ground hard and the wind was knocked out of him for the second time in the past fives minutes. The Exorcist tried to take a deep breath, but he could hear his lungs wheeze. He ignored the burning in his chest as he tried to get to his feet, gasping for air as he scrambled to stand.
There was a near-silent 'whoosh' of air and then a sudden, sharp pain in his side. Krory cried out as he was flipped roughly onto his back, arms splayed out like the arms of a cross. He shouted in pain when four thin spears of the Noah's hair pinned him to the ground. Two spears impaled his palms and two spears went through his thighs just above his knees.
Krory struggled to free his trapped limbs, but each spear keeping him pinned was anchored firmly into the ground beneath him. Besides that, the fresh, tearing pain he felt each time he tried to yank his hands to legs free warned him that he was only making his injuries worse by struggling. He forced himself to stop moving, though his hands still twitched uncontrollably.
Krory breathed deeply and glared up at his enemy. Jasdevi was standing over him, a tired but triumphant smirk on the blond's face. The Noah stood straddling Krory's body, one foot on either side of the Exorcist's hips.
"You missed," Jasdevi said gleefully. Krory kept glaring, ignoring the urge to look away. He tested his limbs, pulling lightly against the spears to see if the hair had shifted at all. It hadn't. Jasdevi wasn't taking chances or allowing him any room to wriggle free.
This was it, then.
Krory's gamble may have failed, but at least he had managed to weaken Jasdevi. With any luck, Allen or one of the others would have no trouble taking out the Noah. Krory wouldn't be there to help them, but he refused to meet Death like a coward. He would keep his eyes wide open and watch until his eyes lost their sight. Assuming some miracle occurred, he might be able to weaken Jasdevi further or possibly even escape, but he would miss those chances if he shut his eyes.
He wasn't dead yet, but it seemed that he would die no matter what Jasdevi's eventual fate was.
"Are you done talking, brat?" he asked, voice stronger than he felt. He saw a muscle twitch at the corner of one of Jasdevi's eyes and smiled to himself.
"I've heard that the only way to kill a vampire-" Jasdevi spat out the word, emphasizing it because he knew how much that word annoyed Krory. True to form, Krory's smile disappeared and his eyes narrowed in displeasure. "-is to stake it through the heart."
Jasdevi's hair shifted, a huge mass of it rising over the Noah's head and forming into a sharp stake the thickness of Krory's head. The razor-sharp point was aimed directly at the Exorcist's chest.
Krory watched it with an odd kind of detached horror. He had heard stories of people dying and how those people saw their lives flash before their eyes, but his mind was completely blank. All he could see was the tip of the stake.
"I have no wood, but this should work just fine!" Jasdevi cackled. The stake drew back slightly and then shot forward.
Pain exploded in Krory's body and he tried to cry out, but his cry ended in a hacking cough that brought up blood. He could feel it dripping down his chin and taste it in his mouth. He could feel his chest on fire with his nerves screaming in agony, but he welcomed the pain.
Jasdevi's attack had missed. The stake aimed for his heart had buried itself slightly above and to the side. Still fatal, but not instantly fatal.
Krory shot a glance towards his opponent's face.
Jasdevi wasn't looking at him. The Noah seemed to have forgotten that Krory even existed, eyes wide and staring off towards the far end of the battlefield as tears streamed down his cheeks. As Krory watched, too stunned to react, Jasdevi lifted a hand to wipe at the tears.
The spears pinning Krory in place loosened. The slight shift brought Krory's attention back to more pressing matters. He gritted his teeth and tried to wrap the fingers of his left hand around the spear holding it in place. He could feel his hand slip and he had a bad grip on it, but it should be enough. With a deep breath to steel himself, Krory forced his hand up off the ground.
He gasped and pain shot up his arm as the action drove the spear further through the damaged tissue, but his hand was no longer pinned.
"Hey, what are you-"
Krory leaned his weight towards his still-pinned hand and bent the arm at the elbow, lifting himself up onto his side. In the same motion he reached for the highest bit of Jasdevi's coat he could and grabbed a handful of the material. He yanked, pulling the still-crying Noah down.
Jasdevi let out a cry of surprise as he was pulled to the ground. Krory hissed in pain as Jasdevi's struggles shoved the spear in his chest deeper, but he didn't let the Noah go. His other hand had come free when he had pulled Jasdevi down and he used that hand to capture one of the Noah's wrists.
The blond blindly shoved against Krory with his free hand, shouting curses. The Exorcist could feel the spears pinning him to the ground twist, trying to cause as much pain as possible, but Krory didn't release his death-grip on the Noah. Krory barely felt any pain, running on pure adrenaline and moving his left hand to the back of Jasdevi's head. He pulled the Noah's head back to expose the blond's throat. Jasdevi glared at him hatefully, though the effect was ruined by the tears still pouring from his eyes.
Krory ignored the expression, leaning forward and opening his mouth. He could feel Jasdevi's struggles increase, but it was too late. Krory bit into the blond's neck and began pumping his own blood through his teeth into Jasdevi's veins. He could feel his blood begin to mingle with the Noah's, poisoning the blond with Innocence.
"You damn vampire," Jasdevi growled, struggling even more fiercely to free himself from the Exorcist's grip. Krory did not let go. He held on and kept forcing his blood into Jasdevi's neck, even though he could feel his own heart slow as he lost more and more blood. If he didn't stop, he wouldn't have enough blood left to keep his heart pumping. Even now, he could feel the muscle grow slow and sluggish in his chest and his grip on the Noah was getting weaker and weaker.
Krory kept going.
Jasdevi was getting more difficult to hold on to. Krory wasn't sure if that was because he was weakening faster than the Noah or if the Innocence just wasn't hurting the blond. With a short cry of triumph, Jasdevi finally pushed Krory's mouth away from his neck and slammed the Exorcist's head into the hard ground. Stars swam in Krory's vision for a moment but he ignored his darkening vision, reaching weakly for the Noah again.
The blood he had managed to inject into the blond might not have been enough. Just a little more...
Jasdevi shoved Krory's hand aside and staggered to his feet. Krory tried to get up, but Jasdevi planted his foot in Krory's chest and kicked him down. Krory's head cracked loudly against the ground and he lay still, unable to concentrate on anything but breathing. His lungs wheezed as the air he inhaled stirred up the blood collecting within the delicate tissue. He could only vaguely feel pain as the spears in his legs and chest were withdrawn, his body slumping bonelessly against the ground as what blood he had left began to spread sluggishly from his body. Pain radiated from his multiple injuries, but even that sensation was fading.
He felt Jasdevi's foot make contact with his side and felt his body get rolled over onto his front. He could hear sounds, but they made no sense and even those nonsense sounds were fading.
Krory's eyes slid shut and he breathed out.
LINE BREAK
Jasdevi staggered along, one hand pressed to his neck where the Exorcist had bitten him. His other hand was near his eyes, wiping away the remains of tears from when the Noah had cried for the loss of his sister. Jasdevi could feel the Innocence-possessed blood inside his own veins, burning him and spreading to his extremities rapidly. He breathed heavily, moving as quickly as he could towards the Earl.
Last time Jasdevi had been poisoned by Innocence, the Earl had had a kind of antidote. If he could get that antidote, then he could still fight.
He had left the Exorcist lying in a pool of the remainder of his blood, slowly dying from his injuries. Jasdevi would have staked him through the heart, but that bastard didn't deserve a quick death. From what the blond had seen, the vampire would be dead in a matter of minutes anyway. Nothing could take that much punishment and live; the Exorcist didn't even have enough to make that blood-creature of his again, like he had last time they had fought.
Jasdevi growled angrily. This time, he was walking away with what felt like half of the Exorcist's blood poisoning him.
The Noah stumbled and fell, landing heavily on the ground. He clutched at his chest, mumbled curses of pain forcing their way past his lips. The Innocence was boiling in his veins, searing them.
He gritted his teeth, trying to push himself up to stand and failing, arms and legs shaking from the pain. He collapsed back onto the ground then rolled over, staring up at the sky.
Jasdevi swallowed heavily. This was too much for him to survive, but maybe if he divided the toxins...
He shut his eyes and allowed himself to split back into two.
"Jasdero..." Devitto said weakly, opening his eyes and looking towards the sky.
"Devitto..." Jasdero replied, just as weakly. Jasdero giggled quietly, but his giggle turned into a coughing fit. Devitto tried to glare, but he was too exhausted to make it an effective expression.
"We won," Devitto said, letting his eyes shut completely. His head slumped to the side, facing Jasdero, and the blonde Noah twin giggled softly in agreement before he too passed out.
LINE BREAK
The Earl hummed a small tune as he strolled along the battlefield, swinging his sword at his side as he headed towards the limp form of the redhead Tyki had left his family for. The other two Exorcists could wait until the Earl had taken his revenge. Besides, Allen Walker and the dark-haired Exorcist were probably both unconscious. They'd wait.
This would not.
The Maker could see signs of the redheaded Exorcist -- 'Lavi' was the boy's name, if he remembered properly -- stirring. The Earl's grin widened. He shifted one side of his jacket and reached for the special knife he had made. Each member of his wonderful family had one and though the Innocence mixed with the metal for the blade wouldn't hurt the Exorcist, the sharp edge would do the job all on its own. His sword was his pride and joy, but it was a bit difficult to make precise cuts with it. To inflict a maximum of pain, a knife was the best tool.
The Earl drew the Kinslayer as he finally drew next to the redhead. He set his sword down and crouched by Lavi's side, noting the signs of wakefulness. The Exorcist's forehead was furrowed as though in pain and his head was turning from side to side as though he was trying to wake up.
"I wonder how many cuts I could make before he wakes up..." the Earl murmured to himself, lifting his knife and running a finger along the flat. His smile took on a hard edge. "And I wonder how many cuts it will take before he dies."
There would never be a better time than the present to begin his experiment, but where to start? There was so much flesh to mangle and disfigure, things he could do with a blade that would make no one want to look at the Exorcist ever again.
The Earl looked back at Lavi's face. It was a rather lovely face. A pity it belonged to an Exorcist, but the redhead's various charms were of little interest to the Maker. He noted Lavi's eyepatch and lifted his knife. At least now he had an idea where to start.
In his experience, one of the easiest ways to reduce a human to nothing but a ball of instincts and terror was to take away its eyes.
The Earl moved the Kinslayer's point slowly over the redhead's neck and face, drawing a thin line of blood. The mostly-unconscious Exorcist squirmed under the knife, making the weapon's path a somewhat erratic one. The tip came to rest hovering over Lavi's closed eyelid, just above the ridge of bone that made up the redhead's cheek but still beneath the eyeball itself. There the Earl waited.
Lavi's eye fluttered open, gaze unfocused for a moment before snapping to realization at the sight of the knife. The Maker grinned when Lavi's fearful gaze flickered towards him, the Exorcist not moving for fear of being suddenly blinded. The Earl could see false bravado in the way the Exorcist clenched his jaw, but the redhead's single green eye was wide and terrified.
"I think I picked the right place to start," the Earl singsonged, lowering the knife. It made contact with Lavi's skin and the Earl felt a wave of pleasure at the Exorcist's sharp but shaky gasp. The eye would make a wonderful trophy, so he would need to cut it care-
A gray hand appeared out of nowhere and suddenly seized the knife by the blade. Taken by surprise, the Earl didn't tighten his grip quick enough to retain possession of it as the hand gripping the knife jerked it upwards and twisted it out of his hands before tossing the knife away. The Earl didn't see where it landed, his attention taken completely by the owner of the now bleeding gray hand.
"Tyki," he said, voice pleasant but for the core of malice. "How nice of you to join us. I was hoping I'd see you again."
"The pleasure is all mine, Earl," Tyki said dryly, wiping his bloody hand on his shirt. He regarded the Maker coldly.
The Earl picked up his sword as he stood, all but forgetting that the Exorcist was still there. He vaguely noted the redhead scrambling to his feet, but dismissed him as unimportant. His main target had arrived; he no longer needed to mangle the boy, though he might do it later for spite. The redhead was to blame for Tyki's betrayal, after all.
"I rather liked that knife," the Maker said almost conversationally. "But you just have to throw away everything precious to me, don't you, Tyki?"
The Earl saw Lavi take up a place next to Tyki, the Exorcist's Innocence invoked and glowing with holy energy. Tyki's gaze flicked to the Exorcist is what looked like pleased surprise, but the Earl didn't care about the subtle nuances. He lifted his sword and leveled the weapon's tip at the pair.
Tyki smirked in response, shifting into a battle ready stance as he gathered dark energy around his hands.
"Lulubell is dead," he said smugly. "I killed her with my own two hands. Your family has been reduced by one again."
The Earl stared, smile fading from his face. Though he ruled the Noah, he did not have the same connection to his Noah that those who inherited the memories shared. He hadn't felt it when she died.
His sword started to shake in his hands and it took the Earl a moment to realize that it was he who was shaking. His grip on Lero's handle went white-knuckled and his grin disappeared entirely.
"You killed..." he repeated slowly, anger rising rapidly inside him. His entire body shook with rage and he tried to put a lid on it, but it bubbled over and out of control. Black energy began to crackle in the air, darkening the area in a twenty foot radius from the Earl. "You've killed one of my Noah? One of my precious family members?"
Tyki stopped smiling as the energy around them thickened. The Pleasure seemed a bit uneasy with the amount of dark matter in the air, but his golden eyes were still determined. The Exorcist seemed wary of the energy as well, but his eye was more often on Tyki or the Earl than the sparking energy. The redhead seemed to be listening to their conversation, but was biting his lip in a refusal to speak.
"I sealed her in a vacuum and then ripped out her heart once she stopped breathing," Tyki said coolly. He lifted his hands, keeping his eyes on the Earl warily.
The Earl stood still, rage building into something toxic and wild. The dark energy condensed further, thickening the very air. The Earl glared hatefully at the former Noah and the Exorcist.
It was all their fault his family was splitting and it was especially Tyki's fault. The Earl would make him pay, make the little redhead pay, make every Exorcist and every Finder in the Black Order repent for what they had done.
With a wordless cry of rage, the Earl brought his sword up and swung.
LINE BREAK
Time was running out.
The Ark shuddered beneath her feet, but Lenalee had gotten used to the random lurches and kept her balance. She backed up half a step, creating enough distance between herself and Tapp Dopp. His stomach had been cut open and his organs were hanging out of the wound, blood and bits of intestine dropping to the floor as he staggered forward. She ducked under his reaching arms and nearly slipped on the gory floor when the Ark shuddered again. Her legs, hair, and arms were covered in blood and pieces of what had once been her friends.
The floor was in even worse shape. Very little of the original white marble floor could be seen beneath the carnage, but Lenalee didn't have time to be disgusted with it. Shortly after the Ark had begun falling apart, the illusions of her friends' corpses had begun decomposing. Now when she struck them, sometimes maggots and worms would fall from the bodies and each corpse was littered with tiny holes or visible colonies of maggots. The eyes were the worst, since the tissue was soft, and most of the eye sockets were now filled with wriggling insect bodies. Her friends' clothes were torn and tattered even worse than before and the skin was sunken where it hadn't been eaten away. The smell of rotting human flesh filled the air.
Lenalee's heart pounded in terror, ears alert for the sound of falling rocks as she kept her eyes on the gruesome sight of her friends. The corpses had become slower the more they decomposed, making it easier to dodge rather than attack. The last person she had struck had been Reever and his body hadn't been able to take the abuse. His upper body had detached from his lower body with a sickening sound. Lenalee hadn't been able to bring herself to hit anyone after that.
What scared her the most was that she hadn't found Road's body.
She had attacked every one of her friends, some more than others, but she had hurt each and every one of them. The illusion hadn't ended though, so she must not have found it.
And the Ark was still crumbling.
Lenalee took a deep breath, trying not to panic. Lavi had said that all it had taken for him to win Road's game was one strike. The same should apply here, but she had kicked everyone, absolutely everyone.
Chaoji lumbered towards her -- at least, she thought it was Chaoji, since his body was missing a head -- with his arms outstretched. Directly behind him was Cloud Nyne, her left side sagging away from the rest of her body from the deep cut that nearly separated her body diagonally. Her right arm was stretched out, reaching for Lenalee.
Gritting her teeth, Lenalee waited until Chaoji was in range before lifting her foot and striking. She planted her foot in the middle of his chest and pushed him back into the female General, wincing inwardly at the soft, decaying feel of Chaoji's body. The floor shuddered as she drew back her leg, nearly sending her stumbling after them.
The sound of crumbling rock was louder than it had been before and Lenalee looked over her shoulder towards the noise. Part of the far end of the tower had crumbled away.
Her eyes widened.
She had minutes, maybe less, to find Road's body. She looked hopelessly at the group of Exorcists and scientists shuffling slowly towards her, searching desperately for someone she had not yet hit.
Nothing. She could remember striking each and every person in that group.
It was hopeless.
She blinked back tears as the floor shuddered beneath her again. She couldn't win. Road's body wasn't-
A dark spot in the sky beyond the decaying group of illusions caught her eye. She blinked, focusing on that spot and realization hit her.
There had been one person she hadn't hit yet, one person in this place she hadn't gotten close enough to strike. She hadn't thought about him since he had been absent after his brief appearance in the beginning of this nightmare.
Lavi had speculated that Road had taken on Allen's shape because the Noah girl had a soft spot for the white-haired boy. As far as Lenalee knew, Road had no attachment to anyone else in the group, but Tyki Mikk was a fellow Noah, if nothing else. Even if he had betrayed the other Noah, couldn't Road still feel somewhat attached to him?
Lenalee stared through the crowd, only briefly noting that Chaoji and Cloud Nyne were getting up. Only the Ark shuddering beneath her feet spurred her to action. She steeled herself and looked towards the group of corpses between her and her target. She took a deep breath and sprinted forward into the crowd, making a beeline for the Noah floating just beyond easy reach of the tower.
She would have to jump off the tower to get close enough to strike and if she missed...
It was a long way down.
The illusions reacted too slowly to her dangerous rush. She passed the two of the dead scientists without either reacting, but as she passed Allen and Kanda the white haired boy reached for her arm. His nails scraped against her skin but only drew faint reddened marks. Miranda nearly grabbed Lenalee's arm, but the Exorcist wrenched herself free and kept running. Hands grabbed for her clothes and limbs, but she burst through the crowd of illusions with a triumphant cry.
There was nothing but air between her and Tyki. She narrowed her eyes and quickened her speed, nearly slipping on the blood covering the floor as the Ark trembled. She could feel the floor begin to crumble beneath her feet and her eyes widened.
The floor was falling beneath her and she was falling with it, the altitude she needed to reach the Noah quickly slipping away. With a last burst of strength, she coiled her legs and leapt away from the falling stone.
Lenalee caught a glimpse of the Noah's expression as she drew her leg back to kick. The shocked expression confirmed her suspicions and she whipped her leg out and around, striking a fierce blow squarely on Tyki's ear. The Noah reeled, head snapping sideways with an audible 'crack'.
Lenalee smiled victoriously, but the smile faded as gravity began to take hold. She fell away from the Noah, gaining speed as the ground rose up to meet her. She squinted against the wind as she fell, staring in horror as the bottom of the Ark grew larger and larger in her vision.
Then suddenly, time seemed to slow.
'Well done, Lenalee.'
Road's voice was speaking directly in her mind. The Exorcist would have jumped if she had been able.
"Road?" she said shakily.
'How did you figure out that I was Tyki?'
Lenalee swallowed.
"I didn't think you'd be Allen again. I had hit everyone else..."
A laugh.
'You've been talking with Lavi.'
"... and Tyki Mikk is still a Noah," Lenalee whispered. There was silence.
'He betrayed our family, but he is still a Noah,' Road replied, voice cold. Her tone softened. 'But I'll always remember when he was my uncle.'
Road's presence suddenly disappeared from Lenalee's mind and time sped up again. Lenalee opened her mouth to scream because the ground was suddenly right there-
Before she could scream, she hit the ground. It was like striking water. She could feel herself pass through it and then suddenly her consciousness was slamming back into her body. She fell backwards, utterly disoriented and too confused to catch herself. Her head struck the stony ground in front of the Order headquarters, knocking her unconscious.
Road lay in a similar state of oblivion less than ten feet away, a deep bruise forming on her face where Lenalee had struck her body in the dream.
LINE BREAK
Komui stared blankly out at the battlefield, stunned with equal amounts of horror, fear, worry, and pride.
He had gotten back to the field shortly after releasing Tyki Mikk from the manacles. As soon as he had arrived, Reever had turned to him with a stunned look and asked him what he had done.
For a moment, Komui had thought that his worst fears had come to pass, but then he had realized that Reever's voice wasn't fearful, just shocked. Komui had looked out over the battlefield and had noticed the drastic change in the layout.
With just one more soldier, the tide had turned. Half of the Akuma had been destroyed while Komui was gone and Cloud Nyne and Chaoji -- the only two Exorcists still conscious -- were fighting the last of the killing machines. Noise Marie and Bookman lay on the ground near them, either unconscious or dead. From this distance, Komui couldn't tell.
He hadn't been able to locate Lenalee since he had left. He had quietly asked Reever if the blond man had seen where she and Road had gone to, but Reever had been busy with the canons. Only three of the energy cells remained and were being held in reserve in case an Akuma, one of the Noah, or Heaven forbid, the Earl himself came close enough to threaten them.
Komui clenched his hands into fists and stared out across the battlefield. He watched as the last of the Akuma exploded into nothing and breathed a sigh of relief, though he knew it was too early to relax.
The fighting wasn't over yet. His gaze moved to the fight against the Earl, swallowing heavily when he noticed that Allen and Kanda were nowhere to be seen and Tyki Mikk and Lavi were now attacking the Maker. Komui scanned the surrounding area, eventually spotting two figures slumped against a pillar and recognizing them as Allen and Kanda only by the swordsman's distinctive hair and the unique appearance of Allen's Innocence. They were either unconscious or dead, probably thrown by the blast Komui had seen a few minutes ago.
Komui could feel his nails bite into his palms.
Helplessness was the worst feeling in the world.
What could he do? He was no fighter. All Komui knew how to do was sign papers, help invent better tools for Finders and Exorcists, and try to protect the Exorcists and especially Lenalee as best he could. Going out and trying to help would only get him killed.
All he could do was grit his teeth and watch, and so he did.
TBC…
A/N: That’s the end of that chapter! Chapter 33 should be up in a few weeks. Hope you all enjoyed.