She leapt fast and high like the speed of light, but he knows that she is already beyond her limit as blood trickled down her face. She is really stubborn and have not yet fully recovered from the fever she got from the akuma virus. They were ambushed on their way back to the headquarters after rescuing Lavi and Bookman. He knew that the earl would not take everything lightly and already anticipated that this will happen but he did not counted being separated from his team while Lenalee’s fever progressing. He’d better finish everything so that he can take her to a doctor or better yet get to the nearest ark gate so that he can bring her home. He sliced two level ones and focused to take on more.
“Stand back” he told her “you are not fit to fight, let me handle everything”. He can see the determination in her eyes. She wants to fight and not be a burden to him but he can see that she is already wavering and barely conscious. Belatedly, he then realized that what keeps her moving is not her strength but her innocence. Like Allen, she is using her innocence to keep on fighting but unlike him she doesn’t have the ability to regenerate. She kicked an akuma on her right and smiled. “I’m okay”.
That’s when he saw the blade pierced her.
Everything happened in slow motion. She dropped down to the ground whispering ‘Nii-san’. With renewed determination he completed the task. He didn’t know how many akumas he had tackled, or how he was able to completely eradicate the whole horde. Adrenalin pushed him to complete the task in front of him.
He turned and scooped her up.
“Kanda” she whispered.
“You will be okay” he said gently and looked down at her. When he lost Alma, he thought he lost everything. He didn’t mean to come back to the Order he loathed so much. But somehow, something is pulling him back. At first he thought that it was his gratitude to the beansprout who sacrificed his freedom so that he and Alma can escape. Most definitely not the lunatic Froi Teidoll who cared for him like his own son or Noise Marie who was a close confidant.
Not them but her.
The girl who welcomed him when he first arrived at the Black Order Headquarters. This girl who always goes to his room for refuge whenever she was being subjected to the harsh experiments overseen by Lvellier. This girl whose smile and cheerful greeting welcomes him whenever he comes back from a mission, no matter how badly that mission went. And he was about to lose her now just as he lost Alma. He will not let this happen. Not this time. Not when he planned to make a brand new start in life – with her.
'Hang in there' he thought but the village is still far. He took his coat off and laid her gently on top.
It worked with Marie and Johnny, dammit, this should work on you. He unsheathed his Mugen and sliced his wrist to let the blood drop down to her mouth. He cannot explain it but he is happy that there is now a stronger bond linking the two of them. His blood, that is now going to flow into her. A sudden surge of possession overwhelmed him. Slowly, he leaned down and gave her a chaste kiss on the forehead.
-------
“I know she was badly injured” Malcolm Lvellier was leaning down on Lenalee’s bed surrounded by her overly concerned brother and all her friends. “What I don’t understand is how her injuries healed in two days time with no visible scars or bruises”
“Che” Kanda who was leaning on the wall beside Lenalee’s bed grunted. “Since it seemed that she is okay, we will bring her to the laboratory to see if her innocence evolved again to give her the ability to regenerate” Lvellier continued.
A dangerous glint flickered on Kanda’s eye as he unsheathed his Mugen. “You are not taking her anywhere” he said ominously.
He felt Lenalee’s hand crept up to his. Her eyes filled with panic and her hand cold and limp. He will ensure murder will happen before this devil makes the mistake of laying his hands on Lenalee. She had suffered enough atrocity from this man and it’s about time this stops. Lavi and Allen jumped in pacifying what they are sure is going to result into a brawl.
“She will most certainly stay here” the head nurse thundered dangerously turning into a monster with horns. “She is still weak and that is more than enough to keep her in this infirmary.”
Komui and Reever talked to Lvellier about the plans of expanding the science division to divert his attention and people slowly emptied the room.
“General Kanda” the nurse said “you better take a rest too since you are not in a good shape yourself.”
“Che” he replied and sat down on the chair beside Lenalee’s bed.
A smile formed on General Tiedoll’s lips. “If you’re not going to rest in the infirmary, Yu, better go to your room to relax so that let Lenalee can go to sleep”
“I will stay here to make sure that Lvellier will not take her out and perform his inhuman experiment”
“Now I don’t think you will have to worry about it, Komui and the others will make sure that will not happen, after all, this is her home” Froi Teidoll replied while walking out of the door.
“Can I go to my room?” Lenalee asked the head nurse “I am okay so there’s no need to inconvenience everybody.”
To their surprise, the head nurse agreed. Lenalee stood up and slowly, she and Kanda walked towards her room. He went inside with ease unknown to people inside the headquarters. He made a beeline to an intricate box on her dresser and smiled. The box was from one of his early missions. It was before Komui joined the order. Lvellier was forcing an 8 year old Lenalee to synchronize with the dark boots and it always leaves her weak and injured, up to the point that they have to restrain her to her bed. One day, he found her hiding in the meditation room crying in a corner. He never gave her a thought before but he knew that they were giving her a hard time. He can clearly see that on the bruises on her arms, legs and neck. They have been searching for her everywhere and at last they have located her. They dragged her out but she managed to wrestle herself free. Even then, he can see that she is very strong. She jumped behind his back to seek refuge. The CROW are now using incantations to bind her and she was crying out loud. He never intended to, but pity drove him to reach out to her, after all, he experienced all of this atrocity himself “Just go with them I’ll bring you a surprise once I got back from the mission.”
He opened the box and saw all the hair clips he had given her throughout the years. He picked a red clip. He got it in Czechoslovakia after their mission in that weird revolving mansion. “I lost my clip during the last fight” he stated as an explanation while taking it out of the box.
Lenalee took the clip from his hand “Not this one” she said “You gave this to me.” She selected another one from the box and gave it to him “How about this one?” she handed him a blue clip. “Need some help putting it on?”
“Che. I can manage” Kanda retorted, pocketing the clip. “Go to sleep” He waited until she climbed into her bed while he sat on the floor beside it. She reached out her hand and he took it. Slowly, she closed her eyes. In all the years before her brother joined the Order, the only thing that holds her sanity together was Kanda. After every test or experiment performed, she will be left feeling used, abused and overcome with a sense of pity and retaliation. She can never sleep at night before, feeling that once she wakes up, she will find herself inside the laboratory again.
He would go to her and hold her hand while she sleeps. Once in a while she will have nightmares and wakes up screaming but he is always there to reassure her. If he is on a mission, he tells her to hold on to the box so that once he is back; he can bring her a clip. She closed her eyes. On the back of her mind, she knows that when she wakes up in the morning, Kanda will have left her room and is already in the cafeteria eating breakfast, training, meditating or off to another mission. There was never a trace of their affinity, people never noticed this closeness, their bond which might as well be good since her brother has a sister complex. Slowly, she drifted off to sleep.
-------
He knew she was there even before she knocked. Even before she spoke. His senses were so attuned to her that he knew her every move. He looked at the clock beside his bed, it registered 12:50am. He sat on the edge of his bed and waited. The figure in his doorway hesitated and he held his breath. He waited for her to knock or call out but she didn’t, instead he saw the shadow leaving. In a swift instant he was out of the door and pulled her close towards him enveloping her in a warm embrace.
“I don’t want to bother you” she whispered, her voice muffled on his chest.
He led her to his room.“You know you will never be that” he answered closing the door behind them “You can just come in, you know.” He led the way to the bed and let her climbed in first, then pulling her close to him, he gave her a kiss on the lips then drew the sheet to cover them both.
-------
Komui was freaking out when he saw the clip on Kanda’s hair. It was the clip that he gave Lenalee on her 14th birthday. Kanda gave him a cold glare as he is finishing his soba while the science division was restraining a wailing Komui.
“Where did you get that! I gave that to my darling sister Lenalee! How come you have it!” came his barrage of questions.
“Che” he replied and stood up. Komui II materialized out from nowhere and started firing at the cafeteria. Lenalee arrived visibly rested and yawned “Cut it out brother, it’s just a clip”
“But- but- but, I gave it to you!” he wailed. His Kumui II robot is announcing: Mission Exterminate Kanda Yu! Mission Exterminate Kanda Yu! Kumui focused his attack on Kanda laughing maniacally while most people evacuated the cafeteria. Lavi and Allen crawled down the table while still holding on to their food, settling nicely like they were about to watch a show. A vein sticked out of Lenalee’s head “I SAID CUT IT OUT” she screamed.
Suddenly Komui II fell to the ground in pieces. Kanda had evidently slashed it.
“It was pissing me off already” he said to Lenalee, as he replacing his mugen and gave her a smile. The few people and exorcist left on the cafeteria look at him in awe. She reached out and gave him a kiss on his cheek and Komui fainted. “I couldn’t have done it any better” she whispered while he smirked.
