This IMPARTIAL E Y E

Being busy enough for work – he didn’t want to bother with anything else. Running around everywhere, having to deal with walker sometimes he wish he could get a break. 

                                   But being the DOG he was, a break wasn’t going to happen again.                                           but at least, he wasn’t bored. 

Even so – running around he heard a voice — great. just what he didn’t need. Turning his head, he looked over to the redhead for a moment. What did he even want? Link needed to get these papers to their proper place. Staring at him for a moment longer he sighed.

                       he never did think people were annoying until he meets this one.                                 Nicknames, after the low thoughts of HIM not being useful – he didn’t                          like this bookman at all – why did he even need him? Though Howard listens. 

“ I’m not really in the MOOD for baking right now. I have FAR                      too many things to do to bother to help you.

- - Forty nine ways to opt out of their war;;                                    Using each so as not to corrupt the truth;;

A broadening palm had already extended, placed gently a top those offensive documents that the shifty-eyed sourpuss seemed to be hellbent on delivering, as if to insist that there was no need to worry about such trivial matters.               The crimson-maned youth appeared utterly reassuring on the matter, and far too insistent, as he leaned in far too close, far too quickly, to peer the elder straight in the eye(s).    His was an aggressive stance, and you never knew if intimidation by proximity would work on these serious types.

                     “What’re ya’ talking about?          Ya’ gotta be in the mood for it, since I’m not gonna let ya’ walk off unless you help me! Everything else, like that boring stuff ya’ got in your arms, can wait. Ne, what if I said it was for Moyashi, would ya’ care a little more, sa?”

At this point, he was essentially pulling the entire plan straight out of his arse, but perhaps it was a petty sort of vengeance he had in mind - for the dog of the devil that had dared traumatize one of his dear companions.

                  “And nah, it’s gotta be you.                                    I mean.. unless ya’ don’t think you’ll be able ta’ do it right, sa.”

They’ll have to:

Rate on a scale of 1-10 how much they don’t want to answer that question.

             He has never appreciated his Innocence as much as he does now, honestly, there could be tears.

             “ $#!+ in the $#!% with a %^&$ SA!!”

                A deep breath.

            “ The only mistake in my life is talking to you.” 

A simply ROLL of his eyes he couldn’t help but huff a little. Crossing his arms over his chest, he stared at the other for a moment. This was ALREADY annoying.

         The situation hadn’t exactly escalated as he had feared, so any hostility within the would-be Bookman’s stance was thusly subjugated and smashed into the appearance of vague disinterest.          This guy wasn’t exactly his favorite human being, but at least there were no waterworks flooding in from the beansprout department.

                      “Ya’... can ya’ really say you don’t care,                       when ya’ went ahead and paid the fine anyway?             OI, AND YA’ TALKED T’ ME FIRST, SA.”

With that in mind, it was slowly starting to occur to Lee, a thought that came into clear focus in front of the No Vacancy sign decorating the front of the only respectable inn around, that lodging was likely not happening.

Of course, neither she, nor her comrade, were strangers to sleeping out in the woods, but the alleys of a strangely silent town were a bit of a different story. Matters weren’t helped, of course, by the somewhat alarming assignment briefing they received back at Headquarters. Disappearances, unexplained phenomena, discoveries of corpses out in the bay, all that flowery stuff that normally went hand in blood-covered hand with inevitable tragedy didn’t exactly fill Lenalee with much confidence about the state in which the pair would wake up in were they to slum out the remainder of the night.

One thing that did work in their favor, however, was the dark silhouette that the brunette long since noticed rising ominously above the rest of the picturesque, if slightly creepy due to partial abandonment, scenery. There, on the outskirts, she spied the gothic spires of a church topped with blunt, silver crosses that dully glinted in the moonlight. They could apply there for asylum need be; though, in all truth, the holy sanctuary looked far short of holy and even farther away from a sanctuary. Always fond of gargoyles for their architectural beauty and protective meaning, Lee found herself outlining from afar the very stone figures she normally found calming with an alert gaze that hastened to turn away from the cathedral to the redhead, whose assuring presence at her side lulled the young woman into some semblance of tranquility. 

Nevertheless, the strange sense of being suspended in a vacuum still clung heavily to her bones, and it entered the exorcist’s head, not for the first time since their arrival, that, in specificity, the Black Order, above all else, above the disappearances, and the magic, and the corpses in the bay, considered whatever was happening here its business due to the sudden, and inexplicable, vanishing of the akuma infestation in the surrounding area. And sometime between solidifying her resolve to continue up the hill towards the church and hooking her arm with the Bookman’s to make sure that the squirrel that he was wouldn’t scurry off, Lenalee decided that if she were an akuma, she probably wouldn’t want to hang about either.

Well, then.

Back straight, face a mask of confidence and determination, the brunette started walking, tenseness, chills up her spine, and a forcibly attached to her Lavi notwithstanding.

❝We’re gonna do great. I just know it.❞

That’s right. She knew it about as well as Kanda knew social etiquette, which was to say, not at all, but that was totally beside the point.

- - Forty nine ways to opt out of their war;;                                    Using each so as not to corrupt the truth;;

Pride had nothing on a distinctly defensive psyche - he couldn’t lie, not with body or a deceptively upbeat tone - this place was pretty well terrifying. Unease saturated the youth’s entire being, his footsteps hardening as though a rigid form could protect against assault - not entirely useful, but certainly automatic in the face of this eerie, empty shell of a town.

He memorized each glimpse of a human being - their build, eyes, the structure of their home, everything committed to a ridiculously detailed record.. he would easily recognize if any of these suspicious townsfolk showed up at their destination, and perhaps, that would be the enemy.. he had even managed to get a full view of the bodies lost to the harbor’s waters.. .. but.. this paranoia was abnormal, in a way... not like the continuous horror that an Akuma’s weapon could pop out of anyone’s eye, it was... lonely, maybe.

       An impartial stance was impossible, anyway...his mentor would just have to scold him later, when he discussed details, for she had been assigned to this sordid mission with him. His nature was not the most compassionate, nor entirely empathetic - his innate intuition and comprehension of human emotion was generally utilized to distance himself - a bleeding heart stymied by one too many traumatic events witnessed.... maybe it was a bad influence..       Perhaps she was the worst person possible for him, destined to record a human’s foolish history without taking a side.... she was... - -

                     “Ah - -?”

A firm grip, warmth pressing his sleeve against skin as he was essentially locked in place by their linked arms - it couldn’t be helped, a sharp display of teeth, in the form of a questioning grin would be directed downward, before that glinting emerald widened.         .... was it that obvious, his misgivings? Why encouragement?           Of course they’d be fine.

          “H’eh~? You scared?          It’s... just a ... big... spooky church... prolly with a graveyard attached..                .. hng.. we just gotta find out what’s got everyone so stressed, right, sa?       It’s a good place to start.”

He matched her pace, step by step, even though his heart-rate could deafen their foes, for how loud he could hear it within his own chest.

           “Are we talkin’ about just now or your whole life, sa?”

What was with that solemn-ass look, this guy wasn’t even repenting at all, even though he could have damned them all just then, with a single word.

              “Oi, Oi, grab the liar jar thing too, sa!                       If we’re gettin’ Yuu’s stuff back, get mine too!            ... she’s gonna cry, are we ok with that?“

    “Gonna go make a cheater crybaby jar so I can get back my assets plus a bonus.”

         A short pause - -      a frown, and he would pinch his weapon’s cheek with all the might of an offended hermit crab.

                .... wow... he’s.. kind of touched, actually, just for him, huh?         And he did... make her cry... maybe he should just give in...                   “... ya’... can’t just make up more rules to extort money from more people..        If we made a ‘cheater’ jar, ya’d just have to give everything back, sa..”

“the f word is one dollar.”

                 His stare is vacant, and completely unapologetic,         the jar is utterly ignored, in fact, he leans so far away from it, like it’s haunted.       Her big doe eyes are kinda hard to be mean to, though.