Boys Will Conquer Chapter 1: I: start this vicious cycle, a d.gray-man fanfic

boys will conquer

.x.

miraku-ru rein-

A/N: Somewhat of a departure from my usual material...hope you like it! And also, I have no knowledge of kendo/fencing whatsoever, so please correct me if I'm horribly wrong.

start - this - vicious - cycle

Lavi's delicate fingers traced lightly against his chin, small circles, entrapping the air between them.

"Kanda."

"What."

"I have an idea."

The Japanese boy raised an eyebrow. "I don't want to know."

Lavi laughed, like bubbles or babbles of water when it runs too quickly. Unnatural. "No, actually you do. It's got to do with…Lenalee…"

Immediately, almost like a trained dog, the reaction was created in an instant. Kanda's interest was piqued. "…what are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking…we could play with her feelings for a while. I'm thinking…she's our new toy. What do you think?"

At the Black Order Institution, mischief is a business. Lavi knows it and milks it to every drop it's got until it dries up. And so far, the influx is still going, still pumping out the profits. This is the golden age, Lavi knows. This is the time…when everything really begins here.

The Black Order Institution is a private school – boarding, in England, near the countryside in the middle of an ocean. It's highly isolated and only takes in a small handful of students to educate and raise into the future leaders of the world. And for that purpose, Lavi takes advantage of it.

He never intended to start it. No, always the pacifist he was, never hurting other people. But one day the strings broke (snap! they all went hell-bound) – and oh yes, did he love the smell of blood. Addiction.

Greed makes Lavi feel embarrassed, dirty. Only one incident would make a permanent black mark on his otherwise spotless career. He vows that he would never degrade himself to that kind of hunger ever again.

Kanda is a different story. Lavi finds him on his second day of school, easy to spot out. The "cooler-than-thou, don't mess with me" look. Lavi figures if he can get the boy on his side soon enough, the limits would be…well, limitless. Broken. They could rule the school. Lavi approaches him.

"Kanda Yuu."

The mentioned boy leaned against the brick wall hot with summer, but didn't look up.

"Foreign exchange student from Japan, national kendo champion, decently fluent in English, best subject – literature."

"Who the hell are you?"

Lavi smirked. He loved when his calculations provoked the desired response. "I go by the name Lavi."

"Lavi." The boy repeated it once to familiarize himself with the name, sampling it with his tongue.

"I say, let's be friends, Yuu."

The other boy shot an angry look at Lavi. "Kanda."

"Yuu."

"Call me that again and I'll slice your head off."

Lavi laughed a deep, guttural chuckle. "I'd like to see that."

"It'd be too fast. You'd be dead before your brain comprehends what happened."

He stepped to the side, excluding himself from the conversation. "And I hate the term 'friends.' We are not on those terms. In fact, I'd say I quite dislike you."

Lavi grimaced as he saw the figure walk away into the shadowed hallway. He was a hard, stubborn one – all the more reason to win him over, all the more pleasure the victory gains. This was a challenge – and Lavi welcomed challenges with open arms.

Kanda was a loner. Lavi figured he'd be – he wasn't a loser-type loner – no, more like a loner on a higher plateau. No one was quite on his level yet. For the next week after the encounter, Lavi had closely followed Kanda, almost to the point of stalking, but besides his daily schedule, this little tidbit of information – that the boy was solitary – was the only thing Lavi could find out about Kanda.

It bothered Lavi that one could hide facts about himself so easily. Lavi had a knack for remembering things – so he was very, very good at analyzing people and finding their habits or deepest darkest secrets. But it seemed that Kanda was better at hiding them – so good, that even to Lavi's superior eyes the boy's actions were seemingly random.

Lavi's grades started dropping drastically. He was holed up in his room every night, compiling all the notes and photos he had of Kanda Yuu, organizing them, rearranging them, trying to make sense of all the jumbled information, like it was a puzzle he wasn't sure how to put together, but knew what the final picture was supposed to be. Panda was quite upset – as both Lavi's legal guardian and a teacher at the school, he had expected Lavi to uphold his end of the deal, which was to keep up a minimum average of A-minuses by the end of each term in return for free tuition and room-and-board.

Lavi had been an orphan until around eight – but he was brilliant, and Panda saw that brilliance. Somewhere along the way, however, it got twisted and broken, in ways no one would ever figure out. Lavi was very good at covering those up, though, and Panda never suspected.

In a way, Lavi always wished maybe someone would notice something, anything was wrong with him, but no one ever did.

"I give up."

Kanda whipped his head around. He was on the lunch line, and to hear such a random statement out of the blue was not expected.

"…Hm?"

Lavi's spot in line happened to be behind the Japanese boy, and he shrugged in a mockingly shameful way. "You win. I give up. I can't find out anything about you."

"Since when was it a game?"

"Ever since I met you."

Kanda turned away and ordered soba noodles, like he always did.

"Yuu."

"—don't, call me that." Knuckles tightened around the metal edges of the tray.

"…Kanda."

He sighed. "Leave me alone."

"I can't."

"Are you that desperate for company?" Kanda questioned patronizingly.

"It's not the company…it's the game."

"The game of what? Finding out whatever it is you want to know about me?"

He took the plate of soba noodles and place it on his tray, moving along the line. "You're gonna lose. There isn't anything to find out about me."

Another challenge. They just kept piling up. Lavi was enjoying this, way too much for his own good. "Hey Kanda…I have a proposal for you."

"No."

"No?"

"Whatever it is, I don't want to take part in any of it."

"C'mon, it's a simple favor! I guarantee you'll like it."

Kanda slowly decreased his walking pace and reluctantly turned around. "If I do this little favor for you, will you leave me alone?"

Lavi nodded earnestly. "Honest to God, I cross my heart." It amused him because he wasn't Christian.

Kanda sat down at an empty table, and Lavi followed. "Shoot, then."

"How 'bout you and me…we have a swordfight."

He nearly choked on his soba noodles. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah, you heard me. A swordfight."

Kanda looked at Lavi's thin frame dubiously. "You can't swordfight."

"Hey, don't underestimate me! So yeah, you're number one in Japan for kendo, but I…" Lavi smiled broadly. "I was number one for fencing…in all of Europe."

Kanda swallowed. "You're lying."

"I'm not."

"Prove it."

"Heheh, I will. If you agree to my proposal."

Kanda furrowed his eyebrows. He hated giving in to other people, but if it meant defeating the best European fencer with his sophisticated version of kendo and proving his superiority…he'd do it.

"Done."

Lavi smiled again. "Now that's what I like to hear."

They met that afternoon in the school's open training grounds, Kanda eager to get it over with. They had attracted quite a crowd – the well-respected, behaved crowds of Black Order Institution rarely got a chance to watch such a brawl, as it was common courtesy not to start fights. However, it wasn't against the rules, as long as no one was seriously injured, so an excited murmur passed through the throngs of students.

Kanda made a noise in disgust. "I didn't expect this to become a public spectacle."

"Relax, Kanda, at least we'll be famous now. I mean, we need it right? We're both new here."

Lavi had, in fact, spread around the news of the fight as much as he could between lunch and the end of school. The more people that knew of him, the better. And if he won the match, he'd be respected even more. There would be no downside to it at all.

Kendo and fencing were two very different styles of swordfight, so Kanda had allowed Lavi to make the necessary rules.

"We'll be fighting with épée swords and rules, meaning you can hit anywhere on the body, double hits are allowed. Any type of stroke you wanna use is fine, even with the blade, and we can start kendo-style."

He fixed his mask. They were both wearing fencing uniforms – somehow, Kanda rather preferred it anyway. The boys stood face-to-face, legs in a slight lunging position, swords crossed with each other.

"Each hit constitutes a point. We can begin anytime you want, Yuu."

He gritted his teeth – "Kanda," and abruptly, the fight began. A swell of surprise rippled through the crowd – the start was sudden, unannounced.

Lavi was, admittedly, skilled in his swordfight. Kanda gritted his teeth. He was as familiar with the European swordplay as he was with Japanese kendo, and he could see regional variations in Lavi's fencing. A little French, then German – no, now it was British. His style was fluid and changed quickly depending on what was most advantageous at the moment. Kanda at once understood why Lavi called himself "number one in all of Europe" – he had probably perfected the style in each country, won the national competitions, and then moved on to the next country, repeating the exact same process. It was a bit frightening to think that he had conquered each nation with skill and ease, but Kanda was unflustered. Kendo was a superior art form. While fencing concentrated more on grace and beauty, kendo emphasized spirit. And today, Kanda felt the spirit flowing into him like sunlight bathing the early spring snow with heat.

Lavi was amused. Kanda was taking the whole thing so seriously – and Lavi had only intended it to be part of a game. Kanda was doing quite well against him – really well, in fact, almost like an equal, but he could tell that the boy was frustrated with the flawlessness of Lavi's own swordplay. It wasn't really his fault he was so good at fencing – his eyes had memorized the correct forms quickly, devoured every little detail. He only needed a week or so for his muscles to adjust, then a few more weeks of competitive experience, and then it was all exponential from there. Lavi didn't particularly care if he lost against Kanda or not, but he was quite reassured with his chances of winning.

All thought processes froze and broke for a second when point d'arrêt penetrated cloth – and time seemed to become erratically sluggish in the eyes of the beholders.

Lavi beamed at the sight of the point of his sword snagged in Kanda's uniform. "Looks like I get the first point, Yuu. Remember, the one with the first two points wins…"

Kanda was unperturbed. "I'm still gonna win."

"How are you so sure?"

The fighting resumed, the onslaught of attacks more rapid and accurate than they were before. Lavi was getting a bit messy. At some points, he had only barely managed to block some of Kanda's strokes. Kanda was returning with a vengeance.

"Getting a bit enthusiastic, aren't we?" Lavi shouted, attempting a strike at his opponent's abdomen. It hadn't worked. Kanda had seen it coming and avoided it – avoided it – and struck Lavi across the arm.

"It seems my first point was more easily achieved than yours," Kanda said haughtily as he traced his steps back to the starting position.

"Che, I was distracted."

"Excuses."

Both players on even ground, the next points came in the form of a double hit – both earned a point each for striking each other at the same time, and since they wouldn't settle for a tie, the person to earn the next point would win.

Lavi liked provocation. "You're never gonna win with just your one style of swordplay! You need to be flexible, like me, you need variety."

"Like hell I do."

"Hey, Yuu."

"Kanda."

"How 'bout for the last point we set a little wager?"

Kanda paused. "…What kind of wager?"

Lavi grinned and cocked his head to the side. "See, if you win the point, I'll leave you alone, forever. I won't bother you anymore. But if I win this point…you must join my ranks and become my 'friend.'"

Kanda nodded his head. "Done."

"And…I get to call you 'Yuu' whenever I want."

"Fine by me."

"Shake on it, then?"

"…Sure." They extended hands and shook.

The fighting resumed, each with eyes narrowed with focus.

What is companionship – what does it mean to be accompanied by another live, breathing human being, complete with his own quirks, irritabilities, and habits? Kanda sometimes wondered this. He had no goal in life. Life was isolation. Life was the same every day. And now his shell was being disturbed, broken by an outside source. Was he going to embrace this forceful rebirth with open hands? He hated both options.

But somehow, he suddenly to felt ready to throw everything away.

The blade touched Kanda's shoulder just for a brief moment, then slipped away, unsatisfied.

Lavi made a face. "You let me win, didn't you?" he muttered viciously.

"Of course I didn't."

Lavi lifted his blade a few inches. "All you had to do was beat me and I would have kept my promise and left you alone…and yet you threw away your chance…"

Kanda didn't say anything.

Lavi suddenly broke into a smile and chuckled a little. "You mystify me, Kanda Yuu. Glad to make your acquaintance, finally." He extended a hand for shaking.

Kanda took it – and felt his life melt away.

"So what is your brand of enterprise, Lavi? Why did you need me as an accomplice?"

They were sitting in the desolated library, stacks of books piled in a fortress, loose papers their flags of honor.

"Dear friend, did I really need a selfish reason for befriending you? What if I said I needed companionship?"

Kanda looked down and mumbled, "Bullshit."

Lavi delicately flipped the page of his book with two light motions of his fingers. "Actually, I think you'd be quite interested in what my 'brand of enterprise' is."

Kanda raised an eyebrow.

"How interested, Yuu, are you in ruling the school?"

"Do you know what mischief is, Yuu? It is the use of pranks, taunting, to create chaos within a well-structured society. My business…is mischief."

"Mischief."

"Yes, mischief."

Kanda scoffed. "Elementary."

"That's what you think, but remember, Yuu, this is my kind of mischief. And the best thing is, not only is it entertaining, but in a few short days, we will rule the school like no other."

"…Your kind of mischief, huh?"

"Wanna see, then? Lucky you – you've arrived at the scene just in time to see me plant the very first seeds of our era."

"The first trick of the trade is: isolation. You've already got that part down perfectly – act like you're ahead of the pack, to good to be mixed in with the others, be intimidating and hard to approach. We will become the pariahs at the school, no one would want to be around us, but this is why everything will work out. Only true geniuses are pariahs, after all.

"The second trick of the trade: We start by picking a single victim. Pick anyone, it doesn't matter who. But we have to taunt him, humiliate him, make him feel inadequate, make him feel like there is something about him that we absolutely hate, like something that we have a special agenda against. Yet we're never upfront about it – a push here, a snide off-hand comment there. We stalk his thoughts and dreams at night; during the day, we will be his ultimate shadow. It's gonna be torture to him. Pretty soon his health is going to deteriorate, his face will become pale, his movements shaky, his grades will descend. People are going to ask him why he's doing so terribly. But he's not going to tell. Why? Because he feels inadequate – he doesn't want to tell others that he has something wrong with him, that he is being picked on, because he simply doesn't have the courage to, either because he's afraid of us or he's afraid of being made to feel even more like complete shit. That's when we approach him. Scare him. Tell him he can't tell anyone about us, or we'll beat him up real bad. Kill him even, I dunno. Anything to get his pants in a real fix. When we do this…only then he's going to tell someone about us, but only a someone like his closest friend or something, never a teacher. Get this: the teachers will never know about us. We'll act like perfect students in class, and students will never tell."

"I don't see how that will work."

"The beauty of the human psyche, Yuu, is that it is never rational, even when it tries to make the rational choice. He will tell, only when he feels his life is in danger, because he will want to seek refuge in a person, as humans never like to feel alone in the face of peril. But he won't tell a teacher because he has the common sense to know that if he gets us in trouble…well, there'll be hell to pay."

Kanda breathed softly. "Insane. You're insane."

"And after this initiation, the word will spread. The grapevine has an irresistible tendency to grow more tangled as it does longer. Soon stories will go around that we've killed actual students before, that we've mutilated their dead bodies and sent them home to their parents as goodbye gifts, that we've cut down entire armies. The stories get wilder, and so do our reputations.

"The last and final trick of the trade: we keep the act up. We pull pranks – they know it's us, even when there's no evidence. We spread innocent but degrading remarks – they know we hate them. We act like angels in front of the teachers and are lauded for being near-perfect – they hate us for it back. But they are afraid, and that is the reason they submit to our rule."

"Purely Machiavellian."

"Of course." He smirked.

The first kid was nondescript, Kanda never even remembered his face. Typical brown hair, murky-colored eyes, average stature, agreeable presence. By the end of the week they had broken him down so hard that he started crying when they proposed their death threats. Kanda almost felt a type of pity for the kid, for he would never know it was not anything personal, but that they were only using him purely for cannon fodder.

Lavi was right. By the time the next week had started, they walked down the halls together, and received quick glances, angry looks, or none at all – there apparently had been a rumor that spread saying that whoever stared directly into their eyes would receive a quick and painful slit of the throat the next day.

Lavi was ecstatic.

"And so we've laid our first seeds down."

"Now what? So we've got the kids to fear us, big deal."

"I have a question, Yuu."

"…What?"

Lavi leaned in closer, propping his elbows up on The Complete Unabridged Handbook of Chemistry. "What is it that you truly want? Something that you've always truly desired, from the moment you knew you were alive?"

Kanda blinked. "I have no real desires."

Lavi squinted his eyes. "Are you sure?"

"…Yes."

The redhead leaned back, sighing. "Man, you're one hell of a boring person. How am I supposed to demonstrate how to harvest the fruits of our labors?" He shook his head. "Whatever. Listen up.

"Like I said, mischief is a business. You can milk it all the way even to the last drop, and it will never run dry. You want money? Threaten a kid for it, and bam, you've got enough to buy whatever it is you want. You want future connections? It's wholly political. Approach the kid and make a diplomatic deal so that they forget you're terrorizing them, make them feel that you're on their side, not the other way around. You want information? Blackmail. You won't tell the entire school their deepest secret if they get dirt on somebody else. You won't even need to know their secret – they'll do it anyway, because they're scared. Anything you want…it's up to you."

"Like I said…I don't want anything."

"Fine." Lavi shrugged. "Some of us, you know, just do it for the entertainment." He opened the chemistry handbook and started flipping it through. "I, personally, do it for the money."

Thirst for money, Lavi knows, is never a good thing. Once it becomes excessive, it becomes greed, an uglier, nastier cousin that consumed everything, your plans, your tedious calculations. But once he thought of the empty hunger in his stomach – and how it constantly used to be there – and he never looked back.

He didn't even care if he needed or wanted it anymore, he just took it.

"Give it to me."

He cornered the girl, leaning over her with his arms, baring his teeth like an animal driven by pangs of raw desire.

The girl cowered, holding the money behind her. "I'll pay you another day, my parents give me anything…I just need to buy this new dress before it goes out of stock…!"

He grabbed the front her shirt and shoved her hard against the wall. "I told you I don't take late payments! Give me the damn money!"

She shook her head, and her shoulders started to tremble and tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Fucking bitch–!" He grew exasperated, and tried to wrestle her hands out from behind her back. The girl kicked and screamed, but Lavi, being physically stronger, pinned her down and grabbed her wrist.

Out of nowhere – a shriek. "What is going on here?"

Lavi slowly turned his head. Shit. A teacher.

The girl had lied of course, saying he was a vicious maniac who wanted her body for himself. Lavi had absolutely no interest in her, and he ground his teeth when he heard her outright lies. He had never been on the receiving end of that before. He tried to tell his story, the true story. Being the perpetrator, no one believed him.

He was kicked out of his school. Panda didn't talk about it, but he was distressed by the events. Finally, one day, Panda mentioned quietly to him that the school he taught at, the Black Order Institution, would be willing to take him in, despite his record, since he was unusually intelligent for his age.

Lavi had already gone through a change of eight schools, and the Black Order Institution would be his next school.

(end of chapter 1)

A/N:...and that's the end of Chapter 1! Hoped you enjoy, updates might take pretty long in coming as this sapped all my creative energy in one blow. Go figure.