Warning: Yullen fluff, possibility of mature content later. Tons of expletive language, can't avoid that without taking Kanda out of the fic completely!

Disclaimer: I don't own the series- if I did, it would have been updated way more often ):

Author's Note: I know I've disappeared from this site for…I don't know, maybe three years or so. I know I've disappointed people who have bothered reading my writings. I hope they can forgive me, and hope they will love this new chapter. I will try to find time to keep updating as much as possible!

A note on the fic itself- I have decided to make this more of a short novel of sorts, as I have taken a rather interesting short story class since my leave. However, I am open to ideas for side stories/one shots based on the story itself for anyone who would like to suggest any!

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Chapter One Half : Sacrifice

"A book store!" Lenalee shouted gleefully.

Everyone practically fell over.

"You don't think we haven't thought of that before?" Kanda shouted at the girl while Lavi simply chuckled to himself.

"Hey, I don't recall you ever contributing to our plans," she retorted, sticking her tongue out, "It's not like we have any better ideas. There's only one book store in the entire town anyway, and the innocence had to come from somewhere."

"She has a point, you know," the still-chuckling redhead added, "We have no better leads anyway. The other teams that were sent in didn't even have a chance to send one last note. It sounds like a good place to start to me."

Kanda just glared and turned around again with a soft 'che'. Lenalee stuck her tongue out at his back again, being the ever graceful and mature lady she was. The rest of the train ride continued mostly in silence with a porno joke being thrown around every once in a while, causing Kanda to only become more angry and Miranda to fidget even more.

Seriously, no one really expected Komui to like that type of women.

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The doorbell chimed loudly in the seemingly abandoned bookstore. The town itself had seemed rather empty, and the people that the team saw were very careful in avoiding them entirely. Kanda even managed to scare off a few of the townsfolk, yelling at them in "an attempt to get them to stop running away". Of course that worked brilliantly.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" Allen called into the seemingly endless hallway full of dusty books.

"What makes you think they would want to talk to us anyway?" Lavi sighed, "Given our luck with the townsfolk, I'd say we'd be better off just giving the place a look arou-EEP!"

Lavi jumped as a hand grabbed his shoulder firmly from behind. He quickly turned to face the perpetrator- a decrepit looking man with spectacles hiding his blank eyes.

"May I help you?"

It took a while for the group to gather their wits. Kanda had drawn mugen, pointing it menacingly at the man while Lenalee and Allen had assumed fighting stances. They hadn't even heard him approach from the dank depths of the bookstore, despite it being so quiet.

"Who the fuck are you?" Kanda growled out, not bothering to lower mugen.

"I'm the keeper of this shop, of course. May I help you today?" the man said, completely unfazed.

Allen relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief. "Sorry, you had surprised us," he explained, polite as always, "We're here in search of a book."

"You don't say."

"Well…yeah," Allen continued lamely, unsure how to patch that one up, "This book is supposed to be special. A book unlike those you have ever read before. Do you know anything about it?"

"Yes. I do. However, have you brought with you the necessary sacrifice?" the man held out a gloved hand in inquiry.

Lenalee, Miranda, and Lavi stared at the hand before looking at each other questioningly. A sacrifice? Komui hadn't said anything about that. Why would you need to 'sacrifice' anything to see a book? Either way, Kanda wasn't pleased at all with the reply. His eyes narrowed as he took a step towards the shop keeper, mugen still outstretched and gleaming in the faint light.

"We don't need a sacrifice. All we want to do is look at a book. Is that so hard?" he ground out between clenched teeth. He wasn't getting a good feeling from this place, nor this man. Not a good feeling at all.

"Now Kanda, put mugen away, there's no need to threaten him," Lenalee chided him, knocking her teammate in the side which earned her a glare.

"Very well. If you wish to see it, then I will take you there."

"What? Really?" All four of them asked in unison.

They hadn't expected it to be this easy. They had no such 'sacrifice' with them, yet all it took was a little bit of Kanda being Kanda to bypass that? Kanda being Kanda had never worked before. In fact, it had always worked against their favor. A win was a win however, and the team followed behind the man who slowly passed bookcase after bookcase.

After what seemed like an eternity of bookcases and silence, they finally came to a stop. There were no bookshelves around them and no decorations in the room they had entered from the hallway. Before them lay an open book which they had assumed was the innocence that they were looking for. It was a massive book in terrible condition; the pages were torn, some looked singed, and a few parts looked as though they were falling out. Definitely not how the team expected it to look.

The page that it was on contained a faded picture. Allen cautiously walked closer to the book at the nudging of Lavi and Lenalee, peering at the page. The picture contained a clock, a tea set, and what looked to be a card. He furrowed a brow before turning to question the man as to how they should go about retrieving the book when there was a shout of surprise, and a sudden force rammed into him, pushing him backwards. He lost his balance as he realized that the entire team had fallen upon him, and the last thing he saw was those dark eyes of the book keeper. Those cold, smiling eyes.

Allen had reached behind him in instinct, trying to break their fall a bit. His hand met nothing however, and he just about screamed bloody murder when he saw that the book was practically sucking them in. He fell through it with the rest of his team, all of them shouting and screaming as they fell through white nothingness.

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Allen woke up with a start. He rubbed his bottom, wincing at its tenderness. A moan sounded from beside him, and he looked down to see Lavi…or it looked like Lavi anyway.

"What the hell happened," the redhead muttered, slowly sitting up.

"Uh…Lavi…?" Allen questioned, his eyes round and wide.

"Yeah? Why are you looking at me like that? What's wrong?" Lavi answered, turning to look at Allen.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" they yelled in unison, jumping away from each other.

"You-you have ears! Of the non-human kind!" Allen exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Lavi.

"Me? YOU have ears! Of the cute, soft, cuddly kind!" Lavi retaliated, pointing a finger back.

"What? No I don't!" The moyashi reached up with a hand and was met with softness. "Oh bloody hell."

There was another moan from behind them, this time belonging to Lenalee. Both Lavi and Allen gulped, afraid of what they'd see after their findings of their own changes. Lenalee sat up and, to both of their surprise, looked much like her normal self.

"Am I the only one feeling horribly gypped right now?" Allen asked, a frown on his face.

"I do believe I'm in that boat too, buddy," Lavi replied, his purple and pink tail drooping.

"Oh my, Lavi? Allen? What in the world is going on?" the girl asked with a gasp, "While it is very cute, I don't think now is a great time to be dressing up…"

"We aren't," both of them said dryly.

"Then what-" Lenalee began, but was cut off by Miranda sitting up beside her.

It looked like they were going to have a third in their 'gypped' boat. On top of Miranda's head were two perfectly round mouse ears. Before anyone could say anything else, there was a yell of outrage from behind them.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?"

Now, Allen and Lavi could only imagine what had happened to Kanda. They really couldn't help but snicker at the prospect as they turned around. However, they were met by something far exceeding their expectations.

Kanda was never going to live this one down.

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Author's Note: So I had this as a sort of in-between chapter, just as a teaser. I hope everyone enjoyed, and looks forward to more! You'll get to see how Kanda has ended up. He really will never live this one down. As always, please review, favorite, or watch the story! Your feedback is always loved. Until next time!

Next Chapter- Chapter One : The Writer"A mythical land with a pool of tears…"