Disclaimer: I don't own D Gray-man nor Black Cat

[4]

For That Promise

December 16, 23:45

Location: Southern District, Sapidor

Train watched emotionlessly as the eldritch abomination floated between the narrow streets below, obviously searching for him. He did a running jump to the roof of a second building, directly beside the unsuspecting monster and dodged out of sight just as it whirled around to face where he had been. He did one final, careful assessment of the distance and timing from this block to the one across. If his theory proved to be wrong, then he would have to be able to get out of the way, and fast.

It wouldn't pose much of a problem, because the other building was of leaping distance and the propulsion would assist in this extremely risky maneuver. There was also a roof access relatively close to the edge, so if the attack didn't work, at the very least he had a shield he could use to cover his retreat.

He swapped control of the gun to his dominant hand.

Planting a foot on the edge of the roof, Train leapt into the air.

Someone was shouting. Or had, but he couldn't hear what was being said.

Blood rushed into his head just as adrenaline surged through his veins, drowning out all sounds. Wind roared into his ears as he arced over the monster, a black shadow underneath the navy sky. As he had expected, it sensed him the moment he was above it and out in the open, its cannons revolving around in his direction.

He forced the bubbling excitement beneath the stoic mask of the trained killer he was as landed right on the tip of a lone cannon's barrel.

The ornate, 6-shot revolver glinted in the moonlight as he took aim at the gaping darkness. Golden, cat-like eyes captured the tiny movement that was the barrel about to fire and in that split second of a moment, he pulled the trigger.

There was a movement at the corner of his eye. In a flash, Train shoved all the strength that he had into his feet and dodged into the sky.

The gun he had been on was blasted into bits the moment he left, destroyed by its own kind.

A wail sounded into the night, a mix of pain and rage.

All the cannons closest to him whirled around, clicking and taking aim.

Giving in to temptation, he smirked. This was almost too easy.

Aiming downwards, Hades howled as four bullets, all fired at the same time drove themselves deep into their targets.

Landing smoothly, Train rolled behind the roof access and pressed his body low. Panting lightly, he paused in anticipation.

But, the retaliating rain of bullets never came.

Silence ruled the night, as it should, and baited breath waited what was to come next.

At first, there was nothing. And then, the swollen, blotchy body of the monster started to convulse and crack.

Smoke billowed from the mouth of the cannons, a gruesome dark liquid spilling from where its eyes and mouth used to be. There was a ghastly moan and a bone-chilling cry, and light erupted from the fractures mere seconds before the creature exploded into a brilliant conflagration, sending gray clouds and scarlet sparks in every direction possible. Behind hair tussled by the conjured winds Train almost smiled, satisfied at his own handiwork.

No matter how impenetrable its armor was, nothing could survive an implosion. And there was absolutely no way that it would be able to survive five bullets manufactured specifically for exploding upon impact.

He would have to place an order for more of those burst bullets when he returned to headquarters. After all, that monster couldn't be the only one of its kind.

Without looking, his gun arm lifted and fired. Furious gusts whipped past his face, throwing up his coat and hair where he stood. Without a glance towards what he had just attacked, the Black Cat dropped down into the alley and melded into the darkness, inserting a single cartridge into Hades' now empty cylinder.

The burnt corpse of a deep purple butterfly fluttered lifelessly to the ground, smoking from the hole where the bullet had burst.

~A~

Location: Unknown

"Oooh… That kid is good…" Intrigue glinted mischievously in the man's eyes. His companion looked up from her book.

"You mean Allen?"

"No. I meant the human that blew up my tease, and that akuma too."

The girl sat up straighter.

"Oh? A human did that?"

"Mmhmm…"

She licked her lips.

"I wonder if he'll be fun to play with?"

Playfully, he made a disgusted face.

"Road…"

"I'm kidding," she snickered, turning back to the ceiling. "Human dolls are soooo boring. They break too easily, unlike Allen. Hehe~"

He shifted slightly in discomfort. There was a reason why the ninth child was feared so.

"You're not going to greet him? Allen, that is."

Road hummed thoughtfully, although he had learnt from years of coexistence that the ninth rarely engaged in such strenuous activities.

"Nope~! They'll be all gloomy and cautious if I did that. It's much more interesting to show up during the climax, but we'll see." Blowing hard, the bubblegum she had been chewing ballooned outwards in its bright pink glory.

It popped, and Road giggled as she licked it back in. "And Tyki?"

"Yeah?"

"Your cigarette is burning a hole in my homework."

~A~

December 17, 04:45

Location: Hotel, Sapidor

He bore witness as the man flew at a speed that was well beyond human capability, nigh impossible to comprehend. In slow-motion, black boots landed soundlessly on the cannon, a gun primed straight into the barrel. Even the trained warrior that he was froze in fear at the sight – for both the man and the akuma.

What happened next occurred so fast, even though time seemed to slow down. He could only watch, paralyzed, as the gunman literally danced with death, a deadly grace to his footsteps that kept him balanced even as he toyed with the akuma. He watched as the man fired his gun, watched as the akuma blasted off its own cannon. His heart screamed at him to stop them. His Innocence screamed at him to stop them. But his feet were planted to the ground, his mind caught in the blinding flurry that was either shock or intrigue at what was taking place before his very eyes.

The explosion was almost soundless as he stared, dumbfounded, at the flaming mess that had once been a human. There was something moving down his left cheek, an intense ringing in his ears, a stabbing pain in his left eye as he looked through the monocle-like glass. The chained soul, he could see it so clearly.

From somewhere below, muffled by the roaring fire, Lavi's voice drifted upwards.

"What the hell… just happened?"

Nobody answered him. Nobody could answer him.

In the monochrome half of his world, the mummified skeleton that was the spirit bound to that cursed body, the spirit that could only be set free by the light of the Innocence; its bandages unraveled around its body as it was consumed in the inferno of oblivion, that slimy, scabbed hand reaching for him, black blood seeping from empty orbits.

A…ll…en…

Fear beckoned him, and he took a step back.

W…hy?

A fist closed around his ankle, rotting flesh mounted on chalk white bones. Hollowed out sockets stared up vacantly, even as its mouth moved to reveal broken, yellowing teeth.

W…hy… di…dn't… you… sa…ve… u…s…

Dark red fell from his eye. With a silent splash, the monochrome world became ruled by black.

All…en… All…en…

Small heads, skulls underneath the decaying skin, reared from the abyss. Moans escaped from sagging jaws as their voices sounded lowly.

All…en…

Sa…ve… u…s… s…av…e… u…s…

W…hy… W…hy…

With a gasp of shock that severed the ragged breathing of the teen, Allen found himself being pulled deeper into the shadowy, sludgy mess of a lake. The voices grew louder, more insistent.

All…en… A…ll…en…

Di…dn't… s…av…e…

W…hy… W…hy… W…hy… W…hy… W…hy…

His heart stopped, literally.

In the darkness that was his mind, light flashed once as a familiar shape lit up on the surface of the lake.

That faceless image, grinning from ear to ear, always haunting his shadow…

Allen…

"WALKER!"

A sharp intake of breath later, Allen's eyes snapped open. Sweat beaded down his forehead and back, and trembling storm gray irises stared into those of his roommate's. His throat was dry – from shouting, judging from the disgruntled look on the inspector's sleep-deprived face. Helping a groaning Allen into an upright position, Link observed the shadows behind stark white bangs as their owner breathed deeply.

"Walker, are you fine?"

"Yeah… I'm alright," the blanket wrinkled with the tightened grip. "It was just a nightmare."

The action did not go unnoticed.

"Walker…"

"I want to take a breather…"

The CROW member nodded. "Then I-"

"Alone."

Allen lifted his gaze.

"I want to take a breather alone, Link."

Link's face remained impassive even as he hesitated, torn between duty and another feeling he couldn't quite put into place. Protocols would dictate that Walker was to be in his line of sight anywhere, anytime, to prevent the possible abuse of his powers. But those eyes… even by his standards, those pained eyes were not supposed to belong to a fifteen year old child.

"Please."

Very slowly, the twenty year old turned away.

"I expect you back in thirty minutes. Otherwise, your absence will be reported to the Vatican."

Allen flashed a very innocent, a very grateful smile. He left the room and vaguely, Link wondered if he did the right thing.

Splashing water onto his face, Allen forced himself to ignore his grinning shadow as he left the washrooms, walking down the lonely corridors with the echo of his footsteps as his only companion. He felt a strange sense of relief. It had been so long, so long since he experienced the calm that was treading the darkness, alone. Ever since the Ark.

Ever since he met Mana.

He just hoped that he wouldn't run into any more mirrors.

It wasn't to say that he didn't like the feeling.

No.

He loved it, more than anything else. But even he had to admit that being alone was sometimes a good thing. Sometimes, he found himself wondering if he was much better off back when he had no name, no identity… back when he was still just a measly servant boy in the circus, a shadow in the backstage. If only he hadn't done what he had done back then, if only he had listened to his master then… if only he hadn't met Mana, then perhaps things would have ended differently.

But, the other part of him argued, if he hadn't met Mana, then he would still be that hateful child with a petrified limb, that child with no purpose in life whatsoever. He wouldn't have so many people who he could call friends. He wouldn't have had a home to return to. He wouldn't have had a promise to keep, the promise to continue walking forward, no matter what happened.

As if that thought triggered something within him, Allen increased his pace. His eyes trained to the ground, Allen was so lost in thought that he never had time to stop himself.

Brown and white accentuated his vision, and…

"Uwah!"

"Ahhh!"

Walking straight into something, or someone, the exorcist lost balance and fell onto his behind, hard. The person he knocked into had also fallen over, and was rubbing her back with a pained expression.

"That hurts~!"

It was rude to stare – Allen knew it – but he just couldn't help but ogle at the girl's extremely unusual choice of outdoor wear. A white, long sleeved summer yukata with pink floral patterns, along with a yellow obi sash tied to the waist and geta sandals on her feet, she looked like a displaced doll from a different era. Not that it was a crime to be wearing such traditional garments, but still…

She caught him staring, and he blushed.

"A-ah! I'm sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going!"

"That's all right," the brunette dusted her yukata as she stood up, a cheerful grin between rosy cheeks. "Here." Aquamarine eyes flashed brightly and she stretched out a hand to help him up. Smiling sheepishly, he eagerly accepted the proffered limb.

"Thank you."

He bowed again in apology and made to leave, but brown bobbed in front of his face. It took all the self-control he had to force himself to stop and avoid crashing into her once more.

The girl frowned as she looked him up and down, her glass bead necklace bouncing with every movement.

"You're… not from around here, are you?"

"A-ah, yes?"

Her lips curled up into an enthusiastic grin and she clapped her hands together.

"Then you must be here for the festival too, right? Well then, we'll be seeing a lot of each other."

"Um-"

"My name's Saya. Minatsuki Saya. And you are…?"

"A-Allen… Walker."

"Allen, huh?" a lilting giggle echoed through the lonely hallway. "It's a cute name."

Bewildered by the strange meeting, the teen merely nodded. Oblivious to his discomfort, Saya turned her eyes to the high wall, sighing immediately after.

"Oh geez… time's running short."

Allen glanced at the clock he never noticed. Its hands showed five ten in the morning, but the building was still dark because the sun had yet to rise.

"It's been nice talking to you, but I have to go. Work and all that, you know?" She winked. "I hope we meet again soon."

With that said, Saya disappeared at the chime of a bell, leaving a thoroughly mystified Allen in her dust.

A/N: So begins the start of an awkward new friendship… and Saya's entrance into the story. I think Allen sounds a little OOC at the point where he bumped into Saya, but you've got to consider that this is the second time (at least, following this story's timeline) Allen wasn't able to save an akuma's soul. However, he didn't react the same way he did when Road caused the akuma to self-destruct because if you see the later chapters, he didn't explode on Tokusa until the guy mocked him, so I assumed he became a little more controlled over this sort of occurance. And after all that he's been through, you cannot help but wonder if he does think in that way sometimes. Also, thank you to everyone who reviewed, favourited, and alerted to this story. It really encourages and motivates me, especially when writer's block strikes.