Chapter 1- Prelude to a New Era

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." -Matthew 11:28

It has been a long and heart-wrenching 120 years ever since the Holy War tragically ended. After so many years of struggling to spare the world from the destruction that the Earl so envisioned, victory was finally awarded to the Exorcists. But with a price.

After the all-out battle against the Noah, the Akuma, and the Earl, the Black Order was wiped out. Even Timcanpy was destroyed during the chaos. However, one person was cursed to survive, burdened to carry the memory of his dead friends as he lived on. He was the Destroyer of Time, prophesized to be the one who would defeat the Earl. He was the one and only Allen Walker.

Years, ages, decades, he walked the earth alone. How was he still alive, you may ask? It's because of the Noah inside him, cursing him to walk the earth alone for all eternity.

But he was not completely alone.

He traversed the world with Neah, the Fourteenth Noah and also Allen's foster uncle. With only his guidance and accompaniment, Allen went around and 'freed' any and every Akuma he encountered. Yes, even after the Holy War, many leftover Akuma still roamed the earth, killing people wherever and whenever they desired.

As Allen watched the world advance, he began seeing these little black creatures floating around and at the same time, creatures that Allen has never seen before. Apparently, they were demons- biblical demons. He had no experience in dealing with them, but he found out that Innocence affected them just as it would the Akuma.

Allen soon found out that there was an organization tasked with fighting those demons. But that wasn't what truly shocked him. It was the fact that this organization, the Knights of the True Cross Order or simply the True Cross Order, was led by the Vatican who were probably looking for more pawns to play with, as Allen bitterly thought.

In light of this new knowledge, Allen felt that something interesting was bound to happen...

He just didn't know how right he was.

Allen groaned frustratingly as he wearily dragged his feet across the pavement. Currently, he was in Tokyo searching for Akumas that may have fled there. In fact, he had already spotted and taken out four Akumas which was a surprisingly low amount considering the fact that this very city had been previously an Akuma nest.

It was already close to nighttime. But with nowhere to crash for the night, Allen deduced that he'd have to sleep in some alleyway or somewhere else again. He didn't mind though. What really troubled Allen was his famished stomach which was currently growling to no end.

Earlier in the afternoon, Allen had spotted a lone five-thousand Yen bill sitting innocently in an isolated walkway. There were no people around who could possibly own it so Allen decided to pick it up and stuff it in his pocket, making him feel guilty. He planned on spending it on food but he couldn't since the guilt prevented him from doing so and the reluctance to spend the stolen money remained in his mind. But it was survival, Allen fiercely reminded himself despite the overwhelming guilt, and for that he had to do anything. So by the time he made up his mind (conscience be damned), it was already evening and all the stores were closed.

Allen placed his hand on his mouth to hold back a huge yawn. The urge to just sit down and sleep rang powerfully in his mind and he had no choice but fall into the temptation.

Allen's legs moved on their own, leading him to the fences of a monastery where he leaned on and sat on the pavement, sighing contently as he was finally able to relax his muscles.

'Allen, as much as how I want you to rest, you still have to get something into your stomach you know.'

The exhausted boy groaned mentally. 'I know, but all the stores are closed. I can go buy food first thing in the morning...'

'Geez, it's because you took so long to make your decision. So what if you stole the thing. Actually, you should have just stolen food a long time ago. If it weren't for you and the...others, there wouldn't have been no future for these humans. And yet if even after that, you still fight to protect these pathetic sacks of skin while starving yourself. If you ask me, I;d say that you deservce more from these ungrateful humans.'

'No, Neah. If the point of saving people is to expect something in return, then it's pointless. Besides, they don't know a thing...and it's probably better that way.'

'You ARE a strange one... Fine. Do what you think is right. But don't blame me when your body pays the price for your actions.'

'Fine by me...'

Saying no more, Allen closed his already droopy eyes and waited for sleep to take over.

'I'll keep watch for you...'

And with that, everything went black. As he slept, the events of the battle that had ripped everything away from him haunted his dreams...

Rin's POV

Rin, as usual, had gotten into a fight. Currently, he was on his way back home but with a dilemma.

'Ah shit. I need to think of an excuse to tell the old geezer...' Rin internally grumbled. As he was nearing the monastery, he saw an old man camping just outside the fences of his home.

Alarm bells rang in Rin's mind as he raced towards the old man. He kneeled down in front of the man to take a better look at him. But instead of coming face to face to a wrinkly old face like he expected, he saw a teen-seemingly British- who looked like his age.

He had white hair and an odd-shaped scar on the left side of his face; starting from his forehead and going over his eye down to his jaw. Moreover, the boy was wearing what looked like a military uniform, consisting of a long sleeved black jacket and black pants with red trimmings complete with gloves and black combat boots. Over the uniform was a beige overcoat.

Shaking himself back to reality, he began shaking the boy lightly awake.

"Hey, are you alright?"

The boy groaned. "Leave me alone, stupid rabbit..." he mumbled in a foreign language which Rin guessed to be English. Rin wondered briefly about what he could have said (he had less than stellar grades in his English class so he didn't really bother) but nonetheless continued shaking the boy awake.

"Hey! Dude!"

The boy's eyes snapped open. Then at the blink of an eye, the boy had pinned him down to the ground with his hand around Rin's neck. Rin's eyes widened like saucer plates at the sudden assault. But before he could think of retaliating, the boy gasped and immediately relinquished his hold on Rin's neck. As quick as lightning, he stood up and began bowing down and apologizing at a hundred mile per minute.

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't- I swear I didn't mean to mean to do that! I'm really, terribly sorry! Are you hurt?"

Rin blankly stared at the boy with his hand reflexively massaging his neck and shock written all over his face. His mind was slowly processing what had transpired until everything finally registered in his mind completely. He shook himself from his stupor and realized that the boy had offered him a hand. Rin also noticed that the boy was speaking his own native tongue fluently, as opposed to the language that the boy mumbled in earlier in his sleep.

"N-No, I'm fine! I'm totally fine!" Rin sweat dropped as he assured the boy of his wellbeing and accepted the boy's hand. With a surprisingly strong pull, the boy helped him up. Rin began dusting imaginary dust off of his clothes.

"Are you sure you're not hurt anywhere? I'm really, really sorry!" he apologized yet again.

Rin couldn't help but quirk an eyebrow in amusement. "Ah, stop apologizing! I'm totally fine, nothing to worry about!"

"Then why do you have bruises all over your body?" the boy asked warily. Rin was surprised that he had noticed the bruises. The boy was more observant than Rin had guessed.

"I just tripped on the way! I'm such a klutz, y'know." Rin tittered.

The boy looked like he didn't buy it. Rin figured that he had seen through his lie but the boy let it slide and didn't question it any further and nodded his head slowly.

"Ah, I forgot to introduce myself! My name's Allen Walker. It's a pleasure to meet you!" he said and then slightly tipped his torso forward which surprised Rin a little.

Rin quickly moved to return the polite gesture and proceeded to introduce himself. "Okumura Rin. Pleasure to meet you, too."

"Alright, I uhhh, have to go now. I hope we cross paths again!" With that, Allen turned around but no sooner had he placed his foot on the ground to start walking away, Rin stopped him.

"Hey, why were you sleeping out here?" Rin asked with curiosity.

"I...umm..."

Rin tipped his head forward, urging him to continue. Allen lowered his head in hesitation and then turned around to meet Rin's sincerely curious eyes.

"I...don't have a place to stay." Allen scratched his cheek in embarrassment as his face started to gain a pinkish color.

"Eh?! Then you can crash into my place!" Rin said with a grin and so much enthusiasm that surprised Allen. Who would outright invite a homeless kid into their home? Allen couldn't help but narrow his eyes a bit.

"How do I know you're not planning something?" Allen asked suspiciously, though he was careful not to sound hostile.

Rin widened his eyes and began shaking his head vigorously as if realizing how suspicious he must have sounded. "No, no! I swear it isn't anything like that! It's just that...my old man's a priest, y'know? I'm sure he'd kick my ass if he found out that I met a homeless kid sleeping outside the monastery and didn't offer help!" Rin tittered with a nervous grin.

Allen was taken aback. A priest, huh? Wait a minute... Allen turned his head to the monastery whose gates was just beside them, then his gaze returned to Rin.

"You...live here?" Allen reluctantly asked with his index finger meekly pointing to the monastery.

Rin nodded. "Yeah. So are you coming?" he asked with his grin still intact but this time held warmth in it.

'Well...he doesn't seem to be lying...' Allen thought. Finally coming to a decision, he sighed softly. "Well, it would be rude to decline someone's generosity and kindness, right?"

Rin's eyes lit up like Christmas trees. He took out a keyring from his pocket and the multiple keys jingled together as he inserted one of the silver keys into the gate and twisted it. With a push, the gates opened with a loud creak.

"Come on!" Rin took a brief glance Allen and saw that his face was lowered and looked dejected. Rin wondered if he still felt guilty about what he had done to him earlier.

"So anyway, are you a cosplayer or something?"

Allen was dumbfounded by this question and began fumbling for words. "Huh? Umm, no...sorta. This is the last thing I had and believe me, I'd buy myself new clothes if I had the money. But you see, the littlest money that I somehow manage to obtain go straight to food budget so there's nothing left for anything else..." Allen rubbed the back of his neck.

'Huh...wait. That five-thousand Yen bill, won't it be enough for both food and clothes? I'll have to go check tomorrow when I leave...'

"Oh..." Rin simply replied. He secretly wondered if the money that Allen claimed to somehow manage to obtain was from begging in the streets... Rin shook his head and decided not to think further about it.

Allen suddenly stumbled and lost his footing briefly causing alarm in Rin.

"Hey! You alright?" he asked concernedly and readied his hands in case Allen fell for real.

"Yeah, thanks. I just tripped." Allen lied with a smile which radiated mirth but his voice contradicted his bright smile as he notably sounded more weary.

Rin only nodded reluctantly. "Be careful, a'ight?"

The two of them didn't say anything else after that. As Rin padded up the path leading to the doors of the monastery, with Allen following close behind, he couldn't forget the look in Allen's eyes when he had pinned him onto the ground earlier.

Numerous emotions swirled behind those dilated and feral eyes. He had the eyes of a scared and traumatized child, an enraged soldier who fought valiantly for everything and everyone he knew, and a defeated lost boy who forgot the meaning of hope.

Why did he seem to have the eyes of a war veteran whose loved ones were unjustly robbed from him by war?

Narrative POV

Yukio sighed irritably as he stood at the center of the chancel, waiting for Rin to return home. 'It's almost eight o'clock, where could Rin be? Though knowing him, he probably got into a fight...again.' Just the thought of it made Yukio sigh once again.

"Worried about Rin?" A voice asked from behind him. Yukio turned to face the speaker, who was revealed to be Shiro, his and Rin's adoptive father and the monastery's head priest thus he wore a long black cassock but with little deviations such as the white belt on his waist.

"Aren't you worried, too?" Yukio shot back.

"Of course I am. That boy, he always gets himself into a fight. I don't know what to do with him." Shiro sighed as he ran his hand through his gray hair in irritation.

Yukio opened his mouth to reply but before he could even make a sound, the doors of the monastery were opened with a loud bang.

"Hey old geezer, Yukio, everyone, I'm back! I brought someone with me!" Rin's booming voice echoed throughout the chancel.

Yukio and Shiro turned to face the doors and indeed, behind Rin was a white haired man, presumably an old man. As Shiro approached them he was quite surprised that the 'old man' couldn't be a day older than Rin and Yukio.

"Rin, who is this?" As these words left Shiro's lips, Shiro noticed that the boy looked down and began shuffling his feet awkwardly.

"I found him sleeping outside. I just thought that we could let him crash for the night since he doesn't have a place to stay." Rin said.

Shiro's eyes widened slightly. He turned to the boy "Are you a tourist? Where are your parents?" Shiro asked him with a kind and gentle tone.

"Umm, I don't have any, sir. And I'm just travelling around alone." The boy said with a soft voice. Surprisingly, he spoke in smooth and flawless Japanese despite being a foreigner. Most of the foreigners he'd met once in a while during services in the monastery spoke butchered Japanese. Understandable, but butchered.

Shiro's eyes softened. "Well, if that's the case, you can stay here for as long as you want."

The boy's head whipped up. "Ah, I can't accept that! Just one night is fine by me, then I can leave tomorrow. I don't want to be a burden." he said.

"Nonsense! If anything, Rin over here is the burden!" Shiro ignored the small and indignant 'Hey!' from Rin. "Besides, I can't in good conscience leave a boy just Rin and Yukio's age out in the streets. It's a miracle that nothing bad has happened to you yet! Wait, how old are you exactly?" Shiro asked the boy seriously.

Allen sweatdropped at the priest's sudden change of demeanor. "Err, I'm sixteen, sir." Well, he was sixteen before he completely stopped aging physically. He was in fact around a hundred and thirty-six years old, but nobody needed to know that.

The priest chuckled. "Stop calling me 'sir'. It makes me feel old."

"You ARE old!" Rin asserted rather blatantly. Shiro ignored him once again.

"So, what's your name kid?" Shiro asked the boy.

"My name's Allen Walker. It's nice to meet you!" The boy, whose name was now revealed to be Allen, introduced himself and bowed.

"Polite kid," Shiro sighed dramatically and shook his head, "too bad Rin ain't like you." he said as he gave Rin a pointed glance.

Rin looked away with puffed cheeks.

"Well, my name's Shiro Fujimoto. This one here," Shiro points his thumb behind him were another boy stood, "is Yukio. He's Rin's younger brother. Hard to believe, right?" he joked.

"Hello." Yukio said kindly with a friendly smile.

Yukio had brown hair and turquoise eyes with square glasses sitting on top of his nose. Allen spotted three beauty marks on his face; two lined up vertically under his left eye and one on the bottom right of his chin. As Allen studied Yukio's, he had this vague feeling in his gut that he had seen that face somewhere. He just couldn't remember when and where.

Before he could ponder about it any further, Allen's vision began to swim. He clutched his forehead with one hand and his face contorted with distress. His surroundings started to blur until everything were mere blobs of color.

"Hey kid, you alright?" Allen heard Shiro say but it sounded like he was underwater. He stumbled a bit as he tried to maintain his balance but with his head spinning, it was a pretty tedious task.

Then before he knew it, Allen collapsed on the cold hard floor.

Later...

Allen slowly opened his eyes as he came to, feeling absolutely lethargic and light headed. He turned his head and laid it sidewards on top of the pillow his head was resting on. His eyes were squinted as they adjusted to the bright light. With apprehensive eyes, he surveyed the room that he was... wait. A pillow?

He fisted his hand on the soft object that he felt under him and discovered that it was a bedsheet.

He swiftly bolted upright and saw that he was indeed on the lower bunk of a double-deck bed. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a blue-haired boy sitting on a chair just beside the bed he laid on. Allen recognized the boy to be the one he had met earlier.

"Oh, you're awake!"

Allen grimaced a bit as he felt a surge of pain rack his head. "Y-Yeah. What happened?"

His question was ignored though as Rin stood up with a giddy look on his face. "I'll go call the old geezer!" He then skedaddled out the room without another word.

As soon as Rin's heavy footsteps faded into silence, Allen can't help but let out a long exhausted sigh.

Allen heard Neah's voice echo in his mind. 'Welcome back to the land of the living.' he joked.

'Ugh. What happened, Neah?'

The Noah kept silent making Allen wonder if he had done or said anything wrong. Before Allen could ask though, Neah finally answered. 'You really overworked yourself, Allen. With you not eating anything for a couple days and the continuous use of your Innocence- though kept at the minimum- for a much longer time period, it's not a surprise that you went under. You're fatigued.'

'Oh. Did I make you worry...?'

Allen waited for a response but there was none.

He lazily plopped on the bed once again with the desire to just close his eyelids- which could be compared to heavy weights- and sleep the whole month away. A long and insufferable groan vibrated at the back of his throat. He was just so tired...

Allen sluggishly sat up once again when he heard footsteps thudding on the wooden floor, steadily becoming louder and louder. Soon, the door swung open and in came the old priest from before accompanied by the two boys.

The priest- Father Shiro Fujimoto if Allen remembered correctly- had a tray where a steaming bowl sat together with a pair of chopsticks. It smelled absolutely heavenly to his famished stomach and he could practically hear it calling to him.

"Hey kid. How're you holding up?" Fujimoto said conversationally with a grin as he handed Allen the tray.

"Fine, just tired. Thank you for your concern." Allen mumbled tiredly and almost incoherently. He quietly thanked the elderly man for the food as he accepted the tray. Curiously peering into the bowl, he saw that it contained ramen.

"You're lucky that there were some leftovers from dinner. Go on, dig in!"

Allen slowly nodded and with no hesitation, he split the chopsticks and hungrily tore into the bowl of ramen at a slower rate than normal...for him, that is. The other three in the room gaped at the boy who mercilessly and ravenously wolfed down the food. In a matter of two minutes, the bowl was completely sucked dry.

A loud belch issued from Allen's lips, causing him to blush furiously.

"Thank you for the food, Fujimoto-san. It was delicious." Allen said shyly but with a grateful smile.

Shiro shook his head. "When was the last time you ate, kid?" he asked with evident concern.

Allen rubbed the back of his neck. "Since...seven days ago, I think...?"

Shiro's eyes widened in alarm and muttered under his breath, "A week...?!"

Allen just tittered.

"So old geezer, is he going to stay?" Rin suddenly asked out of the blue.

"'Course he is! But before that, I do have one question." Shiro turned to Allen with a serious look on his face. "Are you absolutely sure that you don't have any family members that may be looking or waiting for you? Friends? Distant relatives?"

Allen looked away from him briefly with a sad and melancholic look on his face but he quickly hid it with a pococurante front. He stared at Shiro once again with a hard but solitary look in his eyes, as if he was reminded the fact that there was no one and nowhere that he could return to.

"Yes, I'm very sure that there's no one looking for me."

A solemn atmosphere invaded the room, seemingly suffocating the occupants. That is, until Shiro decided to break the silence.

"Well, I'm sorry for asking..." Without Allen having to voice it, Shiro immediately figured that the young boy had lost a lot despite his young age and he had obliviously and unintentionally overstepped his boundaries.

"It's fine, you didn't know." Allen replied quietly while avoiding their sympathetic gazes. He didn't want pity from these people, or from anyone at all for that matter. Pity made him feel...weak and pathetic. It felt like all the progress that he had made to move on, though very little, would come undone and he would go back to wallowing in his misery and regret. No, he didn't want that.

Yukio cleared his throat and decided to change the subject. "It's getting late and I'm sure Allen here needs more rest."

"Where am I going to sleep though, old geezer?" Rin asked Shiro. Allen looked up at the blue-haired boy shyly.

"Umm...is this is your bed?"

"Yeah but you can take it in the meantime." Rin said with a smile.

"But it's too much. I'm already freeloading off of-" Allen argued but didn't get the chance to finish as Shiro cut him off.

"Nonsense! We've got some futon laying around in here, Rin can just take them!"

"But..."

"It's fine, really! You're a guest anyway! It'd be shameful for us hosts if we let you sleep on the floor!" Rin replied with a goofy grin plastered on his face.

Allen looked hesitant but decided to go with it. "If you insist..."

"Well, that's that. By the way Allen, you wanna take a late night shower?"

The very second Shiro had ended his sentence, Allen snapped up and met the older (physically) man's gaze. After all, when was the last time he had taken an actual bath?!

"Yes, please!"

Shiro couldn't help but chuckle at his antics. "Right, Rin told me about that get-up so we decided to lend you some clothes. I'll hand them to you later. Rin, show him the way to the bathroom. And Yukio, can you go and set up the futon here?"

"Okay." The two boys said in unison.

"Um, if it's not too much to ask for, can I ask for a long sleeved shirt?"

Shiro looked at him but nonetheless didn't say anything about it. "Sure if that's what you want."

Allen stood up from the bed and bowed down profoundly and with his eyes closed. "Thank you for your hospitality. I really appreciate it."

Shiro grinned. "Don't mention it, kiddo. It's what we do."

Hey guys! Been a long time, eh? *chuckles nervously* I'm really sorry...

Before I continue, I just wanna say THANK YOU to old readers for being SO patient with me! I actually expected to see my favorites and/or follows to go down a considerable amount but surprisingly, there was none.

And to the new readers who got interested simply through reading the summary, I hope this story will meet your expectations! And also, thanks so much to Merkitten for pointing out the cringe-worthy mistakes I made with my first few chapters! It really helped a lot. XD So I hope the changes I made are alright.

Anyway, my fam and I flew back here in the Philippines last month and we didn't have internet connection the whole April =.= We had it again just a few days ago, Mother's Day to be exact. I tried PMed Fulminata, my previous beta, but hasn't replied so I guessed that he/she was busy or just inactive. Yeah, so this chapter and probably the rest of the chapters aren't and won't be beta-read. Unless someone's willing...

Right so, by the next update (I don't know when but it won't be for too long, I assure you), updates will follow a certain schedule. Maybe weekly or maybe every two weeks, it depends. I'm still in the middle of writing more chapters.

Tell me what you think, guys! :v You can shout at me for taking too long, too! No, seriously. You can. XD