Chapter Text
**
He had a sketch, shoved in with a stack of other miscellaneous papers and things that were never sorted, exiled to the bottom drawer of his desk in his otherwise bare room. Theodore (not a Grand Marshall then) had given it to him when they were leaving Japan, his charcoal-smudged fingers making quick work of transferring the image to paper.
The picture was of a small pier, a few lonely breakwaters, and rickety wooden shops. There were fish peddlers, and mothers toting their infants, and an old man mending a net. It was not his hometown, not even close, but it was as close as they would get. The other things he remembered were also shoved to the bottom drawer of his mind - food that didn't taste strange, familiar if not fully understood cadences of his mother tongue, the way he would take his shoes off before going inside.
**
Contrary to popular belief, Kanda did not eat soba all the time. It would have been a difficult feat no matter how you cut it - He was away from the Order nine months out of twelve, romping through Europe and parts of Asia far removed from Japan. Jerry was the only person he knew who even made Japanese food, and Jerry was stationed at Headquarters. Some months he never even saw a single grain of rice, and had to make do with local cuisine. Sometimes that local cuisine was self-caught and self-cooked. It was a good thing Theodore taught his students basic outdoor survival skills.
Kanda actually did not mind bread, if it was freshly baked. Cheese gave him stomach-aches but he liked pasta. He liked missions to China because there were people who knew all the right things to do with rice.
But he could get bread and pasta nearly anywhere, and China was a very large place where he could eat rice until he was sick of it. And he could only get soba at Home. So soba it was, and thus started the urban myth that Kanda Yuu ate nothing but buckwheat noodles.
**
The Exorcists all trained, sometimes alone, sometimes together. Kanda trained mostly alone, but there were exceptions. He trained with Marie and Daisya, when they needed to improve their teamwork, Theodore, when Kanda needed to work on how to defeat someone who can't be defeated.
If the time was right and they were both back at Headquarters without serious debilitating injury (and sometimes even then), he trained with Linali.
Linali had been informed of Kanda's opinion on protecting-the-fairer-sex and defending-the-weak by Komui, who was also sniveling at the time about how-cruel-Kanda-was-to-not-even-promise-to-look-out-for-his-precious-beautiful-baby-sister. They were to have a mission together, and true to his words Kanda didn't coddle or protect Linali any more than he would any other Exorcist, male or female, rookie or old-timer.
This suited Linali just fine. She could not protect her world if she was weak, and she could not get stronger if anyone coddled her.
The first time they sparred, Kanda cracked one of her ribs and her entire left side was black and blue for a month. She left footprints from kicks that would have pulverized bone on his back. From there they laid down basic ground rules (which were more like guidelines anyway): weapons were to remain un-invocated unless provoked, lethal blows were to be used in moderation, and usage of edged parts of the blade and stiletto parts of the heels were to be avoided.
Now, when Lavi's sharp eye caught bruises on her arms when she sat down to breakfast with him and Allen, she would smile and say that it was just from training. And when they ask who would dare Komui's wrath, she would laugh it off and tell them, "You should see the other guy."
**
Also contrary to popular belief, Kanda actually has friends, and might care just a tiny bit for them. He served briefly as Linali's pseudo-older brother until Komui came to properly reclaim the title and couldn't work up the needed apathy for her afterward. He respects her strength and as such, allows her liberties like hitting him with a clipboard and pinching his cheek.
Marie and Daisya were his partners, and if he actually found Daisya breaking Theodore's glasses funny, or appreciated Marie's silence, that was something they understood between the three of them, without words.
He was actually quite content to remain at three, but then Lavi and Allen and Crowley and a whole bunch of other Exorcists happened. Kanda wasn't going to buy them birthday presents though, he had enough trouble finding good hair-ties for Linali, music for Marie, and useless prank-toys for Daisya.
Though he wouldn't have to worry about the last one now.
Maybe he'll pick up a bandana for Lavi next time.
**
He could manage conversational Japanese, but his English was more fluent. Some people thought he had an accent, and some told him he was as good as a native speaker. When Lavi arrived at the Order, his English had a strange twang to it that nevertheless faded rapidly. Lavi placed Kanda's accent immediately though, and they had spent some time (unwillingly on Kanda's part) working out whose Japanese was more proper.
Lavi had a strange lilt in any language, Kanda found out, but he had no idea where the other Exorcist picked up Japanese. His slang was horrible and he apparently didn't know any polite forms.
**
Kanda's synchronization level was abysmal by most standards - this was a characteristic of Mugen, and Komui told him quite frankly that if Kanda ever reached over 50%, he would probably die.
This was because Mugen synchronized at the level of Illusions that the conformer unlocked, and the Third Illusion was forbidden. It had killed every other user before him. The sword and its previous conformers kept its fourth, fifth and sixth illusions with them to the grave.
Lavi asked, "How much time left?" the same way Komui did, after Komui kicked them all out (except Kanda) after Helveska pronounced their sync rates. Allen was highest, of course, Linali and Lavi close behind, Bookman and Crowley and Miranda trailing, but Kanda still at dead last.
Kanda was still irritated after the lecture, he knew what he was doing and didn't appreciate being treated like he was soft in the head. If someone was soft in the head, it was Komui. "I thought Bookmen have no hearts?" he snapped.
For a moment he was afraid Lavi was going to turn serious, and he wasn't sure if he could handle a serious Lavi. But instead, the redhead grinned. "Nah, but I DO want to know how many horribly big birthday parties we can still plan for you. This is purely in the name of entertainment."
This made Kanda feel obscurely relieved, so he told Lavi, and maybe looked forward to trying to get out of being at Headquarters for his birthdays to come.
**End