"I must say, Brina, I've never had to treat one student so much in my days here. And it's rarely ever results from fighting either!"
Brina Hathaway was sat in the infirmary, feeling sheepish, as she was playfully chastised by the amused school nurse. "Trust me, even I find it ridiculous," she agreed.
"Your reputation as a meister precedes you amongst the professors. Even with Lord Death himself," the nurse continued. "From what I've heard, when you fight, you have perfect balance and focus. But in your everyday life, it seems..."
"She's a total klutz," Adrian Carrow interrupted helpfully. Adrian was one half of a set of identical twins and also one of Brina's weapons.
"Shut up," grumbled Brina. Adrian picked on her on a regular basis. Though he did have a point. Brina was a good meister, but when she wasn't fighting, she tended to be very clumsy and accident-prone.
"Do you think Brina should stay in the infirmary overnight just to be sure?" Jesse Carrow – the nicer of the twins and Brina's other weapon – asked the nurse.
"Of course not!" Brina protested. "It was just a bump – she doesn't even think I have concussion." Brina wasn't a big fan of hospitals or infirmaries. Maybe due to the fact that she was sent to them so often.
The nurse chuckled at Brina's reaction. "No, she should be fine. Just don't go walking into anything else, okay?"
"Thanks," muttered Brina, flushing a slight pink. It was bad enough that she'd strode headlong into an open window in front of a group of her classmates. She didn't need to be reminded of her own stupidity.
She left the infirmary, followed by the twins, still feeling irked. She hated how clumsy she was. It was just so embarrassing. It didn't help either that trouble seemed to follow her everywhere. When she focused, mostly when she was fighting, it wasn't a problem. But for the most part, she was quite dreamy and seemed to lose her idea of balance. Accidents were a common occurrence for her. The school nurse didn't even know the half of it. She didn't bother with the infirmary for most of the everyday injuries she always seemed to be getting.
It was nearly time for the lunch period at the academy. Brina had missed the majority of the last class, since she'd hit her head on the window just before it had started. There were only another ten minutes left, so there was no point for her to go and join in now. She'd apologise to Professor Stein later.
"So are we gonna go find somewhere outside to eat?" asked Adrian as they slowly made their way down the corridor.
"Well..." Brina hesitated. She actually wanted to eat with some of her other friends here at the academy and find out what she'd missed, but she knew the twins would never go for that.
"You wanna hang out with Maka and her friends, don't you?" said Jesse, understanding her hesitation. He didn't even need to wait for her response. "That's cool; we'll just meet you in class this afternoon."
Brina gave him a grateful smile. "Are you sure?" He nodded, smiling back. She looked up at his twin. "Adrian?"
Adrian just shrugged. "Yeah, whatever. See you later."
He sloped off with Jesse following after him. Brina bit her lip. She'd probably pay for that later. The twins didn't like people much – they found it extremely difficult to trust anyone. Brina still thought she was lucky that they trusted her as much as they did. They wouldn't hang around with anybody else, which always left Brina in an awkward position. She liked being around other friends too – she liked having a wider social circle. Plus it was always a nice change to hang around with some female friends.
Jesse was normally okay with her wanting to do her own thing at times. He treated her like a kid sister and seemed happy with the fact that she was fairly popular at the academy. Unlike Adrian, who could be selfish and didn't want Brina to have any other friends apart from Jesse and himself. Her relationship with Adrian had always been far more complicated than it was with Jesse.
At least she wouldn't have to deal with it for now. She turned onto a different corridor than the one the twins had disappeared down and slowly traipsed along to the classroom she would have been in. They'd all be coming out for lunch in a few minutes.
Sure enough, when she was reaching the classroom, students were starting to file out. Some smiled at her and a few made passing comments about her accident with the window. She blushed, but laughed it all off.
Eventually, Brina found who she was looking for. Maka, fellow meister with dirty blonde pigtails, and Tsubaki, a taller Japanese girl with the ability to transform into a variety of different weapons.
"Hey, guys," Brina greeted them brightly as she joined them. "Did I miss anything good?"
"No, Professor Stein wanted us to dissect an endangered species!" said Maka, looking outraged. She launched into a rant about it as they followed everyone else towards the lunch hall. Neither her nor Tsubaki mentioned Brina's visit to the infirmary.
"So where are Soul and Black Star?" Brina asked as they all grabbed some food. They'd been absent when she'd left the class, but she'd just assumed they were late. That wasn't entirely unusual.
"Oh, they're around somewhere. I think Black Star wants to pick a fight with the new kid when he arrives," explained Tsubaki. She didn't sound particularly thrilled with the idea.
"Oh, yeah, I completely forgot about that!" exclaimed Brina. They had a new student enrolling at the school today – none other than Lord Death's son. "Didn't you wanna go with him?"
"Well, I wasn't really..." Tsubaki started slowly, but Maka cut her off.
"Urgh. Why would Tsubaki want to join in with the boys' stupid fight?" she groaned. "It'll only be a contest of who's got the biggest ego."
Brina laughed. "So you're not even the slightest bit interested how Soul's gonna do?"
"I'll go check it out in a while. After I get some food, of course," Maka grinned. "What do you think, Tsubaki?"
"I'd like to watch them," Tsubaki confessed.
"Then let's eat up!" urged Brina. "For all we know, the fight could already be over by now."
Brina didn't have the same personal interest as the others did – watching their partners fight – but she was definitely intrigued to see someone go up against a grim reaper. They all ate hurriedly, now that they'd decided they didn't want to miss the fight, and then raced down towards the front of the school where Soul and Black Star had said they were going to wait.
They knew straightaway that they'd found them. A group of students were watching through the front windows. They carried on past them and outside. Professor Stein was already out there, also interested in watching the fight.
Soul and Black Star were trying as hard as they could to land blows on a skinny boy dressed in black and carrying twin pistols. He had black hair with three white streaks on one side. He was obviously Lord Death's son.
"So that's him?" Maka asked Professor Stein as they sidled up next to him.
"Yep. That's Death the Kid. I think your partners should have chosen a different opponent," Professor Stein commented. He then noticed Brina was there behind Maka and Tsubaki. "Brina, you weren't in my class earlier. What did you do this time?"
Brina just grinned sheepishly. "I had a misunderstanding with the window." She liked Professor Stein – his comments didn't embarrass her like everybody else's did. Plus he was pretty clumsy too. He rode around class on a wheeley chair and was often crashing into walls or falling off it.
"I shouldn't have asked," said Professor Stein, sounding amused.
"So how have they been doing?" asked Tsubaki, watching her partner in action. Neither he nor Soul had succeeded in landing a hit on Kid yet.
"You mean Soul and Black Star? Like I said, they should have chosen a different opponent," Professor Stein remarked lightly. "They've not managed to do any damage so far and if he uses his soul resonance, they're in big trouble."
Kid leapt back from the uncoordinated duo's next attack, landing in a perfect crouching position. He made every movement look as easy as breathing. "Let's go, soul resonance!" he cried, both him and his weapons surrounded in a blue glow.
"Too late," Professor Stein sighed.
Kid's pistols merged with his hands as everybody watched, his arms transforming into twin cannons. "Execution mode ready," he said almost calmly. "Death cannon!"
There was a blinding white light, followed by an explosion. Brina shielded her eyes automatically. When she moved her hand, Soul and Black Star were lying on the ground, both clearly out of the fight. Kid looked completely unharmed.
"Black Star!" Tsubaki gasped, running down to check on her partner.
Maka sighed. "Looks like that was over pretty quick." She and Brina followed after Tsubaki.
As soon as they'd joined them – without warning – Kid suddenly collapsed onto the floor, coughing up blood. Everybody stared at him in astonishment. Even Soul and Black Star both sat up, giving him confused looks.
"What the hell's wrong with him?" asked Brina, bewildered.
The two cannons melted away from Kid's arms and transformed into two girls, one with short blonde hair and the other with longer, darker hair. They were obviously sisters.
"He's completely insane; that's what's wrong with him," groaned the taller sister. Her younger sister simply laughed, pointing at Kid lying on the ground.
"What happened?" asked Soul in confusion.
"I think you managed to cut just a tiny bit of hair off the one side," explained the taller sister, inspecting Kid's now slightly asymmetrical hair. "He gets weird over stuff like that."
"So that means we win, right? He's the one bleeding now; not us," Soul pointed out.
Black Star agreed whole-heartedly with Soul on that and they celebrated their default victory whilst the two weapon sisters concentrated on hoisting Kid off the ground. Neither of them appeared to be worried about their meister's condition.
"Erm... Do you need any help?" Brina offered hesitantly. The smaller sister was still giggling and the older one didn't seem particularly impressed with the turn of events.
"Nah, it's okay. Trust me; this isn't the first time something like this has happened." The older sister gave her a rueful smile. "I'm Liz, by the way."
"And I'm Patty!" the other sister chimed in happily.
"I'm Brina. Nice to meet you," Brina smiled back.
Maka and Tsubaki dutifully introduced themselves and their partners too. Soul and Black Star were still too busy basking in the glory of their rather hollow win.
"I'm gonna bounce anyways," Brina told the group. "I wanna try and catch up with the twins before the next class." She was excited to tell them she'd already seen Lord Death's son in action. Not to mention the totally bizarre ending to the fight.
Maka made a face at that. The twins weren't well liked at the academy. "Okay, we'll see you in class."
"We're supposed to be starting classes tomorrow so we'll probably see you around then," added Liz.
"Great," beamed Brina. "See ya!"
She took off round the front of the school, very nearly crashing into another student. "Oops. Sorry, Danny!" she called back over her shoulder. She heard laughter from behind her and a rather stunned "that's okay" in response.
She found the twins in their usual place, sheltered under one of the giant trees round the side of the school. She flopped down onto the ground beside them. "I thought you'd be here."
"Had enough of your other friends already?" asked Adrian, leaning back against the tree.
"I just wanted to find you guys before we had to go to class," said Brina with a shrug. The twins usually sat with her and the others in class, but they rarely spoke up in front of Maka's group. "We saw Lord Death's son."
"Oh, yeah?" Even Adrian couldn't help being intrigued. "What's he like?"
"Strong, I guess," replied Brina. "He took out Soul and Black Star pretty easily."
Adrian laughed. "Those guys needed taking down a notch or two."
Brina rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Ade." She knew that no matter how much she stuck up for whoever Adrian was badmouthing, it only seemed to make it worse. She'd learnt to just ignore him instead.
"So did you talk to him?" asked Jesse, more interested in Death the Kid than in Soul and Black Star's defeat.
"No, I spoke to his weapon partners though," said Brina. She wasn't really sure how to explain what had happened after the fight. "They seemed pretty cool."
"Partners?" repeated Jesse, emphasising the 'S'. "So he has two weapons too?"
Brina nodded. "Yeah, they're twin pistols."
Adrian scoffed. "I reckon we could take him."
Before Kid had enrolled, Brina and another meister called Kilik had been the only ones who used more than one weapon partner. Kilik's weapons were a brother and sister who could transform into elemental-based gauntlets.
"You guys are on your own then," said Brina. "I don't fancy going up against him." Brina had a fair amount of confidence in the twins and in her skills as a meister, but she definitely didn't feel like taking on a grim reaper yet.
"Chicken," Adrian taunted.
"No-brain," Brina retorted automatically.
The bell rang before they could get anywhere near a real argument. Jesse sighed with relief. Brina was usually quite mature for her age, but when Adrian was winding her up, she could be just as childish as he was.
XXX
The next morning, Brina hummed to her reflection in the mirror as she fixed her hair. Her hair was always a bit of a disaster. She'd grown up with her grandmother, who had always cut her hair for her. Her grandmother had passed away not long after she'd enrolled at the academy. When her hair grew too long to ignore – she'd always had a fairly short hairstyle – she'd decided to cut it herself. Cue the disaster.
No matter how much she'd tried, she hadn't been able to cut the sides even. Unfortunately, it didn't look intentional, like some of the modern asymmetrical styles; it just looked like a botched cut – which, of course, it was. So Brina had pulled a handful of hair on the longer side into a high bunch and acted like the difference was intentional. She'd been too embarrassed to ask someone else to cut it for her and she definitely didn't want a professional to see the mess she'd made, so she'd kept the style since then.
If she had the courage to get her hair done professionally, she'd definitely like to get it dyed too, Brina thought to herself. Her hair was a mousy brown that only really looked nice in the sun – boring, in her opinion. She'd get contacts too. Her eyes were grey and also boring. And she'd like to find a way to make herself taller. Maybe then the twins wouldn't pick on her so much.
She carried on dreaming about her ideal appearance whilst she finished getting ready for class. She was quite a dreamy person and she was always fantasising about something. Maybe that was part of why she was so clumsy.
Once she was finished, Brina locked up her place and made her way towards the school. When she got to class, she saw that everybody else was already there. She sidled up next to the twins, who had left a distinct gap between themselves and Tsubaki. Brina happily took up the vacant space. Class was obviously about to start because the level of chatter was minimal, so Brina just gave the others along the row a small wave in greeting.
She noticed that Liz and Patty were sat with Death the Kid on the row behind, just a little further along. Brina smiled at the sisters and they both grinned back. She felt like she should maybe say hi to Kid, seeing as she hadn't introduced herself to him yet, but he wasn't even looking.
There was suddenly a loud crash and nearly every student in the classroom jumped, everybody's attention moving to the front of the room. Professor Stein had crashed his chair again – he was lying on his back, holding an open book and looking quite unperturbed by that fact that he was on the floor. The wheels of the chair were still spinning erratically.
"Okay then, now that I have your attention..." he began, acting like the fall had been intentional. "I'd like you all to get out the dissecting equipment I gave you."
The lesson turned out to be yet another disastrous one. Professor Stein was making a second attempt on what appeared to be the same endangered cuckoo he'd wanted to dissect the day before. Several classmates flew into an argument about it and the lesson was completely disrupted.
Brina sighed. This must have been what had happened in the lesson she'd missed yesterday. Maka was right – she definitely hadn't missed out on anything. Beside her, the twins were muttering amongst themselves, not at all interested in the debate going on. On Brina's other side, Tsubaki, Black Star and Soul were all following the argument. Of course, Maka was one of the ones involved. Brina admired her for that. She did her best to avoid getting into arguments at all costs – she hated confrontation.
She turned back to see if Liz and Patty were watching the dispute too. This time, she realised that Kid was looking straight at her, so she smiled in response. He didn't smile back. Instead, he gave her what was unmistakeably a dirty look before returning his gaze to the book in front of him.
Brina blushed and quickly looked away, down at her own book. What was that about? She hadn't done anything. Confused, annoyed and a little hurt, she didn't look back for the rest of the lesson.