A young man stood in his shared apartment alone. The rising sun shone in through the east windows and he stepped out of his morning shower. He brought himself to the bathroom sink and splashed water on his face, the thrown water landing more into his jaw-length dark hair than onto his face. He brought a towel to his soaked hair trying to wring it out before he brought it back into its usual tight ponytail, and after sponging away at the water on his face he found himself unable to look in the mirror in front of him. He clenched his fists, towel still in hand. A draft blew in from the open bathroom window, his body chilled and sent goose bumps up his spine causing his hair to stand on end. He gritted his teeth at the sensation and let go of the towel, dropping it to the floor while feeling being unable to look into the mirror. Still he refused to move from his place in front of it and the shallow basin that was the sink.
He looked to the shower and blindly reached at the mirror, took hold of the edge and pulled it forward to unveil the cabinet behind filled with numerous items used for personal hygiene, various bottles of vitamins and hair gel lined the little shelves neatly. The boy grabbed at the generic brand tube of toothpaste and he reluctantly moved his hand to close the mirror cabinet and turned around to face the opposite direction as he'd done so.
With no clear idea why he avoided looking into the mirror on this particular morning, he harbored a deep gut feeling that maybe this morning he wouldn't like what he saw when peering back onto his own reflection.
Spitting into the sink the toothpaste from his mouth the moment before, he accidentally caught a glimpse of himself when he moved to turn back around. Taking the chance to see what was so grotesque about his face he straightened up to get a better look. Glaring icy blue eyes were all he noticed at first, but after focusing properly in on the image before him he found no scratches or scars from the days before. What he did find was the hateful and remorseful face of someone who let his best friend get taken away. He looked away again, seemingly aware of the face he'd seen beforehand.
He pulled his hair back and left the bathroom to get dressed in his room. Little splashes onto the linoleum and hard wooded floors followed him back to his room. He failed to dry himself off properly before he left the bathroom but at the moment it really didn't matter to him, getting the day over with was all he cared about.
The bedroom door slammed behind him as he scrambled to the closet throwing on clothes as he'd done so and by the time he was fully dressed he stood at the apartments' front entrance, pushing his sunglasses up he opened the door and stepped into the heat of the desert morning light.
'Class is going to suck today,' was his only thought after locking the door behind him. The raven haired young man turned to face the school and headquarters of the world's best kishin hunters that stood atop the mountain that was Death City. He eyed the school and felt another unfamiliar feeling... something was going to happen today.
A week had passed since well- Harvar was still attempting to get over the event that occurred the previous week, but the whispers and sneers of passing students in the hall made it no easier for him to forget. There was also the constant barrage of don't-worries or we'll-get-him-back's from his teammates and some other classmates. None of the consolations helped at all. At least knowing that they meant well was the only thing keeping him from lashing back or having an outbreak of rage, but yet continuing to hope they'd shut the hell up already.
That day however was different much to his liking. Rather than a mass of student's talking behind his back about how he lost his partner, the gossip had switched to a much brighter topic, the arrival of a new student and a new substitute teacher who would fill in for Stein, Marie, and Sid while they were on a mission. Rumors said that the teacher was a weapon, and so was the new student, but no real reliable information was passed on about the identities of the newcomers but that they worked away from headquarters for the most part, and that was why no one had ever seen them before. The academy was all hustle and bustle looking forward to seeing the new faces.
Boredom and relief caused Harvar to rest his head down on his desk, something he normally didn't do, but the weeks stress and sleeplessness were enough to excuse him from the unlikely behavior. The chattering and nervousness of Class Crescent Moon allowed him to go unnoticed anyways
However his relief could only last for so long before Maka patted him on the back. "Hey Harvar! Isn't this cool? I hear these new guys are pretty strong and I bet the new student will sit right next to you too!"
Harvar raised his head, looked over to empty seat next to him, then back to Maka who was seated behind him in on the upper row. The look he gave her wiped the silly grin right off her face, realizing it was an awfully insensitive thing of her to say. The girl who was usually so understanding of everybody's feelings felt suddenly ashamed.
She flailed her arms nervously at him attempting to smile again, "Uh, it's not like its permanent though I bet!" Her voice quaked as the words spilled out of her mouth uncontrollably. "Just until we can make room for that person! Ox will get his seat back!"
Being the man of not many words he was, he silently accepted Maka's lame excuse without caring and hoped to forget. He laid his head back down on the desk without a word of complaint to her.
He lost track of time, but before long the bell rang signifying the start of class and the room fell silent. Unlike his classmates, he wasn't dying of anticipation so he felt inclined to keep his head down and not care for the arrivals he heard stepping in through the door when the ringing of bells had stopped.
"Good morning Senior Class Crescent Moon." came a deep voice coming from the center of the room. Harvar still didn't bother to look up, but could identify the voice was that of a man in his early twenties despite how low it was.. "I am your temporary teacher until Professor Stein returns. Your other normal substitute teachers are with him as well, which would explain my presence quite obviously." He paused. "You may call me Mao, and other details about me are currently insignificant so please no questions unless they have to do with our lesson for today. Also a new student shall join this class. You may now come in."
Mao's voice was followed by the squealing hinges of the opening and closing door, then soft footsteps leading to the direction of Mao's voice. Harvar assumed it was a girl and that she was probably standing right next to the teacher.
"This is Mikayla Kyle class, I hope you will welcome us." There was another pause out of Mao's voice along with what sounded like paper being flipped over a clipboard. "Ahhh-mm," he breathed with a tone being somewhat unsure. "I guess you may sit next to Harvar, I believe? Ox is the missing student… so that seat should be open?" Harvar assumed the young teacher was looking at a seating chart and notes left by Stein. "That seat?" He was probably pointing next to him.
The light footsteps he heard before climbed the two steps up to his row, drew close to him, passed him. The boy wondered whether she was timid or just graceful by listening to her steps. Finally the sound of squealing chair legs on the floor and the creaking of the chair next to him told him the owner of the light feet was, indeed sitting in his meister's place.
"Alright then let us begin with today's scheduled lesson. The Professor left notes saying your class should be on the way to dissecting a sheep's eye."
The class groaned in unison. The fact they had another boring dissection to do rather than a cooler lesson involving new resonating techniques, pained them to a certain degree. Sometime Professor Stein was "just too much."
Time however passed quickly, and before the boy sitting with his head down knew it, the bell rang. KIL KONG KANG KONG! KIL KONG KANG KONG! Class ended. At last he raised his head and pushed his seat back to stand and leave. Students scuffled out of the room hurriedly laughing to each other while some still looked back at the new girl who was already at the front of room conversing quietly with Mao.
Mao, he noticed, was a tall and slender man , and Mikayla being a girl of maybe the same age as himself. Mao dressed in a traditional Chinese outfit, stood with poise and a smile played across his sharp features; he was an elegant and fair man despite his dark hair and eyes. Mikayla on the other hand was a girl about the same age as Maka, she too was tall, for a girl-maybe a bit shorter than himself- and had a similar slender frame to Mao's. However, unlike her elder she seemed a bit more chaotic in appearance. Despite her soft and thin facial features, she was much more unkempt. Her boyishly short white hair lay tousled about her head, and stuck up in directions he didn't know was possible.
"Spartoi team!," the young teacher chimed in. "Please wait!"
Members of the team stopped what they were doing and gazed at the pair in the front of the room with curiosity. Black Star and Tsubaki who were on their way out stopped at the door and turned around, Kim and Jacqueline stopped laughing, Maka stopped packing her belongings; and Kilik, Fire and Thunder stopped quarreling for the moment.
"We're to have a meeting in the Death Room. I'll give you five minutes to take a break and get there."
Everyone seemingly blinked at the man all at once, then carried on with whatever they were doing before all emptying the classroom.
Harvar made sure to be out before the rest of the team. It was probable that the meeting was to be about Kidd again, so he didn't feel the need to attend, nor did he want to. Maka intercepted him just as he was about to reach out to an exit door .
"Hey Harvar!" She flung herself in front of the door and blocked the exit with arms stretched out. "I'm not letting you leave. I know you're upset about Ox but you're letting this get to you too much!" Her stern expression backed him away from the door. "This isn't like you to be breaking rules and disregarding direct orders."
He didn't know why she bothered to stop him or even care, the person she knew least about in the group was him. And he was really only on it because they needed Ox's brain, and they came in a set so he really wasn't too needed for anything group related. Harvar felt he was there solely to serve as Ox's self defense, but failed to do that simple task. He took a step to turn but Maka tried once again to block him off.
"How do we even know what this meeting is about? Wouldn't you at least like to find out?" Her expression changed immediately trying to fit her classmates unreadable mood. "What if it's about Ox and if you miss the meeting how helpful will you really be to him? Just stop having your damn pity party. Get it together! And Let's go!"
Her words weren't much nor were they deep on any level to convince her classmate to go, but he figured going wouldn't hurt any to get her off his back for a while. On his way to the death room however he did take notice of her words the phrase she used "pity party." The girl was right he did need to straighten himself up and he was loosing himself by being too upset. Time to ignore the nasty comments and return to the normal rule-following and intimidating Harvar everyone else knew him to be.
She lead him to Lord death's room and down a hall of what looked to be painted red guillotines, and past the hall into wide open blue room with painted white clouds moving along the wall.
"YO! Nice'ta see ya!" came the sing-song voice from the Shinigami giving off a casual salute to entering guests. The rest of the team was already inside including Liz and Patty who'd skipped out on class that day and the new teacher with the new girl. "Glad you could come! Couldn't finish this meeting without ya!" Harvar assumed the death god was talking about Maka until he added in his name with a high note, "Harvar!"
The addition of his name into the sentence was a complete surprise, enough of one that he quirked his brow at the sound of his name coming from Lord Death. Since when was the lad ever significant enough to directly address?
"I just finished explaining to the group that Mao and Mikayla here are weapons without real meisters.
Harvar snorted to himself, it's not like he would need to be a meister-less weapon for long.
"It's common that weapons can use each other if they're siblings," the Shinigami threw a glance to the Thompson sisters and then back to Harvar, "but Mao and Mikayla are the first I've seen to use each other having no prior relations. Their first time synching wavelengths was a couple years ago and since then have also used other weapons!" Seeing Harvar make no reaction to what he just stated, the god continued. "Before we can come up with a plan to retrieve Ox from that gang of criminals you're going to learn how to fight on your own and with other weapons! Mao and Mikayla will teach you!"
His interest sparked.
"In the meantime the rest of Spartoi will be devising a plan to retrieve my son but in addition to your mission to train with Mao and Mikayla the three of you are assigned to the retrieval of Ox and Justin Law."
Clearly the rest of the gang hadn't heard that part of the plan before, the part about rescuing Justin. Half of the group had confusion playing across their faces and the others were merely surprised, they'd assumed he was a lost cause. However one person did seem more than just surprised, Mikayla at hearing the news stiffened and clenched her fists. Harvar sent her a quizzical glance through his glasses then looked away back to the death god.
"Living arrangements have been made for Mao to stay at Stein's place while he was gone, but since Mikayla was added to the mission after the arrangements were made, do you mind having her stay at your place?" he was directly addressing Harvar with his head tilted to the side like a puppy's plea for understanding. "I would have Maka do it, but with Blair living at her place there's simply no more room for anyone else. The others have similar problems."
"Fine." Turning on his heels to leave, the light pattering footsteps of the messy haired girl followed close behind, she was running after him.
"If you're leaving now at least show me to your apartment." Her voice was smooth and bell-like, but came out with a hint of arrogance ringing throughout her voice. Harvar wasn't sure he'd enjoy his time living with her.