Summary:Five years after the events on the moon, weapons and meisters are going missing and civilians are being slain by the hundreds. War brews on the horizon, and no one will emerge unscathed.
(Huge thanks to ilarual and makapedia for putting up with me for the past month or so and helping me get this fic off the ground. You guys are amazing and it wouldn't be happening without you. They have awesome content and I really recommend that you check them out if you haven't already.)
Back in the days before his ascension into godhood, Black*Star had something of a love-hate relationship with missions in urban environments. On one hand, he had plenty of cover to use stealth if he so wanted; on the other hand, so did his targets. Not having Soul Perception made hunting difficult but not impossible, and once one got the hang of tracking kishin, knowing what to spot and where to look, hunting became almost a game, a game that Black*Star and Tsubaki excelled at in spades thanks to years of practice.
This go around, they're overseeing the remedial lessons of a new pair of EAT students, Ladd and Garrell. They've been experiencing trouble in tracking their targets and now find themselves under the tutelage of the world's bluest assassin and most patient weapon.
Black*Star and Tsubaki watch them as they fumble through the techniques they were just shown. Despite their obvious lack of proficiency, the two are picking things up considerably faster under the senior pair's guidance. As it is, they are closing in on their target, slowly but surely.
Tsubaki grins softly at Black*Star's relative silence despite his obvious impatience with the pace of the exercise. He's grown up quite a bit over the past five years, both literally and figuratively. He now stands a few inches taller than she, and while he is still his boastful, confident, and ultimately erratic self, his capacity for seriousness has actually manifested into a more solid presence in his personality.
A cacophony of screams and cries startle her from her musings. The search is over.
The four dash for the source of the obvious disturbance; Black*Star and Tsubaki launch themselves up and over the buildings while the other two sprint round to the nearest alleyway.
The sight that greets them is nothing short of gruesome. The once busy street is covered with the remains of civilian causalities, their blood staining the pavement and souls casting a white-blue glow over their shattered bodies.
Milling about the carnage are five hulking humanoid forms. They are easily eight feet tall and armored in what appears to be shells of polished granite. Raw flesh peeks out from the joints of the monsters' limbs. Seated deep in the horizontal crevasse that bisects the front of their heads is a glowing blue crystal. They collect the little human souls with single minded intent. The weapons and meisters watch as one of the creatures comes upon a survivor. It stares for a moment before lifting one thick arm to finish off the dying man.
The blow never falls. Black*Star slams into the creature feet first, blasting it through a building's storefront. The street-side half of the structure folds like a house of cards atop the brute, burying it.
As one, the host of four remaining creatures turn to face this new challenger unaware of the second pair lining up for an ambush. Ladd bursts from the alley, wielding Garrel in his blunderbuss form and blind-siding one of the creatures. A blast of flame and soul wavelength staggers it and cracks its stony shell. It recoils a few paces before lunging back at the young pair, pillar-like arms swinging.
A streak of movement draws Black*Star's attention to the roofs. Perched atop a building a ways down the street is a pre-kishin. He glares up at it, and it sneers back, bright green eyes flashing maliciously and torn lips pulled taut over needle teeth. While distorted well beyond humanity, this pre-kishin's form is still largely humanoid. Its arm raises to point at Tsubaki and Black*Star and crows, "Take!"
"Black*Star! To the right!"
He narrowly avoids a crushing blow from one of the creatures' three clawed hands. He brings Tsubaki's chain scythe blades to bear on the gap of the joint, slicing through hardened flesh and shattering through the stone on the other side.
The creature's forearm comes free and falls to the ground with a clatter of stone on stone and squish of severed flesh. It doesn't even twitch and launches itself at them without concern for its lost limb, unhindered by pain. Bewildered, Black*Star retreats a few paces, redirecting blows with Tsubaki's hooked blades. The other two join their damaged counterpart in its assault on the pair.
A cry of pain has the senior pair's attention snapping to their charges. Ladd is pinned by one of the creatures, a huge foot crushing the air from his lungs; Garrell is skidding across the pavement, out of his meister's hands. The young blunderbuss transforms back and shouts, "LADD!"
Star disengages from his targets and is charging to the meister's aid. Tsubaki shifts into Uncanny Sword form, and resonance flares to life between two as they bare down on Ladd's attacker. Their voices rise into a battle cry and Black*Star cleaves deep into the thing's torso, blowing it apart with the force of their passing.
They turn to guard against the last three while Garrell scrambles to his meister's side. Not taking his eyes off of their foes, Black*Star grunts, "Can you still fight kid?"
Ladd's back on his feet and takes up wielding Garrell again. He winces as he breathes but says, "Yeah… I can handle it."
Tsubaki advises the younger two, "Aim for their center mass, that looks like it puts them down for good. Your effective range is short. Wait until they are at point blank range and then pour in as much power as you can."
"Solid copy. We've got your back." Garrell's tinny voice responds.
"Ladd look at the roof over there," Black*Star jerks his head towards where the pre-kishin still stands. Ladd tears his eyes from the advancing monstrosities and seeks what his mentor is referring to.
"A… pre-kishin?"
"Yeah, and we can't let it get away. I'm going to tear its little pets a new one and go after it. You're going to finish them off. We clear?"
Ladd nods slowly, his waning adrenaline thrumming through his scrawny frame, "Yes, sir."
"Right! Let's go kick some ass. SPEED STAR!" Black*Star blasts forward, blurring across the empty space and smashing into each of the creatures. In another bound, Black*Star and Tsubaki are vaulting up into the night sky on a shadow and landing a few strides from the dumbfounded pre-kishin.
Tsubaki's blade finds its guts a moment later, dissolving it into nothing but a red soul. Star snatches the corrupted soul for safe keeping and looks over to where Ladd and Garrell are still fighting. Two down but the last one was giving the boys a bit of a beating. Deciding enough is enough, Black*Star practically swan dives off the roof before driving Tsubaki into the beast from above.
The street is finally quiet after the last creature falls into heap of twitching flesh and cracked stone. Souls float over the wreckage, blue and soft and utterly confusing. Blackstar frowns down at the remnants of his most recent kill. "A human soul," he mutters, reaching down and grabbing it. It pulses weakly in his hand as he examines it.
Tsubaki transforms back, her expression pensive and weary as she takes in the sight. "I'm going to go check the civilians for survivors." She says, "They may need help."
Black*Star nods, "Let me know what you find."
Ladd makes his way carefully to his mentor's side with Garrell still clutched in his hands. Seeing the soul, Ladd blanches, "What the hell? I thought… I thought we were hunting kishin eggs." Panicked, the young meister stares at Blackstar, "These aren't on Lord Death's list are they?"
Black*Star's intense gaze shifts from the displaced soul to his protégés, "No they aren't. The target was controlling these things, no doubt about it. They were collecting human souls. I-"
"Black*Star, some of these people are still alive!" Tsubaki calls from her place down the street.
"Okay! I'll be right there just give me a second." Black*Star directs Garrell and Ladd, "Garrell, go give Tsubaki a hand. Ladd, figure out how to call Lord Death." He pockets the soul and a few pieces of the fallen creature's body once the two disperse to their tasks before turning to join Tsubaki and Garrell in helping with the victims.
The two of them have a young man's arms slung across their shoulders and they're moving him carefully away from the crumbling building. The rubble shifts minutely before blasting outward, revealing the hulking mass of a damaged non-kishin. The bright blue gem in the middle of its split face seems to regard them for a second, long enough for Tsubaki and Garrell to register what was before them. It leaps forward, its one good arm swinging down in an arc aimed for the three humans before it.
Tsubaki shoves the man and Garrell away from her and rolls in the opposite direction. The creature's fist strikes nothing but pavement, but it is fast, faster than its broken brothers and rounds on Tsubaki before she has a chance to even get her feet back under her. Its large three fingered hand wraps around the front of her face and head, and she's being held aloft and kicking half a second later. Her cry of dismay and pain is muffled by the creature's stony hand.
Black*Star skids to a halt. He sinks into a battle stance and bellows in warning, "Let her go! Now!"
It just stares him for a moment, as if processing his demand and ignoring Tsubaki's attempts to claw and strike her way free. Like the flip of a switch, it groans and turns to the nearby wall, winding back its fist still clutching a writhing Tsubaki. It smashes her head first into the wall once, twice, three times, the stomach turning sound of wet flesh and bone colliding into brick and mortar echoing in Black*Star's ears.
"No! Tsubaki!"
It drops her now limp body to the ground after she stops wriggling. The thing doesn't even have time to turn back around to face the others before Black*Star is upon it, a vision of apocalyptic fury.
With a strike that echoes down the street like a peal of thunder, it's over. His arm sticks through its torso, a dark viscous liquid coating his arm. He jerks his arm free of the body with a grunt. His fury abates quickly and his eyes are only for Tsubaki as he rushes to her side. She doesn't move, not even a twitch, a small but growing pool of blood painting the ground beneath her. For a moment, Black*Star fears that she is dead. The shallow, stuttering rise and fall of her ribs is the only sign of life her broken body can muster.
"Tsubaki hang on! I'm getting you out of here, just hold on!" He reaches out with his soul wavelength, trying to bolster her struggling soul however he can.
"Sir!" Garrell runs up to their side, "Sir, Lord Death has an evac team waiting for us at the airport."
"Grab Ladd, we're leaving," Black*Star orders as he carefully lifts his partner into his arms. She doesn't have much time. His senses alert him to more of those things incoming, their steady, heavy footfalls unmistakable to his ears, "More are coming and we need to be gone."
"B-but what about the civs?" Garrell stutters, "We can't just-"
Black*Star snarls, his eyes hard and a little wild with fear for his rapidly fading partner. "I can and I am! If you two want to stay here and try to help them, fine but I'm getting Tsubaki out of here."
With that he begins his sprint to the promised transport, barely bothering to check if Ladd and Garrell are following. Somewhere in the back of his grief, fury, and fear riddled mind, Black*Star recognizes that his current actions are abhorrent, completely unbecoming of a three-star meister, and that Tsubaki would be severely disappointed in him were she conscious, but at the moment, he can't bring himself to care. He'll be more than happy to take her scolding and anger when she wakes.
Death, please let her wake.