.
.
There was a sound, a rustling of leaves, and though Mifune was alone, he could still hear the whisper of a threat in the footfall behind him.
"Mifune-san!"
Mifune gritted his teeth, and turned. Spirit was behind him, all dopey grins and waving happily. "Oi! Partner! We're supposed to be training! Where are you going?"
"Nowhere," Mifune said. (Somewhat sourly, but that was par for the course.) Spirit shrugged, nonplussed.
"Hey, maybe after this we can go get a couple drinks? What do you say? Just me and you and a couple of the ladies to keep us company! Eh?"
"No," Mifune said.
"Tch. Teme. You think you're too good to hang out with me. Just you wait. We'll find you a woman yet!" Spirit said. Mifune glared.
"It is your weakness for drinking that got you divorced," Mifune said. "Do not speak to me of these things. It is a waste of my time."
"Kill joy," Spirit said.
Mifune ignored him, then tramped stonily through the brush.
xXx
.
Just the week before, Shinigami-sama in all his wisdom declared that Mifune should train as a technician. "We all know your skills are top-notch," Shinigami-sama had said. "But there may come a time you'll need to work with a partner." In all honesty, Mifune didn't mind training with Spirit - the man was just as skilled as he was, and had the added benefit of being able to turn whatever spare limbs he had into weapons - and Mifune was duly impressed. It was Spirit's rather unorthodox methods of training that had Mifune annoyed.
For instance: the way he insisted they end every session at the local tavern, Spirit dead drunk and laughing like a fool.
"Oi! Blair! Give Mifune a kiss!" Spirit said, and he pushed the damn cat into Mifune's lap.
"O-oi!" Mifune blushed a furious red and jerked upright. Blair grinned slyly, then cozied up to him.
"Oooh. Papa-san has good taste. Maybe Blair can get to know his friend, nya?"
"Teme!" Mifune had practically pushed Blair onto the floor.
It was no stretch of the imagination to say his relationship with Spirit had been rather...strained. Barely tolerated, in fact.
Now Spirit sighed, rubbing his eyes and staring forlornly at the trees in front of him. "If you're going to keep hiding, we'll never finish," Spirit said. Mifune turned, then shoved his knapsack against Spirit's chest.
"You can take these. I am done," Mifune said. Spirit held Mifune's swords and stared.
xXx
.
Because Mifune didn't have any place to live, he and Angela took up residence at Stein's house. The female weapon he didn't mind - her cheerful demeanor brightened the otherwise bleak living situation, and Angela liked her, which was important to him - but Stein was something else entirely. Mifune found that out the hard way when he opened up his closet and found his entire wardrobe had been cut to pieces and then meticulously stitched back together.
"Kisama! My clothes!" Mifune said. Marie shook her head and Stein gave a comical little shrug.
"It was entirely by accident," Stein said. "I had noticed a seam was out of place. I meant to do you a favor, but...well I guess things got out of hand."
But it wasn't so much his clothes or the occasional invasion of his privacy. It was that Angela was terrified of him. His first night there, he woke to find Angela screaming. He grabbed her by the hand and headed toward Stein's door.
"What did you do to her?" Mifune said.
Mifune had thrown open the door to the lab, heaving. Angela was a wailing, crying wreck and Mifune was at his wits' end. "If you think you're going to cut her up like one of your damned rats--"
"I did nothing of the sort," Stein said. His glasses flashed. "She is much too small to dissect; if she were older, however..."
"Teme!" Mifune said, drawing his sword.
"Wait! Wait!" Marie jumped between them. "No one dissected anyone," Marie said. "Not Stein, not I, no one. And Stein," Marie shot him a look. "Would you please stop torturing our new houseguest? His nerves are already shot! The polite thing to do would to be to let him rest!"
In the corner, Angela was inconsolable, crying and clinging to Mifune's leg. Mifune's eyes narrowed. He slowly re-sheathed his sword.
Stein grinned, then twisted the screw in his head. "I do enjoy having guests," Stein said.
xXx
.
"Hi, hi! Mifune-kun! How are you enjoying your stay?" Shinigami said.
Mifune's face was a careful mask. Shinigami tilted his head, comically. "That bad, ne?"
Mifune considered. It was certainly better than the Yakuza, and it was worlds better than Arachne's lair. And Angela was happier, which was important.
But then again, he woke up that morning to a coterie of strippers and Spirit-san waving in the background. Not to mention the strange scalpel marks he discovered on the underside of his arms
"It is...bearable," Mifune offered. "But, Shinigami-sama. If I may...I was told I would be teaching. When can I expect to assume the position?"
Spirit snickered. "You said 'position,'" Spirit said. Mifune glared.
"Do not mind him, Mifune-kun. That was pretty funny!" Shinigami said. Mifune sighed.
"About the position?" Mifune said.
Spirit howled. Mifune rolled his eyes.
"Mifune-kun. Regardless of your skills, you still are not ready to teach," Shinigami said.
"But why?" Mifune said. "I am an able fighter! I know all the basic techniques--"
"You cannot resonate with other souls," Shinigami said. "Mifune-kun. I understand this position is important to you. You love children. You desire to keep them safe. But if you are unable to do the most basic of techniques - namely, resonating with a weapon - then you still are not ready to teach. It is as simple as that."
There were precious few times when Mifune felt utterly defeated. This would be one of those times. "What should I do?" Mifune asked. Shinigami cocked his head.
"Why, keep working with Spirit-kun, of course!"
Mifune sagged, despite himself.
xXx
.
That night, Mifune was so depressed, he couldn't even bring himself to greet Angela when she got home from school. He stared at the wall, turning his sword over in his hands.
"Mifune-san?" Angela tugged on Mifune's sleeve. He glanced over at her, then placed an absent hand on her head.
"Angela," Mifune said. "You are home." Angela pouted and pushed herself into Mifune's lap. "Did you have a good day?" Mifune asked. Angela nodded.
"We made snowflakes!" Angela said. "Marie-sensei showed us how to make origami and how to make them float in the air!"
Mifune suspected that was some sort of soul-molding exercise, and he wondered idly if he'd be able to make a paper crane fly, too. "When are you going to be a teacher, Mifune-san?" Angela asked.
"Not for a while," Mifune said. He rested his chin against Angela's head, cherishing her weight. "There is much I still have to learn. I thought perhaps I could teach martial arts, but apparently I am not even fit to do that."
"I wish you could teach me," Angela said, pouting.
"I know."
xXx
.
Mifune was walking toward the training fields when he saw Spirit having another argument with his daughter.
"Why didn't you tell me? My only daughter, a scythe just like her papa! Oh! How could you keep this a secret from me? Maka!"
Maka scowled. "I am not a weapon!" Maka said.
"But Maka, we saw you," Soul said. "You sprouted blades just like your father - there's no denying it." Kid nodded and Black Star looked vaguely confused.
Maka gritted her teeth. "I am not anything like him," Maka said.
"But Maka--"
"No!" Maka pointed at her father, who jumped up from his seat. "That lying, irresponsible, heartbreaking, horrible person! He is nothing like me! All my powers I get from my mom!"
"Please!" Spirit said. "Maka!" And he fell to the ground, a complete sobbing mess. "Maka," Spirit said, and he covered his face with his hands. "Maka..."
"Oi," Mifune said, and quietly clapped Spirit on the shoulder. Spirit looked up, eyes red and sniffling pathetically.
"How about that drink?" Mifune said.
xXx
.
Mifune watched as Spirit tossed back shot after shot, a drunken, shattered mess of a man. "She hates me," Spirit said.
"You are mistaken," Mifune said. Spirit hung his head.
"She takes after her Papa--and she doesn't want anything to do with me!" Spirit sobbed, clutching the bottle in his hand. "My Maka, a weapon! I'm so proud. So proud, but...but she hates me!"
Spirit sobbed again. Mifune poured him another drink.
"Just you wait," Spirit said. He tossed back another shot. "When Angela gets older and starts noticing boys--" his voice rose. "She'll hate you too!"
"Teme!" Mifune made a fist. "My relationship with Angela is nothing like yours," Mifune said. "I did not mess up her family. I did not cause her pain!"
"You think I messed up my family?" Spirit stared at the glass, miserably. "Have I ever told you how I cheated on my wife? My ex-wife?" He swirled the bottle, blearily. "It was a witch," Spirit said. "A goddamn, seductive, evil witch! I was under her spell! But Kami didn't believe me." Tears filled his eyes. "She said witches exploit what's already there."
Spirit sobbed openly, collapsing on the table.
Mifune watched, quietly. It was true, Spirit was a bit of a flirt and a little careless with his alcohol, but he would never intentionally hurt his family. That night, Mifune practically had to carry Spirit home, hoisting him bodily over his shoulders and then finally dumping him onto the bed. He wondered briefly if Angela would ever turn on him the way Maka did her father. The thought of it disturbed him, and Mifune resolved to push it out of his mind.
xXx
.
Angela was starting to get more distant. As the weeks passed, Mifune noticed she spent increasingly less time with him and more time with Marie or Stein. At first, Mifune chalked it up to the sway of magic - she spent her afternoons in intense therapy with Kim trying to suppress it - but as time went on, Mifune started to wonder.
"I'm busy!" Angela said, when Mifune approached her. She was lying on the floor, coloring.
"Too busy for your Mifune-san?" Mifune asked, and he knelt down beside her.
Just you wait... Spirit had said.
Mifune peered over Angela's shoulder.
It was a simple crayon drawing of three stick figures: a woman with a black and yellow skirt; a man with a white coat and a screw in his head. And in between, a little girl with a black hat and a huge smile.
"Where am I?" Mifune asked.
"You're not there," Angela said. "You're training with Death Scythe-san."
"...Oh."
He watched silently as Angela colored, and suddenly he was gripped by the sudden, irrational impulse to ask, "Who do you like better, Angela? Marie-sensei, or Stein-hakase?"
"Stein!" Angela chirped. She looked up, grinning. "He's funny."
Mifune's face darkened. "And who do you like better, Angela? Stein-hakase, or me?"
The air was thick and Mifune couldn't breathe. He waited for one agony-filled minute as Angela considered.
"Stein," Angela said, finally. "Because he's nice and he has a screw."
xXx
.
Mifune was not a man of easy emotions, but after seeing Angela draw the red-crayon heart over her makeshift family, he rushed out of the room, grabbing his coat and his bag and heading outside. Angela didn't love him anymore. Angela, who for all intents and purposes was his surrogate daughter, did not feel the same.
"I cannot stay here," Mifune said, to no one in particular. He stared up at the sky and gritted his teeth. "I do not belong. Perhaps I should just leave Angela here and go somewhere else. She clearly does not need me..."
"That's not true," Spirit said, and Mifune turned. In his frenzied state of mind, he hadn't even noticed Spirit had followed him out into the woods. "Soul resonance," Spirit said, shrugging. "Plus you're not exactly the greatest at detecting souls, so..."
"What do you want?" Mifune said. Spirit shrugged.
"Just returning the favor," Spirit said. "You look terrible."
"Thanks," Mifune said. Spirit clapped him on the shoulder.
"Come on," Spirit said. "Let's train. We can talk about it later."
xXx
.
Mifune was still clumsy when it came to resonating with Spirit. If his concentration let up even the littlest bit, his weapon grew heavy and burned into his skin. Secretly he envied Stein, who could resonate with anyone. ("He's rather promiscuous that way," Spirit said, mildly. Mifune raised his eyebrows.)
"Oi! Did I tell you, Maka started to train!" Spirit said. "Her weapon form is a Scythe, just like her papa! She started training with Black Star just a few weeks ago."
"I do not understand why a meister must train as a weapon," Mifune said. Spirit shrugged.
"Well, it'll come in handy if she's ever stuck with just another meister," Spirit said. "Think about it. What if Soul were to get hurt, and it's just her and Kid, or her and Ox?"
"I suppose," Mifune said.
They were training longer, now; Mifune's endurance was improving. Soon enough he would demonstrate his new skills to Shinigami-sama, and hopefully secure a position with the Shibusen faculty. As Spirit had assured him, Mifune's fears about Angela were wholly unfounded. Children didn't know any better, and when Mifune had come back from his silent meltdown, Angela was the first to jump into his arms.
He would fit in, eventually. He would just have to keep working at it.