"Okay, we're going to have a just-girl night," Liz announced to her friends in class while they waited for their professor – who was unlikely to turn up, as he was already 2 hours late, and had probably found something to dissect rather than go to the Cresent Moon classroom and teach his students.
The 'just-girls' of their friendship group blinked at Liz, slightly confused.
"But, like, why, sis?" Patty asked curiously in her little-girl voice.
"Shouldn't it be just-meisters or something?" Tsubaki added, thinking that made more sense. Maka interrupted before Liz could.
"Um, I am NOT spending a night with Black*Star and Kid," she growled, glaring mainly at the former meister mentioned.
Kid looked slightly offended. "What would I do?" he muttered.
"What would you NOT do, Kid," Liz sighed, rolling her eyes at her meister. Kid made a face at that response, but went back to the book he was reading, dismissing their conversation.
"Ooh, so a just-girls night?" Patty repeated, now excited. "That's so cool!"
Maka and Tsubaki exchanged glances and shrugged. "Yeah, alright, how's tonight after class?" Tsubaki suggested.
The other girls all nodded, and Liz added, "yeah, come to our house."
"Not likely," Kid interrupted, narrowing his eyes at his weapons. "There's no way you four will be able to maintain the symmetry there with whatever girls do alone."
Liz rolled her eyes again, and Maka offered, "okay, come to mine instead. I'll kick Soul out and he could go see Black*Star."
The 5 friends sitting in their places all glanced down at where the teacher usually was, but right now where the mentioned Meister and Weapon were scribbling rude things on the blackboard while giggling like immature teenagers.
Which they were, of course.
Maka growled and a minute later jumped down on the desk at the front to loudly and violently Maka-chop the both of them.
Kid sighed and went back to his reading again while Tsubaki watched her Meister with a tick in her eye, gritting her teeth, as Black*Star scrambled up from the ground and looked about for his attacker.
"Oh! It's just you, Maka," he realised, straightening up and eyeing said Meister. "What's up?" he ventured, seeing she was quite annoyed.
"We're having a just-girls night tonight after class, so you and Soul can stay at your place, alright," Maka replied through gritted teeth.
Soul pushed himself up from the floor and raised an eyebrow at Maka. "Fine," he sighed, closing his eyes and putting his hands in his pockets. "What time can I come back?"
Rolling her eyes at her Weapon's question, Maka didn't bother to reply, instead turning heel and storming out of the classroom door.
Frowning, Soul watched her go, slightly confused. "Um, what's up with her?" he muttered, more to himself than anyone else.
"She's pissed because you and Black*Star weren't paying attention, probably," Liz replied in a bored voice from her seat, where she was now parting Patty's hair.
Soul blinked then shrugged, not really needing to go after his meister. He looked around the class and sighed again. "Doesn't look like Stein's gonna turn up. Shall we just head out now?" he suggested.
There was a general murmur of agreement, and everyone slowly filed out. Their friendship group was the last to leave, minus Maka.
However, just when they were out of the hallway, an announcement came over the speakers; "could students Maka, Soul, Tsubaki and Black*Star please report to the Death Room."
The 3 students mentioned who were together looked at each other and shrugged, changing their course to walk to the Death Room instead of exiting the school.
"We'll come with you," Kid decided, following the 2 weapons and the remaining meister. "I'd like to see what father wants you for."
As they approached the Death Room's door, Soul spotted his meister standing there. Leaning against the wall, Maka glanced up the hallway at the sound of footsteps. She pushed herself off the wall and was about to speak to the others when the door swung open.
"Come on in," Lord Death's voice said from inside. Soul gave Maka a look and walked past her to enter the Death Room, followed by everyone else. Maka paused for a moment and sighed dejectedly before going after her friends.
They stood before Death and the Grim Reaper clapped his hands in delight. "Glad you all turned up so speedily!" he said brightly, before noticing his son and his weapons standing with the summoned partners. "Oh, and you've come along as well, Kiddo," he added with pleasure.
Kid nodded in reply and asked, "yes, what did you want them for, father?"
"I need you kids to go find Dr Stein for me. He's gone missing – again," Lord Death announced with a bounce. The students exchanged glances but decided not to question the reasons for the mission.
"Do we have any leads to go on, sir?" Maka piped up, nervous of the Skeleton King despite her time on missions before. Lord Death loomed over her and clapped again.
"Oh! I heard he was going to investigate a witch sighting on the outskirts of the city. But that was three days ago."
"So, what exactly do want us to do here, sir?" Tsubaki said.
"I need you to go find him for me; couldn't do without your favourite teacher for a few days!" Lord Death told them cheerfully.
Soul rolled his eyes. "Why are you sending us rather than your own Death Scythe?"
"That is a very good question," Death began. The assembled students waited, the anticipation rising like a serpent preparing to go after a mouse. Lord Death stood in silence for a long minute.
He suddenly held up one cartoon hand in a peace sign. "Well, that's all you need to know! See ya later!" he told them joyfully before disappearing, leaving the students in a confused silence.
Black*Star punched a fist in the air, yelling, "yahoo! The great Black*Star will do this task and be back with the insane doctor in record time!" He raced for the door with a distressed Tsubaki staring after him.
"Wait, Black*Star, don't do anything reckless!" she shouted in alarm, running after her meister. Everyone else sweat-dropped at these actions and slowly filed out after the two.
Soul sighed, closing his eyes and leaning against the wall that surrounded Death City.
"This is pointless," he complained to no one in particular. "Why'd we have to go find the crazy guy anyway? And what the hell was he doing out here?"
No answers were forthcoming; Maka just shot her weapon an annoyed look that he didn't see and then turned back to look out on the wasteland that expanded out of Death City's walls.
"It's so dusty," Kid muttered as the wind picked up. Liz rolled her eyes as her meister's cleanliness obsession and sighed wearily, glancing around at everyone else who had also been standing pointlessly looking out for the past hour.
Patty had given up shortly after they had taken up stances, and was asleep underneath a random tree that was just in the outskirts for some reason. Shortly afterwards, Black*Star had decided the young girl had a point, so now they were both out for the count underneath the tree.
Soul had gotten very bored and eventually gave up too; leaning against the wall they were stood outside. Only Maka and Kid had paid some attention, attempting to use their soul perception to find Stein, without a lot of success.
"Maybe this was a hoax mission?" Tsubaki suggested half-heartedly, who was standing near the tree, in the shade, watching over her meister.
Liz sighed again. "Hmph. Who knows what that wacko gets up t- PATTY PUT THAT DOWN RIGHT NOW WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?!" she suddenly yelled at her little sister, rushing over to take something from the younger Thompson's hands.
Everyone glanced at them, eyebrows raised. "What's she got?" Kid asked in a bored voice, walking over too.
Frowning, Liz was just trying to work that question out herself.
Whatever she had taken from her sister's hand was definitely not normal – it was smooth but kind of sharp at the edges and actually looked a lot like...
"It's a bone," Maka observed. There was a silence. Liz twitched. Then she threw down the horrible bone and shrieked so loud it drowned out Patty laughing her head off at her sister.
"BONE COOTIES OH NOOOO NOT THIS!" Liz screamed, wiping her hands on her clothes, the ground and the leaves from the tree. Kid sweat-dropped and sighed at his weapon's reaction to what was actually quite a serious clue.
Meanwhile, Tsubaki – not bothered in the slightest about touching it – picked up the bone instead and looked at it closely, frowning. She gasped as she realised something, standing up from kneeling.
"This is a human bone, stripped off skin by what will clearly soon be a Kishin," she stated, immediately scanning the surrounding area, which suddenly didn't seem so empty as it had for the last hour.
Liz, feeling this situation was still going to get worse, trembled as she hid behind her younger sister. "A... human bone? A Kishin? I thought we were just here for that crazy professor!" she wailed, burying her face in Patty's shoulder.
In response, her sister patted Liz on the shoulder and said for comfort, "there, there." Kid sweat-dropped again. Sometimes his weapons really were useless.
"Well, whatever this means, we should be on our guard," the reaper decided. However, Black*Star had other ideas.
Having already somehow jumped on top of the wall the surrounded Death City, he crouched there, looking down at the others, and yelled loud enough for several nearby Kishins to hear, "COME OUT AND FIGHT, YOU COWARDLY SOUL DESTROYING PIECE OF CRAP! THE GREAT BLACK*STAR WILL DEFEAT YOU! YAHOO!"
Everyone craned their necks to look up at him, various expressions ranging from furious – Maka – to distressed – Tsubaki – and amused – Patty – on their faces.
"Come down from there, you idiot," Soul called up to his friend. "You're a sitting, yelling, target!"
"Because you're so much subtler in your complaints," Maka muttered dryly, turning away from the scene with an annoyed sigh. Soul glared at her back.
"Okay, that's it – what is your problem today, Maka?" he asked, seething slightly.
His partner didn't reply immediately, building up whatever anger she had against the day before explaining why it was there in the first place.
"You never pay enough attention, Soul," she rounded on him, facing the demon weapon again with anger and distress in her eyes. "You just seem to goof around all the time – we're meant to be working! We're meant to be doing our damn JOB as weapons and meisters! Do you even know what that is?"
"Well you've told me enough freakin' times, Maka," Soul replied through gritted teeth, trying to keep anger at his meister in, "so yes, of course I friggin' know!"
"Oh really? So can you tell me WHY you're constantly slacking off and letting me organise everything? Why have we NOT got 99 Kishin souls and 1 witch soul yet, then, huh? Answer me that, Soul!"
With the fury eating at her mind finally out in words, Maka turned again and stomped off around the wall, disappearing from sight. Soul watched her go without moving, and then sighed, bowing his head and closing his eyes.
Liz and Patty blinked after the withdrawing meister. "Huh. What's wrong with her?" Patty said innocently. Liz sighed.
"I think she's just working either too hard or not enough." She glared at Black*Star, who began sniggering. "Woman are more emotional than men, Black*Star," she growled, a tic in her eye.
If Tsubaki hadn't stepped in, Liz probably would have punched the meister right there. Luckily the former weapon interrupted her partner's laugh by pointing at the tree that they were all standing beside.
"Hey guys? Is it just the light, or is there something hiding IN that tree?" she pointed out. Everyone froze and slowly turned to look up.
Sure enough, slowly swinging on a branch there stood what looked like half-bird person. It had a grotesque long tongue that it licked its razor sharp teeth with, its bird feet clinging easily onto the wood.
"Um... that's a Kishin, alright," Liz muttered, taking a step back towards her meister and pulling her sister with her.
"Yes, but now we're missing a meister," Kid replied slightly nervously, briefly glancing over his shoulder in the direction Maka went.
Soul began slowly walking back that way, trying not to prompt the Kishin to attack. "I'll go get her while you guys keep it here," he said in a low voice.
But the Kishin wasn't pleased that one of its quarry was getting away, and decided to pounce now. It jumped out of the tree with a screech, aiming its talons at Soul, who began running.
"Tsubaki, change!" Black*Star yelled, and caught the chain scythe as he leapt off the wall and bared down on the Kishin, yelling so the thing looked up to see who was coming at it, distracted.
Liz had automatically changed at the other meister's command, but ended up on the floor. "What the hell, Kid?!" Liz demanded, face appearing on the side of the pistol.
She quickly noticed the problem – Patty was too busy watching Black*Star attempt to duel the Kishin alone while Soul ran after his partner, and hadn't changed. Kid had already seen this and so had made no attempt to catch the asymmetrical one gun.
"Guys!" Black*Star yelled in the direction of the remaining meister and weapons, as he almost didn't block an attack that sent him flying to the ground. "Come on!"
"Patty, transform!" Liz and Kid shouted at the same time, both seeing the rapidly increasing desperateness of the situation. The human weapon glanced back at her meister and realised, quickly changing into a pistol.
However, Kid let that one fall on the floor too, clearly unable to catch her and then pick up the other gun.
"Kid, will you get a damn MOVE ON!" Liz said through gritted teeth, only disappearing from the face of the metal once Kid swiftly bent down and picked up the two guns, aiming them symmetrically at the Kishin who had almost got through Black*Star's guard, and was bearing him more into the ground.
"I know, I know," the reaper growled, beginning to pull the triggers. "Damn this disgusting beast to hell!"
With that last statement, Kid fired manically at the Kishin, who howled and looked about through the smoke for its attacker, having just about managed to scratch Black*Star with one talon before this second attack.
The ninja quickly got back up, gave Kid – who stopped firing briefly to see what effect had been made – an approving nod, brushed a drop of blood away from the cut on his arm and faced the enemy again.
The smoke slowly cleared, revealing the Kishin crouching and growling at its attackers. It paused for a second and then, with a strangled howl, went straight for Kid who didn't quite manage to move out the way in time.
A talon got through his guard too, giving his a stinging cut on the reaper's face, making him grunt in pain as he sprang back to his feet and once again aimed his guns. However, before he could fire, someone bowled into him from the right, hitting him to the ground and out of reach of a second attack – coming from a Kishin behind him?!
"Leave my friends the hell ALONE!" Maka yelled, wielding her scythe with amazing power as she stood back up after pushing Kid down and stood in front of the reaper child. With a chilling battle scream, she leapt at the second enemy and sliced it in half there and then.
The human-looking evil thing burst into a swirl of black ribbons, that unravelled to show a red, glowing, soul.
But there was no time to collect it – their main enemy was still at work, again bearing down on the ninja meister, whose attempts to beat it back only increased his chances of getting sliced again. From the ground, Kid collected his surprise after being saved by Maka and aimed his guns once again, firing precisely at the bird-man.
It howled in anger as it cast about again for its attacker, but saw the scythe meister through the smoke instead, and growled at her, beginning to charge.
Maka readied her defence, but the Kishin hit from the side instead, giving her a deep cut and making her cry out as she fell, feeling the pain. Also hearing the hurt in the human's distress, the Kishin howled again in evil delight and towered over the girl.
"Touch her and you die," Kid interrupted darkly, cocking and aiming both guns at the evil soul and standing directly in front of it.
The distraction he caused allowed Black*Star to jump the Kishin from above, enchanted sword in hand, blade pointing downwards. He yelled as he stabbed the thing through from back to chest, the black lines on his face highlighting the anger and protectiveness in his eyes.
It screamed in terror as it evaporated, leaving behind a second hanging soul; another Kishin egg.
The three meisters stayed where they were, panting, for a moment. The unexpected and harsh attack had left them slightly stunned. Slowly, Maka got up, wincing at the pain in her side and using the scythe to support her as she checked the wound.
Kid and Black*Star straightened up too, and released their weapons, who changed back into their human forms and looked around for any other threats to their partners.
"Are you alright, Maka?" Kid asked in concern, walking towards the female meister. She let go of her weapon too, and Soul appeared beside her, looking worried.
Maka winced again, but replied, "yeah, I'll be fine. Sorry," she added, and then caught sight of Kid's face. "Are you okay?"
Having pretty much forgotten about the wound he had got too, Kid touched his cheek and wrinkled his nose at the blood. "I'll be fine," he assured her with a small smile. They both glanced over at Black*Star, who was being fussed over by Tsubaki.
Seeing them looking, Black*Star interrupted his weapon's worries by announcing very loudly, "yeah well that was all fine and good-"
"Well, kind of," Liz pointed out, eying the two other meisters, both of whom also had blood-spotted clothes.
"Okay, so that happened. BUT where did the crazy wacko actually go?"
Maka sighed and muttered, "I hope this isn't another scare-you-to-death test," looking around slightly nervously.
"Well, I'm sure that professor Stein is-" Kid began, but was interrupted by a voice behind them.
"What, exactly, am I, Kid?"
Everyone turned at once, fearful, and jaws dropped when they saw it was none other than the 'crazy' professor, looking untouched by Kishin, stood in front of them, calmly watching the children stare at him as he turned the screw in his head with a creaking noise.
"But – but – but," Maka flustered, thoroughly confused, "But – we were meant to come find you! Didn't something happen?!"
Stein puffed out some smoke from the cigar that was hanging in his mouth and shrugged, leaving the screw to hold the cigar instead. "I don't know. I was just doing what Lord Death suggested; check around Death City for any Kishins." He eyed the students. "But turns out he sent you guys to do that, huh?"
Liz narrowed her eyes with a tic in one of them at the professor. "So, you mean, there was no problem? At all?" she muttered through gritted teeth.
"Clearly, there was," Stein pointed out, looking pointedly at the wounded meisters. Black*Star scowled.
"Yeah, but we wouldn't have needed to be out here if you hadn't left! You crazy scientist wacko! Do you WANT your students to be in danger?!" the ninja meister yelled, pointing a finger accusingly at Stein.
The doctor leisurely put the cigar back in his mouth and a creepy grin spread across his face. "Who knows, maybe it was another experiment, maybe not," he replied, in a voice that sounded like he'd like to do nothing more than set some more rouge Kishin on the students and just watched them be dissected.
Black*Star growled and made to step forward, but Tsubaki put a hand out to stop him, instead saying in a attempted cheerful voice, "yes, but everyone's okay now, so why don't we all just go home?"
Soul huffed and glared at Stein, who raised an eyebrow back. "Those particular pre-Kishin radiate anger as well as madness, usually felt most by those who work too hard," he said suddenly.
Maka twitched as everyone stared at her with an 'ooh, right' look on their faces. She spun on her heel and started stomping back towards Death City's wall.
"Alright, we did it, we had a fight, everything's good, let's go," she said through gritted teeth. Soul smiled slightly and began following her as everyone slowly filtered after them. His meister wouldn't be changed by any anger-radiating Kishin; she was just Maka, and that was fine with him.
"So, really, that mission was for nothing, and we just happened to get attacked by rouge Kishin?" Liz stressed out loud at the other three girls in her bedroom.
Maka and Tsubaki nodded sympathetically while Patty just laughed at her sister try to straighten her hair while complaining about how stressful the day had been.
After they had got back, reported to Lord Death and headed back – of course, after the weapons had demanded their meisters got looked at by nurse Nygus, as all the students were still bothered about Stein's weird leave and return.
Once they were walking safely through the streets of Death City, Liz had announced that after that day, they were definitely valid for a sleepover, and had practically dragged the female meister and weapon with her and Patty back to Gallows manor.
Soul had been slightly irked, as his meister was still injured, and had attempted a slight protest. But a promise of a video game midnight marathon from Black*Star – who had been asked to propose so by Tsubaki – and his partner disappearing from view in the hands of Liz and Patty, made the weapon's options pretty limited.
He decided that Maka needed the pampering 'girl time' and that he really did also need to kick Black*Star's ass one way or another. So he followed his best friend home with fairly good grace.
Kid, meanwhile, had followed the girls back to his house and walked straight into his room, muttering about symmetry and nightmares and sleeping. His weapons ignored him completely and ushered the other girls up to their room.
A blanket fort was quickly built and the friends huddled around, telling stories. That was, until, Liz noticed her hair was terrible after being dropped on the ground – even in weapon form. She then continued to rant about Kid's obsessions and the others joined in with their partners' faults.
This continued until Kid finally banged very loudly on the door to his weapons' room and informed them in a strangled whisper that it was 2 in the morning and they'd better be quiet before 3 because it was too much of a symmetrical number to waste.
Liz threw a hairbrush at the door and called back to her meister, "fine, we'll be quiet. Now go lie down before you panic." As usual looking out for him, she had noticed Kid's heavy breathing that meant I'm-at-the-end-of-my-sanity-please-stop-being-asymmetrical and also meant he needed sleep like a distressed toddler.
Her Meister was often ridiculous, but she and Patty could handle him and that was what made them match. They all looked out for each other, as did the other pairs of meister and weapon.
Tsubaki and Maka giggled as they heard Kid walk away, sighing, and Patty yawned, prompting Liz to decide that they really did need to sleep.
"Come on, girls. Time for some beauty rest," she said with a smile, spreading the blankets on the floor for them to lie on, not bothered with beds.
They all slept until late into the morning; Kid made sure not to wake them when he tiptoed into their room and carefully arranged the furniture back symmetrically before glancing at the sleeping girls in the middle of the room and a smiling a little.
He crept back out, noting that if they had seen him there Liz would have called him a pervert – although he was the least like that of all the boys – and went to make some breakfast for when they finally traipsed to the kitchen.
Then he himself went out to check in on Black*Star and Soul, leaving the girls the house to themselves and, quite remarkably, hoping Liz would have it back in order for when he got back. For Kid, this was a lot of trust place in his weapon.
Death the Kid smiled as he walked through Death City. Even while there was madness roaming the earth again, their little gang worked together to look after each other and watch over the world. That was the way it should be.