Chapter 2
Death City
Lord Death and Audrey had settled over a the table within the large room to begin discussion. "So Ms. Summers, how's it going? Classes have been going well?"
Audrey nodded with a smile. "I've been doing very well! I am acing all my studies and have also been attending after class activities to improve my standing within the academy."
She wanted to hide any nervousness that she had in front of Lord Death. Any sign of weakness could jeopardies her chances for a mission.
"Excellent Ms. Summers" Death responded. "And how about finding a new partner? Have you hooked someone yet?"
He then began poking his elbow towards her in a friendly manner, trying to embarrass her.
Audrey froze for a moment. She should have known Death would go straight to that subject. She had to remain calm.
"Well…actually…I was thinking. Awhile back I mentioned to you that I was training with Ms. Julie to improve my abilities." She said.
"Ah yes, and how have you been faring?" Death said and he nodded for Audrey to continue.
"Well…Since three months ago, I have been continuing to train with her and have been improving my abilities considerably. So I was seeing if I could be allowed to begin taking on missions as a solo meister".
Audrey had to break eye contact with Death as she finished talking. She felt that perhaps if she lied about her lack of progress that maybe she would have a chance.
She looked for a reaction from Death but he simply sat there for a moment and then spoke.
"hmmm, is that so? As you may know , assignments for solo meisters are reserved for the most experienced of meisters. Solo meisters must possess great endurance and a high capacity of energy to work with. Although you have claimed to have improved, I'm afraid you are still much too young for such missions. You would be much more effective if you began working with a partner again instead."
Audrey's heart sank. She knew it! She should have expected this from the start. She was going to have to be persuasive.
"What about the kishin threat?" she said in defense.
"You said yourself that they are growing without much interference. You said that you needed all the meisters and weapons available to assist you. I know I haven't found a replacement partner yet, and I'm not sure if I want to, but I want another mission." Audrey felt herself growing desperate.
"I've been practicing my soul attack techniques relentlessly since Ritt left and now and have accelerated in learning how to control my abilities. Even Miss Julie believes that I could stand on my own in a solo assignment" Another lie.
Her calmness was beginning to break. She lowered her head and shut her eyes tightly as she pushed the question again.
"So I finally came to ask you again with the sincerity of my heart, please allow me to help you on the front lines with hunting the kishin eggs. I could even just be apprenticed under one of your current soldier meisters if that would be better."
She kept her eyes shut, not wanting to have to look at Death's hintless expression.
After a moment passed, he rose from his seat and turned his body from her sideways but continued to face her.
His mask then shifted into a nasty expression that caused her to freeze still in her seat as he looked at her.
"Unfortunately your soul is telling me a different tale than what you speak" He said with irritation in his voice.
Audrey gulped as he continued.
"You cannot hide anything from me Miss Summers. I can see just from a glimpse of your soul that you are worn out and depleted from these past months. Yet you have hardly anything to show for it. Every meister has unique categories that their wavelengths fit into. No matter how hard you trained, you have been investing time into a category of your wavelength that you were never meant to achieve." Death stated, still wearing his expression of distaste that slowly began fade as well as the anger in his voice as he continued.
"I understand your eagerness Ms. Summers, but you must understand. You know your situation. You are still very young Audrey. You still need much more maturing as well as additional experience before you can ever truly engage the combatants such as those on the brink of becoming kishin." Death turned his head away from her as he finished.
Audrey slumped her head down to face the table top as the feelings hit her. She could not believe she had lowered to the point where she even attempted to deceive Lord Death.
"From the moment you stepped into the room, even as I was distracted with the soldier, I felt your presence as well as your true purpose for coming here." Death said.
Audrey's eyes were wide open in awe. Had she forgotten that she was in the presence of the great grim reaper. The all knowing shinigami whose millenias of experience rendered him an expert at reading souls inside and out.
There was nothing she could hide from him, no matter how hard she tried.
"The very concept of any solo meister or weapon has always been an absurd one in my experience. The very power any solo weapon or meister can posses would only be doubled or tripled even with a partner. Even the most powerful solo students could only be more effective had they of had partners." Death continued as his mask's expression was now fully reverted to a neutral expression.
"Understand Audrey, the kishin eggs my main forces are hunting nowadays are a lot tougher due to the war. As a result of being understaffed, I have been unable to stretch my elite units far enough to defeat them all. Because of that, the ones that get away are now much stronger the second time around and it requires the skill of a very experienced meister with their weapon to fully counter the threat."
Audrey's eyes remained open, but she kept her head lowered, feeling the hopelessness of her situation.
She failed to get stronger for Ritt. She failed to fulfill her unsaid promise to bring him back.
"I admit I have not been looking hard for a weapon Lord Death, because even if I did find a weapon to replace Ritt, it would take several months for us to finally resonate accurately and possibly another two years for me to turn them into a death weapon. I don't have that kind of time to waste. The enemy is growing and I need to do something!"
She started flaring in the face in frustration as she continued, raising her head to meet his gaze.
"I'll be just held back in the academy because of the setbacks from retraining, and you never know, Ritt might come back. It's not like he has been gone long or maybe he is in trouble and needs my help."
She felt herself falling apart. Any restraints she had on herself earlier were now forfeit.
"Ah, so you want to go out looking for your partner, could that be what this is really about? " Lord Death said with a hint of amusement in his voice.
Audrey blushed not wanting to admit it to him. Three months back she was in pieces when Ritt left with a bunch of other students when the war broke out. He was all she could think about for the several following weeks.
Ritt was a very good friend to her. He was soft spoken, kind, and apologetic. When they first started doing missions together he would all ways be the one apologizing to me when we messed up as a team or when it was her fault.
He was also a little overprotective of her, not letting her walk alone at night and all ways escorting her in the empty hallway at school despite Audrey being fully capable of defending herself.
She knew he did it just out of care, but one time she even found him sleeping in his shield form outside her apartment door, afraid that she might get robbed or kidnapped.
After reassuring him over and over about the overall safety of the school, he learned to respect and honor her boundaries.
After a while, she and Ritt were knocking out missions left and right.
Between missions, Ritt learned how to become more offensive as they both helped other meisters out on their missions.
They were eventually able to build their skills up to do missions with just themselves.
Although they were not the most offensive team due to Audrey being a healing meister and Ritt being a shield weapon, they were able to use tactics to defeat many of their adversaries.
It was awhile before they were able to perfectly resonate because Ritt was very cautious about exposing his wavelength to her and hers to his.
It was not until their first witch that they finally resonated perfectly.
The witch wielded unique magic that caught them by surprise.
Luckily Ritt was able to absorb attack after attack for Audrey as they finally broke through each other's emotional barriers allowing a resonance, killing the witch.
After that day he became a Death weapon and I was granted a two star meister rank. It was a joyful time.
It was not to last however. Soon after, a second great war started in Europe.
Since Germany was the main aggressor again in the new war, ridiculous rumors began spreading throughout the DWMA that all Germans were hostile by nature.
Soon students that had German ancestry were targeted and bullied by other students and many school clubs began excluding German students from their activities.
Audrey remembered those months back when she was walking down the school hall and would find students being bullied emotionally and physically.
Ritt was half German so he also saw harassment from other students. He would get bullied to the point where she would have him crying in her arms every week.
As a result, she tried every day to stand up for him and the other students but began getting bullied herself.
She was pushed, punched, called several nasty terms and was threatened often as a result of trying to defend Ritt and the others.
Ritt noticed her actions and begged her to stop, but she knew that Ritt was too soft a person to stand up for himself, so she kept trying.
Even though Lord Death openly condemned the discrimination that was happening, it still flourished as most of the teachers turned a blind eye to what was happening in the school hallways.
As the months progressed, things changed for the worst. Ritt began changing as bruises began appearing on him.
He began closing off his soul wavelength from her's preventing her from reading him.
He then became less social towards her, causing her to step up her protection over him. She would find herself screaming at the bullies in the halls every day, trying to get them off Ritt.
When they turned to her however, Ritt would jump in the way to absorb the blows intended for her like the shield he was programmed to be, her shield.
Audrey found herself crying herself to sleep several nights straight over what was happening to him. She hated this academy for what it was doing to him.
Ritt was such a gentle person that he could never deserve what was happening to him.
Then one day, he vanished.
Ritt and a group of other bullied students all left the academy without a trace except for a single letter that was left behind.
Audrey became hysterical that day after reading the note he left for her.
He left because he did not want her to get hurt anymore on his behalf. He believed that if he left the academy she would not need to risk getting bullied for him anymore.
He wanted her to find a new weapon partner for her own sake and continue on with her education and training to become a three star meister.
His last words were thanks to her for being such a good friend and for bringing him up in confidence through their time as partners.
She remembers crumbling up that letter and calling him an idiot. She could not believe that after all that she did for him, that he would dump her like this.
All the time they invested into each other to become so great and now he would just leave her in shambles.
She hated the academy just as much. She could never forgive this place for what happened to Ritt and those other students.
Overtime, she was able to appear more in control of her emotions, but she never gave up her sorrow over her partner's departure, nor her hatred for the academy.
Her plan from then on was to become the strongest meister in the academy so she could get the hell out of here and find Ritt.
That goal was far from achievable at this point. She was now at rock bottom with nothing to show for her struggles.
She now had to face the facts that she might never be able to see Ritt again. Death said it himself that direct combat was not her strong suite, so she could never be a solo meister.
Audrey awaited her fate as Death continued speaking.
"As you might be aware, I launched an investigation regarding the whereabouts of the missing students who left that day months ago. I receive weekly updates from my scouts about any activity they find regarding those students and so far there has been no trace of the particular students who left around that time. Keep in mind that you are not the only meister who has lost their partner. Many other students are without their partners as a result of that unfortunate event. They rely on me to inform them as soon as I find anything".
Audrey nodded at the news as she tried once more to reason with the Lord Death.
"Oh I see, but could I perhaps assist them with the search then? Nothing is better than a meister with decent soul perception for finding a bunch of lost ones. Besides, I know Ritt's soul better than anyone. If anyone is to find him, it would be me. So please Lord Death, let me at least begin searching locally for him. I can start by looking around Death City, and then I can maybe look through the flight files of the nearest airport to see if they used that-"
"you're very serious on this matter eh?" Death interrupted.
Death turned away from her, thinking. After a few seconds he began to chuckle.
Audrey looked at him, almost irritated at his amusement towards her predicament. "Tell me Miss Summers" he said. "Have you ever heard of the Eisenberg brothers?"ave been going well?"