Kuroi Chi no Noroi 2

Okay, so it's been a while since my last update…uh…a long while and I sincerely apologize for that. I wish I could say I have a good excuse, but I'm afraid I really don't. I haven't given up on this story though and as always, you're lovely reviews and faves are what keeps me going! XD

Thanks everyone!

CHAPTER TWO

Of all the things he had faced in his lifetime, this might be the most difficult to deal with. Even as he stood there he could feel the tension building in his brow, the sweat sliding down his back. His fingers twitched, just itching to fix this mess. He closed his eyes and tried to picture soothing thoughts.

Anubis' pyramid.

The school from the outside.

My room at home.

It wasn't working.

Death the Kid reopened his eyes, looking around the Death Room again, the scattered wooden cross-shapes littering the room in no particular pattern was driving him crazy. The rest of the school was neat and tidy. It was perfectly symmetrical from the outside, and even the classrooms were relatively symmetrical. But this room! He tried to refocus his mind; he'd been the one to call the meeting in the first place! It was difficult though. Taking a calming breath the young reaper focused his attention again to what his father was saying.

"Indeed," The elder Shinigami agreed, "it does seem like we've had a lot more incidents lately."

"All I want to know is whether it's a human or a Kishin Egg responsible for all these murders." Kid cast a disdainful look at the speaker. The Death City Chief of Police, (Tanaka was it?) crossed his beefy arms over a sizeable torso. He was a large man; both horizontally and vertically, although not fat mind you. He spoke bluntly and seemed to have rather little respect for the god of death. Kid wished they hadn't had to include him in this conversation, but knew that his father was trying to include humans on their plans as a show of trust.

"If it's a human, I'll know to get more security during the nights, but if this thing is a Kishin, I don't want to be wasting any manpower." It made sense, Kid supposed.

"What worries me," Spirit said, looking genuinely concerned, "is how close to the kids' dorms these things have gotten."

"It seems strange that so many of the attacks would be near the meister and weapon dorms, but that's where most of them have been occurring." Sid agreed.

"Hmm." Stein observed. He had been unusually quiet during most of this meeting, though Kid was pretty sure he had some theories that he just hadn't shared.

"Kid, you said the one last night was a Kishin Egg, correct?" His father asked, turning back to him.

"That's right," Kid agreed, remembering the incident the previous night. His father had asked him to keep an eye out near the area where a lot of the attacks had been happening. Upon hearing a woman scream, he'd hurried to the scene, arriving too late to save the girl, but had run into Maka and Soul trying to protect the girl's mother. He closed his eyes for a respectful moment at the loss.

"What course of action would you suggest, son?" His father asked. Kid glanced up, looking at his dad questioningly. The elder Shinigami gave him a slight but encouraging nod. His father had been encouraging him lately to be more active in the workings of Shibusen and while Kidd appreciated being kept in the loop, he worried about his father's reasons. Suddenly remembering everyone in the room was waiting for his response; Kidd pulled himself back to the present.

"Well, last night was definitely the work of a Kishin Egg," he answered seriously, "It's hard to say whether all of the killings have been caused by Kishins, but I think the safest course of action would be for Shibusen to establish some sort of night patrol system. We can keep track of how many Kishins are spotted and hopefully these killings will stop."

"A fantastic idea, son!" His father agreed with his usual enthusiasm. Sid nodded agreeably.

"That should work. We can start assigning teams to different areas of the city, set some kind of schedule…" Kidd's mind drifted again as the adults discussed the details.

It was definitely the work of a kishin last night, but Spirit is right; why are the attacks always so close to the dorms? His gaze wandered again to Professor Stein, whose gaze gave away nothing. The light glinted off his glasses hiding his eyes, but Kidd could see the pensive look on his face.

What is he hiding? Kidd wondered with a frown. The man surely knew more than he was telling.

"Well it's settled then!" The god of death interrupted Kidd's thoughts with his announcement. "Starting tonight, we will have four teams patrolling the dorms during the night, in addition to the usual hunting. We must make sure to have at least one three star meister in charge of the operation during the night and they'll report back to you every morning, Spirit." The red-haired Death Scythe nodded approvingly.

"Well then," The chief of police grunted, "I hope this puts a stop to all these killings. I'll keep in touch." With a curt bow, the man excused himself, marching stiffly for the exit. Kidd caught Spirit's wrinkled nose and soft 'hmph' out of the corner of his eye and smiled to himself. Apparently Maka's father didn't take too kindly to the man either.

"Well, was there anything else, son?" Shinigami asked, turning to the raven-haired boy.

"No father, I believe that was everything." He answered, "If you'll excuse me, Liz and Patty wanted to go visit Maka in the hospital."

"WHAT?" Spirit cried, turning to Kidd in horror, "You didn't mention my Maka was in the hospital!" Kidd mentally groaned as he remembered why he hadn't mentioned it earlier. Maka was going to kill him for this.

"Well…"

"Papa's coming MAKA!" The eccentric weapon hollered as he tore down the path to the door, without a glance back. The young shinigami sighed, glancing around again at the room. He really needed find some symmetry before the last of his nerves snapped.

==-S-O-U-L-_-E-A-T-E-R-==

Soul anxiously paced the room for the umpteenth time. He was sure he was going to start wearing hole through the floor at this rate. He glanced again at the unconscious figure in the bed.

Maka. Was this how she had felt when he was injured? It was weird to think about. His mind wandered again to the previous night's events.

How he'd clutched Maka's blood-soaked torso.

How the Kishin Egg had stalked over, closing in on them for the final blow.

How Kidd had managed to arrive just in time.

Then there was the relief of realizing the blood covering his meister was not her own, but the other woman's blood. It was soon followed by guilt for such relief when he caught sight of the woman's disemboweled body. And thus, they ended up here. Medusa-sensei had assured them that Maka had only sustained minor injuries, a few cuts and scrapes and a concussion that rendered her unconscious. Soul had been assured that she would awaken soon and after a quick checkup would be free to leave. That had been 12 hours ago. Or more precisely; 12 hours and 17 minutes ago.

She should be awake already, right? It's been a while… What if something is wrong? What if she's hurt worse than we thought? What if- His thoughts were interrupted by Maka's fluttering eyelids, followed by a low drawn out groan of discomfort.

"Maka!" He exclaimed, before remembering to play it cool. "So, how are you feeling?"

"Sore." His partner moaned, stretching her arms above her head, "What happened?"

"Well, there was a Kishin Egg last night," The scythe began, hesitantly, "it attacked this woman…" Maka's eyes suddenly widened and she turned sharply to Soul.

"Is she…?" Soul glanced away, not meeting her inquisitive gaze.

"No…" He heard the technician breathe. There was a moment of silence before Maka's fists pounded the bed covers.

"Damnit… That poor woman and her little girl…" Soul was silent, not drawing attention to the tears that traced his partner's cheeks. He understood her anguish. Despite all the Kishins they hunted, it never seemed to be enough; and innocent people were always the ones to pay the price.

"I was right there! I should've-" The thought of what had happened to the other lady happening to Maka made Soul look up sharply.

"Maka, you did everything you could. There's only so much one meister and weapon can do." Maka was silent for a moment, before wiping the moisture from her face with the back of her hand.

"You're right." She said softly, "we can't lose sight of our goal. When you're a Death Scythe…" She looked up at him and the weapon grinned, finishing her thought.

"We'll be the strongest team there is!" He concluded. Maka smiled and opened her mouth to reply when the door suddenly slammed open.

"MAKA!" Soul saw a flash of red hair fly past him before he could even react. Spirit launched himself at his daughter with wide open arms, ready to comfort her back to health and was met abruptly with the spine of a rather heavy book crashing down on his head. Soul glanced from the stress lines on Maka's head to the deflated and twitching form of Spirit and sighed. Well, at least it wasn't him this time.

==-S-O-U-L-_-E-A-T-E-R-==

"Black Star!"

"Huh? Wha-?" The blue-haired ninja awoke with a start, nearly tripping over his own feet in his haste to stand. Tsubaki sighed and steadied her partner.

"We're supposed to be on guard duty, Black Star." She reminded her partner for the umpteenth time that night.

"Hah!" Laughed Black Star, "We haven't seen a Kishin all night, they're probably scared to get anywhere near the great me!" The technician planted his fists on his hips and laughed boisterously.

"Or it's because we haven't left this spot all night…" Tsubaki pointed out meekly. Her meister didn't seem to hear her as he continued laughing.

"I really think we should check around the city." Tsubaki said when her partner had finally finished laughing.

"Hmph," The meister replied, dropping again to the dusty ground, arms propped behind his head.

"Kid was saying there were some pretty strong Kishins hanging around Death City lately," The weapon tried again, trying to make it sound like a challenge to entice the stubborn technician.

"Okay Tsubaki," Black Star finally agreed, "We will go to ease their minds, but if any Kishin shows up they will be dealing with more than they can handle by the great Black Star!"

"Right!" Tsubaki agreed happily, turning into the small ninjato. With a professional twirl, Black Star grabbed the weapon out of the air and took off, bounding effortlessly towards the center of the city. The young ninja grinned at the feeling of wind rushing past his face, letting out a loud "Yahoo!" before he even realized it.

"Uh Black Star," Tsubaki's face appeared on the slim blade, "it's kind of late, maybe you should keep it down…?" She wasn't sure whether her meister had heard her or not, but he didn't let out any more triumphant shouts. They stopped, perched on the precarious point of a rooftop as Black Star scanned the area. He crouched silently for a moment, the only noise in the night the soft spring breeze ruffling through his blue hair.

"Maybe if we checked on the other side of Shibusen-" Tsubaki began to suggest when she was interrupted.

"Sh." It was brief, curt, verging on rude and so completely uncharacteristic of Black Star that Tsubaki fell immediately silent, turning sharply to look at her partner. His brow was creased in concentration, mouth turned down in a slight frown and eyes straining to see in the distance. Tsubaki blinked in surprise. Who had replaced her carefree partner with this suddenly serious one?

"I hear them." Black Star stated, his mouth breaking into a dark grin. He leaned forward, diving from his perch, rolling effortlessly on contact with the ground and breaking into a sprint without slowing down.

"Them?" The weapon questioned, "How many did you hear…?" The assassin didn't answer as he sharply rounded a corner. Tsubaki recognized this area as the Shibusen dorms and briefly recalled that there had been a large number of sightings in this area. Her thoughts were cut short however when they encountered their first Kishin egg. Without losing any speed, Black Star leaped into the air, cutting the monster's throat with a backhand slash. Before the beast's death throes had finished echoing on the stone walls, two more Kishin eggs appeared from their left.

"So you want to challenge the big me huh?" Black Star announced boldly, grinning from ear to ear. "You should know that I will be the one to surpass god one day, how do you like that?" He pointed at the nearest kishin as if daring him to argue. Tsubaki sighed. For a moment Black Star had embodied the perfect assassin she'd always hoped he could be, but apparently he just couldn't contain his ego for more than a few minutes.

I should've known… The weapon thought to herself, smiling in spite of the crazy situation she found herself in. She almost forgot to scold her meister for his act of bravado, but his boisterous laugh brought her back.

"Black Star, we need to eliminate these kishins; they're too close to the student dorms to be safe."

"You're right, Tsubaki," then to the monsters he added, "so which one of you is first to face my greatness? Huh?" One of the kishins took on the ninja's challenge and rushed the pair with a spiky club for a left arm.

"Tsubaki, chain scythe!"

"Right!" Black Star held out his hands and Tsubaki's chain materialized in them, blocking the monster's attack. The young assassin quickly wrapped the chain around the monster's hand, disabling his weapon and swung one of the scythes up, cleaving the kishin in two. He didn't have enough time to recover, however, before the second kishin clubbed him across the head with a thick forearm. The blue haired teen flew a few feet before tumbling into a heap on the ground.

"Black Star!" Tsubaki cried, fearing the worst. It had been a solid-sounding hit. The determined technician growled defiantly, shakily climbing to his feet, blood covering the side of his face. He swiped the blood out of his left eye with the back of his hand, gripping the handle of the chain scythe more tightly. The kishin gave a low, rumbling growling, licking its' lips before making another rush at the injured meister. Black Star tensed a moment before sprinting towards the monster, scythe in each hand and chain trailing behind. The beast raised its thick arm again, but as the ninja approached he leapt high into the air, out of the kishin's reach. The chain behind him caught the monster's throat and with a roar, Black Star twisted around, bringing the kishin crashing down. Finishing off the subdued creature, he heaved an enormous sigh before his trademark grin made its' way onto his face again.

"Black Star, are you okay?" His weapon wanted to know, her face appearing concerned on the reflective surface of the scythe blade. The teen pushed a mop of blood-soaked hair back and grinned at his partner.

"I'm great, and we just managed to get 3 souls in one night!" Tsubaki smiled back.

"That is great!" She agreed, enjoying her partner's unusual enthusiasm in collecting souls. "but I really think you should go see Medusa-sensei about that cut on your head."

"A little scratch like this won't bother the great me!" Black Star laughed, "It's just a little cut and I'm so big so it's really nothing at all! Hahahaha!"

"Right…" Tsubaki shook her head, but smiled all the while. Black Star's laughter suddenly stopped abruptly. Tsubaki could tell he was on edge by the way he suddenly gripped the scythes tighter. Several pairs of glowing eyes were making their way towards the pair.

"Kishin eggs…" Tsubaki murmured, "why are there so many?" Indeed, it seemed everywhere the pair turned, another set of glowing eyes found them. The scythe weapon could hear the sounds of steel blades clanging against one another, heavy footsteps of others and the low growl that seemed to come from every direction at once. She could feel sweat slide down her back and noted Black Star's palms were clammy too. This was way more than they could handle. The heavy tension in the air was suddenly broken by a loud scream. One of the kishins glanced around, sniffing suspiciously before slowly backing up into the shadows. The others followed suit more reluctantly, some casting long glares at Black Star before they moved on. After what seemed like an eternity, it was just the two of them in the middle of an empty street. Tsubaki let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"That…that was something else. We'll have to report this to Shinigami-sama. In fact, I think we should right away…Black Star?"

"Huh?" The ninja's attention seemed to be fixed on a nearby building with a light in the window.

Isn't it rather late to be awake? The weapon thought to herself. Hey, isn't that Soul and Maka's place? What are they still doing awake?

I will do my best to update as soon as possible. I'm aware that there wasn't much plot progression in this chapter, but I assure you, it is coming. I'm going to try to update more regularly but alas I can make no promises.

On a side note, I'm going to our Anime convention next weekend and I'm finally cosplaying! :D I kinda wanted to do Soul Eater, but our group voted on Fairy Tail, which is also cool. I get to be Erza :D

Thank you all for your patience and reviews!