Episode 2: The Pyramid of Anubis…The Symmetry Gets in the Way?

"You wanna piss me off? Cuz I don't deal with my anger very well…" Liz and Patty react to the tension differently. Liz tries to ease the tension, while Patty just laughs. I sigh and pull Koneko off of my back—I turned her into a backpack. Methodically, I clip one cat to Koneko's zipper and move another to my other hip. I also brush my hair down and part it in the middle.

I grin. "This is as good as it's gonna get. I'm not as rude as I act sometimes. I don't like antagonizing allies." I extend a hand and he takes it.

"Are you coming with us then?" I nod slightly.

"Liz and Patty asked me to. Just got to Death City, so I want to make friends." I smile slightly and back up. "Well…if we're going to Egypt, we should head out."

"How are you getting there?" I smirk and hold out a hand. A skateboard appears and I laugh slightly.

"So this is your mode of transportation? Can't say I'm surprised."

"How did…?" I step onto the board and grin.

"I'm a Copycat. When I shook your hand, the spell you were about to use was just begging to be copied. And I can't use any levitation spells yet."

"Witch magic?" I shake my head.

"Nope. Have you never heard of a Copycat before?" Kid shakes his head.

"No…" I sigh.

"Let's head for Egypt. If conditions permit, I'll give you a bit of warning on my abilities." Kid nods and a skateboard appears in front of him. Liz and Patty turn into guns and I sigh. "Guns…one of the few weapon types I haven't gotten yet…"

"What?" I shake my head.

"Sorry. Talking to myself. I do that sometimes." We start flying towards Egypt and I sigh.

"About your abilities…if you're going to work with us, I'll need to know as much as you can tell me." I nod slightly.

"I'm a Copycat. All I have to do is touch someone and I can copy any abilities they have. With witches, if they use a spell on me, I can immediately use the same spell. Weapons, I can duplicate."

"What particular weapons do you use?"

"Enough." We finish the trip in silence and land in front of a pyramid.

"Beautiful! Such perfect symmetry!" Liz and Patty appear and stretch.

"Man…being in weapon form for such a long time makes my back hurt…"

"It's really dusty…" I sigh and go inside.

"You can admire the symmetry after we finish here, Kid-kun! Let's go!" The others follow me and I sigh. Everything in here is perfectly symmetrical…Kid's gonna get seriously on my nerves if he spends the entire time in here admiring it out loud.

"The inside is perfect as well!" Here we go…I sigh and take the lead.

"What exactly are we after here?"

"Some witch is taking human souls and turning them into zombie mummies. We're supposed to stop her." I nod slowly.

"Sounds…Kid-kun, do you sense that?"

"What?" I sigh.

"You're useless…I sense two souls in the depths…along with a lot of others…probably mummies."

"I wonder…the picture in the foyer…I think it may be off center to the right…"

"This isn't the time to worry about that!" Liz grabs Kid's collar before he can run out of the pyramid. "You can check it when we get home!"

"I can't stop worrying about it…" I sigh and keep walking. A moan fills the corridor and Liz clings to her sister, releasing Kid. I shake my head and lift a hand.

"Illuminator." Light fills the area and the two girls scream. A large group of mummies is blocking our path.

"Kid-kun!" We all look at the space he was occupying before. He's missing, but a note is in his place. Liz reads it and screams angrily. "Kiren-san." I smirk.

"I know how to use guns." Both girls nod and change forms. I catch them both and start shooting. I frown. "I know a quicker way…can you two switch out and use each other?"

"What do you think we are? Idiots?" I laugh slightly and release them. Liz appears and catches her sister. A chain scythe appears in my hand and I swirl it slightly.

"You may want to duck." Liz nods and crouches, shooting nearby mummies. I cut several in half by swinging my weapon around.

"Patty, switch." The two switch and Patty sticks Liz right into a mummy's mouth. "Don't put me in its mouth!"

"Sorry." I roll my eyes and switch weapon types. A short ninja sword appears in my hand and I run into the fray of mummies, cutting them with quick strikes. It doesn't take long for us to finish off the mummies and the girls to return to their human forms. We all count the souls and I mentally split them between the three of us.

"There aren't enough to split evenly between the three of us…you two take them." Patty frowns.

"But…you did a lot of the work…" I shrug.

"Doesn't matter. Let's just get these gathered and move on. If we stay here and wait for Kid-kun to get back, we can get attacked again."

"Right." The two girls start splitting the souls between each other.

"Got it…" I nod slightly to Liz and Patty.

"The witch's soul is gone. And the second soul is much stronger. My guess is that the second soul was the Pharaoh. He probably consumed her. We should be careful as we get closer to the inner chambers." The two girls nod and Liz suddenly cowers behind me.

"You hear that right?" I sigh.

"It's okay…" We continue down the path and the muttering I hear gets louder. "Great…" White strips of fabric fly out of a room and grab all three of us. Liz and Patty both scream and I black out.

"You have four souls…how is that?" I swallow and look around. It's pitch black.

"I ate three witches and absorbed a weapon friend to protect her! You have a problem with that?" The only response is laughter.

"You're a Kisa Witch then…" I frown.

"I'm no witch! The Kisa Witches died with my grandmother!" The laughter surrounds me and I cover my ears.

"You can lie to yourself…but you're just like your mother…a witch trying to be a weapon master…"

"No…shut up!"

"Sorry to interrupt." I open my eyes and stare at Kid. He starts to walk out and I realize where I am.

"Shit…" I close my eyes. "Bind…Disintegrate." The bandages holding me in place disappear and I turn to face Kid. "You'd better not run out of here like some idiot, Kid. Those girls need your help."

"Right. Liz, Patty!" I sigh.

"These bandages are blocking our power!" Kid looks at me.

"If that's the case…?"

"They drain the power of a weapon, not a witch." I turn to face the sarcophagus before he can respond. "Get them out of that and let's take care of the Pharaoh before you say anything about that." He nods once and uses his skateboard to cut the girls loose. They transform and he catches them. An attack comes from the sarcophagus and he hesitates.

"Kid!"

"Snap out of it!" I look at the sarcophagus and sigh. It's perfectly symmetrical…so he'll be pretty much useless, not wanting to destroy it. I shake my head and dodge out of the way when an attack comes my way.

"Damn your obsession with symmetry, Kid!"

'Witch…Witch…witch…witch…' I shake my head.

"I am not a witch! So quit calling me that!" And yet…I'm about to release a level of Soul Protect in order to save Kid and the girls. I clench my fists and pull the animal off of my backpack. "Hang in there, Kid…Soul Protect Level One…RELEASE!" The animal disappears and I feel the layer of sealing vanish with it.

A scythe appears in my hands and I grip it. "You want to see Kisa magic…you'll see it with your dying breath!" I spin the scythe and hold the blade behind me. "Witch Seal…Barrier Eliminator." The scythe blade expands and glows black. I run forward and cut through the sarcophagus. A loud groan fills the room and I jump back, changing the scythe into a katana.

I stop beside Kid and pull him up. "Get it together, Kid. I don't wanna have to carry you all the way back to Death City." I look up at a sound and stare at the thing that comes out of the destroyed sarcophagus. One eye…out of balance decorations…he's dead.

"You…you're the most disgusting thing I've ever seen! Those decorations are completely unnecessary!" Kid starts shooting the Pharaoh mercilessly and I sigh, holding out a hand and letting my sword disappear.

"Soul Protect…" The stuffed animal reappears in my hand and I smile slightly. "Level One, Seal." The animal glows for a moment and I clip it back onto my backpack. I cross my arms and wait for Kid to finish. He does and the only thing left is the Pharaoh's soul and the only symmetrical thing about the creature, a small ornament from its forehead.