"Devour the eight princess, slay the serpent," Shura muttered, pulling her sword from her chest. Black Star and Soul gawked at her as she took her stance.
"Soul focus!" Maka scolded.
"It's four on one, we can do this," Black Star said. Kid sized her up, he was certain she had something up her sleeve, something that was going to trip them all up, but he had no idea what it was. Certainly the sword being drawn from her body was unexpected but it seemed the academy still had the advantage. Black Star ran right after her and dueled her with enchanted sword mode. Shura leaped backwards.
"Dabo!" She screamed, slicing her sword through air at nothing. Strikes emanated from the blade, knocking all the students to their butts. "Kirigakure Ryū-Makengi!" She yelled, biting her finger and wiping the blood on the blade. Her sword swelled in size, taking on a shape much like that of a snake, and she winked at the students, inviting them to come at her. Maka had hit her head on the edging wall and was unconscious already. Soul was holding her as he intently watched the unusual match continue. Shura went face to face with Kid, knocking his shots off her blade, until she was pressed against him. She cackles and swings her blade in front of his face, leaving no damage except an uneven haircut. Shura had already learned the weaknesses of her attackers, and was quickly taking advantage of them. Crona eyed her with ferocity, her powers of manipulating serpentine forms brought back his ill memories of his snake wielding mother. When she turned around Black Star plunged his blade into her chest, suspending her in midair.
"Gotcha," Black Star said, "huh?" Her body disintegrated into a mass of snakes wrapped around Black Star's hand. He gave a high pitched squeal and shook them to the ground and was struck on the head by the butt of Shura's sword handle. He fell to the ground face first as the triumphant exorcist smiled behind her.
"Oh this is too easy!" She cackled.
"Ready Ragnorak?" Crona asked of the sword. The mouth mid blade of the weapon responded to him.
"Just go before she comes over here."
"Scream resonance," the pink haired boy mumbled. All the bystanders clutched their heads as the pair released their scream sound. Shura crouched and stared at him, analyzing her target. To break his concentration she drove her sword into his shoulder, Rin winced at the familiar move. The tip of the blade had barely even penetrated the skin and it was stopped short by hardened blood.
"What the hell," for once in this match Shura was one step behind her opponent. She pulled the sword free.
"Bloody needle," Crona said. The little blood that had spilled suddenly spiked up at Shura. She jumped backwards narrowly avoiding attack. She smiled at him from her attained distance.
"Why are you smiling like that?" Crona whimpered.
"Gara gara!" Giant snake shadows raced at Crona, flowing past and around him they extinguished Ragnorak.
"What did you do?" Crona cried.
"I removed your demonic powers temporarily," she said as she put her blade against his neck.
"Yield," Yukio said. Shura put down the blade and laughed.
"She has some very interesting abilities," Stein said, twisting the screw in his head.
"Shura is a very powerful and very capable exorcist, but she lacks the appropriate attitude," Yukio said frowning.
"It seems to work for her."
"Crona, he's been filled with the blood of a demon much like Rin has," Yukio said. "How?"
"His mother did a transfusion on him when he was young, removing his human blood and putting in the black blood of the demon sword Ragnorak. Ragnorak utilizes his unique blood in fights, creating bloody needle and other such weapons from it as well as protecting Crona from physical damage and blood loss."
"His mother did that to him?" Yukio said, horrified.
"Yes. She was trying to create a Kishin. But ultimately Crona, no matter how many human souls Ragnorak devoured, did not progress into a Kishin and she abandoned him. Maka connected to him and realized he was only a pawn in Medusa'a evil plot and convinced Lord Death to let him in enroll in the Academy. He's been fighting with us ever since," Stein said throwing out his cigarette.
"So you're the best meister the Academy has ever seen?" Yukio asked.
"Yes. I have an unquenchable curiosity as well, piqued by dissection of unique creatures," as he said that Yukio noticed that the grey haired teacher's green eyes, though one lens of his glasses was in a bright glare, was focused on his elder brother on the sidelines. Yukio frowned at the interest.
"Rin is a person. Not an experiment." Yukio said frankly.
"Oh I wasn't going to dissect your brother. I would get in trouble for that. Spirit is here to make sure I maintain control of my madness," Stein said almost sadly. 'Oh how I would love to look inside that creature.' The thought brought a wicked smile to his mouth that quickly retreated, he didn't want to cause the younger brother any alarm. "Ms. Krigakure is your best exorcist?" Yukio's mouth pinched.
"No. While she is arguably the best fighter, having stood her own against the current Paladin in combat as well as Satan when he possessed me, her attitude is totally off mark for being a reliable exorcist." As if to reiterate Yukio's point about her, Shura jumped up childishly in victory.
"I win I win!"
"You could've at least given them a chance Shura," Yukio said frowning.
"What good does that do? The enemy doesn't play with you, they attack. Plus it's more fun and less work to just go all out fast," she smiled, knowing her antics frustrated the young exorcist.
"Alright. Rin, Shima, Konekomaru, Shiemi, Izumo, Bon; you guys are up now," Yukio said as he carried the unconscious Kid, Maka and Black Star back to behind the safety of the sandbags.
"You'll be fighting Stein and Spirit," Shura said. 'This is going to be very interesting,' she smiled. Spirit transformed into a lopsided like crucifix that Stein expertly swung around before taking his stance. Shima looked at him, worried already and he hadn't even done anything. Then, by quite a surprise, Shura kicked a rolling chair towards the Professor. He turned it backwards and took a seat.
"Are you going to come at me anytime today?" Stein asked boredly. Bon shocked he had the audacity to challenge not only himself but Rin also.
"I'll burn you up!" Rin yelled, drawing Kurikara and swinging the blue flame clad blade around. Stein looked unimpressed as he turned the screw in his head. Bon aimed his gun, Izumo's familiars crouched, ready to attack, Shiemi had Nee at her shoulder, Konekomaru stood ready to chant, though he wasn't sure what to say yet, Stein was no demon, and Shima held K'rik hesitantly.
"I'll dissect you all!" At that statement Shima took a step backwards, scared of the mad scientist like teacher.
"What happened?" Maka asked softly.
"We lost. Bad," Soul said. "And I heard she's not even the best there is." Soul said.
"Looks like they aren't doing too well either," Kid said, gesturing to the fight. Rin was going to Stein like a mad man but was always miliseconds behind his moves. Bon shot at him but he neatly deflected every shot with the staff while dodging Rin. Stein shot up and kicked the chair out, knocking Rin off his feet.
"Shit!" He yelled as he fell.
"Is that all you've got? I thought you were going to be a great exorcist?" Stein taunted. Izumo's familiars attacked him, Mike sunk his fangs into Stein's arm but was quickly shaken and both demons were thrown to the ground as Stein raced towards Izumo. He snatched and tore her papers and thrust his elbow at her chest, knocking her down struggling to breathe. Konekomaru ran at him, hoping to distract him for Bon or Rin, but Stein dodged and flipped Konekomaru backwards and onto his back, the impact knocking the wind out of him.
"What the hell is wrong with you!" Rin screamed, launching flames at Stein. Stein struck the ground with Spirit and perched on top of the scythe, out of reach of Rin's attack. Rin gave him the finger and Bon used the window to shoot at the unarmed man, but somehow, his back to Bon, Stein still avoided the shots.
"Shima would you do something?" Bon scolded, a vein popping out of his forehead. His eyes were pure white with anger and humiliation at the way the fight was going. Stein landed a kick square in Shima's chest, throwing him against the wall where he hit back first at high impact.
"Shima!" Bon yelled. 'Why does that always happen to him,' Bon thought. Rin was standing in the corner of the ring snarling at Stein.
"Is he alright Yukio?" Shura asked.
"Yes. He's angry but he's in control right now," Yukio said, though Shura saw his hand twitching for his gun and wondered how much faith Yukio had in his elder brother's control of his flames.
"Will you really shoot your brother Yukio?" Shura asked. The Academy students listened intently, almost scared of the possible response. Patty clung to Liz crying out and Kid looked embarrassed by her.
"I could never shoot you sis!" Patty wailed. Kid sighed, 'those two are so strange,' he thought. Though he was one to talk about strange behavior, his gaze flicked up to his miscut bangs every half second and he glared at them in anger and disgust. Black Star sulked over the shaming loss to Shura and Tsubaki looked between Yukio and her partner with worry, always the caring one.
"You know very well I'll do what's necessary," Yukio said calmly.
"If it comes to that, I'll take him down. I won't make you hurt your brother, scaredy," Shura said. She was almost serious and genuine until she called him scaredy and giggled like a child.
"How are you supposed to beat Satan if you can't even beat me?" Stein cackled. Yukio winced, that was a personal spot. 'Of course someone as experienced as Stein would know a person's weak spot,' Yukio thought. "I guess you're just going to let him get away with taking away your family." Rin growled at the meister but Stein was unwavering in his insults. "At least let me dissect you before I kill you!" Stein yelled as he leaped towards Rin. Bon got between them and Stein knocking him out of the way with the butt of his weapon and gave him a quick jab to the head, just enough to knock him out of consciousness for the next couple minutes; and by then Stein was sure the fight would be over. The Academy students looked at their professor, all thinking he must have been holding back when they first fought him, and even then they didn't stand a chance. If this experience taught them nothing else, they at least now knew they still had much to learn to even stand a chance against the best and all but Black Star, Academy and Cram School students alike, grew a bit more humble in the broadcasting of their fighting skills.
"He's still falling right into bait," Yukio said, putting his face in his hands.
"You're one to talk four eyes. You played right into Egin's plan, helping him, volunteering for Rin, you made it almost too easy for him to get his way," Shura said with her elbow on his shoulder.
"I would do anything to protect my brother." Yukio said with finality. Shura backed away from him, sensing he was done talking to anyone for awhile. Everyone always thought Yukio was hard to read. He was almost always, save a few rare occurrences, so level headed in behavior and appearance, but Shura, having known him since he was a mere child, could see right through the facade.
"Soul force!" Stein shouted, hitting Rin with his soul wavelength. Rin knew what was going to happen, his resolve would waver and his control over his flames would deteriorate. Or he thought he knew. He found himself immobilized by the teacher; sutures ran up and down his body.
"What did you do?" Rin asked.
"Like you would understand even if he explained it too you nii-san," Yukio said walking over. "Yield." Stein released Rin and he stumbled sideways.
Alrighty, so I have a few more chapters done already, I'm actually done up to chapter 8. My plan is to send out a new one every three days but I'm a sucker for reviews when people ask for more I tend to cave and release something as fast as I can. Anyway, done rambling.
Lifehouse Fanatic :)
