Chapter 4

"Morning love birds!" Ciaran woke up with a grunt and saw Rin standing by the window, she ripped open the curtains and sunlight spilled into the room. Katarina stirred next to him and looked at Rin through blurred eyes.

"Come on get up!" She yelled and left the room. Ciaran rolled out of the bed and grabbed some clothes off of the floor.

"I'll see you at school Kat." He left the room and went into the bathroom where he changed into his clothes and brushed his teeth. When he left Silver was sat there staring at him with his eyes wide and head tilted. Gingerly he bent down and rubbed the dog behind the ear, he barked happily and Ciaran recoiled instinctively. He went into the kitchen and quickly ate the breakfast laid on the table. They walked along the cobbled streets and as they went their friends joined them until they all began the long ascent up the enormous staircase that lead to the DWMA. The bell for first lesson rang and they rode through the waves of chattering people and finally they arrived at their first lesson of the day.

"Good morning class!" Professor Franken Stein yelled, cigarette in mouth and his other hand turning the screw protruding from the side of his head. Stein was a frightening man, tall with messy gray hair he had an uncanny habit of striking fear into any child he looked at over the rim of his glasses especially with his reputation for dissecting everything that moved.

"Today we'll be outside for a practical lesson." He put out the cigarette in an ash tray sitting on his desk and the class trekked out, murmuring with excitement. They stepped out into the warm morning sunshine and they heard their teacher's disinterested voice ring loud and clear.

"Class split into your pairs and spread out leave plenty of room between you!" They spread out and at his command everyone transformed. Ruby transformed into a scythe that was double the size as Katarina and she struggled to hold it. Rin transformed and Ciaran caught her in both hands.

"Today we're practicing soul resonance, this is when you both focus your minds until you're souls are resonating as one, this will allow you to perform powerful techniques that are unique to your pair. You need to focus your thoughts, clear your mind and eventually you'll be able to resonate don't be disheartened if you don't manage to do it the first time around!" Stein lit another cigarette and turned his screw vigorously.

Ciaran spread his legs and held the sword out in front of him. He cleared his mind and closed his eyes, he steadied his breathing and took deep in and out breaths. Then he felt something, a jolt that radiated through him and a sudden warmth followed it. Ciaran felt a huge blast of power radiate from him, he opened his eyes wearily. The blade of the katana was coated in blue flames and a blue bubble surrounded him, Stein seemed shocked for a moment and then his face contorted into a disturbing smile. A single thought flickered across Ciaran's mind, the image of his step father's dog. Then the big bubble popped. In a bright flash the orb exploded violently and he was thrown like a ragdoll to the floor. People screamed and a girl rushed to Ciaran as his vision began to cloud, his eyes slowly closed as he witnessed Stein sprinting towards him. Blackness consumed his vision and Ciaran's head rested against the hard ground.

*Meanwhile*

Kayo left for the Death Room instead of going to her first lesson of the day. She walked through the winding halls of the academy without bothering to trying to go in any particular direction. Lord Death's liked having an aura of mystery for the students at his academy, his words of wisdom were:

"If you wish to find me no matter what direction you go I'll be there!" He'd say in his chirpy voice wagging his enormous foam finger left and right like a pendulum. Kayo scoffed at the thought, the corridors were modelled so that they all led to the Death Room, all's you had to do was go forward. In you were looking for anything else however, you're screwed. Kayo finally came to the Death Room after passing at least twenty doors labelled with the most peculiar labels. Brewery, Portal room and for some reason a cake shop. The door loomed in front of her, it was different to the other plain wooden doors in that this was a towering blank door with only the Death mask and a name plate adorning it. She grabbed the heavy handle and pushed, Kayo loved the Death Room for it was built into a separate dimension where she felt like she was on top of the world. Kayo walked through the customized tori gates that were styled to look like guillotines. The dome was bright blue with fluffy clouds lazily gliding along, a vision of calm. There was a raised disc set into the centre of the dome where she could make out Lord Death and Sid the zombie who were obviously deep in conversation.

"Do you think they're connected?"

"They could be, they were all violent and the victims looked they'd been stuffed in a blender."

"Why did they happen?"

"I don't know." Then Death turned and saw the teen standing behind him

"Ah Kayo!" He cried happily "How are you?"

"Good thank you Lord Death." She smiled, she noticed how he had a plate with a large slice of half eaten cake on it.

"Did you hear what we were discussing?" Sid peered at her

"Yes I did," She shifted uncomfortably

"Oh don't worry about it Sid!" Death chuckled "Kayo was a part of the secret service don't you remember we can trust her!" Death seemed unfazed "You're hear to meet your new partner aren't you?"

"Yes I am."

"Then let's go!" They left Sid at the podium and weaved through the numerous crosses until they came across another door, Death opened the door and ushered her in, the room they stepped into was large and had a balcony which overlooked another beautiful sky. Standing at this balcony was a tall man with short brown hair. He too had a slice of chocolate cake.

"Sir why has everyone got cake?" Kayo turned to see Death holding a piece of cake out to her with a fork inserted into it.

"Erm thank you." The confused girl accepted the dessert without even bothering to question the erratic actions of the headmaster.

"Kayo this is Alex, Alex this is Kayo!"

"Hello it's nice to meet you." He held out his hand, she shook it.

"Come and sit with me." Death led the pair to a small table by the window where they both sat down.

"I'd like you two to do something for me I want you to go on a test mission to Japan."

"Say what now?" Kayo chocked on her mouthful of cake.

"I want you two to find and eliminate a rogue agent from our Chinese branch."

"How will we get there?" Kayo ate another bite and savored how fluffy and light it was.

"Ah I'll show you!" Death whipped a ring of keys from nowhere and took one off, he handed it to Kayo.

"Come with me!" He gestured to a door on the opposite wall. She looked at the key and inserted it into the lock, she gave it a twist and she heard a metal clang and she opened the door. A rush of cold blasted her mercilessly, Kayo covered her face and saw snow covered mountains and she yanked the door shut.

"What the fuck was that!" She screamed

"Mind your language!" Death flicked her lightly on the nose with one of his giant fingers. "It's a dimensional door, we have them in every single major city in the world and a few other places."

"I'll give you key to the Chinese city of Hong Kong and you and Alex need to hunt him." Death began cycling through the giant key holder until he came across the one he wanted.

"Go on then I'll see you both soon!" Death waved them away.

"This will be fun won't it." Alex smiled warmly at her, in reply she grunted.

"See you guys later!" Then he ushered them to the door.

*Elsewhere*

When Ciaran came to he was laying on a bed in the school infirmary. Next to him sat Rin and Katarina.

"Wakey wakey." Rin grinned at him, Kat leapt on him and hugged him tight. Ciaran cried out in pain and Kat withdrew, terrified. A door shut and the curtains covering him were swept back, Mira Naigus stood before him, clipboard in hand.

"How are you feeling?" Naigus asked cheerfully

"Like I was hit by a truck."

"Well your resonance did overload and explode." She laughed.

"Pardon me?" He stared in disbelief

"Your resonance broke and what with the fact it was surprisingly powerful for an inexperienced Meister and Weapon it burst and released cleansing blue flames!" She wrote something on her clipboard "You ended up with serious burns on your chest and upper right thigh I've bandaged them and applied healing salve to the burns Katarina helped." Ciaran realized his clothes were likely ruined and turned red when he realized he was only in his underwear.

"Naigus has been training me to be a medic I don't like hurting people I want to help them." She blushed crimson.

"She's an excellent student!" Naigus patted her on the shoulder and Kat squeaked with embarrassment.

"Anyway you'll be fine Rin went and got you some clothes from your apartment."

"Thank you Naigus." She handed him a pot of strange smelling cream. The others left him to change into the clothes that were neatly folded on a chair next to the bed. Rin was leaning against the wall and as he left she came to him.

"I know what caused our resonance to break." They both walked through the halls to have their lunch "I saw a flash of it and I think we need to sort this together,"

"I can't stop the thought from coming into my head."

"I know when we get home we're going to sort this." Rin promised.

"We need to sort this out." Ciaran nodded, he put on a brave face and tried to hide the dread and fear welling up inside.

A/N:Hello friends. I'm thinking of starting a new fic but I'll need to plan it out first. This time around it will involve the original gang!