The morning portion of classes was uneventful as usual except there was a pop quiz that no one saw coming. I finished it in five minutes and spent the rest of that class sleeping. Helena sat next to me and walked with me without so much as a word. 'Maybe she'll finally leave me alone,' I hoped. When lunch came I grabbed a sandwich and moved to head right back out of that noisy place.
"R-Ramla?" Helena stuttered. That flush was back and she was fidgeting with her fingers.
"Yeah Helena?" I ask bored.
"I-I'm going to-to the dance ne-next week…" she trails off.
"And?" I implore. She turns her eyes towards me pleadingly and I suddenly get the feeling everyone is watching us again.
"W-will it b-be al…alright if I g-get a partner?" she stammers and mumbles. I stare at her in shock for a moment before snorting.
"Why would I can if you finally buckled down and get a partner?" I respond. "Do what you want."
"Ramla," she said.
I blink slowly as I stare at her, "mhm?"
"Will you be my friend?" no stutter, no mumbling. I frown at her as my brow crumples in confusion.
"I'll look out for ya kid, don't worry." It was the best I could do. 'Doesn't she see that I am not a friend? Can't she see that I am broken and damaged?' Her face hid her hurt well, but I still saw a flash of it in her eyes.
"Ba-back at y-you!" she said too brightly. Without another word we turn our different ways and most likely just severed that bond.
"What are you doing?" Stein asks as he enters the training field.
""What…does…it—look like!" I grunt in between rotations of the gigantic truck wheel. I've pushed this thing down the field five times now and I still felt like killing something.
"I mean why are you here and not in class?"
"School's over dumbass," I snap back. He blows out smoke as he casually cranks his loose screw.
"You missed my class."
"Don't care."
"We have a test next week."
"Don't. Care."
"What do you care about Ramie?"
"Don't call me that!" I holler at him. "I don't care about this fucking school or its classes for one thing! I don't care about this city or its people! And I definitely don't care about the people at this fucking school! Augh! You piss me off so much Stein!" I start kicking at the ground and the tire. "Just leave me the hell alone! I'm moving out—don't fucking stop me!"
I stomp away from him so he can't see the hurt. Suddenly all that hurt that I thought I buried a long time ago resurfaced and it caused my emotions to take control. I was shaking with rage as I walked into the locker room to change back into my normal clothes and to grab my bag. That hurt was clenching my heart making it hard to breathe as tears threatened to fall. 'I don't need a partner, I don't need anyone! Never again…' my mind seethed and boiled as I stormed out of the school.
"What do you think that was all about?" I ask Tsubaki.
The demon weapon merely shakes her head in confusion, "I don't know Maka. But she looked really upset with Professor Stein." Kid and Liz were watching her stalk down the stairs while we spoke. "Do you think Professor Stein threatened to dissect her because she skipped class?" Tsubaki gasped horrified.
"Mhm, that's not what that fight looked like it was about," Liz murmurs.
"How do you figure Elizabeth?" Kid asks.
"Dunno, it just seemed more personal than simply missing a class is all," she drawled. At that point Soul came up and rested his elbow on my shoulder to see what we were staring at.
"Why aren't you minions watching your god?!" Black*star hollers at us from a higher rooftop.
"Black*star…" Tsubaki scolds lightly. He merely laughs, that is until Patty snuck up behind him and pushed him from the roof. Liz and Soul laughed as Black*star fell straight on his butt into a fountain. Tsubaki and Kid shared an annoyed look as I merely sighed in disgruntlement. "I warned you Black*star," Tsubaki sighed as well before walking over to her meister.
I stole one of Stein's duffle bags as I raged around his place grabbing the few meager things I owned. I shoved the three tops, two pairs of pants, and a couple pairs of underwear into the bag before throwing the heels I bought for that stupid mission out the window into the backyard. I took the toothbrush and toothpaste along with peanut butter and bread. It wasn't much and it all fit into the bag with room to spare. I scowled down at what my life has become before cursing colorfully at the floor.
I was about to walk out the door when at the last minute I walked over to Stein's desk to see if I could steal something worthwhile from it. He had papers and notebooks scattered everywhere and his computer was blinking that he had emails to read. I shifted through the papers and my breath hitched in my throat when I saw who the author was on most of the papers. 'R.A.B.'
I pushed all the papers onto the floor before turning back around to head out. At the last second I grabbed the other bag of that drug from the raid and shoved it in my pocket. Without a backwards glance I slammed the door shut and walked off once again into the underbelly.
I watched as Ramla stalked into the classroom and plopped down in a chair near the back of the classroom. Holly grabbed my hand and dragged me over to Namoki in the second row. Ramla didn't even look at us, instead she was staring intensely at her desk. In history, math, science, and lunch she did not approach me. Holly and Namoki tried to distract me but I was still sad. "Come on Helena! Let's get going to gym," Holly says. She grabs my tray of food that I did not touch as she grabbed my wrist to pull me up.
Namoki was talking with Maka and her meister when we walked out into the hallway. "Ladies," a man on a rolly chair said.
"Professor Stein," Holly says politely.
"P-Professor!" I squeak.
"You're Helena Boughwright, correct?" he asks.
"Y-y-yes!" I stutter nervously.
"Walk with me, excuse us," he said to Holly. I follow after him stiffly as I throw a confused glance back at my friend. She only shrugs before walking back into the cafeteria to find Namoki probably. I follow Professor Stein down the hall until we reach one of the many rooftop balconies. He rolled out towards the ledge and I followed after him quietly. "Do you have gym class next with Mira?" he asks quietly.
"Y-yes! Naigus-sensei is my next class—I me-mean professor!" I squeak again.
"Mhm," he says in contemplation. He pulls out a package of cigarettes from his coat pocket and flicks one out. He doesn't say anything more as he lights it and blows out a few puffs of smoke. "You're coming with me to my Soul Theory class next period. Crescent Moon classroom. Tell Mira." I stand staring at his retreating figure with my mouth wide open. Soul Theory was one of the hardest classes taught at the DWMA! By the time I regained my composer he was gone.
I heard the bell ring and I sprinted out to the field to find Naigus-sensei.
"Sorry I'm late!" Helena practically screeched as she came rushing into the room. I felt my eyes widened as she almost went careening into Stein. He moved out of her way and let her ram her face into the front row desk behind him. I could practically see the stars in her pale blue eyes as she stood up in a daze. "S-s-sorry…" she mumbles. I narrow my eyes as I look at Stein waiting for his reasoning for bringing her to this class.
"Helena!" Maka yelps as she rushes down to straighten her out. Tsubaki and Liz follow suit and I narrow my eyes more.
'What do they want with Helena?' I wonder curiously. Maka picks up Helena's bag as Tsubaki and Liz lead her into a chair near their group. When I look back at Stein he is staring straight at me.
"Ramla will you come down here please?" he asks so coyly.
"No," I say bluntly. A shift my head to the left to avoid being impaled by his scalpel. "What do you want Stein?" I bark.
"R-Ramla?" Helena mutters from across the room. Everyone is staring at me by this point and I growl as I stand up and move to the front. Stein stands up from him chair and places his glasses down on the podium.
"Let's go down to the training field," Stein says too chipper. The whole class stands up confused, but moves towards the door. I'm silently fuming the whole way down to the field and plotting ways to remove his head from his neck without killing him. Once we get out onto the grass we all circle up around Stein. "Helena if you would be so kind," he gestures for her to stand next to him.
"Y-yes!" she stutters and trots over to him. I could see her shaking slightly as she stood next to him. She hid her fear behind a confident mask well though.
"Ramla?" he questions.
"No," I snap at him again. He narrows his eyes at me before flicking his cigarette butt onto the ground.
"This time I am not asking," everyone in the circle visibly winced at his tone. I merely rolled my eyes, I went to stand on his other side with a huff. "Thank you."
"What now?" I question.
"Ox, Harvard come forward as well," the lightening spear and his meister step forward. "It is simple we are sparing today."
"What?!" I snap venomously. "I am not fighting these idiots!"
"What did you say you delinquent?!" Ox shouts at me.
"Shut up Ford! You and your bald-ass head give me a headache!" I seethe. Stein rests his hand on my head and I rage silently inwardly. "Fine," I grit out. "Helena transform!" I bark at her. In my rage she became paralyzed which only served to piss me off further. Harvard had already transformed and was in Ox's hands. Everyone has moved back to give us space as I stalk over to Helena. "This won't hurt," I say right before I attack her. "Forced Transformation!"
Helena screams as her body shifts without her permission into weapon form. I grab her hilt and spin it around my finger before gripping it tightly in my hand. Her hilt was bright gold and the color hurt my heart for only a moment. Her blade was long, but balanced beautifully with a slight blue hue to it. A small tassel hung from the hilt and sparkled in the sun. It was a pendant in the shape of a turtle of all thing. "H-hey! I ha-happen to like-like turtles!" she says indignantly. "Wh-what did y-you do to-to me Ramla?"
"Sorry, but you weren't moving at a suitable pace so I forced you to transform. It didn't hurt did it?" I ask genuinely concerned.
"No," she says.
"Let's fight then," I growl.
"Yes Ramla," she says without a stutter to be heard. I could hear others still getting over their shock at my ability. Stein moved off to the side to officiate this match. He blows out smoke as he stares at me.
'Helena can you hear me?'
'Ramla?! What are you doing in my head?!'
'I'm talking to you over our soul connection. I will warn you only once—do not go poking around in my soul or head. Got it?'
A silence met my demand and I was about to growl at her again when, 'okay Ramla…I won't look I promise.' While I know she can feel my reservations about her promise I force myself to relax.
'I won't use even a fraction of my powers got it?' was the only insight I was willing to give her since it could affect the battle if she was caught unaware by my power.
"Start!" Stein shouts. No further discussion could be had as Ox and Harvard rushed at us.
"Prepare yourself!" Ox shouts in an obnoxious superior tone. I twist out of the way of his first thrust with the spear. He spins around to jab me in the back with the handle, unfortunately for him I saw it coming. My blood responded to the excitement of a fight and started boiling.
"Ramla!" Helena shouts and I use her blade to deflect the blow. He stumbles back as I charge forward and thrust the blade slightly to the right of his face. "Yay! You landed a blow!" she cheers as blood trickles down her blade. I watched as the blood trailed down and hit the hilt causing my blood to rage. "R-Ramla…?" Helena said worriedly. I think someone else said my name, but I was rendered incapable of movement as the onslaught of memories overrode my logic.
With my senses derailed and my thought process shot I started to rely on pure instinct. "Resonance On," I say around a terrible grin.
"Ramla!" she screams as my soul sings with hers. Ox and Harvard are thrown back by the sheer force of the resonance. The resonance was shaky, but good enough. The turtle pendant wound itself up my arm until the pendant attached itself to my back and grew. Helena's blade became a flux between a solid and liquid and shimmered blue more brightly.
"That's interesting," I murmur between giggles. The hum of my soul was a familiar comfort and the zing of Helena's soul kept me grounded because it was frazzled against mine. Once her blade was attached to my arm and a protective shell encompassed my back I unleashed a feral growl as I jumped up and landed on the lowest roof.
"Ramla!" I screamed as suddenly a fuzzy feeling tingled in my bones and along my blade. Her soul was not as I was told they should look, hers was in one word scary. She had the most perfect clear skin that held an ivory hue and her hair was a beautiful wild mane of curls that shimmered gold and red in the sun. Her soul did not reflect any of the brightness her appearance exuded. Instead it was a dim light flickering weakly against mine and I think its darkness was to hide the depth of it.
"That's interesting," she giggles madly. Before I could ask her what was going on she leapt at least twenty feet straight up! We landed on the roof and the tingling sensation started to grow. "Bionic Eye."
"Ramla!" I try to yell firmly.
'Helena…' she says calmly. Too calmly. 'You have to reach into your own soul before this resonance will work. I won't force you.' I was so moved by the concern in her voice I was able to relax. Suddenly the tingling sensation stopped and I could see what she saw.
'W-what is th-that?'
'Just something I can do.'
'What do we do now?'
'Just hold onto your soul and this resonance and we'll see what you've got.' I close my eyes as I concentrate on the fight at hand. 'Can you sense them down there? All those souls.'
'Yes,' I think quietly. 'I can see them all through your eyes.'
"Good, now we are going to focus only on Ox and Harvard. When you're ready let me know.' I concentrate harder on two souls Ramla highlighted they seemed frustrated and confused.
'Go!' I shout.
"Here I come!" Ramla screams as she jumps high into the air. "Target Locked…Trajectory Set…Engage!" We go careening downward at a breakneck speed that I had to concentrate on not breaking the resonance in its wake. "Soul Paralysis!" We sliced straight through Ox and Harvard and landed heavily a few feet away from everyone. The next thing I hear is a strangled moan and a dull thud as Ox hits the ground and drops Harvard. "Resonance Off. Change back Helena," Ramla commands. When she releases my hilt I make sure to transform the moment I don't feel her fingers anymore. I do a quick cartwheel to stand back up straight.
"Th-that was a-a-amazing!" I squeal as I turn to look at her. Ramla's face was distraught as she stared at our fallen opponents. "Ramla?"
"What did you do?!" a small girl with bright pink hair screams at us. I freeze in terror at the sheer force of her words, Ramla tensed up. "He-he's not getting up…Ox Ford!"
Stein walked slowly up to them and checked their vitals. "Mhm interesting," he said almost exactly the same way as Ramla did earlier. "They are fine, their souls are currently in a suspended state." Stein pulls out a cigarette and lights it. "Couple hours and they'll be good as new."
"But Harvard isn't transforming back!" Maka shouts.
"Suspended state Miss Albarn," Stein starts sternly. "They can't do much of anything right now. Miss Diehl and Miss Dupré if you would be so kind as to take them to the nurse's office. Now for the next pairing…" I stopped listening as Ramla seemed to get progressively worse the longer he spoke.
'That rotten bastard…I'll kill him!' my mind rages and seethes as I watch Stein carry on as if nothing has happened. Now that I got carried away and resonated with Helena her presence is even harder to ignore. I stood in tense silence while I felt Helena fret over me which only caused my temper to flare higher. The rest of the class stayed far away from us and that also pissed me off.
When it was over they all moved back into the school and Helena fidgeted behind me. "Go. Away." I ground out between clenched teeth. Her hurt thrummed in my head as she squeaked and shuffled away. Stein stood there staring after the class as the tolls of the last bell fade away. "I'll kill you," I say.
"Not a good idea?"
"No," I spit. "I'm telling Shinigami-sama that I'm going back to Africa. This place is shit and I didn't think I could hate you any more than I did yesterday."
"Can't do that," he blows out smoke slowly. I hiss and snarl in response. "Your condition is much worse than I thought. Do you realize you almost consumed that girl's soul?" At this I was so started that my scowl fell off my face.
"I did not," I bite back. "I told her to hold on."
"But you did and I thought I was going to have to intervene but then it was all over. Lucky for me I got to see your Soul Paralysis again. Seems you had better luck this time," at this last jab I moved.
"Bastard!" I rush him but he blocks my punch. "How dare you speak of it?" I scream as I bring my other fist back and drive it into his kidney. He releases my first fist and I drop low and swipe at his feet. He jumps out of the way leaving his right side exposed and I took advantage of it by twisting on my left hand and kicking up into his gut with my right foot. "You weren't there!" I scream as my hurt overwhelmed me. "You—you weren't…there." My voice grew smaller and smaller. Stein stood then hunched slightly over holding his right side. "You have no right. You weren't there…I don't need your meddlesome help! I just want to be left alone Stein." I look at him wearily, "just leave me alone."
I turn on my heels quickly and sprint off campus. I never did notice that someone was watching the whole thing.