I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.
Kim was all but breaking down in fear as she walked towards the gates of Witch City. She had no lingering notions that the other witches would be very welcoming. She had practically had to sneak out of the place last time because of all the people trying to corner her about her magic. Though none of them had proof she used Restoration magic, when they asked for a demonstration of her destructive magic, she couldn't do it. She didn't have any.
She wanted nothing more than to run back to the safety of Death City, but she had no choice but to continue forward, pulled along by the Grand Witch's summons. Jackie had begged to be let to go with her, but showing up with a weapon would have made things even worse. Besides, it was forbidden to bring outsiders into a Witch's Mass. The only exception that was ever made was the samurai, Mifune, who guarded the young witch Angela, and that was only because Shaula vouched for him.
"Well well, if it isn't the little tanuki brat." One of the two witch guards that stood in front of the main gate to witch city said snidely at the sight of Kim. All the guards in the city wore the same dingo themed outfit with a grey vest and a dingo masked tarp hat, regardless of there own theme as witches. "What are you doing here?" She asked.
"I'm answering the call of the Grand Witch. Same as everyone else." Kim shrugged though her heart was pounding. In the back of her mind she was just replaying the lesson's from the DWMA. 'You can't live without fear, you just have to stop it from paralyzing you.'
Kim herself was dressed in her tanuki or raccoon-dog themed witch costume. A fuzzy robe with a scarf like a tanuki's tails and a cute raccoon-dog cap. Kim made to walk forward but the guards barred her way with their spears. More guards started to come out of darker areas.
"Oh really? Well rumor has it that you've been hanging around Death City." The second guard said with a smirk. It was the smirks that had made Kim leave Witch City, it was on almost every face. Only some of the younger children that had yet to fall to the sway of magic didn't have it. It made Kim feel sick to her stomach. "So, would you mind telling us what a little witch like you was doing in Death City? Because it is a serious offense to go there without the Grand Witch's permission." Kim knew she was trapped as the group cut off her retreat. She knew what this was really about. Her magic. Other witches went to Death City all the time without being called out about it, but since Kim's magic was taboo they were singling her out.
"She was working for me!" Someone shouted drawing everyone's attention. "And I believe I had Mabaa's permission to work as I saw fit as long as I didn't bring open war back to our covenant."
Kim couldn't believe her eyes. There stood Phantom, dressed in... a skirt. He was wearing a black long sleeved shirt with a black short skirt both with red trim. Around his neck was a red sash with a black Scorpio sign. He was walking with surprising confidence on high heel ruby slippers with small red scorpion stingers attached to them.
His hair had been dyed every shade of pink and purple and a black witch's hat that had a scorpion stinger on the point sat on his head. A twisted smile was on his face. His right eye was a brilliant green, but his left eye showed the pink and blue sign of Shaula's influence. If Kim was not so shocked she would have burst out laughing.
"Jōma Jōma Dabarāsa, sisters." Shaula said tilting her head so that the stinger on the hat swayed from side to side. "I am sorry for keeping you waiting, Kim. I am afraid that this new body is not as adept at the witches' butt writing as my old one was. And I needed to find some old clothes that were the right size."
"Sh... Shaula." One of the guards said, they all backed away trembling a little. "We... we all thought you were died."
"Well... though the tales of my demise were accurate, they did leave out a few important details." Shaula said placing a hand against Danny's face that was dominated by a playful smile. "Like that I acquired a new body and went into hiding so that Death and his dogs wouldn't find me. How nice of them to presume be gone. But I am surprised that my fellow witches didn't know better." The smile vanished. "Now I would like it very much if you would all step out of our way and let us through."
It was then that Kim noticed that Danny must have been in his ghost form because his soul exposed itself as a giant sphere. The massive green orb had a purple Scorpio Symbol on the front of it. The guards scattered to do as she said and Shaula walked passed Kim who fell into heel behind her. Kim stuck her tongue out at the guards as she passed.
After they were out of ear shot Danny's voice came out of the mouth. "Geez, what did Shaula do in order to make them piss themselves at the thought of making her mad?" Danny asked.
"I didn't have to do anything. Simply being a Gorgon is enough to make most witch's tread lightly." Shaula said shrugging the boy's shoulders. "Not all witches are on the same level. That group would be the lowest of the low. For them to stand up against a Gorgon would be like Maka going up against Stein without her Weapon partner."
"Phantom, what are you doing here?" Kim asked in a hushed voice.
Danny turned to her, his green eye in sharp focus. "I came to protect you." He said simply, causing Kim to stop in her tracks. "I'm not going to let you go into danger alone. If we get caught then we get caught together and we'll muscle our way out." He gave his own smile this time. The goofy one that made Kim feel like they were just back at school making jokes about what Kid's underwear drawers must look like. "We're Academy students. It's what we do. You'd do the same for me."
Kim smiled back. "Thanks Phantom... I'm really glad your here." She said touching his hand.
Danny blushed and looked away scratching the back of his neck. "You um... you look pretty cute in your witch's garb." Danny said.
Kim giggled. "You don't look that bad yourself. Though I think the short skirt was a bit much." She said, causing Danny to fall over embarrassed.
"Um... could you consider not telling Sam or Black Star about this... like ever." Danny mumbled before pushing himself up. He wobbled a bit in the heels. "Geez. Shaula's pretty good at walking in these things but I can't move in a straight line." Danny mumbled.
"You can just go barefoot you know? It's a pretty common practice among witches." Kim said helping to steady her friend. "But without them, you won't be taller than me anymore." She added poking fun of him.
Danny grumbled as he kicked off the ruby slippers and charged up a ectoblast, reducing the things to ash. "That was a little over kill." Shaula's voice came out of his mouth. "And those slippers went with the look so well."
"You're enjoying this aren't you?" Kim asked.
"Nes." Danny and Shaula's answers conflicted on the way out. Kim started to giggle again as Danny and Shaula had an internal conflict moment.
"Alright you two. We should probably hurry before we are late." She said before gabbing Danny's hand and pulling him forwards a little before letting it go and walking by his side.
"So... what are these masses like?" Danny asked.
"Like history class." Kim said rolling her eyes.
They walked towards the middle of witch city and found the congregation. Danny quickly realized that he was going to have to let Shaula do all the talking if he didn't want to be spotted.
The city square of Witch City was a rather depressing place. Everything looked ancient and unkempt, even more so than the rest of the city.
'This really is a depressing place.' Danny said to Shaula within his own soul.
'Most witches don't actually live in Witch City. It is mostly for the elders.' Shaula said. 'They tend to be more old fashioned than the rest of us.'
'You're eight hundred years old and you call them the elders?' Danny said a little shocked. 'They've got to be ancient.'
'No they aren't as old as I am, but neither are they immortal. Someday they will grow old and die and be replaced.' Shaula said. 'With the exception of the Grand Witch, Mabaa. She is eternal and at her prime she was as powerful as Lord Death. Of course, you would already know this, if you payed any attention in your history classes.'
As Danny grumbled at the low blow Shaula looked around the gathered witches and spotted one figure that stuck out. He was standing tall above the others with his long gray hair and rather tan skin. Even without the basket of swords, the samurai Mifune gave off an aura of danger that kept most of the witches away from him and his charge.
"Mifune, how much longer until it starts?" The five year old witch, Angela, asked. She was sitting on his shoulders in order to see the front stage more clearly.
"Please be patent, Angela. Asking will not make it start any faster." Mifune said in his deep voice. He was kind as ever to the little girl, showing his fatherly nature. Mifune had sworn his sword to defending children. A trait that Shaula had spotted and was the reason that she trusted the man. He was her proof that human's were not the witches' enemies. She had at one time believe that the only true enemy of witches was Lord Death who had marked them as evil. But after her mind had been cleared she realized that it was the sway of magic, a witch's own destructive tendencies that were the true enemy. A problem that was much harder to fix.
"It is good to see you are both doing so well. How are you, Samurai?" Shaula asked a teasing note in her voice.
The Samurai twitched slightly. "That is not my name..." He grumbled but then realizing what he had just said he turned and looked down to see the stinger like hat right beneath him. "Shaula?" He asked confused.
"Big sister?" The little chameleon witch asked turning to looked down from Mifune's shoulders.
But when the head tilted upwards they saw the mismatched eyes looking up at them. The face was familiar even with the dyed hair and different eyes. "Big brother?" Then she started to scratch her head. "Wait... so big brother is big sister?"
Mifune's eyes darkened and he looked down at Shaula. "How could you... he only wished for peace." He said through gritted teeth. "He was such a good child. And you took his body from him." Mifune clenched his fists. Even without his blades, the 'God of Swords' was still as powerful as a hundred men. And his rage was something that few could withstand.
"It isn't like that, Mifune." The boy said snapping Mifune out of his anger. Shaula had never called him by his name. She had made a point of only ever calling him Samurai because she knew how much it bugged him. "After Shaula lost her body... to the Kishin, I took what was left of her soul in so that she could survive."
"You took in the soul of a powerful enemy that did such horrible things?" Mifune asked raising an eyebrow.
"Oh thanks a lot, Samurai." Danny's arms crossed in front of him and he made a pouty face. But then the face went back to normal. "You did the same." He said as Angela climbed down to get a closer look at Danny.
"So you're big sister Shaula and big brother Phantom?" She said crease her brow in concentration. "I know, I'll call you big sister brother for now on." She said grinning widely at her own cleverness.
Shaula laughed a little and picked up the little witch. "Alright, go ahead." She said, but inside of their soul Danny was wincing at the joined nickname.
"I won't tell you to change your path, though you have chosen a dangerous one." Mifune said, but then he gave a small smile. "It was nice to have Shaula finally use my name for a change."
Danny's mismatched eyes blinked then he made the pouty face again. "That wasn't me, that was Phantom." Shaula complained.
"Same thing." Mifune said, proud that he was finally the one annoying her.
"Hey it's starting!" Angela said loudly pointing towards the stage were a small witch dress in a black robe held together with over sized safety pins. On top of the figure's head was a white witch's hat with small rips in it that looked like two eyes and a mouth.
'Mabaa.' Shaula said in side of Danny's soul and Danny could sense her admiration for the short witch. As Mabaa turned to them Danny could see that one of her eyes was missing, a bandage went over one side of her face and written on the bandage was 1/2.
Other than her one red eye and some tufts of white hair, Danny couldn't really make out any of her features, he had no idea if she looked young or old. But she gave off a timeless feel, close to the one that Danny got from Clockwork. She seemed more ghostly than most of the ghosts that Danny had ever met.
Mabaa flouted up in front of the group, and the Witches' Mass began.
(Sorry for interrupting the flow of the story, but someone really needs to write a story were Danny is Mabaa's grandson or something and has to inherit the role of leader of the witches.)
Danny had to be one of the only living none witches to ever witness a Witches' Mass. That was still not enough to stop him from being bored. Most of the lines they kept repeating didn't even have translations.
From what he understood they were talking about Eibon, the great sorcerer who was once known as the Madness through Knowledge. Apparently he was the one that passed on the knowledge of magic to the lesser beings, teaching the lesser sorcerers and the witches.
Seemed pretty ironic considering he also was part of the big hunting party that tried to make said people extinct. But they still worshiped him as their god.
"Jōma Jōma Dabarāsa." Mabaa said concluding the sermon.
'Kim was right, that was like history class.' Danny said mentally yawning. 'Made no sense and almost put me to sleep.' Though the truth was that the Grand Witch's voice was hypnotic. It was neither young nor old, heavily nor soft, deep nor light, but it seemed to have all these qualities at once. The only thing that Danny could compare it to was Clockwork's all knowing speech.
'I would like you to show more respect for Mabaa.' Shaula mentally snapped at Danny. 'Think what you wish about us witches, but Mabaa is a good and honest leader.'
As Mabaa went to exit the audience, Shaula moved in to talk to her. 'What are you doing? We need to minimize contact.' Danny said concerned but Shaula ignored him.
"Jōma Jōma Dabarāsa, Mabaa." Shaula said as she approached the Grand Witch, she even bowed to Danny's shock. Shaula wasn't exactly the bowing type.
Mabaa turned to her... or them really. "Shaula... it is so good to see you are here today." Mabaa said. "I was worried that you would not make it."
"I wouldn't mess it." Shaula said giving an actually happy smile. Not one of the snide ones that she had been faking since she had returned to Witch City.
Mabaa spread out her arms. "Come closer, my eye sight isn't as good as it used to be." She said.
Shaula ran forward and gave the little woman a hug. "It's so good to see you again, Mabaa. You haven't changed at all." She said happily.
"Oh, but you have changed so much, my child." Mabaa said moving back a step to get a better look at Shaula. "So this is what the words of Fate had meant. A cruel trick he has played on you."
Shaula sighed. "Yes, you will lose your mind, body, and soul before you see your sister witches free. Though I can honestly say it didn't turn out the way I had expected it to."
Mabaa lifted up a hand and pulled the witch's hat off of Danny's head before placing her hand on it. "It could have been much worse. At least the boy looks good in a skirt." She said playfully, causing Shaula to giggle at the horror she felt coming from Danny. Mabaa lean in. "Now you better take good care of my Shaula, boy. Or else you will find out just how frightening this old witch can be." She said and her red eye flashed.
Danny then realized that the old witch knew perfectly well that he was in there. "Yes ma'am." Danny gulped.
Mabaa leaned back again and replaced the hat. "Good luck you two." She said before turning and flying away.
'When I was only Angela's age, my whole village was destroyed by Death and his Eight Powerful Warriors. I was the only survivor, spared by the Madness through Fate, who said that I would one day lead an attack on Death to free the witches from his attacks.' Shaula said to Danny as they watched the Grand Witch flying away. 'He also said I would lose my body, mind and soul before my fellow witches were finally free of the witch hunts. It isn't until now that I realize what really needs to be done in order to free us.'
'Sounds like something Clockwork would do.' Danny admitted thinking back to his own dealings with the ghost. 'Force you to shoot yourself in the foot to teach you a lesson about life.'
'After my village was destroyed, the other witches didn't want to take me into Witch City. They said I was infected by the Warriors' madness.' Shaula said. 'They were right, but I had nowhere else to go. It was Mabaa spoke up for me. She brought me into the city and protected me until I was strong enough to protect myself. She inspired me.'
'You could have picked worse role models.' Danny admitted.
"Shaula, Phantom." Kim said in a hushed voice as she came up next to them. "Look who's here." She said pointing towards a small opening in the gathered witches. Standing in the middle were three witches and a small girl... or maybe it was a very girly boy in a black robe... with dull pink hair.
One of the witches was wearing what Danny could only describe as a python skin pimp coat over her normal black witches garb. She had a hood pulled up over her hair so they couldn't see her head from behind, but she had both her hands shoved into the mouths of two other witches.
"You meddlesome little frog and mouse." The snake pimp witch said making reference to the themes of the other two witches. "I think I'm going to have to punish you."
"That's enough Medusa. This place is sacred, you know that." Shaula said stepping forward to stop the pimp witch.
Medusa paused and slowly pulled her hands out of the other witches' mouths before swinging her arms fast to get rid of the saliva before turning to Danny/Shaula. "Well isn't this a surprise. Since when have you had the balls to call me out, baby sister." Medusa said with a serpent like grin on her face. The two witches that had been violated stumbled away spitting curses. "So the rumors flying around today are true, you've returned from the died as a teenage boy. How amusing. Or are you just a very flat chested girl like Crona?" She said glancing at the pink haired girl. She had one of the most defeated looks on her face that Danny had ever seen.
"Hello Crona. I hope you've been doing well." Shaula said giving the girl a gentle smile.
"Hel...hello Aunt Shaula." Crona said with a smile that reminded Danny of a kicked puppy. Her eyes were droopy and didn't change every as her cheeks struggled to turn up.
Medusa glared at the girl and her smile disappeared. "I would ask you to stay way from my things, Shaula." Medusa snapped.
'Holy crap...' It was the only thing Danny could think.
'I know...' Shaula thought back. 'But it gets worse...'
"Crona is not a thing, Medusa." Shaula said out loud. "And you need to stop."
"What ever do you mean little sister?" Medusa claimed ignorance.
"I mean you need to stop trying to turn Crona into a Kishin." Shaula said grimly. If Danny was still in control of the body, his eyes would have bugged out. "Don't pretend you can't still feel the effects of Pain's soul waves. And that was after just a few minutes. Creating a Kishin is too dangerous."
"So says the witch who actually created one." Medusa said an electric black snake exiting her mouth snapping at them before disappearing. "I can honestly say I am a little jealous. Her I've put years of research into creating a true Kishin, and you manage on complete accident, while my attempt seems to be failing. Even if the one you made just fell to pieces in the end."
"Pain should only be proof that you need to stop. We are only lucky that the monster self-destructed when it did." Shaula said lying about how Pain met his end. "Don't you care at all what happens to your daughter after she becomes a Kishin?" That was another heavy blow to Danny's mind.
"Don't ask such ridiculous questions, of course I care." Medusa said a serpent's smile on her face. "She will bring about madness throughout the world and get rid of this boring order that Death has placed us in." Medusa's soul pressed outwards to intimidate her little sister.
Shaula was trying to stay calm, but Danny felt a shiver of fear spread though her soul. She was afraid of her sister. A deep seeded fear began to paralyze her.
Danny took over, taking several steps forward passed Medusa and up to Crona. Placing a hand on the frail looking girl's head he ruffled her hair a little. "Don't worry. I won't let that happen to you." He said causing the girl's eyes to widen in shock.
A spray of black blood shot out of the girl's back. It all twisted around itself until it formed an overly muscled black human like figure sticking out of Crona's back. It's entire body was black except for a white X on its face and its white eyes on either side of the mark.
'Ewww.' Danny thought and only his time as a ghost hunter stopped his from visibly gagging at the sight. 'Is... is that blood? Black blood?'
'Yeah... did you have to go and do that?' Shaula said inside of Danny's soul.
"You think you can stop us! Don't make me laugh!" The black blood shouted at Danny. Danny didn't even know how he did it. There was no visible mouth and did the blood have lungs?
"Stop it Ragnarok, you're being rude." Crona said weakly.
"Shut up!" Ragnarok said hitting Crona on the head. Though his link with Shaula he could sense that the weapon meister combo were on the level as his human form while holding Sam.
"That is the question though. How do you think you are going to stop me?" Medusa asked tapping a finger against the side of her cheek. "I would guess that you lost most of your magic when Pain stripped your soul, and you were never a match for me to begin with."
Danny felt his anger rising as Ragnarok was picking on Crona. After all, this was the person that had left Soul in a hospital bed. And even if he couldn't bring himself to hate Crona, he could easily hate Ragnarok. He lifted up one hand and grabbed onto Ragnarok's face. Danny's right eye changed from green to blue and Ragnarok screamed as ice spread across his body from the point of contact.
Medusa seemed genuinely startled by this. "I may have lost most of my magic." Danny said pretending to be Shaula. "But being inside of the former vessel to a true Kishin does have it's benefits." Danny then turned and walked away passed a shocked Medusa. "I don't have to be afraid of you any more." He said as his soul expanded out to its full size, it was only a little bit smaller than Medusa's own.
"Come Kim, we are leaving." Danny said. Shaula took over again and added as they left. "Jōma Jōma Dabarāsa, sister."
'Thank goodness Mabaa is your role-model and not that witch.' Danny mentally grumbled as they walked out of the main gate the guards jumping out of the way.
'Indeed.' Shaula agreed. 'So much for not being noticed. You made quite a seen out in front of all those witches."
"Well today was an experience." Kim said before turning to them. "Thanks again for coming with me today Phantom. It means a lot to me." She said causing Danny to flush. "So are you going to be a gentleman and open up the gate for us?"
"Oh, su..." Danny started but Shaula took over.
"Isn't it tradition that the youngest witch opens up the gate?" Shaula said as a grin passed along Danny's face.
Kim flushed. "But Phantom is a year younger than I am." She pointed out.
"But he isn't a witch, I am, and I am eight hundred years your senor." Shaula said. "So what are you waiting for? Show some respect for your elders."
Kim grumbled miserable but did as tradition required of her. Danny tried to shut his eyes but Shaula kept the blue and pink left eye open. So Danny watched as Kim flipped up her skirt and began to write the command to open up the gate in the air using her butt.
As Danny flushed he couldn't help but wonder why Mabaa would require such a ritual in order to enter or exit Witch City. It was then that Danny realized where Shaula had gotten her perverted tendencies from.
"So where were you two yesterday?" Sam asked Danny and Shaula back at school the following morning.
"Don't ask." Danny whimpered thinking about how he had been forced to parade around in front of a bunch of witches in a mini skirt. Though the image of Kim in her witch's garb did make it easier on him.
Standing outside of there classroom was a large group of people giggling. "Wonder what's up?" Sam said.
They turned the corner and went into the class room to find Black Star and Kid staring in horror at three large banners with pictures of Excalibur on the tops of them. Two of them read, 'I will always be waiting', followed by either the names Black Star and Death the Kid. Under the third was, 'And you as well, my beloved Kim'.
Standing in front of that one was Jackie with her hand turned into a lanterns as she set the thing on fire. "Best if Kim doesn't see this." She said shivering.
Danny gave a mental sigh of relief. Glad that he had never actually tried to pull the sword. He had only been there when Kim had done it. 'We are going to have to kill that thing one of these days.'
;-)
Danny could have sworn he saw the flaming one wink at him.
Another chapter down.
The butt writing thing is in the Manga, though in the original story the Witches' Mass didn't take place in Witch City.
I feel a little unsatisfied by this chapter, probably because I mostly just introduced characters into the story and did a bit of recapping on exposition from my last story.
According to the manga, Mifune has a super soul which is the equivalent of a hundred human souls. Making him super powerful.
Mabaa is also mostly only mentioned in the manga, her them is supposed to be Ravens, but she seems more like a ghost to me. I'm not saying that I will change it.
Plans for the future:
The only thing keeping me going is looking out onto the horizon and seeing the five or six extremely epic fights that are coming up(Danny vs Medusa, Kim + Repede + Blair vs Army + Mizune Sisters + Monotone Princess, Danny vs Asura, Black Star + Friendship vs Excalibur, Black Star + Repede + Sam vs Mifune + brain washed Kim, Sam + Tsubaki + Estelle vs Mosquito (maybe)). I've even jumped the gun a little and started writing the chapter that builds up to the fight between Black Star and Excalibur on the side. I'm building an entire new back ground story for Excalibur based on the mechanics of the anime 'The Sacred Black Smith' showing how he developed from a simple enchanted sword into a bringer of madness, full of tragedy and irony.
I was going to have people vote on what kind of magic Danny was going to have, but then someone pointed out to me that I had already made Black Star legally change Danny's name to Phantom Moon, so moon magic it is. Be kind of nice consider (SPOILER)***** ******* **** ***** (SPOILER ENDED) goes down at the end of the manga. I really just picked Moon for Danny's name because it went with him being Black Star's apprentice, and because Sam means Sun.
I am also debuting what to do for Danny and Kim's mission before the big dance where (SPOILER)***** ******* **** ***** (SPOILER ENDED). I am divided between a desire to bring in more of the Ghost Zone elements into the picture and the actual time it would take to write. If I just have Danny go on the mission to the ghost ship that Kid was supposed to take than I could probably write the entire thing in just one chapter, just one day even. But if I make him fight against the essence of Aragon's amulet, then I can add a lot more depth to the connection between the worlds but it could make it take anywhere from two to three chapter and probably two weeks to write it all.
And how am I going to hand Repede and Black Star's mission. Interweaving the two mission together and having it skip between the two would be interesting if it could go with the flow of events. It would also make it so that I don't go an entire chapter without mentioning Danny or Sam's involvement in the story. But at the same time it could be a lot of work... Also I would have to find a way of lengthening the ghost ship story if I was going to do that. I would probably have to write them both out completely before weaving them together, meaning it could be a while until the next update.
I was going to wait until after I got my beta to read this before posting it, but I can't sleep right now, so I am just going to post it and then replace the chapter later.
Now that I think about it, Soul was infected with the Black Blood when he was cut open by Ragnarok, but Stein was shot by Ragnarok's blood needles directly... twice without getting infected. The FUCK?
Then again, do we even want to see Stein hipped up on Black Blood.
