" A sound soul resides within a sound mind and a sound body... "
-- C H A P T E R F O U R --
- Mission Time!: I Guess We Shouldn't Have Stopped To Rest... -
"Ohayo(Good Morning), Shinigami-sama!" I said as I skipped happily into the Reaper's "office".
"Hi-hi, Hello-Hello Anko, Takkun." he answered as he turned around.
"What is it that you need from us, Shinigami-sama?" Takkun asked politely.
"I have another mission for you two."
"CHYEAAAA! NO DISSECTIONS FOR US TODAY!" I said with flames in my eyes. Shinigami laughed at my energy as Takkun hung his head, a little embarrassed.
"My, my, aren't we excited. Well, anyway your mission is going to be to rescue a girl and her weapon from some tainted human souls. I'm not very sure why they captured her, but I'm positive that they'll eat their souls if we don't get there soon." Shinigami said.
"Okie, dokie! We'll be on ou-" I was interrupted by the sound of echoing footsteps. Takkun and I looked back to see Kid walk in, Liz and Patty at his sides.
"My son, Death the Kid-kun, will be going with you. I think it will take more than just the two of you to complete this mission." Shinigami-sama said. I smiled at Kid, he smirked back at me. Behind him, Patty was waving like a lunatic and Liz was hanging her head, embarrassed of her sister. I looked back at Takkun, he was glaring lightning bolts at Kid, but as soon as Liz lifted up her head, that look melted away and his cheeks flushed with a cherry red colour. As I looked at Liz, she had the same look on her face as she was looking at Takkun. I smirked and started to chuckle a little, looking back and forth and both of them, but Takkun was so intuned to Liz flipping her hair back that he didn't even notice and Liz was too far away to hear. As the three of them approached us, I raised my hand up and closed Takkun's slightly open mouth. His face turned more red and he faked a cough to break the awkward air. Lucky for him, Liz didn't notice that his mouth had opened.
"Well now, since you haven't met my son or his weapons yet, Takkun, here they are. This is my son, Death the Kid, and his weapons, Liz and Patty Thompson." Shinigami said. Takkun shook his head a couple times, messing his hair up a little and put on his "cool" act, as usual.
"Hi..." He said, pretending not to care about them.
"Okay then, Shinigami-sama!" I said facing him.
"We'll be off! Ja-ne!(Later)" I said, bowing. Everyone else did the same and then we all left the room.
"Ne, ne!(Hey, hey!) Kid-kun! Maybe now you can make a mo-" Before Patty could finish her sentence, Liz clamped her hand over her sisters mouth and whispered something in her ear after seeing Kid blush slightly. The five of us walked up to the mission board and placed the dog tag that meant "taken" on the card for the mission. It was boxed off, separated from the others, meaning that the mission was unavailable to any student of Shibusen and for an elite member of the staff. Technically, Takkun and I were school staff so I guess it was okay. After doing so, we all walked out of the doors of Shibusen.
"The place we have to go to is pretty far away. How do you intend on getting there?" I asked Kid. He smirked back at me and raised his right hand parallel to the ground with his left in his pocket. An energy came out of his hand and created a small portal on the ground. Out of that portal, came what looked like a skateboard. He looked at Liz and Patty. They nodded to him and both transformed into their weapon forms. He caught them and then got onto the skateboard. It lifted up into the air and its wheels turned to their sides.
"Not bad." I said, as he smiled at me from in the air.
"How about you? Don't tell me I'm going to have to carry you there." Kid said.
"Nah, I've got my ways." I said. Takkun transformed into his weapon form as I extended my hand out. I caught him and put him on my back. Then I tapped my foot and a red portal opened next to me. I looked down it, putting my pointer finger and thumb in my mouth, and whistled loudly. The whistle echoed for a couple seconds and a large demon wolf, about 10ft big(picture on my site), jumped out of the portal. Once it was out into the world above, the void closed. Kid stood there a little shocked. I walked up to the wolf and hugged it tightly.
"Haven't seen ya in a while, Tsume! Did ya miss me, boy?" I asked, rustling Tsume's fur. He barked once as his nine tails waved happily.
"Awwh, I feel bad leaving you all alone there. Maybe I can let you stay in my room without Stein noticing... you know the only reason I keep you down there is because he's allergic to dogs." I said. Tsume licked me and I laughed.
"Ready to go?" I asked Kid, smirking.
"Y-yeah, let's go...." Kid answered, a little shocked by the huge demon wolf in front of me. I laughed and hopped on top of Tsume. I pet him lightly and whispered the word "fly" in his ear. He seemed to nod and jumped up into the air. Once he was airborn, his paws lit on fire and he now how the ability to stand in the air.
"Pretty impressive, eh?" I asked Kid when I was next to him. All I got from him was a "hmph".
"Well, not like I care how you travel. All I know is that I'm going to be WAY more comfortable than you. AND! I get to take a nap while we go there." I said.
"What do you mean?" Kid asked.
"Kid, this is Tsume. Tsume this is Kid." I said, pointing to Tsume and then Kid. Kid had a quizzed look on his face.
"Follow Kid where ever he goes, Tsume!" I yelled. I leaned my head against the back of Tsume's neck and wrapped my arms around him. Seconds after that I was snoring, sound asleep.
"Oi! Anko!" said a voice behind me. I groaned and opened by eyes. A hand came out from behind my back and knocked on my head.
"Ite!(ow!)" I said.
"Wake your ass up, we're almost there!" said Takkun, still in his weapon form. I sat up and yawned, stretching my arms.
"Have a good nap?" asked Kid. I was a little shocked after hearing his voice since I had completely forgotten that he was there. He laughed when he saw me jump up while stretching. I looked around me and saw that it was already nighttime. When we left Death City, it was only two in the afternoon. Kid slowly descended from the altitude he was at and landed on the ground quietly. Tsume did the same. When we were on the ground, he surveryed the area first. After seeing that there were no demons around, Tsume turned into a miniature version of the big wolf that he was and jumped into my arms. Takkun had already turned into his human form, as well as Liz and Patty.
"Ugh, my back..." Takkun said as he put his two hand on his lower back and stretched it forward. It cracked loudly and he moaned in pain. Liz and Patty were stretching out as well.
"We'll rest here for a while and then rescue the Shibusen student and her weapon." Kid said.
"Sou-" I started, but I was interrupted by Takkun.
"Who said you were the leader of this?" he said.
"I did." Kid said calmly, brushing off the leaves that had gotten caught on his jacket when he landed.
Takkun glared at Kid and was about to say something, but I put my hand up.
"Shinigami-sama didn't elect a leader for this party, so we all have a say in what we do. You, Liz and Patty obviously are tired of staying in your weapon forms, so I think it would be a good idea if we rested for a while. Besides, we're close enough and Kid and I can see the souls of the two that are trapped. If the condition that they're in changes we'll be able to get there in time before anything happens." I said. Takkun grunted and then walked away. I sighed, watching him walk away for a little and then turned to Kid, Liz and Patty.
"Sorry about that, he doesn't like you very much to be honest..." I said.
"But Liz likes him!" Patty yelled.
"Patty! You're not supposed to say things like that out loud!" Liz said hitting her on the head. I laughed and Kid sighed.
"It's okay, I'm pretty positive that Takkun feels the same way." I said as I sat down at the base of the tree behind me with Tsume on my lap. He fell asleep almost immediately.
"You must be tired, huh?" I said, looking down and petting him. I looked at Kid as he sat next to me and smiled. Then I looked at Liz and Patty. Patty was pushing Liz towards where Takkun was standing. She was struggling against her, but then Patty picked her up and slung her over her shoulder. She walked up to Takkun and faced him with a big smile and her sister still over her shoulder.
"Hello! Talk to my sister, she thinks you're cute!" Patty said before putting Liz down in front of Takkun. Then she took a huge step back. Liz looked at Takkun and blushed then tried to run away, but Patty stretched one of her arms prevented Liz from going anywhere, still with a smile on her face. Tsume perked up his head and then looked at Kid. He stood up and jumped from my lap to his. Then he slowly walked around in a circle, as if chasing his tails, three times and sat down, curling his nine tails around his body. I giggled seeing that Kid didn't even have time to respond to the demon cub before he feel asleep.
"I think he likes you." I said as I took out a box of Pocky that was in my back pocket and opened it. They were the classic chocolate flavor, my favorite. Besides dango, chocolate Pocky was my favorite sweet. I put a stick in my mouth and then extended the box to Kid.
"Want some?" I asked.
"Sure." He said, taking a stick. I put the box down in the middle of us.
"You always have snacks on you..." he said after taking a bite out of his pocky stick. I got an angry vein on the top of my head.
"Are you trying to say something...?" I asked. Kid laughed.
"No, no, nothing like that." he said.
"Well, I'm kinda named after food..." I said.
"Anko...It's a nice name though." Kid answered. I looked at him and turned away blushing. I honestly couldn't handle how cute he was.
"Why do you always do that when you look at me?" He asked.
"D-Do what?" I asked.
"You look at me for a second and then turn away..." All of a sudden, Kid went on his hands and knees, his head close to the floor. Tsume growled when he fell off of Kid's lap and glared at him for a couple seconds before he created a small portal back to the underworld and jumped into it. Patty came out from behind the tree we were leaning against. She pointed at Kid and started laughing at him.
"Nee-chan! Nee-chan!(Sister!) It's starting!" she said, still laughing.
"Is it my hair? It's my hair... so unsymmetrical! So disgusting! I'm not fit to even be looked at because of it... One side is black and the other had three white stripes!" He said, sobbing on the floor.
"N-No, it's not that.... I-I like you're hair.... Eh..." I said with a huge sweatdrop on my head. I looked at Liz who had just walked up to us. She was next to Patty with Takkun behind her.
"W-What do I do about this...?" I asked her. She sighed and shook her head.
"Even if you try and tell him otherwise, it won't work... You have to wait until he gets over it... He's kind of big on symmetry. The reason why we were so late on our first day at school is because he had to make sure everything in the house was symmetrical, which took him three hours to do." she answered. The sweatdrop on my head grew bigger when I looked back down at Kid. He was lying down, rocking back and forth on the floor in the fetal position, trying to cover up the white stripes on his hair.
"I see...." I said, continuing to watch him in his time of "trauma". Patty continued to point and laugh while Liz stood there next to her with her head hung. Takkun was looking at him as if he had just seen a balloon eat a cat. After a couple more minutes, Kid's condition remained the same and Liz bent down next to him.
"It's alright Kid, she said she liked your hair. Everyone likes it! I know for sure that the students that we're going to save will love your hair, no matter what!" Liz said, attempting to comfort him. This attempt obviously failed, seeing that Kid didn't get up.
"N-No they won't... when they see how unsymmetrical I am, they probably, no they definately won't want me to save them..." Kid said, rocking back and forth more.
"That's the same exact thing he said when we were supposed to 'save' Maka, Soul, Black Star and Tsubaki from Stein during their remediation. Except the reason was because he thought that he didn't fold the toliet paper after going to the bathroom..." Liz said sighing again. At this point, Patty was on the floor, laughing so hard that her stomach was cramping.
"I-I'm gonna piss myself!" She yelled in between laughing.
"I'm a failure... I-" Kid snapped out of his "traumatised state"and stopped mumbling as both of us felt a disturbance in the wavelengths of the souls around us. We both looked towards the camp. Patty stopped laughing and tilted her head to the side once she saw that Kid was no longer rolling on the floor. Both of us stood up. I looked at the souls of the Shibusen students, but saw that there was nothing wrong with them.
"Something's changed... but it's not the students. They're still the same as they were before..." I thought to myself.
"What's wrong?" Takkun asked as he stepped closer to me.
"It's too quiet..." I said.
"Is it the students?" Liz asked.
"LOOK OUT!" Kid yelled. Him, Patty and Liz had already jumped back a couple feet. Takkun and I rolled away as quickly as we could, barely escaping the huge spider that landed on the tree we were by before, completely obliterating it. I got chills up my spine when the huge, 20 foot tarantula turned around and looked at you and Takkun. I hated spiders so much.
"Takkun!" Liz screamed.
"Anko, Takkun! Are you okay?" Kid asked from across the spider.
"EEEEK! HUGE SPIDER!" I screamed.
The spider seemed to "grin" as it looked at me.
"Ohh, what do we have here? A scared little girl and her boyfriend playing hero and coming to save their friends. That's cute...." It said. I looked at it's soul, this thing before us definately was human at a time.
"How could a human turn into something like this...?" I thought to myself.
"You'll pay for saying that..." I said as I raised my hand out in front of me. The tarantula laughed.
"Talking big now, aren't you?! And what's with those eyes! You look as if you actually think that you can even scratch me!" It said, continuing to laugh and ridicule me.
"Takkun... Let's take care of this." I said calmly, glaring at the tarantula. Now, he made a mistake. Takkun looked at me and nodded before he jumped into my hand in his weapon form.
"Soul Protect, 7th gate.... Kai...(Release...)" I said softly.
.!.!.!.KID'S P.O.V.!.!.!.
I had already noticed that there was a disturbance in the conditions of the soul wavelengths around us. Then, I sensed something toward us. I thought that Anko would notice it right away, so I jumped back. Liz and Patty mirrored my actions. By the time I had landed, Anko and Takkun were still in the same spot.
"LOOK OUT!" I yelled. Takkun and Anko rolled away just in time, barely escaping the huge spider that landed on the tree we were by before, completely obliterating it. A large cloud of dirt and dust blocked us from seeing anything but the rear of gigantic spider.
"Takkun!" Liz screamed.
"Anko, Takkun! Are you okay?" I asked from across the spider.
"EEEEK! HUGE SPIDER!" Anko screamed.
"I guess that means she's okay..." I thought to myself.
"Ohh, what do we have here? A scared little girl and her boyfriend playing hero and coming to save their friends. That's cute...." It said.
"You'll pay for saying that..." Anko said. Something in her voice changed. I could sense her anger from over here.
"Talking big now, aren't you?! And what's with those eyes! You look as if you actually think that you can even scratch me!" It said, laughing.
"Takkun... Let's take care of this." Anko said calmly, glaring at the tarantula. I saw a flash of light, but since the dust cloud still hadn't cleared and the spider was in the way, I couldn't see anything but a flash of light.
"Takkun must have transformed... Damn, I want to see him in his weapon form." I thought to myself. I reached my hands out.
"Liz! Patty!" I said. They both acknowledged me and then transformed into their weapon forms. I got ready and aimed at the spider.
"Soul Protect, 6th gate.... Kai...(Release...)" Anko said softly. I looked through the spider's soul at her's. Before, I wasn't able to fully see it. It looked as if it were caged behind something, for I could only see part of it. When I looked closer I saw ten gates. One of them was open and only through there could I see part of her soul. After she spoke, three more of the "gates" blasted open, revealing more of her soul. It's color was magenta, as expected of a witch. All of a sudden she disappeared.
"Where'd she go?!" I thought to myself, putting up my guard. I looked to the sky and saw Anko there, a higly detailed demon bow in hand with an arrow made of compressed soul energy ready to fire.
"Kid!" Patty yelled. I shook my head as I sensed another soul. Another spider emerged, just like the other except smaller. This one was about half the size of the other one. I jumped out of the way and dodged it just in time. It came down from the sky just as the other one had done. Two more this size came from the air, I successfully evaded all of them, but now they had me surrounded and appeared to be laughing. I eyed the three of them and began to fight. From time to time, I quickly glanced back at Anko. She had already fired the shot at the spider. It had done a considerable amount of damage, but the huge spider had more than that. I saw her lips move, but didn't understand what she had said. As she was falling down from the air, she disappeared before she landed on the spider and again she was in the air. She whistled loudly, just like she had done before we left. Tsume jumped out of a portal and she landed on top of him. She circled the large spider, rapidly firing compressed soul arrows at it. It screamed loudly and then stood up on it's hind legs. I could tell from the look on her face that she was getting fed up since the thing just wouldn't die.
"Takkun! Close Ranged Mode!" She screamed. Takkun, silently acknowledged her request and turned into a double bladed weapon with a shield in the middle. She leaped off of Tsume higher into the air. As she came down, she had caught on fire and she held the blade ready to strike as it charged up with soul energy. The spider tried to move, but then all of it's legs were suddenly bound by what looked like solid, yet liquid, "strings" of blood enfused with soul energy.
"That ability... those two weapon modes... Takkun, you must be one of the few of the Ryoushi(Hunter) Clan left..." I thought to myself, while still fighting the spiders. I had been so interested in Anko's fighting style, that I hadn't even bothered to conterattack the spiders. I had just been evading all of their attacks. I was too focused on watching Anko. She was not one to be underestimated. Anko let out a battlecry as her and Takkun met the spider, slicing it perfectly in half. The tarantula screamed as the two ripped through its body. Blood, guts and slime spewed all over, but before they hit the ground, all of the spider but it's soul disappeared. As soon as it had died, about fifteen more spiders emerged from the forest around us. This fight was far from over...