It is Spirit who brings the subject up first. Kami is willing to give the weapon as much time as he needs to recover from the various mental and physical injuries that he has suffered, but Spirit is barely back on his feet before he suggests a trial run in weapon form.
"We're supposed to go out on assignments, right?" There is a flicker of a smile that reminds Kami of the weapon when they first met. Then it is gone and he is back to his sad-eyed current state. "We should at least try to partner a couple of times, get some experience before we go out for real."
There is nowhere near enough space in the apartment, of course. There is barely enough room for all three of its current inhabitants to comfortably coexist in the living room, so in the interests of maintaining peace Kami and Spirit go looking for a more open space in the streets of Death City.
There are only a handful of others out on the streets, and the alleys about the city are plentiful and offer at least the impression of privacy. Kami leads the way into one before she turns and gets a good look at Spirit. He is looking pale and slightly shaky, though no worse than he has in the last few weeks. As compared to his appearance while he was in the infirmary, he is the picture of health, and just transforming shouldn't be much of a strain with no real fight or physical work associated.
She still has to ask. "Are you sure you're up to this? It can wait, you know."
Spirit nods decisively even though his skin goes whiter. "Yes. Definitely. This will help, truly. I'm just - tired of worrying." The curve in his lips is not amused, just self-deprecating. "It's just." He stops, brings a hand to cover his face. Kami wants to snap at him for it - it's so much harder to read him recently that the loss of facial expression is maddening - but she keeps her mouth shut and after a moment he continues.
"What if we're not compatible?" Kami can only barely piece together what Spirit is saying but the weapon keeps going. "I've only ever tried partnering with my sister when I was a kid and with - and I really hurt her, and you're not a scythe meister, what if we can't work together?"
"Spirit." The weapon doesn't move his hand or respond. "Spirit." She has to pull his hand away from his face forcibly, and even then his eyes don't refocus on her face. "Spirit, look at me."
For a moment Kami thinks the weapon is still not going to respond, but after a pause he slowly brings his gaze up to meet hers. There is nothing but fright in his eyes but she talks to him anyway. "Spirit. We will be fine. Your soul wavelength is perfectly compatible with mine; a little different than Ashe's, but definitely compatible. We'll practice together; it might take a few attempts before I catch up to your skill -" She tries a self-deprecating smile of her own and gets a flicker of amusement in response at the back of Spirits eyes. "- but we'll get there. We can't improve until we start, though." She straightens her shoulders, extends her hand. "Transform, Spirit."
He hesitates for a long minute, but then he reaches out to carefully wrap his fingers around her wrist. When he shuts his eyes and sighs she knows she has won, and a moment later his human outline dissolves and rearranges itself into a scythe.
He is a beautiful weapon. Kami has seen Spirit in scythe form before from a distance during classroom demonstrations back when Stein still bothered to show up to class, but from a distance the most striking thing about him is the sheer size of the weapon. Up close the color of the blade itself is gorgeous, a flat black that drinks in the light around it. It is an oddly intimidating weapon form for a boy who is so approachable in person, an embodiment of the contradictions Spirit carries as easily as his self.
Kami closes her hand around the scythe's handle. The grip is odd, different than the hilt of Ashe's sword form; the weight is all wrong and without a defined grip she feels like her hold will be prone to slipping. Either she will need to develop calluses or start wearing gloves so she doesn't run the risk of dropping Spirit in the middle of a fight.
She can feel Spirit in the very back of her head, like a whisper from another room. He is flickering in and out, but she catches alternate words in his speech - Ka - is - normal? - and the rising panic over them is strong enough that she can feel it, even without aligning their wavelengths, even without Resonance.
"Spirit." She speaks aloud so he will definitely hear her. "Calm down. You're doing fine." The panic stops increasing but doesn't dissipate. She has to take a handful of deep breaths before she can get her own echoing worry to a manageable level.
"Okay. Remember, we've never worked together before." Kami deliberately brings her voice to a low register, speaking carefully and slowly in an attempt to calm the weapon. "You'll need to adjust yourself to mesh with my wavelength. You've only ever worked with one other meister before and obviously he and I are somewhat different."
There is a flicker of confusion from Spirit. Kami continues. "I know it's been a while, but you must have done this when you started at the academy." The avoidance of Stein's name is becoming inconvenient, but the goal is to calm Spirit, not trigger a breakdown. "Just take a deep breath. Close your eyes." Kami's voice is soothing to herself and Spirit's panic is fading out of her awareness. "You can feel me, right?" That was rhetorical. She goes on without waiting for an answer. "Just relax. Let your habits go. You're not used to working with me but it'll be fine. You'll just need to adjust a little. It won't hurt, I promise."
She can feel the trickle of amusement in Spirit's head more clearly than anything else before even though it's brief and faint. There is a distant sense of friction as Spirit's soul wavelength shifts to align with hers. There's not much needed, which is gratifying, but it is different than Ashe. Spirit's wavelength is stronger, has more potential; it's like Kami has been handed control of some enormous passive machine and needs to decide what to do with it. It would be overwhelming if it weren't for exhilaration of the power at her fingertips.
Kami? That is clear now, though still faint. Kami exhales in what feels and sounds more like a sigh than anything.
Hi, Spirit. She doesn't speak aloud, doesn't need to now. She can feel Spirit far-off in the back of her head, a bundle of tangled emotions, half-controlled panic and tentative excitement and lingering confusion and a deep underlying sadness that she doesn't want to look at too closely.
She tries swinging the weapon in front of her. Her first instinct is to wield the scythe like a sword, which doesn't work out well for either of them. The weight of the blade pulls her sharply off-balance and she almost falls before dropping Spirit entirely.
"Sorry, sorry!" She picks it back up. "Bear with me, my normal approach is not particularly effective here." When she tries again it is much slower, a careful arc so she doesn't pull her own feet out from under her. Spirit is heavy, much heavier than she is used to, but manageable. Kami makes a mental note to add a little training on the side so she can comfortably handle the extra mass of her new weapon, but even with her current state it only take a minute or two before she manages to swing Spirit in what could be somewhat threatening to another and not dangerous to her or to him.
Her arms are shaking when she stops, and in the interest of retaining all her limbs she sets the scythe down. "Okay, let's stop there for now."
Spirit transforms back as soon as she speaks. He is still paler than Kami would like, but the tension of panic is no longer creasing his face and there is something that is almost a smile at his mouth. The lingering sadness is still in his eyes, closer to the surface now than it has been recently, but Kami is determined to clear that away with time and confident in her ability to do so.
She smiles at him and that wins her a mirrored response. When she offers him a hand he takes it without hesitating, and she reaches out with her free hand to smooth his hair.
"You're great," she tells him, as if he didn't know, because she's not actually sure that he does. "I'll make you the best death scythe Lord Death has ever had."
When Spirit smiles this time, she almost can't see the sadness Stein left behind in his blue eyes.
