Sorry for the long wait my friends, but hopefully this long chapter will make you forgive me somewhat...Anyway enough talk, lets get to the story!
"Well it could be worse."-Speaking
'Don't say that you fool...'-Thinking
"Pathetic"/"What the hell?"-Hollow/Weapon Form talking
"Fight!"-Zanpakuto/Yelling/Attack Name
It had been a little crazy (or more so than normal) with the flash goddess around, but Ichigo enjoyed it, it was nice to see a familiar face around.
With their 'interesting' first encounter, Blair and Yoruichi somehow became very good friends, with their main source of entertainment being Ichigo himself. Whenever Ichigo was busy at the academy, the two nekos would normally wander the city, exploring the sites and waiting around for their favorite vizard to show up. Hell, with Yoruichi around Ichigo even had someone to train with.
Overall it was an interesting time.
But like always this had to end sooner or later, and for Ichigo it was a little too soon for his tastes. Yoruichi had to return to the Soul Society (apparently she was given some sort of new position due to Soifon having taken over the 2nd division in her absence) and had to check up with them every so often.
Promising to come back and visit from time to time, the flash goddess of the Soul Society departed Death City in a flash (but not before giving Ichigo a playful kiss on the cheek), leaving Ichigo with a small smirk on his face (not to mention the blush he had as well).
With the departure of Yoruichi, things soon started to return to normal or as close to normality as the city could get anyway.
Nothing truly interesting had happened during this time. Sure there was a few this that had happened to other people, like how Ichigo heard that Black Star had been sent on a mission to hunt down a mobster organization and did as well as anyone had expected him to do (aka: He talked too loud and blew their cover). This somehow led the loudmouth ninja to come in contact with a certain witch and her samurai guardian…with some unexpected results on both ends of the situation. But other than that, Death City had been roughly peaceful for a time.
There was a case where a certain teacher at the Death Weapon's Meister Academy had been murdered by having miniature of the stature of liberty plunged into his forehead, but no one seemed to care that much.
But as if some higher power saw fit to throw a wrench into the gears of this peace, things were about to take a very strange turn for the worse…at least for the sanity of everyone that is.
A few days later, DWMA's Crescent Moon Classroom:
So far, the school day had surprisingly started out fairly normal at the DWMA. There was no expositions, no Black Start related insanity, and nothing too bizarre. The students were lightly chatting with themselves and there was no sign of the substitute teacher as of yet. So peaceful…or boring, it depended on how you viewed the situation.
And on the bored side of this argument was our resident Vizard, Ichigo Kurosaki. Leaning back in his chair, the hybrid really had nothing on through his mind at the moment. It was just an average start to the day and he really didn't want to be there…like most teens felt when it came to the concept of coming to school early.
But of course…
"Maka-Chop!"'BANG' "OW! What the Hell? What was that for!"
…there was always something to entertaining happening in this messed up school.
Glancing to his side, Ichigo noticed Maka and Soul were going through a common routine that the two followed this early in the morning. Maka was trying to read one of her books and Soul was obviously trying to distract her with his needless comments. This of course led to a painful meeting of Soul's forehead and the index of Maka's book.
But just as Ichigo was going to lay his head back and patently wait for the replacement teacher to arrive, a booming voice was heard over the intercom of the academy.
[Ichigo Kurosaki, please report to the Death Room.]
"Figures…"
Sticking his hands in his pockets, Ichigo made his way out of the classroom and down the hallways of the academy. But as he did so, he noticed a familiar suit wearing red head walking towards him in the opposite direction. Noticing a familiar clip board in Spirit's hand, the idea of a substitute teacher had become slightly less…favorable.
"Strawberry."
"Pervert."
Trading comments to one another, the vizard and death scythe just walked past each other without even a glance to one another. But as Ichigo continued on his way to the headmaster's office, he couldn't help but let loose a small chuckle.
He could already hear Maka smash her head against her desk the moment she saw who their substitute teacher was for today.
Soon enough however Ichigo arrived at his destination. Walking though the double doors and the row of guillotines, Ichigo soon found himself in front of the headmaster of the entire academy. Walking up to the goofy looking shinigami, Ichigo looked at the headmaster in annoyance.
"Ok, what's this about?" With that, Shinigami-sama looked at Ichigo with a cheerful look in his eyes.
"Well, I need a favor from you Ichigo," That got a raised eyebrow from Ichigo, "And it has to do with your friends Maka, Soul, BlackStar, and Tsubaki."
Ichigo looked a tad bit surprised at that, so he continued to listen on as the shinigami began to explain his proposition.
"Due to some recent and non-recent events, all of these students are currently behind all of the others in the collecting of Kishin eggs department. Now due to that, I find that it is necessary for them to conduct a remedial lesson to improve their skills."
But even after that done and said, Ichigo still had one thing to ask, "And this relates to me…how?"
Shinigami-sama clapped his hands together at that question; as if that was the one he had been waiting for. "Ah, then let me explain…"
A few minutes later.
It took a few minutes, but soon enough Ichigo was greeted with the presence of not only the ninja duo, BlackStar and Tsubaki, but Soul and Maka soon entered the headmaster's office as well. This of course lead to a sight that was painful for Ichigo to watch, BlackStar tried to sneak up on the soul eating duo with Tsubaki…but he of course talked too much and thus they noticed him.
'Good lord…Soifon would be furious at the idea of someone like that trying to be stealthy…'
After being asked to be stay in the background, Ichigo waited as the group of meisters and weapons approached the giant mirror. Soon enough Maka spelled death's number in the mirror's surface, getting a ringing sound in return before finally the shinigami appeared as well.
"Hello everyone! Thanks for coming! How's it going?"
"Hello sir, Scythe Meister Maka and Soul reporting in!" Maka smiled at the god of death, with Soul nodding as well.
"Yeah, and Dark Arm Meister BlackStar too," BlackStar grunted as his partner addressed the shinigami more respectively, "And Tsubaki as well sir."
"So what's this about?" Soul finally said, already bored.
"Right."Shinigami-sama's voice got a little more serious at this point, "Well, I've got a little assignment for all of you to take on."
"An assignment?" The four of them said at the same time, utterly confused.
"Some extra lessons."Shinigami-sama deadpanned, getting a look of utter horror from the young scythe mister.
"Huh? Extra lessons? You mean those extra lessons that stupid people get?"
"Well screw that, I'm gona be a death scythe, I'm way too cool for extra lessons." Soul scowled, annoyed with the idea of extra lessons.
The shinigami sighed with the weapon's response, "Don't you all remember the duties you all have as meister's of the DWMA?" Maka immediately looked serious at such a question.
"Yes, our duty as Meisters is to feed our weapons ninety-nine Kishin eggs and one witches soul, we collect evil souls in order to keep the world at peace. We work to create a Death scythe, the weapon of the Shinigami himself." Maka told the headmaster with such fluently that it seemed like she had memorized the entire speech.
"Ah yes, but by my count all of you have collected only a total of…zero."
"What!" Maka, Soul, and Tsubaki spoke with such shock and disappointment in their voices. They were practically white as sheets at the concept of being that far behind. But there was one member of their group that didn't seem to take this grave situation seriously.
"Hahahahaha…" BlackStar chuckled at the idea of someone as awesome as himself being that far behind. It was impossible!
Still standing in the background of the death room, Ichigo slapped himself in the head in annoyance. You'd think that this kid would have enough common sense to take something like this seriously…but that goofball was laughing at it and in the presence of the lord of death himself too.
"Three…two…one…" Ichigo counted off, waiting for the obvious to happen.
"…hahahaha-BONK!-...ouch. "
BlackStar's laughter was cut off as a large chop nearly split his head in two. Shinigami-sama didn't find BlackStar's reaction too humorous.
"This is not something to laugh about you nut! Now then…" Shinigami-sama called the others out of their depression, leaving BlackStar to lay on the ground in pain, "Are all of you ready for your extra lessons? I'm sure you've all heard the rumors about Sid, who had been teaching here until recently."
"Sid? I was right, it wasn't just a story." Soul said a little surprised.
"Oh yeah, for a Zombie I thought he was a really good teacher." Maka added, still a little depressed about the earlier statement.
"True, while he was alive Sid was a great teacher." Shinigami-sama went on to explain the sudden change Sid went through after he became a teacher. How the formerly grand teacher became unafraid of the concept of death, and wanted to teach others such a gift…even at the cost of their lives. He also mentioned that the identity of the man who did such a thing to Sid was still a mystery, but that didn't seem too important at the time. BlackStar (who recovered from his earlier encounter with a painful chop to the head) replied to all of this with his normal 'sure of himself' attitude.
"Now not to put too much pressure on you lot but be warned, if you fail this extra lesson, you all shall be expelled from the academy."
"WHAT? You're going to kick us out?"
Sometime Later, Hook Cemetery:
It was very late when the group arrived. Shinigami-sama had informed them of a frequent pattern of sightings, where he believes the undead teacher rests during the night. So with this information, the duos of Meisters, Weapons and a single shinigami went in search of their former teacher. But so far, there is was a major no show.
"Agh! Where is he!" Soul screamed, although no-one seemed to care.
Ichigo himself however was leaning against a nearby tree. His thoughts were currently focused on the undead zombie that was formerly Sid. The two of them may not have been close, but Sid still was someone Ichigo was both shocked and saddened to hear about his passing. But imagine his shock to hear that Sid had been brought back as a zombie; it was something he thought impossible.
'Sounds like something out of a crummy B-horror movie…' Those were his exact thoughts when he first heard about it.
"Come out you stupid Zombie!"
But this was no horror movie, and there was in fact a 'Zombie' on the loose. And despite how weird it sounded, it needed to be dealt with. But what confused Ichigo was how on earth someone had done something like this. To Ichigo's knowledge when someone's chain of fate had been broken, they were gone. How on earth did someone bring a dead man back to life? Especially when the dead person in question had a hole through his forehead, didn't zombies need to have their brain intact to come back from the dead? It made no sense!
"King, seriously? After all the crap we've been through…your questioning this?"
'…good point…'
Letting this subject drop, Ichigo looked around the empty graveyard to see what the others were currently up to. He wasn't that surprised to see Soul still screaming at nothing. BlackStar was off doing…something; Ichigo really didn't want to think about whatever he was doing. Tsubaki was being the more…well normal one of the bunch; she was trying to make sure her meister didn't do anything too…stupid. And Maka? Well…she was lying at the base of a tree, still completely depressed about the idea of getting kicked out of the academy.
So all in all, it was all going nearly as Ichigo had expected it to go.
"Hey Soul! I've got an idea!" BlackStar suddenly exclaimed, drawing the shinigami's attention.
Looking over to the duo, Ichigo noticed the two boys were standing next to a particular grave stone. A grave stone that had once nearly crushed Ichigo into a hole into the ground, now that is something you do not forget.
"Seeing how the douche hasn't shown up yet, let's take a piss on Sid's grave!"
Ichigo had to repress the urge to slap himself in the face, there is no way that anyone would seriously agree to something like tha…
"Yeah! And let's take a dump on it too!"
"…wow…just wow…I have absolutely nothing to add to this situation." Ichigo's hollow awkwardly said. But Ichigo himself on the other hand had a much more fierce response to this.
"Stop disrespecting the Dead!" Ichigo roared at them, bashing his fists against the two boy's heads.
If these any of these guys knew Ichigo half as well as his classmates back in Karakura town did, then they would obviously know that Ichigo really hated when people did unsavory things to the departed. But unfortunately for Soul and BlackStar, they had no idea…and thus lead to their current situation of getting their heads smacked around by an annoyed shinigami.
Ignoring the trio's antics, Maka continued to mope. How could she allow this to happen? She was so certain that she would become a fantastic meister… What would her mother think of all of this?
A large blue hand burst from the ground below Maka and effortlessly picked her off the ground. Lifting her higher into the air the dirt at the base of the tree soon crumbled, revealing a rather gruesome figure. Standing before the group was the corpse of their former teacher, Sid Barret…although he did look a little different now. His skin had lost its normal color, replaced with a sickly cold blue. The eyes that were once filled with such a stern will (and in Ichigo's opinion sarcasm) were now nothing but white lifeless orbs that adorned his face. And what was most surprising…was the giant hole that was in the center of his forehead.
"Maka!" Soul called out in fear for his partner.
"Are you scared girl?" Sid grinned, a sharpened branch in his grip, "I think you are!"
Thrusting his weapon forward, the Zombie tried to impale the young girl. Lucky for her though, Maka's weapon had already launched to his meister's aid. Having transformed in midair, Soul's scythe form slammed in the ground, forcing Sid to release the young girl in order to dodge the sharp weapon.
"Wow Sid…and I never thought you could get any uglier…." Ichigo muttered.
The zombie known as Sid looked at the group of students with a vague emotionless expression, "Soul, Maka, BlackStar, Tsubaki…and Ichigo…good morning…"
"It's night, dumbass!" Ichigo's hollow called out, too bad no one but Ichigo could hear him.
"…good afternoon, and good night." The Zombie continued, picking up his tombstone before draping it under his arm. "I always try to remember my manners. That is the kind of man I was."
Meanwhile, in the Death Room.
"And so it begins."
Inside Shinigami-sama's personal office, Lord Death himself was personally watching the carnage through his mirror. But he was not alone in this.
Sitting behind the headmaster was a young boy. Dressed in a dark black suit with his arms crossed, the boy crossed began watching the students battle their undead teacher with interest. This was Death's only son, Death the Kid, who was visiting his father after rather unsuccessful mission to Egypt. Turns out…Kid completely demolished a pyramid while he was defeating an evil mummy. He blamed it the creature's insane ugliness, Patty and Liz (his weapon partners) on the other hand blamed it on his obsession with symmetry.
Still, the shinigami's attention wasn't on his resent failure (he was actually trying to forget that); his attention was currently focused on the situation brewing in the graveyard, which seemed to be picking up steam already.
Back at Hook Cemetery.
"Why?" Maka asked, taking up her weapon, "Why are you doing this?"
"Ding Dong, Dong Ding…" Sid chanted like a class bell, "Being a zombie is so much fun, there are so many things I can get away with now that death isn't looming over my head."
The Zombie now found himself surrounded by his students. On one side was Maka and Soul, and on the other were the ninja duo, Tsubaki (who had transformed moments ago) and BlackStar. And standing in front of him was Ichigo, staring down into the Zombies lifeless eyes.
"Class is in session, I was always a man who liked to start class with a bell."
BlackStar cracked his neck at the zombie's words, "This'll be fun, I get to teach you a lesson now teacher. And since its coming from me, you know it's going to be a big one!"
"We don't want to be expelled, so we'll take your extra lesson." Soul's voice echoed from his scythe form, "But I've got to say, I don't know what we'll learn from a decaying pile of flesh such as yourself."
Sid actually chuckled at that remark, "If you become a zombie, death no longer looms over you…you become free of the fear that plagues your life!"
"That's wrong and you know it, you were never the type of man to say that!" Maka growled at the zombie, but her words seem to fall on deaf (or dead) ears.
"You'll understand when you're DEAD!"
Sid leaped into the air and swung his tombstone back, prepared to smash the girl with all of his might. But before he could do so, the zombie was stopped in his tracks as a silver chain wrapped itself around the stone surface. Looking over his shoulder, Sid noticed BlackStar standing there with a confident smirk on his face.
"There is no need to thank me for the lesson, it's on the house." BlackStar told the zombie, holding the chain back with a noticeably large amount of effort.
But the Zombie didn't seem to care, "I was always the type of man…"
"…to not hold back!" With a strong thrust, the Zombie easily pulled BlackStar off his feet, sending him flying forward as he continued his attack on the Scythe meister. Luckily for Maka she was able to block the strike with the handle of her scythe, although its force did end up sending her flying backwards as well.
Noticing the two students land on their feet Sid frowned, "You guys should give up, there is no way a couple of one-star Meisters can handle someone like me."
"If they can't, then maybe I'll be more of a challenge."
Before Sid could react, a blue light overcame Ichigo as he slammed his combat badge against his chest. With his human body vanishing, Ichigo charged at the Zombie, Zangetsu in hand. Sparks exploded as the cold steel of the Zanpakuto collided with the hard stone of Sid's tombstone. The two struggled back in forth for a few moments before a certain blue haired loudmouth stuck a kick to the side of Sid's head.
Swinging his tombstone, Sid launched the ninja high up into the air before jumping off after him. The other three students could only watch in horror as the zombie lifted the tombstone over his head and brought it down on the teens head.
"The Living End!"
Falling to the ground in the blink of an eye, the sky was lit up with a large cross shaped explosion. Ichigo whined at the sight of this, having nearly been on the receiving end of this attack once before. Maka on the other hand called out to her friend in shock, but only got the sound of footsteps in return. Out of the smoke was Sid, walking casually out of the wake of his attack.
"Ding Dong, Dong Ding. It looks like class is..." Sid chuckled as he slipped back into a fighting stance.
"Will you shut Up!"
Launching forward, Ichigo dragged his sword across the ground in a rage. With his sword glowing with a blue reiatsu, Ichigo unleashed a large backlash wave at the zombie. Unfortunately for the shinigami, the zombie quickly sidestepped the attack as it flew past him (and luckily it missed the spot where BlackStar had landed as well).
"Much too eager, was that your anger that fueled that or was it fear?" Sid asked the shinigami, who looked quite annoyed with the entire situation.
"Fear? You think I am scared of you? Don't make me laugh."
Sid raised a non-existing eye-brow at that, "Really? You facing an undead three star meister and yet you claim that you're not scared? Not even the slightest?"
"Sid, I have seen creatures much more terrifying then you...personally you look like something from a Saturday morning cartoon now."
Indeed, Ichigo really did feel like this was a joke. Not in terms of a challenge or anything like that, but the concept of Sid's words. The fear of death? With everything Ichigo had ever been involved in, did he look like he feared death? Battles with hollows, shinigami (especially Kenpachi Zaraki of the 11th division), and various arrancars, Ichigo had never let the concept of death weaken his resolve. There was only one thing that could have done that, and Ichigo had never let that happen…at least not until…
"Man…I have a headache." The sound of BlackStar's voice finally emerged from the crater he had been slammed into, a fairly large steam of blood streaming from his face.
"Damn...I was hoping he was dead…"
Tossing both ends of his chained weapon towards the walking corpse, Sid was surprised to see the weapon fly past him. But with this distraction, BlackStar rushed towards his former teacher and landed a strong kick to the zombie's midsection. Coughing up some blood, Sid was knocked into the air a considerable height while BlackStar recovered his weapon. Giving a quick command to his partner, the young ninja's weapon quickly transformed herself into a giant shuriken. Tossing it at the zombie, BlackStar hoped to slice the walking corpse in two…to bad that didn't happen.
As the spinning weapon neared the corpse, Sid recovered his senses and easily kicked away the shuriken. Looking towards the ground, Sid noticed he was right above a distracted Maka and Soul. Smirking, the corpse lifted his massive tombstone into the air above him before launching at an unnatural speed towards the young pair.
"The Living End!"
His eyes widening at the sudden attack, Ichigo tried desperately to blow Sid out of the sky before he could make contact. But unfortunately his attack was far too slow and as a result; Ichigo had to watch in horror as the destructive explosion erupted throughout the graveyard.
"Maka!"Ichigo called out in horror, he highly doubted that she could easily shake off such as an attack as BlackStar had.
In the smoke resulting from the attack Sid was smirking. Unlike Ichigo, who was able to block such an attack and BlackStar, who was able to shake off the massive impact, the zombie knew Maka would be down for the count now.
But as the smoke cleared, Sid was utterly shocked at what he saw.
Using an outstanding amount of agility, Maka had avoided the stone weapon as it slammed into the ground. And to add even more to this unbelievable situation, Maka then swung both of her legs forward and smashed her foot into the zombie's face. With a outstanding amount of leg strength, Maka somehow slammed the corpse into the ground, the ground even cracking under the impact. And to add insult to injury, Maka jumped off her deceased teacher's head before landing on the ground a nice distance away.
"Fear drives us forward; it drives us to overcome nearly anything that stands in our way." Maka tightly gripped her weapon, "That is something you have obviously forgotten."
With a mighty roar, the two partners started to resonate their souls. Energy even started to crackle around them as their bond became even stronger. Swinging her weapon behind her back, Maka prepared to unleash her most powerful technique. As their resonance started to reach its peak, the blade of Soul's scythe form started to glow a very light blue before shifting and changing. Before everyone's eyes the blade suddenly transformed into a large crescent moon shape, practically glowing in power.
"The Legendary technique of the Scythe Meister, Witch Hunter!"
But as Maka went to unleash her attack…her foot slipped and she accidentally sent the destructive move…in the wrong direction. Luckily diving out of the way, BlackStar was able to escape the massive ark of energy…but as for Ichigo…
"Aw Shit..."
…it slammed into him with all of its worth. Luckily Ichigo was able to put up Zangetsu's massive blade before it struck, using the over sized Zanpakuto as a sort of shield. But never the less this still knocked Ichigo to the clear other side of the graveyard as a result.
But back with the others, they were all still staring at the destruction the attack had left in its wake…or they were until BlackStar turned to Maka and Soul.
"What the hell was that? Were you trying to kill us?" He screamed at the two of them.
Maka stared at the weapon in her hand with rage, "Soul! Look what you did!"
"Me? How the hell do you think this is my fault?" The scythe screamed back, "Yelling at me for nothing! Go die!"
"What? How can you say that! You die!" Maka retorted, leading to Soul calling her a baby.
This went on for a few more minutes with Sid all the while staring in shock at what he had just seen. These were students he had taught himself and yet Sid was never expected that duo to unleash such an attack. He was also slightly worried about Ichigo, but he figured the kid could use a nice bump to the head.
"I didn't want to use some special move!" Maka screamed as she charged the zombie, "I wanted to do this the easy way!"
But as Maka went up to slice the zombie in two, Sid suddenly disappeared back into the earth via another hole in the ground.
"What?" Maka muttered, "He's gone."
"No, he just went back underground." Soul replied.
"Again, he went back under there?" Maka asked, still confused. But before she could get another answer, Sid suddenly burst out of the ground behind them. With another pointed stick in his hand, the zombie was about the end the lives of these two students. But luckily for them at the last moment, BlackStar paired his block and responded with his own attack. But as luck would have it, Sid easily dodged the attack and once again retreated underground.
"Dam it! He went underground again!" Groaned Soul, frustrated with all of this. BlackStar meanwhile looked very serious for once.
"It's time BlackStar."Tsubaki warned her meister, who nodded in return.
"Sid is using the first of the assassin's rules." BlackStar explained having a general idea of what is old teacher was up to.
"Blend into the shadows...Hold your breath...And wait for your target to let down his guard."
Lifting one of the bladed ends of Tsubaki's weapon form into the air, Black Star made a hand seal with his other free hand. Slowly the rest of Tsubaki's weapon form slowly surrounded both Maka and BlackStar. Then the chain started to spread out amongst the nearby tombstones.
"Only one man is going to die in the graveyard." BlackStar declared before focusing, "And it's not going to be me!"
Then without warning, the chains of BlackStar's weapon contracted into a star shape, leaving the four students standing in the center.
"Trap Star."
No one moved a muscle after that, the surrounding area became as quiet as a graveyard should be. But it wouldn't last. Moments later Sid once again burst out of the ground with a weapon in hand, but this was a mistake on his part.
"Trap Star activate!" BlackStar called out, tugging on his weapon.
With that sudden movement, the chains that were previously spread across the graveyard came to life. Compressing and shifting around the graveyard, the chains started to home in on BlackStar's target.
"I think it's time to send you back to the grave, you really smell." BlackStar smirked before tugging on the chain once more, completing his trap. But as the chains tightened around Sid…they seemed to have accidentally captured something else as well.
"What are you doing? Why the hell did you tie me up with this guy?"
It turns out that Maka had unfortunately been caught up in the trap and as a result got tied up along with Sid.
"Well you shouldn't have gotten in my way! Ha!" BlackStar chuckled before bursting out in laughter, he was so happy with himself now that he had successfully trapped him opponent…and then some.
It was actually at this very moment when Ichigo finally reappeared. It had turned out that Maka's Witch Hunter technique had a lot more power to it then Ichigo had thought. It actually had enough force to send the shinigami flying clearly out of the graveyard (while destroying a large portion of the fence in the process). Still, Ichigo was relatively unharmed from the attack and returned to the battle a few moments later…but this was not what he was expecting to see.
Still hearing Maka and Soul shouting at a laughing Black Star, Ichigo slowly rubbed his forehead in annoyance.
"Great…now I have a headache."
Stein's laboratory, sometime later.
After a noticeable amount of time (which was mostly spent untying Maka and stopping her from pounding BlackStar into the ground) the group eventually arrived at the location Sid had directed them to. It surprisingly wasn't that hard to get the information out of the corpse as the student's thought it would, Sid was actually strangely informative about the man who had returned him from the land of the dead. Apparently it was a strange scientist name, a strange man who lived somewhere in Death City.
So after untying Maka and tiring Sid back up, the group of students made their way to the good doctor's home. And what they found…was odd.
Standing before them was a very particular structure. Besides the dead plants that surrounded the house the structure looked like it was actually stitched together with some thread, like that old monster movie Frankenstein. The group even spotted a few mice scampering around…which actually turned out to be a bunch of mechanical windup toys. So…this place was very…strange.
"Is this the place?" Maka asked, staring at the strangely designed building in front of them. Soul just shrugged at the question, more annoyed then bothered with the strange building.
"Hopefully, I ready to get these extra lessons over and done with." Soul groaned before actually taking a look at their location, "Man, this guy even put zigzag stitches on his laboratory…"
Just then, one of the front doors of the building slowly creaked open by itself. The group turned their attention to the entrance of the building, a strange sound echoing through the halls of the house.
"Hey…something's coming out of there."
Everyone's attention imminently focused on the entrance. The sound was the type of noise a person would hear if the heard something rolling across the ground. Soon enough the noise started to get louder and louder as whatever was making it got closer to the entrance.
A man in a strange white coat (which had stitches covering it) that was sitting on a weirdly designed chair was speeding towards the front doors. But as the man was finally going to sped past the entrance, the wheels of the chair got stuck. With this sudden stop, the man and his chair fell forward onto the ground with a thud. This was not what everyone was expecting when they arrived…not at all.
"Agh, damn that stung." The man groaned as he sat upward. Standing back up, the man pulled the chair up with him and sat into back in it, It was then that the group noticed something, this man…had a massive screw in his head.
"Does…that man have a screw imbedded in his head?"Zangetsu muttered.
The hollow shrugged, "Yep…puts the term 'Screw loose' to a whole new level doesn't it…"
After a few minutes of twisting the screw in his head (I know that sounded odd, just roll with it), the man eagerly stood up from the chair and grabbed it. "Ok, I'm going to try that again." And with that the man walked back inside his home, leaving the group of students just standing there, in awe at what they had just seen.
"Um…shouldn't someone stop him?"
No one did a thing…hell, BlackStar and Tsubaki even wanted to figure out what the hell this guy was doing.
But after a few moments of waiting the group was greeting with a familiar sound of the man's chair making its way back down the hallway. Waiting patiently for the man to reappear, the group was surprised to see…the exact same thing happen again. No seriously, the same thing happened again…right down to the very space the man landed on.
"Wow, that was…anticlimactic." Ichigo muttered, everyone around him agreeing with that statement.
"Ugh, so did you kids want something?" The man muttered, not even bothering to sit up.
"Um…yea if you are Doctor Stein that is…" Soul grunted, getting a little frustrated at all of this.
Maka, who was the next to snap out of the awkwardness of the situation, quickly answered the man. "You the one who did this, you're the one who turned Sid into a Zombie!"
And to add to her act accusation, Ichigo (who had been carrying the walking corpse the entire time) dropped the tied up zombie to the ground with a thud. This of course led the newly identified Stein to stare at his handy work for a moment before looking back at the kids, "Oh that's it, and I guess that means you all are from the academy doesn't it?"
Maka nodded at his question and then went on to ask him his reasons for doing this, was it a grudge? Revenge? But the doctor merely shook his head at those reasons and waved his arm in a dismissing manor.
"Nah, I have a much simpler reason then than that." He said with a somewhat happy grin, "Experimentation and observation, that's all a true scientist really needs. All I wanted was a nice lab rat to run a few tests on, hell I'm even willing to use myself sometimes."
"Oh god, it sounds like that crack job from the Soul Society, the one Ishida complained about so much…"
This caused an eerie silence to fall between the two of them, with Maka staring into the cold eyes of the doctor. But after a few moments, the meister started to get a fairly odd feeling in the pit of her stomach.
But suddenly Stein started to chuckle out of nowhere, "Heh, it seems that your soul wavelengths are all that stable, although seeing how different they are it isn't that much of a surprise."
"I see one that's careless and arrogant, and perhaps a bit of a jackass." Stein continued, Soul meanwhile got a sudden feeling of annoyance, "The other seems earnest and strong, they seem to be in resonance but they aren't."
Maka briefly explained that Meisters had the ability to see a person's soul even when they were still alive, although only the best meister were said to actually be able to pull it off. But when Maka said that she herself could do it as well, Stein mentioned that her soul looked unsure of itself.
"Enough talk! No one wants to hear you talk, so for the sake of everyone's interest let's change the subject to something a little more interesting! Like Me!"
Turning their heads upward, the group noticed a blue haired teen standing at the top of Stein's house…how the hell he got up there with not one noticing was anyone's guess.
"When did he…?" Tsubaki wondered, generally confused on how the hell her partner got up there without anyone noticing. But all the while BlackStar just continued to do what he was best known for, being loud and obnoxious.
"Besides, who cares if you can see souls? The only one here that is worth looking at is mine!" BlackStar then leaped from the tall building and landed only a few feet from the seated doctor. But Stein just chuckled at the young ninja's statements, wondering how on earth someone could stand to be around him.
"Well, your soul is an interesting one. It seems so hyper and self-centered; it's a wonder who could even have the mindset to resonate with you." Stein told the boy, but what he got in return was not more talking, but a ninja jumping at him with his fist prepared.
"Will you just shut up!" BlackStar screamed before unleashing a kick onto the scientist. But to mostly everyone's surprise, Stein easily deflected the ninja's kick and even the one that followed. And to shock the group even more, when BlackStar backed off to prepare his next move he was ambushed by the doctor. Unleashing a sudden uppercut, Stein decked the boy in the jaw, knocking him off his feet.
Tsubaki called out to her injured partner, but by doing so she a accidentally attracted the scientist's attention.
Stein's eyes widened slightly as he gazed into her soul, "Ah that makes sense, you must be the wild one's partner. You are so calm and gentile despite your job, so willing to compromise those around you, it's no wonder that you are able to cooperate with his soul."
But as Stein finished his gaze finally rested on the local shinigami. He even developed a very disturbing grin, one that made even Ichigo cringe at.
"And then there is you, the oddball of the group…" Ichigo instantly had the urge to smack that sick grin off that nut's face. Calling him an oddball? Has he looked in the mirror lately?
"Your soul seems different from the others…it's hard to comprehend almost." Stein said while twisting the screw in his head, "It has the urge to protect everything around it but, it also seems hesitant…as if it failed once…"
Ichigo's eyes narrowed at those words…he didn't like where this was going.
"But that's not what's so strange about, there is something else." It was at this moment Stein took off his glasses, his cold eyes staring into Ichigo's brown ones.
"There is a rage…a dark presence in your soul…I wonder, what is it?" Stein asked Ichigo, the boy was done with all of this. Reaching for his blade, Ichigo grasped Zangetsu's hilt and pulled the blade off his back.
Maybe Ichigo should stitch that nut's mouth shut after he beats him into the dirt.
The Death Room, Same Time.
"Father…what did he mean by that?"
Shinigami-sama gave a side glance to his son, thankful that his mask hid nearly any expressions that would have been displayed on his face. Kid had always been curious (at least when he wasn't freaking out about something being symmetrical), but sometimes that was a little of an issue.
"We'll see...maybe…'Bam!'Oh! That had to hurt!"
Now Back to the beat down….
"Agh! My nose! You prick!" BlackStar whined before Stein backhanded him again, knocking the ninja on his ass once more. So far…their fight had gone…less than grand.
Surprisingly Stein was hard as hell to hit, even with Ichigo on the psycho's trail he managed to dodge nearly everything Ichigo, Maka, and BlackStar threw at him. How the hell someone managed to dodge so many attacks while sitting on a wheeled chair is…just strange. But on the plus side, no one had actually been harmed as of yet…expect BlackStar…who may have bloody nose after that last slug to his face.
But all in all things weren't going too bad…at least until that nut started to wondering about Maka's name.
"Scythe Meister Maka…now where have I heard that before…" Stein wondered aloud before slipping out of the way of Ichigo's sword, narrowly escaping getting sliced in half.
"Shut! Up! And! Fight!"Ichigo roared with every swing, he was really getting sick of this guy! He was worse than Urahara's cheeky attitude! At least he tried to be funny, this guys was just annoying!
"Hm…Ah! That's it! Your mother was a Meister and you're Spirit's little girl!" Stein said, finally connecting the dots. Maka though just looked at the weird doctor with a confused expression.
"Spirit?" Soul asked, unfamiliar with that name. Maka explained to her partner that Spirit was the name her father had gone by before he took to calling himself Death Scythe due to his position as Shinigami-sama's personal weapon.
"But what I want to know is how you know that, barley any people know that." Maka asked Stein, who just shrugged.
"Ah, I remember him even now; he looked so peaceful in his sleep."
"…what the hell are you talking about?..." Ichigo asked, not wanting to go any farther in this line of conversation.
"…I must say, he was a very thick sleeper, I was surprised at how much I could do to him without waking him up."
"…dude…please stop talking…" BlackStar shuttered.
"Ah, but you are indeed spirit's little daughter…and the daughter of the woman that ended my greatest experiment." Stein finished his little rant with a eerie gleam coming off his glasses, "Although I wonder…what type of subject you'd make."
"I'd like to see you try." Soul said defiantly, but Stein just grinned. Just then Stein launched himself at the duo with his palm extended. The pair prepared to block the strike and they did. But when the two forces collided, Stein mealy twisted his hand and suddenly a spark of yellow energy surged into Soul, knocking the scythe and his partner backwards.
"What the hell…was that?" Soul muttered,
"Now then." Stein calmly said as he finally stood up from his chair, pushing the seat to the side. "How should I begin thus experiment?"
Maka, who had been spooked by the surprising counter, imminently charged the doctor despite Soul warning her not to. But as she swung her partner at the man, Stein just calmly lifted his hand and once again deflected the attack with another burst of energy. The force of the counter easily knocked the girl off her feet again but as she fell to the ground, Stein reached out for her. Grabbing her by one of her pigtails, the doctor lifted Maka back on her feet in a rather painful manor. He then processed to remove Maka's overcoat and lift up her shirt to a certain degree.
Reaching into his coat pocket, Stein pulled out a small black marker. With a sickly grin, the doctor actually started to draw on the young girl's skin, like a surgeon would when preparing for an operation.
"Now, where should I make the first insertion?" Stein asked the girl. Whimpering in response, Maka couldn't even look the madman in the eyes to answer. But luckily someone else decided to answer him for her.
"You're going to need a new pair of glasses when I'm done with you!" BlackStar shouted as he charged the insane doctor. "How can you have already forgotten that I'm here!"
But Stein just glanced at the boy, "Easily."
That just enraged the boy even more so. Leaping into the air towards the man, BlackStar lifted his hands up in preparation of his signature attack. "Let's see if you can forget me so easily after I beat you down with my Soul wavelength!"
"What?" Stein muttered, but by then it was too late.
Slamming his fists into the doctor's back, BlackStar channeled his soul wavelength into a surprisingly explosive attack. "Certain Kill: BlackStar Big Wave!"
Stein was in shock as the boy channeled his soul's energy throughout his body. In his shock he even released Maka from the grip he had on her. Creating a large shock-wave from the attack, the two warriors stood there in silence, although by the look on BlackStar's face he thought that he had come out victorious.
But that grin soon died. Stepping back from the spot where he unleashed his attack, BlackStar noticed that something wasn't right. Anyone else would have collapsed in pain if struck with such a blow, hell they would have at least have dropped to a knee. But with Stein there was nothing, he didn't even twitch.
"Ah, so a surprise from the wild boy." Stein calmly said, cracking his back slightly.
"You…you negated my soul attack…" BlackStar muttered, never encountering something like this before in his entire life at the academy.
"It was fairly easy actually. Remember when I looked at your soul when you all first arrived here?" BlackStar nodded at the question, "It was at that time that I memorized you soul wavelength. The moment you attacked me I instantly matched my soul wavelength to yours and since soul wavelengths that are the same cancel each other out, you your attack was basically worthless."
The Death Room, Same Time.
"A human can do that?" Death the Kid asked, from which his father nodded in conformation.
"It's only possible if the human's soul is very flexible." Shinigami-sama explained, "It's one of the reasons why Stein is so hard to defeat in battle."
Back to the Beat down…again.
"Now that was an interesting experiment….but now it's my turn."
It was less than a second, but within the blink of an eye Stein was upon the young ninja. With a sickening grin, the doctor quickly lifted his hand to the side of BlackStar's head and unleashed his own spirit based attack. In a flash BlackStar was engulfed in an electric storm of power, turning the boy into a lightning rod as Stein's soul wavelength poured through him. It was painful to watch for everyone, especially Tsubaki. To see her partner in such agony was almost unbearable. Luckily it didn't last too much longer.
It was a very sudden attack, but it did the trick. With a strong kick to his face, Stein was knocked off his feet by Ichigo, who was tired of this senseless display of pain. Appearing next to Stein, Ichigo delivered a kick that knocked the demented scientist to the side and even freed BlackStar from that sadistic attack.
Swinging Zangetsu backwards, Ichigo released a nameless Getsuga upon the mad doctor. Stein, who was slightly taken back by the attack quickly dodged out of the way, leaving his hone to take the blunt damage of the spiritual arc of energy. Dashing forward, Stein made grab for Ichigo's sword. Placing his hands on both sides of the steel blade, Stein unleashed another burst of his soul's energy into the sword as if a conductor. Pain erupted as the energy poured into Ichigo. But as Ichigo screamed out in pain, someone else screamed as well…but not in pain, but in anger.
"ENOUGH! Ichigo, End This Now!"
But moments of this begin; it was cut off as a sudden shock-wave of blue spiritual energy exploded from Zangetsu, shocking everyone around them. This shock-wave loosened Stein's grip on the sword and even tossed him away, slamming his back against the outer wall of his own house.
"This blade is a part of me, a part of my soul," Sneering at the man, Ichigo pointed the blade right at Stein's forehead, "Using him to attack me in such a way with your Soul wavelength… really wasn't the best idea."
Oh indeed it wasn't. Zangetsu was pissed; there is no other way to describe it. Nearly every Zanpakuto had a good relationship with their shinigami (even if they started off rather rocky) and only wanted to help them on whatever journey they were on. Now being merely spirits residing inside the shinigami's inner world, a Zanpakuto could never harm their shinigami…but this case was special. Due to the spiritual connection the materialized form of Zangetsu had to Ichigo, the pain of Stein's soul based attack was MUCH more painful compared to the version BlackStar got.
Now…how would you feel if you were used to hurt someone you cared about deeply on such a level? You get the picture.
So in retaliation, Ichigo not only grabbed Stein by the scruff of his shirt, but he also looked the man straight in the eyes and in the presence of everyone…unleashed a point blank Getsuga Tenshou. And while sure he didn't say its name (which reduced the power of the attack by a good load), the attack was still quite powerful.
The effects of the attack were imminently felt. The massive ark of energy sailed across the ground with a amazing speed, and within a few close seconds (more like mil-seconds) engulfed Stein before slamming into the building behind him.
Walking out of the smoke was Stein, looking not too bad actually. Sure his coat was in pretty bad shape and his glasses were cracked, but other than that he was overall okay. How the hell did that work?
"Well...I wasn't expecting that at all, I even had to dodge that one…this is going involve a lot more research on you strawberry boy." Stein mentioned while lighting another cigarette, leaving Ichigo with nothing but a twitching eye to reflect on his...clear rage towards this man.
But unlike the annoyed reaction Ichigo got out of Stein's unscarred survival, Maka had a slightly different reaction.
"What's the matter with you Maka? Get up!" Soul told his meister, shaking her in hope of snapping her out of whatever bunk she was in.
Maka was just sitting there on the ground, her hair covering her eyes as she started at the dirt. Ever since Stein's deflecting of her attack, Maka had been utterly shocked at the power this man processed. It was also the first time she was able to get a good look at this soul, it was huge! It was inhumanly powerful it even seemed bigger than Ichigo's! After seeing all of that it all just seemed…hopeless.
"Shut up!" Maka replied, slapping Soul's hand away, "You wouldn't be acting like that if you could see his soul like I can!"
Soul scowled at those words, "Bullshit! Even if I could that wouldn't matter at all! All you saw was one man's soul, not what it your future!" Soul continued while shaking Maka once again, "You're supposed to turn me into the most powerful Death Scythe of all time! You don't want that worthless father to outshine us do you!"
That struck a chord in Maka, but she wasn't sure if it was enough. Sure she wanted to surpass her father utterly, to prove her worth in comparison to her mother…but could this insane nut actually be beaten? But Maka's thoughts were cut off suddenly as she felt something touch her head. Looking up, the young girl spotted Ichigo standing behind her, lightly patting her head with Zangetsu to get her attention.
"Are you two finished? Look." Ichigo then pointed at Stein, who was standing in front of them with a new cigarette in his mouth. "He's been waiting for the two of you to finish so long that he even had time to start another new cig. Can the two of you hurry up and kick his ass…before I do it myself?"
Finally with a nod, Maka stood up from the ground and stared back at the man in front of her.
"I'm sorry about that, I'm better now." Maka calmly told her partner, never taking her eyes off Stein.
Soul chuckled at that, "No problem." And with that, Soul transformed back into his weapon form and flew into his meister's hand. Shifting into a fighting stance, Maka and Soul quickly initiated their soul resonance.
"You're putting all of your strength into one attack? Isn't that a little risky?" Stein called to the duo, just baiting them to come at him with everything they had. It was just so exciting! "Come on! Lest see just what your souls can handle!"
"We'll see!"Maka screamed as their resonance morphed Soul's weapon form, "The Legendary technique of the Scythe Meister, Witch Hunter!"
Glowing with the same raging power that was summoned earlier that night, Maka and Soul charged the scientist in a rage, dragging the blade across the ground before unleashing it upon their enemy. But Stein was an opponent they could have seen coming no matter how much they prepared for this. For when the blade approached the man's body, he caught it between the palms of his hands.
"You can control such a power technique at such a young age…" Stein told the two of them, his glasses slightly cracking even more after barely surviving Ichigo's own attack.
"But…I'm afraid your skills are just too rough!"
And at that moment…it was over. With a single twitch of his fingers, Stein shattered the almighty technique in the palm of his hands. Soul and Maka were sent flying backwards in a violent retaliation, with Maka hitting the ground in a rather painful impact. Laying there for a few moments, Maka couldn't help but let the pain nearly consume her as the sounds of footsteps approached her.
Kneeling down in front of her, Stein couldn't help but be amazed, "You managed to stay awake after that, now that's something…"But as the doctor reached out for the girl something stopped him.
Suddenly a blue light suddenly covered Maka before reforming as Soul, who looked undeniably defensive of the girl, "Back away! I won't let hurt my meister!"
But that only got a chuckle out of the doctor; "Okay then, I'll start with you." Reaching out for the boy now a sudden shadow now fell over Stein. Glancing backwards, Stein noticed Ichigo standing right over him, his Zanpakuto prepared to strike if he tried anything even a tiny bit threatening. But what everyone saw next was…not what anyone expected.
"You've earned a passing grade, good job."
Silence, there was only silence. No shouts of joy, no sighs of relief, there was only silence...for a few moments at least.
"Seriously?"Ichigo and Maka muttered.
"Yep!" Stein cheerily announced before turning to gaze at his home (which had a huge hole in it), "Although, I wish you didn't have to bust up my house too much, could have broken something important."
'Bust up your house...break something important...I'll bust your face you screw headed sociopath!' Ichigo mentally shouted, the urge to just ripe this guy to pieces was almost overwhelming. But he had to remember the entire reason he was there in the first place...and the promise he made to the old shinigami back at the academy.
Earlier that day: The Death Room.
"So...you want me to...babysit them?"
Shinigami-sama slightly shifted in place, not too fond of the word's Ichigo had chosen when concerning the mission he had for the boy. "Well, I wouldn't put it that was exactly..."
"But that's it right? You want me to watch over Soul, Maka, Tsubaki, and BlackStar while they complete this 'extra lesson' for you. Am I right?" Ichigo used the term 'extra lesson' very loosely. After getting all of this explained to him, it all sounded closer to a punishment then a chance for extra credit in school.
"Well...pretty much." The shinigami shrugged, "It's not that I don't believe in these kids, but I want to make sure they are safe. The man they are going to be facing is well...-what's the word I'm looking for?-...uneven, he may go a little overboard on them."
Ichigo raised an eyebrow at that, "Is he really that bad?"
"Oh Ichigo...you have no idea. Stein likes to take the concept of mind games to a whole new level, when you combine that with his fighting abilities...things can get a little nuts."
Shinigami-sama let out a soft sigh and put one of his hands on Ichigo's shoulders, looking the boy straight in the eyes. "Just...try not to kill him that much. I'd rather not have my best Meister kick the bucket already."
But Ichigo assured the death dog that he wouldn't hurt Stein…that much. Still, it was a promise given in trust and Ichigo was going to keep it. Besides, how hard could it be…right?
Present Time
Worst promise…Ever!
In a nut shell…that's what Ichigo was currently thinking when concerning his promise to the headmaster of the DWMA. If he had known that Stein seemed like a worse version of Urahara with a giant screw in his head…well he wouldn't have bothered with showing up.
Still…at least it was over.
Stein openly explained what had indeed happened since most of the group was utterly confused (that and Tsubaki was still trying to wake up her meister). He explained that the entire situation involving Sid and himself was actually set up by Lord Death himself; all of it was a ploy to test the skills of the young duos. With BlackStar awakening from his pain induced slumber (which turned out wasn't as bad as everyone expected), the group of kids soon departed the weird scientist's house after rejecting his offer to have them spend the night due to how late it was.
"See you later Kurosaki-san, I'm very excited that we'll be working together now!" Stein called out to the retreating figure, his voice sending chills up the vizard's spine. But luckily there was something else that could take his mind off that for a little while.
"Oh Sid…" Sid's eyes widened, having just recently untied himself while everyone else was distracted with the evening's events. He did not like Ichigo's tone…
"I may not be allowed to punch his face in…but you on the other hand…"Ichigo gleefully approached the undead corpse, cracking his knuckles the entire time. Oh, he was going to enjoy this...
Oh it was a good thing Sid was a zombie…the amount of broken bones he had the next morning would have taken few weeks to heal.
The Next day: The Crescent Moon Classroom.
It had been a rough start for the group the next day, with everyone having their own little issues to deal with. BlackStar, of course, was a bit sore due to the beating Stien gave him, sure it wasn't anything too bad but it still hurt like hell. Maka had less physical and more mental issues at the moment then BlackStar did. Learning that everything they had gone through during the previous night was a little shocking to say the least and though she was over most of the strange things Stein spoke of that night (even the bits about her dad), Maka had a bit of trouble clearing her head of all that creepy stuff.
Soul and Tsubaki didn't really have that much trouble awaking that morning, although they had to deal with their Meister's foul moods unfortunately.
And Ichigo? Well if anything he was just frustrated more than anything. The idea of Stein (who seemed like a much more…twisted version of old Hat and Clogs) was kind of disturbing. If Urahara's style was crazy enough, Ichigo didn't even want to consider the things Stein was capable of.
Still even though he doubted it would last, Ichigo pushed the thoughts of what Stein could possibly do to him (although he couldn't deny that he was glad Blair was nearly always near while he slept, made the ideas of what that madman would do to him in his sleep less…aggravating) aside and continued on his morning routine.
This routine was something Ichigo picked up during his first few days attending the academy. And while it was slightly altered with the brief presence of Yoruichi, it was something Ichigo slightly enjoyed as it reminded him of his mornings attending school back in karakura town. Blair waking him up in her own 'particular' way reminded him a lot of his father's old methods, although her way was much more…well it was much more her style anyway.
Still, it was…a nice pleasant comfort Ichigo could enjoy.
But still, despite how well the morning had started off, Ichigo still couldn't help but dread how school was going to turn out.
Arriving at the academy at his normal time (which was not that long before the bell), Ichigo wasn't that surprised to see the condition his friends were in after the tiring night they all just had.
Still at least everyone was ok; things could have been a lot worse. But still there was one issue that still had to be dealt with currently, and that is the issue of who the hell the substitute teacher was going to be. Maka dreaded the idea of her father subbing the class again and Ichigo really doubted Sid was going to be back so soon after the thrashing he gave the corpse last night.
"Oh man, that was awesome kingy! I bet it took that corpse an hour to find his arm after you ripped it off and tossed it!"Ichigo's hollow really enjoyed Ichigo's 'treatment' of Sid yesterday, it's not every day you get to see a vizard beat the hell out of a zombie (although things like that were getting a little more common around here).
But it was at this very moment that a familiar sound was heard, a sound Ichigo really wished he could have went a little longer without having to hear again. But it seems the hands of fate were feeling a little douchy today...because soon enough the sound of a few wheels spinning across the floor just got even worse before being suddenly silenced. And it was at this silence that the children were greeted with a familiar sight of a man in a white lab coat sliding across the ground while still sitting in a small chair. A man with a fairly large screw in his head.
"Oh God no…" Ichigo groaned as he covered his eyes, not wanting to view the man he knew was sitting right in front of them.
"Good morning Class, I'm Doctor Stein and I'm going to be your new teacher from this day forward," Stein told the entire class, getting groans of despair from a familiar group of four while doing so, "Now that introductions are out of the way, I'll be starting class with dissecting frogs, won't that be fun?"
Stein really needed to learn that not everyone had the same definition of fun that he did…
A few Days Later: The Crescent Moon Classroom.
Never before had Ichigo dreaded the idea of going to school.
For the last few days, the entire class had done nothing but dissections! Nothing else! There were frogs, rats…and even a full grown moose at one point. But that's it, that's all they were doing! IT was getting ridiculous! And today was no different…although it seemed much worse than normal. Because today…instead of the normal little animals (not counting that moose) Stein was planning to dissect a massive bird named a Tokiko, an endangered animal.
'How the hell does he get permission to do this crap…'Ichigo wondered.
But something was off today…someone was missing. Looking towards where Maka and Tsubaki were sitting, it finally came to Ichigo like a pile a bricks. BlackStar and Soul were gone…now it made sense that everything was so quiet.
And due to that new-found peacefulness, Ichigo was actually able to hear part of Tsubaki's and Maka's conversation, which he had suspected had to do with the absences of their partners. Apparently Soul and BlackStar had decided to join up today for some odd reason. Still, it bummed out Tsubaki and just annoyed Maka to a certain degree.
"Those two are just a bunch of morons, if they want to team up then why not let them?" Maka asked her friend with a bored expression, "Right Tsubaki?"
But Tsubaki didn't seem to agree, because with the mention of such a question she suddenly became hysterical and even grabbed Maka by her shoulders and shook her, "No, Maka! They can't!" Apparently Tsubaki did not like the idea of her meister abandoning her for Soul; she just refused to believe it.
Tsubaki continued this little display despite Maka's chagrin for a few moments before she was interrupted by Doctor Stein.
"I'm sure most of you are already aware of this, but today we are going to be having a new student attending," Stein told the rest of the class, who by their expressions weren't that informed about this new arrival as he thought they were, "Now I expect all of you to be on your best behavior!"
Everyone (including Ichigo) nodded at their teacher's request, understanding what a new student can go through if not given a good first impression. Ichigo just hoped that this kid wouldn't end up like the last time his class got a new student…although he doubted this would be any weirder then the time that Shinji joined his school for that brief time…right?
"Excellent! Now that that's out of the way we can get back to dissecting this little guy!" Stein said excitingly, the bird on the other hand…
This lead to a sort of disturbing display as the kids had to watch their teacher tie the poor bird onto a plank of wood, de-feather its midsection, and finally prepare his tools…the same tools he had been using ever since he took over Sid's teaching position. It was a sickening display as the doctor's tools slowly approached the bird's bare skin.
Luckily though, moments before the doctor's scalpel made contact with the creature's skin something interrupted him. It was a series of loud booming sounds that were coming from the main courtyard of the school. A few of the students looked away from the doctor's display (for more than one reason).
"Hey, BlackStar and Soul are fighting someone in the courtyard!" one of the students yelled, causing Stein to stop his attempted dissection with a sigh.
"Seriously? Right at the best part..." Stein muttered with annoyance, "Ichigo, can you go out there and shut them up?"
With the chance to get away from this sicko and his obsession with taking things apart, Ichigo gladly accepted, especially since Stein looked like he was about start taking apart the bird once again. But once again fate seemed to be in one of those moods, because right before Ichigo opened the door to make his exit, Maka interrupted Stein again. "Doctor Stein, it's against school policy to allow any students to duel on school grounds with at least one member of the faculty supervising them!"
"Really? Fine! Then Maka, you and Tsubaki will accompany me and Ichigo to the courtyard while the rest of you study silently." Stein regrettably replied, setting down his tools (the bird sighing in relief as he did). With the three students following him, Stein and the others slowly made their way to the main entrance.
When they arrived, they were greeted by an interesting sight. In the middle of the courtyard were three people, on two sides were Soul and BlackStar, but in the middle was someone else. Standing in the center courtyard was a boy dressed in a black suit and holding a pistol in both hands.
"Oh my, they should have picked a different opponent…" Stein muttered at the sight of the boy.
Maka looked confused for a moment, "Isn't that the new kid you talked about earlier?"
"Yep, that's Death the Kid, Shinigami-sama's son." Stein explained, shocking the others, "It was his own choice to attend the academy. But be warned, his skills far surpass those of normal meisters."
"Whoa…the old man has a kid?…that looks nothing like him?"Ichigo's hollow muttered, entirely as confused as his king was at this point.
Indeed this was Death the Kid, and in his mind…this was not how he expected his first day at school was going to start.
Who else would have expected to arrive at their father's perfectly symmetrical school and immediately he was challenged into a battle by these two goofballs. While sure normally Kid would never have accepted such a rude challenge things changed when BlackStar in all his stupid glory broke one of the three spikes that made up the school's front entrance…ruining the amazing symmetry of the structure. Now that crossed the line and these fools were going to fear the wrath of an enraged shinigami!
But…he had expected…a little more out of these fools. They weren't even real partners; their soul wavelengths were completely different! There was no way these two were ever going to match up, and these two didn't seem to get that at all. It was actually kind of pathetic…
But still, these two fought on. Kid easily dodged BlackStar's kicks and various physical attacks with an amazing example of agility. His reaction time was also top notch, easily dodging an attack from Soul and responding to a bullet to the scythe arm Soul was currently wielding.
But back with the bystanders, Stein asked Maka to use her skills as a meister to view Kid's soul. She was amazed to see this one meister balancing the souls of two weapons at the same time, something nearly unheard of in the academy (there was actually only one other in the entire school that could do the same). But there was something deeper about their relationship, as if the two weapons admired the young shinigami.
"Those two weapons are named the Thompson sisters. They had a tough life before they met Kid, so it makes sense that they would be thankful to him." Stein explained, "The deal works for Kid as well, the sisters help calm his erratic personality."
Maka could help but continue to watch the trio easily hold off both BlackStar and Soul with a barrage of gunfire, "They make such a great team…those three."
"You can't even compare them to our two idiots out there."
Speaking of two idiots, BlackStar and Soul were tired of all this senseless gunfire, so they felt it was time to end this once and for all. So backing off from their single attempts, the duo created some distance from Kid.
"I think it's time we ended this, don't you agree Soul?" BlackStar asked his buddy, who nodded in return. "Yeah, it's about time."
"Time for what?" Kid asked, not amused.
"For your end." Soul smirked, before jumping into the air. "Transform!" With that Soul was transformed into his scythe form in a flash of blue energy. BlackStar of course lifted his arms to catch the weapon in a amazing display, even Kid and Patty were amazed at this performance.
"That's so cool!" Patty shouted, but her sister wasn't that impressed. "I don't think these two are taking this seriously."
But as the massive scythe was about to land in BlackStar's hands…they goofed. BlackStar completely missed, causing Soul's blade to slice a huge chunk BlackStar's hair in half before falling to the ground. The two of them didn't even twitch for a few moments, standing there silently before BlackStar erupted in a painful scream and blood (from the huge cut on the top of his head).
"Why did you catch me with your head!" Soul asked BlackStar, how was a little busy trying to close the wound on the top of his head, "Ah! I have no idea!"
"Just do it right this time!"
BlackStar then tried to pick up the large weapon, but he found it much too heavy to actually lift off the ground, not even an inch! "Agh, you're too heavy!" But that confused Soul, how could his scythe form be that heavy? Maka was able to spin him around like it was nothing. But it was at this moment that BlackStar tried to pump his Soul Wavelength into Soul in an attempt to actually lift the weapon. This of course back fired, sending an eruption of pain into Soul.
Soul imminently went off on BlackStar, screaming at the idiot for trying to hit him with his soul wavelength. This lead to a dramatic and sappy standoff between the two of them with Soul ending their partnership (which Tsubaki was glad to hear). But during all of this…Kid was starting to get impatient.
"Hey, can I shoot them now?" He asked, but Liz dined his request, "No, this is starting to get good."
But at the news that their short lived partnership was over, BlackStar then asked Soul if it would be ok if they could remain friends. Soul of course told him that was fine and the two ran at each other in an overly dramatic (and slow-mo, don't ask how the hell they did that) fashion and hugged each other…and then Kid shot them in the head.
"Oops…sorry…my fingers slipped."
That was it, Ichigo couldn't take any more, this was just too ridiculous. Pushing off the wall he had been leaning against, Ichigo walked past Stein and prepared to jump over the railing onto the ground below. "Anyone mind if I go save those idiots before they get their asses handed to them even further?"
Stein shrugged, "Nah, it's getting a little embarrassing anyway."
Thank to for that, Ichigo jumped over the school's railing and slowly walked over to where his classmates were sitting in thought. It seems that they were currently trying to come up with a new strategy to combat Kid's overwhelming skill in battle, and considering this was BlackStar we were talking about…that could take a while. Luckily this was when Ichigo showed up behind the two of them, surprising both Soul and BlackStar.
"Hey Ichi-Bam-" Soul started to talk to Ichigo, but he never had the chance to finish as the young vizard grabbed both the weapon and meister by the head and slammed them into each other, knocking the two goofs out flat. Kid just looked at the scene in confusion.
"Well that was unexpected." Kid muttered while Ichigo removed the bodies from the courtyard (he tossed them at Stein, which knocked him off his chair in the process). Ichigo shrugged before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his combat badge.
"Unexpected things tend to happen a lot around here; you tend to get used to it."
"Indeed." Kid replied as he watched Ichigo transform into his shinigami garb, "So…does this mean you're going to fight me too?"
Ichigo just gave him another shrug, "That's up to you. You can either calm down and we can get out of this without any trouble, or I can beat your ass into the ground and drag you to your dad's office. Either way it's your choice."
Kid then thought to himself for a few seconds, weighing his choices. He even took a good look at Ichigo's clothes, even putting that into consideration.
"Eh, I'd rather not get into a fight with you…especially with that disgusting weapon of ours."
Very bad choice of words.
"Excuse me?" Ichigo was unsure he heard Kid right, "Did you just call Zangetsu…disgusting?"
"Look at it! That thing is not even the least bit even with itself, that blade looks like an abomination with its extreme lack of symmetry!" Kid shouted at the vizard; explain his dislike with Ichigo's Zanpakuto. And in a way Kid was right, Zangetsu's massive cleaver/knife shape left absolutely no chance of symmetry. But symmetry? Seriously? This kid was going on a small rant on how unsymmetrical Zangetsu was.
"Kid…I think you have some serious problems…"
"You have no idea buddy…" Liz muttered while her sister giggled, Ichigo hit the nail on the head on that one.
There was something that was bothering Ichigo though. With this guy's massive obsession with symmetry, why did he have three random lines on the left side of his hair?
"Yeah know…considering how you keep talking about symmetry…what the hell is up with your hair?"
But at the mention of his hair…Kid started to twitch uncontrollably…it was actually kind of unsettling. Liz and Patty actually were very nervous; they knew what could happen when Kid gets like this…it never ends well. Hell, the last time he got like this he destroyed an entire pyramid after he saw a very unsymmetrical Mummy. But this guy mentioned Kid's hair 'issue'…a subject that the young shinigami was very sensitive to.
Suddenly Kid's body became encased in a blue dome of energy, it actually looked like his Soul was manifesting itself around the boy. Black electricity suddenly started to converse around the boy's arms before three sharp black spikes erupted on each of Kid's arms. Kid's weapons also started to transform as well, the pistols slowly morphing from their small original form into large dangerous cannon-like weapons.
'His spiritual pressure…its increasing?'
It was at this moment that the dome surrounding Death the Kid vanished, dropping the boy back to the ground.
"Execution Mode acquired."
With Black energy slowly fluctuating between the spikes upon his arms, Kid pointed his twin cannons at Ichigo. The amount of dark energy that was being generated was even started to darken the around the boy, as if it was sucking the light out of the air itself.
"Resonance factor stable. Nose: 0.3%" Liz announced to her meister.
Patty soon followed her sister's example, "Black Needle Soul Wavelength charge Complete."
The cannons continued to charge, spheres of pink energy started to expand in front he the cannon's barrels, the massive amount of destructive power that was about to be unleashed. Even a dark reflection of shinigami-sama's mask suddenly appeared above the destructive sources of energy, as if a warning of imminent death was approaching.
"Four seconds to Feedback."
Ichigo slowly lifted Zangetsu off his back, preparing for the worst that could come from this.
"3…2…1"
Stein slowly motioned both Tsubaki and Maka to step away from the railing, he didn't want them to get harmed in the incoming devastation.
"Ready to fire!"
"Death Cannon!"Death the Kid shouted, his two cannons unleashing a massive destructive blast of pure power. The force of this attack was even so powerful that it even pushed Kid back a few feet the moment he unleashed it. The two destructive blasts traveled across the courtyard in a flash, leaving Ichigo nearly no chance to act before the massive explosion consumed him. Leaving nothing but a large black cloud of smoke and a crater in its wake, Kid slowly returned to normal before dusting himself off.
"Kid…don't you think that was a little harsh? He didn't even know about your whole issue with symmetry." Liz asked her meister, but Kid just shrugged as he walked towards the crater his attack created.
"Eh, it can't be helped now." Kid explained as he approached the massive hole in the ground, "At least now he knows not to make mention of that unfortunate feature about me ever agai-…what? " But as the bottom of the crater finally got into view, Kid noticed something as missing. Ichigo was gone, the crater was completely empty.
"The hell? Where did he go? It's not like I missed him or something like that!" Kid started to freak out, preparing both his weapons in case of a surprise attack. But instead of getting such an attack, instead the young shinigami felt something lightly touch his head. Slowly looking upward, Kid was shocked to see Ichigo standing right behind him.
"Damn…now that was a blast, that attack had more destructive power then a Menos Grande's cero." Ichigo muttered looking at the massive crater he would have been laying in if he actually allowed the attack to make contact.
Turning his gaze back towards Kid, Ichigo started to ruffle his hair in pure annoyance.
"Are you always this violent kid? I make one comment about your hair and you try to nuke me? Was that really necessary?"
But what Ichigo hadn't realized was that while he hadn't harmed Kid as of yet, what he was doing to his hair was a bit worse. Kid had realized that his hair was no longer symmetrical the moment Ichigo started to ruffle it, turning his nice even head into a big mop of messy hair.
So imagine Ichigo's surprise when instead of getting a rude remark from Kid, he got a kid who was spitting up blood and collapsing onto the ground in unconsciousness.
"Ugh, he's so hopeless"
Ichigo stared at Kid's comatose form for a few seconds before turning his attention to the others, "…Can someone explain to me what the hell just happened?"
Patty and Liz then returned to their human forms and sat next to Kid, with Patty looking curious while Liz was just annoyed. "You messed up Kid's hair. As you noticed he gets a little sensitive when it comes to symmetry…"
Ichigo scoffed, "Yea...I kinda noticed."
"…well, when you ruffled up his hair, Kid freaked out about you messing up his symmetry and…you see the result." Liz explained, her sister meanwhile was trying to awaken the little shinigami (by poking him with a stick) but to no avail.
Ichigo just sighed to himself, picking up Kid's fallen form as he prepared to take the kid to the nurse's office. He had a feeling that this Kid was going to be a major pain his ass later on, he could be wrong though…hopefully.
But as Ichigo was leading Liz and Patty (who was making comments about Ichigo's hair now...he really should have seen that coming at this point), Ichigo heard a familiar and very annoying voice screaming at him in the distance.
"Ichigo you jackass! How Dare you steal my spotlight!" BlackStar roared at Ichigo, furious at the vizard for taking his battle away from him…even though he was getting his ass kicked in more ways than one. But that didn't matter to BlackStar; all that mattered to him was being the star. Why couldn't this goof stay unconscious for a little while longer?
Ichigo sneered at the ninja's words, but he wasn't going to lower himself to such a level that would require him to yell back at the kid. So what Ichigo did was simple, he gently handed Death the Kid over to Liz, picked up a small piece of the ground that was broken off earlier during Kid's attack and hurled it over his shoulder.
Hearing a yelp of pain in the distance, Ichigo once again lead Liz, Patty, and the unconscious body of Death the Kid down the hall of the academy to the nurse's office. Hopefully Kid would be in a better mood when he awoke from his self-induced coma.
All Ichigo needed was another massive shinigami inspired pain in his ass...especially if he was related to the old man up top.
Here are some things I briefly want to go over.
If you have not seen Soul Eater then Stein's abilities may confuse you, so let me explain. Stein is currently known as the best meister in the DWMA because of his extremely flexible Soul wavelength. Due to this special wavelength, Stein is able to manipulate his Soul similar to BlackStar but on a much larger level. He also is able to wield nearly any weapon he chooses, such as Maka's father Spirit.
Yes, Yoruichi is gone for the moment, but rest assured that she will return to the story later and will play a much bigger part in it. I'm still not sure if I'll make her a romantic interest in this story, but it can go either way at this point.
Please remember that I said in the first chapter that I was going to buff up the skills of a couple of Soul Eater characters in the story. I mean, while they do get stronger later in the series, a lot of the characters in Soul Eater were weak as hell in the beginning of the series. And seeing how this is Ichigo will the skill and power near the end of the Aizen arc (even though he uses only about as much as he had when he arrived in the Fake Karakura town with Unohana), I needed to make some characters stronger to keep the story interesting.
Next, sorry if you wanted to see more of lord Death and Kid in this chapter, but I wanted to focus more on Ichigo and the others. If I just cut away to Death the Kid and his dad as much as the episodes and chapters did, this chapter would have seemed like a just a readable version of the episodes/chapters with Ichigo in it. Though the next few chapters will have plenty of Kid, Liz, and Patty in it I promise.
Anyway, next chapter will see another Bleach character make an appearance (although this is where most Bleach characters will be a onetime thing, Yoruichi and a few others are just exceptions) and we will see the main villains for a time make an appearance (and you all know who that is).
See you guys then!
