"She'll be ok?" Maka asked fervently.
"She should," Stein said. "Her injuries are mainly superficial and are above the waist, so there's no chance of, well-"
"Good," Soul sighed in relief. Blaire had already gone through so much, it would be terrible if their worst fear came true.
"How long will she be sleepin'?" BlackStar piped up. The three jumped and turned to him, as if they forgot he was still there. Huh. That had never happened before. No one ever ignored the great and powerful BlackStar.
"It's called a coma, BlackStar," Sid said, and BlackStar could almost hear the smirk in his voice. "And she'll be out of it in a day or so."
"Comas are weird," he grumbled.
"Well if you want to know about them, all you have to do is read this pamphlet about them," Sid was really smirking now. "Go on, take it."
Glowering, BlackStar wrenched it away. That Sid. BlackStar should have known that it was a mistake, letting it slip to the man that he was having trouble with his letters five years ago. Although BlackStar didn't think that Sid would actually bring it up like this. A funny feeling grew in the pit of his stomach- one that only arose when someone described Kid as the strongest meister in the DWMA, or when Angela pouted that she loved Tsubaki more than she loved BlackStar.
It was probably no big deal.
He quickly scanned over the paper, understanding about half the words there. He'd ask Tsubaki to explain it later or something. Speaking of Tsubaki-
The door creaked open, and a very shaken looking Tsubaki lead Angela into the room. She gave them all a shaky smile.
"Sorry I'm late," she sounded sheepish, "how is she?"
Stein, Sid and Maka all moved to talk to the girl, while Angela busied herself with drawing on the walls, using a piece of brick that she had wrenched from the other wall. Soul remained seated in his chair, and BlackStar took the opportunity to slip next to him.
"Dude, what happened?" Soul frowned.
"Found her in a ditch," he said thickly. "Who knows how long she'd been in there."
BlackStar nodded. "She'll be fine," he said finally.
"You think so?" it was less of a question and more of a bored sounding statement.
"Of course," he said. "She's pretty strong."
Soul gave him a faint smile. "Heh. I'll tell her you said that. Speaking of which, what's with all the training lately?"
The dreaded conversation. "I just feel like it," that should have been a good enough reason. Soul rolled his eyes and then said sharply:
"People don't just train intensively just because they feel like it. What's your reason?"
BlackStar tensed. "What, you're an expert on training and people now?"
Soul blanched, and BlackStar realized only then that he probably crossed some boundaries. He knew Soul had some insecurity about not being as strong as Maka or something along those lines. BlackStar never really checked.
"I'm your friend," he said eventually. "I have every right to know if you're doing something crazy so I can stop it."
"You're no fun," anger begun to simmer inside him. A year ago, Soul would be gung ho for doing something crazy. He'd join in with no question, just like how he and BlackStar tag-teamed to try and beat Kid some time ago. Now, Soul was no fun at all. He always looked at the 'safety factor' of things, and usually sided with Maka when she and BlackStar argued. BlackStar had completely given up on trying to include him in the 'crazy plans' now. "And yeah, I'm planning something. It's just none of your business."
"Huh," Soul looked surprised, as if he didn't expect BlackStar to tell him that. "Fine then. Just- Tsubaki has a right to know."
"Yeah, yeah."
Soul gave him an odd look, and joined in the others' conversation.
The thing was, BlackStar did have plans. That stupid Asura was stuck on the moon, and fighting those dumb resurrected kishins under the moonlight was the closest thing to actually fighting him. This annoyed BlackStar to no end. The Battle on the Moon ended on what Tsubaki called a 'cliffhanger'- it lacked what Maka said was a 'resolution'. And that 'resolution' was him pounding the Kishin to the dust. BlackStar was a warrior. He would beat all that were stronger than him. Right now, Asura was the only one left, and he was stuck on the moon, only covered in blood. A moon now so weak, that in the night it looked like it was made of black paper.
He smirked. Black Paper Moon. Now that was an interesting one.
Now BlackStar had to get stronger. Strong enough to take on Asura and free Crona. And if he couldn't do that…
Then he would destroy the moon.
.
.
"Have you found out anything about BREW yet?" Nygus demanded.
"Mira, I had exactly one hour to search the library. I'm hardly ready with a research paper," Marie scoffed.
"But did you find anything?"
Maire sighed. "I did find a book," she said. Stein gently took it.
"It's old," he noted. "Much after Eibon, but this should be before most of his work was lost."
"And you think it'll have information about BREW?" Spirit asked skeptically. The room felt silence. Everyone knew that the odds of finding anything useful or new about BREW were miniscule.
"It doesn't," Stein said, flipping through it. "Nothing at all."
Everyone groaned, and mutterings of this is hopeless and what a waste flitted throughout the group.
"Now come on," Sid said. "I wasn't the kind of person who gave up when I was alive," he said. "We just have to work with what we have."
"Fine," Nygus snapped. "What do we know?"
"It's an extremely powerful magic device," Spirit begun. "No one knows its full extent."
"So neither should Asura," Stein concluded. "We'd know if he did."
"We wouldn't live to see it," Marie said, uncharacteristically snidely. It must have been the hormones.
"True," Sid pointed out. "And only the first Shinigami knew its full purpose."
"Wait, did he?" Stein asked. "He didn't say anything about it to me."
"Didn't he?" Spirit said. "I don't know… I assumed that he did."
"Well, considering that he left Kid the throne completely unexpectedly, I don't think anyone has an idea of what he does or does not know," Nygus grumbled.
"True," said Marie. "Let's move on."
"Wait a minute," Stein said. "Let's say that BREW is reacting with something on the moon."
"Ok…" Sid gestured for his friend to continue.
"What could it react with?"
"There are a lot of options," Marie said. "There's the black blood, Asura or even Crona-"
"I doubt that anything is reacting with Crona," Stein said. "After being disassociated from the blood, Crona is a regular meister. BREW acts to amplify soul wavelength and we all know that Crona's wavelength isn't strong enough without a weapon."
Everyone nodded. That much was true. After being accepted into the DWMA, Crona and Ragnarok had undergone rigorous testing about the capacity of their soul wavelengths, and Crona's individual strengths. It had been concluded that Crona was one of those typical meisters whose soul wavelength couldn't be used as a raw weapon. In fact, it was that knowledge that had mollified the governors into letting Crona into the DWMA.
"True," Spirit said, "Now BREW could be reacting with the blood or even Asura."
"Could we rule out Asura?" asked Nygus-sensei doubtfully. "I mean, not much is known about Asura's powers."
"We'll have to look at Medusa's black blood research for that," Stein said quietly.
Everyone felt silent.
"Hey," Marie spoke up eventually. "You do realize what you're asking us to do here."
"I do," he said irritably. After everything, Medusa's research had been burnt up, as one of Kid's very first orders. At that time, it had seemed smart. The power of the blood was too dangerous to run rampant amongst the more corrupt of meisters. But now… no one had any idea of the boundaries of the research. Except for maybe two individuals.
"No," Sid said. "Kid would never allow it."
"Kid would never allow this either, buddy," Spirit said gently. "We're in so deep with disobeying him that this can't possibly hurt."
"Can't possibly hurt?" Nygus stood up, raising her voice. "Spirit, we're going to be conspiring with known criminals here!"
"Conspiring's too strong a word," Spirit said, though looking uncomfortable.
"Stein, you can't be serious," Marie glared at her lover. "Think about this!"
Stein only sighed, eyes hidden by his glasses. He sighed. "The prison security reports directly to Kid, and they won't let us into the cells."
"No." Sid whispered.
"Yes," Stein said flatly. "We are going to have to organize a jailbreak for the Mizune sisters."
.
.
"What team is going to fight the Kishin tonight?" Kilik asked.
"I don't have a set idea," Kid replied. "Do you have any groups you want to put forward?"
Kilik looked at the sheet of paper in his hand, already regretting having this meeting with Kid. Not many people wanted to fight the Kishin since it was so out of their comfort zone, but some had grudgingly put their names down. But with Kim and Jackie busy, Soul and Maka occupied with Blaire, BlackStar training all the time, Tsubaki looking after Angela, and Ox and Harvar being particularly unhelpful that day (the nearby convenience store had increased the price of hair gel), he was saddled with making potential pairings while considering requests.
"Uh… there's BlackStar, Fire and Thunder," he said. Kid gave him a withering look.
"Kilik, we all know BlackStar is very skilled. But are you sure you're all right with him handling the twins?"
"Not really," Kilik admitted, glad that Kid understood.
"Does BlackStar have any weapon that he adamantly refuses using?"
"Well, yeah," Kilik admitted. "Harvar and Jackie."
Kid put his head in his hands. "Just tell BlackStar that he can go with Soul- no Patty today."
"Will do," Kilik said, getting up. Kid didn't remove his face from his hands, and Kilik got the vaguest inkling that the Shinigami had fallen asleep. Even though they had never really talked before, Kilik felt a surge of pity for him. Being shoved into the role of a leader so quickly- that couldn't have been easy for anyone. And having to deal with his father's death too… he shuddered and left the room.
.
.
"Maka."
She squirmed, annoyed at the person calling her. Didn't they understand how long it took for her to sleep in this hard hospital chair?
"Maka!"
Wait- hospital chair?
"Maka!"
She jerked up, and Soul hurriedly stepped away from her. So he still remembered the incident four years ago when she punched him when he woke her up. Good. It didn't hurt to keep him on his toes.
"Blaire's up," he said. That was all it took for her to shake off the jacket she was using as a blanket (strange- she'd seen Soul wearing a similar one before) and rush to the bedside.
"They said she'd take a day to come out of her coma!" she whispered fervently.
"Well, Blaire's strong," Soul said dismissively. "Blair- can you hear us? Can you speak?"
The woman feebly raised her head, causing a rush of anger to course through Maka's body. A feeble Blaire? Whoever made her like this would pay. The anger settled in her stomach, where it pulsated tensely.
Blaire nodded, opening her mouth.
Soul and Maka leaned in eagerly.
And no sound came out.
"Right," Maka slapped her forehead. "Nygus-sensei said her vocal chords were damaged."
"What now?" Soul asked. "We'll call Nygus."
"It's two in the morning," Maka glanced at the glowing clock. Huh. Only seven hours ago, BlackStar had darted out of the room, claiming that he and Patty were going to mess up some kishins. Assuming none of them got killed, they should be done with the Kishin right now.
She winced. Them getting killed was NOT something she wanted to think about.
"True," Soul said. "She only said to give Blaire some water when she woke up."
Ten minutes, two spilled bottles and several reproachful glances later; Blaire had managed to get some water down her throat, while Soul wrung water out of his hair. Then there was silence again.
"Blaire," Maka piped up hesitantly. "May I ask you some questions? Nod or shake your head."
Blaire gave her a pointed look, as if to say she'd have figured it out by herself, but nodded anyway, wincing a bit when she did it too fast. Maka cringed, feeling bad that she was asking her to do this, but if they needed information, and this was the only way to get it at the moment.
"What happened to you?" Soul blurted out. Blaire rolled her eyes and glared at him. Maka smacked him lightly on the head.
"Yes or no questions, idiot," she said. He blushed.
"Right. Forgot."
"Do you remember what happened to you?" she asked. Blaire, quirked her head and then nodded.
"Do you know who did… this?" she asked, weakly gesturing to the girl's beat up body. Blaire shook her head ruefully. Soul groaned.
"Did you see their face?" Another shake.
That was odd.
"Did they knock you out immediately?" she asked. Blaire shook her head. Maka's stomach lurched.
"How many hits did they get before you- well- that?" she asked, and before Soul could call her out, "hold up your fingers."
Blaire cocked her head and held up 5 fingers, holding up the other hand with some difficulty as if to say she wasn't sure. Soul sucked in a breath.
"How many people attacked you?" he asked more shakily than she did. Maka didn't really blame him, as he had been exposed to the violence DWMA students were exposed to at a later age than her. The DWMA had gotten some backlash from other countries, which were concerned that the children were seeing too much for their own good. Personally, Maka didn't see anything wrong with the system, probably because she had grown up in it. Weapons and meisters who joined the DWMA had the opportunity to stay in the NOT class, or take counseling sessions to help them deal with what they faced. As far as she knew, Soul didn't opt for either.
Blaire shrugged.
"More than one?"
She shook her head.
Maka sucked in a breath. Who on earth was that strong to be able to defeat a person like Blaire in only five hits?
.
.
A/N:
How'd you like it?
Who do you think attacked Blaire? Let me know in the reviews.
Feel free to check out my other fics. I haven't written anything else for Soul Eater (though I plan to in the future), but if you like Fairy Tail or Assassination Classroom, then I think you'd like it.
As always, thank you to all the fantabulous people who reviewed, followed and favorited.
SpiderLover
