Chapter 10: Spotlight
It was just after morning classes and Takumi and Zhi were looking at the mission board to see what was available. There were plenty of other students looking to snag one of the better jobs as well, and Zhi was trying to make sure they got the best one. "How about…" She started as she quickly scanned the board for the best job she would be able to find. Finally, she spotted one she liked. "This one."
However, just as Zhi began stretching out her hand to grab the mission's flyer, someone reached out from behind and grabbed her shoulder as well as Takumi's, pulling them back and away from the other students. But the second the person's hand touched Zhi, her Soul Perception spiked from the horror of the wavelength that was that close to her. It was BlueStar.
Realizing that, she immediately jerked her body in a twist to escape his grip. "Get your filthy hands off of me!" She yelled at BlueStar and looked him in the eye with the same malice as their meeting at lunch the previous day.
Takumi turned after being pulled out of the crowd as well, and then looked at Zhi when she reacted that badly. He still wasn't used to seeing Zhi in this state. Her heightened feelings of rage and fear made her seem like a completely different person from the person that would challenge the toughest trials to show her worth and joke around with others, almost always smiling. But when it came to BlueStar she would instantly break out in a nervous sweat and visibly tremble in fear.
"Don't you EVER touch me!" Zhi warned BlueStar.
However, BlueStar only smiled at Zhi's threats, finding her utter hatred of him amusing. Muramasa stood directly behind him with his completely stale expression that seemed almost ominous. As he stood quietly, BlueStar spoke to Zhi. "Nice to see you too, rabbit." He remarked, calling her 'rabbit' as she had refused to give him her name and because she was extremely jumpy around him.
"If you're still looking for a fight, forget it! My answer hasn't changed a bit since yesterday; and it never will." Zhi said, continuing to glare at BlueStar with unblinking eyes.
In response, BlueStar just laughed. "Not today faintheart, I'm just here because I've got first dibs on these missions." He told Zhi, already changing his insult nickname for Zhi.
"Excuse me?" Zhi protested why BlueStar had this so called 'first dibs'.
"I'll explain." Muramasa said as he cut over between BlueStar and Zhi. "Just like you, Lord Death doesn't like having BlueStar here in the school. To resolve this issue, when we get missions, we take 5-10 of them all at one time, and do all of them before coming back. The longest we've ever stayed in the school at any given time is about 5 days, and that's normally only due to injuries. We don't have any actual claim on the missions, but the harder the one's we pick out, the longer we'll be gone and the less this school has to see of BlueStar."
"Well at least that's something I can agree to." Zhi commented, turning her head away from Muramasa.
Zhi didn't actually despise Muramasa like she did BlueStar. She knew he was really just looking out for the other students when he suggested making a Kishin his partner, so she couldn't blame him for that. But rather, Zhi just got a dark, eerie feeling off of Muramasa's Soul Wavelength that would just creep her out.
Ignoring her reaction, Muramasa walked past her and up to the mission board, after looking for just a second, he grabbed out 6 different flyers and walked back to BlueStar, and began leading him away from Zhi. However, Zhi didn't take her eyes off the two of them, watching them carefully as if they still might turn around and attack her out of nowhere. "See you when we get back, Champ." BlueStar added to Takumi, although the point of it eluded him, and so he didn't respond as BlueStar continued to walk away.
But then, in front of the dangerous pair, two people walked up from behind a corner and noticed them. The two people were Kevin Astaire and Mignon Petit. When they and BlueStar and Muramasa noticed each other, they stopped in front of the other. Then, after a second, Kevin grinned and held up his hand. "Hey there, Blue!" He said in a friendly manner that surprised Zhi to hear.
In response, BlueStar gave Kevin a high five. "Hey there, All-Star; you too, twitch." He greeted Kevin as well as Mignon who hid behind Kevin.
"So you two are leaving for some more missions, huh? Make sure to find me next time you're in." Kevin told BlueStar, giving two thumbs up to the Kishin.
"You got it." BlueStar replied, and then continued walking along behind Muramasa.
After that, Kevin and Mignon caught sight of Takumi and Zhi and made their way to them. "Hey there guys." Kevin greeted them.
"What the heck was that!?" Zhi suddenly blurted out at Kevin. "Do you even know who that is!?" She demanded to know, finding the idea he could know BlueStar was a Kishin and be that friendly with him absolutely insane.
"Well of course I do!" Kevin answered with a big smile. "I mean I ought to, I fought him to get into the EAT class. The Kishin of Shibusen, BlueStar!" He proclaimed.
"Then how could-" Zhi was about to argue the point of how friendly he was with BlueStar, but cut herself off to react to the even more shocking news. "YOU WHAT!?" She screamed. "You mean you were given that monster as your examiner to get into the EAT class?"
"Oh, no no no!" Mignon hurriedly denied that idea before Kevin could answer. "We were just on our way here one day and he... well... attack us." She told Zhi, much preferring not to make a big deal out it.
"And after we did so well against him, they let us into the EAT class no sweat." Kevin added, popping the collar of his Hawaiian T-shirt to emphasize how amazing he thought it was.
"Although really... it only lasted about a minute. After that Muramasa stopped the fight."
"You don't have to tell them that Mignon, it makes it sound less impressive." Kevin whined to Mignon.
"B-but if people actually thought we had done something that competed with BlueStar, e-everyone would be coming after us, wouldn't they?" Mignon pointed out, definitely not wanting that kind of attention.
"But Mignon, that's a good thing. If we fight more with the strong students, we'll become stronger and stronger, and then you can become a Death Scythe!" Kevin illustrated all the points that made attention here a good idea. "Don't you guys think so?" Kevin asked Takumi and Zhi to back up his point.
But Zhi was still trying to wrap her head around the idea that Kevin actually managed to fight well enough against BlueStar for Shibusen to say he could enter the EAT class. When BlueStar attacked them, they were barely able to lift a finger against him, even Diego couldn't fight him well. So Zhi had to now wonder just how strong the two of them were if they had actually put up that kind of show.
It occurred to Zhi that Naomi had also told them that Kevin and Mignon had gotten extremely close to holding their Soul Resonance for 3 minutes on the very first day of the attempts, meaning they had already been a step ahead of them even then. It also proved that Kevin's bravado was not just for show.
Takumi of course wasn't incredibly interested in Kevin's concerns, and so just shrugged to his question. "Anyways," Kevin changed topics when he got no response. "I was going to take on a mission, but if Blue is on his way out then he must have taken all the really good ones... so maybe I'll just wait another day." He suggested to himself. "What about you?" He added to Zhi, knowing how she was very gung-ho about taking on tougher trials to show herself off.
Shaking off her shock, Zhi answered. "No way, every day a Kishin is left to roam free is another death. I'll take the stronger ones on any day, but I'm not about to let the weaker ones get off when the tough ones aren't around." With hat explanation, Zhi reached out to the mission board and snagged one of the missions. "He didn't take the one I was looking at anyways. Let's go Takumi."
Nodding, Takumi and Zhi began to head out for their mission. As they did, Kevin watched after Zhi with his jaw dropped in awe of her. He continued to look after and Mignon found it strange and was about to comment. "Kevin...?"
At that point, Kevin slowly brought his hands up near his face, and after a slight pause, slapped them against both his cheeks quite hard to where they made an audible sound. Following that motion, Kevin gave a shout that filled the whole hall, catching the attention of everyone in earshot, including Zhi and Takumi.
Turning to figure out what it was for, Zhi and Takumi then saw Kevin running back up to them, Mignon following to figure out what he was up to as well. "Well! I'm not being out done by you. We're gonna go with you on that mission!" Kevin proclaimed with great enthusiasm.
Kevin had gotten quite close to Zhi's face, so while bent backwards, she stuttered. "What... but-"
"Nope; no buts! I've already made up my mind." Kevin interrupted Zhi, leaving no room for argument. "So let's get going already." He added, then grabbed Zhi's and Mignon's wrists dragging them out running to go on the mission, and Takumi followed walking.
"Poland, huh?" Kevin said with a grin as he got off the plane that got him and the others here and looked around. "Pretty cool; say Zhi, what's the name of our target?" He asked, turning back to his companions coming up behind him.
Looking at the mission info, Zhi looked at the name, but squited as she tried to figure out how to say it. "Z... Zd... z- Urg! I don't know how to pronounce it, the name looks like gibberish to me." She said, scratching the back of her head in confusion.
But then Mignon looked over Zhi's shoulder and read the name. "Um, it's Zdzisław Marchwicki; also called the Zagłębie Vampire." She said quickly, which made Zhi look at her for a moment. "Um, I used to come to Poland a lot with my parents when I was a kid, s-so I know the language."
"See, having us come along is already a good thing." Kevin said with a laugh, having Zhi complain about how they didn't need to come with them the whole plane ride over.
"I still don't even get why you decided to come with us." Zhi complained still. "Not only does it not make sense, but it's inconvenient for us. There's only one Kishin around here and there's two weapons. How do we decide who gets the soul?"
"We make it a race." Kevin gave a solution immediately, as if it were obvious.
"A race?" Zhi questioned, a twinge of interest entering her voice.
"Yeah, we don't really know each other's strength yet, so I say we find out who's better here and now."
Because of this proposal, Zhi straightened up and folded her arms. Kevin must have heard about her competitive spirit, and now was using that against her. "I'm listening."
"When night falls we both head out and whoever kills the Kishin gets the soul. What do you say?" Kevin asked, holding out his hand to shake on the challenge.
Unable to resist the challenge, Zhi grinned and grasped Kevin's hand in her own. "You are so on."
"The games start at sunset." Kevin designated the starting point.
And like that the deal was struck; and the only thing more amazing than those two competitive spirits was their complete disregard for their partners while arranging it. Takumi and Mignon knew that they would now be dragged all over and yelled at to be doing their best only for the sake of satisfying their partner's personal agenda. But at the same time, neither truly minded.
Mignon and Takumi glanced at each other as they shared that understood fact about their lives. Mignon smiled gleefully at Takumi in a way that said, 'we knew what we were getting into, so we can't complain now.' And then added with real words, "Good luck, Takumi."
But when she spoke those words, Kevin immediately pulled her to the side in objection. "No, no, no, Mignon! Those words are a jinx. We can't be wishing our rivals luck like that."
"S-sorry Kevin." Mignon apologized.
"What's the matter, Kevin?" Zhi asked Kevin with a snide grin on her face. "Are you afraid you'll lose if we have just a bit of luck?"
Now Zhi was hitting Kevin right in his pride. There was no way he could withstand someone taking him lightly or thinking he was afraid. Even as a joke, it was something he could not stand for. And so in response to Zhi's tease, Kevin gave a devilish smirk. "You're right. In that case, good luck from me too." He told Zhi, insinuating that not only did he not need luck in order to win, but that he thought that Zhi could have all that she wanted and still he could come out on top.
He may have also been plotting to make Zhi wish him luck back as yet another challenge to her competitive spirit. However, instead of something like that, Zhi responded by thanking Kevin. "Well thank you for that, Kevin. I would return the favor, but I actually don't believe in luck. Come on, Takumi."
The moment Zhi said that, she ran off into the city of Czeladź, but Takumi did not follow her immediately. "H-hey!" Kevin shouted after Zhi, realizing she had tricked him into wishing her luck just to get him frustrated.
Looking between Kevin and Zhi, Takumi gave a sigh before turning to follow his eccentric partner. But as he did, he gave a quick wave back to his classmates in his own way of telling them 'good luck'.
Nightfall had not been far off. Having separated from Kevin and Mignon, Takumi and Zhi stood on top a building and awaited the sun to fully set. Zhi stood on the corner with the wind blowing around her. "You ready Takumi?" She asked her partner.
"Yeah," Takumi told her.
"No going easy on this one. Let's find and beat this Kishin quickly." Zhi added.
Zhi and Takumi continued to stand there on that roof until the moment the sun vanished beneath the horizon. When it did, Zhi immediately changed into weapon form and Takumi ran forward, jumping from one roof to another while Zhi began expanding her soul perception range to search for the Kishin. However, it wasn't even 5 seconds later that something happened that would have taken the attention of anyone still awake in the city.
From the roof of the Saint Stanislaus Church building near the center of Czeladź, a bright red light suddenly illuminated the night and began climbing into the sky. When it got about 30 meters into the air, the red signal flare-like light exploded like a firework.
Zhi directed her Soul Perception to the church where it came from, and when she did she became agitated. "That's Kevin and Mignon! They must be trying to lure the Kishin to them with that flare." She surmised. "That Kevin, he's pretty much cheating with something like that."
"Rules?" Takumi questioned, as there was never anything that even resembled an establishment of rules with which Zhi could have called this cheating.
"W-whatever, let's just go!" Zhi stuttered in response from having her logic beat.
With that, Takumi began jumping across rooftops again, now heading toward the church. The Kishin would likely have been drawn in by Kevin's flare, so to get at it now, their best chance was to go to the same place.
But half-way to the church, Zhi caught the Kishin's wavelength in her Soul Perception and alerted Takumi. "Takumi, the Kishin is approaching Kevin just East of us. If we hurry we can cut it off before it reaches him."
And standing atop the Saint Stanislaus Church, Kevin balanced on one of the towers and scanned the perimeter for the Kishin as the flare he shot off dissipated overhead. "All's going according to plan." He told Mignon with a grin, able see two figures in the distance from the light of the flare, both heading in his direction. "The Vampire is in pursuit of me and our opponents are in pursuit of the Vampire."
"Are you sure you're alright with giving them a head start?" Mignon questioned.
"Of course I am. That when when I show up and beat the Vampire, it will be even more impressive."
"But.. um... what if they defeat it beat before we arrive."
"If they manage that then I would owe them an apology for pre-judging them only based on what Blue told me." Kevin said. "But forget about that right now. Let's just wait and see what happens."
Takumi jumped another rooftop and finally saw the Kishin running along the ground below still somewhat behind him. Although upon seeing it, a more appropriate term for its movement seemed to be 'gliding'. The Zagłębie Vampire was moving swiftly forward without its feet making contact with the ground. It was moving fast, so Takumi had arrived just in time to stop it short. Takumi waited for the right moment and then jumped off the rooftops.
When he did, he turned to face the direction the Kishin was coming from just as it was beginning to pass under him. From that position, Takumi got the chain of Zhi's weapon form to hook under the Kishin's chin while still running full speed forward. The sudden object at the Kishin's neck acted like a car's brakes and quickly halted its movement forward. However, the Kishin's legs had not been prepared for the stop and were swung forward.
At the same time, Zhi changed back to human form to keep Takumi from getting too much rebound from the Kishin running into the chain and she jumped off the Kishin's face so she was in front of it while Takumi landed his feet on the ground behind it. Not wasting anytime at all, Zhi jumped back to Takumi and changed back to weapon form while he ran forward and threw his fist down at the Kishin's head.
However, just before he connected his punch, the Kishin grabbed his fist with its own hand and used great strength to throw him to the side into a wall. With a moan that sounded like a snake hissing, the Zagłębie Vampire got back to its feet and faced Takumi. And before Takumi had the chance to move, the Zagłębie Vampire charged forward, showing its sharp teeth ready to bit Takumi.
The distance was too narrow and the Kishin too fast to get out of the way in time. And seeing that, Zhi changed back to human form directly in front of Takumi to catch the Kishin off guard and elbowed it in the gut. "Takumi!"
When she called out to her partner, Takumi moved as soon as possible and threw his fist directly forward at Zhi's back. Just before Takumi hit her though, Zhi once more changed into Weapon form. With her out of the way, Takumi's punch went straight on and struck the same spot Zhi had elbowed the Zagłębie Vampire. "Soul Force," Takumi called, shooting his wavelength into the Kishin.
The Kishin took the full blow and was struck back. However, instead of falling onto its back like Takumi and Zhi expected, the Zagłębie Vampire managed to stay upright and skid to a stop on its feet, which greatly surprised Zhi. "What!?" Zhi breathed. "It took your Soul Force and wasn't affected at all?"
However, Takumi didn't let the surprise keep him from moving. He charged forward once again and punched at the Zagłębie Vampire, however this time the Kishin caught his fist and then made its counterattack. The Zagłębie Vampire pulled Takumi toward it and readied its second hand to stab him with long and sharpened nails.
"Zhi!" Takumi called on his partner, and in reaction Zhi immediately transformed back to Human form.
When she did, one of her hands was caught between Takumi's fist and the Kishin's hand holding it, but that actually gave her the perfect fulcrum to shift her body on. Using that fulcrum, Zhi twisted her body and kicked at two spots on the Kishin. First she kicked its wrist to keep it from striking Takumi, and then her second leg struck the Kishin in the throat, knocking it off balance and causing it to let go of their hands.
"Takumi," Zhi landed crouched down and then both she and Takumi jumped forward, attacking both high and low on the Kishin.
However, the Zagłębie Vampire used acrobat level skill and bend and jump out of the way of both attacks and get to the side. Zhi then changed back into Weapon form and Takumi charged forward again, readying a potent Soul Force for an attack. However, before he reached the Kishin, a red light appeared from one of the nearby rooftops. "Time's up; my move!" Kevin shouted out and swung his Weapon partner Mignon, who took on the appearance of a long staff with some kind of large red gem on top that was emitting the bright light.
Takumi wasn't entirely sure what Kevin was about to pull, but he knew he didn't want to get caught up in it. So in a hurry, Takumi stopped himself from running for the Kishin and pushed himself backwards. Just as he did, Kevin swung Mignon forward and unleashed a torrent of flames in a line at the Kishin. The Kishin leaped high into the air to dodge, and the ruby red flame that burned across the street began to dissipate unnaturally fast.
Meanwhile, Kevin hopped down onto the other side of the fire Takumi was on, and the Kishin practically floated down to its feet in front of him. Facing it, Kevin pointed Mignon at it and made a proclamation. "Alright Zagłębie Vampire, you're dealing with Kevin Astaire now; prepare to die."
When Kevin said that, the Kishin then moved forward head first, showing its sharp fangs ready to bite into Kevin. But when it did, Kevin only chuckled with amusement and span Mignon in his hand and then smashed the jewel head of her Weapon form into its head, knocking it into the ground hard. "And one more!" Kevin shouted and spun full circle and slammed Mignon at the Kishin again.
However, the Zagłębie Vampire swiftly pushed against the ground with its arms and legs to jump into the air and dodge the attack, and then span in mid-air like a top and somehow fell at incredible speed like a bullet at Kevin. But even at that, Kevin continued to grin at his target. Taking just one quick step back, Kevin avoided the Kishin's attack and at the same time swung Mignon into the Zagłębie Vampire's back and continued the swing to throw it down the street.
At that point, the ruby flames were done dissipating and Takumi charged forward to get back into the fight. But before he could, Kevin looked back at him and pulled up Mignon, and her jewel glowed red once again. Kevin swung Mignon and created a fresh streak of ruby flames right in front of Takumi, forcing him to halt, and then Kevin turned back to the Kishin and ran at it.
Takumi stopped and shielded his face to protect himself from the heat he expected the flames to emit, but he quickly realized that there was none. The shining ruby colored flame looked like fire, but it did not give off the heat one would expect of a fire, nor did it seem to actually burn the ground it ran across. These things plus the odd speed it faded away made Takumi and Zhi question the true properties of Mignon's ability.
But they had plenty of time to worry about that later, but first they had to get at the Kishin again, although Kevin seemed determined to keep them back. Even if the ruby flames gave off no heat, Takumi doubted he could just run straight through them and be fine, so he either had to find a way around or just wait for them to dissipate and try to get past Kevin before he could set another blaze. The first choice may have seemed better, but it would give Kevin less to worry about for a few minutes, which could be all the time he heeded to finish the Kishin off if he continued at the pace he was going at right now. So Takumi stayed where he was and prepared to charge forward once the flames dissipated.
As the Zagłębie Vampire tried to get back to its feet, Kevin had already closed the gap between them and swung Mignon up at its chest, knocking it off its feet. Even with its speed, the Kishin had lost the time needed to dodge Kevin's blows, which continued to come at it one straight after another. Kevin never stopped moving for even an instant and use fluent movements to quickly change his arms directions around and strike the Kishin over and over without giving it any time to react. Knowing how fast the Zagłębie Vampire was firsthand, Takumi and Zhi realized just was an accomplishment that was.
But Kevin showed no sign of planning to use Mignon's ruby flame against the Kishin itself. It was likely meant to tell Takumi and Zhi that he didn't need it to beat it, proving even more that the overly-eccentric bravado Kevin showed at all times wasn't just an act, but a truth of his skill.
Kevin gave the Zagłębie Vampire quite the pounding by the time the ruby flames dissipated, and the moment they had, Takumi bolted forward at top speed, but immediately when he did, Mignon warned. "Takumi's behind you." And once her warning was received, Kevin delivered one more blow to the Kishin to push him backwards and immediately twisted his body into a spin to make yet another barrier of ruby flame in front of Takumi.
"Dang it!" Zhi shouted in frustration that Kevin wasn't even giving them a chance anymore.
Kevin continued his spin so he would be facing the Kishin again, but when he did he saw that the Zagłębie Vampire was attempting to strike back using the one second it received from Kevin holding off Takumi, attacking him with its claws. However, Kevin still moved faster and span Mignon in his hands, knocking the Kishin's hand away and throwing it off balance in the process. "Time to finish this!" Kevin declared and moved one foot back while the Zagłębie Vampire was regaining balance and held Mignon with the bottom end of her staff form pointed at the Kishin. the end of the staff ended with a sharp point that would be capable of stabbing through the Kishin, and with one more forward motion, that was just what Kevin did to the Zagłębie Vampire.
Run through the chest, the Zagłębie Vampire cringed in pain and perished, and its soul floated there in front of Kevin. With the threat gone, Mignon and Zhi changed back into Human form. While Mignon took a step forward and grabbed the Kishin soul Zhi looked at the pair with a mixture of frustration and awe. She finally saw how those two had managed to fight their way into the EAT class when the one they battled against had been BlueStar. But even if she did admire that strength, it didn't change her frustration at being defeated in the challenge.
"Woooooohoooo!" Kevin cheered to his own victory while dacing and pointing at Zhi, rubbing it in. "Hahaha, we won. I knew we would."
"S-sorry," Mignon told Takumi and Zhi, probably more apologizing for Kevin's behavior in victory than trying to give them condolences for their loss.
"It's fine," Takumi said as the ruby flames dissipated between them.
Still disgruntled, Zhi groaned and pouted by folding her arms and sitting criss-cross on the ground, "Well, I don't like it, but I guess you won Mignon. The soul is yours, as promised." Zhi said, although she refused to make eye-contact when she did so, and sounded like she was refusing to admit she lost to Kevin by the way she specifically used Mignon's name in her statement.
Smiling at Zhi, Mignon looked at the Kishin soul in her hand and opened her mouth, plopping it inside and slowing it. "Hey by the way," Kevin suddenly stopped his victory dance to bring up something else. "How many Kishin souls have you guys collected anyways?"
"Four," Takumi answered.
"Ha! Then that means we're beating you overall too. This is our sixth soul." Kevin bragged.
"What!?" Zhi shouted in remark of this, only more upset by learning it. Frustrated as much as she was, Zhi stood up and argued with Kevin. "Well you know what? I don't think this was a very good way of testing which of us is better. Takumi and I did good damage to the Kishin before you arrived, and you didn't even give us a chance after you showed up by keeping us from fighting it."
"Really, sounds to me like someone's just a sore loser." Kevin quipped back.
"Well of course I'm a sore loser!" Zhi remarked unexpectedly to that comment. "That's just who I am, but it doesn't mean my point isn't valid. The only way we can really see whose better is by fighting each other."
Hearing that proclamation, Kevin's grin stretched out from ear to ear. "Well, when you say it like that, how can I say no? When we get back to Shibusen, it's on!"
Once more, Kevin and Zhi had decided on something without even thinking to consult their partners, who had just stood by and watched the argument take place. When the deal to battle had been struck between them, Takumi and Mignon glance at each other, once more feeling sorry for one another that they had to put up with these two and Mignon once more gave her gleeful 'we knew what we were getting into' grin.
But in response, Takumi gave a shrug that there would be times they really made them want to complain even though they had no right.
"Alright, to the airport!" Zhi and Kevin shouted this command at the same time and grabbed their partners' arms to begin running while dragging them in that direction heading back to Shibusen for their match.