CHAPTER 11

Kid's POV

Monday was torturous. My body may have healed, but my mind was roaring with irritation. I hadn't slept in two nights because nobody had been able to straighten the painting correctly! The next time I saw that girl, I swore I would-

I was distracted by the sound of someone sitting in the seat beside me.

"What's up, asshole?" Riley greeted me with a smirk.

"You know exactly what's up, bitch," I growled at her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa now!" I heard Liz's laughter from behind me. "What's with the name-calling?"

"She was the one who tilted the painting!" I complained. To my horror, my weapon and Riley wordlessly high-fived. "Oh come on!"

"No, you come on, Kid!" Liz said as she pulled up a chair beside me. "This isn't you. You've never been a bully before."

"That was before she showed up," I jerked my thumb in Riley's direction.

"Calm your tits, Reaper Boy," Riley chuckled at me.

"My tits are not calm!"

Unfortunately, the whole class had heard that.

"Well, you certainly know how to put on a show," Liz snorted. Professor Stein decided to make his entrance then, holding a slip of paper.

"Riley? Kid?" he called us down. Upon going to the front of the classroom, the professor addressed us.

"As per the DWMA's tradition, we need to find Riley a weapon," he explained.

"And what exactly does this have to do with me?" I asked.

"You are her partner for this project, and I deem this to be part of the project," he said.

"So what exactly is the weapon-pairing procedure here?" Riley asked the professor.

"I've already gathered all the unpaired weapons in the training room. I'll take you down there and let you try them to see which you can most easily resonate with."

"I don't know, Stein," she picked at her nails. "I don't work well with people. I mean, look what happened to this big idiot," she gestured to me.

"What did you just call me?"

"I thought you'd be used to the name by now," she spat at me.

"Okay, time to go," Professor Stein gave a nervous laugh and dragged us into the hallway.

Upon arriving at the training room we saw four students from our class and another from the class below us. They all beamed at us, but Riley merely looked around nervously.

"I have a really bad feeling about this, Stein," she warned the professor.

"Youll be fine, don't worry," he said, fishing his buzzing cell phone out of his coat pocket. "Shoot. I need to go to the Death Room," he looked at the screen. "Kid, you know what to do." With that, he hurried out of the room and into the stairwell.

"Okay, then..." I began, "How about we have Holly up first."

The blonde girl from the class below us timidly stepped toward us, blushing furiously.

"H-hi," she greeted us, her eyes shyly looking up at me more than once. I felt a swell of smugness in my chest as I turned to Riley.

"See?" I gestured to the weapon. "She thinks I'm attractive." Holly turned beet red and Riley placed her hand on my mouth.

"Shhhh," Riley hushed without looking at me. "No more words." I swatted her hand away.

"The next time you do that, I'll lick your hand," I threatened before turning back to Holly. "So what kind of weapon are you?"

"I-I'm a rapier," she stammered and looked at her feet. Riley immediately adressed the next weapon.

"You," she barked. "What are you?"

"Bitchy much?" I muttered under my breath. Ignoring me, the weapon answered her.

"I'm a r-rifle," he murmured.

"And you?" Riley went down the line.

"B-bow."

"And you?"

"N-nunchucks."

The first four weapons seemed to be incredibly intimidated by her, but the last one stared defiantly in her direction.

"And you?" she addressed him.

"Spear."

Riley's eyes widened and she smirked.

"Would you mind if I tried you out?" she asked.

"Not a bit," he grinned in return.

In a flash of light he transformed into his spear form and landed in Riley's hands. But the moment he touched her, he tranformed and scurried away from her with a terrified look on his face.

"W-what was that?" he stammered.

"I don't know," Riley answered him. "I really don't know what you're talking about."

"What happened?" I knelt by him.

"I-I was on fire! The minute I was in her hands I was on fire!"

All eyes turned to Riley, but she looked just as surprised as the weapon.

"Could I try resonating with another one of you?" she asked. Holly stepped up and opened her soul to her, and Riley did the same. Moments later they backed away panting.

"I felt like I was burning!" the weapon whimpered and ran from the room. The rest of the weapons gathered experienced the same thing, and Riley looked exhausted. In a frightened huddle the weapons fled the training room, leaving only me and Riley, who was staring at her hands like they were monsters.

"Do you have any idea what that was?"

She shook her head and answered me. "Not a clue."

"Well, that gets us places," I chuckled weakly. What on earth is going on?

"I knew this was a bad idea," I heard her mutter.

"Why?"

"I'm not all that sure," she replied. "I just... don't work well with people."

Suddenly an idea popped into my head.

"Hey," I got her attention. "Have you ever resonated with anyone before?"

"No."

"That might explain things. Could I try resonating with you?" She set her jaw in response.

"I'm not too keen on the idea of connecting souls, Reaper," she said lowly.

"Well, it's either me or Professor Stein," I huffed.

"No, not that, I mean - ugh!" she grabbed at her head before looking back up at me. "I don't want to connect souls with anyone."

"Then why did you even come here? This school is based upon soul resonance." Her face clenched in frustration.

"Stein," she said. "He told me he could make me stronger."

"And you accepted an offer from a screw-headed madman who promised to make you stronger?" I asked incredulously. "Why the hell would you that?"

"Revenge. I've got some people to get back at."

"Okay," I trailed. That wasn't exactly the answer I had expected. "You're not going to get strong enough for revenge without a weapon."

"I'll just use non-human ones," she said. "I assume your father told you my story. I'm not some pitiful little girl who can't fight."

"This school is designed to create Death Scythes, not just to train meisters."

"Fuck the police!" she screamed and stormed from the room.

That's when I started howling in laughter. This entire situation was just ridiculous - a snarky loner girl with color-changing eyes who can fight has just entered the DWMA and has already kicked my ass.

Riley's POV

Having fun yet?

Oh shut up, I thought as a huffed through the hall back to class Crescent Moon.

Don't tell me you didn't feel it. The power surge whenever you touched those weapons?

I hurt them. That is inexcusable and you know it.

But they're just weapons! We've only been here a week and we already know that weapons have to be prepared to die for their meisters. They're disposable!

They're people!

By this time I was standing before the door to class, so I walked in to find it had been cancelled. Stein was merely sitting in his squeaky rolling chair and reading the Death City Advocate. Upon noticing my entry he asked me about my weapon choice.

"I didn't pick one," I sat cross-legged on his desk. He fell completely still.

"What do you mean, you didn't pick one?" he asked.

"I mean that I didn't pick one," I exasperatedly replied. "More accurately, none of them could stand me."

"Did you insult their mothers or threaten to hurt them?"

"No. The minute we tried to resonate they broke away and said they felt like they were on fire." Stein's eyes widened behind his glasses.

"That is unusual. Did you try resonating with all of them?"

I nodded in response. "I'm not opposed to being weaponless, you know. I don't like working with other people."

"That's fairly obvious, but meisters are markedly more powerful when wielding a human weapon. If you really want to get stronger, you need to be able to resonate with one."

"Sorry if I don't like the idea of people being an audience to my freakshow of a mind," I grumbled and rested my chin on my fists.

"Did you even try to resonate or were you too concentrated on blocking off your mind?"

"I genuinely tried, but I was going to sever the connection after a few seconds."

"Do you think you would be able to resonate with a meister?" he asked after a moment of silence.

"Maybe," I shrugged, "as long as it's with you. You're already messed up enough. I don't want to make anyone else go insane."

"Fair enough," he replied and sat straighter in his chair. "Would you like to try now?"

"Sure."

With that a light blue orb faded into place around Stein and began to wispily reach out to me. Steeling myself, I tried to push my own blue soul out to meet his. The moment our souls touched, Stein fell out of his chair and severed the connection,looking up at me with an almost blank expression.

"Did you feel like you were on fire?" I asked him with a sigh. He shook his head dumbly.

"I felt like I was drowning," his voice shook almost impercetibly.

"Maybe that's because you're a meister."

Stein nodded in agreement as he stood and dusted himself off. "I don't think it's a good idea for you to resonate with anyone just yet. Just... stick to normal weapons for now."

"Good idea."

Just then, Reaper Boy decided to join us.

"Hey, bitch," he greeted me.

"'Sup, asshole?"

Stein let out a tiny chuckle and reclaimed his place upon his chair. The shinigami looked down at the shaken professor and then back to me.

"Did you try to resonate with him, too?" he asked.

"Yup. Said he felt like he was drowning."

"Well, that's comforting."

"Yeah. I could just curl up with that knowledge on my bed on a rainy day." Reaper Boy chuckled at my deadpanned joke, and then the bell rang to signal the end of class. We all gathered our books and left for lunch. Upon our arrival at the cafeteria, we bought our lunches and headed outside. Finding our tree, the shinigami and I sat on opposite sides of the trunk and leaned against it.

"So," he broke the comfortable silence, "Do you have any idea what just happened back there?"

"Nope," I took a bite of my sandwich and grimaced. "God, this is bland."

"You're the first person I've met here that has said that," Reaper Boy's voice came around the trunk.

"Sorry if I insulted your precious academy," I scoffed and took another bite.

"Well, one, no you're not sorry, and, two, I'm not offended by that statement in the slightest. I actually agree with it."

I craned my neck around the tree trunk to stare at him. "Well, that's a first. You actually agreed with me."

"Ah, but you see," he jokingly held up a finger, "I said I agreed with your statement, not with you."

"I would like to think that my views are inextricably bound to me," I chuckled and returned to my original position.

"'Inextricably.' Big word for you. Good job."

"Oh shut up!" I laughed and rammed my back against the tree trunk, making it bounce back to hit my "friend" on the back of the head.

"Ow! You ruined our symmetry, you bitch!"

"I'm here anytime you need me," I said and continued eating that God-awful sandwich.