Final Chapter!
Yay!
Tsugumi sat in her chair, nervously tapping her feet. Anya and Meme sat on either side of her, and Jackie and Harvar were standing behind them. They were waiting in Stein's office, but they weren't sure who they were supposed to be meeting with. There was a clock on the wall to her left, ticking loudly. Five minutes passed in nervous silence.
"Tsugumi, can we leave?" Meme whispered, breaking the silence.
"No, you dope," Anya answered for her. "We're waiting to be punished."
"Can't they just send us a letter? I want to go to bed," Meme murmured, yawning loudly and resting her head on the back of her chair. She stared at Jackie, who was behind her. "Hello," she whispered. Jackie gave her a tiny wave.
"I get why we're getting punished, but why are you two here?" Tsugumi asked, turning to the two older students.
"We were in charge, so we probably should have noticed that it was a fishy mission from the start," Jackie said. Tsugumi frowned and faced forward, only to spin back around when the door swung open.
"Morning, kiddos," Spirit said, walking in. He was all healed up after Kim visited the infirmary earlier that day. Jackie and Harvar had also been fixed up, with Jackie getting an ear full from her pink haired meister on being more careful.
"Hello, Mr. Albarn. You look much better," Meme said.
"Are you here to give us our punishments?" Tsugumi asked, secretly worrying about having to do manual labor.
"No, not that I know of," Spirit said. "Nygus just told me to come in here. She said that she'd be down here in a second." Harvar gave Jackie a look that had just the slightest hint of terror mixed with fear on it.
"Is something wrong?" Anya asked, catching the look. The words had barely left her mouth when the door swung open with so much force that the doorknob broke a hole in the wall. On the other side was Nygus, with Sid behind her, looking terrified. She strode over behind the desk and sat down. Sid closed the door and stood in front of it like a bodyguard. Nygus rested her fingertips together in front of her face, her expression unreadable underneath her wrappings. Her blue eyes drifted over them. Suddenly, she slammed her hands down, and Anya realized why Harvar had looked scared.
"Spirit! You are an absolute moron! How the hell did Lord Death's personal Death Scythe manage to get his dumb ass captured by a witch!" she shouted, pointing a finger at him. He opened his mouth to try and defend himself, but Nygus was not having any of it. "I know how! You got drunk talking with Blair and the girls at Chupa Cabra's because you can't get over your divorce!"
Spirit stared at her, open-mouthed. He had nothing to say now, so Nygus continued.
"You need to get your shit together, Spirit! You're not a student, so I can't order you to do anything, but I will tell you to be less flirty! You wonder why Maka has a problem with you! It's because you flirt with so many other women!" Nygus yelled. "Stop going to Chupa Cabra's so much and don't be so clingy! Now, get out and be a better person!"
Sid opened the door and Spirit was out in a flash. Nygus turned her attention back to the five students in front of her. She let silence fall for a minute while she gathered herself in preparation of another batch of shouting.
"Harvar, you are one of the smartest students in this school," Nygus said quietly. "So why in Death's name didn't you realize that maybe, just maybe, you should check with Stein before going out on a mission? Why the hell did you trust Spirit? Don't you remember when you took a mission from Spirit and almost leveled the city of Paris?" Nygus was shouting now. "And then, after you were in a building that exploded and gave you serious injuries, including a freaking skull fracture, you decided that it'd be a good idea to go after a witch! Without telling an adult! You should have found Sid or myself!"
"Well, in my defense, the school was empty, so I thought-"
"Maybe you should have looked harder then!" Nygus yelled. "And, in case you forgot, the school is never empty! Lord Death is always in his Death room unless there is a major attack on the City. Was there a major attack on the City, Harvar? I don't think so! You should have gone to him for help!"
"Well, he couldn't have helped, since the witch was outside the boundaries of the City..." Jackie winced and trailed off, realizing that she probably shouldn't have interrupted.
"I will get to you in a second," Nygus said menacingly before turning her attention back to Harvar. "And why the hell did you bring Jackie? I didn't think that you two were that good of friends! And it was your assignment, even though it wasn't actually an assignment!"
"Well, I'm not good with people, especially pre-teen females," Harvar muttered. "And with Ox and Kim always having 'sleepovers' together, we hang out a lot. I asked her for help."
Nygus let out a strangled noise. "Great. I have to deal with you children and then talk to your meisters!"
"Sorry-"
Nygus raised her hand, silencing him before turning her attention to Jackie.
"Jackie! What the hell is wrong with you?" Nygus yelled.
"I don't know!" Jackie yelled back. Nygus gave her a hard look, which Jackie mimicked while trying not to smile. Tsugumi and Meme barely stifled their giggles.
"Well, your attitude for one," Anya muttered, making Tsugumi snort.
"Wait! Wait! I know!" Jackie said, cutting Nygus off before she could even start. "I shouldn't have offered to help Harvar, I should have figured out that there was something off about the mission, I should tried harder to take Holmes out in the first place, I shouldn't have blown up the hotel, I should have looked harder for adults, I should have waited for adults, I should have been faster with getting to the girls, and I should have been all around a better person. Did I miss anything?"
Nygus narrowed her eyes at the girl, and Jackie stood her ground.
"You should be more appreciative of Harvar," Nygus said.
"Alright, fine," Jackie said, turning to Harvar and sticking her hand out. "Thank you for helping me fight Holmes, and helping me out when the entire building exploded. And for hanging out with me when our partners are getting nasty." Harvar nodded and shook her hand. "Can we go now?"
"Sure," Nygus said with narrowed eyes and a frown. "But, since you two were so eager to help out with younger kids like Tsugumi and her friends, I will now be assigning you to teach young weapons to fight without a meister. You will do this three times a week."
"What?" Jackie yelled. "That's not fair!"
"I hate children. That is the whole reason the Jackie is here," Harvar muttered.
"You will do this for three months," Nygus added. "One more word from either of you and I'll make it six." Harvar and Jackie let out equally irritated sighs, but said nothing. "Alright, now get out." They filed out past Sid, and Jackie shot an encouraging look to the three girls left sitting in chairs.
"'Hanging out' my ass," Nygus muttered. "He saved her from the brunt of a gas-fueled explosion. If they aren't at least dating, I will eat my wrappings."
Tsugumi, Anya, and Meme sat silently, unsure of what to say and too scared to think of anything.
"So, that leaves you three," Nygus said, relaxing back in her chair. She watched them with a little less intensity. "The weapon with two meisters. I'm not kidding when I'm saying that I am tired of shouting, and as far as I am concerned, you three didn't do anything wrong."
"We didn't?" Tsugumi asked, confused. She was expecting to get the same treatment as the other three had.
"No. Spirit is the one who got you three into this mess, even though he is a Death Scythe. Jackie and Harvar are both the partners of two-star meisters, making them two-star weapons. They are also incredibly smart and members of the elite Spartoi squad. They should have taken care of things better and double-checked the mission with Stein. You three are untrained NOT students who were just trying to get up the the EAT classes, and I must say that you did fairly well." The girls exchanged looks. They were definitely not expecting praise.
"You three took on a powerful kishin egg with almost no hesitation. You were innovative enough to find gasoline in a wooden hotel and tried to utilize it to defeat the kishin egg. That was smart, even if the execution could have used a little bit of work. You then managed to track down the witch and her pet, trick her and gain her trust, kill Holmes, take the key, and save Spirit. I must say it was very well done," Nygus said. The girls smiled.
"But, you did make several large mistakes," Nygus said seriously. "You nearly killed Jackie and Harvar. You should not have gone after the witch without more back up."
"We just wanted a chance to get into EAT classes," Tsugumi blurted out.
"And you might," Nygus said with a smile.
"What do you mean? We were told that we can't, because of the whole 'two meister, one weapon' thing," Anya said.
"We've written up an account of your mission and presented it to Lord Death. He might just bump you up," Nygus said, sounding very happy for them.
"That's amazing!" Meme exclaimed as her friends squealed next to her.
"It's not a done deal, though," Nygus said. "There is a very high chance that a meisterless weapon will be brought in, making your happy little trio into a four man squad," she informed them. "Sorry about that, girls."
"We understand," Tsugumi said, sounding a lot less enthusiastic.
"Who knows? Maybe you guys will be an elastic four man squad," Nygus said, earning herself confused looks from the girls. "It's a squad where the meisters interchange weapons. Since both Meme and Anya can wield Tsugumi, it's assumed that a soul similar to Tsugumi's will work."
The girls nodded, again not sure of what to say.
"It's Tsugumi's choice of who she wants to keep as her meister," Nygus said. "Again, nothing is set in stone, but you might want to keep that in the back of your mind."
"Thank you, Ms. Nygus," they said in unison.
"You girls can go now," Nygus said. Sid opened the door and they walked out. Nygus left too, heading with Sid to the clinic. The girls went the other way, towards the front of the school.
"That mission wasn't that bad, was it?" Meme asked as they neared the large red doors.
"Not really," Tsugumi admitted.
"Yeah, if you ignore the near-death experiences and the fact that we almost killed two other students," Anya said. "And that we almost unleashed about a hundred kishin eggs and evil humans on Death City."
"Anya, you need to lighten up," Meme said.
"Yeah! Didn't you hear Nygus? We might be going up to EAT classes!" Tsugumi said excitedly.
"With another student," Meme reminded her. "I wonder who it will be? And what weapon form?"
"And who will the meister be," Anya said with a hinting tone in her voice.
"We'll see when it comes," Tsugumi said, wanting to avoid that particular topic of discussion. "If it comes."
"It will," Meme said with confidence. Anya couldn't help but smile at her friend, pushing the tiny seed of doubt to the back of her mind. She stopped suddenly as they passed a hallway and backed up.
"Something wrong, Anya?" Meme asked. Anya shook her head. She could have sworn that she had seen Jackie and Harvar doing...something. She didn't really want to think of what it was.
"Nothing," Anya said, hiding another secretive smile.
"Alright," Meme said, easily shrugging it off. Tsugumi still looked curious, though, and her eyes demanded an explanation later.
"So, what did you think about the mission?" Anya asked.
"Well, I know a lot of things about the mission," Tsugumi said. "The main thing is, this mission was not a mistake."
Eyyye!
Story done!
And look at that! I ended it with the title! How clever!
Thanks for reading!
Also, now that I'm done with this one, I've started taking story requests! See my profile for more details!
~CatKkit
