Birthright
AN: Man, writer's block sucks. I finally got back to writing and now... It seems to be getting worse. Oh well I'll try to do my best, I promise :) enjoy!
Chapter 12: Death duel
A friendly fight to the death?
In history class the group were reunited again.
In the coffin Mereck and Sarah had apparently fallen asleep, and if rumours were to be believed, they had cuddled up. Neither of them were willing to comment about it and Sarah always seemed to slightly blush when the subject was brought up. The group didn't push it but there were snickers and whispers every now and then.
History class was extremely boring and nothing out of the ordinary happened, but afterwards on their roster was Soul-Perception class...
Needless to say that Mereck and Sarah weren't planning on joining the class and when the bell rang headed to the gym to practice a bit, but they were given a new class to report to for soul-perception lessons.
"You are to report to class room 103." miss Marie told them.
"103?" Mereck asked, "Why?"
"Let's just say we're attempting to avoid any further accidents..." Marie replied and no more reasons were needed.
When the whole class had entered, Maka saw her daughter and the witch boy's seats were still empty.
A tear rolled down her cheek as she slumped down in her chair. "I really fucked up this time." She muttered to herself. Soul comforted her and the classroom was silent except for the crying of a mother who had lost her child.
Sarah and Mereck stood in front of their new class door feeling a sense of foreboding energy coming from the strange grey-green barrier.
"I don't think this is a good idea." Mereck stated feeling a cold shiver running down his spine.
Sarah, feeling the same shiver said, "Yeah." but just as they were about to walk away towards their previous destination they heard an ominous squeaking from behind the foreboding zigzag stitched door. It got louder and louder as it came closer and Mereck started to physically tremble as he felt the soul of probably the greatest threat he would ever come to meet get closer. He was about to make a break for it when the door moved open with a squeak. There, on his signature stitched up chair, sat professor Stein. The man hasn't aged a day...
He lowered his head onto his crossed arms resting on the back of his chair, the glare from his glasses covering his eyes.
"Oh, hello children, I thought you might not be coming. Please do come in, our lesson will start in just a little while." Stein said in his usual boring tone while he lit a cigarette and wheedled his chair back into the classroom. Sarah was about to comply when she saw Mereck frozen in absolute terror. She wanted to poke him to draw his attention, when his head turned slowly towards her.
"That's him!" he said pointing at the now empty cavity of the door, "That's the Witch Bane, the man who killed my grandmother. One of the most powerful witches ever, and many others... I've got to get out of here!" He ran towards the door, but was caught by Sarah who dragged him forcefully, back into the classroom.
"Oh no you don't." She said as they entered, "We're going do this, and you're not chickening out on me."
"Where are those two?" Jack muttered to Caitlin as he entered the last of the ten gym training rooms. "They said to meet them here, because they were skipping."
"Looks like their plans have changed." Shadow*Star said turning to look at Jack and Caitlin, "So it looks like its going to be just us." he cracked his knuckles, while his sister next to him smiled broadly.
"YAY! We get to fight with Jack and Cait!" Shizuka excitedly yelled as she turned into her Kasarigama. Shadow*Star saw her and took his pose.
"WHOA, Whoa, wait!" Caitlin protested, "We haven't even practiced together. We can't take the both of them."
"Oh don't be such a scaredy-cat, Caitlin, it's just for fun." Jack said while clapping her on her shoulder.
"You haven't even held me in weapon form! How are we going to fight?" She protested again.
"Well then now's as good a time as any." He said with a winning smile, one that almost made her melt.
"Alright," she gave in while being enveloped by silver light, "but you owe me one."
Jack smiled even broader as Caitlin changed into weapon form in his hands. He'd known what she was, but he hadn't expected her to look that cool.
Caitlin was an axe guitar, but she wasn't just an axe with some strings, she was a lot more... Her chords were made out of soul thread and would disappear when not used. Her neck had one long marked leather strapped handel which looked like a bike's throttle. It even had a lever over it, that seemed to be a brake or clutch. The sharpened blades spread out on both sides of the guitar. They looked like two separate halves put on top of one another. The back blade had a line of four exhausts on both sides of it. The pickups where always visible. The metal of the weapon was an unsettling deep black. Overall she looked pretty viscous.
Shadow*Star was not fazed by the weapon though, but Shizuka's reflection in her Kasarigama blade was dumb struck and filled with fear. "I've never seen something so... Awesome! I wish I was one. How do your chords work? Are they even in tune? Can you play a song like a normal guitar?" She muttered out in awe. Caitlin dazed in confusion replied "Well uh..." Shadow*Star got his sister under control with few words and a disapproving look.
Caitlin's reflection smiled shyly at Jack, "You like it?"
Jack's smile turned into a mischievous grin. "Like it? I love it."
'He said he loved me! I think I'm going to faint, but I have to play it cool, don't be prissy, be a man- I mean girl or something like that.' Caitlen thought before replying. "Good, now lets kick some ass!" and she revved her engine with fire shooting from the guitars exhaust.
"Oh Yeah!" Jack laughed while getting into a swinging stance, the axe slightly lifted above the floor. "Let's do this."
Shadow*Star made the first move, running so fast he basically teleported the distance between them. He made a strike for Jack's feet in an attempt to cripple his foe, but Jack was lighter on his feet and, despite carrying a 10 pound weapon, jumped over the swing of his opponent and brought the axe down with all his weight. The blow shattered the floor and landed just shy of Shadow*Star's face, but at least he did manage to make an incision on his cheek. Shadow*Star's expression darkened and for some reason the fight started to become more and more serious.
Shadow*Star charged back into the fight leaving himself wide open, but as Jack brought his axe up it cleaved it's way through a after image copy. He was then left wide open for the horrendous soul blast coming from behind him.
"Shadow strike: Bone breaker!" Shadow*Star shouted as his fist made contact with Jack's back and the room was enveloped in shadow, which seamed to be sucked into the hit. The air as Jack shot across the room jolted... Despite the name of the attack no bones in Jack's body had broken, but the attack did leave him lying, shaking and coughing blood on the floor.
"What the hell, Shade, why would you use an attack like that on Jack? This fight is supposed to be a friendly spar, not a death match!" Shizuka scolded as her reflection flashed across her blade, but something just didn't seem right. Shadow*Star was silent and his eyes were shaded, it was hardly noticeable, but Shizuka knew there was something unwelcome present when she felt his soul and that Shadow*Star wasn't himself. She tried to change back, but whatever had Shadow*Star was keeping her from transforming back into her original form.
"Guys!" she yelled at Jack who was standing up from the floor, "Something's wrong with Shade. He's going to kill you, RUN!" Right then Jack's eyes gleamed green and he just started laughing in a maniacal manner.
"Good..." he said in a creepy voice between laughs, "That means I don't have to hold BACK!" When the last word was directed at Shadow*Star, Shizuka knew the world had gone mad.
"Alright kids" Stein said pulling out a cage with a strange furry animal in it that neither of the two children sitting in front of him had ever seen before. "Today we'll start with a dissection... It should be very exciting since this little guy here is endangered, he is most likely the last of his kind." He said as he poked the cage in front of him. The small terrified creature started to press itself against the opposite side.
The small room they were sitting in had the smell of something long dead still residing within the walls
"Um, professor Stein," Sarah said with a monotonous voice. "What does killing the last of an almost wiped out race have to do with soul perception?" Stein looked up and assumed a thinking pose as his hand rested on the cage. His finger started to tap, sending new waves of fear throughout the little beast's body. Its heart started to race faster after each blow.
"Nothing I suppose" Stein said finally looking back to Sarah, "but-" he was interrupted by Kid's reflection in a small observation mirror in the corner of the room. "Stein, there is an unsupervised fight in the gym, training floor 10, please head over there at once." Kid's image disappeared, but before it did Sarah realized he had put on his reaper suit which was abnormal for him for he always wore his normal suit and reaper skull-tie.
"Fine," Stein said moving the fur ball to the side as he started to drag himself away from his desk, "let's go children, we'll continue this some other time." After saying this he burst through the door. his chair caught the border of the door and he ended up sprawled across the floor.
"Damn it!" he muttered while turning the screw in his head, "After all these years I still can't get it right." 'This guy is insane.' they both thought while a feeling of confusion overwhelmed them.
When the three of them arrived at the gym they heard a lot of crashes and shattering. It was to be expected and didn't raise any alarm since there was a fight going on, but when they entered it was clear that this wasn't a typical fight. The entire training room was in pieces, there was almost nothing that wasn't broken.
The floor was dented and cracked, as were the walls and the ceiling. all the equipment had been demolished and in the center of it all were the two meisters. Jack and Shadow*Star were panting, both looking beaten to death, but neither showed any sign of giving up. Jack had an insane look on his face, but Shadow*Star was calm, analysing his opponent, as if he was normal.
"Shadow*Star what the hell is wrong with Jack?" Sarah asked. Shadow*Star looked at her briefly and she saw that his usual violet eyes were now emerald green.
'What the hell is happening here?' she thought and saw that Jack also had the same unsettling green irises.
"Mereck, we have to break this up." Sarah said looking over towards her partner.
"Agreed, lets-" He was interrupted by Stein.
"No, you two should wait before jumping in, we need to asses their fighting skills first. Sarah, can you see their souls?" He said.
Sarah looked confused and angry, but answered, a bit harshly, "No, I'm a weapon, I can't."
"Actually you are a hybrid, able to do things both weapons and meisters can, if a bit watered down." He said bluntly, still appraising the two students staring each other off.
"Whatever," she said "I still can't see souls or the reason we have to wait!"
Stein looked at her with a bored expression , "Persevering souls is the reason we have to wait. If you could see their souls right now, you would see-"
"Magic." Mereck interrupted, "They've been enslaved or taken over by magic. It seems to be runic in origin, but I don't recognise it. It seems a bit ancient, and there is more. The magic seems to have bound something unnatural to their souls."
Stein nodded at him and said, "I recognised the magic, but not the type and I didn't know what it did, but I can see that their souls have been possessed and I believe its this "runic magic" that's doing it."
"Whatever!" we have to try and help them before-"
"Kejaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh" Jack yelled as he charged forward with his axe. He spun it in a wide arc towards Shadow*Star's feet. Shadow*Star jumped over it, but a large grin spread across Jack's face as he altered the swing by tilting the axe a bit and squeezing the lever over the top of the grip. The engine revved and the axe charged upward towards Shadow*Star once again. The blade hit him in the back and brought him down, with immense force, on the ground making yet another dent in the already battered floor.
Jack loomed over the passed out meister, and started giggling meniacly, saying, "Don't you think after all these years I have learned from my previous mistakes, Onii-chan?"
Suddenly Shadow*Star's boot came up and hit Jack square in the face, he shot into a distant wall. Shadow*Star flipped to his feat taking his stance again.
He looked at Jack, eyes burning with rage and said, "You are no longer my brother, monster. YOU SHALL BURN!" charging at his foe. The exchange of blows continued and Sarah thought she would faint. Two of her friends, locked in a fight to the death... how did the world go so crazy so fast?
AN: Sarah, I have no idea. In reality this story is living on its own. I'm just typing this chiz as I go along. Still it seems to be doing ok on its own so I'll just tag along. Hope you guys enjoyed this, cya!... Reaper out!
