Chapter 21: To the Victors Go the Spoils: It's All Just a Game in the End?
"42-42-564."
Saying the numbers aloud as they were written on the fog of a small compact mirror, the reflective surface pulsed with waves of blue rings while emitting a pinging dial tone before the circle shone with a white brilliance.
"Death Room here, Lord Death speaking," the shinigami answered with an air of professionalism about him as his image filled the screen.
"Hello, Lord Death. Demon Ulaks Kiana Makali reporting in," the equally straightforward voice of the pigtailed teen greeted from the other end of the line.
"Ah, Kiana, how are you? I was beginning to wonder when you were going to report back in. I take it that there must have been a few issues with neutralizing Sorrow Man the White then?" Lord Death questioned casually, assuming as such considering that it had been a couple of days since their mission began and he hadn't heard anything from them since.
"Nee, Sir. Everything went smoothly," the girl replied with a slight shake of her head. "The ol' buggar was a bit of a pain to find at first because he was using a Soul Protect, but once we saw through his smoke and mirrors it wasn't too hard to take him out. We were also able to confirm your suspicions about him as well. Even though he was able to use Soul Protect, he didn't have a sorcerer's soul."
Breathing an internal sigh of relief, Kid kept his outward composure as the girl gave her synopsis about their most recent target. Sorrow Man the White was a C-ranked kishin egg that he had been honestly hesitant about adding to his list considering the treaty with the witches. Granted, according to said treaty the Coven didn't particularly care one way or the other what happened to the souls of sorcerers so long as the DWMA didn't target witches under the authority of Maba, but the peculiar nature of the corrupted soul gave him reason enough to believe that something about Sorrow Man wasn't quite kosher and that he should handle the matter with a certain amount of discretion.
"I see. Thank you for that information, Kiana, and I'm glad to hear that he wasn't an actual sorcerer," he said to the face in the mirror. "That could have caused a lot of issues with…wait…what is that?"
"What's what, Sir?" Kiana questioned curiously, tilting her head a little to the side.
"That," Kid replied flatly, pointing a finger at the screen, indicating something over the ulak's shoulder.
Turning around at Lord Death's inquiry, Kiana was halfway expecting to see something out of the ordinary coming up from behind, but only spied a little white bird shuffling along that pecked at the ground randomly.
"Umm….that's a seagull, Sir," she replied flatly, using every ounce of conscious thought she possessed not to use her sarcastic voice or roll her eyes in front of Lord Death. She knew from experience that Old Lord Death could hand out some pretty nasty Reaper Chops when she had made the mistake of getting snippy with him once, and she really had no desire to find out if his successor was as easily provoked.
"Yes, I can see that," Kid replied, unamused by her astute powers of observation. "But why is there a seagull behind you? Aren't you two supposed to be in the New Zealand highlands?"
"Ja, well we sorta got a lil'…sidetracked… but we'll be back as soon as we can," Kiana stated hesitantly before quickly tacking on the follow through for extra assurance. She had the right mind to say her goodbyes and end the conversation right there, but the look upon Lord Death's face was one that indicated that he wasn't going to accept the open ended explanation so easily. Lacing his fingers together so that his Death Skull rings were showing, he rested them beneath his chin and leaned forward in his chair with an even glare.
"Kiana, where are you?" he questioned neutrally, but with an ever-so slight hint of demand in his tone.
Flushing a hint of red across her cheeks, the Weapon reared back a little from the mirror she held in her hand despite knowing that Lord Death couldn't do anything besides scold her, at least until they made their way back to the Academy.
"Well, you see…we...we're-" she stammered before being abruptly cut off mid-sentence.
Still able to view everything that the mirror was pointed at, the focal point of the surrounding landscape became almost dizzyingly nauseating for Kid as the communicator shifted rapidly between sandy ground with speckles of green patches, clear blue sky, and flesh tones from two seperate individuals. Quick shouts of protest and slanders in a foreign dialect filled the screen as at last the image settled down to show Kiana's partner holding the mirror above her head.
"Ag, Vicky, give that back, chop!" Kiana could be heard yelling explicitly just out of sight.
"Oi, Lord Death! What's up?!" Victoria grinned brightly as her face filled the screen, tilting the reflective circle down so that it gave the shinigami an easy peek down her bikini top printed with the Australian flag.
"Victoria, explain yourselves. Why aren't you reporting in from New Zealand?" Lord Death questioned with exasperation, disciplining his golden eyes to not wander southward into his student's cleavage. While she wasn't necessarily as stacked as Liz or Patty, the young Aussie still had enough ampleness to add some definition to her body and subsequently made it very difficult for him to concentrate on the discussion at hand.
"What do you mean? We're still here," the Meister responded with an innocent, if almost too innocent, smile. Little did Lord Death know that the Demon Ulak duo had actually disposed of Sorrow Man the White three days ago, hopped a charter from New Zealand over to Victoria's home in Sydney, and had been basking in the pleasantry of the Southern Hemisphere summer, kicking back and catching some swells while they played hookie.
In all fairness to her, Kiana had been adamantly opposed to the idea, but was eventually broken down by her partner's aggravatingly insistent ways.
"Yep, just got through saving all these kiwis from that ol' bearded bloke," Victoria added. "So we'll be on our way back to the Academy as soon as we can. Alright then, we'll see you in a bit. Ciao!"
Making a move to sever the connection, Victoria had almost fully closed the compact mirror when Lord Death's voice broke through.
"Wait!" he stated firmly, if almost with a tinge of desperation.
Thinking she had almost gotten away with it, the Meister put on her best toothy smile and reluctantly opened the mirror back up again.
"Oi?" she questioned coyly, watching as the shinigami looked at her through the screen with a critical glare. A moment of awkward silence followed her inquiry as their leader leaned in a little bit closer on his end, still resting his chin upon his interwoven fingers.
"Move the mirror back," he instructed evenly.
Not quite sure what Lord Death was getting at, Victoria extended her arms all the way out so that the image was as wide as possible for him to see. Based purely upon line of sight, it didn't take her any time to figure out that the almighty head of the DWMA was scrutinizing her assets, even if his outward expression wasn't one of perverseness. She halfway thought about ending the conversation right there, but a deviant little voice inside her head urged her to let him continue in hopes that maybe he might actually compliment them. How many girls at the Academy could say that Lord Death himself had been checking her out, she wondered devilishly?
"While I do encourage students of the Academy to take pride in their diverse nationalities, your choice in swim top is bother me to no end," he stated at long last with a matter-of-fact tone, causing the Meister to do a double take in surprise. She was equally caught off guard when he stuck a finger out in observation, as though trying to reach through the divide and poke at her girls. "On your right breast you have the image of the Union Jack, which by itself is simply one of the most beautiful national symbols there is because it has not only vertical and horizontal symmetry, but diagonal as well. But on your left breast you have several stars, all with…seven points!"
Turning to one another in equal states of befuddlement, Victoria and Kiana watched on without a word as Lord Death began to shake, spitting the last two words as though they were poison on his tongue. It was no secret to the two girls that their glorious leader had a rather eccentric obsession with symmetry, but for something as insignificant as a flag on a bikini this was beginning to reach a new level of quirkiness.
"I could live with your top not being perfectly symmetrical by having the Union Jack on the right and the stars on the left, but only if the stars had eight points!" he shouted, knocking over his chair as he sprung upright and grabbed a fistful of hair. "But it's not! They have seven! Why does it have to be seven?! It should be eight I tell you!"
"It's my country's flag, Lord Death. I really can't do anything to change it," Victoria replied in mild defense, not sure what to really do or say now that the shinigami was all riled up.
"Then I'll have them change it!" Kid yelled frantically in rebuttal. "I'll write a letter to the Prime Minister right now and demand that he replace all the stars with ones with eight points!"
"I'm really not sure if that's going to do anything…"
Clearly not satisfied by the Ulak Meister's response, Lord Death began a lengthy ramble about the importance of complete balance, initiating an utterly bizarre one-sided monologue that the two teens could only sit back and listen to with the upmost bewilderment.
"Perhaps I could issue an executive order to have it changed," he proposed to himself before quickly dejecting the idea. "No, no, that won't work. I can't just go around abusing my authority like that. But even still, something must be done to remedy this predicament."
"Well I could just take it off," Victoria suggested jokingly under her breath, not entirely sure if Lord Death was even listening as he continued to ramble to himself.
"Or you could just take it off," Kid repeated absent mindedly, completely oblivious the context of the implication as he rubbed his hand beneath his chin while wracking his own mind for some form of solution to their asymmetrical dilemma.
Facing one another with dumbfounded expressions plastered over both their faces, Kiana and Victoria couldn't believe that Lord Death had actually agreed with the highly lewd, and not to mention highly inappropriate, proposal, even if they were fairly certain that he was unaware of what the Meister had said. Seeing an impish little grin spread over her partner's lips, the Demon Ulaks could already see the idiotic plan begin to take shape in Victoria's head. Silently mouthing her protest, Kiana's eye's bugged out wide as Victoria gave her a knowing wink that could only spell trouble for the both of them.
"Well…alright then," Victoria stated brightly with a nonchalant smile, holding out the mirror with one hand while the other reached behind her neck to the strings that held her top in place. Tugging at the knot, she freed the loose ends with her fingers and allowed the material concealing her chest to sag just ever so slightly.
In what seemed like a split second, multiple events unfolded as the Ulak Meister teased the valley of her cleavage, still holding onto the bikini strings behind her neck. The first was that despite her dark complexion, Kiana's body turned ghostly white as she for once in her life found no snarky words or foreign slanders that could adequately describe her horrification at the strawberry blonde's insanely ludicrous actions. The second was that Lord Death looked up momentarily from his inner confliction, only to see one of his E.A.T. students in the process of undressing herself right before his very eyes. This not only brought him crashing headlong back into reality, but also dislocated his jaw, which dropped onto the floor in utter confoundment. Like the Weapon, he had no adequate words that could properly convey his feelings on the situation. Unable to bring himself to form any protest or even scold the Meister, he stood with mouth agape as he stared at the image like a deer in headlights.
And the third, and most abruptly violent of all, was the arrival of a swift fist across the shinigami's cheek that appeared seemingly out of thin air. Lifting Kid clear off his feet and sending him flying off of the raised platform with the force of a speeding freight train, the blow knocked him absolutely senseless despite his resilient shinigami body.
"What the hell is going on here?!" Liz raged furiously with an infernal hellfire burning in her eyes, her fingers balling so hard into a fist that she actually managed to snap two of her nail extensions in her grip. "Is this what you do when we're out running your errands?! Get girls to flash you their boobs?! What, you don't get your fill enough at home when you grope me and Patty so now you have to resort to your own students?!"
"And you, Victoria!" she fumed, turning rapidly to the screen and pointing a broken nail at the provocative Meister on the other end. "Don't you have any shame?! Put your top back on!"
Figuring that the jig was up and that her fun with Lord Death had come to an abrupt end, Victoria merely smiled in contention as she let out a faint chuckle.
"What? You really thought I was going to show Lord Death my bits?" she questioned casually, setting the mirror down so she could fasten her bikini back behind her. "Nah, I was just having a lil' bit of fun. Doesn't anybody in this world have a sense of humor anymore? And for the record, Lord Death was staring at me first."
"I don't care who started it!" the elder Thompson Sister shouted, flailing her arms wildly. "And it's not funny! What you were doing was wrong on so many levels!"
"I dunno, Sis. The look on Kid's face was pretty funny," Patty chimed in with a cutesy giggle.
"Don't encourage her, Patty!"
"Well when you think about it, wouldn't it freak him out less to look at two symmetrical boobs than an unsymmetrical bikini?" the youngster questioned with an innocent hum.
"I can attest to that!" Kid announced dizzily from his place on the floor as little stars and Death Skulls continued to swirl around him.
"You stay out of this!" Liz barked. "Just stay on the floor and I'll deal with you later!"
"Unless she had unsymmetrical boobs or something, but I guess that would just freak him out more," Patty continued on. "Oh, what if she has like really weird nipples or something!"
"You've seen me in the locker room. You know what I look like," Victoria deadpanned to the wild accusation.
"That not the point," Liz growled in frustration, not knowing upon whom she should direct her aggravation as she rubbed her temples with both hands. "The point is that she shouldn't be flashing her boobs, especially to the head of the Academy."
"Well like I said before, Lord Death was staring at my girls first," the Ulak Meister countered. "How do you explain that?"
"It appears my pursuit of symmetrical perfection combined with the Madness of Boobs has led us to this unfavorable situation," Kid remarked, appearing back on screen as he slumped down into his chair and tended to his wounded pride.
"Oh not that again," Liz groaned, slapping her forehead irritably. "We've been over this a hundred times. There's no such thing as the Madness of Boobs. You just made that up."
"The Madness of Boobs is real and I have the evidence to prove it," the shinigami stated matter-of-factly. "Patty, bring me the chart!"
"Yay, the chart!"
Producing a large easel seemingly out of thin air, Patty revealed a white poster board with two prominent circles side by side that contained smaller circles within their centers.
"What do you see?" Kid questioned of the elder sister, directing all of their attentions to the chart as he went around the group individually.
"Boobs…" Liz answered with an exasperated groan of annoyance, having gone over the chart for what seemed like the millionth time.
"Knockers," Victoria stated casually.
"Ag…bits," Kiana said in disbelief that they were even having this conversation right now.
"Hahaha, boobies!" Patty cheered with unabashed laughter.
"So that makes for a one hundred percent positive survey," Kid concluded with an air of satisfaction. "This proves that the Madness of Boobs is real enough. You could have seen a variety of things within the chart; the tires of a car or perhaps a very surprised pair of eyes. But no! Like over eighty percent of the general populous you all saw boobs!"
"The only thing this proves is that people have dirty minds!" Liz argued with futility. "And even still, that doesn't mean that either of you are getting off the hook! That means you too, Victoria!"
Whirling around to direct her reignited fury upon the young Aussie, Liz's lips turned downwards into a dumbfounded scowl as she saw that the connection had been severed and the only one she was yelling at was her own reflection.
"Argh! When I get my hands on her…!" she seethed.
"Just let it go, Liz," Kid said in conceit. "She pulled a fast one on me, but it was my own fault. I let my compulsions get the better of me, so we'll call it even just this once."
"You're kidding me, right?! You're not going to discipline her at all?!" Liz questioned demandingly. "You're not going to give her remedial classes or detention or confiscate a few souls or anything?! Please at least tell me you're going to give her one good Reaper Chop for that stunt?!"
"No, I suppose not," the shinigami confessed, rubbing his swollen cheek.
"Give me one good reason why not!"
"Because before this entire wardrobe debacle occurred, Kiana and Victoria passed along some very vital information with regards to their last target, Sorrow Man the White," Kid explained. "Our intelligence indicated that Sorrow Man was a low level sorcerer, but I had my suspicions that he probably wasn't so I sent Kiana and Victoria out anyways. Upon neutralizing Sorrow Man, they were able to confirm that he wasn't actually a sorcerer, but a kishin egg that had been using a Soul Protect and other low level spells to disguise himself."
Falling quiet, Liz's rage slowly began to wane as the implication of the information began to permeate. Turning her scowl into a faint frown of concern, the Demon Pistol thought on the revelation momentarily before giving her response.
"Another one?" she questioned worriedly to herself. "That makes what…five or six so far that have been caught using Soul Protects in the last month? This just doesn't make any sense. Why are some kishin eggs all of a sudden able to use magic?"
"I'm not entirely sure, but I would think it's safe to wager that they're getting some help from somewhere, or someone," Kid replied evenly, resting his chin in his hand as he contemplated the latest case in a growing trend. "I'm not about to rush to any conclusions, but all the fingers right now are pointing to a witch behind all of this."
"It's just like when we were on the moon and the witches cast their Soul Protects onto the clowns, except this time it's with pre-kishin," Liz deduced, remembering the battle in all its vividness. "I still don't get it though. Why would someone use a Soul Protect on low ranked targets? "
"Again, I'm not sure, but my intuition says that someone out there isn't exactly thrilled that the Academy is trying to advance our relationships with the witches. My uneducated guess is that this is their way of indirectly retaliating against the alliance. Whoever it is must have known that we would have easily figured out it was someone who could use magic, so they must have wanted us to know."
"So what are we going to do about it? Should we tell the Coven that one of the witches might be rogue?"
"I don't think that's necessary. I believe that we can deal with this issue on our own for now. Fortunately for us the Soul Protect isn't perfectly compatible with the kishin eggs, so it's not a guaranteed camouflage. They won't be able to elude me, but they'll be a thorn in the side for teams in the field who don't have Soul Perception. I don't see it as much of a threat right now, but we do need to continue to monitor these cases diligently just as a precaution."
Although she remained skeptical and wary of the new and unknown phenomenon, Liz nodded her head in agreement to Kid's decision.
"Yeah, that's a good idea," she confirmed. "Better safe than sorry."
"And…five…four…three…two…one! Pencils down! No more writing!"
In one dramatically collective breath of relief, the student's of Professor Craftlove's N.O.T. class groaned exhaustively as the Ultimate Written Exam came to a definitive end after what seemed like the longest single hour they had ever had the misfortune of sitting through. The expressions on their faces told the entire story as well as their body language. Seated on the fourth row, Remmy's head slumped down against the desktop as he surrendered himself to the reality that he had probably failed miserably. Beside him, Yumi stared anxiously at the sheets of paper before her, believing that she had done fairly well, but at the same time knowing that there were some questions that she had most likely gotten incorrect. However, there were some students, like Shuvo and the rapier Allyson Caldwell, who sat attentively in their seats with an air of satisfaction about them as they turned their tests over, knowing that their diligent study habits had paid off in kind. And then there was Mirika, who uncaringly pushed her test to the edge of the desk, produced her music player from her pocket, and popped the earbuds in to drown out the outside world.
"Pass your tests towards the aisle so that Miss Tsubaki or Mister Death Scythe can collect them," Craftlove instructed, watching as the students began to shuffle their papers inwards. "After they've collected your tests you're free to go."
Taking the exams of the students next to him, Shuvo passed them along to Mirika and eventually Miss Tsubaki. Following his Meister's lead as she grabbed her guitar case and slung the strap over her shoulder, they joined in with the rest of the class as they made a quick exodus out of the amphitheater.
"Aye, Santa Muerte, that was brutal," Remmy griped with an aura of distraught about him as the four of them followed the flow of the crowd and made a beeline for the exit. "Well, nothing I can do about it now. The only thing I can worry about now is tonight."
"Well if you stopped worrying about tonight and had actually studied for the exam then you might have done a lot better," Yumi chastised, rolling her eyes behind her glasses.
"I can't help it. I'm so pumped that I can't stop thinking about it," the Meister replied, turning his frown into cheeky grin. "Shuvo, you ready for this man?"
"I suppose I am," the khakkhara responded as the gaggle entered out onto the Academy's plaza overlooking Death City. "It is unfortunate that Matteo twisted his ankle on his last mission, but I am ready to help in any way I can in his place."
"If you're as good tonight as you've been in practice then you'll be golden," Remmy assured, remarkably at ease despite losing one of his better strikers. "Besides, we've got nothing to worry about with me as captain."
Breaking through the darkness of the mildly bitter winter night, the stadium lights cast their humming glow upon the soccer pitch as the two teams took the field, ready to do battle for the ultimate glory. On one end of the pitch a mass of green and black striped jerseys with black shorts huddled together, swaying back and forth as they psyched themselves up. On the other end of the field a cluster of white jerseys with patches of red and white shorts let out a booming war cry into the night.
Excusing themselves through the small crowd that had filled the metal bleachers, Yumi and Mirika found an empty section of bench and settled themselves down, making sure to give the Khakkhara Meister plenty of room to store her guitar case protectively beside her.
"Did you have to bring your guitar with you?" Yumi questioned curiously, wondering why the older girl always insisted on towing it wherever she went. "Wouldn't it be better if you left it at home so nothing could happen to it?"
"Nah, this baby is plenty safe as long as it's next to me," Mirika replied casually, patting the tolex case. "The only time I leave her at home is when we're on a mission, and if someone was ever stupid enough to even think about stealing her I would personally hunt them down, rip their spine out, and shove it back in where the sun don't shine."
Quivering slightly at the gothic girl's metaphorical threat, Yumi could tell that even though she said it in jest, she would live up to that promise in a heartbeat if she really wanted to.
Coming from the center of the pitch, the shrill screech of a whistle caught their attention, indicating that warm ups were over and that it was game on.
"Alright, listen up!" Sid announced to everyone within earshot, allowing the whistle to fall from his mouth and dangle in front of his black and white referee's uniform that had had the sleeves torn off. "This match will determine the overall champion of the Death City Amateurs League! I want a good clean game! Play hard and most of all have fun!"
Stomping his foot against the grass, a white and black soccer ball emerged from a gaping fissure that the zombie had created before the schism closed back up seamlessly.
"Death City FC, are you ready?!" Sid questioned, motioning toward the team in green and black as they replied with a unified shout.
"United DC, are you ready?!" he repeated, pointing towards their red and white opponents. Their collective boom filled the air as they pumped their fists in defiance.
"Let's play!"
Given the green light to begin, Remmy started the match off by dropping the ball back to one of his teammates, who made another calculating pass as they began their advance up the field.
"Go Remmy! Go Shuvo! You can do it!" Yumi cheered enthusiastically, holding up her homemade poster that had both of the boys' jersey numbers, forty-two and eight respectfully, written in green glitter below the outline of a large heart.
Bewildered by the young Weapon's boisterous motivation, Mirika had never seen the introverted girl say anything above normal conversation volume before. To actually see and hear her shout out something for the first time in the several months they had been acquainted came as a little bit more than a pleasant surprise for the Meister.
"So the church mouse can get riled up after all?" Mirika jested underhandedly. "I guess all it takes is the right motivation to get you come out of your shell."
Blushing red at the comment, Yumi lowered her poster and took her seat with an air of mild embarrassment as the game pressed on before them. Watching attentively from the bleachers, she saw Shuvo run about the field sans cleats, the only one out there to do so, dribbling the ball several seconds before he dropped it behind him to one of his defenders. Rearing back, the defenseman wound up and fired away from a distance with a screaming strike that curved slightly towards the upper right corner of the opponent's net. Sailing over the heads of the United DC players, it looked like a surefire goal until a flash of yellow jersey appeared with arms stretched out, catching the ball mid-dive before tumbling to the turf with it cradled protectively in his arms. Punting the ball back towards midfield, the save forced Remmy's team to retreat and battle for control once more.
"Hold on a second," Mirika remarked to herself, glancing back downfield towards the opposing team's net. She hadn't really bothered to pay much attention to the game, or at least the players on the other team, but there was something about that goaltender that for some reason or another had caught her attention. Sure enough, as she squinted to get a better look at the teen between the posts at the far end of the field, she spied none other than a distinctive head of silvery-platinum hair.
"Dammit, you've gotta be kidding me," she halfway groaned in disbelief and halfway growled. "Here of all places?"
"What's the matter?" Yumi questioned, noticing the faint grimace that had begun to form on the older girl's face. However, it appeared her inquiry had fallen on deaf ears as Mirika began systematically scanning the patrons around them with a vigilant gleam. Several moments passed by before the Meister shook her head and turned her attention back to the game, which didn't looked to have progressed for either side as they battled it out back and forth for dominance.
Breaking out from the melee of jabbing footwork, Remmy gained control of the ball and took off full sprint downfield, dribbling the orb skillfully as he juked by a United DC defenseman and passed to one of his teammates, who sidestepped around another defender before giving it right back. With nothing between him and net except the platinum-haired goaltender, he tried to get just a little bit closer to the goal knowing that the opposition was hot on his heels. Kicking the ball a little ways out in front of him, Remmy set up the shot, reared back, and struck.
It all happened so quickly, but from the moment he tried to take a shot on the breakaway he instinctively knew that something wasn't right. He felt his head snap back with a startling whiplash as his right foot swung high over the ball, missing it entirely, and his left foot lost its traction, causing it to slide out from under him as he tumbled awkwardly onto his back. Landing flat with a painful grunt, he opened his eyes to see the glow of the lights above, hearing the shrill screech of a whistle being blown and the jeering of the crowd in the distance.
"Number twenty-seven, white! That's an unsportsman-like tackle!" Sid barked, raising a yellow card above his head. "Death City FC will get a penalty kick!"
Seeing the lenient charge against the player who had blatantly run up behind Remmy and dragged him down by one of his ponytails, Mirika bolted upright from her seat and stood tall against the crowd.
"That's bullcrap, Sid!" she berated angrily, making her displeasure with the call explicitly known. "He grabbed him by the hair! Kick him out of the game!"
Ignoring his student's heckling, the zombie placed the ball at the penalty mark as Shuvo helped the slightly dazed Remmy to his feet.
"What the hell, Sid?!" Mirika continued as she made a spectacle of herself, but couldn't care less about the small crowd of onlookers that eyed her quizzically. "That was a cheap shot and you know it! Kick him out!"
"Why don't you do us all a favor and leave the officiating to the officials, Rainblood?"
And there it was; that pretentious, elitist voice that the Khakkhara Meister had been dreading might show itself. As soon as she had recognized the opposing team's goaltender as none other than Ebb Gemini, she knew that his twin sister was bound to be hiding somewhere amongst the fans. Sure enough, against her better judgment, her head swung on a dime to spy Florence seated several rows back and to their right, dolled up like a teenage version of a soccer mom with her standard silver skirt that matched the Kashmir sweater she kept tied around her neck despite the ambient chill of the night.
"Stay out of this, Princess," Mirika snarled, pulses of a quickly seething wavelength radiating from her soul as their eyes locked onto one another. "That was a dirty move and everyone here knows it."
"I'm not denying it," the Demon Chain Whip replied calmly, arranging her words in such a way that they didn't directly imply that she agreed. "It was a detestable display and he's been penalized according to the official's ruling. However, you barking like a mangy mutt isn't going to change anything, so I would suggest you sit down and put a muzzle on it."
Deep within the gothic girl's chest, the black and blue flames began to rise with her boiling blood as she balled her fists tight against her sides. Releasing wave upon wave of contempt, her expanding aura sent several of the onlooking patrons ducking for cover as she stepped up onto the metal bleacher behind her.
"I'm sorry, wanna run that by me again?" she seethed between clenched teeth, her canines exposed as she took another step closer to the Gemini. "I couldn't quite hear you with my fist in your face."
Rising lightly from her seat at the challenge, Flo straightened her skirt smartly with a faint smirk of amusement.
"I said that nobody came here to listen to your obnoxious yapping, so why don't you make like a good little doggy and sit."
"How about I make you play dead," Mirika countered as she popped her knuckles threateningly.
"You're just the same as ever, Rainblood," Flo taunted easily. "All bark and no bite. I think somebody needs to put you back on your leash."
Flashing a brilliant silver, the E.A.T. student's forearm took her whip form, becoming a long series of steel chains attached to the weighted blade at the end that pooled around her feet.
"Try it and see what happens, Princess. Let's see you run your mouth when you're not hiding behind Ebb."
If looks could kill, Mirika's eyes would have certainly summoned a fiery apocalypse upon the smug girl before her without a second's hesitation. Grinding her teeth, she moved to take another step closer to the Gemini sister with no indication of backing down from the impending fight before she was brought to an abrupt halt when something caught her by the wrist. Swinging around with a venomous leer, she saw that Yumi had taken hold of her with a pleading, almost pitiful expression about her.
"Stay out of this, Yumi," Mirika growled, tugging her arm forcefully in an attempt to pry it away from the young Weapon's grasp. "This is between me and her."
Refusing to let go, the Arisaka's grip only latched tighter around the seething girl's wrist as she shook her head in an uncharacteristic display of boldness.
"I don't know what you're deal is with her, but can't you just let it go?" she admonished firmly, maintaining her hold. "You didn't come here to fight. You came to support Shuvo, remember? Tonight's about him and Remmy."
"I know that, but-"
"No! No buts, Mirika," Yumi rebuked sharply, standing her ground. "Whatever the issue is can wait until later. Let's just ignore her and watch the game."
Trembling with rage against the Demon Musket's hold, Mirika could hardly believe that the timid little Weapon had the gall to get between her and the sound thrashing she was about to bestow upon her foil. Rendered speechless, her inner conflictions became apparent as she strained between the two factions of her consciousness; the first being the dominant voice that wanted to land a vicious uppercut on Flo that would send her flying into the next county, and the other that reminded her that she probably should just let it go for the time being. This was Shuvo's night after all, and some of his sage wisdom had been starting to engrain itself into her thought pattern as of late.
Doing something that she never thought possible, Mirika breathed in a deep, heaving breath to try to calm herself. Feeling her high strung muscles relax just ever so slightly, she huffed in explicit agitation before spinning around and slumping into her seat without a word.
"Good doggy," she heard Flo remarked complacently, using every ounce of restraint she possessed not to whirl back around in violent confrontation. Forcing her attention back to the game at hand, she could see Shuvo watching her from across the field with a look of concern as Remmy took his position for his penalty kick. He obviously must have picked up on the hateful wavelength that she had been emitting. Giving him an ensuring nod and a thumbs up, he returned the gesture and returned to the game at hand.
"Don't think this is over, Princess. Not by a long shot," Mirika muttered to herself beneath her breath as Yumi resumed her cheering for her Meister.
Stepping back a ways from the ball, Remmy stared Ebb down with a determined glare as the Gemini brother appeared entirely composed and nonchalant as he took his position between the posts. In fact, he seemed almost bored with the notion that he would have to make an effort to defend his net. But Remmy knew better than to underestimate that relaxed posture. This hadn't been the first time their two teams had gone head to head during the season and there was a logical reason that they chose to position the Demon Shield as their goaltender.
Given the go ahead from Sid's screeching whistle, the captain took a deep breath before stepping forward into his free shot. Connecting squarely with the inside of his foot, Remmy watched as the ball rocketed off the ground, quite literally in fact, as he missed the goal entirely and sent the orb sailing high over the crossbar and into the distant night.
"Guess he's as bad of a shot in soccer as he is at target practice," Mirika deadpanned flatly, wondering how in the world he could have possibly missed such an easy goal by such a significant margin. "How did he become captain again?"
"Remmy's…working on it," Yumi defended with a mild huff as her Meister slumped his head in embarrassment, knowing just how hard he had been practicing over the course of the first part of the year to reign in his erratic accuracy. It was true that Sid had been working as much as he could to help Remmy get everything under control, but there was only so much that the G.W.A.A.R. instructor could do. While he did have them cleared for D and C-ranked missions and they had collected a total of eleven souls so far, the only reason they had made it that far was because of her bayonet. Still doubtful of his own capabilities as a marksman, Remmy's primary method of operation usually boiled down to using their scatter shot technique on the kishin egg to maim it, believing beforehand that he would miss if he tried a full round, and then use her bayonet for close quarters combat as she recovered from the backlash. It was far more of a hassle than simply putting the targets down with a single long range shot, but until they could come to a definitive root cause for his inaccuracies and remedy it, it was the best that they could do for the time being.
Retrieving a new ball, the game continued on with neither of the two sides able to gain any sort of advantage over the other. Trading strikes and saves, there were several occasions where it looked like Remmy and Shuvo's team were on the verge of a goal, only for it to be snatched away at the last possible moment by Ebb. Standing as the last line of defense for his team, the Gemini was a one man fortress against the onslaught of shots that came whizzing at him. Out on the opposite side of the field, their own goaltender was holding his own as well, but just barely.
Halftime came and went, and Mirika was quickly beginning to wonder if either team was ever going to score. While the game itself was fairly entertaining, she frankly wasn't much of a fan of soccer to begin with. There was too much back and forth, too many obscure rules that she couldn't keep up with, and not enough violence. All she really knew was that you couldn't touch the ball with your hands and that was about the jist of it. Sports like hockey and cage fighting were more up her particular alley.
"Hey, Mirika?" Yumi questioned offhandedly as the match continued on.
"What's up?" the older girl replied as she watched Shuvo take the ball and drive it out of his end of the field.
"I don't want to sound rude, and it's probably none of my business, but why do you not like Florence?" she questioned with timid curiosity, knowing that she was walking into what was assuredly taboo territory by asking.
"I dunno," Mirika replied evenly with a faint snort, never averting her eyes away from the game. "Why does a bear crap in the woods? Why does Lord Death freak out over symmetry? Why won't you just tell Shuvo that you have a crush on him?"
"W-W-What?!" Yumi shrieked at the sudden turnaround in questioning as her face flushed in mortified embarrassment. "I-I-I-!"
Smirking devilishly, Mirika couldn't help but let out a sadistic chuckle as Yumi squirmed like a worm beneath her thumb.
"What? You didn't think we haven't noticed?" she interrogated teasingly. "You cook for him, you cheer for him, you're always sneaking glances at him, and you think everything he says is fascinating. You're just like a little wife in training."
Melting into her seat as her brain matter all but turned to putty at the mention of the "W" word, Yumi never even noticed as the crowd around her, including Mirika, erupted into a collective roar of celebration, whooping and whistling as they stomped upon the metal bleachers.
"Holy crap, did you see that?!" the Khakkara Meister shouted in disbelief. "I have no idea how Shuvo got a piece of that one, but that was awesome!"
With bubblegum eyes lolled to the back of her head, all Yumi could hear was muffled words and the distinctive thumping of her heart within her chest.
"Joma Joma Dabarasa," Mabaa chanted lowly with her hand over her heart. "This Witches' Mass is now concluded."
Placing their hoods back over their heads and donning their coats, the witches began filing out of the archaic halls of their sanctuary with a dull murmur. Nothing of great productivity had been accomplished that night, with only more of the same stagnant talk being discussed regarding the current situations with Shibusen and the moon. Elder witches still held their ground against the integration, while the younger witches, while wary, were slowly beginning to come around to the idea of allowing their kind to join the Reaper's school.
Echoing faintly off the candle-lit walls as they walked along, Orobo stepped in time with Sibylla as they made their rather hasty exit. Despite his relaxed and casual façade, he was beginning to feel the gravity of the operation weighing down upon them as they closed rapidly upon their scheduled day for executing everything they had been planning.
"Were you able to fulfill your mission?" Sibylla questioned calmly as they headed down a barren stairwell that barreled down into the depths of the castle spire.
"Yes, Lady Brize. She's none the wiser," Orobo replied assuredly. "I don't anticipate any issues locating and retrieving her, but if everything goes according to plan then there shouldn't be any problems either way."
"I have faith in you, Orobo," the witch stated sincerely. "Because of your loyalty we'll be able to witness the dawning of a new age. One without Death or his order."
"My life is to you, Lady Brize," the guardian replied humbly. "It will be my honor to serve as your right hand in this brave new world."
A/N: Sorry everyone, I know I said two weeks, but life happens. I've noticed that I don't really do much comedy/ zanny writing, so hope you enjoyed this one. Other than that not much to report on this end.
K.K.