Chapter 5: Newsworthy
The announcement had been made not long after classes had ended. Soul had picked up on it on social media, and now he and Maka sat at their TV, watching the News.
"So. Ya reckon it is aliens, then?" He asked, as the reporter on screen described how, not two days ago, and unidentified object had been spotted in the solar system, but that Lord Death himself had groundbreaking news on the nature of it. Maka shrugged, before taking a sip of her tea.
"It could be anything. I just hope it isn't a threat."
"Fair." The two sat in silence for a little while, before Maka lurched forward, staring intently at the screen.
"Here we go." She said, as Lord Death appeared, cheerfully greeting the people of the world. Soul's interest piqued.
"Hi! Hello, everyone! Good to see you all." Lord Death started, waving at the numerous reporters. The sound of cameras clicking was constant. After address everyone, Death became slightly more subdued.
"I was contacted not long ago by an unknown source." Maka was practically holding her breath. "I can confirm, with complete confidence, that the object was a space craft, with intelligent life piloting it."
Maka cheered, standing abruptly and doing a little dance of sorts. Soul was simply dumbstruck.
"Yes! I told you, I told you!" Maka sang, her face flushed with glee. Soul, for once, didn't have a witty comeback at the ready.
"In addition, they have agreed to diplomatic meetings, beginning two days from now. That's right! Right here, in Death City, we shall meet aliens." Death continued, and the live feed exploded into reporters asking questions all at once.
Maka continued her dance at this news. Soul turned off the set and looked at her.
"Mind telling me what that's all about?"
"Don't you understand? We're making history here! Imagine what we could learn from actual, real, aliens!" She was red faced and ceased her dancing, but the happiness on her features was enough to lift Soul's mood.
"I guess. If they don't decide to annihilate us." Soul said, and Maka looked at him with a sour expression.
"Why do you have to be such a downer?" She pouted, before snatching up her cup again. Soul stood and scratched his head.
"I've just got a bad feeling about this. Remember Kid's freakout?" He said. Kid had disappeared since then, and Liz called earlier to say he had locked himself in his room. Maka tilted her head apprehensively.
"True. But doesn't he always do that?"
"Not without a reason. And he usually doesn't storm off randomly afterwards." Soul retorted, before moving into the kitchen to get a drink.
"Still, they did say that they wanted to enter diplomatic meetings. Surely that's good, right?" Maka called from the other room.
"Maybe. We'll see."
"Yeah. We will."
The next day was spent by preparing the City for not only world leaders, but the "Imperials" as they were being called. Apparently, they were a military vessel of a galactic empire. Lessons were spent educating the students on what little they knew about the Imperials, and free time was being devoted to clearing up the city and gossip. Soul found himself talking about them at lunch, as everyone discussed theories about them.
"I think they're just gonna look like humans." Black Star was saying, putting his feet up on the table. Everyone turned to look at him.
"And what are you basing this on?" Maka sneered.
"Well, apparently they speak English. And they're just coming onto Earth. I'm guessing that they're human."
"That would be impossible." Maka argued, gesticulating like mad. "They're from who knows where, and for all we know they use translators. They can't be human."
Black Star shrugged, and Maka nodded triumphantly. Tsubaki spoke up, slightly worriedly.
"Whatever they are, I hope they feel comfortable here. I don't want them to come to Earth and have a bad time."
"Yeah. Cos then, they'd blow us up." Black Star said, bored. Everyone stared at him once more.
"I thought you'd be more pumped up about this. Normally, you get overexcited at the prospect of having something new to fight." Liz said, breaking the silence.
"You must have missed my performance this morning!" Black Star took his feet off the table and sat forward.
"No. I didn't."
He had perched himself on the spikes on the school again, claiming that these aliens would feel his wrath and that he would beat whatever they threw at him. Until Death himself descended to pluck him off. He had been noticeably subdued since then.
"Yeah, well, I'll show these Imperials." He said, sinking back into his seat.
"Black Star being the reason for the annihilation of Earth sounds about right." Liz said sarcastically, before finishing her tart. Ragnarok, who had been licking his plate clean, turned toward the reat of the group.
"Talking of annihilation," he began, slithering toward them all as Crona flinched. "You think they'll help us with our, y'know, problems? We still haven't found that Asura, and now dumbass Crona's aunt is gonna start trying to kill us all."
"First of all, there's no reason to be mean to Crona. He didn't choose his family." Maka said, fuming. "Second of all, we'll have to see. If they're trying to get us to join their Empire, we could use that as a bargaining chip."
As Maka began to reassure Crona, Soul turned to Liz.
"You seen Kid at all?" He asked, and Liz's expression was anxious.
"A little. He said he was going to assist in diplomacy. He headed up to Death's room and I haven't seen him since."
"Patty? What about you?" Soul asked, but Patty was too busy building a spaceship out of mashed potato. It was a pretty good model, too.
The bell rang, and preparations continued.