Hey few things! First thanks to you all who read this and special thanks to those who faved, followed, and reviewed. Especially Scarlet Firesong. I'm glad you like it so much.
Second, I want your opinion. Should Asura get to Death City before or after Vajra's revival? Or should he get there the night of? I just don't want to get stuck while making the decision and having you all wait forever for an update.
The group of students leaving the Death Room had a somewhat somber, yet determined attitude about them. Well, as somber as one can get with Black Star around anyway. The blue haired boy was exclaiming how easy their supplementary lessons would be because they had him with them. His weapon, Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, was trying her best to shush him, but to no avail.
The first of them to speak up was a girl with dirty blonde hair pulled up into pig tails. "Alright, so we need to track down Sid first. He's our best bet at finding the mad scientist who resurrected him. Understood?"
"Yeah, yeah. I think we all figured that Maka." The white haired boy next to her said, earning him a warning glare.
"YEAH! We'll find this guy no problem! It'll be the easiest mission for you all because you have me here!" Black Star shouted out. Beside him Tsubaki sighed and then decided to talk with Maka.
"So Maka, how did your last mission go?" The dark haired girl asked her friend. "Anything unusual happen?"
For a second the shorter girl thought about the question, then shrugged. "It was disastrous. But mostly because the witch we were supposed to kill turned out to be a cat with strong magic powers. Her name's Blair and now she kind of lives with us."
Tsubaki nodded in understanding, before Maka asked her the same thing. "Oh, well the usual, you know? Black Star got carried away and we failed our first mission, then Lord Death gave us a mission to hunt down a witch and her bodyguard. The guys we were supposed to assassinate showed up and got killed by the bodyguard and Black Star spared them because the witch was just a little girl."
She recited the events as best as she could before Black Star himself chimed in. "HEY! You forgot to mention that one guy afterwards! Remember?! It was sooo weird Soul! Ya gotta hear this!"
"It must be pretty cool to get you all worked up like this."
"It was!" The blue haired boy ran up to the front of the group and stopped, waving his arms wildly as he began. "So, we were leaving the place, right? And as we walk away we hear someone clapping off to the side, so of course we gotta check it out right? Cause what kinda guy would I be if I didn't try and interact with my fans ya know?"
"So we approach the guy and I guess we scared him cause he practically bolted away, but he didn't get to far cause he kinda collapsed. And being the big star that I am, I went to go help him out some. We helped him up and I told him I was glad he enjoyed watching my fight. I told him about how I'm going to surpass God himself one day and you know what the guy says? "
Curious Soul leans forward and Maka asks, "What did he say?" Both wanted to know because Black Star seemed more giddy than normal at this point in his story.
Breaking into a big grin, the boy continues, "The guy says, 'I believe you. Maybe one day you'll be a great Bushin. You seem to have a strong enough soul for it.' So that means I have another fan! WOOHOO!"
His friends were silent at this, until finally Soul asked, "...What did this guy look like?"
This time though, Tsubaki answered. "Ah, we couldn't really see his face well, he wore this really ratty looking black cloak and kept the hood up. He also had these really long white scarves wrapped around his neck and his clothes, that we could see anyway were dirty and ripped."
"I saw under the hood a bit!" Black Star exclaimed proudly. " I didn't see much, but I know the guy's got red eyes and black and white hair. And he muttered something about having to find his dad too."
Again, the other meister/weapon pair was silent. Both exchanged worried looks with each other after hearing about the stranger. Finally Maka spoke up. "We saw him too...when we were going to find Blair. Some guy like that was walking in the opposite direction. Then he stopped when he saw us and just stared as if he wasn't sure how to address us."
"Yeah," Soul chimed in, "When we offered to help him out, he said something about going home to us and took off."
"He looked like he was hurt too, so we thought we'd just walk him home." Maka added with a sigh, obviously upset that she'd let the guy get away. "But anyway, now we know to look out for this guy, so if we see him we should try to help right?"
"Right."
"Mhmm."
"YEAH!"
The entire exchange was seen by Shinigami, Spirit, and Death the Kid and his weapons. All had varying responses to the strange discussion. Spirit was understandably worried about a mysterious stranger around his daughter. For all they knew the boy was keeping tabs on the DWMA for some witch or something.
Shinigami was trying to fight off the sudden bout of hopefulness and the bit of despair he felt. The description of the stranger was pretty vague, it could be anyone really. But if there was a chance...then again, he was sure Asura was long dead, killed by his best friend in a fit of madness. His poor son probably hadn't even seen it coming either, if none of the others did. Shinigami had to shake his head to clear his mind of those thoughts, but they still lingered. They always did.
Meanwhile, Kid shared a knowing glance with his weapons and internally debated about whether or not he should mention his own meeting with the strange boy. Patty however, made the decision for them. "Oh woow~ That sounds like someone we met! You remember him Lizzie? The weird guy who brought back that Thief Lupin guy!"
"Wha-...oh yeah, I remember." The elder sister said, nodding her head. "We didn't get his name though."
"...Kiddo? You've met this person as well?" Shinigami asked curiously. He watched his son fidget nervously, like a child caught telling a lie. Then the boy nodded.
"...Yes, we did. We met him before you gave us the mission to eliminate the necromancer at the Pyramid of Anubis. Thief Lupin had escaped and before we could call you that boy arrived with the kishin egg and just threw him on the ground. He left before we could thank him."
"And why did you not tell me this when you did finally call me?" The shade asked, cocking his head to one side. The younger shinigami sighed as he realized his mistake.
Of course he should have told his father, a mystery stranger who returns an escaped kishin egg to a Meister is just odd. Especially so when the boy had appeared wounded yet was able to haul it to him. Stranger still was the fact that he had only sensed a human soul in the boy, so he wasn't a weapon.
"I'm sorry father, I must have forgot in my shock at the situation. I won't do it again."
Pleased with this, Shinigami said, "It's alright, everyone makes mistakes. But next time do tell me something like that." The shade brushed it off easily and the five of them turned back to the mirror when they heard Black Star shout. They had found Sid.
Though while the other four were fixated on the fight, his own mind wandered to places he'd rather not be, but he couldn't ignore it any more. If there was a possibility of Asura being alive, then he'd have to look into it. But that raised all sort of questions that he wasn't sure he wanted answered.
Like, if his son was alive, where had he been? What really happened to him? Why hadn't he come back sooner? And so many other things. But he needed to think though. Asura, if it really was Asura, was looking for him, was trying to get back home. Most likely wherever he was, he wasn't aware of how much time had passed. He might not even know that his father couldn't come to find him.
Another thing was that he knew Asura had amazing soul perception, so why hasn't he found him yet. On top of that, he's encountered students from the DWMA, but hasn't asked them for his whereabouts. That meant he probably wasn't aware of the fact that the Meister and weapon teams worked for him.
But then he'd also met Kid, an obvious shinigami. Logically, Asura would have assumed that it was his brother. Still, while he'd helped Kid, he hadn't asked about where he was. Of course, his elder son may have panicked and fled too. He hoped Asura didn't think he was replaced by Kid.
This was all on the assumption that the stranger really was his, supposedly dead, son. But if it wasn't him, Shinigami still couldn't help but worry. There was a boy out there, hurt and lost, but for some reason trying to get close to Shibusen students. It could be a disaster waiting to happen.
He shook his head again and tried to focus on the scene in front of him in the mirror. They were going to confront Stein soon. But he wasn't entirely there as he watched the fight unfold, or as Kid stormed out, declaring he would go and help them.
But as it was wrapping up, he turned to Spirit, and in his most cheerful voice said, "By the way Spirit, I'll need you to inform the rest of the staff to keep an ear out for rumors about this mystery kid. We have to find out if he's a danger or not." 'I don't know if it is Asura or not.'
"Huh? Oh, sure. I'll admit it seems suspicious. "
"Yes, but I don't want to just send out an order to capture him. We aren't aware of his abilities at all and so far he's made himself an ally to us. And besides, I'd feel horrible if he just turned out to be some lost kid and we targeted him." The shade reasoned, though he knew his order was influenced partly by the fact that he might scare Asura, if it really was him anyway.
'...How long have I been gone?' Was the one thought that crossed his mind as he kicked at the asphalt road, staring after the vehicle that'd just passed. His soul perception, though dampened by the stupid rune collar thing, was still good enough as such a close range to tell him that there was a human in there. And they didn't seem distressed so he could only assume it was normal. How strange.
Asura figured it best to follow the road though, despite the fact that the speed of those vehicles was utterly terrifying. He'd just have to stay on the side so he was away from them. So he set off, careful to keep a good five or so feet from the road. It wasn't too long until he came upon a city, not a very big one, but still. There were so many people...
But with so many people, there were bound to be some evil human souls about and what kind of shinigami was he if he didn't try to get rid of them? Honestly, he was more afraid of his father finding out and being mad at him. Or worse, disappointed in him. The very thought of either situation had his heart going faster and he had to remind himself to breath properly.
Sure he feared his father, but Death himself was the only one who might help him now. Unless he didn't want him anymore. 'He does have another son now. He probably won't even bother with me.' It wouldn't be too far fetched he supposed. But he still had to try. What if Vajra had finally decided to come back and found him missing? What if he was out there now, trying to find him?! What if he were here?
The very thought had him whirling around to check the area as he felt his own breathing quicken in panic. He tried to push his soul perception farther than the band allowed, but no luck. How was he supposed to sense any danger if he couldn't sense anything within a few miles of him! It would be so much harder to find Shinigami like this. Casting one last frantic look about, he hurried away into the city. Maybe he could hide here, find out where he was.
Maybe he could find a way to get the collar off here..? The thought actually calmed him down some, though he wasn't sure how he might get help. Asura reached up under his scarves to touch the cold metal hidden underneath. He could feel the grooves that marked the runes carved into it. The ones that he knew were restrain, shield, activate, and seal. No matter how many times he saw or felt the collar, he couldn't understand why.
Why had Vajra done this? Did he feel threatened by his meister? Had Asura done anything remotely threatening? Had he scared his friend so badly? Or had Vajra simply decided to do this on a sick whim? Not likely, Vajra was serious about making sure he wasn't so scared. So why? Was it his fault?
Maybe Vajra did get scared, everyone else seemed to be after the Western tower fell at his own hands. But that did not make much sense because Vajra was the one to comfort him when the others wouldn't. When they were talking behind his back, calling him a monster. Calling him a threat.
But there was something wrong. Every time he remembered, something felt wrong. He was forgetting something important and if he could remember then he might be able to figure out what went wrong. He just...he couldn't. It slipped away every time.
Asura had snapped out of his musings when his fingers brushed against the tender skin around the collar. Beneath the metal, he was sure his throat was rubbed raw. Sometimes it would even bleed if he moved too quickly. And it made eating hard too, the simple action hurting him. Being a shinigami didn't mean he was never hungry. He was sure he didn't need to eat, but being used to having food meant he was starving right now. Sometimes he'd get scared he would starve to death before he got home...All the more reason to get it off.
Shaking his head quickly he hurried off into the city, wincing when he felt the metal band rip open his throat once more. He didn't make a sound of discomfort, instead just being sure to keep his cloak pulled tightly around him.
"It would seem that there are rumors going around Shibusen. The kids talk about a mysterious stranger with red eyes and black and white hair." The blonde said, running a hand through her hair. She couldn't believe it, well, hardly believed it. "This could be a problem, if it really is Asura. He wasn't Death's son and heir for nothing. The brat was a menace on the battlefield too, and I've no doubt he'll get in my way."
Her voice echoed along the walls of her base, as she continued to talk to herself. "But then again, he could be useful to me. I had only intended to awaken Vajra, but it seems that boy may have kept his meister as a pet..." A frightening grin stretched across her face as she thought. "He obviously wants his meister alive, so I wonder what he will do to keep him safe?"
"We're going to have to test that."
