Kimiko watched the sign that welcomed them to Forks, Washington approach with a blank stare. The soggy, cloud-ridden dot on the map was nowhere on her list of places she wanted to visit.
She glanced over at Raj, his eyes focused on the road as he drove, and wondered what he was thinking. She wondered if this place reminded him of where they met like it did her.
He noticed her gaze and looked over, eyes questioning. He read her like a book and sighed before revealing his thoughts, "I wasn't thinking about that place until just now. I was actually thinking about the apartments we're supposed to be staying at.
Kimiko nodded, satisfied. She looked back out the window, the scenery unchanged from the last time she looked.
She let her mind drift back to the dossier for this new mission. She didn't need to pull it out of its hiding spot as she had it memorized./p
Their cover story was solid for having been thrown together last minute. They were both children of traveling consultants from out of country. Both sets of parents would be out of town consulting with the Fortune 100 companies in the nearby big cities. Both of them would be attending Forks High School for the remainder of the school year as students.
Raj was now RJ, and she was now Kim. Tomorrow was the first day back for the students after fall break. Tomorrow would be their first day tracking down the weapon Lord Death had sensed in this area.
Normally death weapons and meisters would not be deployed to find weapons and bring them to Death City. Most weapons never even manifested their powers and were left to live normal civilian lives. Those that did manifest were invited to Death City, getting to choose between the E.A.T. classes or the N.O.T. classes.
On the rare occasion that a weapon turned down the offer and then went on to become a danger to society, a squad was dispatched to collect and imprison them. Kimiko had only heard of this happening once in the last five decades.
She narrowed her eyes as she thought of Nebbish Podar, the Dark Thorn. He was the reason they were sent to this place.
He was a wizard who she probably wouldn't have known the name of if not for recent events. He was one of the weakest practitioners of the dark arts, the strongest of whom was weaker than the average witch. Wizards were usually ordinary humans that had the potential to be a meister who sold their souls to witches for access to magic.
Kimiko and Raj had the misfortune of meeting one the day they first met. Dark thoughts of that day swirled through her mind.
She shook her head. She had to focus and not allow her own personal bias against wizards to distract her from the mission.
They were not here to kill Podar. He had become a threat greater than the common witch by killing potential weapons and eating their souls. The weapon in Forks was one of many of his potential targets, she and Raj were here to offer them protection and evacuation if they were willing. Podar had last been spotted in Europe so the odds were that he wasn't headed to Nowhere, Washington.
How he was finding these weapons was still a mystery. He was finding some that even Lord Death hadn't sensed yet, usually children younger than age ten./p
If he became powerful enough before he was captured or stopped, he might begin engaging active weapons to take their souls.
At that thought, she glanced at Raj out the corner of her eye. Podar would take his soul over her cold, dead body. No wizard, witch, demon, or kishin was going to harm a hair on his head so long as she could do something about it.
They weren't lovers, as some at DWMA liked to insinuate or spread rumors about.
Five years ago, when they helped each other survive the worst night of their lives, a bond was forged between them that nothing would break. She had sworn on her life to protect him, and he had sworn the same for her.
Raj made a clicking sound with his tongue when he realized he missed their turn. Kimiko smiled, and focused on the road signs so she could help.
They had the rest of the day and night to settle into their quarters and prepare for their first day in a normal school.
Even when they didn't know they were a meister and weapon respectively, they didn't live the average life. Raj was homeschooled, and Kimiko attended an online charter school for one.
To be honest, she was very nervous about fitting in. DWMA taught many things very well, but social graces were not one of those things.
Raj noticed her fidgeting with her seatbelt and asked her what was wrong. "Nothing important," she answered, forcing her hands to rest idly on her lap, "Just tomorrow.
He hummed his agreement, frowning as she was sure he was thinking about the awkwardness they were going to experience.
"At least our cover story gives us a reason to be awkward," he said after a moment, and Kimiko nodded her agreement.
Kimiko blew her bangs out of her eyes with a long huff before pointing to the sign for their apartment building, "There!"
Once they met the building manager, signed some of the papers, and received the keys it was later than she had been hoping. There were a lot more questions than she wanted too. Two long phone calls later, with DWMA staff posing as each their parents, the displeased man finally accepted their signatures with the promise of their parents showing up to sign as soon as possible.
Kimiko looked across the hallway to Raj after they each opened the door to their respective apartment, "I wish they had been side by side instead of across from each other."
"Me too," he said, sighing, "but this will have to do. Goodnight."
"Goodnight," she replied, walking into the mid-sized apartment and shutting the door. It seemed wasteful to her, but the furnished, two-bedroom units were supposed to have a bedroom for their parents and a bedroom for them.
On top of that, because of their supposed wealth from their jobs, the apartments were rather gaudy and ornate. It was all part of selling their story, and DWMA wasn't hurting for money to put them up in such an establishment. Or equip them with designer clothes, apparently.
She rolled her suitcase to the smaller bedroom and began unpacking. She took off the price tags with a wince and threw them away. She wondered for the first time if they would be allowed to keep these clothes after this mission.
When she finished settling into her new room, she sat on the bed. She wasn't tired enough to go to sleep, but it was too late now to do some of the exploring of the area that she had wanted to.
She bit her lip, almost wanting to knock on Raj's door and ask him watch a movie with her and sleep in the other bedroom of her apartment. She didn't like being this far away from him. What if something happened in the middle of the night and he needed her? Or she needed him? Maybe Podar was coming here and would find them unawares and separated…
She knew rationally that they weren't actually that far apart, and their dorm rooms the first year at DWMA were further apart than the apartments were now. Emotionally though, she was probably co-dependent and they had shared a suite with two other people for the last two years, only one wall separating them at night.
She laid down, and started counting sheep, hoping that she'd fall asleep quickly so she could see him in the morning.