A failed venture.

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Chapter 8: Putting the Bad Things Behind

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Kid crossed his hands, trying to regain some semblance of dignity as he was still in Black Star's cattle-like hold. "We had a mattress."

Upon receiving no response, Kid took a deep calming breath. Any sense of calm he managed to regain was briefly lost as he bobbed in Black Star's grasp.

"And food," the Grim Reaper evenly continued. "And clean water."

"…Yeah," came Black Star's mumbled reply.

Kid sighed. At least he got a response this time. "Good, so we are in agreement here. Now, can you tell me, precisely, why we left?"

As before, Black Star went silent, and Kid had to hold back from reaching up and Reaper chopping him.

In fact, Kid had done exactly that when he had woken up, after being thoroughly confused about why they were in the wilderness again and why Black Star was carrying him over his shoulder as if he was a grumpy cat.

"We're going camping again," came Black Star's response, eventually.

"Honestly, why do I even bother…" Kid muttered to himself and let himself go limp in Black Star's hold. "You can let me go at any time, you know."

"Sure."

Holding back a yelp when Black Star just let him go with no warning, Kid quickly stood up straight, composed himself and dusted off his jacket. "Much better."

He expected Black Star to let out a quip, a witty remark or simply an excited yell followed by recklessly charging into the woods, but Black Star kept his pace even.

Frowning, Kid followed after Black Sar. "Where are we going?"

"Dunno."

Kid's frown deepened at Black Star's low tone and how he didn't even bother turning around to acknowledge the Grim Reaper.

Kid let out a sigh. At first he thought he was imaging things, but he'd be lying if he said Black Star was acting weird and stand-offish ever since he woke up.

Speaking of which, Kid hadn't even been given a reason why they had left as such a hurry. Black Star had told him he had tried and failed to wake Kid up -which was another thing that worried the Grim Reaper- and that, lacking any other options, had carried him and left, but that had been about it. Any further prodding only resulted in vague answers or silence.

Honestly, Kid initially had half a mind to drag Black Star back to civilization, but he was now convinced that if he tried to do so, then they'd end up having a genuine, all-out brawl. Their argument yesterday had already looked like it was about to go that way.

A dreadful thought crossed Kid's mind. What if the argument they had yesterday was the reason Black Star was this closed-off? Was this Kid's fault?

No, if Kid was the cause of Black Star's moodiness, then he wouldn't have been taken along in Black Star's current excursion, right?

Still, Kid had been… unnecessarily rude, disrespectful even. He had taken a potshot at Black Star and Black Star had given one back. Mind, he still believed that Black Star's sudden disappearance had been inexcusable but calling him names was a sure-fire way for Black Star to disappear again, this time for good. Kid… didn't want that. He didn't want to drive Black Star away from him. Kid had no illusions, he already knew people put up with things when they were around him, just as he'd been putting up with an unbalanced world since his inception-

Ahem.

Point being, there were certain things that Kid could be open to Black Star about, situations where he appreciated, even required, Black Star's unique input. Despite their rocky first meeting where he had thought that Black Star was an interesting but overly-ambitious Meister, Kid now regarded him with… fondness. True, at first Kid viewed Black Star as arrogant, selfish, and short sighted, though he admired his resolve. It was an impression that had been turned on its head when Black Star had pulled him out of the infernal maddening hold of the Great Old One of Power, somehow preserving his sanity while still using the Great Old One's power for his own means. Though he had kept it mostly to himself, after that point Kid wanted -actively sought- to be by Black Star's side and when he disappeared for no reason…

It wasn't the same fondness Kid had for Liz and Patty, the pair being the closest thing the Grim Reaper now had to a family, or a general friendship-derived fondness he had for Maka, Soul and the rest of the Spartoi.

But, it wasn't romance. Having spent the last few years with human 'peers', and growing up exposed to mainstream culture, Kid had a fairly good guess on what romance entailed. He had even done some soul-searching about whether he had experienced romantic feelings, as they were so often regarded as universal feelings like happiness and sadness -and Kid certainly had experienced the latter. He had even asked his Father about it, ending up in a lengthy and occasionally awkward conversation about Grim Reapers, love, his Father's romantic history -or lack thereof- and how Kid should just be himself and 'everything would work out alright in the end~!'

That was all well and good, as Kid liked being himself, but being himself once entailed wanting to end all life, so some caution was advised, hence Black Star. After all, who better to provide such caution than one that had uppercutted Kid out of his Madness?

Point being, any anger Kid still had towards Black Star was because the assassin had acted uncharacteristically stupid when he disappeared. Worst of all, Black Star wouldn't even admit that he had acted rashly, if not even necessarily stupid. As Kid had told him time and time again, as Black Star certainly knew for himself, there were worse things than a Kishin Egg or a rogue Witch. If something had happened to Black Star, everyone else might have never known. Kid would learn eventually, but by then it would be too late and, Grim Reaper or not, it was still too early for him to mourn a close friend.

Yet it was obvious that Kid wasn't helping things. He and Black Star had barely caught up but already they'd had several arguments, an almost-fight, and now Black Star was obviously distraught and wouldn't talk to him-

So yes, Kid was, as always, very worried.

Maybe Kid should put Black Star's disappearance act in the wayside for now. First, he supposed he should find out why Black Star was now acting uncharacteristically avoidant.

"Black Star," Kid spoke up, his tone even.

Black Star's shoulder tensed as he stopped dead in his tracks. He didn't turn around though.

The Grim Reaper cleared out his throat before saying: "Is there something you'd like to tell me?"

Though Black Star still had his back turned on him, Kid gave him an encouraging smile, just in case.

"…No," Black Star eventually said, back still turned. "Nothing."

The Grim Reaper held back a grimace which came out as a frown; that was an outright lie if he ever heard one. He didn't even have to use his Soul Perception to see the obvious signs of avoidance present when one does lie.

So, something had happened at the village. Probably while Kid was sleeping, something serious considering Black Star had decided to carry him out.

Problem was, Kid hadn't sensed anything or anyone that could cause them trouble. The only suspects were the villagers, but Black Star could easily take them out so he wouldn't have seen them as a threat. Had he missed something?

Black Star stopped in his tracts and Kid caught up to him.

The overgrown pines of the hilly forest grew sparser. Moss and weeds grew thick on the ground, though they too, had a hard time trailing the large vertical stone structures that spanned across the area.

Black Star frowned.

"It looks like a wall," Kid said and looked at the vines that took advantage of crumbled nook and crannies as they snaked their way up weathered stone. "One built a very long time ago…"

"Huh…" Black Star let out as he craned his neck to look at the top of the wall. Despite its ancient age, the majority of it still stood at least an impressive dozen meters in height.

Black Star walked along the length of the wall and Kid followed after him, staring at the structure. The existence of a random ancient wall in the middle of a forest worried him. Human generally built walls for reasons they thought of as rational. Ancient walls in particular were used for a city's defenses.

"Woah."

Kid followed Black Star's voice just as he saw him walk into a collapsed portion of the wall and out of sight. In true Black Star fashion, he hadn't even bother checking the structural integrity of the adjacent parts before stepping over the rubble.

Eyeing the decaying structure with suspicion, Kid stepped over the collapsed portion as well. Just when he was about to tell Black Star to be more careful, Kid caught a glimpse of the area over the wall and froze.

It was as if they'd stepped back in time. Before them lay the outskirts of an ancient metropolis. Humble one-story buildings stood a few meters from the wall, being slowly replaced by grander two story and three story houses the further inside one looked. Their walls were an earthly brown, the color of the sand-dried blocks they were made from. Some of the buildings still had traces of paint and faint outlines of decorations.

This place was an archaeologist's wet dream. There was barely any decay in the buildings themselves, with only the smaller ones missing a few roof tiles that had crashed on the wayside. There was sparsely any vegetation; nothing here had been reclaimed by nature. It was as if this place had been protected from the passage of time.

In fact, maybe a bit of an overzealous protection, Kid thought as he looked back at the wall. The part that had collapsed had its rubble mostly located outside of the area they were in, as if it had been purposefully knocked down from people trying to escape.

To add to that, barely anything grew here; the grown was muddy and dry, any trees that still stood were long-dead husks and even weeds were nonexistent.

Kid was about to grab Black Star and get out of here, when he noticed the assassin's excited expression and paused.

Black Star gazed at the area around him with his mouth hanging open. "Wow, look at this place!" He out his hands up. "It's like a history book, but not boring!"

Kid wanted to say that history books weren't supposed to be boring -even if reading through them was a pain more frequently than not- but held himself off. Now was not the time to argue about the fun factor of history textbooks; now was the time to get himself and Black Star out of the suspiciously barren area.

Kid cleared his throat. "We should-"

"Whadda think this place is?" Black Star asked and Kid cut himself off.

"It very well could be the original Atlantis," Kid said. "But we still should…" His voice died in his mouth as any excitement Black Star had was slowly ebbed away from his frame.

"Oh." Black Star and crossed his hands. "Makes sense 'suppose."

Kid frowned. What had caused this change of attitude? Normally, Black Star would be ecstatic, already jumping in, out and around the ruins. In fact, Black Star was somewhat excited; even if he was trying -and failing- to hide it, Kid could tell by the way his soul sent out quick bursts of its wavelength. Still, to try and hide it in such a distraught manner…

Perhaps Kid should encourage Black Star to explore the area in hopes it would cheer him up. Kid couldn't sense any other presence of danger in the area. In fact, the only thing that set him of edge was the barren area and the strange way a particular part of the wall had come down and these things weren't necessarily a sign of danger.

Besides, Kid must have been imagining things. He was already paranoid enough, and this whole island threw him on edge, as if he was a sleep deprived human. Perhaps the land had undergone some intensive farming and had gone barren. Perhaps there was some other geological peculiarity about this place. Perhaps it was one among hundreds of possibilities.

In any case, if Black Star wasn't going to be excited about this, Kid would make up for it.

The Grim Reaper clasped his hands, looking at the building with a reserved smile. "This place isn't too bad. I don't suppose we'll find anything of use here, but there are plenty of opportunities for shelter and we are close to the coast, so we should be able to catch some fish there."

Yes, that sounded adequately excited.

Black Star slowly turned to look at Kid, expression guarded. "Wait, are you saying we camp here?"

"We should probably explore the area more," Kid quickly said. If said exploring ended up with them outside this strangely-barren area, then all the better for him. "In any case, I don't see why we shouldn't. This place is deserted."

Black Star placed a hand on his chin. "So, there's no one around…"

"Quite. We're quite a distance away from the village, and as far as I can tell, it was the only settlement left on Atlantis." Kid gave Black Star a shrug. "As far as I can tell we're alone here."

Alone, Kid mentally repeated. In an unknown area. Completely exposed to the elements.

This was going to be another long night for Kid.

"And you said the beach's close by?" Black Star asked and Kid nodded. He narrowed his eyes towards the hidden coast then looked right back at Kid. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Surprisingly, I think so."

Black Star gave him a grin. "We go…"

"Fishing-?"

"Swimming-!" Black Star announced at the same time as Kid.

"…We do both?" Kid hesitantly offered after a few seconds of silence.

Wordlessly, Black Star hunched over, shoulders trembling. Kid was about to ask if he was feeling alright when Black Star stared to cackle, frame shaking in delight. Kid joined in as well, glad he had gotten Black Star out of his sour mood, even if briefly.

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