A/N: My primary thought when writing this chapter: "Ugh, youths." If you find some of the characters' behavior funny, carry on. If you find them a touch annoying, remember that they're fourteen and stupid.
Review Responses:
Guest, thank you! I'm glad you liked it!
OfAllTheShizz, I'd imagine he'd read it at least academically, even if he doesn't subscribe to all of its views, because of how serious he is about the whole 'path of the warrior' thing. That said, you're right. The Book of the Five Rings would probably have been closer, but it wouldn't have produced the desired association between Angela's comment and war. Glad you liked it anyway, though!
fanficlove2014, thanks, glad you liked it! Rei and Ayame are adorable.
AmyNChan, Rei does tend to think a lot, so 'I've been thinking' might very well become one of his things. I'm glad you liked the summer, even though I did unfortunately have to ghost through most of it because I wanted to get to the plot. And yes, Ayame was totally born on the Fourth of July. As always, thanks for the review and glad that you're continuing to read this fic.
AnimeOtaku9000, we will definitely be seeing Black Star and Tsubaki. The 'when' part of it is a little trickier, because Black Star's arrival will set…certain elements of the plot into motion, so I've been deliberately holding off on that, but yes. They will definitely come into the picture.
God of Crossover, Ayame has a lot more confidence than Rei, so she'd totally make the first move. That said, she might not consider that 'making a move' yet, because she's also way touchier than Rei, even with friends. And unfortunately, I don't write lemons, but if someone else wanted to, they would just need my permission.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Visions and Bells; Welcome Back to DWMA!
"Hello, DWMA!" Ayame said, as she burst in through the school's front doors, one arm spread wide and the other holding her textbooks close to her chest. "Your queen has returned!"
Rei gave her a sidelong glance as he followed her into the school, scratching the back of his head with one hand as he tried to blink sleep out of his eyes. They had arrived in Death City yesterday, and jet lag had hit him hard this morning. "You're actually excited about the first day of class?" he asked.
"Well, yeah," Ayame said, blinking at him. "I own this school, after all. Here watch this." She held out the arm that held her textbooks with a dramatic sigh, taking a few steps ahead of Rei. "Oh, I wish someone would carry my books for me…"
She slowly uncurled her fingers, her books spilling out of her hand. Before they could hit the ground, a veritable mob of boys from the N.O.T. class appeared, falling all over themselves to snatch the books from the air.
"I've got it, Ayame-chan!"
"I'll carry your books for you!"
"Ayame is so cool…"
Rei shot the group a disturbed glance, sidestepping them carefully and moving to catch up with Ayame, who was wearing a smug smirk.
"I swear, you need to stop encouraging them," he said.
"Why?" Ayame asked, deliberately sweeping her hair back with one hand as she drew herself up taller. "They're perfectly justified in wanting to celebrate me."
"Please, I've seen you lift a tree," Rei muttered, stuffing his hands into his pockets as Ayame's fan club trailed behind them, shooting him hateful looks. "You don't need someone to carry your books."
Ayame bristled, scowling at him. "Well, maybe I want someone to carry my books for me, Rei!" she said. "Did you ever think of that?"
Rei let out an exasperated sigh. "Do you want me to carry your books for you, Ayame?"
"No!" Ayame said. "I can carry my own books!"
She stomped off, her fists clenched at either side of her. Rei watched her go, confused and a little annoyed. There were some days, he decided, when he would never understand Ayame.
He stepped forward, about to catch up with her, and stopped as he sensed something moving behind him, coming straight for him at high speed.
"Reeeeeeiiiiiii!" Vayne shouted, launching into a tackle.
Rei ducked to the side, sliding smoothly out of the way. His arm moved without thinking, sweeping upwards as Vayne came flying through and slamming into Vayne's legs. The blow flipped him over, and he landed in a heap further down the hallway, the group of students that were standing there expertly parting to make a hole for him. Rei straightened up, his heart pounding, and looked over. Vayne was grinning at him, despite lying on his back and looking at Rei upside down.
"What the hell, man?" Rei asked, walking over to him and extending a hand.
"Just checking to make sure you were actually training over break," Vayne said, taking Rei's hand and letting him pull him up. "How are things going with our little princess?" His eyes flicked meaningfully towards Ayame.
Rei glanced at her. She was still walking steadily away from him, her back straight and her entourage trailing behind her, but she had slowed down significantly now and was shooting him a hurt look, as if…she wanted him to catch up? Ugh, he really didn't understand her sometimes.
"I don't know," Rei said. "She's being really weird right now."
As if she had heard him, which given Ayame's hearing and the distance between them, she probably had, she raised her head and turned away, continuing to walk. Vayne looked from Rei to Ayame with a grin.
"Relationship troubles," he said. "I see."
"There are no 'relationship troubles', because there is no 'relationship'," Rei snapped at Vayne. "Stop doing that."
"What's going on?" Clark asked, coming down the hallway behind Vayne. "Who's doing what?"
"Rei and Ayame are having a fight," Vayne said.
"Oh," said Clark, adjusting his glasses. "A lover's quarrel, I see. Well, don't worry. I'm an expert on those sorts of—."
"Thanks, but I'll pass," said Rei, brushing past Clark before he could finish.
Vayne grinned, turning to follow him.
"Probably the smart choice," he said.
Behind them, Clark looked crestfallen.
Rei found Ayame again in the classroom, already seated in her usual place. She had turned around in her seat, both of her arms resting on Morgan and Cassie's desk behind her as she leaned forward and talked to them excitedly. Whatever they were talking about must have been good, because Cassie raised her hand to her mouth and giggled, and he could have sworn Morgan was blushing. Vayne and Clark followed him as he made his way towards them slowly, an eye on the clock. They still had plenty of time before class was supposed to start.
"I wonder who's babysitting the new first years," Vayne muttered as they walked past the desks and up the stairs. "A couple of Shibuko kids made E.A.T."
"It would be Class Full Moon that's open this year, isn't it?" asked Clark. "So that would be Marie-sensei's class. Likely, it's going to be Sid-sensei again, though, just like it was with us."
"Huh…" said Vayne. "I guess so."
"Yo, iinchou!" someone called out to them as they passed. Clark tensed, his eyes widening.
"Stop calling me that!" he shouted back.
As Clark waded into the rows of desks to deal with the students, Rei turned around, frowning at Vayne. "What's all that 'iinchou' stuff about?" he asked.
"Someone found two volumes of Death Note in Clark's bag over summer training," Vayne whispered, as he pulled up beside Rei. "Since then, they've decided he's a closet weeb and started calling him 'iinchou'. You know, because he's class rep."
Rei glanced over at Clark, who was engaged in a heated argument with the instigator, all while two students behind him made kissy faces over his shoulder and rattled out stock fangirl Japanese phrases, like 'kawaii desu ne', and 'senpai, notice me?' He looked back at Vayne.
"What's the big deal?" he asked. "This is a Japanese-style school. We wear uniforms, sometimes. Shinigami-sama is Shinigami-sama, senseis are senseis...Of course that's what Clark's title is."
"Yeah, but you know how he is about his image," said Vayne, shrugging. "Poor guy would be popular in any other school."
Rei refrained from pointing out that Clark was popular, just with the N.O.T. students who were more prone to being impressed by things like this. It probably wouldn't help his case much. Instead, he sighed, shaking his head and reluctantly making his way to his seat. Ayame glanced over at him as he dropped down beside her, but instead of acknowledging him, sniffed and turned so that her back was more towards him as she continued with her conversation.
"Are you going to tell me what I did wrong?" Rei asked her under his breath.
"If you need me to tell you," Ayame replied, "then there's no point." She turned back to Morgan and Cassie, picking up the thread of their conversation as if she had never left it in the first place. Rei sighed, raising his hand to his temple and subtly making their agreed-upon hand signal for 'that makes no sense'.
Ayame kicked him.
Vayne slipped into the seat next to Rei, giving him a sympathetic look as he pulled his notebook out of his bag and set it on the desk in front of him. "What are you guys talking about?" he asked, twisting around in his seat and inserting himself into the conversation.
"Cassie!" said Ayame, speaking cheerfully as if she hadn't just kicked Rei in the shin. "She met a boy over break."
"Oh, no way," said Vayne, leaning forward. "Who is he, Cass? Does he go to this school?"
"Well, I'm not one to kiss and tell," said Cassie, her face coloring slightly as she turned away coyly, covering her mouth. The coy expression vanished as she turned back towards them. "But yes!"
"He's an upperclassman," Morgan explained. "In Class Crescent Moon."
"Oh, neat," said Vayne. "What's his name? Maybe I know him."
"You probably don't know him," said Cassie, leaning forward. "But just in case, his name's E..."
"What's going on?" Clark asked, coming up behind Vayne and quickly cutting the conversation short. Cassie drew back, shooting Clark a look that Rei could have sworn was a little guilty as she slipped her headphones back over her ears and started reading. Morgan turned to the side and started drumming her fingers on the desk, the universal signal for 'I want no part of this'. Vayne looked over at Clark as the other boy sat down next to him.
"What?" Clark asked, brows raised at Vayne.
"Tell you later, man," Vayne promised, turning back around in his seat. "Class's starting anyway."
Rei turned to the front, and sure enough, Maka was there, setting her things on the desk and looking over at the class with a smile on her face. "I'm glad to see you're all back in one place after summer training," she said. "And since you're all second years now and have had some time to hone your skills—unless you spent the entire summer playing video games and sitting on the couch, Jonas—," Jonas let out a little groan from his seat as Maka turned to glare at him, "—I thought we'd start things off with a mission. The new first years are going to take the next couple of days to get organized, so while they're at that, please take the time to select a mission from the appropriate section of the board. Remember that some of you didn't meet your quotas last year and will need to do remedial classes if this keeps up—Jonas."
Jonas groaned again, but he wasn't the only one. A handful of the people in the class looked worried about the prospect of remedial classes. Rei leaned back in his seat, glad to not be worried about something for once. He and Ayame had gone well beyond their mission quota for their first year, enough that they could probably spend half of this year goofing off before they had to worry.
Which, unless he could manage to get back into Ayame's good graces, was probably what they were going to have to do. He sighed as she stood up with the others, still refusing to look at him, and followed them as they made their way over to the mission board.
"I spoke with Tsubaki a few months ago," Sid said, speaking in a low voice from where he stood next to Spirit in the hallway. They stopped talking as a group of second-years moved past, heading for the mission board, then instantly picked up the thread of conversation again. "I think she understands what we were trying to say. She'll keep her eyes open. And she'll make sure Black Star doesn't hear anything until we're sure something is happening."
"Good…" said Spirit, matching Sid's low tone. "Black Star is the opposite of subtle." He paused to smile and wave at a group of third-year girls as they passed, his smile faltering slightly as they shot him disgusted glances and moved away. "Do you think Maka is right?"
"About what?" Sid asked, frowning.
"About me looking like a creeper."
Sid sweatdropped. "I don't think that's what we're talking about now, Spirit." A beat passed. "But yes, you do sometimes look like a creeper."
"I'm not old, Sid!" Spirit protested, straightening up and placing a hand on his chest. "I'm too young to be the creepy old man."
"You're in your fifties," Sid said. "And you have three grandchildren."
"Yes, but I was just smiling at them!" said Spirit, gesturing at the retreating third-years. "And I work here."
"Technically, you're retired," Sid pointed out.
"Semi-retired!" Spirit corrected, resting his hands on his waist. "It's not like I can trust that damn Soul Eater to take care of anything important."
"Who can't be trusted?" asked a voice from behind Spirit. One that sounded suspiciously like his son-in-law.
Spirit turned his head to see Soul scowling at him. The white-haired Death Scythe stood just over Shinigami's shoulder, and said shinigami was currently frowning at him, brows raised in question. He quickly jumped, throwing an arm around Sid's shoulder and doing his best to look innocent.
"I was just…talking to my friend Sid here about how awesome retirement is," Spirit said with a grin, patting Sid on the chest with his free hand. "Nothing to see here, Shinigami-sama. I promise!"
Sid's response was to grab Spirit's arm and firmly remove it from around him, his expression not changing. Shinigami looked between the two of them, decidedly unconvinced.
"Spirit," he said. "I'm only going to ask you this once. Have you been moving my troops around without my permission?"
"What?" Spirit asked. "Don't be silly. Where would you get that idea? I would never, and I mean never undermine your authority in that manner, Shinigami-sama."
Shinigami snorted softly, turning to walk away. "Yeah right, and I'm the pope," he muttered under his breath. Soul snickered, turning to follow him. Spirit scowled after the younger Death Scythe, waiting with arms folded until they had rounded the corner and were out of earshot before turning to Sid.
"See!" he said, gesturing after Soul. "Can't be trusted!"
"Right…" Sid drew out the word slowly, as if he wasn't entirely convinced. He turned back towards Spirit. "So, the situation…" he began.
"Yeah, well, I already have Asuza in on things. She's working on consolidating her…uh, resources in East Asia. I've been working on trying to get the others, but you know some of them can't keep their mouths shut…"
The one-star section of the mission board looked especially full after break, with mission sheets overlapping each other as the board strained to contain them. Rei scanned the board for a mission that looked right for him and Ayame, painfully aware that she was still refusing to look at him.
As he searched, Cassie reached over and plucked a sheet from the board, turning towards Morgan.
"What about this one?" she asked. "It's in Morocco. I've never been to Morocco."
Morgan made a face. "It's hot in Morocco," she said.
"Morgan, it's hot here," Cassie said in response. "We live in a desert."
"I know," said Morgan. "That's what I was hoping to get away from." She exhaled, reaching over and taking the sheet from Cassie with a long-suffering sigh.
While Morgan looked the sheet over, Vayne turned towards Rei. He kept his voice to a whisper, glancing meaningfully at Ayame. "What are you going to do about…?"
"I don't know," Rei said, in the same whisper. "I don't even know what she's mad about. We were fine earlier."
"Well, work through it," said Vayne, pretending to lean in to one of the mission sheets to take a closer look. "What was the last thing you said or did before Ayame got mad?"
"The last thing I said…" Rei frowned, thinking it over. "Something about her fan club, I think. Uh…they were falling all over her, and I told her to stop encouraging them."
Vayne's eyes widened as if he had just realized something. "Maybe that's it," he said, whispering furiously. "Maybe she was trying to get your attention and then—."
"Hey, Vayne," said Clark from the other side of the board, interrupting him. "Come take a look at this mission."
Vayne muttered a curse under his breath and turned to leave. Rei grabbed at his sleeve. "Hey," he hissed. "Wait a minute. What were you saying?"
Vayne turned back towards Rei, clearly torn.
"I'm going to sign us up for it if that's alright with you," said Clark, pulling the sheet off the board.
"Wait—no! It might have ghosts in it—." He shot Rei an apologetic look, tugging his sleeve out of Rei's grasp. "Sorry man, gotta go."
Rei muttered something unsavory under his breath, turning back to the mission board. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ayame let out a huff, turning away from him.
Alright, he could fix this. He just needed to talk to Ayame. It wasn't like they hadn't had fights before, and they would definitely get through this in time to ace the mission and not start the year off with a failing grade. His teachers definitely wouldn't think he was a slacker and his mother definitely wouldn't be incredibly disappointed in him. All he had to do was keep his cool and not lose his temper, and Ayame would come around.
He picked a mission from the board almost at random, barely giving it a glance to make sure it was one he could do before turning towards Ayame. "Hey, Ayame, how about this?" he asked. "It's—uh—some kind of disturbance. In Notre Dame."
"I don't know, Rei," Ayame said, in the sing-song voice she used when she was especially annoyed. "I've been thinking I should just go on a mission on my own. You know, since I clearly shouldn't ever need or want anyone else's help."
Rei felt a flash of irritation and turned towards her, his hand tightening around the mission sheet. "Alright, what is this about?" he asked, annoyed enough that he barely registered Vayne making warning motions from behind Ayame's back. Cassie and Morgan had fallen silent, and were also watching them now. "Is this still about your stupid books?"
"It was never about the books, Rei!"
"You know what, if that's how you're going to act, then maybe you should go on your own mission," said Rei.
"You know what?" said Ayame. "If that's how you're going to act, maybe we just shouldn't go on a damn mission at all!"
"Fine!" said Rei, slamming the Notre Dame mission back onto the mission board. The board rattled.
"Fine!" said Ayame, her voice slightly louder. She spun on heel, walking away. A high-pitched shriek echoed through the halls as she rounded the corner. Rei clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging into his palm, and squeezed his eyes shut until his own anger left him, until he stopped seeing red.
When he opened them, Vayne and Clark were giving him sympathetic looks, and Morgan and Cassie were staring down the hallway after Ayame.
"So much for that…" Rei said.
He came home to a darkened apartment and a new crack on the wall in the foyer, next to the shelf where they usually left their shoes. Ayame's own boots were scattered over the floor, as if she had kicked them off after punching the wall and stomped into the house. He stripped off his own shoes, moving as quietly as possible, and walked into the living room.
She was lying on the couch, her face covered by both her arm and a pillow.
"I screwed up again, didn't I?" she asked, her voice sounding thick, the way it always sounded after she had been screaming. Or crying.
He took that as a sign that it was safe to approach and hesitantly sat down at the end of the couch, next to her feet. She didn't look at him, but she drew her feet closer to herself, giving him room.
"You weren't the only one," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "I…uh…lost my temper too."
"Can we just…" She paused for a breath. "…start the whole day all over again?"
"I don't know," Rei said. "It was hard enough waking up the first time."
She did kick him then, but not hard. Rei glanced over at her and saw her glaring at him from under the pillow, her eyes red-rimmed. The corner of her lip twitched, as if she was trying to fight off a smile.
"Idiot," she said. "Don't joke around while I'm trying to apologize."
"I'll stop joking around," Rei promised. "But only if you let me apologize too."
"Apology accepted," said Ayame. She sniffed, then pushed the pillow off of her face, sitting up. She combed her fingers through her now-tangled hair, straightening out the knots. "I had Vayne reserve the Notre Dame mission for us."
"You talked to Vayne?" Rei asked, brows raising.
"He sent me a text." Ayame smiled faintly, her eyes moving to the coffee table where her phone rested. "He wanted to make sure I was okay. That kid acts like everyone's big brother, you know?"
"He's got a lot of little siblings," said Rei. "I don't think he can help it."
"Yeah," said Ayame. She drew in a long, rattling breath, her hands on her knees. "I'm sorry, Rei..."
"Don't worry about it," Rei said, frowning at her. "But are you going to tell me what that was all about? Because, and I'm just being honest here, you were acting kind of weird."
She tensed, a blush coloring her cheeks. She still wasn't looking at him. "No, I don't think I will," Ayame said. "At least…you know, not now. It was really stupid, Rei. Like really, really stupid. I was being dumb. Just leave it at that."
He wasn't convinced, but he knew better than to push Ayame. So despite the fact that he was still curious, despite the fact that he didn't fully understand what had gotten Ayame so upset in the first place, he let it go.
"Okay," he said, nodding. "Does that mean we're good now?"
"As long as you make dinner tonight," Ayame said, smiling again.
"I make dinner every night, Ayame."
"Exactly."
It was raining.
Rei clung to the space between the two bell towers of Notre Dame, clad in Ayame's Cloak of Shadows form. The rain plastered his hair to his face and his clothes to his skin, water mingling with the blood of his injuries. The Cloak's two kunai were embedded in the walls on either side of him, holding him in place as he breathed hard, scanning the darkness.
A shadow moved to his right, to his left. His head turned to catch the movement, but he was tired and hurt. He sagged there where he was standing, his fingers wrapped around the cords that bound the Cloak to the walls.
Someone laughed in the darkness. Rei launched himself into the air away from that laugh, the Cloak's shadowy cords tightening and rebounding like a slingshot. He raised his hand, the Cloak around him dissolving and forming Ayame's katana form as he scanned the rooftop below him, looking for the source of the laugh.
The shadows that rushed out of the darkness tore him apart.
Tendrils of darkness punched through his chest, ripping through him before he could even scream. His eyes widened, the last second of awareness, and then the tendrils moved apart and he vanished in a cloud of viscera and blood.
Morgan woke up screaming.
She didn't even realize she was screaming until Cassie was in her room, kneeling in front of her bed in a panic, until Quoth reached over and nipped her ear almost hard enough to draw blood. The sound of her own voice echoed in her ears, her heart pounding as the screaming quieted to a whimper, her hands holding onto her blankets with a vise-like grip.
Cassie was smoothing her hair to the side, her blue eyes wide. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Morgan, sweetie, what's wrong?"
Morgan opened her mouth to answer and realized that she was shaking. Her first thought was to reach below the blanket, fumbling for the bracelet Angela had given her, but she was still wearing it. She could still feel its magic pulsing through her, keeping her own Pull of Magic at bay. So that couldn't be it. It couldn't have been a relapse of the Pull, making her dream about death and destruction again.
"Morgan?" Cassie asked, sounding more concerned now. "Morgan, you're really starting to scare me…"
Morgan shook her head, looking away from Cassie. It had been more than just a dream. She was sure of that. She looked into Quoth's black eyes, the way her raven familiar watched her, head quirked, looked out the window and saw a flurry of black wings, the flock of ravens that currently inhabited Death City drawn to her scream. She dispersed them with a thought before someone could see, her heart still pounding and her tongue thick in her throat.
The whole thing tasted like magic. Like her family's magic, like that peculiar sensitivity they all had to war and conflict and death.
She turned towards Cassie then, gripping onto her weapon's arms. Cassie flinched and recoiled, and Morgan realized that she had been holding too tightly, quickly loosening her grip. "Rei," she said, meeting Cassie's eyes. "Have Rei and Ayame left yet?"
"They—they just flew out a few hours ago," Cassie said. "They should be arriving in France now."
Morgan released Cassie, practically throwing herself out of bed as she glanced at the clock. Five in the morning. Her mind raced, quickly converting that to French time. It would be midafternoon in Paris now, and it had been nighttime in her vision. She still had time if she hurried, if she and Cassie left now.
"We're leaving," she said, grabbing her things and preparing to dress quickly. "Get ready to fly. We need to get to France."
"France?" Cassie spluttered. "But what about Morocco?"
Morgan didn't even look back at her. She began to change into her dress, heedless of Cassie's presence in her room. "I'll explain on the way."
Rei pulled himself up the darkened back wall of the cathedral, the cords formed by Ayame's Cloak of Shadows pulling him up the side of the building so quickly that for an instant all he heard was the rush of the wind. He landed on the rain-slicked tiles of the rooftop, the water making his footing treacherous but also further masking the sound of his arrival. The kunai embedded in the rooftop on either side of him came free as the cords shortened drastically, and he caught them out of the air before they could dissolve, ducking into a sheltered space behind one of the gargoyles.
Around him, the rain continued to pour, a constant deluge that had already soaked him to his skin. From inside her soul space, Ayame made a face as the water continued to pour around them.
"Ugh," she said. "Couldn't have asked for better weather, huh?"
"Why are you complaining?" Rei asked, keeping his voice low enough that the water, in combination with the sound-masking properties of the Cloak of Shadows, would drown it out. "I'm the one getting soaked." He blinked water out of his eyes, letting go of the kunai. They recoiled into the Cloak immediately, fading into the mass of shadows that made up its form.
"Hey, I'm getting soaked too," Ayame said. "It's just that I can't feel it right now on account of me not actually being completely physical in this form."
He raised a finger, their hand signal for focus, and closed his eyes, sending out the ripples of his Soul Perception. His clairvoyance threw the space around him into stark detail, made fuzzier than usual by the interference presented by the rain. He could still see the shape of the rooftop, the outlines of the gargoyles that surrounded them and the two large bell towers that fronted the street, but the impressions he received were not as clear as he would have liked.
It wasn't ideal, but it would have to do.
He narrowed his field of vision, something that he was still learning to do, but could do more or less effectively now. Instead of casting the ripples out in 360-degree circles around him, he focused in on the bell towers, his clairvoyance fading away in front of him where he didn't need it and extending behind him where he did. His Soul Perception threw up an image of the towers, the ripples of his consciousness slipping through the windows where they could and giving him a basic, if vague idea of the inside of them. He saw the outline of two of the bells, caught the impression of windows, but nothing of their target. Rei opened his eyes, letting out a hiss of frustration.
"Problem?" Ayame asked.
"It's this place," Rei said, scowling. "I can't get a good read on the area. Let me try to get higher."
He reached for the kunai again, closing his fingers around them as they materialized out of shadow, then threw them at the tall, thin spire that protruded from the top of the cathedral. They embedded themselves into the stone near the top and he leaped into the air, the cords that bound him to the kunai quickly shortening until he was braced against the stone, one hand against it to keep his balance as he looked down on the rooftop of the cathedral. From here, he was woefully exposed, but he also had a better vantage point. He closed his eyes, clinging tightly to the spire and hoping he wouldn't be noticed in the dark and the rain as he searched for his target.
He and Ayame had come here in pursuit of the Bellringer, a madman on Shinigami's List who apparently also had some strange obsession with the cathedral bells. The information they had gathered earlier in the day said that he would be here tonight, but so far, Rei wasn't seeing anything. There were no lights, no bright presences in his clairvoyance that told him that any living souls were nearby, just the darkness and the rooftop and the rain.
"See anything?" Ayame asked.
He shook his head, opening his eyes. "Nothing alive," he said. "But there's…something in the southern bell tower."
Ayame frowned, her expression growing grave. "A body?" she asked.
"Maybe."
There was only one way to find out. Rei leaped from the spire, the cords lengthening accordingly and slowing his fall as he landed on the rooftop. The kunai disengaged themselves without him having to do anything, folding back into the cloak as he ran over to the bell tower.
He pressed his back tightly against the wall near the window, peering down into the gloom. It was dark inside, but his Soul Perception showed him the outline of the cathedral's largest bell, Emmanuel, a smaller figure sprawled out in the shadow of the bell's massive silhouette. It was vaguely human shaped, and not moving. He couldn't see the light of its soul, which meant Ayame was right. He was looking at a corpse.
Something cold sank into Rei's stomach, but he dropped down from the window into the bell tower anyway, droplets of water falling around him as he landed on the ground. He walked over to the body, as silent as a shadow, and crouched down behind it, carefully turning the corpse's face towards him.
His eyes widened. Inside her Soul Space, Ayame leaned forward, her own eyes widening as well.
"That's—," she began.
The Bellringer…Rei finished for her, but he couldn't bring himself to say it out loud. His skin started to crawl. He stood and realized he had been standing in a pool of blood, spreading from the Bellringer's corpse. A chill crept down his spine, the hair on the back of his neck standing on end. He looked around, but his Soul Perception showed him nothing but an empty room, the Bellringer's killer nowhere to be found.
And yet, the body was fresh. The Bellringer had been dead less than an hour.
Which meant he wasn't alone.
His eyes widened as his clairvoyance alerted him of something, a small object flying towards him at high speed. Rei leaped out of the way, brushing his hand against the Cloak and making the signal for Kusarigama Mode. Ayame transformed in a flash of light, his hands closing around the scythes before he could even land on the ground, the chain settling around him.
His eyes flicked towards the object that had been thrown at him, now embedded in the opposite wall. It was a card, similar to the tarot card that Richard had taken from Grayson, except the image on its front was different, the Sun instead of the Fool.
He turned his eyes towards the figure that had only just made its way into his Soul Perception, the soul inside of him flaring brightly as he stepped into view. A man, in his early twenties, with messy black hair and red eyes just a shade brighter than Rei's own. He wore an intricate red and black outfit that made him look one part rogue, one part wizard. He held another card between two of his fingers, the face turned away from Rei so that he couldn't see what card it was.
And he was dangerous. Rei could tell that much from the strength of his Soul Response, from the power and malice he felt from the man and from the blood on the man's boots, blood that, in this room, could only have come from one source.
"I wondered when the DWMA would send one of their brats after the Bellringer," the man said, smirking at Rei. "You're a little late, boy."
"Who are you?" Rei asked, tightening his grip on Ayame's scythes. In her soul space, Ayame tensed, her eyes narrowed as she curled her fingers slowly into fists.
"Who I am hardly matters," said the man. "You won't live long enough to remember me."
Rei tensed, bending his knees and getting ready to strike. The man barely seemed to notice, continuing to speak as if Rei's movements did not concern him at all. Rei's mind raced, already planning his angle of attack. He would run forward, forcing the man to defend himself from the front, then change direction at the last movement, using the close quarters here to leap off the walls and attack the man from the side. One scythe around his waist, another hooked around his neck. Quick and clean.
"You should know that this isn't personal," the man said. "A message needs to be sent to the DWMA. You simply chose the wrong mission."
Rei's foot slid forward, his weight shifting towards it as he prepared to execute his plan.
Before he could, the man flicked his fingers and the card in the wall exploded, his world dissolving in a blaze of light and heat.
Omake
Maka walked the faculty office after the last of her students had chosen a mission, smiling slightly as she walked over to her desk. Most of the second-years had been happy to put off the start of classes for a few more days, and it gave her some time to get organized and make sure that everything was going well with the new first-years. She waved at Marie, who was working on what looked like a lesson plan, and sat at her desk, pulling out her gradebook.
Sid came in the room a few moments later, holding the envelope that listed the new first-years and their partnerships. Maka watched him with mild interest out of the corner of her eye, then looked up in surprise when he walked past Marie entirely, setting the envelope down on one of the empty desks.
"You're not teaching Class Full Moon?" Maka asked, surprised.
Marie looked up from her work, blinking at Maka in confusion before smiling. "No," she asked. "Not this time. The class has a new homeroom teacher this year. You know him."
"Who—," Maka began, but she fell silent as a new presence registered in her Soul Perception. Her eyes widened and she turned towards the door just as it opened. "You!" she said, pointing.
"Me." Ox Ford gave her a smirk, his arms folded and the light reflecting off of his glasses.
"What are you doing here?" Maka asked, surprised.
"Well, I couldn't leave you with the sole responsibility of educating these precious minds…" Ox began, gesturing dramatically.
Maka was not impressed. "Kim dumped you, didn't she?" she asked flatly.
"I will get her back!" Ox declared, collapsing to his knees. He pounded the floor, tears streaming down his face. "Kiiiiiiimmm…"
Maka looked across from him at Harvar, who let out a long-suffering sigh, closing the office door.
