"You guys are a team, you have to work together if you want to do anything! One person can't make a decision without the other, you decide together and you fight together!"
-Tsubaki Nakatsukas
Later that night, I logged onto my game. I saw that Freya, an online friend, was on. Wow, you have been on a lot lately, lol. I type into the chat box. Freya is a warrior, we met one day when she took on a tough monster in game, and I saved her with support from my arrows. That was almost a year ago. We've played a lot together since then, since our characters worked well together. Yeah, well I am so bored just sitting around the house! It's crazy _ I wish there was a vaccine against getting sick ever! I'm just glad that I'm feeling a lot better. She types back to me. We decide to do a dungeon run before heading to bed.
It's the day of the concert. Tsubaki, Liz, and Patty came over to the apartment to get ready with Maka and me. Patty finally felt better and was bouncing all over the place with excitement. "I'm so excited! Here, Mai, let me do your makeup," Liz says with a smirk as she grabs some eye shadow, liner, and lipstick. She gives me smokey eyes, which works for the evening concert, and a light pink lip. We all decided to incorporate Ava Lynn's matching hearts on the corner of our eyes with some black face paint and pretty similar looks. We're all wearing band shirts and jeans.
"Here, Tsubaki, let me fix your hair," I decided to give her a French braid. She seemed to like it a lot, but I could tell that she was a little shy about dressing up. "I think that Ava is so cute and petite, it's hard to believe that she's 22," Tsubaki says as I finish securing some loose ends with bobby pins.
"Sometimes I wish I had brighter blonde hair and violet eyes like Ava Lynn. Soul, are you and the guys going to the concert too?" Liz asks over her shoulder to the white haired boy watching tv. "Nope, can't say that we are," he answers, "We are going to watch it over at Ox's place on tv, crowds are so uncool." "I can understand. That must be why Crona decided to go with you guys, crowds freak him out."
Lights flashing over a crowd of people, fog machines, and the excitement that was only amplified person to person, the atmosphere were perfect for a night of fun. We were right up front, as close to the stage as we could get, about ten feet. The crowd behind us was pressing so hard that I was constantly getting bumped into. The announcer came out, and everyone cheered. I reached in my back pocket for some gum, but an accidental elbow to my side forced me to drop it and my student ID that was also in my back pocket.
Soon, it was lost under feet. I was about to tug on Maka's sleeve to tell her what had happened, when someone grabbed my wrist. I turned and was face to face with a blonde boy about my age. He handed me my lost ID and said, "It gets rough on the frontlines, be careful." He said it just barely loud enough for me to hear. His violet eyes sparkled as he laughs lightheartedly. I just nodded and mouthed thanks with a smile.
The first two songs were amazing, as usual. Liz and Patty sang along as loud as they could, while Tsubaki and Maka just watched and cheered on in excited awe. The general themes of the songs were about being clever and using your skills to better the world. Love was a predominant theme, especially in the song Love is Life. As that song was starting, I noticed something kind of… off. I stood ridged as I assessed the situation and noticed odd looking plastic boxes under the stage, were they supposed to be there? I guess maybe they have some sort of firework effects. Wait... they wouldn't stick one under her piano if that were the case. Did they ever even do those kinds of effects? Am I just being paranoid? I looked to my right, and saw someone who looked as intent as me, that boy from before. It was easy to notice him, stoic compared to the restless crowd.
That's when I remembered, he said it gets rough on the frontline, which means he's been to these concerts before. I pull and push myself over to him and yell, "Something's wrong isn't it?" He looked at me and nodded. Suddenly, flames burst from under the stage, causing a wave of intense heat to momentarily stun me. The crowd grew panicked and ran back. My friends looked ready to act and tried to direct people away. It was chaos.
-Boy's point of view-
"Meister or weapon?" I yelled at the red headed girl. I remembered that the student ID that she dropped was for the DWMA. "Meister," She yelled back at me. "Perfect, use me, ok? We have to save Ava!" She nodded and I jumped into action. My weapon form was a staff. I hope she could use me and can go along with this plan, there's no time to explain.
-Mai's point of view-
A staff, perfect, I thought to myself. I used him to pole-vault over the flames to reach Ava, who was stunned in the middle of the stage. I still couldn't quite reach her, as fire licked the wood in all directions, trapping her. I quickly extended my staff to tear sandbags on the stage open, which suppressed the flames long enough for her to run over to me before the light stands fell on her previous location. I hoisted her onto my back and pushed my spirit energy into my limbs in order to gain strength. I pole-vaulted right back out of danger just as more explosions went off; I twisted to try to take the brunt of the pain. I felt the air get knocked out of me as I hit the ground hard. The crowd was already gone for the most part, and I could hear sirens from fire trucks in the distance. I looked and saw my friends; they were making their way over to me.
I stood up and tried to steady myself a bit. I saw the boy and Ava, she was freaking out and crying while practically choking him. After making sure that they were fine, I turned my attention to myself. My face felt like it was spotted in soot. My eyes burned a little from being exposed to the intense heat, and it felt like there was something in my eye. I was alright otherwise, nothing major was wrong with me, and thank goodness my hair didn't catch on fire. That smells awful.
"Thanks for figuring that out so quickly and helping me save my big sister," the boy said to me as he shook my hand, "I'm Terrance." "I'm Mai." His sister was still crying about her and her brother almost getting hurt. She hugged me and then was ushered away to explain the accident to a zombie looking man. "She'll thank you when she snaps out of it," he laughed, looking very relieved. "Wow, she's your big sister," I say kind of shocked. "That was fucking crazy!" Liz exclaims at the whole situation when she realizes who Terrance is and what exactly happened.
"It doesn't look like it was an accident, I will want to discuss this situation with you further," a voice from behind me said, directed towards Terrance. Terrance nodded and that's when I turned to see Kid. He walked up to me and examined me intently. I knew it was just to see if I was ok, but the look was so intense that it made me uncomfortable. He handed me a handkerchief from his pocket and walked away with a smirk. He had a skateboard with him that vanished in a bit of smoke as he walked towards the scene to examine it as part of his shinigami duties. "Sid, did you see that figure?" Kid asked the zombie man as they walked further away. "He sure got here fast," Patty said surprised, "Ox's place is faaaaaar away." Patty and Liz ran up to join their Miester after making sure I was ok.
-At Ox's house before the explosion-
The guys were sitting around drinking beer and watching the concert live on tv. Some were playing poker as well. The crowd cam was passing by the group of girls in the front row "Aww, Maka's cousin is kinda hot," Kirikou, one of Ox's friends says.
"Wait! Go back a bit and freeze on her face!" Kid instructed to Ox. "Ha, I guess you agree with him," Black*Star teased. "Look, something has her worried, put it back on live!" Soul calls over. "I'm so glad I got the full setup," Ox says as he switches modes with the remote. In no time at all they hear a loud boom, and see a demonic looking figure in the smoke towards the back. "Did she just jump into the fire!" Kid yelled as he rushed for the door.
"What the hell was that in the smoke?" Black*Star asked shocked. He ran to the door side by side with Crona; not too long after Kid. The entire rest of the group of boys rushes to the door after him. "We're too far away; we won't make it in time!" Soul yells frustrated as he hops on his bike. He was worried about his friends, but especially about Maka. Kid called out Beelzebub and zoomed off as fast as he could, easily surpassing the speed of Soul on his bike and the others on foot.
-Back at my apartment-
I step out of the bathroom in shorts and a tank top. I just had to take a shower when we got back.
"That was crazy!" Maka said again as she made tea for me and Soul, "There wasn't anything we could do, if you hadn't have met that Terrance guy, Ava would have died. How did you think to do all that?" "Because I'm clever, at least sometimes," I say as light heartedly as possible. "You guys probably didn't see it, but there was this weird demon looking thing in the smoke behind the stage," Soul says seriously, "We were worried that there would be a fight." "Yeah, we didn't see it," Maka said surprised. She spilled a little of the tea she was pouring, but quickly cleaned it up. I laugh at the memory of what had happened when some of the other guys got there. Soul had hugged her tightly as soon as he found her, and she's been a little clumsy since then.
Notes:
I'm pretty happy with this chapter.
