Tsukune and the others couldn't believe their luck. Just when they needed a way out the most, the bus finally shows up. The members of the News Club all ran towards the bus as their lives depended on it.
"Wait a minute," Black Star yelled, "You're not getting away that easily!"
Before the meisters could chase them, a giant wall of ice separated them from the bus.
"Sorry," Mizore told them, "But we've got somewhere to be. We'll have to finish this later."
The monsters all got on the bus one by one. Tsukune was the last one on, as he was helping a wounded Moka on board. The doors closed and the bus took off toward Yokai Academy. Fortunately, the rest of the club saw that Yukari and Ruby were already on the bus.
"Oh my god," Yukari gasped when she saw Moka, "What happened?"
"Moka got hurt," Tsukune told them, "That girl with the scythe did this."
"You're kidding," Ruby said, "But Moka beat her so easily the last time. How could she beat invincible Moka?"
"Sure," Moka huffed, "Rub it in, why don't you."
"Sorry," Ruby apologized, "But still, how did this happen? I never thought that anyone would be able to beat you in a battle of raw power."
"I… may have underestimated what they were capable of," she admitted, "I never would have thought that a weapon meister would be so powerful."
"But wait," Yukari said, "If Moka can't even beat them, what are we supposed to do if they come back?"
"Don't worry," Kokoa told them, "If they're dumb enough to my big sister again, I'll show them the true power of a vampire. And then, we can finally be together again, Moka!"
Against her sister's protestations, Kokoa hugged Moka tightly, exacerbating her wounds. Fortunately, Mizore came to her rescue by freezing Kokoa.
"Anyway, Tsukune," Moka said once the commotion had died down, "I'd like you to hold on to my rosary for a while."
"But Moka," he began, "Are you sure about this?"
"Relax," she told him, "It's only temporary. I doubt that the other me would be able to deal with an injury like this. Once I've healed up, I'll gladly change back."
"All right," Tsukune acquiesced, "At any rate, we can finally relax, now that this confrontation is behind us."
"Heh," the bus driver laughed, "I wouldn't be so sure of myself if I were you, kid."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Ack, holy crap!" Kou screamed, "This battle isn't over yet! Look over there, wheee!"
They followed the bat's line of sight out the back window of the bus. From there, they saw the four meisters approaching from behind them. Maka was driving a motorcycle with Black Star riding from behind, Kid was flying on his jet-powered skateboard, Beelzebub, and Crona was using Ragnarok's wings to fly.
"There they are," Maka told her friends, "We've almost caught up to them."
"Ha, let me at 'em," Black Star said, "I'll show them not to mess with me."
"Crona and I will go on ahead," Kid told them, "We'll try to slow them down so you can catch up and board the bus."
"Yeah, okay," Maka answered, "Just be careful out there."
Kid and Crona zoomed toward the bus at full speed. Kid opened fire on the bus with his twin pistols. Everyone on board hit the floor and took cover as shots rained through the windows.
"Damn it," Gin cursed, "Don't these guys ever give up?"
"That's it," Kurumu said heading for the door, "I'm going to go take care of those guys."
"Wait Kurumu," Yukari started, "You can't fight them by yourself!"
"Maybe not," she admitted, "But we can't just sit here and let them kill us. If they make it on this bus, we're screwed."
With that, Kurumu opened the door of the bus, extended her wings and leapt out. She flew straight toward Crona with her claws bared. She hit him square in the chest, but her claws hit the black blood and stopped. Crona used the opportunity to counterstrike with his sword. Kurumu blocked, but was still knocked several feet away. Kid then fired upon her, hitting her wings and sending her tumbling to the ground.
"Kurumu!" Yukari called, "That tears it!"
"No Yukari," Moka said, "You're their target. You can't expose yourself."
"Who cares?!" she responded, taking out her magic wand, "I'm not about to let them get away with hurting my friends!"
She leaned out the window of the bus and aimed her wand directly at Kid. Seeing an opportunity, Kid aimed his pistols at her. But before he could react, a washtub appeared just inches from his face and he collided with it at full speed. He was knocked off of his skateboard and landed face-first on the road.
"Kid!" Black Star yelled.
"Damn," Kid groaned, "The rest is up to you guys!"
Knowing that he had to bring the bus down, Crona started to swoop down toward the bus. Yukari tried to hit him like she did with Kid, but Crona was quicker to respond and was able to dodge the washtubs easily. Despite Yukari's best efforts, Crona was able to get up close right next to the bus.
"He's got them now," Maka observed, "Get them, Crona!"
Crona had gotten right next to Mizore as he was about to attack. Mizore smiled sweetly at him, causing him to stop and blush. She then blew a kiss in his direction while exhaling an icy wind at him. Ice started to form on Ragnarok's wings, causing their flight to lose control.
"Crona," Ragnarok yelled, "Hey Crona! Snap out of it! We're losing control here! CRONAAAAAAAAAA!"
The two crashed into the ground, bringing Crona back to Earth in more ways than one. The two tumbled across the ground before finally coming to a stop. Crona looked up to see Mizore waving goodbye at him from the bus as it drove out of sight.
"That's two down," Mizore told her friends, "Now where are the other two?"
Before anyone could answer, they heard a loud thunk coming from the back of the bus. They rushed over and saw that Maka had jammed her scythe into the back of the bus, using Soul as a tether to the bus.
"Got 'em!" Maka yelled, "Now it's your turn, Black Star!"
"Ha, leave it to me," he answered, "These fools won't know what hit them."
Black Star jumped onto the handlebars of the motorcycle and began to walk across Soul to the bus. Gin tried frantically to detach the scythe from the bumper, but to no avail.
"Damn," he cursed, "It's not budging."
"What do we do now?" Ruby asked, "We're almost to the tunnel, and we can't let them follow us back to the Academy."
Yukari gasped. "Hey guys," she told her friends, "Look over there!"
Kurumu, who had been busy playing catch up until now, had finally caught up to them and was flying low and fast directly behind Maka. Extending her claws, she slashed at the back tire of her motorcycle, slicing the entire back wheel in half. Maka lost control of her vehicle, and it fell over, sending her and Black Star crashing to the pavement.
"All right, Kurumu!" Ruby cheered as she helped her friend back in.
"Yahoo hoo!" she laughed, "That ought to show them to mess with us!"
"Damn it," Black Star growled, leaping from the wreckage, "You're not getting away from me that easily! Speed Star!"
Black Star sprinted after the bus at blisteringly fast speed. He was quickly catching up to the vehicle without difficulty.
"Are you kidding me?!" Kokoa yelled, "What the hell do we have to do to get rid of these guys?!"
"Don't worry guys," Yukari said, I'll take care of him."
She took out her tarot cards and sent them flying with her wand. They flew all around Black Star like a swarm of bees, but he dodged every single one. It wasn't long before he broke free of the swarm altogether.
"It's going to take more than some paper cards," Black Star began, "To slow me down."
"Oh no," Yukari gasped, "It didn't work."
"Fine then," Mizore told her, "It's my turn. And unlike you, I won't miss."
Aiming directly at Black Star, Mizore fired several icicles at him. He dodged every one, weaving in between each shot. She then put up an ice wall between him and the bus, but he broke through the wall with ease. As a last ditch effort, Mizore blew a harsh blizzard at Black Star, but it barely even affected him.
"Geez," Mizore vexed, "What does it take to ditch this guy?"
"That settles it then," Ruby said, "I'll handle him."
"No Ruby, you can't," Tsukune told her, "They've been after you from the start."
"I know," she responded, "That means that I should have been fighting them a long time ago. This is my fight, and I'm sorry for dragging you guys into it."
With that, Ruby leaned out the back window of the bus, her six wings materializing on her body. She fired her razor-sharp feathers at Black Star without pause. Despite stumbling a few times, he never slowed down, and was soon just inches away from the bus. They entered a tunnel, and Ruby had to stop her attack.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, "I just couldn't do it."
"Like I said," Black Star growled, "You're not getting away that easily."
Just then, they finally reached the Great Barrier that separated the Human World from the Monster World. To an ordinary human, it appeared to be just a brick wall in the curve of a tunnel, but a monster is capable of passing through the barrier harmlessly. The bus slipped through the barrier quickly and got away, but Black Star didn't have time to react and slammed face-first into the wall.
"OW, MY FACE!" he yelled.
Maka and the others soon caught up to Black Star as he lay down on the ground cursing at the wall.
"What happened?" Crona asked, "Did you get them?"
"No," Black Star answered angrily, "Damn bastards just disappeared into this wall!"
"What do you mean 'disappeared'?" Kid asked, "Do you think it was a teleportation spell?"
"No," Maka told her friends, "They're still just ahead. I'm sensing that there's some sort of barrier here separating us from them. They seem to be heading toward some location deep inside this barrier."
"You can sense all that?" Soul asked, "Even through a magic barrier?"
"It's difficult," she answered, "But I'm sensing a mass of monster souls just a couple miles past this point. Hundreds – no, thousands of souls seem to be gathered at some sort of base in there."
"A base?" Kid asked, "You mean like an army base of sorts?"
"I'm not sure," she admitted, "But whatever it is, it can't be good."
"Well, that settles it," Black Star said, "We can't just sit back and keep quiet here. This is war now. It's kill or be killed."
"I agree," Maka concurred, "We can't face an army like this on our own. We'll have to regroup before we launch our attack."
The Newspaper Club made it back to Yokai Academy safe and sound. Moka was sent to the school's infirmary, Kokoa left to do her own thing, and Ms. Nekonome went to go report the results of the trip to the school's Director. The rest of the club had gathered at their meeting room.
"That was way too close," Tsukune sighed, "They almost found out about the Academy."
"I agree," Ruby concurred, "If they had found the Academy, who knows what would happen. We should all be glad we're still alive."
"But who were those guys?" Kurumu asked, "They seemed organized, but where are they coming from."
"Well actually," Yukari began, "Now that you mention it, I've been doing some research about meisters and weapons to find out that exact same thing; although, what I did find out so far wasn't exactly reassuring."
"Whatever it is," Gin told her, "Spit it out. We need to know what we're up against."
"Okay," she said, "Well, I did a little research on the internet, trying to find something about these people, and apparently there's a whole school full of these guys."
"A school?" Kurumu asked, "You mean like Yokai Academy?"
"Sounds pretty dangerous," Mizore commented.
"That's not all," Yukari continued, "They say that this school is run by the Grim Reaper himself."
"What?!" Tsukune shouted, "Are you serious?"
"I know it sounds like a joke," she agreed, "But every source I checked says the same thing. The school is called Death Weapon Meister Academy or DWMA for short. They train students to kill and consume the souls of ninety-nine evil humans and… and one witch."
"But why?" Kurumu asked, "It doesn't make any sense. Why would they be targeting witches? And why you two out of all witches?"
"I don't know," she admitted, "But one thing's for sure: the DWMA despises all witches."
"That's horrible," Tsukune said, "But at least, they don't know about this Academy yet."
"Uh, about that," Yukari added, "I've also been reading about this technique that meisters can use called Soul Perception. Apparently, meisters are able to read and identify people's souls and sense where they are. Some of the best meisters are even able to detect souls that are many miles away or are cloaked by magic."
"But wait," Ruby interrupted, "How do we know that this applies to our case?"
"Well," Yukari began, "From what I heard of the battle, that girl meister used a technique called Genie Hunter. I did a little research about it, and apparently, it's an upgraded version of the Witch Hunter technique. Only two meisters in history have been able to use, let alone perfect, a powerful technique like Genie Hunter."
"So that means," Kurumu said, "That this girl is one of the strongest meisters ever. Then her Soul Perception skill must be phenomenal!"
"Let me get this straight," Gin told Yukari, "We're dealing with a faction of super powerful weapon meisters that are led by the Grim Reaper, are trained to kill, hate witches, and now know about the existence of Yokai Academy?"
"Then that means," Ruby concluded, "That this is a hundred times worse than we first thought it was!"
"I agree completely," Yukari concurred, "We have to do something! We're sitting ducks here!"
"You're right," Tsukune told them, "We need a plan. I'll go talk to Moka. She needs to know what's going on here."
As Tsukune started to leave, Kokoa came in the room and the two crashed into each other.
"Hey, watch where you're going, you idiot!" she yelled.
"Sorry Kokoa," Tsukune apologized, "But what are you doing here anyway?"
"I need you're guys' help," Kokoa told everyone, "Moka's disappeared! I can't find her anywhere!"
