Chapter 10-
Symmetry is Key, Not!
You Arm-wrestle Instead of Meeting Us?
Narrator's P.O.V
A few days later, moving on to the weekend, thought school wasn't open, Maka, Soul, Black Star, and Tsubaki were there. For a reason that Maka had chosen. With this information that had been stuck on her mind having to do with Kayagu, she needed to talk tot his over with Lord Death. They all decided to have a small meeting on a not to busy day. So it was agreed to hold it on a weekend. Maka thought of this as a serious case.
Although it did not go out as planned.
"My eyes aren't hurting at all!"
"Neither are mine!"
Soul and Black Star continued to stare at one another, wide-eyed and not blinking once. Maka crossed her arms and sighed. "How long are you guys going to keep up this dumb game? We don't have time for this! We have to go now, they're probably waiting for us now."
"Not long, after Soul soon gives in! Come on! Blink already! You can't win to the great assassin!" Black Star yelled. Soul tapped the desk. His eyes felt like the had been stabbed with needles, or splatted with sand. "In your dreams, doofus. A cool guy like me won't lose in some simple kid game! Your eyes hurting yet?"
"Not one bit! Hyahaha!" That was a lie though. Black Star's eyeballs didn't feel any different from Soul's. Black Star clenched tightly on to the desk. This went on for about two minutes, when the worst happened for the two.
Crap, what is this feeling in my nose? Soul thought. it tickles..like a sn-sn
Both Soul and Black Star wriggled their noses. Then, they both sneezed which obviously caused them to blink. They stood up and wiped their noses.
"Damn! We both lost!" Black Star shouted in annoyance. Maka closed her eyes. "Well, Professor Stein's desk has gotten pretty dusty. So your choice out of all the desks caused your defeat. For the both of you." Soul and Black Star looked at each other.
"Any who, now that your little game is done we need to head over to the Death room."
Tsubaki stood up to walk with Maka to the door. "Hey wait," said Soul. "What about the others?" Maka turned to him. "Oh, right. I made this a choice for Crona that he didn't have to go if he didn't want to. He decided not to come, this really isn't something that is big for him. And Liz, well, she wanted to take Shonaku to go buy some new things for her. Of course. Kid and Patty went along too. So yeah. Anyways, do you think that they're all there by now, Tsubaki?"
"Maybe, I'm not really sure." She smiled.
Maka pushed the door open. "Okay then. I'll go check if they're waiting for us. Stay here until I come back, okay everyone?" The other three nodded their heads. Maka headed over to the Death room.
"Wow, it's so big!" Liz said as she looked at the tall building that towered over the three. There read a sign in the entrance that said DEATH CITY MALL. A skull was in the middle of the sign, and many people entered and exited. This was a new mall that had just opened up a few months ago, and Liz went after it had opened a few days later. She adored this mall and wanted to go as much as possible. Although that's not what Shonaku had in mind.
"Uh..So this is where you want to take me? A fucking mall?" Shonaku asked in distaste. Liz patted Shonaku on the back. "Now there, you'll like it! Come on! There's lots that we can get you there!"
Shonaku rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Ugh. I fucking guess so." She examined the whole building itself too. The large building reminded her of something.. Like a memory.
It kinda reminds me of those times...
"Child, quit staring at the folk like they're monsters. Have you never seen this many citizens all at once? Seems like you haven't, considering the previewing area you once lived in. Well, you'll have to get use to civilization here whether you like it or not. Understand?"
"Everything looks so tall..like they're towering over me and ready to fall over.."
Shonaku shook her head and snapped herself back into reality. Regardless how harmless that memory was, it only followed the harsher ones that did not need to be remembered. Shonaku looked at Liz, then back at the building. At last, the four entered in.
Maka opened the door that lead to the Death room and walked down the long hall of blades hanging over. When she arrived at the center, there stood Lord Death himself, Professor Stein, Sid, Nygus, and Death-scythe Spirit. As soon as everyone noticed her, Spirit had a sparkles in his eyes and formed a wide smile. He spread his arms wide and went for a hug.
"Oh, my Maka! It's bee so long! Your Papa is here! I've missed youu!" He sang out. Maka slighty pushed him away before he could hug her completely.
"It hasn't even been more than a week, Papa. I didn't come here to hug, I came here for a meeting. A serious one."
Spirit stared at his own daughter, a bit dumbfounded to find himself acting so foolish when she was almost as serious and grim as Asuza. He then cleared his throat and fixed his tie.
"R-Right.."
"Anyways, it looks like most of us are here, I'll go bring Soul, Black Star, and Tsubaki. Just give me moment please."
"Actually, Maka." Lord Death started. He raised a finger. "You see, though we made room for this meeting, we don't have a lot of time. As important as this is, we are all in a bit of a rush here. There is business for all of us to attend to."
"Yes that's right indeed!" Spirit mentioned. Professor Stein pushed up his glasses from his nose. "And I'm guessing the business you're attending to is Chupacabras am I right, Spirit?" Spirit gasped a little. A sweat drop formed on his head. He then scratched the back of his head.
"Of c-course not, Stein! W-What are you thinking! Hahaha.."
"Yes I'm pretty sure this is the time you do go, whenever we have something in mind, you always mention going there." Nygus added in.
Sid added in his side of the talk. "Yes, I believe you mentioned that's where the "jackpot" was."
Spirit gulped. He fixed his tie again and laughed nervously. My darling, Maka! You weren't suppose to know that! These idiots don't know that I was trying to hide that from you! I still love you and Mama I swear!
"Ahem. As we were saying." Lord Death called out.
"Now Maka, you can talk to us with this information you had in mind."
Maka nodded to Lord Death. "Right. I'll begin with our mission that we had not too long ago. When our team went, there were a group of kishins hidden in some rocks near Serenity Village. When we eventually arrived, I was able to find the actual main source. It was a boss kishin. He was the leader out of all of them. He called himself Kishin Kayagu. It seemed like he had a reasoning for coming to invade that village. He said he was looking for someone. And I'm surely positive that he mentioned a girl."
"Oh?" Lord Death questioned.
"Yes." Maka continued. "As the battle between him and I continued, he mentioned about working for someone. I was about to get the name of who, but when he was about to say so, Black Star came and killed him. Although, his death was a bit weird." Maka glanced down and out her and on her chin.
"What do you mean by that, Maka?" Lord Death asked her.
"I mean that when he died, he turned into black smoke. No kishin soul was to be found. And Sometimes I get this feeling that he's still out there somewhere.."
Professor Stein walked a few steps forward. "Then he probably isn't dead. He may had just made it seem that way, but escaped in reality. Regardless the species, or such, there will always be a kishin soul after their death. Considering the fact that his soul was not there, says that he isn't dead. Perhaps an effort for escape was probably what it was."
"I see.." Maka said. She thought about it as well.
"If he really is out there, what would this Kayagu be doing at the moment?" Sid wondered.
Stein turned to him. "There's a good chance that he could still be searching for that girl he was looking for, even as we speak.."
Maka immediately spoke up. "I just remembered." They all turned to her.
I remember now that kayagu, he knew my name. In fact he mentioned that he had been watching over us. And it seemed like he was expecting for that certain person to be there with us on that mission.."
Professor Stein's glasses glared with a shine. His eye shown dramatically. Could this be? Maka is pointing out the obvious. She was just a new recruit for Maka's team..no, wait. I can't be making these assumptions so quickly. But, the way she's explaining it...It couldn't be anyone else but Shonaku..Why would a kishin be looking for her though? Or maybe it was the guy who sent this kishin on the search in the first place. I won't say anything as of now, this thought needs to be reasonable.
"Well, whatever the case, we should all be on the lookout for Kayagu! Especially if it sounds like a student from the academy he's on the lookout for!" Lord Death said.
Maka looked at Lord Death. "Speaking of which, that reminds me. It's weird but..Shonaku. No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to look at her soul. I try my soul perception on others and it works just fine, but whenever I try it with Shonaku it doesn't work. And afterwards she gives me this look like she knows that I'm trying to look into her soul. People can't feel that, can they?"
Stein raised an eyebrow. "No. They can't feel it. But considering that she is a wizard, there might be a way how that all works out."
"Yeah..wait hold on. Professor, how do you know she's a wizard? I don't think any of us told you."
Professor Stein cleared his throat. "O-Oh. You see, we have been looking up Shonaku's profile. So we know a few things about her."
"Information? What about exactly?"
"That's classified information for now, Maka." Lord Death said. Maka looked at both him and Professor a bit suspiciously. What else could they possible know about Shonaku?
"Okay, you should know by now that my ridiculous strength is going to win over your puny muscles!"
"I'm not going to lose this time!" Soul said. He grunted. What could they possibly be doing now?
Oh right, they're arm wrestling. Another competition, of course. So far, it was a tie for the two. And really this had been going on for a while now. Tsubaki tried to tell them what they were actually suppose to do. Unfortunately, she had no luck.
"Um, ou guys! Shouldn't we be heading over to the Death room! They probably already started!"
"Didn't you hear Maka, Tsubaki? She said we'd go there when she came back! Is she here? No, so we should stay here." Black Star replied, not even directly looking at Tsubaki, since he was way too focused in his game. Tsubaki slouched a bit, a small aura behind her.
"Ohh.." She turned around and slowly paced around the classroom.
The mall was flooded with people and stores. People were walking here and there, it was pretty noisy with everyone talking all at once. Escalators, elevators, food courts, and stores all around. Shonaku looked around in an irascible way. "Uh..now that I think about, I think I change my mind. Can I please get the fuck outta here?" Liz grabbed ahold of Shonaku's shirt and begun to to drag her.
"Oh come on! We just started! Let's go! Oh my Death, I know just the store that would suit you!" Liz squealed excitedly. Shonaku only rolled her eyes again. Kid walked behind Liz and in front of Shonaku.
"And of course, I will help pick out the symmetrical ones!" He mentioned.
"Yeah, right." Liz said shaking her head. Shonaku looked at Kid. "Symmetrical?"
"Yes, of course! Don't you know the conspiracy of symmetry! Isn't it a wonderful thing?"
Shonaku thought about it for two seconds. "Well, I really don't care how whatever looks like in the first place. And quite frankly, I don't give a fucking rat's ass about symmetry. I mean, come on who does?"
Liz face palmed. "Oh, great. Now you've done it."
Kid's mouth gaped open. He made an angry face and pointed a direct finger at Shonaku. "You bastard! How can you say such a thing! Take it back! Such words are ruthless!"
Shonaku raised an eyebrow. "The fuck? Why the hell should I take it back? I mean, come on dude, if you care for it so much then the least you could've done was fix the dye on you hair or whatever. You can't "love" symmetry if you only got one set of stripes on one damn side. It's kinda obvious."
Kid's mouth gaped even wider. And he suddenly froze as if he had a heart stroke. He then slowly layer on the floor, pulled up his knees to his chest, and cried. "You're right. These lines aren't even dye, but they aren't symmetrical! I'm a lousy asymmetrical piece of garbage. I should be ashamed by others for this saddening appearance. I'm nothing but a fool! Why am I even born into this world of life!" He continued to sob right there on the floor. And as odd as it was, sure enough, people were staring at Kid. Shonaku had not comment. But she sweat dropped and was not expecting Kid to break down just like that. Liz rolled her eyes and let go of Shonaku.
"Great. Ugh, I should've told you before we came. You see, Shonaku, Kid has OCD with his symmetry and all, so you gotta be careful with what you say with the whole subject."
"Ohh, he looks really bad!" Patty said.
"Yeah, sure. Why should I care for his obsession anyways? Everyone's got their opinions. And mine is that I could care less about symmetry."
Kid stared at Shonaku in aghast at the last comment. Then sobbed even more.
"Okay, so everyone does! But it doesn't mean you can go around and say it all the time without caring about other people's feelings!" Liz retorted.
"Hmph." Was all Shonaku said. She turned around in a stubborn manner.
"Damn girl, you have attitude you know that? If you really want to be friends with the rest of us, you have to change that tone of yours. Ever tried being nice before?" Liz told Shonaku. Shonaku turned her head to Liz, but said nothing. She turned back.
Liz glared at Shonaku, hoping that she wouldn't be so stubborn the whole day. She helped Kid up. "You hurt someone's feelings I hope you know that." Liz walked past Shonaku with Kid. Shonaku and Kid came to eye-to-eye contact and glared daggers at each other. They both then turned around in annoyance.
Because this was a day meant for Shonaku, Liz wanted to forget the incident and act like none of it ever happened. The four of them all went into Macy's Death. Liz and Patty immediately went for some outfits.
"Shonaku, what about this one? It's a cute little dress with flowers on it! It's a tail dress too, ooh!" Shonaku gave a good look at it. She shrugged.
"Eh, I don't think I can ever find myself wearing something like that."
"Ooh! Ooh! How about this one!" Patty shouted. Shonaku went up to where Patty was and observed the outfit. It was polka dotted with some peculiar colors. Then Shonaku realized that Patty was holding the outfit backwards. "Uh hey, Patty. Can you turn it around?" Patty looked and nodded. When she turned it around, it looked like a clown kind of outfit. Shonaku's eyes widened as she looked at in disgust.
"Ew! Uh.." She slowly backed away from the outfit awkwardly. Kid pulled out a red dress. "I say this one. It has no asymmetrical designs. Just a plain colored, symmetrical dress." Shonaku looked at Kid annoyed. "Uh..Yeah. No." She turned around. Kid gave her an angry look and shoved the dress back in its place. Shonaku continued to look around when she saw something that caught her eye. She ran over to it and picked it out.
"What about this one! It looks so cool!"
Liz walked over to see it, along with Kid and Patty. "Um, aren't those pajamas?" Liz asked.
"Yes, but cool ones!" It was a red T-shirt, with a little chibi dinosaur on it saying, "RAWR". With the shirt, there were some back pajama shorts. The shirt was meant to be a big one that went a bit below the waist. Shonaku assumed it was like her style in a way, and the dinosaur looked pretty adorable too. I mean come on, who doesn't like chibi dinosaurs?
"So, you want it?" Liz asked Shonaku. Shonaku nodded. Kid, of course, disapproved. "I don't think that design is very symmetrical! Maybe if we got an actual outfit that wasn't so lop sided?" Liz turned to Kid and gently placed her hands on his shoulders. "Hey, it's okay. If she wants it, then we'll get it for her, kay? Remember this is a day for Shonaku and also getting to know her. Look, I know she's kind of acting like an ass right now, but I'm pretty sure she's got a nice side to her. Just trust me on this, Kid."
Kid looked up to Liz and looked another way. "Fine."
After that, they bought a few more things for Shonaku and headed out their last store.
"Hey, I'm sort of hungry, is anyone else?" Liz asked. Everyone nodded. Shonaku hadn't smiled one bit. She still felt pretty upset. But that was when she saw something that grabbed her attention. She turned to Liz.
"Liz, you got some bills in your pocket?" Liz took out a few dollar bills from her pocket.
"Yeah, why do you as-" Shonaku snatched the money from Liz's hand and went into a little kid store.
"Uh! Hey! Where are you going? Shonaku!" Liz called out for her, but it was no use. Liz looked in curiosity. "What is that girl doing? I don't think she should be in there." Patty only laughed and Kid looked in confusion as well. It seemed like Shonaku was buying some sort of book. When she was given it after she paid for it, she ran out the store. She came back to the other three, going directly up to Kid. Shonaku had an irritated expression. She bent her head down to hide her embarrassment. She then gave the bag with the book to Kid. Kid looked at Shonaku and the book in confusion. He decided to look inside the bag. He took out the book from the bag. It was a picture book for little kids. It was about objects that you could find that were symmetrical in its own ways. A smile appeared on Kid's face as he held the book high in the air.
"It-It's so beautiful! Even the cover is symmetrical! Such glory! I shall cherish this forever! Oh symmetry I love you!" He whispered the last sentence to the book. He then realized that the someone who gave it to him, not too long ago, mentioned how she didn't give a damn about symmetry nor Kid's obsession. Now here she was doing the guy a favor. Kid glanced up at Shonaku. She lifted her head. She simpered, and tried to hide the fact of how annoying it was to do this "miraculous good deed". And out of absolutely nowhere, Kid basically glommed Shonaku. And hell did that surprise her.
"It's so wonderful! For once I will actually thank you!" Kid said cheerfully. For a girl who was a pest thieving for food, she really isn't that bad. Maybe I have underestimated her from the start. Kid thought to himself.
"Group hug!" Patty yelled. She then came in for the hug as well. Liz looked at the three, smiled, and joined in. Shonaku didn't hug back though. She just stood there like a frozen body. Not that she could move or anything. But she also noticed people were staring. She didn't care much for it though as she had always received that look. Kid you are a lucky dumbass. The only reason I was upset was because of how "mean" I was being 'N shit. God I even hate to admit this cheesy crap. But..I guess Liz had a good point though...This feels so awkward yet heart warming. So fuffly that it's almost blinding. Wait something really is blinding me. Oh crap!
Shonaku realized that her necklace was glowing brighter than usual. She knew why of course. She covered her hands over the necklace to hide the bright light and let it fade out. They all broke from the hug and eventually went to the food court.
The door open and Maka entered the classroom to still find it the same. Except Soul and Black Star were playing a different game. Different to her, but the same for Tsubaki.
Arm wrestling.
"Okay, you two. This is getting a bit ridiculous! It's been a while now and I'm pretty sure Maka is waiting for us." Tsubaki panicked. Maka budded in. "Actually, the meeting ended." She pointed out. Tsubaki jumped a little in surprise. "M-Maka! There you are! It finished! I'm sorry! I tried to tell them, but they kept going on with this. They've been playing the same game for three hours straight!"
Maka looked at the two boys. Soul and Black Star, with tired looks and sweaty hands, continued this game. They hadn't said anything since Maka came in. Maka walked up to them and observed. As she thought more on the fact that they were doing this silly game the whole time she was at a meeting that she was expecting all of them to go to, she became angrier by the minute. Soon enough, she was as angry as could be.
"Argh! Will you two idiots stop with that game!" She then grabbed out her trusty 1,000 paged novel and used it to do the thing she was best at doing.
"Maakaaaaa CHOP!" She chopped the two with great strength, and such pain forced them to let go of one another's grip. They both fell onto the floor. Maka put her book away and turned to the door.
"I'll just have you know that I'll be busy tomorrow." She said. Tsubaki looked up to her. "Busy? With what exactly, Maka?"
Maka shrugged. "Well Professor Stein wanted me to help him in doing Shonaku's first mission. He wants to see what she's entirely capable of. He asked me personally to do so." Tsubaki nodded in understanding this. "Okay." Soul and Black Star stood up in pain. Theu both rubbed their heads. Maka walked out the door, telling the others to come with to go home and such, and the others followed. Just as they exited out the academy, they saw Kid, Liz, Patty, and Shonaku walking up to see them.
"Well we came at the right time!" Liz said. She laughed a little. And so did Maka. "So, how was it you guys?" Maka asked. Liz smiled. "Better than I expected!" She said happily. Shonaku nodded in agreement. Kid continued to stare at his new book.
"It was cool!" Patty added in. Maka nodded and smiled. "Glad you guys had fun! Hm, that also reminds me. I totally forgot!"
Everyone looked at Maka. "There was an event that Shonaku mentioned that she had wanted to do! Since she loves ramen so much, she decided to make a day for it. Called Ramen Night! We would have it every Friday night, at my place, like our hangouts! Everyone just has to join in together with money. I meant to tell you earlier this week, but everything was caught up in my mind. Hehe.." Soul smirked. The others looked at each other thinking about it.
"Yahoo! Sounds like a great idea!"
"Sounds wonderful."
"That would be cool."
"Very nice actually."
"Yayy! Ramen!"
Shonaku looked at all of them. "Do you really think so?" She asked them. They all nodded to her. She jumped in excitement. "Yes!" Maka went up to Shonaku.
"Oh yeah, Shonaku, you'll be taking on your first mission tomorrow. It's pretty simple, and I think you've encountered kishins before."
Maka mentioned. Shonaku hopped. "Really?! Alright!" Shonaku then fist pumped in the air. Finally they left the DWMA all together.