Chapter Eleven: Kai: Fighting with Strength!; Trapped in the Eternal Maze? Pt. 3
The Alburn and Evans apartment was unusually still all day due to Maka's inability to tear herself away from her competing friends on the television. Even Soul, who eventually woke from his nap, could barely glance away from the screen to check the time ever so often as they watched Black*Star and Kai battle their way – rather impressively – through the first level of the maze. Thanks to the assassin's love of strength training, it almost seemed too easy for the pair. It was uncool when the shot cut to the other contestants, all but Merle, Kid, and Snow making any headway. Maka couldn't help but feel a little bad for Crona in this situation, Ragnarok bullying her pink-haired friend at every turn. At this point, however, it was unlikely Crona was going to go on to the next round.
Not that Crona would care much. Ragnarok was making it a little too difficult to deal with at the moment.
Stomach growling, Soul reluctantly got up from the couch and went into the kitchen to see if there was something quick he could grab to bring back. After a brief glance, the albino settled on a few bags of popcorn. "Hey Maka, you hungry?" He rolled his eyes when his meister didn't respond, but shoved the first bag in the microwave anyways. The girl would eat it anyways, as long as he didn't burn it or something uncool like that!
When the albino turned back Maka had walked into the kitchen. Casting a disapproving look on his snack, she started rooting around in the freezer for something. Soul snorted when she pulled out two previously hidden T.V. dinners. Sheepishly the meister shrugged and dropped them onto the counter to be heated up along the one bag of popcorn. For a long moment the two listened to the popping noise of the kernels. Though they had patched up their spat, it wasn't wrong to say that things weren't still tense at point.
"Soul," Maka started, "We need to talk this out."
Closing his red eyes, the weapon nodded, trying not to appear as nervous as he felt. "Yeah."
"I don't like not being able to talk like we used to," the meister frowned.
With a sigh, all Soul could think to do was hug Maka – so he did. All of the week's frustrations went into the feeling of his arms around her even though it took her a long while to return the favor. And even though Soul Eater Evans wasn't known for thinking before he spoke, he took time choosing the words he could best tell his meister how he felt: "Maka, it was uncool of me to do stuff like that and ignore what we were. I swear I'm not like your dad, and I'm never going to be stepping out behind your back, okay? It's you and me, only. No one else."
"Promise?" Maka sighed, finally relaxing.
"Promise," her weapon tightened his grip, grinning his shark-toothed grin.
"Alright then," Maka stepped back, all business. "We have to get back! Black*Star and Kai just finished the first level, and Kai's creepy twin is right behind them!"
Plunging through the mirror, I rolled with the landing that wrenched my left shoulder and left me groaning – though that also partially related to the bruises I had acquired throughout the last level. Black*Star tumbled out after me, his head landing on my stomach and knocking the breath out of me. For a moment we just lay there, trying to gain our breath back, me struggling against the weight of his empty skull.
"Lots… of souls!" I gasped after a long moment of breathing. I had lost count of how many pre-kishin souls I had eaten. Taking stock of myself, I sniggered lightly in glee, already feeling the boost with my fullness. "At least sixty, counting the ones we already had too!"
"Told you I'd make you a Death Scythe!" Black*Star whooped, jumping up onto his feet and fist pumping. "One step closer!"
"Now can you get off of me?" Smacking his foot off of my chest, I rolled to my feet and brushed myself off. "We've still got two more levels to go, we can't be thinking about making me a Death Scythe just yet! Plus," I paused, eyes narrowing as I glanced around at our surroundings, "I highly doubt that Lord Death would go as far as to put a witch in here anywhere. We still have a lot of work to do."
Black*Star huffed slightly as I laid that down on him, but we moved on. Taking stock of where we were, I noticed the structural difference between this level and the last two. Whereas the 'basement' (as I had taken to calling it) was cave-like, and the last had been built like the inside of those futuristic ships on Star Trek, this one was dark. The mirror we came through was the only source of light, and I could see that we were in a sort of tent. There was one flap leading out – our only exit. Motioning towards it with a nod, Black*Star led the way out. Chills crawled across my skin when we came into the hallway. A thousand of my faces were staring back at me with wide grey eyes, quickly narrowing into an irritated gaze when I realized what I was facing. It seemed that this section of the Eternal Maze was going to be a hall of mirrors. Just like some creepy carnival.
Snorting, I shook my head. "Black*Star, stop checking out your own biceps in the mirror."
With a blush Black*Star dropped his arm and bashfully rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed to be caught. I sniggered lightly, then stopped as I observed my numerous reflections copying my movement. It was unnerving, to say the least.
"First things first," I forced myself to look away and towards Black*Star, "We need to stay together. Getting lost in here would be too easy. So… let's hold hands or something." I ignored the heat climbing up my cheeks and offered my hand towards him, feeling warm when his fingers laced together with mine. "And second, we should each keep a hand on the wall so we know when it's branching off. Otherwise we're going to end up walking in circles without realizing it."
"Good idea!" Black*Star grinned, placing his empty hand on the wall next to him. "Let's go!"
Quickly we began moving through, the silence following us through like a wraith. Neither of us spoke, too entranced by the copies of ourselves that glanced back at us when our gazes wandered. Suspense hung heavy in the air, making my heart pump, adrenaline thrumming low in my bloodstream, nerves at an all-time high. The only thing that comforted me was the feeling of Black*Star's hand gripping mine, however clammy our hands might have been, and the sound of him beside me. Our souls resonating at a low level, enough that I could sense our movements synced together.
"Star?"
His eyes cut to mine, taking in my nervousness. It had been ages since we entered and everything was so still… I couldn't help but be increasingly freaked out the more this continued. And then there was a noise, cutting off anything Black*Star could have said. I whipped around, the motion ripping my hand out of my meister's in my haste. It was a screeching, like someone was dragging their nails across a chalkboard – or a mirror.
"Damn it!" I seethed, fists clenching, forgetting all the rules that we'd come up with when we started through the Death-damned maze of mirrors. "I'm sick of this. Come out and fight, you fuckin' kishin bastard!"
"Kai!" Black*Star warned, his usually enthusiastic voice holding a note of worry and caution. "We have to stick together."
"I'm not going anywhere, the bastard is gonna come to us," I growled, crouching, nostrils flaring, casting out my soul perception and finding… nothing?
"Lord Death, we can't find Merle Titan with any of the mirrors."
The Shinigami stayed focused on the rows of mirrors in front of him, taking only slight notice of the subordinate by his side. For a moment he thought, but then just waved a blocky hand dismissively. "This level of the maze is based on intuition, so there's a lot of secret passageways and such. The mirrors won't be able to see many rooms in it. Don't worry about it too much."
"Shinigami-sama, there's something wrong with Team Black*Star."
This caught the kami's attention.
"What is it?" He asked, an eyebrow raising.
"I don't know, sir!"
"Fuck mirrors, fuck these stupid games!" I let out a shaky breath, grinding my teeth and attempting to calm myself as the noise persisted – in the opposite direction. "I just want to get out!" Clenching my eyes shut, I tried to block out the noise and the memories of the exchange program, when Calypso had cut off mirror communications with my ex-meister, Warren, by breaking them when I attempted to use them. Since then, mirrors had made me the slightest bit nervous, and I barely used them to communicate anymore. Instead I allowed Black*Star to start all of the calls we did, but in here they were unavoidable.
"Come on, Kai, snap out of it!" Black*Star gripped my shoulder and pulled me into his arms, locking me into place. "We've got to keep moving!"
I gripped his shirt, hands forming claws, breathing raggedly. Seconds passed, then minutes, before finally I was calmed down enough that I could relax my muscles. I nodded against him, taking in another deep breath, ignoring the creeping sensation that we were being watched. As it grew, however, I kept a tight grip on my calm and focused on my meister's calming wavelengths.
"Aw, isn't this sweet?"
This time, I wasn't the only one that was stiff.
"Fuck it!" I threw my hands up and turned towards the voice, already pissed again. "Merle, what the hell do you want?"
The singular weapon was grinning at me from a doorway that I hadn't seen before. The room behind her was dark, but she somehow seemed at home in the shadow. "What do you think I want, Kai? I mean, you seem smart enough to guess!" She giggled slightly, acting as innocent as could be.
"You have about ten seconds, you little wannabe," growling, I felt my hands morph into blades. "I'm not in the mood for games."
She simply raised an eyebrow, unimpressed by my show of force. Hiding a fake yawn behind her hand, Merle shook her head in disapproval. "I would have thought that maybe you could have started working it out by now. Seems I've heard wrong about your intuition!" A smirk was tossed my way before she addressed my meister for the first time. "Black*Star, how do you expect to defeat god with a weapon like this? Haven't you noticed she's a bit… dull?"
Through our resonance, I could feel the bluenette's wavelength spike angrily at what she'd said. He stepped forward, putting me behind defensively. For the moment I allowed him to, knowing that he could take her himself.
Instead of goading him into engaging her, however, a glimmer of mischief entered her eye. "You know what, I'll make you two a deal! If you beat me to the end of this level, I'll tell you a secret."
I narrowed my eyes. "And what do you expect us to give you if you get there first?"
She grinned maliciously, stepping backwards into the darkness. "I guess you'll find out when I win, won't you?"
"Over my dead body," I vowed, baring my teeth.
Her laugh echoed through the hall as the door shut behind her, but not before she got in the last word: "I really hope so."
Author's Note: Alright, 'fession time: I seriously lost my excitement for this story for a little while. I mean, I love Kai and Star but for a time there I just couldn't find the ideas... however, I have seen the error of my ways! After getting some help from my new beta (shout-out to SymmetricalGirl!) who seriously helped me more than she could have ever known... I'm now getting back my flow! So... here we go, I guess!
I wonder what Merle has up her sleeve, eh?
Anyways, expect another upload soon, ducklings! Ciao!
(P.S. Don't know why, but the song 'Her Name is Alice' by Shinedown is a song I definitely relate to Kai, her Kishin, and Merle. I listened to it a lot during this chapter!)