Chapter 13: Kai: Going Through the Level of Resonance Alone; Trapped in the Eternal Maze? Pt. 5

Popping my shoulder back into place was definitely not the highlight of my day, but it was followed closely by being alone in a creepy ass maze. As soon as I exited the shack that I had come out in, I realized that Lord Death had ended with a classic: shrubbery. The dimensions of the starry night sky were so warped that I could only guess I was somewhere in the Land of Mirrors. Most likely in Lord Death's backyard, if the mansion overhead was anything to go by.

The maze of shrubs was eerily quiet. I could only guess that being knocked through the wrong mirror had set me back, which meant I had a lot of ground to cover. However, without Black*Star's wavelength keeping me focused, I moved slowly. My heart leapt into my throat every time there was a noise. Even though I scanned the area regularly with my Soul Perception, it seemed that my ability was less sharp when I didn't have my meister. It was like somehow he was focusing my wavelength and broadening my abilities while I was amplifying his.

For the most part, however, I stayed out of the way of pre-kishin. There were several moments when I turned a corner and had to dart back around to stay out of sight, but I was able to avoid conflict. It wasn't as if I couldn't handle it, but I felt uneasy about letting my madness loose when my emotions were already too jumpy.

Then, of course, it became unavoidable.

It was my own fault, really. I hadn't been paying attention and turned a corner too quickly, throwing caution to the wind. Of course, it would have helped if this kishin weren't so alert, but the second that I saw it, it saw me. It turned towards me, its eyes glinting, and I realized that this was a kishin I recognized. He'd been in the news ages ago, and his job request had been on the board in the DWMA for weeks. Needles sprung from his body like a porcupine, and a pair of red squinty eyes stared at me through thick, needle-y eyebrows. His claws were stained red, no doubt with the blood of those that he had killed before he had been dropped into this maze.

Needles Gianoli, notorious gangster, pre kishin, murderer.

"Shit." Was the only word that had time to exit my mouth before he was rushing at me, flinging spikes with a wave of his arm. Doing some serious back flips (I now no longer ridiculed Black*Star for teaching me moves from the Matrix) I dodged, ducking out of the way just in time to let him skid past. A glow rose in my right arm, its shape blurring until it became a blade.

"Can't we just talk this out?" I joked, dodging another rain of needled bullets, "You don't have to be so prickly!"

"I'm going to eat your soul!" Was all he shrieked in response, coming at me again, slower this time, watching my move. The animalistic rage had left his eyes and in its place was a calculating killer. His type of kishin, the one with actual thoughts, was the worst. Instead of being led by their killing instinct alone they could process and formulate plans as well as create grudges.

I had to finish this fight. Fast.

"Needles Gianoli, I'm here to-", my line was cut short as I had to drop into a roll to get away from another shower of needles. "As I was trying to say, I'm here to ta-"

Hissing slightly as a needles grazed my skin, drawing blood, I gave up. "Fuck it. I'm gonna eat your soul, you prick."

With a battle cry that rivaled even Black*Star's, I leapt towards the kishin and slashed, ducking under a sweep of one needled armed. Time seemed to slow as I processed his movements, leaping in time to get out of the way of a low kick he had intended to knock me off of my feet. It appeared that I had learned more with Black*Star than I had previously thought, because when I dropped back to the ground one of his arms was rid of the spines. The pure anger that appeared on his face made me step back, feeling a bit of fear for the first time. What the hell was I doing, fighting a kishin on my own? I was meister-dependent! I was going to get killed!

It was this fear that stilled my muscles, giving Needles the opening he needed. While I was frozen he moved forward, getting several too-good swipes in before I could react. When I did it was a retreat. Blood flowed freely from a wicked gash in my stomach, being the worst, with added internal pain. He had broken one of my ribs at least, and that was added to the scrape on my face and another long one on my forehead. A trickle of blood fell into my eyes, making them sting, but for a brief moment the pain gave me something more to focus on: desperation. Violently I surged forward with a barrage of attacks that not even the kishin could stop. Going in for a punch, I changed my arm at the last second, my blade going through his abdomen and silencing him.

I almost didn't bother with the soul, but slid it into my mouth before turning back to the direction I was heading and stopping. At this point, I was faced with a decision: I could keep going the way I was, leaking life fluids everywhere and such, or I could allow my black blood to wake up a little bit and allow my madness to assist me. Not to mention, my madness was more in the 'revenge' category and not so much Asura's fear, so it would take the edge off of my nerves.

Stein and Lord Death's warnings hung over my head. If I lost control, it was likely I wouldn't be able to get it back. Without Black*Star to anchor myself to…

I pressed on.

"So, Black*Star…" Merle hummed beside the assassin, who paid her no attention as she continued speaking: "How did you and Kai meet?"

"The Exchange Program." The bluenette barely grunted a response as he continued moving, never stopping.

The same interview-like scenario had been playing out since they exited the mirror, and Black*Star was starting to get annoyed. In normal circumstances he might have relished the attention and even encouraged it, yet his mind was consumed with thoughts of Kai. Every movement that he had was just another one towards her, towards making sure she was safe. Not that he doubted his weapon (she was as kick ass as they came, the perfect goddess for him!) but at the same time there was an underlying unease. Kai had never trained as a solo weapon before, so if she met a kishin she might not be able to handle it without resorting to madness herself. Lord Death and Stein had warned her against it, saying that it was possible she could lose herself without another person's wavelength to act as her anchor, but… if she were desperate, he knew she wouldn't hesitate.

Merle, lost in her own world, didn't even notice the meister's unease. Or didn't care, at least. It seemed as if the orange-haired girl were simply there to ask innocent questions about her favorite movie star or singer, but at the same time the look in her eyes held so much crazy that it made Black*Star cringe. Something was definitely very not right with this chick.

For the eleventh time that night, he extracted his arm from her grip, ignored her pissed pout, and jogged forward lightly. They had exited into a stone maze covered in vines. The only thing they had to keep them going straight was a large mansion – Lord Death's, Black*Star guessed – that they were headed towards. Even if it wasn't where they were supposed to go, it was good enough. A gut feeling told him that Kai was headed that way, so that's where he was going.

"Have you ever had another partner?"

A positive grunt was the only answer he gave as he came to an intersection, glancing back and forth between the two with a dumb look. How the hell was he supposed to tell the difference between the two? And backtracking wouldn't be a good thing at this point – he didn't want to lose any time. Thus, he was faced with a dilemma. Kai would usually make all the directional choices for him because was she better at that whole decision-making thing. And then she would tell him that he was being stupid, because really the meister needs to be the one in charge.

His fist clenched at just the thought of her, his fingers feeling empty without the comfortable warmth of her claymore hilt in his hands. He chose the right branch.

Luckily, Merle hadn't tried to make a too much of a move on him yet. Maybe she could see the way his muscles were tensed, or maybe she could see the look of distracted determination in his eyes, but you didn't have to notice the smaller things such as those to know that Black*Star was a boy on a mission. Like any meister: he would do anything for his weapon, and his feelings for the girl only doubled the complete wrongness of not having her beside him in a dangerous situation. Merle was going to get a swift ass-beating after they were out of this maze.

Somehow, however, the assassin couldn't help but feel obligated to lead her through. It was probably because Kai would have done the right thing and helped her out too, despite what she had done.

"When you beat god, what will you do with Kai?"

This question made him full-out pause and pin the girl with a confused look. What else would he do with his right-hand girl? "Make her my goddess!"

"Uh-huh," Merle raised an eyebrow, "And is she strong enough for something like that?"

Bewildered, Black*Star frowned, "She's my weapon!"

"So? Does that automatically mean she's strong enough to be a goddess?"

"Duh! I'm not stupid enough to choose someone who isn't worthy!"

"But," the orange-haired girl smirked, "You met in the Exchange Program? So you didn't really choose her yourself, now did you? I'm guessing your old weapon liked her new meister, so you needed someone new – and fast. Kai can match people's wavelengths, so she was a good candidate, right?"

Now he was starting to get suspicious. Black*Star studied the girl. She was so much like Kai that she almost looked the same if he didn't look too hard. The second he did, however, it was obvious. The way she smirked, so full of herself, was very unlike Kai who was nearly always had some form of frustrated or happy look on her face. Merle's eyes were guarded, much like Kai's used to be, but they were the wrong shade of gray.

"She's. My. Weapon." Black*Star said again, enunciating each word.

Merle simply shrugged, knowing she had gotten under the assassin's skin. "Just pointing out that there were other options, is all!"

"What," scoffed Black*Star, "Like you? I wouldn't be your meister even if-"

"Even if it meant you could defeat God?"

Though weapons and meisters often heal faster than normal humans, it doesn't mean we'll heal up right away. A lot of times our immune system is more worried about the toxins that the kishin is carrying and not so much the actual wound itself. Thus, I was still bleeding less than ten minutes later (though it had slowed considerably) and I was starting to get a little worried about myself. The dried blood was crusting on my skin in an uncomfortable manner.

After Needles, the hedge-maze had turned into stone. Considering I was getting closer to the mansion every second, I guessed this was probably the second half of the maze, or the last stretch. I shuffled a bit faster at the thought of Black*Star being close by, but he wasn't close enough to sense his soul – something that disappointed me greatly. As soon as I found him, I could awaken my black blood and heal, but until then I was stuck. The blood loss had already made me start feeling weak in ways that were beginning to worry me. My footsteps were just the slightest bit more unsteady and unsure, and my eyes were going out of focus just a little too easily. Chapped lips, dry mouth, dry throat… I would have done anything for a drink of water.

Yet all I could think about was my meister, stuck ahead with some bitch, fighting without me.

I was a mindless robot: ambling down tunnels, avoiding pre-kishin, pushing through the maze like some sort of obsessed zombie. My mind was a cloud of silence, fogged up with pain and emptiness. Every once in a while I would hear a voice, see the wind stir some leaves, and what looked like a person disappear behind a corner. Every time I raced after them, though, they weren't anywhere to be found.

"Kid, god damn it! The toilet paper is fine!"

See? Like that. There was no way Liz was going to be there when I turned the corner.

"Kiddo! I wanna go home!"

Nope, definitely not Patty.

"You don't understand! I'm garbage! Asymmetrical garbage! I'm not fit to live, let alone finish the maze! Go on without me!"

Ah, well, shit. There was no way someone could copy Kid that easily. I sped up a bit, my eyes coming back in to focus on the next bend, only a few feet ahead. Hope flooded my senses.

"Come on, Kid! You can't just sit there all day! You have to be our meister!"

"You can wield Patty! You don't need me!"

"How are we supposed to be symmetrical that way? Won't you be bothered by our lack of symmetry?"

"Who am I to judge a lack of symmetry? Look at me! I'm hideous!"

"Kid? Liz? Patty?"

All three of them turned at the sound of my voice. Kid was curled up on the ground, arms wrapped around his head, mid-attack. Liz was crouched next to him, hand on his shoulder, attempting to get him up. In the meanwhile, Patty had decided Kid was beyond helping and was scratching what looked like a mutilated giraffe into the wall while giggling. That kid had major issues.

"Kai?" Kid asked in puzzlement, raising his head. "What happened to you?"

"And where's Black*Star?" Liz added, noticing my lack of a partner.

Sighing, I sagged against the wall and allowed myself to slide to the ground. "Damn, do I have a story for you…"

Author's Note: Wow, okay, so major kudos to those two of you who told me that my formatting was all weird: truesparks and my ever-faithful reader, Starlight! I'm still getting used to this whole DocX exchange and apparently I have to go through several more steps than what I did today to get it to look normal (i.e. pasting it into a notepad isn't enough, who knew technology could be such a snob! Pfft...) Anyways, so here it is, in it's full glory.

As always, review, favorite, and follow!

Also: high school is boring. Always. Unless you have a music class (in which case, I envy you.)

Ciao, ducklings!