He was always told that he was the last remaining member of the Star Clan; that everyone else had been executed because of their crimes against Shinigami-sama and the Shibusen. So either that guy was bluffing, or he was telling the truth, and Black Star was planning to find out either way.
Still, even as he weaved his way through the crowd and out of Universal Studios, he resented himself for leaving Tsubaki behind, but to him, it wasn't really right to involve her in family matters, especially when his family was made up of deadly assassins. If he'd said anything, though, she would have either refused to let him go or insist on going with him. Neither of those options were acceptable to the young assassin.
Yet, when he finally got outside, he had little to no clue where to start looking.
Taking a deep breath, he decided to pay one of their earlier suspects a visit. Since that Kaname guy was such a big deal, somebody should be able to give him a little information. He'd worry about forcefully extracting information when he got there.
Despite not being able to remember much when it came to academic, profiling targets came to Black star pretty easily, and he easily found his target in a bar, conveniently in Kyoto.
The second the man stepped outside, Black Star decked him and heaved him into a back alley.
"Who the hell do you think you are, kid?" he demanded, pulling out throwing knives.
"If you want to fight in exchange for information, I'm not gonna turn the offer down," Black Star grinned, cracking his knuckles. "But I gotta warn you, you're gonna lose against a big a man as me."
The man, who was in his early twenties with messy brown hair and deep set brown eyes, grimaced and got ready to attack when he saw the tattoo on Black Star's shoulder and cringed.
"Y..you're one of them?" he stammered, looking at the younger boy in fear. "What do you want from me?!"
"I just want a little information," Black Star answered.
"What kind of information?"
"Anything you know about a guy named Kaname."
"You mean Raven? What do you want to know about him for?" the man asked.
"That doesn't really matter. You gonna tell me or not?" demanded Black Star, his pupils briefly flashing into white stars.
"Yeah. Okay. I'll tell you!" the man agreed, frightfully. "All I know is that he's part of the Star Clan, just like you. He had the tattoo and everything. He's one of the best in the area and no one's been able to take him down."
"Do you know about any other members of the Star Clan?"
"N...no. I swear I don't!" was the response. "You're the only other one I've met publicly bearing that mark."
"Fine. Thanks for the info," Black Star shrugged as he turned and began walking away.
Hearing the sound of a knife whizzing towards him, the stuck his hand out and caught it before it could pierce the back of his neck.
"You'll never beat a big star like me," Black Star stated without turning around. "But thanks for the knife."
Disappearing into the shadows, Black Star decided to go back and see if Tsubaki was still waiting around. To his surprise, she was still standing there when he returned about an hour later, despite the fact that the park was pretty much deserted.
"Hi. Welcome back," she greeted him.
Taken aback, even the big talker could barely choke out a simple, "Hey."
"You're not hurt, are you?" Tsubaki asked with concern.
"No way can anything touch me," Black Star beamed, twirling his new knife between his fingers.
"Where'd you get the knife?"
"Some guy I beat up."
Half lie...
His partner just shook her head as she followed him out of the the park.
Tsubaki refrained from asking her Meister for the details right away. but it was bothering her more than she could handle. Still, she waited until the'd checked into a room at a rather big and popular hotel.
"Erm... Black Star?" she asked as he flopped down on the bed, his face expressionless.
"Hmm?"
"I didn't mind waiting, but what were you doing?"
There was a long silence before he finally spoke up, his voice low. "I don't know."
She sat down on the bed beside him and gave him a questioning look as he sat up and met her gaze. The usually confident and determined look in his eyes was gone, replaced by confusion and, if she wasn't mistaken, vulnerability.
"I really don't know Tsubaki. Part of me wants to find out if there are still remaining members of my family, and part of me says I should just leave it alone," he said. "I've always trusted that they were telling me the truth, but..."
Now it was Tsubaki's turn to be speechless. She didn't know how to tell him. And she'd promised Shinigami-sama that she wouldn't tell him the truth.
"Whatever you choose, you know I'll support you," was all she could say.
Sighing, Black Star looked down at the ground. "Dammit."
"Black Star—"
"You know that if I decide to leave the Shibusen, you'll have to find a new partner, right?" he interrupted.
Her gaze turned downcast as she fiddled with her thumbs. "I..."
"And how lame would that be? There's no way you could find a Meister as strong as me in a million years," he grinned.
"Listen, you don't have to stay for me, Black Star. If you really want to go and find your family, then you should. I don't want to hold you back..."
He met her eyes, his gaze so intense that it made her heart race. "The purpose of a Weapon is to amplify their Meister's strength. If you held me back, I wouldn't have stuck with you until now."
At that, Tsubaki's heart swelled with joy and she wished she could reach over and hug him. Instead, she gave him a gentle and grateful smile as she got up and got a towel from the closet, telling him she'd go wash up.
As she left, Black Star laid back down with a huff, staring up at the ceiling. Suddenly, all those times people had said that he'd been holding her back hit him like a ton of bricks and he practically felt like the breath had been knocked out of him. He hadn't seen it before; he'd been simply oblivious to their words, too absorbed in himself. But the more he thought about her, the more he realized the truth. She was such a strong and capable Weapon. Not only was she powerful and adaptable as a Weapon, but she was also a skilled fighter in her human form. He had no doubt that she could easily be a solo Weapon like Justin Law, who had graduated the Shibusen and became a Deathscythe when he was only thirteen without ever needing a Meister.
Closing his eyes, Black Star forced himself to go to sleep. He'd need the rest for the trip back to Death City the following day.
"So how'd the assignment go?" Soul asked, taking his seat in front of Black Star in Class Crescent Moon.
"We had it in the bag," Black Star replied. "No problem."
The boys did their signature handshake as Stein rolled into the classroom on his favorite chair.
"Good morning, class," he smiled gleefully. "Black Star, I never thought I'd be asking this, but do you know if Tsubaki plans on coming to class today?"
The assassin blinked, looking over at his partner's empty seat. "I swear she walked in right behind me, professor! I don't know where she went."
"Well, that's alright. She'll be missing out on then lecture," the professor drawled, adjusting the screw in his head.
As if Black Star could pay attention at all after that. It was so uncharacteristic of his partner to miss class. Despite knowing that she could take care of herself, he was still worried about her. After all, despite it being a bit backwards, he was used to protecting her and standing up for her.
"Hey, professor! I have to go to the bathroom!" Black Star whined, waving his hand high in the air.
"You're missing out on the best part if you leave now," Stein told him with a frown. "But sure. You're excused."
Bounding the stairs, Black Star shot out of the room faster than you could say "big".
Running down the hallways, he checked everywhere for Tsubaki, but to no avail. The Demon Weapon was nowhere to be found. His stomach churning, he climbed to the roof and the last spark of hope he'd had left died when he didn't find her there.
On his way back to class, he caught a glimpse of Tsubaki coming out of the Death Room with a solemn expression on her face.
"Hey, what happened?" he questioned, falling in step with her. "You left out of nowhere."
After a few seconds, she nodded. "I'm sorry if I made you worry."
He pretended to scoff. "As if. But if anything happened to my Weapon, I'd be screwed."
Tsubaki sighed as they returned to class. Some things never changed with Black Star: His insensitivity was one of them.
Classes dragged on, and the last thing on Tsubaki's mind was the lesson. She kept replaying the conversation she'd had with Shinigami-sama over and over in her mind without knowing why. Maybe she was trying to find some sort of loophole, or maybe she just thought it would eventually fade away if she played it through enough times.
"He's shown complete loyalty to the Shibusen. There's no reason to doubt him, so why can't he be told the truth?" Tsubaki demanded, a determined look in her eyes.
"My, Tsubaki. I've never seen you so worked up about something," commented Shinigami-sama. "However, we don't plan on keeping it a secret forever. Once he is old enough to understand our reasons, we'll tell him the entire truth. Until then, it's safer to keep things the way they are, okay?"
There wasn't much she could do but accept his decision, but that didn't make it any easier to keep it from her Meister. She glanced over at him, seeing his mouth twisted in a grimace and his brows furrowed with concentration as he actually took notes for once. She really liked it when he actually put his mind to things. Even if he did manage to get zeros on every exam, she happily stayed up to help him study for them every single time. But even with exams coming up, Black Star taking notes was a pretty odd sight. She even noticed Soul Eater glancing up at his best friend with raised eyebrows.
When class was finally over, Tsubaki was the one who hadn't written a single thing down, much to her despair. Considering today wasn't a dissection lab, she was depressed that she missed it.
"Here," said Black Star's voice, making her look up. He was holding out his notebook to her, a grin on his face. "You need 'em to study for the test right?"
She blinked, slightly confused as she took the notebook from his hand.
"Well, we can study together like we usually do," Tsubaki suggested with a smile.
Her Meister only shook his head. "Nah. I'm studying with Maka. I'll be home later. You don't have to wait up."
Tsubaki nodded, but her smile faded as he and Maka walked out of the room together, both waving goodbye to her. She was glad they were getting along, but...
"Hey, you okay?" Soul asked, waving a hand in front of her face.
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine," she replied, gathering her things. "I'll see you later, Soul-kun. I have to study for the test."
The scythe stared after her curiously. So both of them were acting weird now. And was it him, or did their Wavelengths sound like they were slipping just the slightest bit?
After having made it out of the classroom, Tsubaki headed home, clutching her books to her chest as she walked down the Shibusen's front steps. Knowing that Black Star and Maka had known each other before she'd met either of them, it shouldn't surprise her that they'd hang out sometime, but when they were with the group, they didn't seem to be all that close and they were always bickering.
She couldn't help but wonder if she was that bad a teacher that Black Star would seek help from Maka. She was the only one who knew he actually studied for every test, despite always getting the lowest grade possible on all of them.
Trying to hold back a little green monster called jealousy, Tsubaki opened the door to the apartment she shared with Black Star and set her books down on the small table they had by the window.
Sitting down, she picked up the notebook Black Star had handed her and smiled to herself as she flipped it open. It was undeniable that her Meister had pretty bad handwriting, but Tsubaki was used to it so she had it easy as she looked over everything she'd missed in class that day while zoning out. She was used to taking care of Black Star, and it was usually him that looked off of her notes (not that she wasn't grateful for everything her Meister did do for her, like putting her safety first in battle and giving her more confidence than she thought she could ever have) but the smaller things like this really made her stomach flutted and put a smile on her face. It didn't happen too often though, considering Black Star wasn't the mushy sincere type, but Tsubaki liked him just the way he was.
After looking over everything that was supposed to be on the test, she got up and stretched while still smiling, and went to prepare dinner. Not only did she have to thank him for giving her the notes, she also wanted to reward him for putting forth the effort to study with one of the best students in class.
Just as she pulled the last ingredient out of the fridge, the phone rang, and Tsubaki cheerily answered it. "Hello?"
"Hey, Tsubaki. It's Soul," said the person on the other line.
"Oh, hello, Soul. Is everything okay?" She could hear Black Star yelling something in the background, but she couldn't make out what he was saying.
"Keep it down, would you?" Soul said away from the microphone before returning to his conversation with Tsubaki. "Black Star's staying for dinner over here so he says you don't have to cook for him."
"Ask her if she wants to come over," Maka's voice called.
"Okay. Maka says you can come over too if you want," Soul reported.
"Alright. If you're sure that's okay, I'll be over soon," Tsubaki replied.
"'Course it's cool. See you in a bit."
She hung up the phone and let out a heavy sigh as she returned all the ingredients she'd gotten out to the place she'd found them before heading out to the apartment Maka shared with her Weapon partner, Soul.
Meanwhile, her Meister wasn't having the best of luck studying with his childhood friend.
"How the hell am I supposed to remember all this?" Black Star groaned. "A big man like me shouldn't have to waste his time on petty schoolwork like this dammit!"
"You asked for my help, so shut up and memorize those dates," Maka replied calmly. "And you're not getting any food until you can recite them start to finish."
"Makaaaa, c'mon! I thought we were friends here!"
"I don't have much of a choice considering you came to me on such short notice," she retorted. "Now hurry up! Your food's gonna get cold."
"How 'bout I spar you for my dinner. I'll even let you use Soul. Come on!"
Soul Eater, who was watching the scene from the kitchen shook his head in hopelessness. "Black Star, all your yelling's giving me a headache and that's not cool. Just shut up and study."
"Stay out of it!" the two snapped at him in unison.
With a sigh, Soul took off his oven mitts and went to open the door which Tsubaki had knocked on a few seconds ago.
"Hey. Thank god you finally made it," he grinned. "It's crazy in here."
"Hey, give me that!" Maka cried as Black Star snatched the bag of chips from her hand. "Black Star!"
"So how's the studying going?" Tsubaki questioned, tilting her head to the side curiously.
"Great! We just...have..to finish...one more thing on the agenda," Maka grunted as she tried to tug the chips from the assassin's death grip.
"I'll memorize the stupid dates, but I'm starving," shrugged Black Star.
Tsubaki was a bit surprised. They'd managed to get through the whole stidy guide Stein had given them in a few hours. And knowing Maka, she wouldn't have let him pass unless he really got the material.
"Fine," Maka huffed, giving up on the tug-of-war. "You win."
The oven dinged and Soul went to retrieve the lasagna, setting it down carefully on the table.
"Dinner is served," he grinned.