Haha, hello again~ Sorry for the wait. Had a bit of trouble getting this done XP
Thanks to mahxie, dreamwritergoddess, and Lovely Lines and Lace for favoriting/alerting!
If you've only seen the anime and don't know what NOT and EAT mean, here you go:
NOT- Normally Overcome Target. These students comprise almost 90% of the DWMA student population. They are not very good, and a lot of them are partnerless, and come to the DWMA usually because they have nowhere else to train (especially the weapons). They are not given missions. Most of the weapons either cannot transform or can only transform partially, and none can resonate.
EAT- Especially Advantaged Talent. All of the characters you meet in the anime that go to the Academy are EAT, including Kid, Maka, and the rest of the team. Only about 10% of the student body make it into EAT.
Read Soul Eater NOT! to learn more. ^^
The Maze
Prompt: Too long to paste here, but credit goes to 8spunkangel8!
Timeline: After the anime sometime.
Characters: Death the Kid, Liz and Patty Thompson, Lord Death, Maka Albarn, Soul Eater Evans, BlackStar, Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, Ox Ford, Harver D'Eclair, Kim Diehl, Jacqueline O Lantern Dupre, Killik Rung, Pot of Fire and Pot of Thunder, Sid Barett, Franken Stein, Spirit Albarn
"You can't be serious," Kid deadpanned.
His father just gave him the peace sign with one huge white hand. "Nope~! Some of the NOT kids are getting pretty good, but I can't send them on real missions like the EAT students. Sooo~, I developed this maze-obstacle-course thingamajig!"
"Oh, for the love of-" his son groaned, putting his head in his hands. "So you want me and the girls to spend a week in your maze."
"Yep~!"
"Fine."
And so the deal was sealed.
-Lord Death and Kid-
Day One ;;
"No manicures for an entire week?!" Liz shrieked.
Kid sighed. "Yes. But I'll take you out shopping with a $10,000 budget for the both of you when we're done."
That perked her up. "Done." Patty was rolling on the floor with laughter.
They each got one backpack filled with essentials - food (mostly dried stuff), a lighter, canteens of water, a knife or two, a compass, and a change of clothes. Kid had been allowed to keep his customary monochrome suit, but Liz and Patty had been given cargo pants, tan safari-style jackets, cropped tanktops, and combat boots. Liz had complained that it 'wasn't stylish,' to which Kid replied that if she wanted to look stylish when she died of hypothermia, she could go right ahead.
Both sisters wore the outfits without further complaint. A lot of giggling was accompanied, however.
"Now, you'll be video taped," Lord Death was warning them, "but it's just for me to review the results, so no need to act stellar or anything." This was met with a chorus of noncommital shrugs and 'okays'. "Also, I won't help you unless you're absolutely on the brink of dying. Got it? You're on your own." Again, more 'okays', but a lot of shivering on Liz's part.
They were led to the entrance of the maze, a tall archway comprised completely of shrubbery. "Good luck!" Lord Death cheered, then pushed the trio through. A concrete wall slammed down behind them. Liz jumped, Patty cackled, and Kid gazed forward calmly.
"Ready? Let's go."
"Let's GO~!" Patty beamed, skipping after him.
Liz whimpered. "O-o-okay..."
As they walked, they took time to glance around. A fake sky arched high overhead, the sun beaming down on them hotly. It was rather like the Death Room in the sense that it was much larger on the inside than should be possible. Tiny clouds, looking similar to the ones that always floated around the Death Room, arced lazily across the sky. Liz sighed. She was starting to get thirsty. "Hey Kid, can I drink some of my water?"
"No."
"What?! Why?"
With a long-suffering sigh, Kid turned his head and stated simply, "Drink it now and you'll die of dehydration at the end of the week."
She forced down a wail and rubbed her head. "This is gonna be hell. Three of us and six canteens of water? We're definitely gonna die! I'm too young... I was due for a pedicure tomorrow morning..." Her complaints railed on while Patty giggled and Kid efficiently tuned them out.
MEANWHILE, IN THE DWMA...
Stein rolled his chair around to face Class Crescent Moon. It was far more packed than usual, given that a good sixteenth of the NOT students were crammed in amongst the EAT.
"Alright, listen up, class. If you don't know why you're here, leave."
Two people got up nervously and left.
"Good. Those of you who do know why they're here, get ready for a show. We're going to watch the test run of Lord Death's new training device, the Maze." A projector screen rolled down and the lights dimmed. On the screen was an overhead view of the maze, and in the center was a shining golden trophy symbol. Three red dots near the outer edge indicated where Kid and the Thompsons were. These three dots were slowly moving. "The golden dot is the prize, and it's what our three 'contestants' are trying to reach." An official school picture of the trio flashed up on the screen, Kid with his hands in his pockets looking bored, and the Thompsons smiling. "Death the Kid, Liz Thompson, and Patty Thompson. I'm sure you all know them." The professor looked pointedly at Maka, Soul, BlackStar, and Tsubaki in the front row. "Over the next week, instead of having class, we'll be watching the coverage of their maze struggle. Get ready for some fun." He rubbed his hands together and his glasses glinted maniacally. The whole room shivered.
Then, Stein pressed a button, and the screen transformed.
On it was a moving image of the trio walking, Patty laughing her head off as usual as she teased Liz, and Kid quietly reprimanding the both of them. A voice (Spirit's, of course) was narrating.
"Hello, my lovely audience! Maka, if you're watching, your daddy loves you."
Half the class laughed, the other quivered in fear of a Maka Chop, and the meister herself grew a dark and scary aura around her as she plotted to spill her father's brains all over the pavement later.
"This is from earlier this morning, when our trio first entered the Maze. Currently they're in the middle of a rather nasty fight, so our cameras are going to be jumping around a little. Get ready for some action!" The class cheered.
Kid was flipping around a huge, scaly lizard with spikes on the end of its tail which were currently being flung at the young reaper. He was firing so quickly it was hard to see, his pinkies a blur and the pink flashes neverending. Spirit continued commentary like it was a race.
"It's the lizard! It's Kid! It's the lizard! Kid! Lizard! BOTH! And- ooh, that's gotta hurt!"
The whole class gasped as a flurry of spikes flew at the meister faster than the eye could see. With superhuman speed, the reaper managed to dodge most of them, but one ripped through his side, leaving a shallow gash across his abdomen. Tsubaki covered her eyes in horror. (The rest of the class cheered when Kid got back up and kept on fighting.)
"This is barbaric!" Maka commented in a whisper to her partner.
Soul shrugged. "Lord Death'll intervene if it gets too bad. He'll be fine. You've seen him on missions before."
"Aaaand he's back up! Look at those triggers go! Definitely not a good start to the week, folks, but Kid's still going strong. And... and... it's Kid! That lizard is history!"
With a small explosion of pink flashes, the lizard was gone, replaced by a pile of dust. Kid swore, something along the lines of 'damnlizardIcan'tbelievechichiueputoneofthos ehere'. Throwing the guns behind him, he knelt down with a pained wince and pulled a scrap of cloth out of his backpack. Pulling the torn fabric of his suit away from the cut, he inspected it for a moment.
"You gonna be okay?" Liz asked anxiously.
"Fine. It'll heal by the third day in here. It's not poisoned, so I just have to bind it." Threading the cloth around his middle, he pulled it as tight as he could manage, biting his lip and tying a secure knot. "Let's keep going."
Patty had stopped her laughter, and was following him closely, like Liz. They offered to take his bag, but Kid shrugged them off. The cameras panned above their heads, complete with a dramatic shot of the rest of the Maze, then it cut to Spirit, standing in the Death Room with Lord Death and holding a microphone.
"So, an injury this early into the week! I'm here with Lord Death, the creator. Lord Death, what do you think will happen if Kid sustains many more wounds in the first few days?"
Lord Death sighed. "You're taking this to heart, Spirit. You realize we're talking about my son, right?"
"Yes, yes, but he's a contestant now! So, my question?"
"Reaper CHOP!"
The class cheered, then the screen cut back to Kid. This time, it was pretty much nightfall. Glancing out the window, Maka noted that this must be from only about an hour ago - it was approximately 9 o'clock. Apparently they were going to have to sleep here in Class Crescent Moon, so Stein could wake them up to catch the action in time. The blonde meister suppressed a groan.
"Ooookay, let's see what our contestants have decided to do for dinner~!" Spirit was narrating, and the quick shot of him showed that Lord Death was no longer there and a white bandage was wrapped around the redhead's hair.
Liz and Patty were blowing gently on the fire, keeping it alive while Kid prepared the food. They'd insisted he sit still and take it easy. The reaper was clearly frustrated with himself, glaring down at his midriff every so often and clenching his fist as he was laying out some raw strips of beef.
"You okay?" Liz asked for the millionth time.
Sighing, Kid shot back, "I am FINE, Liz. Stop mothering."
"Awww..." Spirit chose that moment to comment.
"It's getting cold," Patty commented with a shiver. Kid glanced up, puzzled.
"No it's- oh. I don't feel cold." He sounded like he was reminding himself. Sifting through one of their packs, he cursed. "No space blankets or anything like that. Damn. All we have are these thin cotton sheets." He pulled out a bundle of cloth. Liz and Patty groaned.
"What now?" Liz moaned.
Kid grimaced. "I suppose I could give you two my jacket... it's not big enough for two, though."
"Your shirt too?" Patty suggested with a small giggle.
Her meister flamed bright red. "No way."
"Come on, the only one who's watching is your father!" Liz encouraged. "You don't want us to freeze to death, do you?"
"The legendary persuasion of the Thompson Devils," Spirit whistled.
"Shirtless Kid? Let me see!" a random girl in the class shouted. Many a student turned, jaw hanging, to find the source, but said girl was hidden in the crowd.
"After dinner," Kid promised reluctantly. Surveying the thin rock they'd placed over the fire, he placed the strips of beef on it strategically. They watched it sizzle a little for a while. The cameras skipped ahead to half an hour later. Kid took two paper plates and forked one strip onto his and two onto the other. "Eat up."
"This is it?" Liz questioned, disappointed.
"We don't want to run out of food this early on."
With a sigh, the sisters tucked in and devoured the strips quickly. "This sucks," Patty muttered.
Kid pursed his lips. "Yeah, but it's worth it. Hard times, if we can get through them together, will make us stronger as a team."
"True fact, ladies and gentlemen!" Spirit said. "If you go camping for a week with only this many provisions, chances are it'll improve your resonance, EAT class."
Maka eyed Soul. When the whitehead noticed his meister's stare, he waved his hands frantically. "Ohh, hell no Maka." She tapped a book against her palm threateningly.
"Bedtime now?" Patty suggested with a yawn. "Fork over the shirt, mister."
The reaper grumbled a little, but tossed them each a blanket, then removed his blazer reluctantly and handed it to Liz. Removing the strip of cloth from around his middle, he grimaced before setting it down next to him.
Patty narrowed her eyes at his suspenders. "Kid, if you take those off, won't your pants fall down?"
The entire class burst out laughing.
"No, Patty," her meister replied, exasperated. "My pants are fine." Slipping the suspenders off his shoulders, he let them hang next to his legs and took off his white dress shirt, handing it to her. "I'll keep watch. You don't know what sort of creatures are in this blasted maze."
Liz wiggled her eyebrows at his chest and whistled, making him throw one of her boots at her head good-naturedly. Once they were asleep, Kid inspected his wound once more, flinching a little.
"Chichiue, I'm going to kill you for this when we get out."
Re-tying the strip of cloth, he brought his knees up to his chest and watched the fake stars in the sky above him. The camera slowly panned out then cut to Spirit again.
"There you have it, folks, day one! See you tomorrow, after lunch." The screen went black and the class clapped happily.
"Alright, get out your sleeping bags and find a place on the floor," Stein ordered.
The class complained but did as he asked. Maka found herself laying next to a slight girl with black hair done up in pigtails.
"H-hey!" the girl whispered. "I know you! Maka, right?"
Maka frowned, then her gaze cleared. "Right, Tsugumi, was it?" The girl nodded. "It's been a while."
They lay in companionable silence in their sleeping bags. Then Tsugumi asked,
"Do you really think we'll be forced to fight like that?"
"Oh, no," Maka reassured her. "Kid is probably our most skilled meister. Lord Death knows he can handle himself, so he gave him harder obstacles. I'm sure it'll be a lot easier for the NOT class students. Trust me, EAT can be a handful." She rolled her eyes.
"Oh, okay. Goodnight, Maka."
"Goodnight, Tsugumi."
"Goodnight, class. Fufufufu..."
A collective shiver. Oh, crap.
Day Two ;;
Maka stretched as she joined the rush back to Class Crescent Moon. They'd woken up, been allowed to change clothes, brush their teeth, eat breakfast, etc, then were let outside to basically mess around and hopefully train a little in the morning. Just before lunch, Stein called them back in to explain some more about what was going to go down during the week, then they ate at the cafeteria. Now it was back to the classroom for a good seven hours of watching Kid and his partners walk around a maze. Whoopee. (They had a two hour break, of course, but still.)
"It's so worth it for the popcorn and ice cream," BlackStar said appreciatively, rubbing his belly as they took their seats in the classroom. After a five-star dinner at around six o'clock, they watched for another hour then were set loose on the endless ice cream, popcorn, and movie snacks buffet. Then they watched until about nine thirty, and were sent to bed.
"An entire week of this and we'll all have gained thirty pounds," Maka muttered unhappily.
"Loosen up," her partner advised. "Sheesh. At least there's no studying or tests or actual schoolwork. We just get to watch Kid and the Thompsons run around that maze like lab rats."
"If only they were," Stein commented dreamily, having caught the tail end of their conversation. Those who heard shivered, which was becoming a reflex by now.
The screen flashed to life, and everyone quieted down.
"Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen!" Spirit greeted enthusiastically. "Maka, you're still my sweet sweet daughter! Anyways, while you were sleeping and playing and eating, Kid and the sisters covered an entire nine miles! Let's give 'em a hand!" Most of the class clapped. "They ran into another lizard, but this one was a baby. Watch."
Kid cursed as the lizard shot a tiny spike at him. "A baby? Chichiue, this is pointless."
"KILL IT! BURN THAT MUTHAFU-" Patty was shrieking.
Liz cut her off quickly. "Aaanyways, Kid, hurry up and kill it! We've still got, like, thirty miles to go in this stupid maze, right?"
"I'm working on it," he replied testily. A few seconds later, the baby lizard was ash.
"Kid's the winner! Woohoo! Let's hear a nice long cheer for-"
"GET ON WITH IT!"
As the trio continued walking, Patty poked his shoulder. "Kid, you didn't put your jacket back on."
He shrugged and gestured to his pack. "I didn't see the point."
"But what about your suspend-thingies?" she giggled. The black straps were still hanging next to his legs, swinging with his steps. The reaper glanced down at them, nonplussed, and didn't answer except to shrug again. Patty fell silent for a moment, then commented laughingly, "You SURE your pants won't fall-"
"I'm sure," he growled.
The class laughed, and the next hour was mostly Spirit blabbering about stuff and showing them overviews of the Maze and commenting on Kid's techniques and at one point a school picture of Maka. Lord Death reentered the picture and chopped him for that. "You're supposed to be talking about my son, Spirit, not your daughter!"
"Right, right, sorry..."
At six o'clock they were led to the dining room and given their five-star meal. Each team sat together, ate together, and was basically forced to spend an hour with each other. Translation? Hell.
"And Liz thinks THEY have it bad," Tsubaki joked weakly as BlackStar launched into yet another long story about one of his 'amazing missions' that really had ended up in yet another failure. Maka groaned and slammed her head down on her hands.
MEANWHILE, IN THE MAZE...
Kid stopped and put a hand to his eyes, blocking the sun as he surveyed their path. The maze had widened into a long, wide path, and the end was only about fifty feet away, where it stopped into a three-way fork. It seemed too easy, however.
"Why don't we just-" Patty started to say, stepping forward. In an instant, Kid yanked her out of the way as the ground blew up beneath her feet. The three of them were tossed backwards in a dusty heap. Kid brushed himself off and sprang to his feet.
"Damnit. Land mines."
"You think?" Liz asked dryly, still a little shaken as she pulled Patty to her feet. The younger sister laughed, but it was a little half-hearted.
Kid looked up at the orange sky. "We've got little more than an hour before nightfall. We're going to have to figure this out quickly." Surveying the path before him, his razor-sharp golden reaper eyes picked out the faint bumps in the dirt where the mines were. "You two transform into guns." They obeyed, and he slipped them in his pack. "Don't transform back to human no matter what unless I tell you to."
"Y-yeah, okay."
"Okay~!"
Stepping between where he knew the landmines to be, Kid carefully and slowly made his way through the field, not making any mistakes. "The one time when OCD comes in handy," he commented with a dark sort of humor. Liz chuckled anxiously. They were nearing the end when one of the lizards somewhere else in the maze called loudly and startled Kid, and he misjudged his step by a few millimeters. It was enough.
With a huge BOOM, the ground blew up all around him, one explosion triggering the others. Disregarding any former plan, Kid poured all the speed he had into his legs and dashed the last twenty yards. The final explosion erupted directly beneath his feet, and with reflexes only a reaper could possess, he yanked the pack around to his front and wrapped his arms around it, hopefully protecting it. Another huge BOOM and he was blown high into the sky, then landed in a tumble on the other side, clear of the mines.
Ignoring his orders, Liz and Patty transformed back and rolled him over frantically. "Kid! Kid! Shit, Kid, you gotta wake up!"
Moaning, the reaper opened one eye halfway. "You... disobeyed orders..."
"Screw that," Patty snarled. "We're not going any farther. Got it?"
"Got it," he responded weakly, letting his eye drift shut again. Blood ran in a wavy line over his other eye, and there was a long burn on his back. Most of the bottom edge of his shirt was charred away.
"That's not gonna work as a blanket anymore," Liz murmured, half to herself.
Patty carefully took off his pack and together the two maneuvered him into one of the few patches of shade. Not that he needed it, but they definitely did. Sitting back against the shrubs, they took off his shirt again and lay him on his back. Liz bit her lip at the sight of the angry red skin.
"Don't use your water," Kid mumbled.
Both of them jumped. "What- wait, why?"
"Waste," he murmured feverishly.
"No it's not," Liz protested heatedly, getting out one of their canteens. There was only a tiny bit left, anyway. "You're not a waste." Splashing it onto the wound, she tried to ignore her meister's pained hiss as the cold liquid splashed against his burn. After that was done, they wound more cloth around it. "You need to stop getting injured," the elder Thompson scolded.
"Agreed," he moaned. "Besides, it was only to save your ungrateful butts."
Patty laughed. "Kiddo-kun's an idiot! Kiddo-kun's an idiot~!"
They sat together for almost two hours. The sun had almost set by the time Kid deemed his burn 'healed.' Liz inspected it shrewdly and promptly commented, "It's nowhere near healed."
"Healed enough to travel," he replied, slinging his pack over his shoulders and starting their trek again. Rolling their eyes, the sisters followed.
"So, if this maze is supposed to be for NOT students, why's it so hard?" Liz asked.
Kid shrugged. "The level of difficulty will be much lower for NOT students. Chichiue's giving me a challenge, since I haven't had many missions as of late. He could tell I was getting bored."
"Sure hope this doesn't seem boring," Liz muttered. "Because it certainly isn't."
Patty giggled. "I think it's fun." Her two companions leveled near-identical glares at her, making the blonde collapse in fits of laughter. Sighing in defeat, Liz and Kid each took one hand and dragged her behind them.
BACK WITH CLASS CRESCENT MOON...
Maka yawned and rubbed her stomach as they filed back into the room. Most of the class was lazy and sluggish at first as they settled into their seats, then tensed when they realized Stein was in the middle of a serious conversation with someone (most likely Spirit) on a small headset. The students trained their ears and fell silent.
"I see. Second degree burn?" Stein was saying. The people who could hear winced. "Yes. Yes. No, they just got back. Yes. Yep, I'll show them the footage now."
"What happened?" Tsubaki asked anxiously. Stein grimaced.
"Mine field. He'll be fine by tomorrow, don't worry." A grin overtook the professor's features. "Ah, if I could just get a skin sample..."
The class shivered. "No way," Maka growled. "I'm drawing the line at Grim Reapers." Stein cackled and turned back to the screen.
"Hi, hi, hi! Welcome back! While you were eating dinner, I'm afraid Kid sustained another injury." The screen cut to a small clip of Kid navigating the land mines, then protecting his pack with Liz and Patty in it as the last one blasted him across the field.
"You need to stop getting injured," Liz was saying.
"Agreed."
It cut to them walking, plus a close up on the burn, showing that it was surprisingly almost healed. The red, inflamed skin had lightened to a slighty angry pink color.
"Well, he's alive," Soul muttered unhelpfully. Maka shushed him and threatened to pull a book out. He cringed.
"You sure you're okay?" Liz worried.
Kid rolled his eyes for the millionth time. "YES. It'll heal by tomorrow morning. Stop mothering, Liz."
The weapon 'harrumphed' and glared at her meister. "I'm just trying to keep us alive."
Patty cackled and snorted something along the lines of "Mother~!"
After glaring her sister down too, Liz fell silent and the three walked in companionable silence for about an hour. The screen cut to flashbacks, however, interspersed by panoramic shots of them walking and small 'interviews' with random students - including Tsubaki, BlackStar, and Killik.
All three shrugged helplessly.
"So, Kid, who's your real mom?" Patty questioned, finally falling out of her windy patterns of walking and resuming her usual goosestep next to her meister.
Kid stiffened.
As did the entire class, watching with bated breath. This was a topic NO-ONE had ever dared breach to the reaper, or his father.
"No."
Patty pouted, skipping to catch up with him and peering at his face, which had closed off like a ten-ton wall of steel.
"Pleeaaaase~?"
"No."
"One tiny clue~?"
"No."
"Aww, come on, just a hint-"
"NO. Stop talking, Patricia," he responded harshly, quelling her inquisitive attacks immediately. Then he kept walking but with slightly longer steps, pulling him ahead of the two weapons.
"There you have it, folks, day two! See you all again tomorrow~..."
And the screen faded to black.
Day Three ;;
Maka woke up and arched her stiff neck, popping a few joints. Yawning, she blinked sand away from her eyes and gazed around - everyone was still asleep. Shaking Soul by the shoulder, she started to say "Wake up! It's almost time for the morning-"
Immediately his right arm transformed into a scythe blade and swung clumsily at her face. Stumbling back with a screech of surprise, the meister's eyes turned to flames and before her sleepy weapon could see who he had attacked, she slammed a book (a nice, thick dictionary) into his skull even harder than usual, making him shout, groan, and roll on the floor clutching his head in pain.
The EAT class woke up, weapons leaping into their meister's hands or transforming partially, while the NOT students and BlackStar snored on.
"What wa- wa- waaaaas that?" Killik asked around his yawn, not noticing that only Pot of Thunder had transformed and that Fire was clinging to his leg. Raising the fist that should have been adorned with his other glove, the brown-skinned meister still failed to notice as he mumbled, "If it's Stein I'll cream him."
"It wasn't Stein, it was Maka," Soul cried pitifully, still clutching his head.
"Oh. Well, Maka, sorry if your weapon is being a- a- aa- aaaaass, but the rest of us are gonna get some sleep," Killik muttered, falling like a marionette with its strings cut onto his sleeping bag and mumbling incomprehensibly into the small camping pillow.
Just as the class began to relax again, Stein burst through the door on his rolling chair and fell on his face, then rolled and came up so he was on his back with his head lying closer to the sleeping (or trying to) mass of students. "Good/bad news. Lord Death went soft and decided Kid needed a day of rest, so there aren't gonna be any obstacles today other than walking. Go do whatever the hell it is kids do on a free day."
This managed to wake the ENTIRE class up, EAT or NOT, and all rushed through the doors cheering.
Day Four ;;
Kid had fallen asleep.
He didn't usually, but when he was injured and/or had expended a lot of energy, sometimes his advanced reaper body caught up to him and his eyes closed.
Liz had woken sometime around three, shivering because Kid's shirt had fallen off. Looking up and around, her eyes were greeted with the comforting sight of Patty still snoring away, and Kid as he sat with his knees pulled to his chest and his back against the hedge. Normally his golden eyes would be alight with the slowly dying embers of their fire that he was still staring into, but today his eyes were closed and his head had lolled forward onto his knees. His black and white bangs hid his face.
Smiling softly, the weapon reached over and put a gentle hand on his head. Even the lightest touch would usually wake him, but today was unusual. He barely stirred, head flopping to the side and bangs falling in his face. His small deep breaths blew the locks of hair back and forth, like a swing. Stifling a giggle, Liz decided he needed sleep and let him be for a few more hours.
BACK WITH THE CLASS...
"Welcome one, welcome all-of-the-students-selected! To the grand showing of our new show, The Maze!"
BlackStar woke slowly, the voice of Maka's obnoxious dad blaring in his ears. "Whazz'appening?" he slurred, falling off the desk he was lying on and landing squarely on Soul, who coughed and woke quickly, nearly beheading his best friend like he almost had his meister.
This time the entire class woke after BlackStar's suprised shriek ripped through the air. Stein threw a scalpel and pegged the wall right above the assassin's head. "Pay attention," he reminded cheerfully, waving at the screen to pay attention.
Kid and the Thompsons were walking through the hedges once more, when the ground before them opened up into a dark tunnel. Kid marveled for a moment at the perfectly symmetrical archway, then descended, stopping only to command Liz and Patty to transform, which they did.
It was dark, and the steps seemed to go on forever, but he finally reached the end. Mouth opening slightly in shock, Kid paced forward into the room.
On pedestals as far down as the eye could see, lay singular glowing orbs of blue light. The hallway stretched on for an age, but at the very end the trio could see an even brighter sign of light. Ignoring that for a moment, Kid flipped the sisters around neatly and tossed them behind him, where they transformed and looked around in awe.
"What is this place?" Patty whispered.
Kid shook his head. "I- don't know." Reaching out to touch one of the balls of light, he shrank back, startled, when it flew forward and expanded into a small screen. Straightening from his defensive stance, Kid eyed the thing warily.
Fizzling with static for a moment, the screen went black then showed a video... of Kid, shooting at a stragely clothed man with a cloth sack behind his back.
"That's when we fought that Kishin egg guy!" Liz remarked.
"What are those? Are we watching a TV show inside of a TV show?" Soul asked, frowning. Stein didn't answer, just pointed to the screen.
"Lupin, it's all over."
Kid's guns began to glow pink, and he raised them slowly then tossed them over his shoulders. They transformed, and immediately assumed their strange body contortions while Kid continued to talk.
"Master Thief Lupin, your soul has become a Kishin egg and is pure evil."
Then all three spoke in unison. "And now we have come to claim it!"
Kid and the sisters both frowned (in slight embarrasment) and Kid looked up. "Dad, what's the point of this?"
Meanwhile, the class was holding back laughter.
The screen zoomed in briefly on all three faces, then zoomed out. All was still for a moment before Kid spazzed and spun to face the blonde weapon behind him. "Just look, Patty! Your stance is off again, the two of you aren't in align!"
"Ooh, I'm sorry Kid!"
"Uh, Kid, do you really think now is the time to be worrying about that..."
Lupin looked down at the sewer grate beneath his feet and opened it, escaping as Kid continued to lecture his weapons. Then the screen faded to black.
Now the class was really holding back giggles.
Meanwhile, all three had shown small signs of embarassment, but it wasn't over yet. Another orb flew in their direction and showed them a few snippets.
This time, it was BlackStar and Soul that filled the screen.
"Yeah!" BlackStar cheered. "Spotlight's mine!"
They were talking to Sid, pre-zombie stage.
"We wanna know about the pyramid of Anubis, who signed up to take the mission?"
"Ah. That mission wasn't taken by a student from our school, it's much too difficult for one of you."
"Really? That fight must have been pretty spectacular," Maka marveled.
"If not one of us, then who took it?"
"It was taken by Lord Death's son."
"Lord Death has a son?!"
"Well I'll be damned. Really?"
"Yes, really. I'm not a man to tell a lie." The screen panned up from an underside view of Beelzebub to Kid standing casually atop it, streaking across the sky at superhuman speeds while Sid continued to narrate. "He's a Grim Reaper just like his father. His name is Death the Kid." Then the screen skipped around a little.
"Wrath, wrath, wrath!"
A huge hammer out of bandages was pounding a bloodied and beaten Kid while his weapons called his name frantically.
Jaws dropped. "THAT'S how Kid brought down the pyramid?!" Soul snorted.
Maka was shocked too. "I expected more fight from him..."
"Wrath, wrath, wrath, wrath, wrath, wrath!" Again and again the hammer came down. Then, the sarcophagus split and a huge, misshapen, twisted body emerged. "I will come and deliver the final blow myself."
Kid sat up swiftly, and his thoughts began to narrate along with a view of one side and then the other of the pharaoh. 'Right. Left. Right. Left. Right.'
"You've got to be kidding me," Maka muttered.
Silence. Then...
'YOU'RE DISGUSTINGLY HIDEOUS!'
The entire class headdesked.
Liz and Patty commented. "It's all over now."
"Kyahahahahaha~!"
Staggering to his feet, Kid continued to hurl insults at the monster. "What the hell kind of thing are you? I've never seen anything so messed up in my life! Do you know nothing about symmetry? Whoever made you should be dug up from his grave, shot, and be buried!" He raised his guns, pointing squarely at the creature's face. "You make me violently ill. Just look at your forehead!" He shot it. "You don't deserve such a jewel. In fact, you don't even deserve to exist."
"Here it comes," Liz muttered.
The class had quit laughing for the most part and were watching with excited eyes to see the legendary destruction of Anubis.
"Disgusting. Disgusting disgusting disgusting!"
He pummeled the Pharoah with countless pink bullets, eyes going white with anger as he did so.
"Disgusting disgusting disgusting disgusting! You are disgusting disgusting DISGUSTING!"
With a huge blast of pinkish purple energy, he tore a hole in the back of the pyramid, leaving just a floating red soul.
"Woah," the class breathed collectively.
Then it cut to a scene of the trio leaving, the pyramid falling, Kid collapsing, then finally Soul and BlackStar's faces as they stared with gritted teeth at the 'Completed' stamp on the mission board.
"What on earth was that for?" Kid mused, slightly angry. "Dad, yes, we get it. What is the point of this?"
To their surprise a note appeared in a flash of light. Picking it up, Kid read dubiously, "'To make sure you don't make the same mistake here.'"
"He has a point," Liz prodded him wearily.
They continued walking, then suddenly arrived at the end. It led into...
"The center!" Patty cried happily, twirling in circles and flopping down into the long grass.
"Careful, Patty," her meister warned, but it was too late.
The giggling blonde had leapt after a butterfly and planted her foot on a mound of earth... which she realized too late was a land mine. A blur of black and white tackled her away from it a splitsecond before it detonated, and as she squeaked and reverted to weapon form instictively, she recognized the hands that grasped her as Kid's. The two rolled, Kid tucked tight around the metal gun, using the blasts to power Beelzebub's momentum, which he had summoned out of nowhere. Finally the two came to a stop away from the minefield, and Kid let go of Patty.
"Sorry," she squeaked as he sighed and rubbed his burn. It had been healing, but now was rubbed a little raw.
"It's okay," he amended, then looked around for her sister. Liz came running around the side of the field, then slide-tackle-hugged her sister, squeezing the hell out of the metal pistol.
Sobbing, she cried, "Don't ever do that again!"
Transforming, her sister patted her head. "Don't worry~!"
Scrutinizing the field, Kid's enhanced eyes picked out more mines, but they were farther spaced than the last field. And there, in the middle, was a fogged crystal box containing the prize they had to deliver safely back to Lord Death. Smirking in triumph, he ventured into the field alone, hopping neatly over mines and coming to a halt before the box. He noticed the small holes inside but ignored them, and hopped back over to his weapons.
"Well, what's inside?" Patty asked, leaning over. They'd sat a ways from the explosion radius, and were trying to open the box.
"There's a dent on each side," Kid mused. "Six sides... two of each... hands!" Clapping his in delight, he repeated, "Hands."
"What?"
Sighing, he explained, "Look, you put your hands on the side of the box. There are six sides, and six hands between us. I'll do top and bottom, Patty can do these two, and you do the rest."
Dubiously Liz complied, as did Patty, and as soon as all their hands locked in place the box hissed and they leaned back. It opened slowly... revealing... revealing...
"A kitty!" Patty squealed.
Kid and Liz stared at the sleeping fluffy cat with incredulous, baffled, exasperated, and annoyed glares. "Really?" Liz groaned. "We came all this way for a cat?"
"Is this a joke?" Kid asked.
Class Crescent Moon was in hysterics. "A cat?" BlackStar wheezed. "They did all that for... a tiny cat?"
Day Five ;;
The sun rose upon a peaceful scene (not for long). After discovering the species of their charge, the trio had fallen asleep, the kitten still curled in the box. However, through the night, as it got colder, the fuzzball had awoken and decided to seek warmth with the nearest source- Kid. Wrapping its tiny fluffy tail around its nose, the kitten lay burrowed between Kid's legs and his stomach, having fallen asleep with his knees tucked to his chest again.
And so his partners woke to the undignified yelp of their meister, who had woken to find a ball of fur in his lap.
"Wha-?" Patty yawned sleepily. "Aww, kitty..."
"I still don't like him," Kid grated, pushing the cat away from him. The kitten yawned and stretched, showing a tiny pink mouth with little white teeth. He was jet black, with white front paws and three tiny white stripes around his right ear.
Liz protested heavily, "How can you not like him? He's so cute!"
"He's asymmetrical," her meister pointed out.
"So what?" Patty stuck her tongue out at him.
Before Kid could launch on another long tirade about the balance of Order and whatever crap, Liz hustled them together and wrapped the kitten in Kid's jacket, carrying it with her as they walked back through the maze. All of a sudden, a ladder dropped down from the sky above them, a sticky note plastered to the fourth rung. Kid peeled it off and read it, then sighed happily. "Oh, finally."
"What?" Liz inquired absentmindedly, too animated with the kitten's tiny flicking tail.
"'Climb the ladder and come say hi to your classmates!'" Kid read.
"But our week isn't up."
Kid leveled a 'seriously?' face at her. "You know my father, he changed his mind five minutes ago and decided he wants to have us eat popsicles as a reward or something."
"Kyahaha~, that sounds like him," Patty giggled.
Liz tore a few strips of cloth from one of their blankets, seeing as they didn't need them anymore, and tied the bundle of cloth holding the kitten around her waist. Then she followed her meister and sister as they began to climb...
WITH THE CLASS...
Stein had decided to go with a different way of viewing, and put the screen at the very top of all the desks, so all the students had to look up to see it. They watched, laughing, as Kid pried the kitten from his legs, Liz cooing over it, Patty in hysterics on the side...
"It's funny, you forget he's a Grim Reaper sometimes," Tsubaki joked softly.
"Ha! One I will SURPASS!" BlackStar boasted loudly as usual, striking a heroic pose.
Soul rolled his eyes. "As if. Didn't you see that video of the Anubis Lord Death made them watch?" On the screen was Kid cooking breakfast over a campfire, seeing as the class watched about half an hour after the events actually happened. "He's not gonna like your single-sided tattoo..."
"WHO CARES? NOT A GOD LIKE ME!"
"BlackStar..."
Maka rolled her eyes. "You know, you'd think you'd gain a little more respect for Kid after having watched him struggle through a maze for five days."
"What. The. Hell. Is. This."
"YOU WHAT?"
"HEY, YOU HAD A SLUMBER PARTY WITHOUT ME, YOU LITTLE LIARS?!"
The classroom spun around, mouths agape, to see a livid Kid, fuming Patty, and murderous Liz.
"Uh... hi guys?" Maka tried to greet weakly.
"DAMNIT DAD, AGAIN?!" Kid hollered in the general direction of the ceiling. "NOT. FUNNY."
"Again?" BlackStar gulped.
Liz glared at him. "You don't want to know."
All three advanced on the students and unconsciously formed a rather formidable-looking stance. "Care to tell us what this is about?" they said in unison.
A collective shiver.
Oh. Crap.
Lulz. They're in for it now 8D Hope you liked, drop me a review and a suggestion!
Kat