Rick-Kitsune, now back under Soul Protect, stood balancing at the very pinpoint end of the middle spike that rose from the face of Shibusen. Her hair floated in the breeze, but otherwise she was still, balanced perfectly.

Maka and Soul watched her from below. "It's odd," said Maka. "Even knowing that she's a witch... I guess I should say, that she used to be a witch, she seems like a normal person." She looked down. "Then again, I guess Medusa did as well, but she was tricking all of us."

"Yeah." Soul looked up at her too, but he didn't seem all that interested. "Do you think she's trying to trick us too?"

"I don't know. I guess we can't tell unless something happens, can we?"

"Yeah." Soul didn't seem to have any further comment.

The breeze shifted direction momentarily. Kitsune's hair caught the sunlight, and shimmered slightly. Maka had to admit, she did look pretty.

Then, Black Star kicked Kitsune in the head with a loud, "WOOHOO!"

Kitsune flew sideways for a moment, until the momentum from the hit brought her close to the next spike; then she twisted, and caught the rounded bottom, somehow grasping it and swinging around the other side. She managed to land on the spike looking like she'd planned it, but Black Star was well into his introduction and couldn't be bothered to notice.

"...you'll never meet anyone as BIG as I am, so you'd better be grateful! Haha, hahahaha haha!"

"Shorty." Kitsune's single word was simply a statement of fact, although it sounded accusing. There was a pregnant pause.

"What... did you just say?" Black Star squinted menacingly at her.

"Small, short, tiny, no bigger tha-" she dodged his sudden flying kick and spun around, kicking off from that spike to land on the center one again. "Even your moves are small. Nothing about you is significant."

Soul and Maka cringed. "Oh, crap."

Soul's eyes held a barely-restrained fury. "Tsubaki! Chain-scythe mode!"

Tsubaki jumped in from somewhere nearby, likely wherever she and Black Star had been hiding before he showed himself. She only protested for a moment before transforming. By the time she finished, though, Kitsune had taken her full form-the mask now gone- and had her fox scythe staff rested over her right shoulder. Her eyes held a challenge, one that told Black Star that he was trying to take HER on, not the other way around, and she was grinning a predatory grin.

Black Star led with a ranged sweep, one that looked ready to tie Kitsune up in chains; however, her staff scythe extended its shaft, and she rode it up into the sky; just before the chain passed through it, it shortened long enough to miss, then lengthened again.

Black Star was already moving, though; he had leaped to the spike underneath her, and was leaping up to chase her; almost instantly, the staff cum scythe's shaft retreated again, then extended to nail him in the forehead. Before it pinned him, though, it knocked him spinning, and he caught the shaft with his hands, then his feet.

"Haha!" he shouted. "Take that, you-"

A fist lanced out of the staff not far from here he was holding it, and took him in the gut. Almost before he noticed, it retreated, and another uppercut him in the jaw. Somehow, the two hits seemed to phase him pretty badly, and he dropped back to the spike.

Kitsune let the scythe's shaft retract, and she fell not far away. Black Star grabbed himself for only a minute before standing and pointing accusingly. "Hey! Don't interrupt me when I'm telling you how awesome I am!"

"Hm...❤" Kitsune put a hand to her chin and regarded him. "Well, if you're that great, you can multitask, can't you?"

A muffled voice came from Kitsune, as though from behind a mask. "Enough, Kitsune. I'm more than enough for this one."

"Ah... but you know how much I like it..." Kitsune teased her shirt bottom with her fingers and rocked back and forth from one foot to the other.

"You know you're going to get to do most of the sparring anyway." Kitsune's form shifted, and Rick lifted the mask. "Let me have some time with Erin, would you?"

The response, if there was any, was very quiet, or perhaps only he could hear it. He smiled, and touched the left mask, but didn't put it on. "Soul resonance!"

Below, Maka was surprised. "He can do that without putting the mask on?"

The staff that extended from his hands was white, not red, made from three thin rods that were twisted together. He caught it and twirled in more several long moments, eyes closed, feeling the staff, and the wind it kicked up, for a long moment before setting a stance and opening his eyes and grinning. "Come on, shorty."

Black Star's eye twitched. He threw Tsubaki again, this time straight. "Who are you calling small?"

Rick deflected the attack, but not just once; in a single spin of his body, he knocked the scythe upwards, then hit it a second time to send it back at Black Star. Black Star caught it, but in the instant his hand was in the way, Rick disappeared; he looked left and right, then looked up in time to see a menacing figure drop from above.

"Soul Force Lance!" Even before Rick hit him, a wave of energy leaped from the end of the staff and crashed into his body from above. The wave seemed to momentarily paralyze Black Star, and in that moment, Rick thrusted the staff, adding the momentum of his fall to the brutal assault and on top of his soul wavelength.

The impact snapped the decorative spike off, even as close as they were to the base; in the moment that they were in freefall after the impact, Rick spun in midair, dropping a heel kick onto the opposite end of the staff. "One more time!"

The final impact sent Black Star into the pavement below. Even before the dust settled, the staff bounced back up into the air, and he caught it perfectly before dropping into the dust cloud.

Soul and Maka rushed up as it cleared; Tsubaki was covering Black Star, who was bleeding and apparently unconscious on the floor. Rick was appraising him with angry eyes. "How dare you assault an innocent freak like us. You won't prove your greatness by becoming a monster, shorty."

Soul rushed over to Black Star's side, and Maka approached Rick. "What are you doing? He's just a student here! You know that, right?"

Rick looked honestly surprised. "What? I'm only a student, too. I never graduated or anything."

"That's..." Maka paused. "Even if you say that, that's going too far!"

"Sorry." Rick looked away. "You have to understand, the one thing I am never going to accept is random violence. Before, when you attacked, I felt that it was because you didn't know. However, with this guy..." Rick looked at him. "He was only doing it for his own sake."

Maka looked away. "I'm not going to defend him, but I'm sure he has his reasons for being the way he is." She looked back at Rick, earnestly. "But being attacked by a witch, locked away for all those years... that doesn't excuse this!"

Rick cocked his head. "No, that was never the problem. You see, when I was young, my village, my family, and everyone I knew was killed by a group of assassins."

"Assassins?" Tsubaki's guarded expression slipped.

"Mm. They took a job from a witch, apparently. She had heard that a retired Meister lived in our village, one that was old and wise. Although she didn't know it, none of us even knew; he was just a kind old man. She hired them, and they killed everyone who lived there. I was only a kid, and my family hid me, but I still remember it." His eyes were widening, and he was shaking. "The blood... the dead eyes of my mother... the fire... the screams of the old man, the screams that lasted for hours. I can still see it... I can still hear it..."

The others were too shocked to say anything. Rick trembled for several moments, then calmed a little. "That's why, when I made it out of there, I came here to find Shinigami-sama. I told him, no matter what, that I had to be stronger, that those people had to be killed."

Tsubaki looked at him guiltily. "Do you know what clan of assassins it was?"

"I think... the Clan of the Star?" Rick looked up into the sky. "I never met them after that day, and I never saw them clearly. Shinigami-sama said that he took care of them some time after that... but..."

Rick finally registered that everyone was looking at him rather oddly. After a moment, Tsubaki started to say something, but she was interrupted.

"So... that's what happened." Black Star, somehow conscious, sat up. "So that's what caused them to be targetted by Shibusen."

"Targetted?" Rick, as though for the first time, noticed the star on Black Star's shoulder, and on his shoes. There was a pause as it registered with him. Then, suddenly, a boom of thunder was heard throughout the area, and his soul wavelength swelled to encompass much of the area, even as his staff disappeared. "YOU...!"

Maka stumbled backwards, falling over from the force of it. She could clearly see Rick's triple soul, and the huge scar that ran across it, the scar that was bleeding now. "No way...!"

Tsubaki, and Soul as well, stood in Rick's way. Tsubaki's eyes held a fierce determination, and her voice did not waver. "Don't! He's not a member of that clan. He was just a child, and Shinigami-sama raised him to be a Meister, just like you!"

"I don't care." Rick dived at the two of them, and with a ramming tackle that seemed to crackle with energy, knocked both of them clear. He stopped just short of Black Star, who was appraising him grimly. "Boy... do you have any last words?"

"Feh." Black Star staggered a little, but got to his feet. "I'm too BIG a man to take a threat like this sitting down. BUT!" He stood and shouted in Rick's face, facing him eye to eye. "I don't plan on dying here, and I don-"

Rick, in two or three hits, had knocked Black Star into the air, spun him around, and then slammed him bodily down again. His eyes were wild, and full of tears. "You don't actually think that I'm going to wait for you to stop talking, do you, monster?"

Two shots rang out, shots that took Rick in the shoulder, causing him to stumble to one side. Death the Kid stood a little ways away, and looked at Rick coldly. "I wondered what was going on, but I find you attacking our students. You do understand that he is a member of this school, right?"

"Kid!" Maka stood up. "Rick was... Black Star is..."

"I heard most of it." Kid leveled his guns at Rick. "However, don't think you can get away with killing him."

"Bring it on!" Without even hesitating, Rick charged him, his eyes still full of tears. "Even if you were Shinigami-sama himself, there are no words for this treachery!"

However, the martial arts that Rick had dominated with so far failed him against Kid. Once, twice, three times, he made strong, fast punches, but each time, Kid evaded or blocked. Kid noted the soul force charging his hands with no small amount of concern, but kept his face cold. This man is a danger. I hope Father will forgive me if I have to...

"Soul Force wall!" Rick held his arms in front of him, both fist-to-elbow, and shouted, producing a pair of shockwaves that travelled only a short distance, but knocked into one of Kid's weapons, and his hand. The weapon was blown out of his hand, and he grasped the hand, flinching with pain.

"Aaargh!" Liz transformed back as she hit the ground, grabbing her shoulder. "What kind of attack was that?"

Kid just looked at him, glaring, and grabbing his hand painfully. Finally, he glanced down at his one weapon, then back at Liz.

"Don't take your eyes off-" Rick started to charge, but was interrupted by a scythe, one that might have cut into his shoulder if he hadn't paused. Maka, tears in her eyes, picked Soul back up and stood in front of him.

"Kid, go get Liz." She didn't take her eyes off of Rick.

"You want to get in my way too..." His eyes didn't focus anymore. "You all... just..."

"Soul resonance!"

For a long moment, nobody knew who the two voices had been. Maka, desperately, tried to match it against any meister/weapon pair that were both women, but none of them fit the voices. She risked looking around, but she didn't see anyone, either.

When she looked back, the fox-witch Kitsune stood behind Rick, holding her blood-red staff, but without the scythe blade. Her clothes, somehow, were not Rick's; they looked like witch's clothes.

"What the-!"

Rick turned to look back at them. His eyes still shook, but they seemed to focus on them, at least. "Erin... you..."

Kitsune spun the staff and drove it home into his gut, then beat him several times around the head for good measure. Whether they took him by surprise or he didn't try, all of the blows struck exactly where they aimed, and after a moment, he fell to his knees.

"You freaking idiot." Kitsune hit him again in the face. "Didn't we face all this darkness before? Didn't you say that you were there when people needed you?" She slammed it down on his shoulder, which made a pained noise. "I was an idiot to think I could trust you with my soul. Didn't you say you'd protect me from that hatred? From the Sway of Magic? From the Wavelength of Madness?"

Rick didn't say anything, just sat there.

She bashed him across the face again. "We survived that darkness because the three of us all found ourselves. If you lose yourself, we ALL lose ourselves. You are the Body. You are the Medium. You are the Meister." She picked him up by his shirt and shouted directly in his face. "Don't you DARE play games with our souls!"

"Please wait a moment." Kid stood up, now holding both pistols again, one pointed at each of them. "I thought the three of you were the same person. How can the Witch act without resonating with you?"

"Tch." Kitsune dropped Rick and started moving towards Kid. For a moment, Kid looked afraid, but he raised his guns in preparation of an attack. Instead, she held up the staff. "We all carry the Weapon blood now. You should be able to tell, right? There are times when the weapon separates from the host body. But with this..." She tried to let go of the staff she held, revealing that it was fused with her skin. "At all times, two of us have to work together. Normally, there is one person with the Weapon blood and two people in the host. However, if she and I agree, we can work together within the Weapon body."

With that, Kitsune's body transformed, as though she were a weapon; for a moment, a glowing quarterstaff spun in midair, then it transformed back again, and Erin held a gleaming white staff, wearing clothes of light, neutral tones. Her eyes were serious. "One of us acts like the weapon, one as the meister, but we cannot separate. Kitsune cannot act freely, and without Rick as the Medium, she cannot use her magic. I am not capable of trusting my soul to a magic user like her, but she will resonate with me."

Rick turned to look at Erin. "W... was I really wrong, Erin?"

Erin walked towards him, kneeled down, and cradled his face in one hand. He looked up into her eyes, his own eyes full of sadness and fear.

She smashed him across the face with the staff, and he dropped. "Yes." Her voice was flat.

Kid and Maka made faces. "She seems... like something of a scary person," said Maka.

"I may have to re-evaluate what I thought of her," agreed Kid.

Rick sat up and looked up at her. Although his face was bruised, and his eyes bore a trace of sadness, he wore a relieved grin. "Alright. I got you, Partner."

Erin smiled gently. "Good then." She stood up and walked over to where Black Star was lying on the ground. He looked at her, only a little lamely, clutching his wounded chest.

"Ah... his ribs seem to be broken, so please don't-" Tsubaki started to interrupt, but Erin cut her off.

"Kitsune, if you would." She quieted, then opened her eyes. "Soul resonance!"

Suddenly, Erin's staff grew purer, whiter, like it was drawing the shadows out of everything around them. From one end, tendrils like roots extended, and the other branched out, complete with leaves, leaving the whole staff as a rather thin, elongated tree. When she touched the roots to Black Star's midsection, it seemed for a moment that a shadow left him, a jagged and broken shadow. She turned the staff around, and touched him with the branches, and white tendrils mended his bones. "Tree of life!"

After a moment, she let the ability lapse, and the staff returned to what it was. "Ah... that's a lot of work." She turned and glared darkly at Rick, making him jump slightly. "That bastard did FAR too much damage. He ought to know better."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Black Star jumped up. "Hey, I'm alright! I guess I was a bigger man than even I thought I was! Ha, hahahaha!"

The others regarded him with nonplussed looks.

Erin returned to Rick, and held a hand to help him up. Her face seemed friendly, and she was grinning. "If you ever go off the deep end like that again, I'll kick your ass good, you got me?"

Rick took the hand, and used the momentum to swing forward and give her a hug, which she returned. "You bet, Partner."

Erin transformed in-place into Kitsune, who was somewhat more clingy. "Rick-kun..." She squeezed him tightly, almost cuddling up to him. "You better not let me down again, alright?" She curled up against his chest. "I need you... you know that, right? If you don't want me to become a monster, I need you to be my sanity."

"Yeah." He put a hand on her head, and held her tightly. "I know, Kitty."

"Nyah... you know I hate that name." She looked up at him, and kissed him on the nose, but her look was flat. "I'm not your girlfriend or anything, you know."

Rick laughed and stepped away, holding her hand so that she spun like a dancer. "I know, Kitty. You're my Partner, just like Erin is." He grinned. "And you're her Partner, too. We're all in it together."

"Yup." She grinned back, then disappeared in a blaze of light, and returned to Rick's body. He stood, smiling slightly, for a minute or two, as everyone else was silent.

Stein, however, was watching from the shadows, and he was glaring. If two people can be in that staff, I wonder, can we isolate just Erin, and give her her body back? It's not just Kitsune, but Rick who's a danger now. He seems too close to giving in to that insane wavelength.

Although, he had to admit, his eyes trembling slightly, it's not like I'm all that much better...!