Chapter 6 – Show Off

Sai Summers

The first thing I noticed about Shinigami-sama's office is that is was freezing cold.

The second was that it was impossibly large. It felt like the sky had come indoors. I was quite sure I saw a cloud or two float by.

Massive redwood arches lined what would have been a path if we were outdoors.

Crossing out of the archway, I found the Reaper himself hopping about on a round, elevated shimmering platform some twenty feet wide. His white mask and black robes was a picture of simplicity. A floor mirror behind reflected the room, making it appear even larger – if that was even possible.

"Ho ho, it's about time!" His voice boomed.

I cowered at the edge of the platform.

"No no no, come up here, nothing's wrong!" He smiled; if it was possible for a mask to smile.

I obliged him.

"This is your official welcome to the Shinigami Weapon Meister Vocational School. I am already aware of your latent abilities, but I hope the school will bring about a refining and deepening of those abilities."

I nodded. "Thank you for the warm welcome and meeting with me this morning."

"Of course, not a problem." He paused a moment and looked at me intently. "I want you to remove that button, by the way." The Reaper noted with a nod. He pointed at the "Weapon" button I still had pinned to my dress. He held out his oversized right hand.

I unfastened the button and placed it in his hand. He withdrew his hand and it disappeared inside of his cloak. I muttered over the tiny holes the button had left in the fine black fabric.

He gave a slight bounce in place and regained my attention. "This isn't the right button for you, you know. You are a Meister before you are a Weapon. Your control comes from the knowledge of the Weapon skills you possess. That control is more important that the techniques you can use to injure an opponent. You posses the Weapon, it does not posses you. As an Independent Weapon, you can't forget how important that control really is."

I hung my head slightly; feeling like it was a lecture I had heard before. And I still wondered how true it was.

The Reaper looked at me thoughtfully. "You are most certainly his protégé, aren't you?"

A vision of a blond haired, blue eyed man flashed in my mind, and I tried to avoid his gaze. "Let's not talk about Justin, okay? It's been more than a year since I've seen him."

His eyes seemed to smile. "Not a problem." He paused, and I had nothing to say to fill in the gap of silence.

"Head over to Professor Stein's lecture now. He's been asking about you, and you're late already."

I sighed. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt."

The Reaper patted me on the head with a giant white-gloved hand, and then withdrew it. "Don't worry about Kid. Only his pride was really hurt this morning."

I wasn't sure I believed Shinigami-sama, but I didn't bother to ask anymore about it. I decided I should go on what I saw with my own eyes, even if it was wrong. I gave him a nod, and turned and walked from the platform.

***

The lecture room was significantly warmer than Shinigami-sama's office, but still cold. I would have to start bring a sweater to class like Maka.

I could hear the murmurs and giggles the moment I entered the room. I tried to block out the voices, but some of their words rung in my ears – all of them embarrassing.

I walked up to the desk, waiting for Stein to look up from his paperwork. I knocked on the wooden desk when I didn't automatically gain his attention.

He looked up and adjusted his round glasses on his damaged face, and smiled. "Ah, it's about time. You're quite late for your first day!"

"I…" was all I was able to get out of my mouth as an explanation for my late arrival.

Stein rose from his desk, straightened the collar of his lab coat and rounded me, wandering to the middle of the lecture floor. "Can I have a volunteer from the audience? Anyone willing to let Ms Summers experiment on them?" Stein shouted, trying to gather an audience of his distracted students. He seemed to relish the idea of experimentation.

Mummers floated through the audience. No one was quick to volunteer. Word of the morning's incident had obviously reached most of the student body. It left a sour feeling in my gut.

An 'I'll do it!' came from the audience suddenly. Soul was on his feet with his left hand in the air.

"That's fine, come down to the floor." Stein announced. He stepped back to his desk, half-sitting on the corner nearest to me.

Soul climbed over the back of his bench, strolled down the steps, and joined us on the lecture room floor.

I sauntered over to him, less than enthusiastic about his willingness to help. I talked quietly over his left shoulder. "You should have left Stein pick someone from the audience. This might reflect badly on you."

Soul shook his head in confidence. "As a Weapon it won't reflect badly on me. I'm really no more than human in this form.

I scowled. "That's the part that worries me. I'll have to take it easy on you."

"It's alright, I'm just thinking of it as one of the games we used to play."

"We played that outdoors, Soul. I'm going to end up hurting you if we do this inside."

Stein coughed politely into his left fist. "Can we continue please?"

Soul flashed a cocky smile. "Don't worry about it. At least I know what's coming."

"Hmph." I grinned at him. "It's your funeral, cousin."

Soul stood his ground and nodded. "Try tossing me to the back of the room, it'll hurt less."

"Alright." I stepped a dozen feet away from him, and we turned to face each other.

I stretched out my right arm and a four-foot long bronze-colored staff began to form in my hand with a shimmer. I could extra care and time to produce what I planned to use a weapon this time – the only point of the exercise was to show off some of my abilities. As it reached my desired length, the bottom end grew sharp – to a point. At its head the staff shimmered and produced a five inch ring, after which five smaller golden rings hung from.

Stein's voice carried over the noise in my ears. "A version of the shakujo. The staff of Buddhist monks who fight only when necessary and a supposed weapon of peace…"

I shook the staff in my hand, and it finished solidifying.

Stein continued. "Here used in a delayed front-line attack."

I charged at Soul and swung at his chest. He put up his arm in reaction. I flipped around behind his back and brought the staff down on his shoulder. He didn't flinch. I spun clockwise in place, and brought it down on his other shoulder. I crouched down slightly, trying to assume what was coming. Soul turned clockwise this time, instinctively trying to punch me with his left fist. I smacked his fist with the staff, letting them collide. He pulled his fist back to punch a second time, and I jammed the staff into his gut. It had little injurious effect.

I looked up at him. "That's five." I whispered.

He gave a quick nod, and started to pull back. I crouched down and pushed myself off of he floor, allowing me to jump back. I stuck out my right arm and the shakujo, forcing it to grow to six feet. I spun it five times in my hand and clutched it hard again.

The thought that I needed to worry about aiming raddled about in my brain.

I was backwards from the position I wanted to be in, with the rows of lecture seats to my right, and the front of the room at my left. I had no choice but to toss him like a lure. I flipped the top half of the staff into my left hand, and pulled it half-way behind my back. It limited my ability to see where I would toss him, so I hoped I could shoot him far enough to pass him over the students in that corner. I ripped the staff back forward, pointing it in the direction Soul was standing – or had been standing. He was lifted off his feet and was tossed like he had been attached to an oversized fishing rod, and crashed in the back row of lecture seats with a thunderous noise.

I looked up at the students. Several of the students screamed, and there was a moment of panic in the room. Only a few sat quietly and even fewer continued to watch me.

Kid was one of those few; his gold eyes were obvious to me.

"Settle down! Settle down!" Stein shouted, trying to rein in the confusion. "Is he okay?"

Soul climbed out from under the row of confused students and stood at the back of the room. "I'm good!" He announced, and pounded his chest twice with his right fist.

The talk of the class ranged from "show off" to "monster" and started to filter down to me now that people were aware no one was hurt.

I figured I had made more enemies than friends, and it was only day one.

Stein gave up trying to control the lecture. "Alright, class dismissed!" He yelled over the chorus of voices.

Suddenly I was inundated by more than a dozen people, all chattering at one. The questions varied from "what was my Weapon?" to "was I looking for a partner?" to "where was I staying in Death City?"

"Can't you make two staffs at once?" I heard from directly behind me, picking out a voice I recognized from the crowd.

I turned and found Kid, Soul, and Maka behind me. Liz and Patty loitered behind Kid. Maka rocked on her heels and watched the floor. Soul was trying to get rid of our lecture mates and their questions, with little affect.

I blinked and looked up at him. I realized then he was almost a foot taller than me. "Yeah, but Soul's not that large, so it wasn't necessary. Why would I overextend myself and try to hurt my cousin in the process?"

"It just seems like one in each hand would be more appropriate." He stated, and it seemed to be with simplicity in mind.

Maka eyed Kid wearily, and then looked back at me with soft eyes. "Here it comes."

Kid ignored her comment, lost in his own thoughts. "And five rings? Couldn't you do six? That's a nice even number." He paused and thought for a moment, putting his right hand to his chin. "Maybe even eight for some extra symmetry." His mind appeared to be far from the lecture hall at the moment.

Soul tuned into the conversation at hand, and made the sound of someone choking on a laugh. "I was waiting for this."

I stared at Kid in confusion. "I don't get it. Do you have gripe with my abilities?"

Maka moved to my left, with her arms behind her back. I turned to her. "Kid…has some issues with…things being organized." She emphasized her words to get her point across.

His attention returned, and he injected drama into his explanation with hand gesticulations. "No! Not organized! Just…I think symmetry is important. Things should be even on both sides in this instance. Perfection is important in this instance."

Liz rolled her dark blue eyes. "More like all instances." She muttered, and crossed her thin, tanned arms across her chest.

A moment of silence passed between us.

I blinked and looked at Kid intently. I had a sudden, simple answer to the issue. "You're neurotic about this symmetry thing, aren't you?" I stated flatly.

Kid's embarrassment showed in his face. "It's not intentional…" He explained quietly. The words seemed caught in his throat, and his gaze shifted to the side.

"Ohh… I get it, you're obsessive-compulsive." I stated, simply calling back my school days and education.

When I realized how rude I had made it sound, it was too late to take it back. I opened my mouth to say anything that might make me seem less like a shrew, but I didn't have a chance.

Kid simply stared at me, his gaze unfocused.

Soul stepped to my right, put his left around my shoulders, and sighed. "Come on. I think you've given Kid enough emotional muck to wallow in for the moment." Soul pulled me away and started to usher me out of the lecture hall. Maka tagged along silently behind us.

I looked back over my shoulder, but Kid hadn't moved. He had his hands stuffed into his pants pockets and he stared at the floor. His gaze still seemed far off, and he wasn't even conscious of the little blond Patty pulling on his right arm.

I looked at Soul as we exited the room. "That came out wrong; I should go back and apologize."

He held the door for me and shook his head. "Oh, no, it's not what you said…it's the fact that you're right that really bothers him."

I tried to take a step back. "But…"

Soul pulled my arm, taking a firm stance for once. "You'll get your chance, don't worry. We need to get you settled in the apartment first."