Chapter 44 – Hard-line Plight

Sai Summers

Dawn broke unusually late for me, if for only due to my exhaustion. Sitting up I noticed not only was I alone, but there was a note on the pillow where Kid had been.

"That shirt won't last long in battle, so I've left you something more durable. I've also left you a few extra things to match your ribbons, and a new wallet for your student ID. You'll likely need it to…

The rest of the line was missing.

It's not like him to stop writing suddenly…

"This handwriting's a little messy for 'Mister Perfectionist.'" I said aloud, tossing the letter to the side.

Pulling myself up and off of the bed, I examined what he – or she, if my hunch was correct – had left for me. The wallet was standard issue brown leather, but it had the emblem of the Shinigami's family crest done in color, on the reverse. There was also a scarf that matched my hair ribbons, and a hair comb of purplish and black stones.

I sighed, a combination of happiness and frustration. "One of these day's I'll get you to stop randomly buying me things, Kid…"

I picked up the top and noticed it was form-fitting, and made from some sort of leather or hide. Done in black with thin-slit pockets on the chest, it has white pin-stripping and an embroidered Shinigami-sama mask. Even without having tried it on, I knew its lower hem couldn't possible fall lower than the top of my abdomen.

"What the heck is this, Kid?!" I yelled, even if no one heard.

***

I assumed everything would be quiet on a weekend-day at the school.

This turned out to be false.

Near the top of the Shibusen front steps, the sisters lounged. Liz had out a white nail file, and was perfecting her nails, while Patty swung backwards and forwards in place.

I blinked. "Liz, Patty, what are you still doing here?"

Liz looked up at me, and put the file in her lap. "Kid said we can't leave yet." She seemed tired and annoyed as rolled her eyes. "You know him; have to have all his ducks in a row before we can do anything."

Patty turned to her sister, looking perplexed. "Does that mean we're ducks, too?"

We both looked at Patty, but Liz answered. "Eh, it's just an expression." She sighed and thumbed over her left shoulder with her left hand. "Kid's over by the door if you're looking for him."

"Thanks." I stepped around Liz and started up the remained few steps.

Liz yelled from behind me, her voice cheery and pleasant. "Oh yeah, he picked those out himself, Sai!"

I turned and saw her waiving her right hand, downward.

Considering how short this top is, I kinda wonder where his mind is…

Kid was standing by the entrance to the school with his arms crossed against his chest, tapping his foot. There was irritation on his face.

"Hey." I said nonchalantly.

A moment passed without a response; his face looked tense, and his mind seemed severally occupied.

"Uh, Kid…you okay…?" I started.

"I needed to see Father before I left, but he's got visitors at the moment, it seems." He interrupted.

I was not surprised by his unabashed attitude. "Hmm."

He turned to me and smiled. "I'm pleasantly surprised to see you wearing what I left. You know, considering how you are about my gifting habits."

"Oh, be quiet. You're such a brat, sometimes." I felt embarrassment creeping in. "You know, I still wish you'd take a few days off."

Kid stepped in front of me, and I felt a shiver go through my spine. Even at this point, I felt nervous around him.

"I can't do that, you know. We've been through this." He sighed. "Eventually it won't be me jumping to order, but that'll be a long time." He scratched the back of his head with his left hand.

I eyed him, not finished with my annoyances. "Yes, but we haven't been through the fact that you got up and left this morning unannounced, and left me a half-written note."

As his arm fell to his side, his eyebrows rose. "What note?"

"Eh…" It then occurred to me whose handwriting it was, and I felt foolish. "Never mind."

His eyes narrowed and he looked toward the stairs.

Getting him upset wasn't my attention, so I steered the conversation and his attitude back towards myself. "I would have preferred if you had just woke me."

"I will next time." He stated. Kid looked absentminded, as he put his right hand to his chin and nodded. "Almost everything is symmetrical on you. Almost…"

Kid pulled the scarf I wore around, until it hung at the center of my chest. I smacked his hand in response. "It looks weird like that, looks like I'm wearing a tie." I affixed it so it hung on my right. "Consider it balancing out for the eye patch."

He looked nervous and stammered. "But…but…"

I held my right hand to his left cheek; he sighed quietly and shut his eyes for a long moment. "Relax, especially if you're going out on assignment. That nervousness is going to get you in trouble someday." I gently scolded.

There were footfalls behind us, but before I could turn, a woman's voice bellowed: "That kind of behavior is hardly appropriate for a school of learning."

I turned to find a moderately tall woman with short, cropped hair in a dark pant-suit looking at Kid and me in disapproval. She adjusted the thin-rimmed glasses she wore with her right hand, as if it would change the image.

When I realized she was staring, I finally remembered to drop my hand from Kid's face. He blinked and turned towards our eavesdropper finally.

Stein's voice came out from behind her. "I think it's alright, considering who they are." He affirmed, stepping out from being her, and standing at her right.

She frowned and it was a look that seemed fitting of her. "No student should be exempt to the rules of the institution!" She stated, turning to Stein.

Stein smiled and shrugged. "You act like you're personally offended. You don't even attend this school any more."

Any more…? Who is this chick…?

She pointed aggressively. "No one should be considered except from good morality."

He dropped his shoulders. "Azusa, is the scolding necessary? It's so early…" He whined.

She scoffed. "And you! What a fine example of leadership you portray, Stein-kun."

Stein half-smiled and exaggerated his words. "I'm hardly worried about the morality of those two…"

Why are we having this discussion then…?

I could see a diminutive woman with blondish-brown hair peak out from behind Azusa and wave. Her long, dark dress made her look even smaller. Under her hair I could see she had an eye patch, and I felt compelled to wave back. I'm under the impression I'd rather be talking to her at this point…

Azusa turned on me when she noticed I wasn't paying attention to her. "Is it true you spent the night as Shinigami-sama's house?" She questioned, adjusting her smart black-rimmed glasses on her face.

I looked back at her, aghast. "How the heck do you…"

Kid stepped in front of me, shielding me. "I'm not sure why that's any of your business, considering it was authorized by my Father." He kept his tone level, yet was trying to make a point, it seemed. "And….it's my house."

Her eyebrows rose. "How old are you again? You're only…"

Age seemed a touchy subject for Kid suddenly, and he balled his fists. "You're calling my age into question?"

Stein seemed to stifle a laugh at the thought of Azusa's age, and then coughed into his fist when the group turned to him. He then straightened his stature. "I'm glad you've come Sai, I was afraid you'd forgotten your doctor's appointment." His formalized speech made the situation appear staged – more so than it already was.

Kid turned back to me, and nodded.

I bit my lip and feigned foolishness as I stepped out from behind Kid. "Sorry Professor, I do tend to forget these things."

Azusa shot me a glance of annoyance as Stein and I left, and I purposefully smiled at her.

I followed Stein down the main corridor, and around a corner. Stein turned and glanced behind us for a brief moment and then looked at me. "Justin is missing as well." He muttered.

I could feel my brow furrow. "Was Justin the courier?"

"Either that, or he is simply missing as well." Stein appeared to be thinking hard on the matter. "By the sudden appearance of the other Deathscythes, I'll say he's just missing."

The term caught my ears. "That's who those women are?"

Stein's voice remained hushed. "Yes, the loud one is Yumi Azusa, and the smaller, quiet one is Marie Mjölnir. They attended Shibusen around the same time I and Spirit-sempai did. They're currently the heads for several anti-kishin forces overseas, in Shibusen's name."

I cocked my head to the right. "So they're here because Justin's missing?"

Stein seemed to be talking to hear himself talk. "I doubt that. I also doubt Shinigami-sama is even worried about him."

My shoulders dropped. "You've contradicted yourself, Professor."

Stein came to a stop outside of the door to the clinic, and he seemed to have a moment of realization. "Does seem like that, doesn't it?"

He's trying to hide something about Justin, I bet…

I took a seat on a wooden stool near the closest bed. "Did you really want me for an examination?"

Stein fished for something in his lap coat pocket. "Actually, yes, I wanted to take a look at your eye and see if there are any changes."

I pulled off the hair ribbons and comb, and yanked the eye patch over my head. I tossed everything but the eye patch on the bed behind me, and that I left in my lap. The light caused my eye to become sensitive, and I had trouble keeping it open. I ended up covering it with my left hand.

Stein pulled a pen light from his pocket. "Put your hand down, Sai."

I begrudging complied, and Stein flicked on the pen light.

I tried to distract myself from the light in my eye; it was blurred, but I could still sense it was there. "I'm still a little confused as to why anyone would steal a bunch of papers no one can read."

Stein's right eye twitched slightly as he continued to look at my eye. "I take it you've not done much of your homework lately."

"What's my poor study habits have to do with this?" I asked as Stein lowered the light.

Stein straightened himself, and fell back a step. "If Justin took them, he's gone north. But I am doubtful he did." He snapped the pen light off and placed it back into his right lab coat pocket. He walked to the medicine cabinet to my left, pulled open the doors, and appeared to be looking for something. "But I have been wrong before…."

A vibrating noise filled my ears, drowning out the rest of the Professor's words. I looked on the floor to see if I had kicked something metallic. The stool I sat on was made from wood, and the bed was too far for me to have kicked it.

He noticed me looking about and cocked his head to his left. "What's the matter?"

I frowned. "I hear something weird. Like whining or ringing."

Stein turned to look at me, and then went back to looking for something. "Let me know if it continues."

It continued to grow louder, until it began to hurt my head. I absentmindedly put the eye patch back on in order to kill off one of my discomforts.

"Uh, Professor…the noise..." I groaned, holding my head in my hands. I leaned over as far as I could on the stool, till nearly doubled over.

There was a distinct sound of a plastic pill bottle hitting the tile floor, and his voice sounded like an echo in background music. "I'll be there in a sec…"

Stein's voice was cut off by the sound of someone pounding or kicking at the clinic door. "Stein! Open the door!" The voice unusually loud, and was easily placed as belonging to Spirit. "Someone found Justin!"

As Stein went for the door, I knew the sound was coming from the other side of the door, and I shrieked for him not to open it. Or at least I thought I did. It was like trying to yell above a white noise background.

He made no indication of stopping, and pulled open the door.

The noise grew in decibels until it was resembled screeching, and was impossibly loud for the size room.

It's Justin, he's the noise…don't let him in! Something in him is screaming…!

Stein pulled the door open, and the noise suddenly ceased.

I released my head and blinked. Well, isn't that anticlimactic….it's like someone's messing with me…

Spirit was trying to hold up Justin under his left arm, and Justin's white and black robes were stained with splatters of ruby-red blood. He seemed paler than when he had first arrived in the Nevada desert from the north.

"Help me." Spirit panted, struggling under Justin's weight. "He's heavy."

Grabbing the stool and my tossed-aside belongings from the bed, I moved out of the way. Stein supported Justin on his left and Spirit on his right. They managed to pull him to the bed and push him over. It took both of them to hoist him into the bed, before Stein rolled him back onto his back.

Spirit wiped his brow with his black suit coat sleeve. "Whoo, you'd think he's got metal-lined robes or something. Weighs way more than…"

Ignoring Spirits complaints, Stein started shaking his right shoulder. "Justin! Justin, wake up!"

There was a loud, dry inhalation arose from him. The buzzing and whining started to blare again in my head, and I was stuck down to my knees by its suddenness. The stool clattered as it feel over, and I stopped my belongings in a pile next to the bed.

"Make it stop…make it stop!" I babbled, covering my ears, as if it would keep out the noise.

Stein turned abruptly to Spirit. "Get her out of here!" He yelled, pushing the lackadaisical Deathscythe towards me.

Since the inquiry into Kid's involvement with his supposed attack on me, I had remained wary of Spirit. If he was Maka's father, and Death-san's primary Weapon, he didn't seem above suspicion. I cowered down slightly, unaware of what other actions were taking place – all I wanted to do was avoid him.

The noise suddenly ceased again.

I put my hands down abruptly, and Spirit backed up a half-pace. "It stopped." I muttered.

"Probably because I sedated him." Stein popped the needle from a syringe off, and dropped it into a blue plastic kidney-shaped tray on the bed's nightstand. "If he's unconscious, you can't hear it, I'm guessing."

I tried to pull myself up from the floor, and I finally had to allow Spirit to assist me as I felt weak. "What is it?" I croaked, tired and confused.

Stein looked to be without kind answers. He reached under Justin's top robe, apparently looking for something. "The scream of souls consumed by a kishin. They're reaching out through him to you. Through…" Stein looked at his right palm, and then showed it to Spirit and I – it was covered in mixture of red and black congealed fluids "Through the black blood of a Demon God, himself."