Ch 4
Mim reached her training spot earlier than normal thanks to the shortened run and extra energy from an actual breakfast and began her usual routine of various muscle building exercises.
"You know, if you asked i would have came here and trained with you" a familiar voice said from several feet away.
Stein had been without experiment since he was reassigned from Spirit to Mim and the itch in his hands had began to cause nervousness and insomnia. At this point it consumed his thoughts and the only thing that distracted him from it was the after school training sessions with Mim. His withdrawal induced insomnia had lead him to the school gardens where he train with Mim hoping to find some peace there, but was surprised when her found her there too.
Mim ungracefully fell from the tree branch and landed on her back. She looked over to see Stein Smirking against a tree. He walked over to her and offered his hand. She declined and pulled herself up.
"Why do you train so much anyway? Your a weapon, you don't exactly need to be able to hold your own in a fight"
She grabbed her water bottle from a nearby tree and drank from it slowly. Avoiding his questions.
"The not talking thing make it hard to grow as a pair." He stated matter-of-factly.
"You don't show up to school on time to begin with" She struggled to say as she did her 38th pull up.
"What?" The itch in his hands was beginning to fade
"You said 'if you asked i would've came here and trained with you' you don't show up to school on time anyway so why would you show up early to stand there and yell weapon names at me like you do after school when we train?" She didn't think as the words came out of her mouth and she immediately regretted the out of character statement.
"Progress, this is good. Youre talking, say more things. Why do you train so much?"
She went back to silents and focused on her hands and the bark of the tree.
Stein walked closer to the tree she was using and leaded against the trunk "one step forward two steps back."
"Spirit doesn't think i have to work to get to wear i am"
"And why would he think that" He watched as she climbed up several branches until she was near the top.
"Time me" she dropped a stopwatch to him from her perch. "i didn't almost kill the cat by turning into my weapon form 'cause it scared me. Ive always been able to control it."
"Go!" he shouted and watched as she hopped from tree to tree collecting flags that he assumed she had placed earlier. "Even as a child? Thats highly unlikely, weapons are very volatile when their children."
She was too busy collecting the flags to respond. So instead he just sat back and watched after a few more seconds she dropped down in front of him with a hand full of flags, picked up the stopwatch that was hanging around his neck and hit the stop button.
"Three minutes twenty-four seconds" she panted " Not fast enough"
"I was volatile as a child but it had nothing to do with me being a weapon it was more about my soul." She said while grabbing her water bottle again.
"What do you mean your soul was volatile?" He asked, his curiosity peaked
She simply shrugged her shoulders.
"Do you do this every day?" The itch that Stein had been working so hard at ignoring began pushing its way back into his mind, with the new information about his partner.
"Yes" She swung her legs over a branch and began doing sit ups.
"and before it you run eight miles?" He pulled out a carton of cigarettes in hope of soothing one addiction with another.
"Today it was four mom made me late" she panted
"But most days its Eight?"
"Yes"her answer was slightly quieter. He could tell she sensed the change in his soul.
"And then you train with me after school?"He opened the carton and pulled out a cigarette
"yes" Quieter still.
"Then a ten mile run home?" he put the cigarette to his lips and lit it
"yes" her voice was a whisper at this point
"You'll kill yourself before we ever get an assignment."He took a long drag from it, but rather than soothe the need to cut the small girl open, it fueled it.
Mim quickly and significantly more gracefully dropped down from the tree in front of Stein.
"I could say the same to you" she mumbled as she took the cancer from his mouth. Her voice was somehow different. Instead of being the whisper of a frightened child it was that of a sly killer trying to scare its latest victim.
"They'll kill me slowly, exhaustion could stop your heart tomorrow." he was slightly agitated at the absence of the cigarette . "But I'll stop it today if you don't give that back."
She laughed. " I believe you told spirit 'I would never kill my new partner'" she whispered as she jumped away from his attempt at grabbing at her. She needed to be dissected
"I'll make it look like an accident" his vision started going dark.
"You'll have to catch me first" her tone was dark as if she was trying to tempt him to kill her.
He continuously lunged at her forgetting about the cigarette at this point he just wanted to cut into her flesh. "I'll cut open your chest" his voice was laced with insanity "and pull out your heart." He let out a dark chuckle "then you can watch it beat as you slowly die" His soul was unstable with madness.
The dark parts of Mims soul recognised that her partner had lost control and were now fighting their way to the surface of Mims soul. Her dodging became less precise and more playful. Her dark laughter filled the air "you say that because you feed off of the fear of other people" She no longer was trying to dodge him she was toying with him "But i don't fear you" She whispered in his ear. "I don't fear anything" she spun around him avoiding his grab. Her eyes were glowing as both of her arms turned into blades and she started swinging at him.
Stein had managed to regain some control as his own fear began to kick in. Her soul had gone from a shining gold to an evil red.
"Mim?" he tried to get the normal Mim back. Everything she had ever said to him raced through his mind in desperate attempt to stop her swings. His mind flashed to the first time they matched wavelengths and how her normally unstable and nervous soul had become confident and stable. Looking at her soul now it was neither nervous or confident, but it had retained its instability and stein hopped he could tap into that.
In the midst of thought Mim had caught him and had him pinned against a tree, one of her blades against his neck. "I'll cut open your chest" She drew a line down his chest. Stein hissed as red immediately began to show "and cut out your heart" She was mocking cut a little deeper when she passed over his heart. "Then you can watch it beat as you slowly die" She continued her manic giggling and cutting of stein.
"I don't fear anything" Stein said confidently Mocking the girl as he Matched wavelengths with the crazed girl.
Her eyes widened and then shut tightly as she screamed in pain. Stein watched has her soul changed rapidly back to it natural state and the girl started to fall, but Sein quickly caught her. Her arms both changed back to normal and Stein watched as the cuts that she caused on his body slowly began to disappear.
"You might turn out to be more trouble than you're worth," he said as he carried her toward the dispensary.
High above the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence a witch with snake tattoos sat on a broomstick. next to her a thin girl with gold eyes and red hair pulled back in a messy braid, the witches face held a smirk while the the girls held nothingness.
"Nearly 15 years of training all leading up to this" The witch was beaming with excitement "We finally get to see what the brat can do"
"Not a brat" the girl mumbled from next to the witch.
"what was that? The mute actually talks?" She mocked. She knew the girl wouldn't fight back. Nearly 15 years, a natural shyness and a weakness made the girl completely complacent to the witch.
Far below in the church a child stood surrounded my people
"Thats not...i'm still not good enough...but a kishin is nothing like this" the nervous child said from its position in the center of the church
"who's he talking to" there was a murmur from the crowd around him
"I'm a demon God!"The child's voice went dark.
"Don't come to our headquarters and then think you can just go home brat!" A man from the crowd yelled.
"The church of Santa Maria Novella is a public place, even though there isnt a place for people like you anywhere. Which is why Ragnarok will eat you for me. Right? Hey? Ragnarok!"
A grumble came from the childs weapon followed by a loud scream
More murmurs came from the crowd of people
" The doors in this church open inward don't they? and my blood is black"
The souls from the men in the room began to float from the bodies of the men to the childs sword.
From above the church a girl with gold eyes watched as the lives of people she once sworn to protect, were taken.
"Thats disgusting. How come only you guys get to kill as much as you want!?" A fat man with a bag over his head yelled at a determined Maka Albarn.
"its not like we're doing whatever we want" She smiled "With this, we've done our extra assignment." With that the man was dead and Soul was eating his soul "Hey soul? Do souls taste good?"
"Yeah they're good, they don't really have much flavor, but the texture, especially when its in your throat. Mmmmm" He quickly gulped his soul "Anyway we should get going. Wait at the entrance i'll pull the bike around"
"Wait, Soul." Maka stopped him before he could leave
"Is something up?"
"That church, The soul reaction from a weapon and technician are coming from that church along with 50 or so human souls, it feels like they're surrounding them." Soul could tell she was concentrating "The humans are probably the Materazzi that run around the church every night, but they aren't bad enough to make lord Deaths list."
"You might as well leave it alone"
"Don't be so irresponsible! We can't let it go. Its giving me a bad feeling"
"Alright, fine. But if Black*Star has jusr gathered people for some 'Big Show' I'll cry" Soul said sarcastically.
"I hope its just that"
A girl with gold eyes watched as the pair approached the Church. Please don't go in, just turn around and leave. Please, She thought. Girl on the ground began running towards the door. She stopped before it.
"Remember what i said Medusa, my family is off limits. I'll help you burn the world down but him and my family will not be hurt." The golden-eyed girl reminded the witch.
"Yes of course i remember our stupid little deal"
The girls soul began to flare. "I'm serious"
"You would really give our position away to the enemy to prove a point"
"I'll do more than that if she ges hurt,"
"She won't get hurt, relax. and go back to being mute, you're annoying when you talk."
The girl struggled to relax as she watched the pair push the doors to the church inward and walk through.