Rhya sat quietly in class, fidgeting once and awhile. The awkward note that Shun had left on had made her edgy, but she tried not to think about it. After all, the more she dwelled, the more it'd fester, and then..
She shook her head clear. She couldn't think about the madness. Thinking about it always made it worse. Just relax, breathe, think about kittens and foxes and those adorable little hedgehogs-
"Hey, Rhya." Scar exclaimed, shattering Rhya's image of a hedgehog wearing a tiny hat. Rhya pouted a bit, looking up at Scar. Part of her bangs covered her left eye, but she flipped it out, revealing a dark purple eye. It was a sharp contrast compared to her light blue eye. Rhya couldn't help but stare at them. Usually she's uncomfortable looking into peoples eyes, them being gateways to the soul and all, but she couldn't help but wonder why they were two different colors. Scar smiled.
"Wanna know why they're two different colors?" Scar asked, grinning widely. Rhya snapped out of her trance, starting to stammer.
"W-Well it was just- they're so different- I couldn't-" Rhya tried to explain, tripping over her words. Scarlett laughed, patting Rhya's shoulder.
"Don't worry, I'm not mad." Scar soothed, grinning wider. "I have this little bet. Anyone who beats me in a battle can know why my eyes are two different colors." Rhya looked at Scar, almost wondering if she was joking. Scar's face was warm and kind, but showed no signs of humor. Rhya looked around.
"Is fighting allowed? I'm not sure if we can do that-" Rhya tried to reply, but Scar interrupted.
"Its fine as long as a teacher watches." Scar assured. "At Shibusen, people fight all the time. Hell, I got in a fight around an hour ago. Of course, I won." Scar smiled again. "So, what do you say?" Rhya sighed and looked up at Shun. He was fast asleep at his desk, slightly snoring.
"Hey, Shun." Rhya called. No response. She tried again, only louder. Still no response. Rhya sighed, stood up, and walked over to his desk. Using all of her might, she slapped down on the desk.
"Awaken stone dragon!" She bellowed. Suddenly Shun shot up, a sleepy expression still on his face. He looked up at Rhya, slowly waving his hand. Rhya sighed impatiently.
"Hey, a wild Scarlett wants to battle. Do you want to accept?" Rhya explained. It didn't even take Shun a second to grin and nod.
"Hell yeah." Shun exclaimed. "Hell, after yesterday, I don't think even the legendary Scar can defeat us." Rhya smiled confidently as Scarlett laughed.
"Don't get ahead of yourselves." Scar teased. "We haven't even gotten outside." Rhya turned around.
"We don't need to. We could finish this in here." Rhya teased back. Myrady howled in the background.
"Dude, Angels is battling Scar!" Julia called. The whole class erupted into a frenzy of calls and cheers. Scar rolled her eyes as Kaido stood up and stretched.
"C'mon, lets get this over with already." He muttered, stretching his arm out. Soul, who had just entered the room, groaned.
"Really Scar? AGAIN?" Soul complained. Scarlett laughed, her hair flipping around a bit.
"C'mon, Evans. Aren't you interested in seeing what the new girl can do?" Scar asked, holding her hand out to Rhya as if to present her. Soul scrunched his face, almost in thought, then shrugged.
"Eh, you've got me there." Evans muttered to himself. The then cleared his throat and waved his hand in the air, beckoning the class out the door. "Ok, c'mon, the sooner we do this the sooner we can get to class." The class cheered, excited for what was about to unfold. Scarlett looked at Rhya, smiled, and walked away, her posture calm and confident. Rhya smiled a bit, then followed her, Shun following close behind. It's been a long time since she felt this headstrong.
Rhya and Kaido stood at opposite ends of the courtyard, panting heavily. Rhya could feel blood dripping down the side of her face where Kaido just barely nicked her, and on her arm where he had gouged a bit into her arm. However, Rhya got her share of hits too- She accidentally hit him in the jaw with her bo, but it left a mark, and he was struggling to stand after the many hits to the stomach. But Rhya wasn't sure how much longer she could outrun them, and Scar's black blades were already tipped red with blood.
"Rhya," Shun muttered under his breath. "This is going to sound a bit far fetched, but we need to resonate. I don't think we can beat them the way we are if they keep this up." Rhya nodded solemnly, and sighed.
"I guess this is as good as time as any..." Rhya muttered. "I don't know how to resonate." Shun, through the reflection of the bo, facepalmed most epically.
"You're almost a two-star tech...you were even able to channel your soul wavelength through me...but you don't know how to resonate?" Shun asked, hoping it was some sort of joke. Rhya laughed nervously.
"Well, um, no." She repeated. Shun sighed, almost irritated, then looked up.
"Here, I'll start. When you feel my soul wavelength, add part of yours to it and send it back to me. Its like channeling your wavelength to me." Shun explained. Rhya nodded nervously as Kaido dashed forward. Rhya squeaked, just barely blocking with the bo as Kaido lunged at her. One hand had sparks flying on it from the metal, but the other hand came up and swiped at Rhya. Luckily, it only caught the edge of her jacket, but Rhya was beginning to panic.
Your soul will be mine...
Suddenly she could feel Shun's soul wavelength, calmly wrapping around her soul. Immediately, without thinking, she added her own and sent it back at him. Soon, they were doing this repeatedly, the mass of power growing between them.
"Soul Resonance!"
A wave of energy emitted from the two of them, causing Kaido to fly back. He grunted, landing on his hands and jumping back up. He flew back at Rhya, his hand outstretched. His knives were once again sparking against the bo.
"Eins, zwei, drei."
Kaido's eyes widened as he jumped back, panic and confusion on his face.
"What are you doing?" He demanded. "Why haven't you resonated? Why is your bo still normal?" Rhya's face calmed, and she smiled, spinning Shun around gently.
"C'mon, its no fun if I tell you everything." Rhya taunted. Kaido growled, walking around Rhya, stalking like a cat. Suddenly, Rhya lunged at him, giving him only a split second to guard.
"Vier, funf, sechs."
"What the hell are you doing?" Kaido demanded, slashing with his other hand. The sparks flew on the bo as he attempted to overpower Rhya.
"Sieben, acht, neun,"
"Kaido, stop!" Scar exclaimed frantically. "Somethings not right!" Kaido looked at Scar, but a split second too late. Rhya spun the bo, causing Kaido's hands to become tangled with the flow of the bo, the two gloves separating from his hands and flying off as Kaido landed right on his ass.
"Zehn."
Scarlett landed in her weapon form, but it took her no time to transform into a human, running over to Kaido in panic.
"Kaido!" she exclaimed. Kaido groaned, starting to sit up. Scar looked at Rhya frantically, almost crazed. "What the hell did you do?" Rhya breathed heavily, falling to her knees.
"I think...I think I just sealed off your soul." Rhya muttered. Scarlett looked at her confused, almost furious, when Maka stepped in, squealing to herself.
"Oh my god, this is exciting!" Maka exclaimed. "I saw the whole thing. Don't worry, nothing is wrong with you or Kaido as far as I can see. But from what I saw, Rhya's Soul Resonance forces the bearer of ten blows to undergo soul protect." Rhya, Kaido, and Scarlett's eyes all widened.
"Soul Protect? The thing that witches use?" Scarlett panicked. "So...does that mean Rhya's a witch?" Maka shook her head.
"No, Rhya's not a witch." Maka replied. "That's just the ability of her soul resonance. When a soul's under soul protect, it can't use anything soul related. In the case of witches, they can't use their magic. In the case of meisters, however, it seems they can't use their weapon." Scarlett's eyes widened in panic.
"Can't use their weapons?" Scarlett exclaimed. "So I can't be Kaido's weapon? Or ANYONE'S weapon?" Maka looked over to Rhya. Rhya nodded. Although she had no idea what the soul resonance did, or what exactly its meaning meant, she knew how to reverse it. She stood up, slowly walked up to Scarlett, and rested the bo on her shoulder.
"Null." She whispered. Suddenly, it felt like a lid was lifted off Scarlett's soul. The soul protect was nullified.
"Ah! That's how to do it." Maka exclaimed. Scar looked over at Rhya, almost rabidly.
"You...you..." Scar muttered. Suddenly Kaido's arm wrapped around her shoulder. Scar's eyes widened as she looked over at Kaido. Despite his jaw being severely bruised, he was smiling.
"Calm down Scar." Kaido cooed. "You have to admit, this was fun. Its been awhile since we've had a fight like this." Scarlett began to protest, but she slumped down in defeat, pouting a bit.
"Bu..but..." she muttered. Kaido laughed and shook his head, looking up at Rhya.
"And...I'm pretty sure you'll want to visit the infirmary." Kaido remarked. Rhya blinked, realizing that blood was still pouring out of the small gash on her head. Kaido then looked at Scar again. "While we're there, Scar here can keep her word and tell you the story about her eyes." Scar blinked and looked up.
"Oh yeah...I totally forgot thats why we were fighting." Scar muttered. Rhya laughed, starting to sway. Shun quickly transformed out of weapon form, gently holding her up.
"I think we should take you up on that infirmary offer first.." Shun started. Kaido laughed a bit, Scar gently helping him up. Scar looked at Rhya seriously, then smiled.
"I have to admit, that was impressive." Scar replied. She held out her hand, calm and collected. "Good match?" Rhya blinked, confused for a moment, then took Scars hand. They shook hands as Kaido smirked.
"Welcome to the Spartoi, Rhya."
"Holy fudge buckets of magical testicles, this hurts..." Rhya groaned, grabbing onto her head. Shun gave out a dry laughed, patting down her hair.
"You'll be ok in a couple days. But until then, we're not getting into any more fights." Shun declared, standing up from his chair. Rhya pouted as he walked to the sink.
"But I finally learned how to resonate..." Rhya murmured. Scar blinked in astonishment.
"That was your first time resonating souls?" Scarlett asked, leaning forward in interest. Rhya bit her cheek and nodded.
"It just never really clicked with me." She replied, hugging her legs. Scar's eyes widened in astonishment.
"Wow. I never thought someone could get a soul resonance down that perfectly on the first try." Scar uttered in awe. Kaido closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. Shun returned with a glass of water, handing it to Rhya.
"So, will you tell us about your eyes?" Shun asked calmly. Scarlett's face suddenly turned solemn, and she held her hands together in her lap.
"W-well I don't remember much, but I'll explain what I can." Scar whispered. Rhya and Shun's faces turned serious, no touch of playfullness touching them. Scar nodded and began.
"I don't remember much. I have amnesia about my past. But from as early as I can remember, all I can remember is torture. Torture was my life. Torture for breakfast, torture for lunch, torture for dinner, and if I was unlucky, I would also have bursts of insanity visit me, dragging me into the darkest descent of madness.. I know for a fact that my parents died to an attack by a keishan. I don't remember how it happened, or when, but I just know that it happened. A group of people would torture me and ask me about my family, if any of them were witches, if they had weapon blood, and various things like that. They also asked some strange things too, but I can't remember..." Scar paused, holding her hand to her head, her eyes open, as if searching for the memories she had lost. She bit the inside of her cheek, then continued.
"You get the point. She was tortured." Kaido concluded, turning over in his bead. Scar blinked and looked at him, a little shocked. She shook her head, then turned back to Rhya and Shun.
"Like Kaido said, I was tortured. During the torture process, I lost my left eye." Scar said, showing them her deep purple eye. "But fortunately, Kaido here rescued me and brought me to Shibusen. Here, a man by the name of Stein managed to recreate a glass eye for me. He got the color wrong, but I don't mind. And...that's the story about my eyes." Scar shrugged a bit, trying to act nonchalant. Rhya looked down.
"That must've been terrible." Rhya murmured. Scar gave a sad smile and shrugged.
"Its whatever. That's not my life now." Scar replied. She blinked, then smiled widely. "Oh, I've totally forgot!" Scarlett ran over to her bag, opened it, fumbled around with it and returned with a small patch of the former Shinigami-sama's skull mask. Rhya blinked.
"What's that?" Rhya asked. Scar smiled, handing it to Rhya.
"That's your Spartoi badge." Scar explained. "You see, to enter the Spartoi, we have decided that the person should beat me in battle. Since we tend to be secret, we use the lure of my eyes to recruit people." Scar smiled, but Rhya and Shun merely sat there, stumped.
"But...what IS the Spartoi?" Rhya asked.
"The Sparoi is a group of Shibusen students whose main focus is to suppress witches and the kishin." A voice replied. Everyone turned around, to see Ran again, standing in the doorway. She looked over at Scarlett.
"I assume she beat you?" Ran asked, stepping into the room. Scarlett nodded obediently, showing her the patch.
"I was just about to give her the patch." Scar reported. Ran nodded, then looked over at Rhya.
"So, you're the new girl." She murmured. Rhya nodded seriously, looking Ran in the eye.
Ran shrugged, leaning on the side of the bed frame.
"Well, if you're going to join the Spartoi, you should know some things first." Ran determined. "First off, we are a completely private organization. No one knows about this. Not even the teachers. Although some of the teachers were part of the original Spartoi, like Soul and Maka, and even Death the Kidd, it was disbanded after the Kishin was disposed of. We have reinstated the Spartoi, however, to investigate the growing sense of madness that is seeping through the world." Rhya blinked.
"Growing madness? How do you know that the madness is growing?" Rhya asked, looking up at Ran in disbelief. Ran stood up, crossing her arms.
"For starters, one thing we learn at Shibusen is that people not on Kidd-sama's list are not to be killed." Ran explained. "That is because the people on Kidd-sama's list have succumbed to madness. So, it's only logical that the more madness there is in the world, the more people will be put on the list." Ran looked at Rhya from the corner of her eye, then continued explaining. "You've just got here, but for the people who've been here for a long time, there are more people than ever on Kidd-sama's list. We know for a fact that Kidd-sama, Evans, and the others at their level know about it. However, I don't think they know exactly how severe the madness is getting." Ran pointed to Scarlett. "Scar was tortured after her family was killed by the kishin. Although the kishin has been suppressed for years, and I'm sure its not a kishin, but whatever it was, it was well on its way to becoming one. You don't know him, but my partner, Keiran, his eyesight was taken away by the exact same group of people that tortured Scar. But they weren't as merciful. Each day, they'd scratch at his eye with a knife, slowly, painfully, laughing like maniacs as they did so." Ran bit her lip, gripping her hands into fists. "This is just a theory, but we have done some research over the last couple of years. There were reports of a clown that was weak after the first rise of Asura. He found residence in a man's body. The man went so mad, he scratched his very eyes out. We have almost undeniable proof that this man is the one who's recreating madness in the world."
"Wait, you don't mean the Mad Hatter, do you?" Rhya asked. Everyone suddenly looked at her, their eyes wide and confused. Rhya cleared her throat, and began to speak.
"The Mad Hatter was a story that the L.O.A loved to use. The story was about the very man who was pocessed by a clown. He went mad, scratched his eyes out, but here's the odd thing. He didn't try to eat people's souls. He merely tried to spread the madness that the clown had somehow produce. So really, he didn't try to hurt anyone, he just wanted everybody to be crazy with him." Rhya explained. "He was still killed on the spot, but the L.O.A used it as an example about what was right and wrong when it came to the madness. That the evil didn't have to come from violence." Ran nodded. Suddenly her eyes widened. "That witch...Ravenna...Her lacky said something about the Hatter! And using Chrona to get him!" Ran's eyes widened as everyone stared in disbelief.
"We just had a mission at the Witch's meeting yesterday night." Scarlett muttered. "That witch convinced Mabaa-sama to call off the death warrant for Chrona." Rhya bit her lip.
"Shit, this isn't good." Rhya mumbled. "We were training at the park and she came by. They were talking about how dumb the witches were for buying into the whole 'Chrona has amnesia' trick." Ran kicked the wall hard, leaving a gaping hole in its wake.
"That fucking witch!" Ran hissed. "She's not going to get away that easily." Ran walked to the doorway, addressing Scar and Kaido as she left. "Make sure you talk to Demetris. Meeting tonight, Julia's house. 11 sharp." Scar nodded, flipping out her cell phone. Rhya held her hand up.
"Wait, wait, wait a second!" Rhya exclaimed. Ran turned to her, her sharp blue eyes locked onto hers.
"Yes, Rhya?" Ran asked. Rhya bit her lip.
"What can I do to help?" Rhya asked. Shun made a shhing noise, but Ran merely smirked.
"Just show up to the meeting tonight. We'll explain everything then." Ran confirmed. "Welcome to the Spartoi, Aoyama."
Note from Undead Otaku: My only note-my back hurts from typing so long. Goooooood fudge buckets. No more staying up till 3 in the mornign typing.
Anywho, this is the start of the story! I'll be sure to submit at least one chapter a week, if not more. Please check in just to make sure when one comes in! Thank you all so much for reading.