Chapter 4 Girl in the City
Maka woke to a bird's song. As she opened her eyes she saw where it came from. A beautiful desert bird, she had never seen so many colors on one creature. The bird started to sing again. "Chirp whistles SQUAK!" Bird went flying as if hit by a rock.
"Ha-Ha!" Ches jumped with joy "finally got the damn thing"
Maka shot up from where she was sleeping. Her eyes were wide staring at Ches.
"What it was just a mud ball? I hate birds. It woke me up like three hours ago." Ches shrugged.
The bird was flying away still singing. Maka sighed and got up walking to the oasis's spring to freshen up.
As she fixed her hair Soul looked through their supplies for food having found some started to set up for breakfast. Ches was washing the mud off his hands downstream from Maka.
"Ok so does everyone know the plan?" Maka asked as they ate.
"What plan? I thought we agreed that there wasn't a plan." Soul said around an energy bar.
"No Soul I just meant we don't have an actual plan for the fight. So I guess I will run it through for you two. First of all we will enter the city from the main doc. The surviving scouts said that our target couldn't get past the farthest building and onto the docs. Then sticking together we will search the city for her. Got it?"
"All right Maka. To summarize your plan, just stick together." Soul sarcastically commented.
"exactly." Maka said cheerful that he understood. "We don't want to be ambushed."
As soon as they finished their breakfast and packed they started to head to the city. The sun was in the center of the sky.
When they got to the end of the doc Maka who was leading them stopped to collect herself. Soul and Ches were standing behind her.
"Hey, Maka" Ches piped up.
"Yes Ches." Maka acknowledged.
"I think me and Soul should go ahead and transform into weapon form. You said yourself that the girl can sense whenever someone is near her, but that doesn't necessarily mean we will see her at the same time. For all we know her sense could expand across the entire town. She could know where we are at this very moment." Ches explained.
Maka thought it over for a second. "Ok, Soul turn into a scythe."
"Gotcha" Soul braced himself. His body started to glow, leaping into the air while transforming, and landed snuggly into Maka's hand.
Ches flicked his arms down the outside of them glowing. The light shattered off his arms revealing that his left hand covered by a metal slab that bent at a ninety degree angle over his knuckles, the metal expanded to his elbow. On his right arm, stretching from his elbow past his head was another metal slab expanding past his head.
Maka stared at the slabs of metal trying to figure out what kind of weapon they could be a part of. From what she could tell there wasn't a blade, no hole for shooting projectiles, or any real way to use them to fight except maybe to punch with his left hand. The problem was he was right handed she knew this form seeing him drawing on the train. She shrugged "He must be capable enough or Lord Death wouldn't have sent him with us."
She took a deep breath turning toward metal armed boy nodding at him, and he nodded back. They both took a step past the invisible wall the two buildings made that kept the proto-Kishin inside.
Five hours later the scythe wielding girl and the boy with metal blocks on his arms were still searching for their assigned target. The town was in shambles. Lamp posts where cut down, craters filled the streets, all windows at ground level were shattered, and everything that wasn't cut was bashed to a dim remembrance of what it was before.
"What could have caused this?" Maka asked herself shaking her head.
"Well duh Maka. Someone who is very close to becoming a Kishin." Soul said from within the blade of the scythe.
"No Soul, look at the kind of damage. I meant what kind of weapon. The entire town is cut up or bashed in. that means the weapon uses both a blade and a dull edge." Maka said looking into the blade at her friend. She turned to Ches hoping for some kind of insight. He just shrugged.
Sighing Maka kept on walking. The sun was setting.
Finally after checking the entire city and getting frustrated the group decided to head back to city hall to work their way outwards from the center of the city while searching.
When they got to the street facing the building it was dark out. Turning towards the building the moon looked to be trying to hide behind the steeple of the central building, there was a girl sitting on the steps shivering in the chill of the night. Her clothes were torn apart and covered in mud. The right sleeve of her sweat shirt was completely gone, her formally short hair was blocked the view of her eyes because of her dipped head.
Maka seeing her condition ran forwards hoping to help the distraught girl.
"Are you ok? How did you survive?" Maka asked as she approached.
"MAKA!" Ches shouted from behind her.
Maka slowed but didn't stop slowly turning towards the boy, and saw his face. It was contorted with pain, he looked like he was about to puke and bruises were rapidly spreading and healing across his face.
The girl on the steps stood up head still bent down. Tears were now flowing off her nose. Maka slowly turned back to face her.
A large black blade with hints of green swirls now expanded off of her right forearm tapping the ground beside her feet. Her head snapped up revealing eyes bloodshot from tears which were still flowing.
"GO AWAY!" The broken girl leaped towards Maka.