Sorry for the delays. I was doing very important things. And by important things I mean I was marathoning Yu-Gi-Oh with my sister. VERY IMPORTANT THINGS. Also, my computer sort of ragequit so I sort of ragequit. Lost most of this chapter and my notes for the next arc, so that was a pain in the ass. Ah, well. All is right with the world again.
Also: Tempus Fugit has been viewed over 10,00 times. Where the hell are all you people coming from? Not that I'm complaining, or anything
To little101: Definitely the anime timeline. I'd considered making it a mix of both, but I eventually decided to just do anime continuity instead.
To SmolderingBlackRose: Ah, thank you! I know it's definitely possible for Alecto to have naturally pink hair (this is an anime, after all, and there is a precedent for pink hair with Kim) , but I thought it would add a little something if it was dyed. What that something is, I can't really explain without delving to deeply into spoilerish stuff. Not that her pink hair dye is totally 100% vital to the plot or anything, that would be kinda silly, but there are thematic and symbolic elements involved.
To MegglesGG: Thank you for the lovely review! ^v^. When I read that I inspired you, I had to sit back for a minute and turn into a giggly goofball. I'm also glad that things don't seem rushed; one of my biggest narrative pet peeves is when development that would have been really interesting is just sort of grazed over or blasted through at the speed of light.
Notes will be at the end of the chapter.
DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time.
Chapter Twenty-Nine - A Blooming Flower - Through the Looking Glass We Watch, Part 2
"I'm so sick of this garbage."
Sitting on the edge of one of the many stairs leading up to the Death Weapon Meister Academy, he spoke to himself carelessly, not caring about the new students who gave him odd looks as they passed. "What's even the point?" he mumbled. "Might as well just do quit trying and just do the whole thing myself." It's not like there wasn't any precedent for it; he'd heard about Justin Law, the boy who'd become a Death Scythe all by himself at the mere age of thirteen. He admired that skill and dedication, and the idea of achieving something similar was a very intriguing possibility.
He had to admit, though, that the odds of him being able to pull off something similar were pretty low. He could manage a partial transformation well enough where he could fight on his own, if need be, but his weapon form just wasn't optimal for that sort of thing. Damn it all.
Running a bronze-brown hand through his shaggy golden hair, he sighed. He was just sick of constantly being disappointed. First there was the unstable mess that was his life in the foster system, being shunted from house to house without ever finding a home, and now there was this. By his count, he'd gone through about a dozen potential partners by now, and not a single one of them had been capable of matching soul wavelengths with him. Lord Death had said it had been because of his "unusually unique wavelength," the same wavelength that allowed him to distort the flow of time around him.
Time distortion...
He closed his eyes, allowing his limited "sixth sense" to kick in. As monotonous as his NOT classes were, he had to admit that tapping into his wavelength like this was a lot tougher before them. He could feel time moving at a steady pace around him, like a gentle and stable breeze flowing over his soul. Reaching out with his wavelength, he took a firm hold of his personal area of time and pushed at it, urging it to move faster than the rest of time.
Tick.
He opened his eyes. Everything around him had shifted, not a lot but just enough to be noticeable. Students were making their way up the stairs at a slower pace than before, the sound of footsteps and gossip muffled by the temporal distance between him and the rest of the world. The gentle sensation had turned into a blustering wind. He took a deep breath, watching the world idly crawl past him. Twisting the fabric of time like this felt like nothing the fourteen-year-old boy had ever experienced before.
It was also incredibly exhausting. He could feel his wavelength trembling under the amount of energy it took to keep things the way they were, so he released his hold on time and allowed it to revert to its natural flow. Tock. He'd get better at it, he figured. It'd be like exercising a muscle. Soon keeping up the desynchronization for extended periods of time would be like second nature to him. Letting out another tired sigh, he leaning forward, fiddling with the loose threads at the hem of his argyle vest.
"Are you all right?"
An unfamiliar though cut through the pool of self-pity that he was drowning himself in. He looked up to see a tall, pretty Japanese girl standing over him, a concerned frown creasing her pale features. She looked to be somewhat older than him, with a long black ponytail and gentle dark blue eyes. On her chest (not that he was staring or anything, shut up) was a large rectangular pin with the word "WEAPON" emblazoned on it in bold black letters. She must be one of the new students, he thought. "I'm fine," he said. "Why do you ask?"
"You just looked kind of sad," the girl said, sitting on the step, right next to him. "Why are you just sitting here, anyway? Everyone else is heading up to the school."
"Yeah, all the new kids," he replied, idly chewing on a fingernail. "I'm not new, like you greenhorns all are. I've actually been here a while now. No pin, see?" He tapped on his chest before regarding his current conversation companion. "So, since you've clearly made yourself comfortable, we might as well get the awkward introductions out of the way. What's your name?"
"I'm Tsubaki." the girl said, offering a friendly smile along with her name. "What about you?"
Tsubaki, eh? That was a pretty name. Fitting, he supposed. "Temperance Giles," he said, leaning back and propping his elbows up on the step behind him in an attempt to look as casual as possible. "I'm a weapon here, a clockwork buckler spear. I don't mean to brag, but in my full form I'm pretty incredible." His unusual weapon form was just another indicator of how bizarre he was, but unlike his tricky soul wavelength, he considered being a buckler spear to be a positive thing in his books. He could provide defensive support without sacrificing any offensive capabilities.
"Really?" Tsubaki said. "Who's your partner?"
Oh, hell. He should have known this question was coming. "Don't have one, yet," Temperance said. "I've been having a bit of trouble tracking down someone who can match wavelengths with me." Noticing the hint of worry flickering across her face, he hastily added, "Don't you worry, though. I'm just a weirdo like that. I'm sure you'll have no trouble tracking down a good partner." Heck, a girl as pretty as her would have meisters practically begging to partner up with her. She'd be fine.
The relief on Tsubaki's face was palpable. "Oh, okay!" she said. "I'm sure you'll be fine, too. Everyone's supposed to have that one partner that they can resonate perfectly with, right?"
"Thanks," Temperance said. He only hoped she was right.
Before he could say anything more, a distant, unintelligible yelling cut through their conversation. "I wonder what that is?" Tsubaki said, turning her attention to the interruption.
Temperance grimaced. "Probably something stupid. Usually is." He got to his feet, shoving his hands into his pockets and shaking his bangs away from his face. "I gotta go. I've got a class in a few minutes, and I can't afford to be late." He couldn't imagine the mockery that would occur if he, a clockwork weapon, were to be anything less than perfectly punctual. "It was nice meeting you, Tsubaki."
Tsubaki nodded. "You too!" She jumped to her feet and resumed her climb up the stairs, most likely to see what the racket was about. Temperance watched her leave for a couple seconds before starting his own walk, reaching his soul wavelength out towards the flow of time once more.
Tick.
Tempus stared at the mirror, expression uncharacteristically somber as he observed the scene reflected in front of him. Tsubaki was still sitting on the ground with no signs of moving, her pale and slender hands loosely wrapped the hilt of the enchanted sword and her eyes closed. Black Star was sitting across from her, with the soles of his feet pressed against each other and his hands planted firmly on his knees. His cyan hair was stained with blood as he was beaten bloody by two villagers with large sticks.
He wondered why the villagers were so hostile to Black Star. A modest amount of hostility would have been understandable; Black Star had a way of inspiring wrath in people that they didn't even know existed, at least until you built up a tolerance to his nonsense. But these people... they were out for blood. He remembered how they had yelled something about "the Star Clan," referring to Black Star by his family name. Had the village been wronged by Black Star's family, whoever that was? Was that why they were so merciless with their brutality?
Tempus let out a derisive snort. He had no patience for this sort of "sins of the father" crap.
To his credit, on the other hand, Black Star was displaying a remarkable amount of patience himself, ignoring the two villagers even as they wailed on him. Tempus wouldn't have readily admitted it to anyone, but he was pretty impressed with the younger student.
Nearby, Lord Death echoed his thoughts with an amused chuckle. "Black Star is showing more restraint with those two than I thought was possible for him," he remarked. Tempus once swore that the day Black Star showed restraint would be the day pigs would fly, and even now his gaze was drifting upwards towards the windows in the sky, half expecting to see feathered swine float past.
"I can't believe Tsubaki and the enchanted sword are brother and sister," Maka said.
"But Black Star still has no idea about that, does he?" Soul guessed, turning to Lord Death.
Lord Death bobbed his head in agreement. "Mm-hm. He trusts her," he said. "And for now, that's all he needs to know."
Beside him, Tempus could sense Alecto shifting on her feet, her hair loose and disheveled from worry and her gaze turned downwards towards the thermos of tea in her ribbon-wrapped hands. Tempus didn't need to be synchronized to her soul wavelength to know exactly what she was thinking about.
It was pretty obvious to most people that Alecto was not exactly what you would call Black Star's number one fan. A few of the reasons why were pretty obvious: Alecto took her duties as a meister and weapons technician more seriously than anything (with the possible exception of maybe tea), whereas Black Star was careless and carefree, having not even gotten a single soul in all his time at the Academy. Not to mention, Black Star's obnoxious and raucous attitude was definitely at acquired taste, and Alecto had yet to acquire it. But there was also a reason that even Alecto herself wasn't consciously aware of, a reason that only Tempus had managed to decipher.
He'd had experiences with similar feelings, after all, and he knew a latent crush when he saw it. And he knew that latent crushes were really good at coloring your opinions of other people. He wouldn't call Alecto's disproportionate animosity towards Black Star "jealousy," exactly, but Alecto had made it pretty clear to him, even if she hadn't meant to, that she thought that Tsubaki deserved a better meister.
(Tempus didn't exactly agree on that front.)
While he was more than aware of the true underlying nature of Alecto's feelings for Tsubaki, he was also more than aware of the fact that she wasn't aware of it. And as someone who was familiar with both Alecto's stubbornness and coming to terms with one's bisexuality, he knew that she had to figure it out on her own. If he just cornered her and confronted her about it, she'd close herself completely off to facing the facts, like she had when Tempus had pointed out that her little mission with Kid had seemed very similar to a date.
Alecto was that sort of person.
Tempus drew his attention away from his meister and back from the matter at hand when Maka spoke, a concerned expression crossing her features. "Tsubaki isn't moving," she said. "Are you sure she's all right? What's she doing in there, anyway?"
"Well," Lord Death said, "you see, it's like this..." As he spoke, the mirror flickered and the image of Black Star and Tsubaki faded away, allowing the plane of glass to return to its reflective state and revealing Dr. Stein sitting on the steps of the Death Room's dais, with chopsticks in his mouth and a stitching-patterned bento box in his hand. Lord Death tilted his head upon seeing this. "Mm?"
Tempus's stomach rumbled a little at seeing the meal, and he pouted. Where'd he get that? His question was answered soon enough, as Liz and Patti jumped forward with bags of food in their hands and exclaimed in happy unison, "We brought snacks, everybody!"
Oh, thank every deity that was ever worshiped.
"Snacks at a time like this?!" Maka snapped. "What are you two ditzes thinking?"
"I'm thinking lunch," Tempus interjected, nearly skipping over to the Thompson sisters, who were crowding around Kid and debating who would get which miniature sandwich. "You ladies are angels," he said, "absolute angels, you know that?"
"You're laying it on pretty thick there, clockboy," Liz said, shoving a bottle of soda and a miniature sandwich into his hands. Tempus shrugged with an unapologetic half-grin and accepted the food. Taking a bite out of the sandwich (shredded turkey and cheddar, nice), he walked back to his spot besides Alecto before turning his attention back to Dr. Stein, who was beginning to speak as he tried to pick up a particularly obstinate dumpling with his chopsticks. "Let's see," he said. "How should I put this... To describe it simply, Tsubaki is engaged in a sort of soul Tug-of-War with the enchanted sword Masamune. As her brother makes his move to possess her soul, Tsubaki is countering by trying to absorb his. The struggle will continue until one soul defeats the other and wins."
Incredible, Tempus thought sincerely, awe filling his mind as he considered the implications of Stein's words. The battle between Tsubaki and Masamune was on a level that he couldn't even begin to comprehend.
"Tsubaki's using his own technique against him. Nice," Kid said appreciatively through a mouthful of lettuce-and-tomato sandwich. "But do you thing she has any chance of winning?"
"It will be difficult for her," Stein replied, finally managing to pinch the dumpling between his chopsticks and raising it up to his mouth. "It's the sword's soul, so he's got home court advantage. And soul possession is one of his trademark techniques. Yeah, altogether the chance that Tsubaki will win is low." Tick tock. Stein moved to devour his dumpling only to find that it wasn't there anymore.
Tempus blinked. He'd felt time get desynchronized and resynchronized, but he definitely hadn't been behind it. What did Ally do? He glanced over at his meister. She was standing in the same spot that she had been a moment ago, but her ribbon and thermos were now in her right hand, while her left hand was clenched into a fist in front of her. It was this fist that Alecto was now staring at with a blank look in her eyes, and Tempus was willing to bet that if he pried that hand open, he'd find the crushed remains of a dumpling.
"Brother and sister, locked in a fight to the death!" Liz sobbed, clinging to her younger sister. "I can't even imagine it! I couldn't go on living without you, Patti!"
"There, there."
Closing his bento box, with a decidedly blunt slam, Dr. Stein stood up, his back now turned to the group of worried students. "A person who chooses the path of the Kishin reveals his own weakness," he said. "The original Kishin sought power in order to escape the fear of death. Why has Tsubaki's brother chosen this path to power, I wonder? What does he seek to gain by becoming a Kishin?"
"Something tells me you already know the answer to all that," Soul said, his crimson eyes trained on the professor.
Stein nodded. "Tsubaki and Masamune both come from the Nakatsukasa family. That clan possesses special weapon abilities that are handed down through the generations. The previous generation's abilities should have been passed down to Masamune, as he was the eldest son. But instead..."
"They went to Tsubaki," Maka finished.
Tempus frowned. "So, it's jealousy that drives the enchanted sword?"
Stein nodded again. "For some reason, the power was given to Tsubaki. The only weapon abilities that Masamune inherited were those of the enchanted sword. No doubt, that's why he took the path he did."
Tempus's frown only deepened. I guess we've all got family baggage, he thought. Except for Alecto and Kid, really. It was times like this when he actually felt a little lucky to not have had to deal with that sort of thing as a child. Sure, he had to deal with a truckload of other things, but at least he didn't have a brother who was trying to kill him in a green-eyed rage. That was something.
Lord Death turned his attention back to the mirror and brought the image of Black
Star and Tsubaki back. It hadn't changed; Tsubaki's body was still kneeling on the ground, her soul was still locked in a battle with that of her brother's. Black Star was sitting on the ground next to her, silently allowing the villagers to beat the snot out of him. He propped his forearms up on Alecto's head (ignoring the noise of disapproval he garnered from his diminutive meister) and quietly nudged time out of sync. Tick. "So," he said. "What do you think about all of this, Ally? You've been pretty quiet lately."
Alecto took a sip of her tea, her expression stern. "She's going to win," she stated matter-of-factly. "She needs to. There's nothing else to say besides that."
"Really?" Tempus said. "That's it? No comment about how you wish you were there, or how cathartic it is to see Black Star getting what for like that? Not even a little bit of Latin snark? I'm almost disappointed."
"This isn't the time for jokes, Tempus," Alecto snapped. "And... it's not cathartic, watching Black Star like this. It's... it's unpleasant."
"You didn't think it was so unpleasant when it was Kid kicking his ass."
"The circumstances were entirely different, then. And, well... maybe I was wrong, back then," Alecto admitted. "Maybe he's not the jerk I thought he was. But even if I'm wrong now and he is a first class stulte with his head so big it can barely fit on his shoulders, that doesn't mean I'm enjoying any of this." She wiped her left hand on the sleeve of her jacket (so she had swiped Stein's dumpling) and swatted at Tempus's arms, which were still resting on her head. "Now quit that."
Huh. That wasn't the answer he'd been expecting. Or maybe it was; she had been pretty obviously considering her opinions towards Black Star, so perhaps this was the only conclusion that could have been reached from this conversation. Then again, Alecto admitting that Black Star wasn't that big of a jackass wasn't something that anyone would expect. Aaand now I'm thinking myself in circles. Shit. Something conclusive needs to happen or else I'm going to go mad from all this waiting. Come on, Tsubaki, you can pull through this... Tempus moved away from Alecto to stand at his previous spot to her left. Tock.
It turned out that something was happening, though wasn't very conclusive. One of the villagers, a young boy with a snotty nose and a closely-shaved head, had finally noticed that Tsubaki's current situation was not exactly what one would call usual. "Who's this woman?" he demanded. "She's been sitting there for a long time. You're with him, aren't you?" He addressed Tsubaki, and as to be expected, she didn't answer. "Well, you can get out of our village, too!"
He raised the bloody stick in his hand over his head, and Tempus involuntarily tensed up. Watching Black Star get beaten on was unpleasant enough at best. The idea of watching Tsubaki (who he happened to like a hell of a lot more than Black Star) suffer the same attacks, especially when she was too busy saving the lives of the villagers to even have the opportunity to defend herself, was far more bothersome. And, judging by the irate noise that Maka just made from the back of her throat and Liz's strained whisper of "Oh, no...", Tempus felt that he wasn't alone in that thought.
But while the villager boy had raised his stick up, he'd never had the chance to lower it, for Black Star was no longer sitting on the ground, patiently letting himself being beaten to a pulp. No, now he was standing directly behind the villager, having grabbed the stick and was now crushing it in his iron grip. "Listen, you little brat," he hissed, his voice dangerously quiet. "Don't even think about interrupting Tsubaki again, or I'll kill you!" The stick snapped, and the boy tumbled backwards to the ground. With a look of absolute fury on his face and blood pouring from the wounds on his head, Black Star looked more threatening than Tempus would have thought possible. "Just sit there and keep your mouth shut."
"Oh y-y-yeah?" the villager boy said, with obvious false bravado. "Well, s-screw you, Star Clan!" He threw the stick and Black Star's head and ran off, beyond the view provided by the mirror.
"I don't get it," Soul said, frowning. "Masamune's the one who's caused trouble for this village, right? Black Star's a pain in the ass, sure, but he's trying to help, so why are they so mad at him?"
"Their hatred of Black Star doesn't have anything to do with what he himself may or may not have done," Dr. Stein said, his voice reverting back to its usual barely-invested tone as he lit a cigarette and pinned it lightly between his lips as he spoke. "That village they're in is the Village of Needles. See those spikes on the rooftops?" He idly gestured to the mirror, and Tempus looked closer. Sure enough, the roofs of the buildings of the rural Japanese village were covered in large, thin spikes, placed haphazardly and pointing out in every direction possible. Dr. Stein continued. "Those spikes were placed there because thirteen years ago, that village was attacked by a family of assassins known as the Star Clan."
"Star Clan?" Maka repeated. "But that's-"
"Black Star's old family," Soul finished.
Stein nodded.
That's stupid, Tempus thought, scowling. Thirteen years ago, Black Star was a baby. Anyone who was even marginally perceptive would realize that he had nothing to do with what happened to that village. Even Alecto looked annoyed by that.
Black Star had dropped back to his position, sitting on the ground, and the villagers continued their pointless assault once more. Throughout all of this, Tsubaki had remained as still as a statue, the shadow marks on her face having not faded in the slightest. In fact, they seemed to have gotten sharper and darker, and maybe it was just Tempus's imagination, but if he looked hard enough, he thought that he could see them shifting slightly underneath her skin.
Maybe it's just the mirror image rippling, he thought, to calm the startled stutter of his heart. Yeah, that's gotta be it.
He couldn't quite convince himself of that.
Nothing happened. Nothing continued to happen. He knew that it was only a few minutes, but watching the scene stubbornly refuse to resolve made it feel like an eternity, or at least half of one. Even the mini sandwich the Liz had given him did nothing to quiet his frayed nerves. He almost wished that he had a ribbon to fiddle with, like Alecto.
"What's Tsubaki thinking, taking him on all alone?" Maka asked.
"He's her family," Tempus said in reply, shoving his hands in his pockets as he adressed the ash-blonde scythe meister. "I know if someone I considered family member became a Kishin Egg, I'd want to be the one to... deal with them." He glanced over at Alecto, who was staring at the mirror through blank eyes over the lid of the thermos of tea raised to her lips.
"It's still dangerous," Maka retorted. "What if she gets hurt? Or... or worse..." She trailed off, eyes downcast.
Behind them, Stein spoke. "Tsubaki is a power, adaptable weapon," he said. "She's very good at what she does, but this time her opponent is too strong. I should have been the one to face the enchanted sword."
"But she's not really alone," Soul said. As several pairs of eyes looked to him for clarification, he continued. "Black Star's sitting right next to her, and he won't budge. Tsubaki wouldn't be able to fight if he wasn't there with her, would she?"
Lord Death turned around to face the students, bobbing up and down in agreement. "Right. What's important now is what's in here." He placed one cartoonishly large hand over the left side of his chest, where his heart was. (At least, Tempus assumed that was where is heart was. He wasn't actually sure if Lord Death's body even followed Euclidean laws of geometry, him being a god and all.) "We all know that Tsubaki is an incredibly versatile weapon. She has many modes of attack to defeat an opponent. But that's not where her true strength lies. She carries that in her soul."
And it's that strength, Tempus thought, that makes her who she is. It's what makes her the kind, patient, powerful woman she is today. Lord Death's words had sparked inside him a renewed faith in his classmate. That strength is what's going to help her when this fight. It has to. For Tsubaki's sake. For ours.
He continued watching the mirror, waiting for the answer to his prayers.
For a few more minutes, the waiting continued. Then, something happened, something that caused everyone in the room to inhale sharply and lean a little bit forward in anticipation.
Tsubaki moved.
Her eyes still closed and the shadows still visible on her face, Tsubaki lifted her head, and for a split second Tempus's hopes soared. Upon notcing this, Black Star jumped to his feet, his attention directed solely towards his partner. "Tsubaki!"
Tsubaki's body began to change, paling and losing its solidity right before their eyes. She turned into a thin gray smoke, and disappeared into the enchanted sword.
Tempus's hopes shattered like a fragile snowglobe. No... No no no no... He stared up at the mirror, his horror keeping him frozen in place and unable to do anything more. Tick. Tock. He could feel time shift, and could no longer feel Alecto's presence next to him, but he couldn't turn to look. Every nerve, every muscle and bone in his body refused to obey his wish to turn away, to close his eyes and pretend that it wasn't happening.
Through the glass of the mirror, he could hear Black Star speak, the latter's voice breaking as he fell to his knees. "She's going inside the enchanted sword...? No, that can't be right. Did he beat Tsubaki? Does... does that mean it's over?"
It can't be over, Tempus thought. Tsubaki's my friend, damn it, she can't just die like that! He thought about when they first met, back when he was just Temperance Giles, the meisterless dork in the sweater vest, and how she'd come up to say hi to him for know other reason than that he looked a bit down. This was the same woman who had the mental fortitude and the infinite patience necessary to not only tolerate Black Star, but to enjoy his companionship, even during his more incorrigible moments. He couldn't think of a mean thing to say about her.
And now that kindness, that patience, was gone, and so was she.
"Tsubaki!" Maka let out an anguished cry. "No, I can't watch this! It can't be real!"
Black Star grabbed the stick that one of the villagers had been using to beat him bloody and wrenched it from the old man's grip, running over to the enchanted sword and crouching down beside it. "Hey, Tsubaki!" he said, prodding at the sword's ebony-black blade. "Come outta there already! You haven't lost to him, have you? You can put on a better show than that! Come back out on stage!" His prodding turned into increasingly desperate tapping, and his voice took on a note of uncharacteristic, pleading hysteria. "Encore. Encore! Tsubaki, encore! Give us an encore!"
Tempus finally managed to gather the strength to look away, wrenching his golden gaze from the scene unfolding in front of him and looking over at the rest of the Death Room instead. Alecto had long since bolted, leaving behind only a still-steaming thermos of tea. Everyone else was staring at the mirror with shell-shocked looks on their faces, with the exceptions of Lord Death, whose mask still retained its blank expression, and Dr. Stein, who was as inscrutable as ever.
He clenched his teeth together. Damn it... damn it, damn it. The possibility of a student dying was always there, however mitigated by the precautions that Lord Death took to ensure that students didn't go up against Kishin Eggs to powerful for them. But Tempus had never lost someone he'd known, someone he'd liked. He didn't know how to handle this.
"L-look," Liz said, her voice shaking. "Something's happening!"
Tempus reluctantly turned back to the mirror. A thick smoke had erupted from the enchanted sword's blade, knocking Black Star back a few feet and obscuring the weapon from view. A tall figure began to slowly, steadily emerge from the smoke... a tall, curvy figure...
No way...!
Tsubaki stepped into view, alive and well, with a small smile on her face. "See?" she said. "I came back. I just had to pay a visit to my brother."
Soul grinned widely, each of his sharp teeth showing. Liz let out a relieved sob and clung to her sister, who was busy trying to jump up and down as she whooped for joy. All of the tension left Tempus's muscles at once, and he fell back on his rear with a shaky laugh. God damn, Tsubaki. My friends really know how to give me a heart attack, I can say that much.
Speaking of people who were going to be the death of him... he glanced over at the thermos of tea, staring at it for a second before picking it up and getting to his feet. Someone needed to tell Alecto the good news, after all.
Tick.
Tock.
Finding Alecto wasn't hard, as she'd fallen to the floor just outside of the Death Room. Her carnation hair was an unkempt mess, with her ribbon tossed several feet away, no doubt in a fit of bereavement. Her knees pulled to her chest and her face buried in her arms, no doubt an attempt to muffle her shaky sobs. But she couldn't hide the shaking of her shoulders, and Tempus was always good at reading his meister.
"Hey, now," he said as lightly as he could muster, causing Alecto to flinch and look up at him through puffy eyes. "Don't go crying until someone's actually dead, all right?"
Alecto stared at him. "What the hell are you talking about?"
No sense in beating around the bush about good news. "Tsubaki's alive, Ally."
"Q-quid? But she... but the sword..."
"Has been dealt with," Tempus finished. "If you don't believe me, you can come see for yourself. But this isn't the sort of thing I would lie about, so you can trust me when I say that she is one hundred percent alive and well." He thought for a moment. "Black Star, on the other hand, might have a concussion, maybe. So there's that, I guess."
Alecto stared up at him for a few moments. Then a relieved smile broke out across her face, and she giggled. "Well, given how many times he was hit on the head, I'd say that 'maybe' isn't the qualifier I would use." She got to her feet, brushing her hair away from her face. "She's alive, then? You sure?"
"As sure as I am that you look like a freaking trainwreck." Tempus tossed Alecto's thermos of tea over to her, and she caught it with a deft hand and a roll of the eyes. "Come on, Ally. Get yourself cleaned up a bit, and then let's get back before anyone notices we're gone."
"They probably already have, Tempus."
Tempus frowned. "Oh. Well, then, let's get back in time to plausibly deny that we were ever gone in the first place, shall we?"
Alecto grinned. "All right. But if anyone confronts us, I'm telling them the truth and saying it was your idea."
"Eh, fair enough."
"Ah, hello, Miss Alecto! You're here awfully late today, aren't you?"
Alecto's cheeks turned a bit pink as she walked in through the door of Montalvo's Brews and Blends, the store from which she got all of her tea. The proprietor, an overweight Portugese man with thinning black hair and twinkling brown eyes by the name of Benigno Montalvo smiled at her from the front counter as she began to look through the various boxes of tea bags on sale. "Sorry," Alecto said. "I was held up a little back at the Academy."
She thought about Tsubaki and Black Star's return to the Academy. Tsubaki had inherited a new weapon form from her brother, the same black-bladed sword that he had used. It was undoubtedly a powerful form, but it apparently came with a downside; no sooner than a few seconds after Black Star and Tsubaki had shown it off, the former had collapsed, the strength completely drained from his body.
As Alecto picked over the available flavors of tea, she was aware of Montalvo watching her with a curious glint in his eyes. Finally, he chuckled and asked, "You look like a woman on a mission, Miss Alecto. You looking for a specific flavor of tea?"
"Sort of," Alecto said, picking up a box and peering at its label. A white tea, a blend of rooibos and peppermint. That didn't sound right at all. "I'm... I'm going to make a cup of apology tea. I misjudged an acquaintance of mine, and I want to make it up the best way I know how. He probably doesn't care, but I just… I just want to say sorry. But I'm not that good with words, so… tea." She put the box down and turned to Montalvo. "The problem is that I have know idea of tea he likes, so I have no idea what to get him."
"Hmm." A look of deep contemplation crossed Montalvo's face. "Well, you can tell a lot about a person by their favorite flavors of tea, so the inverse should be true as well. This acquaintance of yours, what is he like?"
"He's an obnoxious, hyperactive, and egotistical idiot who doesn't know the first thing about doing his job as a meister," Alecto said, her words a knee-jerk reaction to the question. After a second, she added hesitantly, "Okay, so maybe that last one isn't entirely fair. He's… loud, sure, but he's a good fight when it counts, and he cares more than I originally thought. In his own… unique… way."
"I see." Montalvo didn't look like he saw anything at all. "He's loud, you say? Hyperactive Sounds like the kind of tea that boy needs is something decaf, but if you're trying to apologize, that might send a bit of a mixed message. You should get him something strong, with a deep flavor. Have you considered dragonwell tea?"
"Dragonwell?" Alecto turned the suggestion over in her head. She did need to restock on that particular flavor, and dragonwell had a full flavor, not light like a citrus or white tea. Plus, anything that had the word "dragon" in it carried an air of power, and that was something she figured Black Star would get behind. "That sounds like an excellent idea," she said, searching through the teas until she found the flavor in question and brought a box of it over to the counter, along with the necessary amount of money. It was then that she noticed the reddish-pinkish flower in a vase on the counter. "Oh, is that from one of your florals?" In addition to selling tea, Montalvo also did some work as a florist.
Montalvo shook his head. "No," he said, ringing up the box of tea on his register. "That, my dear Miss Alecto, is a camellia blossom, also known as cháhuā, dongbaek-kkot, ortsubaki, depending on which East Asian language you're speaking."
Alecto looked up sharply, her black gaze boring into his. "Tsubaki?"
"That's right. It's a type of plant that grows in East Asia. One species of camellia is used to make tea, so I figured that it would be appropriate to put one up here." He regarded the plant with a fondness in his eyes. "It's not a very impressive flower, I'll admit. Doesn't even have a fragrance. But it is pretty, and without it I wouldn't be where I am." He handed the small box of dragonwell to Alecto, along with her change. "There you go, ma'am."
"Thank you." As Alecto turned to leave, weaving through the shelves of tea and flowers and reaching the door, she spoke. "You're wrong about that, though." She glanced over her shoulder back at Montalvo. "The tsubaki is one of the most impressive flowers I know."
Then she left, leaving a very confused Lusitanic behind.
A/N - Not much to say about this chapter, surprisingly enough. Except that we now know Tempus's full given name. So there's that. Also, confirmation of both Alecto and Tempus's sexuality. That is also a thing that was covered in this chapter.
Oh! The camellia-tea connection. I didn't actually plan for Alecto's love of tea to sort of symbolize her admiration of Tsubaki. That just sort of happened and I didn't figure it out until I was doing research for this arc. But hey, it's cool narrative layering, so I'm not complaining. :)
No Latin worth translating, this time. Don't worry, there will be plenty of Latin later.
Next chapter was supposed to be the start of an official arc, but my brain came up with brilliant idea of "Hey, you see this scene I'm planning out. This needs an intermission arc just for it." And my brain is much smarter than I am, so I'm following it's advice. Chapter thirty will be a one-chapter "intermission" arc, and will hopefully be up sooner than this. In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review!
- Diana "Nocte"
