"Guys, Maka and Soul asked us if we wanted to come with them on their next assignment."
I trotted up the aisle of classroom desks and sat down in the seat beside Mieko. He glanced up from his book momentarily before he continued reading. Ryoko tilted his head in the direction of my voice and opened one eye slightly, keeping his head down on the desk.
"We completed an assignment on our own, why do we have to team up with people now? Can't we just go on another solo assignment?" Ryoko complained.
"We could go on our own assignment, but why shouldn't we try teaming up with another meister and weapon? It's a new experience and for all we know it could be better. And besides, if we get into any trouble, they'll be there to help us out," I pointed out.
"Why Maka and Soul? Why can't it be Black Star and Tsubaki?" he challenged.
I shot him an exasperated look and rolled my eyes. "Black Star wouldn't let us do anything, you know that. He's always gotta be the center of attention. And though he may be very strong, he's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer," I responded.
"He's more like the dullest goddamn spoon in the cupboard, if you ask me," muttered Mieko. I couldn't help but crack an amused smirk at his remark.
Ryoko shrugged and closed his eyes once again, turning his head away from me. I groaned and threw my head back to stare up at the high ceiling dotted with circular fluorescent lights. Mieko gently closed his book and sat back in his seat, removing his reading glasses and setting them down on the wooden desktop.
"I'm fine with it. It's ultimately your decision, Crys," he remarked, "After all, you're the meister who does all the fighting. We're simply the weapons in training."
I gripped the handles of my maces tightly, the leather-coated metal digging into my palms and leaving uncomfortable indentations in my skin. I was very wary of my surroundings – something about the town didn't seem right to me. There was a sinking feeling in my stomach that I just couldn't shake ever since we had arrived in the eerie Connecticut ghost town, but I kept my mouth shut. I didn't want to make my weapons unnecessarily nervous, even though they could probably sense my soul's fearful wavelength.
"Are you okay? You seem really tense," Maka asked, her blonde brows crinkling in concern.
"I'm fine. We're still fairly new to this whole assignment thing, so I guess I'm a little jittery," I laughed nervously.
Maka flashed me a knowing smile. "Everything's gonna be fine. Just remember that Soul and I are right here with you guys if anything bad happens," she reassured me.
I nodded and smiled gratefully back at her, although her comforting words did nothing to soothe my nerves. I glanced around the deadly silent neighborhood, my eyes skimming across the tops of the old, rundown buildings for any signs of movement. We were told that the kishin egg should be dwelling in an abandoned factory, but other than that, we were given no further instruction. I wasn't too keen on wandering around cluelessly in an unknown town clear across the country, but we had no other choice.
My gaze flitted across a large brick building that had vines crawling up the front and busted out windows. The black letters that once displayed the name of the company were torn off with only an S, N, and Y remaining. The large smokestacks on the roof of the building were what really caught my attention. I stopped in my tracks and gently nudged Maka's arm with the hilt of my mace. She halted and turned to face me, a questioning look in her green eyes.
"That's a factory if I've ever seen one," I remarked, nodding up at the tall, abandoned building.
"No, no, no. I'm not fucking going in that building. That's just asking for something to attack us!" Ryoko exclaimed from his weapon form.
"That's exactly what we're doing, dumbass. We didn't travel all the way here to have a nice little chat," I responded sardonically, rolling my eyes.
"Shut up and let Maka concentrate. She might be able to see the kishin egg's soul if it's in there, unlike the rest of us talentless idiots," Mieko snapped.
"Watch who you're calling a talentless idiot," I warned.
Maka took a few steps closer to the building and squinted in concentration. Suspenseful silence overtook the entire group as we waited for our only meister with soul perception to see whether or not we had the right factory.
"It's definitely in there," she murmured after a few quiet moments, "I just can't pinpoint where. The wavelength is really weak, which means it's pretty distant. This place must be gigantic."
"Then let's get inside and start searching," I said impatiently. In one respect, I didn't want to start the assignment, but in another, I just wanted to get it over with. I knew if we didn't start searching while I had the tiniest shred of feigned courage, I would never be able to complete the assignment.
Maka pulled open one of the large metal doors, bits of concrete crumbling down upon our heads as she did so. The building was completely dark and extremely expansive on the inside. Machines lined the room with barely enough walking space, let alone space to fight without knocking into something. I swallowed nervously and felt sweat beading up on my brow. I was never particularly comfortable in confined spaces.
"Damn it, I completely lost the wavelength," Maka cursed.
"What?! What are we supposed to do now?" Ryoko panicked.
"Calm down, Ryo. I thought you were a brave macho-man," Mieko teased.
Soul snickered from his scythe form when Ryoko fell silent. Maka sighed and glanced around the large room, her eyes scanning each piece of antique factory equipment carefully. I joined her survey of our surroundings, searching specifically for any sign of a staircase that led to the upper levels of the building.
"We have to split up. There's no other way that we're going to be able to search this entire place from top to bottom before dark," Maka said.
"Wait, what? We're splitting up? But what if the kishin egg attacks one of us and–" I started.
"Just scream as loud as you possibly can. Clank one of your weapons against something metal if you need to, everything in this place is metallic," she interrupted.
"What? I never signed up to get slammed int–" Ryoko began to protest.
"Wouldn't you be willing to do anything that could possibly save your meister's life? 'Cause I know I would," Soul cut in.
"Of course I would, but–"
"Then maybe you should show that to her sometimes, because she sure as hell doesn't know it," Soul spat.
I gritted my teeth together, wanting to somehow force Soul out of his weapon form so I could slap him across the face. I didn't want Ryoko thinking that I was weak and scared he didn't care about me because of all our constant snapping back and forth.
"Crystal, you take the second floor and continue up if there's nothing. I'll check around the rest of this floor and out in the back. There's probably more rooms that are hidden," Maka instructed, "Remember, shout if you're in trouble."
The old floorboards creaked under my weight, despite the fact that I tried to keep my footsteps light. My knuckles brushed against the chipping cement walls so I could keep my balance. When I emerged from the staircase, my eyes were met with yet another huge, dark room lined with machines. The machines on the second floor were much taller than those on the first floor.
"It could be anywhere," Ryoko sighed.
"Not exactly. If it follows its kishin egg nature, which it will, it'll be drawn to our human souls. We just have to wait it out," Mieko disagreed.
My eyes swept around the room, studying the dangerously exposed machinery with caution. I knew for a fact I sure as hell didn't want to get caught in any of those death traps.
"Well, I'm not just gonna stand here like a sitting duck and wait for something to attack us," I muttered.
I pushed down the nervous flutters in the pit of my stomach and traversed forwards, my heavy combat boots stomping down on the floorboards a bit louder than I would have preferred. A door at the end of the aisle I was walking down caught my attention. I swatted away a cobweb with the mace that I knew was Ryoko and started walking towards the door at a steady pace.
The door looked like it was made of steel, like most of the machines in the room. I swallowed nervously and set down Mieko's weapon form beside the door. I bit my lip and gripped the handle with a sweaty palm. I struggled to open it, using all of my weight to pull it. I set down Ryoko beside Mieko and wrapped both of my hands around the handle.
"Looking for something?"
Chills crept up my spine and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I whipped around, only to find myself met with two chilling red eyes and a menacing grin. I gasped and grabbed Mieko and Ryoko's weapon forms, clutching their handles tightly as I faced the shockingly human monster.
Its eyes weren't two black holes like the average kishin, they had red irises with black pupils and a white eyeball – they were humanoid. The creature's skin was a sickly grayish color, but it didn't look scaly or inhuman in any way. It had shaggy hair that was blacker than the nighttime sky and its grin bared jagged, yellowing fangs.
"Your soul is developing quite well," the creature chuckled. The noise was sinister and rumbling, and sent a bolt of fear through my body.
"Y-you're supposed to be wanting to eat my soul," I stammered. I lifted my arms with my twin maces in them and got into fighting stance, preparing myself for an attack at any moment.
"Your mother says you have grown into quite the young lady. You do seem powerful, although you were only trained by your pathetic father and that wretched Academy," the creature said.
I stiffened at the mention of my mother. This creature was trying to get into my mind, to trick me into breaking down and not fighting it. However, I wouldn't give in to what it wanted. "Nice try, kishin. My mother is dead. You know nothing about her or me," I spat.
The monster let out another bone-chilling chuckle and shook its head slowly, "You poor, ignorant little child. I know more about you than even you do. Your mother would be disappointed at your lack of knowledge, I assure you."
I felt anger beginning to bubble up inside of me. I clenched my hands around my dual club maces so tightly that my arms began to tremble."YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I screeched. I charged towards the monster, swinging my maces to whack it over the head, but before I could reach it, my body froze without my consent. I couldn't move. I was paralyzed.
Scream. Just scream.
