It has been four weeks since that incident. The dance was cancelled a gigantic funeral was held that Shinigami-sama oversaw himself. The whole city turned out for it before they started rebuilding. Luckily—if you could call us that—there wasn't a lot of infrastructure damage. The death toll was higher than any of us care to repeat though. It has also been four weeks since anyone has seen Ramla.
Helena was beside herself with grief as she slowly started to shrink under it. Maka and the others were trying their hardest to keep her from becoming a recluse and cutting us all off. She has been moved up into the E.A.T classes and was in almost every class with us so it was easier to keep an eye on her. Her other friends Holly and Namoki still eat lunch with us and their miesters. Even Stein was back and teaching classes, but everything felt off.
Maka and Kid have teamed up to discover as much as they can about Ramla's abilities, but so far it has turned up nothing. Black*star and Tsubaki have been training harder than ever and have been working with us and a lot of others on improving physical ability.
When Friday rolled around Maka seemed determined about something, her soul was buzzing with ideas that I didn't understand. I tried to ask her what was going on, but she ignored me and instead tried to focus on class. Kid was not much help either until the end of Soul Theory. "Stein-sensei?" Maka called out. "Can we talk to you for a moment?"
"Hmmm," he mumbles in response before blowing out smoke. Maka and Kid walk down first followed by the rest of us. Helena pushes her way up near Maka, she seemed as confused about this as I am. "How may I help you?"
"How is Ramla professor?" Kid asks.
"Fine," he says curtly.
"Can we see h-her?" Helena interjects.
"That's not up to me."
"We just want to understand Stein-sensei," Maka starts. "She was unlike anything I have ever seen before. Just who is she? Where did she learn those techniques?" Stein stares off into space for a moment, blowing out more smoke.
"Please Stein-sensei," Helena implores. "I'm so worried about my friend." Her blue eyes turn watery as she grabs his lab coat. He looks down at her with a blank look before sighing, it seemed like he was going to say something but Helena cut her off. "I'm going to-to go find her!" she shouts before charging out the door. We were all so stunned that no one moved for a good two minutes.
"Oi!" I shout after her finally. "Maka come on! We can't let her go running around all of Death City by herself!" I grab my meister's hand and sprint after Helena. Kid, the Sisters, Black*star, and Tsubaki take off after me. She was halfway down the stairs before we caught up to her. "Oi!" I shout again. Helena didn't even turn around as she continued to haul ass down the stairs. Kid cheated and pulled out that flying skateboard of his and managed to catch up to her. "Damn…" I hiss as I hunch over and breathe deeply at the bottom of the stairs.
"Come on Soul!" Maka grabs my arm.
"We gotta go bro!" Black*star yells in my ear before cheering and rushing off ahead of us. "Let's find that weirdo! Yahoo!"
"Alright," I grin fiendishly. "Let's go!" We all take off towards the seedier parts of Death City.
"Come on Candi! We gotta go," Sierra popped her gum behind me. "We gonna be late girl," she huffed.
"Will ya hold on Sierra? God ya are so bossy," I stick my tongue out at her. I turn back to the little girl standing in front of me. "My hair is to make people happy!" I tell her. "It makes me happy and that's why I got it all colorful and bouncy!" The girl smiles up at me before running off, I hope she has a home to go to tonight. "Comin'!" I turn to catch up to my friends.
"Candace! Candace! Caaaaaannnnnnndacccceee!" someone started screaming. I turn around startled to see a group of people running right at me. I was so startled that I ended up tripping over the broken sidewalk in my haste to catch up to Sierra and Sissy. Before I could right myself Sissy comes to stand in front of me and the group crashes into her.
"Who are you?" Sis says in her scary voice. I peek over her shoulder before laughing.
"Helena?" I say relieved. "Oh, ma god what are you doin' down here?" I gasp. "Ya shouldn't be this far into the underbelly! What if somethin' happened to ya?!" I scold her.
"Where is Ramla?" she demands breathless. I look over at Sissy who gives me a hard glare. "Look," she snarls. "We have been up and down this Death damned city and I want answers! Where is my friend?" she was huffing and puffing by the time she finished. Sissy has an approving look on her face as she watched the scene unfold. Sierra walks up behind me and pops her gum again.
"Like we goin' or…?" I smack her hand. "Ow! What? God are we goin' to the shop or what?" she rubs her hand soothingly. "Ram is gonna be so surprised when we show up together!" I smack her other hand. "Ow! Candi!"
"You know where Ramla is?" Death the Kid—I think—asks. "May we see her?"
"Yeah…ya see the thing is Ram doesn't want to see any of ya," I say sympathetically. "Like…yeah," I finish lamely. Helena gets right up in my face and I back up a few paces. "I'm sorry Helena, but Ram just ask me to keep her life private."
"I'm her friend!" she screeches. I felt so uncomfortable.
"Let's bring them to the shop," Sissy says softly. I look at her startled and Sierra sighs and mumbles something about that was her opinion first. "Come on," she left now room for argument as she started walking down the street. I looked at Helena for a second longer before catching up to her and linking my arm with hers. Sierra had her phone out and was strutting next to me while the others followed behind us.
'God I hope she won't be mad at us,' I think as I stare up at the sky.
"Ey girls!" the café owner bellowed at us in greeting as we entered the shop. "It's great ta see ya! Come in wanna cup of joe? We gotta great show tonight!" he laughed heartily from his voluptuous belly. Sissy lead us to our usual table.
"Yeah Hamlet," I call out.
"Ey?" he says through the service window.
"Where's Ramla? Thought she was workin' tonight?" Sierra and Sissy were both sitting at the table while the others stood around me tense and waiting.
"Ey…" he shifted away from me in the kitchen. We heard a few pots banging around before a waitress came waltzing out with a tray full of food. A few more minutes went by and I was about to demand an answer when someone beat me to it.
"Hey fat man! We need answers! Where is that sheep girl right now?!" the one called Black*star shouted. The whole shop came to an abrupt halt in a clang of glasses and disgruntled noises. Hamlet comes out of the kitchen cleaning his hands on his apron. A girl, Tsubaki, placed a hand gently on his shoulder and he stopped ranting instantly.
"Please sir, we are worried about Ramla," Tsubaki pleas. Hamlet scratches the back of his head before looking at Sissy helplessly.
"Don't look at me Hamlet," she intones. "I came to see her as well."
"Yeah Pops!" Sierra says with a pop of her gum. "Where's the little rascal?"
"Ey well the thing is girls," he starts. "Ram's left." An eerie silence falls over the group. I looked out of the side of my eye at Helena and her hands were shaking. On my other side Black*star was grinding his teeth and looking ready to kill someone. No one else seemed to be any better. "She left her paycheck to ya Candi," he says meekly.
"Where did she go?" Sissy asks coolly.
"All she said was she was goin' back," he responds.
"Back where?" Death the Kid asks. Hamlet shrugs before moving out of a waitress's way and letting her back into the kitchen. Business has resumed as usual when that evening's entertainment walked in and began setting the stage up.
"Just back son. She didn't seem to inclined to share her plans with me," he walks back into the kitchen. "Ya all want anything?"
"No," Helena grits out between clenched teeth. "I'm going to talk to Stein-sensei," she huffs before storming out of the shop. Without another word they all followed her leaving me behind in confusion.
'Ram…' I think sadly as the closes firmly behind them.
"Stein-sensei!" Helena roars as she storms into his house. "Where are you-you…you lose screw!" she screams. She was tearing through his lab like a madwoman while Maka and the others were also looking around in all the rooms. "I-I-I…" she starts sobbing. Both my weapons go over to her in comfort and support while I take a quick peak through the lab. I poke at the beakers and flasks lining the tables and shelves before stopping at Stein-sensei's computer.
"What a mess," I growl under my breath. "Who just let's paper pile up on the floor? Disgusting…"
"Kid?" Maka calls out to me before my illness can completely overtake me. I turn to her gratefully for the distraction. "What are you looking at?" she asks curiously while tilting her head. "We haven't found any sign of either Stein-sensei or Ramla I'm afraid."
"No," I breathe out. "I haven't seen anything either. Not even a hint of where she would go. Perhaps Stein-sensei is back at school? We could speak to both him and my father if we go there."
"Yeah that's true—what are those?" Maka points at the papers on the floor. My eye twitches in irritation at the ugly sight.
"Stein-sensei should take better care of his research," I growl.
"No look at the titles. Kid have you ever seen these before?" Maka picks up what looked like a thick essay.
"Reading at a time like this tiny tits?" her partner comes up behind us. Maka elbows his in the gut, but it wasn't hard. Soul merely grunted before leaning over her shoulder. "Soul Stitching Theory? Isn't that Stein's technique?"
"Soul Stitching?" I repeat curiously. I look over Maka's other shoulder to read the paper myself.
"Whatcha lookin' at?" Black*star hollers in only the way Black*star can.
"It's a research paper about Soul Stitching Theory," Maka replies. "But it's not Stein-sensei's work."
"What?" I say astonished.
"Look," she points to a byline. "It's by someone with the initials R.A.B."
"What does that matter?" came Helena's voice. "She's gone and you're all w-worried about some old research paper?"
"Let's go to the school," Tsubaki offers. "I'm sure Shinigami-sama can tell us where to find our friend at least."
"Friend?" Black*star snorts. "That girl wants absolutely nothing to do with any of us. Even a god like me can see that!" he laughs before Tsubaki punches him in the head. "Ow! Ow! Ow! What the hell was that for Tsubaki?!"
"Helena…" Tsubaki walks over to the weapon and wraps her in an embrace. "I'm sorry she hurt you."
"Let's go," she says drily. Helena turns towards the exit and without a slight hesitation we all follow.
"Maka?" Soul calls out behind us.
"Coming!" she replies before scooping up the other papers and rushing after us. Liz and Patty were both holding my hands and trying to be brave for Helena's sake. This whole situation is highly bizarre to say the least.
'Just who is Ramla? What strange situation have we found ourselves in again?'
