Chapter Fifteen: Losing; Where Do We Go From Here?
That night was harder than anything any of Team Maka had ever experienced. For Kid, Soul, and Liz it was especially hard. Soul had watched his meister slip out of his grasp, suddenly swallowed by the billowing mist. Kid had felt Patty trip, seen her stumble and suddenly flash into her gun form, lying on the ground after the first few tendrils of smoke had touched her skin. He was immediately unable to grab her, held back by Nikolai who had was shouting nonsense about his being more important.
Now the Shinigami was unable to use either weapon, due to their lack of symmetry, and he was experiencing a level of grief he had never before reached. The same was happening with Soul, who was much quieter than his normal self. He hadn't complained once even though he had been carrying Kai's limp body for hours. The red-haired Scottish girl needed immediate medical attention but so far they were still following a deserted gravel road through the countryside. Kid grew increasingly worried as he watched her strangely textured soul grow dimmer and dimmer. He couldn't help but notice the pattern of what seemed to be a sort of 'nucleus' to her soul: a sort of darker hexagonal scale formation. While her soul appeared whole, though the eyes were nearly closed, and the light pink color was actually rather healthy, Kid still worried for the girl's health. He knew of the madness pills she took because they had needed to find something to bandage her with and he had stumbled across them, having seen them before. Professor Stein was prescribed the same medication to fight against his madness.
Kid wondered why this girl needed pills to fight off her madness.
There was nothing malicious in his musings. It was merely the product of their continuous walking, the silence, and the monotonous green hills. If they didn't find anything promising soon then he felt as if he might just have to pass those pills around so they could all take one. Liz had already passed out from exhaustion and stress and was cradled in Nikolai's arms. Tsubaki, still silent in her sword form, was still clutched in the hand of the silent African meister.
Black*Star was a completely different story. Kid was repeatedly surprised by the amount of maturing the meister had done in the last six months. Even while Kid and Soul were breaking down in their own, silent ways, Black*Star had begun moving the morose group forward along the road. The assassin rules that he had always dumbly repeated to himself as he fought were actually being put into use though Kid could hear the blue-haired boy muttering to himself quietly every few moments – though he couldn't catch any of the words.
Out of all of them, Kid was most worried about Soul and Kai. The albino was especially off, silent and covered in Kai's blood as well as Maka's. Kid was afraid that if Kai died Soul wouldn't be able to handle himself anymore and then… well, Team Maka would have yet another problem on their hands.
Clearing his throat, Kid sighed. The silence was difficult to deal with, especially when it was so dark. He was jumping every time a cricket chirped. He couldn't understand why he was so jumpy, but the fact was that he couldn't control it.
"Hey!" Black*Star called softly from ahead, "There's a town ahead, but it looks dark."
Then, back to his old self, the assassin gave a loud "Yahoo!" and leaped down the hill, enacting his usual "I am Black*Star" introduction. When no one came out, Kid's eyes narrowed. Black*Star had been loud enough that at least half the town should have heard, yet no one turned on their lights.
Gold eyes assessed the landscape before they came to rest on a nearly-missed sign. It had fallen off its post, though the post was no longer upright anyways, and was lying in the overgrown grass. Kid softly walked closer, peering at the dirtied words that stood out on the green surface.
"Scotland," he finally said, tilting his head back up to his companions. "The signs says we're in Scotland, on the island of North Rona. The town's name is Ester"
"Scotland?" Brie yawned. She looked quite a sight: her hair disheveled and her dress rumpled. Long ago she had ditched her heels, preferring to go barefoot.
Kid nodded in confirmation, striding towards the town with more purpose. Ester seemed completely devastated. The young Shinigami cast a critical eye about as he walked through the streets. It wasn't a large town at all, in fact it was more of a village than anything. What was left of it was rotting away but Kid could still see signs of some sort of disaster. Walls had been forcefully smashed, it seemed a few doors had been ripped off of hinges and in several houses there were suspicious sets of claw marks. Upon closer inspection Kid realized that whatever had made the marks had five fingers, far too many for it to be an animal.
The group met back up, Liz had been awakened by Nikolai a short time after they had arrived and immediately glued herself to Kid's side. Because he knew that she feared ghosts he kept his suspicions to himself, instead asking the others what they thought.
"It seems to be a safe enough place to stay vor a night," Nikolai sighed tiredly. Brie nodded quickly in agreement, sagging against one of the outside walls of a house.
Snow, having been silent most of the entire journey, nodded as well. "I doubt that we will find another town in a place like this."
It was unanimous. The boys split up to find the least deconstructed house and finally picked one on the edge of town. It was relatively intact: the floor sturdy and most of the windows unbroken. Several of the rooms were furnished with old things like sofas and beds, an ancient refrigerator held rotting food. As with many of the houses, it almost seemed as if whoever had lived here had just simply left. Kid knew that whatever had left those scratch marks most definetly had something to do with the emptiness.
Footsteps nearby startled him, but he remained cool as he glanced towards the noise out of the corner of his eyes. Black*Star was in the doorway, rocking back and forth on his heels. Again Kid was struck by just how much the meister seemed to have changed. Even though he was still loud, obnoxious, and overly excitable, he now held a sort of maturity in his eyes. Perhaps not a lot, but with how immature the boy usually was it was a delightful change of pace.
"Black*Star," Kid greeted lowly, turning from the window he had been looking out of. The assassin regarded him quietly for a moment before sighing, scratching the back of his head somewhat awkwardly while glancing away. There were very few times Kid had seen Black*Star seem so serious, his fights with Mifune made up most of the count. It was slightly worrying, his expression, simply because Kid was not yet used to the changes Black*Star had made while he was with Kai.
Then again, Black*Star himself was still struggling to understand the reason why he had changed and that was nearly as important.
"Was I wrong, Kid?" He asked lowly, staring at his feet.
"Wrong about what?"
"Wrong to shove Kai away after what happened?" Black*Star leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest in a solemn manner.
Kid tried to think unbiasedly, "I believe I would have done something similar if someone had done that to Liz or Patty. But whether or not it was wrong is something you have to decide. Why aren't you asking Soul?"
"He's pretty messed up right now," Black*Star sighed, frowning. "Losing Maka is hard for him."
"It would be, they share a strong bond." Kid took a deep breath, beginning to let his worries take over. Not only was this house completely unsymmetrical – though for the moment he knew that there were more important things to worry about – but out of all of Team Maka they only had one usable meister/weapon pair. Kid couldn't handle using just Liz or just Nikolai and using them both was out of the question. Maka was gone, leaving no one to wield Soul. Tsubaki was silent and unresponsive in her sword form, but Snow wouldn't let go of her anyways. If worse came to worse, Snow was really the last and only line of defense unless Kai's condition improved quickly.
Kid looked back towards Black*Star and found the meister staring out the window, his expression easy to read. The meister was more worried for his weapon than he had previously let on. He was sad and maybe a little confused. Though Kid couldn't be sure, he thought he saw a surprising amount of fear. But what would the 'Great Black*Star' have to be afraid of? This was the boy who challenged everyone to fights just to get stronger! The only person ever to intentionally irritate Kid just so that he would attack him! This was Black*Star, big star and future defeater of the gods. If he was afraid… Kid actually felt that he should be concerned.
"Without Kai…" Black*Star trailed off, his brows furrowing. It wasn't that he didn't know what to say, it was more like he couldn't put it into words. Then again, he didn't really understand it himself. How could someone like him understand anything about someone like her, anyways? She was smart, brash, and loud. Pretty, yet she didn't care and loved to fight nearly as much as he did. Kai pissed him off in ways not even Kid had never done, yet she felt more important than even Tsubaki. That was frightening, realizing that someone was so important. Black*Star didn't know how to say it out loud, what he would do if she was gone.
Kid just nodded silently, understanding exactly what the meister was trying to say. He felt the same about Liz and Patty. He couldn't stand knowing that one of his weapons was out there, alone, trapped and confused.
"She'll be fine," he reassured, knowing that neither of them truly believe the words.
I felt like I was burning, every molecule of my body rebelling against me in a massive mutiny. Inside I could feel two things: the black blood working to mend my broken body and my immune system, fortified by the anti-madness pills, attempting to fight it off. Silently I willed my immune system to take a vacation until I could at least wake up and fix myself but it didn't seem to listen nor understand my request. Instead it just kept eating away at the only thing that was keeping me alive.
When I awoke, I decided I would install an internal clock. I couldn't tell if I had been comatose for a few minutes or a few weeks. All I knew was that I was still alive and trapped within my own body, stuck in the place between death and life. I wanted someone to pull me out of it so bad. I fought to find my eyelids so I could return to reality but, alas, it took too much energy to try and open my eyes and I once again began drifting in the recesses of my mind.
It was ages before I could feel my fingers and even longer before my toes would twitch on command. The black blood had done its job well, though very little of the job had been done. There was still a wound in my abdomen, I could feel it gaping, but much of it had knitted back together in the time it took me to regain myself. A groan slipped out of my lips as I finally acquired the ability to open my eyes again and was shocked at the light that immediately assailed my pupils.
"Kai?" A weary voice asked nearby, somewhat bored. "I really wish you would stop doing that and actually wake up. Black*Star keeps jumping towards you like a puppy."
I coughed, the muscles in my stomach sending me sharp pains as I hacked up a small amount of blood that was left in my lungs.
"Ohmygod!" Brie fell on her knees beside me, bringing my head into her lap and looking at someone that was out of my view. "Don't just stand there, get me some damn water!"
"Water would be nice," I croaked, struggling to keep my eyelids from drooping again. A plastic bottle was pressed to my mouth and I eagerly gulped it down. Small happy moans escaped my throat as everything slipped in and out of focus before, finally, I could see Black*Star staring down at me with a wide grin on his face.
"That's what you get for sleeping so long!" he snorted, dropping to the floor beside me. I couldn't help but want to be in his lap instead of Brie's but I tolerated it, pushing my annoying emotions to the side.
"You're the one who always sleeps in!" I accused, smiling back.
Luckily, he reached for me. Brie gave me up quickly, rushing off to find some food for me to consume when my stomach – the complainer – started growling. He laughed boisterously and I snickered as well. Our souls adapted and fit each other and I sighed in contentment, again struggling to keep my eyes open. My meister noticed and shook me gently, trying to keep me awake.
"You can't go back to sleep just yet, Kai." Death the Kid came into view, frowning disapprovingly. "You've been asleep for nearly a week."
Suddenly being close to people just felt stifling and I needed to get away. As everyone in the room – Brie, Kid, and Black*Star – immediately tried to get me to lie back down the need to run became more prominent. There was something unsettling me. I felt like a wild animal, my sixth sense going haywire as I quickly realized that there was something about the place we were in that was familiar in every way that was bad. I studied the room, taking in the wood flooring and the peeling wallpaper. The rundown couch that I was on seemed to fit the shape of someone much larger than I, but it still was familiar. A sick feeling rose up my throat as, slowly, I realized that I recognized the house I was in.
Within the depths of my mind came memories that were like poison. I shot up, ignoring the shouts of protest and the pain that accompanied my motion. My feet carried me out the door, running down the street that I had traveled innumerable times during my childhood. From the center of town I ran down the main road, my eyes searching for the sign post I myself had knocked down the day I had left.
Sure enough, there it was: Ester, North Rona, Scotland.
Underneath, where the population had been listed there was a hole punched through the metal.
I stuffed my hand in my mouth and sank to my knees, recognizing my own madness in the air. After the years of putting my past behind me and forgetting it had returned like a boomerang. This was the place where I had lost my sanity. This was where I had met meisters from the DWMA for the first time.
My first love. My first kiss. My first heartbreak.
More importantly: the first time I witnessed death.
(Author's Note: I know this is seriously short, which is seriously uncool, but honestly I don't know how to continue with this part of the story... out of it all, this next four or five chapters is the least developed in my head, but we'll figure it out! Anyways, little ducks, I want to know if you have any predictions about why Kai is so freaked about being back in her home town! Review or PM! Byye!)