Kishin?

"I'm BORED!" shouted Shi, pounding his fists on the table of the small room. It was Michael's room for the time being Shi, Melody, Ash, and Xander were sadly forced to keep coming here again and again for the past week or so to maintain the rooms. They weren't given a reason why Michael and May were incapable of doing so, only that they needed them to do so in their stead until they got back…which could be any amount of time. Of course, Shi and Xander weren't much help…then again from Ash's point of view neither was Melody.

"No, you are doing it all wrong!" shouted Ash stealing the squirt bottle from Melody and spraying the floor again. "Circular motions going in to out over and over again is the best way to deal with germs. After the first circular motion is done with the lime scented cleaner it is best to go over it again with the lemon scented cleaner this time going in circular motion, except in the opposite direction. After all that is done if possibly it is best go over it with bleach to make extra certain no germs would survive in it." Melody just recoiled, based on the smell of the eighteen different cleaners Ash was using she doubted any animal could survive in here. She'd have to remember to offer to let May and Michael stay with her when all of this was done so they didn't have to return to this foul smelling house. "Man, aren't you guys all so lucky to have a friend with the cleaning knowledge I have?" question Ash flipping his friends a thumbs-up sign showing he's happy to help.

"Ash, stop it," said Xander as he reclined on a nearby chair with an open manga he had 'borrowed' from Michael's room. "Can't you see you are scaring these people?" Ash shot Xander an evil look and Xander just shrugged it off. Ash wasn't particularly funny or scary when he was going on and on about the different household cleaners like which ones were better for windows and which were better for mirrors…but still Xander thought as he moved his hand over and picked up his glass of juice. There were some ways to get some fun out of it. Xander stuck his arm out, attempting to spill the glass all over the floor Ash had just cleaned, but a bucket of water came crashing for Xander's head at that exact moment along with an incredibly stern and almost demonic look from Ash. Xander brought his arm back in and set it on the table, giving up on torturing his partner any further. "Well, next question, why are you here?" Xander turned his attention over to Helena, who was basically collapsed out on Michael's couch, taking up the entire sofa in such way that should be humanly impossible, but from the look one Helena's face was quite comfortable.

"I'm here because my weapon wanted to help out," said Helena rolling over onto her side and into another position that shouldn't be comfortable, but nonetheless Helena seemed to perfectly fine sleeping through it. Her weapon, Eva, had moved on through the house, cleaning up and straightening things out, which seemed rather easy as Michael was rather well-kept, probably from his father's military background. And unlike Ash she wasn't worrying about the smallest microscopic bread crumb (which only embarrassed Xander as Ash had actually brought a microscope to help him clean.)

Xander moaned, "you know what I'm going to go tidy up Michael's room." He flipped himself off of the chair and into air, almost knocking over his glass of juice in the process, but he managed to steady it before Ash killed him.

"Great," Melody chimed in, standing up and moving towards Xander, "I'll go help." She was thankful for any excuse she could get to get away from Ash, the cleaning freak, and Shi's incessant whining. However, she barely managed to walk four steps in that direction before Xander stopped her.

"Uh-uh," he said, waggling his finger in front of her face. "I don't think so." Melody stepped back, a little surprised by his actions. "This is a guy's room we are talking about. I cannot in good conscience let a girl like you into it. It is just not right."

"You seemed pretty thrilled to go into May's room when we were over at her place," Melody brought up, trying to counter Xander's logic and get out of there.

"Are you saying that the reason why you want to go to Michael's room is the same reason why I wanted to go into May's room?" asked Xander, lifting an eye at Melody's statement. Melody knew a trap when she saw one and decided to back off for now…prying into this conversation would probably only get her accused of some sort of crime.

(-With May-)

It was the night of the tenth day May was stretched out on her bed, all energy gone from her. Every so often she would muster enough strength to get up and get another drink of water, but for the most part, she didn't move. Her head was constantly focused on the entrance to the cave, waiting for Michael to make his appearance…it should be any day now. A week and a half were up…he'd be coming back soon. Those thoughts kept bounding about in her head as she thought about it. Her head gently hit her pillow as she drifted off to sleep, she didn't even have too much energy to stay awake anymore.

(-with Saul-)

Saul and Rochelle had moved in closer, neither one of them wanting to miss the moment. They knew Michael still had another day or two left in there…maybe even three if he really dragged his feet. However, nonetheless they had to be ready at the moment's notice. They didn't have any time to lose the instant they saw Michael if he had changed…they would have to shoot him down. It was their job, sadly. It was how they were supposed to act. However, it still sat wrong in both of their stomachs. They didn't like how it was turning out. Saul's fingers twitched on Rochelle's boomerang-like form. Saul just had to hope that no matter what Michael would hold on strong.

Saul leaned back as he tried to calm down. His nerves were being electrified at the thought, he felt uneasy at the thought…but he also felt excited at the prospect. The fact of the matter is that Michael had a run-in with two massive powerful beings. Marburg and Vigrid had both been his opponents at one point in time…if he could overcome this then he would definitely reveal a new power. Lord Death had described his attack as an arrow made of his Kishin energy…Saul had to wonder if it was possible to channel that into pure positive energy. Imagine Kishin Energy mixing with the energy of a Death Scythe, it could become the most potent weapon there is in the new world. Saul would just have to wait and see if he could survive this and even then if something like that was even possible. And even then…if the risk was worth it.

He wondered if Michael or May had put it together. May suddenly falling unconscious wasn't something that Marburg or his brother had done. It was something that had occurred because of that arrow. Kishins tend to devour souls and as much as Saul didn't want to admit it, that's probably what had happened there. Michael may not have realized it, but that arrow was going after the closest soul it could get. It was attacking May, trying to devour her soul. Saul found it hard to believe that May had no idea, but he supposed it was possible. She may not have known that her own partner was trying to eat her. Without a doubt it was something that wouldn't be a good thing to hear. Saul just collapsed back and tried to relax, it was irritating trying to imagine their reactions mainly because he knew they wouldn't even be pleased. They didn't even know that the main reason for this test was to drag that Kishin out of Michael so he could beat it down with his own will. Saul hated to imagine what kind of look was on Michael's face right about now.

(-With Michael-)

Michael was smiling, he wasn't enjoying himself or anything of the short. If anything he had become delirious from lack of sun or conversation. No human contact outside of the voices pounding in his head, it was almost as if he was drifting away. Michael stumbled forward, snapping his eyes from left to right. He was stumbling through a pitch-black cave in a near delirious state of mind. His only thought was to go forward…go to May. His head crawled up and looked around. May's soul was wavering there were times when her soul didn't even show up at all. May's body was weakening and so was Michael's focus. He moved forward again his focus wasn't what people should be worrying about it was his 'faith'.

He had been in here for god knows how many days…it felt like weeks maybe even months to him being this cut-off from society and all the time he has kept his eyes trained forward for that one light at the end, but then it would vanish for a second he would lose sight of it. He would feel an unimaginable sense of dread welling up in him. At first he thought of it as just his problem that he had just looked in the wrong direction, however, that feeling slowly transformed into worry and from there it became more like anger. He was upset, it seemed like she was just playing around with him, acting to be there and then disappearing. It hurt his heart more than his body to imagine that the partner he had put so much faith into would be taunting him like this.

"Heh he!" Michael paused it was that voice from last time. He had been hearing that inane childish laughter for a long time now and he had to wonder what was causing it. Was it just his mind slowly going insane? "How does it feel?" Michael looked back over his shoulder. It usually didn't speak so clearly. It was usually just laughter. He shook his head and kept going forward. "You actually had the ability to fire an arrow at your own mother trying to kill her? Do you think a normal human would've been able to do that?" Once more Michael swung around and accidently drew another invisible arrow. Nobody was around him, he must've just been going insane. However, if nobody was saying these words…did that mean that it was him? He was the one thinking these things?

"Trying to kill your mother is something that a Kishin would try." Michael paused in his steps and let his hands drop down to his side. What was up with this voice? What was it trying to say? "You know it all too well, don't you? That swelling feeling that has taken root in your body. You want to let it all out, it is a weight on your shoulders and you want to get rid of it. You want to let your inner Kishin out, that arrow you used was a fine representation of it. You do know how that arrow got so strong, don't you? It wasn't just that you tried really, really hard. It wasn't that you just believed in yourself. Such childish fantasies don't exist in this world…if they did would you have had to shoot at your mother? No, that power came from May. True strength doesn't come from inside of you…it comes from KILLING OTHERS! HEH HE HE HE!"

Man...I really did enjoy writing this chunk of the story line. I like it when the main character seems like a villain and starts to doubt themselves. When they are all happy go-lucky it can get kind of boring. (Yeah, from somebody who likes One Piece where Luffy rarely doubts himself, its surprising). Oh, right, why am I uploading today? My weekends got a little bit screwy (like totally completely screwy.) I should(?) be back on track by next weekend, but life's funny that way, ain't it?