Inuyasha was closer to Maka now, uncomfortably close. Maka cringed when he felt his hand graze her arm, but she felt a familiar soul right on top of her.
"Back away," Soul growled. "I won't let you touch my meister."
Inuyasha looked away as though he were bored. No, he was looking at something else. Soul followed his gaze to look straight up. The moon had risen. It was over. They all began to feel the ground tremble beneath them, the solid water cracking and caving in. The others began to panic.
"We need to get off the ice!" Soul parked, picking up his paralyzed meister and running. None of them could make it before the ice all caved in, trapping them all under endless water.
Ame struggled to keep her head above the water. She searched desperately for Kid, knowing that he was shoved under as soon as the ice cracked. Ame dove under the water, trying to see his soul. She swam until she saw him, sinking beneath the water, blood streaming from the wound in his side. Ame grabbed a tight hold of him just as the earth split, sending her and the others to the cliffs with a huge wave.
The others were relieved to feel ground beneath their feet. Ame looked around, making sure that everyone was there. She didn't notice anyone missing. She looked down as Kid began to stir in her arms, choking up salt water as he did so.
"Ame," he rasped, sitting up on his own and staring out at the glowing pillar of water. "What have I done?"
They all watched as the water turned to blood and shed away like a cloak. It had concealed a being, no longer human, but most definitely Kishin. It had a relatively human shape, but its shoulders were high like pillars of horns. It had broken chains around its neck and limbs, and a chain around its waist securing a black notebook to its side.
"That's it," Kid said. "That's the Death Note."
The Kishin gazed at the children, its red eyes dissecting their souls. He could see their names and the number of years they had left to live in red ink above their heads. He reached down to open the book with one hand, grabbing one of his worshippers and biting him clear in half with the other hand. He then wrenched a large, bloody fang out of his mouth with a sickeningly loud crunch before flipping to a free page in his Death Note.
"No!" Kid shouted. The Kishin wrote down a name in the book, and the others waited in silence. "That thing kills in forty seconds. Whoever's name he wrote down—"
"Blegh!" Blackstar choked, collapsing of a heart attack.
"Dammit, there goes Blackstar!" Kid yelled, outraged. He got to his feet and pointed his weapons at the Kishin.
"Hey!" he shouted. "If you're going to kill someone, do it symmetrically, and quit being so lazy by simply writing their names down, you fool! At least put more effort in it than that. Liz, Patti, resonance mode."
"Is this supposed to be my competition?" Sidoh thought in a sarcastic voice similar to Crispen Freeman's. "What a drag. I guess this is Shinigami's great grandson or something. But that girl with him… ugh, I hate gods of Life."
"Ame," Kid said. "He's on the water, and he's going to stay that way. Keep him in place and I might be able to get a shot at him. The rest of you, he can kill just by looking at you. He has the old Shinigami eyes. He can see your name and how long you have left to live. Take cover; we can handle this."
"What about Blackstar?" Tsubaki demanded.
Silence fell among the group. Kid's voice was quiet; everyone had to be still to hear him.
"Take his body back to the academy. We'll deal with it there."
Ame bit back tears and growled at the Kishin on the water. Her Solar Flare began glowing again as she let out a loud, grating howl.
Soul Eater
Ame, Nagi, and Rin charged out on the water, whilst Kid found the flattest cliff to stand on. As his soul expanded like a protective barrier around himself, the others took to the dense, burnt debris. They found a good spot to rest behind some black trees that had toppled over. They were all tired from the battle.
All they could do was sit and listen.
Tsubaki was still mourning over her dead meister. Soul and Maka were with her; Blackstar had been a best friend to Soul, and like a big brother to Maka. They couldn't believe that something as little as a heart attack was able to kill him. Soul hoped that Ame got that Kishin good for what he'd done. He hoped that she would lock him up and torture him to death with all her godly power.
Silence remained among the group until they heard a loud cry from the Kishin.
Sidoh let out a distressed roar as Ame began attacking him. She threw his body down, submerging it in the water, and leapt high in the air. She drew a lightning bolt, summoning the power of Gekigami, and striking the water with electricity. The Kishin twisted and writhed as he was electrocuted. When Ame touched back down to the surface of the water, the electricity was drawn back into her through her paws. She was crouching, her entire body rippling with fury and aggression as she watched the huge beast before her. He was bleeding and breathing heavily, but he remained strong. His red eyes pierced into hers with some kind of unfathomable wonder.
"Death Cannon!"
The multi-colored blast created a large cloud of smoke, momentarily engulfing both Ame and Sidoh within. When the smoke cleared, Sidoh was doubled over, still heaving and beginning to sink into the ocean. He slammed his fist against the surface of the water, creating a large ripple, and picked himself back up again.
"Die, Sidoh!" Kid yelled across the water. He shot a storm of bullets and soul wavelengths at the Kishin. "Die, die, die, DIE!"
"Take it easy, Kid, geez," Liz said.
"After what he did to Blackstar?" Kid demanded. "Give me a break!"
The Kishin collapsed once more before rising again. Ame trotted back to Kid and slid across the water, two symmetrical waves forming on either side of her as she skidded to a halt in front of him.
"It's just a rinse and repeat process," he said. "We need to find his weakness; I know he has one."
"Oh, Blackstar," Tsubaki sobbed.
"What?" he mumbled.
Everyone in the group froze and looked up.
"Did that corpse just talk?" Kim asked.
"What corpse?" Blackstar demanded, sitting up and glaring at her as if nothing had happened. "I get benched plenty of times, I'm not backing down this easy."
"Um," Soul gave him a look. "Dude, did you know you just died?"
Blackstar laughed rambunctiously. "Of course I'm not dead; that's impossible!"
With that, he charged right over their barricade and out next to Kid on the cliff.
"Who cares about this guy? It's about time we end this!"
Kid and Ame started, staring at the animated corpse in front of them.
"Blackstar?!" they demanded.
"But you're dead!" Kid exclaimed.
"BULLSHIT!" Blackstar yelled. "NOT ANYMORE!"
"Balls," Ame groaned, rolling her eyes. That made it clear to Kid that Ame clearly hadn't been an influence on Blackstar's revival. She was completely fine with him being dead the rest of his life.
"That means he's lost his power," Kid said. "That Death Note must have lost its divine power when the Shinigami stopped using it."
"So he's no longer the god he wanted to be," Ame realized. "He's no more than Asura was."
"So what are we waiting for?" Soul asked as he and the others caught up. "Let's kill that Kishin!"
Ame leapt down onto the water again, turning it to ice. There was a new fire ablaze inside her. This was a game changer. They could win this! They attacked with everything they had. When someone was down, another had their back. They all worked like a well-oiled machine.
Maka began slashing at Sidoh unhappily.
"Don't! You! Ever!" she shouted. "Kill! My! Friend! Again!"
"Maka!" Soul called. Maka back flipped away as Sidoh swung his arm at her. She skidded to a halt and looked at Soul. She threw him away and began running up the Kishin's arm.
"Hey!"
"Shut up, Soul, I'm on a freaking roll!" Maka shouted, balling up her fist and hurling it at Sidoh's face. The Kishin was thrown backwards, sliding across the ice like a ragdoll. He curled up in a small ball, opening his eyes to glare at them. Maka stood tall, Soul joining her in his weapon form.
"It's over, Sidoh," Kid said. "Give up."
Sidoh's eyes rolled back and his body began to tremble with giggles. He threw his head back, laughing uncontrollably. He lurched into a sitting position on the frozen ice.
"Yes," he said. "It's over. I always knew I was going to be killed by Shinigami ever since I took that notebook. Here."
He threw the useless book across the ice. It came to a halt at Kid's feet.
"I expect you want it back now, huh?"
Kid didn't move. He kept his eyes fixed on Sidoh. Was he honestly just… giving up like this?
"Here's my question, though," Sidoh said. "Why didn't you just kill me before? Do you know that, little reaper?"
Kid gritted his teeth. "You're weak now. I guess Amaterasu will just have to lock you up again. Ame?"
The wolf was still.
"Ame?" Kid turned to look at her. She was lying on the ground, breathing softly. "Stop sleeping during a crisis! Wake up, dammit!"
Ame was startled awake by the noise. She got to her feet and hesitantly stepped forward. She hesitated a little more, looking at his wounds unhappily.
"Ame, was it?" he asked. "Rethinking your last decision?"
Ame was silent. She knew everything that had happened. Memories flashed before her eyes. Sidoh had been a human, using the Death Note to rid the world of criminals. After a while, he killed more recklessly to maintain his power, but his intentions remained… decent. He'd been making the world a better place for people. But, in the end, no crime is justified. However, that doesn't mean this crime couldn't be forgiven.
Justice knew things of it and things not of it. It was black and white. However, forgiveness knew no bounds.
"You were protecting yourself and the good in the world," Ame said. "You were trying your best to do what Death and I could never do. That's all."
"What is this?!" Sidoh demanded. "Aren't you going to kill me?"
"I'm not who I used to be," Ame said. "Over time, things change. People change. Town of people, flow of Time."
Sidoh's glare softened. The chains around him rattled as he slumped forward. Ame began to walk towards him slowly. She knelt in front of him in her human form, grazing her hand across his cheek gently. He began to tremble slightly.
"You could never die because your sins were never forgiven," she said. "Rin refused you peace in death. That was her duty. Now I'm fixing her mistake."
"Am I really going somewhere else?" Sidoh murmured, turning up to face the sky. Ashes rained down and landed around them gently. "Somewhere better than this rotten world? Thank you, Amaterasu."
Ame said as his body disappeared in a fountain of black sakura petals. She held the bloody chains that were left.
It's all just annoying.
"What a drag," Inuyasha muttered from where he'd been watching back on land. "I thought it would have lasted longer than that. Oh well, I'll give them time to celebrate." He looked to the sky. "Guess I'd better find another threat."
He looked back at them. He looked at little Ame as she stood and faced the others. They were growing up, but they were still naïve children.
"No," he said out loud. "I'll leave them be for now. Maybe I'll open a little shop in the mountains somewhere."
Uh huh, 'little shop.'
This one had a lot of Fuji-Domo references and a couple of shattered fourth walls. I told you, kittens lower my inhibitions.