It is afternoon in Death City. The sun hangs sleepily in the air. The hues of orange light coat the city like a renaissance painting. In a conference room in Death's Academy there is a gathering of important figures. The light shines through the window casting shadows inside the room. At the end of a large oak conference table sits Death the Kid. His hands folded in front of him. Around the table sit several of the Death Scythes. Spirit, Yumi, Marie, and Soul are seated on either side of the table. Opposite Kid on the far side of the table is Professor Franken Stein. The group sits in silence, anxiously awaiting words from their de facto leader.
However, their wait is only due to Kid attempting to line the centerpiece of the table perfectly symmetrical. The death scythes had already waited fifteen minutes for their meeting to start. When Kid finally decided the room was set according to his liking, he cleared his throat.
"Thank you all for gathering here today." Kid said diplomatically.
"You should be thanking us for our patience Kid." Soul said sarcastically. "Can you just tell us what we're doing here already?" He asked leaning back in his chair. Yumi glared at him from across the table.
"Soul Eater, I understand you're still relatively new to the position of Death Scythe, but that doesn't give you the right to talk to Shinigami-sama like that." Yumi chastised.
"No, no, he's right. We're already behind schedule." Kid stated.
"Whose fault is that…" Spirit said under his breath before promptly having his foot stomped on by Yumi next to him. Spirit stifled his yelp of pain, sitting straight up in his seat.
"I've called this meeting today to discuss the current status of our battle with Pantheon." Kid began. "So far, seven of the eight medallions have been accounted for." He stated. "Four of them are in the hands of Pantheon. Rage, Order, Power, and Pain. We ourselves have three of the medallions, being Knowledge, Faith, and Sorrow. There is only one medallion that is missing." Kid said placing his hands on the table. "The medallion of Fear." Kid spoke seriously. A hushed silence fell around the table. "I'm sure you all realize who was last in possession of that medallion." Kid assumed.
"Asura, the Kishin." Stein said nonplussed. "Currently entrapped on the moon." He finished.
"Correct professor. Now the whereabouts of the medallion are unknown. No references to its location have been made in my father's journals. And its not like we can just go ask Asura where he hid his medallion. So, I want to discuss your thoughts on how we will locate it before Pantheon does." Kid asked the group.
"Hold on," Soul interjected. "Didn't we invent those tracking devices for this exact purpose?" He asked referencing the madness trackers they had used to find the last few Medallions.
"Yes, but unfortunately they seem to be malfunctioning. The location they are indicating keeps shifting. We've already had reports of teams getting to their destination only to have the tracker indicate a different location." Kid explained.
"A conclusion that I reject by the way." Stein spoke up from his seat. "I invented those trackers myself and have triple checked them. There's nothing wrong with them." Stein asserted rather calmly.
"If they work perfectly then how come the location keeps changing?" Spirit asked haughtily, believing he had finally bested his one-time partner in his logic.
"Well that of course means there's only one possibility." Stein said, twisting his screw. "The medallion is moving." He said plainly. Silence reigned over the table as they waited for Stein to elaborate but he simply sat there patiently.
"Uh, honey, how exactly is the medallion moving?" Marie asked, trying to get him to answer the question. Stein glanced at her and then around those gathered at the tables. His eyes met their inquisitive gazes with a steely disposition. Finally, he opened his mouth to answer.
"Beats me." He said with a shrug. A sigh of disappointment was let loose by all those present.
"All right, well, let's say the Medallion is moving. How would that be possible?" Marie asked, trying to save the conversation. Spirit rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Suddenly he snapped his fingers as an idea came to him.
"Aha I've got it!" He exclaimed. All eyes turned to look at him as he described his genius idea. "It's the medallion of Fear, right? So, it must have little wings or legs! And it uses them to run away from us because it gets scared!" He shouted enthusiastically, glancing around at the gathered faces. His companions stared at him in silence for several moments.
"We're going to keep brainstorming Spirit but thank you for your input." Kid said. Spirit hung his head sadly. "Asura never seemed the kind of man that would keep his possessions somewhere they could be easily accessed." Kid continued in thought. "Having it move around would solve that issue. Ah but he also doesn't seem like the kind of man that would let the medallion out of his sight." Kid reasoned. "He was too paranoid to let something that powerful out of his hands. So, what could he have done with it?" Kid asked exasperated.
"Shinigami-sama?" Yumi asked. Kid perked his head up at her voice. "What if… what if he didn't hide it…?" Yumi asked quizzically. Kid's eyebrow raised wondering what she was getting at. "Care to elaborate?" He asked her.
"What if Asura didn't let the medallion out of his sight, but instead held onto it? What if he held onto it all this time? What if he had it up until the moment he was defeated and still has it?" Yumi asked. Realization dawned upon the faces of all those present.
"Then, that would mean…" Marie began.
"The medallion is sealed on the moon. Along with Asura." Kid finished the thought. He turned to Stein, wordlessly asking his opinion.
"If the medallion were on the moon it would match the trajectory showed by the trackers." Stein clarified.
"Okay but wait." Spirit said holding his hands out. "If the medallion is sealed away on the moon, is there really any way we can get it? Will Pantheon even be able to reach it?" He asked.
"Asura is still alive in the moon," Soul began. "He's just sealed and dormant. So, if they did want to reach the medallion, they'd risk reawakening the Kishin." Soul said ominously. An uneasy atmosphere fell upon the group as they contemplated the ramifications of such an action.
"I think," Kid began. "I think it would be best if we assumed that Pantheon had both the means and will power to try and retrieve the medallion from the moon." Kid stated. "Which means we should act pre-emptively." Kid stated. "I want airships monitoring the moon at all times. We need to be ready for an attack by Pantheon at any time." He demanded. "I don't want another failure this time. We need to stop them at all costs." Kid said seriously.
"I'll make preparations for the airships to launch and defend the moon." Yumi said adjusting her glasses. "We'll need top tier meisters and weapons capable of long-range attacks and or flight. I'll move some assignments around to accommodate us." She continued.
"Then let's get on it people. The fate of the world hangs in our hands." Kid said ominously.
The attendees of the meeting filed dutifully out from the room. Leaving Kid left alone with his thoughts. He stared out the window. His thoughts drifted to Pantheon and their insane plan. Would they really risk re-awakening the Kishin for a second time just to fulfill their goals? His thoughts turned to the leader of the group. Deva seemed to hold a grudge against Kid and his father. The only question was why? Kid decided that the only way he might possibly get answers to that question would be to look through his Father's journals.
Kid turned away from the window and stalked down to the secret vault where Lord Death kept his most important documents. He walked cooly throught the long and winding halls of the academy. But internally he was wound tight as a spring. This was the biggest threat the world had faced since Asura, and Kid couldn't help but feel he was letting the whole world down. The thought only made him more determined than ever to defend the world's new found peace and order.
At last coming to the vault's large ornate doors, he pushed his way inside. He found his way to the desk containing all of his father's journals, of which there were many. He started with the oldest ones, from when Father first started recording his thoughts and observations. He skimmed through page after page, book after book. He searched tirelessly for any mention of Shambala or the Deva lineage that Avatar belonged to. He found very little and nearly gave up. He even briefly considered consulting the book of eibon for help in his quest, but he knew that would be a dangerous proposition.
But just as he was about to turn in for the night, he spied a name written on the top of one of the many pages.
"Vishiva…" Kid sounded out the name curiously. It sounded very familiar. Kid decided to read on. There were only three or so pages dedicated to this Vishiva person but the way Father described them made them seem very important. The more Kid read, the more he began to understand. Although it didn't give him all of the answers he was looking for, it did make one thing very clear to Kid: Avatar Deva was extremely misguided.
Originally this chapter was going to be joined with the next one but I found it was too much altogether. So I decided to split them and give a little more plot and backstory hints. Like who exactly is Vishiva? What is their connection to Deva? How will they get to the moon? We're entering probably the halfway point in the story. Hope you all have enjoyed it so far.
