Giriko stood transfixed before an old church. After the fall of Arachnophobia, he had nowhere to go other than the annoying village of his youth, and he wouldn't dare go back. So instead, he had wandered around the decrepit castle in search of another survivor. There were none. Instead, he found his rival Justin Law, standing above the wreckage and had traded Lord Death's sigle for a parasitic clown. He offered revenge for Arachnae's demise in exchange for his help with something else. Seeing as he had no better alternative, he followed the death scythe to Chicago where they found themselves now.
The church was in a severe state of disrepair. The roof had peeled open years prior from poor weather, the walls were made of solid stone, though splintered wood still clung to the side of building. Beside the fenced off church was a rundown park with a single rusted slide. The grounds were practically buried in tall, unkempt grass. Above all else, it held an eerie familiarity, like he had been here before a long time ago. He turned to the blond weapon.
"This place-" He started.
"It's a dump, I know." Justin dismissed. "But it's where I grew up and completely abandoned for our convenience. No one comes here and there are no bills, the perfect base of operations." He boldly walked past the chainsaw and into the ramshackle church.
"Base of operations for what?" Giriko demanded as he followed the clown-weapon duo.
"You'll see." Justin smirked. The main body of the church was empty, every pew had been hacked down to fire wood for the winter. The carpet had been mended with intricate care and a buckling chandelier hung from the warped boards of the ceiling. A figure walked through the room, over loaded with paper bags. The clown at Justin's side groaned in annoyance.
"Not her." He began to fade. "I'll see you later Justin. I don't have the patience to deal with her today." Unlike his partner, Justin waved to the other occupant.
"Hey Gopher!" Justin greeted. Gopher turned, the four bags still in hand. A thin frown was plastered on the ebony haired underling. The term 'her' was loosely used, as the person before them was hardly feminine. Their frame was thin and flat, with hair that hung limp and greasy from their last mission. The only hint to their gender were the chunky pumps that were partially hidden by her flared pants.
"Where have you been?" Gopher snarled. "You were supposed to be back here an hour ago with Maka Albarn." The guillotine shrugged.
"I got side tracked." He said loftily, "Besides she was long gone before I got there." Gopher scowled at him.
"Well that isn't my problem, or at least it shouldn't be." Gopher snapped. "While you were messing around, I had to- who is that?"
"Well I didn't want to leave empty handed." Justin said with a laugh. Gopher's suspicious gaze turned on Justin. "I figured we could use the extra help." Gopher was about to object when she saw someone walk towards the steps.
"Noah-sama!" She squealed, dropping a bag in the process. A few cans rolled out of the paper bag. She bent to pick them up, but dropped another bag in the process, completely and utterly flustered. Justin nudged the chainsaw in the ribs and gestured to the twitterpated girl. Giriko caught the hint and helped her pick up the fallen bags. She looked at him confused for a moment; then mentally made a decision. "Noah-sama, we have a new follower." She said, oddly formal. The collector nodded a smug smirk on his face.
"Yes, I suppose we do." He walked past the group then paused. The man quirked an eyebrow at Giriko then shook his head. "I'll be in my study, do not disturb me." Gopher nodded. "And I do hope you'll get your hands on Maka Albarn for me."
"I'll see to it myself." Gopher said with a poker face. The man waved a hand of dismissal and entered his room. At the sound of the door Gopher whipped around to face Giriko.
"You're lucky Noah-sama was in a good mood today." Gopher thrust the bags in his arms.
"What's this?" He asked indignantly.
"Look, if you're gonna' stay, you're gonna' work." Gopher huffed. "Now if you excuse me, I have a little girl to beat to a pulp." Gopher stormed past the two weapons and extended her soul wings. Justin gave Giriko a congratulatory pat on the back.
"Welcome to the team." He chuckled. "Now make me a samich sleeping beauty."
"I outta' kill you." Giriko hissed.
Where was this place?
A street perhaps?
No... that wasn't the word for it. Just because there was pavement didn't make it a street and the only source of light was the moonless sky.
It was a place people shouldn't be.
A dangerous place.
Chrona's lungs ached from the dry air, her sword shook in her grasp as she stood face to face with a morningstar. She hesitated and the spiked weapon collided with her side.
"What do you think you're doing?" Medusa hissed, "Finish him!" She fell to the ground from the impact and lay limp on the ground. Her legs still felt weak from the past bed ridden days. "I didn't save you so you could lie around, get up." She nodded and dislodged the weapon from her side. She had to kill him; the woman who saved her, said she was her mother, told her to do so.
The desert air was nice actually, sort of comforting. Much better than a damp cellar.
Once she was better, maybe she could go outside for things other than practice.
That would be nice.
She just had to wait for this nightmare to end.
With a single stroke she sliced through her opponent's chest. He fell to the concrete in a broken heap. A sense of déjà vu washed over her as she stared at the diagonal cut.
She had done this before, but to someone else.
"Coal!" A voice shouted from behind her. She turned to see the weapon had become another threat. He glared at her. "Screw the list." He growled and dashed at her, his arm partially transformed. She calmly hit the aslant in the abdomen with the handle of her sword, the spike tore through his muscle. She looked with mild curiosity at the tie clip her enemy wore, a three toothed skull. The weapon stumbled backwards and sputtered.
"Why were you looking for me?" She asked. The weapon couldn't answer, but merely convulsed on the ground. Medusa who had been watching overhead, must have determined the situation to be safe enough to expose herself and floated down from the shadows.
"He wasn't looking for you dear." Medusa sighed. Chrona shook her head and pointed to the skull.
"But he- someone is looking for me." Chrona insisted. There were very few things she felt certain of these days, her thoughts often fuzzy and hard to pin down. But that symbol, she knew she recognized it somehow, too hard to recall if that was a good or bad thing. Medusa frowned at her gently.
"Now why would someone be looking for you?" Medusa chided. "If someone was looking for you, wouldn't they have been the one to find you in that dusty old castle, rather than me?" Chrona tried to think of an answer, but cringed, there was nothing there. Her head was starting to ache. Medusa simply shook her head and grasped her daughter's hand. "If anyone is still looking for you, they'd be trying to kill you." Chrona nodded and looked down at her sallow victim and frowned. Of course, how silly of her. The only reason the skull looked familiar was because many people she fought wore the symbol. No one was looking for her.
"There's nothing in here!" Maka groaned. She flipped furiously through the book. She shut the copy shut and stared at the weather beaten ceiling. A sigh escaped her lips as she sunk into the worn couch of the circular hideaway.
"Hey Maka." She turned to see Black Star hovering in the door way. This was his secret hideout after all, she shouldn't be surprised he'd stop by. It's just, this late after classes, people usually wanted to be as far away from the school as possible.
"Oh, hey!" She tried to discreetly hide the book.
"What'cha reading?"
"What are you talking about?" She chuckled nervously and went to tuck the book behind her back, but Black Star was too fast. Before she knew it, he was holding it aloft and squinting at it.
"Eh~b~on?" Black Star sounded out as he held the book.
"G-give that back!" She went for the book, but the ninja dodged her artfully, not even looking away from the cover.
"Maka," he said slowly, "where did you get this?" The girl blushed, so even he could tell it was a forbidden book.
"My dad." She shifted under his gaze, she wasn't used to him being so serious. There were some things students weren't allowed to look at until they had 'matured' a bit more. The history of wicken society seemed to be one of them, though Maka couldn't fathom why. The best way to beat an enemy was to know them. Still, Black Star almost seemed worried.
"...why do you need this?" He asked. The book was only barrier between the two. Maka's fingers traced the fool's-gold 'S' on the back cover.
"Well, you see," Maka wasn't sure where to start, "I wanted to know more about the witch who made those clowns. This was the only book that mentions her, but it's just stuff she wrote about sorcery."
"You want to know about Claudia?" Black Star looked back at the book with a twinge of shame, as if mulling something over in his head. He shifted and checked the room quickly for mirrors or anyone coming up the steps.
"Black Star?" He pulled a large board and blocked the doorway.
"I... I may know something about her." he motioned for her to sit on the couch and flopped into the busted recliner. He tried to reclaim a semblance of his theatric way of speaking. "Normally I wouldn't go into a lengthy anecdote about things long in the past; but when the masses speak, they're hard to ignore." He looked to the floor nervously; above all else he hadn't wanted Maka to know about his family. He was, after all, supposed to be strong for her. The optimistic one, not some sappy orphan. Yet, it seemed that those days were slowly disappearing. He looked up at her confused expression and clenched his hands. If he really wanted to protect her, he'd have to tell her the truth before she delved too deep. She had invested too much time in this school to be kicked out for being a spy. "The reason I grew up at Shibusen, was because my parents were executed by Shinigami."
"Black Star," Maka looked at him with pity in her eyes, "I'm so sorry."
"What are you sorry for? You didn't do it." He frowned. "Besides, they were bad people. My father almost became a kishen and my mother... because of my mom's... weirdly accurate prediction thingies, she was considered a witch. People like her trained under the first voodoo witch, this 'Voodoo Queen' Claudia so they could blend in with humans." The idea of witches hiding from Lord Death and the magic realm was rarely talked about in the school. It flew in the face of what they taught the first years, that all magic, no matter how innocent would corrupt the users and pull them toward a path of destruction. "Then one day Claudia ate a bat and was consumed by madness. She tried to make new life, but made those parasitic monsters instead. A real nut job I've heard; white hair, demonic red eyes, a weird creeper-smile, the works. Well, even with this new demonic magic she still couldn't fight. So she hired the Star Clan to protect her. They fought off Shibusen for about six months before Shinigami-sama executed her by hand."
"Why did she hire body guards?" Maka asked, "Couldn't she have run?"
"Sid told me that she was using a really powerful spell that took a lot out of her. But it waws probably a trap to collect souls from both sides. They stormed her house all they found was a little kid. They assume she kidnapped him to practice her spells on. Sid didn't believe that though, said he thinks she made, pieced him together from the souls of the dead. Then again, it could have just been a story to keep me from playing in the dungeons, you know how adults are." He offered a halfhearted laugh. There was a prolonged pause. She wanted to ask him about his parents, but Kid's words still stung. He was right in this instance, nothing she said could change what happened to the Star Clan. "All I know is anyone that anyone who tries to make something be alive that shouldn't, ends up on Shinigami's list, regardless of the reason. Those monsters, that book, that place in Alaska... Bad things happen to good people who look into that stuff. You need to be more careful." He sighed. "All the other members of Star Clan were executed for having anything to do with that lady." Maka couldn't help herself.
"Black Star..." Maka started, but was silenced when he put a hand on the book.
"It's not healthy to dwell on past, Maka. If you keep trying, something might happen, something bad." He stood and looked down at her, a dangerous spark in his eye. "I won't stand by if you try to do something that will hurt you." He moved the balsa-wood plank and descended down the spiral stairs. It had been an honest mistake when he told Shinigami about the books in Crona's room, he hadn't known what they were. Now that he knew the power that was held in his offhanded comments, he wouldn't repeat his mistake.
AN: I started writing this during the manga's original release, so this chapter was written before Gopher's canonical gender was revealed.
For the purposes of this story, I'm going to keep using she/they pronouns for Gopher. Their situation is complicated and it's just one of those head canons I latched onto and couldn't let go of.