Before Maka or Soul could make it to the halls of the school, someone was shouting their names after them. Tsubaki ran up, doubled over as she caught her breath. Maka and Soul shared a look. In all their time knowing her, she usually darted out of sight before either of them could talk to her.
"Did you forget something?" Maka asked her.
"Sort of." Once Tsubaki was able to hold herself with some poise again, she offered an apologetic smile. "You see we've been trying to find a way to reverse the effects of being a kishin without killing the person inside."
Soul raised a brow at the novel idea of a kishen being saved rather than harvested. It was the kind of nerdy science stuff that Maka typically drooled over.
"Black Star's been too nervous to ask too much of you," Tsubaki said, "but we've been told someone with a grigori soul could help. People like you are more resistant to madness, and if we knew why, we might be able to replicate it." She clapped her hands together and bowed, knowing this was a huge favor to ask someone. "We've tried everything else, and short of getting rid of Asura, this seems to be our best lead."
"I see." It was a noble goal, Maka couldn't deny that. However she felt bad Black Star wasn't comfortable asking her for help himself. As much as she hated the idea of someone using her to get what they wanted, Black Star had gone out of his way to make sure that never seaped into their relationship. She checked her phone, her last message to him still unanswered. He seemed really upset when he left the practice field, so unlike his usual goofy self.
"He's trying to save his dad." Tsubaki said. "Lord Death has allowed him to survive while we've been looking for a cure, but if we give up... As long as there's something we haven't tried, he's going to keep searching. I want him to finally be able to move on from this." She knew personally how hard it was to accept when a family member was a lost cause. Seeing so many people try to hold onto their humanity was heartbreaking, but they couldn't live for allbeternity in cages. Something had to change. At this point, Black Star was trying too hard to make everyone happy, and was trapped in a never ending balancing act of other people's emotions. One of the juggling plates was doomed to fall, and she wasn't sure he'd know how to handle the broken pieces.
"What would you need me to do?" Maka tucked her phone away. While she wasn't the closest to her dad, she could only imagine what she'd do if she could prevent her mother from being torn from her. As frustrating as their relationship had been the last few months, she wouldn't give it up for the world.
"I'm not entirely sure what could be done." Tsubaki said. "We have an expert that's been working on a combination of soul reconstruction and illusion magic. I think they need a model on what the end result should look like to naturally repel madness." Maka looked up at Soul as the gears in her head turned. He and Chrona always seemed to do better whenever she was around. If this cure worked on kishin eggs, it might also help those inflicted with Black Blood. She had been resistant to that too for the most part.
"Soul, what if this could make anything madness related go away?" She would never sign up for something so experimental without him agreeing, but she was really warming up to the idea.
"I'd say it's worth a shot." Soul grinned. After all, Tsubaki came from a long line of death scythes. Anyone that close to the school had to be onto something. It was about time he got to do something worthy of his death scythe title. "I'll be able to magnify whatever effect her soul has."
"Great!" Tsubaki got their numbers so she could send him the address. "Thank you so much!" She just knew Black Star would be beside himself, cleaning the house top to bottom just to make sure it was ready for his little crush. Just to be safe she asked them to drop by a little later in the morning. "There is one other thing." She weighed how best to describe the state the house was in. When she had first arrived, the number of kishin eggs walking around in broad daylight had been shocking to say the least. The only reason she maintained a pleasant front, were the years of proper manners drilled into her from an early age. "The home is filled with people already pardoned by Lord Death, even though they haven't fully been cured yet. They've recently had a loss in the family, so they might not be nearly as welcoming as they normally would be. If you say you're there to help the people downstairs, they'll welcome you in. Black Star or I will be with you at all times just in case." They'd need time to adjust to seeing the souls beneath the mountain, but she had faith that Maka and Soul knew what was at stake. Now all that was left was to prepare everyone else.
The steps that lead down to the basement felt slanted at an incline, barely an obstacle for Black Star as he tore down to where Noah was. When he reached solid ground, each step was like wading through shallow waters. Every muscle electric, almost seizing as he made his way to the dark prison cells. It was too quiet, he couldn't even hear his own footsteps over the roaring waves of his own heartbeat. Something glimmered behind each heavy prison door, they were watching, but no one dare made a sound. They had felt it from day one, he'd just been too disconnected from them to understand their cries as anything other than nonsensical pleas to be let out. Now the message rang out in the silent, humid air clear as a bell.
You're being used.
Gopher was low to the ground, reeking of fear, soul oozing golden streaks in a shameful pattern on the floor. His precious little wings torn up by a more threatening predator. Noah was not the one that deserved apologies and copious tears, not by far. Both seemed to notice the foul mood he brought to them and tried to hide something had gone awry. This too was supposed to be kept from him.
"I did not tell you to interfere." Noah's voice feigned anger the best out of any emotion, but it was always too little. A sliver of humanity compared to the rich powers he tried to command. Gopher was a gobbled mess of excuses, and quieted as Black Star drew near. The heat around him was suffocating, and there was no hope for relief. Noah regarded him with interest, itching for a pen again in Black Star's presence."What are you doing here?" Noah paved past the negative emotions in the room with fake friendliness. "I thought you were hard at work on your backup plan."
"You need a grigori soul?" Black Star grabbed the back of Gopher's collar and shoved him forward, heedless of the yelp of protest. "There you go." He dared Noah to come up with a new excuse why Black Star's life, Black Star's friends should be put into dangerous situations instead of the tools at Noah's disposal.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Gopher looked up at the two locked in a silent battle of wills. The kid must have caught on. There was only one chance to get him to swallow their story. "I'm not really a grigori soul. I, I know I act like one, but my soul is just a bunch of pieces fitted together to look like one. It's not the same thing." Miserable as it was to admit, they would always be a knock off of the real thing. No holy magic, no special wavelength that heals, an imperfect recreation of something sacred.
"You're not as strong," Black Star said, "but it's the same effect." He'd felt it when they were sparring, or rather, he didn't feel the things Elaine had tried to smother with patches and pills anytime Gopher was present. "It should still be enough to see if it'll make a difference." Noah narrowed his eyes. "My guess is, you're more useful to him alive." He ignored the glimmer of hope in Gopher's eyes and stepped closer to Noah. Glaring more at the man's nostrils than coming eye to eye, ghoulish patterns blooming on his skin as a warning. "Isn't that right?"
"I have fully exhausted Gopher's abilities." Noah dared push Black Star back with his finger tips against the boy's forehead. "You are creating phantoms where there are none."
The stars in Black Star's eyes were blown out past their sockets, a caverness black behind him. Flushed with a rising temperature as the black marks wound around in new patterns around his soul. The book buzzed with anticipation as something new had developed.
"It'd be best to see your cousin about another seal." Noah said. "Your anger's clouding your judgement."
Black Star's hand darted for the book at Noah's side. A long leach had jumped off Noah's skin and bit down, keeping Black Star's arm a few inches away. A stony, disapproving look dominated Noah's face, for once a real emotion had slipped through the cracks. No one had been allowed to look at the book, even Gopher, who constantly moaned about not being an entry. Why did he need Maka for the book instead?
"Did you touch the seals too?" Doubt had seeped into every memory, every scrap of praise. "Is that another way you thought you could lie to me!?" The leech let go, but not in time to avoid a powerful electrical charge that wrapped around it's body straight to Noah's hand.
He was shown the medicine too. He must have poisoned all of it and made you cast aside the rest. Look at him, he doesn't look scared.
He should be.
"I brought you here." Black Star bellowed. "I said to leave her alone!" He couldn't see anyone now, but he knew where they were. Gopher had long stopped simpering and was preparing to run up behind him and restrain Black Star by the arms. He blasted a shower of sparks behind him before Gopher even had the chance. Fear, pain, all of them coming from the wrong person. Noah should be groveling now, and yet there was nothing coming from Noah's direction other than mild disappointment. "You're supposed to listen to me!"
"You have failed to offer anything to pay us for months." Noah said. The young witchling was powerless, any attempts of capturing Asura had ground to a halt, the only thing the book had an interest in was a natural born girigori soul. It had plenty on death demons and the ways humans contained them. If knowledge were money, that would have been pennies. "We have been doing this as a favor. If things aren't done our way, the people down here will be doomed to this existence forever."
His hand grazed over the book, like resting a hand on a gun. The kid showed no signs of backing down, which he noted with mild interest, could mean the halfling had a hunting ground after all. He backed away as Black Star stalked him around the table. Just as he decided to open it, something icey breathed down Noah's back. Behind the cell bars White Star was staring down at him. All seals and chains had frozen into brittle, breakable decorations. It was the last thing Noah saw.
White Star had Noah's arm with the book pinned between his talons against the bars. What remained of Black Star had latched onto the rest. Gopher couldn't stop either in time to keep his master in one piece.
"Noah-sama!" Gopher's wails caught the blind ire of the mindless creature that had bashed Noah's head against the metal table. No scrap of recognition behind the distorted features of someone that once had hung on his every word. Gopher froze, as the demon in front of him considered pursuing him next. Then watched with horror as Black Star heard a gasp from Noah and refocused on his initial prey. There was a trace of wonder on Black Star's face, having never suspected a human skull could break as easily as it had. Then hauled Noah in the air and repeated the killing blow, dissatisfied there was still breath left in Noah's body. The entire hall screamed in distorted elation, rattling the bars and tugging at chains. Gopher saw the book bloodied with black ink, still chained to Noah's belt as his arm was tossed to Black Star like a new toy. There was no sense of wrongness from Noah's attackers that his blood was ink, or his limbs crumpled like paper. Retrieving the book at this point wasn't worth the risk.
He backed away slowly, using his master's death as a distraction and as soon as he'd left the basement, he tore through the house in a full panic. The people in the house stared at him with the same predatory hunger. A wounded soul, easy prey. There had been a kindness there once, but they poised listening to a voice only they could hear. Gopher pushed through doors and risked further injury to fly as far away from the place as he could. Noah had stoked something with his experimentation he should have let be, and he paid the price. All Gopher could feel was regret he hadn't intervened sooner.
There was no soul. Nothing to take that would sooth the burning wreckage of Black Star's mind, just ink and paper. He had tried, choking on expire magic and reduced to a quivering mess on the ground. It wasn't enough. He wanted that wretched body to come back to life just so he could bury more pain and anger into the broken body. Make him pay for what he did.
What did he do again?
An ice cold gale washed over him from behind the bars as he stilled. His father was still locked behind bars, nothing had changed. All that time wasted while the people around him had patiently waited for their time to be free again. Always watching, always worried this would be it. He dragged himself off the ground to his father's cage and grabbed the lock. If he could channel that rage again, he could break it. A large talon looped out through the bars and around his wrist gently.
Leave it be.
Black Star looked up at him. He let go of the lock, reaching through to touch the corpse like hand on the other side of the bars. Black ink smudged across his father's hand. Where did that come from? Something bad happened, but he was safe now. That was all his father seemed to care about as he withdrew back into his cell, waiting for something. Black Star was jittery from a hunger that had yet to be satisfied, left weak with no clear direction to go next.
Metal clanged against the stone behind him in rhythmic succession, closer and closer until Black Star turned. Mifune observed the scene with polite interest. Black Star had been dragged back to his knees, ink stained hands supporting his weight on the floor. Mifune had seen his fair share of kishin eggs mid hunt, but it seemed the boy still saw him as no different from the ones locked in cages. Blind instinct told Black Star there were no more threats left in the room.
"What happened?" Mifune asked in a stern voice. All of the artificer's things had been broken against the pavement with deliberate attention to detail. A long black smears of ink and torn up paper painted the floor. People had crawled to the front of their cages to watch with interest.
"He-" Black Star cut himself off, his mouth a mess of fangs and curved tusks. He finally looked at the black stony claws that had grown over his finger nails, unable to force them back into their old shapes. "He tried to hurt Maka." This wasn't a normal response to something like that. He had seen himself, the worst that had happened was a lost hair tie. He hadn't even gotten a clear answer to any of his questions. He just couldn't stop the avalanche of what ifs that had poured into his head after. When he couldn't control the situation, something snapped. He tried to focus on what Tsubaki had taught him about masking to look more human, but each time he tried the intrusive anger flared up like an angry wound refusing to be ignored. It would remind him what of what he'd done, what he would have tried to do if there had been a soul there, that an accomplice was still out there. An anguished cry raked out his lungs as the only thing he could think of that would make him feel better was miles away, oblivious to what just happened. She could never know.
It's just too familiar is all.
Mifune lay a cold hand on his shoulder. Under the cloves was a familiar wavelength; prickly with static and clingy. He'd never had someone reach out to him with their soul like that before. One by one, it guided him through his raging emotions, matching them like playing cards. Anger at being deceived, Mifune dulled his own anger and Black Star was able to mimic by feel. Fear that something worse could have happened. Shame at not noticing sooner, or bothering to ask the right questions. Guilt for letting his own ego drag out the suffering of everyone around him. Mifune breathed out, so did Black Star. The fever died down, his eyesight returned in patches and the other sense dulled. All he could smell was the salt of his own tears and the cloves heavy in the air. That shouldn't have happened, but it did, and he had to deal with the consequences.
"I'll take the book to Angela," Mifune said, "she is able to counter the spell that keeps it from being read. You'll feel better after cleaning yourself up."
"Where's Tsubaki?" His voice was ravaged from screams he didn't remember making.
"She hasn't come home yet." That was probably for the best, he didn't want her to see him like this. Maybe she had and he just didn't remember. Once he found the strength to, he stood up. He needed to talk to Elaine.
Black Star was face to face with a drooping honey pot plant. Elaine placed seals one after another over each fading black mark on soul. Now that he had a better idea what she was addressing, he could feel each emotion numb away into nothingness. She tried to leave as much uncovered as possible, but not being able to feel that much of himself felt wrong.
"You're sure this is how they're supposed to work?" He had been so certain they'd been tampered with.
"Yes love. I know it's uncomfortable," she smoothed the last seal over, "but it's better than hurting people." The fact no one in the house blamed him was eerie. They all kept quiet, dodging Angela's questions and claiming Noah 'left'. He didn't like them lying like that. "You'll be able to control it eventually, it's just harder when you're younger. Transformations of any kind are hard to get a hold of, for us it's just easier to get stuck on the other end of it." She patted his shoulder, proud of her work, but he continued to curl in on himself.
"And the medicine?" He'd finally confessed to missing doses on purpose, to feeling above the need to follow the rules that had been set out for him. Elaine had been reasonably disappointed, reminding him these were the consequences they'd tried to shield him from. The claws had gone away, but the discoloration stayed. The markings were too bold to be covered by makeup or hiding in shadows. Even his eyes had permanent stars where pupils had once been. The shakiness that came from an unaddressed hunger would take far more effort to ignore now that he knew it was there. All of the patches were just quick solutions until he could control the transformation himself. Clearly they were right in thinking he wasn't ready.
"The 'magic pills' were Venus' idea." There was a dip in her voice of empathetic guilt, like telling a child Santa wasn't real. "She thought if you all had something that gave you a sense of progress, you'd have more control. Sheer stubbornness convinced her Nyquil tasted like water for years, she figured the sugar pills would work the same way. The best way to help you little ones harness willpower from the soul without knowing it. It worked for a while, but clearly it wasn't enough." A placebo, and it always had been. No wonder he never noticed that much of a difference. "It's the meditation that helps, you've just yet to build a patience for it." That was also unfortunately true. He just couldn't sit there with an empty mind, it always rattled around with something in it. "It'll be okay love, you heard our little princess. It was a fake person. No harm done."
"I didn't know he was a fake person." Black Star reeled on her. Hands folded neatly in her lap, she looked on with knowing pity, her porcelain skin glimmering in the daylight. She must have meant no harm had come to him. As much as it sucked to have what happened on his sleeve, there was still a greater chance he could go back. "What was the first thing you covered up? The feeling, what was it?"
"The need to protect someone." Elaine's earrings swayed as she dipped her head. The fractures had come from there, so she hadn't been wrong. Part of her wondered if things would have gotten as bad if she left it alone. Dulling it had the horrendous side effect of making it easier for him to disregard other people in the heat of the moment. "It sounds noble, but that's what makes it one of the nastier impulses to control." It was what convinced Cassandra it was better for her family to become demons than die of natural causes. When Lord Death came to collect them, it was the same impulse that drove White Star to kill without remorse. "We've tried everything, even when you're in the dungeon, your father still doesn't believe you're safe. He keeps making up things that could happen as an excuse to remain as he is, things like Asura escaping and bringing the world to an end."
"But he was right, someone did try to let him out." Black Star had been there when the god of madness nearly awoken. They entire world was still recovering from the near miss.
"That's why it's so hard to convince him you're fine." Putting away the fresh inks and papers he forced her to get out, she sighed. "If there's even a sliver of circumstantial evidence, it reinforces the delusion."
"So, the people who are down there all think we're in danger?" He'd gone into the prison without permission frequently, reinforcing that idea over and over. Reminding them Lord Death thought they were a danger, that there was no one person in charge to stop him from changing his mind. Now, they had seen an imposter had wormed their way into the house under the guise of helping them. It would be harder to get them to cooperate from here on out. Having met Lord Death, Black Star wondered what his aunt had told the god to keep them alive in the first place. Elaine nodded grimly, going over her collection of binders until she came to one and pulled it out.
She flipped to a page of all the family looking human. Everyone was drinking and at a long table was his father and a woman in a white kimono. Elaine pointed to her, the only person in the picture not smiling.
"Your mother claimed to see the future, and said it wasn't a happy one." Elaine said. "As more of her predictions came true, more people believed her, including your father. You're the only thing she didn't predict."
He took the binder. Having few photos of his mother, it was odd to see someone so familiar look so sad, like she was at a funeral. Not quite the life of the party he'd pictured from stories.
"You two were the only things she cared about," Elaine said, "and after White Star almost died... She forced everyone to see what she wanted to see." Cassandra had been willing to turn everyone into monsters if it meant protecting her happily ever after "Some have yet to accept this is reality and the happy life they were pulled out of was the illusion. It's easier for them to believe this a nightmare they'll wake up from."
He knew he should feel something from looking at the photo, but he felt nothing. Everything was numb.
"None of this is your responsibility to fix." She said, tilting his head away from the book. "All of us just want you little ones to be free to live your own lives. Seiryu, Genbu, even Suzuka; we all can keep things a float. Asuka will not fall apart if you can't be here with us anymore." She smiled as the second set of fangs slowly receded back to human incisors. "But I'm worried that instead of protecting you from the past, we've set you up to repeat it." She let him keep the book, her old human features smiling back up at them. "Destroying yourself for the sake of other people's happiness, doesn't make harming yourself a good thing to do."
He was still so young, and she wasn't sure the lesson would stick. Looking at the photos she could see the kanji for guilt glow an angry red as it tried to contain his emotional response, despite her words. She turned around and filled a bowl with water from the fountain and brought it back.
"When I was younger, I used to be a giant porcelain dragon." She said, he perked up a little. "I didn't have any arms or legs. The only thing I could do was poison anyone who came close to me, but with this I found away to fight what my kishin form wanted me to do." With the end of a brush she let a drop of water hit his skin, and patiently waited for him to come back. "Sudden, wasn't it?" She laughed a little. "The more you practice, the easier it will be to resist. So that next time you feel someone's threatening something you care about..." She tapped his forehead with a gold tipped finger, then it morphed into a claw like spout, then a finger tip again: just to show how much control she had now. "You'll be able to think and choose what to do before lashing out."
He set the book aside and took the bowl. His altered reflection looking back up at him in waves of humanoid and demonic features. He needed to control this as quickly as he could.