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A Soul For A Soul

Summary:

In which Tsubaki finds a meister, under very different circumstances

Chapter 1: A first meeting

Chapter Text

The rain fell in heavy drops over the Star Clan camp. It made the earth a thick mud, that stuck to anything that so much as brushed against it and threatened to swallow the few bodies still laying around whole. 

 

Tsubaki had never been to Needle Village before the attack, but she imagined that if the people who had lived there could see it now they would barely recognize it. Houses had been torn down, the few fields surrounding it were so massacred that it was impossible to tell what they’d been used for, and the guardian statue in the middle of the village appeared to have been crushed by something. 

 

She looked at it, where it laid in the mud, and tried to discern what it had originally looked like, all the while the sounds of light footsteps grew closer, more noticeable through the rain. If she wasn’t mistaken, and she rarely was, she was being surrounded. Slowly, she raised her hands. 

 

“I am not here to fight,” she declared. “I want to speak to your leader.” 

 

The sounds stopped, and Tsubaki remained still. She let her eyes wander over the surrounding buildings, but couldn’t see anyone living. Only the corpse of a young boy stared back at her. 

 

“We have no leader,” a voice suddenly came from somewhere behind her. It was low, coarse as though either overused or not used in a long time, and followed by scattered murmurs of agreement from the surrounding buildings. 

 

“Then take me to your strongest,” Tsubaki insisted. “I can pay.” 

 

The murmurs returned, as though the clan were discussing amongst themselves. Tsubaki waited patiently, until things finally quieted down again and the first voice spoke, now coming from slightly to her right. 

 

“Very well. I will show you.” 

 

A woman stepped out from behind a building. Her form was unclear, distorted by the rain, but Tsubaki could at least make out the woman waving for her to follow. 

 

They walked through the village, with at least three people still tailing them, from what Tsubaki could hear. She found it a bit unnecessary. If they were trying to intimidate her it would take much more than that, and if they were genuinely planning to attack her they should know better. Nevertheless, they followed and she paid them less mind the closer they got to the outskirts of the village, where one, single house was lit up. 

 

“In there,” the woman said, stopping a few meters away from the house. Tsubaki nodded in acknowledgement, then stepped past her and up to the door. 

 

She stood in front of it for a moment, trying to hear any sounds from inside. It was remarkably quiet, and she began to suspect that whoever was in there knew she was coming. Quickly, she checked to see that she still had the coins with her, then reached out and knocked on the door. 

 

A few seconds passed by without a response, and Tsubaki finally opened the door herself. Doing so revealed a single, open room, made that way by the walls being torn down. It was, quite frankly, a mess, looking almost as much as a battlefield as the village outside. Various farming tools and simple weapons were strewn about, some bent out of shape and some driven deep into the floorboards. And in the middle of it all sat a boy. 

 

He eyed Tsubaki, not with malice but with the curiosity of a kitten who’d just seen a small bird for the first time and was starting to ponder where exactly in the food chain the thing belonged relative to himself. He couldn’t be more than thirteen years old. Probably younger. 

 

“Who are you?” He asked, straightforwardly, and Tsubaki considered for a moment before responding. 

 

“I’m a potential client. They tell me you’re the strongest here.” 

 

“I’m the strongest everywhere.” The boy’s eyes narrowed to slits and Tsubaki forced a smile. 

 

“That sounds promising,” she said as she stepped closer. She thought the boy might try to stop her, but he remained where he was and just watched as she approached and sat down opposite him (after pushing a bent sword aside). 

 

“I came here to ask for your help. There’s a man whose soul I want to take, but I can’t do it alone,” Tsubaki explained. “I’ll pay you well if you can take him down.” 

 

“Why can’t you do it by yourself?” the boy asked. He’d sat up a bit straighter, evidently not completely uninterested in the conversation. 

 

“Because I need a meister.” Tsubaki cringed at the word ‘need’. It was her one shortcoming, compared to Masamune, but it made her feel leagues behind. He could whine and wallow in his self-pity all he wanted, but he still had that independence. 

 

“You’re a demon weapon?” The boy looked even more interested now, and Tsubaki forced the thoughts of Masamune aside. 

 

“Yes. Have you ever wielded one?” 

 

“Never.” The boy shook his head. “I can’t pick ‘em up for some reason.” 

 

Tsubaki cast a quick glance at the mess in the room, then looked back at the boy. She’d only known him for a few minutes, but he already didn’t strike her as the type to consider a weapon’s wavelength before picking it up, which would explain his issue. If he really is the strongest of the star clan, she thought, even Masamune might have had some trouble working with him . It was a reassuring thought. 

 

“Would you like to try with me,” she suggested sweetly and the boy’s eyes widened. A smile slowly crept over his face, seeming almost subconscious, and revealed his razor-sharp teeth. 

 

“If you think you can handle me,” he said and stood up. Tsubaki followed, gave the boy a quick nod and then transformed. 

 

She chose the chain scythe form, and was delighted to find that the boy caught her with good form, if a bit tense. He weighed her in his hand, then tossed her in the air and caught her. 

 

“You’re lighter than I expected,” he commented. Tsubaki said nothing in return, instead focusing on trying to get a grip of his wavelength. It was strong, as she'd suspected, but had a surprising lightness to it. Tsubaki tried to picture the kind of damage she'd be able to do in the hand of this boy. She could only guess, of course, but the images that came to mind were of quick, yet heavy strikes. 

 

'If you think you can handle me.' She almost laughed. It was an odd wavelength, for sure, but it wasn't impossible to work with. 

 

"Try hitting something," she suggested and the boy happily obliged. He hurled her at one of the few remaining walls, hard enough to pierce through it completely, then yanked her back and got a sizable chunk of wood with him, leaving a jagged hole through which you could see the rain outside. With a laugh, a cackle, he kicked the wood off and threw her again, this time at a supporting beam towards the edge of the room. Tsubaki’s chain wrapped around it, and the boy pulled, soon bringing the thing down with a loud creak. The whole house seemed to shudder, but the boy paid it no mind. Tsubaki could feel his hands tremble, and his wavelength going haywire. 

 

“This is perfect,” he mumbled. “ You’re perfect.” 

 

I know, Tusbaki thought. 

 

“Thank you,” she said. For a moment she considered going through her other forms, but she decided the boy had played around enough for now. There was no need to show off. She transformed back to her human form, not missing the disappointed look on the boy’s face, and sat down again. 

 

“Now, about my request-” 

 

“I have an idea,” the boy cut her off. “It just so happens that I also have a certain soul I want to take. You don’t have to pay if you help me out.” 

 

“A soul for a soul, you say.” Tsubaki considered it. It wasn’t like she’d have anything better to do after taking down her brother, and while money wasn’t an issue for her it was always nice to save on pure principle. The boy didn’t say anything as she thought, just watched her intently. It was honestly a bit cute, he’d acted very sure of himself for the entire conversation but now he looked almost, almost nervous. 

 

“You’ve got a deal.” Tsubaki smiled and extended her hand. “What’s your name?” 

 

“I’m BlackStar.” He shook her hand and grinned. “I’m the man who will transcend the gods.”

 

“I’m Tsubaki, heir of the Nakatsukasa clan.”

Chapter 2: Another first meeting

Summary:

in which we say a very warm welcome to Maka's early teenage angst

Chapter Text

Maka couldn’t earnestly say she wasn’t nervous, walking alone to the death room. If she’d had more time to prepare for it she might have felt a bit better, but Professor Stein had just casually ordered her to go see Lord Death after she was done talking to Soul for the day. Soul must have interpreted it the same as her, because his first reaction had been to loudly remind Stein that the incident in Florence had been his own fault before anyone else’s. Stein had reassured him that that had nothing to do with it, but Maka couldn’t help but worry. Especially considering how wrong Soul was. 

 

She would have felt a lot calmer with Soul around, she thought as she stepped through the heavy door and into the corridor. The death room always had a strange feeling to it, especially when first entering. It almost felt like a shift in temperature, and it had gotten stronger ever since she started getting the knack of sensing souls. Furthermore, the long corridor gave anyone walking through a lot of time to ponder this strange feeling. Maybe it was deliberate. 

 

Maka finally reached Lord Death’s platform, finding him already out of the mirror and waiting for her. 

 

“Oh, Maka.” He fixed her with what she assumed to be his gaze, although the mask made it hard to tell. “I’m so glad you could pop in!” 

 

“Good afternoon, Lord Death.” Maka bowed slightly. “You wanted to speak to me.” 

 

“Yes I did,” Lord Death confirmed. “How is Soul holding up?” 

 

“He’s...better.” At least physically, if she’d understood Ms Medusa correctly. “I think he should be good to go out on missions again pretty soon.” 

 

“That’s wonderful news!” Lord Death’s hands materialized and he clasped them together. “You see, I have a special mission prepared for you. It’s nothing urgent, so please don’t stress, just a little exercise that Stein proposed.” 

 

“Professor Stein?” Maka frowned. “What kind of exercise is it?” 

 

“Well, you see, it concerns a very peculiar kishin egg. A man by the name of Masamune Nakatsukasa.” 

 

Maka thought she recognized the last name from somewhere, but couldn’t quite place it. It had been in some kind of history book, if she remembered correctly. 

 

“He’s a very dangerous opponent, so you won’t under any circumstance actually engage him,” Lord Death continued. “Your job will simply be to search for him within a designated area. His wavelength is rather unique, so Stein thought it would be an interesting little trial for you.” 

 

That was...certainly an unusual mission. It was better than Florence, though. Anything was better than Florence, but getting to go on a mission without having to fight especially felt like a blessing. It was stupid, honestly. Maka needed to get back to fighting, it was the only way to actually get stronger, but she thought she could be forgiven for wanting a short break. Especially if it meant a mission where Soul wouldn’t be put in harm’s way again. 

 

“It sounds interesting.” She nodded and Lord Death hummed cheerfully. 

 

“I’m glad you think so,” he said. “Though you should know in advance, we won’t let you go alone. One of my most competent men will be looking out for you.” 

 

“That won’t be necessary!” Maka said, or rather tried to say but was interrupted. 

 

“It’s just a question of safety,” Lord Death reassured her. “Students will be paired up for all regular missions for the foreseeable future anyway, this is just a bit of a special case.” 

 

“Oh.” She supposed that made sense, even if it made her feel like she was getting assigned a babysitter. “Is it anyone I know?” 

 

“No, but I’m sure you’ll get along swimmingly.” Lord Death gestured dismissively. “If you’d like to meet him you can wait here. He should be stopping by any minute.” 

 

“That’s- I mean, sure. I’ll stay.” Maka felt a bit overwhelmed, but it was definitely a good idea to stay and meet this person. She’d probably feel less uncomfortable having company for the mission if it was someone she’d at least spoken to before. 

 

“Wonderful, wonderful! Now, about this Masamune character…” 

 

Lord Death could be very vague when explaining, but Maka managed to understand at least some of it. The man was a demon weapon, and with the unusual ability to possess souls. This was what had made him interesting for Maka’s practice, since looking for him meant searching for a wavelength intertwining with others. It would be a bit difficult, and Maka felt a slight sense of pride at having this kind of trust placed in her by Professor Stein. 

 

Lord Death kept talking, until he finally cut himself off mid-sentence to look over Maka’s shoulder. 

 

“There you are!” He said in a sing-song voice, and Maka nearly jumped when she turned around and found that a boy had entered the room without making a sound. 

 

“Father.” The boy stepped forward, ending up side by side with Maka, who tried her best to hide her shock at what he'd just said. Evidently, she didn’t do a good enough job because the boy shot her a look that was hard to interpret. Not exactly hostile, but decidedly not friendly. 

 

"I'm glad you could come in on such short notice." Lord Death paid the exchange no mind. "Kid, I want you to meet Maka Albarn. Maka, Kid."

 

"Hi." Maka stretched her hand out but the boy didn't take it, instead just nodding to her. 

 

"I've heard a lot about you," he said, and Maka couldn't help but immediately wonder what exactly he was referring to. She had some impressive feats on her resume, sure, but she had a sneaking suspicion that her almost completing a death scythe wasn't what Kid was referring to. 

 

"Uh, thanks." Her right hand was still hanging in the air and she resisted the urge to do something with it. A thumbs up would actually be cause to leave Death City forever and Kid obviously didn't like physical contact. In the end, she just let it fall limply back to her side once Kid had turned to face his father again. 

 

Lord Death continued talking about Masamune, but Maka was finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate. She kept glancing at Kid, and slowly realized that despite his demeanor and the suit he couldn’t be much older than herself. 

 

‘One of my most competent men’, repeated over and over at the back of her mind. 

 

It felt like hours before Lord Death finally dismissed them and when he did, Maka had to fight the urge to storm out. She kept her composure and bowed before leaving, with Kid walking with her as silent as a shadow. He was evidently as uninterested in making small talk with her as Maka was with him, and so they said nothing as they left the death room and continued walking through the school. It wasn’t until they were closing up on the infirmary that Maka saw a chance to leave, and broke the silence. 

 

“This is my stop.” She got the sudden feeling her voice was shaking, which was crazy because she’d never had that problem before. Her voice was steady, thanks very much. She’d faced over a hundred enemies and this teenager wasn’t going to throw her off.

 

‘One of my most competent men.’ 

 

“I look forward to working with you,” Kid said and Maka forced a smile. 

 

“Likewise,” she lied and all but fled into the infirmary. The door slammed shut behind her a bit too loud, but she couldn’t find it in her to care and just sighed in relief. She took a moment to relax, then looked out over the room to see who was there. It seemed Ms Medusa had gone home for the day, leaving only the patients, i.e. only Soul, and Maka slowly approached his bed. 

 

“Oh, you’re back,” he said once he noticed her and Maka nodded, then sat down on the stool next to the bed. 

 

“I’ve got news…” She trailed off, not sure where to begin. “We’ll be getting a new mission as soon as you’re feeling better.” 

 

“Finally, ” Soul groaned.”I feel like I haven’t been out in years. Anything interesting?” 

 

“Kinda.” Maka shrugged and then didn’t elaborate. Soul narrowed his eyes at her, because of course he noticed there was something wrong, but at least he didn’t ask. He shouldn’t be so eager to go out and fight again, Maka thought. She couldn’t see the scar at the moment, but she could picture it clearly. What kind of meister let that happen? What kind of competent meister let that happen? 

 

“Hey!” Soul smacked her arm weakly. “You’re thinking too much. I can smell it.” 

 

“Shut up.” 

 

“Everyone at school can smell it.”

 

“Shut up. ” Maka glared at him. “Some of us need to think to function.” 

 

“Ouch. I’m already wounded enough.” 

 

It was a joke. Maka knew it was, and she knew it was probably meant to cheer her up a bit, but it felt like a punch directly to the nose and without thinking she stood up. She mumbled something about how she had to go home and feed Blair, then left the infirmary as quickly as she’d entered it. Her throat felt thick, and she only managed to get a few doors down the corridor before she sat down against the wall, hugging her knees tightly. 


She didn’t want to go on another mission. She wanted to stay home for a month and do nothing but read books she already knew by heart. Soul would call that stupid, but he wasn’t there, so it didn’t really matter at the moment. Maka forced back a sob and slowly stood up. She did have to feed Blair, she reminded herself. And she’d at least have a few days to stay home and read.

Chapter 3: A campfire conversation

Summary:

in which Tsubaki reluctantly has a little chat

Notes:

cw for animal death in this one

Chapter Text

Tsubaki rolled her eyes as a loud creak rang through the woods, scaring a flock of birds. 

 

Subtlety, she’d quickly come to understand, was not BlackStar’s forte. He could do it, hell, he’d probably been trained to do it since birth, but it wasn’t his natural state of being. This was their third night sleeping outside, their third campfire and the third time BlackStar had decided that the best way to fetch firewood was to bring down a whole tree. 

 

It wasn’t long before he came back, a large branch slung over his back and a few leaves stuck in his hair. He grinned at Tsubaki as he put the wood down, and she managed to catch herself before rolling her eyes again. 

 

“You know,” she said as gently as she could manage. “You don’t have to tear up trees if you’re only going to use a branch or two.” 

 

BlackStar just shrugged and got to work on breaking the thing up, alternating between more classic methods and hitting it with his soul wavelength. It sent splinters flying over the camp and Tsubaki quickly moved her bag out of range, until BlackStar deemed the branch obliterated enough and sat down to start working on the fire. She left him to it, despite the fact that he was a bit slow at it, and instead opted for unpacking the rations they’d acquired in the last town they visited. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it’d keep them going until they could find some other poor soul to restock from. 

 

Once the fire got going BlackStar sat back with a satisfied nod, and Tsubaki threw him a package of what she thought was some kind of dried meat. Whatever it was, BlackStar didn’t complain, just started eating straight from the package. Tsubaki let it go on for a while before finally reminding him that he couldn’t live off protein alone. She produced a knife and a loaf of bread from the bag, split the thing in two and handed one half to BlackStar. It had gotten dry, she realized when she bit into her half, and she grimaced at the dull taste. 

 

“Can I ask you something?” BlackStar suddenly said, mouth still full of food. “How come you’re going after this Masamooney guy?” 

 

“Masamune,” Tsubaki corrected. “And it’s a long story.” 

 

“I’m not going anywhere.” 

 

“Neither am I, but that doesn’t mean we have to talk about it.” Tsubaki shot him a glare. “Why do you want to know, anyway?” 

 

“I’m just curious.” BlackStar suddenly sounded a bit defensive. He took another mouthful of food and kept silent for a few, blissful seconds, before suddenly lighting up and starting to look for something in his pocket. Finally, he pulled out what looked like a mangled chocolate bar and waved it in Tsubaki’s general direction. 

 

“I’ll give you this if you tell me!” He grinned, and Tsubaki took a moment to keep glaring at him before finally snatching it out of his hand. 

 

“Fine. He’s my brother.” Was. “But it’s not a personal thing, so don’t go assuming things.” 

 

She tore the wrapper off the chocolate and bit into it, hoping that would signal that this was the end of the conversation. Even if she did want to go into any kind of detail, BlackStar wouldn’t understand. From what she’d heard, the Star Clan didn’t care for weaklings. Didn’t coddle them. No, BlackStar wouldn’t know what it was like to have to humour someone who believed himself owed more than he’d been dealt, and definitely not people who were hellbent on keeping him content at all costs. 

 

“You didn’t tell me anything at all.” Evidently, Tsubaki hadn’t sent a clear enough message. 

 

“Just shut up already,” she spat, but only managed to make BlackStar laugh. An idea struck her and she reached for her coin purse, fished one out and threw it at him. He managed to catch it just before it hit him between the eyes. 

 

“Will that be enough?” Tsubaki asked and BlackStar’s eyes narrowed, but at least he didn’t say anything else. He bit the coin, then stashed it somewhere on his person and got back to eating with a sullen expression. 

 

The fire crackled lightly, and Tsubaki let herself enjoy it for a moment before reminding herself that it was best to keep on good terms with the little monster. 

 

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m just a little on edge right now.” 

 

The worst part was that it wasn’t even a lie. She was calmer than she suspected most people would be in her situation, but she was letting her nerves get the better of her. The moment all this was over she was going to take a long break somewhere secluded and not return until she could act like herself again. 

 

BlackStar wasn’t responding and Tsubaki thought for a moment about how best to get him in a good mood again before addressing him. 

 

“You know I’ve actually been meaning to ask something as well.” She let the words hang in the air for a moment to see how he’d react, and caught him glancing away from the fire at her. 

 

“Who is it that you’re going after? You never told me.” 

 

That seemed to do the trick, because even though BlackStar still didn’t look at her he sat up straighter and cleared his throat slightly. 

 

“There’s a guy they call ‘sword god’,” he began. “He’s crazy strong. Killed my old man a year back or so.” 

 

“Revenge it is, then?” Tsubaki asked, but to her surprise BlackStar shook his head. 

 

“Not really. It’s not like I miss him or anything. If he was weak enough to get himself killed that’s all there is to it.” 

 

He kept his eyes on the fire, so his expression was a bit hard to read, but Tsubaki got the distinct sense that he was being honest. It hadn’t sounded forced, just like a plain statement of fact. It appeared that what Tsubaki had heard about the Star Clan had been right on the money, at least concerning how they valued each other. 

 

“I’ve told you already I’m gonna surpass the gods,” BlackStar continued unprompted. “I know I can do it, and the sword god feels like a good place to start.” 

 

Tsubaki nodded. It was sound logic, if a bit self-aggrandizing. Then again, she had to admit that acting like it was an impossible goal would be to grossly underestimate BlackStar. Not that he was in any position to take on Death or something of that caliber, but a sword god could very well be within his abilities. And whatever sword this god carried couldn’t compare to Tsubaki, that much she knew for certain. 

 

They didn’t speak any more after that, both of them getting lost in thought. Or Tsubaki assumed that was what happened. She could only speak for herself, really, but it did at least look like BlackStar also had a lot to contemplate. He kept staring at the fire, only moving occasionally to poke at it with a stick, until it finally began to falter, upon which he stood up and loudly declared that he was going to go fetch more firewood. 

 

Tsubaki watched him walk off, until she couldn’t make out his blue hair between the trees anymore and readied herself for the inevitable sound of another tree falling. It took a bit longer than she’d expected, but it did come and it once again seemed to scare the local wildlife. One particularly frightened rabbit darted out from between the trees and Tsubaki quickly reached for her knife, just barely managing to skewer the thing. It was a bit morbid, she thought as she went to fetch it, but some fresh food would be nice. 

 

When BlackStar returned she held the rabbit up to show him, and all hints of thoughtfulness immediately vanished off his face. Tsubaki felt a sense of relief wash over her as they got to talking about how best to prepare it, glad to have that awkward part of the evening over and done with. 


BlackStar was a lot of things, she thought, but he was kind of a terrible assassin. Maybe she should have tried to find someone who could do the job without asking questions, but that remained to be seen. If he could do the job well she could put up with some quirks. And she had to admit, although never out loud, she was a bit curious as though how he’d do against a god. How they’d do.

Chapter 4: An unusual mission

Summary:

In which problems arise

Chapter Text

Kid had never taken a train before. In fact, he hadn’t planned on taking one today either, since he could just as well get to Thurmond by himself and begin setting things up, then meet Albarn and Eater when they showed up. He’d tried to explain his reasoning to Liz, but she’d said it was a bad call and thus the discussion was over. Kid trusted Liz’s judgement when it came to things like this, even if he didn’t get the point of it. 

 

They'd split up into two compartments, with Kid, Liz and Patty in one and Albarn and Eater in the one behind them, but not half an hour into the trip Liz had invited the two of them to come play cards. Eater had accepted and was currently getting his ass kicked at go fish, whereas Albarn had stayed where she was, glaring at a book. Kid glanced back at her now and then between the gaps in the chairs, once catching her looking back after which she immediately hid her face behind her book. She gripped it so hard her knuckles whitened so either she’d found the exchange excruciating or it was a very thrilling read. 

 

After winning a few games in a row, Liz announced she was going to the dining car to buy some snacks and Kid offered to come with her, figuring it would be a good opportunity to ask Liz for advice about the situation with Albarn. 

 

“Liz,” he said and got a hum in return as Liz was more focused on choosing between two different kinds of chips. 

 

“I think Albarn might not like me very much.” 

 

“Oh really, what gave you that impression? The fact that she hasn’t said a word to you or the fact that she looks at you like she wants to strangle you?” Liz finally settled for a bag of BBQ flavored ones and handed it to Kid. 

 

“Did I fuck something up?” he asked and Liz sighed. 

 

“Don’t cuss. And I mean, to begin with, you keep calling her Albarn. You’re not gonna make any friends if you talk like you’re at a business meeting.” Liz paused for a second, frowning slightly. “Why don’t you try asking her what she’s reading or something? That could lighten the mood a bit.” 

 

“Didn’t you hear what I just said?” Kid picked out a bottle of soda for Patty and started making for the checkout. “She doesn’t like me very much .” 

 

“Work on it then, you little shit.” Liz seemed to catch herself and shot him a very serious look. “And don’t ever call anyone what I just called you.” 

 

“Of course not,” Kid said while trying to think of the best situation to call someone a little shit in. 

 

They returned to their car, where Eater had moved on to getting his ass kicked at arm wrestling. Patty was laughing loud enough to turn the heads of the other passengers and Eater muttered something about how he was injured, but lightened up when Liz handed him the chips. She sat down next to Patty and told the two of them to share before a fight broke out, then gave Kid a meaning nod in Albarn’s direction. He took a deep breath and nodded back, before slowly walking over to her compartment. 

 

“Mind if I sit here?” He asked. Albarn shrugged. 

 

“It’s a free country,” she said without looking up from her book. Kid was starting to suspect she wasn’t actually reading it. It felt like she should have gotten further through it in the time they’d been on the train, unless she was a staggeringly slow reader. 

 

“What are you reading?” He tried, without actually sitting down next to her. 

 

“A book.” 

 

“I have to leave now.”

 

“Okay.” 

 

Kid fled back to his own compartment and sat down next to Eater. For a moment, he considered trying his hand at a conversation with him instead but finally abandoned that idea and opted for staring intently at a rack of free magazines, until he realized they weren’t organized properly and had to get up and fix them. He then spent the rest of the journey questioning if he’d done a good enough job and by the time they reached Thurmond he felt a little bit like he was going to throw up. 

 

It was a small town, enough for the group to be able to count the inhabitants on their combined fingers, and with not much of anything going on. It had been a mining town at one point, Kid had been informed, but that had all gone to hell some years ago and the people still remaining were either living in constant economic uncertainty or secluding themselves for whatever reason. It created an atmosphere of dread, which was why when the uncanny sword had been spotted passing through a nearby town Thurmond had been identified as his most likely destination. 

 

There were no hotels in Thurmond, but there were more than a few abandoned buildings to choose from and the group eventually settled for an old apartment building close to the town’s center. From the top floor they could see most of the town, which would make things considerably easier. 

 

“If I could have your attention for a moment,” Kid said once they had gotten settled. “I thought it’d be best if we go over the plan one final time.” 

 

He got some agreeing hums from the weapons and continued. 

 

“Alba- Maka will search for the uncanny sword, then direct me, Liz and Patty to where she thinks he’s hiding.” He turned his gaze to Eater and Albarn, the latter of whom avoided it in favor of staring at the wall. “You two are under no circumstances to engage the uncanny sword. Is that understood?” 

 

“Yessir,” Eater said and Albarn gave an irritated sigh. Kid reminded himself of what Liz had said in the dining car about not calling anyone a little shit. 

 

“Is that understood ?” he repeated, admittedly partly to see what Albarn would do. The answer to that question was ‘stand up, forcefully, and for a second look like she was going to grab him by the collar and shake him’. 

 

“I got it the first time, thanks very much,” she all but hissed and Kid nodded. 

 

“Good.” He caught himself before smiling, since he had the distinct feeling that would only aggravate Albarn further. “Well then, since we’re all clear, would you mind getting on with it?” 

 

For a moment, he thought Albarn was going to argue, but evidently she at least took the mission somewhat seriously, because she just muttered something inaudible and made for one of the windows. It was a bit hard to see what she was doing at first, but when Kid shifted angle he could catch a glimpse of the sharp, yet somewhat distant expression people got when looking at souls. 

 

She took her time, which was probably for the best, before announcing that she could sense a total of fifty-three souls within the town’s borders, six of which were weapons. It was a surprisingly precise breakdown, more so than many adult meisters Kid had met would have been able to provide, and it suddenly made a lot more sense why Professor Stein had wanted Albarn on this mission. 

 

An hour of Albarn silently monitoring the town, only pausing now and then to catch her breath and drink some water, followed. Patty seemed to be getting restless, inspecting every corner of the apartment and whispering commentary on all of it to Liz. Eater kept his attention on his meister, and Kid found his expression a bit hard to read. There were hints of both worry and admiration and Kid almost considered checking his soul to get a better feel of what he was thinking. Before he got the chance to, however, Albarn spoke up. 

 

“I think I’ve got something. It’s…” She paused for a second as if looking for the right words. “Yeah, it’s definitely something. Two wavelengths mixing up, but not like a resonance like...like two people speaking over each other. One weapon and one regular person.” 

 

“That sounds like our man.” Kid nodded to Liz and Patty who got up from where they’d been seated on the floor. “Where is he?”

 

“In the old church, just-” Albarn suddenly stopped. She seemed to tense up, keeping her eyes on the town and gripping the windowsill tightly. 

 

“What’s wrong?” Eater joined her by the window, grabbing her shoulder and shaking her slightly. “Maka.” 

 

“They disappeared,” she finally said. “Both of them, just like that.” 

 

“Is there anyone there with them?” Kid tried to sense for himself, but Albarn was evidently way ahead of him. 

 

“Yeah, a weapon and a meister.” She shut her eyes and frowned in concentration. “They’re a bit...odd, both of them. It’s not one of ours, right?” 

 

“Not to my knowledge.” Kid shook his head. It was a difficult mission, sure, but nothing he couldn’t handle, so he couldn’t imagine his father would have seen fit to send in reinforcements. Especially without letting him know. 

 

“I’ll go check it out. You two stay here.” He turned and started making for the door. “Liz, Patty, come along.”

Chapter 5: A competent meister

Summary:

In which the gang get together

Chapter Text

Maka watched Kid as he grabbed his coat and left, with Liz and Patty not far behind, then kept her eyes on the door as the group’s footsteps slowly faded away. She clenched her jaw so hard it hurt. 

 

“Okay, so we’ll just go after them, right?” Soul said, but Maka couldn’t find it in her to respond. 

 

“We are going after them, aren’t we?” he insisted and put a hand on Maka’s shoulder, which she promptly shook off. 

 

“I don’t know!” She felt like pacing the room, but only got to the window before she stopped. The church was clearly visible from here, and if she was sensing things correctly, the weapon and meister were still there. 

 

“And what exactly is that supposed to mean?” Soul groaned. “You’re just gonna sit on your ass until we get permission to go back to the train station and go home? That’s lame.” 

 

“Shut up.”

 

Soul did as told, at least, but Maka could feel him glaring at her, and eventually caved. 

 

"It's not that I don't want to go, it's just-" She drew a shaking breath. "Soul, what if I make the wrong call again?" 

 

Soul groaned a second time, louder now and Maka had to force herself not to shout at him. This was serious, damn it and he was acting like a kid trying to convince his parents to go to McDonald’s, not like the matter at hand was a life or death situation. 

 

“Listen,” he sounded strained. “I mean, I know you’re not gonna listen, because I’ve told you a thousand times already and you haven’t, but what happened in Florence was my fault. It was my call.” 

 

Maka remained silent. She tried to step back, look at it logically, like she would a particularly difficult question on a test. Those were fun, a challenge that really made her think, but right now all she could think about was the scar running across Soul’s chest. It felt like it had formed as clearly on her retinas as it had on him. 

 

“Besides, it’s not like we can just opt out of making them,” Soul continued, obviously not caring that the conversation was getting one-sided. “You can choose to stay here or you can go out, but it’s still a choice and either one could be wrong. Someone could, I don’t know, bomb this house right now and then staying was the wrong call. Or we go out and get our asses kicked again, and then that was the wrong call. But you’re still making a choice, whether you like it or not.” 

 

“That’s reassuring,” Maka muttered. Soul was right, of course. It was the logic she’d been looking for, but it really only made things worse. Anything could happen in this kind of situation, she knew that from years of experience. What if that meister could sense her and decided to pay a visit? What if Kid somehow led them and the weapon back to the hideout? 

 

I’d fight them off, of course, Maka thought. But then who’s to say I can’t go fight right now? 

 

She clenched her fists, forced her hands to stop shaking. They weren’t in Florence. She’d learned from Florence, spent hours thinking of what she should have done differently. 

 

“Well…” She let the word hang in the air for a moment. “If you’re so scared we’re gonna get bombed then we might as well get out of here.” 

 

When she turned around she caught Soul grinning at her, and couldn’t help but return it, even though she felt like her legs were going to give out on her. Her heart beat hard enough for her to feel slightly nauseous even before she started running, hurrying out of the apartment, down the stairs and out on the street below. Running was good. It kept her from thinking, and she might be able to catch up with Kid if she kept the pace up. 

 

Soul closed up behind her, and the sound of him transforming made Maka reach out on instinct, catching him in mid-air like she’d done a thousand times before. It was reassuring, she realized. The weight of him in her hand. She was still trembling slightly, and she was sure Soul could feel it, but she couldn’t worry about that now.

 

They rounded a corner, emerging from the street onto a small square, and the church came into view. As did Kid, who seemed to not quite believe what he was seeing. At least for a second, then he snapped out of it and hurried across the square to meet them. 

 

“Hi.” His voice sounded slightly shrill, which was new. “What the fuck are you doing here?” 

 

“I-” Maka was panting, which was kind of embarrassing. “I came to help. Thought you might need it.” 

 

“Cute,” Kid said dryly. “If you’ll remember, your mission is to stand down. My mission is to make sure you idiots don’t get yourselves killed.” 

 

“Actually, my mission was to look for the uncanny sword.” Maka’s breath had calmed down somewhat. “So I figured since he’s gone this is basically my off time. And I’ll do what I want with it.” 

 

She smiled sweetly, and then had to force back a laugh when Kid gave a shaky, but resigned, sigh. 

 

“Listen here, you little shit. The moment -” He reached into his coat pockets and pulled out a matching set of guns. Liz and Patty, Maka had to assume. “- I think you’re in over your head, I’ll shoot you. It’ll only knock you out, but it will hurt like hell. Understood.” 

 

“Aye-aye, captain.” 

 

With the conversation over, Maka suddenly had a lot of time to think. It was unfortunate, she’d been able to build a lot of confidence through how fun it was to not do what Kid told her to, but when she no longer had to argue her right to be there she became very aware of where exactly there was. The church was made of wood, worn down from years of being exposed to the elements. It had simple, glass windows, some of them crushed and a few boarded up. It was nothing like the Santa Maria Novella, and yet…

 

They reached the doors and Maka gripped Soul tighter. 

 

“There’s still time not to be a complete dumbass,” Kid said and Maka shook her head. 

 

“Whoever is in there didn’t just go for the uncanny sword, they took out his victim as well. I’m coming with,” she insisted - despite every cell in her body screaming at her not to - and stepped forward, putting her hand on the left of the double doors and pushing. 

 

Nothing happened. The doors here opened outwards. Kid gave her a weird look as he grabbed the handles and pulled open both doors at the same time, but all Maka could do was smile in return, before the two of them stepped into the church. 

 

The doors slammed shut behind them, and for a moment Maka found it hard to see. She could still sense the souls present, though. The meister and weapon were still there, and as her eyes began to adjust to the dim light she slowly started to make out what they looked like. 

 

A boy stood in the middle of the room, and in his hand was a sword as black as night. Even in the dark of the church it stood out as uniquely shrouded in shadow, seemingly absorbing all light that so much as came close.

 

“That’s…” Kid glanced at Maka, then quickly back to the sword. “That’s the uncanny sword. Or at the very least, it looks like it.” 

 

Maka focused as hard as she could, but there was no trace of the wavelength she’d earlier identified as Masamune. Or, not quite. The more she focused on the weapon’s wavelength the more she sensed a certain likeness, especially in how it intertwined with the boy’s own wavelength, but it was still very distinct. 

 

The boy didn’t move, didn’t even look at them. He looked tense, Maka realized. As though he were locked in place. Dark tattoos covered his arms and face, and the more Maka looked at them the more she got the impression that they were moving. 

 

The doors go outwards, she reminded herself. 

 

There was a sudden shift in the atmosphere, and as the tattoos seemed to calm down the boy started to relax. He began to move, slowly rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck, but still didn’t look at Maka or Kid. Maka forced herself to stay in place, and to keep sensing what was happening to the two souls. It was as though they’d both been screaming, but it had only become noticeable when they finally shut up, slotting into a low, humming resonance. 

 

“You kinda scared me there, Tsubaki,” the boy said. He held the sword - Tsubaki - up and seemed to weigh it in his hand for a moment, before finally turning towards the door. His eyes met Maka’s and she suddenly felt very small. 

 

“And looks like we’ve got company.” 

 

He took a step towards her and Kid, and she immediately raised Soul, ready to guard at any second. The boy didn’t seem threatened in the slightest. He stretched out his arm, pointing the sword towards Maka. 

 

“I am the great BlackStar, the strongest of my clan and the man who will surpass the gods,” he declared. “So I suggest you get out of my way.” 

 

“I suggest you watch your tongue.” Kid took a step forward, and Maka could see him aiming at the boy from the corner of her vision. “Strongest or not you have no authority to take the souls of humans. As representative of Death, I order you to stand down.” 

 

“Representative?” BlackStar cocked his head to the side, looking at Kid while still keeping the sword pointed to Maka. A smile slowly crept over his face, baring sharp teeth. 

 

“Don’t tell me you’re the little reaper?” He cackled. “You hear that Tsubaki? It’s my lucky day!” 

 

Bizarrely enough, Maka felt a smidge of offense, because of course this had to be all about Kid. It cut through the fear for just a second and let her take a deep breath for what felt like the first time since entering the church. 

 

It was a good thing, too, because not a moment later BlackStar sprung into action. He dove forward, lunging at Kid all the while his weapon started moving on its own in his hand. It was transforming , Maka just about had time to realize before it settled into its new form. She wasn’t sure what it was, until BlackStar threw the small, black sphere to the ground and a cloud of smoke filled the room. 

 

What kind of weapon was this? 

 

Maka rushed towards where she’d last seen BlackStar, desperately trying to sense his wavelength. It was difficult, with her heart beating so hard it felt like it was going to break her ribs, but she finally managed to get a grip of it and, in the same moment, realized she’d gotten way too close. There would be no backing out now and she steeled herself before swiping with Soul towards where she sensed BlackStar. 

 

Soul’s blade met metal with a loud ‘clang’ and this close Maka could actually see what she’d hit. BlackStar had either had a chain scythe stashed somewhere on his person, or his weapon had a third form. 

 

The smoke cleared slightly, upon which the sound of gunshots rang through the church and BlackStar backed away, out of Maka’s range. She followed and struck again, this time from underneath. It met resistance, but only a small one and Maka concluded that she’d only managed to catch BlackStar’s clothes. 

 

Kid kept his attacks sporadic for the moment, but with each moment it got easier to see and soon Maka didn’t need to sense BlackStar to know where he was anymore. She could see him first as a silhouette, then just slightly out of focus, and Kid could evidently do the same because now he was firing almost constantly, from back by the doors. 

 

BlackStar seemed to want to shake her off, but Maka kept her swipes coming, forcing him to keep his focus on her. It didn’t seem to tire him though, just annoy him, because he snarled at her. Maka snarled right back. 

 

BlackStar threw the right blade of the chain scythe towards Maka and she dodged it easily, realizing too late that he hadn’t actually been aiming for her. She whipped around as she heard something large coming towards her and realized that BlackStar had caught one of the pews. It just barely missed her as she dropped to the floor, and Maka couldn’t get up fast enough to catch BlackStar before he was out of her range. 

 

To her surprise, he threw away his weapon, and it must have startled Kid as well. That fleeting moment of uncertainty was enough of an opening for BlackStar to get a strike in, the heel of his hand meeting Kid’s ribs with a strange sound. It sounded almost like a thunderclap, and it took a second for Maka to realize what had happened. BlackStar could strike with his wavelength. Somehow, it made complete sense, she thought as she watched Kid drop to the floor. He drew quick, uneven breaths, but at least he was still alive. 

 

That probably wouldn’t last, if BlackStar wasn’t stopped. He had reached out and his weapon, once again as the dark blade, twirled through the air, landing perfectly in his hand. Maka sprung to her feet and rushed forward despite her legs aching, seeing BlackStar raise the sword over Kid. 

 

With a war cry she tackled BlackStar and the two of them flew forward, crashing into the church doors which flew open and sent them tumbling outside. Maka’s cheek scraped against the ground, but she pushed the pain down and managed to get back on her feet just in time to dodge a strike from BlackStar. 

 

He was furious now, she could feel it in every hit. They were erratic, almost uncontrolled, but where Maka would normally consider that a sign that she was winning, now she just got more and more aware of how slowly she was dodging. 

 

Guard! She could hear, feel, Soul screaming at her through their resonance. Guard, Maka! 

 

BlackStar swung downwards and she dove away again, but not fast enough this time. His sword caught her coat, pinning it to the ground and stopping her motion halfway through. She stumbled, as he pulled the sword free from the ground and immediately knew that she wouldn’t be able to dodge another strike. 

 

More than anything, she wanted to close her eyes as she raised Soul to block BlackStar’s sword, but she knew she had to watch. However this ended up, it was her choice, and she had to watch it whether she liked it or not. 

 

The sound as BlackStar’s sword met Soul was deafening, it echoed through the square and felt as though it made Maka’s bones rattle. 

 

But Soul didn’t budge. She could still feel his wavelength, as strong as ever. She could feel it cheering her on, applauding her for finally getting to it and thinking she was an idiot for taking this long. Maka made a sound somewhere in between a cheer and a sob, and dug her heels in, fighting back as BlackStar tried to push forward. 

 

He suddenly pulled back, readying his left hand for a strike with his wavelength. Maka could see it coming from miles, but in the way you might see a bullet coming in the split second before it hit you. All she could do was brace herself, before his fist caught her side. 

 

The strike sent an intense, burning sensation through her, like circles on still water emanating from one single, disturbed spot. But she remained on her feet. 

 

Maka wasn’t stupid. The moment after she realized she hadn’t dropped dead, she also realized that something must be wrong with BlackStar. He seemed to have come to a similar conclusion, because he took a step back, looking at his own hand in confusion. The tattoos were moving again, and the sense of wavelengths mixing in that odd fashion returned. A little less terrified, and with a little more time, Maka could finally focus on it. It wasn’t just the overlap, the fight to be the only one heard, she realized. Underneath it all it was as though BlackStar’s wavelength - a lot more familiar to her after that strike - was being drained. Devoured. 

 

He staggered slightly, looking even more confused now, and raised his sword hand. Maka readied herself for another attack, but in the blink of an eye, the weapon transformed again and the square filled with smoke, just like in the church. This time, however, it was evidently meant as a cover to escape, not attack, because Maka could feel BlackStar’s wavelength move further away. For a second, she thought she caught a glimpse of a young girl, with hair as dark as the uncanny sword’s blade. 

 

Maka remained where she was for a while, making sure the pair were really leaving, then finally let herself relax. She all but panted as she headed back to the church, stepped inside and fell to her knees on the floor. 

 

To her right, Kid had gotten to a sitting position and seemed to have regained some control of his own breathing. It was still labored, though, and Maka couldn’t help but find it a bit amusing, the two of them in equally rough shape. She supposed the high of actually making it out of the fight alive helped. 

 

“Your hair,” Kid suddenly said, gesturing weakly in Maka’s general direction. 

 

“What about my hair?” She would have sounded a lot more defensive if she weren’t so short of breath, and she wasn’t entirely sure if that was a good or a bad thing. Probably a bit of both. 

 

“It’s off balance. One of the pigtails is slipping.” He sounded genuinely distressed about it, despite the exhaustion, and Maka couldn’t help but reach up to check, finding that he had been right. 

 

“I gotta say,” she said as she corrected it. “Wouldn’t have been my first priority.” 

 

“Symmetry should always be your first priority,” Kid retorted, once again sounding unexpectedly genuine. A thought suddenly struck Maka. 

 

“And it’s always yours?” She asked hesitantly and he nodded. 

 

“Of course.” 

 

“Right, so tell me if I’m just making things up right now-” it felt like a really weird thing to ask about, truth be told, but Maka couldn’t exactly back out now, and she was very curious. “- but when we first met you didn’t wanna shake hands. Was that…” 

 

She trailed off, when she noticed Kid’s horrified expression. 

 

“Oh fuck. ” He sat up straighter. “I didn’t think it would be a big deal, I am so sorry.” 

 

“You just left me hanging!” Maka tried to sound upset, but couldn’t help but smile. 

 

“Well you’ve been rude as hell the whole trip,” Kid countered and Soul the traitor transformed back just to announce that he agreed with Kid. That seemed to spur Liz and Patty to take sides as well, with them too returning to their human forms to defend Maka. 

 

“So,” Maka said, ignoring the discussion that had now started between the three weapons. “Basically, we kind of got off on the wrong foot.” 

 

“Hell of a wrong foot,” Kid agreed. “But if it makes you feel any better, it’s been a pleasure working with you.” 

 

He gave a hesitant smile, and Maka couldn’t find it in her not to return it. 

 

“Likewise,” she said. The stubborn side of her wanted to keep being mad, but she was sat on the floor in a run-down church in the middle of nowhere, both she and Kid had failed their missions spectacularly and she would need to get her coat fixed again. Her stubborn side could at the very least take the night off.

Chapter 6: A quick break

Summary:

In which Tsubaki comes to a realization

Chapter Text

This certainly was not Tsubaki’s most dignified moment. It was a few hours past midnight. She had been sitting in an abandoned shed for nearly three hours, her legs slowly falling asleep, just as slowly waking up again and then repeating the process. And they’d lost.

 

It was to be expected, she tried telling herself. The fight with Masamune had not been long, but absorbing the uncanny sword had been taxing and they had been up against a grim reaper. Except for - of course - the fact that they hadn’t been up against a grim reaper. They’d been up against some girl who wouldn’t have put up any kind of fight if it weren’t for BlackStar letting his wavelength get sapped out of him in mere seconds. 

 

Speaking of, he seemed to have taken the incident about as well as Tsubaki had, because he was being uncharacteristically quiet and was staring intently at his own hands. Like a baby who’d just discovered them for the first time, but with a hefty dose of spite. 

 

“What the hell was that back then?” He broke the silence without looking up, and Tsubaki sighed as calmly as she could manage. 

 

“I was going to ask you the same- “ she didn’t get to finish her sentence, as BlackStar struck the wall with a loud, cracking noise. It seemed he’d gotten his wavelength back in order, at least. 

 

“Don’t try pulling that shit with me.” His voice was lower now, and had an edge to it that someone else might have thought was menacing. “What’s the deal with that sword?” 

 

Tsubaki sighed again, more audibly frustrated this time, and BlackStar glared at her. 

 

“I told you, didn’t I?” She glared back. “The uncanny sword saps peoples’ wavelengths to take over their souls. It’s not just gonna stop because Masamune isn’t the one in control anymore.” 

 

“Whatever.” BlackStar went back to looking at his hands again. Tsubaki allowed herself to at least think about what she would have liked to say - that he could do with trying to control his wavelength more, that he was acting like a child and that if she wanted to she could possess him and use him as puppet until she got tired of him - for a few moments before clearing her throat. 

 

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I don’t want you to see this as you being weak in any way. It’s more like an opportunity, really.” 

 

“I’m not weak.” 

 

“Of course not.” She caught BlackStar glancing at her and gave a gentle smile. “What I mean is, you can always get stronger. And when you’ve learned to control the uncanny sword there’s no telling what you’ll be able to do.” 

 

BlackStar didn’t say anything, but Tsubaki had learned that he needed some time with these kinds of things. She left him to come to his own conclusions, while she herself focused on the traces of Masamune’s soul still floating around at the back of her mind. He’d always clung to her, like he was the youngest sibling, trying his hardest to keep up with something he wasn’t meant to. It would have been sad, perhaps, if not for his entitlement. And the fact that it had been torturous to have to stoop down to his level. 

 

No, this was for the best, Tsubaki thought, as she pinpointed one hint of his wavelength after the other and forced them to quiet, like ripping weeds out of an otherwise pristine flowerbed. She’d done something like that with her mother, she was fairly certain, on a day off that Masamune had spent doing extra training, and she had to say she found this a lot more rewarding. 

 

The echoes got further between and easier to distinguish. She found different kinds of emotions, but most of them were some variation of resentment. Resentment for their ancestors, their parents, Masamune himself and Tsubaki. It stuck to her like syrup, stubborn in a way no other soul she’d consumed had been. 

 

BlackStar said something that she didn’t quite catch, partly because of her own thoughts and partly because he said it surprisingly quietly. 

 

“Sorry, what was that?” 

 

“We’re still going after the sword god, right?” He didn’t raise his voice, and it took Tsubaki a moment to identify what was off with his tone, purely because of how out of place it sounded coming from BlackStar. A twinge of insecurity. 

 

“We made a deal, didn’t we?” Truth be told, Tsubaki generally wasn’t all that invested in upholding bargains, but after everything that BlackStar had said about the sword god she couldn’t help but feel curious. It couldn’t hurt to see what he was all about, or rather, if it did hurt it would most likely be BlackStar who got hurt and not her. So overall it wasn’t a big deal.

 

“Yeah, we did.” BlackStar nodded, looking almost relieved. “I think I know where to find him. Rumor has it he’s looking after some little witch.” 

 

“Well, no time to waste then.” Tsubaki was getting really tired of the shed, and any excuse to move was a good one. BlackStar didn’t object and the two of them carefully snuck out of Thurmond. Tsubaki was fairly certain the two kids from earlier wouldn’t be lying in wait, but it was always best to be on the safer side, especially with how lacking BlackStar’s soul perception was. 

 

They moved through the forest as silent as shadows, as the sun slowly started to rise over the hills surrounding Thurmond. The further away they got the bolder BlackStar got, scaling trees here and there to get a look of the surroundings or just for fun, but he had the good sense not to start shouting, at least. They kept moving until midday, when they found an area full of boulders forming almost cave-like structures and decided to rest there for a while, with Tsubaki starting a fire and BlackStar setting out to find something to eat. 

 

Tsubaki just barely had time to start before he returned, however, motioning for her to be silent. 

 

“There’s a weird-looking person over there,” he mouthed and pointed towards the edge of the area. There seemed to be a drop of some kind there, and Tsubaki assumed that that was where the person was, since she couldn’t see them. Wordlessly, she transformed, choosing the short blade which BlackStar could easily catch without them having to worry about rustling chains giving them away. 

 

He climbed across the rocks, finally reaching the drop and slowly peeking over, angling Tsubaki so that she could get a view of the scene below them. A kid, scrawny to the point where Tsubaki thought they must be malnourished, sat at a pitiful campfire and looked miserable, but not exactly what Tsubaki would call weird. 

 

They don’t seem strange to me, she tried to get the message across clearly through their resonance, but she’d found that that rarely worked with BlackStar. It mostly came through as something akin to a jumbled radio transmission, just a few words here and there. 

 

Wait. See. 

 

Right. 

 

The person was hugging their knees to their chest and held very still, until they suddenly seemed to shudder. At first, Tsubaki wasn’t quite sure what she was seeing. It wasn’t until something else, not quite a person but definitely similar in shape, had emerged from the kid’s back, leaning over them with one enormous hand on their head for support. 

 

See! See! A sense of triumph came with BlackStar’s words and Tsubaki tried to send some acknowledgement back. It was definitely weird, especially when the creature spoke, in a surprisingly high-pitched voice. 

 

“Where are those damn rats hiding?” 

 

“I don’t know.” The kid’s voice, in contrast, was hesitant, almost sluggish. “We’re just meant to wait here, is all I know.” 

 

“Fuck, that’s lame. Why don’t you get off your ass and do something?” 

 

“I just told you,” the kid whined. “We’re waiting here until they come to meet us. They don’t like strangers in their nest. I’ve told you that many times already.” 

 

“You should go in and kill them all.” The creature obviously wasn’t paying any attention to what the kid was saying, and Tsubaki couldn’t exactly say she blamed it. The kid seemed like they were trying their hardest to turn into a literal, physical doormat in everything from their posture to their speech. 

 

“We need their help, remember?” The kid hugged their knees tighter, as if that would protect them from something growing out of them. “Lady Medusa said to get them so they can help us wake up the demon god, remember?” 

 

Tsubaki could feel the deep breath BlackStar drew at the words, and had to hold back her exasperated reaction so that it didn’t get sent through the resonance. Not that BlackStar would have noticed, he was preoccupied with his own emotions, a positively childish glee. 

 

Hear that? Demon! Hear? Tsubaki! 

 

I heard it. 

 

Tsubaki kept listening to the conversation, cursing the two people, or whatever she should call them, for being so liberal with what information they discussed. In just a few minutes of listening in, they’d found out the location of this demon god and an approximate time for his planned awakening, and by the time Tsubaki finally managed to convince BlackStar to retreat she knew there was no doubt that he’d be going not to the sword god, but to the DWMA next. Death’s little nest, positively crawling with his personal army of tweens. 

 

But that wasn’t even the worst thing. The worst thing, she realized, was that she’d somehow already accepted that she’d be going along.

Chapter 7: A long night

Summary:

In which things don't go too well

Chapter Text

Maka forced herself to keep running, even though it felt like her throat was going to tear itself apart. She could still feel Medusa’s wavelength, way too close for comfort, and even though she trusted Professor Stein’s assessment of the situation she couldn’t shake the feeling that one of the snakes was following her, ready to coil around her legs and trip her, or just skip straight to swallowing her whole…

 

This was shaping up to be the worst anniversary celebration since forever, Maka decided. Topping even the time she’d had to go with her dad, which was honestly a shame, because she’d really been looking forward to the evening. For once she’d been supposed to be spending a party with friends, plural. Not just Soul. Even better, at least one of her new friends was actually literate and she’d had a few book recommendations to exchange. 

 

Kid, Liz and Patty would be way ahead now, all on their own. To be fair, there were three of them, but they would have to somehow get past the demon swordsman. Just like Maka would. 

 

She thought it was strange, it felt both like she’d never wanted anything more in her life and like she’d never dreaded something quite as much. 

 

Once she was finally at a comfortable distance she let herself slow down a bit, risking a glance over her shoulder at the empty corridor behind her, to confirm that it was free of snakes. She couldn’t go wasting all her energy on running when she had a fight coming up, and it was easier to recognize that without the oppressive force of Medusa’s wavelength feeling like it was moments from physically brushing against her back. With the air clearer, it was easier to get a hold of the rest of the team as well. She could faintly make out Stein and her dad’s wavelengths, somewhat distorted by Medusa’s. Kid, Liz and Patty were also getting fuzzier by the second, their soul’s blending in with the madness that laid like a solid wall up ahead. They’d passed by the demon swordsman already, who didn’t seem to be moving.

 

And, Maka suddenly realized, there was another, familiar response coming from behind her. It was approaching quickly, and didn’t slow down even when she stopped and turned around just in time to see BlackStar emerging from the shadows. 

 

Maka swore silently. She couldn’t have him potentially ruining anything, of course, but when she swung Soul, stopping just short of actually hitting BlackStar, she was all too aware that she was wasting time. BlackStar actually stopped, at least, even if it was with a glare that made Maka shiver. 

 

“What are you doing here?” she asked, and was pleased to find that her voice held steady. BlackStar looked like she’d just asked him what color the sky was. 

 

“Duh. I’m here for the god.” 

 

“Sorry, but if you wanna get to Kid you’ll have to go through me first.” Maka said, not feeling entirely convinced that she was actually posing a real threat. Still, she wouldn’t just let BlackStar rush ahead without a fight if he was-

 

Kid? Who, stripey?” BlackStar looked about as lost as Maka suddenly felt. “No, he’s old news. I’m here for the main event.” 

 

“Oh, right.” Demon god under the school. But how the hell did BlackStar know that? 

 

“How did you know about that?” Maka asked and BlackStar grinned, seemingly very proud of himself. 

 

“I know everything.” 

 

“I feel like we’re wasting time here,” said his weapon, Tsubaki, if Maka remembered correctly. She was being kind of rude, but she was also kind of right, so Maka nodded to her in acknowledgement. 

 

“The demon god is up ahead.” An idea suddenly struck her and she stretched her hand out. “Truce?” 

 

BlackStar didn’t look very impressed, and for a moment Maka thought he was going to leave her hanging, but he eventually nodded and shook her hand. 

 

“Truce,” he agreed. 

 

They got back to running, not making any conversation, because even though Maka had a lot of questions she was fairly certain that a) now was not the time and b) BlackStar wouldn’t want to answer anyway. She glanced at him now and then, and tried to get a closer feel for his wavelength, but it was hard to focus and really not the biggest issue at hand, so she eventually gave up, just moments before they entered a large room. It was full of pillars, and in between them stood a thin, dark figure. 

 

“Oh, I know them,” BlackStar said. “I saw them in the woods a while back.” 

 

“That’s the demon swordsman.” Maka tightened her grip on Soul. There was no backing down now. 

 

“Should I kill them?” BlackStar asked nonchalantly and for a moment, Maka considered the option. It would certainly be an easier way out, and realistically BlackStar had a higher chance at winning the fight, if only for the fact that he had somehow managed to find himself a weapon almost as strange as the demon sword. And what was more, just letting him go along on his own felt unsafe. 

 

She drew a deep breath. 

 

“Nope. They’re mine.” 

 

BlackStar shrugged, and rushed ahead, making Maka realize he’d been slowing down to let her keep up. Ignoring her wounded pride, she hurried after, watching the demon swordsman follow BlackStar with their distant gaze. They raised their sword, aiming it backwards after BlackStar had passed them by, but before they got the chance to go through with the attack, Maka reached them. Forcing every thought of anything else to the very back of her mind, she lunged. 




It hadn’t felt right leaving Crona like that. Maka tried to sense their soul behind her, but it was almost impossible with the madness permeating the air. Trying to sense anything up ahead would be pointless, so she didn’t even try it. Whatever had happened she’d have to see when she got there. 

 

The more she thought of it now, the more she worried about having sent BlackStar ahead. He had seemed genuine when he said he wanted to go after the demon god, and it wouldn’t be in any way strategically sound to pick a fight with Kid right now, but there was something about BlackStar that made it hard to trust his sense of strategy. It wasn’t like Maka knew him well, but she still remembered his wavelength well after getting hit with it. It had this restlessness to it that made her wary. 

 

There was a sudden shift in the air, and Maka couldn’t help but stop. 

 

She’d never seen a tsunami, but she’d read about them. The water, she’d found out, would recede, further from the beach than you’d think possible. And it could stay that way for minutes, before the actual wave hit and took everything in its path with it, swallowing humans and buildings alike. 

 

That was what the surge of madness she currently felt was like. A sudden clearing, as if a switch had been flipped, and then the return of that wavelength, so violent it almost physically knocked Maka off her feet. For a moment, she couldn’t even sense Soul, despite their resonance. She could barely hear him ask her what was wrong. It sounded muted, as if the feeling of madness had bled over into the physical world, as an unyielding white noise. 

 

“Maka!” Soul sounded worried and Maka tried to pull herself together. 

 

“The demon god woke up.” She hadn’t even thought of it before she said the words, but as soon as she did she knew that that was what had happened. With everything a bit clearer, she could sense Soul’s panic and tried to reassure him, while also trying to keep her hands from shaking. 

 

“So Kid failed?”  

 

Maka just nodded. She couldn’t help but picture the worst case scenario, and there was a voice at just the edge of her mind helpfully reminding her that if something bad had happened it could very well be because of her decision. And really, who was to say the reason she couldn’t sense anyone up ahead was because of the madness and not- 

 

She shuddered and drew a deep breath. Conjured up the memory of how Crona’s soul had reacted after she’d reached out to them, after someone had reached out for them for the first time in their life. No matter how she looked at it, she couldn’t bring herself to regret that. 

 

“Let’s go ahead.” Maka remained where she stood, not wanting to rush ahead without Soul’s approval. Not that he would have actually said no, of course. Maka knew him better than to think that. 

 

“Right,” he said and she started running. 

 

The closer she got, the harder it got to breathe. The madness made the air heavy, almost damp, and each step was harder to take. Maka got the sense that if she stopped running, or even slowed down for just a second she’d be stuck, so she kept her pace up through winding hallways and strange rooms until a set of huge, open double doors came into view. 

 

The room before them was huge, but even from the back Maka could see some of what was happening. There was a huge man and a woman who at the very least looked like a witch, slowly backing away from the scene, almost stumbling over Kid as they did. He laid lifeless on the floor and, Maka realized, BlackStar was in a similar state not far from him. Finally, under the huge, twisted monument, stood a pale figure holding a girl up by her throat. Maka quickly recognized her dark hair from the fight in Thurmond and realized that that must be Tsubaki’s human form. 

 

Had she tried to take the demon god on without a meister? 

 

The demon god dropped her unceremoniously and she gasped once before collapsing. Maka forced herself to run faster, seeing the demon god jump and crash straight through the ceiling, just when she reached the monument. She was barely thinking by now, just acted on pure instinct as she jumped after the demon god, gripping one of his wrappings and holding on for dear life. It was warm, seeming almost alive, she could feel it even through her gloves. 

 

She tried to dig into the wall of the tunnel that opened for the demon god with Soul, but it did nothing to stop his ascent. Rubble rained down on her, rocks hitting her face and dust getting in her eyes, but it wasn’t until they reached the night air that her hand started to give out on her. 

 

Maka’s vision darkened as she fell, and the last thing she felt was Soul wrapping his arms around her.

Chapter 8: A daring escape

Summary:

In which some trouble is caused

Notes:

cw for some kinda graphic violence in this one

Chapter Text

Kid was a bit worried about Maka. 

 

It wasn’t like anyone was holding up particularly well at the moment, but he couldn’t imagine her habit of hanging out in the DWMA prison cells was any good for her. Humans needed fresh air and sunlight (And maybe good soil, but he had a sneaking suspicion Liz had been joking about that one.) and from what he’d heard Maka had spent the past days holed up either in her and Soul’s apartment or in the corridors under DWMA. He’d seen her in the hallways by chance earlier that day, without her noticing him, and now he was standing at the stairs to the basement waiting for her. 

 

It took a while, enough for Kid to get a bit restless, but Maka finally emerged, looking very distant. 

 

“Any progress?” 

 

“Not really.” Maka shook her head. “Crona doesn’t tell me to leave, so that’s something at least. Tsubaki isn’t saying anything at all and BlackStar…” 

 

She pulled a face. 

 

“He mainly just calls me a bunch of names. It’s kind of annoying, really.” 

 

“I can’t say I expected anything different,” Kid said and maka sighed. 

 

“I know.” She got that distant look again and Kid suddenly felt a bit awkward, not sure if he should try and comfort her in some way or take the opportunity to voice his concerns for her. In the end, after a silence that went on for a bit too long, he settled for the latter. 

 

“I was going to say, I’m not sure if you should spend too much time down here.” He winced at the look Maka shot him and quickly clarified. “I just mean you need to focus on your own recovery as well. Not put all your energy into trying to help these guys.” 

 

“You sound like Soul.” Maka had crossed her arms and Kid started to think that maybe he should have picked the first option. 

 

“Well, then Soul is right.” He stood his ground. “You’re being very kind but you have to take care of yourself too. Please.” 

 

Maka rolled her eyes at that, but her expression had also softened somewhat so Kid considered it an overall success. 

 

“I’ll be fine,” she insisted. “But I am sorry for worrying you guys. I just- I feel like I can’t just leave them down there, you know? They’re so young.” 

 

“They’re no younger than us,” Kid pointed out. He didn’t quite understand Maka’s argument, which was always frustrating. 

 

“I know, but it’s…” Maka trailed off, as if she’d lost her train of thought, and was silent for a moment before continuing. “Anyway, what are Lord Death and the others saying?” 

 

“Father has approved a trial enrollment for Crona, but not the others.” Crona had been cooperative so far, and the demon sword had at least remained calm, which could not be said for BlackStar and Nakatsukasa. The former, in particular, had been putting guards in the infirmary from the moment he woke up to the moment he was locked in his cell. Last Kid heard, the remaining guards were drawing straws to decide who had to feed him. 

 

Maka only mumbled something in return, and Kid assumed it was mainly to herself so he didn’t ask what it was. The two of them felt silent again, until Kid suddenly remembered something he’d been meaning to talk about. 

 

“Speaking of which, I’ve been thinking a bit and I’m considering enrolling as well.” He didn’t know why, but he felt a bit nervous bringing it up. That quickly changed, though, because Maka’s face lit up and Kid almost sighed in relief. 

 

“Like enroll for real? In our class?” 

 

“That was my idea, as long as I’m not encroaching.” Kid nodded. “I feel like I’ll be able to help out more if I’m actually there with the students, you know?” 

 

“Kid, that’s awesome!” Maka grabbed his shoulders. “We’ll be a whole group then! We’ll hang out on breaks, find a table to sit together at lunch, oh I can’t wait to not have to sit with Ox anymore…”

 

She had a lot to say, all of which she claimed was vital for Kid to know before he started. A lot of it seemed a bit nonsensical, truth be told, but he trusted Maka and made note of all of it. He got a lengthy explanation of all that was wrong with Ox Ford, for example, which he promised to pass onto Liz and Patty so they wouldn’t make the mistake of talking to him. And he got a list of which teachers gave the most interesting homework, which made him realize he’d completely forgotten that that was something that happened when you went to school, so that was something he’d have to worry about. Still, it couldn’t be too difficult, he figured, and Maka made the overall experience sound very fun. When she eventually left, promising to take a detour to get some air on the way, Kid felt kind of silly for having been nervous in the first place. 

 

He watched her walk away while waving after her, then turned to the basement stairs. No sounds came from the darkness, which he supposed he shouldn’t have been expecting, really. It wasn’t as though any noise being made in those winding tunnels ever managed to find its way up to the actual school. 

 

He didn’t exactly have an idea of why he started walking down the stairs, didn’t know what his plan was, which was always uncomfortable. It made him slow down slightly, as he tried to think of something, either an idea or just an excuse. The three of them were owed a visit, he finally decided. Crona had deserted from Medusa’s side at a critical moment, probably helping out in some way, and BlackStar and Nakatsukasa had actively tried to fight the demon god. Not that they’d tried to stop its awakening, but no one was perfect. 

 

It was a bit strange, though, the way the two of them acted. ‘The man who will surpass the gods’, BlackStar had called himself and it apparently wasn’t just for show, considering he’d snuck into not just Death City, but the DWMA just to get a shot at Asura. Kid had thought a lot about that, tried to figure out what tactical advantage could possibly have been gained from such a strategy, but the more he thought about it the more he became convinced that BlackStar and Nakatsukasa just hadn’t had a plan. 

 

He reached the entrance to the jail section of the basement, where a guard was sitting.

 

“Oh, young master!” He appeared to have been dozing off slightly, because he suddenly sat up straighter. “What brings you here?” 

 

“I’d like to pay a few prisoners a visit, if you don’t mind.” Kid cringed a bit at how quick the guard was to accept and open the large gate to the prison, not even protesting when Kid asked to go alone, just giving him the cell numbers he needed. It was convenient, of course, but it still didn’t sit quite right with him. 

 

Behind the gate was a corridor with no doors, which went on for a while before branching off in different directions. The tunnels coiled and interconnected, designed to be confusing if you weren’t used to them, but they did all connect to the main corridor in some way or another. The first time Kid had seen a map of the area he’d had to look away, but being down here he could at least pretend he didn’t know what a jumbled mess it was.

 

He walked through the corridors, stopping at Crona’s cell first. They didn’t respond to any of his questions, and were it not for their soul response from beyond the door Kid would have thought he’d gotten the wrong cell. How Maka had managed to get through to them was beyond him, but she had a lot more experience talking to people their age. In the end, Kid just said that he hoped they’d get along in class and moved on.

 

Crona’s aforementioned cooperativeness had earned them a cell in the less heavily guarded part of the prison, a luxury not afforded to BlackStar and Nakatsukasa. The two of them had been put far from each other and while Kid hadn’t exactly been involved in the process of restraining them, he’d managed to catch a bit of what was talked about. Nakatsukasa’s ability to transform had had to be temporarily suppressed, though Kid didn’t know by what means, and the possibility of using some sort of magic bindings for BlackStar had been at the very least brought up. And even if that didn’t end up happening there were alternatives. DWMA had more than enough collective experience in restraining monsters.

 

Kid was deep in thought as he rounded the final corner before where he’d been told BlackStar’s cell would be, and as such it took him a moment to register what was going on. His first thought was more along the lines of ’How odd, that door is open.’, rather than ’Oh fuck.’, which was now only his second thought. He rushed forward and looked inside to find the cramped room empty. Thick, heavy chains had been broken off and were strewn across the floor, and when Kid crouched down to get a closer look at them he noticed strange markings on the broken links. It took him a second to realize what they were, and when he did he barely knew what to think. It was almost impressive, but there was something about the bloody tooth markings that made him feel uneasy and he reflexively dropped the chains.

 

Disregarding the unease, the blood seemed decently fresh and Kid reasoned that BlackStar couldn’t have gotten out too long ago. Then again, it couldn’t have been when Kid was within earshot, considering that breaking the door open should have produced some noise. Kid thought it all over as he hurried back to the exit. There was the issue of when, but there was also the issue of where BlackStar had gone. Kid hadn’t seen him, and while there were other ways to get from the cell to the exit they were far more complicated and would take a lot longer. Taking any of them would be a waste of time, especially since Kid couldn’t imagine BlackStar would have any trouble fighting off any guards that came his way. So why hadn’t they ran into each other? Had he gotten lost, or could he have hidden his presence somehow? He was an assassin, after all, at least if what Kid had heard of his clan was true and there were certainly a lot of shadows to blend in with in the corridors.

 

Kid reached the guard again, bracing himself for a gruesome scene, but to his surprise the guard seemed completely unharmed. In fact, he was sleeping again and was startled when Kid came running. He did wake up quickly, opening the door just before Kid reached it and slamming it shut once Kid was through.

 

”Is there a problem?” he asked as he locked it, and Kid nodded.

 

”I found BlackStar’s cell empty.” The guard’s face turned almost ash-white at the words and his voice trembled slightly when he spoke.

 

”That’s- I’ll handle it. I’ll get some backup right now and you just- shit,” he said, looking around as if he wasn’t sure where to go. ”You get yourself somewhere safe, alright. I’ll handle it.”

 

The guard almost tripped over his own feet as he turned and ran off, yelling for the other guards. By the time he got a response he was almost out of earshot, and it took him a while to return with the reinforcements. He told Kid to leave again, then carefully opened the door and led the group in. There was the sound of the door being locked, and then slow footsteps as the guards headed into the prison. Kid could hear them talking to each other for a few seconds, before their voices eventually got too far away and he was left in complete silence.

 

Kid thought things over for a second, then finally grabbed the guard’s chair, put it down facing the door and sat down. He tried to picture how far BlackStar could have come in the time between his breaking out and now. The boy was fast, that much Kid knew, but if he had taken a different route from his cell to the exit he could very well have ended up completely lost. And now there was the matter of the guards, as well.

 

All in all, Kid wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but he couldn’t say he was surprised when the loud noise of something hitting the door cut through the silence. He stood up and watched the door bend with increasingly loud creaks, then break and fall off its hinges. It landed with a deafening sound, and BlackStar stepped out, with Nakatsukasa supporting herself with an arm slung over his shoulder. She looked tired, somehow worse for wear than her meister, who still had open cuts all over his face and a split lip from getting the chains off. It was as though she carried an enormous weight which hindered her movement, and Kid made a mental note to ask his father what exactly was done to stop her from transforming when he was done with this.

 

”You again,” BlackStar said and Kid nodded.

 

”Me again.” He crossed his arms over his chest. ”I presume there’s no use in asking you to quietly return to your cell.”

 

BlackStar just ignored his question, and addressed Nakatsukasa instead, while still keeping his eyes on Kid.

 

”Tsubaki, think you can pull off the uncanny sword right now?”

 

”Of course I can.” She sounded offended at the very notion that she wouldn’t, but her voice was also trembling slightly, as though just talking was straining her. Kid just about had time to think that it might not be as certain as she said, before she transformed and BlackStar lunged.

 

He was fast, faster than Kid had expected, and surprisingly precise in his motion. Kid only just managed to dodge, almost throwing himself to the side when BlackStar slashed at him. His intention had been to move out of BlackStar’s reach and plan a counterattack, but he never got that far. Something wrapped around his leg, almost tripping him when he tried to move, and when he looked down he thought it looked like the shadows themselves had moved to restrain him. All he could do was brace himself as BlackStar made his next attack.

 

Kid had been stabbed before, and he’d always considered it more of an annoyance than anything. But the uncanny sword hurt in a way he wasn’t used to. It was in part the precision of BlackStar’s hit - it had passed between his lower ribs and into his right lung - but the blade itself was so cold it felt like it burned him. BlackStar yanked the sword out, breaking the ribs it had been lodged between in the process, and Kid suspected he would have fallen over if not for the shadows still holding him in place. He drew quick, shallow breaths, his body panicking with one less lung to use, and he watched, still unable to move, as BlackStar readied himself for another strike. A slash, this time, and aiming for Kid’s neck.

 

He never quite managed to properly go through with it, though. Halfway through the motion it looked like a shiver ran through him. He suddenly moved a lot more slowly, and in comparison to what the slash could have been, it was like he only grazed Kid. It still left an inch-deep gash across Kid’s throat, but Kid was too busy watching BlackStar to worry about that. It was as though BlackStar had taken a hit as well, because he stumbled and sank to his knees with a deep, strained breath. Nakatsukasa suddenly changed to the shorter blade, and the moment she did the shadows holding Kid in place vanished. He swayed for a moment at the sudden lack of support, then fell over and landed on his side.

 

Where he laid it was hard to see, so all he could do was try and hear what BlackStar was doing. It sounded like he was getting up, albeit slowly, and Kid was suddenly struck by the realization that he might not make it out of this. He was sturdy, sure, but not indestructible, and while his body did try and put itself back together, the wounds left by the uncanny sword seemed like they were causing more of a problem than they really ought to.

 

BlackStar took a step closer to where Kid was laying, then suddenly stopped again. There was a new sound, like someone landing on the ground. At first, Kid wasn’t sure what it was, but then two sets of footsteps were moving away from him and he realized that Nakatsukasa must have changed back to her human form. He silently thanked whoever had been in charge of restraining her and tried to feel for the two’s soul responses when their footsteps got too far away to hear. It seemed they weren’t making any more trouble, just moving away as fast as possible.

 

Kid let himself stay where he was for a moment, letting his body devote all its energy to repairing the damage. It took a while, but he could eventually stand up and brush the dust off his suit. He looked to the stairs, where a few drops of blood revealed BlackStar and Nakatsukasa’s route. Maybe this would be the last he saw of them? They could end up killed by a guard, or pick some other fight they couldn’t win. Or maybe Kid just wouldn’t run into them again, by pure chance.

 

The more he thought about it, the more he was sure that wouldn’t be the case.

Chapter 9: A chance encounter part 1

Summary:

In which the team goes on a mission

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

The moment Maka stepped off the bus in front of the Winchester Mystery House, she knew that coming here had been a mistake. 

 

Personally she didn’t mind it. She actually thought it was kinda pretty in a way, framed by pine trees and kept in far better shape than she’d expected an abandoned house in the middle of the woods to be. The heavy rain helped in giving it an air of mystique, reminiscent of some of Maka’s favorite books. But Professor Stein really hadn’t exaggerated when he described how strangely built it was. There was no reason to it, roofs in different styles popped up behind the front of the building, betraying how massive the house truly was, and little towers and balconies jutted out at seemingly random places. 

 

”What fresh hell is this?” Said Kid as he joined Maka in the small, wooden shelter that made up the bus stop. He was followed by Liz and Patty, the former making a distraught noise at the sight of the house, then Soul and finally Crona, who immediately grabbed onto Maka’s arm. 

 

”It’s nothing to worry about.” Maka smiled, hoping to reassure the group. Or if that didn’t work, just stall them until the bus had left so that no one got it in them to try and go back to Death City. It worked well enough, and the bus could take off back down the narrow mountain road without anyone trying to get back on, while Maka and the others stayed cramped in the little shelter. The rain smattered against the tin roof as they stood there for a while, since Maka thought it was best to let the others gather themselves for a bit before they headed in. Eventually, though, she took a step forward and turned around to face the group. 

 

”Alright everyone,” she said. ”We’re not getting picked up until tomorrow morning, unless something goes completely wrong, so it’s either staying out here or going in. Me, I prefer not to freeze.” 

 

Soul and Patty gave half-hearted cheers, while Kid, Liz and Crona all seemed to remember that they couldn’t just go back at the same time, because they pulled remarkably similar faces. 

 

”Do you think we can wait for a little bit?” Kid asked, and after a moment of deliberation Maka nodded. 

 

”Fine. We’ll stop on the porch for half an hour and have some tea before we go in. Does that sound okay?” 

 

The group agreed, and they started making their way towards the house. Patty ended up having to drag Liz and Kid the last few meters, but eventually they were all sat on the porch floor. It was far more spacious than the bus stop, which was always something, and when Maka opened the thermos she’d brought she found that the water was still hot enough to steam, meaning she’d hopefully not have to freeze. 

 

She’d told everyone to bring their own thermoses and mugs, and she, Soul and Liz had all brought tea bags, so they had enough tea to go around. For her first mission as team leader it wasn’t too shabby, Maka thought as they all sat and drank their tea. Crona seemed to have relaxed slightly, which was always good to see. They were still pressed up against Maka’s side, but they were taking at least some part in the conversation that had started. It probably helped that it wasn’t anything particularly deep, just some light gossip about their classmates now that Crona, Kid, Liz and Patty had all gotten to know them a bit better. Ragnarok was certainly enjoying it, loudly agreeing with anything vaguely negative that was said, but Maka had managed to get used to his comments by now. 

 

She was starting to tune out from the conversation, instead thinking over the mission ahead. It felt way different when she was responsible for this many people, and she’d rather die here than have to return to Death City having screwed up somehow. It certainly didn’t help that they had been the last to finish resonance link training, nor that Kid had orders from higher up to keep an eye on Crona. That had been the condition to let them be on the team, after Maka and Kid had both had some long talks with their respective fathers. At the time, Maka had thought that it would all be worth it since they’d surely be able to work great together, but then resonance link training had started and they just…didn’t. It was frustrating, she could tell better than anyone just how unstable their link was and she could tell exactly why. But no way in hell could she tell Crona that they weren’t being open enough, not after everything that had happened to them. 

 

No, she just had to take extra care as team leader, Maka had decided. She could research their missions properly and make sure she made the right calls in battle, and Crona and Kid were plenty strong on their own. If their link didn’t hold up they could make do. She was sure. 

 

She was decently sure. 

 

And, she thought, it was fun to get to spend time like this. They were on a mission, sure, but in a way it was kind of like hanging out with her friends. Soul and Liz had moved on to talking about some musician she’d never heard of, and Patty was harassing Ragnarok while Kid and Crona were talking about something Maka couldn’t quite hear over the aforementioned harassment like they didn’t even notice. Maka couldn’t help but smile to herself, as she started mentally going over what Professor Stein had told her about the house. 

 

The Winchester Mystery House had been built in the late 1800s or rather, it had began to be built then. At the time it had been inhabited by one Sarah Winchester, who had expansions made hoping to ward off ghosts and eventually turned the house into something more like a labyrinth than a place to live. It had been surrounded by a small village, then, and to Maka’s knowledge none of the inhabitants had had anything against Sarah Winchester or her house, nor her against them. It had become a fixture of the village, albeit a strange one. The problems really only started when Sarah Winchester died. It had only been a few weeks when people noticed that the house was still being expanded, and seemingly without anyone actually working on it. Around then, villagers had started disappearing, and eventually DWMA had been called in. Professor Stein had apparently met one of the meisters from that mission and had as such been able to relay some firsthand information to Maka. 

 

No one had known the cause, and no one did to this day. The working theory was that a witch had been involved, but whether that was true or not the house had still developed something that wasn’t quite a soul but wasn’t quite not a soul either. It had a wavelength, and it had quickly taken to feeding on other souls. People would wander into it, get lost in the endless rooms and eventually there would be so little of their minds left that their souls could be easily taken. Even as the team were working in it, Stein had said, the house would change and expand, doing its best to protect itself. Eventually, though, its not-quite-soul had been harvested, and the house had finally settled into the form it held to this day. 

 

The reason they were here today was that while the house hadn’t changed, people had been disappearing since around the demon god’s awakening. There had been furious debate among a whole group of experts (which Maka was still mad that she didn’t get to hear) about whether this was correlation or causation, and if the house was waking up again or if it was an unrelated force. In the end, Maka’s team had been sent to investigate. If the house itself truly was stirring they had been instructed to leave immediately, but if something else was causing the disappearances they had permission to attack, if Maka didn’t deem it too dangerous. Nothing too complicated, really, but Maka still couldn’t help but worry. 

 

The thirty minutes were running out and she reminded the group to finish their drinks and get ready to head in. Crona had apparently fully warmed up to the idea by now, so perhaps their earlier nervousness had been due to being on a bus with strangers. Liz and Kid, on the other hand, were still no more interested in going in than when they had arrived. Kid had at least been sitting on the porch, where most of the house was out of view, and as such hadn’t been able to get hung up on all the little details, but there had been nothing stopping Liz from conjuring up images of all kinds of ghouls. 

 

”I hate this, I hate this, I hate this,” she kept repeating under her breath as the group headed in. Maka tried not to pay her too much attention, instead looking over the first room. It was a fairly normal looking hallway, if a bit extravagant, with several doors leading in a variety of directions. Maka reached into her pocket and pulled out the map she’d gotten of the place, looking for the best room to set up camp in, and after some deliberation settled for a kitchen near the entrance. 

 

The group started moving towards it, and managed to get lost quite a few times along the way, before they finally made it. It was on the smaller side, maybe meant to be used by servants if they wanted to make something for themselves, but it fit the group nicely. Maka put Kid, Liz and Patty on unpacking duty so as to take the former two’s minds off things, while she checked the three doors leading out of the kitchen. 

 

The first led to a set of stairs, which Maka decided they’d have to save for later, the second led to a pantry, completely empty, and the final opened to reveal a corridor, much like the one they’d just arrived from. Maka tried the lights to no avail and instead lit a flashlight, then took a few hesitant steps in. She couldn’t sense anything nearby, but quickly came to realize that that didn’t really mean much. Something about the house made wavelengths a bit fuzzy - she could barely get a solid grip of her team from where she was standing, just a few meters away from them. It was like fumbling in the dark in a way, and she couldn’t say she liked it, but it wasn’t like she could do anything about it either. 

 

She let the light travel over the corridor and suddenly noticed something. Strange markings appeared at uneven intervals across the walls, and even the roof. Some resembled the slashes of a sword, but some looked more like giant claws, and Maka quickly moved this particular corridor up on her list of priorities. After one last look at it, she hurried back to the kitchen to get Kid, and the two of them went to inspect it together. 

 

”What do you think?” Maka asked as she shone the flashlight over the markings. 

 

”That they should have torched this place to the ground. Other than that, these things seem unusual even for this damned house.” Kid frowned slightly. ”I hate to give this to it, but all the rooms so far have been tidy, at least.” 

 

”Yeah, I thought so too.” Maka decided not to worry about the torching comment for the time being. She was fairly certain that if Kid was going to burn down a house he would have the good sense to at least wait until the team was out. 

 

As she gave the markings another look, she tried to get a grip of how fresh they were. It was a bit hard to tell, but she’d wager they’d been done at least somewhat recently. A few weeks ago, at most, which would coincide with when the new incidents started, so it wasn’t too much of a reach to assume that whatever had caused this had caused the disappearances as well. Of course, it would help if she could get a better grip of the souls in the house…

 

A thought struck her and she headed back to the kitchen, hearing Kid follow her, and tapped Soul on the shoulder. 

 

”I need you to help me with something,” she explained. ”Can you transform real quick?” 

 

Soul looked a bit confused, but just shrugged and did as told. Maka caught him in mid-air, and suddenly felt a bit awkward when she noticed the rest of the room staring at her, but she pushed that down, closed her eyes and focused. Way back when she fought Crona she’d noticed how different soul perception was when she was wielding Soul. It wasn’t like she sensed more, exactly, but like what she did sense was sharper, more accurate and she hoped that that would help now. 

 

It did, kinda. Maka felt like if she’d been fumbling around muddy water before, now she’d at least found a rock to stand on, a fixed point which she could reach out from. It let her actually get a solid grip on her team’s wavelengths and let her sense a hint of something somewhere in the house. It was still fuzzy, but now that she knew where to look it was a lot more doable. She tugged at the stray traces of wavelengths, eventually separating them into two different responses. A weapon and meister duo. And - she suddenly realized - a familiar one. 

 

”I’ve got good news and bad news.” Maka opened her eyes again. ”The good news is it’s not the house waking up again. The bad news is that BlackStar and Tsubaki are here.” 

 

There was a long pause, with no one saying anything, until Liz finally broke the silence with what Maka suspected was what everyone was thinking. 

 

”Well, shit.” 

 

”That’s certainly one way of putting it.” Kid had reached for his throat, rubbing it almost as though he didn’t know he was doing it, which Maka thought was a bit odd, but she also had seen Kid do odder things so she didn’t pay it much mind. 

 

”What do we do, fight them?” Soul asked as he changed back to his human form, landing next to Maka. She turned to him, intending to answer that yes, of course they would fight, but as she did she realized that she wasn’t actually so certain. Sure, fighting was probably the best idea. BlackStar and Tsubaki were outnumbered and Crona meant the team would have an element of surprise, but there was still something that Maka just couldn’t stop thinking about. 

 

”I don’t know…” she said slowly, not sure how to approach the topic. ”Are we sure we can’t reason with them somehow?” 

 

”What, you mean talk it out?” Kid’s tone was skeptical, borderline harsh. ”And then what, they come quietly and let themselves get locked up again?” 

 

”I’m just suggesting something.” Maka tried to sound calm and collected when what she really wanted was to counter with something equally biting. She was team leader, she reminded herself. She was supposed to be above that. 

 

”And I’m just saying I think it’s a bad suggestion,” Kid countered and Maka couldn’t help but sigh in exasperation. 

 

”Listen,” she said. ”I managed to get through to Crona, didn’t I? Who’s to say we can’t work things out with these two as well?” 

 

”It’s not that I think it’s impossible. I just don’t think it’s realistic to expect to be able to solve things in a non-violent way.” Kid seemed to have gathered himself a bit, because he sounded more neutral now, but Maka honestly found that worse. It was one thing to argue with a classmate, but this felt like she was being lectured and she hated it. 

 

”So what are you saying, that I should have just gutted Crona? Or that you should have left Liz and Patty on the street?” 

 

She’d gone too far. She knew she’d gone too far the moment she said it. It was one thing to see Kid look like he’d been punched in the gut, or see Liz’s face turn almost expressionless, like a very old mask had just slipped on. But seeing Patty - perpetually cheerful, childish and carefree Patty - looking like she was ready to shoot someone made Maka take an involuntary step back. She couldn’t even bring herself to look at Crona, didn’t want to see how they’d reacted to the comment. 

 

The worst thing was that she couldn’t back down, couldn’t immediately apologize like she so desperately wanted to because she still thought she was in the right, damn it. She’d stepped out of line, but she wouldn’t back down on this unless she got a counterargument way better than ’it’s not realistic’. So she didn’t back any further when Patty stepped forward and grabbed her by the collar. 

 

”Say that again,” she said slowly. Maka gritted her teeth. 

 

”I think I’ve made my point.” The moment she finished the sentence Patty punched her, a well-directed hit right to Maka’s nose, and if it weren’t for the grip on her collar Maka was sure she would have been sent flying backwards. The pain that bloomed from her nose was enough to distract her from the blood pouring all over her face, at least for a moment, but once the initial shock faded and her head stopped spinning she became very aware of it. A small part of her brain was completely occupied with reminding her that her shirt was ruined, not that that was in any way a priority right now. 

 

Patty held onto her for a moment longer, then suddenly let go and Maka only just managed to stay on her feet as Patty stepped back. 

 

”I’m done with this.” She turned to Liz and Kid, who still hadn’t moved. ”Let’s go look for that guy. I wanna shoot someone.” 

 

Maka felt her stomach drop. They couldn’t split up, whatever they did they couldn’t split up. She was still team leader and she was still responsible and no matter how angry she was, she knew that if anything happened to the three of them she would never be able to live with herself. She’d almost lost a friend under her care once and as she watched Kid, Liz and Patty turn and start making for one of the doors she couldn’t escape the feeling that she was going to let it happen again. But even with that, she couldn’t bring herself to say anything. The words didn’t come, and she couldn’t tell if it was because of the rage, the way her throat was tightening or just the fact that whenever she opened her mouth even slightly, blood came pouring in. 

 

”Hold on a minute!” Maka thought she might cry in relief when Soul stepped out into the middle of the room. He crossed his arms over his chest and alternated between glaring at Maka and Kid, Liz and Patty, who had at least stopped for now, as he spoke. 

 

”I can’t believe I’m gonna have to do this, but if I see anyone trying to leave this room before we have a solid plan I’ll call Professor Stein,” he declared. ”So if you wanna get on with it I suggest you make up somehow, so you can get back to discussing strategy like adults. Or teens, I guess.” 

 

No one said anything. Maka would have liked to, if only to support Soul, but she still had the nosebleed issue and so she remained silent. Soul groaned loudly. 

 

”Okay, how about this. That-” he pointed to the corner of the room closest to the door they’d entered from. ”- is Kid and the girls’ corner. And that over there is Maka’s corner.” 

 

He pointed to one close to the refrigerator (which Maka thought looked dustier than the others, but she didn’t complain) and then headed over to the small table, grabbed a chair and sat down. 

 

”I’ll be sitting here, and when either of you feel like talking about your problems you can call me over to your corners. This is not a gentle suggestion.” 

 

Maka stood still, for a moment, looking at her corner. She didn’t know what was best, but she eventually decided that she couldn’t just stand around all night. Slowly, she made her way over and sat down, and when she did she found that Kid had actually gone to his corner, with Liz and Patty tailing him. The three of them sat down, and Maka reached into her pocket to grab a napkin which she used to wipe her face, and to hide a relieved smile.

Notes:

ACH sorry this has taken forever I wanted to be basically done with the second part before I posted this so that's my excuse 😔✨ hopefully pt 2 will be up very soon tho so you won't have to wait as long this time

Chapter 10: A chance encounter part 2

Summary:

In which the mission continues

Chapter Text

It had been almost twenty minutes, when Patty suddenly raised her hand. 

 

”I would like to call Soul to our corner,” she announced and Soul obliged, getting up and walking over to where she, Liz and Kid were sitting. Maka watched him as he moved, then tried to hear what was talked about when he crouched down next to the group, but quickly found that she couldn’t catch any of it and just gave up. With nothing else to do, she finally cast a glance at Crona, who’d asked Soul if they could get a corner for themselves as well and, after getting permission, had sat down in one with their knees drawn up to their chin. They’d remained in that position since, staring at their shoes and not catching any of Maka’s attempts to contact them. Or maybe they were doing it on purpose in which case, Maka couldn’t say she didn’t deserve it. 

 

She sighed and got back to watching Soul. He was nodding along to something Liz was whispering, and expertly dodging her upset gestures. Patty was glaring at Maka and she quickly turned away, looking at the door to the corridor. It was frustrating, knowing that they were wasting time and knowing that she was at least partially responsible. She’d had some time to think about it and she still thought Kid had been unnecessarily rude, but she shouldn’t have taken the bait. So what if he was being weird today? That was his problem and he’d deal with it very sensibly, because that was what he did . He was very sensible and competent and all that and quite frankly he should have been the team leader so Maka didn’t have to deal with any of this shit. 

 

She heard Soul get up and raised her hand. 

 

”I would like to call Soul to my corner,” she said and soon heard footsteps approaching. 

 

”You finished bleeding all over the floor?” Soul sat down next to her and she huffed. 

 

”Shut up.” 

 

”That’s no way to speak to the guy who just saved your mission.” She could practically hear Soul’s self-satisfied grin, but he was unfortunately right. 

 

”I’m sorry.” She sighed. ”And thank you for that.” 

 

”You’re so welcome.” Soul shifted closer, leaning in so that she couldn’t actually avoid looking at him. 

 

”Now,” he said in a feigned serious voice. ”What problems would you like to talk about?” 

 

”Kid was a dick.” Maka thought for a moment, choosing her words wisely before she continued. ”But so was I. But I also don’t think I’m in the wrong.” 

 

”Right.” 

 

”Is that all you’ve got to say?” 

 

”I’m here to listen, not to talk.” Soul held his hands up in a defensive gesture. ”I can leave if you think you’re finished.” 

 

”No, please don’t.” Maka hated how desperate she sounded. This was excruciating and when she was on top of the situation again she’d get back at Soul somehow. For now, though, she’d just have to keep this up. 

 

”I want to apologize, especially to Liz and Patty. And to Crona,” she said. ”But I also don’t want to sound like I’m stepping down, because I still don’t think we should just go and kill them and call it a job well done. We might be able to help them.” 

 

”Right.” 

 

”And it’s frustrating because I feel like Kid thinks I’m being childish for trying to be like, a compassionate person or whatever.” 

 

”Right.” 

 

”And I get that I shouldn’t have snapped, I really do, but I also feel like there’s so much pressure on me as leader or whatever and I hate it. I hate it!” Maka let her head fall forward, looking down on her lap. ”So what’s your diagnosis, doctor?” 

 

Soul took a while to respond, and Maka appreciated that she didn’t immediately get something snarky, at least. She didn’t think she would have reacted well to that and her lack of composure had already embarrassed her enough for one day. 

 

”I’m gonna go talk to Kid and the others again,” he said. ”In the meantime, go apologize to Crona. They look like they’re gonna cry.” 

 

Maka took a deep breath and nodded, then remained seated for a while after Soul had gotten up. She tried to plan something out, or at least decide on something to open with, but the more she thought about it the more she realized she simply had nothing. But she couldn’t just keep sitting here forever, she knew as much, so she slowly stood up and started making her way across the room. 

 

Crona didn’t react when she sat down next to them and Maka didn’t dare to touch them to try and confirm that they knew she was there. She just had to assume they did. 

 

”Hey,” she said, as gently as she could, then felt like crying when she noticed Crona twitching at the sound. 

 

”I want to apologize,” she continued and shit her voice was thick. ”I shouldn’t have said what I said, it was bad enough of me to drag you into my argument in the first place.” 

 

Crona didn’t say anything and Maka tried to think of anything else she could do. She knew that had it been anyone else, she would have liked to maybe take their hand, initiate some contact, but that wasn’t an option here, and she couldn’t imagine waiting for Crona to pick up the conversation would yield any results. So all she could do was keep talking. 

 

”I let the stress- I let a lot get to me, but that’s not an excuse. You shouldn’t have to get hurt just because I’m a mess today, that’s not fair.” Crona was at least looking at her now. Or rather, they were glancing. But it was something. Maka was just about to continue when they suddenly spoke, so quiet she almost didn’t catch it. 

 

”I’m sorry. I’m ruining everything, I’m sorry.” 

 

”You’re not ruining anything!” Maka instinctively reached out, but managed to at least slow her hand and carefully place it on Crona’s shoulder rather than just grab them. They tensed a little at the contact, but didn’t move away. 

 

”Listen to me. I’m the one that screwed up, okay?” She tried to catch their gaze, but they were looking away again, as if there was something deeply fascinating perched on their knees. 

 

”I know I’m ruining things,” they said quietly. ”I’m the reason our resonance link is so weak. I still can’t let anyone in, even after all this time.” 

 

What could Maka say to that? She raked through her brain, desperate for something. Would it be best to lie? To say that no, actually, it was on all of them or that the link really wasn’t that fragile in the first place. The former was closer to the truth, but she still couldn’t escape the fact that Crona was pulling away, whenever they tried the link. Like they were trying to hide something, themselves, maybe. 

 

”That doesn’t matter,” she finally settled on. ”It doesn’t matter. We could be the worst team in the history of teams and it still wouldn’t matter, because you’re our friend. Who cares about the stupid link. As long as you’re here with us, nothing’s gonna get ruined.” 

 

Crona’s eyes widened, and Maka could see their jaw clench. 

 

”But what if-” They swallowed. ”What if I did something? Something bad, that I couldn’t undo no matter how much I wanted.” 

 

”I know you won’t.” This, Maka didn’t have to hesitate on. She’d seen too much of Crona, touched their soul and gotten to know them in an instant. It was comforting, she had to admit, to feel certain for once in this conversation. 

 

None of them said anything after that, but Maka held onto Crona’s shoulder and when Soul eventually returned to her corner and waved her over, she gave them what she hoped was a comforting squeeze before getting up and walking over to Soul. She sat down cross-legged and sighed deeply. 

 

”I apologized to Crona,” she said and Soul nodded. 

 

”And how did that make you feel?” 

 

”A lot better.” 

 

”So would you agree with me when I say that apologizing to the others might also make you feel better?” Soul cocked his head to the side and Maka felt like she could strangle him, mostly because he was right.

 

”Possibly,” she said through gritted teeth. ”But I don’t exactly think I’m the only one who owes an apology.” 

 

”Okay but then - and I hate to say this - it kinda just sounds like you’re apologizing to get an apology back.” Was she imagining things or was Soul sounding way too self-satisfied? Probably the former, to be honest, but Maka couldn’t entirely rule the latter out as a possibility. 

 

”If you’re gonna apologize to someone it’s gotta be because you mean it,” he continued. ”Because you really want to and think it’s the right thing and whatever.” 

 

”Fine!” Maka snapped. ”I’m just- I still need to get what I’m saying across. I can’t just let this go.” 

 

”I get that.” Soul’s voice softened. ”But I personally think it might be just the teensiest bit easier to sort that issue out if you guys are actually talking to each other.” 

 

Maka sighed again. She let herself sulk for just one more moment, but then stood up and without a word walked over to the middle of the room, where she sat down again, facing Kid’s corner. Him and the sisters were huddled together and whispering amongst themselves, but she caught Patty glancing back at her. 

 

It felt weird to be sitting like this, without any walls close to her she felt… exposed, was the right word. Like she was expected to hold a speech (which in a way she supposed she was) or do some kind of dance performance. 

 

Maka sat alone for a while, and had time to get properly nervous before Kid finally stood up. He stayed still for a moment, then slowly turned around and walked over, sitting down across from Maka. Liz and Patty remained where they were, but turned around at least, leaning against the wall and glaring at her. She tried not to think about that for now, figuring that one apology at a time was the best way to go about this. Now there was just the issue of how to say it. How had she apologized to Crona? It had been just a few minutes ago but Maka was somehow unable to remember a word she’d said. And Kid had a knack for making his face look very blank. Not dead exactly, but like what Maka imagined a dead person looked like after they got their makeup done for the funeral. With the glass eyes of a taxidermied animal. She tried to conjure up some memory of him seeming more human, settled for when they’d been drinking tea just a bit over an hour ago and spoke. 

 

“I’m sorry.” Her voice was steady, to her relief. “I overreacted, and I took things too far. I’m sorry.” 

 

Kid nodded, his face still neutral and for one terrifying moment Maka had time to go over all the reasons he might not accept the apology. 

 

“Thank you,” he finally said and she nearly sighed in relief. “I acted inappropriately as well, it was rude of me to dismiss your suggestion right out of the gate.” 

 

He bowed slightly and Maka instinctively repeated the motion, trying to ignore the feeling that something had just gone wrong. They’d both said the right things, she was sure, so why wasn’t there that sense of relief she’d been hoping for? 

 

“Thank you.” She nodded to Kid when they both looked up again. “Now, as for how to approach the situation…” 

 

“My opinion hasn’t changed. But I will respect whatever decision you make.” It did sound like he meant it, or at least like he wasn’t lying through his teeth, which Maka thought was a start, but she wasn’t sure how to proceed from here. She would have thought that being reminded of her authority would have helped her somehow, but it only made her feel like she was discussing payment details with an employee, not trying to resolve a conflict with her friend. 

 

“I thought-” she said, without actually having decided what to say, so there was a bit of a pause before she continued. “I thought I should try and get Crona’s opinion on the matter as well. And I’ll work from that.” 

 

“That sounds reasonable.” Kid nodded and Maka turned towards Crona’s corner, still feeling a bit odd about the situation. 

 

“Crona.” She tried to keep her voice soft, despite having to talk a bit louder to get their attention. At first she thought she might have to repeat herself, but they eventually looked up, peeking over their knees at her. 


“What do you think about all this?” Maka asked and then waited as Crona shifted slightly, hopefully thinking over their response well, not just being anxious about talking in front of people. Though Maka suspected there was a lot of that at the very least mixed in with their thoughts. 

 

“I-” They finally began, then stopped to clear their throat. “I don’t think we’ll be able to reason with them. It’s like Kid says, a lot of people- sometimes people just aren’t any good.” 

 

That settles it then. Maka couldn’t help but feel a bit deflated. She’d felt like she was the only one who realized something important when talking to Kid, but now it felt more like she was the last one to get a really obvious question on a test. 

 

“Very well then.” She stood up. “Get ready to head out in five minutes.” 

 

“You got it,” Soul said and Maka shot him a quick smile. It wasn’t like she needed everyone to agree with her, she thought to herself, but it was nice to feel like she wasn’t entirely on her own. 

 

The group got to packing up their things, after deciding that they’d still leave their backpacks and such here, so they wouldn’t get in the way in case of a fight. When they were done with BlackStar and Tsubaki, whatever that entailed, they’d return and grab them, so it’d be good to have everything packed in case they were tired from fighting. Maka was still handling things, she kept telling herself, as she stuffed her things into her backpack, finishing quickly. That was good, it left her with time to get to her final order of business. 

 

She approached Liz and Patty carefully. Her nose was still sore from her earlier exchange with the latter. 

 

“Hi,” she said quietly and almost jumped when Liz and Patty turned around. Keeping her gaze low, she continued. “I owe you two an apology as well. I acted like a total jerk.” 

 

She hesitantly looked up, trying to get a grip of the sisters’ reactions. They were difficult to read, she found. Liz still had traces of that mask, whereas Patty looked almost curious, like she wasn’t sure what she’d do yet. 

 

“I had the nosebleed coming, basically,” Maka finally finished, not sure what else to say. For an excruciating moment, no one said anything and Maka seriously considered adding an extra five minutes of waiting time so that she could find a nice, remote closet to go cry in. But then Patty laughed, and Liz’s expression softened. 

 

“Oh what the hell,” she said and opened her arms to Maka, who all but stumbled into the embrace. She pressed her face into Liz’s shoulder and hugged her tight, feeling Liz pat her lightly on the head. 

 

“Don’t break my ribs, okay,” Liz said, her tone joking. “I think I’m gonna have a hard time forgiving you for that .” 

 

“Sorry,” Maka mumbled and released her hold slightly. And, she suddenly realized, she couldn’t help but smile, very slightly. 




The five minutes passed and the group headed into the destroyed corridor, the weapons in their non-human forms and everyone ready for an attack. Maka tried to feel ahead as she walked, and to her surprise she realized that BlackStar and Tsubaki hadn’t moved in the time that had passed. She found it a bit odd, but the house was big and there was that issue with soul perception, so the two of them could just not have noticed they had company yet. Maka relayed the information to the group, as she led them through the labyrinthine mansion.

 

It was easier to find their target this time, with Maka keeping track of BlackStar and Tsubaki’s souls and with the group finding a few new marks along the way. Soon, after heading up a spiral staircase and then down a much longer second spiral staircase, they reached something that looked like a living room, with a set of dust-covered couches facing a large fireplace. From the door, Maka could only see a hand resting on the backrest of one of the couches, but she could sense the souls in the room clearly at this point, when she was closer and with Soul backing her.

 

BlackStar and Tsubaki must have heard them enter the room, they hadn’t exactly been sneaky, but they didn’t react very urgently. Maka and the others stayed by the door, with Maka unsure what to do, watching until the hand finally moved, gripping the couch as BlackStar sat up. 

 

It had been a while since Maka last saw him, but she’d remembered him looking considerably more alive than this. She remembered a dangerous gleam to his now unfocused and baggy eyes, and she certainly didn’t remember his complexion being almost grey, like he’d lost a lot of blood. Even the blue of his hair seemed to have dulled, somewhat. 

 

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” he said when he looked at them. “Don’t you have anything better to do?” 

 

“We’re here on an investigation.” Maka readied Soul for an attack. Just because she hadn’t been interested in a fight didn’t mean she’d back down now that they’d decided. 

 

“Investigation? About me?” BlackStar smiled, which somehow only made him look more tired. 

 

“About a bunch of people disappearing around here. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that?” Maka took a small step forward, without getting a reaction, at least not to that. BlackStar just shrugged. 

 

“They just wandered in here. Wasn’t really part of my plan but hey, I’m not complaining.” 

 

“I see.” Maka stepped closer again and heard Kid and Crona flanking her. It felt safe. Despite the arguing, they could still fight together.

 

“And what was your plan?” She asked, not sure why. They weren’t here to talk, after all, she reminded herself. 

 

“Just needed to rest up for a bit.” BlackStar shrugged again. “But I guess I’ll have to get going now.” 

 

Maka just nodded, and BlackStar returned the gesture, almost somberly. 

 

“Let’s get this over with, then.” He climbed over the back of the couch, evidently still as agile as ever. “Tsubaki, come on.” 

 

Maka had expected Tsubaki to get up from another couch, but instead she stepped out of the shadows, in a corner Maka hadn’t even noticed was so shrouded in them. Unlike her meister, she looked like she was holding up incredibly well. Sure, the dark tendrils crawling across all her visible skin were a bit odd, but Tsubaki held her head high and made them work. After casting Maka’s group a disinterested look, she transformed into the uncanny sword, landing perfectly in BlackStar’s hand. 

 

Or, almost perfectly. BlackStar seemed to strain, as if she was heavier than he’d expected, and his face turned yet another shade more ashen, in a stark contrast to the black marks that settled on him, much like they had on Tsubaki earlier. Still, he stepped forward, evidently not thinking of running away from this fight. 

 

The feeling of a resonance link was still odd, familiar in one way but unfamiliar in another. Like having a normal conversation with her friends, but in a language Maka hadn’t even known any of them could speak. It made her soul perception even clearer, and she took what was meant to be something like a quick final glance at BlackStar and Tsubaki’s souls. However, what she sensed made her pause for a moment. There was something in the way the two of them resonated that just wasn’t quite right. She’d noticed it back when they first met, she remembered, that the uncanny sword specifically seemed to act in this way. But now that feeling was even stronger. 

 

She’s eating him alive. 

 

Maka wasn’t sure if her observation would carry to the others, the unsteady link made it a bit hard to tell if she really felt a reaction or if she was just imagining things. But she hoped it got through, if only for the fact it meant their link wasn’t completely useless. Nothing else mattered right now, she reminded herself. BlackStar obviously wanted a fight and she couldn’t make her team draw back and start another argument about strategy. This was the choice she’d made, and she would have to see it through. 

 

Even with a weak link, Maka could sense how her team would move, just as Professor Stein had promised. It was like the strategy that formed in the back of her mind was in one way something she’d thought of herself, and at the same time like it had come from elsewhere, but it made her feel very certain of it. 

 

Without a word spoken between the three of them, Kid opened fire at BlackStar to control his movements, while Crona and Maka rushed forward. Maka could see Crona out of the corner of her eye, but didn’t even have to look to know what attack they were going to use. She put some distance between herself and Crona, as they sliced their hand open and splattered some of their blood at BlackStar’s feet. With Maka out of the way they had more than enough space for their bloody needle and managed to catch BlackStar in the shoulder. It pinned him in place for just a split second, but that was all Maka would need. She lunged, swinging Soul in a wide arch and aiming right for BlackStar’s midsection. 

 

A tendril like the ones covering BlackStar and Tsubaki coiled out of the shadows on the floor and met Maka’s attack. It was solid, but Maka managed to cut through it after just a moment’s delay. However, when she was through it she felt a shudder run through her body. It slowed her movement down and she only managed to graze BlackStar, cutting a light gash into his side before he moved out of the way. 

 

He swung at her and when she moved to block she couldn’t help but feel like it was barely enough. There was a sudden sense of clumsiness to her movements, like she was in her first fight and not her hundred-something-eth and it took her a moment to realize why that was. 

 

The link hadn’t held up. 

 

Kid and Crona must have noticed as well, because neither of them moved to attack, like they were as lost as Maka felt. She wanted to cry out to them, guide them in some way, but it felt more and more like she’d just lost her footing and was falling, flailing with nothing to hold onto. But she needed to find something or, if she couldn’t, she’d make something. She didn’t have a choice in the matter, it was that or get killed. 

 

“You two keep it up!” She yelled and damn it felt good to yell. It snapped her out of it enough to take another swing at BlackStar, and keep going even after he easily dodged it. This time she went for his legs, forcing him to jump to get out of the way and the second he was in the air Kid started shooting him again. His shots had to be more precise and further between, without the link letting him know where Maka and Crona would be, but even with the shadowy tendrils blocking some of the gunfire off, BlackStar took yet another hit and when he landed he stumbled ever so slightly. 

 

Seeing a new opportunity, Maka moved towards him, but before she could reach him yet another of those tendrils intercepted her. This one didn’t block her attack, instead it performed one of its own. It shot up from the floor, piercing her through the side, and Maka let out a cry. It was cold, and for a second the image that came to mind was that of being stabbed with an icicle. Maka was held in place for a moment, before the shadow was yanked out of her, sending an additional spike of pain through her body. She swayed, seeing BlackStar swing the uncanny sword at her, and when she moved to block with Soul she knew that it would be too little, too late. 

 

Crona moved remarkably fast, getting between the two of them and blocking BlackStar’s attack with their arm. It must have taken him by surprise, because he didn’t quite recover fast enough to counter Crona’s attack. They cut a deep gash across his chest, eerily similar to what they’d done to Soul way back when, and Maka wasn’t sure if that was what caused her to shiver, or if it was the wound in her side. 

 

BlackStar stumbled backwards, but managed to stay on his feet. He snarled, blood spraying from between his teeth, and raised his sword again, as if to retaliate. Mid-motion, though, he stopped. He stood still for a moment, then cast a glance down towards Tsubaki, turned on his heel and ran towards one of the room’s many doors. 

 

Maka tried to follow, but it made the pain in her side almost unbearable and with a hiss she was forced to admit defeat on this one. She clutched at the wound and sank to the floor, using Soul as a support so she wouldn’t just fall over. Crona sat down by her side, mumbling something she couldn’t quite make out, while Kid ran after BlackStar. He stopped by the door, and looked back for a moment. 

 

“Stay where you are,” he said. “I’ll finish him off.” 

 

Before Maka could protest, Kid had disappeared out of the door. Now, unable to do anything else, Maka felt a pang of guilt, along with the pain. Maybe she could have done more, made a better argument for trying to solve things with BlackStar. Not just insult the person she was talking to and ruining everything…

 

“Maka!” Soul had transformed back and was shaking her slightly, and Maka realized that she must have spaced out slightly. Crona had grabbed her hand and looked worried, so she tried a reassuring smile at them, feeling like it came out more like a grimace. When the sound of gunfire rang from a few rooms away, she couldn’t stop herself from gripping Crona’s hand tight, too, which probably only served to worry them further. She’d have to try and calm them a bit as soon as she could, she thought, but for now she couldn’t bring herself to. She remained on the floor, with Soul looking over her wound, until Kid returned. 

 

He walked slowly, with Liz and Patty tailing him, and seemed somewhat lost in thought. Maka’s first thought was that he must still be angry with her, but she couldn’t quite keep believing that when he sat down opposite her and asked how she was feeling, with no hint of venom in his voice. 

 

“I’ll survive,” she said, feeling at least some sense of relief, albeit mixed with some awkwardness. “Did he give you any trouble?” 

 

“What?” 

 

“You know, BlackStar.” Maka frowned. “You said you were going after him.” 

 

“Oh yeah.” Kid nodded, then looked away and for a moment Maka thought he just wasn’t going to elaborate. 

 

“I missed,” he finally said, though. “Sorry.” 




They ended up calling for someone to pick them up, despite Maka protesting that she could handle her injury until the bus arrived, and then spent a few hours waiting. The rain had stopped, and Maka found that the air outside was more pleasant, so she wrapped herself in a blanket from one of the rooms and sat down on the porch stairs. Soul had come with her at first, but quickly grew visibly uncomfortable in the cold and - after being reassured that she’d be fine alone, now that she’d at least been bandaged - returned inside, leaving Maka alone for a while. 

 

As she thought the encounter over, Maka found she wasn’t sure what to think. They’d managed to get by - sort of - without the resonance link so that was something, but the fact that it hadn’t held up in the first place kind of put a damper on things. It felt like more of a loss than BlackStar and Tsubaki getting away, and she had the sneaking suspicion that Professor Stein would agree with her. Would he let the team stay together? Could they even stay together, after that fight? 

 

A door opened behind her and she turned around, expecting to see Crona or maybe Soul again, but instead finding Kid. He crossed the porch without a greeting and sat down next to her, after which none of them said anything for a while. 

 

“I really am sorry.” Maka finally broke the silence, almost whispering. It felt weird to be too loud out here. 

 

“As am I.” Kid nodded, his eyes fixed on something straight ahead. “But thank you. I appreciate the apology.” 

 

“I should thank you as well,” Maka said after a brief pause. It was hard to tell with the dim light on the porch, but she thought she saw Kid tense for a moment, before he replied. 

 

“I just fumbled a shot. It’s nothing to thank me for.” 

 

“Right.”

Chapter 11: A certain soul

Summary:

In which a goal is fulfilled

Notes:

cw for character death ✌😔

Chapter Text

The red sky blurred the edge between night and day. It cast an eerie glow over the world, and made it look like Baba Yaga’s Castle had been warmed to the point of melting. 

 

They’d found a hideout, a large tree close to the edge of the pit where the castle lay, from which they could see most of what went on while blending in with the darkness of the branches. It was certainly one of their more comfortable hiding spots, Tsubaki thought, stretching her legs with a content yawn. They’d run into a few armed people from both sides on their way, which had done her good. She didn’t exactly feel energized like you’d do after a good meal, more like she’d taken a long, relaxing bath. 

 

Really, she didn’t see why she hadn’t started doing this sooner. Sure, she knew the practical reason for it, it wouldn’t have been good to get on the DWMA’s bad side, but even back then she’d told herself it would only be Masamune. At no point had she seriously considered going after others. But then they’d gotten into a fight at the Winchester house, and after that more and more people just kept pouring in for whatever reasons. To investigate, to avenge someone, or just because a friend had dared them to, and after BlackStar handled the first few Tsubaki had just gotten...used to the idea, was the closest she could put it. 

 

It was kind of funny. She’d thought it would be the one way Masamune got to be special, but now she supposed he could agonize over that too, wherever he was. She couldn’t quite stifle a giggle at the thought and had to cover her mouth. 

 

“What’s so funny?” BlackStar asked, looking up from where he was perched on a branch slightly below her. 

 

“Nothing.” She was being too careless, too sloppy. That was the downside of this feeling, it made her care less about everything else, like appearances and strategy. At least she was keeping some track on the latter. It was definitely the most important so if she had to prioritize, she could let off on the appearances just a little bit, she reasoned. 

 

“So…” Tsubaki drew the word out. “Are you catching any glimpses of the sword god?” 

 

“Not yet.” BlackStar shook his head, though that was a bit hard to see from above him. “But everyone I asked said he was gonna be here, so let’s wait a bit longer.” 

 

Tsubaki hummed in agreement. She was certain that just a few weeks ago, BlackStar wouldn’t have said anything like that, but it appeared even he had started to realize that he was in no state to just barge in. It was one thing to take on random farmers or single foot soldiers in the woods, but too many at once could very well be too much for him. There was the wound he’d sustained in the Winchester house, and mostly walking on foot from it to here had done him no favors, plus he still had that annoying habit of letting the uncanny sword swallow up too much of his wavelength. At this rate he could end up getting seriously hurt which was his problem, of course, but it still pissed Tsubaki off, just a little. 

 

A rumble came from the castle, and its roof started to rise, which Tsubaki couldn’t say that she’d expected, she’d give the witch in charge - Arachne, right? - that. 

 

“Is that our cue?” She poked the back of BlackStar’s head with the tip of her shoe. 

 

“Not yet...” He leaned forward, maybe to see better or just to get out of her range, whatever it was it ended with him almost losing his balance and having to fight to stay on the branch for a second.

 

“Do you wanna take a nap or something? Just while we wait.” Tsubaki poked him again and he swatted at her without looking back, so he ended up missing horribly. 

 

“Shut up,” he hissed and she giggled. For a moment, it looked like he was going to turn around and continue the argument, but something caught his attention before he did. Tsubaki noticed him tense up and leaned forward to try and see what could have been the cause. It took her some time to get a grip of what was going on outside the castle, but she eventually managed to spot a man with long, blonde hair, carrying some sort of case. Even from up where they were sitting, there was the sense that he was completely relaxed despite the chaos around him. He walked slowly, looking up at the forest and for a second - it seemed - directly at Tsubaki. 

 

“Is that him?” she asked and BlackStar nodded. 

 

“Let’s head down.” He was already moving as he said it. Tsubaki transformed as he jumped from his branch and landed in his hands just before he hit the ground and started running. Now that they were resonating, Tsubaki could feel the excitement buzzing through him, building the closer they got and drowning out anything else, and she had to admit it was a bit infectious. Her own heartbeat picked up, like she too was running, and she could pretty easily ignore the hints of pain that occasionally rang through the resonance. 

 

They reached the edge of the pit in no time and BlackStar jumped off it without a moment’s hesitation. For just a few seconds she felt like they were soaring, and like she was cutting through the air itself, then BlackStar landed in front of the sword god. It barely seemed to phase him, he did little more than narrow his eyes at the two of them. Up close, Tsubaki could see that the case he carried contained what must be almost twenty swords. 

 

“What brings you here, boy?” His voice was low and calm, not directly threatening but still menacing. Not that that was enough to scare Tsubaki, or BlackStar, for that matter. All she could sense from him was that pure excitement from earlier, as he raised her, pointing her at the sword god. 

 

“I am BlackStar, son of WhiteStar, the man who will transcend the gods. I’m here to take your soul.” Usually, there was a lightness to how BlackStar introduced himself, Tsubaki had found. Not that he wasn’t serious, but like talking about himself brought him genuine joy. This time there was none of that. It was matter-of-fact, almost grim, and it struck Tsubaki that this was the first time she’d heard BlackStar refer to his father by name. 

 

“WhiteStar, you say?” The sword god moved the case slightly, making the swords rattle, and Tsubaki got the sense that each of them was...not alive like a demon weapon, but damn close to it. They vibrated, creating a low, humming almost-wavelength. Like they were more interested in the upcoming fight than their wielder. The sword god had gone silent for a moment, studying the two of them, but now seemed to be done with his evaluation. 

 

“You’re injured,” he stated, plainly. “Go home.” 

 

“Never.” BlackStar’s response came automatically, and Tsubaki could feel his grip tighten. 

 

“The path you’re heading down is dangerous. It will swallow you whole, leave nothing behind,” the sword god continued as if he hadn’t heard BlackStar. “You’re just a kid. You can still turn back.” 

 

There was an earnestness to his voice, like he genuinely was hoping for them to just back out of the fight, and it made Tsubaki’s blood boil. God or not, he’d be better off not underestimating her. Underestimating them.  

 

You can still turn back. Tsubaki repeated it to herself over and over, twisting the tone until it was a mocking parody of the sword god’s voice. She’d never had the option to turn back, not from the day she was born Masamune’s sister. Pitiful Masamune, who was too stupid to live with the fact that he was pitiful. He had always had the chance to turn back, to live comfortably and peacefully, but Tsubaki wasn’t like that. She was nothing like him. 

 

Her rage was spilling over, ringing through the resonance like a harsh, but not discordant note, and she could feel BlackStar take it, accept it like a gift, then send his own in return. 

 

“We won’t back down,” BlackStar declared, taking a step closer. “And we’ll kill anyone who gets in our way.” 

 

The sword god said nothing, didn’t move until BlackStar had almost gotten close enough to put him in his range. Only then, did he sigh deeply. 

 

“So be it,” he said, and violently yanked the case upwards. Swords spilled from it, hung in the air for a split second, then landed around them, all with their points downwards and sinking a few centimeters into the ground. The sword god moved quickly, almost a blur as he grabbed one of the closest swords and swung at BlackStar, who blocked, letting Tsubaki feel the full weight of the sword. It kept some of the pressure, even as the sword god let it go and reached for a second one, just narrowly missing BlackStar this time. 

 

Easily following him, the sword god slashed again and Tsubaki had to bend the shadows to stop him, wrapping them around his arms and halting his movement long enough for BlackStar to get some distance between them. He’d need it to ready himself for a counterattack, which he did, but Tsubaki couldn’t help but notice there was a...sluggishness to the way he moved. Only microseconds lost, but it could very well mean at the very least a non-fatal injury if he wasn’t careful. 

 

As BlackStar lunged, bringing her down hard on the sword the sword god blocked with, Tsubaki felt something claw at the back of her conscience. The thought that maybe, just maybe, they were in over their heads. Then again, if they were, what did it matter? They couldn’t back down, after all. 

 

She pushed the doubt down, willed the cold rage from earlier back into their resonance. It was unlike anything they’d done before and it made her feel electric. Even in the midst of it she could tell that their combined wavelength was a vile thing, dripping with the blood of those who had stood in their way. It was something that would make anyone who felt it flinch, and she loved it. She felt high on it, on the souls she’d eaten, on what little of Masamune was still left for her to gloat at, and on BlackStar’s wavelength, absorbed through the uncanny sword. 

 

BlackStar suddenly faltered. It was as though there was just the slightest pause, in the middle of one of his strikes, but it was enough to throw him off. Tsubaki saw the sword god’s attack coming, but as she tried desperately to conjure up the shadows, to stop him before he could get any closer to her meister, she realized that she had lost something, a source of energy. What she’d thought was an endless reserve had just run out, without a warning, and left her weak, helpless. 

 

The sword god tore BlackStar open like he was nothing. He stabbed him straight through the chest, then yanked his sword downwards, breaking ribs and exposing organs. BlackStar made a gurgling sound and slumped forward against the sword god’s shoulder, then collapsed completely when the god finally removed his sword. 

 

Tsubaki transformed back without even thinking of it. She fell to her knees next to BlackStar, willed her hands not to shake as she flipped him onto his back and desperately sought his gaze. It felt important, somehow, and when his cloudy eyes finally showed just a spark of recognition she realized she had started crying. When was the last time she’d cried? She couldn’t for the life of her remember, but now her tears dripped onto BlackStar’s face and she could do nothing to stop them. His mouth moved, like he was trying to say something, but nothing but more of that terrible sound came out and Tsubaki found herself wishing he’d just shut up for a second so she could pretend this wasn’t as bad as it was. 

 

“I hate killing kids,” the sword god said. He still held the sword and it and his clothes were stained a deep red. 

 

You idiot. He’s not going to die, Tsubaki wanted to say, but all she could manage was a choked, embarrassing sob. 

 

“You’re a good sword,” he continued. “I’ll give you the same advice I gave him. Go back, find yourself a new path. Live. ” 

 

Tsubaki looked back down at BlackStar. His eyes had closed, his breaths were growing shallower and further between and Tsubaki thought she could feel his soul trying to claw its way out of him. They were still resonating, albeit weakly, and she clung to the connection like it would actually help BlackStar in some way. Like he was dangling over an abyss and she was holding onto him, keeping him from falling. 

 

BlackStar’s wavelength grew weaker and weaker, an echo more than an actual sound. It reminded her of Masamune, she realized. Or rather, it reminded her of how Masamune had remained with her after she’d eaten him. 

 

It was a terrible idea, but it was something, something that wasn’t just sitting here and crying until BlackStar’s blood dried. She drew a deep, trembling breath, didn’t allow herself to falter after she’d made her decision and felt for BlackStar’s soul. She’d done this before, she reminded herself. All she had to do was conjure up that hunger, the empty hole somewhere within her. She’d already fed off his wavelength as the uncanny sword. This would only be a small step further, if she could just get a good grip.  

 

BlackStar’s eyes widened, then went blank as Tsubaki tore his soul from his chest. It was warm in her blood-stained hands and she gave herself a moment to feel how it jittered, before she swallowed it whole. 

 

She forced her body not to go after it, tear it apart for nutrients like she’d done with every other soul she’d eaten. Forced herself to accept, to protect, to let it stay within her. It took self control, but if it was one thing she knew, Tsubaki thought, it was self control. She didn’t dare to move, couldn’t risk losing focus until she knew for certain she wouldn’t ruin everything. 

 

A wave of confusion washed over her, distinctly not her own, and she almost sobbed in relief. 

 

I’m here. You’re safe. Don’t worry. 

 

Am I dead?

 

No. No, you’re okay. Don’t worry. You’re safe. You’re okay. 

 

Tsubaki relaxed slowly, stopping to make sure BlackStar was still safe with each muscle no longer tense. Each step of the way came with the sense of doubt, the feeling that she’d slip up, but it never happened and eventually she could move again. Slowly, she stood up, and looked down at BlackStar’s body. It looked peaceful, somehow, but she didn’t want to just leave it there. She thought things over, which she found was more difficult with BlackStar’s feelings interrupting her, but she eventually managed to come up with an idea. It was kind of obvious, when she got to it, but in her defense she had a lot to process at the moment. 

 

She cast a final look at the sword god, who for the first time since she’d met him looked slightly tense. He stared at her, probably trying to figure out what she was doing and she shot him a quick smirk before transforming into the uncanny sword, landing in BlackStar’s cold hand. 

 

She hadn’t had much practice possessing people, but it went easier than expected. With a living body she would have had to subdue its soul and keep it at bay while she used the body, but there was no resistance with this one. It willingly let her in and she hesitantly tried to move it. Or rather, they moved it, it felt like. It was strange, one second she felt like she was in BlackStar’s hands, the next she’d feel like she was holding herself. Or both, like they were one single body. 

 

Slowly, they stood up, blood pouring from the open wound, and Tsubaki quickly summoned a few tendrils of shadow. It didn’t have to be precise, it wasn’t like BlackStar’s body could die a second time, she just needed to make sure there was nothing hanging out that they could trip on. 

 

The sword god didn’t look scared, exactly, as they approached him. Disturbed, maybe, but not scared, which was stupid of him, Tsubaki thought. She felt strong like this, wielding BlackStar like he’d wielded her just a few minutes ago. 

 

They readied themselves, raised their blade for an attack as the sword god slowly did the same. For a moment, neither of them moved, each evaluating the other, trying to get a grip of where they’d strike. Then, Tsubaki and BlackStar lunged, and the sword god followed in the blink of an eye. They’d get one shot at this, Tsubaki managed to think, through the rush of emotions that rang through her in the split second before they struck. 

 

She kept their back turned for a moment, afterwards. It felt as though a deep breath was in order, but BlackStar’s body was in no state for that, so it had to be in spirit only. Without the sense of triumph she’d expected, just a deep relief at having made it through the encounter, she looked back at where the sword god laid. The top half of him, anyway. He didn’t look very godlike in this state, she thought as they approached him. Not even his soul looked different from that of an ordinary human, nor did it taste any different when they ate it. 

 

The effect of it though, was certainly something. Tsubaki felt as though molten metal - perhaps the sword god’s swords themselves - flowed through their veins. It was painful, all the while it was exhilarating. This was what they’d worked for and they’d done it. As BlackStar had said, they’d surpassed a god, fully. 

 

She felt her own joy reflected at her by BlackStar and let them revel in the moment, just standing still and taking it in for a while. Who knew how much time passed, there was an awful lot of noise and she was certain she saw Baba Yaga’s castle move, as well as something incomprehensibly huge appear close by to chase after it. She didn’t let any of it bother her, not until things suddenly quieted down. That finally made her curious enough to look up, just in time to see the demon god float in through a hole in the castle’s roof. A minute or so passed, then the space around it started to warp, a dark orb forming at the top of the castle. 

 

He’s locking himself in, Tsubaki realized, and the moment she did, BlackStar’s thoughts came. 

 

Go after him.

Chapter 12: A lost fight

Summary:

in which death makes an appearance

Chapter Text

The atmosphere inside the demon god’s chamber was oppressive. The very air seemed to tighten around Kid where he stood, and he hoped for Liz and Patty’s sake that they couldn’t feel it as clearly. In a way, though, he appreciated it. It made him feel grounded, kept his thoughts from straying too far from the task at hand. Stop Asura. That was all that mattered. All he could let himself focus on. 

 

The chamber would close soon, separate completely from the outside world. It would be impressive, if it weren’t so bothersome, Kid thought to himself. He kept his eyes on the shadows, where he could sense Asura hiding. The madness made everything hard to sense, but Asura was like the eye of a storm. It wrapped around him like the scarves he wore, hiding him only in the way a child under a blanket was hidden. You couldn’t technically see him, but the covers themselves were evidence enough that something was hidden, and gave away his position. 

 

A noise behind him finally got him to tear his eyes away, if only for a moment, and when he saw Maka he felt himself relax. It had been a while since they last saw each other. He’d been busy with his investigation, and she had had a lot to deal with concerning Crona, so they just hadn’t had the time to see each other. That’s what he’d told himself over the past few weeks, and it wasn’t exactly untrue, but there had also been a sense that something was off after the Winchester Mystery House. Ridiculously enough, for just a second it became the thing he was most worried about. Not the demon god in front of him, but having to talk to his friend after they’d had an argument. 

 

“It’s been a while,” he commented and heard her hum in agreement. 

 

“How have you been?” She asked as he turned back, and he had to think for a moment, not sure how to summarise the past weeks, hell, the past hours. Well, I found out my father hadn’t been lying for nefarious purposes and got to meet the legendary sorcerer Eibon. Oh, and Father was defeated by Asura, by the way, which was probably my fault. 

 

“I’ve been better,” he eventually said. 

 

“Yeah, same.”

 

There was a lot more he’d like to say. That it was good to see her, to begin with, but he also wanted to ask how Crona was doing. He assumed she knew, because he couldn’t imagine her staying put after Crona had left DWMA. It wasn’t her style. For now, though, that would have to wait, as another person joined them in the chamber, just before it sealed shut. 

 

Or, person might be an overstatement. Kid wasn’t sure what to call the figure that had joined them, and which vaguely resembled BlackStar. All he knew was that it was repulsive. He could see BlackStar’s body and Nakatsukasa, the uncanny sword, but their souls were a different matter entirely. Wavelengths mixed, twisted around each other and spilled over like maggots in an open wound, making it hard to discern who was who in that mess. 

 

“Don’t worry,” the corpse said in a voice Kid didn’t recognize. “We’re here for the demon god.” 

 

It was hardly comforting. Nothing would be, coming from that thing, but it at the very least meant they would have an ally in the upcoming fight, and Kid would readily admit that they needed it. He just wished it could be anyone but BlackStar and Nakatsukasa. 

 

“Thank you,” Maka said and Kid just nodded, unable to bring himself to speak to the corpse. Frankly, he didn’t know how Maka managed it, but he was very thankful for her handling things on that front. 

 

“We’ll have to do a resonance link,” she continued. “Do you know how to do that?” 

 

“We can do anything.” It could have been meant as a joke, but Kid found it hard to see any humor in the situation. Maka was right, of course, they would need to link, but he hated the thought of getting anywhere near those two. Something deep in his soul was screaming at him in an incoherent mix of terror and outrage at the blatant disregard for the laws of this universe, because why wouldn’t it? He was a god of death and this was decidedly not that. Death was a fact of nature, this was a rotting corpse clawing itself out of a grave, back through the border between life and death. 

 

Soul and Maka reached out to him, Liz and Patty first and they linked easily, just like they’d done in training. It was just a short moment of comfort before BlackStar and Nakatsukasa joined, but it let him take a breath and calm himself. Soul’s piano helped, as well, drowning out the noise of his anxiety. 

 

Asura stirred as they resonated. He broke out from the shadows, far bigger now than when Kid had last seen him, and peered at the group. 

 

“There are insects in here.” He cocked his head slightly. “How come? How did they get in?” 

 

Maka stepped forward, in front of Kid and the corpse, and Kid felt a wave of hostility coming from BlackStar and Nakatsukasa. It seemed they had a hard time keeping their thoughts to themselves, instead allowing them to freely reach the rest of the group. They either didn't notice or didn't care, and Kid honestly wasn't sure which he'd prefer. 

 

"...she's in the way."

 

"...weak…"

 

"If we eat their souls we can…" 

 

Maka had to hear it, and could probably make more sense of it than Kid could with her advanced soul perception, but her posture betrayed no sense of unease. The response from her soul was comforting, steady, just like it had been when they’d first tried the resonance link with Crona. It was familiar, and it hit Kid all over again just how much he’d missed her. 

 

The three of them lunged at the same time, striking at Asura with all they had. The light of Maka’s witch hunter and Kid’s gunfire mixed with the darkness that seemed to gather around BlackStar and Nakatsukasa when they attacked, and neither of the three of them appeared to be doing any damage to Asura. Kid was starting to feel his body protest with each shot he fired. The death cannon would usually only need to be fired once to be effective, and the more he kept it up the more he realized it wouldn’t hold up in the long run. It chipped away at him, slowly but steadily using up his wavelength, and while that in and of itself wasn’t a problem, the fact that Asura had yet to even move did not bode well. 

 

It was all up to Maka, he supposed. Perhaps,when she used the genie hunter they could turn the fight in their favor, just like his father had hoped. He could feel it coming, feel Maka gearing up to it as Soul’s piano built and built-

 

A sudden, jarring silence fell over them. It came in the middle of a bar, as if Soul had been cut off before he could hit the key, and made Maka visibly falter for the first time in the fight. She stumbled, fell to her knees, and just before the link broke Kid could feel a wave of worry coming from her. He felt the same way, of course, not knowing what had happened to Soul, but this was not the time to ask about it. All he could do was keep attacking Asura, and hope that Maka could somehow solve this. 

 

BlackStar and Nakatsukasa evidently had the same idea, because they didn’t stop for even a moment. They got close, bent the shadows around Asura to their will and would probably have done significant damage to anyone else. Kid could be mistaken, but it seemed as though they had grown considerably stronger since he last saw them, so perhaps, even without Maka…

 

They just needed to get one good hit in, crack Asura’s armor ever so slightly. Prove the god to be vulnerable. 

 

Soul had transformed back to his human form, seemingly passed out, and Maka had slumped over him, not reacting to anything going on around her. She’d figure it out, Kid was certain, but in the meantime he would have to set the stage for her and Soul’s return. 

 

The idea that finally struck him was not what he’d call good. It wasn’t terrible either, by any means, but it would mean putting a lot more faith in BlackStar and Nakatsukasa than he was comfortable with. He tried to imagine what Maka would do in a similar situation, since she had after all showed some faith in the two of them. It didn’t make him any less repulsed at what they had become, but it was enough for him to be able to make up his mind. He couldn’t hesitate on this, he told himself. He owed it to Maka not to let his anxieties get the better of him. 

 

Liz, Patty. I’m going to do something stupid, but I need you to trust me on this. It was hard to tell if the message got through, as he put all his focus into letting his wavelength flow freely, uncontrolled through him. It was like breaking open a water pipe instead of turning on a faucet, which was promising, on some level. His ears rang and he thought he could feel his own soul swelling as he stared down Asura who finally, finally, moved. It was subtle, a tilt of the head in Kid’s general direction, but it was an acknowledgement, a confirmation that Kid had made himself noticed, and it almost made him want to cheer. 

 

“BlackStar! Nakatsukasa!” He was surprised to find that his voice sounded quite steady. “I’m putting everything I’ve got into this, so I’ll need you to take over afterwards, okay?” 

 

The two of them said nothing, but Kid didn’t have time to worry about that now. He couldn’t just back down, and he couldn’t for any reason whatsoever miss this shot. With one last, deep breath, he narrowed his eyes, aimed for Asura’s chest and- 

 

That’s not right. 

 

The world was tilting to the left. Asura seemed to almost fall out of Kid’s view, and he couldn’t for the life of him figure out why. He thought he heard Liz and Patty screaming something at him, but they sounded distant, too distant for him to hear what they were actually saying. They sounded stressed, though, and he wanted to ask what was wrong, try and reassure them, but couldn’t get the air to speak. He couldn’t feel his body, just a dull pain in his cheekbone as he hit the ground. 

 

That’s not right at all, he thought, calmer than what might be appropriate, as he watched the rest of himself sway where it stood. The uncanny sword had made a nice, clean cut through his neck, seemingly fast enough to keep his body from falling over completely. He wasn’t entirely sure how that worked, but he supposed it was something like the tablecloth trick. It really was all quite impressive, he thought as he watched BlackStar’s corpse lower its sword, a hungry grin on its face. 

 

Distantly, he wondered what would happen when BlackStar and Nakatsukasa ate his soul. It would certainly be interesting, and he was almost disappointed at not getting to witness it, he thought. Then he blinked, and the world went black. 

 

He blinked again. 

 

Then Death blinked its eyes, and let the world around it come into focus. 

 

Its soul illuminated everything around it with a cold, blue glow, and it could see that it was currently in two parts, which was inconvenient. With some effort, it willed its body to come closer and found that its hands were occupied. It held two pistols and Death immediately recognized them as precious, its friends. They were not to be put down for no reason, so it let something that was other, something it couldn’t quite put into words, carry its head back to its shoulders. It stood still for a moment, as torn nerves, skin and muscle reattached themselves, then turned to look at the others in the closed space with it. 

 

There was a boy and a girl on the ground, both of their consciousnesses so far within the boy’s soul that they became hard to sense. There was the demon god, a great old one just like Death itself. And there was the thing that had tried to cut Death down, two souls unnaturally and forcibly intertwined and inhabiting the same body. 

 

Death was not a petty thing. It did not seek revenge, but it did seek order, and it could not stand the sight of what had attacked it. It took a step towards the being, and in the same way it had reached for its head, it now reached out for the two souls and began untangling them. It met some resistance, one of them was especially hesitant to part with the other, but Death was patient. Despite the struggling, it finally managed to pull the two apart and put them back where they belonged, with very little damage done. It was unclear how long the boy would survive, of course, what with how damaged his body already was, but that did not concern Death all that much. As the boy fell to the ground with a gasp, Death turned from him and towards Asura. 

 

In physical form, Death was dwarfed by the demon god, who loomed over Death like a cliff, his gaping mouth enough to swallow it whole. 

 

“I recognize you, now,” he said, in a language no human would understand, or even hear. His voice was distorted, as though it couldn’t quite match the size of the vocal cords producing it. 

 

Death said nothing, just raised the two pistols it held. The two of them were panicked and Death considered trying to offer them some comfort, but it was certain the two girls would not understand it. It was the same as it had always been, the same soul the two of them had known for a long time, but at the same time it was not, and hearing it speak might only frighten them. So Death silently let its soul resonate with theirs, and the two of them fell into the resonance like it was second nature. It was warm, homely in a way Death wasn’t used to, and it found the feeling pleasant. 

 

Asura moved, as though he intended to stop Death before it could launch its attack, but his large form made him too slow to do more than raise his hand, before Death fired the two pistols. It hit Asura in the chest, and a cloud of smoke covered the demon god. Death had time to feel a brief moment of satisfaction at a job well done, before a wave of exhaustion washed over it and it fell backwards. 

 

Just like it had awoken, Death fell back into its slumber in the blink of an eye.

Chapter 13: A won fight

Summary:

in which blackstar gets smacked around a bit

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Tsubaki felt like her skull was going to split open. Too much was happening at once and it made it hard to know what to focus on. On one hand, there was the smell of burning flesh in the air, coming from what was left of the demon god. On the other, there was the reaper, looking like he was just resting on the ground, only moments after having his head cut off. And finally, there was the very pressing matter of BlackStar’s injuries. 

 

Tsubaki forced herself to ignore the reaper for now, even though a lingering sense of unease stayed with her. The memory of how he had looked at them as he tore them apart kept resurfacing, in large part just because of how...uninterested he had looked. His expression had betrayed only mild boredom, while Tsubaki had been experiencing the worst pain of her life, her own agony echoing back from BlackStar and vice versa in an endless feedback loop. She hated to admit it, but it scared her. One part of her was telling her that this was a golden opportunity to try and take his soul again, but the rest of her could barely stand the thought. It would have to wait, she told herself, as a compromise. 

 

She’d stayed as the uncanny sword to be able to keep control of the shadows holding BlackStar together, but without the strain of trying to keep his soul intact everything she’d missed became all too apparent. There were still small wounds where blood flowed freely, and his insides were a mess, quite frankly. Tsubaki hadn’t put his body back together with any thought of function, she’d just tried to keep everything in place so they wouldn’t trip over anything that happened to spill out. But now BlackStar’s body was doing everything it could to start working again, and doing a surprisingly good job all things considered. 

 

Tsubaki didn’t know how, but BlackStar was breathing. It was hoarse, and desperate, but it was a sign of life. Real life. 

 

BlackStar! BlackStar, are you there? 

 

I’m here. I’m sorry for making you worry. 

 

Tsubaki would have sighed in relief if she could. He was responding. Not only that, she could actually hear him. In full sentences, not just a few scattered phrases and feelings here and there. She was just about to say something, though she wasn’t entirely sure what, when a noise caught her attention. 

 

It sounded like paper tearing, almost, and it came from the demon god’s direction. As a pale hand broke through the husk of the demon god’s previous, large form, all Tsubaki could think about was how in the world he’d been able to survive. She and BlackStar had been able to do nothing against the reaper, but the demon god simply stepped out of his burnt body, like it had been nothing more than a suit. Sure, he was smaller now, but he looked otherwise completely unscathed, and Tsubaki couldn’t help but wonder if there wasn’t a way out of this place after all. That was ridiculous, of course. The demon god wouldn’t have let a crack in his barrier slide and besides, Tsubaki had come here to fight. She wouldn’t allow herself to back out of it, no matter how much she wanted to. 

 

Maybe BlackStar could hear what she was thinking, or he thought the same on his own, but whatever the case he slowly started to get up. He rolled his shoulders and stretched, as if he’d just woken up, then raised Tsubaki. 

 

How long do you reckon we’ve got? His tone was lighthearted, but Tsubaki couldn’t quite see the humor in the situation. If they used up all his wavelength again he definitely wouldn’t make it, and even though he was doing better than anyone could reasonably expect, his injuries weren’t exactly light. So assuming the best…

 

A few minutes, perhaps. 

 

Not the best odds. 

 

No, they’re not. 

 

“Alright, best make this quick then,” BlackStar said, then raised his voice to a shout. “Hey! Demon god!” 

 

Tsubaki was actually a bit surprised to find that the demon god turned to look at them. He didn’t look interested, by any means, but a small victory was a victory nonetheless. 

 

“Are you going to bother me as well?” he asked, his voice as bored as his expression. 

 

“You bet,” BlackStar responded, before lunging at the god. Tsubaki grazed him, drew a few drops of black blood, before the two of them were sent back by a shockwave. She could feel a few of BlackStar’s already cracked ribs snap completely, but it would take more than that to keep them down. BlackStar got to his feet without a moment’s pause, spat out a mouthful of blood and attacked again. 

 

Things continued like that for a while. It would have almost felt boring, were it any other opponent, but as it was Tsubaki still felt the same thrill with each little cut they managed to inflict on the demon god, even if they all healed almost instantly. It wasn’t until BlackStar had been knocked down for what must have been the tenth time that she realized something was wrong. 

 

No, not wrong exactly. Something was different, and she couldn’t for the life of her put her finger on what. She tried to, but trying to think about anything other than the fight at hand would be a liability in the long run, so she eventually just ignored the feeling, chalked it up to the sword god’s soul affecting her. 

 

BlackStar tried to cut the demon god from the side, but to Tsubaki’s surprise he actually moved to counter the attack this time, catching her blade with his open palm, then using the split second BlackStar faltered to grab him by the throat. He held BlackStar up as if to examine him, and BlackStar’s struggling did nothing to loosen his grip. If anything, it seemed to tighten, until BlackStar was loudly choking and Tsubaki, for one terrifying moment, thought she might have to see him die again. 

 

Then, she caught the sound of footsteps approaching and just barely had time to wonder who it was before the blade of a scythe caught the arm the demon god was using to hold up BlackStar. The girl with the pigtails made an almost inhuman noise as she fought to cut into the demon god’s iron-hard flesh and BlackStar reacted quickly, yanking Tsubaki from the demon god’s grip and plunging her into his arm, right by the scythe. They struggled like that for a second, before the demon god finally shook the four of them off, BlackStar and the girl landing a few meters from him. 

 

She’d told Tsubaki her name at some point, Tsubaki remembered, but at the time she hadn’t made any note of it. It was a shame, really. She would have liked to be able to recall it now. 

 

“What happened?” the girl asked, her voice strained, like she would have preferred to shout it. 

 

“A whole lot.” BlackStar didn’t do a great job of sounding casual, but the girl didn’t ask again, instead she just nodded, with her eyes fixed on the demon god. 

 

“I’d like to temporarily rekindle that truce of ours, if you don’t mind,” she said. “Because I don’t think either of us is gonna get far if we try taking him on alone.” 

 

“As much as I hate to admit it, you’re right.” BlackStar paused for a moment. “But for the record, I would have gotten further than you if it were just me.” 

 

“Sure you would.” The girl stood up, and twirled the scythe around herself in a move that, while in Tsubaki’s opinion was kind of unnecessary, was undeniably impressive. She and it began to glow softly, the blade of the scythe turning into a solid, white light. 

 

“Demon god Asura,” she said grimly. “Your soul is mine.” 

 

Yours? ” The demon god laughed once, and it sounded closer to a startled cry than anything happy. “Are you trying to fuck with me? They just tried to kill your friend, and you think joining forces with them is gonna let you take my soul? You’re ridiculous .” 

 

Tsubaki winced. The thought hadn't really crossed her mind, considering how spectacularly she and BlackStar had failed at taking the reaper’s soul, but that would pose a problem, wouldn’t it? The demon god made the same noise again, while the girl remained worryingly quiet. 

 

Maka was her name, Tsubaki finally remembered. She still wasn’t saying anything, or moving at all, but the glow around her remained. Whether that was a good or bad thing remained to be seen, Tsubaki thought as BlackStar slowly got up. He kept out of Maka’s range, and Tsubaki could feel his uncertainty, as clearly as her own. They would be able to beat her, easily, but that would only leave them back where they’d just been: unsuccessfully taking on the demon god by themselves. 

 

“BlackStar. Tsubaki.” Maka cut off Tsubaki’s train of thought. “Are you ready to link again?” 

 

Tsubaki didn’t know what to say, so she didn’t say anything. All she could do was admit to herself that she was impressed by Maka’s resolve, as the four of them initiated the resonance link. That feeling from earlier was back, the sense that something had changed, and she thought she was getting closer and closer to what it was. It wasn’t just that she felt stronger after eating the sword god, no it was- 

 

It was in how she and BlackStar were resonating. Everything about it made her realize just how badly they’d been doing it before, the closer she looked at it. Where earlier she’d been consuming BlackStar’s wavelength like fuel, now they passed both their wavelengths back and forth between them, like they’d done with their feelings when she’d been hosting BlackStar’s soul. It gave her a completely different kind of energy and, more importantly, it showed no sign of running out. BlackStar had already remained standing far longer than Tsubaki had dared to hope. 

 

Hey! Didn’t you hear what I just said?” The demon god had raised his voice, to the point where it was almost shrill. “They tried to kill your stupid friend! They cut his head right off!” 

 

Maka still didn’t move, and the resonance link grew stronger. Everything came through a lot clearer now, than with the last one, Tsubaki found. She could feel that Maka was building up to something big, without even knowing what, and she could feel the absolutely blinding rage flowing through the little girl. There seemed to be no trace of any coherent thoughts, just a mix of that anger, and fear so strong it bordered on infectious, and for a moment Tsubaki found herself doubting that Maka would even be able to even move. 

 

The light around the scythe’s seemed to grow solid, extending the blade and giving it a strange, glowing pattern. Maka raised it, and Tsubaki noticed her hands trembling, as the demon god laughed again. 

 

“I know that wavelength,” he said, calmer now. “And I’ll save you the trouble and tell you upfront that it won’t do you any good.” 

 

At that, Maka finally lept into action, like she’d taken the statement as a challenge, and BlackStar followed in the blink of an eye. The two of them swung at the demon god from different directions, perfectly out of each others’ range thanks to the resonance link, but he easily dodged BlackStar’s strike, while catching Maka’s with his forearm. The blade pierced his skin, but could barely get further than with Maka’s last attempt, and the demon god smiled. 

 

“Just like I said.” He tilted his head slightly to the side. “I bet death told you this would help. That you might save the day, even.” 

 

That would explain things, wouldn’t it? Maka was just a little girl, after all. If the god of death had told her she could do great things, of course she would believe in him. Still, in this particular situation, she couldn’t be so naive. Tsubaki almost wanted to scream at her, explain to her that at a certain point, you just couldn’t afford to cater to weaklings anymore. 

 

BlackStar swung at the demon god again, but the demon god countered by grabbing Maka’s arm and throwing her at BlackStar, which sent them both a few meters back, with Maka landing on top of BlackStar. Tsubaki felt herself make a shallow cut in Maka’s leg, followed by a sharp pain sent through the resonance link, but couldn’t bring herself to feel bad about it. 

 

So, what’s the plan now? If she’d been speaking, she would have spat it, but as it were now she could only hope that her intended tone carried. Whether it did or not, Maka didn’t get the time to reply, as she was suddenly yanked away, hoisted up in the air by her ankle. The demon god had grabbed her with one of his bandages, and gave her just a moment to scream in terror before violently throwing her to the ground. Stone cracked, and with the resonance link, Tsubaki could feel Maka’s ribs and right arm do the same. The light surrounding her and her scythe flickered for a moment, then went out completely. 

 

So that was it, then. That was all the help they’d been able to count on. 

 

“Now then.” The demon god turned to BlackStar and Tsubaki, as BlackStar slowly stood up. “What should I do about you two?” 

 

BlackStar stood still, with Tsubaki raised in a defensive stance. He was starting to get tired, she could feel it with every breath he took, every slight shift of his body, and once again her mind drifted to if there wasn’t a way out of this sphere after all. 

 

The demon god opened his mouth, and with a gagging noise, the tip of a weapon rose from his throat and poked out between his teeth. It shone a bright red, made a high-pitched, ringing noise for just a second, then a beam shot from it and towards BlackStar and Tsubaki. It connected with her, as BlackStar blocked it, and for a moment Tsubaki thought she was going to die. Or melt, rather, with how it burned. It became almost bearable after the initial shock had worn off, but that didn’t make it any more pleasant. And it didn’t stop. The light just kept coming, slowly pushing them backwards despite BlackStar furiously digging his heels in. Tsubaki wondered what would happen first. Would they hit the barrier, or would BlackStar budge? 

 

“Asura!” Maka’s voice suddenly rang through the chamber, and the demon god actually stopped his attack to look at her. Tsubaki was thankful, although she had no idea what in the world Maka was up to. She had gotten up, using the scythe to support herself and holding something up with her free hand. It looked like a scrap of paper. 

 

“I’m about to use my trump card, so you better get ready!” She declared, then looked at BlackStar and Tsubaki for a split second, before she began to charge at the demon god. As she took her first step, Tsubaki could instantly feel what she was about to do. It was as though she had planned it herself, and she knew what role Maka had intended for her and BlackStar to serve in that plan. The thought that was sent through the resonance link was clear, and sounded both like her own and Maka’s. 

 

Hold him down. 

 

Hold him down? Tsubaki’s immediate reaction was offense at the mere thought. She and BlackStar weren’t some kind of backup. They were strong , stronger than Maka could even dream of getting. She had to know that, right? And yet, she seemed to be completely serious in her command. Didn’t leave any room to argue. 

 

“What the hell are you talking about?!” The demon god’s voice had risen to that shrill tone again. “What’s that you’ve got in your hand?!” 

 

His wrappings coiled around him, ready to aim for Maka, and Tsubaki quickly abandoned all the offense she’s been feeling. Who knew if it would work or not, but Maka was already going through it and it felt... wrong not to join her. No matter how humiliating it was, they couldn’t just leave her hanging. 

 

So Tsubaki and BlackStar strengthened their resonance, and Tsubaki began to tug at the shadows in the sphere, bending them to her will and winding them around the demon god’s bandages. He fought against it, hard, but she added more shadows and it was just enough for Maka to get within reach. Her scythe was once again glowing, almost blindingly so as she swung it in a wide arch and drove it straight into the ground at the demon god’s feet. The ground beneath him split open with a crack, and to Tsubaki’s surprise, gave a high-pitched yelp. Maybe it was just from being surprised, but it was the sweetest sound Tsubaki had heard since the fight had started, and she felt a sense of wonder as Maka dropped the scythe’s handle, closed the final distance between herself and the demon god and punched him right in the face. 

 

He didn’t even flinch at the impact, remaining completely still as Maka stepped back, clutching her now most likely broken arm. For a second, it was as though time had frozen, with no one making a sound. 

 

Then, the demon god laughed, almost- 

 

Almost nervously. 

 

“It didn’t do anything,” he said, with just the hint of a stutter. “I knew it wouldn’t do anything. You can’t hurt-” 

 

A cracking sound cut him off, like a softer version of the noise the ground had made when it opened, and for a while Tsubaki wasn’t sure what she was seeing. It was as though a black web of cracks had spread across the demon god’s skin, and it wasn’t until she recognized a cut that she herself had made, one which had healed almost immediately, that she realized that that was what covered him. Wounds, new and old, had reopened in an instant and the demon god looked as shocked as Tsubaki felt, as his body slowly started to slip apart. 

 

“What did you do?” His voice was slurred, probably due to some internal damage, Tsubaki assumed. 

 

“Just something I got from my mom,” Maka responded with a shrug, and the demon god fell apart completely. 

 

Tsubaki felt like her mind went blank at the sight. She could barely form a coherent thought, or even decide on what she was feeling. BlackStar was evidently equally shocked. He more so fell than sat down, while Maka casually dislodged the scythe from the ground and walked over to them. 

 

“Wha-” BlackStar cleared his throat. “ How did you do that?” 

 

“Oh, I got this idea when we linked.” Maka showed BlackStar the piece of paper, which upon closer inspection seemed to be some kind of postcard, before carefully putting it back in her pocket. 

 

“He seemed to get really freaked out when we linked, so I thought I could try and scare him some more,” she explained. “Honestly, I didn’t think it was gonna work this well.” 

 

Tsubaki thought there might be something there that she couldn’t quite understand. Had Maka not knowing if things were going to work out helped, in some weird way? It was the only explanation she could come up with, since they’d done plenty that might have been able to scare the demon god before that. She just couldn’t understand why that had made a difference, but she would have to save that philosophy session for later. For now, she could feel content knowing that they’d won. 

 

“Well then, now that all that’s over-” Maka reached her uninjured hand out and BlackStar took it, letting her help him up. She took a step back, as if to give him some space. 

 

Then, she swung the blunt end of her scythe into his side hard enough to send him to the ground again.

Notes:

FINAL CHAPTER NEXT TIME GET HYPE

Chapter 14: An ending

Summary:

in which blackstar gets smacked around some more

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

The sky was clearing, now an almost purple color as red slowly faded back to blue. A few clouds were the only things shrouding the sun, which shone down clearly on where the demon god’s chamber had previously been. It was going to be a beautiful day. 

 

And Maka was so furious she thought she might throw up. 

 

A sharp pain shot through her right arm as she raised Soul again, but she easily ignored it and brought him down hard, only narrowly missing BlackStar. He rolled out of the way and scrambled to his feet with an almost offended expression. 

 

“The hell was that for?!” With everything else taken care of, Maka could fully take in just how bad his condition was. His stomach had an odd shape to it, under the layers of shadow wrapped around it, like a plush toy that had had some stuffing removed and then been stitched back together. She almost felt bad for him. 

 

Let’s hit him again, Soul thought and Maka nodded. 

 

Yeah, let’s. 

 

She went for his legs, and he blocked the strike by driving Tsubaki into the ground, visibly wincing as he did. Shadows shot from the ground, and Maka had to hurriedly move back to avoid getting skewered, but she didn’t stay back for more than a moment, diving forward as soon as she saw an opening. 

 

The sky was completely blue now. Maka swung at BlackStar from above, and kept pushing down even after he’d blocked the strike. He pushed right back and eventually managed to shove her back, then shot her a hesitant grin. 

 

“Hey, I thought we had a truce,” he said and for a moment, Maka saw something there. Maybe it was the attempt at humor, but he suddenly seemed to look his age again, for the first time since he’d entered Asura’s chamber. She recognized the feeling. It was the same way she’d felt when she’d seen him captured, when he’d seemed to almost disappear under the heavy chains he’d been wrapped in and now, it just made her angrier. She’d been an idiot for thinking he and Tsubaki could be helped, for thinking that they would want any help. 

 

Fuck the truce,” she snarled, then had to dodge when one of Tsubaki’s shadows swiped at her feet. 

 

We’ll need the genie hunter . Think you’re up for it? 

 

She could almost hear Soul scoff at the idea that he wouldn’t be, and she smiled to herself as they strengthened their resonance. The genie hunter was taxing, but they would pull it off. Her hand was starting to go numb, but she willed it to cooperate as she raised Soul again, feeling their wavelengths build. 

 

BlackStar moved back, raising Tsubaki in a defensive stance and Maka found herself a bit taken aback. She’d expected him to try and make the first move, before she even got the chance to, but he made no motion forward as the glowing blade of the genie hunter formed and Maka drew Soul back to ready for the attack. She stayed like that for just a moment, to take proper aim, but it felt like it lasted far longer. Every detail of what she saw seemed to demand her immediate attention, from the cracks on the ground to the blood smeared across BlackStar’s face. Soul helped her focus somewhat, but even with his support she felt far too uncertain when she finally made the leap forward. 

 

Hadn’t she been the one who was against killing BlackStar and Tsubaki? 

 

The thought left her as soon as it had formed, completely overrun by adrenaline the moment Soul made contact with Tsubaki. Shadows whirled around them, slicing into every part of Maka they could reach, and she couldn’t stop herself from screaming in both pain and frustration as she put all her weight on Soul, pushing down against Tsubaki. They met resistance, almost as much as when they’d tried to cut Asura, but unlike the demon god, Tsubaki couldn’t keep it up for long and Maka suddenly found herself stumbling forward. For a second, she didn’t even understand what had just happened, but by the way she was holding Soul, she should have managed to cut through both Tsubaki and BlackStar. It had felt like she’d just been swinging Soul through empty space. 

 

The genie hunter faded away, and she almost dropped Soul when her broken arm finally gave in, falling limply to her side. Maka gritted her teeth in pain, but managed to keep silent this time and slowly turned around to assess the damage they’d dealt. 

 

To her surprise, she found BlackStar still in one piece. He had his back turned to her, and hadn’t moved a muscle, but he was fine. Maka honestly wasn’t sure what to feel. It was like all the rage had drained from her, and now she was just tired. The cuts across her body stung and she was probably going to die when BlackStar saw fit to retaliate, but she couldn’t find it in her to worry too much. At least they’d beaten Asura. The sky was a beautiful blue hue, and the sun warmed her dark coat. 

 

A visible tremor ran through BlackStar, like he’d temporarily lost control of his body, which Maka found to be a bit odd. Then, she became even more confused when he turned around, and she found his expression to be one of complete and utter horror. 

 

“What did you do?” he stammered, then fell to his knees, dropping Tsubaki in the process.

 

 She transformed back to her human form, and for a moment, Maka thought that she was going to take over the fight, but she also remained on the ground, laying on her side in a position that looked really uncomfortable. Her breathing was panicked, coming in short, shallow gasps, and she was shaking much like BlackStar had just been. Slowly, the two of them started to glow and it took Maka a moment to remember where she recognized this from. Only when she started to sense a multitude of wavelengths did it finally hit her: it was something similar to what had happened when she fought Crona. The souls they’d eaten were being taken from them. 

 

Lord Death had said something about that, way back when, given her some explanation of how it all worked, but now Maka couldn’t for the life of her remember it, too focused on trying not to collapse. Mustering her final supply of willpower, she remained where she was until the light coming from BlackStar and Tsubaki finally died down. Tsubaki had closed her eyes, seemingly unconscious, and while BlackStar did look directly at Maka, his gaze seemed distant somehow. Like he could look right through her, and towards the horizon. Tears welled up in his eyes, and his voice was raspy when he spoke. 

 

“I’m weak. Aren’t I?” 

 

Maka didn’t respond, and wouldn’t have had time to, before he too fell to the ground, unconscious. 

 

The moment he did, she could finally let herself relax and slumped forward, her fall only interrupted by Soul, who transformed back to support her. She put her good arm around his back, and the two of them managed to slowly make their way over to Kid, Liz and Patty. The sisters had transformed back and Maka all but fell into Patty’s tight embrace, despite her arm protesting at the pressure. Liz, unlike her sister, had the good sense not to try and squeeze the life out of Maka, and just helped her sit down next to where Kid was laying. Maka carefully leaned over him and he opened his eyes slightly, like he’d just been woken up from a nap.

 

“Please tell me you kicked the shit out of Asura,” he said and Maka nodded. 

 

“Some way or another.” She paused for a moment. “BlackStar and Tsubaki too, actually.” 

 

“Don’t let it get to your head.”

 

“I fully intend to.” 

 

There was another pause, and Maka started to feel like she could go to sleep right then and there, but she did still have things to deal with. She needed some medical attention herself, she wanted to check on how Crona was doing and of course, she’d need to make sure BlackStar and Tsubaki didn’t just die right there, right after she’d spared their lives.

 

“They’re still alive, by the way.” She was a bit hesitant to admit it, not sure how Kid would react to the news, but he just shrugged weakly. 

 

“I commend your dedication to your principles,” he said. “And I’m sure Father will find them...useful, in some way.” 

 

Maka wasn’t sure what to say to that, so she ended up saying nothing. She sat there, until a team from DWMA, led by Stein and Marie, arrived to help them. Someone offered her a stretcher and when she refused, Marie just picked her up and carried her off, which on one hand was humiliating but on the other so comfortable. She tried to complain, but it ended up as nothing but mumbling so she eventually stopped and let herself be carried. Her eyelids felt heavy, but she managed to get one final look at her surroundings. Soul was fine, walking next to Marie and saying something Maka couldn’t make out. Liz and Patty were helping Kid get up, and he seemed to be doing better with every second. And finally, BlackStar and Tsubaki were still laying on the ground, with Stein looking over them. 

 

Maka’s eyes finally fell shut, and she only briefly managed to wonder what would happen to the two of them before she drifted off.

Notes:

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO STUCK WITH ME THROUGH THIS AAAAGH!!! I wanna give a special thanks to srididdledeedee for helping me with proofreading and huge moral support! I hope you've all had a good time with this fic, and I hope I'll be able to write more for you in the future! :D

Thanks for reading!