Welcome to Death

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"I'm sure you'll be okay but I probably should teach you a bit. I don't want you to hurt me just because you don't know what you're doing." Her voice remained quite quiet but seemed much less unsure than before. She was relieved he said that he'd let her teach him, one of the things she'd been scared of was if he'd tried to use her not knowing what he was doing and had broken her. Still she took a deep breath, nerves kicking in once more. "I guess I really should show you my weapon form now?" She still wasn't that used to transforming, back home she didn't really have anyone who could use her properly and she was a bit useless as a weapon without a meister to use her.

She slowly placed her large bag down on the ground and moved towards her new partner. If he could she'd like him to catch her as she wasn't too fond of clattering to the ground but she didn't know how it would go. "Take care of me" Taking a few more deep breaths, light suddenly covered her body and her shape changed. What was there when the light faded, was an elegant silver bow. She curved in and out smoothly as a traditional bow and subtle swirled patterns covered her limbs. On the end of each limb, the point smoothly went past where the string attached to form a sharp blade.

 

This being his first time actually seeing a weapon transformation so close, Chaol was mesmerised by the process. To say it was impressive was an understatement, it was something that someone had to truly experience firsthand. Due to him being distracted by the look of it, he almost didn't react fast enough to actually catch the bow that had appeared before him. Thankfully, and once more due to his training, he caught the bow swiftly just before it hit the ground. "Sorry about being a little slow there, i've never actually seen that happen. It's got a certain beauty to it that had me captivated for a moment" the boy apologised.

Holding the bow, he held it up as though he were going to fire, testing its weight. It was reasonably light, but had enough weight to it that he could feel it. Yet there wasn't enough that it was going to tire him out quickly, which was excellent. He did have an urge to just scream ryuu ga waga teki wo kurau for some reason, but he pushed that urge down and focused more on the task at hand; learning to fire a bow. "This may be a stupid question, but you don't by any chance have any arrows do you? I wouldn't want to fire and risk damaging you without them, wouldn't exactly be a good start to this relationship now would it?" he asked.​

 

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On the inside of the bow, Hannah's face appeared, smiling. She had been worried for a second that he would just let her fall to the floor. That was unlikely to actually hurt her but she still didn't like the way that felt. "It's fine, I still didn't hit the ground. I hope you're okay with this form"

Her eyebrows raised for a moment as he mentioned not firing her without an arrow. That had been one of her fears that as soon as he held her he'd try to fire her as soon as she became a bow, before she had time to tell him not to. "You know about dry firing? I'm impressed. but yeah about arrows..."

Without warning she suddenly changed back into human form. She was looking at the floor, seeming almost embarrassed. "So well the thing is, theoretically it should be possible to create arrows out of concentrated soul wavelength. It should be really good as you never run out of arrows. But well..." She pulled down her hat a little, "I've never actually managed that and it's really quite hard."

She turned around and headed over to her large bag that she'd got on the ground. "So I guess until we master that, I have something for you." She reached into her bag and brought out a quiver with a belt attached to it. "This goes around your waist" She handed the quiver to him then next took out a tube from her bag. "Until we figure out the should wavelength arrows, we can use these. They're not as practical as there's a limited amount, so we'll need to collect them and obviously putting actual arrows onto me will take longer. However they'll do for now." She handed about 6 arrows to him to put in the quiver then brought out the final thing. "This is an arm guard, put it on the forearm or the arm you're actually holding me with. It's common for beginners to accidentally hit their arm with the string and that hurts a lot. This should protect you."

Hannah stood near him, waiting for him to put everything she'd given him on before changing back into a bow. She made sure to give him warning so he was ready to catch her again.

 

Chaol followed the instructions as best as he was able to, being very careful not to rush ahead. Taking one of the arrows out, he made sure to set it on the bowstring in what he thought was the correct place and way to do so. He'd run his fingers along the arrows the moment he'd been given them a few moments before and felt the little notch that was in the arrow, and had immediately assumed that was where they sat on the bowstring.

"I used to watch this one guy in the Dancing Blades who was a pretty good shot with a bow. He didn't show me much, but I did catch him yelling at someone for firing without an arrow readied, so I asked him why and yeah, he explained that. He also used to stand, kind of like...." Chaol said, looking down for a moment to shift his footing so that he was standing side on to the target, "this. It'd have to be for stability, maybe it helps to aim?" he questioned. Aiming the bow at what he believed to be the right height to fire, he began pulling back the string with his dominant arm. It was surprisingly resilient and difficult to do, but he was a determined person and he fought back, gradually getting it back a decent amount before he released the arrow. The arrow sailed through the air for a distance, going in the direction Chaol had aimed in (which he was quite happy with) before it plummeted to the base of the target, sticking into the ground loosely below the target rather than hitting it.

Hanging his head in defeat for a moment, Chaol took another arrow and repeated the motion, this time aiming a little higher. This time, it hit the base of the target and bounced off harmlessly. Confused, he was about to knock another arrow before he decided that he should probably ask the expert. "This is surprisingly difficult. Are all archers secretly champion weightlifters, or am I doing something wrong?" he asked, knowing which one was more likely.​

 

"Nah it's okay Lord Death, we've got this. I've seen plenty of movies that had mummies rising, it's practically the same thing. Besides, Zoey here is a professional quarterstaff master, she just doesn't know it yet" Dana said confidently, giving a swift pat on the back to her meister before turning and looking at the portal before her. That was surprising, she hadn't heard of Death making a portal for even Death The Kid, maybe she and Zoey were just that amazing that even death himself was head over heels in love with them. That was weird, given he was at least like, five years older than her, but it was to be expected. So into the portal of wonder she went.

Coming out on the other side, she could immediately see the beauty of that side of the world. The pyramids were something awe-inspiring, but more than that she could not get over the immense heat. "This is so hot, so warm and we only just got here. Zoey I know it's hard to see me so I'm sorry to do this but here, catch me!" the girl shouted gleefully, jumping towards her partner and turning into weapon form. Walking was for energetic people, so she chose to be literally carried until she was needed otherwise. It wasn't much better being in her weapon form, and she lost her ravishing beauty, but at least she didn't burn as much energy moving around.​

 

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Zoey nervously smiled as Dana pat her on the back. "Y-yeah... totally a master at the quarterstaff..." she said with an anxious chuckle. Maybe they should have slowed down and trained up a bit on their soul's wavelengths. Or even how to handle a quarterstaff. She handled staffs, heck, she handled mock scythes. But they had to prep themselves so much, at least that's what her dad said. And now they were heading into a mission she was so pumped about taking at first, but now she wasn't sure about it.

The portal had already been opened, her blind cane was put away, and Dana already had stepped through. What a surprise... Zoey was expecting her to be mopey and drag her heels, but it was the opposite. She was excited about it. But her meister on the other hand...

Zoey turned to the direction of Lord Death's voice and smiled a bit. "We'll be alright." But that was mostly to reassure herself. But there was no time to show fear now. She couldn't disappoint Lord Death and make him regret his decision to let a blind meister into the academy. She saluted with one hand, and then stepped forward after the light blue orb of Dana's soul.

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Her feet stopped short as the hot sun bore down on her. She almost flinched with the change in lighting, but recovered quickly when she remembered her blindfold would protect her from the light. Her mouth opened when she saw the pyramid before her. It looked so... creepy. Then again, everything did in her world. But this was even more so. She could sense a dark presence, even from far away. She swallowed hard, almost regretting her decision instantly for taking this mission so hastily.

Words cut into her thoughts; "CATCH ME!"

"Huh-AYE!" Zoey saw a flash and the outline of Dana's body was enveloped in some kind of staff form. Her breath caught in her throat as her hand reached out in slow motion, hoping against the odds that she would actually catch the staff.

Her fingers wrapped around wood, and she grabbed it fully, twirling it over her fingers to make it turn into a full circle to try to get control of the momentum, and then grabbed it firmly with both hands. "Phew..." she breathed out, clutching Dana tightly. "That was close..." She breathed out, putting her head on the middle of the staff. Dana already put so much trust in her, it was exciting to Zoey.

She moved her head up a bit, feeling the gentle hum through her body as their souls tested and began to become in sync with one another. Soundlessly, her hand moved up to the staff to one of the blades. She slowed as her fingers glided on the edge of the blades, listening to the zing of metal under her fingers. "You're so cool," she commented, ghosting her fingers all around the blade and to the staff. She held the staff in her hands, testing out the weight and then swung it around a few times, using moves her father taught her. She smiled, holding the staff. "Not bad. This'll work just fine. Now, that kishin..." Zoey looked to pyrmaid again and felt her eyes squinting as she could see a very faint red dot... But it was so far away. Darn.

"Okay, we can't stand here all day..." Zoey took a step forward, feeling the ground shift under her. She cringed, not liking that at all. "Ugh, me and sand hate each other..." Zoey pushed her discomfort down and trudged forward. "We're gonna get those 99 souls in no time, me and you." She smiled at her determination. "So when did you find out you were a weapon, Dana?"

 

"Well, it was about a month before I found out how cool I am, but I think to understand..." Dana stated as she turned into her human form for the story, her face losing it's cheery glow and taking on a sombre look of almost, could it be...disappointment? "we have to start from the beginning" she said, forcing a tear to go down her cheek and turning away, allowing her hair to blow in the wind as though she were from one of the many anime shows she had watched in her lifetime.

"It all began a little under sixteen years ago. In the village I grew up in, the town of Intonahe, which was located on the very summit of mount doom and almost always set on fire by a pyromaniac magician called Steve. Steve was my father, and he found that although his fire brought much joy to him he always wished he could experience it with someone else. And so, he romanced the crap out of my mother, whose name was Arianna, and they...well, they did...things...and then a star was born. That star was named Dana Audrey Juliet Knightfall, and she would grow to be the most beautiful girl in all of America" Dana explained, her eyes lighting up slightly with childlike glee as she spoke.

"Upon seeing the sheer radiance of their child's appearance, Steve finally gave into Arianna's wishes and gave up on setting things on fire all the time, although due to his fire being of a magical nature it never went out, so there was always something to remind him of old times. And so, young Dana would grow up never understanding the look of joy in her father's eyes whenever he lit a cigarette. Until one dark, terrible day when his habits got to him and at last he unleashed all his want to the power of fire at once, burning absolutely everything including their home to the ground" the weapon stated.

"Up, up, uuuuuuuup went the flames as they burned every itty bitty thing to the ground, and down, down, doooooown went the mood of everyone within. Except for Dana. She knew she could stop it, she would stop it, and forming a circle with the few people she knew as friends she used the power of friendship and made a wish. She wished she had the power to do anything to save not only the town, but all of America. And her wish was granted through sheer coincidence, and she did save everything. With a quick 'wahoo' she surpassed god and turned into a magical weapon, before spinning so fast the magical fire was put out. And that's how I learned I was a weapon" Dana beamed proudly. She gave the girl a moment for the magnificence to sink in, before continuing.

"I'm just kidding, according to my parents I actually turned into a weapon as a baby. Just randomly, no reason at all. They were terrified, thought they'd lost me until they heard a baby giggling at their expense. But hey, the other way sounds more dramatic" she said, shrugging her shoulders. Skipping past her meister, her mood clearly lifted, she poked Zoey on the shoulder as she went past. "Come on, temple's this way" she assured.​

 

So this was to be the start of Zephyr's time here. Find his partner weapon and take a mission with them. Other than the obvious lack of details in his summary, it sounded pretty simple. Speaking of which, he should probably go ahead and find them.

Right as he had found his partners name, Zephyr head someone calling his name. The person in question was probably his new partner, who else would it be? He made his way towards the voice and saw a brown haired kid. "Yo, were you the one calling my name?"

OOC: Phone post is of cause laptop may be out of commission

 

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"Stop. You're making a good attempt but you listen to what I say. First you need to have three fingers below the arrow. You aim by looking done the arrow and that doesn't work if you have fingers above the arrow. It should be the pads of the tips of your fingers touching the string, not your joints."

Hannah calmly and clearly gave instructions, if he was going to use her, he was going to do it correctly. All the previous hesitation in her voice seemed to have vanished, she knew exactly what she was talking about and she just needed her new meister to listen. She waited calmly for him to follow her instructions before moving on to the next piece of advice.

"Okay, next when you pull back the string, you've been pulling with your forearm muscles, this makes it unnecessarily hard. You should be using your shoulder muscles as they are much stronger. Try raising your elbow as that makes it easier to do that. Higher, a bit higher, that's good. It will naturally raise and lower as you pull back, it's a circular motion similar to like back crawl in swimming."

"You need to bring the string back so that your middle finger touches the corner of your mouth. This is good so you can be consistent and should give you enough power."

"Now look down the arrow and aim at the target. At this distance it shouldn't really arch so you can aim directly. But at long distances you will need to aim higher to account for gravity causing the arrow to arch. Take your time, there's no rush."

While Chaol might not be the most natural, it wasn't like he had no potential, he just needed a bit of guidance to use her right. If he could follow her advice, this might turn out okay. Something about his clan name before, it seemed to ring a bell somehow but she couldn't remember how and right now she was concentrating on helping him hit the target.

"Release when you think you're on target."

 

With each step, Chaol found himself relaxing more and more. He hadn't realised how tense he'd been, but now that he had someone actually instructing him through each step, he found that he could relax a little. He did as he was asked, following the instructions near perfectly, and looked straight down the arrow. Focusing, he released the breath he'd been holding, followed closely by the arrow. He couldn't shake the feeling of excitement as the arrow flew straight towards the target, although it vanished quickly as the arrow sunk into the red part of the target, slightly to the left in fact, with a light thud.

He growled a little bit, and slowly lowered the bow, simply staring at the target. "Not bad for my first shot, but I think...I can do better" he grumbled. Raising the bow again and knocking another arrow, he took aim and once again looked straight down the arrow. However, rather than overthinking it and taking a lot of time, he allowed his natural instincts to guide him and he released the arrow. This one, too, flew straight towards the target, but unlike the other one it hit the gold ring, just slightly to the left of the point he'd been aiming for. Lowering the bow once more, he took a step back and felt a surge of adrenaline go through him. He felt as though he could have shot the rest of the quiver, gathered the arrows, and then spent the rest of the day simply honing his new skill, but that wouldn't get him anywhere. "There we go, much better thanks to you. Have you taught before? I can't wait to give this a try on an actual mission, not to mention getting our first kishin soul. I'll let solely you choose the mission as a way of making us even for you teaching me how to actually somewhat shoot, shall I lead the way?" he queried.​

 

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In the reflection on the inside of the bow, Hannah smiled, happy with her partner's improvement and glad that he was actually listening to her advice. "A mission? You haven't even shot a full round yet." She laughed. "I'm excited for a mission too and practical experience is good. However, I hope you realise that the target we're aiming at is still really close, it gets much harder to aim accurately when the target is further away. We'd also be dealing with moving targets so you'll have to aim faster and even anticipate their movements. I'm not really a close combat weapon so we want to avoid that. Those can be helped with practice though." She paused, realising she was being quite critical but she was a realist and she did not want to get killed on her first mission.

"The main thing I'm worried about though is the arrows, until we can figure out how to do the soul wavelength ones, we have very limited arrows and collecting them while on a mission is going to be easier said than done." She really hoped she wasn't coming across too pessimistic to her new partner.

"I think we should practice for the rest of the day at least. I had a look at the mission board and I think the ones that suit us most are either the mafia one where we can hide and take out the targets from a distance or the team one where we can support a close range combat team."

 

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Roderick smiled at the young man - obviously much older than him, though that wasn't too weird.

"Roderick Thatch," he said, holding his hand out and smiling casually. "I'm a katana. Nice to meet you, Zephyr."

 

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The weapon slipped out her hand, and the meister gasped at the sudden loss of matter at her finger tips. Trained ears listened to the dramatic tale of what transpired in Dana's childhood... or supposedly happened. Zoey had to force herself not to frown, or smile, but keep a straight face as she focused her attention on the blue soul of her weapon. This doesn't even make any sense, she thought as she imagined an embarrassed drop of sweat at the side of her head and squiggles coming out of her head as she tried to process the nonsense that was being said.

When the story was over, there was an awkward silence and then Dana told her real story in one sentence or less. Zoey finally cracked a smile, then snorted out a laugh and moved her head back as the laugh carried through the desert wasteland. Zoey calmed down after a bit, making a hand motion to wipe some tears from her blindfolded eyes. "That was entertaining anyways... I liked it."

The girl raised an eyebrow when she felt Dana poke her and walk ahead of her. "What happened with.... Never mind." Zoey was glad she didn't have to carry Dana for a moment, at least on the sand. She was afraid she would fall and drop the weapon on accident. She chuckled and trudged forward in the sand, letting silence fall between them for a moment as she collected her thoughts. After a minute, she had something to say. "So you transformed fully into a weapon as a baby? That's pretty impressive!" she smiled and clapped her hands behind her back, walking with a slight skip in her step. She could see the wisdom of being paired up from the beginning. Lord Death knew what he was doing.

Zoey slowed her walk when she approached the steps of the temple. She had to feel around with her foot to figure out how deep and how wide the stairs were, or even where it began. Her foot found stone, and she smiled, letting her foot glide over it to get a feel of it before walking up a few more. "So you just enrolled in the DWMA, right? How come you didn't do it sooner?"

 

Blake sat in the back row toward the corner listening as Dr. Stein and Spirit speak. Once Dr. Stein dismissed class, Blake sat there for a couple moments reflecting and thinking about the postings for Meister and Weapon pairings. "My meister is unknown? I'm quite concerned about this. Maybe I should ask Spirit and Dr. Stein about this." Blake stood up and collect her things as she walked up to Dr. Stein and Spirit. "Excuse me Dr. Stein? I was quite curious. Umm...about my Meister.....what will happen with this?" Blake looked up at Dr. Stein asking about her partner. With a worried expression dancing across her face, she awaited for Dr. Stein's answer.

 

At the mention of the lack of being a close combat weapon, Chaol instinctively looked down and couldn't help but notice the blades on the side. He waited for Hannah to finish speaking, before nodding and then touching the blades with the tips of his fingers. "I agree, but I think you'd be more helpful close range than you think with blades like this. I could make these work, I think. Before we get right into the practice, would you mind if we went to the mission board so I can take a look at them myself? I still stand by what I said about you picking the mission, but if I can see it for myself there might be something more I can do to prepare for it" he suggested somewhat eagerly.



"Why didn't I do it sooner? Well, just because I could turn into a weapon as a baby didn't mean I had control over it. Not completely anyway, I mean I could hold it for about five minutes but that was it. My parents wanted to enrol me in classes, but I told them I wouldn't do it. Took way too much effort, I just let myself get there naturally and then decided screw it why not go to school? A girl's got to get her shrine somehow" Dana said, half joking as they walked.

Getting towards the top of the stairs, she came to a brief stop as a realisation set in. "Hey, Zoey, Lord Death said we needed to break the seal to get in, but do you actually know how to do that? Because I sure as hell don't" she asked, a puzzled look on her face. This could be a serious problem.​

 

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Matthew and Mikio were taking a break from their training, and had stopped by the missions board, looking it over. Matthew was feeling particularly excited about them, even though they probably wouldn't be quite ready to go on one for a little while yet. But it was still fun and exciting to think about, and he was looking forward to taking one sometime.

"Gosh, these all look so fun," he said to Mikio, who was standing behind him. "Look at this one, about a masquerade, that looks fun, huh?" He pointed at it. "Hey, if we took that one, you could get a mask with cat ears!" He turned with a smile. "Here's a group mission," he said, blinking at it. "We'd have to be on a team to take it, it looks like. I wonder how that would work out. That might be fun, don't you think? I wonder who we would go with, if we took it."

 

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Well, that was a straightforward answer Zoey wasn't expecting. Dana was just full of surprises. Zoey had a feeling she would never get bored with Dana around her. She smirked at the question. Now it was her turn to be a bit funny. "Well, I guess we'll see when we get there, won't we?" Zoey tapped her blindfold and giggled, while also being aware to not misplace her step.

When they reached the top, she almost tripped over her feet when she realized there was no more to go up on. "Whoops." Zoey brushed herself off and straightened her shirt, and then cleared her throat. "Right, this seal..." Zoey reached a hand out towards the entrance, trying to get a feel for it if she could.

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Mikio smiled a bit as Matthew seemed super excited about all the missions... except each one he kept saying would required Mikio to interact with all sorts of folks all at once. He raised his hands up and began to fiddle with them nervously. "Ah ha, well... I'm not much of a people person." His cheeks became rosy at the thought of being socially awkward the way it was. No, people didn't suite him at all. Just Matthew, but Matthew wasn't a people. He was his meister. That was a big difference to him.

"So long as I don't have to talk much, I-I think I'll be okay with those..." Or not. He wasn't sure. This whole school experience had already brought him out of his comfort-zone even before he stepped foot in this academy. "Hey, do you wanna... practice a bit before we go out there into the world? We still hadn't figured out how you can equipped me without me falling on the floor... And how to block, how to move..." He shrugged sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "You know, that basic stuff... Would be a pain to figure it out as we go on the battlefield, especially if we have to move quickly."

 

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"Oh, right," Matthew said, offering a sheepish and apologetic smile. "So a masquerade isn't a good idea, then. And yeah, I should train a little more, before we really take one. It's just fun to look at them, don't you think? Like this Bonnie and Clyde one, it's the group one I mentioned. They're a gang apparently, in an abandoned building. It's so interesting!"

 

Zephyr returned the friendly gesture. He was glad that he was a weapon that he was familiar with, that was good to know. That did away with any fears of having a weapon he knew nothing about or how to use. "Guess this is where we go find a mission to take." With a shrug of his shoulders, Zephyr released the handshake and looked towards the Mission Board. He didn't know what the missions were or which one that they should pick. Hopefully Roderick would have an idea on what to choose.