Welcome to Death

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Roderick blinked. "A mission? Already?" He rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean, it's good that you already know how to wield a katana, but I don't know how long I can hold my form. I've never been in a weapon form for more than ten or twenty minutes before... But, if you think you can handle it, we can go. I've heard it's a lot harder for meisters than it is for weapons, all I have to do is exist."

 

Dana frowned as she saw the inscription. "Well we definitely found our first Kishin. Only a being of pure evil could put teenagers against advanced mathematics" the girl said, not caring whether or not it was actually advanced mathematics. She read the inscription aloud, and then stood still for a moment. "Well, I got nothin', how about you?" she asked.​

 

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Zoey cocked an eyebrow and scratched her head. "Give me a minute..." She wordlessly sounded out the problem, writing in the air as she did so. Her hands went through her hair as she muttered some things to herself, seeing an image of numbers float into her mind. She pressed a hand to her temple and said, "Put these numbers in order as I say them. I dunno if it's right, but we'll give it a shot. 5, 9, 2, 1, 0, 1. 1, 9." She pressed her lips together and cringed, ready for it to be wrong.

 

Blake watched as Dr. Stein rolled away in his chair. She turned her head toward the tall figure who pushed Dr. Stein and his chair. Malik O Suaird huh? As she listened, her curiosity about him dwindled drastically. A little rude isn't he? But I understand he wants to get stuff done. She started walking off ahead of Malik toward the training area. She stopped at the doorway and turned toward Malik. "Are you coming? I still don't know my way around the DWMA so you'll have to be my guide?" Blake stared at Malik for a little bit and spoke once more. "Blake.......Blake Mezzabell...." She reached into her bag and grabbed what it seemed like a case for a pair of glasses. She opened the case and put on her glasses. "If you don't mind me asking, how are you compatible with any weapon? You don't have to answer if you don't want to. I'm just trying to start a conversation." She looked at Malik as she awaited for her temporary meister.

 

As Zoey said the numbers, Dana excitedly jumped to her feet and went to push in the numbers. "5, 9, we got this, 2, 1, damn we're good, 0, 1, 1....and 9! There we go, open up you dumb tomb thing!" Dana shouted, grinning broadly. Immediately an arrow shot out, causing the girl to yelp and leap out of the way, but maintain the cheery grin. However, that grin gradually faded, and turned to a look of confusion, theeeen defeat, and then panic. "WE'RE GONNA DIEEEEEEEE" she wailed, collapsing to her knees and putting her hands over her head.​

 

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Zoey flinched when she heard the shaking of the pyramid, and the wizzing of the arrow made her cringe even more. "Damn it." She heard Dana freak out by her and that made her even more on edge. Math was not this blind meister's forte. She hit her head a few times with her palm, trying to shut out the screaming Dana was going on about. "Hold on, calm down. Try again. One more time." She took her breath and said it again. "7, 4, 6, 5, 8. Do that. We're going to be just fine, remember? We got this."

 

"Hmm, that could be an issue." Zephyr said. His understanding on how weapons worked so hearing that Roderick could only keep his weapon form for a limited amount of time was surprising. It wasn't the first time that something has potential cause a problem, but comparatively this was much less of a issue so he'd manage. That said he had to take into account his partner.

"We'll be fine, if it comes down to it, I'll find a way to manage." Zephyr said encouraging.

 

Blake listened to Malik as he told his story. She looked ahead and pondered until Malik had notified Blake that they have arrived to the training area. "So let's see your weapon form, see what you can do." Blake nodded and walked to the center of the room. She took a couple of breaths and closed her eyes for a moment. She took her hands and brought them up to her face as well as take a deep breath in. Blake envisioned herself in her weapon form. A bright glow had enveloped Blake as her body started to change. Her body had changed into a scythe.

Blake's face had emerged onto the reflection of the blade. She opened her eyes and stared at Malik awaiting for further instructions. "What's next Malik?" She called out to Malik, waiting for him to speak.

 

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Zoey fell backwards in relief when the door opened the right way. "That was too intense," she said. If people could see her eyes, they would be swirling with confusion and numbers. She breathed out, rubbing her forehead to regain her composure. "Thank goodness though..." She sat up and rested her elbow on her knee. "So... it's opened..." she tapped her hand on the ground, and listened to the abyss. "...we got a few choices... Which way should we go, Dana?"

 

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At the mention of her being okay as a close quarters weapon, Hannah hesitated a little. "You think so? I'm not so sure..." The thought of fighting close quarters scared her a bit, ranged was good and it didn't involve the enemies getting too close to them. Close ranged had enemies right next to you and trying to hurt you. It meant she had to be strong and withstand their attacks. She tried to imagine that and could only see her body getting snapped in half. Close ranged was scary.

She was quickly distracted from that though by Chaol's sudden eagerness to see the mission board. "Um okay?" She said, raising an eyebrow at his enthusiasm. "I have no issues with that as long as we don't immediately go on one. Don't get cocky after hitting gold once. We definitely need to spend the rest of the day training." Her body glowed white as she transformed back to her human form. "But I guess if we know what mission we're taking, we know what is most important to work on. Lead the way, meister."

 

Chaol shook his head as Hannah finished speaking. "Meister reminds me too much of master, sounds a little too formal for my taste too. Chaol will do. As for training, I agree wholeheartedly. It'd be foolish for anyone to start on a mission so soon after meeting, without the synchronisation of soul wavelengths it would make things exponentially harder, so training's a great idea' the assassin said, stepping past Hannah. "For the record, I will hit the centre of that target when we get back, mark my words" Chaol added, with a quick laugh at the end of it before continuing to the mission board. He sounded so serious, it cracked him up a little.

As he got to the mission board, Chaol found himself a little surprised that more students weren't at the mission board. Though he'd already expressed his opinion on doing one immediately, gathering information was a crucial aspect of any mission. He recognised both of the students from the day before, and remembered both of the names although he couldn't quite remember which one belonged to which. "Matthew and Mikio, eager to start yourselves on a mission already?" he asked, giving the closest thing to a greeting he could manage due to him being a little distracted looking over towards the mission board. Shooting a glance at his weapon partner before returning his gaze to the board, he asked "So Hannah, which one are we doing?"



Dana tensed up, ready to throw herself out of the way of the arrow that she thought was coming at a moment's notice. However, she didn't have to as the pyramid opened up for them. She breathed out a huge sigh of relief, and then heard Zoey asking which way they should go. "WE LIVEEEE" she exclaimed, before standing up and taking a couple of steps forward, being careful not to set off any traps that may be there. Taking a quick look, she quickly gathered she wasn't going to be able to see too much of use.

"Let's go straight. Left is giving me strange vibes, and right surely can't be right, because if right were right then that'd be too convenient for me to feel alright, right? Also Lord Death did say it was a labyrinth, and it seems weird to have a labyrinth come to an end at the side of a giant triangle. Makes more sense to be in the middle, I think. I don't know, I'm mainly just rambling and thinking out loud. You're the one that can see souls right? Can't you...I don't know, can't you sense where the kishin one is?" the girl asked, curiousity arising within her. She had no idea how far Zoey could 'see' the souls from, but if she could see the kishin's from where they were then the mission would be a piece of cake, and boy did she love cake. ​

 

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"Well, that's just my record so far," Roderick said. "I haven't practiced holding it much because my dad doesn't like us to turn into weapons before we've had any training. I didn't transform back just because I couldn't hold it, so I don't know, I might be able to hold it for hours. No knowing till we try, right?" He offered a smile, shrugging a little. "I was expecting to have to train so my meister could learn how to wield me, not for me myself. You already know how to fight with a katana, so as long as you think we can go on a mission, I'm game."

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Matthew blinked at the team that had just approached them. He didn't think he and Mikio were ready for a mission, not really, but... If these two were already taking a mission, was he supposed to take one too? Was it normal for students to take missions this early? Would he fall behind in class if he didn't take a mission as well, to keep up? Oh man, he should have read up more on this. He couldn't afford to fall behind, and it wouldn't be fair to Mikio if he did. It was his job to turn Mikio into a Death Scythe, and he wouldn't be able to do that if he got a late start on collecting souls.

"Um, y-yeah," he said, smiling nervously. "Well, really, I was just looking. This Bonnie and Clyde mission looks really interesting, that's all. I was just wondering how group missions worked, but I don't really know anyone here besides Mikio, yet, so we'd probably have to take a different mission..."

Oh man, they should take a mission before they were all claimed! He blinked, noticing that one mission had been claimed already, and now if this new team were about to claim a mission, there might not be many left for when he and Mikio were ready! He scanned the board, realizing that out of the many missions there, only four were at the beginner's level, one of them being the mission already accepted. So with one mission taken (he knew they could take it as well, but he really didn't want to race, not for his first mission) and one mission being a masquerade (Mikio really didn't want to go to a huge party, and Matthew understood that) and the last mission being a group mission, they would have to take this really confusing looking one about an oil heist or something...

How was he supposed to turn Mikio into a Death Scythe if all the missions were taken by the other students before he decided he felt ready to go?!

 

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Hannah smiled at the other two people standing by the board, she hadn't really talked to anyone yet so she wasn't too confident. Chaol on the other hand seemed to know exactly what he was doing. They looked fairly nice and the guy seemed almost as nervous as she was. She kind of wanted to introduce herself to them, having lots of friends here sounded nice, but how to go about that? She wasn't certain.

Before anything else though, Chaol turned to her and asked for what mission they were doing. "I've already told you. Either Bonnie & Clyde if we can find a close range pair to join up with or the masquerade one. I don't particularly mind which, you choose but we're definitely not starting until we've spend the rest of the day training." She was well aware that Chaol had already agreed to this multiple times but she didn't see any harm in saying it again for good measure. It was strange but Chaol didn't seem anywhere as intimidating now as he did when she first saw him, at least in her eyes. Time would tell how good they'd be she guessed, she just really didn't want to fall at the first hurdle.

 

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"Straight it is then," Zoey said with a smile. She pressed forward, feeling a strange, ominous energy as she walked on in too the cooler interior of the pyramid. She blinked her eyes a few times under the blindfold as her senses became more adapted the darker it was becoming. "I see it, but it's small," Zoey said quietly. She didn't want to draw attention to themselves while walking through this place. "All I know it's down. I can't see how to get there." She shrugged and then fell silent, letting her ears do the seeing for her. Everything echoed off the walls, it was damp, and getting colder as they walked in. She put her hand on the wall, seeing the silver lines surrounding the area around her hand.

Mikio suddenly became more shy and subconsciously hid behind his meiester when two others addressed them. Normally he wouldn't humiliate himself with such a young teenager, but Matthew was mature for his age, and seemed to know when to take charge. He heard voices talked back and forth and looked up to see a girl standing there with her... meister. Nice, she was a weapon too like him. He heard her almost chastising her meister to take things slow and train. He perked up a bit, looking at Matthew, then at the pair. "M-maybe we can train with you two? We're not s-sure what we're both capable of yet, just we can match soul wavelengths for the m-most part." He blushed as he talked, feeling his confidence waver with every word that came out of his mouth. Damn, why did he have to be so pathetic, he thought. He pulled his sweater sleeves over his hands and tried not to fiddle with his fingers to distract himself from the uncomfortable situation.​

 

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"Hey, that's a great idea!" Matthew said, smiling up at Mikio behind him. "We could train together and it'll be great! Mikio is this awesome claw gauntlet, and I'm having fun learning to fight with it, but it'll be really cool to see another weapon in action! What kind of weapon are you? Is it a fun weapon? How do you think it'll work, fighting together? We should go get started right now!"

...Was he talking too much again? He was probably talking too much again.

 

"I see, well we can see for ourselves after we picked out a mission." Zephyr said. He seemed up for going ahead and taking a mission , which was good in a way. It didn't leave Zephyr feeling like he was in a rush to go or something. "Let's see what missions are up then."