Back in the Game (Private, Shizu and I)

The trash beast snarled and staggered backwards, while Jeremy was sighing with relief. "That looks like a pretty bad cut there beastie! Here, let us take away the pain." But Jeremy hesitated. Have we even tried a full-on soul resonance yet? He turned to his meister in the blade with a look of determination. "Shizu, I know this is tough, being the first Kishin egg we were actually trying to find, but do you think we could use soul resonance? I don't even know what it'll do, but let's give it a try anyway!"

"Resonance? We just got out of the hospital!" Shizu looked at the weapon, half expecting him to look unsure. But when she saw his pure determination, she knew that he had to be true to actually attempting one of the biggest feats a meister and weapon could overcome. A reasonance attack...? Time wasn't on their side, and the meister knew that she hadn't the time she wanted. "Okay, but no half-assing on your part, Cogs!" The girl scoffed, but it soon turned into a smile. As if by instinct, the meister held the sword in a different way than he normal fighting style and inhaled deeply. Flames need oxygen, right? Maybe that was our original problem. Just breathe easily and maybe the flames can be controlled? Was the sudden epiphany that came to Shizu's mind. "Sword technique..." her hands adjusted the dial to a fair amount of heat. "Hell-Fire." With that the sword nearly burst into an array of flames and literally cremated the creature.

Jeremy was terrified. A resonance that engulfs the weapon in flames?! What genius invented that?! But the weapon was too petrified to do anything about it. The soul of the monster flew into the tank on the side of the blade, and only then did he cut off the resonance and change back to a human. He was shivering despite the still-hot corpse. Jeremy couldn't control his breathing and his face was pale. "I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. Still alive, and also not burned. I'm perfectly..." He took a deep breath to calm his nerves. "Fine..." The weapon finally stammered out. He rested his hands on the back of his head and sighed.

Shizu was wiped out. So much in fact, that she was pretty pale herself. "We.. did it!" She yelled once the color started to return to her face. "We actually managed to get a soul without getting brutally injured. " the meister was so pleased that a giggle escaped from her lips. That's right. A giggle. "I was starting to think that it was normal for partners to go on a soul collecting hiatus for two plus weeks at a time..." She turned to face her weapon and suddenly felt a bit worried. "I'm sorey I didn't even think about you... are you okay?" She felt bad for not being sensitive toward his traumatic experiences from the flames. She was convinced that was what Dexter had been warning her about earlier.

Close, but no cigar for Shizu. "I'm... Fine. Just a bit... Shell shocked." Jeremy shuddered at the end, but colour was already returning to his face. Panic attack: avoided. He had to stand there for a moment to actually recall what just happened, removing his top hat for a few moments. "Three souls down, ninety seven to go. Although, it's going to be quite difficult as I am now..." Jeremy turned to face his meister and slapped the hat back on his head. "Alright! I swear to you, Shizu, that I will overcome my pyrophobia within the next month!" Jeremy was close to shouting, but he was quite determined to face this fear.

And as just as soon as Shizu had gotten her courage in battle, it was gone again. "Okay, but don't yell so loud, please..." she held her arm semi-insecurely and refused to look at thebtrash remains that were scattered about like ants on a picnic blanket. "Well, there's no reason to stop yet I g-" the meister trailed off as she recalled the soul that was sitting in the bag still. She hurried over and kneeled down next to the bag, opening it to make sure the soul was still safe. Which, thankfully, it was.

And there she goes. Back to shy and slightly insecure Shizu. He shrugged and looked around, not quite knowing what to do next. "Well, the machine broke, so we don't even kind of have a lead. Do we just stick to this strategy, or go a-hunting?" He questioned. It had been a few days since Jeremy's last drink, so he was getting a bit jumpy and irrational. "Oh! That reminds me. I need to give you this." He pulled a wad of cash out of his waistcoat pocket and threw it to Shizu. "I knew you needed a new apartment. And clothes. And furniture. And basically everything. So take that as a gift."

Shizu almost dropped the money when he tossed it to her and fu, bled around while trying to get a hold of it. "...Where, no, how did you even manage to get all this?" She asked and looked from him to the cash. Has he been gambling or something? was her first thought when she received the 'gift'. It was rather generous, but necessary for their survival, I guess.

Jeremy rubbed the back of his neck with a hint of nervousness. "Oh, well, uh... Ah! The Death City clock tower was broken! And, since they're so generous, they gave the job to me for money to pay for my new arm! It's a bit ironic, actually, since that's how I lost my arm in the first place." Jeremy lied. It was either that or "Oh, you know, Suhas and friends robbed a bank a few days ago and I probably killed some guy."

"Oh, that's pretty generous of them indeed! Which further proves how wealthy this place is." She replied and seemingly dropped the subject. The meister tied the bagged aoul to her belt and walked out of the dark alleyway, glad to be free of the heavy scent. I suppose we should move on while we're on a roll. Id rather get more souls while we're here than wait and possibly get injured."

"Sounds good to me. " Jeremy agreed and followed her out if the alley. To their left, Jeremy could see a suspicious, short, squat man. Too normal looking to be a Kishin, but he was still quite suspicious. Jeremy decided to ignore him for a while. "Where do you think we're going next? Are we just aimlessly heading down every alley in Death City, or do we actually have a plan?" The short man got to his feet and seemed to have reached into his pocket.

Shizu looked at the short and shady man once and scooted a little closer to Jeremy in order to feel a bit safer. "I don't think we ever had a plan, so winging it seems to be our best option." She replied, recalling their failed attempt at simply getting on top of a roof.

The man continued to follow them. "Improvise it is! It makes sense, considering the luck we have when it comes to finding monsters. Although, that can hardly be considered as luck." Jeremy laughed and glimpsed behind him, to see the man had sped up. "Well, those souls and going to collect themselves!" He said, indicating that they should speed up. At that sentence, the man sprinted up behind the two and grabbed Shizu by the collar. He had a gun pointing to the girls head. "Alright, give me everything you've got and the girl keeps her head!"

Shizu's eyes stared blankly forward. She was too confused to knkw what actually was going kn. She couldn't turn around and see... for obvious reasons. When she mived a little the man just tightened his grip. No... let me go. Her eyes went to her weapon, she was paralyzed.

Shizu wasn't the only one paralysed. Jeremy couldn't think clearly. Instead of even thinking about giving the man any money, he was thinking of all the ways to maul and/or kill him without his meister getting hurt. "Okay man, just calm down. Shizu's got all our money, so just let her get it out of her pocket, and we'll all go home happy. Okay?" Slowly, Jeremy's hand was deforming behind his back, and a flintlock pistol was emerging in its place. The man loosened his grip on the girl so she could get the money, but he quickly stopped. "Actually, now that I know the girl has the money, I'll just take her instead!" He began to pull Shizu away using her hair and collar.

Jeremy, I can't... Shizu started breathing radically and couldn't really do anything. If she did, it was likely that that gun of his would have to be put into use. "...help." She whispered and clenched her fists. "Tally-ho!" A voice from above yelled out. The meister looked up, but the sun was blocking her sight. Though it was pretty obvious as tomwho it was. It was the sorcerer. As luck would have it, Attor and Suhas were stalking the soul that Shizu had tied to her belt. Suhas had a comically large hammer with a joker painted on it, which was brought down on the man's head. "Tsk tsk!"

Jeremy couldn't believe what he was seeing. His hand slowly reformed as the pistol slid back into his arm. "What the bloody hell are you doing here?! I had everything under control, I don't need your help!" And with that Jeremy jogged up to his meister and put an arm around her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" The weapon asked frantically now that the mans head seemed to resemble more of an oval than a head. Jeremy was afraid that Shizu might discover that his attitude towards Suhas had changed, for if you recall, Jeremy isn't a good actor.

Suhas was going to tell Jeremy how harsh he was being despite what they accomplished most recently, but then realized that he was acting for Shizu's sake. On top of the roof the sorcerer had valiantly jumped from, was the kishin egg, Attor. He was waiting for Suhas to give him an 'okay' before jumping. "Yeah... I think I'm fine." the she-meister took a deep breath and looked at her weapon then Suhas. "Thanks... Suhas."

Despite being bummed out about Suhas saving Shizu instead of himself, he was actual pretty relieved. He just hoped he wouldn't let Attor come down from the roof. Shizu has a thing for smelling out trouble, according to Jeremiah. "Look, you... Um... dastardly sorcerer, you! Thanks for the help and all, but you should... Go away! Yes, go away!" Jeremy's lack of acting skills shone through once again. They really are awful, aren't they? Honestly, he should probably just shut up until they go away. Jeremy adjusted his hat, a subconscious signal he's lying about something. I guess you could call it a tell.

As soon as he tipped his hat, Shizu was positive that something was going on between the two. "Okay 'chums'... what are you hiding from me?" she sneered and slowly looked from the sorcerer to the weapon. That was Suhas's cue. "O-oh no! Attor is on a rampage again! Gotta bounce." he looked up at the kishin egg, who was sitting on the edge of the building in the most casual way possible. Not waiting for Shizu to ask, the sorcerer poofed away onto the building and grabbed Attor, running. "Um... who's 'Attor'?"

Jeremy rubbed the back of his neck with his real hand. "I can assume it's the Kishin egg he was 'hunting' before." He made air quotes around the word 'hunting.' The weapon looked down. "Hiding? Why would we be hiding something? You know how I feel about that guy!" The boy once again held onto the brim of his hat and he looked up again. What do you know? Suhas is nearly as bad of an actor as I am. Jeremy thought. "Don't be ridiculous, Shizu. Well, let's get going! Apart from a minor drawback, nothing's changed. Let's get hunting!"

The meister squinted her eyes and saw no trace of the kishin egg and sorcerer, so she merely accepted what was going on and forgot about it. For now. "I guess so. Yeah, let's get back to gathering as many souls as we can!" she replied with a small smile and resumed walking, taking her place back at Jeremy's side.

Above the weapon and meister's point of view, Attor and Suhas sat on an air vent on top of a hotel building. "So, I guess we resume now?" Attor asked and looked to the monochrome sorcerer. "Indeed we do my insanity over-dose friend..." Suhas wasn't really aware, but being so close to a kishin egg all the time was really taking a toll on him. He found himself a bit more light-headed than usual and a few other signs of intoxication.

Jeremy quietly sighed with relief. "Alright! Time to... Randomly stumble into more monsters! Yeah, that sounds about right." He continued to walk, a slight spring in his step while he thought of how to beat his fear. But he wasn't ready to leave the next Kishin egg encounter up to luck. "Hang on a second , I need to make a call." He walked further away from the meister so she wouldn't listen in on the conversation. The weapon pulled his flip-phone out of his pocket and flipped it open. He dialled in a number and held it up to his ear. A voice came through the other end. "Hey, Vee. Do you happen to know any Kishin eggs around my area? I know you know where I am."

A hooded, masked, sorcerer was sitting in his small apartment with an icepack on his head, and was looking into a crystal oval. And was also on the phone. "What the hell happened to that other soul I got for you? Oh well... There's a Kishin just east of you hiding in some guys basement. Ironic, I know, but that's where they are. Got that?" The slightly unamused sorcerer asked.

Shizu looked a bit confused and lifted her hand in protest. "Oh... um. Okay?" The meister looked around a bit awkwardly and leaned on the lampost while crossing her arms. After awhile she started watching the other people that walked along the street, just now noticing all of the rather... creepy looking people in this city. "Hurry up, please..." she whispered.

Jeremy turned and saw the Meisters discomfort. "Got it Vee. And... Sorry about your leg. I hope it grows back soon." On the other side of the line, Valkeer looked down at the stump that was his leg. But before the sorcerer could respond, Jeremy hung up. He walked over to his meister by the lamp post and pointed further into the creep-town. "It looks like we'll have to go further in. And according to my source, it's in some guys basement. So we'll have to go door-to-door checking people's basements for a monster." He pulled the meister off the pole and placed his hands on her shoulders. "It's okay. We'll be fine, I swear." But even he wasn't too sure of some of the people in the area. Jeremy was to make sure no one would get the jump on them again.