The Search for a Weapon Partner (Finished)

The clouds rolled by slowly, occasionally covering up the laughing sun and muffling the noise it produced. A relatively quiet meister in training made her way up the almost never ending steps with her bag held close. "Why are there so... many... stairs?" Shizu muttered once she crawled up that last few steps. It'd been a month since she enrolled and she was still getting used to the way things worked,though she was doing quite well.

When she got inside, Shizu noticed something. It seemed that everyone had a partner, eveyone except her. "Oh no... how did finding a partner slip my mind!?" The girl panicked and tripped over herself once she lost focus, dropping her books.

"Walking... Is... HARD" Jeremy groaned as he slowly made his way up the past few stairs. I swear, running a marathon every morning has to be easier than this He thought. Wait... whats that sound...?. He turned around and realized that some of the gears from his arm had fallen off and were now rolling back down the stairs. "No, no, no ,no, NO!"he yelled as he started running back down the stairs to retrieve his parts.

Shizu picked up her books and listened to the displeased 'no' coming from outside. Maybe someone was having an equal or more worse day than she has been having. "I have to figure something out quick." The meister whispered to herself and started to investigate.

She was a fairly strong meister and would've made a decent partner.... but she was too shy to ask anyone before they partnered up with anyone. Then when she did go to ask, it took her too long to find the correct words to say! Shizu sighed at the thought of her own failure and sat back outside, needing some air to refrain from passing out.

I should probably get a better arm soon Jeremy thought, as he clambered back up the stairs while fixing the cogs back onto his arm. He noticed he had missed a cog, which was still sitting at the top of the stairs. "Hey, could you get that for me?" he asked the girl sitting near it.

Shizu, sort of half-mindedly, picked up the cog and handed it to him. "Here you g-" the girl started then froze at the sight of his arm. Thinking it would be very rude to stare, she removed her gaze from the robotic limb and made eye-contact with the boy.

Shizu cleared her throat and restated, "H-here you go..." As soon as she have the part back, the meister looked down at her books again, too shy to strike a conversation.

"Thanks," He said while fixing it back onto his arm. "Don't be afraid of the arm. It's just clockwork. You know, like a clock. The only difference is, it can't tell the time." Jeremy chuckled at his own joke, before realizing that she was still looking down at her books. "You okay?" He asked.

Shizu looked back up and forced a small smile. "Yeah... Im fine." She responded, starting to get back up. "Just thinking,  that's all." Her efforts to look fine failed as a frown returned once she finished her sentence.  Though it wasn't quite her fault. She had no idea what to do, she couldn't protect her mom if she didn't even have a weapon to fight kishin...

He hesitated, "Well, you don't LOOK fine. What's up?" Jeremy has gone through his fair share of sadness and pain, and suddenly became determined to help. He began to outstretch his arm, but quickly exchanged it for his real arm. "What do you need?", he asked, his half grin-half smirk replaced by a face of kindness.

Shizu was a bit puzzled, why was he interested in helping? Regardless, the meister decided to tell him since she had no one else to confide in. "Well, you see... It's been some time since I've enrolled and I still haven't even partnered up with anyone. I can't complete my goal until I do that so I'm a bit stuck." she answered and held her right arm with her left hand in an insecure type of way.

Jeremy was surprised by this, "Now that's odd. Why would anyone NOT want to partner up with a beautiful girl like you?" Jeremy blushed at himself What am i doing? I'm supposed to be helping her, not embarrassing her! He quickly recovered, "What's your name?"

Shizu's face lit up at his comment and she looked down at her feet, avoiding his gaze. After playing with the ends of her skirt, the meister glanced back up and replied,"It's Shizu. My name's Shizu. " That was a bit awkward, but at least he's trying to help out... right? the girl thought to herself and tucked some straying hairs behind her ear. "May I ask what your name is?..."

He smiled, "Jeremy Rukin. But you can call me Cogs. Have a wild guess why." He laughed, "Are you looking for a Meister or a Weapon?" He asked while grabbing into his hat. Well, she's actually looking at me a bit, so at least I'm making some progress. I hope she didn't get the wrong impression from that last comment... I guess it wouldn't be TOO bad if she did... "What is a wrong with me today." He muttered to himself.

She smiled at let out a small giggle at his 'joke'. Shizu's grin stayed a bit longer as she crossed her arms. Why is he interested in me anyway? Maybe he's looking fo a partner too. Thinking it would be rude not to properly greet him, she outstretched a hand and replied, "Well, it's nice to meet you Jeremy, or Cogs. Oh, and I'm fully known as Shizu Resu, a meister in training."

He raised an eyebrow at the word meister, "A meister, huh?" He said while taking her hand and shaking it, "what sort of weapon did you have in mind? A scythe? A sword? A roll of toilet paper?" This girl was certainly peaking Jeremy's interest. All I have to do is ask, and I could finally have a partner. Now it's my turn to stop being shy and ask...

Shizu thought for a moment then replied, "As tempting as a roll of toilet paper may sound, I was think more around the lines of a sword or some other close-ranged weapon."She placed her handbeneath her chin in a thinking pose then nodded. "Yeah, thats about right. What about you? What are you looking for in a partner? " she asked then looked back at him.

"Well..." He hesitated, "being a weapon there's not much I can really ask for. I mean, all I really look for is someone that is actually compatible with my soul..." He said. "My experience with Meisters has never gone well. All of them ended up with third degree burn on their hands..." He stepped back, Crap, what is WRONG with me?! Why did I mention the burns? Jeremy thought while assuming that his chances of getting her to even try to be his meister were destroyed.

"B-burns?" She questioned and raised an eyebrow at him. He had caught her attention at that, even though it did intimidate her to think that he somehow burned his meisters. He's not some psychopath that burns people when he's mad is he!? Shizu mentally panicked and fidgeted around nervously. "W-well how did th-they get burned, anyway?" The girl dared to ask. Then she thought twice and looked down at her feet again, hoping he wouldn't do anything crazy.

Dammit! What's wrong with me? Jeremy nervously tightened the cogs on his arm, "It's not that I just suddenly DECIDE to burn them, but my weapon form is pretty complicated to use, but if you do it right you can heat my blade up to ridiculous temperatures." He quickly explained while stepping forward again. I'm finished. I'm screwed. Jeremy started to turn away.

Shizu saw him start to turn and reacted before thinking. The girl reached out and grabbed his artificial arm and replied,"Th-that's pretty cool if you ask me!" Then, she froze in her tracks and her cheeks lit up. What am I saying!? Not just that, what am I doing? she mentally yelled at herself and blinked a few times, not knowing what to say or do.

Jeremy's face went red,"Oh... Uh... Thanks." He half muttered. He tilted his top hat downwards so she couldn't see him blushing. He grabbed her hand,"Get out of there! D-Do you want to lose a finger?" He blushed even more and dropped her hand,"Sorry..."

Shizu held her hand then laughed awkwardly,"No, it's fine." She rubbed the back of her head then added,"Er, cool hat." What am I saying?! This is so awkward! she almost facepalmed, but stopped midway. After clearing her throat, the meister muttered,"I-I mean... This is a bit awkward isn't it...?" She kneeled on the ground and started to gather her books together then pkaced them in her bag, glancing up every now and again.

Jeremy just stood there, looking awkward and slightly confused. "Do you want to try... Reasonating with me?" He asked, trying to make eye contact and doing a weird smile. Okay, Cogs, you've asked. Omega Good job. Gold medal. 5 stars. He kneeled to her level and tried to help get her books.

Shizu looked a bit surprised at first then looked back down and finished shoving her books back into her bag. "You'd want to try resonating with me?" She asked, just to make sure that she did indeed hear him correctly. I've never resonated with someone before... Of course I've studied it before, so I know a little at the least... the meister thought over then nodded. "Okay, I think it's worth a shot!" A smile crept across her face as she placed her bag down carfully.

"Alright then!" Jeremy said with a smile, his confidence reclaimed. Jeremy started to glow with a red-brown energy, and all his features became blurred as his shape changed into a wide, thick-bladed sword with a temperature dial on the hilt that was connected to two small tanks with pipes rigging it to the blade. "Whenever your ready."

Shizu took a deep breath, trying her best to remain calm. "Okay." She simply replied and took her hold on the hilt. A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body... the meister recalled as she had memorized the famous words from the textbooks that she had spent hours studying from, in hope that she'd be able to use it's advice someday. Now, to match wavelengths... For a short moment in time, all of Shizu's current strife had started to melt away as she felt the beat of Jeremy's soul.