JFF2: Weapons and Meisters No. Thirteen

       Chapter Thirteen: No Dung Beetle, Please.

       By now, everyone in this dysfunctional group knew that the place where they had been taken was a little strange. But the requests that were pinned up were the most ludicrous things that they had ever laid their eyes on.
“ ‘A six-foot dungbeetle, with strange markings, located near the docks’,” Daisuke read aloud. “What is this, a horror movie?”
“Would explain a lot of the things we’ve seen,” replied Dark, who had snuck up behind the group and was craning his neck to see what was on the board.
Daisuke scanned a request about a strange, trench coat man with hooks for hands and, according to the request, giant spider legs hidden inside his coat, with a frown.  “Though we’ve seen a lot of weird stuff too, right Dark?”
“Yeah,” Dark nodded, “but there’s always been this beauty to all of stuff we’ve seen, you know? This is just creepy.”
There was a ripping sound, as Obito pulled off a request off the board. “How’s this one, Fai-sensei?”
Fai leaned over Obito, glancing at the request. “Sounds fine to me. I’m not sure how’ll we’ll get there, though. We don’t know this area very well, do we?”
“You can always ask someone in town for help,” Spirit called from across the hall, leaning against the wall, “as long as they aren’t a meister-weapon team trying to get the same kishin either.”
The white creature called Mokona sat up from leaning on Obito’s shoulder. “And Mokona can always try detecting any presence!”
Fai softly laughed as he petted Mokona’s head. “That’s kind of you, Mokona!”
Zero watched the blonde man and the black haired boy wave goodbye and strolled away. He had been standing a little bit away from the group, not wanting to get too close. He knew that he should look for a request that was partly decent, but he didn’t know what he’d do if he got too close. He watched Daisuke as the kid laughed at something he read on the board. That was too close. Zero had been sure that he wasn’t going to lose control again, but he almost did. It was important that he keep his distance from everyone. It  was the only way to keep them safe…from him.
“Hey, emo kid,” a voice exclaimed into his ear.
Zero snapped out of his daze and glared at the bald man Ikkaku, who was holding up a piece of paper in his hand. “I got ourselves a request that doesn’t look too messy. What’d you think?”
Zero snatched the paper out of the bald man’s hand and smoothed it out. The request was for a cemetery on the outskirts of town. There was some sort of “ghost” that appears in broad daylight and kidnaps “young girls visiting the graves of their deceased beloved”. What a sob story. “Not bad, I guess,” Zero remarked, “We’ll have to try the weapon thing on our way there.”
Ikkaku grunted and started heading out the door, only to suddenly get hit on his side and fall to the floor.  
“Who the hell-“
“Sorry, we’re sorry!” The armored boy Alphonse cried out as his brother pushed the people aside to look at the request board. They had ran from Lord Death’s office, so that they could get a request that didn’t involve gross insides. As he scanned the board, Ed’s face turned angrier than it had ever been. “A dung beetle? That’s it? That’s all the requests?!”
“Ooh, sorry buddy,” Dark chuckled as he waved a paper in front of Ed’s face, “Looks like the good ones we’re taken!”
Ed sighed and snatched the paper off the wall. “Looks like we’re stuck with the dung beetle. Sorry Al.”
“That’s okay, brother,” Al replied, “we’ll have better luck next time.”
Both brothers shuffled their way out. Ikkaku was getting up, rubbing his side. “Damn midget,” he muttered quietly so Ed wouldn’t hear him. He realized that his request had fallen to the floor. As he reached to pick it up, a hand picked the paper off the floor.
“Sorry, were you getting that,” Daisuke asked politely, “Sorry, here’s your-“
Dark snatched the paper read the contents. His expression lighted up and he grinned to Daisuke. “Now here’s a good request! Why didn’t we see this one before?” Dark flung his request towards Ikkaku, which slapped onto his face. “Here, you can have this one! We’re off to save young maidens from destruction!” Dark grabbed Daisuke’s hand, and the two sprinted off.
Ikkaku now fully stood up, peeling the paper off his face with a look of true annoyance.  He had gotten the hooked man request instead, and according to the paper, he was very powerful. Certainly not a good request for a duo that haven’t even tried turning into a weapon yet. Ikkaku looked up at Zero, and gave a shrug. “We’ll just have to try really, really hard.”
“I can’t wait,” was Zero’s reply.
As the two departed, Spirit sighed again. There were no more available requests yet, but he wouldn’t be able to do anything until Tamaki woke up. Spirit had no idea if this curse would affect their resonance, but he had a feeling it would. That was his bad luck; he always got the short end of the stick. Like his wife and his daughter-
Spirit felt tears coming on. Oh Maka, what would he do now? Spirit had screwed up once again. He had no present for her. He was a terrible father for letting it get taken like that, and now his one-way ticket to saving it was unconscious and cursed.
“Moping, Spirit?” Stein’s voice said. Spirit looked up to see Stein approaching him with his hand twisting the bolt in his head.
“What am I going to do, Stein? I’m a terrible father, and I let my meister get hurt!”
Stein titled his head in thought. “Well, I can’t give you any advise on fatherhood, but I can give you some shred of light.” Stein grinned at the curious Spirit. “Your meister’s awake, and he’s criticizing my medical room décor.”