It was September in Death City, but judging on how hot it was, you would think it was July or August. The heat baked the streets of Death City, and the students trapped inside the classrooms of the Death Weapon Meister Academy felt like they were locked inside an oven.

The EAT class was assembled inside one of these classrooms, where Professor Franken Stein was performing yet another dissection. They were a favorite of the peculiar teacher, especially when performed on rare creatures like the one strapped to the table in front of him, but not all of the students shared his enthusiasm. In fact, basically none of them did. Stein pushed his foot against the ground, and the swivel chair rolled across the room over to the blackboard.

"Now, we will be beginning the dissection of the South African Gagu. As you can see, I will be making a single long slice down here. we will then investigate the innards of this creature and see how it works. I look forward to finding out how this rare creature ticks before it unfortunately goes extinct. Now..." Stein swirled back over to his table, and reached for the scalpel when-

Brring brring!

Saved by the bell.

Stein sighed. "Very well then. Class dismissed. Tomorrow, then, old friend." He glanced at the bird, which gave a terrified squeak.

~~~

Gabby leaped from her chair as soon as the bell went off. "Finally! We're free!" she cried joyfully as she quickly exited the building. She walked out the doors, looking down the many steps that lead to freedom. They were never fun to brave, even assisted by gravity while heading down, but Gabby looked forward to taking the rest of the day off. She cracked her neck. As a member of the EAT class, she was no longer forced to wear a school uniform, and as such she had opted to wear a crimson crop top and a pair of olive green short shorts, as well as a pair of leather brown boots, good for kicking the crap out of people.

She felt like drinking a coffee. As she took her first step down the stairs of the DWMA, she reached for her pocket to check for bills and found none.

She gulped. Had she used up all of her weekly DWMA allowance? If she had, that meant she had to...work at a cafe. She quickly looked around, desperately, for her partner, anybody, to bail her out.

~~~~~~

Jackson gave a slight under-his-breath sigh of relief as the bell rang, their signal to get out. Jackson saw several students rush out of the classroom as soon as possible, to which he gave a slight headshake to. He was no fan of Stein's dissections, but he felt it was disrespectful to rush out so quickly.

He stood up. Today he was wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of standard blue jeans, as well as a black fedora, gently perched on his head. Wiping sweat from his forehead, he stood and walked over to his weapon partner, giving him a slight nudge. He knew how little he payed attention to Stein, and with the heat, Jackson was worried that he might have fallen asleep.

"Hello? You awake?" he said with a slight laugh, gently elbowing Sphera in the back.

Luckily, her savior arrived in the form of her partner, Zander. She immediately grabbed the bill and wrapped her arms around her partner, pulling him into a tight hug. "You are actually the best," she said with a massive grin, and gave him a powerful squeeze before letting him go. She began to walk down the stairs of the DWMA. A perilous mission.

Zander quickly asked how long the coffee break would last for. Gabby gave a shrug. ”I dunno. You should probably get out more, though. You’re not going to get any better by sitting on a couch all day.” She knew her words would fall on deaf ears, as they always did, but it was always good to try.

~~~

"Mission board? Already?" He shrugged. "We did go hunting for souls recently...but I'm sure it couldn't hurt to do more. Trouble does sprout up pretty quickly. Still, it wouldn't hurt to go out for a while. Enjoy the city." Jackson knew that Sphera didn't like being in public much, but he had to do it sometimes. "Or we could just hole up in the apartment.
Really, it's up to you. I don't mind much either way."

Jackson put his hands in his pockets, looking at the poor bird that Stein had captured for his dissection lesson. How did Stein get his hands on the poor thing?

~~~

Gabby playfully punched her partner in the arm. "Shut it. That dude totally had it coming." She stuck her hands in her pockets as she walked down the scorching streets of the city. Deathbucks Café was straight ahead, a popular location in the city for both students and residents alike and a beautiful sight for Gabby.

She quickly darted into the café like a falcon that found its pray, and purchased a large coffee. She emerged from the shop a moment later, sipping it from the cup. "This stuff is the best I'll ever taste," she proclaimed, raising the cup into the air like it was the Holy Grail. She then realized she looked fairly stupid and brought it back down.

"I'm assuming you want to head back to the apartment to crash, and there's nothing I can do to stop you, so we should probably get going," Gabby said with a sigh. However, before the duo could get going, there was an ear-shattering boom that resounded across the city. The almost-empty coffee cup fell from Gabby's hands due to the tremors. "So much for your break.
Let's go."

~~~

Jackson certainly was not anticipating his weapon's response, but he wasn't going to say no. "Alright then. Try not to have a panic attack," he said with a wink, emerging from the building and walking down the steps.

Sphera had certainly improved since when Jackson first met him. When he had first found the weapon, the poor boy was almost wholly inaudible and would not look anybody in the eye. Jackson had to admit that he had his doubts about the boy when they first became partners, but he had grown on him over time. And plus, his weapon form was purely badass.

Once Jackson hit the bottom of the steps of the DWMA, he prepared to venture out and enjoy himself. Alas, this would not occur due to a massive explosion near the DWMA. The ground shook and smoke rose from a nearby building, which Jackson recognized as one of the DWMA intelligence buildings. His Soul Perception saw 2 souls leaving the building, a weapon and a meister, neither a Kishin egg. Peculiar.

"Sphera, let's go. Can you retreat those spikes? We need to keep them alive, if possible."

~~~