Keith Solomon
Arlette Sylvestre
Death City, Nevada
Joint Solomon-Sylvestre Apartment
With a bit of free-time in his hands, Keith laid snug in the hammock. There weren't much missions to go around, it seems it has been relatively peaceful so alot of meisters/demon weapons were hanging around, waiting for missions by training or lazing about. He began nestling into a comfortable, blissful nap when a familiar voice cut through the air. As his mind placed the voice, his brows creased, and this voice didn’t like free-time. Fake wolf-ears invaded his peripheral vision.
“Keiiith!” She yelled, running at him at a high speed, wolves could be lethal stealthy predators, but Arle wasn’t really a wolf.
She approached the hammock and nonchalantly flipped it. “ORIYAHHH!” she could be small, but sometimes, especially when the topic was teasing others, she could be quite strong. The poor meister within was centrifuged for a bit before slipping upward, being caught by Arlette before he could hit the ground.
“I know what we can do this summer!” the energetic girl said, now ‘princess carrying’ her meister.
”Ughhhh.” Keith groaned, he stopped raising his head and let it bounce up and down. ”You pack alot of strength in those arms. Fine, just let me go and tell me where we’re going.”
Arlette would not do that at first, she would try to princess carry him all the way to the door of their dorm, but her legs started to hurt really quick. Sighing, she let him go back to the ground.
“Ah, you see, there is a cool mission in the board right now.” she informed, taking his hand by the wrist as she started to leave again. “It’s like, just too good to be true, you have to read it to believe it.” she smirked, wanting to make some suspense.
Keith sighed, he recognized that face, once she had that look there was no way out. He wanted to run but she’d eventually just wear him down and catch him. It would have been a futile attempt. ”Go on.”
With a confident smile, Arle pushed onward, going all the way to the DWMA, barely noticing the path she took as she was quite excited.
The page on the mission board clarified what the mission was. The duo would have to spend three months on a paradisical and historical mediterranean island, for all three months of summer, while helping to keep the peace and hunt any criminal in the island. Considering how things had been quiet as of late, that likely meant they would have a lot of free time to enjoy the place. It was as she had said, too good to be real.
“Soooo~” she says smugly. “Come on, you can’t keep being grumpy now, can you? Isn’t this great?”
Keith examined the mission, three months was definitely lengthy, but it was likely that they were given free time. Still, it might be a nice change of pace. Getting out of the scorching heat of Nevads was definitely a plus. Though reluctant, he scratched his head and acquiesced. He didn’t like seeing his partner disappointed and she was antsy as they’ve not been thrown a mission in a while. He shuddered at the thought of his parents hearing that he skipped the mission.
”Alright, where do we sign up?.” He finally said.
She laughed gently. “Oh I already signed up yesterday.” she confessed, showing her tongue. “All we have to worry about is to go get ourselves summer wear and maybe swimsuits!” her smile widened.
“It's been a long time since I have been in the mediterranean, I was raised in Occitania, southern France, so it wasn’t that far, but the continental beaches there can’t beat the islands.”
”Of course you did, my ever unruly partner...” Keith trailed off, giving her a weak knock to the head. ”Occitania, huh. I’ve never been to a mediterrenean, my parents would probably be elated at the new training region. Shall we go and pack, then?”
“Gyaouch.” she rubbed her read as she was playfully knocked. “Mhmm! Let’s go!” she grabbed his arm and the whole process of being dragged around the city started again.
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…..
Mediterranean Sea, Near Malum Island
The trip to the island was boring for Arle, be it on the plane or in the boat, at least the boat had the “fun” aspect of them not knowing if the junkyard piece wouldn’t just break down and sink. Worse of all, she couldn’t play around, not even with Keith, without Ms. Opal staring at her, shaking her head in disapproval. As such, the pseudo-wolf girl was left crossing her arms, only distracting herself by staring at the ghost girl, Allison, whose soul looked awfully tasty for a weapon as hungry as her.
”Don’t eat our teammates, Arlette.” Keith was leaned back onto the wall, his arms as pillows. With one half-lidded eye open, he observed a few of his colleagues go about their business. He was curious about some of the meisters and demon weapons that joined joined. It was an interesting lineup, to say the least.
Arlette laughed, embarrassed, rubbing her cheeks with one finger. “W-w-what? I’d never! That would make me a kishin or something! I can only eat corrupted souls in the shinigami’s list.”
She would try to distract herself some more, by seeing patterns in the rusted metal all around the boat’s structure. It wasn’t fun, but it was all over soon as the bell signaling the would dock finally rang.
”Your eyes are thrashing more than the waves..” He continued, pulling the sleeping mask over his eyes. ”Take this chance to mingle… or sleep.”
“Oi!” she would lean closer and blow some air into his ears. “Didn’t you hear the bell ringing? It’s finally over! It's not the time to sleep, we have to get out of this bathtub.”
”WHAT? Already? I wanted a third nap.” He replied incredulously. His ears went red as they were fairly sensitive, so he pushed her face away with his palm. ”Please leave my ears alone.”
The teenager lifted the mask off his face with a thumb. Keith stood up and stretched, his joints cracking with each movement. He eyed the landmass, it was tropical and lush and had a sense of calmness to it. So why did he have this nagging feeling in the back of his head, like a strange, invisible weight on his mind. A sort of uncanny valley feeling.
”Do you…” He asked but stopped himself, he dismissed iit as jitters of being in a new mission after a period of idleness. ”... nevermind, let’s go.”
Arlette was cracking up laughing at first. “Oh my, how embarrassing, Miss Worrywart totally messed up this one.” but as the fog cleared, her smile would fade, her eyes would widen. “No… wait.” even before the teacher whispered about South American plants Arle had noticed it was all wrong, she knew this side of the world and she knew when things were out of place.
“What the hell, there is nothing like that in this region. Keith…” she would seize his hand, not by the wrist but properly. It was a rare sight, Arle with gritted teeth, fangs showing.
She would keep him close as they walked out of the ferry, the sights were not making it any better. Her mind started to race, starting to realize something didn’t feel right. The worst part is that she had been the one who brought Keith into this, if it was her alone she wouldn’t mind, but it was unacceptable to put her friends through trouble.
Arlette is definitely in full-alert mode. Keith thought, glancing at her very close figure. She was shaking, seeming ready to jump out at any threat. ”Let’s relax. You’re from this region right? What’s wrong exactly?”
“These are not plants native to Europe or North Africa, furthermore these islands are known for having a relatively dry climate, they cannot hold a rainforest like this. It is simply impossible.” the girl said while staring at the local flora with suspicion. Though since Keith had requested it, she would try to relax, taking deep breaths until she managed to return somewhat to her usual expression of a soft smile.
Keith stroked his chin with his free hand, taking in the new information that Arlette said. She was right, the forest looked healthy- thriving even. ”I guess the feeling I got from earlier weren’t just jitters.” He said unconsciously. ”What in the world’s happening here?”
With a sigh, the french girl simply gave up for the moment. “Well, we can ask the local DWMA about this, they probably know more than we do,” she said as they walked into the harbour area.
”Probably the best course of action to take.” Keith said, following the herd of students and Ms. Opal. The dread he felt earlier intensified as they trudged further inland. Aside from the idle chatter of the duo and other teams, it was oddly silent.
Arlette was worried as well, but she had noticed how dropping her cheerful side only made Keith worry more, so she reacted to this with a simple joke. “Ey! If it isn’t that mediteranean warmth I heard so much about, really lively people over here.”
After going through customs and the gate, no passport needed for DWMA students, things did seem to get better at first, there were kids playing around, couples walking together, businessman rushing about, shops were open and there was chatter. Yet… the unease just wouldn’t vanish.
Keith chuckled at Arlette’s levity, seemed like she was somewhat back to herself. The weight on his mind just kept getting heavier and heavier. It soon became a mild headache, his steps became slightly unsteady. He leaned on her for support. The islanders seem nonchalant and smiled, it was odd. It felt emotionless.
Was soul perception playing a part in this? To confirm his thoughts he observed his fellow meisters, most look troubled and he could tell what they were feeling.
He also would see a red soul with a hood looking increasingly worried about him. “Are you fine? You are oscillating while you move.” the weapon asked, Arle gently holding him, she had been doing so since he leaned on her for support.
”I’m good.” Keith replied, pushing through the pain. ”You see the meisters? They all look worse for wear. I’m thinking it’s something with soul perception.”
“Right, soul perception. You can sense our emotions better than ourselves.” she held his hand and stepped closer. “I have normal perception, and I can notice when my meister is straining himself, okay? Take it easy, you are with me, and you know I will take care of anything.” she winked trying to look overly confident.
Keith must’ve been in bad shape for Arlette to start acting like that. ”Thank you, mother Arle.” He joked, trying to ignore the subsuming headache.
All the while, the teacher had been becoming more and more distraught, finally, she had decided to rush to the parking lot, but first she would take a sip from a drinking fountain. The situation wasn’t that good so far, but what happened next crossed lines, as their teacher turned into a sheep just by drinking the water.
”That’s a first.” Keith mumbled to himself. This heavily smelled of witchcraft but he chose not to say it outloud. Spooking his teammates was likely not the best course of action. His eyes unconsciously swam to the only other witch meister.
Arlette gasped, it was all so sudden and quite shocking. “Yeah, uh… Wow! I have seen witches turn into animals before, but even that wasn’t like this. Furthermore… she looks a bit unresponsive, she might have been turned all the way through…”
She place a hand over her mouth and turned to the side, this wasn’t terror, it was her trying to stop herself from smiling and making a tasteless joke about lambchop, ”Or would it be tasty?” she said before finally taking hold of herself with a deep breath.
“Feels like something out of a fairy tale really. Cursed springwater turns people into animals or something.” she mused aloud before continuing in a lower tone with Keith ”But yes, I think this is official. We are cursed, this land is cursed, this trip is cursed. Let’s take the sheep and get away as quick as we can. Feels like something the real teachers or the death scythes should be dealing with.”
”Yep. Definitely out of my pay grade.” Keith joked, he walked over to the now sheepified Ms. Opal and bent down. ”Hello, Miss Opal, do you understand me? If so, bleat twice.”
She would bleat once. She seemed smart for a sheep, but it was unclear if she could understand them and she clearly couldn’t speak.
Meanwhile, Arle saw their ferry leaving, just then noticing the eerie lack of ships in the port. “Oh sheesh, that isn’t ideal.” she walked to Keith. “Seems like we are stuck here, no boats.” she quickly informed.
One of their colleagues started speaking and while typically Arle wouldn’t like these types of self-appointed leaders she found his speech very useful for the moment. They had to stay calm, there was no teacher to keep them together and they were stranded on this cursed land.
“I get we need to keep the teacher safe.” she speculated with Keith. “But to even think of doing that we need to find a place to stay at, or maybe some local allies. Ugh, I don’t even know where the local DWMA chapter is. What a mess.”
Keith nodded at Evan’s words, keeping this crowd calm was the best course of action. A sound mind and all that.
”So first course of action is to find the the local DWMA chapter then?” Keith pronounced loud enough for all the teams to hear. He yawned shortly afterwards. ”Oh. I’m Keith Solomon, by the way. Most of you probably don’t know me, nice to meet you.”
Arlette didn’t feel like she needed to introduce herself considering how much trouble she had caused. ”And let’s try to remember the basic fairy tale rules, don’t eat the food, don’t drink the water. Sure this drinking fountain was extra cursed, but who knows if eating anything in this place won’t turn you into a zombie like this fella.” she pointed to a man who was walking by, he seemed outright unaware she existed.
”One final thing. Their- er the people… islanders? Anyway their wavelengths are off, I’m sure some of you felt it.” He said, making eye contact with the meisters there.
