All canon characters © Okubo Atsushi

Consumption

Chapter 10

aLREADY iNSANE

Cali looked up at the mansion, the cloak billowed around her as she knocked on the door, gently.

The door was opened by a boy, or girl, but Cali decided that this person was in fact a boy. "Who are you?" he asked, she noted that his voice held mild anger or jealousy, and much of suspicion.

"I'm sure you already know" Cali smiled before kicking the door open, the boy flying across the entrance hall. "Ok Asura, where's your friend?" she asked, since leaving Death City, the image of Asura had always been with her. She wasn't sure whether it was because she was letting loose or because the Kishin's madness had increased.

"Who's the little shit who broke the door?" Cali turned to the familiar voice and narrowed her eyes at the Chainsaw Weapon. "Depressed Insane chick" he greeted with a grin that displayed his sharp teeth.

"Asshole, I'm disappointed to see that you're still alive and well" Cali huffed.

Giriko growled "OI! It's supposed to be the other way around! You're supposed to day, Glad to see you're alive and well!" he started to yell angrily.

"Giriko" Cali frowned, emitting her madness like a fountain. "You're loud, shut up." she narrowed her eyes at him and he stopped. For some reason, he felt as if it were Arachne that was ordering him though he knew he was looking at Cali.

"S-so" he started, calmer now, "where's your weapon friend?" he asked taking a swig from the bottle in his hand he finally seemed to remember having.

"Back in Shibusen. I left on my own."

"OK then, how'd you find this place?" he asked slowly walking down the stairs. It seemed that the boy had gone deeper inside to fetch the rest of the people.

"An old friend, led me here" Cali explained. Looking at Giriko's face, which easily showed a lot of expression, she laughed humorlessly "it wasn't Justin."

Giriko stopped in mid swig and yelled almost embarrassedly "t-that's not what I was thinking!" Cali smiled a thin smile with no warmth or thought behind it. It was a puzzling expression she had on her face, and Giriko frowned when he finally realized he wouldn't be able to look past what she wanted him to see. He watched silently as Cali took off her cloak and placed it and the bag next to the stairs.

The reddish brown haired teen looked up the stairs and her smile widened. "See you're doing well. How is it, the madness?" she asked leaning against the railings as Justin padded down. Behind him was the same kid from before and behind the kid was an odd man who reeked of magic power.

"Well" Justin patted his chest. "I believe I understand you much better" he smiled. She noticed that his clothes went through a slight change. All the marks that had the Shinigami mask or the usual cross on it was changed to the eyes of the Kishin, however he still looked like a catholic priest. "Where is Hiro?" he asked.

"I left him back."

"Will he not come after you?"

"Abandonment issues, he'll probably be down for the next month or so."

"How mean~" Justin sang.

"That's how I normally am. So, you going to introduce me to your er...friend person thing here?" she asked, waving to the man in the cap.

"Don't address Lord Noah as-"

"Noah, Eibon, whatever you want to call me you can. I don't exactly have an attachment to names. However, I would like to know your name." Noah smirked though Cali could easily see the malicious glint in his eyes.

"Callisto Abbey, not at your service but close enough" she brushed it off. "I would prefer Cali, rather than Callisto though other than that. Call me whatever you want."

"Insane bitch" Giriko hissed as he came near. At this Cali turned around and elbowed Giriko in the stomach while firing off her soul at him.

"I allowed Noah to call me whatever he wanted, you on the other hand" she hissed "I still don't like you." Giriko stood up and growled but stood still, the glare she gave him was, to him, the same commanding glare of Arachne.

"You're Jupiter's daughter aren't you?" Noah asked as he sat down on the steps of the stairs.

"Bingo" Cali raised a brow, silently asking how he knew.

"Everyone knows who you are in the world of Magicians." Cali frowned at the way he had said it "and though I wouldn't mind putting you in my collection" he patted the book that was tied to his side with many tabs marking the pages "I'm sure one person in this room will disagree to that." Noah looked to Justin who smiled back, though there was tension in the air.

"Well, even though I know you are strong, somewhat, and that you are already insane. What can you actually give to our...group?" Noah asked.

Cali resisted the urge to roll her eyes, she felt as if she was in some sort of job interview. "Tell them you can see me" Asura suggested as she stood behind her. Cali looked at him and raised a brow, now she started to actively wonder if Asura was real or not. "Figment of imagination or not, I'm not telling them I can see and talk to you. I don't want to be called on just cause they need to send a message to you." she crossed her arms "not to mention, I don't actually know where you are. You should have been caught or at the least put into battle when Shibusen attacked Arachne."

The people around Cali stared as she talked to thin air behind her.

"I escaped while that witch had her back turned"

"Coward, some Kishin you are, you make it sound as if you didn't want to partner with Arachne and Arachnophobia. I bet you attacked her." Cali hissed back.

"He hurt Arachne when she went to talk to him" Giriko spat "I knew it wasn't a good idea to let her go in alone...how did you know anyways?" he asked "only the old man and I knew that."

"Oh shut up Giriko, if you hadn't fallen asleep, you probably would have seen where the Kishin fled to" Cali rolled her eyes.

"And how did you know we had the Kishin anyways?"

"An old friend, who's a bit of a jerk and a coward" she was then pushed to the floor by a scarf "told me" she glared at Asura who didn't look the lease bit amused with the way she had described him. "Father can call you Coward but I can't?" Cali struck out her leg to kick Asura only to realize since he wasn't actually there, nothing would happen.

"Brother Troubles?" Noah asked wondering if the girl had some sort of dissociative personality disorder or was bipolar.

"Fine, no I don't have a brother, and I can see Asura...the Kishin" she huffed as she crossed her legs.

She waited for a while in silence before everyone started to laugh. "A bitch like you can't possibly see, let alone talk, with the Kishin" the boy laughed. Giriko too started laughing away at how it was impossible for a 'pipsqueak like her' to get along with the Kishin when Arachne couldn't.

"See!" Cali pointed to them and looked at Asura "they're laughing."

"So" Noah coughed after laughing his fill. "What does he look like?" he then stifled another laugh.

"Tall, extremely thin," she looked him head to toe "healthy grayish pale complexion" she added sarcastically "piercing red eyes, three of them, black and white hair, which I would recommend dying all one color, red shirt, gray slacks, and several white scarves that he can move around to his will with magic" she finished. "Not to mention a stupid smirk when he's being a jerk" she frowned when he smirked.

Noah frowned "Cali was it?"

"Yeah"

"Can you ask him to tell us his location? We plan to fill the world with insanity but we need the Kishin's power" Noah explained. The laughter ceased.

"B-but Master Noah, can you really believe that she can speak with the Kishin?" asked the boy.

"If she can tell us the location the Kishin is currently at, then it is no doubt that she can speak with him. However, when did I allow you to speak?" Noah ended with a growl at the boy who only hunched his shoulders.

"Where else would I be if not...the place I feel most secure?" Asura asked as he hung upside down from the balcony.

"So why the hell are we back in the mountains again?" Giriko asked with a sneeze.

"Because Cali was told Lord Kishin was back in his temple." Justin explained with a forced closed mouth grin.

"Stop fighting and let's keep going. Seeing how the East Asian branch members are killed" Cali pointed to the bodies half buried in the snow "we can guess that Asura came by here." she continued the trek up. The last time she had been up here was not even a full week ago with Hiro. She remembered the promise she had broken.

The three stopped at the large red doors that creaked open inwards.

"Am I in time for lunch?" Cali asked entering in alone.

"He hasn't been eating" Marie looked to Stein who placed the medical file of Hiro down on the table. In the last three days, Hiro had been moved to a dorm room while his apartment was being searched for anything that may link Cali to the Kishin. He had also refused to eat and wouldn't open the door to his room. Stein sighed, this wasn't just an abandonment issue, he was sure that Hiro felt betrayed by Cali, the person he trusted the most.

"I'll go see if I can talk with him" Stein stood up and left the Dispensary. He wasn't sure how, but he was sure that Cali didn't leave because she had already been a traitor. It had been the talk of the school. Cali, the student teacher, injured three death scythes, the best meister and her own partner before stealing things from the school, had attempted to murder Nygus and left without a trace all within an hour.

"-then starve you little shit!" Stein looked up when he saw Spirit kicking at the door that belonged to Hiro.

"Hey senpai, what are you doing?" he asked, cranking his screw backwards. He already predicted a head ache.

The red headed Death Scythe turned to the scientist with an angry glare, "that little, he's gotten worse and is calling names not to mention-" Stein walked past Spirit who started to trail off when he noticed that Stein, thought he had asked, was not listening.

"Hiro" Stein knocked on the door as he called in.

"what the hell do you want you phony quackdoctor" Hiro asked with an angry hiss.

"Well as you can hear, he's reverted back" Spirit popped out from beside Stein.

"Is the poor baby sulking because Cali left?" Stein asked.

"Fuck off, why don't you go kneel at Tarp face's feet and work on your failed experiments!" Hiro threw the lamp by the bed at the door. Spirit looked at Stein silently, he was sure Stein would pop at any second.

"We found Cali-" Stein started but the door opened and Hiro ran out, hugging Stein.

"Thank you! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that to you or Lord Death!" he started to apologize to Stein about calling him, Marie, Azusa, Death and Sid bad names.

"What about me?" Spirit asked.

"Go fall off a cliff" Hiro paused from his long string of apologies as he looked at the Death Scythe.

"Right, about Cali" Stein started as he closed Hiro's door and roughly grabbed Hiro and pulled out a length of Chain from behind him. "I lied" he smiled a small smiled as he quickly tied Hiro up. The white haired teen stared at the scientist blankly for only a couple seconds before he started fighting.

"Leave me alone Damn it!" he tried to dig his heels into the ground but was still dragged along by Stein. The thought of turning into weapon form to escape was appealing, however, if Stein was to catch him in weapons form and was to tied him up that way, then he couldn't transform back to human form until he was untied. However that didn't stop him from changing his feet into blades and digging them into the floor. "Leggo!" he grit his teeth, while students and staff alike watched as Stein merrily dragged Hiro across the school and to the cafeteria.

"EAT!" Stein dropped the tray of food before him.

"Stein! I thought you were going to talk to him!" Marie came running over, it seemed that someone had called her over due to Stein's actions.

"Did I?" he asked cranking his screw backwards. "I don't remember saying anything like that" he then shoved Hiro's face into the food.

"It's hot!" Hiro fought back "let go you crazy buffoon!" he bucked his head back and tried to bite at the scientist "I'll rip your throat ou-" he then passed out when Marie hit both him and Stein over the head.

"Can't we pass liquids into him?" Marie asked as she watched Hiro who lay unmoving on the table.

"First I think we should stop the bleeding" Stein pointed to the blood on Hiro's forehead. With that, Marie started to freak out and carried Hiro out on her own. Stein, lit a cigarette and sighed, it really showed the roles Cali played when she was here since she was gone, not to mention the affects she had left on the people she had met. Maka and the others seemed to quite determined to believe that Cali had been forced to do what she did, while Hiro was digressing. He only hoped that she would somehow still continue to keep a bit of sanity with her so she could come back.

"Giriko" Cali poked her head out the doors and held out a hand. "Give me your coat" she ordered.

The Chainsaw weapon looked at Cali as if she were crazy and refused "no way in fuck am I giving you my coat. It's freezing and we're out here waiting for you to HURRY THE FUCK UP!" he yelled.

Justin tisked "your loud voice will cause an avalanche" he yelled, due to his head phones.

"Both of you shut up or you'll be dragged to hell by mother nature" Cali frowned looking at the two and sighed. Instead she took off her own coat and handed it to the Kishin as Giriko had refused. "Hope you don't mind mine" she apologized as she zipped and buttoned it up for him. Technically the coat wasn't her's, she had been given it by Gopher on Noah's order as she didn't actually bring her own clothes with her.

"Sucks for you" Giriko laughed when Cali shivered against the cold wind.

"If you don't shut up, I'll make sure you won't have another generation in your family line." Cali glared at him before taking off her gloves and handing it to Asura. "And you..." she paused as she placed the gloves on his hands, again, the gloves were not hers and so were not too small for Asura, "just follow us back, you can fly can't you?" Asura nodded.

"Good" Cali smiled a little, it was odd to finally meet the one she had always thought of as he imaginary friend. "Justin and I will go down on his snow mobile, Gigiko can come down on his own, and Asura, make sure you don't run off on your own, no matter how afraid you are or how strange things get." she readjusted her muffler and hat to keep herself somewhat warm.

"Giriko, we will meet you at the bottom" Justin smiled playfully. As Giriko pulled a confused face, Cali kicked him in the chest and stole his gloves. Upon turning the snow mobile on, the sound of the speakers, turned on to an abnormally high volume, an avalanche started. Cali sat in the front with Justin behind her as they sped down the mountain side with Asura, leaving Giriko alone to face the wonders of nature and experience swimming in a tidal wave of snow.