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"This one could be good, Black Star." Tsubaki holds out the lesson description hopefully.
"Eh?" Black Star squints at it. "Nah, that one sounds too easy. There's no way something like that could be big enough for me!"
Tsubaki sighs and is about to give up before Liz speaks up from the other end of the notice board. "How about this one?"
Tsubaki obligingly reads it aloud. "'A mysterious force needs to be subdued in Germany. Requirements are a cunning mind and an overwhelming spirit.' Ah, I'm not sure—"
Black Star breaks in. "An overwhelming spirit? My spirit will overwhelm anything it comes across! Bwahaha!"
Tsubaki sighs. "But Black Star, you, um..."
"How about I join you on that one?" Kid walks over to join Liz, and she looks sheepish.
"Trying to barge in on my territory, Kid?" Black Star says brightly.
"Hardly." Kid rolls his eyes. "But between us we should be acceptable, right? And Maka and Soul are still busy with their own assignment."
"Tch, I can take it on by myself!" Black Star scoffs, then glances back over to them. "But I suppose I can be gracious enough to share my spotlight just this once."
It turns out the mysterious force in Germany is inside a castle. Unfortunately, the architects of the castle made a vital mistake in their design. Or implemented a clever defense mechanism, depending on one's perspective.
Kid groans and shudders, rooted to the ground. "It's not symmetrical at all..." The castle is constructed almost at random, towers and parapets rising from improbable places, the walls rising up high in some places and barely a story tall in others. The door is set into one of the higher walls, and pulls open easily when Black Star tugs the handle.
"Tch," Black Star says. "I'll knock it all down into gravel! How about that! Then it'll all be even under my feet!"
"Please don't, Black Star." Tsubaki forces a smile.
"Come on, I'm sure it will be better inside," Liz tries, and with Patty's help drags Kid inside the door. The inside is an improvement, if only because the only visible feature is a long, unadorned hallway leading straight into the castle.
"Oh, I see!" Kid pulls himself straight. "It's very cleverly designed to imbue a false sense of comfort, to lure people into its clutches!"
Liz sighs. "I really don't think that's it."
Kid frowns. "But there's still something strange about it..."
"Maybe it's haunted!" Patty offers brightly.
"What?!" Liz jumps. As if on cue, the door falls shut behind them with a slam. "Let me out!" Patty laughs loudly as Liz pulls futilely at the handle.
"That's fine," Black Star says, tugging at his wrist wraps. "We'll just have to take out whatever's in charge of this place."
"Hmm," Kid says, considering the walls.
"What do you think it is, Kid?" Liz gives up tugging the door and clutches Patty's arm instead.
"It looks like there are seams in the brick—" Kid breaks off when the chunk of wall he's inspecting suddenly liquefies into a dark mass and grabs him. He's sucked away before he can do more than gasp.
"Kid!" Liz yells.
"Huh?" Black Star turns around. "What happ—" The wall behind him closes over him like a wave, pulling him in.
"Black Star!" Tsubaki reaches for him but only crushes her hand against the wall as it solidifies behind him. "Ow."
Patty laughs, and Liz's fingers tighten. "What do we—"
Then the floor opens underneath them.
Tsubaki can hear Liz groan, but that's about all her senses are providing. "Is everyone alright?"
"Yeah, I guess. But Kid..."
"I'm sure they'll be okay," Tsubaki says, pulling herself to her feet. "But where are we?"
"Somewhere else in the castle, I guess," Liz says. "Is there anything over that way?"
"I can't see anything, but it sounds like this place is pretty big. We should be careful."
There's laughing from even farther away than Tsubaki would have guessed the room stretched. Then: "Hii-ya!" A loud crash echoes, and light spills in from a doorway to illuminate the dusty room.
"Good job, Patty!" Liz runs over to her. "That's my sister!"
Tsubaki sighs and follows them out of the room.
"Augh... clever... the symmetry was just slightly marred by the seams where the wall came apart..."
"Whatever," Black Star says. "How do we get back out of here? Who even builds a castle like this, anyway?" They're at the bottom of a narrow square shaft, the ceiling high above them. The walls are sheer stone.
"I don't know, but it was well done. The castle has already managed to deprive both of us of our weapons."
"Ch, don't talk about it like it's got a mind of its own."
"You're right. It's more likely to be under the control of whoever runs this place." Kid squints upward.
"So we just have to kick their ass!"
"And how do you propose to do that from here?" Kid glances back at Black Star.
"Tch. You're the one with the cunning mind, right? You can figure that part out!"
"Your faith in me is admirable." Kid sighs, and slowly paces the perimeter of the room. He makes it to the first corner before Black Star gets bored.
"You're too slow! Let's just get out of here!" He slides back into a fighting stance. "Ya! Black Star Big Wave!" His fist hits the wall, but instead of the sound of his knuckles breaking against the stone that Kid half-expects, there's only a slurping thud. Kid turns around just in time to see Kid elbow-deep in the wall before it forces him back out. Black Star stumbles back a few steps into Kid's chest. Kid catches him but doesn't move his eyes from the wall.
"Augh!" Black Star yells. "What kind of castle is made of liquid!"
"I don't think it's all like that," Kid says contemplatively.
"Huh?"
"Come over here and let me stand on your shoulders." Kid walks over to the far wall.
With both of their heights combined, Kid reaches upward.
"What good is that doing? You're just higher on the wall!"
"Be quiet," Kid says, even as he knows it won't help. "There's something here." He knocks lightly on a brick. "Can you hit this one with your soul wavelength?"
"Not from underneath you."
"Oh. Right." Kid climbs down, then points. "That one, in the center. Do you see it?"
"Sure!" Black Star crouches, then jumps straight up and punches the wall solidly. This time the brick and the few surrounding it crumble easily into dust. Black Star lands back on the ground just as all the walls of the shaft melt into a dark powder that dissolves without a trace.
"Excellent!" Kid grins. "I see. Only a few of the walls of this place are real, but they have to use the actual structure as an anchor."
"Whatever. Now what?"
"Now, let's find the others." Kid leads the way down the passage.
"Kid!" Patty grins.
"Weapon forms, quickly, everyone. Let's not get separated again." They nod and transform, guns spinning into Kid's hands and scythes falling neatly into Black Star's. "Alright. I don't think it's much farther."
The path is obvious from there, a tall archway leading the way into a great hall. The room is eerily lit, and the ceiling seems to slope at strange angles. Kid grits his teeth.
"Are you sure this is right, Kid?" Liz asks dubiously.
"It must be." He says. "There's no where else that feels this oppressive."
In gun form, Liz winces. "Are you sure that's not just the architecture? It's pretty spooky in—"
Black Star interrupts. "Alright! Whatever you are, come out, and face your doom at the hands of the great Black Star!"
A dark figure appears on a ledge on the other side of the room. "Ahaha! It is you who are doomed. You were doomed from the moment you entered the castle of Count Orlok!" the figure cackles.
"Eh, really? You think you can upstage me with a line like that?"
Kid holds out a retraining hand. "Black Star, be caref—"
"Alright, time to take you down! Haa!" Black Star runs at him, clamoring straight up the wall. But the figure is gone by the time he staggers onto the balcony where he was standing. "Huh?"
"Black Star, look out!" Kid yells, as the figure materializes behind him and slashes down with long black claws. Black Star handsprings away just in time. Kid aims Liz and Patty and fires off a volley that sinks without apparent effect into the figure's dark cloak. "Tch!"
The monster laughs, perched on the balcony rail. He's pale, his skin almost pure white, and his hair is a slick black that blends into his coat. "Do you think you can beat me with attacks like that?" He speaks around long, yellow fangs.
"Count Orlok. That's definitely who we're after," Kid mutters.
"Tsubaki! Uncanny Sword mode!"
"Right!" Black Star pivots and steps into a slash as she reforms as a katana. Unfortunately, the balcony dissolves underneath his foot, and he stumbles before he can connect.
"Fool. This whole castle is under my control."
"It stopped being under your control the moment Black Star walked in the door!" Black Star jumps back down to the floor. "Shadow Star!"
The shadows along the floor rise and reach for Orlok, but he only laughs. The shadows dissolve. "You most certainly cannot beat me in my own domain, with my own element." He leaps from the balcony ledge higher into the air. Some of the shadows gather around his feet, suspending him in the air. "And now, you will die. Black Sabbath!"
It starts slowly, a creeping strangeness as the walls start to shift, but then the balcony, the wall, and a large portion of the ceiling come loose from their structure and gather around him, merging with his billowing cloak to form a huge, writhing mass of darkness.
"I don't think so!" Black Star yells. "I'm the master of the darkness here!" He stands steady, Tsubaki's blade raised vertically in front of him. The black wave comes to a slow halt just before it touches him. Then it changes, a few tendrils changing direction, lashing out whip-like to wrap around Orlok.
"What?!" Orlok croaks. "You can't do that!"
"Your turn, Kid!" Black Star doesn't move, sweat beading on his brow.
"I'm on it," Kid says quickly, bringing Liz and Patty across his chest. "Soul Resonance." The resonance spikes, black spines rise on Kid's shoulders, and the guns shift and reform into huge cannons fused to his arms. "Execution mode."
"Resonance stable," Liz says. "Noise at 0.15 percent."
"Three two one fire!" Patty giggles.
The guns snap forward, aimed steadily at Orlok. "Death Cannon." Kid says with finality, and fires. The light of the blast tears through the shadows, and into his body, stripping it all away but his soul.
"Alright! Good job, Kid!" Black Star grins, and Kid returns it as the sisters return to their normal forms.
Then the castle collapses around them.
"I guess some of the structural integrity of the castle was provided by his power after all," Kid observes once they're all out of the smoking ruins.
"How can you say that so easily after what we just went through?" Liz snaps.
"Found it!" Tsubaki interrupts, jumping down from a pile of brick with Orlok's soul in hand.
"Good job, Tsubaki! See, Kid, it all worked out for the best anyway, right?" Black Star hooks an arm over Kid's shoulders.
Kid's eye twitches, but he doesn't object. "I suppose it did. Let's head home, everyone."