[RL with Death the Kid] [Backdated]

[demondoctor]

As promised, Stein headed for Washington. Since he was travelling by plane, he expected to get there after Kid, but that didn't bother him. Kid might try to ambush him, but Stein was confident that he would be able to deal with his student

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[eightofdeath]

Kid did in fact get there long before Stein managed to get on his flight. Which gave him plenty of time to look through the city. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue had turned into a pile of rubble surrounded by dozens of armed guards wearing biohazard suits. Protesters abounded, demanding the truth of what happened while others preached in the streets about the end of days approaching and repentance. Shell-shocked police officers trying to reestablish their usefulness pulled people aside and told them that skateboarding was not permitted on the sidewalks. None of this was helping Kid's irritable mood in the slightest

[demondoctor]

Stein didn't know how to use soul protect, and even if he had, he wouldn't have bothered today. He walked brazonly down the street towards the Shinigami, holding the stick in one hand and smoking his cigarette with the other.

The bo was wrapped, so passers by would think it might have been a broom handle or fishing rod, but he could undo the wrappings easily if he were attacked. He'd checked.

He saw Kid from a distance and walked towards him, relaxing slightly. "Hello, Kid," he said when he was close enough that the Shinigami boy would hear him. "It's good to see a familiar face."

There was no malice, nor insane eagerness in his tone. He sounded perfectly normal, albeit strangely unaffected by the gory scenes of carnage around them.

[eightofdeath]

Kid felt Stein coming long before he heard his greeting, but he wasn't about to immediately turn and attack either. "Hello, professor." Kid's voice show off some of the irritation he felt. "Interesting work you've been doing since you've been gone."

He scowled as he looked over his shoulder at Stein, eyes wandering down to the parcel in his hands. Almost immediately, Kid regretted not thinking to bring any sort of weapon. Well, he always had Beelzebub at least, though with one of the guards staring at them, Kid decided to wait on summoning it.

"Perhaps you'd like to explain what the point of all this was?" Kid said, turning around to face Stein.

[demondoctor]

"I didn't do this," Stein said, glancing around himself and then down at one of the stinking corpses at the base of the monument. "I just tagged along and made sure Birkin and I got out alive. Hmm, I would have thought they'd have tidied up a bit by now."

He gave a shrug, took a drag on his cigarette and let out a cloud of smoke. "Wesker wants to take over the world. I guess he figured the White House was a good place to start. I told him it was a dumb idea, but he didn't listen."

He gestured towards the park, away from the crowds. "Would you like to walk while we talk? I doubt either of us wants too many people around, and it's pretty crowded here."

[eightofdeath]

Kid simply walked towards the park, body tensing as he passed in front of Stein, already anticipating an attack. "Why didn't you try to stop him? You supposedly don't believe in his ideals and if what you just said is true, you didn't want any part in this."

Once they'd gotten a reasonable distance away from anyone else, Kid stopped suddenly and turned around. "You could have prevented all this. You disobeyed my Father's laws, and not even for a worthy cause." He got into his stance, avoiding thinking too hard about how asymmetrical he must look.

Right about now, Liz would have started screaming, warning Kid that this was a terrible idea while Patti would be cheerfully giggling before Liz sighed and complained that she was the only one taking this seriously and- Kid shook the thought from his head. He'd fought on his own before; he could handle this even without them.

"I have no other choice but to force you to come back."