Resonance of Shadows

Stein was staring up at the rows of seats filled with children as he thought to himself. "Man, I can't believe I let them talk me into teaching another year at this damn school…" He smirked as he closed his eyes, "Then again, I could make this a very interesting first week." He looked up at the new EAT class and spoke up. "Alright students my name is Professor Stein, and I will be your teacher for this year. Now, I know most teachers would lay off on the first day and take it easy. That being said, I am not like most teachers. I love to dissect things. Rip them apart if necessary, or sometimes just analyze them to get down to the core and find out what makes them tick. That is precisely what I will be doing with you today. And what better way to do that, than by having a little friendly competition?" The class stared down at him. Some stared in fear of fighting, and some in excitement. "Now then I think we'll start this competition off with the two pairs who scored the highest on their exams. That would be Cynthia Cole along with her weapon Sam Garret, and Isamu with his weapon Tom Finch."

The students that were called upon all walked down to the center of the classroom one by one. The first one to make it down there was Isamu. Isamu was 5'8" and weighed 140 pounds and was 16 years old. He had jet black hair that was down to the middle of his neck in the back, but just slightly covered his eyes in the front, and there was a single lock of hair that hung in front of his left eye that was purple. His hair wasn't the only thing that was two different colors, but his eyes were as well. His right eye was purple and his left eye was a dark blue color. He also didn't look nearly as strong as he was. He was pretty much skinny all around. As for his wardrobe, he usually wore a black t-shirt with a crescent moon on it along with a black zipper-up hoodie with blue lining that he always left open. His pants were black cargo pants and he had a pair of sneakers with neon green lining. He wore a necklace that was just a canine tooth of something on a silver colored chain, but no one except for him knows where the tooth came from. Last but not least, he wore a spiked collar around his neck.

Next up was Sam Garret. Sam also looked a lot scrawnier than she actually was, standing at 5"5' and weighing at approximately 105 pounds at an age of 17 years old. She had black hair that was somewhat spiked up in the back but in the front it was hanging down in front of her face, but parted into three sections so it wasn't messy and all over the place so she could still see. She had a scar across her nose and her eyes were both dark green. As for her outfit, she had a charcoal black trench coat with silver buttons and a hood, and the hood had silver fur around the edge of it. She wore a white undershirt underneath that and had dark wash jeans. Lastly, she had on a pair of black leather knee high boots with a set of buckles on each one.

Next came Tom Finch. He was considerably taller than William, standing at about 6"1', and weighing around 180-200 pounds, most of it being muscle, and was 16 years old. He was usually always cheery and had an English accent as well. He had relatively short hair and had blue eyes. He wore a nice suit jacket with a buttoned up white shirt underneath it, and a red tie which was normally left loose. Finally, he had nice smooth black pants on with a nice pair of dress shoes as well.

Lastly, there was Cynthia Cole. Her hair was tied up into a ponytail which was a little bit more than halfway down her back. She was 5'5" with brown eyes, at around 115 pounds, and was 15 years old. She wore an open dark blue hoodie, with a detachable hood on it, and regular blue t-shirt underneath it. She also wore sneakers and a pair of jean shorts as well. She was probably the most normal looking one out of the bunch of them.

They had all gotten in a fighting stance, and the battle was about to begin. Stein stood up out of his chair, "This is just a sparring match, so remember," He smirked at the kids, "no killing. Now, let the fight-" Just as he was about to give the signal to start the match, they all heard voices coming down the hall. "C'mon Ben, we're gonna be late!" Another voice rang out, "What are you talking about?! You're the reason we're late in the first place!" Suddenly the door burst open. The girl bowed and spoke up while the boy stood there with his head in his hand, "I'm very sorry we're late!" Stein looked at his spreadsheet with student names, "So, you two slowpokes must be Luna and Ben White, correct?" Luna spoke up again, still bowing, "Yes sir!" Stein rubbed the back of his head looking around the classroom, "Well, there doesn't seem to be any more seats… Why the hell did they not give me enough chairs for a whole class?" Stein sighed, "Well, looks like you two will just have to stand here with me for now, which means you both get a front row seat to watch the fight." Both of them walked to where Stein was standing.

Luna had shoulder length black hair with brown eyes, and was 5'1". She weighed 100 pounds and had a pink headband on and was 16 years old. She wore a pink zippered up hoodie with sleeves that were a little too long, and the hood that was on the hoodie, that was up most of the time, had cat ears on it. She had a white skirt on that was just above knee length and a pair of pink sneakers on. Anyone who looked at her could tell she was a girly-girl. Just about the only thing that wasn't small about her was her chest.

Ben also had straight black hair, which was a little shorter than Luna's and had green eyes. He was 5'5", weighed around 130 pounds, and was 15 years old. He wore a black hoodie and a pair of blue jeans, which were a bit too long because the bottoms were covering the top part of his shoes, which were regular old dark blue sneakers.

Stein cleared his throat and spoke again, "Now then if their aren't going to be any more interruptions…" everyone regained their fighting poses again. Isamu had a serious face, while Sam, Tom, and Cynthia all had slight smiles. "You may begin." As the words left Stein's mouth, both Tom and Sam transformed at the same time. Sam had transformed into a pair of brass knuckles with three spikes on the knuckles, and two larger spikes on the sides. Tom had transformed into a pair of klewangs, a pair of one handed swords with the handle bent inwards. Isamu grabbed the swords with the handle facing towards him so he was using the backside of the swords, like he always did. Cynthia and Isamu both charged at each other, they both swung multiple times, clashing the two weapons together. Cynthia through her left fist as Isamu stopped it with his right sword, and Isamu swiped at Cynthia with his left sword as Cynthia blocked it with her right fist. They held each other in a standstill for a moment as Cynthia spoke, "Hey, you're pretty good." Isamu just stayed quiet. Cynthia spoke up again, "But we're better." Cynthia and Sam both yelled out, "Soul Resonance!" Isamu jumped and slid back some on his feet.

Suddenly, what seemed to be a huge purple soul formed around them, and with it, Sam's spikes at the ends and sides of each brass knuckle extended by about three full feet by having purple energy extend from them. Tom spoke up from his weapon form, "Wow, looks like they're actually serious." Isamu just continued staring at them, "Yeah… but so are we…" Tom panicked a little, "Hold on a second, we can't use ours here, it's too cramped! We should beat them with using our soul resonance." William got a bit of an irritated face, "Tch… fine…" Just then, as Sam and Cynthia had just finished completing their resonance, Isamu threw the two klewangs up in the air, "Tom, shield mode!" Just then, Tom transformed into a Targe Shield, a completely circular shield that was about four feet across width and height wise. Isamu grabbed the shield like one would grab a frisby, and looked around the room for a bit. Cynthia then charged at them with the now extended brass knuckles, and William kneeled down and put the shield in front of him as Cynthia kept swinging at it. "So, how about it? You wanna call it quits since we've backed you into a corner?" Luna looked over at Stein, "Professor, don't you think you should end it? They're backed into a corner, it's pretty much over." Stein simply smiled as he watched, "Just keep watching… there's a reason Isamu was top of your class." Tom chuckled a bit in his shield form, "You guys have got a lot to learn about us before you can actually corner us."

Then, the next time the claw like spikes hit the shield, Cynthia and Sam got hit with a pulse that Cynthia flying back in the air, but she composed herself in mid-air, did a back flip, and landed on her feet about 15 feet away. Cynthia spoke to Sam, "What was that?!" Luna watched in amazement, "How did they do that?! What happened?!" "That was a soul pulse." Stein said, "Isamu sent a soul pulse into Tom's shield form, and in turn, sent Cynthia flying backwards." Sam smiled to herself and got a little giddy, "Oh man, I haven't had this much fun in forever!" Cynthia smiled back, "I know what you mean." Then, without warning, Isamu threw the shield right in front of Cynthia, and it bounced up at her as she blocked it with the brass knuckled, but winced because it was difficult to deflect. Once it was deflect, the shield bounced off the classroom walls, and came right back to Isamu's hands. Isamu did the same thing about five or six more times before Cynthia got the pattern down. Cynthia spoke to Sam, "Next throw!" Sam spoke back, "Right!"

Isamu threw the shield once more and Cynthia bent backwards so the shield would miss her, and as she did so, Sam turned into a three sectioned staff, with each section connected by chain links. When the shield had missed them it bounced off the back wall and got stuck in the ceiling about halfway in between where Isamu and Cynthia were standing. Cynthia then thrust the staff forward. "Since we're in resonance…" the last chain extended with their soul energy, just as the spikes did on the brass knuckles. "We can stretch out the chain links as far as we need to!" Sam said with enthusiasm. The end of the staff hit Isamu's shin, and he winced in pain as he knelt down on the ground. Sam swiftly transformed back into the brass knuckles and Cynthia yelled out, "This is it!" Luna turned to Stein again, "Professor!" Stein stood there smiling, "Just watch." Cynthia started to charge and took a step forward, but as she did so, the floor beneath her broke, and her foot fell through it, causing her to lose her balance. Then, Tom transformed back into the klewangs, and they started falling from the ceiling. But within three blinks of an eye, Isamu had jumped up, grabbed the klewangs, and was now standing in front of Cynthia with them held up to her throat. Isamu spoke up in a serious tone. "Checkmate…" He then lowered the weapons and walked back to the other side of the room. Stein spoke up, "The winner is Isamu and Tom."

Tom transformed back into human form, as did Sam. Tom walked up to Cynthia and held out his hand as he helped pull her up out of the floor, and Sam did the same with her other hand. Tom smiled at them, "You guys fought really well." Sam spoke in an excited voice, "So did you guys! I didn't even think that the collapsing floor thing was an option! And that soul pulse was really unexpected!" Cynthia spoke up, "It was a really good match." She smiled and shook Tom's hand. Just then the bell rang and that signified that it was time for lunch. Stein spoke to the class as they started gathering their stuff to leave. "Class dismissed…" He looked around at the room which was now pretty much all but destroyed. "…for about another week…" The class all cheered as they ran out of the room. Tom, Cynthia, and Sam all left the room talking to each other, and Isamu followed behind them with his hands in his jacket pockets. Luna looked at Stein before leaving, "Professor… how did you know what Isamu was planning?" Stein smiled as he sat down backwards in his chair again, "Because… Marie and I are the ones who trained him in the first place." Luna went wide-eyed with surprise.

Somewhere in an alley of Death City later that night…

"Aaaaaagh!" A man shrieked as he fell to the ground in a pool of blood, and his arm which was in weapon form transformed back to normal as he went limp. A woman with a crow standing on her shoulder looked down at her handy-work. "It's been 10 years since this city has seen what a witch can do…" She gave an evil smirk as she pet her crow on the back, "Let's remind them, shall we?" The night sky was filled with evil laughter, the squawking of crows, and the smell of blood that night.