I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment proposes only, no money involved.
Spirit let out a long sigh as he stood outside EAT class C's room. The last week had been a hard one for everyone. The red haired Deathscythe really didn't want to enter the room, even if he knew that his darling daughter Maka was in there.
Just earlier that week, on Halloween, Death City got hit by a major shit storm. A shit storm that resulted in the death of Sid Barrett, an African American three star meister, and the man who used to teach the class. Which was the reason that Spirit was standing in front of the class room. He was to stand in as the substitute teacher until they found someone to replace Sid, as if anyone could.
Spirit slowly turned the knob on the door handle and opened the door. It spoke highly of the ethics of the students of the EAT class that almost all of them where there in their seats, since nearly a hundred of the NOT class meisters had ran home in fear after what had happened. But as Spirit entered the room, he could see the pain in the eyes of the students as they looked forward.
Spirit swallowed. "Thank you all for coming to class, I'm going to be acting as your substitute teacher until we can find a more suitable person." Spirit said. He spotted his daughter Maka. She had a notebook out and was doing her best to pretend that nothing was bothering her, but the sheer fact that she was not turning up her nose at the sight of her 'no good cheating papa' was proof enough that she was still traumatized.
"I know many of you are still shaken from the attack by the witch Shaula, and the ghost that she had employed to attack us during the Halloween festival." Several students flinched at the mention of the slaughter that had accrued. The ghost, which had been called Guardian had single handedly taken out the entire staff of the DWMA and its EAT class students, with only a handful escaping its attack. Ironically it was this creature that had eventually killed Shaula and devoured her soul before turning into a Kishin that called itself 'Pain'.
"But you need to keep in mind that these kind of things are the reason that the DWMA exists. To prepare you to fight against dark creatures and those who would threaten the stability of the world..." Spirit cut off as he heard a light snoring.
He looked towards on of the seats in the front row were the source slept. Spirit frowned as he looked at the shrimpy looking black haired boy. Danny Fenton had been let in to the DWMA after he had caught the attention of the mad scientist Stein, Spirit's ex-partner. Shortly after his arrival he and his weapon partner, Sam Manson made a name for themselves through the boy's unusually powerful soul waves and the girl's ability to realize multiple... weapon forms. Though the true was that Manson's weapon forms were just farm tools; a hand shovel, a spade, and a till.
Though the boy had started out with no real skill in fighting, he was taken under the wing of Black Star, the DWMA's hyperactive ninja, who gave him the stage name of Phantom Moon, presumably without asking him first. Phantom and Sam had moved up in the DWMA and had been placed in the EAT class after just one trimester.
But on the night before Halloween, Phantom had been kidnapped by Shaula and wasn't seen until after the day was through. The higher ups speculated that he was kidnapped do to his family back ground. The boy came from a family of ghost hunters. So everyone believed that the witch wanted him out of her way before she let her ghost lose in the city.
There was some weight behind the idea, since the official story of how the ghost had been beaten after it realized itself as a Kishin was that Black Star used several ghost hunter tools provided by Sam in order to restrain and destroy the Kishin. Something that Black Star wouldn't shut up about for the first two days. He had beaten an opponent that had not only taken out the rest of the DWMA, but had beaten Death himself.
"Ms. Manson, could you wake your partner up!?" Spirit said probably a little louder than he needed to. Sam Manson had black hair like her partner, but instead of crystal blue eyes she had purple.
Sam rolled her eyes at the sleeping meister and turned her hand into a spade just like she always did. She was in the act of bringing it down on Danny's head when his hand shot up and grabbed it. She blinked in astonishment as Danny's head rolled a little to face her and one of his eyes cracked open.
Sam froze up as she thought she saw a hint of the hot pink and deep blue of Shaula's eye inside of the boy's. But then he blinked and it was gone, replaced by his usual glassy blue. "Is class over?" He asked with a loud yawn, earning a few chuckles from his close friends but the rest of the class remained silent.
"No Phantom, class is just starting." Kim said from his left. The pink haired secret witch was one of Danny's closest friends after they exchanged secrets. It was pretty well known among the inner circle that each of them had a crush on the other, but neither of them had confessed to the other yet.
"Ye... yeah, Danny. You need to wake up already." Sam said hitting him on the head for good measure. Danny rubbed the top of his head whining a little.
"Anyways, since I don't have Sid's schedule, I am going to be going over the basics with you all again. Remember, a solid foundation could one day save your lives." Spirit said before turning to the black board. "Oh, one more thing. Maka, Soul, you Black Star and Tsubaki are all to report to the Death Room." He said before getting to walk talking about the different kinds of souls and who they can be tracked. Black Star gave a shout of joy and being able to skip the class and ran off. The others were less enthusiastic as they went.
"Nothing can slow Black Star down. I think his blood was replaced with sugar at birth." Kim joked with Danny as the class went on.
Even though Danny was laughing cheerfully enough, Sam couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that remained. She could have sworn she saw Shaula's eye.
"Man, this is some BS!?" Black Star shouted at lunch, not that Black Star ever said anything quietly. In all the time they known him, Danny and Sam had only seen his smile disappear once or twice. He was a bit shorter than everyone else since he was a year or two younger and had spiked up sky blue hair. A star shaped birthmark on his arm marked him as the last surviving member of the Star Clan. "I lead the charge in taking down a Kishin, and they have me taking remedial lessons!?"
"You know Black Star, most people that were made to take remedial lessons, would be to ashamed to tell everyone in the entire school." Sam said her usual act of annoyance with the hyperactive ninja. "And of course you get remedial lessons, you haven't completed a single mission yet, and you've been in the EAT class for a whole year." The two of them started to argue the way they always did.
"Black Star, please take this seriously." Tsubaki said to her meister. The magical dark arm, Tsubaki, was about as different from her meister as you could get. She was tall with long dark hair and a quiet demeanor. "Lord Death said that if we fail that we are going to be kicked out of the DWMA."
"They wouldn't really do that would they?" Estelle asked. She was a more gentle natured older girl, like Tsubaki, with short light brown hair and eyes. She and her meister made up the last pair in the group of misfits that had worked together to stop Pain.
Repede was laying beside the table chewing on a large bone that the lunch lady had given him. Since he was around, more other students avoided their table out of fear of the monster dog. Repede was the size of Great Dane with a long narrow built. His body was covered in dark blue fur except for a sky blue mane around the back of its head and a white stomach and mouth. He wore a collar with the DWMA skull logo as a tag, which marked him as a student. A scar ran down one of his red eyes, giving him an even more threatening look, even if he was just a big softy.
The monster dog was both Estelle's partner and adoptive older brother. When Estelle's family was killed by the Star Clan, Estelle was rescued by Repede's mother, Rita, who adopted the girl and raised her along side Repede. Her history with the Star Clan had been a bad point between Estelle and Black Star when they first meet, but the little ninja grew on people, even if they didn't want him to.
"Doesn't matter, because I won't fail." Black Star said before turning away from everyone. "Since we got the rest of the day off, I think I'm going to head out and do some training before we have to start our mission tonight." Black Star said before running off, leaving Tsubaki behind with their friends.
"Black Star is pretending none of this is worrying him... but..." Tsubaki said sadly as her meister went. "The mission... it is to check out some rumors about... about Sid being brought back as a Zombie, and attacking people in the graveyard."
The air around the table went cold. "Danny, do you mind." Sam said shivering.
"Huh... oh, sorry." Danny said lowering the effect of his cold core as Kim's partner Jacqueline, or just Jackie, used her fire based soul waves to warm up the area.
Sid had been the closest thing Black Star had ever had to a real father. After the DWMA had hunted down the Star Clan, Sid had defended the baby Black Star's right to live and had taken him in along side his partner, Nygus. Black Star had been enraged by Sid's death, but had put on a strong face and tried to help everyone else through their loses at the time.
Danny got up and made to leave. "Where are you going?" Sam asked.
"I'm going to go help with the reconstruction. Pain caused a lot of damage." Danny said not looked back.
"Danny, get back over here and finish eating." Sam demanded, more than half of Danny's food was still their, and as much as Sam wanted her partner to go vegan, she didn't want him to starve. "What's going on Danny? You haven't been eating, you haven't been sleeping at night, you hardly even complain anymore."
"She's right Phantom, you need to eat something at least... or I think you do." Kim said not actually positive that the Danny needed to eat to survive.
"Guys... I need to help rebuild. Everything that happened, Sid, the tournament, the city... it is all my responsibility." Danny said not looking at them.
"Danny, it isn't your fault. Shaula was the one that killed Sid. She forced you to attack everyone at the tournament. And it was her fault that you turned into Pain." Sam said trying to reason with him.
"I know... that is why it's my responsibility to do everything I can to make it right." Danny said before walking away. None of them could see with his back turned to them, but his left eye had changed to a blue and pink yin yang sign, the same eye as Shaula.
Most people would call Doctor Stein a cruel bastard for what he was doing. But Lord Death had granted his permission to give Maka and Soul, and Black Star and Tsubaki this remedial lesson. Each Meister had just gone through heavy mental trauma in one form or another. And Stein knew that unless they were taught soon that sometimes they needed to just move on and doing what they had to do, they might never learn and their souls would forever be burdened.
During her fight against the ghost that was being referred to as Guardian, which later turned into the Kishin Pain, Maka lost her resolve. The difference in power between herself and the ghost was so great that it had broken her and left a wound on her soul, one that Stein was hoping to mend and stop from it left a permanent scar. But in order to do this he was going to have to push her beyond her emotional limits. She would either press through, or she would lose what control she has over her soul waves and be forced to leave the DWMA.
The matter with Black Star was slightly more cruel. Black Star was not openly traumatized like the other students, but the fact remained that Sid was like a father to the boy. And his death was hard on him. Even though Sid had been revived as a zombie, Black Star needed to be able to accept Sid's death before he would be able to move on his life. Simply presenting Sid back to him would only leave the boy in denial forever. So Stein had arranged for Black Star to fight Sid. It was the fastest way to get Black Star to move on.
But now that Doctor Stein had already set these things in motion, he could do nothing but sit back and wait. And as he waited he drank some coffee out of beakers and read the files on his new students.
He was going to start as a teacher the next day and even though he had been avoiding becoming a teacher for so long, he was actually excited. Mainly because of who was in his class.
So many interesting specimens. Some were one of a kind.
Repede Stormfang was a northern bolt-tailed monster dog. A breed that was said to have been descended from Fenrus, a familiar of Eibon, the Madness through Wisdom. A sorcerer as powerful as Lord Death himself and a former member of the Eight Powerful Warriors, Death's Elite fighting force before the days of the first true Kishin.
Fenrus was a messenger, highly intelligent and capable of communicating telepathically. A master piece worthy of his master's craft, he was adoptive to outside magic and able to resonate strongly with other souls.
Estellise Sidos Heurassein, or Estelle, was a short sword type weapon and the last of the Heurassein blood line. A lineage that traced its roots back to Vajra, another of the Eight Powerful Warriors, and one of two weapons that were not descendants of the witch Arachne's experiments. The first member had been born before Asura had forced Vajra's to eat human souls, or had eaten Vajra himself in order to become the first true Kishin.
This bloodline granted Estelle the ability to resonate with just about any meister and produce her holy soul wavelength. A soul wavelength that is very close in nature to Lord Death's and Excalibur's, if not in actual volume.
Black Star himself had another soul that demanded the mad doctor's attention. The Star Clan had agreed to go through an experiment for a witch in order to gain more power. They achieved this by unlocking the ability to harvest and eat human souls. The product was named the 'Demon Wavelength', though there was nothing inherently evil about it as long as one didn't devour souls.
This wavelength was powerful and sporadic, granting Black Star a much easier time attacking with his raw soul waves and made him resistant to mind control. Since the Star Clan had been wiped out, he was the last to have this unique wavelength.
Black Star's Weapon partner, Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, was the heiress to the Nakatsukasa Clan, after her elder brother went rouge. The Nakatsukasa Chan was an old family and had the rare trait of being able to realize multiple different types of weapon forms. Though usually it was only two different forms, so Tsubaki was special even by their standards with four different forms, especially since she was not the first born child.
Multiple weapon forms provided versatility in battle and increased strength. But more importantly, each form seemed to have a small shred its own soul, passed down through the blood line. Something that had not been found in any other weapon clan.
Kim Diehl is another student that caught Stein's eye. He never told any of his superiors, but he had discovered the young witch that had been hiding among them. But observation told him that she wasn't dangerous so he didn't tell the other meisters that would have her imprisoned or killed anyways, he didn't even tell Lord Death about her.
Kim was unique among witches because of her Regeneration Magic, magic that was believed to be tabooed by the witches. Without a magic of destructive or manipulative nature, Kim was immune to the 'sway of magic', which is the driving force that causes witches to be evil. Stein had hopes that observing her could produce a cure to the sway of magic.
And finally, there was Danny Fenton, or Phantom Moon, who had what Stein coined as a 'Ghost Hybrid Soul Wavelength'. Though at the time Stein had no clue just how accurate that name was. He didn't know how it had came to be, but Phantom's human soul was exposed to an environment that had changed it into a Ghost Soul. Only he retained the stable body and mind from his life as a human.
So unlike ghosts, whose lack of a stable mind and body caused them to fall to even the slightest hint of madness and often run out of control do to their obsessions, Phantom was able to control himself and had a soul that was easily twenty times the strength of a normal human soul. Stein was personally interested in seeing just how many of the abilities unique to ghosts the boy had gained.
Stein reached up to the screw that ran through his skull before giving it a hard twist. He looked over at the monitor of the outside of his hospital and saw the students coming up. "I guess it is time for their first lesson." He said putting out his cigarette and pushing back on his desk causing him to go flying in his wheelie chair towards the front down. He was about to give them a lesson they would never forget.
It was getting along to three in the morning, but Danny was still out. He was working on repairs to the miniature version of the statue of liberty. The same statue that Shaula had used to kill Sid. She had torn the whole thing out of the ground and drove its torch straight into the teachers forehead.
'I really screwed things up bad, didn't I?' A solemn voice said in the back of Danny's mind. Danny blinked and he was back inside of his soul world. It took on the same appearance as always, the lab back at Fenton Works. And standing in the middle of it was the younger version of Shaula.
She still had the same mixture of blue and pink eyes and hair that was every color between pink and purple. But Shaula's age had been turned back from the body of a seventeen year old woman to a twelve year old girl. She was dressed in a black sundress and her hair was worn behind her in two braids instead of just one large one.
Most of people would not have had a hard time recognizing her since the crazed expression that she had always worn was gone, replaced by a look of regret.
"If I had never tried to possess you. If I had never tried to revolt against Lord Death. None of it would have happened." Shaula said.
"You aren't the same person you were then. Don't beat yourself up over it." Danny said simply before leaving his soul world once again to continue to walk at replacing the broken stones around the foundation.
'Why are you letting me exist?' Shaula asked him for what must have been the hundredth time. 'I hypnotized you, forced you to attack the DWMA, tried to make you kill your friends. It was my fault that you turned into Pain. So why do you let me continue to stay inside of your soul?'
'I've already told you. I believe in second chances.' Danny said as he removed a rather heavy fragment of stone and threw it aside. 'You've done some bad things, but you understand that and want to make things right now. That all that matters.'
"Danny, we need to talk." Danny already knew it was Sam. She was the only person in Death City that still called him Danny.
'I wonder if your friends will feel the same.' Shaula said as Danny gulped at turned around to see Sam standing there with Kim, Jackie, Estelle, Repede, Black Star and Tsubaki.
"Black Star, what happened to you?" Danny asked trying to keep the subject off of him. Black Star looked pretty beat up.
"Oh, the remedial lesson was a bit crazy!" Black Star said laughing loudly in the quiet street.
Clang! Sam hit the ninja on the head with her shovel hand. "Don't get distracted stupid! Danny, you need to rest. All this isn't good for you." Sam said quickly before Black Star could do something stupid.
"This is an intervention, Phantom." Kim chuckled. "You can't blame yourself for what happened. We all could have done more to stop Shaula's plans before it happened. But you don't see us all going gilt crazy over it."
"I told you, it's my responsibility to fix everything." Danny said not looking at them.
"Why, Phantom? Why does it have to be your responsibility?" Estelle asked.
"Shaula's dead Phantom, just let it go." Jackie added.
Danny was quiet for a few seconds. "She isn't dead." He finally whispered. The group froze. "I stopped Pain before he fully absorbed her soul." Danny said. He turned to them all with his left eye closed. When he opened it they all saw Shaula's eye.
"Get out of him! Get out of him right now!" Black Star growled electric sparks jumping between his fingers as his soul waves became more intense.
"She can't do that, Black Star." Danny said shaking his head. "Her body was destroyed and Pain stripped away most of her soul. If she left my soul then she would disappear completely."
"So you're letting her possess you!" Kim shouted. Repede began to growl.
"Phantom that's dangerous." Tsubaki said. "What if she tries to take control of you again."
Danny chuckled. "Pain couldn't even control me completely, and he had the power of a god. Shaula isn't strong enough to take control of me. Even if she had her full powers. And besides... her hatred is gone. Pain consumed all of her negative emotions, and the sway of magic no longer has control over her. She regrets what she did." Danny said trying to reason with the group. "I just want to give her a second chance."
Sam walked forward to Danny, her hand turned into a shovel again and she smacked him across the head hard causing him to fall to the ground. "I understand why you did it Danny, but next time tell me!" She shouted angrily. "I'm you friend and your partner! You should have told me on day one!"
"Sorry... I wanted to give you time to calm down." Danny said rubbing his head. "Looks like that didn't work. Ouch."
"Hey..." Black Star said getting their attention. "Shaula is inside of you right? Bring her out. I got something I need to say." Black Star was serious enough to make Danny worried.
'We should do it. He has every right.' Shaula said though Danny could feel how much she wished she didn't have to do it.
Danny nodded and took a deep breath as he worked at giving control over to Shaula without crushing her. But soon Danny's mouth opened and a different voice came out. "I'm ready. " Shaula said sadly looking towards Black Star. "I understand that Sid was like a father to you... and I killed him. So you have every right to destroy me. Your Demon Soul Wavelength would disrupt my connection to Phantom's soul. Do what every you wish." It was hard for the people gathered to recognize Shaula's voice without the insane laugh or hatred behind it.
Black Star clenched his fist, pulled back and punched Danny so hard in the face that he was sent bouncing along the ground. But he didn't put his Soul Wave into it. "There, now we're even." Black Star said spitting to the side.
Danny seat up, his eyes rolling a bit as stars danced in front of him. "But... after everything I did?" Shaula said confused.
"Sid was brought back to life as a zombie by some mad doctor guy. Other than the fact that he's blue now and has a hole in his forehead, he's pretty much the same as he always was." Black Star said shrugging causing Tsubaki to chuckle a little. "The only one that die is you. And even you didn't do that good of a job of doing it." But then Black Star turned serious again. "But that isn't what I want to talk about. I didn't train Phantom to be a quitter. If he's decided to do this then I will respect that... but if you hurt him or that crazy weapon of his... I will destroy you." Black Star said through gritted teeth, his hazel eyes momentarily flashing with golden stars.
"Ri...right." Shaula stammered as a hand went to the already swelling cheek.
A second passed and then Danny shouted. "Ah... come on Black Star this is my body you're punching!" Danny said.
"Well that's what you get for not telling us sooner." Black Star said putting his hands behind his head and giving his trademark grin.
"This doesn't change anything, Phantom. You still need sleep more than you need to fit this mess." Kim said crossing her arms. "You say this is all your responsibility, but there are more important things to do then just repairing a street or two. That kind of work isn't going to change the world."
Danny's hand dropped from his face. "I guess you are right, but... I don't know what to do." Danny admitted.
"We'll all figure it out, as a team." Estelle said but then she couldn't hold back a yawn. "But we need our sleep." They finally got Danny to agree and all went back to their dorms. With the weight of having to explain himself off of his mind, Danny finally got some sleep.
"So I hear they finally found a new teacher to take Sid's place. It's a pity that there are rules against having a zombie as a teacher." Kim said during the class later that morning. Danny was in his seat and was fast asleep as usual.
"I wonder who it is." Estelle said petting her older brother's head as they waited.
"How cares. They should just let me teach." Black Star said arrogantly. He was getting a little annoyed that the topic was straying away from him.
"Yeah...no. That ain't happening." Sam said rolling her eyes. Black Star and Sam began to get into one of there spats and Kim turned to Maka and Soul who looked miserable.
"What's the matter with you two? That remedial lesson get to you?" Kim asked curious.
"Please don't talk about it." Maka said shivering. "I think that crazy doctor is going to replace the ghost in my nightmares."
"That lesson was seriously not cool." Soul said agreeing with his meister. "If we never see that Stein guy again, it will be too soon."
Repede's head shot up and turned to the door. He gave a low growl to the rest of the group. "Repede says that someone's coming." Estelle translated. Everyone went quiet and they could all hear what sounded like plastic wheels skidding across tile floors.
Suddenly the door burst open and Doctor Stein fell into the room with his wheelie chair falling on top of him. There we three different kinds of looks in the room. Those who had yet to meet Stein looked confused. Those who had met him looked horrified. And Danny was still asleep.
"No, not you!" Black Star and Sam shouted together, finally agreeing on something. Stein got back up and reentered his chair, grinning up at all his new experimental subjects. He had a feeling that it was all going to be an exciting school year.
For everyone who is just joining in on the story, I would suggest going back to the first one before reading this one. I've done enough exposition that you won't be completely lost, but I think your missing out on a lot of character development. And I mean a lot.
Yes, both Estelle and Repede are based on the characters of the same names from Tales of Vesperia, even Repede's mother's name is one of the characters from the game. It is a good game, I would suggest playing it if you like feeling like you somehow lost your way, Since like almost all Tales of ... games, you will find that you go from being a small town man trying to fix a small town problem to fighting off space aliens for some reason that you don't understand while traveling with a group of characters that are extremely lovable and relatable.
Black Star is the only surviving Star Clan member! There is no Red Star (Akane Hoshi)... No... No! Blue Star (Ao Hoshino)! Get out! Get out and stop ruining Black Star!
As a 800 year old witch, Shaula can give them a lot of back ground information when they need it, allowing me to put my own twist on some elements of the story without everyone wondering where they hell that they got all this information from.
I am over half way done with the next chapter (I am just putting the finishing touches on Black Star, Soul, and Danny vs. Death the Kid) and have a outline set up for the two chapters after that. But the guy I had been asking to Beta for me seems to have just fallen off because he didn't want to do it for this story, he wanted to beta for another one. So anyone that would be willing to do that job for this story please send me a pm AND a DocX Connection request.
And if you think you have a better title for a Soul Eater/ DP story then I am open to suggestions on that front.
Next chapter; 'New Students, Death has a Kid?'