"The world is vast Alexei, but limited. It is our job to dig deep and discover the world hidden beneath ours. Do you understand what I am asking of you my grandson?" The old man whispered, the life support machines beeping.

A young boy, no more than 10, stood next to it. He appeared almost as if he were happy about the situation. "Yup! Don't worry Grandpa, I won't let you down." He responded with a wide smile as the old man patted his head and the beeping began to get slower in rhythm.

"That's… a good boy." Were the old man's final words, one last message the old man gave to his pride and joy before going on ahead, 'digging a better path' as he would have put it.

6 Years Later

"Alright, almost there!"

The young man said to no one in particular as his bike sped through the desert, closing in on his destination: Death City. He finally arrived at the one place he wanted to be, above ground anyway. As he drove through the streets of the city he watched the students on the way to school. He parked his bike off to the side of the steps that led to his new school: The Death Weapon Meister Academy. While some people wore uniform, Alexei chose to stand out wearing jeans and a leather jacket with an orange shirt underneath, but it was his headgear that was the most interesting: A pair of goggles that looked like they belonged at an excavation site rather than a school. Some people looked at him like he was crazy. Maybe it was the wild spiky red hair or the fact that he had pointed teeth. Or maybe it was the fact that when he smiled, like he was doing now, he looked like somewhat of a demon. Alexei was never bothered by people staring at him, but trying to fit in at his new school would mandate the smile immediately dropping from his face to a slight grin. Walking up the stairs like he owned the place, he reached the top after a while and signed in at a desk that was near the courtyard-like entrance to the school.

"Hello and welcome to the Death Weapon Meister Academy, or the DWMA for short. My name is Marie and I'm a teacher here." The blonde behind the desk responded cheerily. "Are you a Weapon or Meister, and what would you like to sign your name as?"

Alexei spaced out as he stared at the woman's eye patch, wondering exactly how she got it, but snapped out of it when she started to look uncomfortable. "I'm a Meister… And what do you mean by 'what would you like to sign your name as?'" His excited eyes betrayed his confused tone.

Marie actually giggled at his dual emotions, kind of like his eyes: One shone with a special sapphire-esque color while the other was a deep crimson. "Well, we don't really do background checks on the people here, so you could easily use any name you want. For example, we have a kid name Black*Star here."

Alexei wanted a cool name like that, but couldn't really think of one. Although, because of whom he lived with he never really got to use his real family man. Not to mention that he had to change his name to its Russian counterpart when he moved to Moscow. "I guess I'll go by Alex then… Alex Evans."

Marie nodded and signed him down, then gave him a tag that said 'Meister' and smiled at him. Almost reminded him of his mother, the way she would smile and just brighten up people's day. "Well go on ahead into the courtyard, and see if you can find a Weapon partner there. Or you could go solo, but it won't be recommended you do so unless you have prior combat experience."

Alexei- No Alex (he still wasn't used to the fact he just changed his name and no one cared), nodded to the teacher. "Thanks Miss Marie." He walked inside and saw the true scope of people that were there. Some were just as weird as he was (were those night vision goggles?), while some were normal as normal could be in a world where the sun and moon smiled down at you. Sitting down near the edge and using his Soul Perception, he could only tell what these people were due to the range of his perception and the fact he wasn't focusing on a specific group at the moment. All in all, Alex's graduating class totaled about 150 students. There were stragglers like him surrounding the edges, but it looks like most people were in the crowd of about half the population that had so far made it to the school; even now, more students were floating in. Deciding to begin searching for his Weapon partner, he narrowed his Soul Perception down to just Weapon souls.

There was a certain shine on some souls that indicated they already had partners, so he excluded them from his search. Most souls were blues and purples, meaning they were relatively normal. But one on the edge of the crowd on the opposite side of the courtyard was a bright red, but not in a state of decay like the person was a Kishin egg. Only focusing on her soul, he noticed that she seemed to be the bold type of soul that seemed as if it were waiting for something, something that never came but the hope that it would was still there. Maybe it was a partner. In other words, Alex was interested in this girl's soul almost immediately. Skirting around the giant crowd that was expanding around the middle to get closer to her but not to the point where he was breathing down her neck he leaned on the railing and looked at her, his sapphire orb shining.

"Hello there." Something simple to start off the conversation with, he supposed. Not a good idea to go over the top so fast.

"Hey yourself." She replied curtly, but looking at him she decided she had nothing to do but to kill time with this odd guy.

"So, I'm guessing you aren't much of a talker then, are you?" Alex replied with a hint of hurt leaking out of his tone. He always knew how to use his voice to get just the right reaction.

"Depends. You seem interesting enough to talk to, if you weren't so… Odd." She giggled at his shocked expression when she mentioned how odd he truly looked.

"How odd are we talking here? Like those weird hipster kids on the internet, or like those old guys that like ponies?" Alex smiled as he got her to laugh at that one. Alex was a huge blogger, mainly for music, but he looked at internet trends too.

"Maybe both of those combined?" The boy's smiled deflated the moment she said that. "I'm just kidding, geez lighten up." She smiled, punching him lightly on the arm, laughing when he pretended it was the most powerful punch in the world as he rubbed his arm.

"I'm Alex. Alex Evans. Meister." Alex was hopeful that she would shake his hand back and maybe they could become partners.

"Lucy. Lucy Whitmore. Weapon." She copied his introduction and shook his hand.

Little did they know that moment would begin a huge adventure for the both of them.