Soul Eater: Past Shadows Story

Chapter 1

"Oi! Maka! Slow down!" Soul panted as he sprinted to catch up with his meister. His dark grey skinny jeans were definitely not made for running. The black leather jacket he'd thrown on over his orange t-shirt wasn't helping either. The girl in front of him didn't slow her pace at all. "Maka!" he shouted, infuriated.

"Soul, it would help if you recalled the mission. We have to rescue those students!" she yelled back, looking over her shoulder. Her olive eyes showed her determination. Her speed didn't waver as she turned back to the road ahead. Her ash-blonde wavy shoulder-length hair flew behind her as her feet pounded into the dusty ground. She still wore the same black cloak and plaid skirt six years ago, but now wore a white halter top instead of that crappy yellow vest and tie.

Soul tried to think of a way to get her to slow down. "Shouldn't we at least come up with a plan before we get there?"

Maka stopped in her tracks, quickly turning to face her partner. Before Soul could even react, he'd crashed into her, knocking her to the ground. Dust flew up around them as they hit the ground. Soul's nose started to bleed as he realized where his hands had landed: her breasts.

He groaned and lifted himself up a little bit, removing his hands from her breasts, but paused as he realized their positions. His face was just inches from hers, and he was lying on top of her. Soul blushed as Maka looked up at him, her face also a light pink color.

They lingered there for a few moments, crimson eyes staring into olive. Soul started to lean in to kiss her when Maka said, "Uhh… Soul? A-are you going to get off me anytime soon W-we need to continue the mission."

Soul sighed and sat up. 'Man, that was so not cool,' he thought as he straightened up, holding out his hand to help up his flustered meister. When Maka rejected and jumped to her feet, he just used that hand to adjust the black headband holding his snow-white locks out of his face.

"Makaaaaa…. CHOP!"

"OW!" Soul complained. "What was that for?" He rubbed the dictionary-sized dent in the top of his head. "And where do you keep that thing anyways?"

"Hmph!" Maka turned her head away. "So anyways, what's your plan?"

Soul scowled. "Geesh, I thought the smart one of us should've figured out by now that we still need to come up with one." She Maka-chopped him again. "That was a compliment!"

Maka sighed. "Alright. The place we're going to is an old abandoned house. Lord Death thinks that's where the missing students are being held."

"Creepy, abandoned house?" Soul asked. He smirked. "Sounds pretty cool. Hey, who took those students anyway?"

"I don't know yet," Maka replied. She started walking again, Soul right by her side. "But…" she trailed off.

"But…. What?" Soul prompted after a few seconds of silence.

"But Lord Death thinks it could have been a witch." Soul looked at her, a slight amount of surprise on his face, before going back to his trademark scowl. "I guess we'll find out when we get there who it is that took them for real."

Soul smirked again, drool dripping slightly from his lips. "And then we get to kick their ass for whatever they did for those students."

Maka nodded and pointed ahead of them. "There. That's the place."

Ahead of them lay an expanse of grass, with several nearly leafless trees scattered about. The dirt path they were now led up to a boarded up single-story house. Even though the sun had set and it had obviously been years since anyone had painted it, you could still tell that the peeling paint was yellow. No light came through the single, broken window, the only window that wasn't boarded up. The duo tensed as they noticed the door was ajar.

"Soul," Maka said.

Soul nodded. "On it." And before long, Maka was holding a scythe. Black and red clashed in a zigzag pattern along the blade, with a single red eye at the top of the handle.

"Let's go," Maka said darkly. She pushed open the door the rest of the way, the old hinges squeaking like mad. She stepped in and crept along the creaky floorboards, doing her best to stay quiet.

They had only gotten about halfway through what must have once been a living room, when suddenly someone murmured, "Soul Protect, release," from the shadows.

Maka froze in her tracks, her eyes wide with fear. 'I know this soul,' she thought. 'It's-' Her thoughts were interrupted as sharp claws grabbed her around the waist. She screamed in pain and dropped Soul, still in scythe form.

"Maka!" he yelled, scared for his meister. He quickly changed back to human form.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Maka and Soul," the man who had grabbed Maka smirked, stepping out of the shadows. "I was beginning to wonder when you'd show up."

Soul stood and assessed the man in front of him. He noted how the man had pointy ears, and unkempt facial hair along his jawline. He was tall, and muscular, but there was something about his left eye that threw him off. The man's left eyes had witch symbols instead of an iris and a pupil, and instead of an eyebrow there was a tattoo that read "NOFUTURE." His chest was bare, his pants were the black and white striped of jailers, and he even had a ball and chain attached to his left ankle. Obviously somebody who broke out of jail. On his right shoulder was a tattoo of an unknown shape. It looked almost like…. An eye.

Soul took half a step back. "You…" He knew him from somewhere, but where? Flashbacks from fighting this guy on the bridge in London flashed in front of his crimson eyes. "I remember you now. You're the Man with the Magic Eye."

The Man with the Magic Eye laughed, as if Soul was humoring him with jokes. He pulled Maka closer to him, using her small body like a shield. Bright red beads of blood dripped from her waist, pooling on the floor. Her nice white shirt was already stained with the scarlet liquid. Maka struggled, blades appearing on her arms and legs as she kicked and hit him with everything she had, but it was no use. She tried to catch her breath, slumped over his claws like a ragdoll, face pinched in pain.

"Give. Her. Back," Soul demanded darkly, transforming his right arm into the black and red scythe blade.

The Man with the Magic Eye chuckled. "Going to attack me now? I don't think so. After all, if you attack me, you'll hurt your precious meister," he taunted, caressing Maka's face with his free hand as he talked. "We wouldn't want that, now would we? Besides, you can't kill me! I'm immortal!"

"And here we go with the immortal crap again," Soul sighed to himself. He spoke louder now, speaking to the immortal. "Let Maka go, and tell us where you're keeping the students."

"Oh, you mean the bait? They should be just about back to that retched place known as the DWMA by now. I'm surprised you missed them on your way here." He chuckled to himself. "I had hoped Lord Death would send you two to me. And even though my name may have been forgotten in the time I was held in witch prison, now that I am free, call me Free.

"Do you think this is some kind of game?" Soul asked, his voice dark and eerily calm. "Because if it is…" The white-haired boy rushed forward and plunged the blade deep into the immortal's stomach. "You just lost!"

Maka cried out in pain as Soul accidently hit her upper thigh with the blade. Scarlet beads of blood ran down her leg and created larger pools on the already blood-stained floor.

Soul jumped back in shock. 'Did I really just… Did I just… Hurt Maka?' he thought, paralyzed from the shock and fear coursing through his veins like lightning.

Free smirked. "You're open. Wolf wolves wolf wolves wolf wolves! Ice Cylinder!"

'Crap!' Soul thought. A cylinder of ice appeared in the air, but instead of dropping on Soul's head, dropped down on Free's.

A small "Oomph!" could be heard as Free dropped the now unconscious Maka onto the bloody floor, the product of his own magic crushing him.

"Maka!" Soul yelled, reaching out to grab his meister.

But the witches had other plans. Suddenly, Eruka Frog and the Mizunes appeared between him and Maka.

Eruka chuckled evilly. "Looks like it's time for us to go. What do you think, Mizunes? Free?"

"Chi. Chi chi chi," the Mizunes said. Soul assumed they were agreeing.

Free squeezed out from beneath the cylinder with a comical 'POP!' "Yeah, let's go. We have what we came for."

A tadpole bomb appeared in Eruka's left hand. "Then let's leave," she said darkly.

"No! MAKA!" Soul screamed as smoke filled the old building. He coughed and hacked, and when the smoke finally dissipated, he was alone. No witches… and no Maka.

"No!" Soul said, denying the obvious as he ran outside. "MAKA!" he shouted. "Where are you?" He ran in a random direction, determined to find her and kill her kidnappers.

Soul finally fell to his hands and knees in exhaustion on a grassy hill with no tress in sight, tears gathering in his eyes. "Why?" he whispered. "Why did it have to be my meister? Why Maka?" Oh man, Spirit's gonna kill me now," he groaned, referring to Maka's father and Lord Death's personal weapon: Death Scythe. "But why did it have to be the girl that I… that I…

"WHY?" Soul screamed, throwing his head back to look at the sadistically grinning moon as tears rolled down his face. His voice fell to a whisper. "Why?"

Maka opened her eyes to find herself chained by her hands and feet to the rock wall behind her. "Where am I?" she muttered, still barely coherent, trying to sit up.

She gasped as pain flashed across her waist and her thigh, reminding her of the previous night's events. She could sense another soul nearby. Her eyes widened and she shook with fear as she came to recognize the nearby Soul, and the voice that followed.

"Hello, Maka. Remember me?"