Chapter 1: "Let's do it, Partner!"

Jake Clawson is sitting in the living room of his apartment. It is a small apartment with a kitchenette, bathroom, living room and one bedroom. He was just finishing watching his favorite program, The David Litterbin Show and decided to finally get to bed. It was about midnight, typical for Jakes bedtime since his favorite show got a later air time.

Jake got off of the couch and began to walk down the hallway to his bedroom, turning off all of the lights as he left the room. When Jake opened the door to the bedroom, he was welcomed with a sight that never ceases to amuse him. Chance Furlong was asleep on his own bed on the left side of the room. Chance was sleeping in his boxers, his butt in the air, his comforter lying on the floor and was snoring. This is how Chance usually ended up when he went to bed. Jake gave a silent laugh and smiled as he went to his bed on the right side of the room. Jake stripped to his boxers and laid down. The soft light from the moon slightly illuminated to the room through the skylight that they were lucky enough to have come with the apartment.

Jake turned to lay on his side so that he was facing Chances bed. He laughed again seeing the same sight from before. He looked over Chance for a couple seconds, and then himself, he sighed quietly. He couldn't help but be a little jealous of Chances well built figure. He might have had a bit a chubby belly and a round face, but he was quite muscular and that was evident even through his thick fur. Jake was muscular too, but he was lithe and small, it made him seem a lot less impressive in his mind.

"Whatever." Jake said quietly, quickly shrugging it of. He moved to lay on his back and raised his left arm up. With a slight flash his arm turned to a silver, almost metallic look, and a blade extended from his wrist forward. Jake smirked.

"I still got this on him!" he said quietly with a grin. Jake changed his arm back to normal and resumed his previous position. Just as Jake began to drift off to sleep...

"unh...Jake stop..." Chance said in a low mumble

Jake opened his eyes and looked at Chance. Chance was obviously still asleep as his snoring hadn't ceased. Jake had become very accustomed to Chances snoring and he usually didn't notice it.

"Must've been my imagination..." Jake sighed. He tried to go to sleep again but his thoughts continued to bombard him. "Damn it" Jake sighed. "Why did I have to start thinking now?" Jake has had problems with getting to sleep many times do to his rather high IQ. When he started thinking it was like a train ride, he could want it to end all he wanted, but it most likely wouldn't until his thoughts reached their destination, whatever that may be.

Jakes thoughts began to culminate. "What if he did say that?" "What could he be dreaming of?" "Why would he have said my name?" "Is he...?" Jake groaned and rubbed his palms on his eyes. "There's no way Chance could be gay, I think I'm just trying to get my hopes up" He thought.

Jake had always had a thing for Chance since the day they had met, but he had no way of knowing if Chance had the same feelings. Jake might have been more hopeful, if it weren't for the fact that Chance seemed to flirt with almost every girl he talked to, especially Jackie.

Jake began to think back to the day that he had met his best friend, his partner, his brother and his secret love interest.

"Yeah!" Today's finally the day I get to go to DWMA!" Jake said with pride ad he stretched his arm toward the sun. "I wonder if I'll find a partner I really meld with?" Jake questioned, soon accompanied with a grimace. He lowered his arm, "What if I don't find a partner?" Jake stood for a second, motionless. He then grinned widely, "Guess I'll just have to show those kishin on my own then hunh?" Jake snapped back into reality after noticing that he had been talking to himself and blushed slightly, wondering if he had been heard by anyone.

Jake picked up his pace and quickly found himself in front of the towering school. He couldn't help but gawk at the interesting architecture. The school was perfectly symmetric, three large skull like entrances were at the front with three red needle looking structures protruding from them and four towers behind them, the two smaller towers at the center and the slightly larger ones beside them. With one large tower on each end of the school and the trademark gigantic candles extruding from the front, it was no less than a masterpiece. "Damn, it looked amazing from afar but up close amazing barely begins to describe it!" Jake said

Just then Shinigami, the facilitator and more or less principle of the school came to the top of the steps in the courtyard of the school where everyone was gathered. All of the aspiring students fell silent and waited intently for him to start speaking. Jake took a quick moment to look over Shinigami-sama. He couldn't help but associate him to a grim reaper-Esq look aside from his skull mask that resembled the school entrances and his huge, blocky, white glove looking hands.

"YOOOOOOO!" Shingami greeted the students

Jake drooped his head and let out a slight sigh with a single sweat drop going down his face. "Just a bit on the informal side aren't we Shinigami-sama?" Jake looked around and found that a lot of prospective students were wearing the same expression.

"I welcome all of you to Shibusen." Said a red haired man standing to Shinigamis right. "Or as it's also known, the DWMA (Death Weapon Meister Acadamy). It stands as a defense against the forces of evil, which would plunge the world into chaos and drag humanity into the very depths of fear and madness. The demons known as Kishin, and their eternal hunger for destruction. To ensure that the Kishin never regain their hold on this world, this Academy was founded by the Grim Reaper, Death himself. That being said take this time to mingle with your fellow students and get acquainted, perhaps even find a partner!" The red haired man stopped

"YOU HEARD SPIRIT-KUN! MINGLE!" Shinigami roared.

Jake had gone back to wearing his face that he had made when Shinigami first began speaking.

"Shinigami-sama isn't that just a bit informal?" questioned the man known as Spirit.

Shinigami raised his right hand into a chopping fashion. "SHINIGAMI-CHOP!" he screamed as he hit Spirit square on his head. Spirit was laid out, cold and unresponsive. A she-kat wrapped almost completely in bandages came out and began to drag Spirit away. Jake couldn't help but wince at the amount of strength that Shinigami-sama was able to put into a single chop.

Shinigami began to walk away, and Jake perked his ears up thinking he had heard something peculiar. He looked around and saw a student wearing a welcoming community badge causing an uproar...by himself. Jake couldn't make out what he was saying so he simply shrugged it off and walked away. A couple hours went by and Jake had talked with some of the other weapons and meisters. While fun to talk to the only ones he found that may have been a possibility for his partner were already taken. Jake sighed and started to walk away from the already dissipating crowd.

Jake was already a good distance away from the school, he was heading toward a friends house that he had been staying with until he could get his own apartment. He was hoping to rent one with his eventual partner so that costs would be relatively lower. He could have taken a school dorm, but decided against that with the horror stories he had heard about the men's bathrooms. "Ugh" Jake shook his head. "Oh well, this was only the introductory day, maybe I can meet someone at orientation tomorrow. Besides, I still have a couple of weeks before class actually starts."

Jake turned and walked through an alley way that he had been through here many times over the past week while he went around the city trying to familiarize himself with it. Jake exited the alley way on the other side and came across the basketball court near the park. Jake looked over the park and found no one there. "Hunh, I guess introduction day has everyone off doing other things." Jake stopped for a moment and sighed. "Probably with their new-found partners."

Jake started to walk again, but stopped when he heard a faint chuckle from behind. Jake whirled around to see four boys about his age walking toward him.

"Aww look at that, poor little kat is all by his lonesome. Don't you know it's dangerous in this part of town at this time?" said the tallest one of them. He was tall, but not really that built. His hair was long and gangly. The three others spread a bit apart and walked a couple steps closer to Jake. To the Tall one's left was a short, muscular tom. The other two, to the tall humans right were also human and looked almost like twins, they were both mid sized, with short brown hair and the same doofy grin.

"It's only four, I think I'll be fine." Jake said flatly, narrowing his eyes.

"Are you sure about that?" said the twins, in creepy unison.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Jake pried. He knew all to well that these guys probably wanted to do him harm. He tried to assess the situation as best he could. He could risk fighting them all off, after all he was a weapon and could put up a good fight without a meister. He could also run, his friends house was only a couple blocks away, he was sure he could out-speed at least three of them. Jake voted that running would be the better option, any of them could also be weapons and/or meisters, he would be on the losing end if that were true. His four instigators took a few more steps toward him. Jake stepped back and gasped when he felt his back against the wall, literally and figuratively. He looked for a possible escape route and found only one, and his path was blocked by the two twins. "Damn" Jake thought.

"Because this is where we hang out, everyone knows that." The tall one said, replying to Jake's previous statement. He grinned as he finally walked right next to Jake. Jake clenched his fist, but didn't swing, if it could be avoided he didn't want a fight."How about you give us all of your money?" Jake didn't take his eyes off of the tall one. He reached into his back pocket where he held his wallet and took it out, removing all of the money from it and handed it to the tall one. "Thanks!" he said while hastily snatching the bills from Jake's paw. The tall one saw a shine come from Jake's paw that he took the money from. "And how about that watch you're wearing too?" The tall human reached for Jake's wrist where the watch was, only to be stopped by Jake grabbing onto his arm.

"You don't touch that!" Jake spat.

"Try and stop me!" said the tall one. He swung his fist at Jake. Jake swiftly moved his face out of the contact zone and laid into the the punks face with a right straight. The three other punks gasped, no one had the balls to hit their ring-leader before with all of them around. "Damn you..." said the tall one holding onto his now bleeding nose, "..now you're gonna get it!" At that moment the other three punks moved next Jake, the two twins each held onto and arm and the stockier one held onto Jake's legs to completely keep him from moving.

"Now this is fighting dirty!" Jake spat. "You think I give a damn?" said the tall one, who pulled out a switch-blade as he neared Jake. Jakes eyes widened as the tall one was only feet away from him. When he was within striking distance the tall one slashed at Jake with his blade, leaving a large but shallow cut on Jakes chest. Jake yowled in pain as blood began to seep through the newly open wound.

"Sky, isn't that a bit much?" the stocky one asked

"Shut up! Now are you gonna cooperate or..." the tall one placed his blade at Jake's throat, "...does this have to get ugly?"

"Is there a problem here?" a voice came from the alley Jake had originally planned his escape. All of the boys looked over to the alley to see a tall muscular tom walking toward them. The tom stood at about 6 feet and was well built. His fur hid his muscle definition but his muscles were evident when he moved. His fur was a nice blonde color and he had stripes along the back of his arms, they looked like they extended to his back as well, but his shirt covered those if he did have them. He was dressed in a pair of jeans with small cuts here and there, a red shirt with a "*68" logo and he carried a backpack in his right paw.

"Tch, none that you need to worry about." replied the one named Sky

"Oh really cause to me it looks like four guys are ganging up to rob..." The tom took a quick look over to Jake and saw his cut, blood stained shirt, "...mug this kat.

Sky moved his blade from Jake's throat and pointed it toward the new tom. "Get the fuck out of here if you know what's good for you buddy."

The new tom dropped his backpack and cracked his knuckles, "Funny that you call me buddy when I'm about to kick your collective asses, besides" the tom added a smirk "I don't think I would ever associate myself with scum like you!"

"GET 'IM" Sky demanded. The two twins let go of Jake and rushed at the new tom. The stocky tom went from holding Jake's legs to standing next to Sky. Jake turned and was ready to run and help the tom, however with only two punches the twins were laid out cold.

"Whoa" gasped Jake

The new tom looked back to Sky and his stocky cohort. "Do we need to continue or can we stop here?" he questioned, not really expecting an answer

"NOW YOUR GONNA GET IT!" screamed Sky. "Drake NOW!"

"Gotcha Sky!" With his command the stocky tom shone brightly and turned into a tri-point lance, almost resembling a stereotypical trident. The stocky tom, Drake, had in fact turned out to be a death weapon and the tall boy Sky was a weapon meister, Jakes predictions were accurate. Without any warning Sky lunged at the tom.

The toms eyes widened and he prepared to possibly guard against the threatening blow. Before the impact the tom inadvertently closed his eyes. The sound of metal on metal rang throughout the park. The tom opened his eyes to see Jake standing in front of him, his arm clad in silver and a red and black blade protruding from his wrist, blocking the oncoming attack from the two punks."What?" Sky retreated back a few steps from Jake and the other tom. "You're a weapon?!"

"Thanks there captain obvious" replied Jake.

"Damn it" said Sky as he turned and began to run off, "We'll get you eventually!" Soon the two twins got up from their beating and followed their ring leaders suit.

Jake turned his arm back to normal and turned to face the tom that helped him. "Hey thanks. Who's to say what they would've done had you not come along."

The tom gave Jake a quick smile, but that quickly turned into a look of worry when he looked back to Jake's wound across his chest. "Oh damn! That cut! are you alright?" the tom began to inspect the wound.

"Yeah, it stopped bleeding. Guess being a weapon has it's perks" Jake said while sticking out his tongue. The tom smiled at Jake's lightheartedness

"Well, you should still get it cleaned." The tom went to his backpack and pulled out a shirt. He walked back to Jake and held it out to him, "Here, it'll be big on you...well really big on you," the tom chuckled, Jake responded with a glare, "but it's prolly better than wearing a torn, bloody shirt right?"

Jake looked down and saw that the blood began drying on his shirt and had stained it red and brown. "I guess" Jake chuckled when he put the shirt on. The tom was right, it was really big on him, it hung down past his groin and was so big on his that one shoulder was hanging out. "Thanks!" Jake tossed the torn shirt to the ground.

"Not a problem at all!" replied the tom, "come on I'll take you by my place and we'll get that all patched up for ya" the tom pointed to Jakes chest then made a gesture with his paw signaling Jake to follow.

"Well.." Jake paused. He was gonna tell the tom that his friend was only a couple blocks away, besides he usually would have just said no anyway, but … he actually wanted to say yes. "Sure!" Jake said after a couple seconds. He trotted over to where the tom was standing.

"By the way.." the tom stuck out his paw "The name's Chance Furlong"

Jake smiled and grabbed Chances paw in his. "And mines Jake Clawson, nice to meet ya Chance!" he replied as they shook paws