Chapter 1: Graduation Day
Ren glanced at the crowd that stood by the school entrance. Meisters and Weapons, thrilled about meeting their eventual partners. Ren despised them. He knew that the second those teams were separated in combat, they were done for. Stop being so jealous.
Normally, Weapons had no trouble in finding partners since Meisters searched the deepest, darkest corners in Death City for them but none aknowledged Ren's existence even though he wasn't that far from them. Ren the Mongrel.
He was crouching on top of the wall that separated Shibusen from the rest of Death City. Ren the Chainsaw. Everyone wanted guns, swords, spears and even gauntlets, but no one wanted a Chainsaw. Not that he needed anyone. Knowing he would probably be left aside, he had trained his whole life to be able to fight with himself, and he was damn good at it. He looked at the top window of the nearest building, seeing his own crouching figure staring back at him. He had brown hair shaped as a short mohawk and green eyes. He wore a black buttoned up shirt, fingerless black leather gloves, jeans that were a bit torn on his knees and white sneakers. Tied around his waist was a white leather jacket. He was tall, musculed and thin.
"Hey."- he turned around to see a tall, thin, Caucasian girl looking at him. She had long blonde hair tied into a single, long braid that fell down to the end of her back. Her face was oval and pretty. She had blue eyes, so light they could be mistaken for white and small, light pink lips. She wore a black hoodie that had two angel wings decaled in white on the back and "Saint" spelled on her chest, also in white. She wore torn jeans and white sneakers. She looked of Nordic descendance.
"Hey."- he replied, simply turning his head to look at her for a second before turning it back.
"Why are you here?"- she asked. Every Weapon and Meister were in the school entrance while he was there, crouching on the wall.
"Why am I here and not there cherry picking? Because I don't want to waste my time and energy.
Why are you here?"- he answered, not moving a muscle.
"I saw you from back there and thought you looked interesting. Why would trying to find the best Meister for you be a waste of time and energy?"- Ren jumped off the wall and stood in front of her.
"Because no Meister will want me. Every Meister wants swords, guns, spears, gauntlets, staves. I'm neither of those. Why is a pretty, capable looking Meister like you talking to the guy that is just crouching in the distance instead of finding a Weapon? By now, you could have found 10 of those."- He nodded at the crowd. This was starting to sound like a questioning.
"Because one good Weapon is as good as 10 normal ones. What's your Weapon form?"- she asked before he rose his right knee and made his foot point to the ground in a Muay Thai stance. Curved blades came out along the middle of the front and back of his leg and the bottom part of his foot and started rotating like a chain saw and making a very characteristic noise. She had a fascinated look on her face. "You're a Chainsaw?"
"Yes. Listen, if that is all you need, I am going home. You're cute by the way."- he said before turning around and walking away.
"Wait, you still don't have a Meister, right?"- she asked yet again.
"Yeah, why?"- he stopped walking.
"I don't have a Weapon, I love Chainsaws and I think you are cute as hell."- she slowly walked towards him only to stop in front of him.
"What's your name?"- he asked, looking down at her.
"Michelle Saint Claire. What's yours?"- she replied.
"Ren Dust, you've got yourself a Weapon."- he said before kissing her once on each cheek.
"That's unexpected."- she said after he kissed her.
"In my country, when you meet someone important, that's how you greet them."- he said .- "Besides, there you never shake hands with girls."
"I have to say I like that tradition. Want to go home so we can talk more privately?"- she asked.
"Can't hurt, which home?"- he asked.
"We could go to my house. The window you were staring at a bit ago is actually mine."- he looked back at it.
"It's half open, want to go the quick way?"- he asked as if measuring the distance.
"There's no way."- she said looking at him and at the gap.
"Have a little faith in me."- he said, crouching and signaling to her to get in a piggy back position.
"You are insane, but alright."- she layed on his back, wrapping her legs and arms around him and he made his leg blades spin while still crouching, propelling both of them forward. Ren the Dirt Bike.
"This is awesome!"- she yelled.
"Tell me something I don't know."- he replied before laughing and jumping the wall. The momentum they had by now was more than enough to cross the gap and enter the window with no effort. Jack made the chainsaw blades disappear and used his feet to stop their momentum. He looked around and realized they were in her room. Although obviously being a girl room due to the stuffed teddies and commited tidyness of it, the room had no girly colour scheme like pink, yellow or purple. Ren liked that.
"What do they say in your country about being in the room of a girl you barely know?"- she joked.
"Not gentleman-like but for you I'll make an exception."- he had the feeling he was being watched, he turned around and saw a black cat with blue eyes staring at him from the bed. Ren extended his arm and the cat jumped on it, slowly walking up to his shoulder, sitting on it and licking Ren's right cheek.- "I take it she likes me?"
"*giggles* Yeah, I guess so. It's odd though, Sickle never likes anyone on first sight. How did you know she's a girl anyway?"
"I can sense pretty girls. It's my sixth sense. Besides, I never met an animal that didn't like me."- he was petting Sickle with his left hand, making her purr.
"Is that so? What more do you know about her then?"- she asked, testing his "talent".
"She's pregnant and expecting the kittens next week."-his new teammate opened her mouth in shock.
"H-How did you know that?"
"Sickle just told me, didn't you Sickle? Mind if I keep one of your babies as a pet?"- she meowed after hearing this.- "Thank you."
"*giggles* Let me show you the rest of the house."- she said before leaving the room.
"Great."- they walked into the corridor that led to three other doors. Another bedroom, a bathroom and a little library. At the other end of the corridor was the hall, the first thing people saw when entering the house. Well, through the front door anyway. The hall lead to the kitchen and the mix of living and dining room.
"Since we are partners now, you can stay in that bedroom."- he entered it. One wall was painted black while the rest was white. Tetric, I love it. It had a single bed and a desk with a black laptop on it. The room also had a wall wardrobe and an LCD Tv facing the bed.
"How did you manage to buy all this?"- he asked since this kind of furniture was well over what students could afford.
"I have my ways."- she answered playfully.- "Let's go, I want to show you the living room."
"So far, I'm impressed, you are a good decorator."- they crossed the corridor and walked into the living room. It was three times larger than the rooms. It was painted in white and was divided into two sections. The living room section had 3 couches and two puffs, a fireplace, a big plasma Tv and a tower for the cat to climb. At the sight of the last one, Sickle managed an olimpic jump and smoothly landed on the top of the tower. The other section was the dining room. There was a sound system, a gramophone, a dining table and a closet filled with alcoholic drinks.- "This is... amazing."
"Thank you!"- she said with a radiant smile. He sat on a puff and looked at her.
"So where are you from love? What's your story?"- he asked.
"I'm from Denmark. I came to the Shibusen because my parents said I should do something right with my martial arts talent instead of getting into street fights. It's good to be here. You?"- she answered sitting on the opposite puff.
"I'm from Portugal, never really liked that country. When I was three years old, I fought another kid. In the middle of the fight, he spontaneously started bleeding and cuts appeared everywhere on him. I looked at my arms and legs only to see chainsaw blades sticking out of them. My mother sent me here so I didn't hurt anyone innocent with my gift. Haven't talked to her since."- he layed back on the puff, staring at the ceiling, memories flooding his mind.
"Really? You need a family. This week I am going to visit mine, you should come with me!"- she pitied him, lack of family and love were major factors to create depression.
"You know what? I will."- he said.
"Great! With that said and done, want to talk to Shinigami-sama so he can give us our mission?"- she rose.
"Sure, I love talking to Shinigami."- Shinigami had always been nice to Ren. Much like the father he never had. Michelle took Ren closer to a full body mirror and breathed on it before writing 42-42-564. The mirror blurred and the Death Lord appeared. He wore a full body, black, blurry suit and a white skeleton mask.
"Hello, Hello! How are you?"- he asked with a slightly high-pitched voice that instigated safety and happiness.
"Hello Shinigami-sama! We are great, how are you?"- Ren greeted him back.
"I am great, thank you Ren. And "we"? Who is the lucky Meister?"-he asked with a joking voice, much like how a father would.
"I am! Hi Shinigami-sama."- she stood in front of the mirror.
"Ren Dust and Michelle Saint Claire. A pair to be feared. I have high expectations for you two. Ren has the potential to be a Death Scythe and you Michelle have the potential to become a Death Dealer, but I'll talk about that later. Why did you two call me?"- he asked with a smile.
"We are both ready to start taking on missions. Do you have any for us?"- Ren asked.
"Yes. Have any of you heard of Jack the Ripper?"- the Death Lord replied.
"A serial killer that lived during the victorian ages in London. He was known for slicing his victims to shreds."- Michelle replied.
"Well, a copy-cat has been sighted. Same killing method, same mask, same town but this time, the murderer is on his way to become a Kishin."- Death spoke with a serious voice.
"It is going to be awkward to shred a shredder."- Ren commented, lifting his knee while his foot pointed down, making the blades spin.
"The plane is waiting for you two at the Death City Airport. Good Luck!"- a smile appeared on Shinigami's face.