Gabe Cruise stood on the flat roof of a two-story building, watching what was happening in the narrow street below. Gabe was a good-looking boy of fourteen, wearing a grey vest over a white shirt and black slacks. And of course a bow tie to complete the 'host' look. His dark brown hair was worn short.
"They seem to be holding their own." He was whispering to the blind girl standing beside him, who went by the name of Lace Roze. Lace nodded, making her even darker brown hair move. Her hair fell to below her shoulder blades, and covered her unseeing right eye. She wore a button-up long-sleeved white top and a mid-thigh black skirt with thigh-high white socks and knee-length black boots.
"Wait, I'm mistaken. They're about to lose control of the fight. And... now. It feinted to the left, they moved to defend and it found an opening. He got a cut on his chest, but nothing to worry about. But all they can do now is defend. They don't have time to attack."Gabe described the scene below to Lace, who nodded again, not even looking at him.
"Hey, don't run. You had an opening." Gabe whispered, more directed at the people they were observing than his partner.
"They ran?" Lace asked.
"Yep. You'd think someone as crazy as Hikaru would stand and fight, wouldn't you?"Gabe asked. Lace turned her face towards him, showing him an amused half-smile.
"Oh, so you're calling Sasayaki crazy? I think you should take a look in the mirror, Gabe. Who ate a handful of wasabi peas in front of the entire class last week?" She grinned. Gabe put on a fake pout, but it was for nothing and he knew it.
"Calling me crazy is mean, Lace. And Shadow said they were candy." His acting evident in his voice.
"No. You knew what they were. You tried to trick me into eating them once. You shouted 'hey, look at me' before you ate them. This conversation is over. We're losing Crow and Hikaru. If they die, Death will confiscate all the souls we've collected."
With those words, Lace began to glow silver, and disappeared. A glowing silver halberd was now held in Gabe's hand. The silver glow faded, revealing a black shaft and glinting sliver blades.
"Following them left, heading towards the main street." Gabe announced. He cast another look down to the street below, to see that the only things there were the mutilated bodies of the Kishin's last victims. The Kishin itself was nowhere in sight. Gabe swore as he started running.
"It's gone, isn't it?" Lace asked. "While we were arguing about wasabi, we let the Kishin get away."
Gabe jumped from one rooftop to another, thanking the closely packed design of modern towns.
"Um, kinda." Gabe answered lamely. He heard Lace mutter something like
"And I'm meant to be the blind one." He decided to ignore it. If there was one thing his partnership with the dark-haired halberd had taught him, it was 'don't argue with the blind girl.'
A boy of fifteen jumped backwards out of the shadows of an alleyway into the main street of whatever town he was currently in. He held a black short sword in his hand, and a determined gleam in his navy eyes.
"That was a little too close for comfort, Crow-kun." The flamboyant female voice seemed to come from nowhere, but the boy named Crow knew it came from the short sword in his grip.
"Don't you think that was exactly what I was thinking, Hikaru?" He asked a, little annoyed. The street they were in now was much bigger than the alley their attacker was hiding in, the one they had just escaped. But really, it should have been the other way around, with them as the attackers, and their current attacker trying to escape. Both Crow and Hikaru knew that taking this Kishin down quickly was vital. It was their first mission, and Death was surely watching through his mirror. The Kishin they were after went by the name of Arnold Blanck. He had consumed only three human souls, so he wasn't expected to be too difficult. But when Crow and Hikaru had found Arnold he had been standing over the bodies of two women, having just slain and consumed their souls. According to the unofficial DWMA rule first timers shouldn't take on a mission that involved killing a kishin that had consumed more than three souls. Five was a bigger risk than cautious Crow would like.
"I can't see him. Can you?" Hikaru asked. Crow shook his head, making his (completely dyed) fiery red hair move.
"Where is- WATCH OUT!" Hikaru cried, interrupting her own question. Crow jumped to his left with almost superhuman speed only a second before the Kishin sprung out of the shadows, the knife in its deformed hand swinging through air where Crow's neck had been only a second before.
"Thanks, Sasa-chan." The redhead meister said. The flickering light above them gave them a good look at their opponent for the first time. The Kishin had a bloated look to his entire body, and his tattered suit stretched over his huge stomach. His hands were slightly deformed, a result of eating five innocent human souls.
"Just in time, slow poke" The Demon Short Sword said.
"Shut up!" Crow shouted, using Hikaru to deflect another of the monsters lunges. The Kishin kept on attacking, and Crow kept on dodging, blocking and parrying. Eventually, Crow tried to jump backwards only to find he couldn't. There was a wall at his back. He had been so distracted by the wound in his side not avoiding being hit again he hadn't noticed he'd crossed the entire street and backed into a building. And Hikaru, being Hikaru, had not warned him. Before he could move he was forced to block a downwards strike from the Kishin. His plan was to defect it with a sword sweep to the right and stab the monster in one movement, but the constant force behind the blow made it impossible. The Kishin pushed down on Hikaru's blade with his own, using its entire weight to his advantage. It seemed to be heavier than a normal human. As it pushed down, Hikaru and the knife inched closer to Crow's face. The meister was about to be overpowered. He was scared. Arnold had been stronger than he first thought, and knowing that he had taken him on. And for his foolishness, he had received a wound in his side and was about to have his soul eaten. The Kishin gained another centimetre, and Crow closed his eyes, hoping his death would be quick.
"Hey, Arnold Blanck." A male voice shouted. Crow opened his eyes. The humanoid monster turned it's head to search for the source of the noise in the dim night. Both meister and weapon felt the weight behind the knife lessen, and almost sighed in relief.
"Get over here, you bloated cow." A dark figure jumped from the second story roof of a building, landing safely on his feet. When he stepped into the light cast by the light of a street lamp, it became apparent that it was not a man, but a boy with a lean, muscular body holding a pole-like Kishin growled, a totally inhuman sound, and sprinted towards the newcomer. Apparently he disliked being called a 'bloated cow.'
Crow lowered Hikaru, relived. He wasn't dead.
"Oh, Kishin-kun is fighting the newbie."Hikaru said, like she hadn't almost died. Crow decided he could watch. He doubted that the newcomer was an ally of Arnold's. It was more likely that he had come to save himself and Hikaru. If not, well Crow was a fast runner.
Gabe watched the Kishin coming towards him and Lace.
"Under a street lamp. Crow and Crazy-girl are safe, and the Kishin's coming." He told Lace quickly and quietly. The Kishin was mere metres from them when Gabe moved. He jabbed Lace's blunt end into the Kishin's solar plexus, winding him momentarily. Gabe went for a stab with the finger knife he carried, but Kishin recovered surprisingly quickly, swinging his knife towards Gabe's arm. Gabe withdrew his arm just in time to avoid the wound that would likely end the fight. A butcher's knife like Arnold carried was a dangerous weapon, even if it was normally used in kitchens. Gabe backed up a few steps and jumped, landing a kick on the Kishin's chest before flipping backwards to land on his feet in front of it. The Kishin swung its knife sideways towards Gabe, who blocked the weapon with Lace's shaft and swung her sideways. Lace's axe-like blade bit into the creatures torso. Gabe pulled the blade out and the Kishin lunged at him with the knife. Gabe deflected it.
"You idiot boy! No child can best me."
Gabe smiled.
"Aw." He said as he parried another attack.
"You're just a man who thinks he's all that because he's eaten a few souls."
Gabe made a jab with the point of the halberd, but his target stepped away.
"Well you're not. Because no mere Kishin can best us!" Gabe cut the Kishin's right hand off with the axe blade and in the blink of an eye had stabbed it in the chest with the top spike. "This is your punishment. Your soul is ours." Gabe said as the monster turned into ribbons of black and disappeared. "Mission complete." Lace glowed silver and returned to her human form, standing beside her meister. Gabe reached out and grabbed the floating red Kishin soul. "You want it?" He asked the pair standing across the road. "It was your mission."
Crow shook his head. It may have been Hikaru and his mission on paper, but these two had killed the target.
"It's ours then." Gabe shrugged. He had no problem taking it if it meant he and Lace were one soul closer to the ninety-nine. Lace held her hand out, and Gabe gave her soul. She would eat it in private, like she always did.
"So, are you alright?" Lace asked. "Gabe said you're injured."
A few days later Gabe and Lace could be found browsing the missions bulletin for their next job. Well, Gabe was. Lace was standing back, letting her partner do the reading she couldn't do. "I kinda want something easy." Gabe commented. "I'm feeling lazy. How about we take this one? In Hawaii. The kishin has only consumed one soul. It'll be like a holiday."
"I don't think so." Lace said. "We've got twenty-seven souls! Leave Hawaii to first timers. What else?"
Gabe sighed. "I wanted to go to Hawaii. Um... that one. Fifth from the top, third across. It's in Canada. The mission is to take out three kishin who have banded together. Strange. Normally kishin go solo, like tigers or sloths. No requirements, except for a minimum of twenty completed missions beforehand."
"Sounds good. We'll take it."
Gabe took the mission paper down from the board, and took it to the receptionist to get it marked off as theirs. As the receptionist was checking they had the right requirements to take it on Gabe suddenly announced. "I like sloths."
Lace reached out and slapped him. Judging from the sound Gabe made and how solid whatever she hit had been, she was ready to bet it she had gotten the back of his head. "Well I don't like sloths." She informed him. Gabe sighed.
"Why are you so mean?" He questioned. But he got no answer. "The sloths don't deserve your meanness."
NORTH ELK, CANADA
A shop owner polished the antique wooden counter that was his pride and joy. It was a daily ritual, to polish the wooden surface until it reflected the ceiling like a mirror. As he was almost finished he heard the front door open. Looking up, he saw two teenagers entering his store. A male and female. They couldn't be more than fifteen, and they couldn't be dressed more bizarrely. The boy was even wearing a bow tie. Who wore bow ties these days? He didn't recognise them, and in a small town such as North Elk that meant they were tourists. When he greeted them with a smile and asked them, the boy shook his head. He took something out of his back pocket and placed it on the mirror-clean counter. The shop owner looked at it. It was a battered black wallet, open with an ID on display. Death Weapon Meister Academy. The words printed across the top were the first thing that caught his eye. That worried him.
"DWMA? Is there any trouble?" The owner asked. He was worried. Everyone, from Australia to Afghanistan, knew about the somewhat legendary school run by Death. And when someone thought of the DWMA, they thought of murder and kishin and the mysterious heroes who attended the school. The fact that students from Death's Academy were here meant there almost certainly was trouble.
"That depends. Has anything strange happened recently?" The boy asked. The owner took a while to think.
"Not really. It's a small town. Nothing much happens. But maybe..."
"But maybe what?" The girl asked. The owner wiped his hands on his shirt.
"Two boys have been missing for a few days now, and a girl disappeared from her bed last night."
The girl frowned. "How is three people disappearing 'nothing much?'"
"They're teenagers. The boys we expected nothing more of. No good thieves, they are, and a little strange too. Thought they just decided to move on and ran away. And there were some rumours that the girl was dating one of the boys, so we just thought she went with them. But it never seemed like something Renee would do."
The girl nodded.
"Sounds like we got them." Even though she spoke, she kept looking straight ahead. Not looking at the boy next to her or himself, the owner noticed.
"Where were they last seen?" The boy asked. A look down at the ID showed the owner his name was Gabe Cruise.
"The boys were last seen hanging around the abandoned mansion, the one on the hill. That puzzled people, since everyone half believes the old place is haunted. No one goes near it, and the real estate agents have stopped trying to sell it."
"Thank-you sir." Gabe said and grabbed his wallet off the counter. He shoved it into his back pocket with one hand and grabbed the hand of the girl with the other. They left the store running, leaving the owner to continue his polishing in a confused daze.
Gabe stood in front of an old house holding Lace in weapon form.
"This place is really old. And big. Not a mansion by todays standards, but I suppose it used to be in the forties. Like, when Death Scythe Spirit was still married."
Lace laughed. "Come on, lets find those kishin. We get those souls, and we win the bet with Shadow and Rose."
Gabe smiled, but clenched his hand nervously. Even though they were at almost thirty souls, this was the first time they had gone after more than one Kishin at once. He reached out for the door handle, just hoping it was unlocked. If it wasn't he'd just climb in one of the broken windows. To his surprise it opened. As the shop owner had said the place was abandoned, he'd assumed the place would be locked.
"A little creepy. The door wasn't locked." Gabe said to Lace.
"What can you expect? A gang of Kishin are hiding here."
"I guess you're right." Gabe admitted as he crept down the dark hallway.
They came to the bottom of a grand staircase carpeted in what used to be velvet, but now looked like old carpet. Gabe was about to go up when a whisper came from Lace's halberd form.
"I can hear voices. And fire. They're nearby. Above us, to the left."
"Up the stairs, then. Going in. Or up, more like." Gabe whispered back.
"You never stop, do you?" Lace asked quietly.
"No. Never."Gabe said, starting up the stairs. When he had gotten a few steps upwards he heard indistinct voices and the crackle of fire, and when he was near the top he was able to make out words. He stopped to listen.
"When will they wake up?" One voice said. Was that a male or female voice? Gabe couldn't tell.
" girl's soul will be delicious." Another commented, more gravelly that the other. Likely the leader.
"Well I'm looking forward to that boy. He looks simply delectable. His soul, I mean." That was a third, female speaker.
"Why don't we just kill them now?" The first questioned.
"Because, newbie, if we just wanted their souls why did we kidnap them instead of killing them right away? A scared soul is so much tastier than a peaceful soul. Besides, I love seeing them squirm. It's so... empowering."
The second said. Another, probably the third, sneezed a sneeze that sounded suspiciously like 'sadist'. Gabe resumed his climb, not sure if he should be amused or disgusted . He reached the top of the stairs and saw flickering light coming from an open door. Inching closer, he peeked around the door frame. A fire was burning on a metal sheet on the floor in middle of what had once been a bedroom. Now the walls were dirty, the window was boarded over and the place was devoid of all furniture. Three people were gathered around the fire, sitting or squatting on the filthy floorboards.
"But what if the DWMA find out about us? Won't they send agents for us?" The first asked from the far side of the fire. It sounded a little nervous.
"Don't worry, newbie. If the DWMA sends anyone for us, we'll just kill them. Most of their agents are students, you know." The female said.
"Yeah. Kids! No matter if they're DWMA, they're still kids! The real 'heroes' go after those big shots like Jack the Ripper and the Joker."The third said.
"Any kid who comes after us will just end up as more souls for us. I've always wondered what a demon weapons soul tastes like."
The woman's comment made the other two laugh. Gabe smiled for a split second and stepped into the room.
"Do you really think a few small fry like you three could kill us?" He said casually, pointing Lace at the back of the one closet to him. The third, facing the pair, pointed unnecessarily.
"I could kill a useless kid like you in my sleep!" The one Gabe was threatening to impale shouted and turned its near anorexic body. Fingernails like talons lashed out, missing Gabe by centimetres. This one was the female, Gabe noticed in some small part of his brain. The Halberd Meister stepped closer, pushing Lace's point into the its body between it's collarbone and shoulder, and using the finger knife he wielded in addition to his weapon partner to stab his opponent through the jugular. The Kishin stepped back, Gabe letting both Lace and his knife be pulled out of its body. It was so concentrated on the pain it didn't notice the kick that sent it falling backwards onto the fire. This, though taking a long while to describe, happened in the space of a few seconds. The female Kishin's death took only a few more. One of the others, the leader, made a short grunting sound that may have been a laugh.
"What's so funny? We just killed your friend." Gabe said. "And if we can kill her, we can kill you easy."
The Kishin laughed again. "Maria may have been a 'small fry', but I'm not. I'm Crazy Kenneth, the murderer of North Elk Forest! She knows who I am! She fears me!" He declared, pointing an unusually stubby finger at the corner of the room. A girl was bound and gagged there, her light purple hair falling over her face and her brown eyes wide with fear. "You should fear me too!" 'Crazy Kenneth' growled and bared sharp, needle like teeth. Gabe looked back at Kenneth the Kishin.
"You know what, Ken? I reckon I could beat you without my weapon. Lace, change and go backwards until you have the wall at your back. There's a girl captive in the corner to the left. Stay safe. Go weapon if you feel unsafe." Gabe instructed. Lace's halberd form glowed silver and left her partner's hand. Lace in her human form appeared and followed Gabe's directions.
"Stay safe yourself." Lace said, moving along the wall until she found the girl in the corner. Gabe smiled.
"Alright, Crazy Ken. Come at me. I bet you'll be dead in half a minute." The young meister said, slipping into a fighting stance with his knife at the ready.
"You'll be dead in ten seconds! I can't wait to eat your soul! I bet it will be the best thing I've ever tasted! I'm salivating at the thought!" Ken said.
"That's mildly disturbing." Gabe stated. Ken ran at Gabe, a large blade fastened to his wrist pointed at him. Gabe jumped outside the attack at the last moment, completely avoiding it. He reached out, his finger knife aiming for the Kishin's neck but just not getting there. A few blows were exchanged, with Gabe still on top. They found themselves in a position where when Ken swept his arm back, Gabe was forced to duck to avoid being hit. A quick side kick knocked the Kishin back a few steps and stunned it for a fraction of a moment. Taking advantage of his opponents momentary pause, Gabe pushed forward with his back foot. His extend right hand grabbed the Kishin's face and the force of his leap pushed the monster back to bang headfirst into the wall. The teen's left hand found its way around Ken's neck, but found himself winded and flying backwards as a result of Kenneth's superhumanly strong punch in the gut. He landed more than halfway across the room with enough force to wind him again. The kishin pushed off the wall, flying across the room with it's wrist blade glinting dangerously in the firelight. Gabe didn't have time to think 'I'm dead', but strangely he did have time to fleetingly worry about what would happen to his blind partner if he died.
Suddenly, he saw something he had a little trouble processing. A girl, specificity the purple-haired girl from the corner, was standing in front of him. That wasn't all. She was blocking Ken's blade with Lace's haft in her halberd form. The girl was wielding Lace!
"I thought I told you to stay safe!" Lace shouted.
Gabe watched as a normal girl defended him with his partner. The girl managed to block another attack, and even scratched the Kishin, though it was an accident that happened when she moved Lace to block again. Then she realised what she was doing, and did what most people would do. She panicked. The blind demon weapon had cut her bonds with a pocket knife, and told her to protect her meister. She had done what the blind weapon had told her to do, and jumped between the monster and the meister. Her previous reactions had been instinct. But now she actually thought about what she was doing, and realised what she was doing was crazy.
Her hands slipped closer together, and strength left her arms. What was she doing? That was Crazy Kenneth, the murderer of North Elk Forest! The completely real urban legend! She felt like she was about to collapse. A pair of hands took the handle. Behind her was the meister who was meant to be the one fighting the Kishin.
"I'll take it from here. Thanks. Now duck." He instructed. She complied, letting go of the halberd (that was what it was called, wasn't it?) and ducking down.
"You were an idiot. I'm never letting you go up alone again." Lace told her meister once she felt he was the only one holding her. Gabe felt different to the girl she had employed to wield her for a few moments, a good different.
"Oh, I muck up once and suddenly you feel the need to baby me?" Gabe asked jokingly, swinging Lace in an arc that cleaved straight through the Kishin's neck. It's body disappeared, leaving only a glowing red soul.
"I always baby you, Gabe. You just never notice." Lace replied. Gabe looked around the room.
"There was a third one." He observed. "I remember a third. But I can't see him."
"He left." The girl behind the pair said. Gabe turned to see her sitting on the floorboards in front of the fire. "While you were fighting, when she was helping cut me free. Out the door."
"Thanks. Let's go." Gabe said, sprinting out of the room.
It didn't take long for Gabe and Lace to find their third target. He was cowering in a corner of the parlour on the first floor. The windows were all broken, letting light flood the room.
"Why hide?" Gabe asked, pointing Lace at the creature. "Your friends didn't."
"And they're dead. And they enjoyed killing. They enjoyed being this." It said.
"You don't?" Gabe asked.
"I never wanted this. I knew it was wrong. But Ken made me. He said he'd kill me if I didn't kill her! So I did! I killed her! I ate her!" The kishin exclaimed. It buried its head in its hands and started to sob. "I killed my sister!"
"He can't be more than fourteen.. our age. The record said one had only consumed one soul. That must have been his sister." Gabe said.
"I don't think I could kill him. Not like this." Lace whispered. Gabe nodded. He swung Lace over his shoulder and turned his back to the Kishin.
"Wh-what are you doing." It asked.
"Run!" Gabe barked. Then said in a more normal tone "All reports will say you escaped." He looked back at the snivelling creature in the corner. "But I suggest you turn yourself in. I can't personally confirm it, but they say Death goes easy on those who surrender themselves." He walked away, leaving the Kishin to itself.
Back in the bedroom they had fought the Kishins in, Gabe saw two people he hadn't seen before. One was standing up stretching, the other was sitting against the wall rubbing his wrist. Both were boys, teenagers. The other kidnapped teenagers. The girl with light purple hair was looking around the room. When she saw the DWMA students she pointed to the corner of the room she had been tied in.
"The souls from those Kishin are there. Sorry, but I didn't trust Zach near them." One of the teens shrugged.
"I wouldn't have stolen them. I would have borrowed it for scientific examination. I've never seen a soul before, and I'm curious."
"You would have nicked it so you could take it home and dissect it." The girl told Zach.
"Oh, yeah." She held something out to Gabe and Lace. "The knife you gave me to cut the ropes. Thank-you, DWMA agents." Lace extended her hand for pocket knife. The girl dropped it into Lace's palm. As Lace tucked the object into her skirt pocket, Gabe grabbed the souls from the corner.
"Well, it's not thirty, but it's close enough." He commented.
Later, five people stood outside the old house.
"Is he going to be alright?" Gabe asked, pointing to one of the boys. He was shivering, and hadn't said a word.
"Yeah." Zach said. "Just a little culture shock. He never really believed in kishin before. Now he has no choice. Plus being kidnapped is a little traumatic."
Lace nodded. "You were braver than I expected." She told the girl. "You'd make a good meister."
The girl shook her head. "No, no. I'll leave that to real heroes, like you."
Gabe shrugged. "We're not really heroes. Get home safe. If we have to save you again the sloths will be angry."
"Gabe." Lace said darkly.
"Yes, Lace?" Gabe inquired.
"Shut up about the damn sloths already!"
AN: So, how did you like that? Lace and Gabe are both from The Metallic Blue Otaku. Sorry, this is a week and two days late. I'll try to update once a week, but with school, homework, karate and anime I may be distracted. Also, I'm not sure about how good I am at writing action. Part of why I'm doing this is to improve my action scenes.
The normal people knowing about souls and kishin and the DWMA may seem strange to some people, but let me explain.
My view is that in the universe of Soul Eater, everyone knows about the DWMA. It's just a fact of life, like people dying and that fact that we as human beings are capable of wiping ourselves out via nuclear weapons. (Sorry, been paying too much attention to the news. That North Korea jazz and all.)
Please review if you have the time. Tell me what you thought of this chapter, and of Gabe and Lace.
The next chapter will be up soon, but for now I'll leave you with a little something from chapter two.
In a remote northern part of the British Isles, there is a cave. This cave is the home of fairies and legends. However, among all the legends of this cave, one stands above them all.
"Fool."