Just a Word.
Chapter 1
~2 different worlds yet the same~
The early morning sun bore down on the seemingly endless staircase of the Shibusen Academy, otherwise known as the DWMA (death weapon meisters academy). A trio of boys headed up the staircase, not seeming to mind the lengthy trip to the top. Two of the boys had an idle conversation going as they mostly ignored the third boys who was shouting nonsense as loud as he could.
About halfway up the staircase the loud boy, who had shockingly blue hair, bumped into a girl with black pigtails who was staring wistfully up the stairs. The other two sighed at this.
"Are you okay?" The boy with black hair asked her.
"oh um yes." She mumbled staring up at them with wide eyes.
"Are you sure you're alright? You seem very tired." The black haired boy asked, the girl nodded slowly fixated on the white strips on his hair.
"And sweaty." The blue haired boy snickered.
"Im fine, just very tired. It's such a long way up. I'm Tsugumi Harudori."
The white haired boy glanced behind them and raised an eyebrow at her, as did the blue haired boy.
"Ah, some people are not used to the walk up to father's magnificent school." The black haired boy nodded to himself. "I am Death the Kidd."
"Soul." The white hair boy grumbled.
"I am the Great Black Star! I will one day be God!"
"Have a safe trip to the top." Kidd said to her as he and the other two turned and kept on their way.
Tsugumi nodded to herself and kept going, ignoring the ache in her calves. She reached the top a while after them, staring gape mouthed as Kidd, shouted something about the beauty of his father's school. She looked around, the girl she had first met on the stairs seemed nice, she wondered if she would ever see her again. A paper crinkled under her foot, she glanced down and saw a note and a bottle of water. It was from the girl on the stairs, Maka. Tsugumi smiled again, she was about to head off to class when she heard arguing.
Curiously she glanced around only to see Maka arguing with the white haired boy Soul.
"What is your deal Albarn? Are you just bitchy because you can't the top of class or because no guy would ever want to date you?" Soul sneered down at her.
Maka glared up at him. "Shut up you perverted idiot!"
Soul gave her a questioning glance at the odd flicker he'd seen on her face a second before.
Maka reached behind him and thwacked him over the head with a book. She gave him one final glare before leaving, 4 other girls walked with her. Soul held his head and looked at her curiously before leaving with Kidd and Black Star.
Tsugumi blinked at the space where they had been…things were weird here. She was then shuffled away in a herd of other new students.
Maka stalked into her classroom, Tsubaki, Liz and Patti immediately sat down by her, while Kim waved at her and strode toward Jacqueline. She sat down if a huff.
"Maka are you okay?" Liz asked as Maka snapped her pencil in her hand.
"I just hate that idiot so much!" she glared at the wall.
Tsubaki blinked. "He hasn't really done all that much to you though."
"Maka's insane!" Patti cheered.
"No I'm not. I just hate him." Maka declared settling back into her seat and breathing heavily through her nose.
"Whatever, are you sure you just not in love with him?" Liz teased drawing out the love.
Maka stared at her wide eyed. "No!"
"Fine, fine geez I was just playing." Liz shrugged turning her attention back to her nails.
"Maka are you sure? I mean before…" Tsubaki whispered at the girl.
Maka hushed her. "No. Not anymore. That was before I knew how he was. Now he's just a self-centered, arrogant, perverted idiot."
"Oh well if you say so Maka." Tsubaki nodded turning back in her seat as Black Star, Kidd, and Soul entered the room shortly before Dr. Stein.
"Alright kids. Today is an important day." Stein said smiling at the kids in his class. The class in response glanced at him warily.
"What are we doing?" Maka asked Dr. Stein who hadn't broken eye contact with the class yet.
"Well it has become obvious to me, the current Death Scythe and Shinigami that besides, Kidd, Liz, and Patti as well as Kim and Jacqueline no one in this class have selected a partner."
The murmurs in the room were effectively canceled out, it was a well-known fact that hardly anyone in their class had picked their weapon or meister partner, as opposed to the other classes were most people had already partnered.
"Now as one of our few E.A.T. classes this is not a very good setting. You are the people who will be going into the field unlike the N.O.T. classes, so in an effort to speed up this partnering to fully prepare you all for the," Stein a beat and then sent them all a wicked grin "fun you'll have out there, we are going to put you all in a test partnership with someone in the class. Obviously excluding those already paired."
Down in the front row, Ox Ford began to give a small noise of protest over being thwarted of his chance of pairing with Kim, but was stopped by Maka's swift kick to his chair and Harvar's elbow to his side.
"After lunch we will pair you up with one other person in this class. Some of these pairs will be random; some will be picked on each person's strengths and or weaknesses."
Tsubaki tentatively raised her hand. "Dr. Stein?" She asked.
"Ah Tsubaki, we don't hear from you often." He smiled sitting in his rolling chair and gliding across the linoleum to stop in from of Tsubaki. "Yes please go on."
"I was just wondering, how long are we going to be with these 'test' partners?"
"Ah." Stein mused. "I should have mentioned that."
Stein rolled back to the front of the room, twisting the screw in his head. "These 'test' partnerships will go on for about 2 weeks or a month. Then there'll be another partnership ceremony. In which most of you are expected to have picked definite partners by then."
The bell toned above the class.
"Goodbye class." Stein smirked as the kids packed up and left. "The fun begins after lunch."
Soul walked into the lunch room, the cacophony of sound assaulted his ears. It served as his daily reminder to why he really didn't like crowds of people, they were so loud. Soul quickly found his normal table with Black Star and Death the Kidd, occasionally Killik or somebody would come over and join them, but as Soul looked toward his table today he couldn't fathom why Maka and her little group of girls would be there.
Liz and Patti were understandable, they worked and kind of lived with Kidd, so he was used to them. Soul didn't really mind Tsubaki, the girl was quiet and kept out of the way. It was just Maka he didn't like. He couldn't place it but something about her set him off and annoyed him and she didn't help her own case at all.
She was so irritating.
Growling to himself a bit, Soul sat down and immediately set to ignoring the blonde girl who was luckily seated all the way down the table from him. Another lucky coincidence was that Maka seemed to be doing the exact same thing to him, so Soul lost himself in the repetitive actions of eating his lunch and throwing in sarcastic comments to whatever topic Black Star was yelling about today.
"So you're sure this is going to work?" Shinigami asked as Stein stood before him, Spirit glanced nervously at Stein from beside Shinigami's mirror.
"Hmm." Stein hummed thoughtfully. "It could go either way; pairs could be made or ruined."
"Normally, I wouldn't endorse this kind of set up partnership, but in these times it's needed." Spirit sighed.
"The observations should be fun." Stein smiled to himself. "Your darling Maka even has a partner for now."
"Who?" Spirit shrieked. "Which ingrate is working with my darling daughter?"
"Ah, the Demon Scythe Soul Eater."
Shinigami hummed to himself a little as Spirit practically gave himself an aneurysm over the boy who was his darling daughters' partner. That should make for an interesting pair.
"Speaking of Maka, who shall she stay with during the mission?" Shinigami asked.
Spirit paused; he had momentarily forgotten that he was to go on a top secret mission overseas for a while.
"…I don't know."
Shinigami smacked Spirit in the head. "Idiot, but there is one place she could stay."
"Where?" Spirit asked picking himself up off the floor.
"With her partner," Shinigami thought aloud. "He lives in a school owned apartment currently and living with one's partner is not that unusually."
"I don't like it." Spirit huffed.
"You should have thought of that earlier, she can't live alone while you're gone, and the only reason the Eater boy lives alone is because that complex is owned by us." Stein shrugged.
Stein puffed his cheeks out. He didn't want his little Maka to stay with this Soul boy. He didn't like him already.
"You should go inform Maka of the temporary move she'll make." Shinigami said after Spirit reluctantly agreed to the living situation.
Spirit blanched, he could only hope his daughter was on somewhat good terms with this kid, and that she wasn't too upset at her sudden relocation. With that last thought Spirit headed out the office door to what may be his doom.