Soul Eater: Under the Black Moon
Chapter One
Twelfth year of the Reign of Lord Death the Second
The darkness of the night was amplified by the lack of moonlight. Not that anyone could remember what moonlight was anymore. It had been so long ago after all. Needless to say such lack of illumination could be both a hindrance, and a blessing to the agents of Death Weapon Meister Academy. A hindrance in that sometimes, they could barely see their hands an inch from their eyes. A blessing in that their enemies didn't fare much better.
However only the inexperienced suffered from the drawbacks of the night. Night vision training had become something of a necessity for the more experienced warriors of the Academy, as a precaution for nights such as this.
Black Star of course didn't need such training. An assassin was born to night eyes. To him, the snow covered, grassy grounds of the manner he currently stalked towards were as clear as day. The white snow under his feet barely made a sound. A blast of chilled wind ruffled his spiky blue hair and rolled up his bare arms, causing a tingling sensation over the thin line of white scar tissue on his right shoulder. The tattoo of the black star on the same shoulder shone in shiny black ink, as if it had just been etched into his skin. His fingers, hands and forearms were wrapped in black bandages. Clutched in one bandaged hand was a small blade, about six inches long.
"Fuck me it's cold," said a voice in his ear.
Black Star winced at such a sudden and loud noise coming through his earpiece. He gave a small growl.
"I thought I told you to keep quiet kid," Black Star whispered, his breath not even making the slightest fog.
"Dude we're still two k' from the target," came a second voice, just as loud as the one that came before. "Like anything is gonna hear us."
"You really wanna take that chance?" Black Star hissed, just as quiet. A long, drawn out exhale was all the response he got. Black Star frowned. "Are you smoking?"
On the other side of the estate, Samuel Franken Stein shot a sideways smile at his companion, navy blue eyes black in the shadow, flecks of snow caught like stars in his night black hair. A flake of snow landed on his cheek, dark against the paleness of his skin.
"You mad bro?" he chuckled.
"Where'd you even get those from anyway? You're twelve!" Black Star growled.
"Nicked 'em from dad's secret stash," Sam said, lifting the lighted carcinogen back to his lips. "You want me to save you one Boss?"
"I'm not your boss, I'm your teacher," Black Star snapped. "If I were your boss, you'd listen to me a little more often."
"Dude, he doesn't even listen to his dad what makes you think he'll listen to you?" Sam's compatriot sniggered. A boy as lean and tall as Sam, though his hair was a pale blonde and his eyes muddy brown.
"Yes, I am aware of his disobedience Kyle I do not need to be reminded," Black Star muttered. He sighed. "You're still two kilometer away? What did you do, stop to smell the daisies?"
Sam chuckled and looked at Kyle.
"Is that your way of telling us to advance sir?" he asked before blowing a cloud of smoke in the air.
"Stein I'm warning you," Black Star growled. "You are not to go in their all gun's blazing."
"I don't have a gun sir," Sam smirked, hand playing over the hilt of the katana strapped to his hip. "Got a sword though. Will that do to cut them bastards up?"
"In the name of Death will you just listen for once?" Black Star growled.
"Why?" Sam asked, flicking his finished cigarette to the ground. "First off you're only here in case me and Kyle get in over our heads, which, let's be honest isn't gonna happen 'cause me and Kyle are a boss team."
"Too right mate," Kyle chuckled, his Scottish accent rolling through the air.
"And secondly from what my Dad says you were a bit of a loose cannon yourself when you were older than us too," Sam reminded Black Star, lifting another cigarette to his lips, reaching for his father's lighter.
Black Star cleared his throat. "Be that as it may you're my students now and you are to follow my orders."
Sam snapped his lighter shut, before blowing out more smoke.
"Fuck that." he said, pulling his headset off. "Kyle, let's go silent."
"Aye sir," Kyle agreed, dropping his own headset into the snow. A small voice cleared its throat.
"Are you sure that was wise?" it asked. Kyle hefted the head of his maul to eye level and smiled at the face that appeared there.
"Relax Bell," he said soothingly. "'Snot like we haven't done anything like this before."
"But this is Professor Black Star," Bell replied, wringing her hands in the highlight of the metal. "We'll get in trouble for sure."
"We're always in trouble," Sam reminded her, drawing his own, silent, weapon. "Might as well get something to show for it I say."
"What're your orders then Boss?" Kyle chuckled.
"Massacre," Sam smirked back. "Don't let a single freak walk away alive."
"Business as usual then," Kyle chuckled, resting his weapon over his shoulders, holding it steady with one hand on the shaft.
"You expected something different?" Sam said. He and Kyle stood there for a few moments. "Let's go."
Both boys ran like they had been shot from a cannon, feet barely touching the frosted, snow covered ground before propelling them forwards. There were naught but shadowy ghosts, racing towards the bright windows of the mansion, the blade of Sam's katana tracing a small line through the snow.
Within four minutes the boys were closing in on the final few hundred meters of the mansion. They slowed, clinging to the shadows to avoid being seen by anyone who might see them out of the window. Soon however they found themselves pressed against the cold stone of the mansion's eastern wall, flat like shadows against the marble.
"Any hostiles?" Kyle asked. Sam craned his head, his navy blue eyes glowing softly with a faint inner glow.
As if he could see through walls, red figures began to appear in his vision, Kyle himself glowing light blue, his war hammer glowing white. The red figures moved through the mansion, doing regular things, standing talking eating and speaking. Yet there could be no mistake in his mind that they were Kishin souls in there. All in all there was nearly a good three or four dozen of them. None of them were near the window closest to Sam and Kyle however.
"An estimate of about thirty to fifty of them," Sam breathed.
"Anyone nearby?"
"Nope."
Sam reached for the window and slid it open with one hand, before jumping through and landing in a crouch. His eyes flicked around the room to make certain their was no one nearby. Even his Soul Perception could be fooled sometimes. But there was nobody.
Kyle slid in through the window behind him, touching the ground in a whisper, sliding the window gently shut behind him, before he joined Sam on the other side of the room. The black haired meister was standing next to the door, flat against the wall. Kyle followed his example on the other side. A few seconds later and Sam gave Kyle a nod of confirmation; no one in the corridor on the other side of the door.
Kyle nodded in response and grabbed the door handle, twisting it gently and pushing it open. Sam pushed it further and slipped out into the corridor, Kyle right behind him.
"You said thirty to fifty right?" Kyle breathed.
"Yep," Sam replied.
"Quite a margin for interpretation doncha think boss?" he asked, lifting Bell at the ready.
"Well maybe that'll be some incentive to practice that Soul Perception of yours," Same hissed back. "Then maybe you can do the estimating for a change."
"Bitchy," Kyle chuckled.
"I know right?" Sam smirked. Then stopped. he frowned and pressed his hand against the wall.
"What's up?" Kyle asked, sliding neatly into a combat stance. "Hostiles?"
Sam didn't answer. He was too busy looking through the walls. The resonance of a soul's wavelength was strong enough to penetrate walls. That was common knowledge. It was how Meisters could identify targets from outside a building. But now that he was inside the building he could see what he had missed from the outside. Looking through the walls he could see soul waves reflecting. Reverberating back at from various angles, creating a very distinct shape. There was a room in the mansion - the basement to be exact - that had been specially crafted to block soul waves from going in. or perhaps to block them going out.
"Who are these guys again Kyle?" Sam muttered slowly.
"Found something Boss?" Kyle asked. Sam nodded. "And you didn't read the mission prep again did ya?" He shook his head and Kyle gave a snort of laughter before he went on, "Last surviving members of the North Kent Gang. Violent bastards the lot o' them. Started doing trafficking in human souls way back when. Some academy knobs took care of them, but clearly they've survived."
"Looks like their business practice has as well," Sam said. "They've got a room reinforced against soul waves."
"Is that even possible?"
"Soul waves are like gamma radiation. They can pass through almost anything, but stick a few feet of lead in the way and you're blind to them. They must have known we'd come."
"So there's a room full of people waitin' to be rescued?" Bell asked.
"Doubt it knowin' the Kents," Kyle muttered. "Probably a safe filled with souls."
"Well we can't have that," Sam frowned. "We clear all the hostiles from this floor. The mostly seem to be concentrated in some sort of dining room down the next corridor. More than twenty that's for sure. Then you move to the top floor and clear them all out from up there."
"Why me?"
"Because I can see where the reinforced room is,"
"They're are more guys down there aren't there?"
Sam gave a sly wink.
"You are such a piece of shit," Kyle sighed shaking his head.
"Hell yeah dude," Sam chuckled as he started sneaking his way down the corridor. "Oh just so you know, two hostiles coming down the next corridor."
"Dibs the one on the right," Kyle hissed.
"That's if I haven't finished him first," Sam replied, breaking into a quiet, crouched run to the corridor.
Kyle gave a small curse and gave chase just as Sam reached the corner of the corridor, just as two big burly men stepped around it. Sam's blade was out of it's scabbard like a shot from a gun and with a flash of it's brilliant blade sliced the back of one of the two guards leg's, before he flicked it up and backwards, impaling the falling victim through the back of his neck and out through his open mouth, cutting off the cry of pain with a gurgle of blood, gravity finishing the job as the katana neatly sliced through the top of the Kishin's head.
The other figure cursed aloud and reached inside his jacket for a gun. Sam was faster however and sliced off the reaching hand at the elbow, the blade cleaving through the target's torso and shoulder as well. The entire right side of the Kishin form flopped to the floor in a sickening splat as Sam brought the blade down onto his enemy's head.
Within the quick space of twenty seconds the two guards were dead, the red Kishin souls floating lazily above their corpses. Kyle walked up to Same, took one look at the damage he'd caused and casually punched him very hard in the shoulder.
"Dick," he muttered, though he was smiling nonetheless.
"Fatality," Sam chuckled, his voice taking on a deeper and more gravelly tone.
"Dude you have got to stop playing Mortal Kombat," Kyle said, holding Bell close to Kishin souls so that she could collect them.
"When they make it less fun," Sam replied.
"Dude we do half the moves they do in the game for real, where's the fun in that?" Kyle asked.
"Dude have you seen Scorpion?" Sam asked. "Mother-fucker throws fire!"
"And? Remember Julio Gonzalez? He threw fire at us til we ripped his soul out and fed it to Bell."
"I'm not a pet!" Bell cried out indignantly.
"Sorry," Kyle muttered, wincing at her outcry.
"How did we even get on the topic of Mortal Kombat anyway?" Sam asked, resting the blade of the katana across his shoulders.
"Don't know don't care," Kyle shrugged. "Shall we get goin'?"
"Time to rack up some kills," Sam agreed. He looked down the corridor. "Ready?"
"Boss you just stole my kill. I'm freakin' pissed. Of course I'm fuckin' ready."
"Well you don't sound ready," Sam said. "But I know one sure fire way to make sure you are ready. And it involves two little words."
"Oh aye? And what'd those two words be?"
Sam winked. "Race ya."
And with that both both were dashing down the corridor like ghosts, their shadows flitting over the mahogany wood paneling of the walls on either side. Sam kept his eyes peeled for approaching souls on either side but he needn't have worried; the only Kishin on the floor save the ones he had just butchered were either in the grand hall they were racing towards or on the other side of the floor.
They reached the door to the great hall in less than a minute, stepping up to the large double doors, weapons drawn and gazes hardened. Sam looked at Kyle and gestured to the wooden barrier before them.
"I think you should let them know we're here," he said smirking.
"Oh aye? Gentle knock on the door ya mean?" Kyle asked, a wicked glimmer in his smile as well.
"Just a little tap yes," Sam confirmed.
"Okay. Jus' a tap to let 'em know we're here," Kyle said. Stepping up to the door he lifted Bell to waist height; left hand holding the base of her handle, the right holding the more weighty end of the shaft near the head. He swung it back gently, twisting his upper torso nearly ninety degrees before he swung it towards the centre of the right door, his right hand sliding down the shaft to join his left as the great weight of the maul slammed into the wood.
The door was ripped from it's hinges and the chunks of heavy mahogany that didn't splinter on impact were thrown across the room with more force than a cannonball. Sam gave a pleased nod to Kyle as he stepped through the now open door, whistling a jaunty tune.
"Evening fuck-faces," he called out. The Kishin that were still able to respond (of which there were thirteen) looked up with fear and trepidation, blood oozing from various injuries; splinters, cuts and even two impalings. The moment they saw Sam and Kyle their expressions darkened, with either hatred or fear. Sam turned to Kyle and winked.
"I don't think we need to introduce ourselves but for posterity's sake Imma do it anyway!" Sam continued. "He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick, and it's our job to analyse your weapons armour and abilities to see if you will win, a Death Battle."
"We're from the DWMA," Kyle filled in. "And we're here to pretty much cave your fuckin' heads in and leave ya in li'l bloody chunks all over the walls."
"What he said," Sam agreed. "So in accordance with our job we're gonna ask you to stay still while we end your lives as brutally as we can."
Kyle turned to Sam. "You know we kind of sound like anti-heroes at the moment y'know Boss?"
"You may have a point," Sam agreed, before he jumped onto the table. "I just don't care."
The Kishin finally managed to compose themselves and leaped to their feet, fangs bared and weapons drawn. Sam however was faster.
Sword in hand he somersaulted off the table and decapitated the nearest Kishin in a single neat swing, before spinning to his left to avoid a carving knife thrown at him from across the room. Ducking a punch thrown at his head, Sam came up under it and snaked his arm behind the attackers back, gripping them by the base of their neck and slamming it into the table with a crunch as their nose shattered. Flipping the sword over in his hand he stabbed the Kishin through the heart.
Before he could remove the blade from the corpse he heard a motion behind him and flipped over the slumped form and grabbed the blade in the same motion, holding the hilt against his shoulder as the Kishin who had moved up behind him unloaded his clip into the body of his deceased comrade. Sam counted 8 shots before a curse and smirked.
He leaped backwards, forcing the body ahead of him as a shield. There was a cry of alarm that was cut off in favour of a strangled scream. Sam got up and pulled the sword free from both Kishin. The dead one dropped to the floor but the other Sam had managed to avoid hitting anything major, the blade most likely just missing the right kidney. The Kishin dropped to his knees where Sam promptly stabbed him through the head.
Grabbing the Kishin's gun from the floor Sam snatched up a spare clip from inside their jacket before he dropped to the floor to avoid a wild swipe from another Kishin. The Kishin staggered and tripped over Sam's legs as the young Meister reloaded his new weapon, before he stepped to his feet and stabbed the attacker through the heart as they tried getting to their feet again.
"Four down," Sam muttered, turned around gun in hand, His eyes swept over the situation at hand. Kyle had beaten down two Kishin and was busy working on another, two Kishin were heading to overwhelm Kyle, three more were headed to Sam and the final standing Kishin was limping away. Sam smirked and with expert precision shot the Kishin Kyle was fighting through the head, before switching his aim to the two who were about to join in fighting his friend.
Before he could switch to his three new targets however, they were upon him. He stepped back, ducking a sword swipe for his head and quickly slashed his own sword to disrupt the aim of the gun that would have blown his head off. In that same motion he drove the sword into the neck of third attacker whose time was short lived. Moving with the sword, Sam stepped backwards into the gunman and smacked his elbow into their nose, withdrawing his word at the sametime and shooting the sword holder between the eyes. Stepping away again, Sam leveled the gun at the third opponent and shot him in the heart.
Stepping between the falling bodies, Sam tossed the gun aside, stepped onto the table and threw his sword at the limping Kishin down the corridor, where it promptly impaled him through the heart. Kyle looked at him, unimpressed.
"D'ya have to show off at every opportunity?" Kyle asked as Sam stepped off the table.
"Hell yeah dude," Sam said smirking. "More fun that way."
Kyle sighed and rolled his eyes. "I totally could have handled them," he grunted.
"I know but, the hell you did," Sam winked.
Kyle stuck his middle finger up at Sam and the other boy laughed. "I'm going for that secret room we talked about. have fun upstairs don't stay up all night."
"Fuck you asshole," Kyle grunted.
Sam laughed and began jogging down the corridor, pulling his sword from the Kishin body as he ran past. His eyes flicked to where he'd seen the secret room before and began to make his way through the now abandoned corridors of the mannor. In a few minutes he found a door leading down the stairs to the cellar. He smiled and began to creep into the darkness, his breathing slow and quiet as he heard the sound of voices.
There was a slight breeze and the lights behind him flickered but he paid it no heed. At least not until his Soul Perception picked up the faintest feeling of a soul moving past him. Two souls. Meister and weapon.
The light he had been moving towards at the bottom of the stairs went out. The voices that had been conversing went up in cries of alarm and each of them were promptly cut off with abrupt precision.
Sam paused as the light flickered back into life. Footsteps echoed below him and Black Star stepped into view, one hand holding the weapon formed Tsubaki and the other a closed fist. His expression was steely and unimpressed as he held out his fist and opened his palm. Kyle and Sam's coms devices dropped to the floor.
"Detention," he grunted simply. "You and Kyle both. Got it?"
Sam rolled his eyes, slid his katana into its sheath and proceeded to light another cigarette. Black Star's eyes flashed and in that moment the box of cigarettes was in his hand and the end of Sam's now lit cigarette was on the floor, smoking itself into oblivion. Sam looked at Black Star with disdain, sliding the unfinished cigarette into his jeans pocket.
"I could've handled it," Sam said stepping down to the cellar proper.
"Not the problem," Black Star grunted, turning as Sam stepped past him.
"Well then Professor could you explain the problem to me?" he asked.
"I think I'll let Lord Death explain it to you," Black Star replied cooly. Sam bit his lip.
"Poop."