Disclaimer: I make no claim to the Soul Eater or Kingdom Hearts franchise. I don't think I could afford the possible lawsuit if I said otherwise.
Rumors, such annoying things they were. Being grounded to Death City was taking its toll on the students and rumors were popping up absolutely everywhere. They were becoming more far-fetched and it had hardly been a day since the announcement. In fact, the most believable at this point was the one that claimed a new student was starting at the academy today. It was more believable than the rumor that claimed Heartless look like bunnies anyways. Of course, some rumors just created more.
The new student rumor was becoming a bit much actually. Some were suspicious of the timing, Heartless suddenly appear and then the next day so does a new student. Naturally connections to the mysterious new foe and the mysterious new student were made into rumors. The worst part was probably that no one even knew for sure if there would be a new student. Although the students would find out soon enough since classes were about to start.
Maka had developed a slight headache due to the chatterboxes spreading rumors. Poor Soul had taken ten Maka Chops to the head already, three of which weren't even because of something he had said. If none of the rumors turned out to be true she'd probably get even worse.
When class started and Stein didn't make any announcement besides telling them what he'd be dissecting today. Soul felt a minor flare of panic. "No new student?" He thought sending an almost hopeful look towards the door. Apparently Professor Stein saw it though.
Stein was a tall man who had silver gray hair, big round glasses and a large screw in his head. In general he was covered in stitches, most notable was the one that went right around one of his eyes. His shirt looked like multiple fabrics had been randomly stitched together and then a pair of slacks. Over that he wore a stitched up lab coat.
"Oh, yes that's right. We have a new student joining us today." Stein pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose. "Not sure where he is but he should be joining us at some point today."
Stein's words were greeted with hushed words that were along the lines of 'so it's true' or 'wonder if the other rumors are true'.
But Stein just ignored them and continued on. "Anyways, let's get on with the lesson, shall we?"
For the most part the class went silent, although there were glances that kept straying towards the door expectantly. Needless to say, very few actually paid attention to the lesson. Low volume conversations being heard at short intervals. By the middle of class the expectancy had died and very few were paying the lesson or the door.
It was always when people don't pay attention that something happened. The door opened and someone entered the room, accompanied by the words of someone in the hall still. "Sorry professor, took forever to get this guy moving!" With that the door closed behind the newcomer.
"Ah, you must be the new student." Stein looked up from what he was doing to address him.
The newcomer wore a black, high-collared jacket with a zipper resembling an X as the zipper. Over this, he wore another jacket, this one unzipped and white, with several black block designs and a grey hem on the end of each sleeve. This jacket's collar was red and pleated and folded back. He also wore two-colored pants; the legs of his pants were beige with several of what looked like buttons on the hem that appeared to attach the legs to the rest of the cloth, which were dark-colored. The shoes were colored in shades of grey and black, and had red straps in place of laces. The finishing touches were a wrist band with a black-and-white checkerboard pattern on his left wrist, as well as a plain black ring on his left index finger and a plain white ring on his left middle finger.
He was preforming quite the impressive feat of what seemed to be sleeping while standing. Oh, and Maka recognized the rest of him, she had a very faint bruise on her forehead from yesterday due to their meeting. She was surprised to see Roxas of all people, but it confirmed a few rumors in her head, like some form of connection to the Heartless. He'd mentioned them when asked what he remembered.
Stein cleared his throat in an attempt to get Roxas' attention, which seemed to work at least a little. "I don't believe I caught your name."
Roxas had given a very faint jump, jolting out of the standing slumber… a little bit anyways. It looked like someone hadn't got much sleep-if any-the night before. "Uh, Roxas." He mumbled his name but it was just loud enough for the first few rows of students to hear.
Stein offered a nod turning his gaze to the students rows looking for something. "Well Roxas, I believe there's an open seat over there." He gestured towards the row in the very back in general where there were a few open seats.
The response was a rather absent nod before Roxas headed up to the back row. There was the occasional stumble on the steps, eliciting the giggles from those closest. He didn't seem to care, probably a bit too out of it to take note. It was odd how most were watching like it was a TV show or something, which came to an end when he collapsed into an empty seat.
By this time Stein had returned to the lesson and most suspected Roxas had fallen asleep. Everyone had probably hoped the class would be more eventful today. Funny how that worked out, but the hushed conversations were now renewed in strength often including an occasional glance in the sleeping newcomer's way.
"Hey Maka, is that the guy you mentioned earlier?" Tsubaki asked Maka not long after Stein returned to the lesson.
Maka nodded in confirmation. "Yeah. I didn't think he'd be attending the Academy though." She was trying to do the math in her head. "Roxas didn't seem to remember anything when I met him, so maybe this is a temporary thing...?"
Tsubaki was tall, to say the least. She wore a pale yellow, sleeveless outfit with a skirt end that was slitted down the side with a bright yellow star emblazoned on the right side of the chest. She also wears a dark brown scarf and a tight dark brown stocking on her right leg starting just above the knee and white boots. She wore a sash of riveted straps that wrapped around her waist twice and hung down diagonally from right to left. She had long black hair tied up in a ponytail and large indigo eyes.
"Maybe we should see if he's okay after class…?" Tsubaki suggested glancing in the direction of the now sleeping boy.
"He probably didn't get enough sleep but I guess we could ask." Maka shrugged slightly keeping her main focus on the lesson at hand, which was hard given her thoughts trying to make sense of it all.
"I say leave the guy alone, but that's just me." Soul mumbled from where his head laid on the desk, probably wishing he could get away with what the new student was doing.
"Say… where's Black Star?" Maka asked as she ignored her weapon's comment, realizing no one was trying to reclaim attention to themselves.
Tsubaki sweat dropped. "Oh… uh… he-"
"He's picking a fight… isn't he?" Maka sighed not even needing an answer to know she was probably right.
The end of class came faster than anticipated, not that anyone complained. Most people seeing the new student still asleep decided not to bother him-despite wanting to-and took off for the halls, probably to confirm the new student rumor. Maka and Tsubaki decided to wake him up, Soul a little ways behind them after deciding he didn't want to risk another Maka Chop for leaving without Maka or something.
The two girls exchanged glances, silently debating on who should wake him up… the lucky one ended up being Maka after some form of mental war in form of exchanging uncertain looks with each other.
There was some hesitation that lead Maka to glancing back to Tsubaki who gave an encouraging nod. With a sigh she shook Roxas' shoulder. "Hey." She got no response and shook his shoulder again.
"Leave me alone." This time there was a mumbled response, which was something at least.
Maka frowned and tried again. "Class is over now."
"Go away!" This time it came out as more of a groan of annoyance.
She had a visible vein of annoyance now and gave him one last chance to wake up, one last shake of the shoulder.
This time instead of a worded response Roxas swatted at her hand, clearly annoyed.
Out of past experience, Soul and Tsubaki instinctively took a few steps back.
"Maka chop!" A dictionary was swung down upon Roxas' head, sending him onto the floor.
"Hey! Watch it with that!" Well, he was awake now. Rubbing his head where the book made contact. "What was that?! A dictionary?!" He asked with a frown without looking up, he sounded a little cranky.
Maka couldn't help the surprise of the new guy's guess. "Uh… yeah actually. It was a dictionary."
Roxas' frown deepened before looking up. "Thought so…. Hey… you're that girl from yesterday."
"Welcome to the Maka-Chopped club." Soul said as he rejoined them and offered a hand to the downed boy.
Roxas hesitated, eyes narrowing slightly with both confusion and was that maybe a lack of trust in his eyes?
"What? You're not the only one she's hit with that book." Soul offered one of his infamous shark-tooth smiles.
Roxas sighed reluctantly before taking Soul's hand and returning to his feet. Scrunching his brows slightly as he looked at the only other occupants of the room. "Right… Soul and Maka… right?"
"Yeah… uh… how did you know it was a dictionary?" Maka asked curiously, no one had actually guessed at the book before, not to mention that was the first time it was done correctly. What could she say? It bothered her.
In answer she received a shrug from Roxas. "Just a feeling I guess. Maybe I've been hit with a dictionary before?"
"Hmm… maybe." Maka frowned wondering who else might hit someone with a book, let alone a dictionary. "Oh… uh, this is Tsubaki by the way. Tsubaki, this is Roxas." She introduced realizing she'd almost forgotten about Tsubaki, seeing as the other girl had been so quiet.
Tsubaki offered a friendly smile. "Nice to meet you."
Roxas offered a smile; it was a little awkward like smiles weren't something common for him to show around others. Or maybe it was the lack of sleep… probably was. "Likewise."
"I was wondering if you were okay, you seemed pretty out of it earlier." Tsubaki admitted poking her index fingers together uncertainly.
"Yeah. Just didn't get enough sleep." Roxas admitted with a well-timed yawn.
"Thought so." Maka murmured looking around the empty classroom, when a few tings occurred to her. "Uh… you might want to try keeping a low profile around here."
"What? Why?" A frown etched its way onto his face, wondering what Maka was thinking.
"Well, people think you might know something about the Heartless that none of us have seen yet." Tsubaki started to explain, understanding what Maka meant.
"You know, since you appeared the day after they did and all." Soul added with a shrug.
"They only just appeared here?" That seemed to be the only thing that did surprise Roxas about Heartless.
"Uh… yeah why?" Maka couldn't help but be a little concerned. "He's acting like he's been fighting Heartless for a while but nobody's heard of them until now… have we been overlooking something maybe?"
Roxas was silent for a while with a look of mixed confusion with some debate on his face and then shook his head. "Don't worry about it." He didn't seem to stop worrying about it however and looked over towards the door then back to them. "Uh… don't suppose you know where I need to go next?"
"Didn't you get a schedule?" Maka asked with a confused frown.
Roxas sighed and shook his head again. "No. I don't even have anything with me right now." He held up his empty hands for emphasis.
Maka's eye gave a small twitch, trying to decide who to be annoyed with. "What were you doing all morning if you don't even have anything?"
"Well I was reading until about five when I fell asleep. Not sure when I woke up but the guy that dragged me here was the cause. It's all kind of a blur." Roxas admitted scratching the back of his head, seemingly trying to remember something.
"Hmm… well chances are pretty high we have the same schedule, but if we don't we could always ask Professor Stein or someone." Maka mused and then nodded to herself as if confirming the plan with another.
"Sounds like a plan. Lead the way." Roxas said before giving out another yawn. He then blinked a few times, seeming more focused now. "Oh and uh… sorry about your forehead by the way."
She blinked looking a bit confused before realizing he must've seen the faint bruise. "Oh, right. It's okay… but how often do you hit people with your head anyways? You recovered from it a lot faster than I did yesterday and there's no sign you hit your head." As Maka said this she lead the way to the door.
"Uh… it's more how often I get hit in the head actually." Roxas admitted but didn't go into detail. The lack of details he gave was becoming rather annoying in her opinion, but she wouldn't say anything... yet.
"Are you guys actually making a conversation about hitting heads?" Soul asked while reentering the conversation and following Maka out off the room.
"Hmm… I guess we are." Maka offered a shrug as they left the classroom behind them, Tsubaki following silently.
Upon entering the halls, Roxas was almost immediately uneasy. He decided right then that he didn't like stares. "Did someone set up an ambush for me?" Was the first thought he had regarding the situation. It was an odd little half-circle surrounding the entrance to the classroom's exit. There was an almost eerie silence as the others seemed to notice as well.
Then the questions came crashing down all at once like, 'What's your weapon?!' or 'Where're you from?!' even 'Do Heartless really look like bunnies?!'
Oddly enough Roxas did find himself pondering the bunny question. "Well... if the antennae were straight... they were on all fours... maybe a fluffy tail... Wait, what am I thinking?!" He tried shaking his head to get the odd image of a shadow turned bunny out of his head. Thankfully he was saved the trouble of answering questions by someone obnoxiously loud.
"Out of the way! I'm the star around here!"
It wasn't hard for Roxas to feel a sort of instant dislike to the newcomer. Something about him just rubbed the amnesiac the wrong way. There was just a sort of... arrogant air about him that really put Roxas in a bad mood. It was strange how easily a disliking had formed, he usually at least took some time to know someone before passing judgement but this guy had said only nine words and already Roxas didn't like him. Although shoving his way through the crowd certainly didn't help appearances.
The new object of Roxas' dislike had bright blue-where had he seen blue hair before?-spiky hair, if he squinted a little he was reminded of a star... and people called him a porcupine. He was also rather short but also pretty muscular. The outfit consisted of a sleeveless black shirt with a rather over-sized collar-which Roxas was sure was usually worn by people who tried to hide their faces- with white trousers that are black from the knee down and just a little short of being full length jeans. On the front of his collar, two short strips of grey material adorned with rivets stretch down from, the top of the collar to the breast of his shirt. There were similar strips wrapped around his neck in the form of a scarf, and around his waist in the form of a belt. Rivets can also be seen on his pockets and on the ends of his trousers. On his hand, he wore gray finger-less gloves with heavy looking wrist weights and had a band going across the back of each hand, each adorned with a star. His footwear was a pair of basic black boots with white tips, with a star shape visible on the toe of each boot. On his shoulder was a star tattoo that was a few shades lighter than his skin. Finally, he had dark green eyes and looked somewhere between agitated and smug.
"Great, now he shows up." Roxas heard Maka mutter... he was just guessing but he got the feeling she had a twitching eye.
"Black Star..." He heard Tsubaki say quietly.
"Black Star? Is that his name?" Roxas thought to himself, wondering who would willingly be called that besides the suspected egotist before him.
The one apparently called Black Star tromped right up to Roxas so they were face to face. It was a bit funny since Roxas was a bit taller than him. Why did he get the feeling he was usually the short one? Anyways, for a moment dark green eyes met blue, the dark green seemingly evaluating while blue stared back with a challenging scowl.
"So you're the one hogging the spotlight, huh? Well I'm here to tell you now that there's only room for one star at this school and that's me!" Black Star jabbed a thumb at himself for emphasis. "So unless you're afraid, how about we head outside and settle this now?"
Before Roxas could respond Maka stepped forward. "Hold on a second Black Star. Roxas is new here, none of us know his skill level yet and-"
"What? Are you afraid for your new boyfriend or whatever?" Black Star asked insensitively not taking his eyes away from Roxas'.
"Wha-boyfriend?! No!" Maka turned red-rather from anger or a blush was completely unknown. "I just don't think it's a good idea to fight someone without knowing their skill level!"
"Heh! Going to let Maka do all the talking for ya while you run off like a chicken?" Black Star teased, trying-and succeeding-in getting a rouse out of Roxas who narrowed his eyes.
Seeing there was no sense in trying to dissuade Black Star, Maka rested her hand on Roxas' shoulder. "C'mon Roxas let's-"
Surprisingly it was Roxas that interrupted this time. "No." His eyes hadn't left Black Star's once since the little stare down began. "I'll accept your challenge."
"But-wha-we don't even have a teacher to supervise!" Maka stumbled through her words, trying to find a way to stop this fight from happening.
"What was that about supervising?" ... Of course Professor Stein just had to roll in on his chair right them. He looked at the stare down taking place in the middle of all the commotion. "Oh, I see. Well judging by those looks, there's no stopping them. Let's head outside then, shall we?" He adjusted the screw in his head.
It didn't take long for everyone to get outside. But really, shouldn't everyone be heading to class before they're late? Then again, quite a few teachers looked to be rather curious about the outcome-in other words several teachers had come to watch. Looks like a lot of people would be having class outside today. The rest would probably be considered late.
"Roxas, Black Star may seem like a nut job but he's still one of the best students in terms of combat in the school. I don't think this is a good idea." This was Maka's last attempt at trying to prevent the fight. But surely by now it was all in vain.
"I'll be fine. I've dealt with things more annoying than him." Roxas stated simply, not taking his eyes off his opponent. Briefly he saw an odd and darkly colored monkey in Black Star's place. "... I think I have anyways..."
This thought gave Maka pause as she pondered what could be more annoying than Black Star before she reluctantly joined Soul at the edge of the crowd.
"Humph. What, no weapons?" Black Star taunted from his side of the rather large circle that had been made around Roxas and Black Star who held Tsubaki who had turned into a chain ninjatō(or ninja sword).
"I don't have a weapon." Roxas stated simply while moving into a rather relaxed looking position. Had he not read so much during the night he'd probably have freaked out when he saw Tsubaki transform into a weapon. He was glad he'd decided to fill that hole in his memory with book knowledge about this place. "But you can go ahead and use Tsubaki. I have no arguments."
"Heh, your funeral." Black Star said as he moved into his own position. "You're going to regret challenging me."
"You're the one that challenged me." Roxas thought, narrowing his eyes slightly from the increasingly annoying kid known as Black Star. He opted not to respond knowing he'd just get more annoyed with whatever comeback the spaz came up with.
(A/N: Not so sure how good my fights scenes are, so don't say you weren't warned.)
A silence settled in front of the school. There was no need for someone to say 'start' or 'go'. Instead Roxas and Black Star both seemed to know when to begin. It started with Black Star charging, ninjatō in hand only to be side-stepped at the last second by Roxas. Of course Black Star had anticipated that much given that Roxas had 'patiently' waited for him to come and he quickly whirled around, swinging the ninjatō. That's when Black Star did receive a slight surprise. Roxas had ducked that strike surprisingly fast-although Black Star passed it off as a fluke. But the third time he missed with Roxas avoiding the hit he realized something. After Roxas got behind him and used his back as a springboard so he landed in the middle of the circle, the force used briefly causing the assassin to stumble.
"Fast." Black Star muttered, narrowing his eyes at his opponent. It almost seemed like he was being toyed with. Which meant he'd have to take this more seriously. That jump off his back had really gotten him mad. "Tsubaki, chain scythe mode when we're in front of him." He murmured lowly before charging at Roxas once more.
Obviously, Roxas hadn't expected Tsubaki to change into another weapon. You could tell by the look of surprise on his face as he was forced to back up to avoid getting slashed with either end of the chain scythe. Which continued for several moments before he gritted his teeth narrowing his eyes in annoyance. "Play it that way huh?" He muttered to himself-since Black Star was too preoccupied with trying to scratch him- before stopping his retreat and holding his left hand out.
Black Star thought this was his chance. The enemy wasn't moving, he was wide open. Hence why both he and observers were startled by the sudden burst of... was that shadow? Oh, and the sound of clashing metal. In Roxas' held out hand was, in the most basic description, a big black sword-or key maybe. It was almost completely black, the hilt's guard was comprised of two bat-like wings extending downward. The teeth seemed to be in the shape of the Kanji for 'darkness' (闇) eerily enough. There was also what appeared to be a key chain, the token at the end of the chain being a black crown. A chain-like design ran up the length of the blade. Finally, there was a diamond in its hilt that seemed a dark purple in color.
Shock was on nearly everyone's faces. Black Star was one exception, who gritted his teeth before jumping back, reassessing the situation. Then the other exception was the professor who had been the first to step up and observe the fight, Stein, who looked more interested than anything. Everyone else's jaws were dropping. After all, they saw people turn into weapons all the time. They did not however, see weapons come out of nowhere!
"What's the deal?! I thought you said you didn't have a weapon!" Of course, it was Black Star who said it.
"Well, I don't technically have 'a' weapon." Roxas offered a small shrug before holding out his free hand. There was a burst of light and now there was another big sword-or key-although this one was mostly silver. This one's shaft displayed two hearts and its handle bore two angel wings, contrasting the bat wings that comprise the other blade's handle. The teeth are oddly enough fashioned in the shape of the Kanji for "light" (光), corresponding to the other's kanji for "darkness". Its key chain looked like a star shaped by several of some kind of seashell.
Roxas crossed the two blades in an 'X' shape. "I have two."
Sorry it took so long to update. School hit me like a freaking freight train or something with the homework. Hopefully it won't take so long to get the next chapter up where we'll see just where this fight goes, what was Stein doing before the fight and maybe find out what Death playing poker has to do with Roxas. Heheh... if you guys thought I didn't have a plan, you're sadly mistaken.
Oh, and I wanted to thank everyone who reviewed, added this to their favorites and/or put this in their alerts. To those of you that have given me input, especially since it'll be on my mind if/when I go back to edit and in two cases, helping me see some other things that can and probably will happen in the future. I also want to apologize for any mistakes I made this chapter as I've had very little time to do much lately besides homework.
This actually cut into a lot of sleep time. But thanks to my climb out of a long-term depression and back up to that border between mania and that in between I've been fine. Then there's this monster(by my standards) of a chapter here. Hope it makes up somewhat for my lack of updating. I've rarely gone over three thousand words in a chapter before. This is 4,648 words... yay... new record. ^^
