A/N: This would've been done sooner if my parents hadn't randomly been all "HEY! We've decided we're all going to boston for two or three days without your consent!" :D
Also, I should warn you, I've never written action before... so... um... xD Well, all I'm saying is this may not be all that fantastic.
I Don't Own Soul Eater
The building was ancient, built of old gray stone with iron gates and windows. It looked like it may have been a beautiful cathedral at one point, but was now in such a decrepit state it was hard to see exactly what beauty it may have held. The roof had caved in long ago and the clock on the face of the steeple was missing the numbers seven and three. Kid stepped over one of the clock's iron hands where it lay rusted on the ground, mostly hidden by overgrown grass and dandelions that had turned to white fuzz upon the end of the season.
"There must've been a town here at one point. I don't know why else there'd be a church around here," Kid observed, talking more to himself than the sisters. "The trees are also a bit younger in this area," he added to confirm himself.
"This place is so creepy. I wonder what happened to it," Liz commented.
"Who knows," he whispered. "But that's not why we're here. I doubt this kishin is old enough to have caused it."
Kid walked up the mossy steps toward the rusted iron doors. He slipped the two pistols into his pockets for the moment as he pushed on the heavy doors. They squealed and scraped, but swung open with surprising ease, meaning they'd been used quite a bit recently. He pulled the pistols out of his pockets as he stepped onto the rotting wooden floor, Liz and Patty both deciding that he was going to need holsters if this partnership continued.
The floor too squeaked under his weight, and just as he was worrying that it might give out under him, he noticed that the center of the church's floor had already caved in. All of the pews were askew and many had slid into the dent. The odd thing, though, was that he couldn't feel the kishin's soul wavelength right away. It wasn't until he got close enough to the dent to see that it was, in fact, not a dent, but a hole did he begin to feel it.
His grip on the pistols tightened slightly and his wrists twitched with anticipation. He moved his fingers onto their triggers unconsciously as he peered down into the caved in area. It was dark, enough so that even he was having trouble seeing exactly what may be down there or even how deep it was.
The kishin's wavelength had become more potent now that he was standing on the very edge of the rotting wood. It creaked dangerously under him, threatening to snap. The air was already thick with dust and mold and he could feel even more dampness coming from below him, making him think this was likely a tunnel. He could tell now that the kishin was most certainly inside, hiding. It's depth, however, was still the mystery that kept him from jumping.
"Kid, what're you doing? You've been standing in the same spot for like ever," Liz whispered warily.
"Shh." he shushed her quickly, needing to keep his concentration on his soul perception.
"Maybe he died," Patty giggled.
"Shh!" He needed them quiet. He needed to be able to ignore all of his other senses. He was still a young reaper and so his soul perception was not yet perfect. It would strengthen over time, he knew, but it was still a hindrance. He closed his eyes, trying to block out everything he could so that he could pinpoint the kishin's exact location within the tunnel, which would also hopefully tell him about how deep it was.
He searched for the anomaly, the odd feeling near by that did not belong with the souls of the insects and animals in the area. He did his best to drown those out as well. They were usually easier to ignore since they weren't quite as diverse or intense as human or kishin souls. He realized, uneasily, that the kishin's soul, that small splotch of wrongness, was slowly moving closer.
"Liz, Patty," he said suddenly. "The Ki-" and then the floor was gone from beneath him with a violent and angry crack. His stomach flipped, nothing but air rushing around him for several moments. An obscene amount of energy momentarily shot through him, sending him running several feet once he touched the ground. He skidded to a stop and caught himself, and then turned to look up, seeing the dim circular light of their entrance, lighting their way and looming over them like the moon.
The floor was dirt and roots from plants above twisted and wound themselves over the tunnels walls, holding off the dirt and preventing it from collapsing. The kishin's soul was still nearing them slowly, almost leisurely. It made Kid think that it hadn't noticed them yet, that it was just wandering its own tunnels.
"As I was saying," he whispered only just loud enough for them to hear. "The kishin is in this tunnel. I can't see perfectly, but I can see some," he admitted. "I can also sense its soul, so I don't think we'll be running into it by accident."
"You can sense its soul?" Liz asked, impressed.
"Yeah." he said. "And I could probably do it better if it wasn't so dirty," he said sourly, glaring momentarily at the dirt and then remembering the pews from above. "That church was terrible," he started as he began walking. "It's so messy and unorganized. I should've fixed it."
"That's not important now," the older girl said.
"I should've fixed the pews," he stated. "I should've straightened them."
"We don't have time for that. We're supposed to be looking for the kishin thing. Does it really matter if its dirty?" Liz said, believing he was simply whining.
"I should've fixed the pews," he repeated, his voice becoming shaky. "Maybe I can just do it quickly and then we can come back..."
"Are you serious? That's got nothing to do with the mission at all!" Liz whisper-screamed.
"But they were so disorderly and..." his mind was on nothing else now besides the pews. "...and so asymmetrical."
"Oh no no no no no," Liz said. "Don't you start with that 'symmetry' crap again." In the few days she'd been around him, she'd quickly learned that if symmetry was brought up, that this was going to be a problem.
"You don't understand, Elizabeth..." he said, teeth gritted. The picture of the pews in such disarray was far too clear in his mind.
"Just forget about it!" Liz was having a hard time keeping her voice quiet and so it became airy and shrill.
"I can't," he stopped walking suddenly.
"What?" she shrieked. "There is a deadly monster in these tunnels somewhere that, according to your father, eats off people's skin and leaves just their innards, and all you can think about is the goddamn pews?"
Kid just made an uncomfortable noise.
"Forget about it and just keep going," she told him.
"I can't," he said again, starting to back up frantically. "I can't I can't I can't I can't."
"Hold it!" Liz said, suddenly changing in a flash of pinkish light to her human form. "What do you think you're-" but it was in that flash of light that she noticed, just behind Kid, some hulking fleshy shape that wasn't there before. And it was in the moment where Liz paused and her jaw dropped that Kid again began to focus on something other than the pews. It was also here where Kid finally realized that the kishin had been walking slowly behind them without his noticing.
It's breath became more apparent, tired and heavy like a thick, slobbering pant. Kid turned around slowly, light glinting off of his eyes like lighted mirrors. Liz could feel its hot breath now, stinking of the dead. She couldn't see it, but Kid could and it most certainly did not resemble a human. Its flesh had turned gray and translucent, pale blue veins winding their way underneath its skin. Its hair was mostly gone and what was left of it fell like filthy strings around it's face which bore no eyes. It's body was that of an emaciated man with hands the length of at least half his torso, its long bony fingers tipped with huge dirt encrusted claws.
"That," Patty's exhilarated voice sounded so unfitting to the moment. "Is so cool!"
Liz screamed and the beast let out a bone-racking roar.
"Elizabeth!" Kid said demandingly. Liz didn't hesitate in changing to her gun form as quickly as possible. Kid held the two pistols at the ready, but began pacing backwards as the kishin slowly crawled forward rather than shooting. His eyes kept flashing back and forth between the monster before him and the ceiling of the tunnel. The pews were still a mess...
"Kid! Shoot at it or something! Quick!" Liz screamed, panicking.
"The... the pews..." he said.
"Fuck the pews! Do you see that thing right in front of you that's going to kill us?" she couldn't believe what he'd just said. He was going to get them all killed. She was sure of it.
"I..."
"Do you really think the pews matter that much?" she shrieked. She could hear her sister laughing next to her. "Am I the only one that understands the seriousness of this situation?"
Kid continued to hesitate for just a moment too long and gave the kishin an opportunity to swipe one of its claws at him. The force sent him several feet backwards and onto the floor.
"Kid!" Liz screamed, genuinely worrying for his life. Even Patty stopped laughing and went quiet. "Kid! Shoot at it! Now!" the older girl ordered.
"The pews..." Kid whispered.
"Forget about the pews!" Liz screamed in such a loud, high voice she could barely be understood.
"Liz! Let's just do this!" Patty said hurriedly.
"I..." Liz wasn't sure what to do in all her panic. Her heart was thudding so hard that Kid could feel it in his grip. "Patty, I..."
"What else do we do!" Patty was becoming frantic as well.
"Kid, just get up!" the older sister said, terror obvious in her voice. "Fix the pews later! Your bleeding all over!"
"I'm, I'm what?" Kid said as though he'd temporarily left the present moment.
"You're bleeding like mad, Kid!" Patty said.
"And I'm on my back... on this dirty nasty floor," he said, his voice becoming angry.
"Yes! And there's a kishin right in front of you about to kill us so shoot it now!" Liz yelled frantically. The kishin slashed again, and with the same claw as before, Kid noted. He pushed himself up so that he was leaning on his hands. The next slash from the Kishin, again with the same hand, he was able to dodge. He jumped up, finally, and then jumped backwards several feet.
"This guy keeps using the same hand. It's bothering me," he grit his teeth. "And he ruined my suit."
"Alright then use that anger and kill it!" Liz urged him.
"Right," Kid said, holding the two pistols at the ready, his arms evenly spaced apart. He then pulled the triggers almost simultaneously and shot a magenta ball of energy from each gun directly at the Kishin. They were larger and stronger than they had been in training. It hit the creature with fairly decent accuracy, sending it stumbling backwards. However, the force of the blast sent both of his hands backwards with an almost painful force.
"Dammit," Kid hissed.
"What?" Liz asked.
"That wasn't simultaneous," he whispered, firing another two shots. "Neither was that one."
He seemed to be keeping the kishin at bay, but the shots weren't doing much actual damage. Not to the kishin, anyway. His wrists were beginning to ache from the force and he couldn't seem to get his hands to grip them tight enough. His hands felt weaker and weaker as each blast lit up the tunnel.
"These shots aren't very powerful," Kid said worriedly. "At this rate, I'll never be able to fixed the pews."
"Would you just forget the pews!" Liz spat, still terrified this boy would end up getting her and her sister killed.
"Our wavelengths aren't in sync enough," Kid said. "These shots aren't going to do a whole lot." As he spoke, the kishin swatted at them again. This time, though, he counteracted with a kick. When it struck again, he blocked it with Patty, shoving the barrel into it's palm. He pulled the trigger in hopes that more direct contact would make it more effective.
The kishin screeched and stumbled backwards, a hole in the center of its hand.
"Okay, so it looks like our shots disperse too much at the moment to cause long range damage," Kid explained, backing up.
"Alright so what do we do?" Liz asked.
"Fight it at close range," he said as he ran directly for the creature. He slammed the side of his foot into it's face before it could slash at him. It sent it crashing into the dirt wall, making everything around them vibrate and causing dirt to become dispatched from the ceiling.
"Could you not make this place cave in?" Liz said.
"I'm trying!" Kid hissed back. "There's not a whole lot I can do about it!" he yelled as the kishin grabbed his ankle while he was distracted by Liz and threw him down to the end of the tunnel.
More dirt fell from the ceiling as the whole place shook. Kid made a strange snarling noise as he pushed himself off the ground. The kishin charged at him on all fours, screeching and squealing with it's wrinkly mouth dripping with saliva. Before he could pick himself up, the beast was slashing at him from above.
"You two! Go!" he growled, throwing the two pistols away after shooting at it had done nothing to deter it from attacking him. They were still too weak. "Your resonance is better! Go!"
Patty changed first and snatched her sister from the ground. She shot at the creature with more powerful shots, ones that came from a deep understanding the two shared for each other. "Take that, ya' cum dumpster!" Patty yelled in the most terrifying voice Kid had ever heard. The shots blasted away pieces of the kishin's flesh, sending it writhing on the floor and letting Kid ease himself to his feet. He stumbled for a moment, but eventually steadied himself and sent a kick down into the kishin's head, drilling it into the dirt.
Patty kept shooting erratically until, even after that kick and all of its missing pieces, it staggered over to her and slashed an enormous claw at her. It was slow enough that she was able to change into gun form again and let her sister take control.
Liz shot with more accuracy and with more dexterity. She was far more precise than her sister. She aimed for it's arms and shot them off. It fell forward onto its eyeless face, yelling and screaming in the most horrific way as blood poured from it's shoulders.
It started to push itself up with it's neck, momentarily balancing on its head. It eventually managed to stand itself up on two legs, as unstable as it might be, and ran at Liz. It backed her up into a corner of the tunnel, slamming its head into the wall above her to keep itself steady. Thick saliva dripped from its mouth and onto her hair.
It was removed from her way almost immediately, though, by Kid's foot which threw it to the side and onto the floor again. It squirmed and kicked in its disorientation, pitifully rolling around in a way that was strangely sickening.
"Kid, you finish it!" Liz yelled as she changed into a gun again. He caught both sisters with ease and fired a shot directly at the kishin's mutated head. These shots were, somehow, more powerful than before and manage to blast straight through its head. It shrieked, the top of its head now gone into mist.
"You just shot off it's head! Why is it still moving?" Patty yelled, watching the deformed creature writhe on the ground.
"It takes a couple seconds to die sometimes," he said, still shooting. "It's pretty much dead though."
"How do you know when-" she never finished her question as it was answered for her. With one last shot, the entire being seemed to burn into mist and disappear, leaving behind a glowing red orb. For the few seconds after it was gone, neither of the girls quite believed it. It just didn't quite register with them that it was truly gone. There was something in both of them that for some reason believed it might come back.
"There," Kid said, satisfied. He lowered the two smoking pistols. "That, ladies, is a Kishin soul," he said proudly.
"Oh my god, I'm just glad its dead," Liz let out a relieved breath.
"That was so fricken awesome!" Patty squealed in triumph.
"Now," Kid sounded out of breath. "Normally in this situation, the weapon would get to take the soul, but since there are too of you and you can't exactly split a soul in half..."
"Patty can take it," Liz said immediately. There was a brief second of silence.
"It would be asymmetrical and unbalanced if one of you had a soul and the other didn't." Kid explained. "I think I'm just going to collect this one myself and take it to Father. Next time, though, I'll make sure you both get a soul. That is, if you still wish to be my weapons."
"Why wouldn't we want to be?" Patty said as Kid took the soul in his hand. Kid looked confused.
"That was incredibly flawed and its entirely because of me," he said, his voice tired.
"It wasn't all your fault," Liz said sympathetically. "It also wasn't that bad. It could've been worse."
Kid didn't respond as he collected the soul. Liz and Patty watched with interest as it disappeared into his hand in a tiny vortex of skulls and black fire, lighted by the red glow of the tainted soul.
"It could've been done better. I could've done more." he said. "It wasn't perfect."
"It was our first mission. Of course it wasn't perfect." Liz said. "It'll be better next time."
"I guess," he spoke in such a disappointed voice that there was nothing left to say. He insisted on beating himself up over every little detail. No matter what, perfection was the only thing he'd accept.
It was three o'clock in the morning when the finally got back to Death City. They'd left immediately after Kid had fixed the church to the best of his abilities. The flight home had felt quicker to them this time, perhaps because the girls kept falling asleep. However, they were awaken by Kid when he landed and rolled onto the stony walkway of the Gallows Mansion.
They changed back into their human forms looking quite tired. They stretched and groaned and neither of them opened their eyes completely. Kid was in a similar state, not even bothering to fix his wind-whipped hair. He rubbed the back up his head, and the three of them walked up the path slowly and quietly. None of them had the energy to talk at the moment.
It wasn't until nearly a half hour later that any of them spoke, and, given the circumstances, it was a very odd instance to be speaking. Kid had taken his time getting ready for bed as he always did. He'd gone through the entire house making sure all of the picture frames were straight, all of the toilet paper in all eight bathrooms had their tips folded into triangles, and that all of the candles were the proper lengths. Though he was not as thorough as normal through his fatigue. He wouldn't be able to sleep if he felt the house wasn't neat. It didn't matter how tired he was. It just wouldn't happen.
He'd noticed, after the very last painting had been straightened and he was going upstairs, that someone was outside. He'd seen them out of the corner of his eye through a window in the front room. After a second look, he saw it was Liz. He'd figured she'd gone to bed already.
He opened the front door, his blazer off and his suspenders around his thighs, and stepped into the cold of the night. Liz turned at the sound of squeaking hinges as well as two lights above the doors she hadn't known to be there being flicked on.
"What are you still doing up?" he asked. He noticed soon after speaking, though, that there was a lit cigarette in between her fingers.
"I'll be in a minute," she said, her voice crackling slightly with her exhaustion.
"Are you alright?" he asked, sounding concerned and almost surprised.
"Um, yeah?" She answered as she took another drag on her cigarette. She sounded offended.
"Your soul seems nervous," he told her. "Are you sure?"
"I said I'm fine, Kid." She was irritated, defensive. It was clear Kid didn't believe her as he sat down on the steps with her. He didn't say anything and they sat in silence for several strangely comfortable moments before Liz noticed something.
"Your wounds are all healed," she said, staring at the bloody rips in his shirt that no longer correlated with the skin underneath.
"Yeah," he said, glancing down at his own chest even though he knew what wasn't there. "I healed on the way back."
"So you heal that fast?" Liz asked as she blew a stream of smoke from her mouth. "Jeez, you're lucky."
"I suppose, yes," he agreed.
"And you can see in the dark. And you can see souls." she listed. "Any other freaky things I should know?"
Kid gave a quick amused smile coupled with a small, awkward, laugh. "Um, I don't think so." He tugged at his skull rings. "Well, there are other things, but they're not really the same."
"Like what?" she asked. "I mean, like, if I'm gonna be your weapon, I should know, right?"
"Ah," he said as he looked up at the starry sky he rubbed his hands together. "My skin doesn't burn or tan. I suppose that's something."
"That's why your so pasty?" she concluded. "I could not deal with not being able to get a tan. Having a tan is just like, something people do. I'd look bad with pale skin. I mean, it's not like I've ever actually gone tanning or anything since me and Patty didn't have the money, but we were outside most of the time so we did get a pretty decent tan for being in the city."
"I don't know that you'd look bad pale," Kid said.
"Tch. Trust me. I would," she dragged on her cigarette. "I usually hate it when people are pasty. They look all veiny and crap. It's weird. No offense. I hate it when people have a really gross looking tan, too though. It looks trashy. Makes you look like a whore, y'know?"
Kid nodded, not sure what to say to this type of talk.
"Me 'n Patty don't do that crap. I never wanted us to end up like that. I always said whatever happened to us, we'd never be like trashy whores." she continued. "I just don't want us being associated with those kinda people anymore." She sounded a little defensive at the end, like she was making an excuse and like she was expecting Kid to question her.
"I don't know why anyone would," he said.
"Neither do I," Liz said, short clips of memories of her mother flashing through her mind. "We're never going to be like Mom," she whispered. She didn't say it directly, but he understood what she meant.
"She abandoned me 'n Patty." she said. Kid wasn't sure why she was telling him this. "I hate her. I havn't seen her since I was twelve and Patty was ten. She could barely take care of herself, let alone two kids. We were better off without her anyway."
Kid nodded unsure how to respond. When he didn't say anything, she continued.
"She was almost never around and she would leave us alone for three days straight sometimes. There was never any running water in the apartment 'cause she never paid the bills. All the kids at school made fun of us and called us scumbags 'cause we couldn't take showers half the time. That's why we never really went. We just completely stopped going after a while," she seemed to be lost in her thoughts, the words just coming out as soon as they appeared.
"Once we figured out we were weapons we decided we could take care of ourselves and started stealing from people. After a while, Mom told us she couldn't take care of us no more, so she told us to leave. It didn't matter. It's not like she ever actually took care of us anyway." her voice was getting quieter and shakier. Kid could feel her hurt in her soul and had no idea what to do.
"Why am I telling you this anyway?" she laughed a little. "S'not like you'd understand."
"That's not true," he said immediately.
"How? Your a spoiled brat. What would you know?" she said sourly. His eyebrows scrunched slightly.
"My father is The Grim Reaper. He's not exactly home that often. I don't go to school like most kids do and I rarely leave this house for any other reason besides missions," he said. Now that he was the one speaking, he understood why she'd told him. "I was left home by myself for the most part, accept for a nanny every once in a while. They never stayed long, though. They couldn't deal with my... my tendencies. I've never had any friends before." He took a breath, feeling his voice becoming more energetic than he'd like. "I might not have had to grown up on the streets, but I understand. I really do."
Liz was quiet for a few seconds. "I just don't want us to end up like her."
"You wont have to now, though," he said. "Your lives can be better here."
"Yeah..." Liz said quietly. She looked at the ground and didn't speak.
"Your soul is guilty now," Kid whispered.
"Maybe your soul thingy sucks, then," she snapped. She was being defensive again. Kid was quiet.
"I'm just trying to be nice," he said eventually.
"Well, could you stop reading me like that? It's pissing me off," she growled as she stuck the cigarette in her mouth and folded her arms.
"Sorry. I'm not around humans much. I forget sometimes," he apologized.
"You say that like your better than humans," she said. "But your not. Hell, if it weren't for all of your freaky powers, you'd be just like any other rich brat. We'd have just mugged you and you'd of run home crying to your daddy and nothing woulda happened."
Kid wet his lips. "Would you rather I'd left you both there?" he asked. There was a long pause as Liz thought it over.
"No." she said. "Of course not."
"You're guilty again." he said.
"Stop doing that!" she said as she leaned over and punched him in the arm. It didn't hurt him, but he wasn't sure if it was meant playfully or not.
"Sorry. I can't help it. Shutting it off takes concentration," he said apologetically.
"Well, you could just not announce it," she said. "You act like a no-it-all and you don't know anything."
"It's my natural ability as a shiningami to be able to read emotions." It was his turn to be insulted. "So in this case, I do know."
"Whatever. I don't care." She took the cigarette out of her mouth and held it, letting the smoke trail up around her face.
He could tell that that was a lie, but didn't push it. He didn't want to make her angry. He was trying to make a good impression. There was another long moment of silence, this one much less comfortable. Kid contemplated going inside briefly, thinking it might just be best to leave her alone and go to bed. His eyes very much liked that option. He was having a hard time keeping them open.
"It's okay, you know," he said eventually. "I'm not going to judge you for anything. Your soul isn't evil and no one is free of malice. There is no such thing as anyone who is perfectly innocent."
She didn't look at him. She just watched the smoke stream from her cigarette.
"I want to change," she said. "I want to leave that whole life behind and I want to be better. I want Patty to live better."
"Then this is your best opportunity," Kid said. "You don't have to go back."
"I can't believe we're really just being saved by some spoiled brat." she said. "This just isn't the type of thing you'd ever think would happen."
"So you are going to stay?" he asked.
"Yeah." she said. "We're staying."
They didn't speak again for a while. Liz's cigarette was eventually thrown to the ground and the sky began to fade into a blueish gray. The stars started to fade and the moon was disappearing into the horizon. The glow of the sun stated to take hold of the city, bringing warmth and light. They would probably end up sleeping all day that day, but they didn't mind.
Liz leaned up against the railing on one side of the stairs and Kid leaned against the other. If Kid were slightly more conscious, he'd have marveled at their symmetry. And if Patty hadn't burst through the front doors demanding breakfast and entertainment, they'd have slept there all day.
A/N: That was soooooooo much longer than I planned xD I feel like it almost could have been two chapters... Anyway, that concludes the opening thing. I hope you liked it. The rest should be random one-shots. Hopefully more with Patty because I feel like I left her out a little bit. :/ though, they're not TOO random. they still go in an order... I guess I just mean they're not directly connected.
