FUUUUUUUUU THIS IS THE LONGEST CHAPTER IVE EVER WRITTEN ITS ALMOST THREE THOUSAND WORDS! It's to make up for last chapter's shortness.
Just want to clarify because I forgot to in the first chapter; when it said "you couldn't die unless you were killed" I meant that if you were really careful, you could live until your skin rotted and your bones dried up. Since there's no shinigami to reap souls, that means the only way to die is to be killed. It's a fucked up world I forced our characters in. Not as bad as the hunger games though. I don't think anyway.
Maka shook Kid awake, the boy's eyes opening slowly. She stared at him.
"Kid...are you okay?" her green eyes studied his face.
"Y-yeah just tired," he rubbed his eyes, sitting up.
"You seemed distressed when you were sleeping," Maka explained.
"How so?"
"You just...I can't explain. It's like you were giving off this wave of distress," she shook her head.
Stein spoke up from where he stood in the doorway, "It sounds like you activated Soul Perception."
The two teens looked over.
"But I don't have–"
"Yes, you do. You both do, actually. That's how you two are able to sense each other's emotions so well."
"Why didn't you tell us before?" asked Kid.
"I wasn't sure for a while, but since Kami had that ability, I had assumed Maka would at least have a weak version of it. You, however–"
"You don't know where I got it from. Story of my life," Kid rolled his eyes.
"How did you come to that conclusion, though?" asked Maka.
"I could tell, from your description of what you felt."
"But what about me?" Kid tilted his head, a strange habit he had developed over the years.
"I'll be damned if someone with a wavelength like that couldn't sense souls," Stein said as he walked back into his lab, shutting the door behind him.
Maka looked over at the black haired boy, who was still staring at the door.
Soul Perception, the ability to sense souls, and physically see the soul itself. But how... she thought.
She closed her eyes, and concentrated.
Focus on a sixth sense...
She began to make out faint lights, pulsing at different rates. There was her papa upstairs, with a quick, cheerful beat. There was Marie, a calm, soothing wavelength. There was Stein, a slightly insane, slow pulse. There was Azusa, a steady, yet sharp tempo.
Then there was Kid. It was all over the place, beating slow at some points, then suddenly speeding up.
Slowly, the physical forms and colors of the souls began to show. Her papa's light green soul, with a six foot diameter, Marie, yellow, 5 foot diameter, Stein, gray, eight foot diameter, Azusa, dark blue, five foot diameter, and once again, Kid's soul was strange. It was purple, blue, with gold flecks in places. There also seemed to be something black trying to swallow it, but the gold seemed to be pushing it back.
Nine foot diameter.
That was bizarre. Why would Kid's soul be larger than Stein's, who was one of the strongest people she knew? And what was up with that wavelength? It wasn't at all like the calm, collected person she knew Kid to be.
She opened her eyes, everything returning to normal. Same dim lights, same dirty walls and floor, same creaky stairs, same ripped up couch.
Kid was staring at her, eyebrow raised.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine. Go take a shower. You smell like blood and depression."
Kid made a face at her and she stuck her tongue out at him, and he ran up the stairs, and a few seconds later, some muffled voices spoke. One sounded like Azusa, the other sounded like Kid. Maka strained her ears to hear.
"–ar Clan?!" she heard Azusa yell.
"I didn't instigate it!" Kid responded.
"You still accepted! And you didn't even know the weapons!"
"I did! I saved Tsubaki's life for fucks sake!"
"Watch your language! Wait what?!"
Maka grew a confused look on her face, as she didn't know either.
"I was out the other morning, and Tsubaki had apparently gotten lost the night before, and was being chased by an Afreet*! All I asked for in return was that she and her brother become my weapons! Do you know how embarrassing it is to be the only kid without a weapon?!"
"Maka doesn't have a weapon either! Kid–"
"Maka isn't in my class either!" Kid interrupted.
"Don't interrupt me! Kid, resonating with two weapons is extremely dangerous. You're lucky you didn't get more hurt than you already are."
She heard an impatient huff, and the noises stopped before she heard the sound of running water. Maka sighed and went back to her book, waiting for the next argument to break out.
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Azusa watched the impatient fifteen year old walk down the hall to the bathroom, and let out a sigh as she heard the water turn on. She walked down the stairs and sat in the armchair, rubbing her face.
"My goodness, Maka, what am I doing wrong," her voice came out muffled. Said teenage girl in question glanced up from her book and said "You aren't doing anything wrong. Kid's just being a teenager. I do it to Papa and Marie, Kid does it to you and Stein."
"He swore at me, Maka."
"Again, he's just being a teenager. He doesn't really seem to consider you a parent (despite the incident yesterday) so he's not going to be as respectful, I guess."
"But, Maka, he doesn't swear at me. I've never heard him swear like that at anyone. Something's off."
"...I noticed it too," Maka spoke after a moment of silence.
"Wha–?"
"I looked at his soul. There's something weird about his wavelength," Maka said before Azusa could ask when she gained the ability to look at souls, "It's all erratic and crazy. And there's something black trying to surround it."
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Kid stepped out of the shower and dried himself off before changing into clean clothes, wrapping his shoulder, and locking himself in his room for the rest of the night.
Or at least, that's what the other members of the household assumed, since he never came out and the door was locked. Maka said he was probably asleep, since he "slept all the goddamn time," though she was pretty sure she knew what he was really doing.
He probably went out again.
And she would be correct.
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Kid shut his window, carefully balancing on the ledge of the roof. One wrong step and his could break every bone in his body. He heard the click that signified it was shut, and jumped down onto solid ground, sticking the landing perfectly. He knew it would be dangerous to walk around with an open wound, but he had taken two of the pills Miss Medusa had given him and the cuts had stopped bleeding and were clotting quickly. Plus he had wasted a lot of time by sleeping earlier and needed to just plain get out the house. He wandered a bit. The night even seemed to be peaceful. Maybe he was catching a break for once in his life.
Then the blood on the moon began dripping.
Of course. How could I expect anything different.
It didn't seem to be from a Killing this time, but rather manslaughter. There was blood everywhere, glinting innocently in the moonlight. A man was on the ground, silver barrel of a gun pressed against his head. The body next to him suggested it may have been his friend, though it wasn't much of a body, more just a bunch of holes blown into the flesh. The shooter was a short haired teenage girl. She was rather aesthetically pleasing to the eye, Kid noted, but the malicious grin on her face and the glint in her eye ruined it.
He darted around the corner, wanting to avoid confrontation, and didn't particularly want to get his head blown off.
He heard several shots, each accompanied by a loud cackle of glee, and vaguely saw a faint pink glow.
"Patty, you shouldn't take so long next time. My back hurts if I'm in weapon form too long," he heard a female voice say.
"Ehehehe, sorry sis. I just like seeing 'em squirm," another female voice said, sounding much younger.
Kid hadn't realized he stopped running, too intent on hearing the conversation.
"Whatever. Let's just get back home. Mom'll have our heads if we come home before we can 'entertain'."
He heard the sound of footsteps, and realized they were about to walk down the alley he was standing in.
"Hey sis, maybe we can get one more," he heard the younger say, before faintly seeing a pink flash in his peripheral vision. Then Kid felt the cold steel of a gun barrel pressed against his head.
"Yeah, I guess one more wouldn't hurt."
He slowly looked behind him. A different girl, a dark blonde, pressed a finger to her lips, holding a gun to his head.
They're both weapons.
"You know, you're pretty cute. It'll be a shame to see that face covered in blood," she winked, before closing her finger around the trigger.
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Imagine having a thousand knives drilled into your skull. Now imagine those knives being on fire and melting as they make contact with your head. Now you've got a pretty good idea of how it feels to be shot by a bullet made solely of someone's wavelength.
He didn't scream, yell, or cry. He didn't make a sound. He just fell to his knees. The girl stood behind him confidently, hand against her hip, waiting for him to fall face first onto the ground so she could take his soul.
But that never happened. He just knelt, eyes widened in shock and pain, hands clenched into fists.
The girl was confused. Most people died once they were shot. And didn't they usually bleed? Her and her sister were Afreets. Their wavelength bullets were like a real bullet.
So why was this kid still standing? Or, alive, rather. He wasn't standing.
Kid stood up, shaking. His head throbbed in pain. He looked at the confused teenager standing behind him, gun held loosely in her hand. It glowed pink before transforming into the other girl from before.
"Oi, Liz, why ain't he dead?" the younger spoke.
"I-I-I don't know Patty."
Kid took a step back, then two, then once it was clear they wouldn't pursue him, he broke into a sprint and ran down the alley, disappearing from the two's sight.
"That was weird...Patty, are you sure you weren't holding back?"
"I'm positive. Maybe he's like us. Maybe he's an Afreet too."
"I don't think Afreets can have gold eyes," the elder gestured to her own, which were once blue, but were now a sickly purple.
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Once Kid was sure he was out of sight, he slowed to a walk. It was rather quiet, aside from the squeaking of a rat. The stars overhead in the dark violet sky were quickly covered by dark swirling clouds that suggested a storm was coming. It was well known that the storms could be fatal if you stayed out in them too long. The lightning struck everywhere, and it had such a high voltage it could kill you with a single strike. The rain came down like bullets and was often particularly frozen. He heard thunder, and ran into the nearest building, which was a parking garage for an abandoned movie theater. It was dim, with a few yellow flickering lights with moths buzzing around them. Then the first few raindrops fell, and the lights flickered out. He shuddered, and ran up a few flights of stairs, until he was on the eighth level.
"-all this trouble for a book?"
"He'd have killed us anyways."
"Still. We lost ten men finding this shit."
"Eh, they were worthless anyway."
A bolt of lighting flashed across the sky, illuminating the empty room with a bright white light for a few seconds. In those few seconds, he made spotted two figured on the other side of the room.
Apparently, they had spotted him, because the next thing he knew, he heard a gruff "Hey, you!"
Kid froze, not making a single sound.
"You okay, man?" a smoother voice asked.
"I coulda sworn I saw some kid over there,"
Lighting flashed again, multiple times in a row. The two, a man and a woman, came running towards him. Kid's shoulder began acting up, making it painful to move, and the woman pinned him to a column. Her stringy blonde hair whipped into his face, her brown eyes filled with malice.
"What's a fragile lil' thing doin' out here? Thought you could poke your nose where it don't belong, ah? Thought you could–gahck!" she was cut off by Kid reaching out and grabbing her throat. He threw her to the ground, and a book slid away on the now wet ground. He heard it slide across the ground before stopping at a wall. Kid and the man exchanged glances, before both rushing over to grab it, making splashing noises.
"Stay outta this, punk!" the man shoved Kid to the side, Kid landing on his injures shoulder. He let out a loud yelp, and scrambled back to his feet, speeding towards the man. The man had was only a few feet away from the book. He dove towards it, tossing it to the woman, who had recovered. Kid stopped running and slid across the ground, before changing direction, heading towards the woman, tackling her and snatched the book. He flipped it over to look at the cover.
The Book of Eibon...?
"Jack! What're you doing just standing there! If we don't get that book to Kishin-sama he'll have our heads!" the woman screamed.
Lord Kishin? She can't possibly mean Asura...could she?
The man, known as Jack, charged Kid. But Kid was lighter, faster, and despite his injuries, managed to avoid the attacker for a good while. But with a lucky grab, Jack had grabbed Kid's leg and was holding him upside down. Kid clutched the book tightly, not letting it go.
"Give me the damn book!" Jack spat.
"Not until you tell me what it's for! What are you planning on doing with it? What does Kishin-sama have to do with this?"
"None of your business punk! Give me the book!"
"Fine!" Kid threw it, as best as he could while he was upside down. It was enough to send it teetering towards a ledge, half hanging off, ready to tumble off the side before falling two hundred feet below.
Jack dropped Kid, who did a messy flip to avoid breaking his neck, and he and the woman ran towards the book, but Jack ended up slipping a falling, and crashed into the woman. They slid, until they were both grabbing onto the edge of the building, hanging off the edge. Kid calmly walked over, and picked up the book. He began to walk away.
"What, you just gon' leave us here?" the woman called out. Kid turned around, a sick smile on his face.
"You're right, that would be cruel," he said, as he crushed their fingers with his foot, causing them to scramble for the edge, until they plunged, two hundred feet to their deaths, leaving blue souls floating faintly at the bottom before getting swallowed by Afreets.
Shame. They were Innocents**. Oh well, two less people that'll annoy me. He thought with a twisted grin, and walked away, before his face twisted into one of confusion and horror.
I've...I've never thought like that before and...I just killed two Innocents.
...and I feel no regrets.
He slumped against a pillar, mulling over his thoughts.
Book of Eibon...
Eibon...
Wasn't Eibon one of the "Eight Powerful Warriors" of Shinigami?
And isn't he still sealed beneath the ground?
Today isn't Kid's day, is it? I promise I'll try to get to Tsubaki and Masamune next chapter. Damn this chapter was fun. Oh and before I forget...
*Afreet: a pre-Kishin or Kishin egg essentially. The term was used in the English Sub I think. Idk. People who have consumed the souls of innocents.
**Innocents: pure humans. No matter what sin or crime they have committed, as long as they haven't consumed the soul of an innocent, their soul will remain blue.
This is one of those stories where you have to remember details from previous chapters, and it's frustrating as hell because that means I have to remember them too. Fuck.
Review, Fave, Follow, eat a sandwich. Do whatever it is you people do.