Oh my flipping burgers you guys are awesome! I am practically living off all the reviews! Seriously! I love every single one of you! Thank you so much! ありがとございます! Please keep it up! Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater :( Enjoy chapter 9: The Hunt Begins
The group watched as Maka was approached by a man in front of the concert hall.
"Lord Death," Stein breathed.
"I know," Lord Death responded.
"What? What is it?" Death the Kid asked.
"That man, he's not human," Spirit answered.
"What do you mean, not human?" Tsubaki asked.
"Yeah, he looks pretty human to me," Black Star countered. Stein just shook his head.
"Spirit, go with Stein and Justin. Get there as quickly as possible," Lord Death commanded. The two men were out of the room before Lord Death had even finished.
"What's going on?!" Tsubaki asked, desperate for an answer.
"What the hell!" Black Star's exclamation brought Tsubaki's eyes back to the mirror. The man's fingers were growing back. Every one was silent.
"Come on, Liz, Patty, we're going too," Kid said as he stood up.
"You can't go, Kid," Lord Death said in his real voice.
"Why not?" Kid struggled to keep a level head.
"This is part of a mission which I've been keeping a secret."
"Who the hell cares about that now!?" Black Star countered. "Maka's in trouble!"
"We've been keeping very close tags on this new organization," Lord Death continued, not fazed by Black Star's outburst. "And, if they're doing what I think they're doing, you five need to watch what happens."
"What do you think they're doing?" Tsubaki asked with a quavering voice.
"They're about to reveal their end product, not to the world, but to us," Lord Death said, eerily calm. "We've known about this for quite some time. They didn't make it a secret. It was almost as if they knew we were watching. But, of course, they only revealed so much. We don't know the whole story, but so far it hasn't been anything that would cause them to be on my list. That is, until now. I purposely sent Maka knowing that they would take her."
The room was silent for a moment.
"You sent Maka on purpose!? What the hell?! How could you do that to her!? You bastard! I'd kill you if I could!" Patty was screaming at the top of her lungs. She was held back by Kid and Liz.
"Why would you send her?" Kid asked, still holding back Patty.
"Because they asked me to," Lord Death responded. Another wave of shock ran through the group.
"What the fuck!? Why would you do that!? They asked you to!? Bullshit! Let me go! I'm going to kick this guy's ass!" It took all four of them to hold down Black Star as he began to scream at the top of his lungs.
"Why?" Tsubaki asked above all the noise. Lord Death looked from the teens to the mirror.
"Watch," he commanded. The group slowly calmed down and turned to the mirror. There was a blond woman speaking on the stage. They saw Maka sitting, chewing her nail. The woman gestured to the side of the stage as she introduced someone.
The entire group sucked in a breath as Soul walked out onto the stage. Lord Death emitted a low growl.
"Damn them," Lord Death said menacingly.
"Soul," Black Star breathed.
The rest of the group watched as Maka was taken away by four men. Their eyes watered as Soul recognized Maka and began to run to her. Tsubaki and Patty sank to the floor, Kid and Liz to their chairs, and Black Star closed his eyes as Maka and Soul hugged right before being knocked out. The blond woman looked directly at the mirror. She smiled just before the mirror went blank. They group was now looking at their own reflections.
Tsubaki's sobs were the only sound in the room. Kid put his face in his hands.
"He's alive?" Liz asked barely above a whisper.
"I'm going to find them and rip the flesh from their bones," Lord Death growled.
"Where do we find them?" Black Star asked his tone matching Lord Death's.
"We have to assume that every place that Lord Death knows about has been abandoned since they've revealed themselves," Tsubaki voice was drained of all emotion. Liz agreed with her.
"So we have to start from scratch," Kid continued.
"Which means that we need to go to the concert hall and all the other places that they've been to," Patty finished.
"Get up, Tsubaki," Black Star said a bit kinder. Patty and Tsubaki both got up from the floor.
"Before you leave, listen to what I have to say," Lord Death said a little calmer than he had been. Everyone stood in an arc in front of him, waiting. "This is going to be a very difficult task, definitely worse than the Kishin. Your friends' lives are in danger. Luckily, if we're right about them, they like to take their time. That means we can thoroughly search every lead we get and catch up as soon as possible. Now I need to tell you why we've been following them.
It started when the Kishin's insanity was slowly taking over the world. It seemed like it was simply an increase in kidnappings across the United States. We chalked it up to the insanity wavelength. But then the Kishin was stopped and the kidnappings were still increasing. But there was no increase in kishin souls. We followed the missing person's trail and discovered that they were still alive. It turned out that every single missing person was part of a secret organization.
The organization is all about enhancing humanity, not through good deeds or morals but, through science. The missing people volunteered to be experimented on and the organization staged a kidnapping. We haven't been able to figure out what their experiments are, but every missing person is still alive." Lord Death looked at the faces surrounding him. They all had their poker faces on. Receiving harsh news was something you learned quickly in the DWMA. He felt his heart begin to sink. He didn't want to tell them what was next.
"Soul, the man that confronted Maka, and the men that tried to take her away all have no soul in their bodies."
Their poker faces broke. Confusion swept across Kid, Black Star, and Tsubaki. Fear took Liz and Patty. Lord Death continued speaking, "Mind you, this is completely new information for us as well. Stein and I saw it the moment that man came into the mirror."
"So," Kid began, "They've been experimenting with taking the soul out of the body and preserving it somewhere else while being able to keep the body alive." Everyone thought about it.
"Wait," Patty interrupted every one's thinking. "If the kidnappings are staged, does that mean deaths can be staged as well?"
"What the hell are you trying to say?" Black Star snapped.
"Just here me out," Patty pleaded. "It's just a thought but, could Soul have been part of that organization? Could he have staged his death to be experimented on?"
