"I want you to battle against me."

Piper stood silently with her eyes widened staring at Darcelle. She was surprised and stunned at the favor that Darcelle wanted. She can hardly call "can you fight me" a favor. "You what?"

"You heard me." Darcelle said frankly as she crossed her arms, "I want you to fight me. Physically." She smirked and looked at Piper ready for action. Piper stood nervously in front of Darcelle still a little stunned. Piper doesn't want to fight Darcelle. Not because she's afraid she'll lose since she has been training with her father before she got enrolled in the DWMA, but only because she became friends with Darcelle. Piper doesn't like to fight her friends.

Why does Darcelle even want to fight Piper? She does look like the type of girl that would fight people just for the fun of it, but why Piper? Did she do something to make Darcelle upset? There has to be a good reason.

"Just in case you're wondering," Darcelle spoke up, "This isn't because I'm upset with you about anything. I'm not upset at all." Piper sighed and felt relieved, "Oh, ok. Well then, why do you want to fight me?"

"You remember when I said that I found someone that I want to be partners with? Well, I want to see if I'm strong enough to be her partner. Not only that, but I also want to prove to her that I'm strong." Darcelle became serious while looking at Piper, "As a weapon, I have to be strong to protect my meister. I've only been in this school for a year and I have tried to look for a meister, but it seems like everybody is taken already, except for one. So, gonna help me out or what?"

Piper is now understanding Darcelle's reason for wanting to do this, so she's guessing it'd be okay. Whether she likes fighting or not, she's still willing to help out her friend. "Well ok, if that's what you want, I guess we can spar with each other. Why me though?"

Darcelle thinks for a moment and speaks, "You were just the first person I thought of, that's all. I'm curious to see if you are as strong as your dad. Oh, and speaking of your dad, I've told your Dad about this."

"Huh!" Piper says exclaims, "You told my dad?"

"Yep. I didn't think he'd be okay with it. And besides, he's right over there." Darcelle points in the direction Stein is and Piper turns around to see him behind her. She jumps at Stein's unexpected appearance, "D-Dad!?" He waves and smiles at Piper, "Hey sweetie."

"Are you sure this is ok? I mean, you have to watch me fight someone?"

Stein nods, "I've seen you fight well in the past Piper, but that was only when you were training with me. Now I'm wanting to see if you can be able to do this on your own with someone else." Stein sucked the smoke from the cigarette he had in his mouth and blew back out, "Can you handle it?"

Piper was silent for a moment and said, "Yeah, I think I can." She turns to Darcelle. Darcelle cracks her knuckles with a smirk on her face, "All right. Let's get this started."

*In the Hallways*

Joshua ran through the hallways trying to look at the school grounds. He was wanting to know what was going on between Piper and Darcelle. Well, that's not exactly the case, he was just wanting to see if they were going to fight. Joshua was always interested in anything having to do with fighting, especially wrestling. Sometimes he would try to wrestle with Joseph whenever they're at home, but Joseph wouldn't react because unlike Joshua, he's not immature. Joseph would react if Joshua starts getting on his nerves or if he ticks him off in any way.

"Oh come," he says struggling, "Where are the school grounds at?" While he's running, his two siblings are following him. Eve calls out to him, "Joshua, wait up." Joshua hears his sister and stops running. "Oh, hey guys. So, did you change your mind?" He says while putting his hands on his hips and grins. Both Joseph and Eve were huffing and puffing after running around the school to catch up to Joshua. Joseph stops huffing and puffing, "First of all, you're going the wrong way. The school grounds are upstairs to the right." He says as he points behind him. "Second of all, let's just say we're keeping an eye on you, just to make sure you don't get into any trouble."

Joshua keeps a grin on his face, "Works for me. Alright, let's go!" he runs past his siblings and they followed him. They reached the school grounds and notice that Stein is there watching his daughter about to fight a weapon. Eve walks beside Stein, "Hello Professor. What's going on here?"

"See for yourself." He said as he pointed to Piper and Darcelle in front of each other. They notice that Piper and Darcelle were stretching. Eve stared with an improbable look, not believing what's gonna happen between the two girls. She frowned, "Don't tell me..." Joshua looked at the two girls with an excited look on his face and his hands balled into a fist, "So I was right! I don't believe it, they're actually gonna fight!" Joseph looked at his brother, "There's no way in hell you knew this was going to happen."

Piper and Darcelle were done stretching and they face each other. Darcelle held up her index finger, "Before we do this, let me ask you something. You do know how to fight, right?"

"Yeah, I think so." Piper replied, "After all, I've been training with my Dad." Piper was thinking back to the time where Stein taught her everything he knew whenever it came fighting. Because of the DNA that he gave her, she can use her soul wavelength for any technique. That includes soul shock, soul force, she can even do soul thread sutures. The one thing she doesn't know how to do yet is the fight with a weapon, and that's another thing Stein will have to teach her sooner or later. "I was physically weak whenever I first started living with my Dad. I didn't know the first thing about fighting. That was never a word in my vocabulary. All Dad ever taught me was science, math, and other educated things." Piper was getting less nervous about fighting than before, "Now that my Dad has trained. I think I'm pretty confident and I thank him." Piper looks over at her father and gives him a cheery smile. Stein smiles back at her after hearing what she said.

Eve smiled while looking at Piper. "Your daughter is certainly a sweet girl."

"Yeah," Stein says, "She really is."

Darcelle got into her fighting stance and smirked mischievously, "I know you're my best friend, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna go easy on you. So you better give it your all." Piper smirked, "It's all right. I wasn't expecting you to."

Darcelle made the first move. She decided on doing something simple and rapidly charged at Piper with just a punch. Piper blocked that punch with her two arms. It took Darcelle by surprise. Piper tripped Darcelle and flipped her onto the ground kinda hard. She backed up away from her and waited for her to get back up. The move Piper did surprised Eve and the twins and Stein looked like he was expecting it. Darcelle stood up on one of her knees and looked at Piper, "I started with just a simple punch just so that I could see if she could block it. Guess I was right." Piper started to get a little worried since she threw Darcelle on the ground kinda hard, "Oh no! I'm sorry, I didn't hurt you did I!?" Darcelle slowly stood up, "Don't worry about it. It's not like I haven't been in a fight before. That was nothing."

"I just don't want you to get hurt."

"I said don't worry about it," said Darcelle a little irritated. "What I want you to do is not apologize every time you make a move on me. I did say give it you're all, didn't I? That means you're free to hurt me however you want." Piper felt a little uneasy about this. Darcelle continued to speak, "Look this is just a friendly little match. It's not like we're gonna kill each other. Were doing this just to see if I'm stronger than I look. If you want to back away from this fight, then I can find somebody else to spar against." Piper shook her head no, "N-No, it's ok. I-I'm sor-" she quickly covered her mouth, remembering Darcelle wanted her to stop apologizing.

Joseph was impressed with Darcelle's spunk, "She is one tough chick." Darcelle and Piper went back to fighting. Piper seemed to have a lot more strength than Darcelle. Maka and Soul walk into the scene where they see Piper and Darcelle fight each other. "So they are fighting," Maka asked anxiously. Eve heard Maka behind her and smiles, "Hello Maka, Soul. No worries, Piper and Darcelle don't have any issues with one another. This is just a friendly match." she reassured.

"Oh really? Well, how is it going so far?"

"They just started, but Piper's doing well so far." They began watching Piper and Darcelle. Darcelle charges at Piper with some martial arts moves as Piper dodges and blocks her attacks. Joshua's eyes start to sparkle while watching Darcelle fight, "Whoa, awesome! I didn't know she can fight like that." Piper stopped Darcelle's attacks holding her fist and foot as they froze. Piper was impressed with Darcelle's fighting, "Wow Darcy, I never knew you can fight so well."

"I took a few classes before coming to this school. I didn't think it'd be so easy for me. But I could say the same for you." Darcelle spun around and kicked Piper after running towards her. Piper flipped backward and hit the wall with her feet pushing herself from the wall ready to use her soul wavelength on Darcy. "SOUL FORCE!" she hits Darcelle in the stomach with her electrical hands sending her flying to the wall. Piper hit her with her wavelength so hard, she broke the wall. Maka widened her eyes at what Piper just did, "Soul force? That's exactly what you did in the remedial lessons Professor."

Eve starts to wonder something about Piper and turns to Stein, "Professor Stein? You mentioned before that you adopted Piper. How is she able to perform the special techniques that you can if you two don't have the same blood?"

Stein smokes on his cigarette and starts to speak, "While she was sleeping, all I did was give her some of my DNA. Then again, I'm pretty sure she would be able to do those techniques without it. She doesn't have to have the same blood as me in order to deliver the Soul Force technique."

"Well, where did the stitches come from?" Eve asked.

"There was a kishin who attacked her, by giving her cuts and bruises. She didn't have that many cuts, but..." Stein gave a sadistic look as he smiles, "I guess you can say I went a little far on the stitching. I regret nothing." Eve looked a little nervous with a sweat drop after he said that.

"Wait, you said you gave her your DNA?" Joseph asked. "Doesn't that mean that she's basically is related to you?" Stein shook his head, "It doesn't exactly work that way." Eve looked at Piper for a moment as she charges at Darcelle with a few kicks, "Professor, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a survey at your daughter's soul."

"Do as you please," Stein says as he smokes his cigarette. "I'll do the same," Maka says. The two girls start to look at Piper's soul. Eve begins speaking, "Piper's soul is very sweet and caring, yet a very shy one." Maka looks a little astonished by Piper's soul, "Yeah, and not only that. It's really strong and powerful. It's almost as strong as the Professor." Eve agreed with Maka's comment. She turned to Darcelle to look at her soul, "As for Darcelle's soul, it's more blunt and rebellious, yet calm and has a kind heart." informed Eve.

"Her soul is quite strong too. But it's nothing compared to Piper's." said Maka, "Honestly, if I were against Piper, I'm not sure if I'm able to win against her, not even with Soul."

Darcelle got stuck to the wall trembling a bit from Piper's attack and fell on her knees and hands. She was struggling to get up, "Okay, I definitely wasn't expecting that. Damn." Darcelle looks up to see Piper falling from the air about to kick her. She quickly moves out the way and she kicks Piper on the back. Piper falls onto the ground and turns to see Darcelle on top of her holding her down. Piper tries to get Darcelle off of her, but she struggles. Darcelle laughs, "Come on Pipes. I know you don't wanna be here any longer than I do. So why don't you give up? I could tell you're probably tired."

Piper glares at Darcelle, "I am not gonna lose like this." She brings up her legs and kicks Darcelle off of her, "You know, I'm having fun with this. It's kind of weird to me because I don't like fighting at all, but after 10 minutes of fighting with you, I don't feel uncomfortable about this one bit. You and I are going to continue this fight. I don't care if you're tired. Plus this fight will probably be a waste if I turn away from it, so I'm not gonna give up on this. After all, you did say give it you're all. Why stop now?" Piper gets up and smirks at Darcelle. Darcelle stood up and smirked back at Piper, "Ah, starting to act like a tough cookie aye? I like that." Darcelle cracked her neck and her knuckles, "Alright then. In that case, I'll stop when you stop." She got back into her fighting stance.

"And I'll stop when you stop," Piper told as she is ready to fight Darcelle.

Soul looks at Piper the whole time amazed by the way she was acting right now. Not only that, but he was also moderately impressed with her fighting skills, "That Piper girl...is so cool."

*1 hour later*

Piper and Darcelle were on the ground huffing and puffing. They were both sweating and they were so tired that they could barely move an inch. Piper looked over at Darcelle, "Do you *huff* *huff* want to stop? *huff* *huff*"

"Might as well. I'm too tired to even move a finger right now." Darcy says with a dull look. She looked at Piper, "Hey Piper, who do think won?" Piper slowed down her huffing and puffing, "I don't know, but I think it's a tie."

"Yeah, I agree." She sat up rubbing the sweat from her forehead, "Ah, what the hell. I actually would've chosen you to be the victor since you used your soul wavelength on me. I doubt I got any stronger." Piper widened her eyes a bit after hearing her say that and sits up, "Don't say that Darcy. Of course, you've gotten stronger. I couldn't even think of another strategy after that last attack you did on me. It was kinda one of the reasons why I didn't want to continue fighting you. If anything, I would think that you would win. I want you to teach me that one day."

There was a bit of red on Darcelle's cheeks and she looked away from Piper, "You think so?"

"I don't think it, I know it," Piper said smiling at her. Darcelle scratched her face still blushing. She was never used to getting compliments like that, "Well...thank you." Piper wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve. Eve and the other students seem satisfied with the match. Piper remembered something Darcelle said, "That reminds me Darcy, didn't you say that after this you wanted to ask somebody to be your partner, now that you're strong."

"You know what Piper, I did." Darcy said as she stood up, "As a matter of fact, I'm gonna ask her right here, right now." Piper looked bewildered at her, "Huh? Right here?"

Darcy turns to Piper, bends down at her, and gestures her hand so that she can get up, "Piper Stein, will you be my partner?"

Piper widened her eyes, not believing what she was asking. "The person I wanted to be partners with is you," said Darcelle. "I didn't know why, but whenever I first met you. There was something about you that interests me. I could tell that you were a shy and timid girl that would probably turn steam red every time someone even took a glance at you. To be honest, I kinda pitied you, but it's not just that. Whenever I have gotten to know you, I knew something about you interests me. And...well...actually, I don't have a good reason. I just knew that I liked you. You seem to be a lot better than most other kids I've met. You're like the one and only sister I never had. So, you wanna be my meister or what?"

Piper was rather touched and flattered, seeing that she wanted to look for a partner herself. Not to mention she felt the same way about Piper. What interests Piper about Darcelle was her tough and confident personality and that she was not afraid to stand up for herself. Those traits are the exact opposite of Piper. She wishes she would be as confident as Darcelle. Darcelle was the first person Piper wanted to make friends with. She started to tear up a bit and Darcelle giggled, "You don't have to cry about it." Piper wiped the tear away, "I know. Honestly, I don't even know why I'm tearing up." She took Darcelle's hand and stood up, "Yes Darcy. I'll be your partner." Stein rolled with his chair to the two girls, "It looks like you've found yourself a partner. I'm happy for you Piper."

Eve and the other kids walked up to them. "You guys were amazing. I was impressed with the way you fought, Piper." Soul agreed with Maka's comment, "Yeah that was a pretty cool fight. You have impressive skills." Piper immediately blushed when she saw Soul since she wasn't expecting him to watch the whole fight. She locked her fingers together and looked down, "Oh umm...thank you." She squeaks quietly. Eve smiles at both of them, "It looks like you guys are partners now. That's great." Both of the twins smirked and nodded.

"Darcelle, you're a scythe aren't you?" Stein asked Darcelle and she nods. He turns to his daughter, "It looks like I'm gonna have to teach you how to use a scythe, Piper." Piper nods as she smiles, "I can't wait!"

It looks like Darcy and Piper will be partners now. Let's hope that they'll have great soul hunts with each other.