Disclaimer – Funamation has the Soul Eater rights and Bandai Namco owns Tales of Vesperia.
Inspired By – School uniforms and Excalibur (admittedly, the uniform part is not obvious... it's more of a 'hey, they have school uniforms and DWMA is a school' thought process than anything truly meaningful)
A/N - This will probably make more sense if you've watched the Soul Eater anime, or read the manga, but the most important thing to know is that Weapons are people who can transform into magical weapons and Meisters are people whose souls are capable of resonating with Weapon souls and thus wielding the full power of the Weapon against evil.
The Year of Excalibur
Senior year started off about as normal as DWMA – the Deathscythe Weapon and Meister Academy – ever got. Yuri managed to scrape by, just above the cut-off line for remedial lessons, while Flynn nagged at him to study more. They also went out once or twice a month to chase down someone who aspired to walk the path of the Kishin and kill the heretic before he, or she, could consume too many innocent souls. But, really, that was par for the course at DWMA. They were being graded, after all, on their ability to work together as Weapon and Meister.
The year's weirdness actually began the third weekend into the first semester, though Yuri wouldn't really realize that until further down the line. As it was, their usual group had gathered together in the library at Rita and Estelle's insistence. The 'usual group' was Yuri, Flynn, Rita, and Estelle, of course, along with Karol, Nan, Sodia, and Witcher. Lloyd, Zelos, Colette, and Genus had joined them for the afternoon too, making for a louder than advised group for a library. But Professors Judy and Raven were on duty, so they weren't likely to be disciplined.
That was when Karol found the book: Excalibur.
"Why don't we go look for it?" Karol enthused, having read a few sections aloud and gotten way too worked up over the idea of being the Meister who wielded the Holy Sword.
Nan, an axe Weapon and Karol's partner, didn't look particularly excited by the idea. "Swords are boring and besides, if the Holy Sword was alive during King Arthur's time, then he'd already be dead by now. So if you're going to go grave-hunting you can just count me out."
"But the book says he's immortal."
"Books say whatever their authors want them too, idiot. Doesn't necessarily make it true." She huffed and stalked off.
Karol sighed and turned his pleading gaze on Rita and Estelle. The two girls shook their heads.
"I already have a Weapon I work well with. Besides, the whole acceptance of Witches into DWMA is still a pretty new thing. A Weapon that old probably still has a lot of hangups and prejudices against my kind," Rita reminded him.
"Sorry, Karol, but I'm with Rita on this," Estelle added. "If you bring him back, I'll meet him if he doesn't have any hangups about my partner."
"I'll go with you. This kind of adventure sounds like fun," Lloyd spoke up, grinning at his cousin.
Punching the air enthusiastically, Karol grinned. "Yeah!"
"I'll go too," Genus added. "Someone has to keep you two idiots from getting yourselves killed."
"I think I'll sit this one out," Zelos said, leaning back in his chair and propping his feet up on the table. "Too much effort for me."
Colette gave Zelos a surprisingly stern look, causing the redhead to look sheepish as he put his feet back on the ground. Then, turning back into her normal, carefree self, Colette declared, "I want to come too. If Zelos and I are going to be the best swords possible for Lloyd, then at least one of us should try to meet the Holy Sword and take some notes." She gave Zelos a pointed, innocent stare.
"Oh, fine," he huffed, "I'll tag along too. Sheesh. You're secretly worse than Sheena. Why won't anyone believe me on that?"
"It wouldn't be a secret if everyone else knew," Yuri admonished with a smirk. "I'm out."
"We're supposed to take a mission tonight," Flynn agreed, looking relieved to have an excuse not to go. "Let us know what you find."
Sodia ducked her head when she heard that Yuri and Flynn had a mission. She was a Weapon without an official Meister, but she'd worked with Flynn the few times Yuri had been out sick. Flynn was oblivious to her obsessive little crush; Yuri, however, was well aware that she was seething over the duo's continued pairing.
As it stood, Sodia was currently working with Witcher, with whom she could not achieve resonance. In fact, Sodia had never achieved soul resonances with anyone, even Flynn. But she'd made it clear to Yuri on quite a few occasions that she thought she could achieve it with Flynn... if only Yuri would stop getting in her way.
While Yuri had reported her behavior to the professors, he'd kept quiet about it to Flynn. Right now she hadn't done anything worth troubling him over and if she really went off the deep end it would, theoretically, show up in her soul's wavelength and one of the professors who could see wavelengths would notice.
Yuri wasn't the only one who'd noticed the problem with Sodia. Witcher clearly knew something was wrong too, as he excused himself and Sodia to go look for a book they needed for a research project.
"Well, no time like the present," Karol declared. "Let's go find Excalibur!" He hurried off, his fellow adventurers in tow.
After Karol's exclamation, Yuri happened to glance over at Raven and Judy just in time to see their faces scrunch up into expressions of disgust before smoothing back over. Curious, Yuri got up and wandered over to them and, affecting an air of idle disinterest, pretended to browse through the books behind the professors. Once directly behind them, he said, loudly, "Excalibur!"
The two jumped and shuddered, the expressions of disgust briefly returning.
"So, what's wrong with the Holy Sword?" Yuri asked, smirking at them.
Judy laughed, applauding Yuri's subterfuge. Raven, however, huffed in irritation, answering with "personality conflicts" and refusing to be more specific.
Wandering back to the others, Yuri seated himself beside Flynn again, answering the blond's wondering look with an impish smile.
Personality conflicts... huh...
After leaving with Flynn on their mission, Yuri didn't give the thing with Excalibur much more thought. He spent most of that night in Scythe form, lending his power to his best friend and enjoying the way their souls felt in resonance when Flynn used the Hunter attack. (It used to be called Witch Hunter but, since the treaty with the Witches, obviously that name had become politically incorrect.)
The night ended well, with another Kishin soul collected for the Academy to dispose of.
The next morning, the intrepid Excalibur explorers returned. They did not have Excalibur with them and, when questioned, all of them made the exact same disgusted expression that Professors Raven and Judy had made.
Somehow, Yuri wasn't surprised.
If that incident had been the only mention of Excalibur made all year, Yuri might have forgotten it entirely. But it wasn't.
Asbel and his brother, Hubert, went after the sword and came back disgusted.
Milla, Jude, and Alvin went after the sword. They came back with Alvin telling tales about Jude having to prevent Milla from committing homicide against a very weird sounding creature that may, or may not, have been the Excalibur of legend. Just saying the name Excalibur around Milla was enough to make the already high-strung swordswoman get twitchy.
Cless, Chester, and Arche tried their luck. Arche came back in bow form and tried to get Chester to use her to shoot anyone who so much as whispered the name Excalibur on campus.
Stahn and Rutee were the next to give it a try. From the way Stahn told things, Rutee had tried to melt Excalibur down to sell the metals he was made from. To hear Rutee tell things, Stahn had tried to strangle Excalibur while the fairies living in the cavern cheered him on.
Luke wanted to go, but Asch and Guy talked him out of it. Tear, Anise, and Natalia, however, did go to Excalibur's cave and refused to speak of it afterwards.
No one, however, was expecting anyone to actually bring Excalibur back with them, much less the quiet, introverted Ruca Milda.
"Fool!"
Yuri peered around the corner and, sure enough, there was Excalibur, just like Estelle had told him. The... anthropomorphic white anteater (seriously, what was that thing?) was wandering around beside Ruca, strutting his stuff like he was the most awesome being to ever live.
Well... no time like the present to find out why everyone looked so horribly disgusted with this guy.
As he rounded the corner, Yuri was immediately noticed by Excalibur.
"You! Do you want to hear the legend of me? Do you want to hear a heroic tale?" Excalibur leaned forward, expressionless, on his cane. His attention was clearly intent upon Yuri, however, and he didn't seem to blink at all.
"Not really," Yuri replied, placidly. He had a feeling Excalibur would start the tale anyway.
Excalibur didn't disappoint. "Fool! This is the greatest tale you will ever learn. The stories of me shall enrich your life in ways you cannot even imagine."
"So, what your saying is that I should show up for your five-hour story time?" Yuri smirked as Excalibur clearly hesitated. "Yeah, I heard about that. If you tell your story now, then what reason will I have to show up later?"
"I... I am about to begin that in the lecture hall." Excalibur brandished his cane at the doorway beside him. "You most certainly should attend. For my legend dates back to the twelfth century... and even five hours isn't truly long enough." He turned sharply and walked into the lecture hall.
Still curious – Excalibur was self-important and pretentious, but didn't seem to rate the all consuming disgust Yuri had witnessed – Yuri followed him inside.
There were other students inside and over the course of five hours, all of them left... save Yuri and Ruca. While Ruca didn't seem to be paying any attention, Yuri did. Excalibur's story was winding and nonsensical, constantly jumping to whatever topic entered the creature's mind at any given time.
It was freaking hilarious.
Still laughing to himself as he left the lecture hall, Yuri had the impression that he was going to be the only person who really enjoyed Excalibur's visit to the school.
Yuri was not wrong.
Flynn could not stand Excalibur, who would always start singing the 'Excalibur Song' whenever Flynn walked into the same room as the Holy Sword. Colette, along with Mint and Estelle, tried to stage an intervention for Ruca to save him from his misguided pairing with Excalibur. Milla kept trying increasingly ridiculous methods to kill Excalibur that all ended with the anteater dodging her and then tripping her into walls with his cane.
Some good did come of Excalibur's presence, though. Through their mutual loathing of Excalibur, Sophie and Lambda finally buried the hatchet between them as they conspired to convince Ruca stop pairing with Excalibur. Professor Raine could be successfully chased out of the kitchen by anyone capable of a passable impersonation of Excalibur's "Fool!"; her brother, after a few days of practice, was the worst offender.
Ruca, however, seemed to be having a great time finally getting to be on top of all his classes and being able to work with a Weapon who resonated well with him. Since he noticed that Yuri didn't seem to resent him for bringing back Excalibur the way others did, Ruca ended up confiding in the raven-haired teen that he didn't intend to keep Excalibur all year. Just long enough to enjoy the feeling of success before Excalibur managed to stamp on even his last nerve.
All in all, Yuri got the impression that Excalibur's true mission in life was to piss off everyone for no other reason than that he enjoyed inspiring loathing in people for giggles. While even Yuri could find him irritating at times, he appreciated Excalibur's dedication to trouble-making. The sheer amount of shamelessness required was kind of awe-inspiring.
Also... Yuri might have taken to singing the 'Excalibur Song' whenever Flynn got a little to preachy about getting their homework done on nights when it really would not hurt for them to go have a little fun. According to Flynn, Yuri sounded eerily just like Excalibur when he sang the song. Flynn's face would start twitching each time and he'd give in just to make Yuri shut up.
Eventually the furor over Excalibur began to die down and even Milla's assassination attempts tapered off to once or twice a week. Yuri figured that it wouldn't be long until Excalibur did something to purposefully piss of Ruca and go home.
Except... Excalibur seemed to have focused on Sodia. He wasn't actively antagonizing the girl. Instead, he was hanging around just outside of her notice. Sodia, in turn, was always following Flynn, and thus also Yuri, around like a lost puppy. So it was hard, for Yuri at least, not to notice her bizarre anteater tail.
Watching Excalibur actually succeed at being subtle was worrying and so Yuri also began to regard Sodia carefully. Perhaps there was something he was missing...
Despite being a sniffly, sneezing, stuffy-headed wreck, Yuri still noticed that something was wrong when his roommate got back from school that afternoon. It was through the haze of a not-quite fever and cold symptoms, but Yuri always noticed when something was wrong with Flynn.
It was an instinct at this point.
"Bad day?" Yuri asked. "Did Excalibur start serenading you again?"
"Excalibur was actually quiet in class today," Flynn muttered, dropping onto the couch beside Yuri heavily and reaching over to check the sick teen's temperature with the back of his hand.
Yuri tried not to be obvious about leaning into Flynn's touch, but he was too fuzzy to care if he failed.
"We were supposed to be doing some resonance practice today and I decided to sit out since you weren't there. No real purpose in trying to practice with someone else when you're my partner." Flynn grinned over at Yuri for a moment, the words and expression making Yuri's heart thud faster. At least, he assumed that was because of Flynn and not another side-affect of the cold medicine.
Then the smile slid off of Flynn's face and he looked away. "Sodia got all weird about it. I know she and I have partnered a few times in the past when you were sick, but not for things like resonance practice. Just regular stuff, like sensing other people's wavelengths. Her insistence on trying to partner with me today was kind of embarrassing, really. Witcher looked pretty humiliated that she was trying so hard to get out of working with him."
"Wha-" Yuri interrupted himself with a yawn and had to try again. "What did Professor Raven do?"
"He sent her to go talk to a counselor and had Witcher sit out with me while everyone else practiced. I tried to apologize to Witcher for what happened, but he said I wasn't responsible for Sodia's hangups."
"You're not," Yuri agreed, snuggling against Flynn's shoulder. "I have a secret," he added. "I never liked it when you'd team up with her when I'm sick. Made me jealous. You're my Meister." Oh, yeah, this was definitely the cold medicine fueling him now.
"Sorry," Flynn murmured, ruffling Yuri's hair in clear amusement. "But, as evidenced by today, I won't do that any more. You're my Weapon, accept no substitutes."
"Better not..."
Every year around Yuletide, there was a formal dance at the school. Yuri always wanted to ask Flynn, but generally watched quietly with the feeling of knives stabbing him in the chest while Flynn would ask whatever pretty girl he was crushing on this year.
So it completely blew him away when, the very morning that the dance was announced, Flynn turned to Yuri instead of some girl and, stammering slightly, asked Yuri to the dance.
"Could you repeat that?" Yuri asked dazedly, certain he'd misheard. Maybe Flynn wanted to ask Estelle?
"What I'm trying to say, Yuri, is that I like you in a... non-platonic manner... and I'd like you to go to the dance with me," Flynn was blushing beet red by this point.
"Non-platonic? This is how you're choosing to admit your feelings for me? There go any illusions I had about your skill for romance," Yuri teased, grinning impishly.
"Yuri..." Flynn let out a frustrated sigh. "Could you just answer me?"
"Yes." The word shot out of Yuri's mouth without a thought.
"Yes you could answer me or yes you'll go to the dance with me?"
"Yes, I'll go to the dance with you." Yuri's heart was thudding pretty hard in his chest because, lack of romance aside, he'd been practically dreaming of this moment for a while now. Admittedly, he'd given Flynn way too much credit in the 'being suave' department, but somehow this was better.
Grinning, Flynn leaned forward and pressed a chaste kiss against Yuri's lips and, wow, even that felt really, really nice. Yuri just had to lean in for another.
Naturally, that was when Sodia flipped out.
Yuri felt someone – Sodia – grab his hair to yank him backwards. He managed, if only just, to avoid her other hand, which had morphed into a sword blade and was aiming at his gut while she screamed incoherently about Yuri having stolen everything that belonged to her... namely, Flynn.
Flynn immediately launched himself into the fray, trying to hold Sodia off and attempting to rationalize with her. She was not in the mood to be rational about anything, so Flynn's pleas that she not kill Yuri fell on deaf ears.
While everyone was paying attention to Sodia's apparent psychotic break and attempts to kill the hypotenuse, Excalibur gave the Professors a particularly unimpressed look. "I called it," he told them, and then waddled forward to thunk the back of Sodia's head very hard with his cane. She collapsed, her left hand reverting to normal and her right relinquishing its grip on Yuri's hair.
"You!" Excalibur pointed his cane at Yuri. "You have a singularly wonderful taste in music. Never forget my song." His cane moved to point at Flynn. "You! You need to work on your situational observational skills. Also, your partner has a singularly wonderful taste in music. Treasure him always." Glancing down at Sodia, he muttered dismissively, "fool!"
Turning to Ruca expectantly, Excalibur seemed to be waiting for something.
"Is that all you need to do here?" Ruca asked, a weird sort of half smile on his face. Receiving a nod, Ruca nodded back. "Your rules suck."
"Fool! Our association is ended. My legend dates back to the 12th Century and is thus quite old. The 12th Century was a long time ago. You shall come to regret not having my wealth of knowledge and legendary status to call upon."
"Yet, somehow, I think I'll survive," Ruca replied dryly.
"Hey, Excalibur," Yuri called, edging away from Sodia's unconscious body while Flynn tried to surreptitiously fuss over him. "Thanks."
"As I said, you have a singularly wonderful taste in music. It would be a waste to let you be stabbed to death so long as you remember my song." Excalibur then marched out of the cafeteria, breezing by the nurse as she rushed in to collect Sodia.
"So..." Yuri leaned against Flynn, "that just happened. Weird... she's not going to be let back into the same class as me, right?"
"Right," Raven agreed hastily, eagerly helping put Sodia on the stretcher so that they could get her out of there and, hopefully, restore order quickly.
"Huh..." Flynn frowned and turned thoughtfully to Yuri. "Illusions of my romantic abilities? Does that mean you were imagining me being romantic to you?"
This time Yuri was the one stammering.
In January, a CD arrived in the mail for Yuri. There were somewhere around twenty different tracks on it and each one was a variation on the 'Excalibur Song'... which Yuri totally did not proceed to play loudly on his stereo so that Flynn would feel inclined to stop studying and maybe go get dinner with Yuri at a nice restaurant... because Yuri wouldn't abuse a gift like that... or, yeah, he most definitely would, and did.
"Excalibur! Excalibur! From the United K! I'm looking for heaven! I'm going to California!"
A/N – If you don't know who the English voice actor for Excalibur is, you're missing one of the jokes. Also, Excalibur has a lovely singing voice. :)
On a completely different note, when Milla, Jude, and Alvin came back from Excalibur's cave, no one knew whether the consummate liar was lying again. But since Jude and Milla didn't contradict his story about Milla's attempt to kill Excalibur and it didn't sound out of character for her (and then Arche went berserk) it was accepted as the truth. But no one was prepared for Milla racing down the school hallway, practice sword raised high while Jude raced after her trying to calm her down. Naturally, Jude did not manage to calm Milla and her stabbing attempt on Excalibur missed by mere centimeters. His cane smacked into the back of her knees, sending Milla careening into the wall... thus starting the first of what was twice daily attacks (occasionally three attacks) on Excalibur from Milla.
Her friends saw the de-escalation to once or twice a week as a sign that Milla was starting to mellow.
"I am the future Lord of Spirits! I'm not taking this crap from him!"