A/N: I know I said I was moving the level of tech in the world up to today's level, but Maka and Soul have a corded phone at their house for this opening scene. Indulge me.
On the twins: Maka has some Japanese heritage, but they live in America and Spirit and Soul are both not Japanese, so they don't call Rei 'onii-chan' or any variant of that.
Read and review if you liked it please!
Review Responses:
OfAllTheShizz, Crona is a little harder to work around because unlike Mifune whose death/life doesn't really change the outcome of the manga much, from what I read Crona was pretty critical to the end of the story. So I might have them end up where they ended up at the end of the manga, but that said, I like Crona and since they're not actually dead, I might try to find a way to work them in. But it would be part of the story, not something that was just assumed at the beginning like 'Oh hey, Mifune is alive now, k?'.
Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater.
CHAPTER ONE
Can We Be Friends Too?
Soul "Eater" Evans, last Death Scythe of the DWMA, stepped through the front door to the sound of excited conversation coming from the living room. He scowled, one hand on the doorknob as he watched Maka crouch over the living room phone from where she was kneeling on the couch, one hand cupped around the mouthpiece to muffle the sound of her voice as she spoke into it.
"—I know, they're just so cute!" Soul heard her say.
A muffled voice, equally as excited, sounded from the earpiece. It was a woman's voice, and Soul was willing to bet he knew exactly which woman it was. Maka raised her wrist to her mouth to muffle a giggle.
"We would have the cutest grandkids," she said in response to whatever Tsubaki was saying.
O-kay, this was getting weird. Drops of sweat formed on the back of Soul's head as he cleared his throat loudly, closing the door behind him with a definite sound. Maka sat up sharply, sitting back on her heels and looking over her shoulder.
"Oh, Soul," she said, covering the mouthpiece of the phone with her other hand. "You're back already?"
"Just picking up the last couple of boxes," Soul said, glancing pointedly up the stairs towards Rei's room. "You coming, or are you…" He gestured vaguely at the phone.
Maka's eyes widened, as if she'd lost track of time. She lifted her hand from the mouthpiece, speaking quickly into it. "Sorry, Tsubaki-chan, I have to go." A pause, during which that same muffled voice sounded from the earpiece. "Yes, yes, I'll tell her." Another pause. "Of course, you have to visit soon!" … "Okay, bye." She hung up, replacing the phone in its cradle. Now that she was done talking to Tsubaki, some of the excitement seemed to have left her, and she slid her feet out from under her and onto the ground slowly, as if she wanted to draw this out as long as possible. Soul watched her, feeling his expression soften.
"You ready for this?" he asked.
"I don't know," Maka admitted. She took a deep breath, then put a smile on her face. "But it's not going to get any easier, so we should get it over with, right?"
"Yeah," said Soul. To be honest, he wasn't feeling too sure about this either, but it was a rite of passage and all that. Besides, he told himself, it was only a couple of miles up the road.
"Yeah," he said again, before either of them could get any second thoughts. "Yeah, let's go."
It's only a couple of miles up the road, Rei thought to himself, standing in his childhood room for the last time. From the hallway, he still heard muffled sobbing, making his stomach churn uncomfortably. Annie had started crying while coming in to say goodbye, so Cori had taken her out into the hallway to try to calm her down. He told himself that he couldn't shape his life around the whims of a seven-year-old and he wasn't actually the worst big brother ever.
Just a couple of miles, he told himself again, looking around at how the room had changed. Since he was moving so close to home, he hadn't taken all of his things, leaving most of his books and posters, but he'd taken all of the books he hadn't gotten around to reading yet, his guitar, his games, and most of his clothes, and the room felt barren without those things. His new room in the apartment the DWMA had leased out to him was still very bare, nothing but a bed and boxes piled high. It would be a long weekend spent getting everything in order.
He took a deep breath, trying to shake off the heavy feeling in his stomach as he turned to leave his room, reminding himself that Ayame was already there and waiting for him. Reminding himself that this was supposed to be exciting.
"Rei?" his mom called from downstairs, her voice ringing in the hallway. "Are you ready to go?"
Now or never, he thought, turning towards the door. He braced himself for whatever he would find in the hallway, then pushed it open.
The sound of crying had grown softer now, accompanied by the sound of another voice hushing the crying girl. He turned to see Annie standing with her back to the wall, her face in her hands. Cori was standing in front of her, quietly shushing her, her hands on her sister's arms. The two of them were identical, long silver hair and green eyes and matching black dresses, but in personality, they were about as different as they could be. Annie wore part of her hair up in a pair of small pigtails. Cori kept hers down.
"Come on, Annie," Cori was saying. "Come on. Don't you wanna come see Rei's house?"
"I don't wanna see Rei's house, because Rei lives here!" Annie said. "I don't want him to leave!" She shook her head, burying her face further in her hands. In response, Cori took a step back helplessly, looking up at Rei.
Rei walked up to her, crouching down so that he was at eye level with her and gently pulling her hands away from her face. Annie protested, squeezing her eyes shut and turning away.
"Annie," Rei said. "You know I have to go."
"No, you don't!" Annie said, still not looking at him. "You can stay here! With Ayame too!"
"And where's Ayame going to stay?" Rei asked, frowning at her. "She can't stay with me. Do you want her to stay in your room?"
Annie hesitated, sniffling.
"N-No…" she finally allowed. "My room's too small."
"And I bet it would be crowded with all three of you in it, wouldn't it?" Rei asked.
"Y-Yes." Annie reluctantly opened her eyes, taking in a shuddering breath. She blinked through her tears.
"I'm not going to be moving very far," Rei said. "You'll still see me a lot. But this is something I have to do, okay? For school. You're going to have to do it too when you're older—when you find a meister."
The whole time he talked, Cori was a silent presence at his side, her mouth pulled into a tight line. Rei glanced at her, then gave Annie a reassuring smile, releasing her hand to pat her on the head. "Come on," he said. "Don't you want to come see my new place? That way, you and Cori know where it is if you want to come over."
"You'll still come over lots, right?" Annie asked, blinking up at him.
Rei nodded. "And Mom teaches at my school, remember? So it's not like I'm going very far away."
Annie sniffed, rubbing at her eyes with her hand. "Okay," she said, holding out one small hand to him. "Let's go."
Rei straightened up, patting her on the head before taking her hand and leading her downstairs. He placed his hand on the back of Cori's head as he walked past, ruffling her hair affectionately before starting down the stairs. She followed, the three of them heading down to the living room where Soul was picking up the last of the boxes. He gestured to Rei's guitar case with his thumb.
"Grab that and put it in the back of the car," he said.
Rei nodded, releasing Annie's hand just long enough to sling it over his shoulder before picking up her hand again and walking out to the car. They piled in, Maka tousling his hair affectionately as she passed him and climbed into the front seat. He sat in the middle even though it was uncomfortable, because Annie was leaning against him like she didn't want to let go and Cori was looking out the window already, pretending not to look at him, and he didn't want to let her sit alone.
Without a word, Soul started the car, driving off down the street.
Ayame woke up to the sound of voices down the hall.
She opened her eyes, staring up at the ceiling from the futon she had spread out on the floor. Her room was dark—she'd fallen asleep after piling the last of her things into it—but there was a light on in the hallway and she could hear footsteps.
"So this is where my room will be," she heard Rei say, followed by a thump as he set something down. There were people with him, people whose footsteps were a lot lighter and a lot quicker. Kids, probably. She remembered Rei saying he had sisters.
Ayame grinned, rocking back on her shoulders and then rolling forward onto her feet. She opened her bedroom door, looking out into the hallway. The door to Rei's room was open and she could see him inside, her back to him. A girl with silver hair stood just behind him, and she could hear someone else in the room where she couldn't see. There were footsteps coming up the stairs, and she turned, smiling as Rei's parents made their way up the steps.
"Rei?" Maka was asking. "Do you have everything you need? Oh, hello, Ayame-chan. We didn't wake you, did we?"
"Yo, Maka-sensei. Mr. E," said Ayame, rocking back on her heels. "Nope. Not at all." In truth, she was a little bit jet-lagged from the flight from Egypt, but Rei's mom was her teacher and his dad was a Death Scythe and both of them collectively were her partner's parents, so she didn't want to admit to that.
That's me! One super-awesome ninja weapon, awake, alert, alive and enthusiastic and ready to protect my meister and bring us both honor and glory!
It was a nice thought, so she grinned wider.
"We're just dropping off some things for Rei, and then we'll be heading out," said Soul. "You guys have something to eat for tonight?"
"Uh…" She faltered there, her grin breaking slightly at the edges. Their fridge and pantry were fully stocked with all sorts of groceries, courtesy of Maka Albarn-Evans and her propensity towards forward thinking, but while Ayame's skills were vast and impressive in number, the ability to turn raw food into cooked food wasn't one of them. "I'm sure we'll figure something out," she said, which in this case meant I hope your son can cook.
Soul grinned, which told her that she wasn't doing as great of a job of hiding that one glaring weakness as she thought. That bothered her, because as a ninja, she was supposed to be good at hiding things. He reached into his back pocket, pulling out his wallet. "Here," he said. "Why don't you guys call for pizza tonight?"
"Uh…"
Pride and honor and being the daughter of Tsubaki Nakatsukasa told her that she should refuse, but free food was free food. Ayame hesitated for a moment, tempted, but was spared from having to answer by Rei stepping out of his room and noticing her.
"Oh, Ayame," he said. "You're here. Wanna come meet my sisters?"
"Sure!" said Ayame, taking the escape route and ducking away from Soul, running towards her partner's room. "See you later, Mr. E!"
She stepped into the room as Rei moved aside to give her room, looking around. Like her room, Rei's was pretty bare, piled up with boxes and empty of furniture except the desk that came with the apartment. Unlike hers, Rei's room came with a Western-style bed, probably because he'd requested it.
The apartment itself wasn't bad, especially considering that it was student housing. It had two floors, the living room and kitchen taking up most of the downstairs, with their bedrooms and bathroom on the upper floor. A spiral staircase wound tightly around the middle of the apartment, connecting the two. The upstairs was a bit of a tight fit with the bedrooms, but the bedrooms themselves weren't cramped and the living room was spacious enough to work out in. She could live here for four years, she decided, pleased.
She looked around Rei's room, taking in the boxes labeled things like 'books', 'shoes', and 'gaming stuff', then turned towards the two girls waiting by the window. The twins were identical, but one of them stood to face her, watching expectantly, and the other hid half behind her brother.
"This is Annie," Rei said, gesturing to the shy twin. "And that's Cori."
They were both adorable. "Hi," Ayame said, grinning. "I'm Ayame."
"Hi," said Cori. "I'm a weapon too."
"Oh, are you?" asked Ayame, still grinning. "What kind?"
"I'm a scythe," said Cori, proudly, holding out one arm. It shifted in a flash, turning into a curving black blade. "Like Papa. Annie is too."
"That's awesome," said Ayame. She held out her arm, her hand shifting into a shorter, thicker version of Cori's scythe blade. Three gold stars ran down the flat of the blade, growing smaller in size as they neared the tip. "I'm sort of a scythe too."
Cori nodded, smiling as if that made complete sense. "Rei's a scythe meister like Mama. Grandpa says our family's all scythes and scythe meisters."
"Well," said Ayame with a smile, glancing at Rei. "Rei's kind of a scythe meister."
Cori frowned. "What's that mean?" she asked.
"It means I'm only kind of a scythe." Ayame reached out with her human hand, patting Cori on the head before she could ask any more questions. She wanted to keep some things a surprise.
"Are you going to marry my brother?" Cori asked, all wide eyes and innocence.
Ayame choked. So did Rei.
"Cori!" Rei said, spluttering.
"What makes you think that?!" asked Ayame.
"Well," said Cori, rocking forward onto the balls of her feet and counting off on her hands. "Grandpa was Grandma's weapon, and then they got married. Then Mama and Papa were partners and then they got married. So—."
"I'm not marrying your brother!" said Ayame.
"Yeah!" said Rei. "She's not!"
They exchanged a glance and nodded at each other, both of them in complete accord.
"Well, like, not now," Cori said. "But maybe, like, later."
"Alright, that's enough. Bye, Cori, time to go back to Mom and Dad," said Rei, quickly placing his hands on Cori's shoulders and wheeling her out of the room on her heels. The two of them disappeared down the hallway, leaving Ayame alone with Annie.
"Um, hi," Ayame said, putting on a smile and waving her scythe hand.
Annie let out a squeak of terror, shrinking back and covering her eyes. Ayame frowned, glancing at her hand and letting it return to its human form.
Okay, so that didn't go too well.
Rei came back, gathering up Annie before Ayame could spook her too much and leaving the room. She heard footsteps descend the stairs, followed by Rei and his parents saying goodbye. Ayame listened just long enough to hear Maka say something about what to do if Rei's grandfather started showing up drunk around here before she turned away and started looking around the room, deciding that she probably shouldn't intrude, or something like that. Rei didn't have too much stuff, but it was still more than she would have expected.
She was watching the moon start to wake up from the window when Rei came back into the room. In the street below, a car's engine rumbled to life, headlights making their way down the road.
"Sorry about that," Rei said. "They can be a handful."
Ayame shook her head. "Your sisters are sweet," she said. "Not like my brother. He's a pain in the ass."
"Your brother?" Rei asked.
"Think me, but more obnoxious, less pretty, and less obviously socially gifted." Her eyes swept over the room as she turned to Rei, widening as they caught sight of a box by the window. "Whoa, you have a DeathStation 4. Sweet!" she said, pulling the box from the shelf. "Let's set this up!"
"You play games?" Rei asked.
"Yeah, I play games," Ayame said, grinning. She handed the console box to Rei, picking up the cardboard box labeled 'gaming stuff'. "What kind of games d'you got?" she asked, starting to open it.
"Hey!" said Rei, reaching out to take the box from her. She blinked at him, confused. Rei set the box down, straightening up and scratching the back of his head. He looked guilty. "I guess we can set it up," he said. "But we need to set up the TV too. My dad gave us money for pizza, by the way."
"That's great," said Ayame tentatively, still not sure what the outburst had been about. Her mom didn't like it when Ayame went through her things without asking for permission. Maybe it was something like that. "We can get pizza and play games."
"Sure, yeah," said Rei, fishing in his pocket for his phone. "Just, uh, here, I can call the pizza place."
He ran his thumb over the screen, about to dial the number when the doorbell downstairs ran. Both of them looked up, frowning in confusion as they turned towards the window. The street outside was empty, so whoever had come hadn't come in a car.
The doorbell rang again.
Rei exchanged a glance with her, then slipped his phone back into his pocket, moving down the stairs and into the darkened living room. Ayame followed him. The living room had the couch set up, but otherwise it was still looking pretty bare, with most of the things the two of them had brought still in boxes. Ayame knew her mom would be sending her some things too, by mail over the next couple of weeks.
"Hello?" Rei asked, opening the door.
Ayame frowned. A boy stood on the doorstep outside, with brown hair and gray eyes. She thought she recognized him from class. Vill—Vin—Van Helsing or something. He grinned, raising his hand in greeting.
"Hey, Rei," he said.
"Vayne," said Rei, opening the door wider. "What's up?"
"Nothing much," said Vayne, slipping his hands back into his jacket pockets. "Clark and I just moved in. We're a couple of blocks that way." He pointed up down the street. "Thought I'd come by and see how you guys were doing."
"Same as you," said Rei. "We just moved in."
"Yeah, I saw your parents' car pull out," said Vayne. "I'm surprised your mom didn't try to lock you in your room or something."
"Mom held it together pretty well," said Rei, shrugging. "It was Annie that pitched a fit."
Ayame looked between the two of them in confusion. Rei seemed to be ignoring her, all of his attention focused on Vayne. She looked from one to the other again before looking back at Rei.
"Uh, Rei?" she asked. "Who's this?"
"Oh yeah," said Rei, blinking at her as if just remembering that she was there. "Vayne, this is Ayame, my partner. Ayame, Vayne, one of my best friends."
Best friends.
Ayame frowned at Vayne as he extended a hand to her, his mouth spread into a grin. "Nice to meet ya," Vayne said. "I'm a weapon too. Can't say I'm too jealous though, you getting stuck with this guy." He jerked the thumb of his free hand in Rei's direction.
"Hey," said Rei, scowling. "I'm not that bad."
Ayame's frown deepened, but she did reach out, tentatively taking Vayne's hand. He clasped it briefly, letting go.
"Nice meeting you," she said.
"You wanna come in?" Rei asked, swinging the door open wider. "We were gonna call for pizza, maybe set up the DeathStation."
"Nah, I'm good," said Vayne, slipping his hands back in his pockets. "Just came by to say hi. Our apartment's a mess. See you in class tomorrow?"
"Yeah, definitely," said Rei. The two of them reached out, Vayne bumping fists with Rei before leaving.
Ayame watched, lingering a little behind Rei as her partner closed the door and locked it. She hesitated as Rei turned back towards her, unable to shake the sudden heavy feeling in her chest.
"What's up?" Rei asked, noticing her changed expression.
She shook her head, putting a smile on her face. "Nothing," she said. "So, pizza?"
"Why didn't you partner up with Vayne?" Ayame asked a little later, over pizza.
Rei frowned at her over his slice. They were sitting across from each other on the low table in the living room in front of the TV, boxes piled around them. She said the words nonchalantly, but she wasn't looking at him as she spoke, sitting turned away from him as she picked at a piece of pepperoni.
Something was bothering her, but he didn't know what. "We never resonated," he said with a shrug, deciding not to worry about it now. He took a bite of pizza. "We tried as kids. It just never worked out."
"Huh." Ayame picked an olive off the slice she was studying, flicking it disdainfully back into the box. Her expression grew far off for a minute before she nodded suddenly, as if making a decision. Her eyes narrowed, her expression growing determined as she set the slice down and rolled to her feet.
"Alright," she said, extending a hand towards Rei. "Come on!"
Rei blinked up at her. "Huh?"
"You've never actually seen my form, right?" Ayame asked. "Let's give it a try."
"Right now?" Rei asked, looking around the living room and at the box of pizza in front of him.
"Yeah," said Ayame. "I mean, class starts tomorrow, right? Do you wanna start training before you even know what I can do?"
Rei considered the pizza one last time before coming to a decision. He nodded, setting his slice down and dusting his fingers off on his pants. "Alright," he said, taking her hand and letting her pull him to his feet. "You're a kusarigama, right?"
Ayame tilted her head to the side, smiling mischievously as if she was trying to conceal a secret. "Yeah, I am," she said, before disappearing in a flash of light. A weight settled into his palms, his hands closing around comfortable leather grips. As the light faded, he looked down.
Ayame's kusarigama form was black, a black chain hanging between the two small hand-scythes. The blades curved wickedly in his hands, gleaming black metal with three gold stars set into the flats. The stars grew smaller as the blade grew narrower, the blade tapering off at a point.
He shifted his grip on the one in his right hand, testing the feeling. He'd practiced scythe-wielding with Annie and Cori before and this felt similar. Not the same—the chain lent the weapon a new element of weight, but comfortable. Not because he already knew what to do, because he didn't, but because it was Ayame. He held the blades up and tried a pair of tentative cuts, moving each blade downward diagonally. The chain, which he had first thought might get in the way, seemed to move aside for him as he shifted his weight into the cuts, and he realized that Ayame was moving too.
"How's it feel?" he heard Ayame ask, her voice floating up from the kusarigama in his hands. She sounded happy, like she might have been grinning.
"Feels good," Rei said. "A little weird, but I think I can get used to it." He tried a few more hesitant cuts and slashes, the blades moving slowly in horizontal and vertical cuts as he tried to shift his weight in a way that made the cuts feel right. Ayame was moving into the slashes, making them feel straight, but he was having a harder time trying to figure out how to position himself, how to make the most of their partnership. He figured that was alright. That was what they were at the DWMA to learn, after all.
He swept the left-hand scythe around in a wide arc, the blade turned outward. That time, the cut felt right, like he and Ayame were in sync. He found himself smiling as he came to a stop, lowering the blades back to his sides. The chain settled between them but hovered slightly in the air, as if it wasn't completely bound by gravity.
"Alright," Ayame said as he was still thinking of what to do next. "Bored now."
"Huh—hey!" Rei glanced down, his eyes widening in surprise as he felt the weight lift out of his hands. Light surrounded Ayame, but she didn't revert back to her human form. Instead, she shifted and changed, becoming a much shorter blade, almost a dagger, with a ray skin hilt like a Japanese sword. Weight settled back into his right hand as the light cleared, revealing a straight metal blade with a black hilt and a square black guard with a star pattern engraved into it.
"What the heck?" Rei asked, staring down at it.
Ayame sounded like she was laughing. "Ninjato Mode," she said, sounding proud of herself. "I'm a descendant of the Nakatsukasa Clan. The descendant, in fact. That means I get all the weapon forms of the previous generations, and something all of my own."
"Whoa," said Rei. He took a few practice swings with the ninja sword, staring at it. The reach was much shorter than he had with the kusarigama, and the blade itself was much lighter, but it was still Ayame. He could feel her soul wavelength as he got a bit bolder, moving the short blade in front of him in several rapid cuts and thrusts. "What else can you do?" he asked as he came to a stop.
"Oh, everything my mom can do, pretty much. Kusarigama, ninja sword, smoke bomb, shuriken, katana, shadow dummy. My katana form's not as cool as Mom's. She has the Enchanted Sword. I'm just a regular old blade. But I bet we could make it cool."
"And that thing you said that was just yours?" Rei asked. "The form that was all your own?"
"The Cloak of Shadows," Ayame said. "I'm still working on that one. We can give it a try if you want."
"Sure," said Rei. "Go for it."
The ninja sword in his hand began to shimmer again, the weapon coming apart. He felt the weight lift before settling back on his shoulders, as light as air. As the weight faded away again, he looked down, realizing that he was wearing a ragged black mantle, one that covered his torso and rose up to cover the lower half of his face. Shadows clung to the air around it like smoke, trailing away from its ragged ends. The mantle hovered just an inch over his skin, not quite touching him. It was clasped at his left shoulder with a gold star. He moved his hand and the fabric moved with him, shadows floating in the air around him like tendrils.
"Grab them," Ayame said, her voice strangely subdued, as though she were concentrating very hard. He reached back with both hands and closed them around the shadows, feeling them gain form and substance at his touch. They formed into two black kunai, shadows trailing from their hilts to connect back to the cloak.
Then everything shifted and Ayame was a kusarigama again, the scythes in his hands.
"Sorry," she said, sounding as though she was breathing hard. "That one's…tricky. Give me a minute."
"It's fine," said Rei. He stared down at the weapon in his hands. "That's…pretty amazing, Ayame."
"Of course it's amazing," said Ayame. "It's me, isn't it? Don't worry, Rei. I'm going to make you a top-notch meister in no time."
Rei chuckled, shaking his head. "I'm the meister," he said. "I'm supposed to be saying that to you."
"Not this time, buddy," said Ayame, cheerfully. Her weight lifted from his hands entirely, the light moving to the space in front of him as she took on human form again. She was smiling, her hand extended to him. "So what do you say? Partners?"
"Yeah," said Rei, smiling back. It was a reaffirmation of yesterday's promise. He reached out, clasping her hand. "Partners."
