A/N: Hey, all! My sister did some really nice sketches of the characters (she's had them done for a while, hence the hasty description-editing in the previous chapter), and they can be found at: bi t.l y (slash) 1kwdKRB (remove spaces)
I'm super happy with how these turned out, so go and have a look. Cover art to follow once she finishes coloring it! Credit, of course, goes to my little sis, LianneSilver927.
This chapter, particularly the Ayame/Rei scene, was way harder to write than I thought it would be. Sorry if it turned out badly as a result. Enjoy!
Review Responses:
Keyworks Kid, thanks for your comments and the critique. I realize looking back that I may have been a little too hasty in introducing everyone, but it was the first day of school and I got a little too excited to introduce the cast. Rest assured, though, there won't be any more introductions for a while, at least not for important characters. (Antagonists are still on the board for later~). Appearance-wise, the drastic changes are because my first descriptions of them were just me trying to describe characters I couldn't really picture, but my sister made some really greatcover art and sketches (see A/N) of the characters and I wanted to make sure the descriptions lined up with the art (because once she finishes coloring it, I'm going to replace the cover with her version). If I were editing this, I would go back and edit the earlier chapters to match the new descriptions, but since that would be very confusing in this format, I just went ahead and said they changed their outfits.
AmyNChan, your reaction is pretty much the same as the reaction of everyone else in the cast. Ayame's a little firecracker, isn't she? Glad you enjoyed it, and yes, poor Rei.
fpojhn, thanks! Romance will probably be a little later, but it will be hinted at.
fanficlove2014, thanks! Glad you liked it, and I personally really enjoy writing Ayame. Rei's character is a little hard to pin down, but I hope this chapter sheds some light on it. Poor kid just wants to be normal.
monkey.d garp, thanks! I enjoy writing fight scenes, so glad you like them!
Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater.
CHAPTER THREE
Stein's First Lesson; Understand Each Other
"Come on, man!" Vayne said, tapping furiously at his laptop's keyboard. "Get it!"
"I'm trying!" said Rei, drawing his controller close to himself and pressing several buttons in succession. On the screen, his character, a paladin, blocked a burst of flame from the dragon they were fighting. "In case you've forgotten, I'm supposed to be the tank!"
He held down the analog stick with his thumb, his character moving around to flank the monster as Vayne's samurai moved to the dragon's other side, launching into an impressive combo. Vayne leaned in close to his laptop screen, moving the mouse with one hand as he tapped out another sequence. At the bottom of the screen, the dragon's health bar dropped even lower.
"Just a little more," Vayne muttered, leaning in and concentrating. His samurai jumped back and charged in with an attack that looked like several rays of light. Rei grit his teeth as the dragon reared up and attacked his paladin, the controller in his hands vibrating as his health bar dropped drastically. It recovered slightly as he cast a healing spell, but not as much as he needed.
The dragon's health dropped again as Vayne executed another combo, going into the red.
"Almost there," Rei said, using a spell to raise his and Vayne's defenses and then casting another healing spell.
"You don't have to tell me," said Vayne, not looking up from his laptop. "Rare armor, here we come!"
On Rei's screen, light began shining around Vayne's samurai, a sign that he was preparing to cast the finishing move. Rei grit his teeth and pulled his controller back to himself, ready to offer support. The light grew brighter, obscuring Vayne's character from view.
The dragon's HP suddenly dropped to nothing, the monster exploding into a million shards of light. The music that had been swelling in the dungeon since their characters had entered it came to a sudden stop, a blue-haired cat girl leaping into the space where the dragon had been before bounding out of sight.
The light around Vayne's samurai faded.
"Wait, what?!" Vayne asked, sitting up.
Rei stared. Above his character's head, a message had appeared on the screen:
Rock*Star has defeated Ancalogon!
Rei's jaw dropped. As the message sank in, his eyes narrowed, his hands clenching into fists around the controller. He threw it on the couch, standing up.
"Rei?" Vayne asked.
"Ayame!" In a flash, Rei was pounding his way up the stairs, heading for Ayame's room. "Ayame, what the heck?!"
"What?!" asked Ayame, pulling the door to her room open and leaning out the doorway. "What do you want?"
"What the hell was that for?!" Rei asked.
"What was what for?!" asked Ayame, scowling at him.
"Ancalogon!" said Rei. "Vayne and I spent days planning for that! It was a rare event! Why did you go ruin it?"
"What?" asked Ayame. "You're talking about your stupid game? I don't even play that, Rei!"
"Oh yeah?" shouted Rei. "Who else goes by the character name 'Rock*Star', then?"
"I don't know! My brother?! I'm not the only one who's allowed to use the word 'Star' in a freaking character name!"
"Your brother?" Rei asked. "Let me get this straight. Your five-year-old brother is playing an online game as a ninja cat-girl on an American server at 2 o'clock in the goddamn morning, Egypt time?!"
"He's a weird kid! How am I supposed to know?!"
"A-ya-me—," Rei began, drawing the syllables out.
"Um, Rei?" asked Vayne from downstairs. "I'm…just gonna go, okay?"
Rei ignored him, scowling at Ayame. She scowled back, her eyes narrowed into a glare. They held each other's gaze for a moment, neither of them backing down, before Ayame let out a huff, taking a step back and looking away.
"Whatever!" she said. "Go back to playing your stupid game with your stupid friends! See if I care!"
She slammed the door, the sound loud enough to send the apartment rattling. Rei stared at her door, his hands clenched into fists at his side.
"…Rei?" Vayne asked hesitantly from downstairs.
"Fine!" Rei yelled. "Whatever, Ayame! Just stay in there! See if I care!"
He turned, running down the stairs to join Vayne.
Ayame didn't come out of her room that night. The next day, they spent breakfast glaring daggers at each other, the mood not lightening up on the walk to school. Rei put Clark and Vayne between himself and Ayame as they reached Class Moonless Night, something Ayame pointedly ignored, slamming her books and pencil case onto the desk with enough force to make the people in the row in front of her duck for cover. Vayne stared between the two of them, looking concerned as Rei turned away and Clark laughed nervously, trying to draw them both into conversation.
It didn't work. They went their separate ways for lunch and were still fuming at each other when Professor Stein called them to one of the smaller training rooms in the school for their first resonance lesson.
Rei sat cross-legged on the floor where Professor Stein had left them, his arms folded as beside him, Ayame refused to look at him. He didn't know what was wrong with her. She'd been testy for the past few days, ever since the incident with Grayson and Richard in the hallway. At first she'd just been distant, a little sad, but as the days wore on, she'd started snapping at him and getting moodier, more likely to pull off stuff like the crap she had pulled with Ancalogon. He didn't understand it, and honestly, he was out of patience.
Well, fine! If Ayame was going to be like that, he didn't have to be nice to her either.
Stein shut the door of his office, then came around to face them, leaning against his desk with his hands in the pockets of his lab coat. He was a tall and imposing man, older now than in the pictures Rei had seen of him with his parents' E.A.T. Class, but still the same odd blend of scholarliness and barely-restrained madness that he had been twenty years ago. The light from the windows reflected against his glasses as he studied them, his eyes lingering a little longer on Rei than he would have liked. Rei wondered what he saw there, if he was looking for some evidence of his parents in him.
He scowled, not feeling in a good enough mood to just let that slide. He was getting really tired of people expecting him to become his parents.
Stein quirked an eyebrow from behind his glasses at his expression, but Rei felt the weight of his gaze lift. He drew in a breath before he started to speak. "The art of resonance is one of the most important things we can learn at the DWMA," he said. "It's a very delicate technique—the harmonizing of two, sometimes very different souls. There are a lot of factors that can affect your ability to resonate with your partner—things you might be keeping from each other, for instance, or weaknesses in the bond between you. The smallest things can upset an entire partnership. So before we start, is there anything either of you would like to say to the other?"
"Nope," said Ayame, turning away. "I've got nothing to say to him."
Rei bristled at that, insulted despite his promise to himself to not care about her anymore. He turned away as well, looking in the opposite direction. "Same here," he said. "Got nothing."
"Hmm." Stein watched them, and Rei heard a clicking sound as he reached up, adjusting the screw on the side of his head. His expression was unreadable. "Very well, then. I need you both to face each other."
Rei hesitated, but reluctantly scooted himself around so that he was facing Ayame. She did the same, turning to face him. Neither of them looked the other in the eye.
"Hold hands," Stein said. "Weapon in meister's."
Ayame shoved her hands into his, still not looking at him. Rei closed his hands around hers gently, despite the fact that he didn't want to be touching her at all. The pads of her fingers were rough, calloused from her constant training.
"Close your eyes," Stein said. "Try to relax. Breathe."
Rei did, trying to relax, to let the tension leave him as he faced her. He felt it leave his shoulders and back as he took several slow breaths, and from in front of him, he could hear Ayame doing the same. Her hands relaxed in his, her breathing coming slow and steady. It was almost in time with his own. Like this, quietly breathing, he almost forgot he was mad at her.
Almost.
"Try to sense the other person's soul," Stein said. "Reach for it with yours."
He breathed deeply, in and out, and as he breathed, he started to get a sense of Ayame. Her soul was right in front of him, a tightly-contained nexus of light and power. He felt it pulse with her own breath, her own heartbeat, felt those pulses wash over him, brushing against his own soul.
He fixed that source of power in his mind as he breathed, reaching out for her. It felt like the most natural thing in the world to reach for her at that moment, and he felt rather than saw her own soul do the same, a tendril lifting from the surface of her soul and reaching out towards his. He could hear his own heartbeat, his own breathing in time with hers as he reached out to meet her, a tendril rising up from his soul to touch against hers.
A jolt of pain ran through him suddenly, sparks flying as their souls came together with a discordant crash.
The jolt was enough to cause them both to fly apart from each other, the illusion breaking as they landed on the floor of Stein's office. A wind had picked up around them, picking up and scattering the papers on Stein's desk before disappearing entirely. His hands hurt. He blinked down at them, then looked over at Ayame as she picked herself up off the ground, gritting her teeth in pain.
"What the hell?" she asked, muttering under her breath.
Stein didn't look surprised at all. He simply reached up, adjusting his glasses and stepping away from his desk. "I thought that would happen," he said, looking between the two of them. "Let this be your first lesson. If you come into this partnership angry, resentful, unwilling to bend, your souls will clash with each other. At the end of the day, resonance is compromise, and understanding." He looked between the two of them, his expression serious. "I don't know what's happened," he said. "I don't know what this is about. But I know your souls are working against each other right now. So this is your first assignment. Deal with it. Learn to understand each other, not simply tolerate each other. You're excused from the remainder of your classes today. Use the time to fix your partnership, and don't come back to this room until your souls are in accord. Dismissed."
Rei picked himself up off the ground, not looking at Stein as he left the room. Ayame followed, her expression sullen. They picked their way across the DWMA's grounds, neither of them speaking until they reached the door. They walked through it, stepping out into the desert sunshine.
He thought neither of them would speak, that they would continue on like this and that their partnership was done for, but it was Ayame who spoke first.
"Sorry."
She spoke the word curtly, as if it pained her. Rei looked over his shoulder to see her walking with her eyes on the ground, gripping her left arm tightly with the fingers of her right hand. She looked close to tears, although he knew she wouldn't admit it.
He drew in a breath, his hands still tingling from their failed resonance.
"Sorry too," he said.
"You stopped talking to me," Ayame said, still not looking at him. "After what happened in the hallway. I got upset." She took a breath. "I shouldn't have done what I did with your game…or said what I said to you."
He looked away, gritting his teeth. The simple honesty in her words floored him, and made him hate himself all over again. There she was, taking the lead, being herself, charging boldly onward without fear.
He couldn't help but be jealous of her.
"I was afraid," he admitted, the words feeling like glass in his mouth. He couldn't look at her as he said them. The self-loathing was a real thing in his chest, in the pit of his belly. It coiled up inside of him and wrapped tendrils around his soul. "That's why I didn't fight back. I wanted to—I really, really did, but I lost my nerve." He laughed darkly at himself, the words spilling out of his mouth as soon as he started speaking, everything that had been plaguing him since starting at the DWMA coming out all at once.
"I was afraid to fight a pair of second-rate bullies, and there you were, fresh from taking Mifune-sensei on without flinching, ready to go again. I couldn't face you after that. How could I?"
Scaredy-cat, Ayame had called him when they met again, had called him many times as a child. It had never felt more apt than it did now.
He had always been a coward.
Rei swallowed hard, wishing he could take back everything he'd said, feeling miserable as he slipped his hands into his pockets and trudged back towards their apartment.
He was stopped by Ayame's hand on his wrist, turning him back around to face her.
She wasn't looking at him. She had stopped walking, forcing him to come to a stop as well, but she refused to meet his eyes. Instead, she looked down at the ground beside her, worrying at her lower lip with her teeth.
Rei stared at her, not really sure what to do. "Ayame…?" he asked.
She shook her head, still not looking at him. "…Did you really think it would matter to me?" she asked. "You were scared. So what? Lots of people get scared. And you were right about Mifune. That wasn't a fight I should have taken. So, you know, maybe I could have stood to be a little more afraid." She drew in a shaky breath, looking up at him for the first time. "You'll fight them when you're ready, Rei. Just tell me when. I won't force you into it. But don't…"
Ayame trailed off, dropping her gaze again.
"Don't what?" Rei prompted.
"Don't do this again," said Ayame, looking up. "I don't care if you're afraid to fight. Just don't be afraid to talk to me. I've—I've never had a real friend before…"
Her grip tightened on his wrist, and she looked down again. Her hair fell over her face, hiding her eyes from view, and her hand was shaking. Her teeth were clenched tightly together, as if she was in pain.
"Ayame?" Rei asked.
She squeezed his wrist tightly, almost to the point of pain. "Be quiet for a minute!" she said. "I'm trying to talk." He waited, watching as she tried to collect herself, taking in slow breaths.
"We moved around so much," she said. "I never got the chance to really meet anyone, you know? I thought things would be different here, at the DWMA, but nobody wanted to be my partner. Then I ran into you. I thought we could be friends, but you'd rather hang out with Vayne than with me. I tried to join in, but you wouldn't let me. I got…frustrated, I guess." She shook her head, suddenly looking angry with herself. Her hand released his wrist as she brushed past him, walking forward. "Forget it," she said. "I was being dumb. I can give you and Vayne your loot back."
"Ayame." He reached out for her before he knew what he was doing, stopping her from walking with a hand on her arm. "Wait."
She stopped, her back to him. Rei swallowed, realizing that he didn't know what to say. The words wouldn't come, no matter how hard he wanted them to. His throat felt tight, and he wanted to tell her that it was nothing, that she could keep walking now. But he didn't want to do that. He knew that if he let this moment pass because he was afraid to speak, he would never be able to forgive himself.
So he took a deep breath, letting his hand fall back to his side.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I wasn't trying to exclude you. I'm not very good at making friends, I guess. But I still want to be friends with you."
She didn't move. A ripple of motion passed through her shoulders like an indrawn breath. A droplet of water struck the ground at her feet. She didn't turn to face him.
Instead, she tilted her head upwards, towards the sky. Wetness glistened on her cheeks. She wiped it away with the back of her hand and sniffled.
"There you go crying again, Rei," she said.
He smiled. "Yeah. Sorry for crying."
"It's fine," Ayame said, drawing in a ragged breath. "I guess…I'm just gonna have to learn to deal with you."
"Yeah," said Rei. "Guess so."
He placed a hand on her shoulder as she scrubbed at her eyes again, the two of them walking down the road. An idea struck him as they rounded a corner, heading downhill towards their apartment.
"Hey, Ayame?" he asked. "Do you mind coming with me for a minute? There's somewhere I want you to see."
They stopped to pick up a box of donuts before Rei led her back up the road, into a section of the city she wasn't quite familiar with yet. Ayame followed him, more curious than anything now. After the heaviness of the past few days and the conversation she and Rei had had just outside the school, she felt raw, a little emotionally drained, but relieved. It was much easier now, being with Rei and speaking to him without all that darkness between them.
Except he still wasn't telling her everything.
It wasn't that he was hiding stuff from her, at least not the same way that he had been earlier, but for some reason, he seemed reluctant to tell her where they were going. She'd asked him a few times and had gotten the same response back: "You'll see when we get there."
The city opened up around them, residential buildings and shops falling away as they walked up a paved cobblestone path, towards a building at the top of a hill. A wrought-iron gate barred their path, a pair of Shinigami-sama's skulls facing outwards from two symmetrical guard towers. Beyond it was a courtyard, leading to what looked like a large mansion.
Ayame slowed as they neared it, realizing where they were.
"Um…Rei?" she asked. "Isn't this Shinigami-sama's place?"
"Yeah," said Rei, not slowing down. "Don't worry. We're going around the back."
They skirted the outer fence of Gallows Manor, coming to a small gate that opened into the manor's backyard. The path leading up to it had been well-tended, as if people came through here all the time. The back of the manor was just as symmetrical as the front, but here and there Ayame caught sight of signs that people lived here—small footprints in the grass, or a child's discarded toy. The differences were subtle, but they were there, and it was in such contrast to the front of the house that Ayame stopped at the gate's threshold for a moment, just taking it in.
Rei stopped on the path, looking back at her.
"Ayame?" he asked.
"Sorry," said Ayame, hurrying to catch up. She closed the gate behind her, the latch catching, and followed Rei as they walked up the steps towards the back entrance of the building. As they neared, she started hearing sounds coming from inside, traces of conversation. There were people on the other side of the door. Three or four maybe, possibly more. Most of the voices had the high-pitched tones of children.
"What is this place?" she asked.
Instead of answering, Rei opened the door. Conversation stilled as he stepped inside, a group of kids looking up from a huddle on the floor. Coloring books, crayons, and stuffed animals were scattered around them. A blond woman was seated cross-legged on the floor with them, a yellow crayon in her hand poised over a half-finished giraffe drawing.
Ayame blinked, looking around. There were four children seated on the floor with the woman, three boys and a girl, all dressed in similar dark uniforms. The boys wore button-down shirts and jackets and shorts, the girl wore the same thing but with a skirt. The uniforms were perfectly symmetrical on both sides. The children there looked too young to be in school, but there were things around the room—a textbook here, a pair of headphones there—that told her there were older children in here occasionally. One of the youngest kids, a blond boy with big green eyes, let out a yelp of fear when he saw Rei and quickly buried himself in the blond woman's arms, but the other three jumped to their feet in delight.
"It's Rei!" they said, swarming him. "Rei's here!"
She was more confused than ever. And she had a feeling, a very strong one, that there was more going on here than met the eye. Her eyes passed over the youngest boy again, the one who was currently being encouraged to calm down and help draw the giraffe. He sniffed, raising his hands to wipe his eyes, and the woman quickly but firmly guided his hands away from his face.
His fingers had become blades.
"Rei?" Ayame asked, feeling cold. "What's going on?"
Rei looked back at her. The children had already liberated the box of donuts from him and were squealing in delight, running over to put it on a table.
"This is the DWO," Rei said. "The Death Weapon Orphanage."
"Orphanage?" Ayame asked, looking around. The kids had opened the box of donuts and were digging in, one of the boys trying to convince the youngest one to join them.
Rei walked over to her, his expression dark. He slipped his hands into his pockets, leaning against the wall. "Yeah," he said. "Shibuko, we call it. My parents helped Shinigami-sama set this up when I was little. We call it an orphanage, but most of these kids were abandoned."
"Abandoned?" Ayame asked, looking around. The kids, all save the youngest who was still crying, were happily breaking into the box of donuts now, smears of chocolate and jelly on their faces. Something in her chest tightened. "Why?" she breathed.
"…They're weapons, Ayame," Rei said softly, with a glance at her.
Weapons. Like her.
Her hands tightened into fists, so tightly that she could feel them shaking. She remembered her childhood with her mother, remembered how happy she had been the first day she could transform, how proud she had been each time Tsubaki helped her learn a new form.
How proud her mother had been of her.
"Just for that?" Ayame asked. Anger rose up in her, making it hard to keep her voice down. "They abandoned them just because of that?!"
The kids looked up, glancing at her. A couple of them had fearful looks on their faces. Rei placed a hand on her arm, looking concerned.
"Do you wanna go outside?" he asked.
"No, I'm fine," said Ayame, shrugging out of his hold. "I just—I can't believe it. I can't believe people do that."
Except she could. She'd seen it. How many times had people looked at her or her mother with distrust? How many times had she heard people talk about weapons as if they were nothing more than demons?
She could believe it, and she hated that, because it was wrong. It was so, awfully, terribly wrong.
It made her want to hit something.
Rei nodded solemnly, as if he knew what she was feeling. "Mom used to bring me here a lot," he said. "She'd volunteer here after class, and she'd bring me around to play with the other kids." He drew in a breath, looking away from her and watching the kids again. "I met Vayne here."
She stayed silent, realizing the implications of that. Her eyes passed over the room again, falling on the kids and the woman watching them, the woman that she now recognized as one of Shinigami-sama's guns. She took in the books that said older kids lived here, the TV set up in the exact middle of the room, the pens and paper scattered over the two tables on either side of it.
"Vayne was one of these kids," she said, when she could find her voice.
Rei nodded. "He was nine, when he came in. He wouldn't talk to anyone at first. He's…a lot better now."
"Did you bring me here to show me that?" Ayame asked.
Rei looked guilty. He glanced away, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Sort of," he admitted. "I'm not…good with words, I guess, when it comes to this sort of thing. I guess I just wanted you to know that you're not the only one who has trouble making friends."
Ayame looked around the room one last time, looked at Rei. She found herself smiling in spite of the tightness in her heart, imagining him playing here as a kid, imagining him slowly drawing Vayne out of his shell. He might not believe it, but it wasn't hard to see Rei having that effect on people. It seemed to be working alright on her.
"Well," she said, turning away from Rei. "I still think he's got terrible fashion sense."
"Huh?" Rei asked, looking up.
Ayame held up a hand to stop him, looking over her shoulder and giving him a smile. "He's also really nosy, and he walks around our apartment like he owns the place. He's a terrible gamer too—I mean, seriously, who uses Orichalcum armor on a samurai? And I don't like how he keeps showing me up in class. It's like he doesn't know that I'm gonna be the queen of this school or something. But, if he's your friend—," Her smile widened. "—I guess he's just going to have to be my friend too."
Rei's eyes widened. "You mean it?" he asked.
"Yeah," said Ayame. "I mean it."
Stein stood on the DWMA's balcony, an unlit cigarette between his lips as he looked out over the school. It was lunchtime, and it was relatively cool for Death City at this time of year, several of the students deciding to enjoy the day by taking their lunch outside. A group of four in particular sat beneath one of the trees in the training forest to the side of the school, their lunches spread out in front of them. They were first years, still new to the DWMA, but by now he had had some time to work with each of the E.A.T. class pairs and recognized all of them.
They were laughing, joking around with each other as they ate. One of them, a brown-haired boy with an earring, was having some fun at the expense of a certain blond-haired, red-eyed meister, his partner laughing along from where she lay on the ground in the shade of the tree. The last one, a tall blond boy with glasses, smiled as he leaned against the tree trunk and took a drink of his soda.
Vayne Damocles. Rei Evans. Clark Greysteil. Ayame Star.
The world seemed to shift as he focused in on the group, his perception of them changing as he focused in on their souls. He saw Clark's soul first, a pale blue orb with a pair of rectangular formations in front of it that resembled his glasses. It pulsed with a gentle, calming wavelength, one that meshed nicely with his partner's. Vayne's soul was orange, with spikes on its right side that resembled his hair. It was energetic in counterpart to Clark's calm, but also fervent and passionate, with a zealousness that would have been difficult to handle otherwise.
And then there was the other two. Ayame's soul was a bold blue and blinding, buried deeply within her. It had a tendril on its left side, one that looked very much like her side-ponytail, one that seemed bound to her soul by the shape of a star. And Rei's, a blue so light that it was almost grey, difficult to see even with his perception. He thought it flickered as he watched it, a different shape lurking somewhere within it.
One soul fierce, passionate, exuberant, but also undeniably fragile, another uncertain, kind, hesitant, but also undeniably loyal. The two of them were a study in contradictions, a pair of immensely different, singularly unique souls that complemented each other so well that it was almost as if they had been born to it.
They were in sync now, their wavelengths quietly pulsing in time to each other's.
Stein smirked, the light reflecting off his glasses as he adjusted the screw at his side.
He went back into the building to work.
A/N: Credit for Shibuko/the DWO also goes to my sister, LianneSilver927, who came up with the idea of Kid setting up an orphanage for weapons who were abandoned as children, and insisted it be included. She's partly responsible for how Vayne turned out. ^^
