Author's Note: So I have one other SE story going, "Two Halves of a Fallen Angel," and this will run right up to the beginning of that. Neither really require the other, as they can be understood without, but it is strongly recommended that you read both.
Here you go, my pride and joy!
Oh, and you should know that this one deals with "the talk". You know the one. There are some pretty blatant period references, too, so beware.
If you are ten or eleven and you don't know what "the talk" is, please come back and read this when you do.
From the perspective of one Scythemeister Maka Albarn, age nine.
-NINE-
It had been one week.
One week since the ball. One week since I'd met the small, curious boy named Soul Evans.
There had been a small partnership ceremony. There always was. Just a quick vow to protect and honor the other and whatnot. It was rather like marriage. I didn't want to think about that.
Today we'd moved into a small, two-bedroom apartment not far from the Academy. Wes, Soul's nearly identical older brother, had swung by to assist in setting up furniture. A few of our... friends(hint: blue hair) had offered, but we'd somewhat politely refused.
Wes was, as far as I could tell, a pretty normal guy. Of course, he was nineteen, and human, and incredibly wealthy, but he didn't talk down to either of us, and introduced himself only as "Wes" to whichever stray neighbor came by to welcome us.
That had been this morning. The rest of the day had been just setting up the last of our belongings, and then staring lazily at the television, which was playing some sort of cooking show.
Now, thoughts of a strange overweight lady and oceans of butter floated around in my head as I tried to fall asleep in the twin bed that was still rather large for me. The sheets were a simple white, but I planned to change that quickly.
At some point I must have fallen asleep, because I woke abruptly to soft stirring from the other side of the wall.
I knew it was Soul. Loneliness radiated off of the poor boy in waves that could probably be felt by the most ignorant human, and the visit from his brother had done little if any help. There was a bit of panic that I sensed as well. Hmm.
He was a little difficult to decipher. He might touch your shoulder or arm when he was speaking to you, but would recoil almost violently if you touched him. He never did homework, or really anything that didn't involve sleep, but if you were really in need of help he never hesitated to assist. I didn't understand exactly why he was the way he was, but then again I had a lifetime to figure him out.
I padded down the hall and peeked in the door, just to see what the commotion was about.
"Maka?" He called quietly.
"Mmhmm?"I'd been found out, but there was no stopping it now.
"Hey, I was just..." He trailed off, and then I heard a soft snore.
Boys.
I saw the metal bindings shining in the light from the window. He was required to wear them. They kept him from transforming in his sleep. I'd had to wear them once upon a time, when I was very small and they still thought I would be a scythe like my father. They'd wrapped around my shoulders, unlike Soul's, which went around his wrists.
I think that was when it hit me.
This boy was my responsibility. He was my weapon, and legally he was now even my own personal property. But here, I saw a creature whose safety was my duty and mine alone. Yes, he was supposed to make sure that nothing happened to me, but that wasn't the point. The point was that Soul Evans now had no family, and his only ties to anyone on Earth at this point in time were to me.
It scared me, just a little.
But that was okay. I faced it. Soul and I were partners now, weren't we?
And feed my soul to the lowliest Kishin if anything ever happened to him on my watch.
It happened only a few times each week, but the nightmares soon became farther between. He seemed a bit more comfortable around the others and I, and shoved people off when they tried to touch him instead of jumping twelve feet in the air.
Two months after school had started, we had our only two friends over. Tsubaki cooked, even though it was our house, because she had the unique talent of preparing edible food. We were all grateful.
We'd all fallen asleep on our tiny, ragged couch at about one in the morning. Thank the powers that be that it was a Saturday. I was squished between Soul and Tsubaki, whose meister drooled on her other shoulder. I woke around three in the morning and looked at our little group.
Happiness was this.
I went back to sleep, glad that things were working out so well.
-TEN-
But things weren't so cozy for long. In another month, I turned ten.
One morning, Sid informed us that a special lecture would be given in two segments: boys on the coming Friday, and girls the following Monday.
I had no idea what this could possibly mean. Why would they break us up by gender? This was a combat school. Girls could fight just as well as boys, those sexist pigs.
When I said so, my father, standing in the corner of the room, had choked a little on himself. "It's not about fighting, sweetheart."
Eh?
The morning of the boys' assembly, I walked with Soul to the auditorium. Everyone had shown up. The teachers had refused to say anything about what was going on in the lectures, so I guess the other students' curiosity had beat out their will to skip. There was even an odd-looking kid in a black-and-white suit with three white stripes on the left side of his hair. He seemed to be looking for a weapon at the same time.
He approached us. "What type of weapon are you?" He asked Soul, who was still wearing his binders.
"Uh... a scythe," he told the odd boy, at the same time as I shoved him lightly.
"He's my weapon! Back off!" I stuck my tongue out. The boy's expression turned to disgust.
"You back off! Scythes are terribly asymmetrical anyways." He walked away.
"Ok," Soul began. "Thanks for getting the creepy guy off of us, but can we not pick a fight with someone taller than both of us combined? Please?"
"Yeah, fine. It was obvious I was your meister, though. He shouldn't have asked." I replied.
Soul went into the auditorium and I walked to class, where Nygus filled out paperwork and the rest of us talked, or in my case read.
My curiosity was practically strangling me as I sat in the front row, trying to figure out what the h-e-double toothpicks that stupid assembly was supposed to be about. When the bell finally rang, I bolted out of my seat and ran to the auditorium.
"Soul!" I called, searching for the scrawny boy. "SOUL!"
I finally found him sitting with Blackstar on a bench in the courtyard. Both were completely silent. Come to think of it, so were most of the boys.
"Oh, there you are," I told him. "Are you ready to go? It's my turn to cook." I said cook, but I really meant microwave ramen. I couldn't make anything else.
I smiled at Blackstar, too. The friendlier I was, the more likely it was that one of them would tell me what exactly had happened in that auditorium.
"Ah, you go on ahead," Soul said, eyes at my feet. "I'll be home later." He cleared his throat slightly, and looked down at his shoes.
It frustrated me, but I resolved to speak to him once he calmed down a bit. He seemed freaked by whatever had gone on in the assembly, and I didn't want to make it worse.
I'd be going to this same presentation in two days, and doggone it I was going to be prepared.
I got home and made a special effort- canned spaghetti sauce over pasta I only got right the third time. By the time he arrived, I had gone to the store and picked up rice pudding for dessert. I microwaved it and set it on the table.
"Thanks, Maka, but… I'm not hungry," he said, still looking at his shoes. He went straight to his room and didn't come out. I was too confused to ask. The presentation had had an odd effect on him, and I just waited to see what would happen.
I ate my portion of the food and refrigerated the rest, as it could easily be split for breakfast tomorrow. I sat in the bath for quite a while, trying to figure out just what it was that had immobilized just about every male in the N.O.T. class. It made no sense. The odd reaction made me a bit nervous for my own coming experience on Monday, but I would face it. My own mother was the greatest scythemeister of all time, goshdarnit, and I would prove my worth to the DMWA just as she did! No pansy presentation would faze me!
I desperately wanted to join the E.A.T. class. I remembered that when I was very young, my father had asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.
"A meister!" I'd cried, smiling up at him. "Just like Mama!"
"Well, sweetie, Mama is a meister. You and I," he said, "Are weapons."
"Really?" I furrowed my eyebrows.
"Yep. Scythes. You'll probably have Papa's job one day." He poked my nose, and I giggled. "You'll have to go to the big school at the top of the city, and train to be a weapon."
I stuck out my bottom lip, my spirits crushed. "But Papa…." I looked down at my shoes, and then back up at him. "I wanna be a meister."
"Sweetheart, look. Meisters are their own species. We aren't the same."
"How do you know?" I asked. "Why aren't I like Mama?"
He sat down cross-legged in the floor. I did too. He sat up straight. "Can you do this?" He asked, and a giant gray-black blade curved out of his shoulder. "Focus."
I scrunched my face up. I clenched my muscles and concentrated.
Nothing happened.
And nothing happened for a long, long time.
So I held on to hope that I would follow in my mother's footsteps, and I spun sticks and batons until the wee hours of the morning to prove my talent.
But I came to accept my fate as a scythe, and even agreed to partner with Blackstar once we were older. One day, though, when I was about five, a man in a white lab coat came and did some sort of test with my blood, and afterwards Papa took me to the kitchen table and told me that I was right, that I would be a meister like Mama.
I was happy, and so I continued practicing with the plastic replacements in the Shibusen gym. Soon, I was running with the older kids on physical assessment days. Afterwards, I studied in the vast library, determined to know everything. I was practically a student before I even turned seven.
There were a few others that were raised at the DWMA. Blackstar, obviously, and Ox and Kilik. Ox's father was a teacher for three years, but left his son at the school for the remaining year between his transfer to a university and his son's ninth birthday. Kilik lived in the city with his family, who were trying to find a cause for an odd disease his triplet brother and sister had. The two youngest members of the Rung family aged at a third the pace of an average human, but had gained weapon abilities abnormally early. The four of us practiced, studied, and sparred together for most of our lives.
So when I saw Kilik at the local grocer that Saturday morning after the boys' presentation, I hoped I had finally found an ally. He smiled and waved at me, unlike the others who had shrunk away, and I struck up friendly conversation. After a few minutes, I asked him what was really on my mind.
"Hey, have you talked to Soul and Blackstar lately?" I tried to nudge him gently to my topic of choice.
"Uh, no, actually. I thought Soul was your partner, why?" Kilik looked skeptical.
"He is, but he's been acting a bit… off lately. But, wouldn't you have seen them at the presentation yesterday?"
"Oh, no. I didn't go. They wouldn't let me, my tenth birthday is in three months and for some reason they don't think I'm old enough," he told me.
Well, there goes that.
I went home and dumped the groceries on the counter. A quick peek revealed Soul to still be asleep. That lazy bum. He rolled over and blinked at me, almost but not quite conscious.
I finished putting up the dishes and went to the bathroom. The floor was still wet from my shower that morning, though, and I slipped, banging the side of my head on the counter. Blood dripped all over the bathroom, and I get to my feet shakily.
"Maka! Are you okay…. Ohdeargod." Soul burst in and, seeing the blood everywhere, looked at me and then back to the red stains. "That is disgus-"
That was when he threw up.
He ran out of the room, and I heard the front door shut behind him.
I cleaned up my mess, and the vomit, and wiped it down. I needed some disinfectant, so I decided to ask Tsubaki.
I took the stairs to their floor and knocked, calling my friend's name. I heard shuffling. The door was opened, and I was immediately enveloped in a tight hug.
"Oh, Maka. What happened to your face?!" Tsubaki asked frantically, examining the spot next to my left eyebrow that I didn't think was all that bad.
"I slipped and hit my head on the bathroom counter. I need some bleach wipes, can I borrow some?"
"Oh, you let me do that later. We need to fix this." I was dragged to the kitchen, where the young kunoichi lifted me with surprisingly little effort onto the space next to the sink. I tried to get down, but she wouldn't let me.
She poured some foul-smelling liquid over the wound, and began stitching it. I winced, but said nothing. After a few minutes, I heard whispers.
"Do you think she's gone now?"
"I don't know, let's check."
Two figures appeared from around the corner- Soul and Blackstar. They stared at me in shock for a moment, and almost left when Soul stumbled and turned around. He looked at me and slowly approached, looking almost scared.
"What… what happened to your head, Maka?" He asked, eyes wide as he took in the various tools and chemicals Tsubaki had spread around the counter.
"I tripped in the bathroom this morning and hit my head. You know this, you saw and ran out," I snapped, causing Tsubaki to jerk on the string tied to my head. "Ow!"
"Oh, that's what that was…." He mumbled, looking at his feet as his whole head turned the approximate shade of a tomato.
"Of course that's what it was! Why else would there be blood all over the bathroom?!" I asked, exasperated at the apparent stupidity of my otherwise sensible weapon.
The two boys looked at each other, and then down at their feet, and then up and me, and back to the floor. I peered up at Tsubaki, hoping she could shed some light on the situation. She chuckled softly.
"What?" I demanded.
"Nothing."
"What do you mean, nothing?" I asked, utterly baffled.
"You'll learn about it at the presentation Monday." She told me.
"I will? Oh. Wait, WHAT? How do you know?"
"I already learned what's in the lesson from my parents. I'm two years older that you all," Tsubaki explained. "but I can't tell you now, I think it would be better if you found out at school."
I wanted to press her for more information, but I could see in her face that there was no convincing her to tell me what was going on. I jumped off the counter, grabbed the bleach wipes she was letting me borrow, and headed for the door. After a few steps, I felt Soul fall in behind me.
"Sorry," he said quietly after we'd left.
"It's ok… I guess…." I said, still not completely sure what the heck was going on.
-MONDAY-
Soul walked with me to the presentation, utterly silent. He hadn't spoken much even after the bloody bathroom fiasco, and I still had no idea what would happen to me during these next hours.
I hoped I wouldn't be brainwashed.
That would suck.
I entered the auditorium, where all of the chairs had been cleared out. Blankets were on the floor with pillows around a screen. A friendly-looking blonde woman with an eye patch smiled at each of us in turn as we walked in, and I felt myself calm. Everything would be ok, right?
Mama was standing in the corner, talking quietly to Nygus, pointing at a girl occasionally. I looked around, trying to see if anyone was missing. Nope, every girl I could think of in the first-year N.O.T. class was here, even Tsubaki who said she already knew all of this.
The room darkened, and a projector was turned toward the nearest wall. The kind-looking blonde woman came to stand behind her, but Mama shook her head. "Don't fog their minds, Marie. Let them take it in."
So this WAS a brainwashing!
I stood up fast, but sat back down. I'd be fine. Mama was resistant to stuff like that, so shouldn't I be? But Mama was in on this… oh no. I almost ran out again but the video started and my curiosity won out.
A bunch of kids appeared on screen and started singing an irritating little riff while bobbing their heads back and forth and smiling. "Just around the corner, just around the corner. You're just around the corner, just around the corner. It's just around the corner, just around the corner."
What the heck?
I wondered if the melody was supposed to be hypnotizing me, and assumed that I was immune. Then I noticed that the other girls were looking at each other with confused expressions.
I looked back at the screen, where "Just Around the Corner: Girls Edition" was written in pink letters.
The annoying music stopped, and a lady with a plastered-on smile walked in front of the obvious green screen, which put her in front of a bunch of cartoon flowers.
"Good morning girls! It's nice to see all of you!" She waved, but she looked rather retarded as she could not actually be talking to us, staring at a point in the back of the room. "Today I'm here to tell you all about some changes that will be taking place inside of you. Those changes are-"
The chorus cut in again. "Just around the corner, just around the corner…"
What a giant waste of time. The other girls thought so, too, by the looks on their faces. Tsubaki peered at her sneakers.
"And what kind of changes are just around the corner? Well, I'll tell you. Do you know what this is?" She said, pointing to a diagram onscreen.
I almost fainted. It was, as far as I could tell, a diagram of the bladder, colon, and something else I didn't know.
"This is a uterus," the woman explained. "It connects to your…."
She kept talking. About halfway through, I noticed I was clinging to poor Tsubaki, whose arm was a deep purple from the pressure I was putting on it.
When it was finally over, I walked out silently, dazed. Information swirled around my head, and I hugged my arms to my chest. I almost bumped into Soul, who was standing with some of the other boys who were waiting for their partners. In a flash, everything I'd learned about boys and what they…. did came rushing back, and I felt the color drain from my face.
"Um, you go on home. I… left my notebook," I squeaked.
"Actually, Mr. Sid said I needed to talk to him after the presentation, so I'm going there. I'll see you home later," he told me.
"All right." Frankly, I was relieved. I didn't really want to be around anyone, particularly anyone male, at the moment. The whole presentation had shed new light on exactly what my father had been doing with those other women that made my mother so angry, and horrifying mental images flew through my head.
At least I didn't have to worry about that with Soul. We weren't romantically involved, so there was no risk of getting hurt by his frolicking with girls that weren't me.
I sighed and looked around the abandoned auditorium. I hadn't actually left my notebook behind.
"Suck it up and go home," I told myself, and sighed again. I'd just confine myself to my room until tomorrow, and I wouldn't have to talk to Soul at all. Class would present an excellent opportunity for non-interaction.
I pushed open the door, and I found myself face-to-face with Mr. Sid.
"Run! Out of the Academy!" He said frantically, ushering me towards a group of students down the hall. "There's a Kishin in the dungeon!"
I sprinted to the others, who were fumbling with the door. By the time they got it open, I had already realized that Soul was not among them.
Of course. He'd gone to homeroom to talk to Mr. Sid.
I turned and ran down the hallway like mad, avoiding large hallways where panicking kids were likely to get in my way.
I passed the kitchens, where I stole a long carving knife. I didn't want to risk being caught by the monster before I found my weapon.
I almost ran past the dance room, which did not have any lights on. But I turned when I heard a crash and a small whimper, and noticed that the door was ajar.
The beast was huge and had tattered clothes. I had no idea how it got in here unnoticed, but anything was possible. Its long black hair hung down past its shoulders, and its arms were tattooed heavily.
And clinging to the wall behind him was a small albino boy with what looked like abnormally long fingernails.
I sprinted across the dance room and jumped up on the creature's back, hooking the knife around its throat. As I was about to draw it through his jugular vein, the monster grabbed my arm and wrenched the knife from my fingers.
I looked at Soul, who was still half-transformed, and made frantic hand motions. He nodded, and one hand shortened to normal length. I kicked my feet off of the monster's tattered shirt and flipped over my hands to land on the ground before him, scythe already in hand. I spun once, flipping the blade around to slice through the torso of the beast.
Loud footsteps echoed through the dance studio as Sid stormed in, dagger drawn.
"Meister Maka! I thought I told you to-" He was cut off as Nygus said something neither of us could hear.
I think that was when he noticed the swirling ball of black ribbons behind me. It solidified and began to glow a bright red. Soul fell out of my hands and stood behind me.
"Well, son? Are you going to do something with that?" Sid asked Soul.
Soul looked uncomfortably at the Kishin egg. He walked over, took it in his hand, and stared at it for about three seconds.
And then he ate it.
"Atta boy." Sid looked at me. "Follow us. Bring your weapon."
The path was long and bright. Crimson arches with blades on them popped up every six-ish feet, and the sky was a clear blue with swirly clouds.
"The guillotine walkway," I whispered to Soul. "If you're secretly a witch, tell us now."
"Um, no, I'm a guy, and I'm not a warlock either," he replied. "But... why?"
"'Cause the blades will fall on you and you'll be a bloody mess in the middle of the floor," I told him.
"Oh. Pleasant." We walked single-file to the end of the path, fidgeting nervously. Why were they making us come to the Death Room?
"Maybe they'll kill us," Soul whispered. "Maybe that's what they do to bad kids. No wonder the food tastes so weird in the cafeteria, it's made out of little meisters, and the iron supplements come from their weapons."
"Oh, shut up," I said. "Lord Death would never do that... I think..." I said, giggling.
"Yeah, maybe he'll eat us," Soul replied, suppressing a grin.
"I'll do what?" came a voice from directly in front of us, making us jump.
"Oh, hello, sir," I said quickly, bowing awkwardly at the... thing before us.
I remembered that I had seen the Grim Reaper before, but only walking through the hallways and such. Sometime I must've been in this room with him here, but I just didn't remember. I had come with Papa a few times several years ago.
"Heya! So, I saw you two defeat that hideous creature." He shook his head a little at the word "hideous." He gestured at the mirror behind him, where a clear view of the fight played. It was really only a few seconds, and was seen through the dance room mirror. I watched as I ran from the door and leaped on the creature's shoulders, and suddenly it was a ball of light and everything was over.
"Now, you know that you are not supposed to be hunting those things, Meister Maka." His eye holes narrowed at me.
"Yes, sir. I was-"
"I know what you were doing. Your weapon was in danger and you eliminated the threat."
"Yes, that's-"
"Let me finish. There is a reason for every rule we have, including the one about untrained students allowing those in charge to deal with threats." The Reaper's face was stern.
"But sir, I spent the last eight years of my life doing nothing but combat training," I argued. Gosh darn it.
"I know, I know. So here's what we're going to do. Right now you come to class at eight, correct?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, I want you to be here at seven."
"Detention?" I sighed. Well, it could be worse.
"Of sorts. You will report to the Crescent Moon lecture hall at seven each morning."
Ugh. "That's the E.A.T. Classroom, right? Why are we going there?" Soul asked, finally speaking up.
"Because I said to, that's why."
The current situation sucked, but I guessed there was nothing to be done. "How long, sir?"
"What?"
"How long will we be coming to the Crescent Moon hall at seven every morning?" Soul huffed, exasperated.
The Reaper put one large finger to his forehead in a "thinking" pose.
"How about... until the two of you kill ninety-eight more Kishins. And a witch."
I skipped down the hall, laughing. I'd restrained myself for a good three minutes, but Sid and Nygus were gone now.
"Why are you so happy?" Soul asked. "We have to wake up at, like, five just to go to school."
"I've always wanted to be in the E.A.T. class. Besides, now we get to do pretty much whatever we want. Legally. Name changing, driving..." I looked at him, confused as to why he wasn't as happy as I was.
"Wait, so does this mean we're not in the N.O.T. class anymore?" He asked.
"Well, yeah."
"So, that means I'm clear? Safe for society?" Now Soul looked worried, and I didn't know why.
"Yeah." I thought this was a good thing, but he was silent after that.
Mama was away on a mission in Europe.
So when I got home, the first thing I did was change out of my N.O.T. Class uniform. Then I called my mother.
Or rather, I was going to. I picked up the phone in my room and was about to dial when I realized Soul was using the other line.
"Hey, Wes." I heard him say.
"Oh, hey, buddy. What's up?"
"Um, am I interrupting something?"
"No, no, just one of our 'family discussions'. I don't think they'll mind if I talk to you."
There was silence for a moment on Soul's end.
"Hey, um, Wes?"
"Yeah?"
"Today I was declared legally competent."
I was about to stop listening, but I didn't when I heard Wes's response.
"That's great, kid. When are you coming home?"
"Well, that's the thing. I... might not."
"What do you mean?"
Soul cleared his throat. "Well, you know how there's two classes at the DWMA?"
"The E.A.T. class for combat and N.O.T. class for normal people who are trying to be declared competent. Yeah, I know."
"They want me to be part of the E.A.T. class, Wes."
There was a pause.
"Ha-ha, that's great. My little bro's great at everything, huh?"
"...".
"But, Soul, don't worry about it. I'm sure if Mom calls she can get them to let you come home."
"No, no, Wes. That's not what I mean."
"Soul..."
"Me and Maka killed a Kishin today. And I... ate its soul. It was weird and I know this is creepy but just listen, K?"
"Yeah?"
"I think I kind of... liked it."
It took me a moment to remember that Soul's family was all-human, and weapons and their tendencies were not too familiar. But Wes took his role as older brother seriously.
"Well, buddy, you've got a choice to make." He didn't sound like he was really trying to push Soul in either direction. He understood who this was about.
Not everyone felt that way, however. A voice was faint from the other end.
"Wes? Who are you talking to?"
"Oh, it's Soul. He says-"
The phone was taken.
"Soul? Honey, are you there?"
"Mother?"
"Soul! It's been so long! Why haven't you called? I told you you had to call at least every week, and instead you just ignore me. Treating your own mother like that, it breaks my heart."
Silence on Soul's end.
"So, what is it? Why did you call?"
"Just wanted to talk to Wes about something."
"What is it? You can tell me."
"Well, today-"
"Have you heard anything about when you can come home?"
"Actually, today I was invited to the combat class. I'm not considered dangerous anymore, apparently."
"Oh, that's wonderful, sweetheart. I'll call right away and tell them we're picking you up this weekend."
"Mother, why don't we wait a little bit? I mean, what if I like the E.A.T. class?"
"Oh, don't be silly. Besides, there's a music festival next week and it would be wonderful if we could do a short performance as a family. You know, it's not a family show without you!"
All of a sudden, Narcissa Evans was acting a whole lot nicer towards her son.
"You want me to come home so I can play in a show?"
There was another long pause.
"Honey, you know I want you back here with me. Now, I don't think that you would like that combat group at all. You're a pianist, Soul, and the piano is your future."
There was a voice in the background that I couldn't quite place. I turned the volume way up so I could hear.
"Who's she talking to?"
"My little brother, Soul," Wes told the woman. "You know..."
"The one they did the tests on? To see if he was actually your dad's son?"
"Yeah."
So it was like that.
"You might want to know that Wes is getting married." Mrs. Evans' voice was so loud since I turned up the phone that I gasped.
"Soul? What was that noise?"
"Uh... I dunno."
"Well, anyways. Emily is a singer, and she'll be your sister-in-law soon."
"Oh, um, cool." Soul sounded downtrodden.
The phone changed hands again.
"Boy!" An old woman this time.
"Granny?"
"You decide to leave this family now? I can't believe this. Kids these days are so selfish sometimes."
"Granny, you're saying that my defending the people of this world is selfish?"
Apparently, the conversation had been put on speaker phone by now because Soul's mother spoke up.
"You will not speak that way to your grandmother!"
"I was merely asking a question, Mother."
"You were being acting smart and you know it! That's it, were picking you tomorrow!" Mrs. Evans screeched.
But Soul spoke calmly and deliberately.
"You can't do that."
"I can and I will. Start packing."
"No, Mother, you can't. Law says so."
"WHAT?!"
Soul took a shaky breath. He sounded like he was excited and terrified at once.
I didn't think he was going to have to pull this card.
"Legally, you have no control over me."
There were a few seconds of silence.
"What are you saying, you little brat? Of course I can take you home whenever you please, I'm your mother."
"Actually, that doesn't mean anything any more. I belong to Maka."
"Excuse me? Who is Maka?"
I heard Soul laugh a little.
"Mother, she is my meister. And when we partnered, several MONTHS ago, I officially became her personal property. So if you want me to come home, you'll have to take it up with her."
"Fine then. Put her on the line."
"No."
"No?"
"I won't let you. Because I want to stay here, Mother. I don't want to play at your stupid little shows any more. I don't want to wear suits and ties and smile at cameras. So no, I'm not putting Maka on the line."
I heard Mrs. Evans' voice waver, the first time in this whole conversation I'd heard a sign that the boy she was talking to was her son, not some house plant.
"Soul, no one in the Evans family has ever been a Shibusen weapon before."
"Then I guess I'm no longer part of the Evans family."
Click.
I heard the phone being hung up, and so I quickly hung up my end too.
Footsteps came down the hallway, and suddenly my door opened. I tried to look like I had been doing something productive.
"Hey," Soul greeted. "Let's go." He motioned me out of the room.
"Where are we going?"
"I think we have to register to be officially part of the E.A.T. class, and there's something I want to do when we get there."
We were walking down the street towards the school. I'd changed out of my N.O.T. class uniform as soon as we'd gotten home, into a short red skirt. I was glad to no have to wear the leggings anymore, but the wind was forcing me to hold down the skirt constantly.
"Soul, you didn't happen to bring a jacket, did you?" I begged.
"No, sorry, why? It's not cold."
"I would've tied it around my waist. This is getting ridiculous." I tried tugging down the waistline, but I just untucked my undershirt.
This wasn't going to work. Girls could wear skirts, dress pants, or jeans, and I only liked cargo or sweat pants. Skirts and dresses were the only option.
I sighed. "I need something like that," I said, pointing to a shop window, where a black greatcoat was on display. It could totally weigh down my skirt.
"A trenchcoat? For flashing people?" Soul snorted.
I giggled despite myself, but whacked him upside the head anyway.
"Detour," I told him, and dragged him inside the store.
They were on sale.
Apparently, women didn't like looking like they were about to flash people. So the shop wanted rid of them.
Papa was tall, but Mama wasn't, and it was unlikely I'd ever grow to be more than 5'3". So I took out every single one of the remaining coats they had that were medium or smaller. I needed a lifetime supply.
There were seventeen of them.
"Sheesh, do you really need that many?" Soul asked, trying to find me under the giant pile of black fabric I was carrying.
"We're witch hunters now, Soul, they'll probably get torn up fairly quickly," I told him, voice muffled.
"Is this about that guy in the long jacket you were watching on TV? The red coat, and he kept clapping his hands?" Soul accused.
"No, no. I'm not trying to resemble some fictional character," I replied, rolling my eyes.
"Good. That anime stuff will rot your brain, you know."
I shook my head. Some people just didn't know what was good for them.
The lone shop worker ran up to me and took my load, obviously not realizing I was perfectly capable of carrying it on my own.
I pulled out a credit card from my bag and handed it to the worker. She looked at me a moment, unsure if selling a bunch of high-quality clothing to a ten-year-old was all right.
Then she saw the card.
"Just a moment," she said. "You're not Spirit Albarn."
"Nope, he's my dad." I smiled at her sweetly. "He and Mama told me to buy whatever I needed for school with that, and I need clothes. So."
I smiled more forcefully.
The woman looked shocked. "What is your name?"
"Maka. Maka Albarn."
"Where is your mother?"
"Um. Probably at home with Papa?" I said, not thinking at all about stranger danger. Like a genius.
"So... Spirit Albarn has a wife?" The shop lady asked.
Oh.
"You're one of those, huh?" I questioned, and she got my meaning from my expression.
"Maka, honey, you realize that this pile will cost your father a lot of money?" She looked concerned. A little.
"Oh yeah. That is A-O-good." She understood that we both felt about the same right now.
"Come to think of it, I don't think these are on sale after all." She showed me the new total.
"Oh, no. Look how much money these jackets cost. Oh well." I deadpanned.
The lady grinned at me.
I saw Soul inspecting a piece of clothing in the corner. I flagged him down.
"I think... I think I can alter this," he said, showing me what was apparently two different jackets, one plain yellow and one black, both frayed. "I can take the sleeves from the yellow and the torso from the black and then sew in some cool designs to cover up the damage."
So the kid grows up in a family where image is everything, and suddenly we have a tailor.
I dumped both onto the pile, peeling off the clearance sticker.
I smiled at the nice lady as she gave me back Papa's card.
As we were leaving, Soul looked at me quizzically. "What was that all about?"
"I'll tell you later."
We ran back home and dumped our loads in the living room, only to run back out again so that we could make it to the DWMA before closing.
"We need two E.A.T. class registration forms, please," I told the old lady that worked behind the desk. This was also where we would be getting mission assignments from now on. I had to restrain myself from jumping up and down.
"Um, this is the form we use for name changing, right?" Soul asked the woman, holding up a piece of paper.
"Yes, Mr. Evans. Or, rather... Oh well, I'll see the form in a minute." She winked at him.
We headed over to the tables that had been set up to fill out the paperwork.
"So. Name change?" I asked. Students were allowed to change their name once they entered the school, changed classes, or graduated.
"Yeah. Um. My family is kindof... well..." Soul began. He looked down. "They're not exactly 'cool' with weapons. So, I'm leaving the family."
And that was it.
Awkward. "So... what's your name now, then?" I asked, a little excited. None of my friends had ever changed their name before.
"Um..." Soul sputtered, drawing a blank. He scratched the back of this head. "I dunno. Soul is fine, Evans... isn't."
"Do you want to keep your initials?" I asked, trying to inspire... something.
"Don't really care. I want a name that is cool, and means something, but I dunno what to do, exactly."
"Means something... like what?"
"Uh. Could have to do with my weapon-ness?" Soul said, raising his eyebrows. We weren't getting anywhere. "Is there a name that's famous, scythe-wise?"
"Other than Albarn? No. And I don't think you want my last name."
"Not really. No offense, but then I'd have one more thing in common with your creepy dad."
"None taken." We stared off into the sky for a minute, trying to come up with anything.
That's when Kim showed up.
"What are you doing?" She asked us with a scowl, long pink hair blowing.
"Trying to come up with a new name for Soul," I told her.
She peered at the paper. "What do you have so far?"
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Keeping first name, changing last. And he says he wants it to be cool," I relayed.
She looked at Soul blankly. "Your name is Soul Evans, you want to change your name, and you can't come up with anything?"
We shook our heads.
"All right. I'll give you a name," she said. "But you've gotta pay me thirty bucks."
Soul hesitated a moment. "Fine."
She took the pen and scribbled something on the page before handing it back to him. He burst out laughing and reached for his wallet. He stuffed a wad of bills into her hands. She looked a bit taken aback that someone actually paid her that easily for once.
"Wait, let me see," I protested, feeling left out.
Soul handed me the paper and upon reading the name written there I began giggling hysterically.
"That's great," I said. "Soul Eater."
I tried to replicate my lessons at school as much as possible. Yes, I did see the video described, but I also saw a different one, called "Dr. D's Birds and Bees". That one was the shockingly explicit counterpart of the one described here, and literally made my classmates scream. That was the inspiration for this video.
And yes, I'm pretty sure Soul can sew. It would make sense, he had to have made his headband, and I could've sworn I've seen something saying that was the case.
I'm so glad to be done with this chapter. It took me forever, but I can finally get on to the next one. We're going back to Soul's perspective, thankfully. I love love love writing for Soul. He's by far my favorite person to poke around in the head of.