I do not intend to garner any revenues from the usage of either the Bleach or Soul Eater Characters
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Shinigami Chronicles
Act 1: Hollow Eater
Chapter 3: Into The Dark
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Maka watched the sun set in the west from the window of her and Soul's Death City apartment. Despite her efforts to take her mind off of the situation, her thoughts wouldn't leave the dreams and her state of sanity alone. She'd found herself speaking to Soul on the matter once more. Her troubled emerald eyes were rather serious as she turned her gaze to Soul who was lazily sprawled across a sofa just beneath the window sill.
"Are you sure?" Maka asked incredulously "You're not having weird dreams or are you just not telling me?"
Soul sighed, leaning his head back on the armrest of the sofa. "No 'Mama Maka' I'm not having strange dreams." He lifted his head just enough to put his hands underneath it. "Besides, they weren't dreams. More like out of body experiences. Red always had a knack for interrupting me at the worst times." He crossed his legs, lounging to stretch his back out. "I thought we'd agreed this wasn't anything to worry about. At least not now after that whole Asura thing."
Maka, leaning on the sill of a large window that lay just behind the sofa, left her perch just long enough to cross her arms and resume gazing at the reds and oranges that comprised this day's sunset.
"Well, yes" Maka replied frowning. "I'd wanted to focus on other matters."
"But?"
"…I had the dream again."
"The same one you had the night after Asura's release?"
"The same." Maka replied with introspective eyes. "Three times in the same week." She shook her head "I don't know why, but it feels like it's going to happen again tonight."
"So you'll have a nightmare." Soul said with a shrug. "You'll lose a couple 'Z's' and be okay in the morning." Soul smiled. "I mean, I know your chest's underdeveloped, but you're not a kid Maka."
This comment received prompt retribution as Maka executed her patented "Maka Chop" slamming Soul's forehead with the spine of an unabridged version of The Caine Mutiny. It was a dry dark sailor's novel, but the captain's teetering sanity kept the story somewhat interesting. Incidentally, Maka hadn't made much progress with the book in recent weeks.
"Regardless of how developed I am, Soul, you know as well as I do the possible implications here."
Soul rolled his eyes. "Maka, you're not going insane." He sat up and rapped a knuckle on her head. "You've probably got the most steel plated mind of any of us. I mean, you played psychoanalyst for Chrona in the middle of a fight for crying out loud." He grinned "If anyone's got to worry, it's me."
Maka gave her partner an incredulous stare. Soul chuckled "I've got to work with you when you're distracted by this stuff. I mean, that's less Maka Chops sure, but come on. You're my meister Maka. If you're not on your game, I'm not on mine."
"I know that, Soul" Maka said as she moved Soul's legs off the sofa and took a seat. This garnered no visible reaction from Soul, who, if anything was slightly amused by it. Maka was generally a polite person, but where Soul was involved she was more… direct. A fact that Soul didn't mind so much. After all it was just for him and those close to her. That made it kinda special in its own way. Made him feel special.
Maka clasped her hands in her lap as she let her back fall to the sofa. "I know. If I'm going to be of any use in the coming months I'll need to be able to exercise both body and mind at their fullest." She cast a sidelong glance at Soul "And that's exactly what this is about."
Soul didn't give an immediate reply to this statement, instead grabbing the inside of his mouth with his index finger. It was a habit he'd developed to curb his appetite for souls as a demon weapon. These days the cravings were mild at worst. Easily bested by Maka's "Makaness". However, even with the act no longer having any real use anymore it had turned out to be a hard habit to drop. He tugged at the inside of his cheek introspectively, eventually releasing it as he said "You're really worried about this, huh?"
"Yeah" Maka unclasped her hands "Because I don't know what this is. And it feels like I should."
"Hey, things like this aren't easy to figure out. I bet even Kid'd have troubles with a dream as vague as yours. Don't knock yourself for having a hard time with it."
"Did you Soul?"
"Did I what?"
"Have a hard time figuring out the goblin?"
Soul fidgeted slightly "Well, yeah. I still don't know what the guy wanted. He knew what I wanted though. Might've known it better than I did." Soul sat up, taking a more traditional position on the sofa. "You think that's what this is?" Soul began to tug at the inside of his cheek again only to release it rather quickly. "I don't know Maka. There's no one else in the dream. Unless something in a recent one…?"
Maka shook her head "No, just the darkness and the wind. But it feels like I should know that forest from somewhere."
"Then I guess there's only one way to figure this out." Soul smirked. "Dream some more. If it is something to worry about, then we'll know before too long."
Maka frowned "By then it might be too late."
"Not as long as you've got me it won't." Soul said as he jabbed Maka's shoulder "It'd be uncool if I couldn't get you out of a mess like that."
Maka smiled warmly as she stood. "Thanks Soul."
Soul watched as she made her way up the stairwell to her room. "No problem."
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"So let me get this straight." Ichigo asked with a dark expression on his visage, "Instead of destroying this 'prehollow material' that's somewhere in this city, you want me to put the reigns on it?"
The old shinigami regarded his dead friend from one side of a hardwood table. Ichigo's posture was somewhat relaxed as he sat back in his chair arms propped up behind his head. Sid took a more rigid position, sitting up and crossing his arms as he eyed the orange haired swordsman.
Sid nodded "That about sums it up."
"So I'm guessing you couldn't find anyone else for the job" Ichigo frowned "I'm more of a fighter than a teacher you know."
Sid shrugged, arms still crossed "That may be the case, but you're the only one left with hands on experience in this area. So you're going to have to do it."
Ichigo sighed "I guess it's better than what I thought you'd brought me in here for." He allowed himself a small chuckle, leaning forward to put his hands on the table. "Thought it was gonna be 'search and destroy' or something like that."
"It may come to that." Sid replied.
"Yeah." Ichigo said soberly "I know."
"And if it does." Sid continued in a serious tone "Will you be able to take the necessary measures?"
Ichigo frowned, sitting up straight. "You mean kill it?"
"If that's what needs to be done." Sid answered tonelessly. "Then yes."
There was a short pause before Ichigo nodded "Yeah I can do that."
Sid's eyes narrowed. "If I were to tell you that the subjects in question have yet to breach adulthood, would you still be willing?"
Ichigo scowled biting the inside of his cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, bringing a hand to his forehead in thought. A long silence followed as Sid waited for Ichigo's answer.
The seconds passed like eons as the orange-haired swordsman considered the question. A younger him would've been quicker to answer. But a younger him didn't have the experience of almost killing his own comrades on multiple occasions. It was for this reason that he'd allowed himself to be incarcerated and for this reason that he settled upon his answer. He let his hand fall to the table, unveiling a dark staid expression.
"Yes." Ichigo said "If the training doesn't work I'll kill the student myself. That's how Urahara would've done it. And that's how I'm going to do it."
Sid nodded. "Ah, Urahara. You've mentioned him a couple times."
"Yeah. My first true teacher." Ichigo said with a slight air of nostalgia "His methods were harsh, and I almost died several times during his training. But he was probably the best teacher I ever had, next to Yoruichi. Urahara made it very clear that he knew what I could become. That he knew what could happen if I did. He was always ready with my last rites even though I was his proverbial student."
Sid frowned. "You think you can be that cold?"
Ichigo shook his head "No one could ever reach that man's level of sub-zero. I don't think I'll be the first to do it either. But I can try to follow his example. Besides" Ichigo said as he opened his eyes, revealing the darkness of their resolve. "If this fails, it won't be a kid that I'm killing."
Sid gave a solemn nod "That's the way."
"So, who am I training?" Ichigo asked, sitting back in his chair.
Sid's stance became less rigid "You'll know soon enough."
Ichigo rolled his eyes at the statement. "Oh, now you get cagey on me."
"Don't worry Ichigo." Sid said with a grin "You'll know exactly who they are when we run them through the extra curricular analysis."
Ichigo cocked an eyebrow at the statement. "Extra what?"
Sid chuckled "You'll see."
As Sid and Ichigo concluded their meeting and made their way out of the building, a pair of curious amethyst eyes watched the men intently. "Nyah" Blair murmured from her hiding place in the shadows beneath a storage drawer at the far side of the room. "Mr. orange-hair sounds like an interesting one." She purred, her curiosity thoroughly peaked. "He should be fun to play with."
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Maka frowned as she lay her head down to sleep. Even before she closed her eyes she knew it was going to happen. She could feel it. So it came as no surprise to her when she returned to the moonlit forest after slipping into a deep sleep.
It was the same as before. The leaf barren trees still reached towards the starlit heavens, locked in a writhing static struggle. Their weaving bark encrusted tendrils still cast their winding shadows across the leaf covered ground. And the air was dead still, as it had been before.
Maka's eye's narrowed as she drew her emerald gaze across the landscape. Nothing had changed, but something seemed out of place. The shadows were a bit too well defined. As though they were under the effects of a flood light or something.
Then she realized it. The moon wasn't smiling. Under normal circumstances, regardless of the situation, the moon always smiled, though on particularly grisly occasions it would bleed though it's crazed grin. Some said that that wild and vaguely brutal smile spoke volumes of the nature of the night. Of the unseen movements, and dangers that lurked under the cloak of darkness. Of threats only concealed by one's willingness to look away and forget. Yet, no matter how much one believed, that such things didn't exist, they and the moon would still be there, grinning madly.
This night's moon, however, had no such expression. Indeed it hadn't the capacity to do so for it had no face. Stranger still was its shape. Not a crescent as she'd grown accustomed to, but a full white glowing orb was what hung in the star speckled blackness above. It was brighter for its lack of a face, but the impassiveness of this moon was almost unnerving. Its emotionless light gave the night an oddly lifeless glow, as though the entire world had become ghostly and undead.
Suddenly the wind began blow, lightly billowing the leaves on the forest's floor. Maka watched the leaves warily as they gently swirled about her, lilting listlessly in the air. Their wandering waltz hastened as the wind accelerated, sweeping the languid fronds into a windswept ballet.
A part of her wanted to absorb this dance. To drink it in. It was strangely soothing. Welcoming. Calming. And yet…
The young meister took a ready stance, steeling her resolve as she once more swept her gaze across the forest. Moonlight glanced off the dancing leaves, ever briefly illuminating the shadows that stretched into the woods beyond. Anything that could sway her emotions that much was dangerous. She had to be careful not to let her guard down.
It was like Stein had said in one of his classes regarding mental combat: "If you find yourself in paradise, then you've already lost, for the cunning foe fights with neither blade nor gun. No, he fights with whatever you fear least or love most."
Then she saw it. Something glinting ever so briefly in the glancing moonlight. But as she moved to approach it, the wind suddenly stopped, returning the leaves to the ground from whence they came. A great darkness stretched forth from the woods ahead of her, expanding and engulfing tree after tree in a slow progression.
Maka, however, was undaunted by the approaching darkness, striding forth into its endless confines. Even as the remainder of the forest disappeared into its infinite embrace, leaving nothing for the moon above to cast its light upon, she continued forward, alert, and wary of ambush. Then something hard and cold brushed against her hand. Instinctively she grasped it.
As soon as she did so the moon was instantly consumed by the insatiate darkness. Once again bleak nothingness reigned supreme. And once again, that all consuming nothingness devoured her.
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More to come…
Was it enjoyable? Or perhaps not? Either way, inquiring minds want to know
Trying out the cross-over section as the location for this story. Let me know if where you would prefer it to be.
A special thanks to Zaru for the original idea, and acting as a consultant for the plot.
And also to readers like you.
