Training Days
by. Lacrow
Chapter 3
Awkward Questions, Unspoken Confessions, and A Demon that Just Won't Quit
"Very interesting," Stein muttered, taking a puff from his second cigarette as he watched the action unfold from their far off observation area. "They certainly are getting into it. Very entertaining as well, wouldn't you agree Marie?"
The blonde haired teacher didn't so much as turn her head towards the professor. Only giving him a semi-glare from the corner of her eyes, she responded very flatly, "No."
"Don't be such a stick in the mud, Marie." Spirit interjected, his legs criss-crossed like a kinder gardener as he sat on the hot baked earth.
"Oh, I'm sorry Spirit!" Marie hissed, hands on her hips as she focused the full force of her mother-like wrath towards her associate. "Excuse me for worrying about the well being of my students! Especially when I'm over here with two morons who have no sense of morality, witnessing one of them stabbed through the back with a giant freaking sword coming out the other one's hands, and not doing anything about it! So please, excuse me!"
"Now now Marie," Stein eased, putting his hand on her shoulder, his eyes still glued to the fight. "There's nothing to worry about. If I had felt that any of their lives were threatened at any point during this fight, I would have ended it myself. You simply have to trust me on this."
Marie calmed for a moment as she looked at the hand on her shoulder, then at the man who it belonged to. As if going against her better judgement, she felt like she could trust Stein. They had been through a lot together, and she figured that the least she could do was to put her faith in him. He may be morbid, and somewhat anti-social, but he wasn't going to allow innocent people to be killed, least of all the students who looked up to him like a father. So, again conceding, she set aside her angry thoughts and trusted in her fellow teacher.
"Yeah Marie!" Spirit suddenly barked, interrupting her private contemplation and sending her back into an angry simmer. "Listen to Stein on this one! You women really need to learn how to-"
Stein sighed to himself as he heard Spirit's words muffled, presumably by a heel to the face, at least according to the frightening silence of his fellow teacher and the incessant plea's of Spirit for her to stop stomping on his face. Instead of worrying about those two, the professor kept most of his attention at the three students that were so far off. The white headed one with the red stains on his back, that was Soul. The one closest to being near Stein himself was Maka. And the one with half his arm replaced with a sword was obviously Leon Camp. His brows raised a bit as he saw the white headed one get up on his feet and transform his left arm into an intimidating looking scythe. Stein smiled a bit.
"The boy takes a sword to the back and keeps on going. I wonder what drives him to do such a thing."
"Isn't it obvious?"
Stein broke his gaze for a moment and looked to his left. Ms. Marie walked toward him, dusting herself off as she left a beaten and mangled Death-Scythe in the dirt for the buzzards to feed on.
"I would say fear has something to do with it." he answered back casually, blowing smoke through his nose as he took his cigarette between his fingers.
"Mm. The question is, fear of what, Stein?" she verbally parried, approaching him with her hands behind her back.
"Death, I'd assume. That's the most logical choice, considering that, as you said, he just took a 'giant freaking sword' in the back." Stein smirked, his left hand stuffed within his coat pocket.
Marie sighed, her left arm supporting the right one as her palm came to her cheek. "Honestly, Franken Stein. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that this entire mess was started because of a little blonde girl in pig-tails?"
Stein's brow rose. "Are you implying that Soul has the hots for Maka?"
Marie's face faintly blushed in surprise. "I didn't think you'd be all that frank about it but...yes, I am."
"WAIT!" Spirit suddenly jumped up from his spot, bruises and blood stains still visible on his face. "WHAT ARE YOU SAYING! THAT MY MAKA'S BEEN LIVING WITH A PERVERT FOR THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS?"
"And that's different if she were to have lived with you, how?" Marie grumbled, her hand to Spirit's face as he tried to get at her and shake her, the entire time begging 'Say it ain't so! Say it ain't so!'.
"Well," Stein started again nonchalantly, ignoring Spirit as always and redirecting his attention back on the fight. "That certainly does explain why Soul was so quick to jump to conflict."
"Of course it is!" Marie beamed, briskly brushing off Spirit and allowing him to tumble over himself and fall back down. "It only makes sense after all."
"True." Stein added, taking one last suck of his smoke, savoring the last bit before tossing the second butt to the ground. "I suppose the fact that they live together had something to do with it as well."
Ms. Marie put her hand on Stein's shoulder, still on her high of being told she was right, which she apparently didn't experience often considering she spent most of her time around a genius professor. "Obviously, Franken. There's no way that two individuals could live together for so long and not have feelings for each other."
"Agreed."
A minute came and went, and after it had passed, not much had changed. Spirit was still crying over the imaginary loss of his daughter's purity. Marie still beamed and had her hand on Stein's shoulder. And the good professor continued his observation of the three students. One thing, however, did change. A fleeting thought, to be specific. And because of that fleeting thought, and the person who thought of it's thirst for knowledge, it became virtually impossible for him to concentrate until he had at least asked the question to get it out of his mind.
"Marie?"
"Yes, Stein?"
"How long have we lived together?"
Across the field...
"You sure you want to do this?" Leon called out warily, blade already cocked in a stabbing position right next to him.
"Yeah." Soul replied calmly, waving his left arm is if testing it. The pain in his right was still excruciating, but he bared through it. "I'm sure."
Leon shook his head yet again and closed his eyes. "You know I won't hold back."
Soul looked towards Maka. "I know you won't."
Maka looked back at back at him and returned his longing expression. It was as if he was silently asking for her permission to carry on with the battle and, more importantly, whether or not she wanted him to keep fighting for her. Her heart swelled at the realization of her being back in his thoughts, but then she quickly berated herself in her mind for thinking that she wasn't in the first place.
He's been fighting to be my partner this entire time, and the only thing I've done is stand around and become useless baggage...Soul, I hope after all this is done, you'll forgive me.
She was tired of being the silent girl on the side lines, the one who cried whenever the boy fighting was hurt. She knew that it was their battle and neither of them wanted her to intervene, but she promised herself that after all that had just happened, she was going to be a dam better meister to her weapon when the smoke cleared and the dust settled.
With a look of confirmation and a smile on her face, she decided that the two of them would make an unspoken pact then and there to start the match all over again. This time, they would give it their all, and wouldn't complain about their responsibilities; Soul, to be the best fighter he could be at the moment. And Maka, to support him until he could go no further, and push him even farther than that.
"Listen here, 'Mr. Death-Scythe'!" she shouted, her chest puffing up in that confidence that Soul had always admired her for, but hadn't been present in the past half hour as he fought. "I don't care what the outcome of this match is! When you're finished, you're coming home and doing your chores! And I still expect you to work on your punishment for not listening to me, plus extra for getting hurt so easily!"
Soul smiled weakly and nodded, her words signaling that she still wanted him. "You got it."
"But!... before that...!"
His weak smile quickly turned into a confused frown, face twisting as he tried to figure out why all of a sudden he saw Maka's lip begin to quiver, and her eyes get very red and puffy like they had when he was stabbed a few minutes before. Her expression and tone had just pulled a 180 degrees in two seconds flat, and he had no idea what to do about it. A single tear strung down her face, and the sight of it made his heart sink. Was she actually pissed off at him? Wasn't it all just innocent banter? Was she crying because of him? What did he do!
"W-what? What is it?" he asked immediately, not wanting to make her any more upset than she already was. "If you need me to do something, I'll do it Maka! I'll clean up the house and-"
"-I'm going to take care of you!" she chirped shakily, not looking directly at her partner's face for fear that he'd see her in her weakened state.
Soul, at a loss for words, merely watched. He was dumbfounded by what he saw; a blushing, inarticulate Maka, hands grasping the other behind her back. If someone had told him just an hour before about the sight he'd see, Soul would have laughed in their face. But there he was, watching her eyes shift to the side, not daring to look at his. It almost made him want to smile, but the thought just didn't register with his lips. Instead, he just stood there, arm still frozen in the air, words unable to make it to his mouth as Maka went on with her list of promises.
"I'll cook you Italian for dinner because I know it's your favorite, you said so after we went out to eat our first night living together!..."
Why would she do that? And why is she so emotional anyway?
"...And I'll dress your wounds for you, so you don't have to have Nygus do it every day because I know that her bandages freak you out!..."
Wait a minute, she feels bad about me being hurt...
"...And I'll even write out your homework if you want me to, but I won't do the work for you because no matter how hurt you are I'll never let you cheat!..."
...She'd really do that for me?
"And then I'll-"
"-Maka?"
She broke her near rant as she finally returned the gaze of her partner's, his voice snapping her out of her loop. The obvious hue of scarlet still hung deeply in her cheeks though, and with her eyes still red and puffy, she bit down on her lip to keep it from quivering and making her look completely pathetic. "Yes?"
Soul focused on the ground, head ducked in just a way where she could barely see his face. "I think there's some things we need to talk about."
Maka swallowed, a painful knot forming in the back of her throat. Her heart sank in speculation at his words, thoughts flying through her head as she looked at him, his downward turned eyes making her feel as though she had just ruined their relationship. Her chest fluttered. "Soul, please don't-"
"-But we'll talk about them back at the apartment."
His eyes suddenly upturned as he grasped for the hair on the back of his head, a cool smiled directed at his meister. "Preferably over Italian?"
It took a moment for her to register what his reply had meant, but as she looked into those deep, red eyes that calmly peered into hers, she slowly understood. Taking her hand, she wiped any trace of tears from her face. A quick sniffle to make her look presentable, and soon she was smiling back at him, green eyes graceful even though slightly singed with red.
She nodded softly. "We can go out to eat, if you want."
"No thanks," Soul replied, head slowly turning anyway from her as he brought his arm back out to the side. "I prefer your crappy cooking anyways."
"You're such an ass." she said with a smile, echoing her thoughts a half hour before.
"Like I said," he added in a hushed tone, hiding one last grin from her as his eyes narrowed at his opponent. "We'll talk about it later."
(*)
From across the field, Leon had waited patiently, albeit it with a certain twinge of jealousy. He had heard Maka's ramblings, and he made out a few of Soul's replies, but he knew exactly what was going on all the same. He could've interrupted them. Could've stopped them mid heartfelt moment and made Soul Eater continue to fight until the winner was decided. But, he reasoned, that wouldn't have been fair to Maka. No, he decided that he would let them spill their guts out. Then, he would wait for the right time to strike, and after all was said and done, he would do things fair and square and win his right to be with her...
"I'm ready, Leon!"
...and that time had finally come. Leon focused his attention down field, Soul's outward stance catching his eye as it mimicked his own. Not wasting any time however, the Demon Pata gave a confirming nod, and watched as Soul Eater did the same. Then, as everyone expected, he disappeared in a flash. This time, however, Soul Eater Evans was ready for him, and he knew exactly what to expect.
He said last time that things would get harder, then he popped up right behind me...
Fist clenched, Soul threw a look over his shoulder, catching only the the brown of the desert sand and the scenic view of the mountains far away. Then, like a fish jumping into the fisherman's net, Leon suddenly appeared in the exact spot Soul was looking at. He grinned wildly as the image of Leon materialized right in front of him, the Pata's stunned eyes revealing his complete shock.
"You're so predictable!" Soul roared, swinging his sickle at the opponent as he spun around to greet him.
The blade came close. Very close. But slowed down by his cumbersome right arm, Soul's attack met only thin air as Leon disappeared with his speed, his razor teeth clenched together in anger as he quickly realized that he had just become open to a counter attack. The air rushed passed him, alerting him to movement on his left side. He knew that Leon was coming again, but his heavy wounds kept him from reacting fast enough. Soul was powerless as yet again his opponent appeared behind him, blade ready to slash along his open back.
As the weapon came at him, adrenaline suddenly kicked in. Instinct took over as Soul let his mind go numb, body becoming tense on it's own as if knowing exactly what to do without him. Steel inches away from his flesh, three scythes immediately sprouted from his back to greet it, the blades curved upward in a way reminiscent of Spirit's own abilities.
With no time to correct himself, Leon could only watch as the momentum he had guided him towards the mess of blades, his own blade bouncing off them as if made of rubber. The rebound caused him to take a few steps back, the surprise of Soul's unknown defenses causing him to recoil and sputter.
"Not this time." Soul stated dryly, already spinning around to seize the opportunity.
The pain on his right side burned in the deepest parts of his being, but he wasn't going to let it hinder him, not while he finally had the chance to fight back. Swallowing as his pupils dilated and pain shot up his back, he flung himself around to face the coward. His leg twitched for a brief moment, and a second later it was in the air as he spun. Leon watched, wide eyed, as Soul's heel side swiped at his face, crashing into his head and sending him careening towards the ground.
A plume of sand shot up as Leon flew into the ground, a cloud of dirt and dust surrounding Soul and Maka as the former waited for his rival to get up.
"I can't see a dam thing!" Soul muttered, arm in front of him as to shield him from the debris.
"Soul, don't let your guard down!" Maka called out from somewhere, her location completely unknown thanks to the cover the sand provided. "He won't go down that easily!"
"Tch, I know that!" he hissed back to nowhere, now coughing slightly as the tiny particles filled his lungs. "Now where did he g-"
"Right in front of you!"
Soul watched with huge eyes as the unmistakable sight of a fist came quickly towards him from the dark of the cloud, the image of Leon appearing right after. Caught off guard, Soul could do nothing as it and his face connected, the force sending him reeling and causing the scythes on his body to disappear in instantaneous glows. He instinctively tried to grab his face with his right arm but he forgot about his wound, and soon he was experiencing the pain all over again. Paralyzed in his condition, Soul endured yet another punch to his face as he stood there, blood spurting from his nose as he tried to at least remain standing.
Leon's eyes flared as he continued to throw punches with his left. "You wanted a fight Evans, you're gonna get a fight!"
Another punch, and another, and another. Leon continually pummeling Soul at every angle as the latter tried desperately to regain control within his own body, and deal with the barrage of attacks coming from outside it. The hits weren't all that strong, but the sheer amount caused the young death-scythe to reel from the force they produced. Finally when one punch hit him square in the stomach, Soul had had enough. The pain in his back and chest now paled in comparison to the hits he was sustaining from remaining motionless, and he figured that in a twisted sort of way, he would use it to his advantage.
Using his right arm, he surprised Leon by grabbing his fist as it came his way. He couldn't feel the pain anymore. Not in his wounds, not anywhere. His body had become numb, and with it came a freedom that hadn't been accessible to him until that point. Soul could fight on without caring if he was hurt, he could give it his all. There would probably be consequences later, but at that moment, he didn't care. The only thing he did care about was winning, at all costs.
"I'm tired of your fuckin' games, Leon." Soul deathly growled as he pulled him closer, Leon's eyes wide as their fists shook for dominance. "You can't break me."
"How are you moving that arm!" The Pata hissed, pushing Soul back with his weight.
"You wanna know how?"
Using his own pushing force against him, Soul pulled with all his might and brought Leon bending over himself. A quick knee from Soul into his stomach forced the dark skinned boy to cough up and heave.
Soul's dark eyes leered over him. "I just stopped giving a fuck."
The death-scythe brought up his knee to hit him again in the gut, but it was briskly pushed away by Leon, with his right hand. He looked up at him, a pained sneer dug deep into his face.
"Guess I'll just have to do the same!"
"Why won't you just-!"
A well concealed punch came out of nowhere, uppercutting Soul square in the jaw and effectively ending his statement. He hadn't seen Leon make a motion, but then again he'd become accustomed to that. Still, with the speed the punch had, it caught him off guard long enough for Leon to straighten back out and bring his fists up in front of him. Soul quickly recovered however, and after spitting and moving his jaw around a bit, he did the same.
Soul licked the inside of his mouth, a gash clearly visible. "Cheap shot."
Leon stiffened. "It's called fighting smart!"
"Don't give me that bullshit, Leon!" he responded, teeth bared like a dog defending his territory. "Like I said, I'm sick of your games!"
The dust started to settle, and the image of the two became clear against the backdrop of the bright blue sky. The blood on their faces seemed to glow maroon as their faces soon reflected the warm shine of the sun. Every scrape and scratch was accentuated, every wound exposed. The pair was too involved in their focus to notice these things, but Maka, who couldn't see them because of the sand, certainly did.
Looking over Leon, she noticed very little wrong with him. A puffy right cheek, his already mangled arm (which apparently wasn't so mangled since he was now using it again) and some minor cuts and bumps was all that marred him. Soul, however, was a different story entirely. The open wound that went straight through his back, a bleeding nose, bruises and indentations all over his body, and now a bleeding mouth (a product of his sharp teeth being jammed by an uppercut) all revealed themselves to her. It was sickening to realize the extent of his injuries, but she did not become sick with grief herself. That void of emotion was filled instead with anger.
She had heard their entire conversation even if she couldn't see them, and she knew that Leon was fighting dirty. She glared at Leon from her spot, twenty something feet away from them. The growing fire that swelled inside her was in stark contrast to the pity and wallow that she had felt earlier in the fight, her mind decidedly fixated on focusing on her partner's wellbeing, Soul's safety. Fingers curling into fists, and her head held firm, she made one last silent promise to herself before letting them return to the fight.
Soul, if you don't beat this guy soon, I'm going to jump in and take him out myself!
"Well then let's get serious, Soul Eater!"
Leon's words snapped her out of her thoughts, bringing her senses back just quick enough to catch the two fighters at it again. Talking was over. The battle had picked back up.
The clash and clangs of metal filled the air as Soul and Leon began slashing at each other with newly sprouted blades, both parrying the other's attacks in a complicated whirlwind of silver and black. Soul dodged as a thrust came at his head; Leon, as a counter attack came towards his stomach. Both refused to let up as the battle heated up, their motions becoming more and more fierce as time progressed.
Sounds of fabric snaring and ripping became more and more common as the attacks became faster, more precise, focused. There was little room for error, and with only milliseconds to dodge the thrusts and slashes the duo's clothes started to become punctured with holes and cuts as they stayed too long in one spot, too slow to follow the quick movements of their bodies. Thoughts were non-existent, pure reflex being the only thing fueling their almost supernatural response times.
Then without warning, Soul's foot slipped. It was sudden, probably due to the sand, and neither of them expected it, but Leon wasted no time with his small window of opportunity. As the white headed one fell, the black haired one grasped his jacket, effectively keeping him from falling while at the same time trapping him in place. With little space between them and no room to swing his blade, Leon brought his knee up and pegged Soul in the gut, causing the scythe to lurch and let the blood drop from the gash in his mouth.
"That's for earlier!" Leon grunted, letting go of his jacket.
Soul stayed motionless, arms folded across his stomach, trying to recover from the addling effects of Leon's attack. His whole self hunched over, the only thing he could do was lift his head up as the image of Leon jumping over him came to his attention. Soul gawked at the sight, his mouth agape as the boy came inches from his face, his body curling over itself as if he were a tumbling gymnast.
Then without warning, Soul's spine shook as the feeling of Leon's hand grabbing the roof of his mouth became sickeningly apparent. The fingers curled until they forcefully held onto his front teeth, Leon's flesh being punctured by the razor incisors, though he didn't seem to care. Instead, Leon focused as the came back to the ground, his momentum and force of his muscles causing Soul to curl backwards into the air. The position was awkward and Soul had no idea what to do, leaving him to follow through with the motion. He flipped through the air, his heart pounding and mind racing as to what Leon was planning. The Demon Pata landed on his feet; the death-scythe on his stomach.
As Maka's partner grabbed at the dirt and sand to try and regain his bearings, she watched without breath as Leon walked towards him, his arm again changing back into a blade. The earth underneath his feet soon turned to flesh as Soul was trampled by Leon's converse, the former letting out a blood curdling scream as his heels dug into his open wound.
"Leon, stop it!" Maka screamed at him, already starting to run towards them.
Soul's eyes glazed over as he continued to scream. That invincible feeling he had earlier was nowhere to be found. His only company was pain. The pain of Leon's feet being intentionally dug deeper and deeper into his body. So unimaginable was the feeling that Soul contemplated begging. He wanted it to end so badly, but the bastard kept it up, the entire weight of his body being suspended on Soul's broken self. He was sticking his foot inside his back! He needed it to end!
He needed help! But not Maka! Maka couldn't help him. Leon. He wanted to kill Leon! But he couldn't! The pain! That never ending pain! It wouldn't go away! He couldn't think anymore! THE PAIN!
"And, Soul Eater..."
The foot was removed from Soul's back. The pain that wracked his body was still very real and for a moment, he just laid there. His eyes were wide, he didn't blink, and he couldn't even breathe let alone scream any longer. No, he just laid there like a cadaver, one that had found absolute peace in death. The sound of Maka running towards him didn't register. Her screams of anger and worry didn't either. His body was broken. His spirit was shattered. He just wanted to lay there and disappear into the sand below, but he couldn't. All he could do was lay there, the used up weapon that he was. His thoughts became nothing. He was nothing.
Leon cocked his blade. "...This is for Maka."
Her screams became shrill. His steel felt so cold. The blood came out so much quicker then last time... and there was so much more of it.
With every fiber of his being and with the last bit of strength left in his mangled body, Soul blasted in agony as the blade went down into his left shoulder, pinning him to the ground. In his screaming fit, Soul jostled the blade, causing it to move around and damage him even further. The scene went on for twenty seconds, but it felt like an eternity to Soul. Leon tried desperately to hold him down with his foot so he wouldn't jiggle the blade, but like a wild animal Soul kept stubbornly getting back up, continuing to cause himself more harm as he fought for freedom. Also like an animal however, after his sudden burst of strength left him, Soul came crashing back to reality. He had no more will left. No more trump cards to play. And with consciousness seemingly slipping through his fingers, he let his body fall limp. His head came down, his body lay flat, and after all the commotion, he suddenly became very quiet.
Maka's undecipherable words rang in his ears, the last thing that kept him from falling into the darkness that quickly consumed him. He held on for dear life to them, because he felt that his life really did depend on it. When she finally stopped screaming at Leon, however, there was nothing left for him. He had no ties to reality; his senses had left him, and his strength had disappeared. Emotions were still there, because he felt a flood of them at the sound of her voice, but a human can't live on emotions alone. Instead, he just closed his eyes and let the shadows of his mind envelop him.
Falling out of consciousness, his last thoughts were of one thing. Four words he swore he heard his meister utter as she screamed them at his opponent. He latched onto them in one last desperate bid to regain control, but it was already too late. Slowly, the real world grew very distant, and the growing crowd of people outside that started to surround him were far from his focus. All pictures in his mind grew dark, and any other thinking was lost to the unconscious. Except for those four words that echoed even till the last moment he could function.
"...He'll always be mine...!"
A.N: Hope that last bit was good, it sure gave me hell writing it!
It's 2 o' clock in the morning and I'm tired as hell. But! I finished rewriting the chapter because trust me, you didn't want to read the original.
I'd like to give a shout out to all my readers! Thanks for your support and please, leave your reviews because, well, I like reviews lol
Chapter 4 is coming up, but it might take a bit longer than usual due to me not having started it yet. Definitely won't be more than 4 days though...hopefully.