Soul Eater Chronicles: Midnight Rave! Episode 2: Boulevard of Broken Dreams
The next day, 9:00 a.m. at Death's Room — The Shinigami was sitting ceremoniously on a soft futon as he sipped a cup of green tea. It's been quiet for the past week and he felt some relief from it. For once, he could now enjoy a quaint morning tea without worrying about anything other than what pastry to partake. However, sitting opposite him in similar fashion was Spirit who appeared to be in great pain.
"Shinigami-sama..." he muttered.
"Eh? What is it, Spirit-kun?"
"Do I really have to do this?"
"What do you mean?"
"This," he referred to their tea-drinking ceremony. Though he had no problem with upholding tradition and all that, but being unused to the long formality left his knees in a dire state. Not only has he incurred cramps on both legs, but also lost the feeling of his lower half.
"Is something wrong?" a noticeable vein showed his irritation.
Sensing an imminent Shinigami-Chop, he immediately corrected himself. "N-Nothing. What I meant to say was what's with all those stuff?" he pointed at all the surrounding paraphernalia of Xmas and Halloween. Presents everywhere, Xmas trees and the dry sands around them were replaced by real snow and not to mention there was even mistletoe hanging overhead which was suspicious in their situation. It was a month late for Halloween and to have it celebrated with Xmas at the same time was bizarre. "What is this all about?"
"Oh that. It's all part of theplan Blair-chan thought up."
"Oh... PFFWWHAT!?" he sprayed his tea all over the Shinigami. "You mean the cat, right?"
"Nope. I'm talking about the person. She came here yesterday and talked about helping us break through the Soul Protect spell... isn't that great?" he cheered as Spirit lay flat after a swift chop to his soft head.
"H-How c-could you... I mean, can we trust her?" Spirit whimpered.
"I dunno... but isn't this fun? Look! She already gave me presents!" he started shaking the boxes in hopes to reveal clues of their mystery contents.
"Shinigami-sama...I think that's called a bribe..."
Meanwhile, Soul Eater Evans was walking aimlessly down the sandstone streets. Before he noticed it, he wondered pass Elms St. and Fleet St. into PussyFoot Boulevard which was THE shopping hub of the city. As such, many different kinds of garments, food, and miscellaneous items were up for sale. Here, it was quite easy to lose oneself before the overwhelming temptations of buy-and-sell.
"Wow! It's so cute! This'll look great on Stein! Ku-ku-ku, I'll buy it!" he saw the Death Scythe, Marie going gaga over a flamboyant dress.
"Hey! That's mine! I called dibs!" Kim tried to snatch the desired dress from her sempai, thus a catfight ensued over the new IN-clothes. Such things were a common sight in the boulevard.
Anyway, he wasn't interested in these things for he was looking for something special. You see, his memories of yesterday were a bit hazy, but he was sure of what may have happened between Maka and Chrona. However, when he woke up this morning to find Maka sleeping soundly in her room alone, he was beside himself. Whatever happened may have been the result of a bad dream. So his feelings of sadness and anxiety were without merit and he felt silly about it. And thus, to reignite whatever flame they had, Soul now seeks for a perfect Xmas gift to express himself and his true feelings before it was too late.
"Yeah, I can do this!" he declared with fiery resolve. Knowing that Maka loved to read books and to hit people with it, he immediately went into the closest bookstore.
At the same time, Black Star and Tsubaki were not too far behind him. Unlike Soul, they've already finished with their shopping. Black Star had secretly purchased two expensive tickets to one of the best tables in the upcoming "Shibusen's Special Holiday Party" set to take place on the 24th. In addition, he also took classes in character refinement so as not to be called a slob once again. On the other hand, Tsubaki bought him a brand-new cell phone and also prepared a pair of matching silver rings. Although seeing as how the 24th was still ages away, the two love birds decided to have their first ever date today.
"Um, so Tsubaki, where do you want to go?" smiled Black Star.
"Well, why don't we go window shopping? It'll be fun!" she suggested and led him to a nearby apparel store, where they just so happen to bump into Blair the Witch.
"What are you guys doing?" she asked in a friendly manner.
"Nothing. We're just buying stuff."
"I see...On your first date, eh?"
"No, we're not!" they denied in unison which immediately caused them to blush.
"Okay, okay...I can take a hint," she bid them the best of luck and went on her way.
Blair passed by the bookstore and overheard Soul complaining, "What? It costs THAT much!? It's just a book! Come on!" She saw him waving around a hardcopy of the "Soul Eater Chronicles" book as the store clerk was arguing with him.
She chuckled and looked at the new sweater she bought. It was made of black-dyed wool, adorned with skulls on the neckline and more importantly, it was symmetric on both sides. Even with her in-depth research she still didn't know what Kid fancied, but with the cold months setting in, she thought getting something practical and useful would be to his liking.
"I hope Kid will like this."
Thoughtful as it seemed, it wasn't done out of the kindness of her heart. As one would expect, Blair was the kind of person who'd always want something in return. That is why she also plans to ask him out.
Although one might already conclude as to how this would turn out, especially considering how Arachne and Medusa fell in love with their own experiment subjects and were destroyed for it. Blair knew of this, yet she did not want to deny her emotions nor did she want to flee from them.
She had no reason to fear for her life since Kid was different from the agents of insanity such as Stein or madness incarnate like Asura. Kid was Kid. He was a perfectionist, and a symmetry-obsessed boy who was also handsome, intelligent, and caring. He wasn't like any of those monsters. She knew it for the fact that the Thompson Sisters were always by his side and they always supported and protected him because he was such a great guy.
"Speak of the devil..." Kid appeared from the crowd with Patty and Blair the Cat. Unfortunately, due to the noise, they didn't hear her calling out to them. Instead, they continued walking towards Shibusen. She wanted to follow, but thought it better not to. Besides, there were still a lot of preparations she had to do before the big day and time was running out. So, she hurriedly set off to her next destination.
Somewhere else in the boulevard enters a newcomer to the world of SHOP. It was none other than former Demon Sword-Wielder, Chrona. Having been the first to taste the wondrous experience of eternal happiness from her afternoon delight, she went to PussyFoot in order to find something to present Maka with as a token of her love. Similarly to what Soul thought, she wanted to search the bookstores. However, the area was unknown to her and the great number of people made it difficult to spot any familiar landmark.
"What are you doing here, gecko?" a soft voice said to her.
She turned her head and found Eruka Frog, Free the Werewolf, and Mizune in her ultimate form. Contrary to common sense, the two witches were dressed in their usual witchy attire while Free was in his werewolf form. It was beyond belief. At this point, Chrona thought it was an elaborate illusion of some sort or maybe she was dreaming. Nevertheless, she did the mandatory. "Y-YOU!" she gasped, "What are you guys doing here!?"
"Hey, I asked you first!" the Frog Witch childishly protested.
"Looking to buy something?" Free asked in such a calm fashion as if the people around them didn't notice the 7-foot, talking dog standing right there. Mizune pushed him aside to show her their well-made kiosk. It was stuffed with many a strange garments as well as all manner of Halloween getups and knickknacks.
"We're here selling costumes. Want one?" she smiled, handing her an elegant yet fittingly dark gown of Gothic-Lolita design.
It took Chrona a few moments to take it all in. For the meantime, she stood there with her jaw dropped which made them laugh. "He-he-he. Chrona-chan, are you that surprised?" chuckled Mizune.
"If you're gonna ask, we're here 'coz Blair-sama asked us to," added Eruka.
"But-but... aren't you guys afraid of getting caught!?" Chrona was able to say.
"Ha! As if! Don't worry, Blair-san made it possible for us not to," spoke Free.
"W-What? How is that possible?"
"Take a good look around you. Blair-sama fooled that idiot Shinigami to host all these. The Xmas-Halloween thing was made for people like us to waltz in undetected. Brilliant, isn't it?" grinned the three.
It was at this point that Chrona began to notice the people around her. From the stacked-up food stalls to the friendly gift shops, the vendors looked familiar. "Witches..." Each and every one of them, hiding behind their Soul Protect spell, looked at her with glee. Chrona was utterly shocked by this revelation.
Deep and dark schemes have already started working in the background. Soon, great and terrible things were going to take place in the city of Death and no one would be ready for what would happen after...
Author's Notes: Sorry it took quite a while... So, how was it? Any questions, comments, and suggestions would be awesome... Anyways, thanks again for all the support, you guys... ^_^ and keep on reading!