So this one is a tad shorter than the others, big deal. I am just eager to write the next one! I plan on adding Marie and Kami.. so yay! Things should start to pick up a little bit at this point, as I have a lot of ideas for this area. I will see what I can do to make this as good as possible. I am planning on making this next chapter take place over more than just one day. I am starting to get anxious about writing the chapters of them being like 15 and 16, that is going to be FUN as heck. Anyway, please review! I need as much feedback as possible so I know I am going about this right or not.
Not Strange, Just Different
Chapter 3 So This Is Soul Force
At three in the morning, he stood there transfixed, still staring at his hand. What had just happened? He was confused to no end.
"Why did electricty just come out of my hand?" Just as he finished saying this, he heard someone knocking on his door. Someone was knocking at 3:00 A.M... He must have woke his mom or dad up. I guess that is pretty logical considering the volume of the noise the chair had made when making contact with the wall.
He walked over to his now locked door to unlock it, not surprised when he saw his mother standing outside. He thought he had sensed her soul, looks like he was correct. She looked very irriated, much like most people do when being suddenly woken up. She had to get up at five in the morning to get ready to go to the hospital for work, there was going to be an operation and she had to assist. She was going to need all the sleep she could get.
"What on Earth was that noise, Franken?" When his mother said that, he remembered how Miss. Parson calls him Franken. Maybe it was just a woman thing. His mother crossed her arms, impatiently waiting for him to respond.
"It was nothing, just forget about it. Go back to bed, you need to sleep," He said this, obviously trying to avoid having to talk to her, and she didn't seem to protest.
"You need to go to bed earlier, this isn't normal," She said this as she unfolded her arms, backing away from the doorway she had previously been resting on. She then walked back down the hallway, returning to her bedroom.
Stein's parents did share a bedroom, but his father was never in it. He was usually in his office during the night doing experiments and stuff along those lines, much like Stein did. I guess he got the whole "abnormal sleeping" thing from his father as well.
Stein locked the door once again, turning away from it, walking over to where his chair currently laid on the ground. He bent over to pick it up, looking slightly hesitant, almost as if he was afraid the electrical charge was still in the chair. He did, however, continue to pick it up, being relieved at the fact of not getting shocked.
He sat it back in front of his desk, closing all of the books he currently had out for research. He often liked to read about a certain subject until he knew it inside-out. Then he would conduct experiments pertaining to the topic, recording all of it in one of his many notebooks. He would then gather all of the information he had gathered, both from research and experiments, and would write a paper on it. This way he would be reasurred he knew everything there is to know.
He put the books on their designated shelves, then following was the notebooks and lastly all of the equipment used for experiments. After doing this, he walked over and sat on his bed, legs hanging over down towards the ground with his hands resting beside his hips.
He began contemplating what it could have been, trying to think of both a scientific reason and one more involving soul wavelengths. Then a thought hit him. His father had once mentioned being able to do something very similar to this during one of his stories. Maybe that was it, he could have just done it accidentally out of rage. Yes, that made sense.
He decided that he would ask his father the next day. Considering he was the one he had first heard of it from, he should have an answer. He was actually feeling tired for once, that only happened on rare occasions. He did do a lot that day, so it isn't entirely strange.
He took his shirt off, exposing his pale chest, next changing his pants. The ones he changed into were a pair of white sweatpants that extended to just below his knees. The edges fit perfectly around his legs, removing any space between the fabric and skin.
He got into his bed, covering himself with his comforter up to his armpits, his arms sticking out and ontop of it. He didn't usually dress this way for going to bed, but he did for very warm nights, and this was one of them.
The bad thing about his room is there are no windows to allow wind to come in, only a single oscillating fan. Even that didn't provide much help in alleviating the heavy feeling in the air from the humidity.
Due to the intensity of the heat, he had a hard time falling alseep. He didn't fully fall asleep until 4:00, wow did that kid need to get more sleep. The weird thing is that he was never really tired, like mentioned before, only on rare occasions.
He went through the night sleeping peacefully, almost. Due to the small amount of madness he has had lately, he had a nightmare.
He was walking through the woods, but the trees were... different. There weren't regular trees, but ones that were deep red. After looking at the colors of the tree, he noticed there was a path on the ground that was black. He didn't question it, just started walking down it. It was terrible. His thoughts were floating around, unable to remain focused. He felt very tense and irritated, but for no apparent reason. Although his feet felt like lead, he continued walking.
Another thing that made it harder for him was the air. It was even thicker and more moist than the air he had fallen asleep in, making it difficult to breath. It made everything feel slow, heavy, and groggy. It definitely wasn't the most enjoyable feeling.
As he kept going, his feet only got heavier and heavier. Before long he could barely walk at all. That was when he looked down to see his feet stuck to the ground. They were strapped down by these long black.. things that extended out of the path he had been walking on.
They were very tight around the entire cerface of his feet, extended up to his ankles and slightly his legs. They really had a hold of him, it would be too difficult to get out of.
He began trying to free himself, trying to pull his feet up as hard as he could. He was panicking, bending down trying to rip off whatever it was that was holding him down, doing no help at all. He stood up, trying to lift his feet up again, and something happened.
These line appeared on the trees, then opened up to be the shape of eyes. Then more black things identical to the ones keeping his feet down shot out of each one, quickly wrapping around Stein's thin body.
They started to wrap around him tighter and tighter, making it harder and harder for him to breath. He started to wiggle around, trying to get out. No matter how much struggling, wiggling, or twisting he did, it was to no avail.
He had no clue what to do in a situation like this, I mean how often does this happen? He started screaming at the top of his lungs in hopes of someone stumbling into the red forest, providing an escape for him. No one ever came, but he continued screaming.
From out of nowhere, a large lion jumped out from one of the trees, roaring as loud as it could manage. Stein looked up, seeing the lion jumping overtop of him. It brought it's claws back, then foward to scratch him. It also opened it's mouth, hoping to bite down on him. Just as it stretched it's mouth wide open, claws beginning to break through Stein's skin, drops of blood running down his skin, he gasped in fear and turned his head to the side, only to find himself laying in his bed at home.
He quickly shot up from his position laying down, panting and sweating both from the high temperture and the fear he had from the nightmare. He began trying to catch his breath, praying for nothing like that to happen ever again.
In reality, the whole time he had been laying there jerking around, screaming only slightly, not enough to wake anyone up.
His pulse and breath soon became basically normal while he just laid in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. It was all so vivid, clear, making it seem like it wasn't just a nightmare. That's what made it so terrifying to him. Not many things actually scared him, but that definitely hit the mark.
He tried to go back to sleep, as it was only 4:20 and he really needed the sleep, but he couldn't. No matter what he did, he couldn't fall asleep. He was too terrifyed, he didn't want the nightmare to return, or for something else to happen instead. He laid their for another 3 hours, atempting to sleep.
He could hear his mother get up and get ready for work, he could hear his father moving around the house, doing things that were unknown to Stein. Before he knew it it was time to get ready to go to the academy.
Lucky for Stein, it had rained over night. Because of this he acutally had his door open to allow some cool air to come in. It actually helped a lot, this please him, but he still couldn't fall asleep.
He got up from bed, changing back into his regular attire. He walked through the hallway, down to his plain kitchen. He decided he could eat something for once. He had been doing a lot of things that were different for him, huh?
He just made eggs, which he had actually taught himself to make one day when he was 9. His mom had an irregularly busy schedule at the time, and his father had begun an experiment that was going very well, and it was consuming all of his time. Stein got sick of eating cereal for every meal, every day, so he decided he could learn to make some stuff.
After he finished, it was just about time that he would have to leave. He went back down the hall and went to his room, looking at the large indent in the wall he had made during the night. He sighed and walked in, grabbing his bag before turning around and heading right back out.
He was going to the academy a little earlier than he needed to, but he didn't mind. This way he would be able to walk at a fairly relaxed pace and also get to observe a little bit. Since it had just rained, the air was a little moist and foggy, but it was also cool so it felt really nice to be in. That was also a good reason to be outside as much as possible.
He was walking down the road when he heard a noise, much like the one he had heard on his porch. Before he could turn around to check what it was, three bicycles whipped past him, obviously in an attempt to show off. They all looked back at Stein, hoping to see a shocked or scared expression on his face, but instead saw a blank one like he always had.
The kids quickly turned back around and kept going, confused why it hadn't had worked. They were honestly disappointed that he didn't do anything, that's the whole reason why they did that stuff. It worked with everyone else, always. So why not him?
He continued down the road, shortly after he could see the academy start to peak out of the fog, exposing it's symmetrical design. It wasn't long before he was walking up the stairs. The fear the nightmare had caused appeared to be gone now, he was actually more confident than usual.
As he walked in, he saw Spirit standing hear one of the lockers, of course talking to some girls. The minute he noticed Stein walk in, he excused himself from the girls and ran over to him.
"Hey! You're on time today," He said this as he glanced down at the watch on his left hand, "Actually, you're early too."
"Yeah. I couldn't really sleep so I was up really early, I decided I would come early."
"Good. It doesn't set a good impression when you're late to the second day of school. That's going to rub off on me too since I'm your partner!"
"Spirit, we both know you couldn't care less about what time you got here. You just never have a reason to be late," Stein said this, earning a smirk from Spirit.
"Oh yeah, like your reason is that great anyway. It's your fault you woke up so late, you need more sleep. Your body just forced itself to sleep, that's how bad you need it," Stein was about to come up with a response, but Mr. Tredway interrupted.
He walked by at a fairly fast pace, holding a cup of coffee in one hand, signalling Stein and Spirit toward him with the other.
"Goodmorning, Stein, Spirit. I have your schedules, please follow me to my room so I can go over them with you," He said this, just barely fast enough for them to be able to hear it all. They just quickly exchanged looks to each other before they started to walk down the hall in anticipation of getting their schedule.
They reached the classroom and saw the professor sitting in his chair with the schedules sitting on his desk. Did he move fast or what? When they came in they took a seat in front of his desk, Spirit grabbed both of the schedules he was holding out, turning to his left to give one to Stein.
"Although you did get your schedules, you will not start following them until tomorrow. For now, just look over it and learn it. First you will come here and have class like you usually do, but once this period ends you will go with a private teacher to begin learning different techniques and stances, things like that. Another reason why you aren't starting today is because he isn't hear yet. His name is Mr. Collins. You will learn a lot from him, as he is a 3 star meister. After you finish your lessons with him you will go for lunch break and continue your schedule like you normally would. The main difference is the middle periods. Do you guys have any questions?"
Honestly, they really didn't have any at all. They couldn't think of a single thing to ask the man, so after a brief silence, Stein said "No." Following that was Spirit saying "Me either."
"Good. This shouldn't be very difficult to get used to, you will be fine. I think that having Mr. Collins here will be very beneficial to you guys." They nodded their head in response, wondering what he would be like. "Now, class is about to start so you may take your seats if you want. Or you could go outside for a few minutes before you will be required to be in here."
"Okay, thank you." Stein said this as he walked away from the man's desk, following him was Spirit. They got up to their seats that were in the upper left corner, yet again trying to stay away from people. Now that the students had made more friends, they were louder than before, and this aggravated Stein, and suprisingly Spirit a little bit as well. Soon class started, so they all got quiet minus the couple annoying students that would never stop whispering to each other that every class has.
"Okay, today I will be telling you the main reason as to why you are all here right now, then we will walk back out to the woods and try to resonate again for about 10 minutes." He said this sounding very serious, but also lightly at the same time.
"You are here for one main reason, to kill kishin eggs before they are able to develop fully into a new kishin. As we already have one kishin running around here and we don't need another one added onto that. You will train yourselves to fight against and defeat these kishin eggs, and you will collect a certain amout. Ninty-nine kishin souls and one witch soul. If you are able to complete this goal, you will then create a death scythe, which is Lord Death's personal weapon. You can have three different rankings; a one-star meister, a two-star meister, and the highest rank, a three-star meister. It will take you a long time to reach that, if you even do. It will take a lot of hard work and commitment, but you all have the potential to do it. You just have to train right. Now, since you have different weapons, each will have different techniques. That is why you will be split into general categories, the ones that have the same basic techniques. When you get to the more advanced ones, you can have the exact same type of weapon but not the same techniques. That part just depends on the meister. Do you have any questions?" Stein actually had one this time, so he raised his hand, waiting to get called on.
"Yes, what is your question?"
"I am just curious, how does one become a kishin?"
"You become a kishin from doing something very terrible. You must kill a human and consume their souls, that's how. If you begin trying to become one, chances are you won't reach that goal, or stay alive."
"I have another question. Why do people want to become kishins?"
"For power, that's basically it. The people that are trying to become kishins are very fearful people, and they are trying to escape this fear. When you become a kishin, you become much stronger, you have more power. Also, you completely lose the feeling of fear, this is an extreme advantage alone. You also become slightly resistant to pain, overall making it easier to fight someone."
After he said this, he began explaining a few more things. Then they all walked out to the woods, yet again, and began practicing resonating with their partners. Of course Stein and Spirit did this with complete ease, earning approving looks from both Mr. Tredway and Stein. Spirit just seemed to think of it in a more "This is so cool!" kind of way.
The other teams seemed to have improved slightly from the day before. This was definitely good news, it would take less time for them to start learning techniques. There were a few that were having a problem and the resonance wasn't overly strong, but it was better than what they had done before.
They were out there for about ten minutes, the entire time Stein shifted the wavelengths back and forth, which he really seemed to enjoy doing for some reason. Spirit just attempted to see and feel their souls, that way he could contribute to their soul resonance. He had actually made some progress. He could actually feel his, see and slightly feel Stein's.
Stein could tell this, as their resonance felt a little stronger to him. Directly after he had noticed this change Spirit said that he could feel their souls, confirming Stein's thought.
When they were all finished, they walked back through the woods and into the academy. They didn't really do that much, but for the other students it actually appeared to have helped them out a bit. This pleased Mr. Tredway, he was happy that they were getting better. He could tell this class had great potential, even more so Stein and Spirit, making him actually want to teach them.
Once they got inside they went to their other classes and went through the day, nothing out of the ordinary really happening. It was a little boring actually, Stein had almost fallen asleep a few times during class. He still needed to catch up on his sleep from not getting much at all the previous night. He sure did hate nightmares.
He had been getting them more often lately, and he never got them at all before. He at least got them a couple days of the week. But they never scared him nearly as much as last night's, and definitely never affected his ability to fall back asleep that much. They seemed to get worse every time he had one. After a while, this should be real fun for him.
School had finally ended, so the two started to walk home. They exchanged a few words and went their seperate ways, just as they had every day before this. On his way home he remembered that he was going to ask his dad about what had happened ealier. It's really weird, nothing like that has happened before. He has studied biology enough to know that that shouldn't happen to someone.
After he asks his dad he just might have to figure out some stuff as to why this is happening. And he wasn't particularly thrilled about having to ask his dad about it. He didn't really like to talk to him, or his mother either. It helped that his parents were generally busy people, so he usually got to leave soon.
He reached his home, finding his mother on the couch and, of coure, his father in his office. Like he did everyday, he brought his bag into his room and set it down. He then went immediately back the hallway to his father's office, hoping to ask him about his current problem. It wasn't really that much of a problem, but since he didn't know what it was, it was a problem to him.
When he got there, he knocked just like he had the last time. Then stood there for a few seconds before hearing a firm voice tell him to come in.
"Come in." Stein did this, walking in to see his dad sitting at his desk doing something on his computer. Probably some sort of research for his current experiment. Usually he had multiple going at once, but this one was big enough that he wanted to just deal with this one for now.
"What do you need?" His father said this, sounding just as bored as he did all of the other times Stein had talked to him.
"Well, I was wondering about something that happened last night."
"What happened?" His dad had this habit of always interrupting him, basically after every sentence he would say.
"I was doing an experiment like I always do," His father rolled his eyes when he said this. He seemed to think of his experiments as unimportant. It's probably because he does a different type than he does, no dissections. "And it wasn't going right, the formula wasn't correct for some reason, I still can't figure it out. Anyway, I got mad about it and went to throw my chair. But when I hit the chair, instead of just hitting it this green electricty, I guess you could say, surrounded my hand. I ended up smashing the chair into the wall really hard.. it even dented it in a little bit." After he said this his father made a face that looked like he was thinking.
"Has this ever happened to you before? In any way?" He seemed like he might some idea of what it was, this seemed like a good sign.
"No, just that one time. Do you know what it was?"
"Yes, I do. I am not entirely sure, but it sounds like you shot your soul wavelength into the chair. That is just my guess, but that sounds like it's what happened. Things very similar have happened to me before, it is very logical to say it was that."
"What exactly does it mean that I "shot my soul wavelength" into it?"
"You shot your wavelength into the chair, it's a technique called Soul Force. I learned how to do it when I was in the academy, not many people can do it, and only meisters can accomplish this. I probably passed it down to you. You will use this when battling against an opponent, it will enable you to fight without using a weapon. You will need to tell your teacher about this as soon as you can, you will need to develop this further. I will be able to help you with it occasionally when I am available. You need to get it to a point where you can do it when you want to, not just by accident."
"Okay, how do you develop it further?"
"By practicing. You will need to understand soul wavelengths more than you do now, this should help you control it better and thus allow you to preform the technique better."
"I am taking a class on different types of wavelengths, will this help?"
"Kind of, but not exactly. You will need to learn about the wavelengths themselves and more of what they can do, not the different types. This should help a little bit, however, just not all that much."
"Oh, okay. I will make sure I mention this to my teacher. I want to be able to understand this as much as possible."
"Good, I am glad to hear that you are willing to learn." After he said this, there was a long silence, both person doing absolutely nothing besides inhale and exhale. Then his father sighed before speaking.
"Is that all you needed?"
"Yes, that's all I needed."
"Okay, go study or something. I need to get back to work."
"Okay, see you later." After Stein said this his dad nodded his head, then turned it toward his computer. He could tell by the glare in his glasses that he had a document open, probably something he was working on, as he began to type and there were more and more words appearing on the glass.
Stein walked away from his father, shutting the door on the way out. He walked back the hall to see his mother still on the couch relaxing after doing to work. That's what he usually did every time there was a surgery. She would just come home and sit on the couch the whole night, minus cooking dinner.
Stein just read the whole night after he got into his room. He finished the book he had been reading on molecular and ionic bonds and started reading one on the digestive system. For some odd reason for the past couple days he has had more of an interest in the human body. All of the functions and processes that took place within it were starting to become even more fascinating than usual, how complex the organs were.. everything was just.. different. He loved it all.
He was just at the beginning of the book, so he wasn't far in the process of digestion yet, not far at all. He had just finished reading about mastication when his mother came to get him for dinner.
"I see you're reading like always." She this in her usual cheeful tone, laughing a little at the end, thinking of her son's usual activity. Even though she wasn't around often, it didn't mean she didn't show him effection or emotion. She was actually a pretty happy person, always smiling. And just because she was a nurse, it doesn't mean she would like to study biology in her free time. She is mainly a nurse because of how mcuh money she gets from it.
"Yes, I just started a new book actually. It's on the digestive system."
"I can see that from the cover of it. Is it interesting?" She could tell because after he got up to grab a book-marker and put it away, she saw the cover of it when he shut it before sliding it onto his bookshelf.
"Yeah, it is. But I haven't actually gotten to the organs or any body parts yet, so it will be a little bit before it gets to the good part." His mother did annoy him, but he still talked to her when she came to him. He walked over to his mother, suddenly realizing that he had forgot to lock his door. He thought "Now how the heck did I do that? I always lock it, it's bascially a habit now."
When he walked to the door way, his mother slid to the side so her son could leave as she said "I am glad to hear you like it. It costed us enough money, it better be good." They always bought him books, no matter what it was on, and since they made quite a good amount of money, basically no matter how much it costed too.
They both walked down the hallway and into the dining room together, seeing that his dad was already at the table eating. They were having spaghetti, something his mother actually made quite often. But he didn't mind she made it a lot, it was one of the foods he actually liked. It wasn't her cooking that made him not like what she made, it's just food in general.
They went through the dinner, his father and mother talking like usual. His mother was telling his dad about the surgery, this is something he made her do every time she had to help out with one. He really liked to hear about it in detail. Stein was more interested in it than he usually was, basically drawn into every word she was saying. He barely even touched his food he was so into it.
Throughout dinner, he barely said anything, and seemed almost empty minded. This was because he started to think about the nightmare he had the night before. He still couldn't get over how real it seemed. Apparently his mother could tell it was bothering him, as she asked him about it.
"You seem distracted, Franken. Is something wrong?" This question startled him out of his thoughts, he wasn't expecting someone to talk to him.
"Everything is fine.. I was just thinking about the nightmare I had last night.. that's all." He seemed really shy when talking about this, he didn't really like to.
"Did you say that you had a nightmare?" His dad immediately interceded, seeming almost alarmed in some sort of way.
"Yes, why?" After Stein asked this, his dad seemed to start thinking. He thought about how people with madness experience nightmares often. He himself actually had a lot of experience with them. When the madness is affecting him more strongly, he will usually have them every night. When it's not as bad he doesn't have them nearly as often.
"How often have you been having them?" He asked this after thinking of some of the more terrifying ones he has had over time, ignoring Stein's question.
"Lately I have been having them a lot. At first it was once a month, then once a week, then multiple times a week. Now I usually have them 3 times a week. They keep getting worse.." As he said the last sentence, he looked down at his food, almost avoiding his dad.
"Hmm.." His father seemed like he was avoiding this as well for some reason. From the event that had happened a couple days ago and his recent knowledge of his son having nightmares this often, he was sure of what was going on. But for reasons even he wasn't entirely sure of, he didn't want to tell him that's what was happening.. It was strange.
After a long silence, they all just started eating again, finishing soon after. They all brought there plates, silverware, and cups into the kitchen and put them into the sink. Stein went back into his room, continuing his previous activity, just like his parents did.
He started to think about the technique his dad had told him about, he really wanted to know more about it. He decided that he would tell Spirit about it when he got to school, and his professor before class starts. It was nice that their special trainer was getting there, he could probably help him with this.
It had actually surprised him when his father had said that he was going to help him out a little bit with it, he really didn't expect him to say that. But he figured he might as well accept his help, he didn't get it often.
His father sat in his office, leaning back in his chair taking a minor break from his research. He had been working on it for a while, so he figured he could take a few minutes to think about something other than the structure of the brain.
"How much has the madness started to affect him? He shouldn't be experiencing it this much, he isn't even that old. I guess I feel it pretty strongly... but still.. it just shouldn't be spreading this much. Not this fast. This better not continue, or we could have a problem."
His father sat there thinking for about another few minutes before his attention returned to his research, just like it was before.
Stein decided he would practice seeing souls. He could see them easily, but just these basic blue orbs of light, no dimension, size difference or color. He started to focus on them more and more, trying to see if there was anything else to them.
He knew they had to be more than just little blue orbs, they would be basically useless otherwise. There would be no reason for him to be able to see this. I mean, if only meisters could see them, there had to be something to it.
As he started to focus a little more, he could almost see their souls expanding, becoming different in shape. He couldn't really tell much about them, as he was new at this. But what he could see was that his father's soul was extremely large, it was unbelievable. His mother's soul was large as well, but not nearly as much.
He figured that if he worked on it a little more, he would be able to see them extremely well, which he will actually end up proving when he gets older.
He decided to experiment, like he did most nights. He worked on his formula again, and to be honest, he almost hoped that it wouldn't work so he could get mad and use soul force again. But unfortunately for him he didn't, he actually got all of the chemicals to balance out correctly. He was pretty excited, he had made his first tranquilizer! He wasn't exactly sure what he would use it for, but he knew it would come in handy sometime. He was going to make it again tomorrow to make sure he had it correct and that he could make one basically whenever he wanted or needed to.
He thought that it might be a good idea for him to go to bed considering the fact that it was 2:30.. wow did he hate sleeping. He was always comfortable when he would, minus the nightmares of course, but he just hated to waste time like that. He could be studying something!
He got into bed, keeping his original clothes on, as it was considerablly cooler than the previous night, and he was thankful for this. It was one of those nights where it was warm, but not too warm. One that was fairly easy to fall asleep during.
The only thing he had to worry about was having another nightmare.. those things were freaky. Lucky for him he didn't have one, so he acually slept through the whole night. He hadn't slept that well in weeks actually.. it felt pretty nice.
I don't have much to say, which is very different compared to the other times. I will just say I have been more lazy now, so I will try to get my butt moving. This is the good part coming soon! REVIEW PLEASE! And I am going to get started on the next chapter tonight, cya!