"Soul! I can't believe you're living with a witch!" Blackstar was screaming the next day at school.
"Jeez, keep it down, Blackstar," Soul grumbled. "What about it?"
"So you did take her," Kid said. "I knew that my father would guilt trip you and make you think it was a test, but I never thought you'd actually do it."
"Are you saying we made a bad decision?" Maka asked, glancing up from her book.
"Absolutely not," Kid replied smoothly. "Bernkastel is an interesting creature; she doesn't really want things that will cause chaos."
"You sound like you know her well," Soul said.
"Hardly," Kid admitted. "But she should be easy to get along with if you just try."
"What should I do?" Maka asked. "She hasn't actually burned the house down yet, and she seems less outgoing and distracting than Blair. Do you think I've been… scaling her out?"
"Definitely, Maka," Soul said. "I mean, seriously, have a heart. She's not that bad. Even I had a problem with her at first, but you, on the other hand—"
"Chop!" Maka snapped, slamming her book against Soul's head. Soul whimpered, putting his face on the desk.
"What was that for, Maka?"
"I wasn't asking that to be insulted," Maka replied. "Now, Kid, did you want to say something?"
"Nothing, Maka," Kid sighed. He hoped she wasn't missing the point.
Bernkastel's Wings; Witch or Weapon?
"Bernkastel," Maka said. "Soul and I have a mission out of town tonight, so um… don't… we'll be back later."
"Do they go on life-threatening missions every day?" Bernkastel asked Blair whilst taking a sip of her apple cider.
"Until one of them gets hurt," Blair sighed, nodding. "What do you want to do tonight?"
"Let's make things A-symmetrical," she suggested.
"I sense the Keshen nearby," Maka told her scythe partner. "Let's go, Soul."
She stalked gracefully over the rooftops until she came to a cleared square. The moonlight glanced off of a tall figure, a mutated Keshen consuming a human's soul. The being raised its head and turned around. Maka could see now that it wasn't a Keshen, but a witch.
"A witch?" she thought. "Keshen witch?"
"From the darkness, ruin the light, I summon thee, demons of night," the witch chanted, raising either of her hands. Shadows appeared out of nowhere, their dark red eyes shining with malice and hate.
"A Keshen witch, huh?" Soul's appearance reflected off of his blade. "Should be a rare and delicious soul."
Soul's confidence brought Maka out of her deliberating. She lunged at the shadows, swinging the scythe across in a firm line. The shadows evaporated in clouds of black mist. The ugly witch stared at them with her black eyes.
"Witch Matilda," Maka said. "Through your evil deeds, you have become a Keshen. You must be stopped; I'm going to take your soul!"
Their reflection shone in the mirror of the Death Room. Lord Death and Bernkastel watched the battle with curious eyes.
"They won't survive," Bernkastel said. Lord Death glanced at her.
"Do you think you can handle it?"
"Yes," she replied. "I'd be a terrible person if I let them die like that."
The witch skillfully dodged all of Maka's attacks. She threw in spells every now and then, but Maka either blocked or dodged. Maka and Soul began to resonate to conjure up their Witch Hunter attack, but the witch countered it by using a strange shield. Maka was reflected back against a wall and Soul spun out of her grip. He transformed into human form and collapsed on the street.
"Soul!" Maka cried, running towards him. Blood poured from a severe wound on his chest
"Ronove," Matilda spoke to the shield. "Katana mode."
"Right," Ronove responded. In a glow of light, the shield became a sword.
"A witch's weapon?" Maka thought. "This is bad. Soul and I can't fight this alone."
"Say your last words, Meister Maka Albarn," the witch snarled, stalking towards her with the blade in her hand.
"Maka," Soul whispered. "Run."
"No, Soul, I can't leave you here!" Maka's gaze shifted in fear to the advancing witch. The witch raised her blade and Maka curled her body protectively around Soul's. The witch looked up at the sky, surprised to see Bernkastel on her broom, floating to the ground to meet them.
"Endless Witch," Matilda crooned. "Come to save your friends?"
"Shut up," she growled. Her blue hair shaded her face, giving her an even darker appearance. A teal light flashed behind her, unsheathing two strange, weapon-like wings crafted from daggers dangling from two poles*. She lunged forward, stabbing the witch with the weapons. Maka, who was still halfway over Soul's body, watched in confusion.
"She's a weapon?"
"Are you hurt?" Bernkastel asked the other two.
"Soul," Maka remembered, pulling away from him. "His pulse is getting weaker. Bernkastel, can you—"
"Maka, close your eyes," she replied. Maka inhaled sharply, but did as she was told. She could feel the warmth of light dangerously close to her, but then it was over. When Maka opened her eyes again, Soul was regaining consciousness.
"Soul," she whispered. She looked up at Bernkastel. "How did you?"
"That's not important right now," Bernkastel said. "You should report to Lord Death. I'm sure he would have never let a student handle this if he'd of known it was a witch."
"Right," Maka said, getting to her feet. She held her hand out for Soul, who took it gratefully.
"I didn't know you were a weapon," he noticed.
"There are a lot of things about me that you don't know," Bernkastel said quickly.
Soul Eater
"A Keshen Witch?" Lord Death asked. "Are you sure?"
"Yes," Maka replied.
"I'm sorry to get you two into trouble, but I knew you could handle it."
"Are you kidding?" Soul asked. "If it weren't for Bernkastel, I would totally be dead right now."
"Maka!" Spirit cried, suddenly appearing in the reflection. "I just heard about what happened and I was so worried! Are you alright?!"
"Yeah, fine," Maka mumbled. "You should be thanking Bernkastel for that."
"Bernkastel," Spirit said. "Thank you. I am eternally in your debt."
"Let's just call it a favor," the witch replied smoothly.
"If you don't mind," Lord Death grumbled, shoving Spirit out of his way. "Is there anything else you wish to report to me?"
"There is one thing…" Maka thought about it. "The witch had a weapon with her. Is that… normal?"
"Not since the creation of the academy," Lord Death replied. "But yes, weapons were originally created for witches' use. They called them 'furniture'**"
"Furniture, huh?" Soul asked. "That's pathetic. Don't think I'd like getting in the hands of a witch."
"So, I'm glad that you're getting settled alright," Kid said. Maka, Soul, Bernkastel, Blackstar, and Tsubaki had all gathered at Kid's mansion for a small get-together. They were all seated symmetrically in the den, eating pizza.
"Dude, you can't be serious," Blackstar told Soul. "How could someone as small as her outshine a big star like me?"
"She's one hell of a witch, alright," Maka said, smiling. "I'm glad. At first, I didn't think we could trust you."
"I'm not as ego-maniacal as most witches," Bernkastel explained, smiling back at her. The others laughed at her nonchalance. "When you have all this power, the thing I worry about most is being bored."
"Well, I'm sure things will be interesting for you from now on," Liz said. Patti giggled in agreement.
"Indeed, I've never actually had any friends; my past is actually quite boring in itself for that fact." Bernkastel opened her eyes to see everyone staring expectantly at her. "What?"
"Nothing," Tsubaki replied. "It's just… you're such a curious person. You have your own way of looking at things."
"I am curious about that past of yours, for the record," Soul said, leaning back. "You have to tell me sometime. I think it'll be cool."
"I think we all need to know that," Maka agreed.
Bernkastel laughed. "For what it's worth, why? But then again… why not?" She laughed again and circled her finger around the rim of her glass. With a metallic echo, it filled to the brim with hard apple cider. Bernkastel threw the drink down and sighed. "So, tell me about yourselves instead. I'd like to know anything interesting."
"How do we know that you won't use it all against us?" Blackstar asked. No one could tell if he was serious.
"When I speak in red, I'm telling the truth," Bernkastel said. The others didn't know quite what she meant until she began speaking again. The room gained a red tint and floating red captions played her words back. "I will only use this information against you whilst playing punishment games."
The words evaporated and the room retained normal color once again. Bernkastel laughed and got to her feet.
"I'll get some more cider," she said. Although she could just use her magic to fill her cup, she knew they might need some time alone.
Whilst they thought over how to tell her everything in a way that can't be used against them, Bernkastel looked around the mansion. She came to a room with several musical instruments in it, including a violin and a grand piano. She couldn't help it; she wandered into the room, which was dimly illuminated by the setting sun, and stood by the piano. She let her fingers graze against the ivory keys curiously, then more assuredly. She took a seat on the bench and began to play a tune she had heard sung to her a long time ago.
"She's been gone a long time," Maka noted after a few minutes.
"Maybe she found something interesting," Soul suggested. "You know how distracted she always is."
"Well, then, let's go find her," Kid sighed, getting to his feet. When they got to the second floor, they heard beautiful music. Kid smiled. "She found the music room."
They all wandered into the large room to watch her play. The notes were all so perfectly measured, every piece captivating, mystifying visions seemed to fill their heads as they heard her song. It was a mysterious, beautiful, slightly creepy song, like a witch's lullaby. The final soprano notes danced from Bernkastel's fingers, and she turned to her audience. Her eyes found Soul, who blushed and looked away.
That's the end of this chapter! Hoorah! I have a lot of Umineko references, like I had a lot of Higurashi references in my Fruits Basket fanfiction. So, I'm going to have the Special Umineko Reference of the Chapter! Yeah! Today's reference is 'Furniture.' In Umineko, people with weapon properties were called furniture and used by witches to battle and such. It's not quite the same thing, but I thought I could twist it in there. I also put in the "When I speak in red, I'm not lying" thing too. So many references.
*Her wings look like Flander Scarlet's wings from Touhou Project.
**Yes, that was an Umineko reference, just the name.
The song that I imagine her playing is the AS version of "Why or Why Not" by Katashiri Rekka, from the Higurashi soundtrack. :D