Leo walked towards the Death Room, pleased with all the girls he had met today. Any other guy would have cared more about the numerous death threats he received, but not Leo. And most other people would have cared they were 4 hours late for their appointment with the Death. Not Leo.
And as he strode towards Death, he was considering who to ask out first. There was a preppy red head in the NOT class. On the other hand, there was a brunette who really looked like she needed a hug in the EAT class. And then there was that ninja girl, she was very attractive and going on the list. But the annoying brat she hanged around… He had to go before Leo would try anything.
"Shinigami chop!" Next thing Leo knew, he was on the ground clutching his head, which felt like it was splitting in two.
"That was for being four hours late." A high pitched voice said, causing Leo to look up confused. What he saw looked nothing like a Shinigami. It looked more like a child made a bunch of lines, randomly connected them, then added cartoon hands and mask. Leo looked up at it confused for a moment but then he noticed something else; the girl from the other night.
Well, she wasn't dressed the same, but it was the same girl. She had the same messy black hair, same sad eyes and same pale-ish complexion. But instead of a dress, she was wearing a cat eared black hoodie and some blue jeans. Leo also noted that she had on dusty white sneakers; that meant she was outside a lot.
"Oh, hey. How you doing?" Leo asked. Somehow it didn't surprise him that her voice came out a mere whisper. She was giving off a strong resemblance to a scared rabbit at the moment. She seemed to be extremely good at that.
"Now might be the best time to tell you. She is now your partner and vice versa. Isn't that great? Someone told me about how well you two got along last night, so I figured it was probably for the best, right?" The black mass said happily.
The two children stared at each other, shocked for a few moments before anyone spoke.
"This is a joke, right? Someone is pranking me, right? I mean, she is, well… A kid. A weak, spineless, defenseless pile of self-pity. No offense." He quickly added, glancing at the girl.
"None taken. You bring up good points. Besides, I can't be paired with him. He is a womanizing freak of nature that seeks out the hollow praises of others just to get a vague feeling of accomplishment. No offense." She added quickly.
"None taken, wait what?" He said confused. She just rolled her eyes.
"True, you are very different from each other, but most meisters and weapons are. Besides shouldn't we take advantage of this opportunity since both of you seem to have had trouble finding someone you are compatible with in the past?" Death said calmly. Leo meanwhile was wondering how this would affect his chances with the girls at DMWA.
"Now, I want you two to go get a simple training mission to start with. One, we are not allowed to harm innocent humans; only evil ones. Two, you can only collect evil souls, though that really goes along with number one. Three, please refrain from mass destruction. The school has to pay for it and we really don't have enough money to rebuild an entire town."
But of course, neither Leo nor Lana was really listening to Death as he lectured on. Lana couldn't believe her luck. She had been certain Death was going to tell her she only had 3 days to live, but instead she got a weapon partner. After searching for so long she finally found one. Of course, the one she found wasn't exactly what she had wanted, but she was too caught up in it all to really care. She was just too happy she had finally done it.
Leo was still considering how this would affect his ability to get girls. It really depended on the girl. Some of them fawned over cute little kids, while others hated them. Then again, Leo didn't know if he wanted to be around someone who hated kids. Well, that depended on how far the hatred ran. There was a difference between disliking one kid and hating every kid.
"And that is why Death Weapon Meister Academy was born. To make sure nothing like that ever plagued, were either of you even listening?" Death asked, finally noticing that neither of the two children was paying attention; well, at least the girl was paying enough attention to shake her head 'no'.
"Get out before I chop both of you." They certainly were paying attention then, for they left much quicker than they came.
Leo walked down the hallway, eying the young girl skipping next to him. It was odd to see a smile on her face. Such a big one, anyways. A small faint smile like the one she had last week probably wasn't too odd for her. But grinning ear to ear and skipping? That couldn't be normal. She then did something that surprised him even more; she hugged him.
It wasn't a long hug like those drawn out ones in the movies, but just a quick one. She looked up at him with a content smile on her face, not in a rush to explain herself. Leo raised an eyebrow, struggling to keep a straight face.
"Any reason you hugged me?"
"You're my partner now. That makes me so happy I can barely contain it!" She replied, the smile never leaving her face. Leo raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. He just kept walking and Lana kept skipping along.
"So what you want to do now? I mean do you want to head straight out and grab a mission or should we get something to eat? Kinda hungry myself." Leo said rubbing the back of his head. He wasn't really sure how to deal with kids. Course, this gave him a perfect chance to get better at it, but still. He was never good with children.
Lana glanced up from her thoughts and smiled. "I wouldn't mind getting something to eat." Leo smiled and together they walked out of the Academy. Leo made a mental note that she seemed tired after walking down the 500 or so flights of stairs. Then again, that wasn't really surprising. There were a lot of stairs.
Leo eyed an ice cream parlor and then glanced at his young friend. He then realized how close she was sticking to him. She didn't look happy at all in the crowd. There was a pout on her face and she flinched whenever someone came to close. Leo sighed and pushed his way through the crowd anyway. Of course she couldn't eat in the semi-crowded ice cream parlor. Eventually, they found themselves halfway up the steps to the DMWA.
Lana had chosen something simple. A vanilla ice cream cone with rainbow sprinkles. Leo had gotten a chocolate ice cream cone with chocolate sprinkles and some chocolate syrup drizzled on top. There was a period of silence while they ate. Lana was the one to break it oddly enough.
"Leo, since we are partners now, I realize there is a lot I don't know about you. Would it be alright if I asked you a couple questions?" She asked shyly, glancing at him out of the corner of her eyes.
"Well of course but I might have to ask you some. So, what you want to ask?"
Lana fidgeted a little before finally speaking. "Well um, um, what does your family do? What are their jobs?" She eventually stammered out. Leo sighed. She really needed to get out more.
"My biological family only consists of my dad and I. My mom walked out on us when I was only 3. I spent my life from 3 to 7 getting pushed around by all the kids in our neighborhood. They didn't like the fact I was a weapon much, plus my dad has a strict honor code he passed on to me. Never hit someone who won't be able to hit you back at least as hard as you hit them. He says only the strong men and women are capable of doing that. Like I said the other night, he trained me to be a strong person." The faintest traces of a smile appeared on his face before he continued.
"Then when I was 7, the Doctor found me. He said that I was special and basically offered us a new life with him. Considering the shithole we lived in, excuse my profanity, we took the offer. The years to come brought many shocks. The main one being that the Doctor had other people living with him. They kinda became part of my extended family so to speak. And my life up to this point isn't really worth talking about." Leo said, cutting off quickly and looking in the opposite direction quickly.
Even Lana knew that obviously something in his life up to this point was worth talking about. She also knew that Leo really didn't want to talk about whatever it was. He turned and smiled at Lana, the previous depth he was showing gone. "What about you? What is your family situation?" He asked softly and calmly. He was good at changing the subject.
"What? Oh me. Well I used to live with mom and dad on the outskirts of Death City. Well I wouldn't say outskirts; mom owned a little ranch far away enough so that we couldn't see the city but close enough to visit it during holidays. Then mom died and we moved to the city, and now we visit the ranch on holidays. Dad remarried, but the woman, well, she had anger issues so daddy left her. Ever since, me and daddy have lived in Death City. I don't really like it, too many people but I just have to deal with that I suppose." She said softly, not that it surprised Leo much.
He nodded, somehow he had expected just as much. Course Leo had nowhere to complain. In silence they ate their ice cream before Leo suddenly jerked. "Oh, we were supposed to get a mission weren't we? Probably should do that before we forget." He said standing up and starting up the steps again. He then stopped and waited for Lana. Lana wasn't sure why, but this gesture made her smile and she happily followed Leo.
As they neared more people, she stopped showing much emotion, but there was still a faint sign of a smile on her face. They didn't have to stress themselves looking for the mission board; there were tons of people going to and from it, so it was easy to find. Leo pushed his way through the crowd to get to the board, only to find everyone was crowding around a single mission. He quickly read the description and narrowed his eyes.
Invisible man? Slaughtering people in broad daylight and vanishing without a trace? Already killed 20? Everyone was certainly intrigued by this mission, but none appeared to be brave enough to actually take it. Whoever did would gain the praise of everyone plus get the girls' attention. With that set in his mind, he ripped the paper off the wall and strode towards the window, happy to hear excited whispers behind him.
"Hello madam, I would like to take this mission if you don't mind." Leo said loud enough to cause some heads to turn. The woman, an elderly one, looked up and immediately raised an eyebrow. She however took the paper and read through it.
"You do realize that this mission is ranked for a 3. That means only an experienced first year student should attempt it. And I have never seen your face before, boy." She said, narrowing her eyes.
"Of course you haven't seen my face before. I only just arrived here yesterday. My name is Ivan. I am part of a Death Weapon Meister exchange program. I came from, um, Europe. I am from the European branch of DMWA. I assure you I am more than capable of taking this mission. With my Meister of course." Leo said, keeping as clear a face as he could.
The women looked at Leo thoughtfully for a moment before chuckling. "Your funeral. Don't worry though; I will be sure to send any remains to Europe." She then stamped it before handing it to him, a smile on her face. Leo took it, grinning, before turning to find his partner. And he did, eventually. She had fled after someone asked her for directions and was sitting on the steps outside. She kept scampering out of the way when someone got too close but scampering back once they left.
"Hello, little mouse. You like that spot much?" Leo jokingly asked, grinning. It was amusing to watch in the same way it was amusing to watch baby pandas try to climb stairs. She turned and blushed slightly, but managed a smile. She nodded and turned to look down the stairs. Leo, curious now, walked to the edge and looked down. He didn't see anything of interest though, just normal people going about their lives. However this seemed to interest the young girl.
Leo felt a small pit of unease in his stomach. He hadn't considered his new meister while taking the mission. He had been so caught up in the moment he forgot her. She probably wouldn't like to face an enemy she couldn't see. Leo wasn't used to having to account for other people before doing something. He looked at the small girl long and hard, trying to figure out just how to go about this.
"Hey, Lana? I got us a mission."
"Really? What is it? Are there a lot of people involved?"
"Um no. Not many people. The only major person involved we can't even see. Isn't that great?" Leo chuckled nervously. Lana looked confused for a moment and then looked down in thought. After a few moments she looked up a small twinkle of horror in her eyes.
"You don't mean. The thing we have to kill. It isn't, is it?" She asked, her eyes widening. Leo nodded his head gravely.
"It isn't really that bad really. I mean, he isn't invisible in a sense of the word. We just have to, well, look for people being pulled apart limb from limb by an unseen force and hope we can kill it before it gets away and pulls us apart limb from limb." Leo opened his mouth to say more but then stopped.
Tears were welling up at the corners of her eyes. Her bottom lip was quivering and the first whimper escaped her lips. Leo promptly freaked out. He didn't want her to cry anywhere, especially not in front of all the girls standing outside the Academy. That would ruin any chances he had with them and their friends without question. Girls hated guys who made little girls cry. Course, Leo never had any experience with making little children stop crying.
"Stop that, no need to cry. I mean, sure, there is a small chance we might die. Smaller chance in a gruesome manner. Smaller chance in a gruesome painful manner. Actually, depending on a number of factors, that chance might not be small, maybe medium sized at most." Obviously this wasn't the way to go as a few tears rolled down her cheeks.
"No, stop that! There is no reason you should cry. I wouldn't let anyone tear you apart limb from limb, they would have to kill me first so there really isn't any problem, right?" That didn't work either. She was now sobbing into her hands. Plus some people were starting to stare. Some girls were looking concerned.
Before he could think of another thing to say, a foot connected with the side of his head. Now, getting kicked in the head is bad enough. Getting kicked in the head while balancing at the top of what might possibly be the world's tallest set of stairs, is much worse. And since gravity is almost always working, you can just guess what happened next. Leo fell down the stairs, smacking his head against every other step till he reached the bottom. Oddly enough, he was able to sit up and glare at the young boy who kicked him, almost murderous intent in his eyes.
Chapter done. I own nothing but the two characters, can you possibly guess which ones? Thanks to NyxNightmare for betaing and feel free to review and tell me what you think.