Lalalalala~! Thanks for the reviews and such~!
Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater.
It was Sunday night, and I stared into the dark, disheveled alleys of Death City. Some street lights were knocked over and broken. I stayed perched on the roof of a building even though I knew my target was below me, somewhere in these streets.
"You hear it?" I asked my Weapon partner, knowing that I sure did. It wasn't very sneaky, that's for sure.
"Sure do." Char said, "And it's close."
I smirked, my excitement growing, "Our first egg."
"Kuro, it's coming."
I nodded and listened closely. Soon, one could hear its inhuman panting from a few streets away as it searched for souls. I jumped off the building, bouncing off a storefront canopy and landing gracefully on the pavement.
"It's so noisy." I muttered to myself before addressing Char, "Okay, so, all I have to do is kill it, and you get the Kishin egg, right?" Kaori and I didn't really hunt down pre-Kishins as missions. That was only needed if they got in the way.
"Yep, easy enough, right?"
"Mhm." I aimed in the direction of the noise, shooting the arrow just as the pre-Kishin turned the corner. It hit one of its eyes, and it bellowed and backed away in response to the attack. I was grateful Char and I had that extra practice this morning. By now I was at least decent with my aim.
Now, what wasn't decent was the pre-Kishin in front of me. I grimaced at its hideous appearance. It was six feet high, and still had the appearance of a human. However, its skin was writhing, moving and pulsating as if it had a life of its own. The features such as its eyes and mouth were horribly distorted and disfigured.
I plucked an arrow out of the quiver behind my back and aimed as it charged at us, screeching wildly.
"Uh, Kuro?"
I concentrated on my aiming, ignoring the girl that rested in her bow. The second eye was much smaller than the other.
"Aim from another angle." Char said, her anxiety becoming evident as the thing came closer.
"Shut up…" I pulled back on the wire, about ready to shoot.
"Kuro, for Death's sake!" Char yelled; it was mere feet away. I shot and jumped out of the way, just as it spewed yellow bile out of its mouth.
"It hit!" I grinned, having successfully shot its second eye out, making it completely blind.
"The spit is corrosive! Be careful!" Char exclaimed as I watched the pre-Kishin hold its face painfully before starting to spit in various areas.
"Aren't you at least a little impressed?" I smirked. I knew she was worried, but I couldn't help but be reminded of Kaori and I during our missions. We'd crack jokes and tease each other during the most irrelevant of times because we never took these things seriously. Though, we also had nothing to lose. I shook my head. I should be understanding of Char's cautiousness. I needed to stop comparing her to Kaori.
"Watch out!"
I jumped back, and the bile that landed in front of me ate at the pavement and into the ground. How did it see me?
"This doesn't make sense." I muttered. It turned its head back in my direction and I blinked. It was using its hearing. It spat at me again, and because I was against a wall I dove to the left. My back hit a dumpster, making it clang loudly. I knew I had to move, but then to my surprise, its arm extended into a tentacle of skin. It wrapped around me and threw me into the pavement, my body landing hard. I groaned, picking myself up from the rubble.
"Are-?" I quickly shushed Char, not even letting her finish. The pre-Kishin wasn't moving, too busy listening in on where to strike next. I picked up a good sized pebble and threw it at the dumpster I was thrown away from. As I thought, it headed back over there, and I quickly shot it but I missed. All that did was make it look the way the arrow flew.
"It hasn't completely lost its human appearance yet, so it may still have vitals like a heart. Try that!" Char said as I tried moving from where I was now. I ran up to a wall and jumped, pushing my foot against it as a boost to grab onto a sign hanging perpendicular to the wall. I was trying to get onto the roof, and I pulled myself up just as it slammed its tentacle arm into the store wall. Because it broke through it, the bricks holding the sign up faltered, and the sign fell, making me fall with it.
Its tentacle wrapped around my ankle and started pulling me toward it. I grabbed at the ground to find something to hold onto but there was nothing. I turned to it and watched in horror as its abdomen seemed to open vertically, but organs weren't seen. It was more writhing skin, a small blob of pulsating red meat attached to the right side of its chest, and… a face? No, there were faces; faces molded into its skin.
It's going to absorb me; soul and all.
I reached for an arrow but they all fell out of my quiver, and the pre-Kishin was pulling me closer still.
"Kuro, your right, there's one to your right!" Char told me from inside the bow.
I grabbed the arrow and, in a panic, shot without checking my aim. My heart almost stopped until it seized dragging me. The arrow hit the blob of red meat, and for some reason it started convulsing. I pulled the thing off my ankle and crawled back towards the fallen wall sign.
"Was that its heart?" I asked Char, but as I caught my breath, I realized something was glowing from the arrow. It was a flame.
What was a small flame a mere second ago then became large enough to engulf the entire body of the pre-Kishin. It fell to its knees, succumbing to the flames, and before it hit the ground it disappeared into a flash of red light. A dark red Kishin egg was left behind.
"I didn't know you had fire capabilities." I said, allowing myself to relax. She didn't say anything, just turned back into her human form and walked to the soul.
I was expecting some type sarcastic comment, but it didn't come. That's when I knew something was wrong. She picked up the soul, but instead stared at it for a few moments, her mind miles away from here.
"Here's the thing," she said, coming back, "I don't have 'fire capabilities'; at all. I have no idea where that came from."
The next morning, I walked into Shinigami-sama's office and bowed, "Good morning, Shinigami-sama."
"Hello hello." Shinigami-sama waved with his big goofy gloved hand, "How did your first mission go?"
"It went well; only 98 more Kishin eggs to go!" I excluded the Witch soul, knowing Char and I still had a long way to go before that one.
"You'll get those in no time." Shinigami-sama said, "Is there anything I can help you with?"
"I was just wondering if I could get a schedule? Just in case Char is unavailable for any reason and I won't be completely lost."
There was a different question I wanted to ask, but I just didn't know how to ask it. Can Weapons obtain different abilities other than turning into a weapon as they get older? Is that even possible? Did that question even make sense?
"Ah, yes. Here you are." he handed me a piece of paper, "I had a feeling you might ask for it. Is there anything else you need?" The tone of his voice made me wonder if he knew I had something else on my mind, but I pushed that thought away.
I hesitated, wondering if I should ask. I was probably just being paranoid, but it was strange. I've never seen that before; not even with Kaori.
"No." I said after a long pause, and Shinigami-sama didn't reply. I smiled at him, a quick gesture to hide how awkward I felt, "I better get going. I wouldn't want to be late on my first day of school! Thank you for your time."
I turned to walk away, but before I could reach the hallway, I heard him call out my name.
"Yes?" I looked back.
"Don't underestimate yourself."
I didn't know how to reply, so all I could manage was a nod. Months of being told I was useless got to me at times. I wasn't used to kind, encouraging words.
"And also," he said, speaking in a gentle but serious tone, "Thank you for saving my son."
I managed to find my voice then, "Of course, Shinigami-sama."
I met up with Char afterward, and as soon as she and I walked through the classroom doors, I felt eyes on me. It was hard to ignore them.
"Can they be any more obvious?" I heard Char mutter, throwing glares in the faces of the eyes she caught. She took my arm and dragged my stiff, tense body to our seats. I hated this attention, this bad attention. I immediately thought the worst and assumed they somehow found out about my affiliation with Noah. My seat was on the very edge next to the stairs that led to the higher seats. A couple of students passed by and I could hear them murmuring.
"That's the girl I was talking about. She was saved by Maka and Soul a few weeks ago."
"Didn't she just get out of the infirmary last Friday? Why didn't she have a partner?"
Their speech became inaudible then, and I felt some mental relief. All of this unwanted attention was not from them knowing about Noah and I, but rather about the circumstances that caused my late enrollment.
It was better than the former, but I still felt uncomfortable. I sighed and leaned back in my seat, knowing I had to get used to it, even if it was for a little while.
End of Chapter IX
- Limiterlys