Shadow Hunter Chapter 13

Deep inside a cave in the middle of nowhere a lonely sword sits. Lost its own will to madness and its form to fate, inside a tortured soul weeps.

[Excalibur]

I sit within my own soul staring at the cause of my turmoil. Excalibur. The source of all my problems, as well as all my power. As if I was sane enough to use it. My memories of my actions are blurred and infrequent, I only know that outside of this place my personality changes completely and I don't think my form is entirely human anymore. Now that I think about it I'm not sure if I ever was. I don't remember much about my self, not even my name. Although I think it started with an "A" I've been calling my self Excalibur so long that I've forgotten who I used to be.

The sword in my hand glows and a deep voice echoes through ought my soul, "Your previous self is of no concern. Excalibur's continued existence is your primary prerogative." I sigh; I've been here listening to this damn sword for longer than I remember. I've resigned myself to this unending torment. Lost all hope of escaping this eternal prison.

[Soul]

Tsubaki and I stand in to doorway of our hotel room for the night. It's an average room, a desk, a chair, and only one bed. Which brings me to our current predicament. I turn to Tsubaki, "So your telling me they didn't have any two bed rooms available?"

She walks in to the room sits down on the bed. "They did, but the prices for those was much higher. Is it bothering you Soul? Are you saying you don't want to share a bed with me?" The way she says that causes blood to rush to my face and my ears to turn red. I take a deep breath to stop the oncoming nosebleed and try my best to answer without stuttering.

"W-well you know, I mean, that uh-"

Thankfully she interrupts my rambling, "It's ok I'm just messing with you Soul." She says with a bright smile. "We can't afford the bigger room because if you've forgotten we don't have very mush money at our disposal right now. You're dressed in rags and as much as I know you love looking at me in my jungle attire I can't go around like this forever. We need clothes food and transportation if we ever want to make it to our destination."

I sigh as I acknowledge her point. "That sounds good and all but where am I going to sleep?" I look over at the old office chair sitting under the desk. "That chair doesn't exactly look comfortable."

She leans back on the bed laying on one of the pillows as she talks, "Don't worry the manager said that we can get a pull out bed if we need one." She blushes a little and looks at me with a smile, "But I don't mind sharing."

I try my best to ignore her statement and cool my face to a relatively normal color as I leave the room. I hear her giggling as I close the door behind me. Once I'm out I sigh and lean against the wall. What is up with Tsubaki? I know she's crazy and a murderer and a whole bunch of other things but lately she has been acting really weird. She kept looking at me the whole walk into the village, and the innuendo and sexual implications have been nonstop. Honestly that girl is going to give me a heart attack. I stand up and decide to go the front desk and get the pull out, but before I get five steps away the door opens behind me.

Tsubaki walks out and quickly catches up with me, "Soul you weren't going to go shopping without me were you?" I open my mouth to tell her I'm just heading to the front desk but she speaks before I can get a word in. "I need to go with you! There are things I need." She puts her hand on her chin. "Although I can't exactly go out shopping like this." She gestures to her leaf made clothing. She finally looks up at me, "Oh I know!" and before I can even ask what she grabs my hand and transforms into her short sword form.

I look at the blade in my hand and see Tsubaki's reflection smiling back at me. I try my best to ignore the fact that this reflection doesn't have clothes as I talk. "What he hell Tsubaki! Why did you transform? Turn back already!"

She just smiles at me, "Oh lighten up Soul. You know I can't walk around the way I was, and I can't exactly let you do clothes shopping for me. This way I can go with you without being noticed." She says this as if this is the most obvious thing in the world.

"Good for you but what am I going to do when people ask me why I'm walking around with a god damn ninja blade?"

"Well it would be easier than me walking around with a giant scythe now wouldn't it?"

Well I mean she does have a poi- "Wait what does that have to do with it I have clothes! And I wouldn't care about you picking my clothes out!"

She seems to think for a second before transforming back. Wait did I actually get her to stop? She opens the door to our room and leads me inside. "If what you said is true, take your clothes off." She says with a grin. I gape. "If you really don't care then give me your clothes and ill go shopping. That is unless you're a liar."

Damn it! She trapped me using my own words. I go in the bathroom and strip down to my boxers and quickly toss my clothes out the door. While mumbling under my breath; "So uncool."

[Tsubaki]

I put on Soul's ripped pants, although they look more like shorts now, and his t-shit on too although I have a little trouble fitting it over my chest. I hesitate before deciding against asking for his boxers as well. I've teased him enough for today.

After getting directions from the concierge I head towards the market. On my way there I get a few looks at my choice of attire but not as many as I would have I had come dressed like Eve. I quickly create a mental shopping list hoping to be as effective as possible. 'Ok, we obviously need clothes, some food maybe ill grab pizza, and toiletries: deodorant, tooth brush, um what els-' I'm interrupted from my thoughts by the feeling of running into some one.

It seems that amidst my mental rambling I took a wrong turn somewhere and am now in an empty alleyway. I look up and see that I ran into someone who seems more monster than man, he has giant muscles all over his body and while I'm on the ground he doesn't even look phased. Behind him are four slightly smaller guys probably his entourage. I quickly stand up and dust my self off; I don't want any trouble with these guys. "I'm sorry for running into you, it was my fault I wasn't paying attention. Please forgive me." I give a slight bow and turn around to leave to head towards the market.

That's when he put his hand on my shoulder. "Come on babe, if your really sorry you gotta show me. Dey say actions speak louder dan words." His gang chuckles as they all surround me. "You shouldn't try to run. Do you know why we hang out here? This is my favorite alley because the two building on either side of us have three-foot thick walls. Thick enough that no matter how loud you scream no one will hear. But that doesn't have to be a bad thing for you. If you play nice we could have you scream out in pleasure instead of pain."

I can't say I didn't try. A smile creeps onto my face and I can hear his crews get exited probably thinking I was going to go along with this. "Are you sure nobody can hear us from here?"

His head nods emphatically, "Trust me." From the look in his eyes I can tell I'm not the first girl he's cornered here.

I grab his hand off of my shoulder and turn around with a sweet smile on my face. "Well then, boys" I hold his hand in both of mine. "Lest get Started!" With a grin I turn around and using all my physical strength I hurl the large man into his friends. It takes them a second but soon they realize that they've been led on.

The first one to react is the one standing closest to the exit of the alley. He brandishes a knife and runs at me "You gonna regret that bitch!" He thrusts the knife at me and I go into smoke bomb mode as he passes through me. I reform on the other side of him. He looks back at me with fear on his face. "What the fuck you some kinda ghost? Fuck that shit! I'm out." He tries to look for an exit but then realizes that I'm now blocking the only one. "Shit! HELP! THERES SOME KINDA MONSTER!" He screams.

He and the rest of the gang now seem to realize that I may not be so easy to take out. My smile grows "Aren't you the ones that said there's no point in screaming?"

The leader finally recovers and punches the screaming guy in the face. "Shut up! Now I don't know what she is but there is no way any member of my gang is going to cry and runaway because of one freaky whore!" My eyebrow twitches at that. "There are five of us and one of her." He picks up a rusty looking pipe from the ground and his followers copy. "Now lets teach her a lesson."

The atmosphere becomes even tenser as the hysteria stops and all the members now regard me with cool dispositions, makeshift bats in hand. They seem ready to fight. Good. Without warning I dash at them almost to quick to see. They've taken up an arrowhead formation with the leader in the front and two on either side of him. I dash right past the leader and attack the lackey on his right. I shift my hand into a kusarigama blade and slash downwards. He raises his pipe to block but my hand slices through it easily also scratching his eye. I notice the boss out of the corner of my eye turning to swing at me and I grab his friend, who is now screaming in pain and clutching his eye. I grab him by the hair and use his skull to block the incoming pipe blow. As soon as the hit connects he goes silent.

With that enemy down I dash to the next one on that side before the boss can interfere. He sees me coming and swings his pipe horizontally like a baseball bat, I slide under his swing and through his legs before popping up behind him and using my Kusarigama to slit his throat.

The boss sees his man go down and swings at me enraged. I dodge his first swing and then turned my hand into short sword mode. His second swing was sloppier than the first and using my short sword I cut off the hand holding the pipe. I can hear the man behind me getting ready for his attack. I quickly jump up and use the leader as a springboard to launch my self into my would-be assailant. However before the hit I go into smoke bomb mode and detonate letting his swing pass harmlessly through the smoke. I materialize right in front of him, he takes a step back in surprise and I sink my short sword hand into his gut.

Now I have to admit I admire this last guy. Despite seeing his comrades go down and his leader maimed, instead of running he picks up one of his fallen comrade's weapons and is now dual wielding pipes with a smirk on his face. He runs at me with both of his weapons held high. Admirable, but stupid. As he strikes I don't even bother dodging, black lines run along my skin as my arm turns into a familiar black blade. I don't so much block as I hold my arm up and this own force cuts the pipes in half against it. He was running at me with enough momentum that all I do is angle the blade a bit more towards him and he impales himself going down almost to my wrist before I shake him off.

Now that the pawns are taken care of I turn to the only living member of the gang. The leader stares at me while holding his mutilated hand. At some point it occurs to him that I'm now on the other side of him and thus no longer blocking his escape. He breaks out into a dead sprint, running like his life depends on it towards the exit.

I love it when they run. I summon a shadow puppet that extends it's arm and grabs the leader's ankle forcing him to the ground. The man, if I can still call him that, begins crying and trying to claw his way back with his one good hand as my puppet drags him closer to me, back into the shadows.

[Marie]

I sigh for the hundredth time as me and Stein make our way through the woods of Eastern Europe. When lord Death sent Stein and I out to retrieve Soul and Tsubaki I never imagined it would mean going all the way to Europe. I mean when I found out where death was sending us I was overjoyed! I've never been to Europe before, what am I going to wear, what am I going to buy? However that fantasy was cut short when our helicopter stopped over a clearing in the middle of the forest.

Since then it's been four days of me and Stein hiking through the forest, looking for god knows what. I sigh again. All of a sudden I stop, although not by choice, Stein stops in front of me and I find my self, barreling into his back. I fall back on my butt and takes a small step forward but otherwise doesn't acknowledge me. "What's wrong Stein? Why are we stopping? Now that I think about it why are we here?"

He speaks without looking at me instead heading towards his right through some thick bushes while I try and keep up with him. "You read my report right? The one on Natatsukasa and Evans."

I blush a little as I remember that I spilled coffee on the report immediately after receiving it. "I uh skimmed it."

I hear Stein sigh as he continues through the bushes. "Well it was hypothesized that Soul and Tsubaki might gain portions of Excalibur's power and be influenced by them. Which explains Tsubaki's rash behavior. However not in the report is the story of how Excalibur came to be. Skipping all the non-essential information Excalibur was a sword created by Eibon and he used to power of the philosopher's stone to keep its power in check. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"Um not really." I admit bashfully. Finally the underbrush clears and we stand in a clearing with a small rundown house in the center. Stein walks towards the house as he talks.

"The reason lord death summoned us was to stop Tsubaki and if necessary Soul as well. We are here because my hypothesis about Soul and Tsubaki was correct and they have developed strange abilities such as flight and super speed and we don't even know what else they can do." He pushes down the remains of the front door and proceeds to begin looking around the house. I follow and look around as well even though I still don't know why were here. "To combat the abilities that they've gained from Excalibur; we're going to find the philosophers stone."

"So that explains why were here. But where exactly is here? Why would the philosophers stone be in this rundown house?"

Stein turns stops searching the bottom floor and proceeds to begin up the stairs, which doesn't look entirely safe. "My research showed that this is the area where King Arthur spent his childhood. By researching population movements of the time as well as the settlements of the era and Arthur's pre King income it's highly likely that he lived around this area. I believe that this was at one point is house." He goes into what looks like a small bedroom and goes over to a desk. "Found it." I walk up to him and see him holding what looks to be an extremely old journal. He rips opens the book and catches a small ring as it falls out.

The ring is just a small silver band with a medium sized red sphere in the center. "Stein is that it? I thought the stone was supposed to be big enough to sheathe the sword in?"

He holds the ring up examining it before putting it in his pocket. "It is, or was. Arthur was a poor child and after ripping the sword out he used it's power to shatter the stone and sold off the pieces. This is the only piece he kept. I found its location through one his memoirs that he wrote before going mad. We have what we came for so let's go. Now all we need to do if find Tsubaki."

[Maka]

I stand in front of a door id hoped to never see again. I keep whispering to myself 'It's for Soul, 'It's for Soul.' I raise my arm to knock but lower it because I know what will follow, and besides that I'm not even sure that this will work. I stand there in indecision and think about why I'm here in the first place.

Back when I fought Tsubaki had a random scythe; it was the first non-magical weapon I've ever used. I trained and practiced with it so I could fight Tsubaki and defeat her. It wasn't even close. She tossed me around, played with me, it was humiliating. Me, daughter of the greatest scythe meister of her generation; and I'm the greatest of my generation, beaten like I was nothing. I realized that it couldn't possibly have been my skills that were lacking so it had to be my equipment.

After that I looked up all the scythe magical weapons in the city and sadly there are only two. The first is Soul and the second is… I take a deep breath and think one more time 'this is for Soul' before knocking on the door. At first it's silence I let out my breath turning around to walk home "He's probably not home."

As I lift my leg to step off of his porch the door flies open and all of a sudden I'm lifted into the air by strong arms, "MY DARLING MAKA CHAN HAS COME TO VISIT!" Goddamn it.

A half hour later my father has calmed down and were sitting down across for each other having tea while staring awkwardly at each other. I try not to look around the house because for me this place holds more sad memories than happy. I by chance see a hole in the wall that was poorly patched long ago. That was left when mama heard papa was cheating. She punched his face through the drywall. For me this house was nothing but the arena in which my parents fought.

"So Maka, what brings you here?" Papa asks with a disgustingly hopeful look on his face, maybe he thinks I'm here to forgive him. As if I would ever do that.

I consider my answer and know what I'm going to do is underhanded and manipulative but I don't have a choice. 'It's for Soul' "Papa? Do you really love me like you say?"

His disgusting cheating smile spreads even wider across his face. "Of course Maka, Papa will always love his dear Maka chan! All I want is for you to be safe and happy!"

"Do you mean that, papa?" He nods his head and moves to the couch that I'm sitting on and puts is arm around me. I hide my face as I say this next part. "If- if that's true, if your not lying to me prove it. If you want me to forgive you."

At the mention of possible redemption he almost jumps up. He hugs me and says excitedly. "Yes! Any thing you want Maka chan! Anything just say it!"

I almost smile at how easy this is although using him like this makes me sick. Using people is what he does. "Then help me get Soul." He looks at me in shock before putting his arm down and looking at me seriously. "You said you want me happy and safe right? Soul makes me happy like nothing else and I'm going to go after him. There is nothing you can do to stop me. The only way to keep me safe is to help me. And after that I'll forgive you and we can be a family again? Don't you want that papa?" I don't know when I started crying; maybe it was at the thought of having a family again even though I know it's a lie.

He gives me a solemn look and seems to be internally battling himself. "Maka, baby I would but; that is going against Shinigami's direct orders. If you want I can talk to him I can make saving soul my number one-"

"THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH! Papa I need this! This is the one thing I want! Please as your daughter I beg you! You say that you won't because of Shinigami sama but tell me what's more important to you? Your boss, or your daughter?"

"I –uh, its that" he sighs. "You are baby. To papa Maka is always number one." He hugs me and I hug him back for the first time in years. 'This was all for Soul'

[Soul]

I shift uncomfortably on the pull out bed. It's hard springs pressing into my back. I'm wearing some shorts and a shirt Tsubaki got me while at the market. I look over to her looking so comfortable asleep on the bed. I can't see it but se said that pajamas were a waste and so she crawled into bed dressed in only her underwear. I swear that woman is trying to give me a heart attack. I shift again on this goddamn pull out. 'I'm never going to get to sleep like this' in the morning we plan to leave this place, now that we have supplies, and head towards the strange presence. If I don't get some sleep I know that trip will be even more miserable. I spare another glance towards Tsubaki; she did say she wouldn't mind sharing.

I get off of the pull out and walk towards the bed. Tsubaki is laying the middle sleeping peacefully. 'She's sleeping under the sheets and comforter so if I stay on top of the sheets it's ok, right?' I gently lift the comforter and slip inside. I try my best so not bother Tsubaki but in a bed this size I can't help but brush against her. I feel her heat even through the sheets. I end up facing away from Tsubaki, towards the wall. Once I lay down I instantly feel better. It's not just the mattress or the fact that I can feel Tsubaki's warm body through the sheets. It's my Soul. For the first time in a long time I feel at peace.

Bam! Another chapter finished! Woot I finnaly got my self a new computer! Hopfully this will make writing easier, cross your fingers! So what did you think of the chapter? Nothing really important happened (exept stein finding the philosophers stone) But this is getting ready for the big chapter whice if it's not next chapter it'll probably be the one after that. By the way did you guys see the whole philosophers stone thing coming back? I guess I only briefly mentioned it but I didn't want to foreshadow to much and give it away. Surely you caught on faster than Marie did though right?

If you're a fan of my other stories let me give you some updates:

For all the Some thing Unexpected fans, im sorry about the long wait. I would tell you im almost done but that would be a lie the reson this is taking so long is partially it's not getting as much support as Shadow Hunter so I feel more obligated to work on Shadow hunter. The other part is that I really odnt know what to write. I know I was heading somewhere with it but I forgot. But don't worry ill figure it out eventually bot for now don't expect anything anytime soon.

For fans of the Great City, don't worry. I know exactly where this story is going to go. Just a little confused as to how ill get it there. That ill figure out shortly so don't worry. The next chapter of great city will probably be out before the next Shadow hunter, probably.

Now that I'm done rambling thanks for reading and as always reviews are appreciated :3