Prologue: Tim and Nikki

His eyes scanned over the scene below with the sharp observation of a hawk. They were scattered about on the ground, calling out their victory to the sky above and proclaiming the reward of their kill. Some of the monstrous-looking beings removed their masks to howl at the moon, revealing their scarred-beyond-repair and scabbed features. The moonlight shone on their cold, clammy skin that was tinted blue from their undead state. Gray claws reached up and around them and plucked the glowing blue orbs right out of the air like picking plums from a tree. The beastly barbarians dangled them over their open jaws by a ghostly white wisp before long, blood red tongues unfurled to cradle the delicate, innocent orbs before drawing them in between their saliva-strung teeth and closing their maws. With slurps of satisfaction, each light blue orb was gobbled down, their glowing light forever snuffed out in the pitch darkness of the beasts' bellies.

"So disgusting," she whispered next to him. "Look at them. Despicable creatures."

He spoke in a low, even tone. "This is what happens when you dig yourself into a hole that's too deep to get out of."

"Taking innocent lives just to keep your own pathetic life." She soundlessly adjusted her crouching position on the branch next to him.

"On less severe standards, that's pretty much how the world goes 'round." He scooted closer to the edge of the thick limb.

"Let's scatter 'em like cockroaches," she said with a sneer in her voice.

He took in a quiet breath and jumped out of the tree, landing behind all of the feasting fiends. The masked beings all whirled around to face them, some slinging strings of spit as their heads turned.

She jumped and landed beside him, her black shiny hair the last to come to rest. Ten to twelve putrid, once-human monsters faced them with milky and hungry eyes. The bodies of their kill still lie around all of their feet and one of the undead let out a wet belch. Her sharp blue eyes stabbed at the offender. "You are beyond sickening."

The apparent leader of the pack stepped forward with an ogre-like growl.

He thought to himself as he looked over the bunch: "We might actually be doing this lot a favor by killing them." He spoke to all of them. "You won't be stealing any more innocent souls."

The leader's jaw stretched open and howled out his protest, his shoulder muscles bulging.

She lowered herself to a spring-loaded stance. "Your souls are ours." She reached a hand out to him.

He reached back to his partner and with all his might he flung her forward towards the foes. She somersaulted past his head and her body whirled with a white light, leaving streaks in the night air until all of her was consumed in the rotating glow. Her form morphed in the light and five blades sprouted from her center as her partner raced after her with alarming speed.

The leader spouted a cry of agony when a black and silver, five-foot-diameter shuriken stuck firmly into his chest with spurts of dark red. The great beast staggered backwards as his comrades shrieked.

He ran and jumped up high and drove his boot into the leader's chest and wrapped his fingers around the handle in the center of his weapon. As his body fell back, the weapon meister jerked the lodged blade out of the clammy flesh and back-flipped, using the leader's chest as a launch pad, and landed on the ground again, spinning his partner beside him to prepare her for another strike.

The fallen leader's comrades now rushed towards him, all closing in to the middle. He released a clam breath and slid one foot around in front of him, creating a perfect momentum to swing his partner around. In a nearly perfect circle, the creatures began to fall with blood slinging from their necks, chests and stomachs. He spun completely around, rising until he was standing again and a halo of bodies surrounded him, fallen and dead or soon to be dead. A few of the ones who survived the first strike raced forward again. He jumped and spun his weapon, slicing and slashing his way through all of the pack. Before his opponents could even offer their first strike, they were met by her deadly blade and his unmatchable skill and speed. All around the hill there were cries of agony and challenge. He continued to jump and slash, spin and slice, juke and stab, bouncing around the hilltop with grace and precision. The once-human creatures began to drop in almost a timed rhythm as he struck them down with ease. One of the targets would come from the left and he would duck and send an upward stab into its gut, followed by flipping and bringing his heel down on the next target's head and a slice on the neck, followed by vaulting off of that target and onto the next to slice yet again. His enemies were falling beneath him without him actually touching the ground much at all. His weapon spun and twirled every direction he willed as well as transformed into a kunai knife when need be. The air was filled with the smell of rotten blood and putrid last breaths until the sounds died with their emitters.

He landed on the grass with a solid thud, rising up to his full height with his partner still in hand. A soft glow had now illuminated the hill by little floating red orbs. He released a breath. "Good job, Nikki."

His weapon shone a bright with white before taking her feminine human form once again. "Thank you, Tim," she smiled, her hungry eyes looking at all the floating souls.

He stretched a little, looking at all the fallen bodies. "Bon appetite,"

"Mm-mm! Indeed." Nikki stepped forward and picked the first red orb out of the air. She opened her mouth dropped in the delicacy, chewing delightfully before swallowing all of its light. She sighed in satisfaction before going to all of the rest, eating them all like fruits from a tree.

"Not a bad turn out considering the circumstances, huh?" He said, sitting against the trunk of the tree as he waited for her to finish her meal.

"What do you mean?" she responded with both cheeks full.

"Have you noticed we're running out of missions that are suitable for our rank?"

She shrugged. "This one was pretty easy, I have to say. But I'm not worried about it. We've got enough work to keep us going. Besides, I've been enjoying the breaks as they come."

"It just seems like there would be more that Lord Death wants us to do. Of course with the East in the state that it is, maybe he doesn't want to send students right in the line of fire." He looked down between his legs, smoothing out his short black hair.

"Well, if we keep proving our worth with missions like these, maybe we'll be in the East sooner than you think." She swallowed another soul, this time with a bit of a slurp. "Hmhm… Excuse me."

"It would be interesting to be sent over there, wouldn't it? Right where all the big stuff is happening?"

She turned to him with a sigh. "Timothy."

He looked up at her with a confused expression. "Nichole?"

"Why do you keep talking like you're not going to get these opportunities?" she said as she approached him, licking her fingers from the last soul devoured.

He looked back down again, playing with a blade of grass. "Just don't want to get my hopes up. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than get the wind taken out of my sails."

"But you have to be confident. Look at you. You're the most envied weapon meister at the academy. Weapons everywhere would tackle a banshee with a frying pan just to be yours."

His eyes lifted back up to her face, blinking once. "I am confident. But I'm also aware of the very real possibility that we won't be chosen even after I make you a Death Scythe."

Her mouth went crooked and she shook her head at him. "You're more than competent and you're entirely too modest." Her fingers purposely went through his black hair to mess it up after he had just smoothed it into place. "And we'll get there."

Tim fixed his hair again with a sigh. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yes. Let's go see what's next." Nikki started down the hill and Tim followed.

Upon arriving at the academy, the team was greeted by several friends who would give him a pat on the back or shake his hand before he went on his way, congratulating him for his most recent victories. The duo continued down a long hallway where they walked through the large double doors that stretched all the way to the ceiling. This room wasn't really a room. It was more like a floating platform in the middle of a blue sky, Death's mirror at the end of it across from them. Nikki and Tim went up the steps and found that Lord Death already had company.

His shadowy, jagged cloaked figure that was much like a starched sheet of paper loomed over another couple, nodding in acknowledgement with his empty black eye sockets looking down at them. Tim recognized the girl from behind immediately and barely pursed his lips.

"Hey, C!" Nikki called, "Back so soon?"

Christian and Katy both turned around and Lord Death looked up at the same time. Katy's eyes glinted and shined a little upon seeing Tim. His did the same for a moment as he raised his eyebrows in acknowledgement at her. She barely had a smile to offer him at all. This typically wasn't a good sign.

"Tim, Nikki!" Lord Death bounced a little, his zig-zagged figure leaning from side to side. "Good ta see ya! How did your mission go? Did you collect all of those Kishin souls outside the forest?"
Tim nodded. "Yes, sir. All twelve souls have been collected."

"Good, good! I never doubted you, of course." The headmaster's professor-like, young sounding voice bounced with his enthusiasm and pride in his students.

"Thank you, sir."

Katy turned to Tim shyly. "Hi."

He approached her gently. "Hey. How did it go?"

She sighed. "Well…"

Christian swept up and put an elbow on her shoulder. "Katy landed an awesome slice on this demon guy. You should have seen her. In mid-air, too!"

"We lost him."

Tim stared down at her a little. "You didn't catch him?"

She shook her head solemnly.

He looked up to Lord Death.

"Interesting how certain little things that can seem so insignificant out of context can turn into a huge advantage or disadvantage when being practiced. For you, Katy, it was that moment when he came from another angle. And you lost grip of your weapon."

She winced a little. "Yes, sir."

"You dropped Christian?! Hahaha!" Nikki giggled.

"Hey, hey, she didn't drop me, all right?" He stepped towards Nikki. "I was knocked from her grasp." He stuck his nose up a little.

Tim watched their exchange before looking to Katy and lowering his voice. "You dropped him?"

"It—it was an accident! I didn't have—my mind on where…the guy was coming from and…" She looked away ashamedly.

"There's nothing wrong with a little bit of experience through defeat, Katy. Don't give up." Lord Death's large cartoony hand lighted on her back and patted gently.

"Thank you, sir," she said in a tiny voice.

"As for Tim and Nikki, I do not currently have any more assignments for you. You are welcome to take a break this weekend and maybe have some time to work ahead on some homework as you like."

"Thank you, sir," Nikki and Tim said in unison. Nikki turned to leave, walking after Christian. "I hate to say I told you so, but—"

"Hey, knock it off," he said quietly so that his partner couldn't hear. "She's got some confidence issues."

"That's what I'm talking about."

"She needs some time. We're going to train more."

"Are you jealous yet?"

"Of you? Never." He walked on, looking ahead.

"I was always for a little bit of in-good-fun brother and sister rivalry. But you're making it too easy. It's not as much fun as I thought it would be."

He huffed. "Keep talking like that, sis. I want to make sure you are unpleasantly surprised when we sneak up on you and I become a Death Scythe first."

"In your dreams." She shoved him a little.

Christian gave a playful shove back as they went on down the hall. Behind them, Tim and Katy were walking slowly out of Lord Death's office. He spoke in low, tender tones, knowing how sensitive a loss made her and how it quite literally ruined her day. "It's not so bad. It's really common. I mean, hardly anyone makes it through the academy without losing a guy. Heck, a lot of them lose the battle entirely."

"I know, I know it's just…I just didn't want it to be me."

"You tried your best. That's what matters." He shrugged.

"… I think everyone expects more from me because of Christian…and you."

He glanced at her. "Nah. People respect you. You're good. Very talented. You just had a bad day. Everyone has bad days."

"You never have any," she said quietly.

He sighed. "Is that what it is? Has Katy just had a bad day?" He playfully put his arm around her and pulled her in tight to his side, already making her smile. "Is it just so bad? Just too much for the Katy to handle?"

She giggled a little, but only a little.

He walked on with her under his arm. "How about dinner tomorrow. Would that make things better?"

She looked up at him. "We have homework."

"Then we'll have a homework dinner date. What do you say?"

Her smile grew. "Okay."

He kissed her forehead with a soft smile and walked on through the hall, her head leaned against his shoulder and her arm around his waist.