Prologue: Odette and William

Outside, she stood beside his motorcycle, her blue coat now buttoned around her. He stepped in front of her and mounted his vehicle, starting it and revving the motor a little as she smoothly took her seat behind him without a word. When he began to ride away, she placed her hands on his waist so she wouldn't be knocked off by his start. She was used to him speeding. The duo left the campus and went into town where the city itself was made of cobble stone and brick. He stopped in front of an old warehouse of some kind and put his kickstand down. She dismounted and began walking towards a dark alley where grumbles could already be heard. He followed a few paces behind her.

Sure enough at the end of the alley was a dark beastly form hunched over a bloody mass that she saw—upon closer inspection—was a mauled dog. With slurping sounds and smacking of lips, the seven foot tall monstrosity hovered over its kill, chewing on a bone and sucking off the meat thereof.

She stared at it hard, her heart tender for the stray dog.

"That's one of Kishin Carvalho's mutts," he said, standing beside her with his hands still hidden in his pockets.

Upon hearing their casual exchange, the beast threw its head by its long gray-ish neck to face them, showing three vertical slits in its face with red orbs in the middle. It opened its maw and let out a garbled shriek of challenge.

He looked to her to see if her mind had changed in the least, knowing what he would find regardless.

Her cerulean eyes stared at the beast's face without budging or even blinking. "He'll fall hard." She spaced her feet apart.

The monster's claws scraped across the cobblestone as it propelled itself forward, bounding across the alley and shaking the ground with its weight, a growl increasing volume in its throat.

He gave a little tug on each side of his black leather jacket. "That he will," he said quietly as he went to stand in front of her.

The beast continued to race forward, an inky black tongue flopping about outside its jaws.

He crouched down and reached behind him for her hand, his deep green eyes on the monster. She grabbed his hand and flipped over top of him, using his back as a launch pad. As her body somersaulted to his front, his hand began to glow white through her fingers. As soon as her feet touched down, his form had transformed enough for her to swing him over her head. Once her feet were planted and her stance was stable, the glow left his form, unveiling a seven foot long zanbato with a silver and black blade that was almost two feet wide. In a smoothly connected movement, she swung the giant sword up towards the beast's throat.

It let out a sharp snarl as his blade hacked into its neck, spurting black blood over the stone. In the monster's brief disorientation, she sprang up and flipped over its head, landing another slice on its shoulder while upside down. This time, her opponent's howl was much louder and filled with anger and frustration. It returned with a swipe of its razor claws. She blocked, planting her feet to sustain the hit. She glanced down when her feet slid back. She threw off its claws and feinted to the side when it struck again.

"Don't let it catch you off your feet," said his voice from the wide blade.

She ducked one of the monster's swipes and rolled again. "I didn't plan to!"

"RAAAGH!" The gray beast pulled back its naked, bloody wrist.

"It's a Kishin minion of Carvalho's, Odette, it's—"

The monster's black tongue shot out at her. She flipped backwards, letting it spear into the ground under her. Her feet landed flat on the wall as she swung her weapon to compensate her center of gravity. Like a rubber band, she shot off the wall, using her partner as a lever. With a spin, the toe of her boot crashed into its head.

"RRRAH!" The Kishin crashed into the back alley wall, destroying a dumpster with its impact.

She landed and looked into the flat of her blade, seeing a reflection of his face and naked shoulders. "What does that mean?"

The monster got back to its feet and knuckles like a gorilla and stared with its three eyes wide and its fangs bared. Its shoulders hook as its ribs expanded. They continued to push out until the bones fazed through its skin. The ends of the black ribs stretched out, pulling the rest of the skin on its stomach apart and revealing its organs inside. The bones quivered and spread out, opening like giant spider legs.

Her mouth fell open a little, eyes wide.

"That's what that means," said her weapon.

Its ribs shot forward straight towards her. Odette flipped out of the way and hacked down on three of the black bones, which were severed under the blade. Six more came from behind her on her descent, forcing her to awkwardly maneuver the zanbato to shield her shoulder and back. She spun thin and sharp to free herself as she landed, immediately crouching low. A bone beside her foot flicked behind her ankle, knocking her back as six more came from above to skewer her to the ground. Odette pushed herself backwards on her back to evade, blocking with her weapon whenever they speared down at her body. Finally there was enough room to roll.

"Look out—"

A rib stabbed through her coat next to her waist, pinning her. "Rh!" She swung her sword awkwardly but could not reach a range acceptable to free herself. Her partner's face appeared in the flat of the silver blade again, stretching his neck to see her. Four more bones pierced her clothes and began dragging her across the cobblestone. Odette struggled and flail, trying to escape but her zanbato was too big to maneuver this close. The monster hissed in satisfaction as her body was being reeled in to its open torso, black blood dripping from every edge.

"… Odette—"

She growled through her teeth as her shoulder entered the beast's body, pushing between its rancid lungs.

Her partner grunted when a couple ribs snapped around his blade and pulled him inward as well.

"Ugh!" Putrid black liquid dribbled down her forehead as the monster's ribs began to cage her inside next to its organs, squishing her so that her zanbato was useless. She sighed. Her hand began to glow blue, illuminating the insides of her smelly, dank prison. The light grew and popped with electric-like strings of static. With a powerful thrust, she jammed her glowing fist deep into its exposed stomach. An explosion of blue light blew her bright red hair about and collapsed the monster's insides.

It screamed and howled in the sudden shock of pain. The bones that encased her and her weapon now pushed her out and left her to spill out on the stone, sticky with black blood.

Odette quickly snatched up her zanbato and spun him into position as the monstrosity staggered backwards into the dented dumpster again. Without a moment's hesitation, she leapt into the air and kicked off the brick wall next to her, gaining more height to fall with maximum momentum. "Hrah!" She swung his great blade and sliced through the monster's neck with ease, landing steadily on the other side of it.

Immediately the beast's cries were squelched, its maw still hung open.

The weapon meister stood perfectly still, her stance automatically set for another attack.

Slowly the monster's head toppled over, sliding off of its neck with a rather disgusting, wet sound. It landed on the stone with a thud much like dropping a sack of potatoes. It rolled a little as its body followed, crashing down next to it and producing a halo of inky blood around it. The foul smelling liquid filled the crevices between each stone and flowed down the alley in hundreds of little streams. Soon a large red orb appeared above the corpse, its glow filling the alley.

Odette wrinkled her nose at the nastiness she had been covered in as her partner began to take his human form. He stood next to her and looked up at the floating Kishin soul that was the size of a large pumpkin.

"Damn. I godda eat that?"

"Excuse me, I'm covered in a Kishin's bodily fluids. Your complaints hold no merit." She jerked her arms to flick some of the grossness off of her coat sleeves.

William reached up to pull the big red orb down in front of him, wrinkling his brow at it. He looked back at his meister.

"Well?" She nodded at the soul. "Go on."

"… It's enormous."

Odette adjusted some of her clothes, brushing off more monster blood. "Tasty tasty."

He sighed, his mouth going crooked. Finally he opened his jaw wide and took a bite out of the jelly-like soul. After chewing and swallowing he repeated the process. Odette watched as he took his last bite. His throat flexed as it slid down into his stomach. All the light had disappeared from the alley as he stared hard into space, standing still.

She stared at him. "… So?"

For a moment he remained still. Then he belched loudly and cleared his throat. William tugged his leather jacket into place, turning to her and running his hand back through his shaggy dark hair. "Juicy."

Odette stared back the way they had come. "Cool. Let's go home."

He trotted up behind her. "Wait—" William caught up and carefully took her arm, turning her to him.

"What?"

He pointed to her side. Odette looked to where he addressed and pulled back her coat and lifted up her shirt. A bloody cut lay across her waist above her hip. "Oh," she reached to touch the edges of it.

"You should wrap it up when we get back."

"Yeah. And my new coat! Ugh." She sighed in irritation at the tear in her garment and walked beside him. They reached his motorcycle and she got in her spot behind him, being careful not to spread too much of the foul smelling stuff that covered most of her onto his jacket when she held on.

Back at the academy, a voice called her name before she reached Lord Death's office. Odette turned around to see Christian jogging up to them.

"Hi!" said Odette, waving her arm.

He stopped in front of them. "Afternoon!" He waved at William but donned his charming smile for Odette. "I would ask you how you are, but I already know you're fantastic." He flashed his pearly white teeth.

The redhead giggled loudly. William only kept walking with his hands in the pockets of his jacket again.

"Hey, I need you to check me again," Christian rubbed his hands together.

"Again? I thought you and Katy were working out fine."

"We—we are—just—please. Check me?" His green eyes pleaded her.

Odette sighed and stared hard at him, focusing on seeing him from the inside. Soon she saw a soft red aura glow from his chest, in the middle, a little orb that was the same soft red. Inside the orb shone a white light that was dimmed as if it were looking through foggy pink-ish glass. While staring at the orb, she felt all the warmth that radiated from it. From this she could also feel his confidence, his calmness, his integrity and peace. She could see it all swirling around and inside this glowing orb. Odette blinked to drop her focus. "Nothing's changed about your soul. It's still the same."

Now Christian sighed and looked down. "Dang it… Okay. Thanks."

"What's wrong?"

He put his hands in his pockets. "We failed our mission yesterday. She lost some focus or something and lost her grip on me. And, long story short, the target escaped and she started the whole 'I'm stupid and I'm not good enough for you' bit again."

"Oh." Odette was familiar with Katy's paranoia and lack of confidence.

Christian shrugged. "If she keeps it up, I don't know if I can stay with her."

"She just needs a mood boost."

"I've been trying! I've been trying to tell her that it's gonna be okay, it's normal, it happens, don't get so worked up and she listens to me for, like, five minutes."

"Just give her time. Wait until your next mission. You guys will pass and she'll be okay again."

He released a breath. "Yeah. Okay. You're right. Well, thanks." He turned to walk back down the hall. "Oh! You're both coming tomorrow, right? The party?"

"Yes! We'll be there!" Odette gave a happy thumbs-up.

"Awesome. See you guys there!" He walked on with his usual strut.

Odette waved goodbye and continued to Lord Death's office and spoke to herself. "Yes. The weekend is here."