Stuck in Their World Chapter 3, a soul eater fanfic

Chapter Three:

Nikki

I hummed the most relaxing Miyazaki song I knew as I helped Rowena carry the bag of raw vegetables and fruits we bought, and the few we lifted.

Stealing was morally wrong, and it hurt my little heart to think that people worked hard and we just stole their hard work without rewarding them, but when you gotta eat to live, and gotta steal to eat, you know how it goes. I did my best to only steal a bit from every stand so we wouldn't get caught. People don't notice it if you only take crumbs, but if you get greedy, you get caught.

Even though I still thought it was better to buy, I was well aware that my remaining forty bucks would only spread so far. Thus the stealing.

"So," I began. "Three apples, two potatoes, and a tomato. Plus that newspaper from earlier. Do you think we have a bounty on our heads, yet?"

Rowena giggle snorted, the most unique combination of an, "mmf, hehaha!" that could be made. "I don't think so," she grinned, finally more easygoing now that the giant crowds of people had dispersed. "I mean, we bought the instant ramen, and, like, the other three discount tomatoes." Night had fallen, and we were trying to find somewhere close to a clock tower so we could tell the time, and close to the Doki Doki Gamer's Corner- cough, Daiki's Arcade.

"Ah, I hope we find somewhere to camp soon," she said quietly. "I'm starving." She lifted a tomato to her lips and took a bite to prove her point.

I nodded in agreement. My insane desperate wish to find a job before eating had led to no lunch, and since all we'd had was a cone of ice cream each all day, I was about ready to fold over and pass out. Rowena might have been the same way, but she had years of marching band under her belt and thus had more stamina than I.

"Wait," she hissed, freezing. I froze, too.

"What is it?" I whispered as quietly as I could. I received no answer. I tried to repeat my question. "What is-"

"Sh!" she cut me off. She slowly put down her side of the bag. I followed suit.

Rowena squeezed her eyes shut, like she was trying to think of something really hard, and I just glanced around to see if I could spot what she was freaking out about.

We were alone.

The lamp posts were flickering.

The tall buildings loomed.

Not a sound was heard.

I swallowed the bile and panic in my throat.

Rowena's tomato was squeezed in her hand, gently. The tomato juice dripped down steadily onto the sidewalk, drip drip drip.

"There!" she shouted, startling me. She chucked the tomato against a house, and that's when I saw something dark and menacing scuttle past. With red eyes.

"Rowena," I whispered as quietly as I could, not sure if she could even hear me. "Rowena, what was that?"

"I don't know but I think I might," she hissed back. "And if I'm right, we are so. Freaking. Screwed."

We held still like that for a few more moments while I wondered what she was thinking of. Then it hit me like a freight train. I'd known they existed in this universe, but I didn't think we'd actually run into one, let alone on our first day!

More minutes past, more seconds and nanoseconds and snapshots of us not moving and with a grocery bag in between us.

"I think it's-"

"Nonono, don't say it," I interrupted. "You'll jinx it and we'll both die like the tomato you threw at that house."

"What?"

"Splattered." Then I thought of what I just said. "You know, that held one heck of a lot more weight in my head. Now it's just stupid."

"Let's just get out of here, okay?" she responded, too freaked out to fake a laugh at my pathetic jokes. I nodded and we grabbed the bag and-

"Fuck, it's back!" she shouted, not bothering with stealth anymore.

"Ditch the bag!" I barked. "Let's go!'

I grabbed her hand and we booked it like a freaking librarian.

Sometime during the desperate chase, we let each other go, but made sure the other didn't fall behind.

"What are we even running from?" I shouted, giving up on keeping it quiet.

"I don't know!" she answered. "But I think I can sense souls, and I think it's red, and I think it's kishin!"

Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap…

I felt myself speed up, forcing Rowena to go even faster just to keep up with my adrenaline-induced sprint. I vaguely remember hearing her yelling at me, but it was blocked out by the number of oh, crap's floating around and clouding my mind.

It was around this time when I nearly ran into a wall.

"Damn, you run fast!" Rowena gasped out. "I was trying to get you to slow down! We missed our turn, this is unfamiliar territory!"

Oh, so it's like we were riding a public bus and now we're totally lost, supplied my brain, rather unhelpfully.

"And this is a dead end," I realized. I smacked myself in the face. "Oh my God, I am so sorry, we're screwed, we're going to die because of my stupidity, oh my God, oh my God, I am so dumb, kill me now, I am so insanely stupid, I shouldn't be alive, we're going to die because of me," I rambled, feeling like crawling into a hole and dying.

"Dude, dude, calm down, calm the fuck down," Rowena repeated, over and over, finally managing to snap me out of it by grabbing my shoulder.

"We can just hide in one of the buildings!" Rowena told me, lighting up. "We're going to be fine, just help me open one of these doors!"

I blinked. We are surrounded by buildings, we are going to be fine, I just have to open a door.

I flipped myself back around and started jiggling the handles and checking under doormats for keys.

"It's coming!" Rowena warned. I didn't question her, I just kept searching for a door that would freaking open.

"Nikki," Rowena called. I listened this time.

"No doors, I checked," she informed me.

"Well, this has been helpful," I said, laying the sarcasm on thick. Rowena didn't point out that I wasn't really helping out all, which I was super thankful for. I kind of needed sarcasm right now, or I'd be a nervous wreck. I needed something familiar to anchor me.

"We can't run anymore," she added on. I blinked. Was she insinuating that we'd have to-?

"Turn into a sword, I'll try my best to take it from there."

"You're not serious, are you?" I asked, faking a laugh.

I looked her in the eye.

"Oh my God, you are serious," I gasped a little, wide-eyed.

"Can you turn into a sword?" she asked.

I thought about it. "Maybe? I think?"

"Good, because it's here."

I turned and saw a long shadow and long teeth and red eyes that glowed, way down on the other side of the street.

I mentally screamed and thought as hard as I could, focusing on the words, "Turn into a sword, turn into a sword, turn into a sword!" as I tried to force myself into the form. Then I remembered being spooked in that alley, jumping up, the pure instinct that took over during my freak out.

I froze in my frantic chanting and just decided to ask politely and calmly. "Sword form, please?"

And then, when I opened my eyes, I realized I was cold and flat and sharp and goddamn, I am some hot shit!

"Hey, it worked!" I noted. "And I feel as sexy as fuckin' Matt Smith, bro!"

Rowena leaned over and grabbed me off the floor while the kishin roared and charged.

She sidestepped at the last second and swung me like a baseball bat, but the freaky clawed thing just leapt over my like I was a hurdle. Its momentum carried him up the apartment building wall a good seven feet before it dug its claws into the brick and halted, turning its head without moving its neck to screech like a banshee.

Rowena jumped back to make distance, and I blinked. "I didn't know you could jump like that."

"And I didn't know you could run like that," she answered easily. "Now… hush? Please? I kinda need to fo-cus!"

The last word went up in pitch and volume because the beady-eyed thing had leaped down and Rowena threw herself back so as not to get crushed and clawed and killed.

"Why are you so heavy?" Ro asked, trying to lift me so I wasn't dragging on the ground.

"I dunno, I'm usually super light!" I panicked. "I'll try to fix it?" Then it lunged, again.

This time, when Ro lifted me to try to hit him as he passed, I tried to move with her.

"You're not getting any lighter!" she told me in a sing-song voice, though that may have been because she had to dodge another series of lunges and slashes from the incoming kishin.

Crap crap crap crap what would a professional weapon do? What would Soul do? Or Tsubaki, or Liz, or Patty?

Um… What was that one episode, the one where Black Star and Soul tried to become partners? Why couldn't they?

…

Oh.

If I had hands, I would've smacked myself in the face.

I closed my eyes shut and felt around for Rowena's soul. And there it was.

It was bright and green and thrummed like a heartbeat, and I could feel my own soul dancing to its own tune.

"Rowena!"I called out. "Find somewhere safe for a second, if convenient. If inconvenient, do it anyway."

"Did you just reference-"

"Match soul wavelengths with me and become a magical girl!"

"Okay, now this is just getting-"

"Just do it!"

I knew Ro was preoccupied, so I had to work myself to fit her soul, and not the other way around. Or, in my messed up mind's words, I had to be the topper. Gah, gross, why does my brain do these things to me?

I felt her soul's rhythm speed up to match my insane beat, and I slowed myself to fit with her. Just like band class, I told myself. Just match the other sections. Listen to the low brass.

And then, zing! We both felt it, I was sure.

Ba-dump.

We were synchronized. We were perfect. It was like a whole bunch of those pictures from tumblr, the ones titled "Extremely Satisfying?" We were the perfectly organized oranges, so symmetrical we may as well be reflections in the mirror.

We are the oranges.

"We're not getting anywhere!" Ro shouted.

I snapped out of my metaphors and glanced around. This thing, despite our best efforts, just would not die.

"How do we kill it?" I asked." Because you're getting pretty tired and I'm having trouble keeping our souls zen right now."

I used to think all weapons did was get swung around, but, hoo boy, this was tougher than I'd thought.

"Should we try to resonate?" she asked, sweat dripping down her forehead. Her breaths came out in little pants. (Pants as in breaths, not as in the cloth you wear on your legs.)

"Hoe don't do it," I told her.

"I'mma do it."

"Hoe don't do it!"

"Let's go, soul resonance!"

"Oh my God, you're doing it!"

Knowing there was no going back, I smashed our souls together as best as I could, and this time Ro helped even more. We met perfectly halfway, just about. I heard someone screaming in the background, behind my wall of concentration. I was too focused to see the world around me. Was it me screaming? Was it Ro? It was probably the both of us.

"Let's do the thing!"

"I'mma do the thing!" she responded.

"What do we call the thing?"

"We call the thing whatever we want to call the thing!"

"Ether Aura!" we yelled, as loud as we could because we may die from this, but ya know what? Fuck that shit, we're going out with a bang and a sexy-ass named resonance!

I wasn't sure what I was expecting with Soul Resonance, but when we resonated, I felt myself explode. Not literally, of course, that would be awful. But I felt my soul's wavelength expand and wrap itself around my blade, mixing together with Rowena's and sending out condensed pulses like ripples in a lake.

"Kishin, your soul is mine!" Ro added, just for emphasis. This time, Ro was the one who charged, lifting me level with her shoulder before thrusting me deep into the kishin's heart and moving faster than I thought was possible with her exhaustion.

We froze.

We were silent.

We didn't move.

The kishin's eyes went dark.

Once she was sure the damn thing was finally dead, she flicked her wrist and I cut a long line from the center of its chest to out its side. The cuts glowed like a glo-stick, burning red, until it fell into ribbons that spun and wrapped around a singular, red, egg-like soul.

Then, naturally, Rowena fall to her knees, coughing, and I fell on my butt and out of sword form, fighting off one hell of a headache.

"Oh my God, I think I'm going to puke," Ro gurgled from her spot on the sidewalk. I just curled up tighter into a little ball, having to fight off my own nausea as well.

"Hey Ro?" I asked, trying my hardest not to throw up from the sheer exhaustion because

[everything is spinning whoa where's the ground what's what ow even thinking hurts goddamn Jesus take the fucking wheel I'mma die please let me die I need like morphine over here]

soul balancing is hard work.

"Y-yeah?" she answered after a second passed, just of her trying to catch her breath.

"You know in Maximum Ride? The killer headache she got, the one she got when she thought she was dying?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, now I can say that I can relate."

I heard her force out a weak laugh that turned into a cough in between her wheezes.

And then I heard applause.

"Well done, well done, my weeaboo friends!" he greeted.

"Oh, God, don't tell me it's him," Ro croaked out.

If I had the breath, I would've screamed in frustration and the sheer amount of "Oh, come on!" that filled my very soul to the brim.

"You left your groceries," Daiki told us, dropping the brown paper bag by my head where I was laying on the concrete. "Bit of a sloppy job you did, my friends," he told us off-handedly, stretching out a finger to poke at the floating kishin soul. "But I gotta admit, that soul resonance was pretty darn decent for a couple of kids who never fought before."

"How-" Cough, hack. "H-how did you know?" I asked.

"You couldn't turn into a sword at first," he answered, shrugging his shoulders.

Rowena was as outraged as a greatly fatigued fifteen year old could be. "You were there," she began, the light coming back to her eyes. "The whole. Freaking. Time? And it didn't occur to you to help the starving young girls fight back the cannibalistic rage-monster?"

I just squeezed my eyes shut and felt and crying. "I just want to eat some food," I sniffled. "My feet have blisters, my head wants to implode, and I just want to sit down and eat, but nooo, obviously, Ro and I get to fight a freaking hate-filled demon!" I balled up my hands into fists and angrily pawed at my eyes. "I just wanna eat," I repeated.

Daiki, noticing the little girl (e.g: me) was about to break any second into a hot mess, he panicked a bit and offered me a small arcade prize candy from his pocket. I gratefully took it and forced myself to suck those tears up back into my eyes.

Ro, thank God for her, was holding together a lot better than I was. Well, I mean, she was still trying to catch her breath and her bare feet was red and raw, but at least she wasn't having a minor panic attack.

"Can we just, I dunno, find somewhere to sleep for tonight? Please?" Ro asked.

Daiki blinked. "Oh. Oh, yeah, sure!" he grinned, though it wasn't as bright as usual. Perhaps it was because he noticed that we weren't exactly at a hundred percent right then. Actually, I felt more like I was at twenty-ish, tops.

"Actually…," he began. "I brought you a present!"

Ro and I blinked in surprise as he shoved a crumpled newspaper under over our noses. Ro reached for it, but he snatched it back. "Ah, ah, ah~!" he sang, waggling his finger. I had the sudden urge to bite it off. "You have to sit up for it!"

"What am I, a dog?" I muttered, forcing myself up, despite the strong feeling of whoa where has the floor gone. Ro got up first, and grabbed the bundle. I just peaked over her shoulder.

Ro quickly peeled off the layers of paper, skipping enticing headlines that blared, "DOG CAUGHT IN TREE: A NEIGHBORHOOD PRANK, OR A DOG WITCH IN DISGUISE?" and "DWMA STUDENTS APPROACH THE PRIZED TITLE OF DEATH SCYTHE!". She was either eager to see what he'd gotten us, or eager to do what he wanted us to do so he would shut up and leave already.

"This is pretty small," Ro said quietly, realizing that the giant bundle was pretty much one part present, ten parts newspaper.

She finally got to the bottom, pages of the Death City Sunday falling into the street.

"What is this, a mirror?" I asked. "Are you trying to make a statement on our current state of dishevelled-ness?"

And then the mirror glowed.

"Hey, hi, how are ya?" Lord Death asked.

Ro's eyes widened, and I, understandably, screamed a little bit and backed up about ten butt-scoots away. (So I had slight post-fight stress, sue me. I'd like to see you be thrown out of everything you knew and get chucked head-first into a life-or-death battle and escape without being strung as tight as a clothesline.)

I gave myself a second to breathe in for four counts, out for seven, and then butt-scooted my way back.

"Daiki, what are you playing at?" I scowled.

Rowena threw in her own two cents. "You think you're slick, mate? You ain't slick." I think she actually managed to upstage me.

"That was quite the fight you two girls had," Lord Death said cheerily. He was ignored.

"What's your play, Daiki?" I tacked on, determined not to let him go unpunished. "You said you wouldn't tell!"

"And I didn't," he said evenly. This scared me. "Even" was not a good tone on Daiki. Then he grinned, which was even scarier. "I only called Lord Death to extend an invitation so we could go to lunch and catch up, you know, like old pals~!"

Our jaws dropped. You can't be serious.

"It just-so-happened that you two were attacked by a kishin while I was trying to find you two and give you the groceries that you dropped," he plowed on, digging his own grave, seemingly. "I never really told him about you, but potential like you two's?" Daiki stopped a bit to chuckle, and when he looked back up a strangely professional glint was in his eyes. "That has to be reported."

I began to really, really, really dislike our new boss.

And, as silent as a shadow, Ro smashed the non-glass side of the mirror against his head with enough force to make him fall out of his crouching position.

He landed with an, "Oomf!" and a small amount of blood trickled from behind his ear.

"Rowena smash puny god," she growled, gritting her teeth.

"Hey, hey! Be careful!" Lord Death cried. "You're breaking up my reception!"

Ro flipped the mirror back over to see a small crack in the glass.

"Oh, you're still here," I said blandly.

"Yes, well, I'm here to talk to you about-"the Avengers Initiative"-joining the DWMA."

"Well, I have to say I'm a bit disappointed," I told him.

"What? Huh?"

"Never mind."

"But hey, fighting a kishin! And a soul resonance on your first battle! That's pretty impressive, kiddos," the almighty Lord Death who slew the Kishin and was basically immortal and was actually pretty lame in person said.

I blinked. Was that a compliment I heard? "Uh, thanks?" I murmured, beginning to fall asleep.

"That's one of the most impressive things I've seen in a long while, in fact!" he continued on. "Actually, I was wondering how you did it. MInd letting me on on the big secret, eh, champ?" He leaned up real close to the mirror and held up a hand like we were going to tell him a secret.

Ro blinked and went, "Huh?" Feeling like she was even more out of it than I was, I went on for her.

"I dunno how," I told him truthfully. "I just kinda… mushed our souls together, and then Ro and I did the thing. Ya know?"

"Well, actually, no. I don't know," he said. I just leaned on Ro and she leaned on me. "I may have to ask you two to come in for a checkup before you begin class, just to make sure."

"Whoa, wait, wah?" Ro asked, sitting up all of a sudden. I slipped back and nearly hit my head on the pavement. Thanks, frond. "Who said anything about going to class?"

"Well, you are meister and weapon, are you not?" he asked. I wondered briefly if it was rhetorical, but it didn't really matter because he continued on without a response.

"That means the best education you can get, you can get at the DWMA."

"But-" I protested.

"We'll provide you with lodging," he told us, dangling a carrot in front of our noses.

I sniffed. "You're gonna have to do better than that."

"Free lodging." I froze. That's actually pretty good, I thought. "Plus insurance, courtesy of the school, so long as you keep your grades up."

That's insanely good! But what is he playing at?

"What's the catch?" Rowena and I asked at the same time.

"Eyyyyy!" we cheered, pointing little finger guns at each other.

"Fuckin' spirit buddies, man!" Ro beamed, despite the exhaustion.

I gave her a happy grin in return. "We are so on point that knives be jealous of us!" Then I turned back to the mirror. "But seriously, what's the catch?"

"Oh, no no. No catch," he assured us, waving his hands around. He moved his hands around a lot, actually. Probably to make up for the fact that he doesn't have a face.

Of course, though, Ro and I didn't bite.

"You just have to go to weekly check ups with our school nurse, ya see. Since we'll be providing you with medical insurance it'll be easier and cheaper at the school that way!" he rambled.

"Oh," I blinked. Then I turned to Ro. "Should we bite? I mean, this is an insanely good deal, but if you don't wanna go, I'll happily stick with you. You're kinda the only person in the world I know right now, so..."

Ro stared off into space for a moment, most likely thinking, and then spoke. "We'll do it. It was the plan eventually anyways, this is just a little bit ahead of schedule."

"Okay, alright! I'll expect you two in front of the DWMA in a week's time, seven in the morning," Lord Death informed us. "See ya, kiddos~!" And then the mirror faded out.

We gave it a few seconds.

"I feel like we just made a deal with the devil," I told Ro dryly.

"Maybe we did," she shrugged.

"Wanna crash in the nearest alley?" I asked.

She nodded. "Leggo."

We made it a few steps down the alley, the mirror carelessly thrown into the grocery bag.

"Wait up!" called Daiki. "Guys, wait up!"

Ro turned. "Oh, it's you."

I absentmindedly scratched my head. "Gonna be honest, I'd actually forgotten you were here."

He pouted. "That cuts deep, kid. That cuts deep. But I respect that."

"Yeah, you really shouldn't," I told him flatly.

He sighed. "But before you go, I have two things for you. Number one." He held up the kishin soul. "Don't you wanna eat this?"

I blinked before reaching out for it. Daiki pushed it into my palm, and it floated just above my hand. It kinda reminded me of a fushigi, but not a cheap trick full of lies.

"How do I eat this thing?" I asked, looking to Daiki for answers.

He looked at me blankly. "Have you ever eaten anything, ever?"

"Yeah?"

"It's just like that."

I looked at it a little longer before grabbing it tightly and stuffing it in my mouth. I felt my cheeks puff up like a chipmunk's, and I chewed a little bit just because I was used to chewing my food. It was actually kinda unnecessary, since it had the consistency of Jell-O, but eh. Who cared? I swallowed it and- whoa, that was actually pretty satisfying.

"So?" asked Ro. "What did it taste like?"

I thought about it for a second. "Well, it doesn't really have a flavor, just a texture, ya know? How it feels going down the hatch."

"So what did it feel like?" she asked.

I paused a little longer. "Like… Chicken 'n dumplings. Or, like, gravy and biscuits. Basically," I began, getting a villainous glint to my eye. "It tastes like soul food."

Ro groaned loudly and pushed her face in her hands. "I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD, YOU MEME," she yelled.

I just cackled.

"Hehehe, soul food, that was a good one," snickered Daiki. He offered me a high five. I accepted.

"SO!" he began again, clapping his hands twice just to get our attention. "Would you guys… I dunno…" He suddenly looked very unsure of himself. "Wanna… Crash at my place?" I got the strange feeling that I was looking at a lonely kid who wanted his friends to have a sleepover with him. So cute, I mentally cooed.

But I had to put my foot down.

… Maybe just a teeny tiny one, though.

"Sorry, Daiki-senpai," I said, looking down a bit. Then he made a face. I froze, and then quickly turned away. I pushed Ro in front of me. "I can't handle sad people please help me I don't know what to do and I don't want to hurt his feelings he looks like a puppy you do the thing I can't do it!" I hissed to her.

Ro looked a little unsure of what to do, herself. "I'm really sorry, Daiki… -senpai?" She glanced at me like, Should I really call him senpai? I just nodded encouragingly. "But we can't. We couldn't impose on you, and we kinda need to crash immediately. So… see ya at work tomorrow?"

He just nodded. "It's alright, don't worry about it!" His smile was a little fake.

"Maybe we could try again some other time?" I offered. I briefly wondered if making an offer was a mistake, but the words were already out of my mouth before I realized what I'd said. But then he lit up like a glowstick and I decided that regret was for losers, anyway.

He let us go and Ro and I stumbled along the road like drunks and flopped down in the nearest alley we could find.

We nearly forgot to make sure nobody would see us living it out like bums while we slept, but thankfully a cat came along to scare the living crap out of us and reinforce our paranoia. Then the two of us shoved an apple in each of our mouths, just to stave off the hunger, and laid down behind a dumpster for a long awaited nap.

The moon cackled at us from up above.

"Fuck you," I told it.

Perhaps I slept.