5Operation: Ask A Meister Out
Disclaimer: I do not own soul eater or any of it's Elements
Chapter 01: If You Choose To Accept
The sounds of lightning crackling and the sound of stones splitting apart filled the air, only to be lost under strange animal roars.
There were also a number of profanities. A lot of profanities.
The city wasn't too far from Death City. Many tourists would often stop there on their way to the Death City. With so many people coming and going, it took them a while to notice the people missing. It wasn't until a few arms and legs showed up in a park that they found out there was a reason to be afraid.
Something was hunting people, tearing them apart to eat. The police and animal control tried their best to stop it, thinking it was exotic animal that had escaped captivity. Not until they saw a police officer torn apart by an invisible beast did they realize their mistake.
They called for DWMA's meisters for help.
Considering this creature's ability to hide they posted a bulletin that only meisters with soul perceptions ability need apply.
Two of the top EAT students just so happened to have that ability and interest in the mission. The office decided to send both teams, assuming that with their skills and numbers they could protect each other and defeat this monster easily.
The issue was that they were also rivals and always trying to one up each other.
Glass shattered as a young man crashed through a window. He grumbled as he got up, a slight cut on his forehead started to bleed. He had a stoic expression on his face, and wore a plan grey uniform with surgery-like stitch pattern.
"Stein!" Nearby a black scythe lay on the floor.
"I'm fine." The stoic young man got to his feet and picked up the weapon.
He caught a glimpse of a teenage blonde girl in a black coat rushing down the street. Anger crept over Stein as he felt his lip twitch and he ran after her.
"Well, at least you nicked it," Kami yelled back. "There's a faint blood trail— I think you got his leg, it's limping."
Stein was certain she was trying to mock him about the small accomplishment.
Kami pulled ahead. Stein was fast, but Kami was faster and more agile. Such was the state of their rivalry: they were equals in as many ways as they were different. Though both were skilled fighters with strong souls. However, Stein had a more flexible soul while Kami had a more creative fighting style.
Kami's grip tightened on the tonfa-like yellow and black hammer.
"Marie?" Kami whispered, "Ready?"
The hammer replied, "We really haven't had a lot of time to practice,"
"True, but we'd have to try it in the field sooner or later. Trust me, I know we can do it."
"Okay, ready."
They spoke as one: "Lightning Rope!"
Tendrils emerged from the end of the hammer and wrapped around the meister's wrist.
Kami clenched her jaw. The technique involved hyper-nerve induction to give the meister a massive boost to her physical capabilities by sending electrical pulses through her body and motor system. This had the potential to be really useful for fighting off opponents stronger and faster than the user, but it could also really mess with the meister's body. If they weren't careful or pressed it too hard, the technique could paralyze her for a few days. Still, as she felt a surge of electricity, Kami rushed forward.
This was the difference between Kami's and Stein's fighting styles. Though Stein was quicker to pick up existing techniques, Kami was making her own path. She made her own techniques and moves, and they were truly impressive.
She reached out with her soul perception, finding the creature's soul easily. Something about its soul was strangely messy, as if three souls had been cobbled together.
Kami had surmised that this creature was some sort of witch experiment. There was nothing to be done for it now, however, as it was hurting people in some sort of berserker rage, hunting and attacking those who were unfortunate enough to get close to it.
She struck the ground with the hammer, and huge pieces of the road jut up around them.
Kami heard the creature bellow as it tripped over the sudden rough terrain.
"It's over," Kami said as electricity crackled off the hammer.
The Hammer Wielding Meister walked towards it, her steps confident and firm. She raised the hammer to end it.
"You're not getting the kill!" Stein ran forwards readying the scythe.
"Huh?" Kami turned, momentarily confused.
Kami barely caught a glimpse of Stein running past her at full speed. He slashed at the beast, intending to kill and prove he was better, but the scythe blade collided with the creature's claw with a clang. They could see souls, but it didn't mean they could see the creature's physical form or where its more dangerous features were. Stein smirk stretched across his face, a deformed joke of a smile.
He pressed forward, intending his scythe to cut through anything, even a monster's razor sharp claws.
"You—" Kami tried to yell out, but pain surged through her body. She had let that special resonance go on for too long, and her muscles began to spasm and clench out of her control.
"Kami!" Marie yelled out.
"Stein!" Spirit shouted, his image appearing in the blade. "We should help them!"
Stein said through gritted teeth, "Not now! I'll slice this thing up then—" He didn't finish his thought as he felt a large tail swing into him with enough force to hurl him backwards and into the other meister. The monster growled and knew it was hurt and hunted so it did the most obvious thing, it ran.
Stein growledis shoulder was dislocated and as much as to he couldn't follow and win in this condition. The other meister was not going to move anytime soon, either.
"You idiots!"
0000
"You idiots!" The woman repeated back at the school's mission deployment office.
Both meisters found themselves sitting before the woman affectionately known as Auntie. She was a large woman who worked as the receptionist in charge of the students missions. She was a skilled fighter and loved kids, so when she retired she took this position to help them even when she was a bit older. She'd decided to follow the meisters on their mission and see how they fared.
Aunty was scolding the meisters. "You are both very strong and skilled, and your weapons are no weaklings either. You both can track souls! This would have been an easy mission for either of you. Together you should have finished it off it off in record time!"
"It was—" Kami tried to interject.
"Don't you start, missy! You were far too reckless. That technique you used does show promise, but using it before it's ready was plain stupid. If you got paralyzed in any other fight, you'd be dead!"
"I had it under control!"
"Really?" Auntie grabbed a rubber ball from her desk. "Catch!"
"Ah—" Kami felt the ball slam into her face. "I wasn't ready."
Auntie picked up a large metal paperweight.
"Okay, I still can't move my arms!" Kami yelled, her arms hanging limply.
Auntie just rolled her eyes before turning to Stein, "You—" She choked on the word. "There is no doubt that you are talented, but you neglect safety and common sense. If your teammate was in no position to fight, you are to pull back and help them flee the fight."
"She's not my teammate," Stein argued.
"I really wasn't," Kami added, a red welt forming on her face where the ball hit her.
"You are both members of this school, fighting whatever evils this world has to show. If you cannot work together then you don't deserve to be in this school."
The words cause the meisters to flinch, but not as much as when Auntie grabbed them both by the scruffs of their shirts and raised them into the air suddenly with her big bear like hands. Both young meisters felt their legs swingging beneath them.
Their weapons outside waited in silence. They had gotten a lecture, but theirs was nowhere near as severe as their meisters'.
"She's really letting them have it." Spirit tugged on the collar of his black uniform.
"Yeah," Marie sighed, her golden eyes looking up to the ceiling. She felt like such a failure: one of her best traits was that she could calm people, but in this cause she got carried away with Kami's crazy plan.
Spirit could relate, he was assigned to Stein to try and help cure some of his worst traits.
The ground shook, the force enough to make the door swing open to reveal their meisters slammed into the floor by Auntie in a move that would make pro wrestlers jealous.
Auntie dusted off her hands and picked up the now unconscious meisters. "Okay, I'm done. I'm going to drop them off at the nurse. You two can go back to your dorms."
"O-okay." The weapons whimpered, afraid of receiving the same treatment. Auntie carried them away.
"Uh," Spirit let out, "You wanna get something to eat?"
"What?" The young and rather short Marie raised a fist. "Don't you try it, Spirit! I'm not going to fall for your flirting! You're not my type! If you even try, I'm going to knock you into the wall."
Spirit took a step back, holding up his hands. "No! I'm not asking you out." He gulped, knowing full well that Marie was capable of following through with her threat. "No, I'm just— I don't want to eat alone. I mean, it's pretty late, and the cafeteria is closed already. I figured you're the same, no one wants to have dinner alone. I know a nice late night dinner."
Marie stared at him, unsure of what to make of what he was saying, but her stomach started to grumble.
A half-hour later, they found themselves at the diner looking at the menu. She was glad it was kinda late and no one from school was around. She didn't want anyone even thinking that she was going out with Spirit.
Marie looked over the menu, glancing over at Spirit every few seconds.
Spirit's eye twitched. "Why do you keep looking at me like that? Like I'm going to bite you!"
Marie flinched. "Well, everyone at school has heard about your track record with girls."
"What?"
"That you flirt with anyone with a people even say you use your own flexible wavelength to hit it off with girls better, that the best way to not fall for you is to always have your guard up."
Spirit was outraged. "You make me sound like I'm some kind of creep!"
"Yeah, that word has been thrown around."
Spirit cringed. "Does everyone think that about me?" He let his head drop to the table. Then he jolted up. "Does Kami think that about me?"
"Well," Marie said, letting the word stretch out a bit, "she hasn't used that word, though she's used other not-pleasant words when describing you."
"She talks about me?"
"Sometimes, I mean, she thinks you have a lot of potential and that it's kinda being wasted with Stein and just the way you don't take anything seriously."
"I do so take things seriously!"
"When it comes to chasing skirts," Marie told him. "That's actually something Kami has said."
Spirit looked at her like she'd just kicked his puppy.
"You look like you're going to cry."
"I'm not going to cry!" Yeah, he was about to cry.
"Wait." Marie looked at him, gears turning in her head. "You care what Kami thinks. Do you like her?"
"What?! No! You like Kami!"
"Well, she's my meister and one of my best friends! Of course I like her."
Spirit looked at her, slowly raising an eyebrow. "Like, like-like her?"
"What? No you perv! We're just friends," Marie said, blushing a little. "Well, there was that thing at that party, but— No! No. No."
"What?"
"You like Kami!" Marie shouted, getting a confused look from their waitress. Marie took a softer tone. "You like Kami."
"Well, what does that matter? You're telling me she thinks I'm a creep."
"Oh! She's never used the word creep." Marie thought back to their previous conversations, trying to think of the most pleasant words. "She might have used the words slime ball and shameless flirt…" She snapped her fingers. "She did say you have pretty hair!"
Spirit perked up. "She thinks my hair is pretty?"
"Yeah, she does, though I think she has a thing for redheads. Her parents came for a visit and took us out for dinner, and the waiter had red hair and she got flustered around him. And she just gushes over that actress with red hair, that one from those movies."
"Okay, I got lost somewhere there." Spirit said. Then a thought struck him, and a devilish grin spread across his face. "I have an idea."
Marie shivered. "Uh, what is this idea?"
"You help me with Kami, and I'll help you with Stein."
It took Marie a moment for those words to sink in, but when they did her eyes bulged. "Whaaaat?"
"Come on, everyone know you have a thing for Stein?"
"What?! No!"
"Everyone knows, everyone has noticed you staring at him during class."
"No! I mean, yeah, Kami had brought it up but— No!" Marie buried her face into hands.
The restaurant staff was starting to give odd they think he was dumping her?
"Don't cry! Please don't cry! This is a good thing!"
Marie looked up. "How?"
"Like I was trying to say, I'm Stein's weapon, and you are Kami's, so we can help each other get closer to them."
"You're going to use me to get at Kami?!"
Spirit looked over to the waitress and cook, who looked ready to smack him for upsetting Marie so much and possibly using her to get another girl. "I wouldn't phrase it like that!" Spirit took a deep breath. "I'm just saying we help each other, maybe telling each other about their meister and helping win them over. Nothing wrong or anything, just try to help set the other one up. I'll help you with Stein, and you can help me with Kami."
"Help?"
"Like, telling me what she likes and how to get closer to her. And I'll do the same with Stein."
Marie was hesitant. It felt a little like betraying Kami's trust, especially since she didn't think Kami was Spirit's biggest fan.
"Trust me! I can get you with Stein, no problem!"
"Deal!" Marie was already shaking his hand.
