[Soul Eater] 1 - A New Mission

A New Mission

***

A girl with ash blonde hair and large green eyes was walking out of a shop in the streets of Death City with some grocery bags in her hands; the shop closed right after she exited, but she didn't look surprised by this.

	In fact, she knew exactly why the people of Death City left the streets in the evening.

	It was because of the dark creatures that started appearing a week ago, the ones who attacked the residents of Death City at night and the one that she and her friends had been fighting every day, but the more they defeated, the more that appeared.

	The girl walked down the streets, heading to her house while thinking about these monsters, but she was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't see the shorter girl who was right in front of her and she bumped into her. The girl lost her balance, but she didn't fall to the ground thanks to the other girl she bumped into, who grabbed her by her shoulders and kept her standing straight.

	"Sorry, sorry!" The shorter girl apologized with a sheepish smile. "I shouldn't have stood in front of you, but you didn't hear me, so I had to do something to get your attention!"

	The girl looked down at the person she bumped into - a shorter girl, probably around her age, who had silver hair in a half-ponytail that reached down to just above her shoulders and sapphire blue eyes - and after hearing what the other girl said, she realized that she had been so distracted that she didn't see her or hear her calling out.

	"N-No, don't apologize," the girl insisted, embarrassed. "I wasn't looking where I was going because I was distracted. It's my fault - I bumped into you."

	"You did looked worried about something... are you okay?"

	The girl blinked, not expecting a stranger to ask her if she was okay, but for some reason, this shorter girl looked like a good person to her. She wouldn't have apologized if she wasn't, right? Then she realized another thing - this girl wasn't worried about being in the streets when it was about to get dark.

	"You're not from here, are you?" The blonde asked. "Normally, the people return to their houses before the night falls, but you're still out here."

	"Oh, yeah, I just arrived!" The silver-haired girl said, slightly surprised by the girl's perception. "I was hoping someone could help me find this place I'm supposed to go to, but everyone suddenly disappeared from the streets. Why do the people here return to their homes before the night falls anyway?"

	"Well, that's because, um..." the girl started, doubtful to tell this other girl about the dark monsters who appeared during the night. She didn't want to scare her, but she didn't want to lie, either. "You see... lately, there have been strange creatures appearing in the streets. They only appear at night, so the people here don't leave their houses during that time- hey, are you okay?"

	She was kind of puzzled by the girl's reaction; she expected her to get scared or something like that, but she looked concerned and had a pensive expression on her face instead.

	"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine," the girl said, a grin pulling at her lips. "It seems that I was the one lost in thoughts this time, huh?"

	The blonde couldn't help but giggle. "Looks like it."

	"My name is Fate," the silver-haired girl introduced. "What's yours?"

	"Maka," the blonde replied with a smile no her face. "It's nice to meet you, Fate."

	"The pleasure is mine, Maka," Fate said, returning the smile. "Listen, I'm looking for an academy called Shibusen. Do you know where it is?"

	"Of course. Shibusen is that big building at the end of the city," she told her. "You'll have to walk to the end of the main street and then climb a long staircase. Are you going to enroll in the academy?"

	"Not exactly," Fate replied. "I'm going to meet up with someone there. Why do you ask? Are you a student there?"

	"Yes, I'm one of the students in the EAT category," Maka said, full of pride.

	"EAT? What does that mean? How many categories are there in Shibusen?"

	"The classes of Shibusen are split into two categories: the NOT Class, and the EAT Class," Maka explained, pleased to explain to the shorter girl about Shibusen's classes. "NOT stands for Normally Overcome Target - most of the students are in the NOT Class and they're the ones who are more "normal" than the EAT Class and do't have much power, making them more like the non-combatants of the academy students. The EAT Class, however, are exceptionally talented people with great power; they are given the duty to actually fight against any evil-doers - EAT stands for Especially Advantaged Talent. The combatants of Shibusen are also known as "agents"."

	"Wow," Fate breathed, impressed by Maka's knowledge. "That academy is not what I thought it was, although I should've imagined it after reading its name... you must be really strong if you're in the EAT category!"

	"Oh, well, I-I'm a decent fighter, but there are other people who are stronger than me," Maka insisted, feeling a bit embarrassed but flattered at the same time.

	Fate smiled. "Well, it's getting darker, so I should get to Shibusen. Thank you for the help, Maka."

	"You're welcome," Maka said. "Do you want me to walk you there so you don't get lost?"

	"No, it's okay. Besides, if the Obumbratio appear at night, then you should return to your house as soon as possible. I wouldn't want you to get attacked because of me."

	"Well, okay, but be careful."

	Fate nodded. "Will do! See you around!"

	"Bye!"

***

	Fate was climbing the stairs that lead to the academy called Shibusen.

	Maka wasn't joking when she said that the stairs were long, but Fate was in good shape, so climbing them didn't give her any trouble. When she reached the end of the stairs, she could see Shibusen in its full glory, and she had to admit that it was amazing, although it looked a bit like a large funhouse rather than a school.

	Fate walked towards the academy's entrance as she looked at the building, still impressed by its design, and when she crossed the door, she saw three people talking to each other - two girls and one boy. The boy had black hair with three asymmetrical white stripes across the left side of his hair and was wearing a black suit, and the two girls were wearing matching cowgirl outfits, but they could be differentiated because one of them was taller than the other and had long dirty blonde hair and dark blue eyes, and the other was shorter and has short bright blonde hair and light blue eyes.

	Fate wanted to talk with the person called Shinigami as soon as possible, so she walked past the three people who were talking, but before she could start looking for Shinigami, the boy with black hair noticed her.

	"Excuse me," the boy spoke up, and Fate turned around to look at him. "Is you name Fate, by any chance?"

	Fate tilted her head in confusion. "Yes, that's my name. Why do you ask?"

	"We were waiting for you," the boy said, a small smile pulling at his lips. "My name is Death the Kid, but you can call me Kid if you prefer."

	"The name's Liz," the taller blonde said, waving her hand. "It's a pleasure."

	"And I'm Patty!" The shorter blonde introduced happily.

	Fate smiled at all of them. "It's nice to meet you! How is it that you know my name, by the way?"

	"Oh, that's because of my father, the headmaster of Shibusen," Kid replied. "He's the one who told us that you would be coming here, and he asked us to walk you to his room."

	His father must be the guy called Shinigami, then... Fate thought before noticing that the girl called Patty was staring closely at her. "I-Is something wrong?"

	"Mmm... you don't look like I thought you would," Patty said, touching her chin with her index finger.

	Liz let out a soft laugh. "What my sister is trying to say is that when Kid's father told us that we were waiting for a great and powerful warrior, well..."

	"We expected someone big and scary, but you look cute instead of scary!" Patty finished.

	Fate blushed at her comment. "W-Well, looks can be deceiving, I guess..." She couldn't help but laugh.

	This was going to be interesting...

***

	After walking for a few minutes, the four teenagers stopped in front of a large door that was at the end of one of the passageways in Shibusen, which was marked with a skull and plate that said "Death Room". The group crossed through the door after Kid opened it and they walked through a tunnel of torii gates, which were styled to look like guillotines.

	Fate was kind of glad that they weren't real guillotines since she had bad experiences with them.

	After crossing through all the gates, the four teens arrived at the main part of the Death Room and Fate saw two people talking there, a black figure and a red-haired man. They were Shinigami, the person Fate was looking for, and Spirit.

	"Father, Fate is here," Kid said to the black figure.

	"Ah, Kid-kun, thank you for bringing her here," Shinigami said, and then he turned his head to look at the girl. "Hello, Fate, I'm glad to meet you. I am Shinigami, the headmaster of Shibusen, and this one here is Spirit, my partner and friend."

	"A pleasure," the red-haired man said as he pulled his left hand from his pocket to wave it at Fate.

	Fate waved her hand at Spirit, but she was more concerned about Shinigami's appearance. She knew that Shinigami meant "Death God", but she didn't expect him to be a real Shinigami; at least, he looked like a real one to her.

	"It's nice to meet you, sir," Fate said.

	"Now, there's no need to be so formal," Shinigami said. "I suppose my good friend, your father, told you the reason you are here, right?"

	Fate nodded. "The Obumbratio are attacking this city, and he told me that you wanted me to take care of them."

	"Correct!"

	"Since last week, they appear every night and attack someone," Kid explained. "They are a real problem, so it would be great if you could help us."

	"We know you just met us," Liz said. "But we would really appreciate it if-"

	"Whoa, wait a second," Fate said. "I think there's been a misunderstanding here. If I'm here, it's because I'm going to help you. I thought you knew that?"

	Liz blinked. "Wait, just like that?"

	"Yeah, just like that."

	"Well, that was unexpected," Kid admitted. "Father told us that you were possibly the best when it comes to dealing with the Obumbratio, so I thought it was going to be difficult to convince you to help us. I mean, he never said to us that you were already going to help us."

	"Didn't I?" Shinigami asked, tilting his head a bit.

	Fate giggled. "So you were expecting me to ask for some kind of reward? That's something I would never do."

	"That's good to know," Kid said, obviously relieved as a small smile appeared on his face.

	"Sorry about that, Fate," Liz apologized, feeling a little bad.

	"No, no need to apologize," Fate insisted. "Just leave the Obumbratio to me. I'll make sure no one in Death City gets hurt because of them."

	"We're counting on you, then," Spirit said.

	"Oh, there's something else I wanted to tell you, Fate," Shinigami said. "I know that you'll have to stay here since, according to Xenon, your mission here is a bit different from what you've been doing lately, so I prepared an apartment where you can stay."

	"Really?" Fate asked in surprise. "Thank you!"

	"Here," Spirit said, approaching Fate and handing her a small piece of paper with the address of the apartment.

	"Oh, and I also enrolled you in the academy," Shinigami said. "I thought it would be better if the people here think that you're just a new student, and Xenon agreed with me."

	Fate was stunned since the last thing she expected to do in Death City was attend class. She even said to the girl called Maka that she wasn't planning on becoming a student of Shibusen, but it looked like now she was going to be one. It had been a while since the last time she attended class, so she was kind of worried, but according to what Maka told her, there were combatants amongst the students of Shibusen, so it could be interesting.

	"You'll be in the same class as Kid, so he can show you where it is tomorrow," Shinigami said before looking at his son. "Kid, you and the girls should start doing that now."

	"Right," Kid said, turning to Fate. "Fate, we'll meet you at the entrance of the academy tomorrow to show you where the class is, okay?"

	"Sure, I'll see you there," Fate said.

	Kid nodded, and then proceeded to leave the Death Room with Liz and Patty following after him after saying goodbye to Fate. Fate wondered what they were going to do, but it had nothing to do with her, so she didn't ask.

	"You should leave, too, Fate," Shinigami said. "Try to get a good sleep tonight, okay? You can start tomorrow."

	"Alright, thank you. I'll see you again sometime," Fate said, bowing her head before walking to the room's exit, though not before taking another curious look around before she left.

	"Well, what do you think?" Shinigami asked as soon as Fate left the Death Room.

	"It was a good first impression," Spirit answered. "But we still have to see how she deals with the Obumbratio."

***

	There was a young woman walking down the streets of Death City, trying to arrive at her home as fast as she could because she knew that if you were on the streets at night, the risk of begin attacked by the strange dark creatures was very high. Unfortunately for her, she was being followed by an Obumbratio at this exact moment.

	I have to hurry... the woman thought. She heard a noise and turned around. "Who's there?"

	The young woman looked around, but didn't see anything; her heart was pounding and there was cold sweat running down her back. She heard the noise again and this time she saw the dark creatures, three Obumbratio, and she panicked and let out a scream, starting to run as fast as her legs could carry her, but unfortunately, she fell. The Obumbratio approached her and were in front of her, staring at the woman with their yellow eyes, and one of them raised its claw to attack the woman; she clenched her eyes shut and covered her ears out of fear.

	The woman expected to get killed by them, but nothing happened.

	She wondered why she didn't feel anything, so she opened her eyes slowly, and much to her surprise, the three dark monsters that had been around her were gone, and in their place was a silver-haired girl.

	It seemed that Fate had heard this woman's scream and come to her aid.

	"Don't worry, I took care of them," she said, giving the woman a reassuring smile. "Are you okay, miss?"

	The woman was shocked, but when she realized that the girl in front of her was the one who destroyed the three monsters and saved her, she quickly stood up and hugged her tightly.

	"Thank you! Thank you very much!" She thanked, on the verge of tears. "I don't know what would've happened to me if it wasn't for you!"

	"It was nothing, really," Fate said, embarrassed as she rubbed the back of her neck. "You should go home before more of them appear."

	"Right! Thank you!"

	The woman left as quickly as possible.

	Fate watched the person she just saved to make sure there weren't any Obumbratio following her and stayed int he same spot where he defeated the three monsters, waiting for more of them to appear. She expected more...

	"That was impressive."

	Fate turned around to see who said that and saw the three she had met at the entrance of Shibusen.

	"Kid, Liz, Patty," Fate remembered their names. "What are you doing here?"

	"Patrolling the city like superheroes!" Patty replied, and this made Fate laugh.

	"It's our turn to watch over the city tonight," Kid said. "We heard a scream, so we ran over to see what was going on, but it seems that you were faster than us. Did you hear the scream from your apartment?"

	"Well, actually... I haven't gone to my apartment yet," Fate said. This surprised Kid and the sisters. "When I arrived in the city, I met a girl that told me that the Obumbratio attacked only at night and, in the Death Room, you said it, too. I decided to walk around the city to defeat the Obumbratio that appeared. Why didn't you tell me that you were patrolling tonight? I would have gone with you."

	"Well, my father thought that it'd be better to let you rest tonight. You must be tired after the trip," Kid replied. "Although, after seeing you defeating those Obumbratio, I guess you aren't very tired."

	"Nope! Lead the way."

	"Alright! Let's go!" Patty cheered, raising her fists into the air.

	Fate laughed.