[Soul Eater] 6 - Patrol & Training Class

It was already night in Death City and Fate was on the roof of a house, watching the streets, remembering the fun she had in the morning; she was very relaxed after playing basketball and having lunch at Soul and Maka’s apartment, but the group had decided to tell her about what happened before the Obumbratio appeared since she had told them a little bit about her problems with that woman named Luciana.

	A Demon God… Fate thought while she walked on the roof. That sounds like a big problem, but I can’t interfere with it, even if I want to…

	She jumped to another roof in front of her while looking below her to see it there were some Obumbratio prowling around; the city looked peaceful, but the silver-haired girl knew that it was possible that the Obumbratio would attack since nothing happened last night.

	Fate jumped to a higher building but while she was in the air, she saw from the corner of her eye what looked to be someone in a very familiar coat, and she almost hit the building’s wall because of it. Luckily, she managed to grab the roof’s ledge and climb up. She summoned her sword and looked around at her surroundings, but the figure wasn’t there.

	What the hell? I could’ve sworn I saw one of the organization members… She thought as she looked on the other roofs. Am I… imagining things?

	She kept watching in all directions, but after a minute she gave up and dismissed her sword, letting out a sigh as she sat on a ledge.

	“I’ve gotta relax or I’ll go crazy one of these days…” She muttered, remaining seated for a couple of minutes.

	When she was going to stand up, she saw someone walking on the street; it was Maka’s father, making his way to the nightclub that Fate had seen the night that her, Kid, Liz, and Patty had patrolled the city together.

	I wonder what he’s gonna do there… well, it’s not my business, but I should stay around here just in case…

***

	I’m surprised to see that the local still opens, knowing that the Obumbratio are around, Spirit thought. But I’m not complaining.

	“Well, Mr. Death Scythe,” one of the girls began. “Why don’t you come in. Let’s have some fun.”

	“Okay~,” he said, still with a silly face, but then he heard a noise behind him.

	He turned and saw several Obumbratio looking at him and the girls, who looked frightened.

	"Oh no, they are here!” One of them cried. “What are we going to do?”

	“Stay behind me!” Spirit ordered as he prepared himself for a fight against the Obumbratio.

	The dark monsters were slowly approaching the three people in front of the door, but Spirit didn’t look away from them for even a second.

	Damn… without a meister, I don’t think I’ll make it, Spirit thought. Where is Fate when you need- His thoughts were interrupted for a moment when, suddenly, all the Obumbratio around them were destroyed in a split second, and Fate landed in front of them. -her…?

	“In the nick of time, huh?” Fate asked with a grin that made Spirit smile with relief.

	“You bet,” the Death Scythe said. However, as he said that, more Obumbratio appeared. “Shit, here they come again. Go inside, ladies, we’ll take care of them!” The ladies obeyed, going into the local and closing the door.

	Fate looked at Spirit with worry. “Will you be fine without a meister? It must be difficult for a weapon to fight alone.”

	“It’ll be complicated,” Spirit admitted. “Without Shinigami-sama or Stein here, I’m not going to be very useful. Sorry.”

	Fate, while keeping her gaze on the Obumbratio, dismissed her sword and offered her hand to Spirit, which made the man look at her in confusion.

	“Let’s team up,” Fate said. “Transform.”

	Spirit now looked at her dumbfounded, but then he remembered how Stein told him about the fight Fate had with Black*Star and how she could grab Tsubaki without trying to match her soul wavelength with her.

	“Oh yeah, I heard about how your soul is compatible with almost everyone,” he said. “But do you know how to use a scythe?”

	Fate smiled at him. “Surely I’m not as good as Maka or Shinigami-sama or even Stein, but it’ll be enough to destroy these creeps.”

	Spirit smirked and nodded. “Alright, let’s finish this quickly.”

	He transformed and went to Fate’s hand, and the silver-haired girl grabbed the scythe with both hands and prepared for the upcoming attack. The Obumbratio didn’t hesitate to attack them but Fate was faster and swung the scythe like how she had in the forest days before, and an Obumbratio tried to attack at high speed from her left, but the Sapphire Warrior stuck the scythe on the floor, using the handgrip to spin around and dodge the attack before kicking the shadow creature back.

	She ran at the creature and cut it in half, continuing to slash the Obumbratio although she found it more difficult to fight using a big weapon, but she managed to do it and, after perhaps ten minutes, the area was clear.

	Spirit turned back to normal. “Hey, not bad at all. And thanks again for the little rescue; I’m lucky you were around here when they appeared.”

	Fate scratched the back of her head. “Actually, I saw you walking and decided to follow you, keeping the distance. I had the suspicion that you might be attacked.”

	The man looked surprised at the girl. “I’m lucky you saw me, then. Really, I don’t know what could have happened to me and the girl if you hadn’t shown up.”

	Fate grinned. “That’s why I’m here, to increase the peace.”

	Saying goodbye to Spirit, who went inside the local, Fate made her way back on the path of patrolling with a thought. Using Demon Weapons is really cool; I wouldn’t have minded studying in Shibusen one or two years ago.

	As she patrolled the city, however, she could’ve sworn someone was watching her. She tried to shake it off, but the feeling only grew until a hand suddenly landed on her shoulder, and out of instinct, she swung around with her fist out to punch at whoever had grabbed her. A wrist blocked her fist and she was about to go for it again, but then she realized who was standing in front of her.

	“Elaina?”

	Standing in front of her was an enby with short white hair and a deep blue eye, their other one covered by their hair - this was Elaina Lorence, someone she thought of as a close friend if not a sibling.

	They smiled at her. “Did I really scare you?” They asked with a bit of a cheeky tone.

	Fate pouted. “No! I’m patrolling and I just fought a bunch of Obumbratio, so I was a little on-edge. You startled me, not scared.”

	“Calm down,” Elaina chuckled. “It’s good to see you.”

	“What are you doing here? Papa said no to you tagging along.”

	Elaina shrugged. “He was worried and so was I, so I came to check up on you. It seems like you’re doing good, though… was I worried for nothing, or are you hiding something?”

	Fate scrunched up her nose in annoyance. “I’m not hiding anything,” she insisted. “You’re worried for nothing, El.”

	“Okay, well… I’ll, uh… I’ll go back and tell Xenon that you’re okay, but you have to promise me that you won’t get in trouble.”

	“I promise,” Fate sighed, crossing her arms over her chest.

	Elaina nodded, then paused, and then they waved their hand goodbye and disappeared into an alleyway. Totally not creepy of them to do.

	Fate let out a sigh.

***

	All of the students of Class Crescent Moon were waiting for their teacher inside the classroom.

	There were all kinds of conversation - some students talking about how many souls they had collected up to now, other about how the Obumbratio attacks had decreased significantly, but Fate was drowsy; she had her eyes closed and used a hand to hold her sleepy head up. She hadn’t gotten to sleep much last night because she was worried that Elaina or even her father would pop in out of nowhere… and she was still thinking about what she had seen last night.

	It could have been an illusion, she thought. But I could’ve sworn that I saw something on that roof.

	Despite actively thinking, she happened to fall asleep for a second and, unfortunately for her, she slammed her face into the desk in front of her. She groaned and raised her head slowly while rubbing her forehead - the hit wasn’t very hard, but it completely woke her up - and she opened her eyes to see that the others were looking at her.

	“Welcome back from death,” Kilik jokes, and Fate couldn’t help but smile.

	“Very funny,” she said. “You could have woken me up before…”

	The classroom door opened and Professor Stein entered the room.

	“Sorry for the delay,” Stein apologized. “I had to talk with Professors Marie and Sid, so they could lend me their turn. We’re going to have a training class today.”

	All the students began whispering upon hearing what the Professor said. It was strange to have these kinds of classes; the last one was about “duel Arts” where he explained the Chain Resonance, but since that one, there hadn’t been any more.

	“Why the hell do we need training?” Black*star asked, annoyed. “I’ll crush all enemies we have without any effort-”

	Stein interrupted the ninja’s complaining. “There will be enough time for that, Black*Star. The class will be outside the academy; I’ll wait for you there.” As he said that, he started to leave the room, and the students stood up from their seats.

	When the class reached the courtyard, they saw that there were more people apart from Stein. Fate recognized Maka’s father and the man who told her about the Obumbratio missions, but there were two women that she had never seen before as well.

	“What are you four doing here?” Stein asked, curious.

	“Supervising,” one of the women said, the one with black hair and a pair of simple-framed glasses. “I have to be sure that they don’t slack off and train hard enough.”

	“Besides, you took my turn and Sid’s, so you could at least let us see them,” the other woman said. This one had long loose blonde hair and remarkable eyepatch over her left eye.

	“And what’s your excuse, Spirit?” Stein asked, looking at his old partner while he rotated his screw.

	“You know why I’m here,” the Death Scythe said. “Besides, I want to make sure you don’t hurt my daughter.”

	The doctor’s screw made a clicking sound. “Don’t worry about that, I won’t be the one who is going to fight them,” he said, which made the other adults look at him in confusion.

	While they were talking, the class was talking about what kind of training the doctor could’ve prepared.

	“Surely it’s about the Chain Resonance again, since we still have to improve it,” Maka said. “I still remember the first class we tried to fight Doctor Stein…”

	“Ox and you stood in my way,” Black*Star said. “I could’ve fought him alone.”

	“We’re stronger then before, any training that he has prepared won’t be a problem,” Kilik commented.

	As they talked, Fate noticed that one of the woman she didn’t know was staring at her.

	“Is it me or is she staring at me?” Fate asked. “I feel uneasy for some reason…”

	Tsubaki heard her and decided to tell her who the woman was. “Oh, that’s Ms. Azusa, don’t worry about her. She may look very serious and analytical, but she’s a good person.”

	“The other woman is Prof. Marie,” Maka added. “She is very gentle and kind with everyone. Both of them are Death Scythes.”

	Fate was surprised when she heard that the two of them were Death Scythes like Maka’s father, but then Stein walked over to the students while the others went to the side so they didn’t interrupt the training.

	“Listen everyone,” Stein began. “I suppose most of you have guessed that today, the training is about Duel Arts again, which is right, but I also want you to get stronger. Your actual level is not enough if Arachnophobia makes a move or if we decide to do it, so I ask you to take this seriously.”

	The entire class looked at Stein with serious faces; no one said anything, but it was clear that they were determined to get stronger no matter what.”

	“Okay, then let’s begin,” Stein said. “I’ll change the teams a little, so when I say your name please come here.”

	The Professor said three names: Kilik, Kid, and Black*Star. The three of them stepped in front of the rest with their respective partners.

	“Fate, could you please come here?” Stein asked. “I’ll need you for this.”

	Fate was surprised, but walked to where the doctor was anyway, and the three students who were called as well as the rest were puzzled at what Stein said. It wasn’t like Fate needed to train in Chain Resonance since her soul matched almost every soul.

	Stein looked at Fate, then at his students, and then he smiled. “I’m a little tired today, so instead of fighting me, you will fight Fate, okay?”

	All of the students as well as the teachers were dumbfounded at what the doctor just said. Normally, the teacher was the one who trained the student, but it seemed that Stein thought that this was a good idea.

	“You are three of the stronger people in the class, so I expect good results,” Stein said while adjusting his glasses.

	“Alright, this is more like it!” Black*Star cheered, and Tsubaki transformed.

	“Let’s see what the almighty Fate can do,” Kilik said as his partners turned into two big metallic gloves.

	“Liz, Patty, don’t let your guard down. You know who we’re dealing with,” Kid said.

	“Okay~!” Patty replied, and then transformed.

	“I’ve got a feeling that this is going to end like when we fought Hiro and Excalibur…” Liz sighed as she transformed as well.

	The team resonated their souls in order to fight the Sapphire Warrior. Fate was a bit nervous, but thought that this would be a nice way for her to train, too, so she was okay with the doctor’s plan. Then Stein started to walk to where the other adults were, the rest of the class doing the same to give the fighters space.

	“Okay, start whenever you are ready. I’ll be watching you,” Stein said. “And remember, take this seriously, do don’t hold back. That goes for you, too, Fate.”

	Fate looked at the Professor, and then at the three people who stood in front of her. They were prepared to fight for real so she was going to take this training seriously, but she wasn’t going to go all out… but she had to make it look like she was going to. She summoned her sword to her hand and gripped it tightly, staring at her three opponents with an intense and serious glare that startled them.

	“Oh man, I don’t like that look on her face,” Liz whimpered.

	“This is going to be intense! Here I go!” Black*Star said, and then he started to run towards the silver-haired girl. He was already using Tsubaki’s Uncanny Sword Mode and reached Fate in a few seconds and clashed his sword against hers, but to the ninja’s surprise, Fate broke his defense easily and started to throw several blows which Black*Star could block - but it was making him retreat.

	While Fate tried to hit Black*Star, Kid appeared in the air behind her and started to shoot, but unfortunately for him, Fate noticed and jumped behind Black*Star to use him as a human shield, and it worked.

	Shit! She realized I was behind, Kid thought. He didn’t realize that Fate was already behind him and when he noticed, it was too late - the silver-haired girl hit Kid three times and sent him to the floor with a horizontal slash.

	Kilik jumped to Fate as she hit Kid; he clashed his gloves and flew to the silver-haired girl at high speed and tried to hit her with the glove that had bolts in it, but Fate launched her sword to the glove and parried it, and she took this chance to retrieve the blade and made Kilik land with a powerful blow.

	Black*Star recovered from the shots and looked up. “Tsubaki, Kusarigama mode,” he said.

	She transformed and her meister launched one of the scythes to Fate but she grabbed it, and Black*Star smiled since that’s what he wanted her to do.

	“Now come down here!” Black*Star shouted, and he pulled to make Fate land. The silver-haired girl tied the chain to her sword and launched it to the floor, sticking it in the ground, and as soon as she landed, she pulled the chain to make Black*Star come to her position.

	Kid ran to help Black*Star and tried to kick Fate so she released the chain, but Fate dodged the kick and grabbed the Shinigami’s leg, launching her at Black*Star and hitting him with his friend. Now Tsubaki was without a meister, but Black*Star had an idea.

	“Tsubaki, Smoke Bomb Mode!” He called out, and then the area around Fate was covered with smoke and the girl took this chance to return to her meister.

	“Okay, my turn! Fire, Thunder, Soul Resonance!” Kilik called out, and then his right glove was covered by fire and the left one with thunderbolts, and then he combined the two elements together, creating a large blue form of energy and condensed it into a small. “Aphex twin!” He launched the ball inside the smoke where Fate was and caused a large explosion.

	After a few seconds, something shone in the smoke and suddenly, a huge ball of fire came from there at high speed and exploded near the three students, which sent them tolling on the ground. They received a lot of damage from Fate’s attacks, but they managed to stand up. The smoke blew away and Fate was there without even a scratch, facing the three students that she was fighting, and all of the people in the courtyard looked at Fate with shock.

	“She’s like a totally different person,” Soul said, astonished.

	“Not even the three of them fighting together could land a hit on her…” Harvar said, staring at Fate with wide eyes. “I recall what I said about her for the first time, she looks really threatening now.”

	As they talked, the people who were fighting were having their own conversation.

	“No wonder she won against you, Black*Star,” Kilik said. “This girl is a beast.”

	“Man, I am so enjoying this fight,” Black*Star grinned. “After this training, I’ll be stronger than ever.”

	“We haven’t even touched her. Now I know why my father said that her skill was above other magic users,” Kid commented.

	“I’m glad that she’s our friend,” Liz said. “I wouldn’t like to be her enemy.”

	“Are you ready for another round?” Fate asked with a smile, but then she sensed something under her.

	It was a huge circle made of shadows and she quickly jumped away before it swallowed her, and the others stared at the blot of darkness with wide eyes. The hole of shadows grew, and then an enormous Obumbratio climbed out of it; Fate recognized the monster, except it was bigger and more red than black for some reason.

	“Fate, what should we do!?” Kid asked. “We’ve never seen this kind of Obumbratio.”

	“You three are hurt and tired; let me take care of it, okay?” Fate replied, holding out her arm as she stepped in front of them.

	Black*Star sighed, but a smile pulled at his lips. “Okay, I’ll let you be the star today, but don’t get used to it.”

	Fate grinned.

	“Kick his ass and come back in one piece,” Kilik said.

	The three meisters who fought Fate made their way over to the class and left the Sapphire Warrior alone with the Obumbratio.

	Marie looked at the monster with fear. “That thing is going to kill him! We have to do something!” She went to move forward, but Spirit put his arm in front of her and stopped her from going anywhere.

	“Don’t worry about her. She knows what she has to do,” the red-haired man said to her.

	Fate was staring at the Obumbratio with a calm face.

	“Okay… let’s get this over with.”