Distractions in Keshin hunting only lead to a hunter's downfall… All tasks demand utmost focus… Utmost focus demands an unwavering mind and soul…
Soul III: The Reaper's Someone
Ragna gave a low groan as he slowly rose from his bed and slammed his first down on his beeping alarm clock. It was five in the morning, a long while before anyone would normally have to get up and going for school, but he preferred to get an early start to the morning even on Saturday (in Japan they only have Sundays and holidays off). After getting showered, dressing himself in his usual dark jeans and black turtleneck, and combing his hair so that it was his favored 'messy' style, he headed into the kitchen to get breakfast ready. By the time Sol and Aria had gotten themselves ready, Ragna had already made breakfast burritos for the family and a pot of coffee had just finished brewing.
"Lunches are on the table, thermoses are still in the dishwasher, burritos should still be warm," he said automatically from where he sat at the kitchen table, rereading last night's chapter as he drank his own cup of coffee. "Weather report says it's supposed to rain for the first time in awhile; supposed to last all day even."
"Don't think that gets you out of training, I told you we're stepping it up today and I meant it," his surrogate father told him bluntly, earning him a solid jab in the ribs from his wife's elbow. "...Thanks for getting this ready though, we're supposed to have a meeting in the middle of the day so I thought we'd have to miss lunch."
"Yeah, already heard about it from Maka yesterday," Ragna explained without raising his head from the book he was reading as his parents filled their thermoses with fresh coffee. "See you after school then."
"Be sure you both bring umbrellas," Aria told him as she and her husband exited their apartment with their brown bagged lunches. Ragna let out a yawn before finally looking up and glancing at the time. Classes started at seven for both the academy and regular schools, so he'd need to leave by 6:30 which gave him a solid half hour before he had to head out.
By the time he'd reread the chapter it was already 6:26; four minutes time he needed to head out sighing he stood from the table and placed the textbook back in his bookbag before grabbing his red jacket from the closet. He then brought up three fingers and slowly began to count down. He'd just put down the last finger when a loud crash was heard from the other side of the apartment.
"I overslept!" his younger sister shouted with panic as he heard her rush around her room, trying to get things ready. Rolling his eyes, he crossed his arms as she tried to get ready in the few minutes that they had. "Why didn't you wake me!?"
"Because I remember what happened last time Dizzy; you threatened to gouge my eyes out of their sockets," Ragna reminded as he casually waited by the door as his little sister rushed into the bathroom.
After a few minutes, the blue haired young girl came out hastily dressed with her blue hair a soaked mess with bits of shampoo still in it. Her stomach then let out a large grumble and she cringed. "No breakfast or lunch today."
"Got you covered," Ragna said bluntly before taking two ribbons from the closet and sticking Dizzy's breakfast burrito in the microwave before handing the young girl her brown bag lunch. "Stand still, I'll help with your hair."
"...Thanks," Dizzy thanked glumly, as she looked down to the floor in self disappointment.
"Just keep your head up," her brother told her. Dizzy looked at her sibling in appreciation for the words of encouragement. "It's hard for me to do your hair when it's drooping like that." She sighed sadly again, leaving Ragna to finally get the message as he started braiding her hair.. "Hey, what's the big deal? It's not the first time I've had to do this."
"I know…" she lamented sadly. "It's just… I feel like I'm starting to be just a bother for you…"
"News flash, you're my sister; you'll usually end up being a bother to me," Ragna said smugly, earning him a harsh glare from Dizzy. "Seriously though, I'm the older brother for a reason; if I can't help you out with this much from time to time I'm not doing my job."
"But don't you have your own things to worry about?" she asked as her brother continued to braid her hair. "You've been in the academy for a month now, hasn't it started to get harder for you?"
"As if, I'm bored out of my skull since they're forbidding me from going on another mission without a special notice," Ragna told her just as he finished his work. "There we go, just the way you like 'em."
"Just the way," Dizzy said, trying to keep a confident smile on her face as she grabbed her backpack. "Come on, we should probably hurry."
"Yeah, but grab an umbrella if you don't want your hair to be a washed out mess again," he told her as he grabbed his own parasol and his favored red coat. He decided to leave BloodScythe in the closet since he hadn't touched the blade in weeks.
The weather outside wasn't just a tiny shower, it was a full on storm. Harsh wind blew as the rain came down in gallons. Even with his umbrella and resistant red coat Ragna's clothing was starting to feel uncomfortably damp with the tiny bits of rain that did manage to make it through. Just as the two made their way to the entrance of Dizzy's school, he heard his sister shriek. Turning his head, he say that a powerful gust of wind had managed to tear her umbrella to pieces. Seeing his younger sister without protection from the rain, he held out his own umbrella to protect her from the rain and to offer for her to take it.
"I-I'll be fine," she told him, trying to turn down his offer. "I mean, school's just right here." Ragna didn't move. "I can probably get the school to let me borrow one, I shouldn't have to walk home in the rain… probably." By offering his umbrella, Ragna had sacrificed his own cover from the ongoing storm for Dizzy's and his gravity defying hair was starting to harshly droop from the downpour. Knowing her brother's stubborn nature, Dizzy took the umbrella. "Thanks… I'll find a way to pay you back, I swear!"
"You don't have to, it's fine," Ragna said as he turned to hurry off to the academy, leaving Dizzy to run inside so she wouldn't miss the first bell.
Inside the DWMA
"SHIT I'M LATE!" Ragna shouted as he rushed through the hallways of the academy. Running up the long stairway was a difficult task; the slickness granted to it through the rain was almost guaranteed to make you to make you fall to the ground. It'd nearly happened to Ragna more than a few times, but he'd managed to reclaim his footing. Still, it had slowed him down enough and his shoes squeaked with every step. He finally managed to make it to the entrance of the classroom and opened the door.
"Nice of you to finally join us, you just missed attendance," Sid said with a glare as he turned his head from where he stood at the front desk. "Didn't you have an umbrella?"
"Must have forgotten it," Ragna with a shrug while students laughed at his comment. Water was already pooling at his feet from the rare storm that had occurred. Turning his head towards his usual seat, he saw that it was still open between his regular group. Deciding he wouldn't waste anyone else's time he began heading over.
"Just a minute," the teacher told him, leaving Ragna to groan.
"I'm not getting suspended for showing up tardy for a single day am I?
"You're bringing water into the classroom as well, but I'm not going to punish you for a first offense; I'm not the type of man to do that. Would you happen to know anything about this?" Sid asked him as he held up a letter with Ragna's name written on it. "Found this on the teacher's desk this morning."
"Not a clue," Ragna told him bluntly as he too the letter and looked over it in his hand. 'Whoever sent this writes some pretty flowery cursive… but there's no telling it could be from.' Shrugging, he used his finger to open the letter and looked inside. Only a few lines in his face went completely red and his eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.
"What wrong?" Sid asked trying to snap the student out of his dazed state. "Ragna!"
"I-I'll get on my…" he stuttered he folded the letter, his current complexion showing no signs of dying down at all. He awkwardly headed over and took his seat between Maka and Black Star. He kept the letter in his hand and his head down, trying not reveal anymore of his blush than he already had as the lecture began.
"So to continue with yesterday's lesson, an evil soul's body will change over time after its first we killings. The process will take less time the more souls it acquires and the changes will become further drastic as a result. The less human it looks, the more powers it's likely to have," Sid explained. "Now then, to review… Ragna?"
"LOVE LETTER!? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!? I DIDN'T GET A-!"
The entire classroom went eerily silent at Ragna's outburst, as did he as he realized that everyone was staring at him in concern. The Meister in training was clearly rattled as his head slowly creaked around to weakly look at the entirely of the class with their gazes all focused on him.
"We'll… come back to you later…" Sid said as he shook his head. Ragna said nothing, merely slumping his head on top of his desk and letting out a sad sigh.
"He's really out of it…" Tsubaki said next to Black Star with a grimace. For once the light blue haired ninja said nothing, he merely appeared to be deep in thought as he looked to his friend in concern.
Classes the rest of the day seemed to proceed exactly the same; Ragna kept his head down the entire day without any signs of recovering from the shock he'd gotten from the letter. Even when there was a lunch break, he'd only grabbed his lunch and had eaten elsewhere, hidden from even his regular group of friends. At long last the final bell of the day rang, leaving the embarrassed Meister to get up and leave only too soon.
"Hey Ragna," Black Star started as he started walking out the front entrance. "Shouldn't you have an umbrella? You can probably borrow one from the teacher's lounge."
"Wouldn't do me any good," he muttered. "It'll be impossible for me not to get wet in the outskirts."
"You're still going out to the outskirts today in this weather?" Maka asked in concern. "If you go out there now you'll catch hypothermia or get hit by a lightning bolt."
"Like that would kill me," Ragna dismissed entirely. "Besides I could use the rain; damn, nearly anything to cool my head off would be a godsend at this point." Not giving anyone else time to protest, he took off running into the rain soaked courtyard and leapt into the air. Landing on the side of the stairway, he managed to slide all the way down the long stairway and passed several surprised students making their way down with much more care before running off into the city's outskirts.
"Showoff," Soul muttered.
"Jealous," Maka retaliated, resulting in duo having a heated glare at each other. "Come on we still need to do today's shopping."
"Shopping in this kind of weather? Not cool," Soul muttered, though he followed Maka's lead. "Later guys."
"Later," Black Star said casually as weapon and Meister brought out their umbrellas and left the DWMA.
"Black Star?" Tsubaki asked by leaning in. "Is something wrong?" For a long moment the light blue haired ninja said nothing as Maka and Soul Eater made their way out of the academy. Once they were out of earshot a cocky smirk abruptly appeared on his face.
"YAHOO!" Black Star shouted out, causing Tsubaki's face to go completely blank. "All right! Time to get to work!"
'Work?' Tsubaki thought with concern. 'What's he going on about this time?'
"Tsubaki, who do you think could have sent Ragna that letter?" the ninja asked, causing Tsubaki to become further worried.
"Uh… I don't know?" she said. 'This is what we're working on? We could have tried to get some more training in or maybe look for a special mission.'
"Right, 'cause that letter didn't have a name on it, our teacher said that much," he reminded her. "So…"
"So…?" she repeated.
"...WE'LL JUST HAVE TO ASK EVERYONE IN THE SCHOOL!" Black Star shouted before running off in a random direction.
"Black Star! Wait!" Tsubaki shouted as she vainly attempted to keep up with her partner.
"There's a group there!" Black Star shouted in excitement. "Hey! Did any of you leave that love letter for Ragna!?"
"Love letter?" one of the girls questioned before laughing unrestrainedly. "For Ragna!? Are you some sort of idiot!?" The group then headed off laughing at what Black Star suggested.
"Is that a yes or a no!?" he called after them.
"Black Star," Tsubaki began with a sigh as she finally managed to catch up. "Those girls aren't even in our class." Her words had an immediate effect as sweat rapidly dropped down her Meister's face. "In fact they're not even in our year, I think they were fourth year students."
"R-right, guess I forgot about that in my bigness," Black Star admitted. "But still, that doesn't mean they weren't the ones that sent it!"
"They did all walk away laughing…" Tsubaki said as she gave off an iconic anime sweatdrop.
"Well that was one group, let's ask everyone here!" Black Star shouted as he took off running again, this time dragging Tsubaki with him for good measure.
"You're crazy! Why would anyone ever send him a love letter? This was probably just a prank!" one third year student told them off.
"ME? Waste these beautiful charms on THAT!?" a narcissistic second year told them.
"I wouldn't write him a love letter if he were the last man on earth!" a raging first year shouted.
"I'd rather kiss a Keshin than confess to a freak like him!" their final inquiry answered.
"...I'm starting to get the feeling that not a lot of girls in this academy like Ragna," Black Star eventually concluded.
'Took him long enough to figure it out,' Tsubaki thought to herself. "Black Star…"
"Wait, there's one last person!" Black Star said excitedly. "And they're perfect! They're in our class, I see them around Ragna sometimes, and they don't seem to hate him!"
"Who-?" Tsubaki's words died in her throat as she saw who Black Star was referring to. 'Oh kami no…'
"SPILL IT! WHY DID YOU SEND RAGNA THAT LOVE LETTER!?" Black Star shouted in his target's face, leaving Tsubaki to cringe… she cringed hard.
"...I beg your pardon?" an understandably confused Ox Ford asked as he adjusted his glasses. "You think I sent Ragna… what now?"
"I KNOW IT HAD TO BE YOU!" the short ninja continued to shout off as Tsubaki vainly attempted to stop her partner. "With all of the time you spend around Ragna you had to confess eventually! But since you couldn't do it in person you had to send a letter!"
"...Black Star," Ox Ford began emotionlessly. "You are a sad, strange little man… and you have my pity." With that said Ox then left the two speechless ninja's, muttering under his breath something about jumping to conclusions.
"You… you didn't really think that he could have been the one to send the letter… did you?" Tsubaki asked him.
"He was the last person here," Black Star tried to defend. "I guess we're not going to figure it out this way… This stinks; I would've thought a big star like me would've gotten this case wrapped up by now."
"We've been investigating for thirty minutes, that's a bit of a short time frame to solve a case," Tsubaki told him. "Shouldn't we call it a day? I mean, why are we doing this is the first place?"
"For Ragna's sake, why else?" Black Star explained. "You saw how he was today, something like this stuck a pretty bad nerve." He then gave a proud hit to his chest with one of his arms. "That's why I'm trying to figure this out! Even if it's just some sick joke from someone we'll at least have a face to blame!"
'He's actually doing this for a good cause then,' Tsubaki thought to herself. 'Maybe Black Star's being more mature about this than I thought…' "Hey, why don't we try to see if we can read the letter then?"
"Read it?" Black Star questioned skeptically. "I dunno… Wouldn't really be that big of me to peek at a personal letter like that, even if it could've been sent as a mean prank."
"We'll ask Ragna if we can read it first," Tsubaki explained with a thoughtful smile. "That way he'll at least know that we're on the case. And who knows? Maybe we can get an idea of who sent it by what they wrote or how they wrote it."
"Cool! Now we just need to figure out where Ragna went!" Black Star said as a sudden red glow was seen off in the distance, outside the city's limits. The ninja then watch as it was suddenly eclipsed by a burst of darkness before turning red once more.
"Hey…" a nervously sweating Tsubaki asked with fear. "Didn't Ragna say he was heading outside the city?"
"Yahoo! That was easy!" Black Star shouted energetically as he ran for the school's entrance.
'He's running straight into that!? Is he mad!?' Tsubaki thought with worry. 'What am I saying? Of course he is…'
Death City Outskirts
As Tsubaki and Black Star made their way towards where they'd assumed Ragna had went, the yellow garbed Ninja became further worried with every flash of red or burst of darkness that she saw off in the horizon. The closer they got the more the ground beneath their feet continued to shake.
"Black Star, why don't we try asking Ragna a different time? It looks like he'd be busy now anyways," Tsubaki said, trying for the umpteenth time to convince he partner that this was a bad idea.
"Why? We're almost there anyways," the young ninja told her as the duo came to a cliff overlooking the display. "See, there he is down below."
Trying to keep her balance in wake of the powerful tremors, Tsubaki glanced over the edge of the cliff and gasped at what she saw. For all the time she'd sat near Ragna at the academy this was her first time seeing him in combat and this hadn't been what she'd been expecting. Ragna was currently shirtless (showing off his artificial arm in full) and engaged in a fist fight with someone that Tsubaki recognized as one of the instructors at the academy. The match between the two could only be described as brutal, neither of the two appeared to be holding back as their attacks often stuck in their opponent's face or ribs, yet the two proceeded to beat the living hell out of each other. Ragna's opponent seemed to charge his fist with flames before throwing a powerful punch forward, forcing the young meister to dodge as not to be seared by the flames. Grunting, Ragna then let out a powerful shout before lunging forward with a fist coated in darkness which the instructor was forced to defend against.
"...So you still want to get in the middle of that?" Tsubaki asked as she turned to Black Star… rather where Black Star had been standing a moment ago. "Black Star?"
"Yahoo!" the young ninja shouted as he soared down from the cliff. "HEY RAAAAGNAAAA!"
"Huh?" the silver hair merely glanced up, surprised to see the teal headed ninja leading down to greet him… only to smashed in the face by a flaming fist courtesy of his sparring part and sent straight into the cliff's side.
"You got distracted," the instructor said bluntly. Ragna forced himself out of the way and painfully landed on the ground. Black Star saw how badly his face was burnt and saw how tightly he was gritting his teeth, but it seemed to be in anger rather than pain and even then it seemed he was angry at himself. "What's with you today? Usually you wouldn't let something like that distract you for a second."
"I'm having an off day alright!?" Ragna snapped back.
"Sure, go ahead and call it that," the tall brown haired man said before glancing to Black Star. "He a friend of yours?"
"Something like that," Ragna said as he slowly worked his way up. He'd barely made it to his feet when Tsubaki landed in between him and his sparring opponent.
"I'm really sorry," she said, bowing apologetically. "He has a tendency to leap before he thinks."
"You don't say," was the blunt response as the man crossed his arms. "Go ahead and take care of whatever it is they want, I'll wait."
Ragna didn't say anything merely nodding his head darkly, his soaked hair partially covering his face thanks to the rain.
"So that's what you arm looks like," Black Star said before giving off a goofy smile startling Ragna. "You always wear that red jacket or a long sleeve shirt so all I've ever seen is the glove."
"Well here it is, in all of its twisted glory," Ragna told him without humor. "Hideous, isn't it?"
"Nah, I think it's pretty cool! Plus, you can fight Keshin's with it, that has to come in handy!" Black Star said, giving him a goofy thumbs up. "Trust me, it's a keeper."
"A keeper, seriously?" Ragna repeated glancing at his arm in a different light than he had before. "...What are you two here for anyways? Most of the time people see fire off on the distance and they take that as a sign to go the other way."
"Not the great Black Star! No danger's too big for me!" the young ninja proclaimed proudly. "But… we were kind of hoping we could see the love letter you got."
"You… you what!?" Ragna questioned with wide eyes.
"Love letter?" the instructor questioned, almost sounding impressed.
"Why the hell do you want it?" Ragna demanded with a scowl.
"Well… we were kind of hoping that if you showed it to us we could find out just who sent it," Black Star told him as he scratched the back of his head guiltily. "We're doing a bit of a private investigation."
"Though it's not at all private," Tsubaki buttered in, causing Ragna to cringe. "In fact I think we directly asked more than half of the girls at the academy." Ragna's cringe deepened painfully. "...And Ox Ford for some reason."
Now the silver haired meister wished that hit he'd taken had ended up killing him. 'Damn it Ox… I don't think you deserved to be dragged into this nightmare. There goes that trip to arcade I wanted to do with him and Kilik tomorrow.' Ragna then looked up and realized the intense look they were giving him. "Well… I mean I could give it to you…" he admitted, blushing harshly even in the downpour. "But I mean… If I gave it to you in this rain it would destroy it."
"Hey, a little rain isn't going to ruin it!" Black Star protested. "Come on, if we can see what it says we'll be that much closer to finding out who sent it!"
"I know that, but-!" Ragna tried to protest.
"Don't you want to know who sent it?" Tsubaki questioned in a much calmer manner.
Ragna racked his brain as he thought to how he could talk Black Star and Tsubaki out of their search. He was so busy he didn't notice what the nearby instructor was doing until he started to feel the heat of his flames, still burning strongly even in the harsh downpour. Knowing part of what was to come, he brought his hands out to shield his face at the wave of pure heat that was blasted and soared into the sky. When the flames died down, steam was completely covering the area. Taking his arms down, he saw the storm clouds were completely gone and the sun was now fully exposed.
"Rain stopped," the instructor said bluntly, leading Ragna to turn and glare. "Just fess up and show it to 'em, can't make things much worse than what they are now."
"...Fine," Ragna heatedly snapped back as he made his way over to his coat.
"D-D-D-D-Did he just burn away the storm?" Tsubaki asked with a blank face.
"Awesome! Let's learn how to do that!" Black Star shouted excitedly.
"That might be a little beyond us right now," the yellow garbed ninja said nervously as Ragna handed her the letter. "This is it?"
"Yeah, not sure what you're going to get out of it except for a red face," he told her with similar bluntness to that of the instructor. Tsubaki didn't know what he meant so she opened the letter and started reading… immediately getting a blush so red it nearly put Ragna's cherished coat to shame. "See what I mean?"
"Huh? Why are you making that face Tsubaki?" Black Star asked before grabbing the note from her. Looking it over himself his face soon mirrored that of his partner. "That's… an interesting way to ask for… a hug…"
"Not sure what you were expecting find," Ragna told them as he took the letter back. "You two going to keep looking? If you do, try not to have something go too far, last thing I need is another headache right now."
"I'll try to keep him in line," Tsubaki partially promised. "But…"
Ragna sighed. "Fine, I won't hold it against you…"
"We'll see you around Ragna! Yahoo!" Black Star shouted before leaping up to the cliff top and running off. Tsubaki bowed politely once more before taking off.
"I got a bad feeling about this…" Ragna muttered with a sigh before placing the letter back in his jacket. "Do me a favor would you and don't tell mom or Dizzy about this alright? If they find out they'll probably just bombard me with questions I can't answer… not to mention what the letter actually says."
"They won't hear it from me, I can promise you that much," Sol assured. "Though I gotta say, if the thing's such a big pain in the ass for you, why bother keeping it? I'm surprised you haven't burned it yet."
"Well…" he hesitated, obviously not comfortable about talking about such things even with his father. "Even if it's embarrassing and crude as all hell it kind of gives off a good feeling… You know? This is a first time I've had even the hint of girl liking me and even if it's probably a joke, for at least a second I could believe that someone cared about me…" Ragna scratched the back of his head. "Sounds kind of stupid I guess."
Sol smirked. "More like completely idiotic."
Ragna lowered his head as a dark cloud of despair seemed to form around him. 'Some father.'
"FYI, you better start shaping up soon or else I'm not going to give you a passing grade," Sol said as he cracked his knuckles.
"Passing grade? On what?" Ragna asked as he did the same.
"Finally managed to get through to Skull Face; said he'd give you your own special mission if I told him you could take it. No offense, but right now it doesn't seems like you're even close." Sol then grinned harshly as fire encompassed both of his arms. "Want to try and change my mind?"
"Bring it pops!" Ragna accepted with his own smirk as he charged his own power. Flames of black and red collided once more, causing the area to rumble once more.
Black Star's House
'Why can't he ever be this focused when it comes to homework?'' Tsubaki thought to herself as Black Star sat at the table and tried to think over what he could've sent in the letter. 'Come up with anything?"
"My brain's so big it's hard to keep my thoughts together," Black Star told her. "But… I can come up with two girls that could have sent the letter."
'He's narrowed it down to two? That was quick. Maybe I don't Black Star enough credit for-'
"First choice is Maka." That alone was enough to kill the thoughts of praise in Tsubaki's head. "She was never there when we were questioning the other girls, so she hasn't said no."
"There's no chance Maka could have sent that! She and Ragna don't act close to being in that kind of a relationship!" Tsubaki shouted.
"Yeah, but let's say it's just an act and she really wants something else, that could be it right?" the young ninja explained. "Plus, out of anyone she's known him the longest and is even friends with him. It'd almost be strange if she wasn't the sender."
"That's still a pretty big leap in logic." 'Then again if it's Black Star, he wouldn't have it any other way.' "Those were some pretty raunchy things to say in a letter, I can't imagine Maka sending something like that to anyone… and I don't her chest is half as big as the letter implies."
"Maybe she's just a got an active imagination," Black Star guessed. Tsubaki was pretty doubtful of that. "Option two is… you."
"EXCUSE YOU!?" Tsubaki shouted with a deep blush.
"Oh yeah! You thought you could pull a fast one on your own partner, but nothing escapes Black Star's great eyes!" the young ninja shouted as Tsubaki mood seemed to darken considerably. "I've seen those little glances that you've been giving him during class. Didn't think I wouldn't notice? I've managed to pick up one everything and-!"
THUNK!
"AAAUUUUGGH!"
It was rare of Tsubaki to lose her patience with anyone, even her partner. Thing was, when that did eventually happen Black Star got a shuriken to the forehead. The blue haired ninja gave an angry shout of pain before falling to the floor, blood still dribbling out of the wound.
"Care to continue?" Tsubaki asked angrily as she crossed her arms.
"I spoke too soon…" Black Star admitted before painfully yanking the shuriken out of his brow. "But that still leaves Maka… Hmmmm…"
'What's he thinking now?' Tsubaki questioned herself as an idea seemed to form in Black Star's mind.
"Maybe we could get them on a date," he said with a big smile, confusing Tsubaki.
The Next Morning -Maka's Apartment-
"You want Maka to go out with Ragna?" Soul Eater asked with confusion as he sat with Black Star and Tsubaki in his appartment. Maka was currently out saying that she'd wanted to hit the library and pick up some new material to read. "What brought this up?"
"Black Star is convinced that she's the one that sent him the letter from yesterday," Tsubaki explained with a groan. "I doubt it, but he seems dead set on it."
"I'm against it too personally," Soul told the two. "A while back I actually asked Maka if Ragna was her boyfriend and she smacked me over the head… what makes you think she was lying?"
"Call it a hunch, but that's not the only part of my plan," Black Star told him happily. "So let's say that Maka wasn't the one that sent Ragna the letter, but we still get her to go out with him… Well what if Ragna's actual crush notices him with Maka?"
"I get it…" Soul said as he gave a snarky smile. "That'll put the pressure on her to confess to Ragna in person and she'll reveal herself to us… Okay, so what do we need to do?"
"You're in on this too now?" Tsubaki demanded, trying desperately to be a voice of reason.
"Who knows, maybe if she goes on a date she won't be half as uptight with me," the weapon suggested. "Plus, out of all they guys at the academy it's obvious that Ragna's the closest she's ever gotten with anyone. So about the plan…"
"Easy, with my knowledge about the city I know about this cafe that couples from the academy often meet up at," Black Star told him proudly. "I already made a reservation for two in Ragna's name, now all we need to do is get them to show up their today at 5."
"I know the place you're talking about; pass by there all the time. You guys get Ragna then, I'll figure out a way to get Maka there," Soul promised them with a smirk.
Later the Badguy Residence
"I'm back," Ragna announced as he entered through the door, this time he was wise enough to dodge to the side when Dizzy tried to pounce him, leaving his younger sibling to land on all fours behind him. "Nice try sis…"
"You're back earlier than I thought you'd be; it's not even two," his mother said from the kitchen as she looked over some last minute paperwork for the academy. "How was the arcade?"
"Lame, didn't make sense to stay for long with those games glitching out on us," Ragna told her. "At least Ox seems to have forgotten about the chaos from yesterday…"
"Chaos?" Dizzy asked, reminding her brother that he needed to keep that on the down low.
"None of your business," he said sharply. "I'm gonna catch some Z's; this week's been hell on me."
"Before you do, this came for you," Aria told him as she got up from the table and held out a letter. Ragna's eyes widened as he recognized the way his name was written on the front. "I never got a good look on who left it, but maybe you know something about it?"
"Nothing really…" Ragna said as he tried to grab the letter with a passive blush. Unfortunately for him it didn't look like his mother was willing to give it to him easily. "What now?"
"What's this about? As charming as my son is I didn't think he'd be getting a love letter this early in the academy," she said to him with a smirk.
"...Well he did," Ragna finally admitted with due bluntness, surprising Aria long enough for him to grab the letter out of her hands.
"O-Onii-chan got someone to confess?" Dizzy demanded. Before she could question him further Ragna was already in his room with the door shut behind him. "Ragna!" Dizzy called from outside her brother's room. "Ragna!"
"Quit it!" he shouted from inside. "I just want some privacy! Jeeze... what a family." He took a good long look at the letter in his hand. He was about to tear the letter in half to avoid all of this chaos, but he couldn't bring himself to. Opening it he saw the details of the message inside.
'Doesn't look like they're trying to make this note really perverted at least,' he thought as he continued to read. 'And they want to meet me? In person? Let's see C'est la vie Cafe and Coffee… That's that place I always see couples from school going to.'
Ragna sighed to himself as he put the letter down and laid back on his bed. 'Tch… This sounds too good to be true… This could just be a cop out to embarrass me… Even if it is a girl, what happens if she turns out to be the type that only wants to try and take advantage of a guy like me?' He sighed to himself and tried to get comfortable. 'It's not worth it… Not in the slightest.'
TimeSkip -Two Hours Later-
"Ragna! Give it a rest in there!" Sol shouted angrily as he pounded on the bathroom door. "I can already smell that damn cologne from my den!"
Meanwhile -Maka's Apartment-
'This oughta be a cinch,' Soul Eater tried to convince himself as he looked at the letter he'd written. 'All I gotta do is give this letter to Maka and let her read it. It'll tell her everything that she needs to know.'
The young meister herself was sitting on the couch in their living room, reading over the books she'd just gotten from the library. A small cup of tea sitting in front of her as she delved into the complicated Shakespearean writings of Julius Caesar. She didn't even look up as Soul approached her.
"Hey, 'got a letter here for ya," he told her, holding out the piece of paper for her to take. Maka glanced at the letter in her partner's hand before staring back at him with a harsh glare. "Hey, I don't have any idea who it's from alright? Jeeze." Rolling her eyes, she took the letter and opened it looking it over for a good long while. "So… what's it say?"
Maka didn't answer for a long moment as she looked over the letter in her hands again and again. Finally she let out a long sigh. "It's a love letter, and a pretty poorly written one…" she said, irking Soul somewhat. "It's a note trying to tell me that there's someone who cares about me and finds my 'cute form' attractive." Maka then ripped the letter right then and there, causing Soul to harshly cringe. "What a total joke."
Soul was sweating harshly as he tried to salvage the situation. "Was that it?" he asked, trying to keep the cool he always claimed to have. "I mean, did the joker have anything else to write?"
Maka stared at Soul, she seemed to narrow her eyes rather tightly. "Yeah, he did…" Right now it was taking everything the weapon had not to confess to the crime right then and there. "He also wanted to meet me at this cafe that, C'est La Vie or something. Heard of it?"
"We pass by it on our way to the academy," Soul told her. 'Come on there has to be something that could get Maka to go there at least.' And then it hit him; use her anger flares. "You know, it might be worth heading there, even if it's just to tell the guy off."
"...It's not worth it," Maka said as she went back to reading her Shakespeare "It's just one stupid letter."
"It's just one stupid letter now, who knows how many more are gonna be showin' up?" Soul defended. "At least you know where your sender is going to be so you can tell him off, can't say that Ragna had that much… Come to think of it, there a chance this could be the same sender?"
Maka didn't say anything at that she simply closed her book and stood up. The young meister then groaned while she performed a small stretch before smirking. "Guess I should get ready then."
Later
"Dammit, just how sad can I get anyways?" Ragna said glumly to himself as he headed though the streets of Death City. "There's no damn way this can be an actual date… Yet here I am, walking to a cafe and taking the better part of an afternoon jazzing up for it…"
While he wouldn't say that you couldn't recognize him, Ragna had undergone a bit of a change from his time spent in the bathroom. He'd done the basic preparations such as shower and put deodorant on (he didn't have any facial hair to shave), but gelling his hair proved to be a trickier task than anticipated. No matter what he'd tried his hair would constantly go back to its usual messy style. In the end he'd given up, settling on the slight shine that he'd gotten thanks to the products he'd tried to use. Instead of wearing his red coat, he'd put on a clean dress shirt and some freshly ironed slack, just put the whole image together. And then there was his father's cologne; it'd had taken a few tries, but he'd finally applied enough to smell nice without suffocating anyone.
"Looks like this is the place," he muttered as he took a look at the cafe. The restaurant was plenty busy, couple from both the academy and adults from around town were sitting at tables making small talk and laughing at each others jokes. Taking a small sniff in the air, Ragna could tell that the adults were already breaking into the booze for the evening.
"Can I help you sir?" a waitress at the front asked. "Need to wait for a table or do you have a reservation?"
"Reser… I might, are there any at Five o'clock for two?" he asked, not sure if anything had been set up.
"Let me see…" the waitress said as she looked at the guest list. "Yep, reservation for Ragna. Ready to be seated."
'It's finally here, the big moment of truth,' Ragna thought nervously to himself as tried not to sweat off his cologne. "That's me."
"Great, right this way sir," she said as she lead the way towards Ranga's table. It was a small table outside the restaurant surrounded by flora… and it was completely unoccupied. "Oops, looks like your date isn't here yet."
'Shit,' Ragna thought as he glanced around confirming his worst fear from the smirk he heard. 'Most of these punks are from the academy, same bastards I was always fighting on the playground… Is this a trap?'
Against his better judgement he took a seat and decided he'd at least give it a minute, he'd been sure to show up a little early anyways. He asked the waitress if she could bring him some water and she said she'd be sure to bring out a pitcher. Now all that was left were the punks around him. "Fess up," he demanded with narrow eyes, immediately stopping all conversation in the immediate area. "Is this a set up? Some twisted way to kill an afternoon?"
"Heh, like we'd need to do that in the first place," said one third year. He and Ragna had a history; he'd gotten his arm broken by the young silver hair long ago and held a bitter grudge ever since. "You'll embarrass yourself, with or without us."
"...Whatever," Ragna said as crossed his arms and waited, not knowing that Black Star was spying on him from afar.
"Stage one complete, we've got Ragna here," Black Star said as he and Tsubaki were looking over the cafe from a nearby rooftop. "Now all we need to do is wait for Maka and the rest is up to them."
"I'm still not sure this is a good idea," Tsubaki said. "Doesn't it sound like we're forcing them to get together?"
"Getting together is up to them, just as long as people think that they were together, we can find out who really sent that letter and knock some sense into them. As a big friend of Ragna's we'll settle this once and for all!"
"Yes definitely," Tsubaki falsely agreed. "I hope Maka gets here soon though, a lot of people down there look like they want to give him a really hard time."
"Don't worry; Maka has never showed up a day late for class, she'll be here soon," Black Star said proudly.
Five minutes later
"Uh… Black Star?"
"Just give her a second, any moment now."
Ten minutes later
"Black Star…"
"She probably just spend a lot of time getting ready. She'll be here in a minute."
Fifteen minutes later
"She… she wouldn't stand Ragna up would she?" Now the young blue haired ninja was starting to lose his nerve.
"It's a bad time to start asking," Tsubaki told him as she watched Ragna. He'd already gone through his second pitcher of water and had ordered a small appetizer which had already gone cold… to make matter worse, the bullies from the academy hadn't left and were enjoying every second of this. Tsubaki shook her head before she caught something out of the corner of her eye. "Oh no…"
"What? What is it?" Black Star demanded as his weapon left from the roof. "Hey Tsubaki!" Almost immediately she returned... carrying the beaten form of Soul Eater. "Soul? Wh-where's Maka?"
"She… she's not coming…" Soul said, barely able to breath. "I… I screwed up…"
"YOU WHAT!?"
Earlier
"Guess I should get ready then," Maka had said when she was about to get ready.
'It's not perfect, but we can use this,' Soul thought to himself. 'She'll show up angry, but at least she'll be there. Better than leaving Ragna stranded, that wouldn't be cool… Wait…' "I thought you were going to get ready," he said as his smiling partner headed into the kitchen.
"I just thought I should make us a quick snack before I headed out," she told him as she headed inside.
"Grab something at the restaurant, it's the least they can do after bumming you this much," Soul told her as he rolled his eyes. "Come on, I don't even feel that hungry."
"Oh come on now, how do you like your brains?"
"I like 'em… wait, brains?" Soul asked, just before he was slammed in the back of the head and knocked off of his feet. Groaning, he turned and saw Maka standing over him angrily, holding a frying pan in her hands.
"How do you like them Soul? Sunny side? Poached? ...Scrambled?' she demanded as she took a threatening step forward.
"M-maka... Hold on a second…" Sol begged nervously as he scurried back.
"I don't know what's more insulting; that you'd try to pull a stupid stunt on me like this… OR the fact that I wouldn't recognize your OWN HANDWRITING."
'Oh… shit…' "I-I can explain!"
Maka only brought the frying pan up as she prepared to strike. "I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT!"
Present
"And that's what happened…" Soul told them glumly. "In the end she doesn't even know that she's leaving Ragna here by his lonesome… Also I'm gonna have to crash with with you guys tonight, I don't think she'd going to let me back until she calms down."
"That's the least of our troubles!" Black Star shouted at him. "Ragna's down there waiting for someone and there's a group of students down there bad mouthing him!"
"What do want me to do? We can't go back to Maka! She'll skin us alive!" Soul groaned. "We'll just have to fess up… damn I feel like crap."
"Yeah, I know it's my style but this blunder is way TOO big," Black Star said as he shook his head.
Down below, Ragna took the last bite of last appetizer, already cold and tasted even worse thanks to his attitude. He shook his head. "I'm a damn idiot…"
"You don't need to tell us," one of the antagonizing students said as their group as a whole rose from their tables. "Much fun as it was to see you totally ditched I think we've got better things to do on our day off… though I wouldn't mind seeing you like this again."
"...Just go," Ragna said emotionlessly.
"Not just yet," a sadistic female student said as she took her camera out. "I want everyone to know what really happened here… Let's get a picture and post it everywhere in school tomorrow. C'mon, smile for us."
"You…" The students took a step back in fear. Ragna's voice wasn't his own, it was too dark, too bloodthirsty, too… evil. A pitch black aura had surrounded him and the entire area was struck by harsh, chaotic winds.
"Sorry I'm late, I got caught up." Words couldn't explain Ragna's reaction as Tsubaki took the seat at the table directly across from him. Immediately the dark aura around him disappeared, replaced only with confusion.
(Cue 'The Letter that Never Came' by Thomas Newman)
"Tsu...Tsubaki…?" Ragna could barely say
"You didn't order yet did you? I've never been here, but I've heard they serve pretty good burnt cream," she said to him, leaving the other students completely bewildered.
"Wh-what do you think you're doing!?" the student with the camera shouted. "You're eating with him!? Are you ins-!?" Words died there as her camera was suddenly impaled by a sharp kunai. Aside from Ragna thanks to Sol's training, no one had seen her move.
"I'm sorry, I thought you all said you had plans," Tsubaki said to them with a bright smile. The older students were unnerved to no end, so they simply left to cut their losses. "Some people." Tsubaki then poured herself a glass from the pitcher of water as the youth across from her finally came to his sense.
"What the hell are you doing?" Ragna demanded, getting a blank reaction from Tsubaki. "You couldn't have sent that letter. You and Black Star needed me to give it to you! ...This doesn't make any sense."
"And you're right; I just sent you the second one," she told him happily. It wasn't a lie. Tsubaki herself had mimicked the handwriting when she'd written the second letter to Ragna herself.
"Why?" he had to ask, his voice so weak he could barely hear himself. "Why the hell did you do that?"
Tsubaki then gave him a soft smile. "Isn't it obvious? It's because this was eating you alive. And..." she started with a soft blush as Ragna's eyes grew wide. "It's because… It's because we're friends…"
…
...
"Heh, yeah... we're friends," Ragna said with a comfortable smirk as he crossed his arms. "But if I'm just your friend…."
"You're still paying," Tsubaki told him wryly.
"Really? What the hell is that?" Ragna asked, the smirk still on his face as Tsubaki merely giggled. "Seriously though, I got through the trouble of dressing up and you're wearing what you normally do?"
"That's your problem, I never said this was going to be formal," Tsubaki told as she looked through the menu. "You want my advice?" Ragna gave her a simple shrug. "Wear the red coat and skip the cologne; it fits your style better."
"Wish I'd known that earlier before I spent a whole afternoon getting ready," Ragna admitted and his ninja date laughed. "Seriously though, did you see the face of those jerks? That was priceless."
As the two began making proper small talk, high above them Black Star and Soul Eater watched them thoughtfully, both of them having small smiles form.
"We should still let him know," Black Star suggested. "It's still kinda our fault things went this way."
"Yeah, but let's give it some time at least. I never thought Tsubaki would do this for us… or for him." Soul shook his head. "But I guess that still leaves the question on who sent him that letter in the first place."
"Eh, we should let it go," Black Star waved off. "Ragna's almost a big a star as me now! There's no way he'll let something this tiny weigh him down!"
"...Damn straight," Soul said with a smirk.
Unbeknownst to anyone though, there was another set of eyes watching the two; a very… peculiar set of eyes.
"...Meow."
Author's Note: Don't own anything.
Anyone surprised? Well I guess I am too, this idea just sort of came to me as I typed. Anyways, that's the more slice of life (SOL… huh). Just a couple of things to say.
First, to anyone who likes anime and wants to watch both Funimation's and Crunchyroll's work I highly suggest VRV. It costs about ten bucks a month, but you get a free month long premium trial. Without premium you might be subject to commercials, but I'd say it's worth it. I don't advertise for things like this normally, but this is something I highly recommend.
I actually used it to get some Soul Eater ideas and to keep up with my updating shows like Dragon Ball Super and Berserk. I even just finished binging a show called Future Diary… not for the faint of heart, it's more of an adult show.
See you all next chapter everyone, over the next horizon.
Storm VII signing off. Ciao.