99 Souls

2nd Night

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“Welcome.”

The door slammed shut behind the two Shibusen students who had just entered the old building. They didn't even flinch, having expected something like this from their current prey.

“It's not often that people enter into one of my traps willingly,” continued the voice, which the two could now see came from a speaker mounted on the ceiling.

“Hacksaw Killer!” Maka stated clearly, “You've taken many innocent souls by luring them into your deathtraps. As students of Shibusen, we're here to take your soul and end your games.”

“Really, now,” replied the voice, “Most people have enough trouble just getting out, let alone trying to find me. But, it's your funeral, I guess.”

When the voice had stopped, Soul and Maka started to take stock of their surroundings. They noticed three doors in the room, each leading a different direction.

“Stein gave us this mission to help train your soul perception, right?” Soul asked.

“Right.” Maka concentrated for a moment, trying to feel for the wavelength of Hacksaw's soul. She thought she could faintly feel a presence from the direction of the door in front of them on the far wall. “Let's try this one.”

Maka stepped through the door she had indicated, and Soul moved to follow, only to have the door slam in his face, effectively separating the two. Soul's arm immediately turned into a blade and he slashed at the door furiously. Unfortunately, it was made of strong metal, and his attempts proved futile.

“Dammit!” he growled, “If you were wielding me we could probably get through this no problem!”

“We wouldn't even be in this mess if you had been in your Scythe form in the first place! The assignment clearly said not to get separated!” Maka shouted through the door.

“How was I supposed to know this would happen?” Soul snapped back, “You're the bookworm! Why didn't you know about this?”

“For your information, I studied up as much as I could! It's not like there've been many survivors who could give a detailed description of these traps!” The girl sighed, trying to force her irritation to deflate, “Look, the information that I did manage to get implies these rooms have to connect at some point. Let's just get through them and try to find a place to meet up.”

“What if we just get more lost?” Her partner asked from the other side.

“I'll try to keep an eye on you with my soul perception, that way I can at least keep a general idea of where you are,” she told him, trying to sound more confident in her newfound abilities than she really was.

Soul didn't like this plan at all. Leaving his technician to her own devices in a warehouse full of traps was definitely not cool. He couldn't think of any way around it, though, so he reluctantly agreed.

“Just be careful, Maka.”

“Right, you too.”

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Because she had gained it at such a young age, Professor Stein had taken a special interest in Maka's soul perception ability, and had been training her on its two major uses. The first, which she had discovered during her initial meeting with Stein the other night, was the ability to see into the soul of a person, gauging their strength. It could also be used to determine someone's personality, but she was nowhere near that level yet. The second use, which she had only recently learned of, was the ability to detect soul wavelengths in the surrounding area. This was much more difficult then the first ability, but unlike the first this ability was not limited to line of sight, and could thus be used to find the general location of both friends and enemies. That was the main point of this assignment: locating an enemy using soul perception. Now, however, that would have to be put on hold until she could find Soul.

Maka closed her eyes and concentrated hard on trying to feel her partner's wavelength. It was close and fairly familiar at this point, so she managed to distinguish it easily. He seemed to have picked the door on the right. She could still faintly feel Hacksaw's wavelength as well. At least, she hoped it was Hacksaw's. She could distinguish Soul's wavelength because she had practiced both soul perception and soul resonance with him fairly often, however she was still having difficulty picking out any other wavelengths. The first few times she'd tried to sense someone’s wavelength had ended in failure, and her first ‘success’ with the technique had lead her to a stray dog rather than the person she was looking for!

After opening her eyes and taking stock of her surroundings Maka walked slowly down the long hallway that the first door had lead her to, keeping an eye out for any traps that may have been set. There was an oily substance coating the floor, making it very slippery, and she didn't want to accidentally fall and leave herself open to attack. At the end of the hall she came to a spiral staircase that lead up to an opening in the ceiling. This appeared to be the only way out, so she made her way to the stairs and started up them. She had just reached the third step when she heard a loud 'CLICK', followed by a rush of air.

The scythe tech turned to see what had caused the noise, and was greeted by a wall of fire creeping swiftly toward her. The oil on the floor had not existed to trip her up, but to act as fuel for the fire that threatened to engulf her. Furthermore, the steps on the stairs were now falling out behind her. She took the stairs two at a time now, trying to escape both the flames and falling stairs that were trying to dump her into the inferno below with no hope of escape. She jumped up just as her last step slipped out, grabbing onto the opening in the ceiling and pulling herself up. A trap door closed behind her just as she passed the threshold, and she really hoped that the fire could not reach the rest of the rooms. She had barely had time to congratulate herself before she heard another 'CLICK', this time originating from the ceiling. She rolled out of the way just in time to avoid being crushed by a concrete pillar. She let out the breath she was holding and looked around, wondering where else the trap switches might be. One thing was for certain, this was not going to be an easy mission.

As Soul walked through the door he had chosen, he noted that the room was fairly empty. The only thing it contained was a large metal vat that was situated in the center. He looked down into the clear liquid the vat contained, seeing a small key at the bottom, and unless he missed his guess... yup. The door to the only exit needed a key to open. He went back over to the vat and looked down. The vat looked just deep enough that he'd need to put his whole arm in to reach the key. The weapon reached for the object, only to stop when his fingers brushed the liquid.

“Ow!” he growled as a nasty burning sensation stung his fingertips. Once again, he looked at the vat full of innocent looking liquid. Of course it was acid. Why hadn't he though of it sooner? Soul took a step back and gave it a little thought. Hacksaw had obviously expected his victim to burn their arm off trying to get the key. After all, it was either that or starve to death in this locked room.

Suddenly a loud hissing was heard, and thick smoke began pouring into the room. A familiar voice came over a speaker in the ceiling, “Don't dawdle, boy, or else the smoke that's pumping into the room will overpower you.”

Great, so instead of starving to death he would die of smoke inhalation. Fortunately, Soul had already found a way around this little puzzle. Hacksaw obviously hadn't counted on having a weapon in here. If the acid wasn't melting the key or the vat, it must mean it wouldn't melt his blade either. His arm transformed and he lowered the blade harmlessly to the bottom where it made contact with the key.

“Cooler this way, really,” he though with a smirk.

After dragging the key to the top, Soul grabbed it with his shirt sleeve and ran for the door. He set the key in the lock and turned it, happy to hear it open.

“Man, if Maka's having as easy a time as I am, this'll be done in no time!”

The weapon regretted the words almost as soon as they left his mouth. As usual, the door had slammed shut after he went through. What he wasn't expecting was the large, razor-edged pendulum that swung at him from the left and nearly sliced him in two. He'd no sooner jumped away from that one when another swung at him. If Soul had the time to look around, he'd have noticed numerous pendulums, all swinging in such a way that no position in the long hallway was safe for more than a few seconds.

“Me and my big damn fricken' mouth!”

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After dodging three more stone pillars, Maka found herself at the top of a steep staircase, this time of the more traditional straight variety. She could almost see what was coming here, and was determined to prepare herself (both in case she was right and in case she was wrong). As she expected, the stairs flattened out after a few steps, forming a steep slide, and a pit had opened up at the bottom. The technician couldn't see what was at the bottom of said pit, but she really didn't plan on finding out. She had managed to stay on her feet when the stairs shifted, and when Maka felt she had gained enough speed she kicked off the slide and leapt as far as she could, narrowly landing on the other side of the pit. She stumbled just a bit, but was able to force herself to fall forward rather than back. The evening's activities were beginning to wear on her, as were her worries for her partner. This was the first time she'd worked alone for so long in quite while. Normally she could always trust the scythe to have her back when she got into trouble, as she would for him. That security was gone now, and she was starting to feel a little vulnerable, having no way of knowing what sort of traps awaited them both.

After a brief rest, Maka looked at the doors ahead of her. There were two now, one to the right, and one to her left. Soul's wavelength was very close now; he might even be in the next room! But which one? She could feel him from somewhere in front of her, but since both doors were in front of her that didn't help much.

Should she just stay and wait for him? No, she couldn’t afford to hesitate. That had nearly cost her dearly on several occasions. What if he was in trouble? She couldn't just wait, even if it was just one room. She could try opening both doors, but after all she'd been through that day she would not be surprised if opening more than one door set off an even worse trap. That left only one option: take a good guess and just go for it. Since she had thought he'd entered the right-hand door in the first room, it would make logical sense for him to be through the right hand door now. Steeling herself for whatever might be ahead, she went to the door and twisted the handle.

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Soul dodged and weaved through the pendulums as quickly as he could. He'd thought that the best way though this would be to climb up and swing on the pendulums themselves, but upon further inspection he discovered the poles that attached them to the ceiling were barbed. This left him no option but to continue evading the swinging blades.

When he finally found an exit, Soul decided to do something a bit drastic. He got as much of a running start as he could and then jumped, fully transforming as he did. The scythe clattered to the floor and skidded beneath the blades for a few feet. It stopped about a foot from the door, and Soul changed back as soon as he thought it was safe and pulled the handle. He had to pull pretty hard to open it, and the room beyond seemed colder than usual, but Soul didn't have time to think about that as he dove through the door to avoid a final pendulum swing. As usual, the door slammed shut behind him, sealing him in.

Now that he had time to dwell on it, the room was extremely cold. He figured he must have been in some sort of freezer. As he looked around, Hacksaw’s voice came over the speaker again.

“You seem to keep stumbling into the rooms with keys, boy. Can you find this one before you freeze to death?”

As he spoke, the sprinkler system in the ceiling popped down and water began spraying all over. It was slightly warmer than the air, but Soul quickly started to shiver as the moisture clung to his clothes and hair. He had to find that key FAST! There were several lockers in the room which probably once held food or other perishable items. The key had to be in one of them.

“Do you know why I do this?” Hacksaw suddenly asked over the speaker.

“Don’t know, don’t wanna know,” Soul said as he frantically searched the first locker.

The voice went on as if the weapon had never spoken, “You see, I’m quite sick.”

“I knew that from the start, freak!” Soul yelled, frustrated that the first locker had been completely empty.

His tormentor chuckled, showing that he could indeed hear Soul’s voice, and then continued, “Not like that. I have a disease that is slowly killing me; one for which there is no cure. I have found a way to stave it off, though, by absorbing the souls of the righteous. Though even this will not cure the disease, each soul I consume grants me another month or so of health. Actually, I think the soul of that little friend of yours might even last me two months!”

That last remark had really hit home, but Soul forced himself to ignore it. The madman was trying to distract him, and he didn’t need any more distractions than he already had. Soul had no idea how long he could hold out against this particular trap, but his hands were becoming terribly stiff from the cold, and he could feel ice forming on his soaking hair and clothes. Where the hell was that key?

“Of course, I’m not without some remorse,” Hacksaw continued, “That’s why I like to give my prey a fair shot at escaping. I believe that everyone should have to fight for their lives as I have. Those who are able to escape live to see another day, while those who die forfeit their souls to me! That is how the game is played!”

Soul couldn’t care less about Hacksaw’s reasons. His eyes were getting heavy now, and he was shaking uncontrollably. He needed to get out. He needed to be warm. He needed that DAMN KEY.

“I never thought I’d see the day that I was too cool,” he mumbled.

Suddenly, the door on his right opened, and Soul whipped his head around to see a familiar figure standing at the threshold.

“Maka!” he stumbled toward the open exit with a new rush of energy.

“Soul!” she wanted to go to him, to help her partner back to his feet and back into her hands. She knew that was a bad idea, though; if this door shut she would be locked in and the trap would be sprung on both of them. So Maka waited, holding the door for him. She could already feel it trying to close on her, but she braced her foot against the door frame to keep it open. Only after Soul had crawled through did she dart back into the previous room, letting the door slam behind her.

Now that that was over, Maka was able to take stock of her weapon. She didn’t like what she saw. Soul was lying on the floor and shivering from head to toe. His lips were an unhealthy shade of blue, his breathing was shallow, and he was completely drenched. Any part of him that wasn’t covered in water was covered in ice. The worst part, though, was that his eyes were closed. She knew hypothermia when she saw it, and thus she knew that she absolutely had to keep him awake and aware.

“Soul… SOUL!” she yelled she slapped his cheek a few times. His eyes fluttered open immediately and he stared up at her. Somewhat relieved, she set about treating him, hoping she would be able to do so without having to take him back to Shibusen.

“We’re going to have to get you out of these wet clothes,” she told him.

“I ain’t getting’ undreshed in fronna you,” he slurred, shaking his head to clear it of fuzziness, “Yer dad’d have a fit.”

“Soul, you idiot!” Maka hissed, blushing a bit at his comment. She would probably have chopped him in the head if he weren’t already in bad shape, “I think you can keep your jeans, but that shirt and jacket have to go, and the headband too.” She helped him out of the aforementioned articles and tossed them aside, along with his shoes and socks. She then took off her own coat and wrapped it around him, trying her best to raise his body temperature.

“I think it might help if I changed,” Soul said after a few moments. He was still shivering, but speaking a bit more coherently now that he was warming up a bit, “Heat and cold don’t affect me as badly when I’m a scythe.”

The Meister nodded, and after returning her coat he shifted into his weapon form. As Maka lifted the scythe she noticed that it was cold even through her gloves, and was still quivering a bit from the chill. She wrapped her coat around the scythe and resolved to wait until he stopped shivering to move on. If the next few rooms were anything like what they had already been through, they’d both need to be in good condition to get through them.

The speakers came on again as she waited, “You’ll never get anywhere just sitting around.”

“Shut up!” Maka snapped. It was another 15 minutes before the shaking finally ceased, and she raised her weapon and asked, “How are you?”

“I’ll feel much better once we get this guy,” Soul replied. He still sounded exhausted, but she knew he wanted to go on, so she got up and went over to the left hand door. It was the only one in this room she hadn’t been through yet.

“Here we go,” she said to herself.

As usual, the door slammed shut behind them, and the trap mechanism sprung. Rusty metal spikes jutted out from the walls on either side of them, and the walls themselves began closing in, threatening to either impale the two or crush them. The door was on the other side of the room, but Maka was sure it wouldn’t open without some sort of trick. She looked around to try and see what the answer to the puzzle might be, but her partner interrupted her thoughts.

“Oi, Maka! What are you just standing around for? Let’s just rip this place up and be done with it!”

He was right. This lunatic had tried to stab them, crush them, burn them, freeze them, and slice them in two. Play time was over.

“Right! Ready Soul?”

“Ready!”

“Soul Resonance!” they yelled in unison. She felt the power building as Soul shifted into his Witch Hunter form, but suddenly she could also feel something else as well. There was a faint third presence, a soul response that she had almost forgotten about, and it was coming from…

“Below!” Rather than destroying the walls as she had originally planned, she leapt up and swung the massive blade into the floor where she’d been standing, leaving a gaping hole as she crashed through. She landed directly behind a twisted and decrepit man sitting at a desk full of monitors and equipment. Hacksaw was so surprised by this recent turn of events that he had no time to flee before the weapon struck him full force.

“You’re soul is mine!” Maka told the madman as he died. The scythe cut through him like a hot knife through butter, and soon there was nothing left but a wispy red soul.

“Game over!” Soul said as he reverted to his human form, “And here’s soul number two!” He grabbed the corrupted soul and tossed it high into the air before casually catching it in his mouth and gulping it down.

“You shouldn’t play with your food, Soul,” Maka giggled.

“Why not? He’s been playing with us for the past few hours!” Soul retorted.

“That’s true I guess,” she replied, “So how was it?”

“Same has usual,” the weapon told her, “but what I could really use is a hot meal and a warm bed.”

Maka nodded, “Sounds good. C’mon, let’s get your clothes and get home so I can make us a nice midnight snack.”

“My clothes? What-” Soul looked down and found that he was wearing nothing but his pants. They hadn’t bothered to put the others back on since they were still wet and freezing. The weapon looked like he had just rolled out of bed after a bad night’s sleep.

He groaned to himself, “This just shouldn’t happen to a cool guy like me.”