Soul Eater - A Soul That Feels

The Church and The Witch

Justin was slowly letting her head down on the pew in the church. It was the easiest place to hide her, since he was dressed like a priest. He stood up and looked over his shoulder at the elegant cross with it's spiral of flowers down it's length. At the base was two stands of nearly a hundred candles each.

Justin glared at the cross, his eyes were cruel.

Giriko, who was standing outside, looked right at Justin. The stained glass played shadows all over his body. They brightened him just so. Giriko saw an angel standing there, with the eyes of the Kishin on his sleeve. It was as if he had fallen from grace, but had no regrets about it.

The black coat was fitted nicely about him. He was kind of cute in that sense. But his sharp, unforgiving, stark, evil, and way-to-dark eyes sent the whole thing off.

It was something Giriko couldn't get used to.

He blinked when he noticed Justin's head suddenly bowed as he prayed for something about the strange woman.

Speaking of...

Once she'd come into the light, Giriko was shocked. She had dark, dark, DARK purple hair. Her cloths were maroon with a single white line of something small printed along her right sleeve. She was barefoot. Her toes were painted with a kind of clear-to-white look. Her nails were black and just beyond her fingertips and were pretty tough, to be digging into solid stone. But the most shocking was, in fact, the amount of scars her shins, hands, and face showed.

Giriko sighed and turned away, starting down the stairs.

He stopped and set his foot down on flat ground. "Can I help you?"

Despite his residence in just one place, Giriko couldn't forget that scythe.

Karey smiled, her hands still in her pockets. She never took them out, even if she were fighting. The only time she did was when she became her weapon. Otherwise, she was quite used to just being the type with hands hotter than fire. "Just passin' through." She came up beside him to walk towards the outskirts with him. "See, I heard there was a woman here that was really something. She's said to be one of the most powerful witches of her age. Whattaya say we go hutin', again, bro?"

He stopped and lifted his foot. The rotating blades sliced as he extended fast, right at her knee. "I ain't yer bro!" His foot made contact and she went down.

"Ow! What's your problem?"

Giriko snapped his heels together. "The last time I saw you, you called me that, when you were six!"

"That was twenty years ago! C'mon, be a sport and help a girl out. We're looking for a witch and we seem to have lost her. Nobody's seen a witch in this village."

Giriko's nerves spiraled tight. "Why?"

Karey just laughed and then stopped suddenly. "You don't know?" She made a face at him before she turned away. "Oh, right, you're not one for history lessons." She pulled her right hand out and started spinning the skull on her chain. "Well, guess we'll find out. If she's exposed to this air full of madness, someone's bound to die by her hands." Karey waved as she walked passed him. "We'll see where she turns up."

"WHAT?"

Karey smirked. "So, you do know who I'm talking about."

Giriko dropped his hands. "Just tell me what you're talking about."

"In exchange, gimme the info I want." Karey let the skull drop as she put her hand back in her pocket.

"Deal." Giriko knew that was a bad idea, but, still, nothing too dangerous, right?

Karey crossed her arms. "There was a story from about twenty years ago about a girl. She was eight years old when the first Kishins discovered how to spread madness into objects, long after Golems came about." Karey looked at the mountains. "The girl was born in Lowe Village, but inside of a golem. Her mother wanted to free her from the madness that was taking hold of the family. The father was already consumed by it. Her mother was infected while pregnant. When the girl turned eight, she escaped."

"What's this got to do with the witch?" Giriko asked.

Karey looked back at him. "That girl was the witch that leveled the outskirts of Lowe and an entire mountain." Karey's harsh eyes stared unblinkingly into Giriko's shocked ones. "You remember that incident. The Golem makers were sent to take her down, as Golems were the only things she could touch without consuming something. At the time, they didn't know what, but, with her own two hands, she killed her mother and father, eating their Kishin souls."

Giriko knew that. He'd watched as the innocent child with blond locks was stained with blood as she swallowed their souls.

"Well," Karey continued, "she was then collected by Shibusen to be brought in to answer for her injust murder of her parents." Karey suddenly looked scared. "She was the only witch to ever enter Shibusen as a Meister. It was almost ten years ago that she stumbled across a nest of Kishin living in the mountains here. She was unable to defeat them herself, as a witch protected them. But once she killed the witch in combat, she used a child who had no idea he was a weapon in combat, no training whatsoever from him, and defeated all the Kishin."

Giriko felt his blood run cold.

"She heartlessly murdered a witch that had killed the boy's sisters and brother. She left that place and her friends saw the madness she was absorbing into her soul and fought her down a dark hallway. They sealed her in there, under a body of water inside the mountain. The water would keep her silent, as it does all Cat Witches, and sealed her walls with the powerful blocking agents in their blood as well as Death himself." Karey touched her chest. "That same witch brought together countless Meisters and Weapons. She could see the good in people and see their strengths. She became the breathing Legendary Eyes."

Giriko felt his heart suddenly fall. Did that mean that she could even see what they really desired?

"From Weapon to Weapon," Karey said, touching Giriko's shoulder, "she's what we Weapons have been waiting for since the first one was created. She's the one Hail Mary we need to be considered individuals. She said we weren't just tools of war, but tools of something greater."

Giriko had to exhale then. He looked away.

But his heart pounded in his ears.

Was it possible there was actually a witch out there who knew Weapons that well? Was it true that she could find the good in him? But could she even see what he wanted? The things he'd die for? The reason he started living again?