Soul Wake: Divine Atonement

[ATTN: Open]

As Kyubi continued to half-ignore, half-pay attention to the lecture at hand, the lecturer herself was pacing around with a calculated measure. Most of the lecture hall's occupants were currently entranced with the fluidity of the lecture being delivered right now. After all, this was one of the best professors on campus, not only was she young, she was intelligent. "Alright, class, you've analyzed the profile above, what have you NOTICED about him?" One eager and snarky student immediately chimes in with a rather absurd comment, from the surface.

"THE MAN IS ACTUALLY A WOMAN!" Roars erupt from the crowd of people, mostly of laughter. Oh, how they fall into traps so easily.

"Very good." The crowd immediately hushed up, amazed at the Professor. Doctor Volpe makes it around to the ne'er do well, and stomps her high heel, giving him and his friends a glare. Her violet orbs of luminescent light pierce into his soul like a butter knife into butter. "And how, pray tell, did you deduce that this profile was a woman?"

"Um, uh..."

"Lucky guess? Why not, after all," now addressing the nay-sayers of the field, "all Criminology and psychoanalysis IS, is essentially guesswork." The few believers of this nodded and Maroone made her way back down to the bottom floor. "NOTE that the profile lists things like manipulation, clean kills, more meticulous style, and even has a fun analysis of the struggles of the victims: there were none. This leads ME, at least, to believe two things: either that this subject is incredibly CALM under the pressure of killing to the point of being able to completely anticipate or premeditate every step of the kill, making them not only a psychopath, but a very dangerous one, or that she is a woman. It makes sense if she's a woman, now, because women don't have the LUXURY of being able to overpower more often than not." Murmurs of agreement spread. Ah, the job of being a Criminology professor.

[ATTN: Kyubi, open]

Maroone snapped her head to the voice. Interesting hypothesis, but she would have to know more. It was conceivable, yes, but the woman had a seething hatred for men, and had no particular affinity towards children. Unfortunately, the voice came from the faaaaar right, and there were just too many stairs to walk up. "Please, miss, elaborate!" Maroone arched an eyebrow at her.

{Attn: Open}

Melinda was just leaving her grandparents house, her first class is Criminal Investigations. She is happy that she is actually taking classes that matter instead of the stupid core classes they are required to take. She packs up her bag and goes to her car.

Once she is in the school she goes straight to the classroom. She is very punctual, one of the things driven into her as a child. She is not the first one there though. She looks at the other classmates. Some she recognizes, some not. She sits in a desk and takes out her stuff and waits for the class to begin.

[ATTN: Kyubi, Open]

Maroone was, admittedly, impressed. Original theses were hard to come by, and this blue-haired girl seems to have a good grasp on this. "Astute observation, Miss..." She pauses to take a look at her attendance list. Odd, no last name, "however, your analysis is contingent on one thing: "she" was one person. And that, my dears, is the topic you must study today. On the website, there is a group case study about a duo. Your job is to identify the gender of the two, and come up with a thesis on why group murders are so hard to identify. Dismissed." Today was an easy class, not as many hooligans after some dropped the course. Fools.

[Attn: Open]

As Kyubi leaves class, she pauses in the doorway, having been the last out. She then looks over her shoulder to the professor. It was a bit of a different look. Not quite bored or uncaring as a sort of empty amusement. She then leaves. Chakra pops up a moment later and sits on Ky's shoulder. "You look...happy...well as happy as I think you can look, anyway."

"I think this is going to be an interesting year, Chakra," Kyubi says as she plucks the Popsicle from her mouth. "Very interesting indeed."

{Attn: Open}

The criminal investigation class was alright, but Melinda cannot wait until they get later into semester to get past all the theory crap and get into some applications. She places her books into her pack and exits the room.

Her next class is one she is not looking for Intro to Psychology. What a drag that she has to take this class. She should have taken this class before, but delayed it. She walks into the building and goes to the second floor classroom. She enters and sits down at the desk. She takes out the supplies needed for the class and hangs the backpack on the back of the chair. She takes out her reader and waits for the class to begin ignoring the students around her.

[ATTN: Melinda, Open]

Great, her beginner's Psych class! Boring enough as it was to teach INTRODUCTORY psychology, she realized that it was a necessary evil for knowledge to be spread to the youth of today. She sits back down in her chair, getting ready to present her new students with information that they couldn't get anywhere else. "Alright, class, get ready to take more notes in one class than you will in an entire year." They all got their computers ready and turned on speech-to-text converters. "Lame. People should learn how to write notes normally."

{Attn: Maroone, open}

Melinda takes out a notebook, one of the few students who do, and begins to take notes as the teacher begins to drone. This is so lame. Melinda thinks as looks out the window. She had completely tuned out the professor as her eyes scan the courtyard.

She her eyes finally see what looks like a fight. She looks closer her face conveying concern. Upon closer review it appears that it is a girl with a ridiculous looking weapon fighting against a person in a demon costume. She rolls her eyes. “Stupid freaks.” She mumbles looking back at her notebook. She yawns seeing nothing but doodles on the page in front of her.

[ATTN: Melinda, Open]

"So you can see, the mind of the man behind the mask is more important than the man himself. You cannot just ASSUME that the man is wearing his heart on his sleeve. You must look past that... For example, the lady in the third row to the back, sitting fifth counting from the farthest seat from the door is clearly bored of my class. She may SAY she's not bored, but she really is." She gave a sharp glare to the girl sitting there and looked up slightly, noticing the shimmer of metal. Oh, my, something was amiss... Not her problem, though, and she didn't really want to investigate this moment. "Now, if you would be so kind, tell us what would be a better indicator of the real person behind the person?"

{Attn: Maroone}

“Watch for nonverbal cues that a person gives. They are the best indicator of a person’s intentions.” Melinda says bluntly. She is not one for long explanations. “Forgive me for being distracted the fight that was going on outside distracted me too. It appears to be a false alarm.” She sits up in her seat and tries to pay attention.

[Attn: Open]

Instantly, a massive wave begins to strike around campus. Smart phone after smart phone, they all light up, ringing, buzzing, and doing whatever they do to get the attention of their owners. A video was going around like the plague, being sent to any and everyone. 'Awakened Freak on Campus!' was its official title. How...blatant. As music and sound effects pop up throughout the lecture halls, students begin to erupt into a low uproar.

Kyubi passes by several people giving her odd looks, knowing full and well, by now, what that meant. They knew. The looks were either of stupor, fear, or admiration. It was always like this when people knew these things about you. Yet she couldn't care less. It was all so boring to her by now.

Melinda waits for the class to end when suddenly the phone ringing and going crazy. She knows she has hers on vibrate. She looks around hearing the other phones going off too. She looks down at her phone and sees the beginning of the video. She curses under her breath. She remembers the last outbreak. “I thought they eradicated the demons.” She mumbles to herself. Looks like work is going to be busier now.

She looks at the time on her phone. At least this class is almost over. She crosses her arms and smiles at the professor. Good luck getting this crowd under control. She thinks to herself.

[ATTN: Melinda, Open]

Oh, something easily remedied. She knew how students worked, and most importantly, how most of the class was probably spending thousands of dollars on classes. On the presentation board, she quickly whips up a powerpoint, as Maroone began the powerpoint. The first slide read: "If you care about your marks, considering that you will have to retake this rudimentary course again at the cost of about $300 to $400 dollars, please quiet down." Effective, but there were always the slackers who couldn't care less. The next slide was a little more direct, mentioning the rest of the slacking class. "That's okay, more money spent on an entire course lost because students are going to be failed out." And that got the rest of them settled down.

"Thanks for being so quick, gentlemen."

*Good show prof, but you forget the freshmen here don’t care about money yet.* Melinda sits back and looks at the clock on her phone again. She only hopes this professor isn’t one of those who needs an ego stroke. This is a class everyone is forced to take, not one that matters. To Melinda’s surprise the class did quiet down. Yay off to learn more boring intro psych stuff, wake her up when it is the psych that matters.

[ATTN: Open]

"Class Dismissed." Maroone had to investigate this, she just had to. After all, she was going to study some of these demons at some point, she had to investigate if they had come back! There were supposed to be no demons around because of the sealed gate, but she could feel a pulse of energy coming from somewhere. Going out to the courtyard, she sighs and prepares Harligne, her Soul. "Harligne, can you feel any energy from this point?" Now, her soul was a zingy little thing. Spunky, spiteful, and resourceful, but she answered this call quickly.

"Oh, yes... yes, there's a lot of energy here." She shudders and such. Maroone put a hand to her chin and hmmed.

"Who do you think is the cause?"

"Someone of pretty colossal power, can't identify any signatures, Miss!"

"That makes me feel old, Harligne..." Maroone rolls her eyes and looks around. There was another soul user here, she just couldn't find out who.

[Attn: Open]

By now Kyubi was on a bus headed home. She was flat broke, needing to room with Aqua in the book store. It was small but surprisingly cozy. Business was booming but it was a book store. Noise didn't clutter her thoughts. Eventually she arrives and walks in to find Aqua racing up to her. "Welcome, loyal customer! Would you care to try our- o-oh! Kyubi, please do forgive me. I forgot to make an extra batch of treats for you and Blank."

"Believe me, Aqua, it is all right. You needn't be so critical of yourself," Blank calls from inside.

Kyubi simply plucks one of the small cookies from the tray and pops it into her mouth before attempting to chew, only to nearly break her teeth on it. "Ack! What, did you bake a hockey puck?"

"Ah, no, I don't think that was a part of the recipe," Aqua says with a puzzled expression worn on her face.

"N-never mind," Kyubi says, spitting the cookie into the trash can and whipping out another Popsicle. "Listen, I was fighting a demon today on campus. It wasn't nearly powerful enough to give off what Chakra and me were sensing. There were other Awakened Ones there somewhere. More than one."

"Wait, your sanity was in check enough to allow you that level of clarity? I am surprised you've actually been taking your medication," Aqua says, suddenly digesting the contents of what she'd just been told. "Aha! I knew the vile creatures would resurface sooner or later. The Demon King may be gone but the Devil far exceeds him. So...more Awakened Ones. It is certainly worth looking in to."


Meanwhile, on campus, a man in a black suit with a cane bearing a large ruby stands at the scene of the incident and looks over the entirety. "How intriguing that the demon chose this campus to strike. What could it have possibly found appealing about such a place?" He questions. "They are certainly mysterious creatures." He merely glances up to Maroone before bowing his head respectfully and taking his leave. "Good evening, Ma'am," he says as he passes by.

Melinda is posted at the Katherine dorms. It was the closest ones to the scene of the attack. She read all about the demon attacks when they were happening the first time. The logical part of her wanted to disbelieve it as fairy tale nonsense. But now she cannot for she saw it with her own eyes. As if this campus didn’t have enough trouble with the students. She gets out her homework and begins to work on it. Soon enough the other guard will be back and she will be on patrol duty.

[ATTN: Open]

Maroone walks along with Harligne on her shoulder, perusing her usual stores and not buying anything, as usual. Her money was best saved for bigger things, she found, like the actual PS3 for all the games her students recommended to her. The actual flat-top style stove when her students referred to this small teppenyaki restaurant that was great. Screw just living. She wanted to experience the entire freaking world. Maroone enjoyed everything of her life... and Harligne did as well, having fluttered around beside her master for the past couple years. They were a great fit together, both emotionally and realistically.

[Attn: Open]

Kyubi finds herself out that night, running a few errands with a Popsicle in her mouth and Chakra on her shoulder. Suddenly she begins to hear voices. She looks over her shoulder. No one there. "What's wrong?" Chakra asks.

"Thought I heard someone," Kyubi responds. The voice had been familiar but she refrains from saying that much. She couldn't identify who it was but it was the voice of a child.

Suddenly, she as Chakra sense a powerful demonic force. "Kyubi, do you-"

"Yeah, I sense it too," Ky responds, running off to find it. It was somewhere in toward Town Square as far as she could tell...and it was massive.

{Attn: Open}

Melinda is finally on patrol, which she loves. She hates being cooped up behind a desk. She puts on the official coat and walks from the desk. There are six floors to this dorm and each one has a common area. Plus there is an underground garage for the students. It is her first area to patrol. She is walking around when she hears a noise behind her. She shines the flash light and sees a Siberian Husky following her around. “Well there are you lost. Sorry, dogs aren’t allowed on campus.”

“Don’t worry I am here for you.” Melinda hears. She looks around again. No one is around, she looks down at the dog and pets it. “I am Haunani.” She hears. Melinda shakes her head. She’s been studying too hard. Thank goodness her shift is almost up.

She walks away from the dog, keenly aware that it is following her.

[ATTN: Open]

As the pulse of the music continued to put out a beat in the nightclub, Maroone was drinking yet another new drink of the bartender's... "A little sweet, you might want to try a little more lemon for acidity, and maybe even a little more vodka." Harligne sat on her shoulder, her feet dangling off the side. She was playing with her hair when she suddenly shifted her head to the right. "What?" The lights of the club continued to swing around, as she stood up on her tiny little feet.

"Something's wrong. We're going to have to check it out." Harligne tugs on Maroone's purple jacket. "C'mon! There's something weird!" Maroone obliges as they make their way to the site of the weird signature.