F/SN & SE: Bloodletters

[Lycodrake]

Bloodletters - A Fate/Stay Night and Soul Eater crossover fanfic

Disclaimer: I don’t own F/SN or SE.

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Tables of Contents
Part I: Yama Uba - below
Part II: Lies Aren't Golden; Blood is Red
Part III: …

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Part I: Yama Uba

The soles of her shoes padded along the mountain path, white hair flowing as she ran. Clutching at her chest in partial pain, the young woman in robes directed her thoughts to the weapon in her hand, ‘The target is less than three-hundred yards from us now, higher up the mountain. I am prepared, but about you, Emiya-kun?’

The blade she held responded, ‘I’m ready whenever you are, Caren. Just don’t go overboard, alright? I know how you can get, and I don’t want to deal with spikes or blood too much if I can help it.’ That being said, she nodded, but he continued a bit, ‘Synchronization is at 34% and stable, meaning we should be well prepared already.’ Without another word, she continued her race forward, her own eyes sweeping back and forth the mountainside.

Before either of them could prepare for it, a shriek tore through the air, rocks and leaves shuddering all around them, lancing pain into them both. But rather than be dissuaded, Caren twisted her grip on the blade and swung it twice through the air before a dark spike lanced itself out from her skin pointing straight to where her and her companion’s target was. “Yama Uba…”

The evil human, if the creature to their left and crawling on the mountain could be called anything of the sort, clothed in rags glared at them through beady eyes, its maw open the smallest bit to hiss in anger. Its skin looked like a botch between leather and rock, and Caren noted that it gripped onto the rock of the mountain like a spider on a web. “Yama Uba, the mountain hag, said to have lived on this mountain slowly devouring any passerby and growing into a kishin egg two or three years ago. This is our target, Emiya-kun…let’s go.”

Caren braced herself liked a spring against the ground, one hand securely around the hilt of her weapon, the transformed state of the redheaded young man, whiched shined in the afternoon sun. ‘We don’t know if it’ll hit and run on us, or attack us full force, Caren. Don’t try to take more damage than is needed, alright?’ The only reply he got was a slight shifting in her feet as the monstrous humanoid leapt straight off the mountainside, fangs bared and aimed straight at her legs.

Despite how thin and frail Caren appeared, dodging the attack with a swirl of a heel and a small leap to the side. A large chunk of earth was devoured and quickly turned to powder by Yama Uba, but just as quickly as it had attacked; it found a blade lashing out at its unprotected back, tearing through its hide like a slightly dull knife through tough meat. Not entirely effective, but the wound was formed.

The hag moved to try and chomp down on the stretched blade, but Caren carefully dislodged it from within the monster’s reach, reconnecting into one blade from the bladed whip it had been mere seconds ago. ‘You’re getting better at this, Caren; seems the training we both went through paid off better than you thought, huh?’ She could almost feel the small hint of joy and encouragement in his voice, even as she crouched down and sliced upwards, both avoiding a hit towards her head and striking the beast across its gullet.

‘Less talking, Emiya-kun, more keeping track of the fight, alright? The more distraction you bring, the less I can concentrate, and we both know how that goes,’ the response she got was a mumbled, embarrassed and sheepish apology before his thoughts re-railed to the purpose at hand.

‘Right; synchronization is fluctuating near 58% now, Caren. You know what that means…’ the tone of his voice was a bit sharper and clearer, but also a bit pained, trailing off when his partner nodded ever so slightly in response. Caren had to steel her features and thoughts as the hag targeted them again, this time going for a ramming attack, its gaping maw closed tightly.

With a flick of her wrist, the outstretched blade reassembled faster than the attack approaching them, allowing Caren to sidestep once more. But, instead of lashing out once more with her partner’s weapon form, the white-haired meister’s left hand crackled and spiked with white energy. Faster than apparently possible for the young woman, using the charged energy, punched out at the monstrous being, catching it squarely where the ribs should have been.

As both meister and weapon hissed in pain, Yama Uba let out a pained screech as it was launched a few feet into the air, skidding across the mountainous plain, blood seeping from the few wounds that they had managed to make upon it, and a bit from the side of its mouth. ‘…this isn’t working, Emiya-kun. I can only use Soul Menace around half a dozen times before it’s too much for both of us. What is our rate right now? How far are we from being near 100%?’

There was a pause between them, Caren warily eyeing the evil human as it shook and writhed in pain, even as it slowly became enraged. Finally Shirou responded, ‘We’re fluctuating near 71% right now, give or take five.’ There was another pause, this time shorter but Caren was able to hear his pained and worn breathing, a few wincing hisses escaping, too. A faint blush creeped across the bridge of her nose, but she shook her head quickly to rid herself of that line of thought, ‘Go on, Emiya-kun.’

She could tell he was nodding slowly, though just as aware of the situation, ‘We can make the jump to 100% easily right now. Are you ready?’ The only response he got was a positive in mind, but that was all either of them needed. A spiritual crackle and spark alighted between their souls, Caren’s an off-white with black spikes at random points and Shirou’s a sunset red with countless swords and blades jutting out everywhere except for a trio of spinning gears on one side.

With a shout between them, mixed between an announcement of power and pain, they called out in unison, “Soul Resonance!” Near-instantly, a red aura seeped out around Caren, while a black and white glowed around Shirou’s weapon form. Small cuts etched themselves onto Caren’s forearms, and pain lanced itself into Shirou, but both endured.

By this point Yama Uba was enraged completely, but had stopped to watch the light-show for a moment. That moment didn’t last long as it charged straight forward as before, but this time its maw was open slightly. As before, and this time with much for skill and speed, Caren side-stepped the charge, only to be caught on one foot by a blast of sound, sending her spinning to the side. Catching her footing wasn’t easy after that, and she could feel pain pulse from the injury already.

‘We can finish it now, Caren; let’s do that before the pain is too much for one or both of us.’ Giving no response, the meister lashed out with her right arm in one fluid motion. Like a flash of lightning, his weapon form darted forward, aimed at the center of the beast. With little more than a whining hiss, the rough hide was pierced through entirely to the other side and the creature glowed white in death.

The glow of resonance dissipating, the white-haired young woman pulled back slowly, panting and lazily retracting her outstretched weapon. ‘Emiya-kun, I think I just want to rest a little while…go ahead and collect the soul, though.’

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Finally got around to what I had planned: moving this crossover from my drabble thread to a thread of its own! Hope you all enjoy and look forward to updates and revisions.

[Lycodrake]

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Part II: Lies Aren't Golden; Blood is Red


Shirou and Caren were not doing well. It wasn’t because they had been sent out on another mission so soon after returning to their branch of the DWMA’s headquarters. It also wasn’t because her father had decided to treat them to curry at his restaurant or Shirou’s family antics getting out of control for the nth time.


“Kintarō misses mother; Kintarō ain’t gonna lie. Lies aren’t golden, you know.” The blonde man standing before them spoke like a child trying to play the part of a street punk. Despite the tone and his outrageous appearance - notably a white shirt flared out at the collar and cuffs with golden necklaces, rings, and belts contrasting with black slacks - the monstrous golden axe in his hands was dangerous. He held it low to the ground now and slumped his shoulders forward and shook like he was crying. For all they knew, he very well might be.


Shirou had only barely managed to block the bone-breaking swing from the weapon by partial transformation, left with ragged breath as he held his arm to his chest. The “teeth” that had formed from his Weapon form had been broken in an instant, and it felt like his arm was going to crack. Caren had only managed to dodge due to her Soul Perception. Even then a spike had broken through her skin and was causing her pain and trouble in movement, most likely induced by the, assumed, Kishin Egg in front of them.


“Mother wasn’t bad, she just wanted to get food. You two…you slaughtered her like some kind of pig!” He was staring at them from behind sunglasses, eyes glaring and teeth grinding. His voice had turned from a pitiful whine to a tiger’s roar in a split second. His Soul Wavelength spiked, sending shockwaves through the street. A red aura danced about him, at once like flame and another like lightning.


“Shirou-!” Caren called abruptly and grasped at one of his hands.


“Already on it.” In a glow of silver mixed with red and black, he transformed. Now both Weapon and Meister were at the ready. The golden man charged forward, his weapon swung back all the way. ‘We have Resonance at 45% Caren! We need to buy time!’


‘Got it; I believe I can dodge with how much he is telegraphing. Just try to keep me aware of the surroundings.’ Her combined Soul Perception and Soul Menace helped her dodge and parry attacks from Witches and Kishin Eggs better than most, but…they had never fought anything like this one before.


One moment the axe was hefted back, the next it was biting into the ground like a razor-fanged behemoth, the impact forming cracks like lightning across the ground below. That wasn’t even the end to the effects the blow brought, because even as Caren stepped down from her backwards leap, the ground began to shake and crumble into a crater.


She stumbled upon the debris, while the man dragged he axe-head out of the epicenter. Caren had little time to readjust her footing before another strike was prepared.


‘Caren, we need to get out of here! This guy is off the scale for anything we’ve fought before, and we still don’t know what he really is. I don’t think we can take even one strike from that axe of his.’


She knew that; why did Shirou have to state the obvious so often? ‘Are we able to use Soul Resonance?’


‘Yes, we’re able to, but-!’ His protests were cut off quickly.


‘…just do it, Shirou. If nothing else, we can possibly get him to back off…or use that technique.’ Silence was her reply, but she had faith that he would cooperate on this. In unison, they called out, “Soul Resonance!” Their own aura alighted; her ignored the thought of their shared pain and brought Shirou’s Weapon form to bare, prepared with a defensive stance.


Leaping forward at a decent speed, Kintarou sent the next swipe diagonally, aiming to shatter Shirou and bifurcate Caren in a single blow. But Meister and Weapon were synchronized and their skillful parry and hopping dodge meant the axe met the earth once more. Twirling in the air, Caren and Shirou lashed out like a striking viper, going straight for the throat.


But instead of the blow meeting its target, the man locked in a tantrum brought the forearm of his free arm to block. Red blood dripped down from the wound.


It wasn’t enough, a hollow victory. The wound, certainly not the gash the duo had aimed for, hadn’t gone deep at all. “That hurt, you-!” They had misjudged his reach!


He held the weapon like it weighed the same as a wooden sword, gripping the very end of its pole, and swung out like swatting a fly. The only saving grace was the fact that only the flat of the blade struck Caren.


Fragments of metal and droplets of blood fell to the broken ground. The tall shadow loomed over them. Neither could hear one another, but their thoughts were numb. Caren’s vision blurred as her eyes closed, but both she and her partner heard one thing before crumbling into unconsciousness: a laugh.


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They both knew who had laughed. It was a memory of fear and embarrassment for the both of them. Caren’s father had sent them out on a mission to investigate a series of kidnappings and rumors of a haunted castle.

Elizabeth Barthory, countess of blood and dragon-blooded witch, made it clear to them that they were in over their heads – and the witch decided to play with them. In the bloodied castle of Cathice, they fled before her as she flew upon dragon wings behind them, singing a haunting melody of pleasure and pain.

In essence, Elizabeth remained Caren’s natural and worst enemy and, by proxy, Shirou’s. Elizabeth’s love of torturing and bleeding out beautiful girls and women and Caren’s conflicted sadism and masochism left Shirou suck between a rock and a hard place. It did not help that their Soul Resonance caused them both pain.

Early on in the encounter, they tried to fight back without Soul Resonance, relying mostly on Caren's strong Soul Menace and Shirou's weapon form's adaptability. But Elizabeth wasn't any Witch. The blood countess knew how to fight in all ranges and had both a weapon and magic at her disposal to attack them. It was strange in their mind that the weapon wasn't a partner Demon Weapon - they had heard of Witches with ally Demon Weapons, but that wasn't the case.

Neither was Elizabeth an untrained, haughty noble. She obviously had training and, being from a dragon-slaying line, the Barthory knew well how to use a variety of weapons. Whoever had trained her knew all to well how to control a polearm, because Elizabeth would never drive the prongs of her weapon all the way through Caren. It was all knicks and small cuts in places that cause pain and blood to blossom.

It was upon that realization that they knew they were being toyed with and that Caren was likely the worst possible match-up against the blood countess. She who reveled in pain and pleasure as both met in a pool of blood saw Caren as entertaining prey. Certainly prey with larger claws than any she had gone against, but with the number of bloodbaths that boosted her magic, those claws barely made a dent.

Running away was their only option.

But how was she here now, standing before them and facing off against the man with the golden axe? She was supposed to be trapped within her castle and the surrounding area. Had they unleashed her upon the world by raising her interest?

"W-what are you doing here, Elizabeth!?" Meister and Weapon called weakly.

"Oh, I just decided to make my debut in front of the ones that got away. It got lonely after you left and none of the girls I played with interested me like you did. Let me sing you a song. You Meisters and Weapons are all about resonance, right? I've been told my singing voice is to die for.~"

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I decided to go ahead and post part II. Still need to work on action sequences, which I wanted to add in with revising this, but in the end I opted out of doing so.
For now.
Please enjoy!