All the Symmetrical Things (Soul Eater fic) Soul Eater Watty Awards 2014 Winner

All the Symmetrical Things (Soul Eater)

All the Symmetrical Things; by Hannah (Snow) Stanley

Prologue

    It was dark, and Raini was confused. She couldn't see anything, and she felt ropes tied firmly around her wrists. She didn't know what to do; there was a rag tied around her mouth, and nobody seemed to be around.

    With a muffled cry, she began to inch forward, pushing herself along like a worm in the black. She couldn't see, she could barely move, and she couldn't remember anything.

    Anything but that one flashback.

    It was years ago, when she was eleven. Her mother, Medusa, had come home, carrying a small bundle, a baby, with a shaggy mess of pink hair upon its head.

    Medusa had been gone for a year, and it had seemed like Raini was free. But here she was, returning like it was no problem. Raini had come to the conclusion that the baby must also be Medusa's, and would have to go through the same pain and torture as she herself did when growing up in the Gorgon house.

    Bless her fragile soul, which Raini could see clearly.

    The little girl was obviously what Medusa called a failure of a child, for Raini herself was one. Neither of the girls were witches, both human and innocent. Medusa was working on a way to fix that.

    But now Crona didn't matter, Crona was gone, Crona had succeeded, the black blood coursing successfully through her weak veins. It was Raini that was the problem.

    As she struggled, a beam of light pierced the darkness.

    "Lord Death, Raini, you're twenty-four. Why do you live?" It was Medusa, her snake-like eyes burning into Raini's skin. She didn't answer, because Medusa did before the young woman had the chance. "You live because I haven't experimented on you yet. You haven't thrived and killed yet."

    Medusa slithered forward, there was an explosion on the side of Raini's head, and everything went dark.

    She woke up in a daze, using her left arm to support her, and her right to hold a throbbing knot on her forehead. Her eyesight was blurred, so everything in the room melted together. It seemed like forever until she could see.

    In front of her was a large mirror, and in that mirror was a horrible reflection. Raini could see herself, and almost cried at her image.

   

Her eyes were no longer amber, but were glowing evergreen, the pupils black slits in the center of the gleaming irises. Running across her face and her shoulders were stitches, also some on her stomach, which was exposed because of the little amounts of clothing she was wearing. The stitches seemed to be so deeply set into her skin that removing them was impossible. Her auburn bangs had been chopped off, were short and ragged. When she opened her mouth she revealed a pair of long, glistening fangs and a forked tongue.

In shock, Raini startled, shaking slightly.

   

While she was shaking, something upon her head glistened in the light that shone from a crack in the ceiling. She lifted her gaze in the mirror, and found a pair of large, triumphant antlers attached to her crown. She touched her finger to them, feeling the base.

   

Medusa had connected them to her skull.

   

On top of that, as Raini was silently fuming, she found something behind her swaying back and forth.

   

Connected to her rear was the functioning tail of a silver fox. What was she? What had Medusa done?

   

As if on cue, Raini’s mother prowled in, her eyes bright. Raini growled, literally, and jumped up.

   

“What have you done to me, you old hag?” she shouted, accidentally biting her snake-like tongue with a razor-sharp fang. Medusa cackled, her sides shaking, those golden eyes gleaming in delight.

   

“So you noticed the physical differences, yes? It suits what you are. Look at your soul,” she purred, running a manicured finger across Raini’s scarred face.

  

Raini lifted her gaze, using all her strength to peer at her soul. Shaped like any other, Raini had always admired her soul. It was delicate, small, yet innocent, and sweet. Medusa had changed that. Now the soul had gone from the soft orchid that it used to be, to a deep blood red. The soul had been played with, tainted. It was the soul of a witch.

  

Raini was a witch.

   

“You see, Raini! Now you’re a witch. There are only a few details to attend to, but soon, you’ll be the daughter I’ve always dreamed of!” Medusa said, lulling Raini with her soothing voice.

Raini couldn’t help it, she nodded. Something about the way Medusa spoke made her agree with everything she said. It was so…relaxing.

   

Too relaxing.

   

She looked up quickly, her eyes peering into Medusa’s. The witch was still talking, her voice rambling on like a never-ending lullaby. Raini couldn’t hear a word, the room was spinning. The last thing she saw were those snakes coming at her, breaking free from Medusa’s arms, and wrapping around her deranged body. Then the world went black once again.

   

Raini opened her eyes, her head spinning. Medusa was in front of her, her hands held high above her head, something black and cloud-like whirling between her fingers. Madness.

   

With a small smirk, Medusa threw her arms forward, forcing the madness into Raini’s stomach. The onyx mist swirled around her, then in a frightening flash, made her mind go blank.

   

After that, Raini ceased to exist. All that was left was Fawn, the nature witch, the dark queen of the forest. She spent her time gathering worthy specimens and using them like lab rats. Fawn made her way to the desert, where she built herself a small tower to live in. Often she sent messages of her progress to her dear mother, Medusa, at the same time visiting the unknowing and nearby Death City to retrieve new people, humans, to transform and bend.

   

But now it’s off to the real story.

Snow

   

Okay. I’m writing this because I’m at loss for words, because what happened to me, I can’t say aloud without being put down. Why? Because it sounds like something I made up, like a fairytale my mind created. I’m Snow; at least that’s what I like to be called. What’s my real name? Hannah. But let’s not go into that.

   

It started a warm, summer night. I had been reading a book quietly in my room, ignoring my parents and their black and white movies, which were blaring from downstairs. I read a lot… It takes my mind on little out-of-this-world adventures. Adventures and stories like that don’t happen in real life, especially to small town girls like me.

   

Today it was a manga, Soul Eater. I’ve seen the show, but found out soon after that the manga continues on after the show, and has more events.

   

I’m one of those girls that obsess over one character, one of the scary fangirls, to be honest. Death the Kid, with his symmetry and style, just gets to me. In weird ways. We are “married”, so to say, and I don’t really mind showing the fact off.

   

If you’re like me, then I see why you like Kid, just don’t say it to my face. It’s a bad idea.

   

But anyway, that night, after I closed my book and hopped into bed, I smiled knowingly to myself. My dreams, they’re crazy. If I’m thinking about something, then I dream about it. Now I was thinking about Kid. This was going to be good.

   

I closed my heavy eyelids, and waited patiently as my mind succumbed into a sweet reverie, and all I could do was sleep.

   

It was dark, and I felt funny, like a warm, fuzzy feeling. I heard the murmuring of various voices, and excited squeals of children. One voice spoke louder than the others.

   

“Now students, as you can see, the portal is almost ready to be opened, and a human from another dimension, selected at random, will visit us,” a man said in a familiar voice. Mass waves of whispers exploded around me, and next thing I knew, I was surrounded by bright light.

   

My eyes eventually got used to the light, and took in a huge classroom; it looked almost like it was a college class. But the kids were all my age, in little groups, all staring at me. Their eyes were wide, their faces beaming in wonder. It felt as if they were peering into my soul.

   

Then I realized where I was. Then I realized that some of them were doing just that. Everything around me seemed animated, like a cartoon. A Japanese cartoon, to be exact. In curiosity, I looked down at my own hands. Of course, it seemed that I had been animated myself. Behind me, the same man spoke again.

   

“Why, hello there!” He’s an enthusiastic one, at least right then he was. He leaned down beside me, his patched lab coat floating around him like a dissected cloud. His face, with stitches running through it as well, was young and halfway hidden behind a large pair of wire-rimmed glasses. He had thin, whitish hair, a smile that screamed rape.

   

Professor Stein! I gave a shy smile, looking up at his face. “Where am I?” I asked, even though I knew I was in the DWMA, the Death Weapon Meister Academy. Stein didn’t know that I knew that, though, so he stood up, waved a hand toward the students, and spoke loudly and officially.

   

“This is Class Crescent Moon of the Death Weapon Meister Academy. We are currently doing a study on other dimensions, and thought it would be fun to meet someone from one.” Oh yea, it’s okay just to teleport a random person here. It’s perfectly safe.

   

I stared at Stein, then shifted my gaze to a group of seven (I know, I know), an idiot with blue hair, two blondes in red shirts, a dirty blonde in pigtails, a sexy guy with stripes in his hair, the “too cool for school” kid, and a sweet girl with a long black ponytail. The gang!

   

You know those times when you just can’t help it, but you let out a small squeal. Well I did just that. Except the squeal was massive, my face turned hot, and I almost peed.

   

Thank the Lord I didn’t.

   

I passed it off as fright, and decided my best choice was to act all…smart. I stood up tall, looked around, remembering what my English teacher always said to do while speaking with an audience, putting aside all thoughts of her afro.

   

To sum up what happened in Class Crescent Moon, it was quite…interesting.

Just as I started to talk, Stein tried to dissect me, Maka had to stop him, and then I was given a very strange apology.

   

Oh joy.

   

After that, Stein escorted me to a small room, where I sat in silence, confused out of my mind, and waited, twiddling my thumbs and thinking to myself. Why was I here? Why was I, of all people, chosen to come?

   

The answer was simple. The only reason I was animated, the only reason I was in Death City, the only reason I was in this very room was because it was all one big dream.

   

Like I said, when I dream, it’s of what I was thinking of as soon as I went to bed. Was I thinking about a song? Well I’d live out the song. Was I thinking of Slenderman? Thank God I wasn’t, because then I’d dream of Slenderman.

   

As I was mulling this over, Spirit himself came bursting in, talking in a fake, serious voice, trying to sound official.

  

“Okay, listen up little girl. Stein was doing what he tends to do a lot.” He leaned down, his anime eyes staring right into mine. “He was experimenting. But the idiot didn’t think his trial over, and has no clue how to get’cha back to your dimension.”

   

I smiled. “That’s okay. I was just sleeping anyway,” I said silently, standing and turning to face the door, “But, as long as I’m here, where do I stay?”

   

Spirit, of course, had no clue whatsoever, and so then, in his lack of any knowledge, we stumbled into the Death Room.

   

Lord Death seemed like a happy enough person in the show, but you just wait, if you ever meet this guy in person, well, the only way to describe it is like this. Imagine that a shinigami (Lord Death) decided that it would be fun to have a whole dose of happy pills, then came to the smart conclusion to have five more. On top of that, he got a few large Mountain Dews, and drank down a dozen Five Hour Energies. And then some.

   

I was greeted with a large, box-like peace sign. I was already freaked out after having to walk under tons of blades just to reach Shinigami-Sama’s mirror, but on top of that I got a clown in a skull mask.

   

“Heyo! Wazzup? How ya doin’?”

Lord Death did a little twirl around me, then bent down till he was in my face, and I could see a pair of intelligent, yet excited amber eyes through his mask.

   

“I’m doing fine, Sir,” I sputtered, bowing down and smiling to myself. Death then patted me on the head, letting out a chuckle, and whipping away again. I let out a sigh.

   

“It seems that you can’t return to your home yet, and you don’t have a place to stay,” he muttered, mostly to himself, “I know of one place, but I’m not sure how the current residents would react.”

   

Guess who that was. Why it was a slightly short goth with a hint of OCD, that’s who.

    

Kid didn’t like the idea at all. I would ruin his symmetry. Liz, Patty, and he were enough, seeing as there were three of them, and if written in a certain way, you could split the number down the middle. Four wasn’t symmetrical at all. I had a counterattack.

   

“Kid, is it? Well, I’ve noticed that you and your pistols have teamed up with that blue-headed boy, his weapon, and the blonde, and her weapon. Am I right?” Kid nodded. “If you add your pair numbers up, the end result is the number seven,” and continued as the young shinigami flinched, “and we both know that it is physically possible to divide the number seven into two even halves. But, if I were to stay at your place, then if those others were to come over, then there would be eight of us, and the number eight can be divided into four halves, if divided the right way.”

    

To sum it up, I was at Gallows Manor in five minutes.

   

When I arrived, Liz took me to my room, a small guest chamber in the very depths of the house. It was sparkling and clean. Plus, of course, it could be spit right down the middle. Kid had been there.

   

I didn’t have any clothes, so Liz forced Patty to give me some of hers.

I made sure to make everything perfect. No more messy, who-cares-about-everything-being-perfect attitude. I had to be flawless.

   

After I put away the few clothes I had, got saved by Liz when Patty tried to send a bunch of robotic giraffes after me, and walked around awkwardly for a bit, I noticed something. The whole time I had been there, Kid hadn’t shown his face. Wondering where he was, I started roaming the house.

  

The place was huge, but after peeking into a few rooms, I got the hang of what was going on. If there was room on one side of the mansion, then one exactly like it was on the other side. It was perfectly symmetrical.

That made the place easier to navigate.

   

I made my way around the house, searching and searching with no luck at all. Perhaps he had gone out. Maybe he was busy…

   

“No… No… It’ll be perfect if only I could get the measurements right… Just a few millimeters… Maybe… GAH!” a voice rambled from behind a nearby door. I recalled a door similar to the one in front of me that was on the opposite side of the home. It was the bathroom.

   

Peering in, I saw my anime heartthrob, in the floor, his eyes wide, messing with a ruler and a roll of toilet paper. He was spasming…pretty much…and slipped a microscope out of his pocket and began to peer through its lense. Thinking of what wonderful, nice mental asylums could be found near Death City, I spoke.

   

“Would you like some help with that?” I asked, taking a step in. Without even looking at me, Kid began to nod vigorously. So, doing my best to keep calm, I kneeled down next to him. He handed me the roll of toilet paper, making sure I held it levelly.

   

Kid started to measure, fold, twist, pinch, and smash the toilet paper, his face sweating in determination. He started to smile, his eyes lighting up, and for a second, I thought he was done. Then those bright eyes rolled back in his head, and he fainted.

   

I spread him out on the bed in the guest room, and took it upon myself to finish folding. I don’t see what he was freaking out about. It took me about three minutes of measuring and concentration to get the paper folded just right. Putting away the ruler and microscope in a drawer, I returned it to the bathroom, then left to go see Kid.

   

When I came to check on the young shinigami, I found him awake. His eyes were narrowed, his look untrusting.

   

“Did you fold it?”

   

“Yea, I made it as perfect as I could,” I stammered. His expression didn’t change. His eyes never left me as he stood, took my hand, and led me out of the room.

   

Reread that last sentence. Repeat action. Do you understand? Do you see what’s so important about it? Why it’s special? He took my hand and led me away. Now, use your math skills, and subtract one of the italicized phrases. Which one did you eliminate? Let’s hope it was the second one, if not, then you’re wrong!

   

Kid held my flopping hand. If that wasn’t enough, he dragged me into a small broom closet! Holy cheese! I was so excited at the time that I didn’t notice his fist, clenched in haste. I was too busy watching in absolute pleasure as the other one locked the door behind us.

   

“Liz and Patty won’t find us here,” he mumbled, making my idiot face turn red. “Listen, I need to ask you something,” he continued, his eyes gleaming in distrust, making any jittery, butterfly-filled, fangirl feelings disappear, soon to be replaced with a cold feeling of disappointment.

   

“I never once told you anything about myself.” Oh, great. “Yes, you got the deal about symmetry from my complaints, but how did you know I was teamed up with the others? How did you even know my name? Or Liz and Patty’s names? How were you even aware of their weapon form?” My eyes were wide now, and I took a step back.

   

“Also, how do you even know what weapons are?” he demanded, stepping toward me again. “On top of that, when you first saw us, you seemed to recognize us. Everyone there heard that little squeal.”

   

Great bacon, what now? Lie? That was no option, I couldn’t lie to Kid! Even if I did, he would see right through it, no matter how white it may be.

   

I looked down, my ears hot, and answered softly. “I cannot tell you, not without a lie. If I did tell you, it may ruin your view of my dimension.

   

It was Kid’s turn to become red, red as a beet to be exact. He seemed angry for a bit, then whitened, going back to his pale, vampire-like shade. He gave a slight nod, turning quickly and making his way out of the closet, muttering as he went. “Liz will have made dinner by now. She’s a decent cook, you should grab some.”

   

After I ate a delicious meal of sushi, which I never found appetizing before now, I returned to my room, freshening up for a walk through the streets of Death City. I threw on some of Patty’s clothes, which were a little too big, and looked in the small mirror provided for me on the wall, finally seeing myself as an anime character.

   

My eyes were evergreen with gold flecks, large, and happy. The rest of me was easy to describe; just imagine an animated, second-year Hermione Granger. Just without the buckteeth.

   

I headed out, taking my iPod, which followed me here, along with a few dollars that just happened to be in my pajama pockets when I was teleported. I sleep with my money at times. For protection.

   

Strangely, the dollar bills were no longer green, with presidential faces printed on them. They were a rainbow of colors, with Lord Death’s face peering out at me, along with a blocky peace sign. Shaking off the change like anything else that happened today, I took off into the streets without a sound.

   

The whole time I was walking, I shunned myself, knowing how stupid it was to be walking around in Death City at night. There were Kishin everywhere around here. And Kishin feed off human souls, such as mine. To sum up what I’m trying to say, I’m a dumbnut.

   

Luckily for my poor sake, there seemed to be no Kishin whatsoever. It was silent, dark, and the air turned crisp as the chilly blanket of nightfall wrapped me in frosty satin. The stars were clear, each one shining brightly in the vast, navy drape of sky above me, sprinkled in the air in a never-ending galactic design. I wondered to myself if I was looking at the same stars as any other person was. If they were the same stars that were in my dimension.

   

But then again, it was just a dream.

   

I woman passed me, speeding ahead in a hurried walk, obviously in a rush. She nodded briskly at me as

    

she passed, a tight smile appearing on her face, the kind that didn’t reach her eyes. She went on, her heels making fast little clicking noises that echoed off of the stone ground beneath us. She turned a corner, the clacking of her shoes growing faint. Then quickly- too quickly- they stopped.

    

I paused by the corner, looking at the street in front of me, not daring to look around the wall at the woman and what stopped her. The streetlights cast her shadow out in front of me, thus I watched it. The shadow shifted, and I saw what must be her hand start to reach up to her mouth, shaking the whole way.

   

Another shadow appeared in what seemed like a flash. You could tell it was a woman, but she seemed to have a tail…and…antlers. I heard a low cackling, that of a woman, and the new thing’s silhouette began to shake back and forth, holding her stomach.

    

The human turned tail, shrieking and running in pure fear toward where I stood. With a slight hissing noise, the monstrous woman lurched forward, her forked tongue shot from her mouth and wrapped around the lady. She began to speak, her voice like an evil lullaby.

   

“Dear human, what have you to run for? As a witch, I know many ways of making you more successful than you ever have, and ever will be, if you stay here,” she purred, creeping closer and closer. The outline of the woman, or whatever she was, twirled, and grabbed the woman’s chin, leaning forward to do what appeared to be looking her in the eye.

   

“I have a family,” the other whispered, her voice hushed in fear. “I have children, and a husband. That’s why I run,” she finished, her hoarse voice turning into a mere croak by the end. She was shivering, and I could hear her teeth chattering from where I stood. Noiselessly, I cheered her on. This, sadly, had no effect on the situation whatsoever.

   

“I’m Fawn. I think we should get to know one another…,” the freak breathed, then grabbed the woman, racing past me, only pausing to stare me down, then dashed away into the desert, leaving only a cloud of dust behind.

   

I had no clue how I stayed still that whole time, but now that they were gone, I was a mess. I let out a small scream, began to tremble, and fell to my knees, breathing hard and staring at my palms. My mind couldn’t wrap around it, what I had seen in the shadows and heard in the dark.

   

Pull yourself together. Who are you? A weakling? A hopeless case? Bella Swann?

   

That last part got me moving. I stumbled, then regained balance, shooting off, trying to get back to the manor.

   

When I arrived, I turned the doorknob, breathing hard from my run, only to find the door locked. I knocked, that knock soon turning into a pound, and just as I was about to begin kicking the door, Liz answered.

    

“WHAT?! Oh. It’s you. I’m guessing the walk didn’t go so well...?”

   

I told her everything, and next thing I knew, Kid, Liz, and Patty were walking me to the Death Room, where I told the story yet again, to Shinigami-Sama himself.

   

To sum that up, a whole bunch of meisters were sent out into the desert after the woman and her mutant captor, those meisters including Stein, Kid, and BlackStar.

   

They left me with Maka, my least favorite Soul Eater character, and Soul for as long as they were gone. Gee. Thanks, Lord Death.

   

I sat down awkwardly in the duo’s living room, next to a small black cat that looked at me curiously. I smirked down at it, scratching its head and looking around, wide-eyed. Then I remembered something about the cat. I smacked my forehead and stopped petting her, scooting away.

    

Next thing I knew, there was a half-naked woman next to me. She blew a strand of purple hair from her ocher, animated eyes. She smiled, letting out a purr and snuggling against my arm.

   

“What’s your name little girl?” she asked, giggling and curling up in a bundle, her long tail flicking around in the air.

   

Blair was the first person in this world to ask me for my name. No one really seemed to care; Kid only cared about symmetry, Stein only cared about dissecting me, Patty only cared about eliminating me using an army of giraffes that she supposedly hid in her closet, and everyone else was wound up in their own problems. I had nothing to do until Stein figured out how to send me back.

   

“Um, it’s Snow,” I whispered, looking up as Soul and Maka entered the room. Maka came over, unattached Blair from my arm, and tossed her out the window, then sat down, beaming pleasantly at me.

    

Well. That escalated quickly.

   

“Snow, huh? What a nice name… It’s….wintery!” she said, her eyes brightening. I chuckled, nodding in an awkward silence, which was soon broken by Soul burping.

   

I took out my iPod, and began to plant zombies, which I only do whenever the time is needed, and succeeded in getting Mr. Idiot Explorer Guy eaten by monkeys in skull masks a total of eighty-eight times in eight minutes. It was tragic, yet wonderfully symmetrical.

   

Just as I began to turn the Apple device off, Soul spotted it.

   

“What’s the thing ’ya got there?” he asked, raising is chin and bobbing his head toward the gadget. I knew from keeping a sharp eye while watching the show that there were phones here, but I wasn’t sure if Steve Jobs managed to extend his nerdy reach to different dimensions. Though it was possible for him.

   

I blushed, clicking it on. “It’s an iPod. You just play games and listen to music. Sometimes you can watch videos or download movies,” I muttered, handing it to him, “Try it out, if you wish. My password is ‘symmetry’.”

   

He started typing, and I heard he and Maka whisper at the same time, “Oh gosh, not another one…”

   

Then I realized something.

   

Then I jumped on top of Soul and ripped my iPod out of his piano-perfect fingers. But it was too late.

   

“Why is your background a picture of our team?”

   

“Uh…”

   

“You don’t even know us.”

   

“Listen…”

   

Kid burst in. “I heard you through the door. I know what’s up.”

   

Oh Lordie no.

   

   

The son of Death grabbed me by my arm, roughly pulling me out of the cramped apartment. Maka and Soul followed in curiosity.

   

“Are we in your dimension? If so are we real? How do you know us?!” They were pounding me, getting too harsh; I was becoming more uncomfortable by the minute. Kid’s face was growing red in anger, Maka was clenching her fist, and Soul was looking at me in an only merely interested way.

   

I slapped Kid across the face, elbowed Maka in the stomach, kicked Soul, and was out of there.

   

For the billionth time, I’ll say it. I’m an idiot.

   

I broke through the door, racing out into the street. I slapped Kid, a flopping shinigami. I elbowed Maka, the girl who kicked Kishin butt like it was nothing. I had kicked Soul, the soon-to-be Death Scythe that could kill using a piano.

   

I was done for.

   

I ran until it was hard to breathe, and I had no clue where I was. I leaned my back against the stone wall of someone’s house; the cold feel of the bricks beneath my fingers was actually quite soothing. I slid down the rock, curling up on my side and closing my eyes. Maybe if I fell asleep here, I would wake up at my house.

   

Nope. Instead, I dreamed of elbowing Maka in her prissy little stomach over and over again. It was quite wonderful. But suddenly I was missing her, almost as if someone was shaking my arm. Oh, wait.

   

I woke up to Kid, who was leaning over me, worry in his eyes and a hand on my arm, which he was jerking back and forth ferociously.

   

“You’re awake! Look, I’m sorry about-” he started, but was stopped by my hand, which I slapped over his mouth. I must not have been asleep for long, because dawn was just breaking.

   

A shadow darkened the area around us, like someone had just walked up to us. I rolled my eyes, letting out a breath of annoyance.

   

“You look, Kid. You and your friend can just…just…” I looked at the shadow one more time and noticed something. It had antlers. And a tail.

   

I raised my eyes at the same time as Kid, feeling them widen in utter fear. My hand came down from Kid’s mouth, and wilted down to my side. There she was. Her face, her stitches, her silver fox tail, her horns shiny and proud upon her crown, they were all there, and all very frightening.

   

“Well today I’m lucky,” she mused, chuckling darkly, “It seems I got both a shinigami and the infamous other dimensional girl. Both perfect specimen. Both wonderful experiments.” She sniggered, grabbing me by my arm and lifting me off the ground. I let out a small squeal, kicking her over and over. Kid leaped forward, his eyes sharp and determined.

   

“Leave her be,” he threatened. Fawn simply reached out her hand and ripped the left sleeve off of his suit, and almost immediately he fainted from lack of symmetry.

   

“That was too easy,” she gloated, her cackles ringing out through the sunrise. People were starting to come out into the streets, and were looking at us in alarm. From the door right next to us, I heard a familiar voice. The door of the building was opening, and two people were emerging.

   

“…and once I surpass God, everyone will know what a big star I am, don’t you get it Tsubaki?”

   

“Uhm, yes. I think we could get going now, we’re already late for Stein’s class.”

   

Tsubaki and BlackStar, both of them, at the same time! I called out their names, screamed them.

My throat hurt from how loud I was yelling, and my legs were tired from kicking Fawn so much. BlackStar said something to Tsubaki, then leaned over to look at Fawn, Kid, and I. His eyes widened, then next thing I knew, they were both running toward us. With a screech worthy of the Wicked Witch of the West, vines shot from Fawn’s feet and lifted us from the ground. Once we were hovering above Death City, the vines dissapeared, and a pair of grotesque wings, black as night, fifteen feet across, almost like a raven’s (if the raven were dead and rotting) sprouted- no -grew from her back. With BlackStar and Tsubaki shouting at us from the ground, she took of, the wings flapping loudly and awkwardly in the daybreak, heading off into the never-ending deserts of Nevada.

Tsubaki

   

“Kid!” I screamed, reaching up to the sky. That witch had taken off with Kid and that poor, sweet girl from the other dimension. I hadn’t even got the chance to meet her.

   

The Camellia Blossom, also known as Tsubaki, is a flower without fragrance. It proclaims nothing, blooming in silence. When the blossom's petals scatter, it's quiet and tragic. I am Tsubaki. A silent flower without fragrance. I come from the Nakatsukasa clan, and I’m one of the only ones of us who has the special ability, passed down through our ancestors, to transform into a weapon of my own, or my meister’s bidding. BlackStar and I are partners at the DWMA together, and Kid is one of my (our) closest friends. Right now, BlackStar was standing next to me as we both watched helplessly as our friend and new acquaintance were kidnapped right before our eyes.

   

I stood straight, turning to face BlackStar.

   

Let me rephrase that.

   

I stood straight, turning to face where BlackStar had been five seconds ago.

   

Startled by his sudden disappearance, which I should be used to by now, I began looking around quickly, frightened. In the distance, heading toward the academy, I saw a spikey, blue head stampeding its way up the stairs, heading into the school. I moaned, taking off after him at my own pace.

   

When I reached the academy, I started toward the Death Room, where I assumed he had gone. When I arrived, of course, he was not there. It was almost comical.

   

I shuffled forward, pulling on the edge of my skirt. When I reached Lord Death, I bowed, showing my honor towards the powerful shinigami. When I resurfaced, I clasped my hands behind my back and asked for permission to speak.

   

“Now Tsubaki, there’s no need for that,” Lord Death soothed, his voice sounding the way it did when people are smiling as they speak.

   

“Thank you, Shinigami-Sama. I assume that BlackStar hasn’t been here?” I asked shyly. He shook his head in agreement, scratching his head. “I’m here to report that the witch that was seen kidnapping a woman was spotted. She took two others with her this time, one held down forcibly, and the other knocked out. She went out to the desert.”

   

“And have the identities of the two that were taken confirmed?”

   

“Yes sir.”

    

“Then tell me, so I can file the information.”

   

I swallowed, summoning the strength to tell him. “The two that were taken… they… um….” My eyes started to water, warm, fat tears beginning to run down my cheeks.

   

“Tsubaki? Is everything okay? Tsubaki you’re crying!” Lord Death ran to my side and put his oversized, gloved hands on my shaking shoulders. “Who was it?”

   

“The two that were taken were Death the Kid and Snow, our visitor from the other dimension.”

Snow

   

Well, you know how when you’re captured by an evil person, you’re supposed to scream and act dramatic? How you’re supposed to put on the big damsel in distress act? Well I didn’t have the chance to do that. The desert was pretty hot, and soon, there were spots in my vision the size of…something big. I was trying to stay awake; I wanted to continue to kick this witch. Emphasis on the w. Eventually, after what seemed like hours, I lost my will to stay awake, and everything went pitch black.

   

When I woke, I was in a small, circular room, painted and draped in several shades of red and black, with one arch-shaped window, which gave me a clear view of sand. When I say sand, I mean sand. By that I mean that there was nothing but that, for miles and miles and miles and miles.

   

There were two doors on either side of the room. I tried both of them to find one locked, and the other a small bathroom with few toiletries. There was a tiny bed, a ripped lounge chair, and boxes, crates, and bags scattered everywhere. It was very crowded, and as soon as I tried to move, I ended up whapping my head on a milk crate full of old books.

   

The locked door made a clicking noise, and slid open to reveal the poor woman I saw become captured. When she saw me, her eyes widened. “It’s you,” she murmured, “You’re the girl I saw that day.”

   

I nodded, taking her in. She was wearing a maid’s outfit, and was carrying a broom. I tilted my head, confused.

   

“Did she decide not to use you like a lab rat?” I asked, taking a step toward the lady. She lowered her eyes, took off her shawl, and unzipped the back of her dress. The material slid apart, and her back was revealed to me. Sewn hastily into her skin was a pair of wings, white, large, and angel-like. They extended into the air, gawky and uncoordinated. They began to flap, as if she were starting to take off, but one made a loud cracking noise, and the other popped out of place. At the base of the wings there were clumsy stitches. Now that the wings were moving, the stitches began to bleed, blood oozing down her back.

   

“Stop!” I yelped, running forward, grabbing a nearby rag and dabbing the blood away. “She didn’t have to do such a sloppy job. Then to see that she messed up on you, and for her to throw you away and dress you as a maid. It’s disgusting!” I started to fume, my face turning hot. The lady blushed, reaching back to zip the dress back up, wrapping herself back up in her shawl. She glanced up at me, and her eyes gained a shine of confidence.

   

“Fawn isn’t planning on operating on you or the boy for a long time. She has other specimen to work with, and is saving you both for one big, special, elaborate plan. I overheard her saying this to her two assistants. She isn’t even planning on looking at you for this time. I can’t sneak you out, but I could reunite the two of you in the time being,” she said, flashing me an uncertain glance.

   

“I’m fine with that, but I don’t think he’d like to hang out with me.” I wanted to tell her about how Kid had pounded me about where I came from and all the secrets I held.

   

“Actually,” she began, smiling, “I talked with him. He’d like to chat with you.” She turned away, opening the door again. “I’m Lily, by the way.”

   

“…I’m Snow,” I whispered, sitting down on a box. I didn’t know what to do, so I just sat there for a while, staring at the floor in complete boredom. Eventually, I grew tired, and lifted my gaze a bit.

   

The boxes were gone, stacked orderly in the edge of the room. The crates had been placed on a shelf that was once hidden behind junk. The room had been dusted, swept, and remade. It was clean, and when I looked to my left, I realized that Lily had not locked the door back.

   

Also, I realized that Kid’s room was connected to mine through that very door. That explained a lot.

   

I stood warily, walking gingerly into the room, where I found Kid fast asleep on the small cot that Fawn had provided him with. His blanket had fallen off, and his arm had flopped off the edge. I softly lifted his arm, remembering that it was the very one that was chopped of in the manga, and placed it next to his slumbering body. I also tucked him in, lifting the blanket up to his chin and folding it over.

   

With a small smile, I turned and returned to my own room, busying myself with my own bed, fixing it so Lily wouldn’t have to. When I was finished with that, I went to go see if there was anything else to do in Kid’s room, looking in bags, boxes, shelves, everywhere.

   

Eventually I found myself at his arched window, peering out at what he saw. There was sand, but this time, not just sand. There was a cliff, huge, miles deep, deeper that the Grand Canyon. (Not really. Exaggeration. Hyperbole. You get the point.) The bottom seemed to never come, and if you looked past it, there was a tiny dot in the distance, with a large structure on the top, shaped like the DWMA. Death City.

   

“You can see it if you look hard enough,” a voice behind me said, “My father is probably sending out meisters by now. His best.”

   

I turned around, where I found Kid awake, standing behind me and looking out the window over my shoulder with a wistful look in his eye. I put my hand on his shoulder, turning to face him. I looked right in his eyes, mine beginning to water a little, and squeezed his shoulder, nodding slightly. “Of course he has. Your dad loves you very much, Kid. There’s no way he would put you off. I…” I paused, taking one more glace back at the speck in the distance, “I know he would rather die, would sacrifice his own soul to hell for eternity, than to lose you.”

   

Kid lowered his eyes, finding a great interest in his feet. “I don’t know why you’re so sure, but I know you’re right.”

   

He walked back over to the cot, reaching under his pillow and taking out my iPod. “I stole this while you were asleep in the street. Soul gave me your password, so I’ve been looking through your stuff. I’m mostly interested in your music library. You have quite a few songs on there,” he mused, flipping the device over in his hand.

   

I grabbed my iPod, quickly checking to make sure everything was there. After I was finished with my scan, I sat down beside of him. “Why take it?”

   

“To see what your connection was with us. Tell me, what is Soul Eater?”

   

“I can’t tell you.”

   

There was silence after that. I put in my earbuds, listening to Kid’s theme song, and suddenly, halfway through the song, smelled something. In seconds, Kid and I were both knocked out, not knowing what hit us.

Fawn

   

“Thank you Lily, your help was most needed,” I said, using my tail to caress the woman’s dear, sweet face. The dark room in which I experimented on my prey was suitable for the conversation. Our only light was given by a small candle in the center of the table that my head assistant, Krome, had lit for us.

   

“It was no problem, Lady Fawn, though they are nice.” Lily was a precious soul, one that could be bent with empty promises that were never to come true.

   

“At this very moment, they will be breathing in the fumes of my toxin. When they wake, I need you to check on them regularly in secret, do you understand?”

   

“Yes ma’am.”

   

“And Krome?”

   

The Kishin man lifted his head, which was the color of night, spikey and sloppily lain upon his head. His eyes were neon blue, so bright that they shone in the darkness. He was dressed in rags of crimson and onyx, his feet bare, black, and scarred has both his and my heart.

   

“Yes, dearest?”

   

“If you see meisters coming, kill them. Don’t hold back.”

   

In response to my command, the belts and strings on Krome’s clothing began to lift into the air, each transforming into leather cords, all of them ending in poison-coated nails. His eyes lit up, and he gave a wicked smile.

   

“Nothing would make me happier.”

Snow

   

I woke feeling murderous. Kid must have felt the same way, because when he looked at me, he had a look of fire in his eyes. I couldn’t control myself, I had to hurt someone. We ran at each other, and Kid punched me in the stomach, knocking all of the wind of me. I hit the floor, and, in a blinding flash that I didn’t know was possible, he brought his hand down on my throat, so I couldn’t take another breath. I was left, on the ground, choking for air.

    

It’s my fault for running at a shinigami, but gosh, he could’ve held back. Eventually, after many attempts to breathe, I was able to stand again. Kid was waiting, and charged at me for a second time. I was ready, and as he went to hit me, I used my long fingernails to rip into his arm. As he was recovering from the shock of my counterattack, I kicked him in the gut, all those years of playing soccer and building my leg muscles paying off. But no matter how much strength I had to kick, Kid was incredibly strong, and trained for life-and-death combat.

   

I found myself on the floor, Kid hovering above me. We’d been at it for a while now, and I was about done. I didn’t want to fight anymore, the desire was gone. The look of anger left Kid’s eyes, and he suddenly seemed confused.

   

“Where did that come from?” we asked at the same time, staring at each other in shock. Kid ran to my side, checking me for wounds and broken bones. I went to one of our bathrooms and moistened a wash cloth, dabbing his wounds cautiously. Eventually, we both felt better and stopped rambling apologies to each other. Kid sat on a box, looking me in the eyes.

   

“Something was released in the room. It’s obvious that something happened, after all, people don’t just pass out, at the same time, for no reason,” he muttered, pulling out a baby wipe out of his jacket and cleaning his hands in frustration.

   

He wanted to speak to Lily.

   

As if on cue, the woman walked into the room, her eyes darkened with either the lust to kill or the weight of a shadowy lie.

   

The scary thing was, I didn’t know which.

Lily

   

I had been given the signal to enter the room, at a perfect time, because I had just heard the boy request to speak with me. I put on my best face, one of shame, and entered the room. Snow was sitting next to the boy, her eyes curious as they watched me.

   

“I am so very sorry,” I started, “I wasn’t aware-”

   

The boy raised his hand, silencing me.

   

“What was released into the air, Lily?”

   

“A toxin. It was released as a test, to see how hurting each other would affect your relationship. It appears that you both must be pretty close. Most would be angry, would hold a grudge.”

   

Snow flushed, jumping forward. “We barely know each other. Sorry that we both care about the health of one another!” She looked at Kid for support, most likely about to shout something like, ‘Right?’, but found him blushing a deep, rosy pink, his eyes wide.

   

That sure made her shut up.

   

“Well anyway, next time that a toxin -or whatever the heck comes next- is ready to be tested, can we have a heads up?” she snarled.

   

“Of course. I am sorry, and I hope you can forgive me,” I lied, turning my back to them and leaving the room, closing the exit door behind me.

   

As soon I escaped, I allowed myself a small purr. Under my shawl, my wings shivered in joy. The toxin was just the beginning. Lady Fawn had promised that if I watched them, I would notice them growing closer and closer. If this happened as planned, then my dear lady would have what she wanted, and her full plan would take into action.

   

Something hit me, like a brick, as I was reviewing my thoughts.

  

“What was released into the air, Lily?”

   

Who’s Lily, anyway? I’m Skylark, the witch of cleverness and the sky. Lady Fawn brought me to my full strength, and now, there was no going back, I would stand by her side until the day my body combusts, and my soul is taken by those I call my enemies.

Snow

   

Ermehgerd!

   

Translation: I cannot believe this amazing thing that has just happened to me right now, at this moment, that will change my life forever because it’s just so dang awesome and I think I’m going to explode and I don’t care if this is a run on sentence because the world just loves me so much can I get back to the point I’m so happy but I can’t express that aloud in anyway besides said “ermehgerd” which is a slang version of Oh my God, now I think I’ll go into a large amount of explanatory-ness.

   

Death the Kid, my obsession, blushed when he was told that we were close. BLUSHED! Definition for blushing: a reddening in the face, where someone’s checks become a pinkish color because of emotion, like embarrassment, shame, modesty, pleasure, or a deep passion.

   

Deep passion.

   

ERMEHGERD!

   

And even now, as Lily left and I slowly shuffled over to see if she locked the door, I looked back once, to see Kid, still blushing, and looking around awkwardly, never once looking at me.

   

Mwuhaha!

   

It seemed all of my acting and awesomeness worked! Either that or I was taking this the wrong way! Let’s hope not! I didn’t even have to go to Plan B., and seduce him with my awkwardness.

   

When I found the door, sadly, locked, I pulled out my iPod, placing it on shuffle, so that the songs played loudly for both Kid and I to hear. The first song to come on was Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift. I only got the song because of my Hunger Games fandom, but now, I loved it, the lyrics, the guitar playing; even the music video suited my mood.

   

I stood, the lyrics running through my mind, and began to sweep, using an old broom I found lying around. I turned toward Kid, who had stood and was walking toward me. I shook this off, he was probably coming over to fix something that was out of place.

   

He wasn’t.

   

“Are you a good dancer?” he asked, standing right in front of me, him being the same height as me causing our eyes to meet yet again. I was taken aback, but answered all the less.

  

“Pfft,” I laughed, “No, I never have been.”

   

“That was just the response I was looking for. Let me teach you.”

   

He took my hand, holding one out and placing one on my waist. I was swept off my feet, my face becoming the same color of those little tomatoes you find at salad bars. The song changed to Abraham’s Daughter, and Kid twirled me around, our feet pacing perfectly to the beat of the drums. I’ve hardly ever danced in my life, but with him, I was just fine. I knew how to move my feet, when to twirl, when to stomp, when to pause.

   

Kid began to sing, though I was sure he had never heard the songs before in his life. Unexpectedly, his voice was magnificent, like spoken silk, smooth velvet flowing from his mouth. We continued to dance, not stopping once.

   

It was…beautiful.

   

As the songs changed, so did our dance. It went from slow, to quick, to right in-between. I found myself beaming, my eyes smiling right along with Kid’s. Eventually the last song drew to an end, and we were forced to collapse on my folding bed, squashed together and breathing deeply.

    

“How many songs do you have?!” he gasped.

   

“Almost five hours of them.” At that, we both broke out into relieved, tired giggles. Wiping sweat from my brow, I sat up. With one glance out the window, I saw that it was dark out. “I’m gonna go to bed.”

   

Kid and I separated, he went to his bed, I went to mine, and within minutes, I was fast asleep.

Krome

   

I leaned back in my wicker chair, the sharp pieces of wood that came loose from the delicate weave stabbing me in the back. The slight pain gave me satisfaction, and I allowed myself a smile.

   

Earlier today I had gone out, killed a few meisters that came to attempt to retrieve the two captives, and came back to find Lady Fawn and the newly created Skylark waiting for me, ready to hold another meeting. To be honest, I preferred it when Skylark was still human. She was innocent, sweet, and gullible. The thought of her actually believing that Fawn would return her to her family, her home, made pleased shivers fun down my spine.

    

Also she had been human, and the thought of her soul had given me contentment, seeing as I’m a Kishin.

   

When I sat down, my focused my eyes on Fawn, who was staring at me with meaning.

   

“Have you started gathering the information? The needed material?” she asked, leaning forward in her throne of leaves, vines, and other plants. Shadows crawled across her face, our one candle making them flicker and dance about, creating a ghostly affect.

   

“Yes, M’ Lady. I finished that yesterday, but was caught up with all the meisters that were sent, and didn’t have time to give them to you.” As soon as I said this, Fawn demanded the ingredients and instructions, which I handed over without hesitation.

   

It took a few hours, but eventually the creation was finished. The Madness Patch, Fawn’s own creation, took some of my own madness, which, as a Kishin, I had a large amount of. (Not as much as the legendary Asura, though…)

   

The Patch was small, black, and deadly. If this creation were to be stuck on your body, then Fawn would have full control of you, and if she let you free, then you remained completely, almost incurably, mad.

   

We made one other, locked it up, and prepared to use the first in a test. I was allowed to select one meister that was sent for the kids, and keep them, locking them away for Fawn.

   

And now, it was time to test him.

Stein

   

Great.

   

Not only did I have to quit studying the other dimensions to go on a wild goose chase for Kid, but halfway through my chase, I was blindsided by a Kishin, and woke up in a dark room. There was no light, my hands were tied behind my back, and I couldn’t move. There was a frightening amount of madness in the air, and it was making me edgy.

   

I turned on my side, thinking about how I could possibly get out of this, when something flashed through my head.

   

It was grainy, that’s the only reason I knew it wasn’t really happening.

   

It was dark, just like where I was when I got this image. A door opened, letting in a large streak of light. A young woman, about in her twenties, was lying on the floor, tied up and gagged. A figure made their way in, letting out a chuckle of delight. It took a minute, but soon, her face was visible. Medusa, looking almost like a goddess of vipers and sin, sashayed over, looking down upon the girl as if she were dessert.

   

“Lord Death, Raini, you’re twenty-four. Why do you live?” she scolded, her voice echoing slightly. “You live because I haven’t experimented on you yet. You haven’t thrived and killed yet.”

   

The girl, Raini, stared at Medusa with a look of fear and hate, lust for blood and the want to hide. In a blinding flash, one of the snake tattoos on her arm slithered off and attacked Raini, knocking her out in an instant. She was then dragged away to either her dark blossoming or certain death.

   

I was back to the complete darkness again, breathing hard. I didn’t know what to make of the memory. It was so…ominous. But then, the door opened, a wide beam of yellow light seeping in. A single silhouette, that of a woman, stood in the center.

   

“Medusa? You’ve grown your hair out,” I commented, shaking my head so the gag came off. I then noticed two other things besides her hair. “And antlers… And a tail… Who are you?!”

   

“You may call me Lady Fawn,” she whispered, her voice lust itself. She twirled a lock of amber hair around her black manicured nail, and opened the door a little wider, revealing her face. She giggled when I gasped in recognition. She was Raini, Medusa’s old experiment.

   

So this is what she had done to her.

   

I narrowed my eyes, wriggling around until I was sitting straight up. In an instant, she was at my side, her hand reached out, next to my face. Lying threateningly in her palm was a small black square, constantly giving off a frightening vibe. She reached out, about to place it on my skin, when I attempted to dodge, but someone behind me, one I hadn’t noticed before, grabbed me by my shoulders, allowing the square to attack itself to my cheek.

   

Then, without warning, I completely lost it.

Snow

   

Okay, let me get this straight.

1.Transported to my favorite show

2.Almost dissected by madman

3.Lived inside the house of my dream guy

4.Interrogated in small closet alone with dream guy

5.Stuck in the house of my least favorite and semi-favorite character

6.Interrogated again by all three

7.Ew seven.

8.(Symmetry!) Beat as much snot as a weakling like me could out of them

9.Fell asleep on the street

10.Kidnapped with dream guy

11.Been sleeping 5 foot away from said guy for a few days

12.Suddenly smelled something funny

13.Passed out

14.Woke up

15.Beat the living daylights out of each other

16.Danced romantically for five flopping hours.

   

Alrighty then.

   

After reviewing this, I decided to be suspicious. Kid was still sleeping, not really snoring, but every now and then, he’d let out this adorable, bunny-like squeak where a snore would usually come in.

   

That melted any tension I had.

   

Earlier we’d fixed his suit jacket with some of the cloth lying around, and now it looked like new.

   

I went into the room that was originally mine, closing the door behind me. Tiptoeing softy, I snuck into the bathroom, splashing a whole bunch of cold water on my tired face. Part of me was thrilled because of this epic journey that I was facing with my fictional crush, Death the Kid, but part of me wanted to run home, to wake up from this dream. Why? It was dragging out so long that part of me wanted to think it wasn’t a dream.

  

Sighing, I stepped out of the bathroom, turning to look out the window, when I noticed something sprawled out on one of the boxes.

  

A dress, about knee-length, was lying in wait for me. The skirt was pre-shredded, black, and had a gothic feel. The top was almost like a vest, black, button up. Underneath that, there was a white dress shirt, and, right in the collar, was the same broach Kid wore.

   

All in all, I was looking at the dress version of Kid’s suit.

   

Looking around, I scooted over, fingering the material of the skirt, sighing in awe. There was a note, scribbled in ink.

   

I made this for you! I thought that you might want to look pretty for the shinigami boy. Try it on! It’ll look beautiful!

Lily

   

Where did she even get stuff for this? The chizz?!

   

Doing as I was told, I changed, studying myself in the dress. Though I look horrible in most dresses, this one actually looked good. I twirled, and, taking advantage of my chance to look presentable in front of Kid, curled my hair using a pencil, some water, and a hair drier.

   

Long story.

   

I pinned the rest up with a small clasp I found in the floor, some sort of paper clip or something. It didn’t matter, as long as it kept. In one of the bags, there were a lot of craft supplies, where I found some glitter, sprinkling the smallest amount of myself.

   

I felt pretty. I hate feeling pretty.

   

I heard a thump, one that told me Kid was awake. Taking the biggest breath ever, I straightened my shoulders, and slowly walked forward, opening the door and staring at Kid nervously.

   

His eyes widened as he took a step back. He raised his eyebrows, tilting his head curiously to the side.

   

“What’s this?” he asked, half inquisitive, half amused. An impish smile brightened his face as he stepped forward and took my hands, looking me over. I too looked down, still taking in the fact that I, Snow, was wearing a dress. It took a second, but I suddenly realized that I was still animated, my body looking like that of a Japanese cartoon. I’d gotten used to it, but now that I actually noticed, it was fresh and foreign.

   

I looked at Kid, smiling, and spoke, my voice coming out in a whisper. “Lily gave it to me. I found it in that room with a note that told me to put it on.”

   

Frowning, I turned toward the old window, leaning on the sill and staring out at the never-ending sand. What were we doing? For goodness sake we were trapped in a freaking witch’s tower, and could be experimented on at any moment. I sighed, delicately fingering my freshly curled hair. Everything was just one huge joke. It seemed that we were so immersed in the idea of meisters coming to get us that we were becoming sloppy. Now here we were, dressing up and dancing and laughing and blushing and just being silly.

   

I heard footsteps behind me that told me that Kid was coming. He put a reassuring hand on my shoulder, peering out the window along with me at the speck in the distance that was Death City. “You know,” he said, “It’s been fun.”

   

“Huh?!”

   

“I know the situation is a tough one, I mean, we’re captives. But you’ve made it better. Your music, laughs, everything.” We were staring at each other now, and I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. Something flashed in his honey irises, and my heart skipped a beat. He brushed my hair from my face and tucked it behind my ear, his cold fingers freezing my skin. I shivered beneath his touch, getting a sudden chill. Smirking, he leaned forward, until I could feel his breath on my cheek. “I think it’s been so good having you here,” he started to say, wrapping one arm around my back, and the other cupping my chin, “because the whole time I’ve had the pleasure of slowly falling in love with you.”

   

At that moment, his lips found mine.

   

His kiss started off as a soft one, one that made my heart flutter. It then became rough; Kid wrapped both arms around me and pulled me closer, lifting me off my feet, where he then lost his balance, toppling onto the floor. My body surged upward, every cell in it pretty much exploding in surprise and happiness. I couldn’t breathe, but that didn’t matter, not then.

   

I grabbed handfuls of his hair, pulling him even closer. My heart beat against my chest, my eyes were squeezed shut, and my mind had gone blank. I pulled back for a moment, getting a breath of air, then went back in for another kiss. Kid smiled, his eyes fierce, and we kissed once more.

   

In our next kiss, we bumped against an old shelf, nearly knocking it over. I almost heard Effie scream, “That’s mahogany!”

   

I didn’t, and still don’t, know how to explain it. I loved Kid; I had since the moment he came up on my iPod screen while I was watching Soul Eater. But to think, while he was threatening me, trying to get answers, being silent, while he was doing all those rude things, that he was… well…

   

I didn’t know whether or not to believe him. Any other person would have wondered, I hope, as well. The only thing that didn’t make me completely trash the idea of him loving me back was that kiss. It was true; it was real; it was love.

  

Even now, as I was looking into those golden eyes of his, I knew, they were honest. I blushed, my brain pretty much turning into a huge glob of green mush. Useless.

   

I took a deep breath, thinking to myself, getting an idea. Maybe… I could trust him with the truth. Maybe I could tell him who he truly was.

   

“Kid?”

   

“Yes, Snow?”

   

“About my dimension…” I started, sitting on a small milk crate, but was interrupted by Kid.

   

“There’s no need to tell me. It doesn’t matter.”

   

“Kid, listen,” I commanded, my voice stern, “Soul Eater is a show. It’s fictional, animated, Japanese, and quite epic. The main characters are Maka Albarn, Soul Evans, BlackStar, Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, Elizabeth and Patty Thompson, and you, Death the Kid. I… I started watching the series when I viewed a short video. There was this boy, in his teens, cartoon-ish, wearing a suit and flying around on a skateboard. He had three strange stripes running through his hair, and fought like Chuck Norris!

   

“I fell for him, becoming a fan of the show just for him. The only reason I wanted to watch it was for that boy, you! Then I started reading it, once the show ended, and found myself a huge fan. I fell asleep one night after reading and woke in the DWMA, in the middle of my favorite series. I was animated, and, eventually decided that it was all a dream. It couldn’t be happening.

   

“Kid, the reason I’m telling you this… is because I trust you. You may not feel the same way, but I love you. I know this isn’t a dream, I’m sure that I was wrong. There’s no way I could love someone this much in a dream, have such strong emotions in a mere reverie.”

   

What happened after that?, you ask?

    

Let’s just say that one more kiss isn’t too much.

Fawn

   

“Go on then, Skylark, give me your report. How’s the happy couple?” I purred, taking a fang-filled bite of a small chipmunk. I may me the witch of nature, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like the occasional organic snack.

   

My forged witch bowed, flipping her blue hair from her young face. She gave me a smile, her eyes evil. “They’ve grown to be just that. They’re in love now.”

   

I shivered in pure delight, my tail wagging happily behind me. I giggled, caressing her face. “Good, good. Do you think it’s time?”

   

“Madam Fawn, I know it’s time.”

   

We got in position. I sat in the corner, looking through a small hole in the wall that led straight into the room, placing my hands together; I used my powers, causing spiny, thick, strong vines to sprout. When Skylark gave me a signal, I was to make the vines grow through the hole. She would rush in, apply the weapon, then all was well, and my plan was complete.

Kid

   

Snow.

   

I can’t explain her; she’s a mystery to me. In her dimension, I’m an anime character; complete fiction. Though I was made in the depths of someone’s imagination, though I was a mere idea scratched down on paper, she still cared for me, still loved me.

   

I wouldn’t be able to do something like that.

   

I’m not sure if that means I should admire her, or should send her to a mental asylum. Either way, slowly, I found myself falling for her as well.

   

She was so silent, secretive, but, once she got comfortable with you…

   

Also, though she’s just a human, she didn’t scream, cry, or whine about getting kidnapped. She faced the situation like it was nothing.

   

Even now, as I was kissing her for a second time, she didn’t react in any other way but the best: kissing back.

   

I released her, sighing in bliss. My heart soared, my eyes on hers, evergreen swirled with lime, flecked and speckled in gold.

   

She glanced behind me, something catching her eye. She took a step back, worried and curious. Taking her lead, I swiveled around, my gaze immediately falling upon a tangle of thick, thorn-covered vines, writhing around. They were coming from a small hole in the wall, and were growing toward us.

   

I pushed Snow back, narrowing my eyes, and attempted to follow, trying to get as far away from the plants as possible. Instead, I found one of the vines wrapped around my ankle, pulling me toward the hole, away from Snow.

   

Eventually I found myself turned around, looking up at her, bound against the wall, the briars digging into my skin, warming me as the sticky blood oozed out. I wriggled around, trying to get free, when I saw something in front of me move.

   

Looking up, I saw Snow, inching toward me, muttering what were probably supposed to be words of serenity, trying to calm me down. Sadly, that’s not what I saw move.

   

Behind Snow, hanging upside down from the ceiling, was Lily. She was smiling wickedly, her sky blue hair swirling around like it had a mind of its own. She was holding up a small black square, a patch. She winked at me, leaning toward Snow, her snake-like eyes gleaming. “Here’s that heads up you wanted,” she snarled, slapping the patch on Snow’s neck and running off, a pair of feathery wings shooting from her back. She slyly opened my window and flew out, her loud, maddened laughs fading into nothing.

   

Letting out a scream of terror, I lunged forward, toward Snow, trying to reach her. The patch vanished, sinking into her skin. I watched as her hazel eyes misted over, and, in a disturbing silence, she turned, shuffling over to the exit door, which was now slightly ajar, and stumbled out.

   

She was leaving.

   

She wasn’t herself.

   

I struggled, the briars raking through my skin. Now that Lily and Snow were gone, it was melancholy; everything seemed to be covered in a shadow. Everything happened so quickly, the situation going from happy to dark.

   

I knew what was happening, I could feel Snow’s madness, slowly leaving, but its vibe was strong. I knew I had to stop her, and quick.

   

In stark determination, I ripped out of the vines, hunks of severed vegetation falling to the floor, mixed like soup with puddles of my blood. I flung open the wooden door, finding floors and floors of stairs, winding round and round, never seeming to end.

   

I summoned my skateboard, Beelzebub, and flew downward, wind blowing my hair back out of my face. I reached the end door, the exit to the whole building, finally free.

    

In the distance of the desert stood a single silhouette, perched dangerously on the edge of the deep cliff.

   

I ran toward her, screaming her name, my own ears muting whatever I said. When I could finally see her, not just a shadow, I yelled for her one last time, arms outstretched. She turned to face me, her eyes unfocused and covered in a film.

   

Snow, in all of her tantalizing, nonexistent grace, smiled, turned, and, using one foot to power herself forward, leapt,

skyrocketing off the cliff, and to her death.

   

I froze, my blood turning to slush in my veins, my heart stopping. I let out a scream, long, drawn out, agonized. I almost fell over, suddenly feeling dizzy.

   

I never realized just how horrible it would be to lose the one you loved. The depression takes you over, sinking sorrowfully into your very existence. The sadness chills you, making it hard to move, the only thing you can do is fall dismally to the sandy ground. Sometimes you cry, sometimes the tears don’t come, you mourn in your soul, not physically.

   

Sometimes you can’t control yourself, and you become impulsive.

   

Just like I did.

   

Running forward, all sensible thoughts leaving my mind, I found myself at the edge of that very cliff. It seemed like hours before I reached that point, my breath coming out hard and hot. I just wanted to be with her, just wanted to share her fate.

   

Looking over the rocky brink, I saw her, sprawled out, a red pool of blood surrounding her unnervingly.

   

In seconds, all I felt was the feeling of falling, wind howling through my ears, and the weight of my last decision bearing down on me, crushing my very soul.

   

When I hit dirt, I felt nothing.

   

I wasn’t killed, so, using what energy I had, I turned my head, looking at Snow, who lay, on her back, staring up at the sky.

   

I choked on tears, reaching toward her, all hope lost.

   

Why did I live on? Why?!

Snow

   

Okay…

   

OW!

   

I couldn’t breathe, and my whole body felt like I just got stabbed a bazillion times and was trapped inside Itachi Uchiha’s jutsu for, I don’t know, ever!

   

Just a few seconds ago, there was some huge thud. I wanted to see what it was, but, if I moved, I would probably just explode.

   

Into flames.

   

And tacos.

    

That was just an exaggeration, guys. In case you didn’t know.

   

But, summoning up my strength, and praying to God that I didn’t burst into fire and Mexican food, I turned my head to the left, my eyes falling upon Kid, staring straight into my eyes.

   

“You’re alive!” he burst, his hands slowly and painfully reaching toward me.

   

“Not for long,” I croaked, bursting into a fit of coughs. His eyes grew pained, and he brought his right hand together with his left, removing his right ring from his middle finger.

   

He reached over, taking my right hand, and slipped the skull-adorned ring onto my own middle finger. He wiped a silver tear from his dismayed eyes, sighing in misery.

   

“If you only have one you won’t be symmetrical,” I managed, sniffling like some idiot.

   

“I’d rather be asymmetrical than to lose you, Snow. I’d give up all the symmetrical things, than to see you go.”

   

All the symmetrical things.

   

We stared into each other’s eyes,

and I watched as both sets began to close, and I, Snow Tod, Hannah, whatever it is you want to call me, died, knowing that Kid died right along with me, right at my side.

Lord Death

   

“The meisters you sent after Kid yesterday were found dead in the same area all the others were, Lord Death.”

   

“Again?!”

   

Every meister I sent to find Kid was found dead, brutally murdered, with the exception of Stein, who returned insane with the need of serious counseling.

   

Deciding that I didn’t like dead people, I called in my last hope.

   

Deedee, Marvin, Clam, and Linda are and odd bunch, but are great at avoiding death.

   

They are a group of specially forged weapons that Professor Stein created, who can turn into four mechanical dragonflies, hiding and blending into their environment. Their eyes are cameras, letting me see everything they do.

   

They were my last hope, and it was time to call them in.

Clam

   

Yes, you read that right. My name is Clam. Let’s just say that my mom was eating seafood when she went into labor, and isn’t a very creative person. So Clam it is.

   

Lord Death called me, Marvin, Linda, and Deedee in for a mission, and now here we were, flying in a square formation, toward our certain death.

   

Yay!

   

Up ahead there was a cliff, and from what I could see, two people laying down in front of it.

   

Deedee said something I didn’t catch.

   

“What was that?” I asked, speeding my flying pace a little.

   

“She said that it looks like there are more dead meisters ahead,” Marvin spouted, grumpy as usual.

   

Lord Death spoke through a long distance communicator. “There are no more meisters out. Check on the bodies. Let me see what you find.”

   

“If we see ‘em, you will, buddy boy,” Linda huffed, tired from so much flying.

   

Eventually, we reached the two poor guys, hovering above them. One was a boy, pale, black hair with three stripes, some lame suit, and the other a girl, brunette, her skin just one shade darker than the boy, wearing what seemed to be a dress version of the boy’s suit.

   

“I don’t recognize them,” I muttered, “Do you guys?”

   

There was a series of no’s from the rest.

   

“What about you, Shinigami-san?” I asked, transforming into my human form, only keeping my wings so that I could hold the bodies and fly at the same time. Lord Death’s voice, in a shocked whisper, crackled through my ears.

   

“That’s Snow, our visitor from another dimension, and… and my son, Death the Kid.”

Snow

   

Everything was black, and I felt like I was trapped somewhere, just floating around. Suddenly, something broke through the obscurity, and I could see my room, unanimated, normal.

   

So that’s how I was supposed to get back to my dimension.

   

I had to die.

Lord Death

   

“Nygus?” I pushed, staring at her, “What’s their condition?”

   

The nurse took a bandaged hand, brushing a black dreadlock away from her mocha skin. She sighed, and, forlornly, I caught sight of a silver tear leaving her icy blue eye. I said her name again, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder.

   

Taking in a deep breath, she took one more glance back at the door that led to a small chamber, where the bodies, or, I wished with all my heart, the souls, of Snow and Kid were confined. “I’m afraid that we’ve lost Snow,” she began, wiping her eye with her sleeve, “Kid’s still alive, but his condition is critical. I need you to prepare a funeral for Snow. Get ahold of an undertaker. Try to preserve her as long as you can though. I want to try to get Kid to the funeral.”

   

I was overjoyed about my son’s safety; the fact that he survived such a fall was shocking, even with his shinigami body. But I’d noticed something about the girl when I saw her through the eyes of Clam. On her middle finger had been a ring, made to look just like my mask, with three bands keeping it safely wrapped around her finger. The same as the two rings Kid had on his own middle fingers.

   

Curious, I asked permission to see Kid. Nygus granted my wish, opening the door, revealing two pull-out beds, one occupied by Snow, pale, her skin sickly green, her hair spread out on her pillow, like a soft, coffee-brown halo. The other bed held Kid, who was on his side, barely appearing alive.

   

I looked around; the coast seemed clear, so I took off my mask, removing my cloak from my head. The hot hood had been stifling, but I’d grown used to it. Now that my mask was off, I was met by a wintry breeze, no matter how warm it might be in the room. My long ponytail flopped down onto my back, the connected lines of Sanzu wrapping through my black hair.

   

I leaned down next to Kid’s cot, all thoughts leaving me. This wasn’t just some meister, another warrior taken down in action. This was my son, my baby. His fall wasn’t predicted to be a mere trip, it was suspected to be attempted suicide.

   

Bowing my head upon his clasped hands, I allowed myself to cry, fiddling with his one ring, the other one obviously being worn by the girl I suspected to have been the one he loved.

Kid

   

I woke up to the sound of Dad crying.

   

“Why are you crying, you wuss,” I croaked, wiping my hand, which was covered in salty tears. I looked up at him, my gaze hazy, and saw him, no mask, no cloak, just Dad.

   

Woah.

   

Taken by surprise, I started, my eyes getting wide. I’ve only seen Dad without his mask a few times, either when he is totally alone, and feeling happy…er…or on accident.

   

I was about to make a comment about the lack of mask, when I saw something over my father’s shoulder.

   

There she lay, pale, sprawled out, and, from what I could see, passed out. At least I hoped she was passed out. I sat up, leaning toward her.

   

“Snow?” I asked, pushing past Dad, “Is she alright? What’s her condition?” I looked at Dad expectantly, waiting for a response. The room filled with sinister silence, and I heard my heartbeat in my ears.

   

It took me a minute, but, eventually, my spirit came to accept what the uncommunicativeness meant. Without warning, tears spilled down my cheeks, fat, hot, and silvery. I stared at the ground in disbelief, sobs racking my body, tears making my vision blurry.

   

I felt myself warm as a pair of tenderhearted arms wrapped around me. My father’s hushed whispers filled my ears as he stroked my back, trying to ease my pain. I sat up slowly, wiping salty tears from my eyes, and crawling my way to her side.

   

“Snow…”

Lord Death

   

If you’re reading this, then you’re probably not a parent. If you are, then you know how horrible it is to see your child unhappy. You know how heartbreaking it is.

   

To see Kid snap like this was… upsetting.

   

Usually my son is tough, he can get through the deaths of his comrades, can mourn quietly, but this, this had gotten to him.

   

“Kid,” I murmured, “You’re in no condition to be up. If you go crawling around like that, you’ll break even more bones. Come on. Kid, lie down before you hurt yourse-”

   

“Shut up!” he screamed, whipping around to face me with fiery maliciousness in his ocher eyes. “I don’t care! Go on and kill me will you?!”

   

“Stop that. You won’t die. Snow wouldn’t want you to, would she? Would she want you dead?”

   

Flashing me a look of bottled up confusion, pure anger; he crawled back over to his cot, allowing me to help him into the bed.

    

“We’ll have the funeral whenever you feel healthy enough to come.”

   

With that, I brought my hood back up and over my head, placing my mask back in front of my face, and left, closing the steel door behind me, my dear son’s solemn, muffled cries ringing in my ears.

Kid

   

Today was Snow’s viewing. The funeral would be later, in the evening.

   

I straightened my broach, making sure my father’s mask looked neat, miniature, and symmetrical on my collar. As I was looking in the mirror, I saw my ring flash in the overhead light. Only one now, on my left hand. Snow would still be wearing hers; she was to be buried in it, wearing a piece of me for eternity.

   

I could only think about how long she knew about my feelings for her. We’d been growing close the whole time we were at Fawn’s home, but still, we’d kissed, confessed our feelings and secrets, kissed again, then been attacked.

   

Talk about a long, healthy relationship.

   

Sighing in sadness, I headed out the door, Liz and Patty in step behind me, both wearing long, black dresses to suit the mood.

   

I told Liz and Patty to go on ahead into the funeral home, that I would come in later. I then wandered off a ways, finding myself in front of a lone cherry tree, its blossoms soft pink. The plucked one sakura* off of its branch, sniffing in its sweet fragrance.

   

A gentle breeze wafted the blossom away, making it dance into the bowels of Death City, fluttering into the distance. My leg was broken in my fall, the other saved by my shinigami body. I now had a pair of crutches hitched up under my arms, supporting me as I hobbled back to the funeral home, stopping in front on the door, wondering to myself if I had the guts to go in.

   

Eventually, I would have to, wouldn’t I?

Maka

   

I stood over Snow’s casket, holding back tears. She looked peaceful, caught in time. There were white roses braided into her brunette hair, the unbraided strands crimped and spread out around her like a chocolate corona. She was in a dress that looked like it was supposed to be inspired by Kid’s getup.

    

Where was Kid anyway? He had to come. From what I’d heard, Snow’s death hit him hard, that he’d cared for her.

   

I’d only offended her and helped Soul and Kid corner her.

   

Maka Albarn: meister of the year!

*sakura: Japanese for cherry blossom

   

The room went from dark and gloomy, to filled with caramel sunlight. The door opened to reveal the silhouette of Kid, standing tall and proud, yet reinforced by crutches. He loped in, hopping on one foot, lifting the banged one a foot above the ground.

   

He came to stand beside me, his moistened eyes falling upon her, his face becoming soft. I placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, muttering my apologies to him. He looked like he was about to cry, but he stayed strong, though I predicted that the time to cry had come earlier, in private.

   

He closed his eyes, turning away, and walked back to the door, standing next to it. He did this for a while, only moving to go sit in-between Soul and BlackStar on the front row.

Soul

   

This is so not cool.

   

I mean, I viewing for a girl I barely know?!

   

On top of that, everyone’s talking about how she committed suicide, and was a wackjob. Kid’s about to burst into tears, and sooner or later, I know he’s going to hear the whispers.

   

We don’t want that to happen, do we?

   

No.

   

Eventually the thing began to draw to a close, and Kid’s sob fest was about to be over. Meisters began to file out the door, but one girl, someone I’d seen around school, looked at her companion, talking in anything but a whisper.

   

“I heard that the girl was insane and killed herself. I know it’s not uncommon for suicide, but honestly, why jump off a cliff?”

   

Kid’s head snapped toward her, his golden eyes fierce.

   

“What did you just say?”

   

Silence hit me like a cannonball; I was sure I could hear a cricket chirp. The girl’s eyes widened and she took a step back in alarm.

   

“I’m sorr-”

   

Kid lurched forward, drawing his hand back in an act that seemed as if he were going to punch her, but, in only a few seconds, his face turned a pasty white, and he nearly collapsed. If BlackStar and I hadn’t caught him, he would have fallen face first to the ground.

   

“Hey, hey, calm down,” I said, helping him up a little bit more, “You’ll hurt yourself even more if you go throwing yourself around like that.”

   

“But she-”

   

“She was wrong and needs to learn how to whisper, yeah, yeah, we get it.”

   

We left the viewing, Kid angry, BlackStar going on about food, and me just wanting to get home so that I could practice a new song I’d been working on.

Kid

   

How dare she?

   

That girl, whoever she was, had insulted…

   

Growl.

   

I walked home from the viewing with BlackStar and Soul; they stayed with me the whole way home, like good friends. Neither of them knew why I cared so much about Snow. Knowing BlackStar he would ask at any moment.

   

“So…Kid…What was it about that girl that gets ‘ya goin’?” BlackStar burst, making me feel like a genius.

   

“The guy spent weeks locked up in a room with her, facing death every day. You can’t say they hated each other the whole time; they had to have developed some sort of friendship,” Soul said, his accent strong as ever.

   

“She was intriguing. Her dimension, her personality, even the music she listened to. I’d never heard it before… She was different, and before I knew it… I…” I trailed off, thinking about how interesting the ground seemed at the moment.

   

“They say you can tell what kind a person someone is by listening to the music they like,” Soul whispered, being kind and not prying me about my feelings, “What kinds did she listen to?”

   

“Some heavy metal, screamo type; some soft, lullaby kind; some songs that it would take a hard thinker to understand; some techno; some country; some funny; some meaningful; some in other languages; it was a large mix of things.”

   

“Ah,” my white haired friend sighed, “she’s one of those people.

   

“You see, the people with a variety inside themselves look for meaning, not style. If the thing has a message that pleases the listener, then they accept the song. Also, they are open for anything that is soothing to the ear.”

   

“Okay, then…”

   

“Hey Kid.” BlackStar exclaimed, putting his hands behind his blue head, “Why didn’t ’ya tell us that you had a girlfriend?”

Fawn

   

“Krome?”

   

“Yes, M’Lady?”

   

“Where’s our subject?”

   

“Currently at his home in the City.”

    

“How is he feeling? Have you spoken with him?”

    

“Sad… distressed… I haven’t asked him yet, but-”

   

“Krome!”

   

“Y-Yes, M’Lady?!”

   

“Tell him now!”

   

“Yes… Yes Lady Fawn. I will…now…like, right no-”

   

“GO!”

Snow

   

This is getting boring. I mean, gosh, how long does it take just to get back? This hole, portal, whatever, is taking its sweet time to let me back in my room.

   

I’m about to start screaming.

   

About potatoes.

   

Symmetrical potatoes.

   

Awe, yeah.

   

Okay. So this slow process has let me think.

   

How’s Kid doing? Is this some realistic dream, because I thought I was done with thinking that. If there was a wall next to me, I’d beat my head against it in downright frustration.

   

Symmetrical frustration.

   

All I have to do is think, pray, and, I admit, hold conversations with yours truly.

   

You start doing that kind of stuff when you’re stuck in a perpetual portal of blackness.

   

It’s kind of peaceful, you know, being bored to death.

   

Again.

   

And stuff.

   

Maybe if I beat my head against my hand, I can make it seem like it’s a wall.

   

Nope, it’s just a hand.

   

So back to all that interesting stuff that you guys actually care about.

   

Symmetrically.

Kid

   

If you were in your room, mourning the loss of a loved one, how would you react if you saw the face of a man peering into your window?

   

Your second story window?!

   

If you’re like me, you force your friends into turning into lethal weapons and shoot the guy twenty times.

   

To be honest, it was really fun.

   

We went downstairs and found him sprawled out in the street. He was Fawn’s henchman; I remember seeing glimpses of him while Snow and I were at the house.

   

“What’s your name?” I persisted, holding Patty up to his head threateningly.

   

“Oooowwwwwww!”

   

“I said, what’s your name?”

   

“Oooowwwwooowww!”

   

I pulled the trigger.

   

“Holy tacos!” he shouted. Replace tacos with the colorful word of your choice if you want to know what he really said. “Krome! I’m Krome! Now stop!”

    

I hastily grabbed a handful of his onyx hair, slamming his head against the wall of my house. I leaned forward, my eyes looking straight into his laser blue ones, which were so bright that I had to blink a few times to get used to their unnatural, ultramodern color. I pulled Liz out of her holster, placing her on one side of Krome’s head, and Patty still pressed against the other.

   

“Okay, Krome, tell me why you were stalking me?!”

Krome

  

Well, great.

   

I’m supposed to be getting all friendly with the boy. You know, the old, ‘Hi, I’m Krome, I helped kill your girlfriend, wanna go get some ice cream?’ deal.

   

Maybe I can start over.

   

I stuck my pointer finger right between his eyes. “Look, son, I’m here to tell you something I think you’ll want to hear.” He raised his eyebrows, focused on my words now. “We have obtained information that might just be able to bring someone that is dead back to life. There are a few quirks, but all in all we’re sure that if we had enough time, and enough cooperation, then your girl just might be the one we do bring back.”

   

His breath seemed to catch in his throat, and his caramel-colored eyes widened in shock. A single bead of sweat slid down his cheek, like some sort of tear, lost from its path. The boy began to unconsciously shake his head, muttering under his breath. He let go of my hair, where I slid down the wall of his manor and to the street’s unforgivingly cold pavement. He took a few steps back, and lost his balance, falling on his bum in the middle of the street.

   

“You lie,” he whispered, his voice hoarse, as if he were having a hard time believing himself. Like he didn’t want to believe himself. “You’re the ones who killed her in the first pla-”

   

“We’re not murderers, we preform experiments. That was one. This is one. We have no intention of lying,” he said, lying about not lying.

   

“Give me some time.”

   

I handed him a piece of paper, my cell number scribbled on the front. “Ring whenever you wanna go through with it. Time is limited. Her trip will be short. You only have a small amount of time until her journey is finished.” With that, I left him, still sprawled out in front of his own house.

Kid

   

The day of Snow’s burial had finally arrived, sneaking up like a sickeningly dreadful cat upon a confused, sad mouse. She was to be buried in a local cemetery, one with no name, and no life. Every blade of grass was dry and gray, the trees either black as a raven’s heart or as white as its creaky old bones, with no leaves whatsoever. All the existing gravestones were covered in a thick moss, and so old and forgotten that no names remained etched into the weary stone. Thorns grew everywhere, and the only sources of sound were the cawing of crows, the eerie moaning of the surrounding, dead forest, and the trickling, melancholy stream, filled with ashen water, that, when touched, was so freezing cold, that even it seemed lifeless.

   

I was dressed in my everyday attire, which was suited for the event even without my trying. I held a long, crimson hooded cloak in my left hand, with only a bouquet of dry, black roses in the other. The sight was miserable. A scraggly group of misfits surrounding the coffin of a girl they didn’t or barely knew. She sat over her grave, a mound of red roses on her wooden coffin. No words had been said. No words would be said. No tears had been shed. No tears would be shed.

   

Just as I was about to step forward to offer my deceased flowers, a large raven flew in from nowhere, screeching on the top of its lungs. It landed on her coffin, tearing and ripping at the roses, slashing at the delicate pedals, until all that was left were the broken stems and the torn remains of red.

   

“Just like her,” I whispered, causing everyone’s looks to be cast toward me in shock, “Torn. Dead. Gone. They’re even the right color. Red. Like bloodshed. The only other suitable color would be black,” I muttered, mostly to myself, holding my depressingly lifeless roses aloft, where they crumbled into dust beneath my touch, “And even it’s gone, huh?”

   

My dad came to stand in front of me. Who knows when he got here. Who cares. “Have you slept lately, son? You’re not looking well,” he said, touching the bags beneath my eyes.

   

“I don’t need sleep, I’m a shinigami.”

   

“Are you okay then?”

   

“Of course.”

   

“Prove it. I want you to show me that you are okay.”

   

“Can we focus on Snow?”

   

“She’d want you to-”

   

“Open the casket.”

   

Silence was immediate. Even the stream stopped its gurgling. The undertaker appeared out of nowhere, cracking the tomb open, summoning me forth. Reaching into the coffin, I took Snow’s right arm from the box, holding it up for everyone to see. I then plucked the ring from her finger, returned her arm to its original spot, closed the lid, and, abruptly, turned tail on the funeral, putting the red cloak on over my suit, holding my own right arm to the sky, and placing the ring on my middle finger as I left. When I reached the gates of the cemetery, I summoned Beelzebub and got the heck out of there.

Liz

   

In unison, everyone started murmuring to one another. Patty and I were the only silent ones. We knew why he did what he did. We were the only ones who knew where he was going. We glanced at each other, and I saw Patty in a way I rarely saw her.

   

Completely serious.

   

I raised my hand in the air, snapping my fingers to gather everyone’s attention. “I can’t believe he’s doing it, but we know what’s up,” I said, my voice harsh. I turned to Patty, letting her explain.

   

My sister sat down on an old mossy rock, most likely ruining the skirt of her dress, and looked at the crowd with those, huge, blue eyes of hers. “Kid’s gone off with Fawn.” If Kid hadn’t already caused a whole bunch of talking, then he just did. Lord Death pushed through the bubbling crowd, small, but dense. He came to stand in between Maka and Tsubaki, who were talking vigorously with their partners.

   

“Why would he do that?!” Shinigami-sama demanded, obviously afraid for his only child.

   

“Krome, one of Fawn’s henchmen, visited us the other night. He told Kid that they’d discovered a way to bring people back to the dead, and offered to use Snow as their first trial. Kid most likely believes that they’ll succeed, because it looked like he was taking the ring to give to her,” Patty whispered, fiddling with her skirt, “But oh well, I hope he does get her back! After all they were in love.”

   

“Well don’t hope any more, Patricia!” Lord Death burst, his voice becoming its original tone, deep, frightening, “If Kid helps in defying the laws of living, it’s most likely that his soul will be turned from its ways!”

   

“Oh.”

   

“Maka!” he shouted, turning to her.

   

“Yes, sir?” she asked, startling.

   

“Do you have your cell phone with you?” Maka nodded. “Is your father’s number on it?” Maka nodded again, pulling her phone from her pocket, hitting a few buttons, and passing it to Death. He ripped off his mask, revealing his face, a mystery to every living soul in Death City, to the whole group.

   

He was…kind of…hot.

   

He was almost like an older version of Kid, with stubble, the stripes going all the way around his head, and a long, neat ponytail. Not that I think Kid is hot. I don’t. I think someone else from our group is. Never mind.

   

He stuck the phone to his ear, gripping it hard.

   

“Spirit Death Scythe? Is that you? Good! Tell Clam, Deedee, Marvin, and Linda to go to the desert. From there on they are to track and to follow Kid. Yes. I’m coming now,” he barked, racing off toward the DWMA.

Clam

   

It’s me again, guys! We’d gotten orders from the big guy to chase after his runt, so we took off. It didn’t take us long to find him, seeing as he was the only guy in his right mind to want to travel alone through the desert with no food, water, changes of clothes, and companions. We had to bring extra stuff with us to give to him before he…you know…died.

   

We were currently following a few feet behind him, and were unsure if he’d spotted us. We’d been silent, but if he’d seen us, though we were transformed into dragonflies, it might set something off, since we’re made from metal, and dragonflies don’t live in this climate.

   

“INCOMING MESSAGE FROM DEATH WEAPON MEISTER ACADEMY! INCOMING MESSAGE FROM DEATH WEAPON MEISTER ADADEMY!”

   

“Linda, turn off your speakers you idiot!”

   

“It’s not gonna help if you keep shouting, genius!

   

“Why I outta…”

   

I nearly exploded. “Marvin! Linda! Shut the flop up, we’ll be heard a mile away!”

   

Kid stopped Beelzebub, turning around to face us. His eyes were cold, his face set. “Activate the message. Now.” We continued to fly in place, not sure of what to do. Eventually, Linda started the radio.

   

Lord Death’s voice blared from her speakers. “Kid!”

  

“What do you want?” the boy asked, his hands clenching into frustrated fists. Almost comically, his skateboard disappeared from beneath him, and he toppled to the ground.

   

“You’re grounded from Beelzebub until you come back. Bringing the dead back to life isn’t impossible, no, but it has great consequences that could ruin those that interfere with the binds of destiny. Don’t do what you plan to.”

   

“I’m not coming back until she can come back with me,” he whispered, his voice cracking. “I don’t care if it kills me. If it sends my soul to hell forever, I’ll save her.”

   

And with that, the boy got to his feet, turned toward the eternal sand, and left, dragging his feet behind him.

Kid

   

It’s been three days since I left Death City. I can see Fawn’s tower, in the distance, but it’s so…tiny. It’s merely a little speck, out there, mocking me. I’m sweating like a pig, and have no water, no food, and this cloak may protect me from sand, but it’s awfully hot.

   

Night came quickly, and I set up camp. “Setting up camp” is pretty much another way of saying I lied down in the sand and used my cloak as a blanket. I attempted to sleep, closing my eyes immediately, making sure not to look at the sky. The sky was to pretty to be looked at.

   

I was almost asleep when I heard a voice. “Psst. Kid.”

   

I cracked open one eye, finding myself face to face with Clam, the most irritating of my stalkers.

   

“Go away. All of you.” I waved my arm around, closing my eyes again. “Turn into your little, creepy, mosquito selves and get the heck out of my life.”

   

It took about five minutes after getting rid of them to get back to where I was: almost asleep. Just as I reached that stage, I heard that same, stupid voice.

   

“Psst! Kid!”

   

I sat up quickly, grabbing my aching head and sighing. “What is it, you idiot?!”

   

“We’re not mosquitos, we’re dragonflies,” he whispered, simply but annoyingly.

   

I turned on my side, closing my eyes again. “That’s great. Now please shut up.”

   

“Do you want some food? Water?” he taunted, scooting closer to me. “A change of clothes? Would you like to listen to some music? How about smooth jazz? Yeah. We’ve got tons of smooth jazz.”

   

“No, I’m not hungry,” I lied, just as my stomach growled, “I have plenty of water, and no, my clothes are fine.”

   

He giggled, and I heard a saxophone start to play. “You didn’t deny the jazz.”

   

I leaped to my feet, throwing my cloak on the ground, and ripping off my suit jacket. I had on an undershirt, but it was thin and white, so no heat would be absorbed. I looked at the moon, and it smiled down upon me, mad and lingering in every sky in our cursed dimension.

   

I set off, ignoring them.

   

The sun came out quickly, as it always did in the deserts of Nevada. I was already sweating my bum off by what felt like eleven, and was completely exhausted by noon.

   

I slowed, panting and wiping sweat from my brow. I glanced backward, the effort a hard one, and saw a total of four mechanical bugs following me. I was about to tell them off, when blots clouded my vision, and I felt myself falling face first toward the sandy ground.

Clam

   

The boy began to fall forward. Together, all four members of our team threw out wiry ropes that came from chambers in our stomachs. They wrapped around his wrists, two ropes on each side of him, holding him up. His weight dragged him down though, so we had to try harder.

   

“Everyone, fly upward!” I commanded, turning to the sky and using all my force to keep him aloft.

Kid

   

Just before I hit the ground, I felt something wrap around my arms, and my falling stopped. I heard Clam say something from above, and I was lifted a little higher. I stayed there for a few seconds, then the attachments on my wrists were released, and I hit dirt softly.

   

I flopped onto my back, closing my eyes, and breathed hard, getting rest. I was about to sit up, and even started to, when I got a nauseous feeling, and lost conscienceness completely.

   

When I woke, I found the face of a kind girl staring down at me. She had light brown hair, which was drawn back in a messy bun, and soft eyes, the same color as smoke. When my eyes opened, a relieved smile lit up her face, and she turned toward her bag, pulled out a bottle, and helped me to sit up.

   

“Here, drink this,” she said nicely, handing me the bottle of fresh water, which I drank slowly. As I sipped at the water, she began to speak.

   

“You were overheated and dehydrated. Not only that, you could really use some food. There’s nothing wrong with your skin, because shinigami skin doesn’t get problems, now doesn’t it? And, last of all, you really needed to get some shade, shinigami skin or not. My name is Deedee, by the way, use it if you need me.”

   

I found it night again, the stars shining down upon me. Every time I moved, it ached, and every time I breathed, I felt like my lungs were burning.

   

A different girl, with bright pink, wildly spiky hair and laser green eyes, who I suspected to be Linda, kneeled down beside me. “Would you like to speak with your father?” she said, her voice rough, like that of a smoker.

   

“No. He’ll just try to convince me not to do what I’m doing,” I muttered, hugging my knees to my chest.

   

“He’s trying to do that because it’s the best thing he can do. What you’re doing is stupid.”

   

I rolled my eyes, looking away from her. She continued to speak words I didn’t hear, but was cut off, stopped talking all of the sudden.

   

I turned toward her, my eyes falling upon her face, blank, pale, her eyes, a lighter shade of green, milky, unseeing. I called her name, leaning closer, when I noticed that blood was beginning to bubble around her neck in a line. In an instant, her neon pink head rolled forward and into my lap.

   

I froze, staring at it, unable to comprehend anything that just happened, my mind blank. I managed to look up, watching as Krome appeared, and stabbed Marvin through the stomach with his arm, which was transformed into a sword. He pinched Deedee in a few pressure points with his other hand, and she too fell to the ground, dead. He turned to Clam, who had been playing the saxophone again, and smiled.

   

“You play well. Yours will be painless.” He then drew a pistol from a holster on his belt and shot the man right between the eyes; he then fell to the ground, his empty face staring at me even after death.

   

I hadn’t moved the whole time; I was still taking everything in. Before I could let it sink in, Krome was behind me, tying my hands behind my back. I got to my knees, struggling with the binds and cursing to myself. I turned my head to look at him, snarling.

   

“Why would you do this?!” I shouted, “I thought you wanted me to come!”

   

“I did. But they didn’t. Plus, we’ll need to keep the brunette girl’s body. We’ll use it as Snow’s new one.” He took something from his back pocket that looked like a gas mask. With my resistance, he managed to force it on me.

   

I took one breath of the stuff, accidentally of course, and found myself coughing, falling forward into the sand. I fought for breath, and when I regained it, it was bitter and fake. My face still in the sand, I just lay there, breathing, resting.

Lord Death

   

So this guy was who had been killing my meisters. Though my four dear weapons were sadly killed, I could still see through Clam’s eyes, for he had fallen in a way that was perfectly set on Kid and his surroundings.

   

The Kishin had put some sort of gasmask on Kid, and now he was face first in the sand, breathing hard. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. His back was heaving up and down, and I could tell it was hurting him.

   

Suddenly, it seemed that he wasn’t breathing.

   

The man laughed hysterically, coming back into view with Deedee’s body. “It won’t work,” he teased, throwing Deedee to the ground, smiling wickedly down at my son. Kid turned on his side, gagging and tearing the binds on his hands, gripping at his own neck, his eyes wide, in pain. He began to retch, squeezing his neck even tighter and sitting up once again.

   

He reached up, about to take off he mask, when the Kishin spoke once again. “I wouldn’t do that either. If you take off that mask, your soul will transform into a Kishin egg.”

   

I lurched forward, speaking aloud, though no one was in the Death Room with me. “What?!”

   

“That’s right, lover boy, every time you breathe while wearing that mask, more and more fumes enter your body; those fumes are human souls in a gas form, and boy, you’ve inhaled just enough that you’ll become a Kishin if you take it off.”

   

Kid ripped off the mask, gasping for air. My son gave a distressed smile. “Better a Kishin egg than a full-fledged Kishin.”

   

“And how do you expect to get back to normal?”

   

“If we do bring Snow back to life, she’ll make sure I regain my senses.”

   

My son then began to fume, laughing maniacally, his appearance changing slightly, in an indescribable way that made him appear dangerous. Using my powers, just like the ones Maka and Stein have, I looked at his soul, and watched in despair as it was slowly turned into a Kishin egg.

   

Kid smiled, his eyes wide and maddened, and chuckled. He walked toward my screen, toward Clam’s corpse, and leaned down, until he was looking into his eyes. His wide-eyed look turned into a glare, but his smile never left.

   

Suddenly, a word came from Clam’s lips. “I’m still alive Kid,” he croaked, making my heart soar.

   

Good, a survivor, I thought, tired and depressed from the deaths of so many of my men. Kid came even closer to him, shocked.

   

“But he shot you between the eyes!” Kid exclaimed, his smirk turning into a grimace.

Kid

   

Clam smiled, his mouth overflowing with unexpected blood. “Just before he shot, I turned part of my forehead into metal to deflect the bullet.” He started to sit up when I reached forward, suspecting that my father was watching the whole show from the Death Room, and caressed Clam’s face, seething with laughter.

   

“Dad,” I whispered, grinning, “It’s not good to eavesdrop,” I paused, allowing my face of pleasure to turn into that of a disappointed parent, “Someone will have to be punished for what you did, don’t you think?”

   

My father’s voice rang from Clam’s radio. “What do you mean by that?”

   

I moved my hand to Clam’s eyes, feeling around them. “Oh, we’ll see.” Clam’s eyes widened, and his breath seemed to catch in his throat. I then reached deep down into his eye’s socket, ripping it free from his face. The weapon screamed, rolling onto his side, holding his face.

   

“Kid stop this!” my father yelled, “I know you became a Kishin, but you can fight the urge to kill. You’re stronger than this.”

   

I rolled my eyes, squishing Clam’s in my palm, his blood squirting all over my face. “Fine, I won’t hurt his eyes any more, mostly because I want you to see me walk away from you, not giving a snap.”

   

I walked back to Krome, taking his pistol, and shot Clam eight times, right in the chest, and checked his pulse, finding him dead. Before his body disappeared, I ripped out his other eye, lying it down so that Father could see what I did next. Clam’s body bust into what looked like black ribbons, and his soul appeared, glowing and blue. I took it in my hand, and, as I walked away, in step behind Krome, who still had Deedee’s body thrown over his shoulder, I took a bite from the fleshy soul, smirking at my father, leaving him to watch as his only son left for good, torn by a lost love.

   

We reached Fawn’s tower shortly. Krome handed Deedee’s body to the witch, nodding. She smiled at me, sitting down on a throne of vines and wildlife. Her antlers were decorated with strands of gold leaves, and her tail had been dressed with bands of jewels and gold. She was wearing a green dress, made of silk, with adornments of birds and flowers sewn upon it.

   

She took a drink of what looked like a glass of green tea. She began to purr, looking at me with satisfaction. “There are some things I need to explain to you, now that you’ve joined us,” she soothed, her tail curling and uncurling behind her, its bracelets gleaming in the light of the candles. “When we bring Snow back, her face will look the same; all the important traits will be there. But this woman is shorter than her, and her hair is much longer,” she said, gesturing toward Deedee’s long brown hair, “so those things will perhaps remain.”

   

“You are the lowest in our ranks. That means you will take orders from me, Krome, and Skylark.” The queen of nature motioned to a thin woman who stood behind her. She had sky blue hair, short, that barely went past her ears, and deep blue eyes, fierce. On her back was a pair of forged wings, white, soft, feathered. She wore a short, ballerina-style dress, sea blue, with a tutu and a fitted top. She had the soul of a witch, but I noticed that, like Fawn’s, hers was forced to be that way, unnaturally.

   

I recognized her suddenly. “Why you’re Lily!” I excalimed, gasping. She nodded, leaving the room with no words.

   

“Now!” Fawn burst, “We’ll start the procedure!”

   

She laid Deedee’s body on a table, running wires into her arms, head, and chest. She had me sit down in a chair next to her, then ran a tube into my arm. She turned on a few machines, then started barking orders to Krome, who ran around, getting random items and flipping switches.

   

“Kid,” she said, “I need you to place you r hands on the sacrifice’s heart. Then I need you to focus all of your energy on her life. Try to reach her soul, and convince it to return to us. Our tech will support all that you do. If she wants to, then you can get her back. Now go!”

   

I pressed my hands against Deedee’s heart; it was cold against my fingers. I closed my eyes, and thought of Snow, willing her to come back.

Snow

   

YES!

   

After all of this time, I finally get to see the majority of my room. It will be mere seconds until I’m back home!

   

The hole started to close.

   

Screaming, I reached toward it with no luck of stopping it. Just as I was about to get home, after all this time, the thing starts to close. I started to sing nervously, and when I did, the portal started to close even faster.

   

I changed my song to a more convincing one.

Don’t Close Mr. Hole, by Snow Tod (Hannah Stanley) (to the tune of If You’re Happy and You Know It)

Don’t close Mr. Hole, don’t close!

Clap, clap!

Don’t close Mr. Hole, don’t close!

Clap, clap!

Don’t close Mr. Hole,

Don’t close Mr. Hole,

Don’t close Mr. Hole, don’t close!

Clap, clap!

   

The portal started to open again, and to my satisfaction, I was soon on my way home.

Kid

   

I felt my concentration waver, as if Snow had come up sort of clever spell or chant to counter my attempts to bring her back. I tried to push even harder, to force her home, when I suddenly got an idea. Maybe if I directed some of my thoughts to her, and told her what was happening, then she would come back. I squeezed my eyes shut even harder, thinking, hoping, and yearning.

Snow

   

I started to scream my song on the top of my lungs, making the hole open faster than ever before, making my spirits rise, when suddenly, I got some sort of warm fuzzy feeling inside of me.

   

A voice filled my mind. Snow, it said softly, don’t fight it. I’m trying to get you home. Please, allow me to do this!

   

The voice belonged to Kid! I stopped singing, sitting back, watching as the portal to my dimension closed once more, and I found myself surrounded by blackness.

   

“Snow?” I heard a voice call out to me through the darkness. “Snow, wake up.” It was a smooth, nice voice. So smooth that it made you want to reach out and touch it. It was a male voice, not exactly high, not exactly deep, with a slight British accent. I love British accents.

   

I cracked open my eyes, greeted with bright light. All around me there was technology, gadgets, tubes that ran into me, and people. There was a lady with weird horns and a fox tail, one that seemed to be obsessed with the color blue, a man with white-ish, pale skin, black hair, blue eyes, that wore only red and black rags, and a boy, in a suit, with eyes the color of a sunset, who had hair like silken onyx, and three snow white stripes racing through it, going only halfway around his perfect head.

   

Kid.

   

But there was something different about my love. Something strange. Odd. Unnatural. Dark. I sat up, tearing the tubes from my skin, and stood, looking down at myself.

   

Everything seemed to be okay. “Where’s the bathroom?” I asked, needing to splash some water on my face. Blue woman pointed to the hallway and mumbled directions. I’m pretty sure I had been dead, don’t get me wrong, but I remember jumping…landing…dying. In the mix somewhere there had been a ring, something about love…Kid’s face…and…

   

All the symmetrical things.

   

I stumbled into the bathroom, which was clean and had pretty decorative vines everywhere. I walked over to the sink, splashing chilly water on my face sighing. Looking up, I checked my appearance in the mirror.

   

My face was the same, I had the same, big eyes, same nose, same mouth, same happy-go-lucky look upon it, but on my cheeks, almost like Naruto, there were little lines that began on my face and stopped when they reached the edge. Like whiskers. There were only two, and they were shorter, but I’d never had them before. Also, my hair was way long. It went past my knees, and was wavy, and, wait for it, controllable. On top of that, I had Edward Elric bangs, the little piece of hair that stuck up in the center of them was even there!

   

And I seemed…shorter…in a way.

   

I had a new body.

   

I had died, hadn’t I?

   

I’d been brought to life in someone else’s corpse.

   

I started to sweat, running back into the room where Kid was and stared at him. Hard. There was a pull in my chest, and it seemed that everything in the room became black and white. The only colored objects were a total of four glowing orbs.

   

Souls.

   

Fawn. The one with horns was Fawn. I remembered. She had a strange looking witch soul. Lily. The blue one was Lily, but now, her soul was that of a witch’s too. The pale guy, Krome, I think, had a Kishin soul.

   

Slowly, my eyes found Kid again. I expected to find a shinigami soul, good, whole-hearted, sweet, but what I found was Kishin. What I found was evil. I began to scream, blinking until everything went back to normal; I kicked and flailed until Fawn and Lily drug me from the tower, and threw me on the ground.

   

“It’s awfully hot out here in the desert,” Fawn teased, “Snow, is it? I think you’d like something different, hmm?” She snapped her fingers, and it began to snow. That snow turned into a storm, which turned into a blizzard. A blizzard in the deserts of Nevada.

   

She laughed, “Everything is going as planned!” With that, the witch stomped off, back into her tower, probably to eat a squirrel and toy with more souls.

   

I sat there for a while, in the snow, freezing my but off, not caring. The whole time I had my back to the building, staring out at the used-to-be desert, at what now looked like Alaska.

   

An animated Alaska.

   

I startled when I hand was lain on my shoulder, and looked back to find Kid. He had his hand reached out toward me, like I was supposed to take something from him. I looked in his palm, finding a ring, one of his, sitting in it. “Take this,” he said, “You’re not safe here. Take this and go.”

   

I took the ring, placing it on my middle right finger, and turned away from the Kishin-shinigami, turning away from Death City’s threat, and ran, ran faster than I ever had, to the DWMA, to Lord Death, to Maka, to Soul, to Liz, to Patty, to BlackStar, to Tsubaki, to Spirit, to Stein, to Sid, to help. For Kid.

6 Months Later

Stein

   

I smiled down at the panting girl in front of me. In the past few months Snow had been training long and hard at becoming a meister, and boy, had she. Every day she would practice for hours with many different weapons and techniques. She had already become a three star meister, the same level as yours truly. Six months. It normally took years to reach as far as she had. But willpower and love had led her this far, and I couldn’t have asked for a better student.

   

She’d teamed up with a simple young weapon, a sword by the name of Yuu. She and Yuu met one day while training, and were close friends. Now they had every style, swing, throw, kick, punch, and resonance down; they had astonished every being in the city.

   

Speaking of the city, it’s been under attack ever since Snow’s awakening. Fawn has sent Kishin after Kishin to kill any living soul they see. Meisters have been working nonstop, and the disasters have been going on at such a magnitude that there was soon to be a full-out war between Fawn and the DWMA.

   

Sighing in worry, I bowed to Snow. “That will be all for today,” I said, allowing Yuu to transform back to her normal self, and Snow to fall over on the ground in a sweaty, breathless pile.

   

Yuu landed beside her, her long, bright yellow hair fanning out around her. She had sweet, brown eyes, and a playful face that seemed to never stop smiling.

   

I left the girls, going off to see Lord Death.

Snow

   

I pulled out my Bingo Book. Every meister had one now, so that we could remember just who was with Fawn. Every single one said that, if we were to see one of them, to kill every one. All but one. The very last page had a picture of Kid, smiling into the camera, with Liz and Patty on either side of him. Next to his name were the words ‘Capture. Do not injure.’

   

We still hadn’t given up on him. I whapped my forehead with the paperback book, groaning, and looked at Yuu.

   

Her chocolaty eyes smiled at me, and she poked my stomach. “Yes, grumpy? What’s wrong?”

   

I put the book up, standing, and looked out at what used to be a sandy desert. It was now covered in a thick layer of snow, one that never melted, one that always stayed, no matter what the season, no matter if it was a desert.

   

“Yuu,” I whispered, “Something doesn’t feel right.” I ripped off my jacket, melting from practice. “Weapon form, now.”

   

In a flash of light, I found myself holding a long, bronze sword, the blade inscribed with fire-breathing dragons and fierce Griffiths. I jumped into the streets, running as fast as I could, my arms fanned out behind me so I could go even faster.

   

To my left I heard a scream. Turning at the speed of lightning, I found myself face-to-face with a woman, who was smiling at me with a mouth full of fangs. She felt like a Kishin, acted like a Kishin, and was holding a human soul.

   

I was too late.

   

I jumped through the air, did a twist, and landed behind her. I raised my sword to the sky, slicing her directly in half. She burst into blood and seething black ribbons of carcass, her soul sitting in the center, ready for Yuu’s taking. Yuu reached out from her blade, swallowing the soul whole.

   

I felt another presence with us.

   

“Yuu, above us!” She turned completely, and I readied myself, looking up at the figure that stood on the roof of a nearby clothing store. It was a teenage boy, my age, wearing a gothic suit, with hair…

   

…like…silken…onyx…and stripes. Three stripes. Three stripes that ran halfway through his hair…that silken hair…and eyes, maddened, that stared down at me, golden like a million suns. His voice rang through the air, so real that it seemed like I could touch it.

   

“Is see,” he purred in almost a whisper, “that you’ve become a meister.”

   

“Three star,” I managed, my voice cracking, “And I see that you’ve become…something more than Kishin.”

   

He smirked, throwing a knife, which hit the wall next to me, so close to hitting my face that it left a cold, stinging feeling on my cheek. Then, in a blur, he was gone, vanished.

   

My breath started coming out hard, I began to sweat. Turning to my left, I dislodged the knife from the wooden wall, finding a note stuck through its blade, and unfolded it, finding his neat handwriting upon it.

DWMA,

I am to write this letter for my lady Fawn, her exact words are to be written from her on out.

I am utterly overjoyed to proclaim war upon every meister in the vicinity of Death City. You see, when I first started “bugging” you, so to say, I was merely looking for specimen to preform my small experiments on. But, sadly, you went too far when you began sending meisters after me. So when I tried to be nice and make peace with you by giving your dear Snow back to you, all I received was more hostility. It’s not my fault that your dear Kid joined me! Yet, for my own safety, I sent for my Kishin friend to vanquish you. They didn’t seem to have any effect on the situation, so, that, my dear Lord Death, it why the thought of finally putting this feud to rest in a battle is so pleasing.

Your Friendly Rival,

Fawn of Nature

   

I growled to myself, falling to my knees and punching the ground. Yuu was next to me in seconds, taking the letter from my hands and hugging me, whispering calming words into my ear. Not realizing why, I burst into tears, and we sat there, embracing like true friends, until my tears were no more.

Lord Death

   

I stared solemnly down at the small letter in my hand. Snow had delivered it to me this morning, dressed in pajamas, looking distressed.

   

“Was this given to you by a Kishin?” I asked, looking at the bedraggled mess of a girl in front of me. She didn’t move, just stared at the ground, looking miserable and small. I came closer to her. “Snow? Did you hear me? Who delivered the letter?”

   

She lifted her head, silver tears streaming from her eyes, and ran forward, hugging me tightly, and began to sob into my cloak. She said something, but it was like another language with all of her crying.

   

I hugged her back, whispering sadly into her ear. “I understand now.”

   

Reaching up, I took off my mask. “You just wait, Snow. Even if there has to be a war, justice will prevail. It always does.” I pulled her away from me, so I could look her in the eyes, and smiled. “He’ll come back to us. You just wait.”

   

I reached around her neck, which she had a ribbon tied around, and took the string. I lifted her hair to the top of her hair, and like Tsubaki’s, made her have a high ponytail. Her long, wavy, chocolate brown hair fanned out behind her, long, thick, and pretty. She smiled, brushing her bangs back from her eyes and turned to leave.

   

“Snow,” I said before she left, “There is to be a battle. I’ll tell all the other meisters and weapons to get ready. You’ll join them. Get your clothes on, and round up Yuu. We’ll meet by the city’s exit.” She nodded, and ran, her long ponytail flying out behind her.

Snow

   

I dressed in my favorite shirt, a white one, with no left sleeve, and an extremely long, fluttery right one. I pulled on my gray miniskirt, met Yuu at our front door, and headed out to war.

   

When we reached Death City’s exit, there were about one hundred meisters waiting there, all holding weapons. Yuu transformed into a sword before all of them, dramatic as always. With Lord Death’s loud battle cry, we headed out, into the arctic desert.

    

We met Fawn’s warriors in what felt like hours. She had about the same about, all Kishin, all fierce. She, Krome, Skylark, and Kid all stood in front of the multitudes, ready for war. With a loud cry, meister met Kishin in combat, and all heck broke loose.

    

I ran beside Lord Death, who began fighting one-on-one with his own son, who, I must admit, had grown a few inches. I slashed at Fawn, all my anger coming back to me. My feet slipped some in the freezing snow, but that didn’t matter. I kept my grip and went on with the fight.

   

Fawn’s vines shot forward, wrapping around my wrists. I broke my left hand free, tossing Yuu into it and continuing to fight with the right still stuck. I felt her vine creep down my fingers, and flick off my ring.

   

Oh no, she didn’t.

   

I continued to stab, slash, and attack the witch that had ruined me. I could get my ring back later. Suddenly, vines shot up from beneath me, and I was flung into the air, away from all the other meisters.

   

I was alone, with only Yuu and an extremely advanced witch. Fawn began to cackle, pinning me to the ground with plants. I shouldn’t be beaten this easily! I was a three star meister, after all! The very top! The creeping plant continued to grow, to trap me. I fought to get free, but it was useless.

    

I had been distracted by a little ring.

   

Fawn slithered toward me, licking her wolf-like chops, caressing my face with her fox tail, and took a small needle- a shot- from her pocket. She giggled, like a playground bully, and stuck it into my forearm, allowing the strange liquid in it to seep into my veins.

   

She took out an identical one and jammed it into her palm, her giggle turning into mad cackling. I started to feel strange, like my life was being sucked from me, like my soul was becoming…trapped…

Kid

   

I chuckled to myself, satisfied.

   

After all this time, all these months, I got to fight my failure of a father. The man who believed in peace, hope. He didn’t know that evil, the whole time, was our, as shinigami’s, sanctity.

   

I ripped my knife from its holder, slicing at him, my satisfied smile never leaving my face.

   

“Kid,” he shouted over the chaos, “Fawn and her people are evil!”

   

I scoffed, hacking my knife at him again. “From my point of view, the DWMA is evil!”

   

“Well, then you are lost,” he said, saddened.

   

We fought more, our battle becoming more and more intense by the second. Dad spoke again, his voice pained. “You were the only other shinigami but me! It was said that you would destroy the iniquity, not join them! Bring balance to the world, not leave it in darkness!”

   

“I hate you!” I screamed, an unexpected tear dripping down my face.

   

“You are my son, Kid. I love you.”

   

In the middle of our brawl, something on the ground caught my eye. I took a step back, and avoiding Father’s attacks, bend over to pick it up.

   

It was one of my rings.

   

I glanced at my left hand, finding that ring still there, intact.

   

Then this one was Snow’s.

   

Randomly and out of the blue, I thought popped into my head.

   

All the symmetrical things.

   

I looked up at my father, who was looking down upon me, disappointed.

   

I smiled, tears spilling over my cheeks uncontrollably like a dam burst. I ran forward, hugging him. “Dad,” I whispered.

   

“I knew you’d come back,” he said, pushing me away, “Now go find her son.”

Snow

   

Just before I lost myself to Fawn’s evil, I felt some sort of signal flash up in my mind, something only Star Wars nerds receive. I felt…a disturbance in the Force…like someone had…accidentally made a reverence toward Star Wars…

   

I would have laughed, if my body wasn’t being possessed.

   

I became lightheaded, like everything around me was closing in on me. Before I could react to even that, my world went blank.

Kid

   

I twisted through the writhing crowd of warriors, finding myself facing the edge of the massive mob. In the distance, who knows how they got there, was Snow and Fawn. I could tell it was them because of Snow’s hair. She hadn’t even cut one strand since Deedee’s body was made hers. There was no one else in this dimension with that kind of hair.

   

I summoned Beelzebub, zipping toward her faster than I’d ever gone on my skateboard. I had to reach her, to, first off, apologize to her, and, after that, save her.

   

When I finally found myself at her side, I hopped off Beelzebub, running to her side. She seemed to be passed out, and, when I looked over, Fawn was as well. Before I could even touch Snow, her weapon transformed, leaving only her arm as a blade, and glared at me, putting the knife-edge to my neck. I blinked, then smiled. “No, no,” I whispered, throwing my knife in the snow beside her. “I’m not here to fight. I’ve regained my senses. I came here to help.”

   

The weapon was about to say something, when my knife was suddenly stuck through her neck, causing blood to splatter all over me. My eyes widened, and I leapt forward.

    

“Are you okay?!” She fell to the side, dead. Behind her, still holding the knife, was Snow. My love lifted her eyes to look at me once more, before leaping at me, smiling like a maniac.

    

“I’m not with Fawn anymore!” I screamed, dodging her attacks, “I’m on your side!”

    

Snow let out some noise that seemed like a mix between a laugh and a scream. “That’s my point for attacking,” she said, coming at me faster than I’d ever seen a meister move. “You betrayed me, Kid! I didn’t think you’d go back to them.”

   

I jumped back again, avoiding more assaults, confused.

   

Then it hit me.

   

“You’re not Snow, are you?” I asked, nearly snarling in anger and frustration, “You’re Fawn.”

   

Once again, those laughs returned, and Fawn/Snow stopped moving. She tossed me my knife, holding out her arms, as if asking me to stab her. “You see, Kid,” she breathed, “In order to get me out of Snow’s body, you have to make a killing blow. It’s perfect, isn’t it?”

   

I growled, unbelieving of what was happening. She continued. “But maybe I won’t just let you kill me. I might keep her body, you know? She does have cool hair,” she said, fingering Snow’s stolen locks.

    

I made a decision then, a hard one, one I never would have even thought of making before this.

   

While Fawn was laughing, gloating to herself, I ran toward her, almost flew, warm teardrops stinging my face. I stopped just before her, throwing my arm back, my knife gleaming in the light of the sun, reflection off the shiny snow, and wretched it forward, into Snow’s stomach.

   

At that moment, my world fell apart. I saw Fawn leave her, I saw Fawn die, but Snow’s physical wound remained, red, fatal.

   

She fell backward, her eyes wide and pained, until she landed with a thud in the frosty pillow beneath her. I fell to my knees at her side, pulling her into my arms, staring into her eyes.

   

“Snow,” I gasped, on the edge of tears, “It was all I could do to stop Fawn. If I hadn’t-”

   

She smiled, a trail of blood sprouting from her mouth and flowing down to her chin. “I understand. Even if I do die in this world, I will return to mine. It’s okay.”

   

Relieved at this news, I let out a pained laugh. “Even so, it seems that every time we finally got to get together, something came up.”

   

She touched my face, her fingers like ice. “We’re together…” she paused, coughing up blood, “We’re together now.”

   

I knew that her time was growing short, that her life in this dimension was ending, so I wrapped my arms around her even tighter, drew her in closer to me, and kissed her. I kissed my dear Snow until her lips became cold beneath mine, and I felt that her sweet presence was gone.

   

I pulled away from Snow’s body, my eyes sad, and lied her down in the crystalline ice that surrounded us. Her hair created a soft halo around her head, long, mocha-brown, and soft. Her green eyes were closed in a temporary slumber, and her skin turned white before my eyes, until she was just as pale as the flurry beneath her. She began to transform, her whole body turning into snow, the same snow in which she was named. Her nickname, her voice, her decease, all soft, all cold, and all meaningful. She turned to snow, all of her, until it seemed to anyone who hadn’t seen to whole thing that I was crying over mere slush.

    

Then, in a moment, all the snow in the deserts of Death City disintegrated, gone, until the all too familiar sand replaced it, and our home looked like it always had, warm.

   

I lifted my eyes to Fawn’s own body, which looked peaceful and innocent in death, lying there in pure stillness. My gaze eventually fell upon Snow’s weapon, who, just like many others, had been killed by Fawn’s evil. I lifted her body and made my way back to the battle, or what was left of the survivors. All of the DWMA’s meisters stood tall and proud, watching as the Kishin foes retreated at the sight of their defeated queen.

   

I faced my father, ashamed. “I’m sorry for leaving you. I had planned on returning, but when my soul became Kishin, I felt myself change…not just my soul, but my ways.”

   

Dad sighed, patting me on the back. He looked down, his amber eyes peering into mine through the holes of his mask. “I can see that your soul has returned to normal. I believe that the reason your transformation wasn’t permanent is because of your being a shinigami. You see, only weapons are meant to be Kishin, so a shinigami becoming one would have some strange outcomes.”

    

I gave a pained chuckle, looking down at the dead weapon in my arms. “I couldn’t save her or Snow,” I said softly, my voice rough.

   

Lord Death squeezed my shoulder, looking to the horizon. “Snow’s sacrifice was necessary to take down Fawn. Fawn made it so that if you did kill her, you would suffer as well. She also let you win. She had no more reason for living. All she wanted to do with her life was experiment and kill. Once she’d had her kill of both, why live on? As for Yuu,” he lectured, “she was a saddening loss. She doesn’t have a dimension to return to, or any crimes to back up her death. She was a good girl, a great weapon, and a fantastic soul.”

   

Together, our troops returned to the city. For the next month or so we honored our dead, tended to the wounded, and prepared for all that could come at us, so that no one could ever dare hurt those we loved again.

   

As for me, I often visited the small plaque that had been set up before the DWMA, the one with the blooming cherry tree in front of it. It had been made for Snow, and had a small plastic box attached, so that a replica of my ring could sit in it for all to see. On the bottom of the tablet was a phrase, carved into stone, beautiful, meaningful.

   

All the symmetrical things.

   

I would never forget her, for as long as I was to live.

   

I would never forget my Snow, my Hannah, my love.

Snow

   

I snapped my eyes open, greeted happily by the ever-present blaring of my stupid alarm clock. I punched the thing, forcing it to shut up. Then, hastily, I pulled my hair into a sloppy ponytail. I yawned, reaching for my Soul Eater manga, turning to the page I left off at, and tried to read.

   

But, for some reason, I couldn’t.

   

I’d had some sort of dream, every second clear, every second real. But it hadn’t been real, no matter how existent it had seemed. It couldn’t have been.

   

I threw the book back down in my floor and rubbed my hands together, trying to warm them up, when something caught my eye. Something shiny. Something on my middle finger. In shock, I lifted my right hand to examine it.

   

Kid’s ring!

   

So every second of that…had been true! I had really lived all of that through, in one night’s sleep. All of those days, all of that supposed fiction, had been proven true by this one ring.

   

This great, fantastic, amazing, miraculous, awesome ring.

   

I twirled down the stairs, hugging my hand to my chest. I leaped around my mother, who was making pancakes, and bubbled with delight. “Mom,” I burst, “I’m in love! I’m in love I’m in love I’m in love!”

   

Mom sighed, flipping one flapjack over. “Please tell me it’s not with that Death character. He’s not real.”

   

“Oh, but he is!” I shouted, shoving the ring in her face. “He’s real as you are and I’m in love!”

   

Giggling my head off, I ran into the basement, laughing in utter delight, but on the edge of tears.

   

Because I was in love, but my love was in a whole other world.

   

I picked up my Kid plushie, setting him up so he looked me in the eye. “I thought when I saw you at the battle you’d gotten taller than me. Now you’re the same height of the cat!” I laughed again, squeezing the cat in a hug.

Stein

   

“Kid?” I asked, pulling him through the door of my lab. “Is there anything you have that is connected to Snow in a way? A picture? A lock of her hair? A piece of clothing?”

   

“I have her meister certification picture at my house, and this ring,” he said, lifting his hand to my face. Without even asking for permission, I plucked the ring from his thin finger, placing it on a small stand. Using a tiny chisel, I took an unnoticeable amount of metal from one of the three bands, dumping it into a vile. I threw the ring back to Kid, I activated the sensor, looking closly to see if she was found.

   

And…there!

   

A map of Snow’s entire planet was broadcasted up on our screen. In one of the larger continents there was a beeping red dot. Snow.

   

I hit a few buttons, flipped a few switches, and whala!

   

She was coming back.

   

I chuckled, “Well, Kid, you looked so sad that she was gone that I took the pleasure upon myself to bring her back. You see, while she was here, I had enough time to find out a way for her to return to her dimension regularly and easily without having to die here. So, I’ve set it up, so that whenever she goes to sleep, she will come here for the night, will be with you, while getting the proper amount of rest in her dimension.”

   

I was thanked by Kid’s huge smile, and his warm embrace. “What about time? Is her dimension slower or quicker than ours?”

   

“Time passes slowly, but I’ve set it up so that she will come to us every night, and can have adventures, and parties, and just be like any other friend.”

   

Now all we had to do was wait for night to fall.

Snow

   

I bedded down for the night, tuckered out from the day’s explosion-ness. I flipped off my overhead, turned off my lamp, and snuggled my Kid plushie close to my chest, wondering what dreams would come after sleep came.

   

Boy was I in for a sweet surprise.