Dreams
Flashbacks
(Mele's POV)
'The Death Weapon Meister Academy… my new home,' I thought. I have been waiting for this day for five long years. I ascended the steps to the academy, scared and yet excited for what lay ahead of me in my new life. I was going to be a meister… and I was glad. My family had been consumed by madness when the Kishin had escaped from beneath this place. And I intended to get revenge… Suddenly, in no time at all, I was at the top of the steps there were seven people waiting for me, though. A girl with dark blonde pigtails stepped forward, along with a boy with spiky white hair. "Hi there! I'm Maka, and this is Soul, my partner!" I was slightly frightened then. She was one of the three Meisters who had defeated the Kishin, and that meant she had immense power. There were two other boys, and three other girls. "My father sent Black Star, Maka and I to escort you to the Death Room," one of the boys said. He was wearing a perfectly symmetrical black and white suit. He had yellow eyes, and a very menacing look. However, although he had entirely black hair, there were three white stripes on the left side of his short hair. The other boy, who I assumed was Black Star, had spiky light blue hair and a not-so-symmetrical outfit on. I couldn't tell whether he was a weapon or a meister, though, as with the others. He had a single partner: A tall girl with extremely long hair in a high ponytail. She had violet eyes, and she was smiling at me kindly. The other boy, the one with black hair, had two girls with him: And they wore identical outfits. Well, almost identical. The shorter of the two had shorts on, and the other had on pants. The first girl I'd met, Maka, spoke again, "Hey, we need to get going. Lord Death doesn't like to be kept waiting, you know!" "Right," I said shyly, and I hurried after them. Before I knew it, I was inside a huge room that definitely looked artificial. Maka was running very quickly, as though she couldn't wait to get there. When we finally go to Lord Death, we were panting, and I was terrified. I had only seen Lord Death once: and that was five years ago, when he had saved me from a witch when all of his meisters had been on missions elsewhere. But that didn't mean I wasn't terrified of him. He turned around, and said in a funny voice, "Well hello, hello! How's it going?" We've got the new student, sir!" Maka said happily. "MAKA!" The cheerful look on Maka's face disappeared, as she was nearly tackled by a man with teal eyes and short red hair. "PAPA!" she angrily screamed, and raised her foot to kick him in the face. She didn't miss her mark, as her father ran headlong into her waiting foot. "WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO STOP DOING THAT!?" Maka's dad did not reply, as he was out cold on the floor now. Lord Death broke up the little skirmish, quickly addressing me and the others. I realized that I had been holding my breath, and I tried to let it all out without anyone noticing. It worked, thankfully. "Welcome to the DWMA! I'm Lord Death, but I'm sure you remember me, right Mele?" Lord Death said. "Yes," I said, rather timidly. "Oh, come now, no need to be bashful! Everyone here is welcomed! Just ask Blackstar and Tsubaki about Mifune and Angela!" he continued. I had an idea of who they were. "So, um… what class will I be in?" I asked, not so shy anymore. "Class Crescent Moon, of course! You'll be in the same class as every other student here!" Tsubaki said. I was kind of glad. They all seemed nice, at least… "Oh!" Maka said suddenly. Everyone turned and looked at her. "We can't forget about Crona!" "Oh, um…" I began, but I was soon being dragged away by Maka and the others. "Don't worry, father, we'll fill her in on the rules and everything for you!" Kid shouted behind him, as we all ran off to class.
"All right, we've got a new student today. She hasn't got a partner yet, and she's a meister as well. I want you all to make her feel welcome in every way possible, is that understood?" Professor Stein said to the class. "Yes!" everyone shouted back, right in sync. They had the feeling that if they disobeyed him, they'd all be dissected. The door opened, and I walked in silently. I spotted Maka among the students, surrounded by all of her friends, including a pink haired boy. Aka scooted over a bit, as did the pink haired boy, and gave me a place to sit between them. "Thanks," I mumbled. Maka nodded, and the boy said, "Hi, I'm Crona." "Oh, hello," I replied softly, but politely. Dr. Stein loudly announced, "In a few minutes, auditions for the talent show will be opened to the students. All of you are allowed to enter, even you, Mele." I blushed at the mention of my name. A buzzer went off. "All right, get out of my sight, and make sure you audition to embarrass yourself for me!" Dr. Stein yelled. Most of the students rushed out of the classroom, fearing something that I didn't know of. Maka quietly ushered me out of the classroom, along with Liz, Patty, Crona, Kid, and Tsubaki. Soul and Blackstar had skipped class: Again, from what I was told. I was led to an auditorium, packed with hundreds of students from the school, and not that many teachers. Soul and Blackstar were already there, apparently waiting for us. Soul shot up and dragged Maka back to where he had been sitting, Blackstar doing the same with Tsubaki. After being there for only a day, as well, I was getting offers from students to be my weapon on my way down to our seats, which had been saved for us by Soul. A loud pop, however, silenced everybody as it rang out across the auditorium. Lord Death himself stepped out onto the stage, and announced, "Welcome! Welcome! Please wait a moment, an raise your hand if you want to be first, as we will call the rest of you backstage to audition in a moment. But first to audition will be… MELE!" I blushed so terribly as I raised my hand that I thought I was glowing. I shakily stood up, and nearly collapsed from embarrassment, and walked quickly past Lord Death and backstage. Of course, a blue skinned zombie was waiting for me. "You- You're Sid, right?" I stammered out. "Yes," he grumbled. There were many instruments and objects to audition with, but only one caught my eye: A piano. "May I?" I asked. Sid nodded, and said, "So, you're a pianist, like Soul, aren't you?" I nodded. I lifted the keyboard cover, and began to play my auditioning music. * Two minutes later, I was closing the cover of the keyboard, as Sid thought about whether or not I would take part in the actual Talent Show. After five agonizingly slow minutes, he nodded, saying, "You're in." It was all could do to not jump and shout for joy. I was still new here: I wasn't exactly comfortable with the teacher currently in my presence. "Go on; get back there with Maka and the others. I was confused, until my group of new friends emerged from behind a curtain. "You heard all of it!" I exclaimed. "Of course we did, it was fantastic," Soul said. I then realized it was the first time I had ever heard him speak. "Th-Thanks," I said. "Alright then, it's my turn now!" Soul said. He sat at the piano as I stood up, and prepared to play. But, I was not expecting his performance at all. It lasted for a short amount of time, but it was beautiful. He mentioned something about it being called Krone, but I didn't catch all of it as we exited backstage, and headed back to our seats. I noticed the lack of spiky blue hair next to Tsubaki, but didn't think anything about it: Until… "Hey everybody! Are you ready for the best most awesome performance ever! I'm the big star here!" "Reaper Chop!" All I needed to hear were Lord Death's words, and a loud thud to know what had happened. Tsubaki and Maka rushed onto the stage, and half dragged, half carried Blackstar out of the auditorium. He was out cold.
About two hours had passed before all of the students who wanted to audition had done so. Less than half of the people who had auditioned made it into the show. Maka and Tsubaki hadn't wanted to get in the spotlight anymore than they already were, and Crona simply disliked the spotlight being anywhere near him: as for Blackstar, he had been disqualified for his little act on the stage earlier. Soul and I were the only ones from Class Crescent Moon that made it in at all, in fact. But there was a considerable amount of academy students for us to go up against, even with the number of participants cut in half. With these thoughts in mind, I followed Soul and Maka outside to the front steps of the academy. "Hey, Mele, want to come have lunch with us at our place? I'm cooking!" Maka asked me. I was slightly taken aback by her invitation, so for a second I didn't say anything. But I nodded politely anyway, saying yes quite happily. "Great! Come on!" Maka shouted, and she dragged me by the hand all the way to her little apartment. Once we were inside, I was greeted by an odd sight: A cat girl with purple hair and golden eyes. As soon as Soul walked in, she dropped the towel that she had been covering up with, and hugged Soul to death. Before she could release him, however, Soul had such a powerful nosebleed that he fell backwards. Maka called him a jerk, told me this happened quite often, and started to make something for us to eat. I gave Soul two pieces of tissue to help with his nosebleed, an after muttering a quiet thanks, he plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV. I thought we would be there longer, but Maka was done making lunch in less than five minutes. As soon as it was finished, Blackstar, Tsubaki, Kid, Liz, and Patty all appeared at the door, smiling away without a care in the world. "Hey, Mele, you got into the Talent Show, right?" Kid asked me. "Um…" I said, "Yes…" Kid stood stock still as if he were giving a speech. "Perfect! I'll make your costume!" I was shocked. Liz leaned over to me and whispered, "Careful what you trust Kid to make- He's a perfectionist, and he'll make it perfectly symmetrical, too." I giggled a little at the thought of the son of Lord Death making my clothes. Actually, it kind of crept me out. "So…" Tsubaki began. "What are you going to perform at the Talent Show, you guys?" Soul continued to look at the TV, and answered just as Maka put lunch on the table in front of us. "The usual." Tsubaki then looked at me expectantly, as if she was intent on finding out my answer. "It's a solo called Serah's Ballad. My older sister wrote it for me on my last birthday," I replied. "Oh, you have a sister? So, when do we get to meet her?" Maka asked. "I shut my eyes tightly, to prevent tears from pouring down my face. "You- You don't. No one can meet her anymore," I whispered, not bothering to hide the pain in my voice. Soul turned and looked at me, shock on his face, as did everyone else. "She was devoured by the Kishin's madness. I was forced to kill her myself," I continued. "And my parents are gone, too. Their souls were devoured by the Kishin." "I'm sorry, Mele," Maka said softly, clearly realizing that she had brought up memories that were best forgotten. I wiped my tears away, and looked at them all. Each of them was still in shock. "I'm sorry; I think I've made everyone here uncomfortable… I'll leave now," I said, and I dashed out of the room before anyone could stop me. I ended up finding a small park, with a rock wall that hovered over Death City. It gave me a perfect view of the sunset, odd as it was… I sat on the edge of the rock wall, not minding the height, even though I would normally be scampering away from the edge like a frightened puppy. My sister had always loved the sunsets, and that was when I felt closest to her… I scooted back from the edge of the wall, and lay down on my side, so that I could still see the sunset. And there I fell asleep.
"Mele! Run, get the hell out of here!" My sister's voice shrieked into the night. Then she helplessly succumbed to a laughing fit, slowly going insane, getting crazier every second. I screamed back at her, "Not without you! There's no way in hell I'm leaving you, Serah, not to the Kishin! Not now, not ever!" She began convulsing, puking blood. Then she just stopped, not making a sound, lying motionless on the ground. Her eyes were completely empty of any emotions. But they weren't blue anymore, they were black.
I sat up, screaming bloody murder. Somehow, a strange boy was already there to comfort me. He was wearing a very long white trench coat, was very tanned, had blue eyes, and platinum blonde hair that barely reached his shoulders. "Are you alright?" he asked me. "Wait, a minute, who are you, first of all?" I shot back. He seemed a bit taken aback that I had composed myself so quickly, so he waited and thought about his answer. I waited patiently as well. "My name is Koa. You?" I was hesitant to give my name out to a complete stranger, but I still told him, "I'm Mele. Sorry if I disturbed you on your walk, or anything, but I was just having a nightmare." Then, to my surprise, he hoisted me onto his shoulder, and carried me through the park. "Hey, you creeper! Put me down!" I shouted at him, as I punched his back in an effort to make him drop me. He only said, "Lord Death has summoned you, and lunch break has just ended anyways. Besides, your friends are looking for you, too." I was slightly shocked at all of this news. I didn't realize that I had worried Maka and the others so much. I stopped fighting against Koa. "I hate my life sometimes," I said. "Well, then," Koa replied, "We're just going to have to make you like it again, won't we?" I couldn't see his face, but I could tell he was smiling. "Whatever, just put me down already," I said.