Today was the day after Madelyn had enrolled into classes at the Academy. Kid was escorting her, having made himself the master and guardian of this new student who'd gotten in due to Lord Death's recommendation. Upon seeing that she was content with living under and abiding by his rules, Death wanted to see if he could possibly repurpose her into a meister in order to prevent her from having to use magic at all—this, being a single attempt to halt her pull of magic altogether. Kid, however, was feeling quite unsettled by her presence due to her being a witch, and it wasn't really a matter of lacking respect for his father's decision but was the fact he could already safely assume she was a troublemaker to the very core, who'd most likely accomplish nothing. The same thought kept repeating itself in his head, over and over and over again as the massive death-themed academy came quickly into view before they ascended the seemingly endless steps to the front doors.
'She could easily rip apart the delicate balance and order the Academy has worked so hard to maintain over these many years of conflict. Peace is finally within arm's reach and she's going to destroy it if we don't keep her on a tight leash...', Kid strained at the agitation the thought brought him before glancing at her.
One of his eyebrows gave a slight raise in curiosity at what she had been staring at so hard upon arriving at the building. He then noticed that it was the architecture before he put his hands in his pockets and decided to give her a bit of a chance, since she seemed to admire its structure and symmetry, or at least he assumed so. Both the reaper and witch walked down the long hallway upon entry, just passing the cork textured message board within the opening that connected the rest of the school together. Madelyn glanced at the board as they walked past. It had multiple missions and tasks of all sorts on it while sporting the death logo on certain ones of merit and a tag saying "new" or "completed" on others.
Upon the two arriving in the classroom, they walked into the open expanse of the seated area. Open and taken seats alike lined the space with rows of desks while students were speaking amongst one another before the bell. Liz and Patty were already there and greeted him as usual.
"Hey, Kid," greeted Liz.
"Heya, Kid!" exclaimed Patty with her usual hyperactive voice.
"Who's this?" Liz asked upon looking at Maddi, as she put down the hand she'd held in the air upon her greeting. She seemed puzzled, before realizing this girl was a witch, mostly due to her hat, and became confused as to why she was here. She slipped part of her hands into her pockets as Patty just stared.
"Ohhh, is she a witch?" Patty asked curiously and was dying to know. Kid was surprised she even knew what was going on.
"Yes. Yes, she is. She's here upon father's orders..." Kid explained calmly, yet with little enthusiasm. "Let's try and be nice to her. Does everyone understand?" Kid glanced around with his hands still in his pockets as everyone stared and whispered amongst one another, while Black Star glared as she was getting all of his attention, and Tsubaki was curious as well, her hands in front of her and fixed together. Maka glared and knew she was trouble just by the way she looked and dressed, yet Soul just didn't seem to care as he leaned back in his desk with his arms behind his head and feet propped, one leg over the other, taking a nap.
The sisters sat behind Kid while Maddi sat beside him. In the middle front of the classroom was a horseshoe-shaped desk which professor Stein sat at in his special chair. He propped his elbows on the desk and had his hands fixed together in front of part of his face. He looked over them as he glanced up towards Madelyn, hearing the news of her arrival quite quickly, and was wondering what it would be like to dissect this witch. As soon as the bell rang, part of his glasses shaded with light in which only one eye showed through. He had to wipe the tempted grin off his face and become serious.
Once class began, the professor took the role and then started to carefully explain the lesson,
"We will be discussing the fundamentals of what we call "Resonance Link". This advanced method of soul resonance is used in order to successfully connect the souls amongst you and your weapon partner, or partners, as well as with one or two other meisters and their weapon's, in order to greatly increase the team's overall power and potential as a whole. As such, this brings about a whole new level of strength in each group depending on their cooperation and execution of their combined attack power. Keep in mind, one must be accepting of each other's abilities and differences in order to fully resonate without conflict... Also, you have to be capable of using soul resonance with just your weapon partner in the first place or it's pointless to try this." He cleared his voice, "As I was saying, putting your own emotions aside is key to a successful Resonance Link. Try to understand that there should be no one way or only way to do this, and refrain from stress amongst each other's antics and differences that tend to cause the clouding of your mind, as you should completely and fully cooperate with your teammates and resonate your souls with them to increase the battle's outcome in your favor with devotion and trust towards one another. A successful resonance link can be the difference between winning or losing on a mass scale... This isn't to be taken lightly." He glared at the students as they knew he was serious.
After about 10 minutes in, Maddi started to doze off at her desk, although she had been trying to pay attention. Sadly, no matter how much she tried, she was still too bored and was having a difficult time understanding, before being nudged by Kid to make sure she stayed awake. She looked at him with a glare only to notice he had done so without looking even at her as he jotted down notes neatly and orderly on notebook paper, yet struggled to get the K's right. An idea popped into her mischievous little brain, as she decided to become a nuisance and have some fun. She smirked, before chanting softly under her breath,
"Jing, jingle, jingle" With these words, she taps her bells quietly to make an unheard "jing". An asymmetrical illusion was created in which the writing in his notes and all the letters looked gruesome and horrifyingly uneven and even twisted. Kid took notice, and with shock and quickly growing agitation, he had pure confusion and disgust in his eyes before he placed his hands upon his desk and stared down this abomination. His right eye twitched while his mouth gaped opened slightly. He looked down at this unusual dilemma, wondering how on earth he'd missed it before now, or if he'd actually done this to begin with because he focused too much on the K's that the rest of his writing suffered.
"Why are the letters so disgustingly uneven and asymmetrical? Could I have REALLY neglected my penmanship due to my obsession with perfecting the letter K? This... can't be... I'm garbage, asymmetrical garbage. I should die!" he questioned and ranted aloud. His panic grew and upon being asked by the teacher to keep it down he sat back down, having jolted up. He began tapping his fingers on the desk in an attempt to quell his frustration and neurotic tendencies before noticing that Madelyn had a wide smirk—hearing a soft giggle. He now realized she must have done something to his perfect notes while he was focusing on his K's and began to grit his teeth. He glared at her before she noticed and innocently smiled at him.
'That dirty, rotten, little trouble maker...' He forced himself to stay calm till after class, as he glanced at her and gritted his teeth together till then. He began biting his nails evenly to the nubs on each side in the process of waiting till after class.
Upon the bell's toll and everyone's haste to make it to the next class, he sat with her in the empty room. Kid suddenly stood up and gripped Maddi's shirt. He yanked her towards him. He was ready to release his fury and overwhelming frustration, Which he'd been controlling for the past hour and a half, out on her with no mercy. He suddenly realized he'd tugged her shirt out enough that when he dared to peer down he could see her bare breasts, which caused his mouth to gape open slowly with soft gasps. He immediately let go and turned away, folding his arms over his chest, as he tapped his right foot against the tiled floor.
"P-pardon me for that," He cleared his throat and had stuttered slightly, blushing before getting serious again and faced her, "But regardless of that. You, are truly sickening if you think that it's actually funny to make my notes so disgustingly disastrous. You even made them asymmetrical, in front me, of all people... Fix it!" He demanded and pointed at the paper, now glaring bloody daggers at her in rage. She sighed.
"Take a look, your paper is fine, reaper boy." She rebutted aloud as the illusion wore off instantly with her word and her bell tinkling slightly, "I don't see the problem you are referring to..." She stared unamused while laughing on the inside.
He looked again and it was true, there was nothing wrong with anything except his usual issues with that dastardly consonant, K. But, he knew it wasn't neat before and she had to have done something to him. She was obviously a troublemaker and he felt insulted, as his surprise changed to frustration in which his tone voiced.
"Let me make sure that I make myself perfectly clear... If you ever do that again, I will punish you! How could I ever possibly put up with someone so asymmetrical and unbalanced as you, who already seems to do nothing but cause trouble and play petty pranks..? I don't know what I was thinking, being your babysitter." He glared, his golden eyes peering into her right and uncovered eye before getting curious. He moved the bangs covering her left eye and blurted out his disgust with rage, as he noticed her eyes consisted of two different colors, and he began to fume. One could imagine smoke coming out of his ears as his face turned tomato red with fury.
"Your eyes," She looked curious as to where he was going with this, "they're obnoxiously asymmetrical! So you were born with heterochromia, I see... How untasteful," Kid exclaimed. Madelyn felt as if she was punched in the stomach with his words, as he looked her up and down to find another part about her to take his rage out on, "Not to mention, your outfit is also a complete abomination and could easily be symmetrical, yet you purposefully tilt your hat and decorate it asymmetrically, and even make the accessories on your outfit completely unbalanced! I'm fixing it at once!" He demanded aggressively, with his hands balled into fists by his sides and stomping his foot on the ground.
Maddi was hurt but then glared and scowled at him before barking back, "I don't care if you are Lord Death's son. Don't tell me what to do, you stupid, spoiled little rich boy brat! I dress how I want! If you want it fixed, yeah, come on. Come at me and fix it yourself!" she smirked with her clever challenge, which she was sure he wouldn't accept now, before he easily found himself stepping closer anyway, to which she stepped back in response. She was surprised that he was seriously about to cross her personal space in order to quell his obsession with symmetry. She growled angrily before he tried to grab her shoulder and got her boob instead upon her avoidance. His jaw hung open as he freaked out and she yelped, blushing as she pulled away and wrapped her arms over her chest. She immediately went dashing out the door and down the hall to make sure he didn't touch her or change anything about her. He regained his seriousness and with a simple "hmph", he smirked and summoned his skateboard as he began tailing her.
"A challenge huh? Fine by me, I accept!" He announced and tailed her relentlessly. He stopped upon seeing her trip at the board as the hall was empty. He grinned in triumph, before smacking his foot on the back of the board, causing it to flip up as he caught it in his hand. It vanished into shadows as he squatted and looked at her.
"Now then, I've caught you fair and square...You aren't going to move a muscle, understood?" She gulped but glared at him to the very end before he helped her up—gently.
Maddi was surprised and blushed as he suddenly began to seem more gentle, calmly looking her up and down, before adjusting her hat. He put the bell at the tip of the hat, before neatly arranging the silk bow dead center. He smiled contently and was relaxed with his work as he then took off the leg bands and adjusted them so they were even and matched perfectly with one another. Finally, he adjusted her slightly ruffled skirt, before brushing it off a bit since she'd fallen before giving a slight sigh of relief.
"That feels so much better," he commented in response, "Now you look more presentable, and maybe a bit attractive... to some people maybe." She blushed softly as he spoke those words to her before she got an attitude and rebelliously adjusted her hat to the side again. She began fixing it back to the way it was, for which Kid glared and started having a fit. He stomped his feet again, fists at his side as he closed his eyes in rage. He then opened them and glared at her.
"How dare you! After I kindly worked so hard to fix that and make you look presentable!" Kid snarled before he suddenly noticed her expression and looked surprised, caught off guard as she glared at him in a different way this time. She had pain in her eyes as she tried to keep herself from crying. He calmed down and let her explain herself, having crossed a line without realizing it—all in the name of symmetry, which should never have been used for evil such as this. He eased his posture into a less aggressive stance.
"You should know that there's always something about one person or another that makes them unique, whether it's one thing or five. Am I right?! My hat- something I'd made myself, my outfit, and my eyes are key parts of my identity, and I don't wish for them to be fixed just because my appearance isn't your picture perfect example of symmetry! Just like you have to live with your stripes being one-sided, you're just going to have to live with my hat being the way it is, along with my hairstyle, my clothes, and especially my eyes!" She tried not to show she wanted to cry while Kid frowned upon hearing the subject about his hair stripes and wondered if her anger reflected how angry he must've seemed this entire time. He began to feel guilt, but rebutted stubbornly against his stripe problem.
"Don't give me crap about the stripes in my hair, dammit!" He exclaimed before he saw a look that showed she felt uncared for—abandoned. She appeared completely insulted, having her very identity picked apart, before she pushed him onto the floor with aggression, running to find a secluded place on the concrete balcony outside to sort out her thoughts. She sat, cradling herself and pulling her knees in, wrapping her arms around her legs and resting her head behind her kneesm before being spotted by Tsubaki after classes were finished. The dark arm saw that this troubled witch was upset. Maddi looked at the sun, who was falling asleep, as it began setting and the sky's colors changed to red, orange, and yellow. The clouds were pink and purple, signifying cold weather to come.
"May I sit?" Tsubaki asked before Maddi looked back at her. Seeing Tsubaki's gentle smile made her feel comfortable—wanted. Maddi lowered her gaze and sighed.
"Sure.. but I'm surprised you're even talking to me.." Maddi returned to her original position as Tsubaki sat down. What Maddi didn't know was Kid had followed her to see if she was okay and had Tsubaki go out there to speak with her as he had no right to. He remained hidden behind the brick that lined the path back inside. He crouched down and listened closely as he peeked out from behind the wall.
"Surprised? I would've thought more people would have attempted to try to talk to you and get to know you. Sadly, that wasn't the case, was it?" A sweat drop appeared beside Tsubaki's head as she gave a nervous expression.
"Anyway..." She smiled again, "I saw you and Kid fighting. What happened?" She questioned, yet already knowing what started it upon Kid explaining it to her.
"It's obvious. Kid doesn't like who I am one bit... He already can't stand to even look at me, and it just makes me-" She couldn't get herself to say anymore and began to cry as tears silently trickled down her cheeks, before quickly wiping them away. Tsubaki's smile became more sympathetic and caring.
"Oh, I see. Well, it's understandable that you got that impression," Tsubaki smiled, "But, don't worry. I know Kid is rather tough to deal with, but he's a very caring person. He's helped people more times than he'd care to admit and helped his weapons—the Thompson sisters, reform their lives and got them off the streets. He's more than just a symmetry obsessed boy with asymmetrical stripes in his hair." Tsubaki giggled softly, as Kid's jaw dropped and he started to spaz out about it, before they look in his direction, Maddi in shock upon hearing him yell.
"Why is there only one set of stripes?! I'm garbage! Asymmetrical garbage!" She wasn't even aware he had been lurking this entire time. Tsubaki laughed before Madelyn smiled softly, enjoying that he was the one in grief right now, though she felt no better in the long run.
"Tee-hee, Give him time." She held her hand in front of her mouth as she held in more giggles, "Even with your pranks, I know he'll come to find you to be someone he'll want to protect and will learn to cherish. You'll be a challenge for him, that's for sure, but a good challenge none-the-less. You are becoming his Black Star so to speak, and with that, I have my own Black Star to deal with, so I need to go. Take care." Tsubaki stood and waved before jumping down the side of the Academy in a ninja fashion and ran off. Kid looked down as he contemplated Tsubaki's words.
"Tch... How can I care about asymmetrical troublemakers like her?" Kid whispered, before he noticed that Maddi stayed silent and still looked miserable as she sat right where she was at the balcony edge on the railing. He knew full well it was his fault that she felt this way as the entire experience sunk in. Kid sighed, but still he decided she needed to learn to be responsible for her actions. He began walking away along the brick-lined sidewalk on the building. His hands were in his pockets as he looked down at the ground he walked upon. The breeze blew his hair as he was now walking away from the bottom of the steps at the front of the DWMA, with Liz and Patty several minutes later—lost in thought.
"Where's the witch?" Patty asked curiously, having wanted to see her again since she hadn't gotten to even say one word to her all day.
"What' happened?" Liz questioned, upon seeing his facial expression become more miserable and guilty, as his mouth was now less straight and more squiggled in grief, "Oh, no. What'd you do?" She got a bit ticked off as she knew he'd yell at her for her antics and asymmetrical appearance sooner or later.
"I had to punish her for making my notes look asymmetrical..." He admitted but only telling part of the story. "I could never get along with someone so troublesome and asymmetrical. It's not possible." He grumbled under his breath.
"... Okay then," Liz didn't ask any more about it.
Kid and the girls suddenly stopped and looked back at Maddi, Kid surprised she would want to even make contact with him again so soon. She noticed he had dried tears along his eyes and a reddened face from being reminded about his stripes and honestly feeling bad for making her cry. Kid wasn't the cruel type, he didn't like yelling at people even if he had to. He was still worrying about it. Only his indifference towards her as she appeared allowed him to ignore all else she'd fixed back to the way it was and make sure she was okay. She looked indifferent though feeling concerned, then, in the best way she knew how, she gave him some advice.
"Stop worrying about those silly stripes, you big baby," She stated, before the girls were confused, as he looked at her in disbelief that she may have just tried to console him, or at least he assumed that was her intention in the back of his mind. He thought about it for a minute, before he looked down at her hand gripping his with a slight frown, as she leads him to his house where she was told to stay. The girls smiled contently, before walking behind them as Kid glared slightly, wondering what scheme she might be planning for him next, as a personal thought crossed his mind.
'How could my father possibly be able to judge who she truly and accept her when I myself can't even pinpoint what she thinks or even feels or how to deal with her emotions? What'm I supposed to do now?' He silently sighed. 'She's such a handful... What have I gotten myself into...?'
Kid closed his eyes, before opening them and watching her lead him. He let her gently tug him along, as he wondered what on earth the rest of their days were going to be like in the DWMA from here, and how he was to keep her from falling to the pull of magic to be lost forever from his life.