All Out Battle Royale

"Maka?"

Huh? Who is that?

"Maka!"

Someone's calling my name…

"Maka! Wake up!"

The young girl's eyes go wide as she sits up and finds herself being held by Soul. "Maka are you okay?"

Maka blinks and wipes her eyes that are just barely beginning to adjust. She was confused. Why did Soul sound so concerned? Her question was answered just as her eyes adjusted. As Maka looks around, she realizes that she is surrounded by fellow students. From the looks of it, they were just waking up like she had. Kid was rubbing his head while Liz and Patty were by his side. Black*Star was questioning everybody around him as to where they were while Tsubaki tried to calm him down.

"S-Soul, what's going on?" As she asks this, Soul looks away, unsure of how to answer her. "I don't know."

Maka glances around to see that they were on what appeared to be the corner of a beach. The waves weren't too high and it seemed pretty peaceful despite the strange situation they were in. It was just about that moment that a hand lightly grasped her shoulder. Maka turns around and is surprised to see Sid Barett.

"Maka, I need to know if there's anything at all that you remember before coming here? Anything at all?"

The way he addressed the question made Maka shiver. He sounded confused and desperate. The Sid she knew never was like that.

She shook her head and looked down sadly. "No I'm afraid I don't remember anything, Sid-sensei…"

The zombified male nods and gives a slight sigh as he looks to his right. "I see. So it seems nobody remembers how we got here."

Soul scoffs and raises his brow. "Seriously? Nobody remembers anything?"

Sid crosses his arms and shrugs. "Well not exactly everybody but…" He looks to the side and points. "…if you want to ask them, go ahead." Both Soul and Maka look to where Sid points and their eyes go wide.

It was Medusa and her group. Mizune, Eruka, and Free were all huddled together with her, giving cautious glances to everyone. Not too far from them were Noah and his group as well. Gopher was glaring at anyone who made eye contact and Giriko simply had a look of boredom as though he didn't care. The look that Justin had however, was a bit scary. He was calm but a bit too calm. It almost looked as though he was smiling.

"Maka? Soul? Any idea what's going on?"

Kid walks over to the pair with his hands in his pockets, Liz and Patty at his side. Maka gives a weak shrug and Soul shakes his head. "Sorry, we don't know anything." Kid furrows his brows and nods slowly. "I see…Well that's not good."

Patty quickly runs off towards the water and giggles. "C'mon guys! It's a beach! Lets have some fun!"

Kid glances at Soul and Maka and gives a slight shrug, following Patty. "I don't see why not." Liz follows after Kid and Patty, sighing and shaking her head. "Really you two…swimming at a time like this…"

"I demand to know where we are! I must know at once! I am the mighty Black*Star!"

Maka sighs as she hears the blue haired male running around and ranting with Tsubaki chasing after him and trying to calm him down.

Soon, Sid finally decides to rally everyone (well mostly everyone. Medusa and Noah's groups excluded) and tries to get to the bottom of this. "Okay…so any ideas? Any ideas at all?"

A hand shoots up and everyone turns to look at Ox Ford with a determined look. "It could be possible that we have been kidnapped!"

Soul rolls his eyes. "Kidnapped? For real? How do you explain us being kidnapped? Wouldn't Lord Death know if we were kidnapped?"

Ox smirks and continues. "Unless we were taken somewhere that not even Lord Death knows about!"

With that, everybody goes quiet. After a moment, Kim pokes Ox on the shoulder and whispers, "But if Lord Death doesn't know that we're here…isn't that a bad thing?" Ox tenses up and looks down, nodding. "I hadn't really thought that far…"

Sid crosses his arms and sighs. "So any other possible explanations for this?" When no one says anything he steps forward. "Alright then. It seems that either way, we have to find a way out of here." A murmur of agreement goes out from all the students when the sudden sound of a booming voice makes everyone stop.

"Escape? Ha! Just where do you think you are?"

The voice sent a chill down Maka's spine. It couldn't be. Not him. But it was. The Kishin, Asura.

He grinned upon everyone, his arms crossed as he dropped down from the sky. "It seems that so far everything is according to plan."

Maka shivered as she gazed upon the Kishin. He was just as scary as when they first met him. The sudden feel of an arm around her makes her look. "Don't freak out. Keep it cool, Maka." His words sent a reassurance to her and she takes a deep breath, shaking off her fear.

Everyone else seemed to be in shock and total horror. Well, everyone but Medusa and Noah. They both looked pleased for some reason. The Kishin takes a step forward and all of the DWMA students scramble back, trying to get away.

Asura chuckles lowly and grins. "Oh how fun. You ants seem to fear me. But I'm simply here to explain." Sid regains his composure and clenches his fists. "Explain what?"

"Everything. Such as why you woke up here. That was my doing."

At this point, everybody was listening. Even Maka wanted to get to the bottom of this and find out what the Kishin was playing at.

"You're all test subjects. As part of an experiment I'm conducting." Asura smirks and looks at everyone for a moment before continuing. "I've decided to have a bit of fun. Are you ready?" No one says anything, dead silence filling the entire area. Asura laughs and grins widely. "In the next 30 days, you will all be trapped here in my world that I created. Yes, that's right, I created it! Madness has enough to even do this! It was all created from my madness! And no one, and I mean no one can enter this area!"

His words strike Maka with shock. No one can get in? Not even Lord Death?

He goes on, "This is going to be an all out battle royale! The winner lives, everyone else dies! There can only be one left standing by the end of the 30 day period. If that isn't the case…if there's more than one living soul still alive on the 30th day…then BOOM!" Asura cackles with laughter and grabs his hair. "You all die! That's the way the game works!"

Soul glares at Asura, a look of disgust on his face. This dude's insane!

Asura all of a sudden, stops laughing and glances at everyone, making contact will all the living souls around him. "But first…just to be sure we all know I'm for real, I'll need a sacrifice…"

The sudden comment made Pot of Thunder and Pot of Fire whimper as they hid behind Kilik. Maka gulped as she bit on her lip. A sacrifice…? She looks around to see everyone looking at each other. Was anyone going to volunteer? Maka doubted it but for some reason she wanted someone to. Oh what am I thinking! If no one volunteers than…

She looks over at Soul and a sudden fear fills her. What if Asura decided to kill Soul as the sacrifice? No…I won't let that happen…Soul is my partner…I won't let him die…

"No volunteers?" Asura tilts his head as he starts to walk forward, his eyes glued to Maka's.

Soul's eyes widen as he sees who the Kishin is looking at. He steps in front of Maka with his hands out. "No. Not Maka. Don't you lay a finger on my meister!" Asura snorts with laughter as he continues forward. "Do you see any volunteers, kid? I don't. That means I choose who I get to kill. Now stand aside unless you want to die."

"No. I won't."

Out of fear and desperation, Maka grabs Soul's arm. "D-Don't Soul…! I…I don't want you to-"

"I'll volunteer."

The sudden voice made everybody look. Maka gasped as she saw Sid step forward. "Don't hurt the kids. I volunteer…"

Asura raises his brow and turns to face him. "Oh?"

Maka wanted to scream. To tell Sid not to do it. But the words were caught in her throat. Soul's eyes were wide with shock. Kid quickly yells out, "Sid-sensei, don't-"

Sid puts his hand up to silence Kid and he shakes his head. "It has to be done. Its better me than you. I can't risk you kids getting hurt. Besides…this is the kind of man I was."

"N-No…" Maka weakly utters the word and tries to reach for Asura, to somehow stop him.

Then it happened. It was so fast yet Maka saw it so clearly. She had blinked once and in that mere moment Asura's hand pierced through Sid's chest.

A scream was caught in Maka's throat and Soul quickly hid her face as he held her to his chest. "Don't look Maka…"

Screams and cries of horror were heard from those who saw the Kishin kill Sid. Maka sobbed into Soul's chest as she heard the sound of Sid's body hit the floor.

Asura snickers and crosses his arms as he begins to levitate away. "Well then. Let the games begin."

With a twisted laughter, Asura soon disappears and everyone is left in a state of utter fear.

END OF CHAPTER ONE
DEATH COUNT: 1
R.I.P. Sid Barett