All canon characters © Okubo Atsushi

Consumption

Chapter 1

Consumption

Loud music blared through small black and red earpieces as two people, a male and a female, walked up the long line of steps up to the world famous Demon Weapon Meister Academy, also known as Shibusen or DWMA. The male sporting a black cap which covered his mess of white hair, with the word "DEATH" embroidered on the front, popped the gum in his mouth as he fanned himself by moving his black hoodie collar away from himself. The hoodie had the word INSANE in white sketchy letters on the front, going diagonally. His jeans were also black, along with his converse. The female, was not much different in clothes, though didn't show any signs of being bothered by the Nevada desert heat. She however, didn't wear a cap, but drowned out the world with her music as her black hoodie had the words MAD-HATTAN in bold across her chest. Her hood was up, protecting her head from the laughing sun's rays, as well as hiding her reddish brown hair from lightening further from the sun.

"Should have dressed more appropriately for this weather." the male sighed as he took a large gulp of water before handing it to his partner who took a small sip before continuing on.

"Hiro, don't fall behind" she ignored the chuckle the male gave, more because she couldn't hear it, as she entered the building, leaving her partner to face the hot desert sun. Once inside she took off the hood and pulled her hair into a messy bun and waited for Hiro to slowly crawl his way in, she knew he wasn't too good with the heat, after all, he originally came from Japan, northern Hokkaido.

"Cali, can't you wait for me?" he asked opening the door before remembering that she probably couldn't hear due to her head phones and music. He started to regret giving her those noise-canceling devices. With an inaudible sigh, he walked over and pulled her ear pieces out, exposing the lingering people in the hall to the words. "Dance, fucker, dance, man he never had a chance-" from the song You're Gonna Go Far, Kid by The Offspring. He nodded apologetically at those who were passing by.

Cali looked up at her partner and turned the music down. "We have to report to Lord Death" she said quietly before turning to head to the Death Room, ignoring all the stares she gained. Hiro sighed at his partner once more and hurried after her, not wanting to lose sight of her in case she were to initiate a fight, by accident.

Upon reaching the Death Room, Hiro opened the door for Cali who nodded and walked in with a silent thank you. Hiro followed right after, looking at the guillotine blades that hung above their heads. It seemed that even a slight tremor would set them off, crashing to the floor, but he knew better than that, after all, it wasn't their first time being in the Death Room.

Cali noted that nothing had changed much about the room since she had graduated and walked up to the mirror. Rather than saying the words, she hummed it as she wrote down, on the fogged up mirror "42-42-564." The mirror rippled as the familiar founder of the school greeted Cali, and the approaching Hiro, with his happy, high-pitched, voice.

"Yo! How are you?!" he asked.

"Very good Lord Death" Cali nodded, Hiro waved but stayed silent. It was Cali's job to speak to the Shinigami after all. He usually never spoke directly with him, the Shinigami, and he didn't think he ever intentionally would, after all, although he personally had no malicious intentions against the one who had ordered his clan to be destroyed, his blood did. He had been infected with the madness of the Star Clan more than once before, and he had mended that madness and insanity several times, however as blood runs thicker than water, he thought that if he did speak, he would end up trying to assassinate the Shinigami.

"I see Hiro is doing good as well" the Shinigami acknowledged the Star Clan member who nodded. His blue eyes shining with joy that the Shinigami had bothered to include him, even though he couldn't speak.

"Back to business, Lord Death" Cali started "why have you called us here?" she asked. Hiro wasn't a Death Scythe like Justin and Spirit, and she wasn't a three-star Meister like Stein and Sid.

"I believe you know that the Kishin has been reborn" nodded the Shinigami. Cali and Hiro exchanged looks.

"Of course we do, we felt the madness and insanity all the way from Russia." Cali nodded. They were normally in the East Asian branch, but sometimes, when the Russian branch was low on staff, they would occasionally call on Cali and Hiro. They had graduated as one of the youngest pairs at the age of 14 for Cali and 15 for Hiro. Though because of some special circumstances, the two were exempted from all regular classes and worked one-on-one with Spirit and Stein for a while before being released into the field.

"Since you two are almost immune to the Insanity"

Cali cut in "we aren't immune" she shook her head "we are insane, Mad" she added "you can't give a cold to someone who already has a cold. This Madness doesn't affect us because we've already accepted the insanity."

"Well..." Death paused accepting the answer, as it was true, before continuing "as you know, I have called the Death Scythes here too, and since you're already...insane, I would like you to keep an eye out on the students here...especially Stein's kids"

Cali pulled a thinking face, her eyes narrowing and a light frown positioned on her lips. "You think Stein is going to emit Madness waves?" she asked.

"I already have arranged for Marie to stay with him, however, you two would know how to spot madness much easier than others" Death nodded.

"Fine, do you want us to enroll under Stein's class or something?" she asked "since we technically graduated three years ago"

"Student teachers, actually." Cali and Hiro nodded at this suggestion.

"Ok, we'll go there now" Cali nodded.

"It's Class Crescent Moon" the Shinigami explained. Both Cali and Hiro knew that class, they had passed by it almost every day during their school years.

"Thank you Lord Death" Cali bowed.

"Go Die you piece of useless tarp. Go burn your face in hell's fire, bastard" Hiro smiled as he said this then slapped his hands over his mouth.

"He means, thank you and have a nice day" Cali looked at Hiro who nodded. At this the Shinigami laughed before closing off all communications.

"Thanks Cali" Hiro looked at his shorter partner, but found him ignored due to the head phones that she had put on again. He sighed, wondering when she had re-inserted the ear buds.

"We're going to be late, Hiro" Cali called back as she made her way down the halls. As she looked up at the guillotines, she imagined them falling and crashing down to the floor, trying to cut her in half and smirked. Sometimes, being mad, made life a bit more…amusing. Though she would never admit it, other than to Hiro since she knew that he saw it too, she sometimes saw Lord Death as the Kishin, three horizontal eyes on his mask glowing red.

Yes, life surely was much more amusing when insane.

Stein looked around at his students. Eyes occasionally landing on the seven in the second row. Maka, Soul, Black Star, Tsubaki, Kid, Patty and Liz. He could feel the madness starting to swarm inside when he remembered back to that night, when he had let himself loose for a while, and wondered himself, why he was still teaching. He then remembered, it was because he was a teacher, and as a teacher, was supposed to teach unless sick. He started to ask himself if Madness was an illness, but shook the thought away as then, it would be a chronic illness, never leaving his system. His curiosity made him mad, and unless he got rid of the curiosity, which was impossible to remove, he would never be 'sane'.

"Class. We're having a-" before he could continue the door to the classroom opened with a light bang, causing everyone's attention to turn to the two in the door way.

"Class Crescent Moon" Cali looked around. Her earphones blasted music for everyone in the room to hear.

I created the Sound of Madness.
Wrote the book on pain.
Somehow I'm still here,
To explain,
That the darkest hour never comes in the night.

It was the song, Sound of Madness by Shinedown.

"Yo Franken" Hiro raised a hand and saluted to the gray haired man sitting, with a terrible posture, on his office chair. His eyes couldn't be seen though the glare of his glasses, however, both could feel the glare he was giving them as he started to turn the large screw in his head.

Cali turned the music off and looked at the mad professor coolly. "Stop screwing your head and introduce us to the class as Student teachers" she narrowed her eyes in annoyance. At this, Stein stopped turning the screw and stood up, his cigarette hanging loosely in his mouth. Slowly, his blank face turned up into a grin for Cali hadn't changed since graduating, making him want to dissect her to see how she could live with the Insanity.

"Cool" Soul muttered at how well the new comers were dealing with Stein's behavior.

"Class, we're having student teachers. Greet Cali, and Hiro." Stein's bored voice rang through the lecture hall like class as several students nodded and greeted the two with mumbles.

"I'm Hiro" Hiro took off his hat and bowed "this is Cali" he pulled her before him and grabbed her shoulders. "She is my Meister" he explained, "and we both are actually very pleased to meet you all, and we hope that we can have a very uneventful year." Hiro looked up, his eyes locking on Black Star and his demon weapon, Tsubaki. At the look of the star tattoo on Black Star's shoulder, and remembering White Star, his soul swelled as his eyes changed, for only a second before calming down.

It seemed that Black Star had noticed the change while the other students hadn't and started to whisper to Tsubaki. "That guy, he's a part of Star Clan" Black Star started as his habit started to come out. He couldn't stand that someone was trying to take the spot light, especially since that person was from the Star Clan that was supposed to have been eradicated.

"THE MIGHTY I, CHALLENGES YOU!" Black Star shouted at the top of his lungs as he pointed down to Hiro. Beside him, Tsubaki stood up, being the kind soul she was and transformed, even though she didn't think that it was a good idea.

Stein smirked at this and decided it was a great time to try out an experiment. "Class, let us see just how strong, Cali and Hiro are" he said, and a number of agreements came from the rows. It seemed that most of the students didn't exactly trust the new comers while others were just trying to get out of school work.

"Then I propose a field trip" Hiro grinned happily though his kind look sharpened when he glared at Black Star.

"I thought this was supposed to be an uneventful school year" Cali looked up at Hiro who stopped smiling. "Shall we scare a couple people?" she asked, insanity clearly showing on her face as she held out a hand for her partner to take.

"Let's show them a bit of our, madness" Hiro grinned, he was currently seeing everything in red, nothing could scare him. He felt invincible.

"Don't kill anyone" Stein wheeled by on his chair before accidentally tripping over a ledge on the main doors.

"Don't kill yourself" Cali grinned as she passed him. Once outside in the sun, both Hiro and Cali took off their sweaters. Cali wore a black t-shirt with Death's mask on the front while Hiro wore a gray wife-beater. One could easily see the number of scars that marred his chest and arms. Black Star stopped, 10 meters away, and faced them.

"I will surpass god!" Black Star declared.

At this both Cali and Hiro laughed "Kid, God fell from his throne a long time ago" Cali spoke through breaths.

"Maka, Kid" Stein made his way over to the two Meisters who could see souls. "Try to look at Hiro and Cali's souls" he smiled. The two nodded and stared intently at the two. Both had to stop themselves from gasping. Both souls were swelling, easily engulfing their bodies like other higher classed Meisters and weapons.

"What do you see?" Stein asked.

"Hiro" Maka started "it's huge for one thing, but it shows signs of having been cracked and crudely mended. The soul..." she paused "Hiro isn't a member of the Star Clan, is he?" she asked looking to Black Star in concern.

"Well done Maka" Stein nodded "he is."

"You have to stop this fight then!" Maka tried to convince Stein but it went unheard as he then asked Kid to describe Cali's soul.

"It looks..." Kid paused, unable to find the right word "tattered almost, with, black lightning?"

Stein nodded, it certainly looked like it was black lightning surrounding the soul but he knew it was actually the madness in her soul. "Good, but now, you'd better pay attention to their fighting. Good thing Black Star took the initiative to start the fight as this will actually get very interesting."

Tsubaki was in dual sickle mode. Cali grinned and poked Hiro in the side and whispered something the made him smile. The other students started to feel a bit uneasy at this and held their breath to see just what kind of weapon Hiro would turn into. Hiro had turned into a Naginata, a Japanese halberd. Cali swung the naginata before her in a wide swoop and twirled it in her fingers before pointing it at Black Star.

"Start any time you want, Kid" Cali grinned.

Black star charged at her and swung the sickle. Cali dodged by jumping but the pole of Hiro had been wrapped by the chain.

"I got ya" Black Star grinned triumphantly.

"not quite" Cali smirked as she grabbed one of the sickles and pulsed a small surge of her soul through it. The shock passed through Tsubaki and shocked Black Star, forcing him to let go of Tsubaki.

"Black Star!" Tsubaki yelled, as she tried to transform, back to her human self but was stopped by an over whelming force from Cali. She had let go of Hiro and focused herself on Tsubaki, her own soul engulfing Tsubaki's, forcing the two females to match soul wavelengths. Maka watched with her heart in her mouth as she watched Cali's soul over taking Tsubaki's.

Cali then threw one of the sickles at Black Star, the chain wrapping around his leg. Cali reeled Black Star in like a fish and threw him against the ground by using his own weight against him. She laughed when Black Star writhed on the ground, holding his head. Tossing Tsubaki on to Black Star's chest she turned around to pull Hiro out from the ground when she felt a hand on her back and then a large shock pulsing throughout her body.

"Leathal wave, Big Star" Black Star muttered as Cali flew a meter forward, spitting out blood.

"We need a doctor now!" one of the students called into the building but Stein shook his head as Cali looked at her own blood.

"Hiro, looks like we were a little too nice" she giggled as she pulled Hiro from the ground. Stein could see that currently, the two were connected by madness. "Tiger claw, would be nice" she grinned as Hiro changed. "Stein never told us to hold back now did he, just as long as I don't kill anyone?" before Stein could stop her from going any further, Soul and Maka had rushed past and stood before Black Star and Tsubaki.

"I don't need help Maka!" Black Star complained but Maka stood her ground.

Cali didn't hesitate as she charged at the two meisters, as she swung the tiger claw like an upper cut at Maka before kicking at Black Star. She was fighting without fear or worry. Maka knew then, that the pair were consumed by madness, like she had been once when fighting with Crona. Cali then grabbed the Blade of Soul and jumped over it as Hiro changed into his Naginata. Before Cali could either stop or decapitate her, a black scythe blade stopped Hiro from getting any closer.

"Sprirt" Cali narrowed her eyes.

"I think that's enough" his eyes hard.

"I wasn't going to do anything" Cali got off Soul as Hiro changed back. "If I accidentally killed someone, Lord Death would put me on the hanger" she chuckled light heartedly. "Don't worry, we're perfectly stable, it's you who isn't" Cali pointed to Spirit's chest over his heart "you're afraid of the madness." Grabbing the cross shaped neck tie she brought him down to her height "don't insult our self-control" she hissed before letting go.

"Come on class, we're going back to finish our studies" Stein clapped his hands gathering the attention of his students. They mumbled something before making their way back in to the school with Stein following after the crowd. Maka carefully made her way over to Hiro and Cali who were watching from farther away while putting on their hoodies.

"Are the two of you..." Maka paused not sure how to approach the subject.

"Un" Cali had returned to her normal self, listening to music, while speaking only when necessary.

"We've accepted and welcomed the Madness." Hiro smiled kindly "In fact, we lived with it for so long, it's just normal now, we can't function without it, the madness" the way he had said it didn't fit the words. His big smile and kind features made Maka's defenses fall.

"But, you're also Star Clan...I thought that Black Star was-"

"The last one?" Hiro asked as he stuck out his tongue to show, not a tattoo, but a burn mark of a star. "Too bad he's wrong" he chuckled before blocking a punch from Black Star that was aimed for his head. He laughed it off and pushed Black Star a couple meters back "nice try." However, that kindness disappeared when Black Star aimed at Cali.

"I allowed you to give her one clean hit that first time, as punishment for taking you guys lightly, but Shinigami or no Shinigami, Clan member or not, I'll fucking kill you if you so touch a hair on Cali's head with even a sliver of malicious intent" Hiro growled as he kicked Black Star away.

"Hiro, language" Cali tugged on Hiro's sleeve.

"Sorry"

"Spirit, tell Stein that we're going home, I need sleep" Cali said aloud as she started down the stairs.

"Umm...Sorry Spirit, I don't think we'll be coming to school tomorrow" Hiro waved before following his meister down the steps. He was sure that the Cali was tired from trying to be sane, or at the least pretending to be. When they were back in the East Asian Branch or the Russian Branch, they had been left alone, as the others knew of their Madness, and so, had no reason to try to act sane for the people around them as they weren't normally with other people. However, having suddenly been pushed into a cage full of fear ridden students and teachers, it was hard for them to act as they normally did without raising the Madness of the others around them.

"I'LL FIGHT YOU AGAIN WHEN YOU COME BACK!" Black Star yelled from the top of the stairs.

Maka turned to her father, as did Soul and Tsubaki. Kid, Patty and Liz had gone off to talk with Lord Death. "Who are they?" Maka asked the question everyone wanted answered.

Spirit looked at his daughter and contemplated telling her a lie to keep her away from the Madness but decided she would end up knowing the truth anyways. "They are Shibusen Graduates" he started and thought about how their madness usually over whelmed their opponents "and even Stein and I would have a hard time fighting against them."

They gasped at what Spririt was confessing. "Not Cool" Soul shook his head though Black Star grew angry.

"They went easy on us!" Black Star growled, grinding his teeth in anger and started to yell something across Death City about unfairness and a rematch.

Soul then remembered something "Can you tell us how Cali was able to wield Tsubaki here?" he asked remembering when Black Star couldn't hold him when they had fought Kid. He doubted that Cali was just able to somehow match with Tsubaki, especially after what happened just before.

"Well.." Spirit really didn't like that kid, he didn't want to go further on the subject with his precious Maka but now he had to. "First, you should know that the pair runs on Madness"

"Isn't that what we're aiming to get rid of?" Soul asked.

"Yes, but they've somehow accepted it and by accepting it, they got rid of all their fear" Spirit explained, he shuddered, remembering the first time Cali had held him. "Tsubaki, do you remember what it felt like when she forced the wavelength to match?" he asked.

The Japanese nodded "in the beginning, I didn't want to connect with her, but slowly, it felt like it was Black Star was holding me, and for a second, to me, it was Black Star."

"That first shot she uses to rid the wielder of their weapon uses her soul. However, when she does that, she momentarily injects a bit of her soul into the weapon causing the weapon to experience Madness, but only for a certain amount of time." Spirit explained.

"But how did they end up like that?" Maka asked, she didn't think that they were always mad.

"'Hiro...I think you should ask them for that story" Spirit shook his head. Though he didn't exactly like the pair, he wasn't about to tell kids their life stories, he did care about their privacy as human beings after all. "Now go back to class and" Spirit coughed "give Papa a hug Maka!" he opened his arms only to find that they had already gone back inside, ignoring him once his explanations were done.

Cali looked around the familiar streets of the city and allowed a faint smile of nostalgia to creep up before wiping it away not a second later. Hiro walked alongside her, back to the hotel. He was already starting to miss the solitude they had back in the Russian and East Asian branches. It was nostalgic to finally come back to the place that had taken them in when they were drowning in Madness, however it also brought back a lot of pain as well.

They pair had met at the ages of four and five. Hiro was just five when the entire Star Clan had been eradicated by Shibusen. He knew that they had deserved it, and in-fact, he didn't care too much that they had killed everyone in front of his eyes. Then with the will of survival, he decided to pretend to the sane, to cast off the fact that he had been forced to fight and absorb the weapons of other children like him though soul battles, and he cried like a child, and talked about bad people who abused him.

Cali had been four, her mother had been a witch, but she had been born human. For the first two years, she had been separated from a motherly love, only the cold touch of a nurse whose job was to make sure that she wasn't dead. She knew her mother wasn't pleased with the fact that she hadn't been born a witch. Then suddenly her mother had looked after her, once she was able to walk and talk. But that love only lasted half a year before she had been locked in a pitch black room, food was delivered through a small sliding hole in the door. What she didn't know then, and knew now, was that, this witch had been trying to turn her, Cali, into the Kishin; first by increasing her madness and insanity. Of course, Shibusen had destroyed the witch before she could start feeding Cali any pure human souls.

"Azusa Yumi should be here tomorrow or the day after" Hiro thought aloud as they entered their Hotel room.

"I'm taking a shower first" Cali announced as she pulled off her hoodie and threw it on the bed and kicked off her shoes. She undid her belt and took off her jeans and walked into the Bathroom, leaving Hiro to wait for his turn for the bath. Noticing how Cali had randomly tossed her pants, hoodie and shoes on the bed and around the floor, he sighed and stood to pick the items up from the ground, folding the clothes and leaving her shoes next to the bed.

After what seemed like ten or fifteen minutes, Cali poked her head out of the bath room.

"Can you pass me my pajamas?" she asked. Hiro sat up from where he was lying on the bed and walked over to her suitcase. "Red pairs or black pairs?" he asked staring at her under garments.

"Red" she called. Hiro could hear the sound of the hair dryer going off. Opening the bath room door, he placed the clothes on the sink counter. "What is it?" she asked looking at Hiro who was staring at her through the mirror, she paused drying her hair to fix the towel around her.

"You're not going to ask me about that Star Clan kid?" he asked.

"I trust you'll tell me when you want to" she replied as she finished drying her hair and turned to him. "Or do you want me to ask you?"

"Naw, just curious" he chuckled.

"Curiosity killed the cat" Cali raised a brow.

"Nay, Insanity killed the cat"

"Same thing" she rolled her eyes and asked "so, are you going to leave so I can get changed or what?" she turned around to grab her clothes.

"I can stay if you want" he grinned as he grabbed her hips and brought her close for a hug.

"Only in your dreams" She shoved him away and out the door.

"So I have permission?" he joked from outside the door as she put on some clothes.

"What you do in your dreams don't concern me" she then pulled her hair into a pony tail.

"Even if I were to put a collar on you and a leash." She opened the door and came out with her other clothes.

"I didn't know you had that kind of a fetish" she said letting Hiro enter the bath room after handing her his hoodie, wife-beater and his pants. His shoes were already by the bed.

"I don't" he said seriously "I said in my dreams, I don't have full control of that" he grinned before entering to take a shower. Before he closed the door, Cali's eyes lingered on all the scars he had on his body. The largest one was that of a star, carved on the left side of his lower back. "And don't just throw my things on the bed!" he yelled "actually fold them"

Cali stuck her tongue out at him but folded his clothes anyway, placing them beside his hat. She then crawled into the sheets and lay in the middle of the king sized bed. Having forgotten to book a hotel, they had to get a last minute room from the nearest hotel that morning. And since it was before check-out time, they didn't have much of a choice. A single room on the second floor, with a king sized bed and the window facing a brick wall.

When Hiro came out of the shower with a towel around his waist, he found Cali already sleeping on the bed. Grabbing his own pajamas he quickly changed and crawled into bed next to his child hood friend and partner.

Note: The ratings might go up from T to M depending on what people think. Either PM or Review me if you think it should go up. 3+ people with concerns will move me to change the ratings.