It was the first day of term at the DMA and everyone was returning from their respective missions.
Everyone that is, except for a lone red headed girl sat in a seat at the back and to the side of the room.
No one seemed to notice her presence and even if they did.
They certainly didn't acknowledge it.
She wore an oversized scarlet red t-shirt with blue denim shorts and black leggings, her rust coloured long hair fell loosely around her and obscured her face, but you could clearly see her dark brown, nearly black eyes observing the room keenly.
'THWAK' a loud whacking noise drew her attention to the normally quiet Maka hitting her weapon and good friend soul over the head with a hardback book
'Ouch...' the redheaded girl winced 'that had to hurt... wonder what he did to deserve it though' she thought curiously.
They muttered some more and Soul did an animated zombie impression before Maka repeated the hitting process again.
The girl sweatdropped "you'd think he'd learn" she whispered to herself giggling slightly.
Suddenly the door slammed open and revealed a confident looking red headed man
"All right students settle down. Class is about to start."
With that said, he strode confidently into the room smirking "I won't bother taking attendance, but I will tell you right now" he placed his clipboard down smoothly "anyone who thinks the bell decides when class is over, is wrong. I do. Clear?" his tone was cool and serious but the moment was ruined by the puppy dog eyes he sent up to Maka.
The girl bit back a giggle as she recognised this man as Maka's father 'it seems like a miracle that some one as strange as this, raised a perfectly normal child...'
"What's up with this Death scythe? Are you supposed to be our new teacher?" Soul called out and the red haired girl gaped at his confidence, she could never have had that many people looking at her... she'd die of mortification.
Staring down at the clip board blank faced death scythe replied "I'm just a substitute, until they find someone who can fill Sid's position permanently. But that still means that I'm in charge of this class, so as long as I'm here, you will call me professor Death scythe" he blinked and stood up straighter smiling "all right then lets take attendance!"
Soul was gritting his teeth and the girl agreed with him, this man came across as very obnoxious.
"I thought you said you weren't gonna take role" Soul spat out
Death scythe was waving his concerns away flippantly "I'm not gonna take attendance for the guys. But I think i'll take role for all the ladies"
The girl's mouths popped open too form a perfect 'O' 'what a paedophile! Who in gods name let him into a class of children!' Her mind cried out indigently
Soul stood up angrily "goddammit, quit being a creep"
Death scythe licked his pen and wrote something down on his clipboard. The girl at the back of the room sighed, she could see this getting loud, and she hated noise.
"Okay let's get this class started" Death scythe said nonchalantly
Soul climbed on top of his desk yelling "hey old man what did you just write down there?"
The girl winced and pulled out the earmuffs she carried around. Why couldn't people be quieter?
Death scythe was sighing "Ahh, that reminds me, Maka and soul"
"What is it now?" Soul ground out
"Lord Death wants to see you in the death room, you've been excused from class so get going. Shoo shoo. Oh hold on, I almost forgot, he'd like to see you as well Rina"
The girl with the rust coloured hair's eye's widened "M...Mee?" she stuttered out incredulous before noticing the numerous eyes staring at her curiously "uh... Sure, I guess i'll be going then..." and she ran out the room as fast as she could, her cheeks seemingly on fire.
Sadly she was so embarrassed she didn't see where she was running and collided with Soul and Maka, also on their way to the death room.
Hitting them full force they all tumbled too the floor, Rina blushed madly and bowed repeatedly "I...I'm so sorry!" she muttered again and again, until Maka placed a comforting hand on her arm
"We're fine, so it's okay. Don't worry so much, we're not going to eat you"
Rina let out a nervous giggle, her body still shaking from nerves "Oh... Sorry, I'm not that used to, uh being around people I guess" her next laugh was much more confident.
"You headed to the death room too?" Soul asked her
His response was a shaky nod of her head, the red hair bobbing round her body.
Maka smiled happily "us too! You're Rina Kiyoshi right? You used to be in our class. Where's your partner?"
Rina's eyes flashed silver and her shaking hands clenched into fists "I don't have a partner, and I am still in your class you know. Now sorry, don't want to be late" she said quietly and quickly and sped off.
Maka paled "oh, opps, I hope I didn't upset her too much..."
Soul was smirking but his head was tilted to the side curiously "I wonder what she meant by she has no partner."
Maka shrugged and they continued walking in contemplative silence. Until they ran into Black star at least.
Meanwhile Rina had made it too the death room and sat down panting against the wall "gods that was embarrassing" she muttered angrily "I feel like I don't even exist anymore... do my own classmates really not know I'm among them?"
Standing up she unclenched her fists and walking quietly into the room, folding her hands behind her back.
She stared at the empty mirror and waited for the others to arrive 'the polite thing to do' She assured herself before sweat dropping 'that and I've forgotten lord deaths number..."
They eventually walking into the room, Blackstar and Tsubaki with them, Rina blinked and sighed mentally 'anyone but that egotistic loud boy!'
They strode up to the mirror brushing past her, she would almost think they hadn't seen her if Maka hadn't sent her an apologetic look, and Tsubaki give her a little wave.
Maka walked over to the mirror "now lets see, 42 42 564 whenever you want to knock on death's door" she recited whilst writing up the numbers.
The mirror started pulsating
"Lord Death are you there?" Maka called hesitantly
The comical looking Lord death appeared using his silly voice "yah yah, hai hello what's up?" he leant forwards grinning madly "thanks for coming"
Maka stared up at him confidently whereas Rina hid her face under her hair and stared steadily at the floor
"Scythe meister Maka reporting in"
"Yeah and dark arm meister Blackstar too"
"And Tsubaki I'm his partner"
Soul as blank faced as ever stared up at the shinigami "well, what did you want with us?"
"Oh right, I have a little assignment for you guys to take on" Lord Death stated
"Assignment?" everyone questioned
Death blushed and put his hand next to his mouth "some extra lessons."
Maka flinched "Huh? Those extra lessons stupid people get! Those lessons?"
Soul turned away "oh screw that, I'm gonna be a death scythe, I'm way too cool for that"
Rina blinked 'that's a bit overconfident and optimistic Soul...'
Death straightened up "do you remember your duty as meisters and weapons?"
Rina looked up slightly and muttered "to feed the weapons the 99 kishin souls and one witches soul; we do this to collect evil souls and keep the world at peace... I think... Uh..."
"You're absolutely right! But do you know how many souls all of you have managed to collect?" he made two zero's with his fingers "absolutely zero"
We all flinched and looked guilty, all except Blackstar who burst into laughter
"Ahahahahaha" 'DONK'
Lord Death reached out and chopped him over the head
"It isn't something to laugh at chuckles. Anyway are you ready to learn what your extra lessons will entail? Maybe you've already heard the rumours? About Sid who worked here at the academy until recently?"
Sill in shock Soul muttered to Maka "see? I was right, it wasn't just a story"
"Yeah, but a zombie? I always thought he was a good teacher..." Maka said feebly
"You're right" Lord Death cut in "when he was alive, he was regarded as an excellent teacher, but when he became a zombie he changed, he has been released from the fear of death and wants others to have the same freedom he does. He is trying to train students to free themselves as well but when a student won't listen, he attacks. Another difficulty is that we still don't know who changed Sid into a zombie in the first place, and what their motives could possibly have been."
Blackstar jumped up and held his clenched fist in front of his face "Okay, you can leave it all to me sir. For our extra lesson we just have to eliminate these guys?"
"Yeah that's pretty much it" Death summed up simply "I don't want to put too much pressure on you, but if you fail on these extra lessons. Then you're all going to be expelled"
"WHAT?" they all cried out "your gonna kick us out?"
Blackstar jumped in front of them "there's nothing to worry about, I can take care of guys like this in my sleep."
As the kids left the room, Rina trailed behind at a slower pace, she let out a shaky breath "I can't be expelled. I have no where else to go... ugh, I'll just have to put my fears behind me and fight with everything I have on this mission."
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They all arrived at the cemetery and quickly set about looking for Sid's grave stone.
Well, Tsubaki and Rina did.
Soul and Blackstar ran around yelling like idiots. As usual
Sighing Rina wandered over to the tree Maka was crying under and climbed up it, kneeling on a branch she watched the others interact and felt herself longing to join them...
The redhead stared round lazily; this zombie really did exist right? Death hadn't just made it up to scare them and send them on a wild goose chase...?
Suddenly a hand emerged from the dirt beneath Maka and grabbed her ankle lifting her into the air directly in front of Rina.
Soul transformed and slammed between the two separating them.
"That's what Sid's become?" Maka asked grimly
"Yeah, if guess so" Soul answered her.
"Maka, Soul, Blackstar, Tsubaki, Rina" Sid said "good morning, good afternoon, good night" reaching forwards he grasped his gravestone and with both hands pulled it up "how have you been? And all that. I always try to remember my manners, that's the kind of Man I was"
"Tsubaki lets get ready to end this guy" Blackstar stated cockily
"Tell me Sid" Maka picked up Soul and spun him round "why are you doing this?"
"Ding dong, dong ding" Sid declared and Rina had to bite back her giggles "being a zombie is amazing, there are so many things I can get away with now. Class is in session, I always was a man that started class with the bell, punctuality is important"
"this'll be fun" Blackstar smirked "I get to teach you a lesson now teacher" he leant forwards "and since it's coming from me you know it'll be a big one"
Whacking her forehead Rina sweatdropped 'he seemed to always have assure himself of his 'bigness''
"We don't wanna be expelled, so we'll take your extra lesson" Soul said appearing in the scythe "but I gotta say I don't know what we're gonna learn from a decaying piece of flesh"
"If you become a zombie, then death no longer looms over you, you can escape from fear and be free" Sid offered
Maka then told him how he was wrong and how he wasn't the sort of man who would say that.
Sighing Rina rubbed her forehead anxiously, she hadn't fought in a while 'I just have to hope I still know what I am doing' she thought worriedly
"You'll understand when your dead!" Sid flew at Maka, but Tsubaki's chain wrapped around the gravestone he was clutching stopping him.
"Blackstar" Maka asked in surprise
"There'll be no need to thank me for the lesson, it's on the house"
Rina was so shocked by his blatant narcissistic stupidity that she fell out of her tree... missing Sid throwing Maka and black star forwards.
Standing up and rubbing her aching back she wandered out and stood by Maka and Blackstar anxiously "Hey guys" she muttered rubbing her neck
"Rina You shouldn't be here! You can't fight" Maka cried out, trying to push me away towards the tree again.
"Oh" she giggled and blushed and gave an out of character smirk "You haven't seen me fight before have you, Maka, oh. Um sorry?" and then she transformed her arm
They all watched stupefied as her arm was transformed into a Katana blade.
She saw them staring and blushed "uh... oh, is it weird? I can transform it back if you want... uh, please stop looking at me like that, it's not like it's that unusual... there are other people like me..."
She was cut off by Sid "Just give up, you one star meisters don't have a chance of beating me"
"Hey I'm hungry" Soul yelled angrily "can we just get his damn zombie soul already?"
Maka stared straight ahead "Sid's right he's very strong, One star meisters like us, can't compete with him, when he was alive he was designated a 3 star meister."
"Yeah yeah whatever" Soul said carelessly "hey Sid, if you keep swinging your tombstone around like that, you might bang it into your fat head and die again"
"It's my tombstone" Sid stated "I can use it however I want, can't I. Now then kids, its time fore second period, Ding dong dong ding" Sid lifted up his tombstone to point at them "oh yeah, I forgot to mention, when this lesson is over, your all gonna die"
Charging towards him Maka swung her Scythe down only to hit the tombstone
"What's wrong" Sid questioned "Why aren't you working together? You have to establish a connection between the souls of weapon and meister"
Hearing this Rina frowned and gave a little sarcastic wave before muttering "I am right here you know."
"You're giving advice to the enemy?" Blackstar questioned incredulously flying down towards him and Whacking him away with the tombstone.
As he skidded backwards Rina moved in to attack.
Running up a tree she launched herself at his face, hitting out with her katana bladed arm, Sid blocked with the gravestone and grabbed her leg, making to throw her away, but she transformed her leg into a blade, cutting his hand as he threw her.
"I was always an enthusiastic educator, and now I'll teach you how to die!" He jumped up beside her, lifting his tombstone high he swung down hard into her stomach he cried out "the living burial!" A large pink tombstone appeared as she hit the ground, like an explosion.
"Rina!" Maka cried out anxiously, before frowning at Sid's figure emerging from the dust.
"Ding dong dong ding" Sid crouched low, locking eyes with her "looks like class is over, ready to die yet girl?" he smirked "well what'd 'ya say? Aren't you afraid of dying? If you become a zombie then you'll be free from that fear of death forever."
"Urgh, my head is killing me" a familiar voice called out, Rina was leaning on Blackstar's shoulder and smiling slightly, her body was covered in grazes but nothing any worse.
"your preaching is starting to give us a headache, you damn zombie" Blackstar muttered darkly "I'm not listening to any lesson of yours, It doesn't matter what you say, who's gonna pay attention to a rotting corpse like you when there's a big star like me around!"
Rina face planted, incredulous
And Blackstar jumped up raising one of his chain scythe high and throwing it at Sid "being a 3 star meister, doesn't matter, I am BLACKSTAR" he ran forwards and kicked Sid in the solar plexus
Coughing up blood Sid jumped backwards only to be ran at and kicked out at the legs by Rina, turning her legs into blades. He had to jump up high to avoid being cut.
"Tsubaki shruiken mode" Blackstar said quietly
"Okay" she agreed, quickly changing
Holding the giant throwing star Blackstar threw his arm back "you can run away!" with that he flung it at Sid.
"As if I'd even try" Sid scoffed jumping off the star and doing a backflip so he was directly overhead Maka.
"Living burial!" Sid cried out smashing the tombstone onto Maka's body, and laughing. Before he noticed "what the..."
Maka had slid backwards flipping her body onto her head, just narrowly missing the tombstone "people need fear to survive" she said angrily "we experience it so that we can grow stronger"
Flipping her feet up she kicked Sid in the face and away from her onto the ground. Jumping off his face she landed near us and kicked her foot round smoothly.
Maka and Soul then tried matching their soul's wavelengths, but it didn't work so well, Maka lost her footing and the beam went completely the wrong way, almost hitting Blackstar and Rina.
"You trying to kill us?" they yelled out angrily at her "what the hell Maka?"
Maka and Soul then had a little argument before, charging at Sid again, who just sunk underground.
"Great" Rina muttered, sarcasm thickly coating her words "Now we can't even see where the creepy corpse is..."
Sid Launched out of the ground behind her and swung down his sharpened stick, jumping in front of her just in time to block it was Blackstar who countered and watched as Sid sunk underground again.
Falling onto her butt from shock she muttered quietly in shock "he saved me? But why? It's not like I know him that well... he saved me..."
Holding out a hand for her, she took it anxiously and he pulled her up, and shaking her head free of the shock she smiled gratefully at him.
"Now Blackstar!" Tsubaki told a lightly blushing Blackstar
"Yeah I got it" he replied confidently, stood up straight and Tsubaki wound around him loosely, he put two fingers up to his face in concentration, the chains were sliding round them quickly, into the shape of a star, with them in the middle...
As Sid jumped up and made to attack Blackstar pulled down on the chain "trap star activate, I think it's about time to send you back to the grave, you really stink." And with that the chains wrapped around Sid... and Maka, Soul and Rina
"AHAHAHHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" Blackstar laughed loudly
"What are you doing? tying us up too!" Maka yelled annoyed
"I wouldn't have to if you didn't get in my way." He stated smugly back
"ARGH" Rina cried out infuriated "Haven't you ever been told to never anger a redhead? When I get out of here I'm gonna kill you Blackstar" her body flashed and she transformed completely into her black Katana form, slipping through the chains she transformed back, smirking evilly at him.
"Oh look I'm out" she mocked "ready to die?" her arm flashed and became a blade
Blackstar gulped, the non shy, angry Rina Kiyoshi was very very scary.