Fear Factor

A/N: For those of you that are reading this and don't know about Death the Kid's quirk, it is imperative that you know this: Kid must have everything symmetrical. And I mean EVERYTHING! If it's even a tiny bit off, he goes berserk. It if gets too bad…well, I don't want to ruin things. So just read.

The sky was dark, despite the sun being high. Black clouds released a torrent of rain upon Death City, creating a weak roar through the streets.

Inside Shibusen, a class of students, most of them wearing slightly damp clothing, were gathered inside the Crescent Moon classroom. Surprisingly, Shinigami himself stood at the center stage with Professor Stein. In the middle of the stage sat a tall thin cylinder, half of it swung open like a door. The inside walls were lined with lights. Across the outside, wires ran up and down its height and across the floor to unseen connectors.

"This is one of our school's newest machines," Stein said, waving his hand towards the device. "It is called the Fear Factor. Whoever steps inside will be shown his deepest fear."

"There is only one problem with it," Shinigami said, holding up one of his oversized fingers.

The class waited, wondering what could be wrong.

"We have no idea if we should use it as a torture device, a punishment, or a training tool" the Death God shrugged. "Therefore, we will need to have one of you students test it."

Soul whispered to his partner Maka, "He wants us to test something potentially dangerous?"

Liz looked over the thing in her usually goofy stare. "That looks like fun."

Patty grabbed the back of her sister's shirt. "Sit down, Liz. You don't want to go in there. It's scary!"

Kid, who sat almost uncaringly next to Patty, just sighed. "Fear is a natural part of life that must be accepted and lived with."

"Oh really?" Patty threw a finger in Kid's face. "If it's not so bad, why don't you test that thing out?"

"Fine. I will."

Kid stood and began to walk down to the center of the room.

"Ah, Kid has volunteered to be our first victim," Shinigami said with glee. "Atta boy."

"Please step into the chamber." Stein pressed a button on the side of the device as Kid stepped up. The door slowly closed with a hiss.

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There was a momentary flash of light that nearly blinded him. But it instantly lowered to the level of bright sunlight.

The chamber seemed to have vanished. Instead, he was standing in the center of a small village. He took a tentative step forward. But he didn't hit metal. Instead, he actually seemed to take a step forward as if he were actually outside.

His eyes finally lifted to get a real look at his surroundings. The buildings were basic wood. Most were square…no, circular…no, they all had triangles too.

They were everything!

A spike of sickness jumped in his stomach. Every house was completely twisted. They held no sense of form whatsoever! Even the placement of the structures was random.

"There's no sense of symmetry at all!" Kid's hatred for the whole place rose. He turned on the spot, examining every building and noting it was hideously asymmetrical.

Then his eyes spotted something in the center of the space with him. It was a dark statue of Shinigami. But an arm was coming out of its neck and his head was attached to an armpit.

Kid nearly exploded. "A statue of my honorable father! Who would desecrate it so?!" He quickly rushed over and yanked off the two wrong pieces. "At least I can fix this." He put the head on top and the arm off the side, making it perfect.

But the moment he took his hands away, the pieces returned. His eyes jumped in shock. "What?" He tried again, but the arm and head jumped back to their initial spots.

He couldn't stand it. "If you won't be perfect, then die!" He swung his arm through the statue, sending it to the ground and shattering it to pieces. "There."

He turned back around, but another statue was suddenly on the podium, exactly like the previous, glaring at him.

His face melted. "What? No. Why won't you be symmetrical?!"

He turned to run, but a crowd of people was suddenly surrounding him. But they weren't just people; they were all twisted versions of him. "No!" The one closest to him had one tiny arm and one oversized. Another only had one eye and a huge scar on the other side.

The deformities went on and on as he turned. They were all around him. And each one had the hideous three stripes in the hair.

"NO! I AM NOT HIDEOUS!"

They started to close around him.

"NOOOOOO!"

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The door suddenly popped back open and Kid fell out onto the ground, whimpering.

Shinigami looked down at his sons form. "Hm… Torture chamber it is!"