After watching Kuroshitsuji The Musical 2 (highly recommend you see it if you haven't), I have been nothing but crazy about the Shinigami Dispatch Society (Alan and Eric I love and miss you guys passionately). So, to calm my nerves, I have written what I hope to be an incredibly epic fanfiction. I have four more chapters I'm ready to upload and will be doing so in semi-regular intervals so there shouldn't be too many bumps along the way as far as upload time. Anyways, I'll shut up now. ENJOY! And please god, review!

CHAPTER 1: Piggy Back Ride

The Shinigami Dispatch Center over Germany had been worked to the bone and then to dust with the deaths pouring in. A dictator was taking vengeance on one of the numerous treaties of Versailles and simultaneously setting out to destroy a race. One of the oldest shinigami of all time happened to be a part of the German Division and had never felt so tired. The boy-like shinigami without a surname was Hansel. It was hard to look past his adorable face until one tasted the sharpened metal of his oversized shovel. With age came loss and hardship which Hansel had experienced his share of. However, Hansel had always managed to brush these aside. Until, of course, the loss of his oldest partner.

Otto von Gretta had been reborn as a shinigami only three centuries after Hansel and instantly the two were drawn to one another. The tall, strongly built man looked purely comical beside a short, thin boy, but no one dared to point out such. The skill with which the two completed their tasks could not be argued and should never have been challenged. Several millenia later though, Hansel found himself alone after a pack of demon dogs tore his partner apart limb by limb.

Now, Hanself had a new partner. He had specially chosen this partner because of his build. Tall, strong, broad shouldered. It was the outline of Otto. However, he was forced to accept that this shinigami was nothing like Otto.

-/-

Wearing an evening trench coat that draped around his shoulders and a black ribbon tied around his collar, Hansel stood atop a train car, immune to the flecks of snow that hit him like small bullets of ice. His coat billowed behind him with the fast movement. The train soared down the tracks toward its horrid destination. He tried to think of anything from his time that could have compared. As expected, there was nothing. Hansel was now unsurprised with the rapid pace of advancement the humans had developed. All it did was make his work harder as deaths piled up from the destruction the new technologies caused.

Hansel shook himself out of his thoughts and raised his large, flat-ended shovel and spoke to his partner. "This car is special, Heinz."

A huge figure that never budged, Heinz blinked as a display of curiosity. Despite the snow, he did not wear a blazer or coat. rather he had a pin stripe vest usually worn under a coat and the sleeves of his white shirt rolled up to his elbows. "How?"

"Everyone in this car is scheduled to die. Sure, in every car, hundreds of cramped humans are dying, but in this one, all have died. That means with a single sweep, we can collect the souls in this one."

"Why did they all died?" Heinz spoke simply.

Hansel peeled away the roof of the car. "Well, it was the domino effect. One man had the measels, and so the next man got it. And so on and so on. Just wait until it spreads in the next car."

"If we collect their souls with one sweep, how do we review each of their cinematic records?"

With a small innocent laugh, Hansel glanced back at him. "So you do think, eh? Well, see, this time we're in now is called a state of emergency. In such a situation where so many souls must be reaped, there are exceptions to the procedure. Like right now."

Heinz confusion was not lifted. "But what if one is worth sparing from death?"

In a ginger voice that somehow held bitterness, Hansel finished, "Then they go to a hellish death camp and die two months later."

The boy of 4' 8" held the strength of ten armies as he lifted his death scythe high over his head and struck every being in the car with a single stroke. Like the erruption of a volcano, cinematic records shot out of the car. Hansel shoved the huge man flat on his stomach and covered him with his coat, a trick he'd learned over the years, and the cinematic records avoided them, shooting straight for the heavens.

Hansel stood once the records had cleared away. He looked to Heinz. "Come on. We're not done yet. Still thirty seven cars to go. And they won't be as easy as this one."

Thirty six cars later Hansel was drained. He couldn't feel any of his limbs and his breathing became that of an asthmatic that had smoked cuban cigars since age twelve. His head ached. It was the only part of him he could feel and it was throbbing out of his skull. The exhaustion had finally set in for the first time in ten thousand years. He'd forgotten how it felt to be this tired.

It wasn't fair that new shinigami had twice the strength of senoir shinigami. They didn't even have half the experience. Yet somehow, after a year of nothing but constant overtime and thousands of deaths ringing up by the minute, Heinz was still standing while Hansel found himself lying on his back atop the snow covered train.

Heinz looked down at him, so tall that he blocked out the sun. "Hansel-senpai? Are we going to continue?"

With a childish glare, Hansel snapped, "Don't mock me, you oaf."

"I am not mocking you."

The senoir shinigami's golden-green eyes flashed. "Oh?" With an inhuman leap, he stood on his feet again. "Yeah, let's continue. Come on, we're continuing-don't slow down on me, you oaf!"

Tearing into the car, Hansel struck all but a few with his death scythe, skilled enough to know which not to reap. Still, he stagged and faltered with ever step and swing. Finally finished, Hansel stopped. His chest heaved with every breath, and without realizing it, he was falling forward. Strong arms lifted him out of the car before the world turned black.

-/-

Hansel was riding piggy back to a fast moving boulder that jogged through two feet of snow. It took him a moment to realize that the boulder his cheek was laid against was really his partner. Once his senses returned, Hansel's breath caught. He and Otto would travel similarly to their reaping destinations like this. Of course, Otto only offered these sorts of rides when they were away from the others. Anyone would jeer at them, but it was convienient and Hansel liked the childish pleasure he achieved from a piggy back ride. Here he was draped against the back of a similarly built man. The overwhelming since of deja vu made Hansel's eyes begin to water, but a quick inner viciousness scared the tears away.

A child was the last thing Hansel could be described as. Chilrden did not reap souls, children did not live through tens of thousands of years, children did not calmy step through carnage. He was hardly a child. Only his stature and round cheeks pointed to such a description.

Groaning as he stretched out his arms that stilled tingled with numbness, Hansel muttered, "Where are we?"

"Heading toward our next assignment."

Alarmed, Hansel shoved himself upright. Unfortunately, he did so much too quickly and fell off of Heinz's back and onto the snow. Several strides later, Heinz turned around realizing he'd dropped his cargo. Hansel groaned a bit louder and sat up a bit slower this time. He brushed the snow out of his hair and looked sharply to Heinz.

He demanded, "You mean to tell me you ran back to the Dispatch Center? With me on your back?"

"It wasn't that hard... I'm strong and-"

"That's not the pointed!" snapped the small statured shinigami. He collapsed back into the snow. "I'll never live this down."

Heinz approached him and reached down to pick him up, only to have his large meaty hands swatted away with a strong set of tiny hands.

"I can walk, thank you."

Hansel stood on his own and began walking a few paces before his knees buckled, and he face-planted into the snow. Heinz stared at his back for several long minutes before picking him up and swinging him over his shoulder. Admitting defeat only slightly, Hansel grumbled with a sigh, "Wake me before we get to the Dispatch Center next time."

"I'll try, senpai."

Before he knew it, Hansel had slipped out of consciousness yet again. Memories danced before his eyes mocking him. Memories from his first life and memories from his current life-they all merged together. Images of his witchly mother whom he'd served so devoutly sneered over him as Otto's smirking figure waved goodbye to him over and over again. It all blended into a mess of confusion. Gretel's evil giggle as she left him to die... Otto putting his huge hand atop his head and making note of his height then quickly giving him a chance to prove himself... The flaming bowls of an oven opening up for him...

-/-

Panting, Hansel awoke with a start.

"Shinigami have nightmares?"

Still draped over his shoulder, Hansel glared through his partner's skull. Their surroundings were still white. The senoir shinigami's vision was still faltering but that observation was plain to see. They didn't seem to be getting anywhere any time soon.

Hansel pursed his lips and grudged, "What makes you think that?"

"You make lots of noises when you have a bad dream, senpai," Heinz noted.

No matter how hard he tried, Hansel could not stop his cheeks from flushing red with fury and embarrassment. "I was just having weird bowl movements. Everyone gets them."

"Ah. So you think of Otto senpai when you have bowl movements?"

Quickly, Hansel diverted aggressively, "Alright, you oaf, here's a game simple enough for even you to play. Stay quiet until we get where we're going."

"I'm not that dumb, senpai."

"Why are you still talking?"

"Because this is where we are supposed to be," Heinz replied. "We've been following the tracks. The trains stop every so often and throw out the dead. We're supposed to gather up any souls that weren't already reaped."

Hansel's jaw dropped to the snow with offense. "Are you telling me we have clean up duty?"

Confused, Heinz continued jogging toward the next pile of bodies and asked, "Is that what this is called?"

"Yes!"

"Griffin-senpai suggested in your condition-"

"I don't have a condition! I got tired, I laid down! There is no condition! Put me down!" Hansel rambled. His partner obliged and using his shovel as a cane just in case he needed it, he marched in the opposite direction.

Heinz watched him go for a moment. "Senpai, what do I do?"

"Finish up this dumb assignment. I'm going to have a talk with Griffin. I'm three times his age and he thinks I have a condition? That twerp..." Hansel griped worse things under his breath as he continued storming away.